Tri Cave

Well today I spent 2 hours on the trainer. Decided to watch the latest Hero's episodes that are on there. Now this show I like, but to be honest I sometimes find it a bit confusing. The two episodes I saw did not change that. Saw the "Villains" episode that I guess goes back to explain how some the these folks became evil. Also now I see some of the Bad guys were really good guys and that folks that were once dead are not.

What a weird show, and yet I like it. Can't figure it out though.

Afterward went on a 30 minute run.

My righteous plan for the week

Well another week comes to its start, on the plan this week:

Monday: off

Tuesday: swim 30 minutes focus on form

Wednesday: indoor workout from data base, workout should be 45-60 minutes (anything BUT strength progression) keep hr low 120-145 / swim 45-60 minutes: speed workout from database.

Thursday: run 45-60 minutes. hr 120-150 capped at 165 for uphills.

Friday: swim 40 minutes. Use early season workouts from data base endurance.

Saturday: ride 2 hours (can move indoors with weather sucks) hr 120-145 easy easy easy , small ring. run 30-45 minutes

Sunday: long run 90 minutes

Time Trial

Well today I finally did the time trials that I had planned on doing in the mornings. Time is very limited lately for me, but now that the sun starts coming up around 5AM, there is now some time for cycling. Due to the short time frame, it cannot be an endurance effort. But I decided I wanted to have a high intensity ride instead, something I can measure. There is a road near m that is perfect for time trialling. It is a straight stretch of rolling hills for 4.5 miles it is about 2 miles away from my house, so I rode there this morning and did it, 4.5 miles hard effort on the way out and then took a two minute break, then did the 4.5 back. I averaged 18.4 MPH for the duration.

Not bad. At least for me, riding is not my strength so I'll take it for now. I hope to be able to do that in 19.5 or 20 by the end of the summer.

Evening ride

Ahhh Spring....the return of longer days! After an aborted morning workout due to complete miscalculating of the amount of time required to get my bike ready ( Yessssss I forgot to prepare my stuff the night before.) fortunately this is one of the only weeks left before IM Wisconsin that I have one a day workouts. So I came home today at 7 determined that I would get the ride in no matter what. So I took Dusty the road bike out since he has the head lights and such. Anyhow, I left around 7:15 PM and had a great short ride on what will become a very regular route for a short ride or time trial.

Anyhow, I returned around 8:15 and lo and behold! There was still a little bit O light left. That means in a few weeks I'll be able to squeeze in some slightly longer rides. Love it!

Back to Training

Well my marathon active recovery is now OVER! and I am glad for it. It was nice to be able to sit around and relax a bit at first but I have to say It was also kind of nerve racking. It was a change in my routine. I actually enjoy running long and going out for rides. Its a chance for me to work out the problems of the day in my head.

It was not wasted time, I did get allot done around the house. Painted the living-room, which included teetering on a 20 ft ladder to paint the Cathedral ceilings.

I also did a little research on the Mind games we play with ourselves during races. Interesting stuff, with allot of different approaches to dealing with it. I still have to filter out all that I learned to see what they mean to me and how I can apply what I learned to my own training and racing.

As if another sign that its time to return to training, the sun is now out at 5:30AM, thus opening up the mornings for more outdoor activities like riding. Kewl!

Taper...let the head games begin

Well for the past week I have been on Taper mode in preparation for my upcoming Self supported marathon. This is key for helping your body recover and heal from the massive amounts of training you do for a race. The idea being that your body will be fresh and energized on race day. This is good. The downside is that tapers in general seem to universally suck. There is a game your head plays on you it goes like this:

Your head: " cutting back this much for SOOOOO long!! You will lose ALL of your Fitness!!!!"

You say : "NNOOOooooooooo"

Your head: " didn't that walk feel so much a harder!!? Your losing it!!"

You say "NOoooooooo!!"

Your head: "Its not too late! You can save yourself! Go out right now and do 15 miles!!..........UP Hills!!........Really Steep Hills!!!"


Your head: "Hmmmm...but Coach says I should take it easy...But what hurt can ONE set of hill repeats on a 20% grade hill do? Who would know? .....NO!!!! MUST.......STICK.....TO ......PLAN!!!!!! I MUST TAPER!!!!"

And so on and so forth.

Very dramatic isn't it? If you put a microphone in my head you would hear lots of screaming and sobbing. It magnified with the echo because there is lots of empty space due to the fact that little else going on in there ;)

Its hard. But there is one positive. For the next few weeks I will have time to pay attention to the wife and to projects around the house. Thus I am practicing my paint stroke instead out on my BRAND NEW Cervelo practicing my pedal stroke :(

Oh well.

