Looking inside.

This last week of training has spurned lots of introspection. My training has been less than optimal and I feel there are a lot of things at work here. Some that I've come to terms with and others that are hard to understand. Some are related to a drop in fitness and some related to overall health, well-being and level of satisfaction. My motivation and overall energy levels are lower. I'm struggling through run workouts and my pool swim on Friday was far poorer than expected. Of course I've had some issues as far as illness and injury but I really expected I was going to be able to jump back into the game and reach a reasonable level of race ready fitness.

Yesterday I was scheduled for a running group that is pretty aggressive interval based workout. Based on how my running went this week I was not up for this effort. If I went to the workout I probably would have been dropped in the warm-up. I'm guessing this because I did a little 50 minute fartlek on my own and I felt like shit. I did a good warmup and started out planning 5 minutes on @ 10k pace and 2 minutes easy. My HR shot up to LT in the first interval and I could barely hold half marathon pace for the rest of the 30 minutes. Perceived effort was way high and my breathing was not easy. My HR was not responding very well to the recovery intervals and I felt worked. I finished the workout with a pretty decent hill just to get back to my house and it was at that point I knew I wasn't up for shuffling around my work and family business to get to Snow Valley and walk the run course. It's too easy to say this sucks and I'm over it after a bad workout but this is how they pretty much went all week.

Friday's swim was at the pool 10x100(10s) all out. The first interval was 98% effort and I swam barely 1:30. Way off considering the effort. By the sixth interval I could barely hold 1:45's. Normally I'll hit the first 5 sub 1:25 and drift up towards 1:35 in the last few but this was ridiculous. The only explanation is that I did a 1.75 mile (50 minute swim) on Thursday but it was easy and I felt great. Same with the swim on Tuesday.

I did a 40 minute run after the open water swim on Thursday and it was tough but hard to judge as it was hot and I was pre-fatigued from the swim and recovered only an hour before the run. I'd also ran pretty hard on Wednesday, which was a break from the plan but I made the call to make up the run from Tuesday since the bike was going pretty well.

Wednesdays run was a little disappointing but not horrible. I had been feeling some decent strength gains but the aerobic fitness was weak. I ran a warmup to Zone 3 (~163 bpm) and held it for 15 minutes and then jacked it up to Z4-5a (170-175 bpm) for 5. It was only 75-78 degrees but I was dogging. The first 15 minute tempo I barely kept it under 8's, 7:57 avg pace to get technical. The second five minute portion, was 7:32 with HR @ 176 avg. 181 max. That is shit slow. I could barely get it to Half Marathon pace at that HR zone. I monitored my pace during the workout and tried everthing to relax, breathe, lean and check cadence. I just didn't have it.

At this point I'm taking some personal inventory and considering calling it a season. The ups and downs are getting to me and the personal sacrifices aren't paying the dividends. I think the most fun I've had lately is the two week cycling block and getting in some solid open water swims in the ocean. I haven't spoken to my coach all week so this is going to be news to him. It's even news to me. Being such a fitness fiend and finding it really difficult to take any time "off" this is really hard to stomach. I just need to get my body and mind in order and spend time with my family, going to the beach, taking a vacation all that stuff I've been sacrificing trying to resurrect some real fitness in order to bang out a late season race. My training schedule will not change a lot but will allow a lot more flexibility. If the ocean is flat and warm, I'll swim. If I head to the mountains with the family, I'll take my bikes. If I need to clear my head, I'll run. That's what my heart is telling me to do. If I listen to my brain, I think I'll continue to be all over the map, spinning my wheels, trying to make sense of what this all means.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm taking the day off today to celebrate and spend some quality time with my family.

Not a bad week... in review

This last five days have been a little difficult. I've been trying to get my ass into shape for Xterra Snow Valley while still trying to shake the crud out of my lungs. I have been over my cold for about a week and it didn't even work me at its worst but like I've talked about before, my lungs are pretty sensitive. Bleomycin tore through my body as part of the ABVD cocktail for my cancer. Notorious for causing complications in the lungs, every now and then, like now, I'm reminded of where I'm coming from and how lucky I am to be a part of this whole gig. Despite all this the training has been going surprisingly well.

Yesterday I tweeked the schedule a little by taking my swim workout to the ocean. It was pretty flat and I had only a small window to get it in so I cruised down the hill and jumped in.

I tried to stick to the bones of the workout by getting in a decent warmup followed by some laddered intervals ~ race pace strarting from 8 minutes down to 4 in one minute increments. I did (2) 1 minute intervals of fast swimming between sets. I can't tell how much more satisfying it is swimming in the ocean, slipping past surfers in the lineup seeming a total contrarian. I like surfing but those guys were sitting/looking around alot waiting for a week southerly pulse. Total time 50 mins. I opted out of the following run to pick it up today with some cleaner lungs.


