Ooops, it's been a couple weeks without updates. The 4 or 5 folks that follow this regularly will be wondering what happened. Life got in the way. Family. yard work, coaching, job searches, job interviews...and well, I've been training!
Recovery cut a little short since I missed a few workouts at the end of the last block. Normally my training would get more specific, and some sessions have, but I feel like my base just wasn't there, so I'm really increasing the volume to get to where I need to be to perform well and be able to taper properly. Bottom line, too few long rides and not enough consistent run mileage is showing.
The best news, the ITBS seems to be in the rear view mirror. I'd say I'm 99% at this point. I still need to pay attention to stretching it out before and after runs, but after a 13 miler yesterday, it's fine, nothing. I learned a LOT from that injury. So I can take that away. As usual, better now, than have that show up mid summer 4 months out from an IM.
By the numbers:
Week starting 3/16-
Swim - 2h15m, 9975y
Bike - 6h24m, 133mi
Run - 2h37m, 21.3mi
TOTAL - 11h16m
TSS - 769
Week starting 3/23 -
Swim - 2h07m, 9250y
Bike - 11h13m, 223
Run - 4h55m, 39.5mi
TOTAL - 1815
TSS - 1097
OK, clearly not a lot of intensity there. I've lost my bike legs, or my FTP has likely slid a little, but I'm leaving it where it is for now. My HR still correlates well to it, I think the increased running load is having an impact. Once my running stabilizes, then it will get easier to ride harder. I'm also cutting back on my swimming a little. I swam more this week, but mainly trying to focus on 3-4 quality sessions to really focus on mechanics and put in more bike volume. Looking back, I had a lot of junk yards last year. While that adds to the overall training load, I'd be better off cycling more...maybe. A tricky balance. However, cycling can be my strength and I want to be able to take advantage of it. Meaning, if I can gain a few more watts and my revised position and trisuit prove more aero, then I can be laying down some top shelf amateur bike splits. I'll never be able to say that about running or swimming. Just not that strong in either one. Fortunately, not weak in them either.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2015
2015 Trisuit Design Complete!!!
This is what I'll be racing in all season. I'll probably just use my old Desoto Liftfoil trisuit as a swim skin and save $300 on getting a new one.
Super excited to be wearing this in Kona in October!
Super excited to be wearing this in Kona in October!
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
My 1st 15k & Weekly Wrap-up 03/11/15
Had a strangely busy last few days and am a little behind on my weekly update.
Shamrox 15k, Columbia, MO
I finished my first 15k Sunday. I'm definitely not in top run form, but I didn't embarrass myself and given the terrain, I think I did pretty well. First, I'll mention again the great performance from my athlete Josh Heger. He's gone from a threshold run pace around 7:15, ran a 6:42 pace on a course that started downhill, moved onto a gravel 1/2 frozen 1/2 soft trail, then finished with , according to GPS, a 152ft climb of 0.4 miles, averaging 7% grade. It doesn't sound as bad as it felt. Josh finished 5th just a few minutes behind me. To top it off, he was in the middle of a training block and took 1 day sort of easy. I'd say his threshold pace is right around 6:30. That's a huge improvement in 4 months. I've very proud of his dedication and faith in the system and process.
For my own race. I'm still 4-6lb above race weight, came off a bout of food poisoning on Friday and am just finally up to 40 miles per week. So my expectations were low. A 6:20-6:30 pace seemed realistic and would put me under 1 hour. The gun went off and nobody took off. Huh.... WTH I thought, lets have a little fun then. So I cruised downhill at a comfortable pace and just settled in. I ran hard but really didn't push myself into too much discomfort. At this point, I'm happy that I'm able to run a tempo pace for 9 miles. The last climb my NGP was 5:41 so I put in a good kick at the end just above threshold. The winner ran 6:14 pace and in shape I would have given him a good run as I should be capable of a 5:50 based on my 1/2 marathon last year... and my weight alone made up to 12" difference in our average pace.
I elected not to run the Beer Mile. Yes, they had a beer mile and I missed the opportunity to try it.
For the rest of the training week, it wasn't a great week. Slow in most of my swims, but felt some good form later in the week. Bike efforts were off and food poisoning cancelled my long ride for the week. I'm tempted to shorten my recovery week and put in some extra miles on Sunday instead of a FTP test. At this point, I know it's lower than before. I want to get outside and ride and get some solid bike fitness. In a ride just today, my speed in my training set-up was pretty good, so it's possible my adjusted position is just a tad faster. I'll have to go back and look at my numbers from last year on a similar set-up. But box rims, road helmet, cycling jersey, 2 bottles and a empty cage, plus a 25mm gatorskin on the rear, plus stopping twice and I still rode 22.7mph @ 235W AP with moderate hills and ighter 6-8mph winds. Damn close to my goal power numbers for Kona. Race trim has typically proven to be 1.5mph faster, but the winds there will cost me almost 1 mph. That still puts me at 4:49, which is right about where I think I could ride. Very encouraging I think. Always good to dream a little.