20 Miles

Its 11:20 PM. I just finished my last 20 miler before tapering for my self supported marathon. Its been a hectic weekend, thus the late night run. Well the run went well, but there is on thing to note, for anyone who will listen...don't run after a heavy pasta dinner.....yech!

Earned My day off

Well tomorrow is my day off from training, and I have to say I earned it this weekend. Starting on Friday ran 6 miles in the morning and in the evening squeezed in a swim session ( not as long as I wanted due to work). Saturday I led a hectic ride with ten riders for 60 miles in total. The ride itself was 40 but myself Phil and Mike did 20 miles before the start of the ride. At the end or the ride we ran for 30 minutes ( painful!). The today I ran 20 miles at an ave pace of 8:28. I am Beat!

Tommorow I am off from work and I plan on sleeping LATE!

3 hour BRICK

OK so Saturday morning comes around and Phil calls me saying that he is going to do a self supported tri. Only it has to be indoors due to the snow. He figures only 3000 meters, a couple of hours on the trainer and then a 1 hour run. Wanted to know if I wanted to join him.

Sick Bastard.

Of course I wanted to join him! But I did not have the time to do the whole thing so I would join him on a 2 hour indoor ride and a 30 minute run instead.

DEAL.

So thats what we did, I joined Phil after his 3000 meter swim on the cycling portion of his tri torture session, we watched Shrek 3, and then portions of "Airplane the movie" ("Surely, you don't mean that! Yes I do, and don't call me Surely") for 2 hours and then went for a 30 minute run. It was beautiful. Burned a total of 2200 calories!

18 Miles

So here is the planned route for my 18 miler today. I figured this out on mapmyrun.com according to the map it is not exactly 18 miles but is actually 17.7 miles. But I figured its easy to throw in a few hundred yards if my watch says I am short on the run.

I am planning on doing this at about 10AM. It is supposed to be a beautiful day in the high 40's, so any ice from last night should have melted off. Lets see how it goes.

Long run

On the plan a 17 mile run.

actual
Time 2:36:49
Distance 14.85 mi
Ave HR 146
Max HR 179

Had to cut the run short due to Stomach cramps. Didn't want to have an "accident".

double workout day

Workout #1 on the plan- swim 45-60 minute speed workout

Actual

40 minute speed workout
Had to keep it short because I did this during my lunchtime in White plains.

200 WU ( 2x (50 sw,50 Breast stroke))
100 x 10
200 c/d

Total 1400 Meters

Note using the bigger "Paddle" seemed to make a slight difference. My spits for the first 100 and last 100 were about 1:38 which is a few seconds faster than a few weeks ago.

Workout #2

Run 70 minutes - HR range 120-150, 165 for hills
Actual

Ran 72:22 mins
Distance 6.87 mi
Ave HR 145
Max HR 174
Max Pace 7:05 min/mi
Ave 10:15
Calories burned 716

Run workout

Workout on the plan 60 minute run 120-150 HR

Actual
Time 1:05:48
Distance 6.48 Mi
Ave HR 136
Max HR 153

Due to snow on the ground this workout was done on a treadmill at the gym.

Swim snowed out!

Well its only about 2-3 inches but its enough to keep the NYSC frombeing able to get a lifeguard in. So the swim I had planned today has been postponed. So instead I hopped on the trainer and did a 45 minute strength progression workout.

Total time 49:04 minutes
Ave HR 149
Max HR 176
518 calories burned

Morning ride

Went for a morning ride today with Phil and Evan. It was suppossed to be a 4-5 hour ride but we had to cut it short due to the fact that snow started to fall in enough quantity that it was starting to collect on the ground. That and the fact that we could not see with our riding lenses fogging up and collecting snow. So we ended up doing only a little more than 30 miles on that ride. Between that and my ride to the start point and back I did 40 miles.

Time: 2:20
Distance: 40 Miles
Ave speed 15.4 mph

I forgot my HR gear so don't have that info.

Workout Today

Todays scheduled workout was 16 Miles base run

Actual 16.2 miles
time 2:38:30
Max HR 155
Ave HR 141
Max Pace 7:37
Ave pace 9:47
Calories Burned 1543
My Polar Running Index is 60 ("very good" per Polar)

I ran with Simba who continues to amaze me with her endurance. I was worried that going 16 might be too much. I have taken her on long runs before but not 16. Man was I wrong, she led me the whole way from beginning to end. A true running dog. The run was on teh North County trailway which is pretty flat, saw Phil and Kate out there also (WAY TO GO KATE!). I have to ask them about the success of the heated sox that we all invested in to keep our feet warm on the rides. Teh beauty of running local liek this is I was home 3 hours after I left.

