Monday And An 80 Mile Solo Time Trial

So my workout (my only workout today) was a solo effort 80 mile time trial. The actual point of today's effort was to get comfortable being on my tri bike in aero position for extended periods and to start working on my nutrition. I use custom and mostly natural foods during my Ironman races and need to know how somethings work (or don't) prior to race day.

And actually aside from the taste of what I prepared last night, my nutrition worked well. I had no bloating issues and was adequately fueled for an effort that took just over 4 hours to complete 82 miles. Physically I was good until about mile 60 as far as being comfortable in aero position. But to be honest, my comfort level had more to do with it being about 103 degrees outside than any shoulder/back/neck stuff from the ride.

The food/fuel I used was new. I tried a liquid fuel based on coconut water, spirulina powder, salt, dates, sesame seeds, chia, almond butter and two scoops of Perpetuem from Hammer Nutrition. The calories for a single 24oz bottle winds up being around 750 highly nutrient dense calories. This blend is a bit different from what I used last year in Arizona but the overall calorie and nutrient make up is similar. Out on the bike for over 4 hours, and with about a bottle and a half of this blend taken in I was never hungry. The cool thing is with liquid, yet nutrient dense nutrition, I don't get the sense of emptiness that can come from some of the commercial products. I also don't experience the dramatic drop in energy that I get when I eat solid food like bars on the bike. As we get closer to Arizona I'll play with the mixture to see if I can get the taste more to my liking because it can be a bit off putting to drink stuff that tastes nasty when it is also hot.

For my fluids I used some new stuff I saw at the store. When I travel it can be hard to find good coconut water (not to mention expensive). I don't drink gatorade or any of the common electrolyte drinks if I can help it. This year I'm experimenting with dried coconut water. It comes in a powder and thus is easy to travel with. The only negative I can see is that it doesn't seem to have the same nutrient makeup and so isn't as calorically dense as regular coconut water. But since I have a good nutrient balance in my liquid fuel I didn't notice any issues even while riding in 100 degree heat for an extended period of time.

All in all, I'm happy with today's effort and the feedback I got.

Great Breakdown Of HR & Power On TJ Tollakson's IMLP Win

Here is a great read if you are interested in TJ's pacing strategy for IM Lake Placid.

Fierce Twist Interval - Yoga for Triathletes

So this is a yoga interval that is designed to build strength in the legs while relieving tension in trouble spots like the low back and piriformis. This is a pretty intense interval so modify where needed by using a yoga block. One time through is plenty, but if you feel motivated you can go for two passes. Enjoy.

Yoga Interval For Triathletes, Cyclists And Runners

Here is a short yoga video (or yoga interval) I shot for triathletes, cyclist and runners. The cool part is it really works the psoas, quads, hamstrings, and glutes. It is meant to be a restorative interval but it can also be used to strengthen the legs in a balanced way. And the best part is it only takes about 5 or 6 minutes to go through 2 or 3 times. Although in truth this simple interval is pretty challenging so one time through may be plenty. Restorative, strengthening yoga in 6 minutes or less? How's that for effective time management?

Iron Brother's Sprint Tri Day 2

Ouch. That is what my body was saying during the second race on day 2. Make that "OUCH!" So the swim seemed better than yesterday and my time was a good 30 seconds faster. I had no major issues on the swim, the water was still a bit choppy but I think it was a little cooler than yesterday so instead of swimming and fretting over how hot aka miserable I was I was able to concentrate on more important things like realizing my muscles weren't enjoying being asked to race again so soon. But that was about the worst of the swim. I was just wishing I'd slept in.

The bike on the other hand was another story. It was way windier today out on the bridge than yesterday especially on the section a couple of miles back into the park. And my legs hurt from the first turn of the pedals out of transition and continued to scream for the entire ride. The only reprieve I allowed them was at the turnarounds. After the first lap I seriously considered getting off my bike and waiting about 25 minutes and going back into transition but I didn't. My heart rate was right where it should have been and aside from the soreness from the day before, I was riding well. With this in mind I pushed the second loop harder and negative split by about 45 seconds and came into T2 in 6th place in my age group.

