In a few days it will be 10 years since I started this crazy lifestyle, as I remember it was December 23, 2002.

To the best of recollection, this is the chain of events that happened in that time period:

December 2002 I weighed 195 lbs, wanted to be a better hockey player and lose some weight.  I thought that 165 lbs would be a realistic goal for me and it was for that time.

I started running 1 mile every other day doing my best to keep my HR at 145bpm.  From everything I read back then that was the HR I was supposed to run at to get started.  The day after running I hurt so bad that I could barely walk, my friends at work laughed at me, said I wouldn't keep it up but I did.  After a few weeks the soreness went away and I was running 2 miles at a time.

To keep a HR of 145 I remember running about 13 minute miles, that would be painfully slow today but evidently I was in pretty bad shape back then.  I remember when I broke 10 minute miles consistently on training runs, I was pretty happy, I think that was in May of 2003.

By June of 2003 I was about 160 lbs, a remarkable weight loss I thought (still do) and felt so much better.  I was playing hockey much stronger and had my first race in June.  The race was the Seahorse Triathlon, I did the sprint which was 500 yard swim, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.  I have the results somewhere but I remember finishing near last in my AG with a horrible swim, decent bike and just under 30 minutes for the 5K run.  I was actually pretty happy with that.

Swimming was difficult for me to learn on my own.  In hindsight I should have found someone to teach me but I didn't know anyone that swam so I learned from books.  Total Imersion was the first one I read, it was good to get me going and I did the drills religiously.  I started swimming in January of 2003 and it took me until April to be able to stroke and breathe together...I wasn't good at it.  I found a wetsuit on Ebay that fit OK but wound up buying one at Bikesport a few weeks before the race, it was a good thing I did cuz I really needed it.  The first race I was scared and slow, I backstroked a lot of it, by the second race a month later I was just slow.

Biking had come easy to me, I had been doing it for a long time and was confident in my ability.  Riding in the aerobars was comfortable and fun, I really liked it.

I'll finish more thoughts later

Wells Fargo Morgantown Mountaineer Triathlon

Another points race done and I've got two weeks off from racing so I can get more work done.  I've been ~750 TSS for the last two weeks which has kept me fairly fresh for racing but not too light that I'd be losing fitness.  Now I'm planning on holding myself near 800 to 850 until I get about ten weeks out from Redman.

This race went pretty well, I've never been to this venue before and didn't really know what to expect.  It's funny how much better I can do at a race I've been to before, this one was a little suprising.

The swim was slightly long, not a bad thing since I swim OK, I was 6th out of the water at 29:55. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511766 Normally I'm a 22-23 min wetsuit swimmer so this was probably pushing 1800 meters.  Since I swam at the front so this was fairly uneventfull.  I found a pair of feet to follow early and it was a good fit for me but I lost him on the second loop while swimming through the people starting the Half and appear to have lost about a minute to him.  The only incident that I had was after passing someone that was doing the half, that person swam inside of my turn bouy (he had to go out a little further) and I ran him over after making my turn.  Not a dunk or anything, I just went over his back, really didn't mean it I just didn't see him as I was breathing to my right at that time.

The bike was a bit hilly and I calculated that it would take me about 1:15 to do it, I was close at 1:18:46. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511781 Since I wanted to have a good run I had to have a good bike plan and that was to ride up the hills near 240-250 watts and bomb the downhills.  I'm good at bombing downhills and this course made that easy since it was so straight.  The plan went really well but there was this lady driving a white Intrepid that passed me then waited behind some slower bikers and wouldn't pass them even when the road was clear to do so.  Then she would pass them and wait behind someone else.  This happed four times on the second loop, finally after passing her the fourth time I just rode out a little from the shoulder of the road so she wouldn't pass me again.  The downhills were fast.  I got up over 53mph, I think that's the fastest I've ever gone on a bike.  After getting back to transition I was wondering if I should have gone harder.

