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!

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!

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.

Monday - Power Intervals And Progress

So now that I'm back from Colorado the real training begins. For the most part I've really just been tooling around running and riding and swimming without too much stress placed on the body except for the normal amount of stress that comes with the accumulation of increased volume over time. And I have to say I'm pretty happy with the results I've created from my decision to train in this manner. This is the first season I can remember where I've managed to stay healthy and motivated and so I'm actually looking forward to racing later this year.

Well almost healthy. I did step on a rock while I was in Boulder when I was wearing my Vibrams and managed to dislocate a "new" bone in my foot. My only real issue with this was I was in Boulder and didn't have access to my "magical" chiropractor to put it back in. The guy I saw in Boulder, while well meaning, couldn't tell if the foot had a dislocated bone or stress fracture. But at least he didn't charge me for the "sort of" diagnosis.

The difficult part for me was I managed to find said rock on my first day in town so I didn't get to run for the rest of the week and had to limp around town for the next 7 days. But it didn't stop me from riding. ;) So the blessing in disguise was probably that I spent a lot more time on the bike than I had planned and as a result also spent a lot more time in bed with my foot elevated to keep swelling to a minimum when I wasn't out riding. A total win on both counts.

All of this gets me to the title of this post. Today I start my more focused block of training which on the bike means power intervals on the trainer and longer steady state rides outdoors. This also means it is time for some testing to get the appropriate training intensities. Because I do the same stuff from year to year and keep decent enough notes, I was pretty happy to discover an improvement over last years work of about 25 watts. This is average power and so is a sustained power improvement. I am also about 7 pounds lighter than I was at this time last year which means not only am I able to work harder, I do not need to move as much body weight while I'm working. On top of the lighter body weight, and 25 additional watts, I also recorded a lower heart rate by about 3 bpm. Again all good news.

I still have a long way to go but starting my season out prior to the focused work which tends to produce the most noticeable gains in power threshold and fitness is pretty exciting. So my work for today had me doing a two part work out. The first section was an hour with a 30 min block of power interval work at high cadence (over 100 rpms sustaining prescribed wattage for 5 minute sets). The second block was an hour recovery ride keeping heart rate below 145.

Both blocks went well and I feel good going into tomorrow's workouts. The foot is feeling much better after getting the bone put back in place this weekend. But I'm giving it a couple of days to let the swelling and trauma resolve after it had been out for almost 2 weeks. But like I said, it gave me time to really focus on my cycling so I'm not too upset about not running.

Wednesday Is "Gain" Day

Awhile back I was at Jack and Adams talking to Zane Castro about training. He was telling me about some conversations he was sharing with some coaches in the sport. Basically what I walked away from our conversation with where these four words:

"Did you make the gain?"

The work I do on Wednesday has been relatively the same for the past 2 and 1/2 months. I get up and ride my bike then I hang out at the house taking it easy getting ready to go to the track and test my MAF. I told myself this year if there was one workout I was going show up for week in and week out it would be my MAF test at the track. And I must say I've done a pretty good job of this only missing when the weather wouldn't allow going outside.

But today I got started late and even though the day started out cloudy, it was sunny and a full on 93 degrees about half way through my workout on the bike. I needed/wanted 2 hours which is about 3 laps and some piddling around on my modified South Mopac loop. I modify the loop so I can add milage, stay out of traffic, and climb more.

The break down of the loops looked like this:

1. First Loop - 35:00.4 Ave HR 120 Max HR 135
2. Second Loop - 35:07.8 Ave HR 124 Max HR 137
3. Third Loop - 31:57 Ave HR 124 Max HR 135

So after the third loop I just rode around and cooled down. But I have no idea where that third lap came from. And I sat at a signal light for a bit during it. Long enough, I might add for me to roll up onto the sidewalk and push the crossing button. I thought it was some sort of fluke. Then I went to the track.

