Notching up the volume.

When I looked at the schedule for the week, the first thing I noticed was a slightly different daily schedule and a slight increase in the volume. (11 hours this week vs. 9:40 planned last week)


I'm writing this post on the new laptop. I got this on Wednesday and am stoked to have it all loaded with Garmin Training Center, Training Peaks WKO+, and Power Agent. I'm going to be more consistent with going out training with my G305 and Ptap and downloading to Training Peaks/Training Bible. Time's going to be tight and the expectations are high, so hoperully all the data and feedback will get me to a place where I'm making the most of the time I do train. Of course not taking into account all the time spent tweaking on the posting and data. At least I can do it when its dark and cold within earshot of my daughter. I'm sold on data.


Monday:
A great day off and I felt awesome and strong even after a slightly harder than planned. I love to ride hard and am looking forward to some long hard rides in the hills!


Tuesday:
Ride 2:00 Z1-2 (honest)

I headed out from Fiesta Island and was determined to stay within the training zones as I was solo and wanted to be disciplined. I wanted to stay between 180-210 W. Easy enough on the flats but the route included torrey grade and the del mar bump. I wanted to see how well I could control HR vs. watts on the grade and I was able to hold steady 225W with NO heart rate(138-140) variability for the 9 minute climb. What's wierd is that my wattage was in endurance zones for the ride and HR was in recovery zones. Got to ask Jim about that. I also experimented with riding some slightly bigger gears meaning lower cadence~70's.

Wednesday:
Swim 1:00

What a wakeup call. I headed to Nado 50m pool to do 1000m time trial. It was pointless. I got through the warm-up and was feeling OUT OF SHAPE. I think it was a combination of being out of the water (sick) for a week and pushing off the wall half as much. I figured I'd pace myself and suffer for the first 200m then get in a groove. Wasn't happening. I called it after 500m in 8:53.

That's what...1:47's, swallowing water and throwing cement. Determined to stay in the water for 60 minutes I went back to past workouts and did 4x100(30s) and 8x50(20s) form on EACH one. Felt good for not throwing in the towel completely, but was really shocked at how badly I swam. Swimming is the new limiter! Perfect, now I have two limiters out of three!

Run 0:50
I wasn't tired at all from the near drowning and was psyched to run 8x20s strides on a hill.
I have a perfect spot 15 min from the house. Warmed up on the run over and did some drills then the repeats. Cool down on the way home then over to the bleachers for 2 sets of 10 jumps, 10 lunges ea. leg, hopped back to start. Good Run!


Thursday.
Run 1:15 Z1-2

I chose a new flat course for these runs as I want to be able to repeat the effort and compare pace/HR. I left from the MVY, then out to FI for one big loop.

8.21 mi.
Avg pace 9:07
Avg HR 145
Max HR 165

Felt pretty beat up after this long run of the season so far. Not worried about the pace. just wanted to keep it in the Zones.


Friday.
Swim 1:00
2000m

Luckily I felt better for this swim and made it through the first T-pace workout of the season.
Not too difficult when your threshold pace is 1:47/100m. Just for comparison last year it was down to 1:38/100m. completed the workout as planned but not easily.
Time for some swim focus!

Saturday.
Run (Intervals) 1:05

First time to Kevin's workout in a long time. This is one of those workouts that you get excited about the night before and then in the morning you want to avoid like shit on your shoe. I let those negative thoughts pass on through and just show up. Kevin always gives some inspiration before each session. this time he talked about the secrets to getting faster. Guess what? no secrets! Consistency and be willing to get out of your comfort zone. This really means, be willing to get out of your slightly uncomforatable zone and into the really uncomfortable zone, that's all.

I was still a little sore from thursday's long run but fired up. after the usual "warmup" about 15 minutes. we did:

3x3minutes
1x6minutes
2x2minutes
4x1minutes Total interval time: 23 minutes

I actually spent 33 minutes in zones 4 and5
I hit 180-181 bpm on almost all intervals and my legs were definitely soaked on each one. Good session but I was cooked the rest of the day.