The run went pretty good for me and I think it was the best pace I've done in quite a while, I came in at 44:56 (6.27 miles). http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511797  I averaged 7:10's for the run (which was slightly long but that's OK).  The last two races I went out really hard and tried to hold it, this time I wanted to start a little easier and keep the pace near goal pace which was 7:05 to 7:10.  That seemed to work much better as I wasn't winded at the start like I had been at Deer Creek and Maumee Bay and I never struggled to hold pace either.  The Garmin link shows a bit of an elevation change but I really didn't think it went up and down that much, it was a lot like running on Hines drive, very very gently rolling, I suppose it could have though.  The double out and back 10K was nice for spectators and the trail was a really nice run.  It was probably one of the nicest run venues that I've been to.

So overall a 2:35:23 which was good enough to get me 1st in AG and 9th overall.  Swim 6th, bike 10th and run 14th which is a little out of character for me on the bike, that's why I was thinking I should have gone a little harder on the bike.

Maumee Bay Olympic distance Triathlon

Raced last weekend again and had a pretty good race.
Race went well 2:10:30 something, fastest I've ever gone in an Olympic Tri

Swim http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009146
Swim went well, It was a wetsuit swim, I was surprisingly quick from the start, 22:3X.  Nobody wanted to line up in front so I did and got to clear water quickly.  Something about HFP races is that your time starts when you run over the timing mat so instead of 100 people getting on line and starting next to eachother it's spread out a little.  A weaker swimmer that wants to start in back isn't losing time by starting 30 seconds later and staying out of the scrum.  I think it makes for a safer swim.

Anywho, the swim was uneventful and was over quickly, mid 22's with a wetsuit seems normal for me so it was not exceptional in any way.

Bike http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009153
Bike was completely flat and was a PR course, I was really trying to go under an hour but missed it by a little bit 1:00:50, might have tried a little too hard.  Power was a little high in the beginning and I had to dial it down a little.  There wasn't much wind at all, maybe 5 to 10 mph, so I was ~24 with the wind and 27 with the wind.  Flat courses tend to favor me and it appears that this one did.

Run http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009165
Run was almost a carbon copy from the last race, I could be dissapointed but it was in the high 80's this time so about 15 degrees warmer than Deer Creek. Better/Same kind of hard to tell but I didn't leave anything out on the course. I was kind of winded from the start, sagged a little in the middle then picked it up. 45:11. A race PR on a tough training week I'm happy with.
Finished 9th overall and 2nd in AG about a minute behind first place. Competition was a little weak like Deer Creek but the Elite Masters didn't go much faster.

A few picts from Deer Creek

Me on the left

My feet are in my shoes so it's probably at the bike turnaround for the second loop

I race the Olympic distance triathlon at Deer Creek yesterday and was somewhat pleased with the results. I still don’t feel like I’m back to 100% after racing Triple T and didn’t have high expectations for this race because of that.
This race is the first one of a series of Olympic distance races that HFP puts on. I’ve never done this particular race before but I have done the HIM in September a few times so I am familiar with the course. It’s not a particularly fast course in my opinion but still one that suits me well.

First the swim was very choppy, not 1 foot wave choppy but like 6 or 8 inch choppy that was very irregular. I got bounced around a little bit but I can swim in conditions like that without issue unlike many people there that popped their head up every 5th stroke or so. I really didn’t expect that but I think it made it the swim a stronger event for me. The results are not up yet but according to my watch I was 26:25 into transition, that’s not great but OK considering the conditions.

One mistake I made was that normally I will run out of the water a ways before I take my wetsuit top off (Desoto pullover), I did that this time but while doing so I had to run up some steps and couldn’t do both at the same time. I may have lost 10 second or so because of that.