I won't belabor this, but the same thing happened on the track. Now I will freely admit the temperature dropped while I was on the track from 94 degrees down to about 74 while I was running, but even so I started doing these workouts in February (when the average temperature was consistently in the 50's) and the fastest I could run then at a HR less than 150 was a 10:35 pace which is about 2:39 per 400. Today my slowest lap (while it was still over 90 degrees was a 2:25. My fastest lap today was my last at 2:09 (it was very windy by the way as the front that ended my workout at 3 miles was coming in fast) and my pace for the workout was a 9:13. Average HR 148.

But the thing is that last lap, even with wind was so like the last loop on the bike earlier. It was soooo easy, like I was just going with it and I wasn't putting in any effort at all. For me, as I write about it now, the gain isn't as much in the numbers as it is in the sense of ease needed to produce them. That is where the gain is. It reminds me of the feeling I had last October when I could literally "feel" body say "I can do and Ironman now." But this time the feeling is coming in June. How cool is that???

At any rate the point of making the gain and realizing you have made it is knowing when to shift training focus so that progress remains steady and does not plateau. So now I may rethink my training for the next several weeks to introduce new stimuli. Things appear to be shaping up nicely.

Tuesday

Today was another solid day of training. I think I'm finally getting into a groove now that I've resolved my mysterious fatigue from a couple of weeks ago. Nothing really special to report. A 1 hour 20 min run with an embedded 15 min vertical stair running set. The protocol was to simply run up and down two flights of stairs until my heart rate reached my MAF threshold of 145 bpm. The last time I did this workout with a 30 minute pre run, I was only able to stay under 145 for about 7 minutes so, I'm happy with the results.

My second workout of the day was a 1 hour 20 minute bike also with a MAF emphasis. What I am noticing is how my cycling is speeding up and my technique is becoming more and more effortless.

This brings up the reason I've focused so heavily on training slowly and deliberately this year. While I was on the bike today I watched a guy fly by me in aero position pushing a much bigger gear than I was using but when the road started to incline, he stopped pulling away and I pulled closer. I experience this a lot. My effort never changes, my heart rate stays steady and yet I gain ground on people who fly by me otherwise. I have noticed I also can gain ground or pull closer in a headwind.

The thing is most training programs focus a great deal of time and energy directing athletes on ways to increase and maintain effort. And I don't deny there is a place for this in training. What I don't understand is why in most cases it precedes developing efficiency - both muscular and aerobic. And this is what I was seeing as I rode uphill into the wind and gained on my timetrialing friend.

A funny thing happens when you ride and run slow. If you can get past how slowly you are moving, you can notice just what is necessary to move you as quickly as possible, what muscles are needed to contract and which ones you must relax. You learn how to use free momentum. You learn how to just feel speed and separate it from effort. And in the world of triathlon, this is a good thing.

Train well.

Wednesday - Post Recovery

So today was my first day back after a 3 day unscheduled hiatus from training. I'm not really sure what to make of what happened. So for 3 days, I was just tired. sleeping 12 hours a day tired and that is not including the 2 hour naps. As far as I could tell I wasn't fighting off an infection. My heart rate was pretty normal. And to be honest, I wasn't "tired". But I was abnormally sleepy.

My mantra from when I was working over night is to never train when I'm sleepy. That's how I got to 3 days off. I would wake up after 8 hours of sleep and still be yawing. So I'd have breakfast then go take about an hour nap. I'd work on some video projects for a couple of hours, then I'd be ready for nap number 2. 3 days of this was killing me. But in the scheme of things we'll see how this plays out for my training.

Wednesday is my normal day to go to the track and check the results of my MAF (maximum aerobic function) work. Things looked pretty good for the first mile but I think the heat and the wind were a bit much for me and my heart rate started to climb out of the zone for the test. I think this is where discipline comes in. I could have held on to the pace I normally am able to run out of pride but I want this work to pay off long term so, I sucked it up and slowed way down to get my heart rate back down. The cool thing is I didn't have to walk to do it. So if there is a moral victory to be had anywhere, I'd say that would be it.

I also rode my bike this morning but only for about 45 minutes in attempting to keep my first day back moderate while sticking to the training pattern I like to follow on Wednesdays.