Monday
off


Sunday
One hour run Z1-2. I felt a little tight in the first part of this run but paying attention to warm up helped. My legs felt strong once I got going and I am definitely feeling strength gains from the cycling especially the hamstrings. It was pretty warm with some humidity and had to pay attention to keep the HR sub 150, especially in the last quarter. Once again still coughing up some shiz.


Saturday
was the keynote ride of the week. Special guest Ramon and James showed up for the mountain ride. We left from Pine Valley and headed up to Laguna Summit and around the ~50 mile loop with close to 5k feet of climbing. I was just glad to keep in touch with James on this climb. He definitely had the advantage (at 61 kilos) during the last pitch of the climb where I was topping out at 310W (CP6-12) to hang on. We regrouped and motored down the hilly ridge. We encountered some fun descending and I tried to expand my skills on the hairpin sections. The last grade was a killer where I had some hip flexor cramping probably from the SL drills on Friday. Great ride with beautiful scenery. Timewise we came up short of the four hours planned but the three hour effort we did put in was pure quality.





First 60 minutes of the ride including major climbs-one turn around



Friday
I completed a 90 minute trainer ride including some "hills" after 20 mins of SL drills. The hills were steady at 245 W+ with the cadence dropping as I went through the gears. At 80 minutes I decided 1.5 hours is just about the upper limit for me on the trainer. A lot of pressure in the seat.

Good work. I was a little nervous about the long mountain ride but I knew James would be prefatigued as well, I hoped.


Sooooo. As of now I'm still planning on racing at Snow Valley but it's more dependent on finding a place for my family to stay. A solo weekend is not in the cards. I kind of wished I picked up the Solana Beach sprint this weekend instead. Down the road I'm looking to Imperial Beach sprint on Aug. 26th for the next peak.

...

Well this week started out great with a call from the man, Jimmy V. Having a coach is a more than a luxury for me it's absolutely necessary. He is the voice of assurance when things get a little derailed. Not that there is much consolation going on, but it's all about proceeding forward. Taking action and making smart decisions with the information we have right now, not dwelling on the past. We talked briefly of old injuries and being sick but mostly about progress on the bike and how to get up and running for Snow Valley Xterra. I haven't put any races on the schedule since the DNS at San Diego International and had planned on sticking to baselike training picking up a few races here and there where my schedule (mostly with the family) allows. I haven't signed up for Snow Valley yet as I wanted to see how I was responding to the training at the end of the week. As of today things are going pretty well.

Today

I'll do a 40 minute run after work. This morning I went for a great swim with my buddy Ramon.

We swam pretty easy for about 40 minutes at the Shores. I had a chance to check out my new

summer training wetsuit. It's a DeSoto 2 mm speedtube pant and 2 mm vest. There are a couple things that I love about it. It's sleeveless. I can't tell you the difference in how much easier it is to swim in a sleeveless suit. Normally I fight fatigue in the shoulders for about 15 minutes stopping to stretch and adjust the suit just feeling tight. Not today, it was awesome. Sure there is less buoyancy but just enough for a little added safety. My shoulders felt great and really had better ability to lengthen my stroke. Just a few rashes to deal with, a little lube should take care of that. For a little warmer water temps I can wear just the pant to feel even more slippery.

Wednesday

I went for a scheduled 2 hour hilly ride. I had tweeked my fit slightly lowering the seat about 1.5-2mm. I tried to keep the whole ride above 200W and below CP60-90 which is ~240W.

Normalized Power: 210W (including a 3 min phone call)

I felt great during the whole ride despite fighting a nasty headwind, all hail the P-Tap.

Tuesday

I checked out the pool at the local Mission Valley Y. I just joined there to have an alternate pool other than driving the 25 min to Coronado. They also have 5 masters sessions per day but the pool is only 25 yd. which is quite an obstacle to getting in a solid rhythm. 8 stroke cycles and I'm at the wall. It might enjoy it more if I flipped a little better as there is lots of turning in a long set.something to work on. Other than that I felt really good. I swam for 30 mins warming up with 5x100's on 1:40 and then 200's (20s).

After the swim I ran out along the Flood Control Channel for a total of 30 mins. I could feel the recent strenght gains in my legs from the cycling but found my lungs not totally clear from my recent cold. Kept it aerobic and hit the strength training for some light leg work and shoulder/core stability stuff. It was nice to get this all in from just one parking spot. That's what's nice about the Y. I can ride my bike there or take off for good running/cycling routes right after a swim.

One other thing. I got an email from a TCSD member who was looking for Cancer survivors in the triathlon scene. They're putting together a calendar in conjunction with the leukemia and lymphoma society, which is kind of suspect given their whole corporate style agenda, but I sent in some photos and a profile just for fun. If I can use my story somehow to inspire others, that's where it's at. We'll see....hopefully it won't turn out to be lame.