Out of T2, I really felt my effort on the bike and was sure I was running a lot slower than yesterday. And that may have been the case, but I think I found my stride opening up a bit sooner and clicked my way up from 6th place into 4th in my age group with an overall pace of about 8:20. I'm sort of amazed by that since I had to go to the bathroom again (which took 49 seconds) and because I know my first mile had to be somewhere north of 11 min. I practically walked out of transition.

All in all, I think it was a good solid weekend of training. Both races where within 5 seconds of each other in terms of overall time so I feel I had a solid effort both days.

Iron Brother's Sprint Tri Day 1

Let's just say my preparation for this race consisted of 3 swims and 5 bike rides in the last 3 weeks. This was not intentional. I had a stomach virus that had me off of all training for 10 days. But still, it doesn't bode well for a weekend of 2 back to back sprint tri races.

Let's also say I mis-read the race info about packet pickup and missed it when I got to town on Friday evening by going to the wrong location. I have no excuse for this. I looked at the instructions 3 times and mis-read them each time. I had to call and ask an exception to be able to pick up my packet race morning. This is in an Ironhead race is a big "NO, NO."

Then two minutes before the transition closed I realized I'd left my swim cap in the car and had to sprint back to the parking lot barefoot to get it. Swim cap in hand I then sprint barefoot to the swim start just in time to get into the water with my wave.

In retrospect, I think I was trying to make things hard on myself so that if things did not go well, I'd have a ton of excuses.

I'm not usually this forgetful or negligent. But even acknowledging all this I have to report I had an awesome race. My swim while not fast by any means, really high winds made the water very choppy. But I was able to sight and hold my line very well and have a strong swim in challenging conditions. The last couple of times I've done this race the swim has destroyed me. I've gotten sick at about 100 meters in, I've had problems sighting, I've gotten a mouthful of gasoline, and I've come out of the water completely exhausted barely able to stumble into transition. Like Dory and Finding Nemo, I just kept swimming and then ran into transition and got on the bike.

On the bike I took some time to get my legs under me and drink some fluid. The course is relatively flat with only a couple of very short hills. One is as you leave the park and go out onto a bridge and ride about 4 miles out to the next hill which takes you up to the turnaround. The cross wind wasn't too bad going out to the turn but coming back it was brutal. But to my surprise I was actually riding really strong. I caught and passed a lot of folks in my age group and swim wave and never saw them again. One the way out I was riding with a very high cadence to use my aerobic capacity and warm up my legs. I went into the big ring for about half of my trip back to the park on the way back and then when the winds picked up went back to aerobic, high cadence riding. On my way back out for my second and final loop I went back into the big ring and pushed it a bit but I wasn't suffering at all. I was well under aerobic threshold at about 147 bpm. After the turn I dropped the gearing again but kept the pace high. Even on the way back the highest my heart rate got was 149 and so I was really pleased. My legs weren't burning and there where no signs of cramps so the only issue I would face on the run was the fact that I needed to go to the bathroom.

I got back into transition with about a 54:00 bike split for the 19 mile course and I was really happy with that. I racked the bike and knew there was no way I could wait the entire 5k to wait on the bathroom so I ran off course after about 400m and went to the public bathroom. I split my watch when I went in and came out and it took exactly 1:01. I'm fairly confident my run pace for the first mile was "SLOW". Even without the pit stop. But after the first mile I realized my legs weren't tired no matter how hot it was out on the course (and it was hot, probably about 90 degrees at this point.) Did I mention on my way up to DFW my car thermometer read 113 degrees? It is freaking hot up here even in the morning. Anyway, I started running faster and faster with each passing moment and wound up running about a 25:00 5k complete with bathroom break. I'm happy with that as it is probably my fastest 5k split in a tri since I started racing again 4 years ago. I also wound up finishing 5th in my age group, I think my bike split helped a bit there. So now we'll just see what I have in my tank for tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't forget anything...

Running Notes

So I've been running. A lot of running. More running than I've done in years past. I think it is paying off. Even after about 10 days off due to a stomach virus. So I finally managed to run an 8:45 pace at MAF. Believe me this is no small feat given the fact the average temperature here in Austin has been over 100 degrees for the last 3 weeks. Even when I've gotten up to go to the track in the morning at 6:30 it has been over 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity. This is not ideal weather to attempt running with a low heart rate. It has actually been so hot that the buttons I use to turn on my treadmill have stopped working due to the console warping.