After the track MAF, I went down to the shore and did some pullups. I think about 60 total. And I did a few sets of dips. So tomorrow I'll lighten up on the pullups and enhance the core work during my strength training. I'll do a 20 minute run to warm up for the strength work.

And I suppose I'll get to bed now. I'm sleepy again. Peace and train well!

Monday and Tuesday

Well both days were pretty much the same. And then again, pretty much not. I finally sat down and wrote out a training schedule. I know. I know. I know.

I always do much better by putting down a set schedule in writing. But for some reason, I seem to need some sort of dire threat each year to make me actually sit down and do it. And it didn't even take long. 5 minutes tops.

But now I have training "appointments" and I don't ever miss those unless I'm tired or sleepy. If you need my help with something or want to talk during these blocks of time I'm not available. And if they are in my calendar, I show up, do the work and go home. Case closed.

What I think is a mystery for most athletes is what exactly to do with these blocks of time and how many of them to schedule. Personally I like to think long term, which conversely makes much of the type of training to do moot.

In a nutshell my goal for the last several years was to change my body composition. Now that my average weight is between 146 and 148 pounds off season (previously it was 155 - 160), I can turn my attention to the overall process of building the engine necessary to actually train for an Ironman. So my only goal this year is creating the aerobic engine combined with the structural integrity in musculature, tendons and joints to be able to "train" properly for an Ironman distance race. Once I have the body and the aerobic and physiological structure in place, combined with proper nutrition and training, then I can think about "racing" an Ironman.

This is definitely not how most people approach their training, though reading that paragraph they might like to say they do. The reason I say this is because in order to take the approach I'm advocating, you give up a lot of short term accolades such as age group victories during the early years or just beating your buddies to the next stop sign in a sprint. But I'm cool with that.

Last week at the track I was talking to a guy in his late fifties who was telling me he didn't do Maximum Aerobic Function work because it forced him to run too slowly. He didn't feel like he was getting a workout and thus couldn't see the benefit. His fastest recent 10k was about 40 minutes and some change. All winter I've watched this guy lap me on the track as he runs his 400 meter intervals at close to 6 minute pace. He does his weekend long runs at a "slow 7:30 minute per mile pace, closing the session at about 7 minute pace. He does this year round. I don't even have to ask him if he's getting any faster.

At any rate, I on the other hand am getting faster and more efficient at running slowly. My MAF pace is almost a full minute per mile faster than when I started. And this is what makes what I actually do with my training appointments so easy. I train either at, as I do on the track, or below, as I do elsewhere, MAF. The only variable is the time spent. Easy.

So yesterday was an hour on the bike, this time on the stationary trainer maintaining easy cadence. The goal here is technique. I've been working on my connection to my feet in both cycling and running as a way to maximize power with less effort. And this is one of the unseen benefits of training at lower intensities. You are able to make real connection to the movement you are carrying out so that when you do speed up you can keep that connection and thus efficiency. Higher power output at lower effort = better end results.

After the bike there was an hour run. This was also easy. During the middle of the run I went "vertical" for 15 minutes and hit some stairs. Again the challenge here is to attack the stairs efficiently so that my heart rate stays low and I keep moving. No easy feet but I'm getting better at it. When I started these vertical runs I could only do about 7 minutes before my heart rate forced me to stop between ascents. Now I'm up to 15 minutes.

Today was the same except the bike and the run were 90 minutes a piece. This time the run was just on a flat road and the bike was outdoors. I had some trouble with my heart rate on the run because I didn't space the workouts apart do to some personal commitments and thus didn't properly hydrate but I was still aerobic. Tomorrow is more of the same and back on the track again. I start my swim cycle with strength work on Thursday. Train Well everyone!

First Failure, Then Progress

I didn't write a blog post last week. At first it was because I was busy. But that was only the first two days of the week. The plan was to write a post on Wednesday because I had two workouts scheduled and figured out of the two of them I'd have something interesting to write about. And I did. I just didn't write anything because by Wednesday evening, I was pissed off.