I was into transition fairly quickly and off on the bike. It was a long transition area and busy so I didn’t click off my watch when I exited, I remembered about a mile down the road. The bike was fairly flat and windy, I think it’s been windy every time I’ve been there for the half and this was no different. Fortunately a windy course suits me very well as I’m very small on the bike. I had a goal of riding just over 200 watts and did just that. I wasn’t holding back but wasn’t really pushing it tremendously hard either. I passed a lot of people out there, some of who would pass me back on the run. There were two hard spots on each loop of the course, one 90 foot climb and one 80 foot climb. They weren’t killer hills or anything but they were big enough to disrupt the rhythm and slow me down maybe 2 minutes or so.

Bike Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313336

I came into the park probably a little too easy but I was trying to get my last gel in and take my feet out of my shoes at the same time. I was also going a little too fast at the dismount line for my liking and almost tripped up, it was kind of funny to me but I don’t think anyone else noticed, it was really a perfect dismount.

I had a fairly quick transition again and off on the run where I started off chasing some young guy but eventually he ran away from me. I was winded from the start but ran through it and kept a steady pace throughout the run. On the turn-around I saw someone I knew and wanted to beat and that motivated me to go as hard as I could, because of that I wound up negative splitting the run by ~20 seconds on what I thought was a so-so run for me. In hindsight, after going through my previous race results I found that it was actually my second fastest Olympic distance run I’ve ever done so I have to be happy with that since I went into the race feeling like I was about 90%.

Run Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313355

So overall I was 2:16.xx and that’s a normal race result for me, good enough for 2nd place in AG for the day and some points in the series. The first guy went 1:57.xx so he was way out front.

Triple T race report
Another good race at the American Triple T this year. Some bad stuff happened but mostly good stuff resulted :)
Race 1

The warm water was nice as I could wear my sleeveless wetsuit but not be too warm. The water temp was ~73° F so it was a change from the past few years of high 50’s and low 60’s.
The swim went well, I was fairly fast and comfortable, no problems. The swim exit was closer to transition this year which was nice, but I didn’t have much time to take my wetsuit top off before the entrance to T1. I still had it off in time but had to hurry.
On the bike I felt pretty good, mounting went well and rode up the hill pretty strong. Descending the hill was fast and had a quick transition to the run.

On the run I was a bit winded as normal, I’m not a fast runner but I’ll take a 7:02 for a 1.05 mile run.

The only bad thing about this race was that I hurt my heel on the long run into transition and it slowed my down just a little near the end of the run. I was also a little worried that it was be a problem on Saturday and Sunday.

Race 2

This is where it starts getting interesting. The swim went very well, I was happy with the effort and it was uneventful. I came out of the water in good shape, had a fast transition and was off on the bike. I had one little hiccup on the bike where I dropped my chain to the outside and then wrapped it around my crank. I had to stop and fix it so I did not tear it up. Because of that I lost about 45 seconds which was reflected in my final results. With that behind me I ran fairly quickly and on schedule for my run. I was about 49 minutes for the run which was just a little faster than last year. Overall I was 2:27:55 which was almost 2 minutes slower than last year. I can attribute that to a longer swim and the bike issue.

Race 3

This race was nearly a carbon copy of last year. 2:32:55 this year and 2:32:30 last year. The bike I felt strong on but rode conservative, the swim was strong despite the longer course and the run was just a little faster than last year. All I really wanted to do was set myself up for the Half on the next day so I didn’t push it that hard. Statistically I normally do better in this race than all of the others but that wasn’t the case this year. The only issue on this race was that I got kicked on the swim and had a little bit of a black eye because of it.

Race 4

This is where the race starts. I had to hold back just enough on Saturday to put down a decent race and place well on the overall. My primary goal was to do at least as well as last year and the secondary goal was to beat 5:35 so I could use it as a qualifying race for the USAT Long course nationals. Going under 5:35 is normally not a problem but this is one of the hardest half’s in the country and I did 3 races in the 2 day prior. It didn’t start off too good…

First of all I was sick to my stomach on Saturday night and had to force myself to eat, it was not pleasant. I figured that I would feel better in the morning, which I did, a little bit.

In the morning I got up as planned, had everything ready to go but still felt a little sick. My normal breakfast includes Pop tarts because they are easy to eat and have a lot of calories, I had to force myself to eat two of them. How bad do you have to feel when eating Pop tarts is difficult?