Sunday:
Ride: 3:11 50 mi.

Froze my ass off at 7:00am 43 degrees. It just sucks when its like that. good ride but a little boring solo especially when your constantly thinking about how cold it is. I was a little sore from saturday, and happy to keep it zone 1-2.

Going to work with Jim on the swim this morning. He's got the underwater Coach Cam. Hopefully we'll be able to "fix" something!

Power update (not measured in watts)

Finally getting a break to post a meaningful update on the training. This last week has been more significant because there was some problems. The week prior went relatively smoothly with some easy runs, swim golf, capped off with a great Run clinic with Jim on Saturday and a Muddy 2:30 MTB with James on Sunday.

Run clinic.
This was a new take on the run clinic this time. I learned a lot of new stuff regarding dynamic warmup and drills. I was also really happy to get some tape of me running. Jim filmed us and broke it down one by one afterwards. Things checked out pretty well but we identified two good areas I can easily work on.

1. MORE LEAN
2. Keep elbows more in front to eliminate tension in the upper back. This will probably allow
my spine to stay more in line and make it easier to accomplish item 1.

Its also good to have some baseline footage at this early point in training. Thanks Jim.
Neuromuscular Pathways....On!

Last Week 12.02-12.09

Monday.
Off

Tuesday.
I had a swim and a run on the schedule.
Run was 30 minutes easy and got it out of the way at sunrise. I woke up not feeling so good, but made it through the run. By the time I got home that little queeziness felt like I got punched in the stomach. The rest is far to graphic. Begins with D ends with A and lasted for two days. I missed an important workout on Tues. which was the 1000m time trial in the pool to figure out T-pace. I was out until Friday when I was finally "confident" enough to get on the bike.

Friday.
I had a two hour ride scheduled and felt more comfortable riding on the trainer close to home.
I ended up doing 60 min's on the trainer including some SLD's and some solid Z2 steady. I had to make something out of nothing and knew the SLD's that I missed on Wed. needed to be done.

Saturday.
Finally feeling 100% I headed out for a 60 min run Z1-2. I felt the best I've felt on a run in a long time. Not that my pace was smoking in relation to HR...because it wasn't, I felt this way because my legs felt really strong. I attribute this to being pretty consistent with strength training. I've been getting in one to two sessions with the second usually happening after a run.
There's some bleachers at the Little League park next to my house. What I'll usually get in is some dynamic lunges, A-skips, Step-ups on the bleachers and bleacher Jumps. About two sets of two minutes each. Usually to fatigue not failure. (I'm going to start counting these)

Sunday.
Ride 3:00 Z1-2
Freebased my Base training.

I was happy to see that it was clear when I woke up because three hours in the cold rain makes for a long ride. I was happy to get out riding again with JW. His work ethic is second to none and Lord knows it pays to hang with successful people. The intentions of this ride went by the wayside as we ended up in rolling/hilly territory right off the bat. We had talked about riding flat up to Pendleton but got sidetracked. We ended up doing a pretty fun improvised loop and kept it pretty close to zones until I asked James where the ten minute hill was that he does his intervals. Next thing I know, we're halfway up with the wind in our face. I did my best to keep it under 230 watts and rode it like a chick (sorry girls). This was a beast of a hill and great for future workouts. At least I didn't attack it. I felt a little guilty for breaking the workout but the stoked feeling I had after a fun ride made it go away pretty quick. I'll do better next time.

At this point I'm working on my goals for the season. This includes race goals as well as training goals. I've also got my race schedule figured out and will post this after it's confirmed with Jim after our next phone meeting tonight.

Daddy do number two. (there goes the neighborhood)

It's official! I'm going down the road of fatherhood......again! I've been sitting on this huge news for the past month but it wasn't until Jessica brought a picture back of the little pollywog that we decided to go public. Everything looks great and I couldn't be more stoked. Of course this puts a lot of question marks as far as the topics of this blog. The baby on the way is a perfect parallel to what looks like an amorphous schedule at this time. It doesn't have much size or shape that I can recognize but it just keeps growing gaining more size and strength with each day.