So since my treadmill wasn't working properly and the track was too hot, I've been doing a lot of running on the trails. Primarily a place called the Hill of Life and the Riverrun Trail. And the stairs off of Town Lake. Oddly these workouts have actually made me look forward to running more. And as a result I've run. A lot.

I wish I could say this was planned. You know call it a running "specific" block in my training but honestly it wasn't. So now I'm left to admit my cycling which is normally my default workout has been almost non existant. And my swimming? Well let's just say I've done that even less than I've cycled. I say all that to say this. I'm about to race this weekend. 2 sprint Tris in 2 days. We will just have to see how this goes. At least this time I've been running enough to know no matter how bad the swim and the bike might be, I might be in for two of my best triathlon runs in years.

Hump Day Reflections

So this is what I did on Monday. Over 6 miles of up and down this flight of stairs. All at MAF. Things to realize before you decide to try something like this. 1. This will take about an hour. 2. If you are doing this correctly, even MAF does not make this work easy. 3. If you are doing this correctly, walking down the stairs is way harder than running up them. 4. Walking down the stairs isn't really much of a recovery (This should be obvious from #3 but in case it isn't I'll just point this out for the record). 5. On an 80 degree morning, after about 20 minutes of this, there was steam coming off my shoulders so you should expect this too. And 6. Running up and down stairs like these 60 times in a row felt almost like the end of an ironman -- I know my whole body was shaking when I finished and this wasn't the first time I'd done this workout. The first time I was nauseous for the rest of the day afterward so I'll call shaking a step in the right direction.

At any rate after that was a Threshold Power workout on the trainer. Needless to say my legs were useless to me after that. But I want to start doing workouts that really challenge me to the point of fatigue while staying completely aerobic. This session definitely filled the bill in that regard.

On Tuesday I did a 2 hour recovery bike. I averaged about 19 mph and my heart rate average was about 128. The last 10 min of the ride was tough because my legs were still toast from Monday. Then I went and did a drill focused swim to further recover from Monday.

Today was an hour twenty minute bike in the morning and a 50 min run in the afternoon. I really struggled with the heat on this run. My legs were still tired but the heat today was brutal. I was on the trail at about 5:30 and it was still around 100 degrees here. In the shade. Oh well now I'm off to bed so I can get to the track first thing in the morning tomorrow. Cheers!

This Is Why We Do It...

I think the video speaks for itself. This is exactly what I needed to see.

Last Week Was A Whole Lot Of MAF

So I MAF'd all week. Aside from my two runs on the track and 3 other runs around town, I also spent over 5 hours on the bike and 4 hours in the pool. I think I got in just under 16 hours of total training in which is pretty solid. The encouraging thing I'd like to highlight is the improvement I'm seeing on the track. A few posts ago, I said I started this year running at 9:45 pace per mile at a 152 bpm heart rate. My last 3 visits to the track over the past 2 weeks have been a 9:24 ppm/151bpm, 9:17 ppm/149bpm, and a 9:13ppm/148bpm average over 5 miles.

I started this week off with a 5 mile run at an average heart rate of 138bmp, a 3000 meter swim workout that was primarily long sets with different stroke technique emphasis. I finished off the day with an hour of yoga. Feels good to start getting fit again.

Back In The Saddle

So I've been back to serious training. This week I got in almost 8 hours on the bike, about 3 hours running and 5 hours swimming. In addition to this I've done my daily yoga and strength training routine. And while my training has gotten more consistent over the past month, what I feel has been the real key to this uptick in training has been my effort to keep my diet optimal. By preparing my food on the weekends while I work I have been able to keep my nutrition and hydration consistent which has paid huge dividends in recovery.

I'll get around to detailing my workouts a bit later. But for now I'll just share some pics from my rides this week.

Saturday = Track Day, Sunday A Bike Ride

So I'm trying to get back into the routine of a weekly MAF run. Last year I did quite a few of these in the winter and the spring on the track so that I could tell whether or not I was getting "aerobically" fitter. Primarily, I used to do this work on Wednesday so I could go with a group and have people to look at while I ran. This year I decided to man up and do them on my own. Technically, Ironman is just you and the crap going on inside your head so this year, the "training wheels" are coming off. I'm just gonna have to get used to the company of my own thoughts so I switched the workout to Saturday.