Last week's bike ride went fine. In fact I'd say I was really happy about it because I could feel a bit of speed creeping into my legs even though I'm still riding very easily. The ride was around 2 hours and when I was done I didn't feel as though I'd ridden at all. That was in the morning, which even though I got a bit of a late start was still relatively cool temperature wise. In retrospect my late start on the bike would be the beginning of my undoing training wise for the day.

It just so happened, that I was out of some of my key food items that day and really needed to go to the store. Because of this I didn't eat properly before my ride and after my ride (which started and ended late) I had to go shop for things to eat. The only stores that carry some of the things I use, were across town.

By the time I shopped, ate and took a very short nap, it was time for my track MAF workout in the afternoon. When I got to the track this is where things just went completely south. My heart rate, while still aerobic, was nowhere near my MAF zone even walking. I was so frustrated, I wound up bagging the MAF test and running a single 600m interval in 1:53 with a max HR of 186, then thinking better of it ran stairs, stopping and walking when my HR crested 153. Needless to say it was frustrating because every week prior to this I had seen improvement in my speed at MAF and now I was basically reduced to walking.

I think this is why so many athletes avoid this type of training or don't stick with it very long if they do try it. It is humiliating to run so slow, then find out it isn't slow "enough."

So I left the track pretty upset even though the 600 meter split was nothing to sneeze about, I was comfortable throughout the 400m and accelerated through the line during the entire last 200m. I could have gone much faster. But that has never been my problem. So I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about the MAF test I flunked. And I was pissed off so, no blog posts until I calmed down.

It was Sunday when I decided I needed to do some things differently. For starters get all my food ready so I didn't need to shop. Then get to bed so I could get up early enough for my morning ride and get back in time to eat and nap. Then go to the track. This week was a complete reversal from the week before. I dropped 10 seconds per mile from my last MAF and 1bpm in average heart rate.

Needless to say I'm happy again, and blogging can continue.

Monday

Busy day today. Just training but some good stuff. I'm getting stronger and I know my patience is paying off. I'm really listening to my body and just going for technique, strength and endurance. And enjoying the process along the way. I keep getting these little signs my fitness is improving and that's cool.

Today was a simple 1 hour bike ride. Nothing special just spinning easy with a friend while chatting. But she tends to like to get as much bang for her buck as possible and rides primarily in her big ring. I was able to keep up without much effort even spinning in a small gear all the while keeping my heart rate lower than 130.

Then it was back to the house for some food and out for a 1 hour walk with a friend. I decided after Arizona last year I was going to "train" walking so I walked for an hour, then ran for 10 minutes. After that it was back home for some more food and take care of the cats.

After that, I went for a 30 minute easy run as a warm up prior to my strength work. The run was easy in both intent and actuality. My heart rate stayed low throughout and I actually was able to see my form has improved due to my focus on the feet this year.

Sunday And Monday

Sunday I was up before 5am so I went for a swim. This must have been exactly what I needed because now I'm officially adding it back into my training. Not that it was ever really "out" of my training, but If I was going to bail on a workout, swimming would be first, cycling would be second, and running would be a distant third. I think the cold has something to do with it. And because warmer temperatures seem to be here to stay in Austin, Texas, I think I'm in the water to stay.

The swim went well and I've gone back to my efforts at being efficient in the water. (As if I'd ever left them). But I am starting to think more along the lines of is a workout just a workout? Or sort of like are all calories created equal? I'm really feeling not. If I told people what my longest swim from last year was, they'd probably either laugh at me or just not believe me. Especially if they found out that was the kind of volume I went into a 2.4 mile swim with. But that's the point. I'm wondering if all the volume with out real purpose isn't defeating all efforts at getting better?

I mean, I get it. Volume is really easy. It looks cool in the log book. And it gets a lot attention at parties. But I'm starting to wonder if there are some caveats? Like I would never say not to do any distance in training for events like the Ironman. But I am starting to consider trying to find out what ENOUGH is and doing no more than that.

The reason I say this is because there was a point last year in my training where I could almost feel my body say, "You can do this all day". And I think I could have listened to that more closely. If I had I might have actually trained less but more specifically from that point on. I would have put my money in the sharpening basket versus obsessing over more and more volume.