Anywho, after eating them I rolled down to transition and put down a bottle of Infinit hot weather mix and felt a little better. That normally does the trick but still I only had about 650 calories by then which was about 400 short of where I wanted to be.

I had to get the job done so I put down my two gels before the start (30 min and 15 min beforehand) and was off. Like normal I felt better after about 200 yards of swimming and had a fairly uneventful swim except that I almost threw up near the swim exit. I came out of the water near 27:45 so I knew the swim was short. That was good cuz it gave me a little breathing room for the qualifying time.

After another fast transition (they were good all weekend) I was off on the bike with the goal of riding a 3:06 or better. I really wanted to ride something like a 1:34 then a 1:32 like I did two years ago so I started off conservative. I know these courses pretty well so I know where to go hard and where to coast downhill, that worked out pretty well as I came in from the first loop at 1:32 still fairly fresh. On the second loop I road just a little bit more aggressive on the hills and came in ~1:30:30 so together I rode about 3.5 minutes faster than last year. Doing math in my head I figured I needed to run something like a 2:02 to be under the 5:35 goal which shouldn’t have been any problem.

The nutrition on the bike went well. I started with a gel 15 minutes in and then one every 30 minutes until 2 hours where I ate one early and stayed on the 30 minute cycle. To drink I had one bottle of Infinit on the first loop followed by a second bottle on the second loop. Unlike previous years I only carried one bottle at a time, I just felt I didn’t need more and I was right.

After riding well I was into T2, which was probably my slowest transition at 1:39, and off to a good run. The first half I ran in 55:40 but had some rocks stuck in my shoe so I dug them out at the turn around. That took me about 30 seconds and I was off on my second loop. I felt pretty good but wanted to run conservative so I short stepped the first mile and a half and felt surprisingly well. I got up the hills pretty good, down the backside and then back up in good shape. When I got to the top and knew it was all downhill from there, I picked up the pace, a little too fast at first then settled in at a good clip. I ran strong for the last mile which took me into a 1:52:07 finish, a good run there for me.

So with the combination of a slightly short swim, good bike ride and a strong run I was 5:24:40 for the half which is my best there by about 6 minutes and got me my qualifying time. Now I just need to make my final decision about going to Nationals.

The shoes that carried me through Triple T

I have a lot of shoes, most are the ladies model because I like a narrow shoe.  Here are the ones that carried through the winter and got me through Triple T.

Mizuno Wave Rider 14
I put a lot of miles on these shoes...Just under 700 according to my log.  They are my do all shoes, I can run easy, fast, tempo, intervals, indoor, outdoor, trails and just about everywhere else.  They are light enough to make my feet fast yet protect me from road shock.  While they are not a high performance shoe, they still can perform in a pinch.  The only reason I replaced them is because I was getting holes inside of them.

Asics Cumulus 13
I bought these to replace the Riders but really don't like them.  I had a pair before and they rolled well but for some reason these don't.  I've got about 200 miles in them and I'm going to relegate them to every day duty.  They are very good quality shoes, it's just the feel isn't quite right with them.

Saucony Fastwitch 4
These have been my go to shoe for fast running for quite some time now.  This particular pair only has about 100 miles on them but this is my 5th pair and I still like them.  They are suprisingly spongy but light and fast.  The pair before these I did all but one of my Xterra races in as well as Battle of Waterloo and a few road races.  They protect my feet from small debris and are fairly grippy but they don't do so well on small rocks.  The small rocks seem to poke through and hurt my feet so they don't work on gravel roads.  Single track trails and road running are just fine.

Saucony A4
These are fast shoes, very light and let air flow through them.  They work well for really fast training but I don't like to run much more than 6 miles in them unless I'm racing and that should be on some pretty good pavement.  I did my best 10K in them and did the prolouge at the Triple T in them.  I like them but the road has to be right for them.