By the numbers:
Swim: 2h42m, 11,650y
Bike: 6h11m, 111mi
Run: 4h07m, 33.8mi
TOTAL: 13h
TSS: 803
Overall, closer almost to a recovery week.... and again, I'm taking that into account and will cut my recovery week a day short and add some longer rides.
Friday is an indoor triathlon in Quincy, IL That should be fun.
Shamrox 15k, Columbia, MO
I finished my first 15k Sunday. I'm definitely not in top run form, but I didn't embarrass myself and given the terrain, I think I did pretty well. First, I'll mention again the great performance from my athlete Josh Heger. He's gone from a threshold run pace around 7:15, ran a 6:42 pace on a course that started downhill, moved onto a gravel 1/2 frozen 1/2 soft trail, then finished with , according to GPS, a 152ft climb of 0.4 miles, averaging 7% grade. It doesn't sound as bad as it felt. Josh finished 5th just a few minutes behind me. To top it off, he was in the middle of a training block and took 1 day sort of easy. I'd say his threshold pace is right around 6:30. That's a huge improvement in 4 months. I've very proud of his dedication and faith in the system and process.
For my own race. I'm still 4-6lb above race weight, came off a bout of food poisoning on Friday and am just finally up to 40 miles per week. So my expectations were low. A 6:20-6:30 pace seemed realistic and would put me under 1 hour. The gun went off and nobody took off. Huh.... WTH I thought, lets have a little fun then. So I cruised downhill at a comfortable pace and just settled in. I ran hard but really didn't push myself into too much discomfort. At this point, I'm happy that I'm able to run a tempo pace for 9 miles. The last climb my NGP was 5:41 so I put in a good kick at the end just above threshold. The winner ran 6:14 pace and in shape I would have given him a good run as I should be capable of a 5:50 based on my 1/2 marathon last year... and my weight alone made up to 12" difference in our average pace.
I elected not to run the Beer Mile. Yes, they had a beer mile and I missed the opportunity to try it.
For the rest of the training week, it wasn't a great week. Slow in most of my swims, but felt some good form later in the week. Bike efforts were off and food poisoning cancelled my long ride for the week. I'm tempted to shorten my recovery week and put in some extra miles on Sunday instead of a FTP test. At this point, I know it's lower than before. I want to get outside and ride and get some solid bike fitness. In a ride just today, my speed in my training set-up was pretty good, so it's possible my adjusted position is just a tad faster. I'll have to go back and look at my numbers from last year on a similar set-up. But box rims, road helmet, cycling jersey, 2 bottles and a empty cage, plus a 25mm gatorskin on the rear, plus stopping twice and I still rode 22.7mph @ 235W AP with moderate hills and ighter 6-8mph winds. Damn close to my goal power numbers for Kona. Race trim has typically proven to be 1.5mph faster, but the winds there will cost me almost 1 mph. That still puts me at 4:49, which is right about where I think I could ride. Very encouraging I think. Always good to dream a little.
By the numbers:
Swim: 2h42m, 11,650y
Bike: 6h11m, 111mi
Run: 4h07m, 33.8mi
TOTAL: 13h
TSS: 803
Overall, closer almost to a recovery week.... and again, I'm taking that into account and will cut my recovery week a day short and add some longer rides.
Friday is an indoor triathlon in Quincy, IL That should be fun.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Weekly Wrap-up 03/02/15
February has come and gone. In a descent groove with training overall. Putting in some good work, running is coming around and power remains strong on the bike. Later in the week I think I scheduled more bike training than my legs were capable of. I just mentally and physically was crushed, so I backed off. "Live to fight another day". But going a little easier, it meant that I could push harder in my next quality session. But at the same time putting in enough training load not to go backwards. I think it's those little decisions that add up. Skipping the workout altogether would create an element on inconsistency, whereas easing back a little, just allows more recovery, but still provides some stimulus. I think what's hurting my bike, is the increase in run training. To reach the next level in bike fitness, I'll have to wait until May-July when my run training load peaks and levels off and I'm able to put in some good bike work in better isolation from the run fatigue.