This is what I know. Baby X is going to be born on or around June 20th. This puts Wildflower out of reach as leaving the wife 8 months pregnant for four days is not wise and counting on her to travel there is even more unwise. I'm still on for Xterra West Championships as it's local. What happens after the baby is born will be considered to be pure chaos and have no intentions of planning races after that unless its late september or October. What I am considering is getting back over to the Big Island and giving Lavaman a go. It's around the first of April as I couldn't find the date yet for 08. For now it will be pending as planning air travel for the third trimester is subject to doctor approval.

So.................It begs the question. What am I going to do? Can I justify all the sacrifices that are involved in trying to balance family, work and training for just one "A" race in '08. Why not?

Let me explain.

My success in sport will not be measured by one race, one season or one year. It will be measured over time and only after I am no longer able to physically do what it takes to get to the starting line, the ocean or the mountains whatsoever the case may be. I love to swim bike and run. I don't need to do them in that order or even on the same day to be fulfilled. These are the vehicles by which I am fit enough to be able to pull off just about any activity on any given day at any age. Consider Laird Hamilton, god of performance and longevity. If I'm fortunate to be able to pull off a completely focused training plan, that is enjoyed by most pro's and younger carefree athletes (you know who you are...JW) the results will come. For now, I have to consider taking this season Credit/No Credit. I can train, gain a lot more knowledge and miles in my legs whithout worrying too much about the end result. My focus is on the cumulative effect over the years and have some breakthrough experiences along the way. The question is, how does this philosophy manifest itself into the current training plan?

Answer:

Train my ass off for Xterra West Championships

any races between now and then is considered training.

Become a monster on the MTBike and in the water.

Keep the running as Xterra specific as possible. quality not quantity.

Thats what I want to do!

TRAINING RECAP

This last week of training has been a lot of fun as the cobwebs are gone and the desire to train has not yet been tempered by any cumulative fatigue.

I'll start with a week ago.

Sunday: Hike:2:00

I hooked up with PL local MCshow and headed out to Mission trails. We hit both summits of Fortuna mountain from Clairmont Mesa and did a little easy running on flats and shallow downhills to keep the HR from going back to resting rates.

Elevation Gain: 2000 ft

Avg HR: 130

MC leads and clears the trail of snakes. N. Fortuna
N.Fortuna. Cowles Mt. in the distance.

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: Swim :50

Swim golf 50's

Best score: 54, that's 37 seconds with 17 strokes

1600 yds total

I was happy with this score but its not an apples comparison to 50 m pool that I'm used to. I'll be swimming in a 25 yard pool a little more this year as it's close and usually hit the weights right after. Swim felt good and threw in some left side breathing 25's. This was usually faster(?), but more strokes and more hydration.

Wednesday: Trainer SLD's: 60 minutes

I pulled off 16x30 second SL repeats for a total of 8 minutes each leg. These were f'ing tough by the end and just couldn't get the legs up and over the top. Left leg fatigued far sooner than right and I was definitely sore the following day.

Good Work. I need more of this!

Thursday: Strides :45 minutes 4000 ft elev.

I did an out and back off road at the ranch before EATING. I found a good shallow slope and did 4x20s up and 4x20s down. Otherwise it was easy running on soft fire roads.

Friday: No show(swim golf scheduled)

chopped wood.

Saturday: form sprints on the bike: 2:00

Easy ride under 200W then back to Fiesta Island to do the sprints 8x20s

Max power: 800W

Average power for all sprints: ~650W

Max cadence: 124 (from HUB)

These were fun but I know I was working hard as my arms, low backand legs all felt some decent work by rides end.