But live and learn. Which is why I'm swimming now instead of obsessing about it in January and February when I really didn't feel like doing it. And why I'm starting to get out on the bike more consistently. Soon I'll be up to running every day and that will be nice.

So Today I biked and swam. Both were short sessions. The bike was just 45 min of maintaining consistent pressure on the pedals so that the shift from one leg to the other was uninterrupted. The swim was 30 min working on my left arm pull which isn't as efficient as my right. I will say a 30 min swim is a big deal for me. Especially at this point in the year. Last year about this time I was all about 15 and 20 min swims and "worked" my way up to 30 min much later in the season. Who knows at this rate I may actually stay in the water for an hour this year. But only if the work is of good quality.

Tuesday And Wednesday

Nothing really spectacular. Just some quality work. Tuesday was an easy 90 minute bike. I decided not to run because of time constraints and I usually like to do an imbedded "vertical" set in the middle of my hour long Tuesday run. But do to my unexpected quality 5k session in the midst of Monday's run I decided to call it a day after cycling.

Wednesday was supposed to be a MAF run on the track, but I got a call from my buddy DuShun asking if I wanted to go ride. Up to this point all of my rides have been at heart rates below 135bpm and averaging about 124bpm for most sessions. DuShun, the most gifted cyclist I have ever seen anywhere with a max heart rate somewhere near 220 at 43 is not someone to ride with if you intend on watching your heart rate.

So I was tempted to leave my monitor at home. What I wound up doing instead was wearing it and ignoring the numbers that flashed across my screen.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised. I wound up keeping pace with him on all but the steepest climbs and was able to bridge back up to him easily on the flats. This tells me my strength training is paying off. What I have lost is the efficient, high cadence that can allow me to climb at a pace that can match his. I don't know if I'll ever have the power he can generate, but with better endurance, strength and technique riding with him won't destroy me.

This ride sort of reminded of Monday's run because I pushed harder than even I expected (DuShun had called promising an easy ride in order to allow his sore knee to recover). But I was able to both hang on and push the pace dealing out my share of punishment too. I lost the final sprint, but I didn't go down without a fight. It's shaping up to be a great 2010 already. Train well!

Wednesday Rest Day; Tuesday Vertical Running and Bike

Today, I did nothing. Not because anything was wrong. I wanted to start to solidify my training for the season. I find it hard to "plan" and train at the same time. So I decided to just plan today.

Yesterday, I got vertical and ran up and down a flight and a half of stairs for about half an hour. Then I rode my bike for about 45 min. The key is to keep these efforts strictly aerobic, deeply aerobic if possible. On the bike I can tell my ability to govern this low intensity effort is coming back. I was able to ride at about 4 beats per minute lower than I was on Monday. I find to do this type of work, I really need to turn my focus inward. Typically, I've used an Ipod to facilitate this type of riding, but the last few times I've worked on just working with my own breath.

I think this has some benefit because I was able to discover, for example, that I've been riding with a slight amount of tension in my lower left leg and foot. So I spent most of the ride working out a strategy to counteract this and learn to relax the leg. I can only imagine the amount of tension I hold in the leg when I'm racing. But that is one of the lessor known benefits of training at low heart rate. You can actually feel what is going on in your body. So I found if I just concentrate on my big toe and the one next to it, my whole left leg relaxes. Again it is the whole thing about connecting through the feet.

As for the vertical running (basically up and down a flight of stairs for almost 30 minutes) that is going to take some work to get my heart rate to stay under aerobic threshold. But all it means is that instead of a continuous set like I did on Tuesday, I'll just do intervals until I get within 10 beats of AT and then walk until it comes down. That way I get to keep doing a workout I find more beneficial for my running overall than straight distance as well as work at burning fat as a fuel source.

Wednesday and Tuesday

So I'm easing into some semblance, albeit a very light one, of a training routine. Typically I'm more of a time than a distance person anyway so seeing myself doing a couple of 30 min workouts a day for the next few weeks shouldn't be a problem as I gently move from no training, to unstructured training, to short structured workouts.