I also use these workouts to learn even pacing for my runs during races. Because of spending so much time on the track, I know what different paces "feel" like and have a better sense of how fast I'm moving on race courses. But the thing about doing these early season MAF sessions is they are so frustrating for me because I know I'm built for speed. I love sprinting. And left to my own devices I'd do a "WHOLE" lot of interval work. But that would not get me where I want to go. So for now I get to run around the track working at keeping my heart rate down and my laps as consistent as possible. I think I expend more mental energy than anything else on days like yesterday.

Anyway, so I went back to the track and ran 3 miles at precisely 9:45 min per mile pace and an average heart rate of 152. The workout would have been 6 miles but I was pressed for time because I had to get back to work. I used part of my lunch to go water a friends plant and pick up her mail. But like I said I just needed to get back into the routine of doing the workout. Looking back at logs for this time last year I was running between 10:35 min per mile and 10:15 min per mile pace at about the same heart rate. A couple of differences however do stick out. First yesterday it was over 80 degrees while I was running. The workouts last year were all in the mid 60's to low 70's. The other difference is I'm about 8 pounds heavier than I was last year. That tells me even though it was hot and I'm heavier right now than I was all of last year, I'm still more efficient at running than I was a year ago.

Some of the weight is muscle. I've been working out doing a bunch of functional strength work and swimming a lot more. But some of it is just water. I've decided to see what happens if I can stay better hydrated this year. Honestly, I think I just feel better. But I'll write more on that later.

So Sunday I just did an easy recovery ride on the bike. Mostly I looked at houses. But hey, I was out there turning my legs over and enjoying the impromptu power session the wind provided. Other than that I got my food ready for next week. I think it is going to be epic for training between Day Light Saving Time and warmer weather, I can't wait!

A Few Thoughts On Overtraining

"Better to stop short than fill to the brim. Over sharpen the edge and the blade will soon blunt... Retire when work is done. This is the way of Heaven." from the Tao Te Ching


Giving your best. It is the easiest thing in the world to do sometimes. Especially when you are exited and committed. And you have a goal with a firm deadline. You go all out. You give it everything you have. No one expects anything less from you. "You"expect nothing less from you. It is with this mindset that you have come to accomplish many things in life. So it is no surprise you enter the training for triathlon with this mindset as well.

As much as I applaud this mindset, I am also keenly aware of how it can also negatively affect your performance and ultimately undermine your experience of the sport of triathlon. I know this because of my own personal journey down the backside of the "More training is better and harder training is better still" mountain and into a crevice that left me unable to train or race for 5 years.

The key thing to consider is while the workouts you plan and complete are important, what is of equal importance if not more so, is the quality of the recovery you allow between the workouts. Perhaps you've seen the equation Stress + Rest = Performance? Simply put, the quality of the stress (or workout) and the quality of your rest (or recovery) is what adds up to your performance on race day. It is the combination of these two things that determine your improved fitness and adaptation to future workloads.

It was during my time away from triathlon that I came to fully appreciate the wisdom of the words that precede this post. What follows next are five principles I've used to embody the sentiment they convey in my actual daily training.

1. Strive to be honest about your current fitness level and accept where you are. At the beginning of any training block take time to assess as honestly as possible where you are in terms of your fitness. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. All you need is a known distance and a way to track time. A local track and a sports watch will do. A heart rate monitor, if available can add finer detail to the assessment. Test during weeks where you have lowered both volume and intensity to allow for a true assessment. By returning to do the same test regularly, you remove the guesswork from your training. How you perform on your tests can tell you lot and help guide your future choices with regard to the duration, frequency and intensity, and even the sequence of workouts.

2. Learn to be patient with your training. Many athletes will move on to the next phase in their training because of what it says on a calendar, or because it is what someone they know, or someone they've read about is doing in an attempt to rush improvement. What you should ask yourself based on your tests is, "Did you make the gain?" The answer to this question is what should determine whether or not you are ready to move on to more exotic and demanding types of training. Remember, improved fitness isn't always linear. It is important to keep in mind your training, your diet, the quality and quantity of your rest, and your body all work synergistically to create a gradual adaptation to increasing volume and intensity. It is this systematic consistency of workout stimuli, recovery and diet, which leads to improved fitness and race results.