Training mix - I've plateaued swimming, and think I'm better off adding or increasing the duration of my recovery rides on the bike, or add a short tempo ride, rather than swimming more. SO looking at my strengths and weaknesses, I think to a maintenance level of focused, consistent swimming 3 days a week will keep me where I'm at, which is a strong swimmer, but not a fast swimmer. I've resigned myself a little bit that I'm not going to become a 55' swimmer. But if I can comfortably swim 58-60' it's not a liability. I know last summer I had a lot of junk yards overall I think. Unfocused, changing my workouts based on how I felt that day and overall just wasting time. Why did I do it? IT was out of fear. Fearing the unknown. My greatest concern going into IMWI was that swim. I knew I was a strong cyclist and strong runner, I had proven that. But I've had sub par swims and had never swam that far in open water. It was intimidating to me. I wasn't sure what to expect with the mass start. Similarly, some of the same fears are there and motivated my to focus on the swim with Kona on the distant horizon. No wetsuit (not that I need one) to level the playing field a little, and everyone is fast. It will be crowded, intimidating, yet very exciting to share the course with so many talented athletes. Then I fear the traffic out on the bike. Getting a drafting penalty again or being force to put in huge efforts to get past traffic.
But I'm over that a little. I've made some gains on the swim, but looking at my bike potential, I feel like there more power to be found. That gaining another 5-10 Watts on my FTP from the improvements I've already made, can get me close to some of the faster cyclists in the AG field. I can't say that about running at this point. Can I run faster? Yes, but I can only train so much running before I break down I've found out.... the hard way. If I can get in 2 high quality rides, 1 longer ride and another tempo ride combined with 2 long recovery rides, I'll be in good position. Heading into summer, I'll add a few medium distance rides, and dial back to just a single higher intensity ride and as much Z1-2 recovery rides as I can fit in reasonably.
This coming weekend I have a 15k race. I'm not in to run form by any means, so it will be more a pride run, and just to test where I'm at now. I'm thinking running just under 1 hour, around 6:30-6:45 pace. It will be hard to let the leaders just go, knowing that if i was in shape, I could hang fairly close. My wife will be doing her 1st 5k. I'm very proud of her. Despite challenges, she's stuck fairly close to the training plan I gave her and is coming along well. I think she can run under 40:00, but we'll see how it goes.
Training mix - I've plateaued swimming, and think I'm better off adding or increasing the duration of my recovery rides on the bike, or add a short tempo ride, rather than swimming more. SO looking at my strengths and weaknesses, I think to a maintenance level of focused, consistent swimming 3 days a week will keep me where I'm at, which is a strong swimmer, but not a fast swimmer. I've resigned myself a little bit that I'm not going to become a 55' swimmer. But if I can comfortably swim 58-60' it's not a liability. I know last summer I had a lot of junk yards overall I think. Unfocused, changing my workouts based on how I felt that day and overall just wasting time. Why did I do it? IT was out of fear. Fearing the unknown. My greatest concern going into IMWI was that swim. I knew I was a strong cyclist and strong runner, I had proven that. But I've had sub par swims and had never swam that far in open water. It was intimidating to me. I wasn't sure what to expect with the mass start. Similarly, some of the same fears are there and motivated my to focus on the swim with Kona on the distant horizon. No wetsuit (not that I need one) to level the playing field a little, and everyone is fast. It will be crowded, intimidating, yet very exciting to share the course with so many talented athletes. Then I fear the traffic out on the bike. Getting a drafting penalty again or being force to put in huge efforts to get past traffic.
But I'm over that a little. I've made some gains on the swim, but looking at my bike potential, I feel like there more power to be found. That gaining another 5-10 Watts on my FTP from the improvements I've already made, can get me close to some of the faster cyclists in the AG field. I can't say that about running at this point. Can I run faster? Yes, but I can only train so much running before I break down I've found out.... the hard way. If I can get in 2 high quality rides, 1 longer ride and another tempo ride combined with 2 long recovery rides, I'll be in good position. Heading into summer, I'll add a few medium distance rides, and dial back to just a single higher intensity ride and as much Z1-2 recovery rides as I can fit in reasonably.
This coming weekend I have a 15k race. I'm not in to run form by any means, so it will be more a pride run, and just to test where I'm at now. I'm thinking running just under 1 hour, around 6:30-6:45 pace. It will be hard to let the leaders just go, knowing that if i was in shape, I could hang fairly close. My wife will be doing her 1st 5k. I'm very proud of her. Despite challenges, she's stuck fairly close to the training plan I gave her and is coming along well. I think she can run under 40:00, but we'll see how it goes.
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