Asics DS Racer
These are the only men's running shoes that I have, all of the others are ladies shoes cuz I like a narrower shoe.  These are fairly new shoes to me and I bought them strictly for Triple T.  The Fastwitch don't have enough protection in them for the rocky road but these do.  Like the Fastwitch and the A4 they have holes in the soles to let water out so my feet stay dryer.  They just don't feel as fast as the Fastwitch but are another great shoe.  I suppose the fact that I did my fastest run at the half at Triple T on them could make someone say otherwise but if I could have worn a different shoe I would have.  Maybe when I get some more miles in them I'll like them more, right now they will be my tuesday night brick shoe until I run them out.

Mizuno Wave Rider 15
Brand new today, I ran about 6 miles in them and they feel great.  I got them to replace the Asics Cumulus.

Sidi T2.6 Carbon
Last but not least...My bike shoes, two years old now, I still think Sidi is the best despite their price.  These like the pair before them, I got a great deal on so I keep on riding with them.  With any luck I'll find a great deal on my next pair.  Stiff and comfortable they fit my feet perfect, I don't think I've every had a better pair of bike shoes.

Plans for the rest of the season

I am going to do the HFP Olympic distance series again in Ohio like I did in 2009, I've already paid for it.  I'll miss one race to do Battle of Waterloo in August.  I may also do the He tried, She tried sprint distance with Karen it timing works out, I think that is in July.

The one big change I'm debating on is instead of doing the half at Cedar Point I'm thinking of going to Long Course Nationals again.  I was pretty ticked off the last time I went because the swim was cancelled but it appears that that was a blessing in disguise...The swim was cancelled at ITU Long Course Worlds too.  Here is my short post about it LINK

This year Long Course Nationals is in Oklahoma (Redman) qualifying for Worlds in 2013 in France.  I've never been to Europe before and this may be a good time to go.  I age up to 45-49 this year and I think it's my best opportunity to make Team USA.  What I need to do is get a qualifying race to get into Nationals, since I did Xterra last year I don't have a later season Half on the books.  I need a 5:35 to get in and I'm pretty sure I can do that at Triple T, I've done better than that the last two years.  If I don't then I'll have to find a flat local race to qualify at, it shouldn't be any problem.

After Triple T I'll make my decision but I'm really leaning toward Nationals again.

Oops...I forgot about my swimming

Well, swimming is going OK.  I came off of state meet fitness going into HFP camp and was swimming really well.  Now I've cut my swim volume to about 2 swims a week with the occasional 3rd.  I've noticed about a 5 sec/100 drop in times but I've also been really tired going into all of the swims.

I feel that when I'm rested I'll be able to swim nearly as fast as I was just after state meet in March but right now the biggest focus is on the bike and next is the run.

Starting the taper for Triple T

According to WKO+ I'm at least 6 weeks ahead in training volume compared to last year which was a few weeks ahead of the year before it. Is that good? I'll see next sunday if more training volume equals better fitness and/or better racing.

Here is why I'm so far ahead of last year:

There are a few factors why I'm ahead of last year, First the weather was much milder this winter and allowed me to train outside earlier than expected. I planned to put more time into running this year like I did last year but got derailed a few times. Still with all those issues I was still running stronger than last year.

Second, I signed up for a training camp with HFP in late March and had to prep for it. (3/26 to 4/1) I knew that the camp was going to be hard and got more bike time in beforehand, the milder weather helped but knowing I had to prepare made me start earlier this season. About the Camp...It was hard...much harder than I anticipated, here is a note I sent to my coach 2 weeks after the camp: _____________________________________________

The camp down in Georgia really shattered me, while I was able to do most things you gave me for the following week I was really tired for all of them and was sleeping 10 hours a day to recover.

I took last saturday off cuz I had some personal business and did a longer run, bike, run workout on sunday. It really wasn't until yesterday (thursday) that I started to feel better and back to normal.