Tuesday I played basketball for 30 min in the Vibram 5 Fingers. Or VFF for short. I can really tell my stride is smoothing out. But here are a couple of other interesting things I've noticed. I've been wearing these for a little over a month. Mostly I've worn them to work and any other time I've needed to leave the house. I've also taught my yoga classes at the bike shop in them (think concrete floors in the winter). What I've noticed is my jump shot has gotten way better both in accuracy and in elevation. Meaning I not only shoot better, but I jump higher too. I think it has to do with balance and better connection through my feet in the VFF's. One of the things my rolfer (a structural integration body worker) likes to talk about is how often the body is thrown out of alignment because of poor connection through the feet. She says having the feet "firmly" connected deeply affects both our sense of balance and our ability to generate force and power in our movements. After running around in the VFF's for a month I'm starting to see what she means.

After my antics on the basketball court, I swam for 30 min. This was pretty simple following a pattern I used for most of the year last year for my drill workouts. 50m drill, 100m fist swim, 100m swim. The majority of this swim focused on my body rotation and getting the sense of generating force with my core.

Wednesday was an easy (at least it should have been easy) 45 min bike at the Veloway. This time I actually went out on to the South Mopac loop. You'd think I'd have gotten my competitive nature satiated from last year. But no, that was obviously not the case. During this time of year I really focus on two things, keeping my heart rate deeply aerobic 120-130bpm and my pedal stroke. Apparently the combination of having not been on the bike much and not wearing my monitor and the loss of fitness that goes along with not doing anything for a month, my idea of what "feels" easy and about 125 bpm is actually about 140 bpm now. That and the fact I was riding along with a couple of other guys. Still aerobic mind you, just not deeply aerobic. But I think that is to be expected. I've learned it takes a great deal of patience and discipline to train at heart rates like that. It is especially difficult after a layoff. So we'll see how things progress.

I am glad to see my hamstring issues appear to be healing well. I'm using a combination of yoga, Tai Chi and strength work. So far so good. Oh well got to get a move on. The day's getting away from me.

Murphy's Law

Some things appear to be harder to move away from than others.  And one would have to wonder what the deeper message is.  So, first we'll go with the positives.  Yesterday was Labor Day and I was supposed to be racing but my procrastination may have saved me some serious pain.  Fortunately it turns out the race filled up before I could sign up for it so instead of having this happen during the bike leg of an olympic distance triathlon, I was about 20 minutes from home at an empty intersection waiting on a light to change.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what I should feel at this point other than thankful.  And basically the pictures say everything that needs to be said -- except for the fact that I have an awesome friend in Gioconda who says she still wants to ride with me after having to take a cab back from my first bike malfunction a couple of weeks ago.  Fortunately this time the only damage done this morning was her ride got cut short.  The first time she missed teaching a yoga class (if you are in Austin and want to give yoga a try, I highly recommend Gioconda especially if you ride a bike).  I think I'm going to take a couple of days off and ponder a few things while I get my bikes fixed and my head back in order.  

If you missed the other malfunctions I've experienced here is a visual list for you.

The tri bike.

The busted derailluer clamp on the road bike 

The busted racing goggles 

The rusted brake cable from the tri bike

The busted fistglove

What We Have Here...

Is yet another equipment failure.  If you saw my last post, you'll know what I'm talking about.  This time out, it was my front derailleur clamp that broke.  And I was fortunate.  1) I was watching this happen so I stopped pedaling before doing even more damage, and 2) I had stopped pedaling so I didn't lose control of the bike when the chain seized.  

And I suppose I can count myself lucky that I was on my road bike at the time and this was a recovery week so the ride was only supposed to be 2 hours (it wound up being 1:15).  

The repairs will probably take about 2 weeks because the hanger is probably still under warranty.  But we have to ship it to them so they can look at it before sending out a replacement.  I don't know why we can't just send photos?  This is 2009.  But whatever.  

So for the rest of the week it has been back on my tri bike on the trainer.  Not a bad thing really.  I'm considering training up to about 80 percent of my weekly milage on the trainer versus on the roads.  What this will mean is that I will have more of an opportunity to focus on growing stronger under more controlled conditions.

