Do 'it' well

So I was out grinding hill repeats today and stopped at 9 reps. Why 9? Why not just do the 10 and be done with it?? I have yet to do 10 this year, my max so far has always been 9. The fact is I'm saving 10, maybe for next week. Actually, I just may blow past it and crank out 11, any dial that goes to 11 is obviously much better than one that goes 10.

It's unfinished business, as long as I don't max out the hill repeats, I'll have to make room for yet another hill session and maybe, just maybe next time I'll hit the double digits. I have a feeling that once I do that my hill training for this season will be 'done', however, as long as I have unfinished business, I'll just keep plugging away.

Did a 22k run on Sunday. As a side note, I'm really enjoying 'the-I-don't-HAVE-to-run-for-2.5hrs-because-I-have-an-Ironman-coming-up-mode' I'm currently in. Not having an Ironman scheduled this year is nice, not feeling compelled to log crazy mileage in Zone 1 is refreshing. I also find intensity training more rewarding. If I choose, I can totally shell myself on the trainer in less than an hour - at times it just seems more productive.

Anyway, during my run, as always I'm trying to run 'well'. Not fast, that wasn't the goal for the workout, just run well, keep HR down and concentrate on form. Soft landing of the feet (can hardly hear them!), high cadence (90 strides/min), relaxed upper body (shoulders, neck, face - yes face, no sense wasting energy grimacing), deep regular breathing... and I noticed that running well is finally becoming a habit. (ha, it only took 4 years to finally get 'it') Now I just have well and fast. (sigh... another 4 years?) The lesson is: whatever you do, do it well. This whole running thing is rather humbling.

Last week's training:
The good news: hammy is 100%.
The bad news: been fighting some sort of bug that seems to want to reside in GI tract. Enough said. (it's not serious)
Despite that challenges did OK training wise:
Swim:6.3k
Bike: 100k
Spin: 3 hrs
Run: 54.5k
The only real highlight was a bike threshold session: 10min @305W, 8 min @310W, 6min @315W, 4min @320W and 2 min @325W. That's 30 minutes of threshold work in a 1 hour trainer session...
talk about bang for the buck!

Cheers!

Key workouts

A key workout for me, usually requires an extra day of recovery. So I schedule them on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on the weekend. The purpose of the key workout is to walk the fine line doing something difficult, but not so difficult that a) you can't workout the next day and/or b) you miss your next key workout. If you screw up and miss either one of those, you went too hard, time to dial it back.

This week featured plenty of dialing it back. The last two races strained my left hamstring, very minor, but just to be safe I did no running. Swimming, biking and walking were all fine but if I tried to run there was definite, minor, 'bad' pain. I was able to do an easy 7.5k recovery run today and the hammy is about 85% and feels good, so it looks like a I dodged a bullet. I did manage an excellent 'key workout' for both the swim and bike and the weekly numbers look like this:
swim: 9.2k
bike: 214k
spin: 4.25 hrs

Swim highlight: Friday's 3.6k swim featured 10X100m on 1:30. Was coming in on consistent 1:18's or faster. My zippiest set so far this year. Followed that up with 10X100 IM, don't why, but I just love IM.
Bike highlight #1: did the Ergvideo Lake Placid and averaged 251 watts! Another season high. This was the same workout I did 2 weeks ago and failed, so I was pretty happy nailing it this time around. My FTP is still consistently marching upward, and this is a good thing.
Bike highlight #2: completely disassembled my entire drive train. Degreased and cleaned to the FD, RD, crank and couple of cassettes, threw on a new chain and the bike is like new - silky smooth.

So for a rest week, I managed a bad ass swim set and some decent saddle time - not bad. This week, I'll be getting back into 'regular mode' with a definite eye on the hammy. I'll play it very safe and make sure it's 100% before doing anything too crazy. Promise. Less than a month to the Muskoka Chase, looking forward to my first tri of the season - I can't wait!Cheers!

Goal setting.

What's your long term goal? (2 year or more time frame)
What's your goal this year?
What's your goal for this training block?
What's your goal for this month?
What's your goal for this week?
What's your goal for tomorrow?
What's your goal for your next work-out?

Run down the list. Now run up the list. When you ask yourself the questions working up, do they actually help you accomplish your long term goal? The long term goal you set should be realistic, yet difficult to attain. Failure is a possibility. Though I really don't believe in failure in the conventional sense. If you learned something during the journey and still didn't reach your goal, that could hardly be considered a failure.

I'll share a few of my goals.
Sub 10 IMC in 2 years.
Sub 4:30 at a half iron this year.
Increase speedwork this training block.
Bike more this month.
Recover this week.
Bike outside tomorrow.
Hop on the bike for an easy ride after this post.