Sunday: Hike off road: 2 hours

Headed back out to Mission trails with MCshow and did the loop backwards heading up the stairsteps of S. Fortuna instead of down. This was the better way. We hit some killer steeps on our way to Portello (Along 52) and had an easy run back down to the car. The run was easy keeping the cadence tight and carving through some technical sections. I can't say enough about these workouts. Keeping the HR in check while focusing on some legburning strength is perfect. There are lots of opportunities out there to go as hard or easy as I want as the specifics of the workouts will progress.

Monday: today:Off

I have a phone conference scheduled with Jim and we'll see what he has to say given this bombshell is all news.

Updates coming sooner than later.

Ahhhhh.....Kona!

I got back from my well earned vacation on thursday night. 13 days of kickin' it with some swimming, running, hiking, diving and bodysurfing all thrown in for good measure. The one thing I was missing was my bike. Now this is the dilemma. I promised to bring the bike next time, the only question is which one. There are a few good bike shops in Kailua and after asking around there is some awesome mountain biking upcountry. After that I began to notice a lot more muddy bikes atop cars coming down the hill. hmmm. There is also some decent road biking, the obvious route out the Queen K highway. This is the WC bike course but is like riding on the freeway with lots of distracted tourists and not so (bike/triathlete) friendly locals. Pretty dangerous if you ask me. Still there are lots of country roads if you go to Waimea and lots and lots of climbing as the whole island is several big mountains. I have some time to decide.

Running

I showed up on the island pretty deconditioned. My first run was a 50 minute easy on the flat.
I'm glad I brought the HR monitor because I had to dial it way way back on this and all the runs, to stay in my training zones. The only flat running is more or less at sea level and down there it is HOT!, even at 8am. I started on this particular run planning 8.5-9 min/mi pace. My HR soared to just below LT in no time. I slowed to an embarassingly slow pace and just tried to keep it under zone 3, and took off the running top just to try to get some evaporative cooling. During that time in the lava field I realized how difficult it must be to try to race in these conditions. I'm thinking IMWC running the marathon in no wind, almost raining, 85 degrees at four in the afternoon. Fricking sick. If I ever have the opportunity to race XterraWC in Maui I'm sure its the same story. Call me Frosty the Snowman and I don't even live where its cold. By the time I left I did notice about a 10 bpm drop in HR for the same effort, some of it acclimation some fitness gains I suppose. I did also struggle a little with some tightness in the Piriformis/IT band got to look into this. In summary I pushed the HR zones a little too much and included too many hilly sections into the runs even though I took em really slow, I just made sure to pay real close attention to recovery.

Swimming.
Kealekekua Bay


You name it Kona's got it. Open water, free lap swim at the muni pool and tons of water time just diving, bodysurfing and floating. Not to mention the ocean water is 84 degrees.

For my first swim workout I headed to the Kona Aquatics Complex and ran into Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, master swimmer extroardinaire, world record holder and a great coach. I took a clinic from her last year and introduced myself again. Man she's a talker but I got her to start talking about my stroke and got some good feedback....for free while she was just finishing her workout. She also started talking about these fins. There ultra light, flexible and float like a cork. I guess they're made of the same rubber as Crocs. I ended up getting a pair. At first I thought they were great but put a weird arch in my lower back as they float the feet, not the hips. This was especially noticeable in the pool and less in open water. The jury's still out.

I got in a couple of good swims at the pool but the big deal is the ocean swimming. Kealekekua Bay is a mile down the hill from where we were staying and is absolutely the best swimming I've done. Dead flat crystal clear and a mix of sandy and coral bottom, all visible from 40-50 feet. Which is nice if your worried about the man in the striped suit. Another good session was at Ho'okena Beach Park. Its more of a cove but same clear warm water. That was made even better by being greeted by a pod of about 10 dolfins and one calf. All time experience.