3. As a general rule, workouts should leave you feeling satisfied and even refreshed. You may not want to repeat what you did, but try to leave your workouts knowing you could repeat the effort if necessary. One way to achieve this is to find other ways to gain speed or endurance without continually pushing your body to its limits. Work on refining your technique in the three disciplines and improving endurance, functional strength and range of motion, prior to working solely on generating speed. Consider speed training as you would sugary dessert -- something to be indulged in sparingly if at all. The truth of the matter is if you become adept at refining your technique, and developing your endurance while gaining functional strength and maintaining range of motion, you will get faster without killing yourself to do it.

4. Listen to your body. There will be times when your body will subtly ask you to rest. Learn to listen to it. By learning to recognize your body's unique signals and honoring them immediately, you won't find yourself in the situation where gentle hints have become firm, painful ultimatums. The hints can be as simple as difficulty sleeping or feeling the need to stay in bed a bit longer than normal after the alarm has gone off. Dreading or postponing workouts is another common but subtle indication that your body may not be ready for more training. Other more common symptoms include moodiness, loss of appetite, lethargy, slow healing wounds, onset of colds or coughs, increased allergic reactions, elevated or prolonged muscle soreness and stiffness, elevated resting heart rate. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, take a day off.

5. Learn to trust yourself and your plan. Map out a plan and stick to it. Map out a plan and be flexible. I know this sounds contradictory but it isn't. Try to develop a routine and stick with it. Have a reason for each workout. The more focused and purposeful you can be in developing your training plan, the easier it is to stick with it and see the rewards from what you have set in motion. But you need to be flexible because there is always the larger aspect of your life outside of triathlon that also needs to be attended to. When your life outside of triathlon interferes with your training, and it will, you will need to be able to adapt. The simplest advise I can give, is if something comes up that needs attending to that will keep you from doing your workout on the day it is scheduled, then skip that workout. Forget about it. It is gone. Move on to the next workout, or repeat the one before it. Whatever you do, do not attempt to "make up" or "double up" workouts or training blocks to stay on or get back on track. Take it from me, it doesn't work.

Your overall goal should be to enjoy your training. Your training should enhance your life through improved, health, fitness, greater self-esteem and self-awareness. At the center of each and every workout, every decision, and any training program, is you. Always remember this because ultimately triathlon is one of life's the demonstrable activities where you can truly experience and reap the benefits of a "less is more" approach.

Train well!

Monday And Tuesday In Review

Let's just say a couple of things are starting to occur to me. First, I have a lot of time to bring my body into shape for the races I'm planning on doing this year. I think I want to try for 2 70.3 races this year and 2 Olympic distance races in addition to Ironman Arizona.

I may do some other stuff like time trials and 10k's for fun but for the most part I'm still working at becoming fit. I've decided to work on my overall endurance, strength and range of motion for this first part of the year. I'm not doing much in the way of speed at all unless you count my rides with the super cyclists, Jason and Du Shun - and even there it isn't as much as trying to go fast as it is trying not to get left behind.

Anyway, I think I have a handle on how much work I can comfortably do in a day at this point and how to schedule it with the necessary food and recovery to make it all work out. But that isn't what the purpose of this post is about. This post is simply about what I've been doing for the last few days.

Yesterday I went out for my morning run and changed my mind. Not about the running, mind you but about the route and ultimately the duration. The run went from 30 minutes in my neighborhood to over 30 minutes down to Town Lake and on to the water stop under the foot bridge and back home. The whole run ended up being slightly over 90 min and pretty much about 10 miles. I haven't run more than 30 minutes since Thanksgiving. But I felt good the whole way so my pace and heart rate were right in line.

I think the thing about this run is I was pushing through some personal boundaries. For the last couple of years I've been hesitant about doing long runs too early. But I've relied on so little running in the past in my preparation that I've probably been underprepared for Ironman. I want to address that this year. So not only am I running more frequently as I did last year with multiple runs per day, I am also going to do more middle to long distance runs early so that my runs later in the year can focus on quality and not durability.