Workout today-swim 60 minutes endurance workout

Took a late lunch at 2PM and went to the pool since I am in White Plains today, and have access to the NYSC here. Thinking it would be empty by then. NOT I managed to struggle through and get almost the complete workout I wanted before they kicked me into a crowded lane so they could have 2 lanes set aside for a swimming lesson for one person.

W/U 6x75
2x200
1x100 mod
2x300
1x100 mod
2x400
1x100
250 cd

Total meters 2800

I AM THAT GUY!

Last night a realization simply struck me that just added meaning to my life! I was at a Race with Purpose meeting for new triathletes. I was there because I am a volunteering to help these folks out by I guess coaching them in what NOT to do.

Anyhow, Adam was showing a slide about how to purchase a bike and the discussion turned to cheap bikes and such. Then the term came up "Don't be that guy who buys a bike for $200 and invests $1000 to upgrade it, to end up with a bike worth $500".....I suddenly realized...HEY THATS ME!! They came to the topic of don't do anything new right before a race, because inevitably it will cost you...I DO THAT ALL THE TIME!! They are right you pay a heavy price for doing that! two years ago I decided it would be great to run without socks, I would shave off a good 45 second on T2. Of course I decided to test this out 2 days before the race. I ran for 5 miles without socks and ended up developing blisters. I ran with those suckers during the sprint 2 days later. it HURT!

Anyhow after the meeting, I ran home and picked up one of my Triathlon for beginner books, man oh man! I am all over the place! In the swim..Don't be the person who races off at the beginning only to run out of breath half way through...In the run...Don't buy the generic department store shoes... you will hurt your feet. This is all me! Suddenly I realized I am famous! :)

Now if you happen to swim up in White Pond you may have heard from the local fishermen there about a guy who last fall was having a battle royal with a paper bag in the middle of the lake. That also was me, but they LIE. It was a Target Plastic shopping bag and it meant business. You know one of the gigantic ones they give you when you buy a pencil. I was swimming along nicely minding my own business, I happened to develop a leak in my goggles so I could not se clearly. I swam a bit close to the edge, when suddenly something simply grabbed my left arm and would not let go! I realized this thing meant business when after a shake of my arm it hung on. So I went into evasive action and layed into it. I was into my second Tarzan roll in the water ( you know the one in "Tarzan Vs the Nile crocodile"), when I realized that it was a bag. Now you may be laughing but that was great training for a swim start!

Anyhow, now you know, if you have a potentially knucklehead move you are considerring, shoot me an email, I probably did it already :)

The swim stroke

Last Friday I was at the pool for one of my sessions. Each of the lanes had only one person so it was a pretty good time to be there. Enough people for a slight distraction, yet not so many people that they would disturb me. Anyhow, on the lane to my right, there was a woman who “looked” like she was an experienced swimmer. She had the racing suit, head cap, goggles. She looked the part. But then during my breaks between sets I noticed she had horrible form. She had short strokes, which even to me looked inefficient, and then she did this weird thing with her left arm every fourth or fifth stroke. It seemed her arm would shoot almost straight up and seemed to do like a salute with her elbow up in the air, then she would resume the stroke. She did this wicked fast, so that at first I couldn’t tell what it was. No matter what it was…it was poor form. And offensive to my sharply trained eye ;)

With all of that effort she was making you would think she was going fast, but at one point I was taking a 20 second breather when she came by the wall and started out. She was halfway down the lane when I started off. I got to the wall first. That’s how much energy this woman was wasting. Clearly this was a person that could really benefit from lengthening her stroke, and getting rid of the patriotic salute during the swim.

Although the swim is not my favorite event, I do seem to feel a lot better at it, and more comfortable. I also know not to salute while I’m swimming. So I guess I have learned something afterall.

Workout: Run

On the plan, 1 hour HR range 12-140 with 165 on Hills

Actual
Time 58:38
Distance 6.01 mi
Max HR 175 Ave HR 148
Ave Pace 9:46 Max 7:49
Calories burned 626

Overall a good run, I had to restrain myself from running faster. I was really feeling good, like "Rockie" backround music good. Don't ask me why. Simba wasa running with me and as usual she was running well. The idea is not only to train her but to tire her out. I get home thinking OK that will get her nice and relaxed. Then I just decided to tease her a bit and Boom! She starts charging around the house in her Puppy crazies! This went on for like 2 minutes with her racing around baiting me to chase her barking at the cats and generally trying to get anyone to chase her. Clearly this is an endurance running dog. And me I was pooped.