I also started doing something new for me which is including some 2-3 hour hikes into the training plan. The theory is getting some vertical under my feet while keeping the HR out of zones 4-5 and reducing impact on the legs. These are fun, scenic and am definitely feeling some strength gains. It's amazing how the heart rate can climb when you start taxing the legs even at walking pace. I also did some hiking repeats on my cycling days. These were on about 20% grade and were done on long driveways servicing the coffee plantation below our house. Alternating facing the hill and backwards hiking and some lunges/squats at the top was an awesome strength workout.

It's good to be home though with familiar training grounds, a refreshed spirit, and a familiar feeling of fitness brewing.

One final thought.

There is a strange feeling hanging around Kona town when you realize what went down there just weeks ago(and every October). I guess its like going to a ball park or stadium when its empty. You can't help but imagine and feel the pain, the drama and the history that is a part of that small island town. The benign road down to the Energy Lab with its seemingly gentle slope, is nothing more than a flash of curiosity through the rental car window of more than 99% of the visitors there. It's a stark contrast to the reality on race day when emotional battles on tortured souls are won and lost. On one day, I got back in my car after a bodysurf at Magic Sands around two in the afternoon. Magic Sands is about halfway to the run turnaround on Alii Drive. It was fickin' hot, still, and when the sun broke through the clouds it felt like somebody opened the oven door. I couldn't imagine feeling those conditions on mile 4 of the marathon seven hours into the race. It's an unbeleivable venue for what must be, arguably, the most difficult race in the world.

Warning Opinion/Training Ahead.

Wow! The last two weeks have really been a blur. I'm crazy busy at work and have been taking care of my baby girl who had an ear infection/cold/3 new teeth coming in. All at the same time we were watching just about all of San Diego County burn east of I-5.

I'm going to take a second to editorialize my entry concerning the fires. I've lived in San Diego my whole life and remember no fires of this magnitude (that's at least 185 Santa Ana's). People start these fires in my opinion.

First suspects are frickin' wacko's who feed off the sensational media attention and don't even need to plan their wicked deeds. The media tells them basically "These are perfect conditions for another Firestorm". (they only recently started making a big deal about this) Okay better get my arson kit together. Dumb! For an arsonist, all the media coverage was basically pornography for those sicko's, showing video close-ups of towering flames and massive destruction. Not at all necessary for the safety and well being of citizens. All they need is information, NO PICTURES!

Second suspects are Illegal Immigrants. There I said it. We had a fire burn about 500 acres through our ranch land near Pine Valley about two months ago.(Third fire in two years. No Powerlines there.) This specific area is a known highway for Illegal Immigrants with all the trash, clothing, footprints and firepits they leave behind them as proof. Luckily it was not during a wind event. That particular fire's cause was spun by the flacid media as an "illegal campfire" , not a campfire started by "illegals". Big difference. One addresses the real problem the other blows it off like somebody was illegally parked. We can expect to have lots more of these fires as illegal immigrants remain free to cross our borders and travel north around our backcountry setting campfires to keep warm. Don't think that's what they're doing? I've seen the evidence (makeshift camps on our property) but it also jives with common sense.

I understand there are arsonists and possibly some remote chance of natural causes, but we need to address ALL potential flashpoints in the future to prevent fires and not just fight them.
They are not caused by global warming, neither are the Santa Ana winds. Let's get on point here and prevent further fire disasters.

I feel a little better now.

As for the training. This week I started getting my workouts and have officially entered "preparation phase" for upcoming training. I'm ready to roll. I've been a little sore since I started again, mostly feet and hamstrings. It's always tough starting out again just slightly heavier (2 pounds) but just shit slow, breathing hard. Can't wait to start realizing progress.

I'm headed over to the "Big Island" tomorrow for some good 2 week well earned vacation. There's obviously some great training ground over there so my goals are to:

Train smart (avoid early injury)
Eat totally fresh food.
Relax a ton.

If I offended anyone with my editorial......get over it!

Aloha.

Everything butt.