A little present

Well I kind of screwed with my training plan last week, going longer than planned on the weekend and it may have come back to bite me in the backside. My baby got sick on Monday then tuesday I started getting a sore throat/cold. It's hard to avoid the little germinator but I think I may have stressed the immune system a little. Either that or it was just my time. I take glutamine added to my recoverite for recovery and was feeling great on monday (not fatigued).

Be that as it may, I've been taking it easy and will get on the bike easy today for an hour just to flush the legs. Should be back with the program by Monday. I will miss out on the Rim Nordic MTB race on sunday as I could have had a ride up with James and back the same day. Damn.

Looking forward to the weekend of the 22nd for some more riding with JW.

Gold in them thar hills

I have been really digging this last two weeks of cycling focused training. I've been seeing some good improvement both real and perceived. First of all my legs and hip (IT band) feel really strong and balanced. I've also seeing some improved stability on the bike from the core and strength training. Spending all this time on the bike has allowed me some time to think and kind of set some goals for the rest of the year. I probably won't release the details of these goals just yet, as I'm pretty excited right now.

Since the big ride on the Fourth, I've been feeling really good. I took a planned day off on Thursday and went out for a longer tempo ride on Friday. Longer meaning a 35 minute tempo section riding in Zone 3.

I was surprised at how easy the effort felt compared to the suffering two days prior. I descended the workout slightly to make sure I was in the proper zone/HR wise. It was a big gear interval keeping the cadence around 72-78. I noticed it was less taxing on the cardio side and more strength oriented. I generally favor a high cadence to produce speed and am able to produce smooth power up to 125 rpm. I think the strenght workouts will translate into more pure speed at the higher cadence, normally around 100.

20k @ 238 watts avg.

average HR: 144

Max HR: 156

Nice power for low HR!

I did a little flip flop Sat/Sunday and hit the gym for some corework and shoulder stability on Saturday so I could join James on a longer ride on Sunday.

It's a little more work organizing a "group"ride but well worth it as it gets me more stoked. We've done pretty well mixing up the rides as we've set out to keep it fresh, trying some new rides around the county. There is a lot of killer rides that have yet to be checked out. I kind of wanted to keep this ride on the mellower side but was not afraid to go longer than the 2:30 on the schedule. We talked about riding up the coast to Dana point but fear of boredom led us to pick a ride outside of Alpine,CA. It's pretty much the same route as the Alpine Challenge road race, so it's definitely legit.

The temp was cooler than expected around 68 at the start and low 80's and dry by the end. Perfect. We surprisingly managed to keep it mellow, but I appreciated the discipline as we could have easily turned it into a suffer-fest. That's the great thing about this ride, even though it was 4000+ of climbing, it didn't max out my ratio so there was occasion to spin up the hills riding in Zone 3/low 4. It also ratchets up with some brief rolling at the top of each climb which were only about 6-10 minutes at a pop. I did let it out a little on the descent to work on generating some good speed and power at 120-130 rpm, plus it was fun. I just pugged a redbull and wanted to test my "wings". This was a great ride on a fun route that has lots of potential to link for longer rides up to Sunrise Highway or for some good climbing intervals. Road riding at it's best.

Of note is how strong my legs felt on this ride. It's amazing what great training response I get from riding in the mountains. No matter where my training is heading I'm definitely going to keep these rides going.

K.O.M.

Yeah right. The king of the mountain I was not, but yesterday's ride was epic in the truest sense. I was supposed to head out to ride Palomar Mountain with James of "Blood Sweat and Beers" fame, but he had to cancel on Tuesday on account of his neck. I was really fired up to do this ride and also do it on the Fourth of July so I loaded up the bike and drove out to Escondido to park and ride solo. James had sent me the route a couple days earlier, a total of 61 miles including the 12 mile climb up the mountain. I had to be home around noon so I could ride for 4.5 hours max. I cut off about 5 miles and started a little closer at E Valley Parkway. I would be glad for this on the way home.

I took off at 7:15 weighing in at 165 with two full bottles of the usual and some gels. I was greeted by the 2.5 mile grade up to Lake Wolford. Not bad as it wasn't hot yet and minimal traffic. I was aware of this first climb and knew that I had to hold back and ride sub Z4 for most of the ride if I wanted to make it to the summit and home. It was tough even riding with the 27t in the rear to keep it under 260 watts on this climb, unless I wanted to ride at 50rpm. There was some beautiful riding after this and I really enjoyed seeing some new countryside and finally knowing where all those damn indian casinos are. I made my way across the valley and could see Palomar and the one thing I noticed is how vertical it was. No rolling foothills just a big green mountain rising up. I made it to the base after an hour of riding and figured I was on schedule. How long could it take to ride 12 miles to the top? I was heading into the unknown. Watching the altimiter clicking away and keeping an eye on the wattage trying to be conservative. I was trying to keep it around 250W which meant a cadence between 65-70. Not ideal but that's all I could do. Out of gears.

