Milestones

A couple of minor milestones. One is relating to winter. You see, psychologically, I break winter down into two major milestones. The first one is the winter solstice, which just passed on Dec 22. Daylight has been increasing for the last 5 days! The next major winter milestone for me isn't until March 1, when it's so close to the end of the tunnel and you can taste spring. Jan/Feb can be a tough stretch, but once March is here, it's game on!

2006 is winding down real fast. As I reflect on the year, specifically relating to triathlon, I think of the top 3 things I've learned. 1) speed is icing on the cake and I don't have cake yet. Off the top of my head, I can't recall who said that, so I can't give proper credit, but it was someone wiser than me! It really is all about building a bigger engine. 2) It really is all about the run. Which is kind of a trick statement. It should be: it's all about arriving at the run with enough endurance to actually run." I thought I was working on the run in '06, but truthfully I did not end up doing what is required. I believe you have train like a runner to become a better runner. Also, just as importantly, do the bike miles to arrive at the run in reasonable shape. Lastly, nutrition really is king. I've found that 'nailing' my nutritional needs for the longer events quite difficult and even though I've learned alot, I still have a ways to go. Such is life.

Another milestone... 101 running K's last week. Yea! A nice Christmas present to myself - a mileage PR. Here's the belated stats for last week:
run: 101 k
spin 4 hr
Plus the usual 2 hours dedicated to stretching and core work.

Ok, well I was a little reluctant to post this, but I did promise I'd post my new bike position, so here it is. Constructive criticism always welcome.. note, I did stay constructive. :)











The only real adjustments over last year is that now there are no spacers in the stem. I played with angling the aerobars down a bit, but after some research decided against it. I was able to achieve a nice flat scapula area and have so far found this position to be comfortable, so for the time being this is the position I'll go with.

The camera did point out some technical flaws in my pedal stroke, just some minor things to work on while logging the spinning hours.

Speaking of spinning, I better stop typing and start logging some miles in front of the TV. Cheers!

It's crunch time..

It's crunch time at the North Pole. I'd imagine those poor elves must be 'in the weeds'. <-- bartending lingo for when your busier than hell. I hope Santa is good to everyone.

The week is progressing well, I'm on track for 100 running K's, just have to do a couple 22k runs this weekend. Monday was off, Tuesday: run 17, spin 1hr, Wed: run 12, spin 1hr, Thur: run 17, spin 1 and today was run 9 in the nice cold rain and spin 1. At least the weather looks decent, so I shouldn't have a problem finishing the week out strong.

POGO news:
I finally got the 50/50 off the ground at work- yea 2 weeks later than I orginally thought... office politics, ya gotta love it. The good news is for the inaugural draw $120.00 was collected. Let's just hope it lasts. So current collected total is $220.00, with almost $200.00 in pledges to be collected. Hey, it's a start.

Hmm.. not much else is happening. I'm still waiting on my Computrainer, though with things pretty much shutting down next week, I probably won't receive it until January. Waiting, it's the hardest part.

That's all for now. Don't forget what Christmas is really about, give a loved 0ne a hug and raise a glass for everything we have to be thankful for. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Picture this. It's December 17th (yesterday), one hour north of Toronto, a mere 4 days before the official start of winter... it's a gorgeous sunny day with temperature just shy of 10C. If that's not shorts weather I don't what is. Yup, smart money says it'll be a green Christmas. The 'angel' on the right shoulder says "global warming = bad!" The 'devil' on the left shoulder says "get outside and enjoy that global warming!" I kinda feel guilty for running shorts in the second half of December.

The tally for last week:
Run: 87.5 k
Spin: 5 hrs
Weight: 163
Met my goals for the week - all is good. This week I'm thinking of giving myself a Christmas present - a running mileage PR. Yup, going for triple digits next week and maintain the same amount of time on the bike. I figure go for 100 running K's next week, then take the last week of the year real easy, with January 2/07 bringing in a new training phase. So there ya have it. Cheers!

LT test and getting clocked.

Standard warning: Do not attempt this test without the consent of a physician. I'm being serious, the last thing I want on my concious is being responsible for someone else's heart attack.

