Weekend bumps.

Happy to have the weekend behind me. As I mentioned it was all about getting some good fitness testing in. It didn't go that smoothly. Saturday at least we had a break in the weather.

I set out to get in my swim test on Saturday. I really wanted to get in a 50 m pool as that is my standard at this point and I find it "easier" and more accurate to do one turn per 100m. given that my turns still are pretty weak and its just down and back. I was forced to go to the Y and the pool was wedged. I guess the first sunny day and weekend combined. Masters had 5 lanes and the rest were all over the map with at least 2 per lane. I pulled the cord and decided to wait until Monday to get it in. I did but will talk about that later. Off to the track at PL college to get in a 3 mile tempo TT.

3 mile tempo test.

The protocol was to warm up to 155 bpm and then 3 miles at 155-157 bpm checking correlating

pace. I made the mistake of stopping briefly before the test. It took about 400-800m for HR to catch up and started too fast as a result. I also took HR too far towards the upper limits and ended up with 158 avg. Every time I tried to relax I sped up and HR creeped as a result.

DATA:

3 mile

HR max: 162

HR avg: 157

Avg. Pace: 7:36

last 2.5 miles where min HR gets to 155.

HR max: 161

HR avg: 158

Avg Pace: 7:46

I think the last 2.5 miles is a pretty good portayal of where I'm at. Not a perfect test but at least it was easy and should be an easy test to repeat. Not true for the other two.

Sunday had its own challenges. The rain. It poured all night and my 20 min test on the climb up Black Mountain was out. It may have been rideable but most likely really soft and slow. Not a good baseline. I talked to Jim about it and he said a 1:30 trainer ride would do with a solid 20 min section. Fine. But I construed that comment into a 20 min TT which would give some good data. Here's the ride.

Happy about figuring out how to get the graphs up. Here's two looks from PowerAgent and WKO.

I did my standard 40 min warm up then hit it. Its been a while so I divided the test into three sections which helped mentally. Ease into the effort steady 7min, shift up 7 min, then hang on (or try to). It was brutal! made worse by the lack of motion but begrudgingly repeatable. Knowing that I would post the data kept me going. Accountability. I was pretty happy with the numbers since I haven't seen ANY intensity on the bike for the last 6-8 weeks. Did I mention it hurt? Here's the numbers:

20 minutes/306kj

Power: 181 min. 306 max. 255 avg.

HR: 93 min. 175 max. 158 avg.

I was stoked to see that number as my best is 275 after a lot of cycle specific training last september. This time its been all base. Good News. Plus I think the drainer accounts for at least a 10 watt decrease in recorded wattage. Why? dunno, it just appears that way over time.

Now for the ugly. Todays swim test. I was feeling pretty fresh and headed to the 'Nado pool. I warmed up well doing 2x200. 1 easy 1 build then 1x100~Tpace. The repeats were all out on 10s and this is how they went.

1:24, 1:27, 1:33, 1:35, 1:40, 1:43, 1:47, 1:48. I stopped the test at 8 seeing there was a 24 second differential between the first and last. 4-8 were pure survival. My stroke was breaking down and was pointless to continue. I did take a 60 s rest and did 1:35 and 1:37 on the last two just to complete the workout. It's pretty apparent this is the weak part in my swim. I would have been surprised if it went any better but I was still bummed out and smoked. Like the bike all the swims have been sub-threshold let alone at Zone 5. Still a baseline but brings up feelings of dread when it comes to doing this test again.

I finished up the day with a solid strenth training session. Upping the weight and seeing some solid leg strength gains. ~15-20% on the sled.

The rest of the week looks great getting into some T-pace, good fun. Friday night Conrad Stoltz is coming to B+L San Diego. I'm stoked to have him come to our local store rather than Solana Beach where traffic makes it almost prohibitive to get there by 6pm. Also is the BLVD race. The weather report does not look good but as long as its not raining (or snowing) I'm in. Wind, cold, no problem. I'm just not getting in that pack with no brakes, let alone the misery of being cold AND wet.

Duty Calls.

Yep you guessed it. I have the honor to serve my country and community in jury duty. epic.

Time to catch up on some training talk. I started out this week I normally do with a goal of completing all the workouts as planned with 100% committment and focus. I'm sitting in the jury "lounge" wondering how this week is going to turn out. I have swim and strength training scheduled for sometime today and going over possible scenarios on how to make it happen when so much of the rest of the day/week is unknown. It's always a struggle when you have to balance effective time management with patience and flexibility, but this is the general subtitle of the blog, balancing it all, when it's always out of balance. Never 50/50 more like 60/40. I guess it resembles balance when I'm safe at home with my family, putting my daughter to bed, healthy and positive with at least 90% of my training hours under my belt. Whole.

