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!
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.
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.
So to say I'm tired is an understatement. Between work and consistent training I'm pooped. Yesterday was a Power Interval focused ride on the trainer. Today was a technique focused swim. Tomorrow is back on the bike and perhaps a run if I can get some sleep tonight. I'm happy with the results I'm seeing so far. I could become a huge fan of strength training if it didn't hurt so dang much. Oh well, did I mention I'm working some insane hours for the next week. 11 days in a row. 12 hours days. I hate my job is all I'll say at this point. So if I bail on one of the workouts tomorrow, you'll understand. Right? So much for my stream of conscious attempt at blog post. I'm off to bed. Peace!
If there is one thing that I am absolutely certain of it is this: This week there will be pain. Some things we can talk ourselves into by sugar coating the truth, or perhaps by flat out lying. Unfortunately for me this isn't one of those times. I am going to suffer. There will be pain. And there is no way around it.
You'd think by now, I'd be used to pain in workouts. But I'll let you in on a little secret. The reason I advocate a consistent training program no matter what is so that any pain experienced in preparation for racing can be minimized. The only exception to this rule is when my training reaches the point where I start using the Tacx.
Don't get me wrong, the Tacx I-Magic and Fortius trainers are wonderful tools. And I love mine. Sort of. The problem is riding on it is way, way, way harder than riding on the road could ever be. Personally, I'd rather ride the Dam Loop here in Austin twice, than to spend an hour on the Tacx. Let me be clear, the Tacx is never boring. I know some people don't like indoor cycling because they get bored. This isn't my issue. I can choose from about 25 different courses and 8 different virtual opponents to race against. I can also design personal sessions based on wattage, heart rate, duration and several other factors. The Tacx also makes assessment testing a snap giving me the ability to use the same courses and conditions each time I test. These are all good things really. But like I said, once I start using it, there will be pain. The Tacx, mine at least, is just plain harder to pedal. When I get off of it after about 30 minutes my legs are so full of blood that if you stuck me with a pin I'd pop. There isn't anything in my experience that could qualify as an "easy" ride on the thing. Well let me restate that. I suppose you could have an easy ride on it if it was unplugged. But I don't ever do that so, I can't speak to it. A while back I bought the Velodrome addon thinking I could do some short intense track workouts on the bike. But the wattage needed to keep the bike moving through the curves was unreal! (I wonder if Du'Shun could manage it? Probably.) But actually this is all why I plan on using it more this year than I did last year. I figure my strength and yoga focus will allow me to reap more benefit from using the Tacx than last year.
This year I plan on using the Tacx 3 times per week starting March 1 as a way to do more specific cycling work with each session focusing on power and cadence and endurance. I will also use my time on the Tacx to refine my pedal stroke. I want to use my outdoor cycling simply for recovery and handling skills and perhaps an occasional real world climbing session. I don't expect to ride outside more than once or twice per week for the next 3 months. My reasoning for this is in my training I've noticed that at certain times some workouts create measurable results immediately, while others create latent improvement. Other workouts are just a waste of time offering absolutely no measurable benefit whatsoever. I want to eliminate as many of these useless workouts as possible. And going over years of accumulated training data in my logs, I find that the biggest culprit for these workouts which offer no benefit is cycling.
I think the reason for this has something to do with the nature of riding itself. With running and swimming I find it is much easier to maintain a training focus. And because of this ability to maintain your training focus and thus your objective, it can be easier to see results in these two sports. Cycling can be more social. People can tag along and start talking. Road conditions can be unpredictable. And traffic can have a huge impact on your focus. When choosing between safeguarding your life and your training, obviously your life wins out.
Enter your indoor trainer, or if you have one, a Computrainer or Tacx. These devices allow you to focus on whatever cycling objective you choose. This is a huge advantage. You can design and complete workouts that can target and improve your limiters and get immediate feedback as to the effectiveness of the training protocols you are implementing. So in this way the new phase of my training I'm entering is exciting. Even though the Tacx is hard. When I start using it I can't push gears much bigger than my 39-14t. But after I've been at it for a while I can begin to move on to bigger gears using the big ring. And once I get into the big ring and I start racing, look out because there will definitely be pain. But by then, I won't be feeling any.
You can find out more about the Tacx Virtual Reality trainers here.