So what is an LT test? LT stands for lactate threshold which is the level of exercise intensity when lactate starts to accumulate in the blood and you change from a primarly fat burning to a glycogen (carbs) burning metabolism.
Methodology: Get yourself good and warmed up ending with a few stride repeats to jack up the heart rate. Once warmed up run a 30 minute time trial. At the 10 minute mark, hit the lap button on your heartrate monitor, your LT will be your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes. You should give the time trial 100 percent effort and be pretty well spent at the end of it. Ideally, you want a hard, but consistent pace throughout the whole time trial.

Ok, so that's the nuts and bolts of the matter. Tuesday seemed like a good time for a LT test, my prep work for next year is almost done, I've logged some decent running K's, and the roads were fairly dry (well the paved ones were, the dirt roads were pretty muddy). Might as well embrace some pain and get this test done. Here's the numbers:

0-10 minute mark: distance: 2.51k heartrate: 181 bpm
10-20 minutes: distance 2.54k heartrate: 183bpm
20-30 minutes: distance: 2.49k heartrate: 183 bpm
Average heartrate for last 2o minutes: 183 bpm.

So my LT is 183 bpm. I was able to maintain pretty much the same pace throughout and by the end I was sucking wind pretty hard. I believe I got an accurate reading, which is what matters. So what does this number mean? Well from my LT we can determine correct trainings 'zones', (using Joe Friel's method)

Zone 1: easy / recovery workout: <155
Zone 2: endurance training: 155-164
Zone 3: 'intensive' endurance training: 165-173
Zone 4: Threshold training: 174- 180
Zone 5 Threshold training 181-184

Personally I think these values are a little on the high side, maybe 5 beats. I'll experiment during my 'build phase' and zone in on what I think is appropriate - but at least it gives me a starting point.

So yesterday I ran through a speed trap and the officer clocked me at 13kph. Now I 'know' I was only at a max of 12 kph, my internal speedometer is quite accurate I assured him. However, he'd have none of that as his laser thingy clearly clocked me at 13kph. Fortuneately, it was a 40 zone, so I didn't get a ticket. Luckily I was just 'warming up' and he'd didn't catch me during Tuesday's LT test. :)
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Today, I'm a kid. Why? Just ordered a new Computrainer, through Mike Plumb at Tripower Multisports. Mike, is doing a large bulk deal and is able to get a substantial discount which he graciously passes on to us. So, if you are in market for a Computrainer, do yourself a favour and contact Mike asap. I think he's wrapping things up in about 1 week.

It will probably take 2-3 weeks until I actually receive it and naturally when I get it up and running I'll want to ride the snot out of it. I better be getting my cycling legs back in a hurry. So the plan for this week is to increase my spinning time by an hour and get about 80 running K's in. This week's outline is: Tues: run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Wed: run 40min, spin 1 hr. Thurs. Run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Fri: run 40, spin 1hr. Sat run 1.5 hrs. Sun run 2.0 hrs.

The weekend saw the last of my cold go bye-bye and I was operating at a respectable 90%. I did an 18k run on Sat and a 22k run on Sun. The weekly totals are:
Run: 63.5k
Spin: 4 hours.
Weight: 163 (down a pound)
Running K's are low due to the fact I bailed on two runs - for which I blame my cold. On the other hand, I'm happy I got >60k's in 4 runs. I'd love about 2 more months of consistent 80k weeks.. but I know Jan/Feb will be particularly challenging in the mileage department. Which brings me to swimming...

Swimming is still very much on the back burner, at least for another month, maybe two. I'm not looking forward to going back to the pool - just yet. Although watching NBC's coverage Kona on Saturday gave me goosebumps - it made me at least start to think about swimming. Hey, thinking about it is the first step, now I just have to move to the 'doing' part... Cheers!

Cough... cough..

Had a bit of a cold this week, I should have know something was up last weekend - during my run my heartrate was higher than normal and I wasn't just feeling 'right'. Turns out it's a bit of cold, it's been so long since I've had one, I almost forgot what it's like. It wasn't too bad, a couple of restless nights and a stuffed nose - at least the bugger didn't migrate to my lungs.