So far this week has been great hitting all the workouts, with good energy and motivated. I can't tell how many times in the past getting to or starting a workout requires more internal energy and strength than actually completing the workout. I've taught myself to stop thinking and just react. It's become critical to turn this on like a switch when so much of my work requires me to think critically understanding all the objectives, analysis and decision making that promotes good design.

Monday.

Strength training. 1:15

Still in AA phase strength. this is the second week in a row where there have been no scheduled rest days. Mondays have traditionally done that job. Hanging in there surprisingly well.

Tuesday.

short swim. :30

20 minute straight swim MS felt awesome. Surprisingly I'm swimming very well despite being sore while on the deck. I suppose swimming can be somewhat therapeutic in the sense that the muscles are being constantly elongated and the water acts as some kind of circulatory massage. Easily swam 1100m w/ 20-21 S/50m one arm consistent even as pace was building.

run. :40 zone 1

straight after the swim HR was a little higher than normal 9:15 pace HR 141. running on soft surface definitely slows the pace down also.

Wednesday.

strides. :40

Hit 30 cycles in :18 and 3:45 pace max. progress.

drills and skips

trainer. 1:00

Z1-2 with some pedalling drills. PE relatively low.

It's now 11:30 and still haven't been called. getting really tired sitting around. fighting off the urge to 'buck up with a coffee. Newton was right about a body at rest.

The rest of the week looks really exciting with some field testing coming up on saturday and sunday. Saturday I'll head to the pool and do 10x100's and then a tempo HR test at the track after some good recovery. sunday is a 20 min climb TT that I'll do on the MTB. weather has been an issue but i think that Black Mountain will still be okay if it's wet. Good drainage and traction unless it's pouring. Wait and see. This will be the first bout of intensity in some time, at least I'll be a little more rested with after a lighter week. It'll be nice to get in some suffering on the bike in preparation for BLVD.

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Back from "lunch break". Found out we had a two hour lunch and bolted to the pool. Stoked to just barely get in my :50 workout this early in the day. I hate swimming in the late afternoon.

This session was good and necessary as I'm not used to sitting around for that long. I swam 3 rounds of 4x50's. counting the strokes plus time I swam them all at or close to 85 I think two 83's and a couple 84's. Stroke count was identical at 40 each time. Pace was well under T pace? but felt pretty comfortable and consistent throughout. It just felt good.

That's about it for now, just got to get prepared for the weekends bouts as it should take a lot out of me mentally, not to mention carving out the timeslots but that's usually the same story every weekend. Mahalo.

What I remember.

No apologies from the world's lagging-est poster. Training has been keeping me staggeringly busy along with the world that is my other life. Training has bumped up to 15 hours a week and really has been more like 25 when you count all the management, negotiation, drive time, clean up, wash down etc. I digress.

Workouts are actually going well even though there has been some selective substitutions from the schedule. This happened this week by simply moving a ride from a three sport wednesday to thursday, bumping a gym session for a home strength session. It adds a bit of fluidity to the schedule at the expense of rigor. Just important to keep everything moving forward without getting too stressed out if something unespected comes up and a workout is not feasible.

Still in the depths of base training there is little excitement as Z1 runs and slow bikerides do little to float my boat and fitness gains at this point are subliminal. Sometimes the existentialist in me finds deep meaning in these lackluster efforts but lofty thoughts are soon replaced by clockwatching.

Sunday was some exception.

Hilly run/ 60 min./ Z1-2_Z2-3 on hills

The run started hard. I was tired. Z3 felt like race pace. I lacked perspective and wanted performance. I started to get into some negative thoughts, like how training has left me slow. I fought it off and stayed positive and counted the days until Temecula,119 to be exact, and decided to be patient. About 3 miles into the run I felt some PE breakthrough and started clicking some sub 8 min miles at 148 bpm (solid Z2). Finished with:

7.24 mi@ 8:14 avg pace w/ HR 153 avg. repectable.