It's getting to be that time of year. Halloween. I know because I feel like I've been getting "egg'd" metaphorically speaking, for the last two or three weeks. I was talking to a friend of mine and we commiserated that it sometimes gets like that where everything seems to crumble at your fingertips and it requires a real "global" perspective of the life and style, to keep from going Richter. Challenging times will pass only when the challenges are met.

I've assumed a real layman's approach to fitness, where it's more about relieving stress than it has anything to do with becoming a better athlete. I suppose that's good to be totally focused on other things, I just wish the atmosphere were less tumultuous. The day will come.

The training has been so erratic that I can barely can recall the details. I've been mostly running 30-40 minutes, every other day at best. My last run was through the desert at sunrise during a family trip to the Colorado River last weekend. It had it's moments but it was strange to head out on a run straight out of bed without coffee. Gratuitous shot of the family on vacation at the river.

I guess the last post I promised some photos of the "great" rides I had planned around Warner Springs. Honestly, it was a bust. To get to any decent riding, I would have taken my life for granted on any of the roads out there. Busy fast traffic with no shoulder to speak of. I'm not that dumb. It was frustrating but even more so to have a clear view of Palomar Mountain and the East Grade, knowing that at any other time of year, during a training phase I would have been all over it. Turns out I could have been a lot more busy on the MTB as they just cut about 10 miles of trails (flat singletrack) which would have made for some fast action. As it turns out I did get some fun runs in on the trails. The first time I've ran with my wife in at least a year. She's a proficient runner, 4:20 marathon, but just a little slower than I'm used to. I suppose it was just about right.

Jim is back from Ironman and I am expecting to start getting some workouts sometime soon. I'd like to get the run and swim up as I'll have some time and place when we head over to the Big Island for a 12 day vacation. It's pretty cool that Jim was just there and knows where I'll be staying and can hopefully consider the location when planning the workouts. Someday I'll pack my bike over there but at this point, it'd be a lot of work.

Some work(outs)

I've been pretty slammed at work and am fortunate to not have to sweat the training.

Today was the official start of preliminary, pre-base, no load, easy training. I had a good meeting with Jim to discuss my plans for next year. I am really happy with the longer term coaching relationship as Jim is getting a chance to know me better as an athlete. This is critical to fine tuning some overall planning as well as understanding my true limiters and how that applies to my race selection and schedule. I still have to temper my ambition when setting up the race schedule as this year will be another tough one schedule wise. I've got the opportunity to get some great jobs this year and have to be careful not to make any unnecessary compromises.


The focus this year will be Xterra, with a handfull of city tri training races. We've been talking a bit about gaining some more specialized strength. One thing I've noticed is that I don't have much raw leg strength. A better balance of fast twitch muscle is what I'm after. This will put me in the gym a little more often and should begin to transform me into a more powerful type of athlete able to absorb the more intense bursts consistent with off road racing. I am also going to try and gain some leg strength on the trails by doing more straight hiking to improve strength and minimize impact.

As for the training I have been doing, it's simply what I can get in. So far it's been a couple of 30-40 min. runs, 2-3 short swims 30-45 min. focused on drills/DPS and one ride. The rides mostly going to and from picking up my van from the shop. Killing two birds. I've got the luxury now of getting in two full rest days/week which is refreshing.

On the nutrition front. I've got a pretty firm goal of dropping 5 lbs and getting down to a race weight of 155 by mid April. "It's a performance thing" -Peter Reid. I just picked up Joe Friel's book "Paleo Diet for Athletes." I've just started it and I'm pretty well aligned with what he's saying. His hypothesis is basically based on Low glycemic, nutrient dense foods with the exception of during and post-exercise allowances for higher glycemic foods to take advantage of insulin response. I was looking at some of the suggested daily plans and they look a lot like how I learned to eat during my cancer treatment. Both are focused on promoting healing and maximizing nutrient absorption.

I am expecting things to start heating up mid October wher I expect to start getting specific workouts from Jim. I'm going up to Warner Springs this weekend for a family weekend and will get in some fun workouts and should have some photos and details to post.