This climb goes up and up and up. Unrelenting is putting it lightly. More like water torture where its never really unbearable, it just doesn't stop. The miles go by slowly. It was fun for the first six miles in some kind of rhythm, after that it was pure survival made worse by the fricking hornets on the rice rockets hauling ass up and down the mountain. I began to see other cyclists on the descent smiling with there jerseys opened up. I was suffering from the effort but also from the heat. It had been 95 degrees the day before and felt like it was going to be the same or worse. In and out of the saddle I fought the dropping wattage which brought my cadence into the low 60's. I could barely hold 220. I was on the climb for an 1:20 with two miles left. I thought about stopping a lot but didn't. If I beat it down the descent I could still make it up and down in two hours to keep on schedule. Finally I made it to the top, not to the observatory like I'd hoped but that was another 5 miles. I hung out near the store (which was closed unfortunately) drained the last of my bottles and ate a bar. I could have used some H20 for the descent.

Peak Average Power chart showing 2hr @ 220W and 60min @ 238. both personal bests.

Climb Data

11.61 miles 1:34

AVG HR 163 Max 174

AVG Power 226 Watts

I learned a lot on the climb but more on the descent as there are lots and lots of hairpins. Twenty minutes of descending topping out at 42 mph. My triceps were really getting tired. Some of the turns are over 180 degrees which makes for some certainly wide eyed situations. I finally made it to the bottom at 3 hours ride time and stopped at a store for some water, slammed a coke and some Thermolytes. One thing I noticed is that there is a climb out of this valley too. Equal to the first climb up to L. Wolford. It was hotter, there was more traffic and my legs were behaving badly. Back by the casinos the sign read 92 degrees probably 97-100 on the fresh blacktop. This part of the ride was sort of like the bad hangover after a long night. You got to get through it and nothing makes it better. I got to the lake and thought about jumping in but kept going and saw some guy puking from his car on the side of the road. I thought I felt bad.

Down the final descent and back to the car in 4:10, 52 miles and around 8000 ft of climbing. I weighed in at 157 (8 pound deficit) after taking in 96 ounces. I was slow roasted but proud of the effort. That's a lot of climbing but when its in huge chunks like 90 minutes+, I think it's tougher than it sounds. This was by far the toughest single ride I've been on. I loved it and can't wait to get back on it. I think next time I'd start a little closer so I could really cook the goose on the climb.

Big respect goes out to all those who charge this ride. The locos that do it in the aero bars, those that do it without a saddle and those that just do it. f'ing nuts.

Random Pics.

Lake Wolford in the morning

View from the top. It's up there!

Oh so happy!

Quality time.

I've been busier than ever but still getting in some good cycling workouts. Two out of the last four workouts have been on the trainer. I was talking to a buddy of mine about the love hate relationship that goes along with using the bikestand from hell. Anytime you got some time, you can make the best of it. That's important to me being able to stay close to home lately.

Yesterday I did a 2.5 hour road ride that was very necessary. Call it a mental health ride after having relatives in town for 3 days. I was feeling dead tired from hosting these guys and the heat didn't help either. I popped an energ ease that my buddy James uses and headed out the door to Del Mar. I was feeling really good once I warmed up and spent the first 30 minutes holding 200-225. Practicing a lot of discipline. The next 30 minutes I rode how I felt and was hitting the 300-320 numbers with a lot more ease than expected, just not hanging out there. I hit TP grade after the turnaround and held it at 265 just a little above LT. I normally push Z5 there but it was nice to give a steady effort over the top not requiring any recovery. Last 30 was held to Z2 and I felt pretty fresh at 2:30. I tried a lot of things along with pedal stroke. One thing that worked well was paying attention to posture on the bike. Pulling up and forward through the spine trying not hunching and I immediately saw the power surge without any increased effort. Like 20 watts. Another was making sure the glutes were firing. It's amazing the way it takes the strain off the top of the quads to generate some power with the backside.

Here's the Peak Average power from that ride. I like to see it flattish to gently sloping like that.

My IT band and shoulder are well on the mend and should be there by the end of the week. I've been doing a lot of strengthening for the core, shoulders, and back. Pretty much something everyday especially pushups, 100's and planking. Already feeling more stability.

This week should be fun with a tough ass ride scheduled for the 4th. I'm going to hit a new route (for me) up to Palomar mountain with JW and it should be a good test for both of us. I'm going to go over the profile but I think it's like 4,500 feet over 12 miles. Right in the middle of what should be a solid 60 miler+. James trains with power on his road bike so we can easily talk about pacing and compare numbers from the climb. just for kicks. Looking forward to it.