Saturday had great promise

as I was looking forward to getting in 4 hours preriding the RR course in Boulevard with JW. First of all Boulevard is DEEP. 75 minute drive time. Always up for an adventure with some good times and fair amount of suffering, I was psyched. My anticipation was even higher since most of my riding has been out and back from the house or on the trainer, pretty boring. Santa Ana conditions were supposed to be dying down so I was more worried about the cold. Halfway there I was getting blown all over the road. James was plenty aware of the situation and we just charged it. I brought all the cold weather gear but forgot one thing in the car.

we did one lap (22 miles in 1:30) as it was too dangerous and just plain sucked with gusts to 40 mph. The shoulder was beat up pretty bad and wind was blowing us around into the lane. The first lap was brutal with almost all the climbing into the wind. Standing made it twice as bad but was necessary to keep from stopping. Once again Z3 wattage felt really hard and was tough to get into a rhythm and develop some momentum. Did I mention the wind? I was probably up for one more lap but James was justified in calling it off. No way was I going solo. I was beat when I got home and considered going back out to ride but dragged my ass onto the

RACK

to get in another 90 min.'s as my hourglass was running low and it was the best use of my time. I was done with another hour and a half with some steady Z2 and peaks in short efforts in Z3.

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The rest of the week was a repeat of the previous week with planned volume up to 15 hours from 13. Two rides, 5 runs, 4 swims, and 2 strength sessions.

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The swimming continues to progress but can still feel my stroke shorten up on the left side when I get tired. Still I'm guessing my TPace is down from 1:47/100m to 1:40-1:42 based on PE on 400m set last week. My goal is to get it down to mid 1:30's by April. I might do some filming this week if time permits.

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Bring on some tempo!

Catching up.

The last week of training was great. It was a relatively light week at only 8 hours (8:45 planned I'll explain in a bit) and focused on aerobic development in all three sports, strength training core strength and swim skills/technique. This week has been pretty much the same but with a little more volume in the 13 hour range. It has taken me a little while to get in the groove of absorbing some significant strength training in the context of a six day training week (7 days this week).

Since so much time seems to go by between posts it's pointless to review each workout but will give just an overview of my challenges and successes as they relate to each discipline.

Swim.
I can't say enough about my impovement in the water. Some simple changes have allowed me to feel greater balance, length and relaxation in the water. This has been especially important during longer aerobic swims which allows me to focus on stroke rather than burning lungs.
Swimming in truly aerobic zones has been a challenge in the past. I notice that strength training has really helped out my swim as well. It seems like I'm able to produce a lot more power during the pull phase without fatiguing any earlier, even showing up a little sore. The swimming has been very mixed with long swims up to 35 minute and some shorter 30x25 sets all technically oriented. stoked because I know the speed will come with fitness and tuning but I'm at least a lot more comfortable in the water.

Bike.
Old friend. We've been spending a lot of time on the trainer, especially last Saturday. My longest trainer session ever at 2:00 hrs. I've heard rumors of guys going 4 hours. Nuts. It was the rainiest weekend since march 07. The ride was supposed to be 2:30 but couldn't take it any longer, hence the missing time from weekly plan. It's not that fatigue sets in, though it does a little, its just that my ass starts killing, despite a double butter up on the best chamois I've found. On the road it's like 4 hours to get to that point, on the trainer 1:30. I still swear by the trainer for safety(night rides) . focus. pedal stroke and consistency. I still haven't figured out why 175W feels like 200W on the road but I'm able to get in some steady zone riding and monitor HR vs. Watts. I did miss a 1:30 session this week but that's the breaks. At least it's not my limiter. 3 hour ride on tap tomorrow.

Some cool news here also. I'm having a crack at a road race on Feb 2 in Boulevard, CA. Jim gave me the heads up on this one. James and Jim are both in so at least there will be a couple familiar faces out there. It's on. 45 miles (2 laps) either going up or going down. should be fun since I've wanted to get into my first legit cycling race for a while now. Should be a huge learning experience. Dunno if I'm going to do the mission trails 15k on sunday like some locos. Hopefully all the base and weight training will translate into Watts on race day, but a solid workout nonetheless.

Run.
Coming along. Strength training has left my hamstrings and quads a little sore for most runs but at least the Z1 only runs have been relatively easy. Yesterday was a 50 min run with the last 45 mins at 8:55 pace w/avg HR at 137. Thats down from ~9:00-9:15 for runs less than 60 min. for zone 1. so that's nice. Trusting the training and resisting the temptation to lean too far into these shorter runs.

Strength.
This is the secret weapon for the season (and disciplined aerobic base training). I've dabbled in seasons prior but mostly with pilates and a little circuit training. I've got a periodized plan from Jim and am going to stick to it as well as possible. Like I mentioned I'm already feeling some greater resilience on the run as well as swimming much easier. I've added some shoulder stuff to the plan just to keep em injury free but the leg and core will be key as the training progresses.
I've been weighing in at 166 which is 2 pounds heavy but I figure that's inevitable with some increased muscle and temporary inlamation and fluid retention as the nutrition has been going well. speaking of. My gym just got these new stationary bikes that I ride to warm up and cool down are killer Keiser.com. Fully adjustable magnetic trainer with power Hr and cadence. Comfortable with a nice flyweel. Pretty happy about the upgrade from the LifeCycle.