I erred on the side of caution and ditched two of my runs this week and opted for additonal zzzz's instead. Focus on getting back to 100% health then focus on training. I still did my bike workouts, so I wasn't in 100% slacker mode - just semi-slacker.
The good news is, I had a great sleep last night and was able to get a run and bike workout in today. Hey, if cold only buggers up two runs, I sure the hell won't complain.

As you know, I'm still in a pre-season/base phase. ie: during all workouts, heartrate is not allowed over 145 and is usually kept between 140 - 142. The one thing I have been working on is my run cadence. My natural cadence seems to be dialed in at 88 strides/min (176 steps). The goal is to increased that to 92. In order to do that, every so often during a run, I'll do real quick increase in cadence for 20 to 30 sec. The theory being, that eventually running at 92 strides will feel natural.
Anyway, this got me a thinking. (yea it happens every so often). Increasing cadence from 88 to 92 = 8 an extra 8 steps per minute. Big deal you say. Well extrapolate that over the course of a marathon. 1 step =1.25m (it's propably more), so that's 10 extra meters travelled in 1 minute. For arguments sake, let's say you run a 3 hour marathon. That's 180 minutes, at 10 extra meters/ minute, that's 1800 meters, or 1.8k. A 3 hour marathon requires a 4:16/k pace, so by merely increasing your cadence, in this case you could shave over 7.5 minutes. Points to ponder. Now all I have to do is break that elusive 3 hour barrier for a marathon - something that is at least a year away...

Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

The i's are dotted, the t's are crossed... my sponsorship proposal for Canada Post is officially completed. Now just have to wait a month or two until I receive word back. Fingers are crossed. I understand HED Cycling sponsors amatuers, so some inquiries are in order, hey I have nothing to lose, right? As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Let see, what else is happening.. oh right, I should update you on my fundraising for POGO. Good news. In conjunction with the Brampton Post Office, a regularly scheduled 50/50 draw should generate a good $400.00 /month towards this worthy cause. The first draw is scheduled to start this coming Friday -woo hoo! Between, Debbie (a co-worker helping me) and myself, we've already got the ball rolling with over $200.00 in pledges. I'll update the total on the left after I actually receive the pledge and send it in. So things are starting to roll in that department, which is good news indeed.

On to training news... Last week was a scheduled easy week. (ya gotta love those..) Here's the totals:
Run: 44k
Spin: 4 hrs
Weight: 164
The plan for this week is log between 70 and 75 running K's and maintain the spinning time.

In an effort to get into a more aero position I'm currently tweaking my bike setup. Every month, I'm taking a small spacer out of the stem of my bike and thus getting a little bit more aero. So last week I did this and much to my suprise I was quite comfortable. I'm doing very minute adjustments every 2 to 4 weeks and I'm hoping by February I'll be 'dialed in'. I'll get Sally to take a pic and I'll show you my progress.
Cheers!

Monthly mileage report

Well I guess shorts weather is officially over. The mild spell officially left us yesterday and while our weather is not as bad as those poor folks on the west coast, it has turned to a mixed bag of freezing rain, rain and sleet. Oh joy. Fortuneately, I've lucked out as this is my easy week and I can blow off a run workout without feeling too much guilt. However, the cost of missing a run equals increased spinning time, so it's not like I'm being a total lazy ass. So, here's the numbers November:
Run: 310k
Spin: 8 hrs
A gold star to me for busting the 300k in November. I really hope I can maintain a few more months of solid mileage and that I'll live up to my vow of actually trying to becoming a runner.
The running plan for December, starting Monday (rest day), is to do a 3 week build followed by a week of rest. So I'm putting my order in for some decent weather for December now. As for cycling/spinning, the plan is to increase frequency. I'll be starting to do alot more double workout days of 1) running as soon as I get home for work and 2) spinning for an hour later in the day. That's the plan.
This weekend, the low pressure system bringing us this slew of wet weather is moving out, so Sat/Sun is shaping up to be OK. I'm going to run for an hour tomorrow and run for 1:30 or so Sunday. Then it's officially bye-bye easy week.

Lastly, a thanks to Mark. I've pretty much let everyone know that I've been lusting after a Computrainer, and Mark was kind enough to point out a Slowtwitch post that I actually missed! That simple act of kindness of emailing could save me a quite few bucks and it certainly is appreciated. Just goes show you, us tri-wienies watch each others back!
Have a great weekend!