Each year I learn a little more, train a little more and more importantly train a little smarter. (hopefully). Lastly, goals can be revised and should be revisited regularly, but it's really all about the journey!

Last week's numbers:
Swim:10.8k
Bike: 98k
Spin: 4hrs
Run: 60k

Swim: is feeling downright great. 'nuff said.
Bike: can you ever bike enough? Did a solid 98k ride followed by a 35 min run on Tuesday. Thursday featured a 2 hour trainer effort with 4X9 min at just below threshold intervals, plus a 11.5k run.
Run: highpoint was yesterday, did Misissauga half marry.

Mississauga Half Marathon Report:
Goal: sub 1:24
Actual: 1:24:45

Negative splitting is #$%^! hard. I did run a very evenly paced race, but wasn't quite able to negative split. Having raced 31 k's in the last 8 days and putting in a solid week of training, I knew the legs were going to get cranky.
The good: pretty even splitting from start to finish. Heart and lungs have more to give, legs need some additional speedwork and some extra rest certainly would hurt either. Oh yea, PB'd by...
6 sec.
Hey! it counts! I don't care if it's only 6 sec, it's still a PB. :)
The bad: The PB's are getting harder to come by now. I think, gone are the days of massive time drops. Still almost 5 minutes away from my lifetime goal of sub 1:20.. maybe in 2 years? Possible.

Enough rambling, gotta go spin the legs out.
Cheers!

Welcome to the brotherhood of dorks.

Both birthday wishes came true! I'm now a proud member of the brotherhood of dorks and a I scored a PR on Sunday.

So that's my opening teaser, let's start off with something a little more mundane and build to an exciting finish. (can't you feel the excitement??)

Weekly total:

Swim:7.2k

Bike: 7 hrs (trainer)

Run:37.5k

I pulled my stitches out, so I'm back in the pool on a semi regular basis. The weather was crap last week, so I trained inside. On Saturday, the day before my 10k race, I did the Ergvideo of the Lake Placid loop and cranked that sucker to '11'. Actually went to muscle failure. I gave myself an 'F' anytime I couldn't sustain big watts and have a cadence > 60. Muscle failure occured 4 times, typically in the last 5 to 10 sec of a 130% of threshold hill climb. Threshold was set to 295 watts and I averaged 248 for the ride, a season high, but the goal was to average 250. So I have to find a bit more power to light up a couple more of L.E.D.'s. Something to shoot for.

Needless to say this put my legs in a bit of a funk on Sunday morning. (hey, it's a C priority race, so I wasn't worried)

Quick and dirty Sporting Life 10k race report:

Ok, I'll let the cat out of the bag. This was my first 10k, so basically I could have walked it backwards and still have PR'd. But a PR is a PR and I'll take one anyway I can get it!

This 10k is a total cheater 10k, meaning it is almost ALL downhill. A great venue to go for a PR, but in truth, any PR on this course deserve a big fast asterix*.

For every meter of the race there was 1 person. Nearly 10 thousand people took part, by far the biggest race I've ever been in! Anyway let's get to the meat and potatoes...

Goal time: <36m

Actual: 38:XX

I'm not much for excuses...

But..

At the 8k mark I got a wicked stitch, the kind of stitch that had me doubled over and walking. Had to stop, stretch it out and walk it off. That kind of bummed me out, was totally on track for my goal, but that stitch really took the wind of my sail. C'est la vie. But hey! It's a still PR! :))

So afer the race....

My birthday present was to go to Enduro Sports .... danger! danger! The goal being was to get an aero helmet and offically become a member of the brotherhood of dorks. So without further adieu...

On top of the hill..

I think this is the only day when you can officially say you are on TOP of the hill. I'm not going up the hill, nor down. I'm TDC. (top dead centre) Got it figured out yet? It has to do with aging up...
BINGO!
Turned the big 4-0 today.

So besides peace, harmony and respect for all living things, what do I want? Ug, hate the word want. Nevermind, topic for another day... what would like?
I'd like a PB..
and to officially belong to the brotherhood of dorks.
This weekend, ONE of these is all but gauranteed. Go ahead, guess which one!

In other news..
Just got back from a great set at the pool, which is sort of amazing because my Wednesday's swim was pretty poopy. Today was a 1k warmup, 10X100m FR on 1:30 and 10X100IM on 1:45. At the end of 3k+ swimming I had the bright idea to swim a flat-out 100m just for the hell of it. It's been 20 years, so why not? I was the only one in the pool, the lifeguard timed me and I limped in on a 1:04. Lost pretty much .5 of a second every year for 20 years. On the other hand, if I was rested and not too pooched from the previous work out, I might have been able to get that sucker under a minute.
Now I just have to find a triathlon with a 100m swim....

Cheers!