Nutrition.
This aspect has never been too much of a challenge. I've added a few new concepts as there is always room for improvement. More natural protein from fish and chicken. I used to be a quasi-veg with some scoops of egg white protein., but now I'm getting in more healthy natural protein everyday. Still a little heavy on the grains/pasta but mostly timed post workout. Like granola concoction will full scoop of JayRobb berries and banana. Yams are big. Steamed veggies. (what my daughter eats) and spinach salad. Healthy fats are in with a great supply of boutique olive oils that came in over Christmas. Here's the shocker. CLO. Cod Liver Oil. Two teaspoons a day working as an anti inflamatory, bolstering immunity and stabilizing mood health for cranky athletes and Lord knows what else. I definitely feel less cracks snaps and pops and am sleeping better. Loaded with DHA and EPA this stuff is the shit. Just don't take it before a workout. Burp!
One other thing that is working for me is breaking out the juicer. Carrot Apple Parsley Beet Ginger and Lemon. Raw goodness that's straight from the source. I definitely have more noticeable sustained energy when I'm on that stuff but just a little high in fiber for taking in too close to a workout.
I've switched my recovery to box drinks. Maybe not the best as they are manufactured food, but I keep em in the car and always have something post workout vs. trying to mix something on the fly or chocomilk with very little vitamins and added aminos. I like PowerBar recovery or EAS myoplex lite or regular depending on the intensity of the workout. less intensity/strenght training> Myoplex lite. otherwise its PowerBar recovery. this plus an extra dose of 2000mg vitamin C (antioxidant) and full teaspoon of glutamine are all working to keep me healthy at this point.

Everything is on track and am looking forward to doing some form of racing soon!

Post of Shame

Sunrise New Years Day. 1.1.08

It's time to face the music and get back to some regular meaningful reports. (what I lack in frequency I make up in length) I can only get feedback on what I'm posting. Unfortunately the "holidays" have been tumultuous and the posting is one of the things that gets cut when time is tight and stress levels are high. I figure my personal life would more likely be the topic of discussion rather than the training so I spare the drama. I think it's poignant to refer to a quote on James' website that has normally slid below the radar but recently has had particular relevance.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." - e. e. cummings

This quote reminds me that people will try to bring you down to their level. Attempting to transcend popular life, through high standards and lofty goals and ideals will basically leave you with a target on your back (because that's all they see on your personal road to fulfillment). There is something universal of human instinct that Cummings has brought up that motivates miserable souls to try to bring you down (to their level). I think it's often times subliminal and we have to be ever mindful that such a force exists and "never stop fighting". Thanks James.

So I start this new year with a refreshed perspective and new goals.

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1. Stay Grateful...for all things in life.

2. Be consistent.

3. Align myself with those who have the success I want.

4. Use my resources and ask for help.

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I know those are not such measurable goals as they are desired attitudes... so here's the fun ones.

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1. Xterra West: sub 3:25

2. St. Patrick's Day 10k: sub 43:00 (last year 43:45 and was a good race)

3. 20k TT: sub 29:00 (sometime this year)

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Here's the schedule:

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2.03 Xterra Trail run 15k (mission gorge)

2.10 Fiesta Island TT ( FTP test)

3.09 Fiesta Island TT

3.15 St. Patty's 10k

4.06 Carlsbad 5000

4.26 Arizona Extreme

5.18 Xterra West Championship

6.20 BABY!

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Training:

The training has been progressing and I'm into week one of four of base training cycles.

I'm finding it just as challenging going slow, mostly mentally, but I dig the science of monitoring HR variability and pace during aerobic development. I'll start posting some charts when I get it figured out how to get em up. I've enjoyed most recent gains in my swimming thanks to Jim. A couple of weeks ago we went to the pool to do some filming and I showed up with some good technical flaws (thankfully). I wrote about it in a previous post and again when shoulder pain kept me out of the water. Basically pulling way to wide on the left arm and mostly with the deltoid and biceps. This inhibited my roll to breath and pulled way too short on the left side which left me too flat. Bottom line is that knowing this has helped me improve my stroke alot. Not so much in time yet but in feel and comfort in the water which will help when I start developing some speed through increased strength and fitness.

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I'll post this weeks details on Sunday night or monday.