After the run I came home and ate and got ready for my bike. Again here is where I was pushing boundaries. Instead of mapping out a longish ride, I decide I wanted to be more consistent with my cycling this year. Last year I was lucky to get in 2 quality rides a week. This year I want that number to be closer to 4. So again I took a look at what I was doing. I did a lot with a little last year increasing wattage, speed and efficiency on the bike to the point of riding well on very little training. I want to take what I learned not to just "do" more work, but to do more quality work within a certain amount of time. So while I'll be on the bike more frequently, I doubt my time on the bike will increase substantially. To that end I want to keep my rides in the 45 minute to 2 hour range and leave it at that. Yesterdays ride clocked in at 1 hour 45 minutes. Perfect. I got home and it was time to eat again.

This morning was more of the same albeit with shorter durations. 30 minute run on the treadmill before breakfast, then 90 minute bike ride after lunch and a nap. As I give more thought to what I want to accomplish physically, I'll post more details. Until then, "Train well!"

Solid Effort = Great Day

Today was a good day. The weather was amazing and I put in a solid effort starting with an easy 35 min run this morning. This run felt good and my heart rate was pretty steady between 135 on flats and 145 on hills. It was pretty cloudy and cool enough for me to wear a long sleeve tech shirt and still be comfortable.

After a quick breakfast of fruit porridge, raisins and flax, I took a short nap before heading out for my ride. By this time the sun was out and the temps were in the mid 70's. The ride was also done at an easy pace for an hour just to get the legs turning over and working on using my core to drive my pedal stroke.

The key workout for my day was in the afternoon which consisted of an hour running the hills on the Scenic loop here in Austin. I felt strong here and had no problem maintaining a healthy pace and keeping things interesting although on one of the larger ascents my heart rate hit 160 just as I crested. Other than that it was 150 or less for most of the hour meaning I got the benefit of the strength work hills can bestow without loosing any aerobic efficiency to pull it off.

I've decided this year I am going to add more hill training into my routine as I work primarily on strength for 2011.

Made It

Today I rode with Jason. The other super cyclist I know. In the past month I've ridden at least once a week with either Du Shun (the original super cyclist) or Jason. Technically these guys are so strong I just try to keep them in sight. The only thing I have going for me is whatever endurance comes from doing Ironman because at this point I haven't even really started to put in any real concerted training. But things are looking up. Today I didn't get dropped though I broke all my normal MAF rules to make it happen. Technically I got as high as 163bpm which is still aerobic for me but JUST BARELY. So I was still talking and wasn't breathing hard. But I could feel the effort when it got that high.

2:45 on the bike. Solid effort. Didn't get dropped. Wasn't destroyed. All in all a good day. 2011 might just be shaping up after all.

The Day Begins Here

So I started my day with breakfast which consisted of fruit porridge and green coconut water. This is the first time I've eaten the porridge before. The taste was amazing for such a simple and satisfying dish.

To make it all you need is an apple, a pear, and a banana. Cut and seed the pear and the apple. Place the pear into a blender first and blend until chunky. Add the banana and blend again. Finally add the apple, some vanilla, cinnamon, and a scoop of protein powder. Top with flax seed and raisins. Makes about two servings.

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Today Was Nothing Special

Today wasn't anything special. I swam with the crew at T3 at 11:45 this morning. Some days I really feel like rocking my swim workouts but today I really felt as if I was barely surviving the sets. Especially the sets where I am forced to use swim aids. So many other people speed up when given paddles and pull buoys but unfortunately I am not one of them. I don't even really speed up when I put on fins. I've thought a lot about this as I've been lapped in the pool and have come to the conclusion that these aids really through off my feel of the water. I think they also throw off my body position and rotation and just make the whole swimming motion unfamiliar.

Case in point today's swim workout was largely aided. And I largely struggled. I got lapped in every set. Until the aids came off and we had to do a straight 800m. Of course I went last in the lane because everyone had been passing me all practice. Except for this one set. On this single set I caught the two swimmers ahead of me even though they each started at 10 second intervals. Take away. At least I don't totally suck at swimming. I just suck at swimming with swim aids.

At any rate, after swimming I fueled up on lunch which consisted of some vegan chili and my daily serving of spirulina and chlorella. At 3:00 I went for a 7 to 8 mile run. I'm not sure why but my heart rate was a bit up today prior to the run. It was also a bit high for the pace I was holding as well so I'm going to get to bed early tonight and see if more rest addresses it. If not I'll watch my diet in the coming days more closely.