I've been putting in more work in the pool this week as well and turning my attention to doing long sets for endurance as well as a bit more pace based work in the medium length sets.   All in all I'm feeling pretty good with my strength and fitness right now.  As for the bike and the other malfunctions, I guess its just all part of the process.  

3 Seconds And 12 Watts Later

This week was a test week. I was to get a baseline on all three sports, swimming, cycling and running. But because of my foot and the previously dislocated bone in it (there is still a bit of inflamation, but other than that no real pain to speak of) I skipped the run test and opted to add a 30 second pushup test in its place. Just for kicks. 62 perfect pushups in 30 seconds. Not bad. But there was definitely some pain involved in the exercise. But now that I've done it I think I'll do this test as well when I test again next month. I may see if I can work up to a 60 second pushup test. Who knows? I think the pushup results are encouraging though I must admit at the time I wasn't sure what they would mean for my other test this week.

The swim and bike results were encouraging as well. About 12 watts on the bike up from last year's test in November and 3 seconds per 100m faster in the swim. I think I'm seeing this because of the change in focus in my training. I've decided to devote more of my time working on strength. One reason for this is I didn't have that much to begin with. The other is because I'm not getting any younger.

By focusing on strength and muscular endurance type work to transform my body into one that can handle more work loads in my training, and keeping the triathlon specific work focused on technique, I'm allowing my body the time it needs to become more powerful and proficient at the same time without the accumulated stress of weeks of endurance based training. So first I will adapt myself to the loads, then I will adapt to carrying sports specific loads. One of the things I observed was as I became fitter in my prior racing, I also seemed to become weaker physically. Some of this was probably my scattershot approach to nutrition back then. But some of that was probably also due to the nature of the stresses that come along with racing.

I think the most encouraging thing I am taking away from this week's tests is on the bike I am now able to ride in the big chainring. Last year, I had to acknowledge that I didn't posses the strength or fitness to race effectively using larger gears. Now even though I am lighter, I had no issue with holding a big gear in either my time trial test or the test I conducted on the trainer a few days later. In fact I was riding the majority of the time trial in either a 53x12 or 53x13. No way I could have pulled that off last year.

I think there are a couple of reason that account for the early season progress I'm both seeing and feeling. The largest component has to be rest. I am making a concerted effort to place rest front and center in my training schedule. Basically what this amounts to is in addition to the "no working out sleepy" rule there is now a 9:30pm curfew. I brought this rule back with me from Colorado after I spent some time on my friend's back porch watching the sun and moon rise and set for a few days. It occurred to me that nature operated quite well within the parameters of these movements and I should probably follow her very obvious example in my own life. More than any other single workout, gadget, or supplement I've ever tried this single change by far has had the most immediate and verifiable impact.

I also have to acknowledge the huge benefit I am now enjoying by employing both functional bodyweight training, yoga, and accessible core work into my weekly routine. I owe so much of the power and endurance I have to this I can't begin to express. The thing is I haven't really begun my endurance training yet but because of the workouts I've put together I know I am now starting from a position of strength versus ground zero. I can train harder and recover faster. And I still have a full time job.

New Year, New Resolve...

So from the picture here, you might think I started out my year with a prayer to the triathlon gods (such as they are), asking for favorable conditions for training, or someone to prepare my food for me (hey it isn't like you haven't thought of it either), or just a higher VO2 Max. But nope I'm just waiting on my ride for the day to begin and hoping that after pretty much not riding any climbs during 2008, 2009 would be way different. Way, way different. So here I am at the start of my ride praying that I will be able to deliver my body into the hills surrounding West Austin and get it back in one piece.

The ride actually wasn't all that bad. Right at 2 hours, with about 60 percent of that being spent going up, and into the wind. Oddly enough toward the end I felt really strong so, I opted not to wimp out of the last climb up Robert E. Lee as I rolled back to the house for some food. Sweet.

Only 364 more days to go. And a lot more hills where those came from...