Anywho, the camp was too much volume for me, there were 3 guys there that were much stronger riders than me, 2 that were a little better and everyone else was way behind me. Most all of the climbs I had to settle in near threshold power to save myself for the next climb and the next day. Some were so steep that I could barely turn the pedals over while standing (15-20%), most were comfortably hard (~5-7%) if I kept the power reasonable. I could decend with the faster guys with no problem even though I've never been in the mountains on a road bike before. On the runs, I was always at the front of the groups and there was nobody there that could swim with me (3 pool sessions).

Last week I kind of just went through the motions of the workouts, I skipped monday and wednesday's swims, friday and saturday didn't go well. Sunday I did a 5 mile run, 2 hour bike and then 5 mile run. I felt OK but struggeled to go faster on the second run.

This week has been much better, Wednesday was OK but the new shoes I have don't run very fast, it seems that I run 10-15 sec a mile slower in them (asics cumulus, I normally wear Mizuno Riders) I really don't like them. Yesterday I ran in my flats and felt so much faster. Tuedsay and Thursday bike rides went well.

Today's run went OK for an easy run and I might ride long today since there is supposed to be quite a bit of rain this weekend and I want to get the bike time in. I'll send data on sunday after the long run. jaretj _______________________________________________

As you can see I was blasted from the camp and really thought that I had made a mistake in going. The biking was so hard there was no way I could stay with the leaders, I road at threshold (3.6 W/Kg) up all of the climbs, some were several miles long and the leaders just road away, yes they were working hard but I would have probably had to be over 4 W/Kg to stay with them. All I could do was go as hard as I could and follow Mark L (if I could) cuz he was riding smart and just above my level. We road 315 miles in 5 days with over 30,000 feet of climbing. I'm going to try to make a seperate post about the camp.

Now the swimming and running were a bit different...On the runs I just stayed with the leaders, not expelling too much energy because I knew we had a lot of riding to do. They weren't running that hard anyway and it was nice not to be killing myself trying to stay with them. On the swims I just went through the motions and stayed even with the faster swimmers. I couldn't believe that most of them wore fins during the swim but I could still stay with them without any extra effort. (That's why I said there was nobody there that could swim with me)

Now the last reason why I'm ahead of last year is that I was really prepped for my Triple T camp and road that strong. I knew all of the courses and concentrated on riding the hills hard. Karen and I (and Curt) went down there on thursday evening and were able to get in 2 good rides on Friday and Saturday with a very strong ride on Sunday too. I didn't blast myself because I kept down the run volume that weekend and wound up staying near 1000 TSS points (in WKO).

So it took me about 10 days to feel like I was back to training well after the HFP camp in Georgia. Since then my longer tempo intervals have been +/- a few seconds off 7 min/mile and my biking has been a lot stronger. In the past I would have a very difficult time running under 7 min/mile while deep in training, now it's difficult but I have been able to do 40 minutes worth of tempo work on wednesdays.

On the bike I tested 225 watts for 20 minutes back in February (FTP 215), just last tuesday I did 3X15'(2') at 229,228,228 so there is a definit improvement there. It's at a point now that I may call my FTP 230 watts even before I test for it, previously I've only been as high as 225 at the end of the last two seasons and it's only May :)

So now going into the last 10 days before Triple T I feel strong and have a lighter training weekend waiting for me. As long as I don't do something and hurt myself I should do as well as last year.

The weather is starting to get better :)

I need more bike time!!!

Going to camp in a few weeks and I would really like to be on the bike 7 to 8 hours per week for the two weeks leading up to the camp. The last 3 weeks have been 5+ hours and I feel pretty good but I haven't had any rides longer than 35 miles yet. The weather looks like it will finally allow me to go longer this week :)

Swimming has been a little low cuz I've been tired on Monday's after running long on Sunday but I got back into the groove this week.

Running is going well, 37 miles this week with some hard tempo intervals on wednesday. I need to keep up on that so I don't lose what I have.

Still things are going well, 3 solid week behind me with a few more to go until I go down to Georgia for a week with the HFP guys.

Swim
While still not a big focus I am swimming better than last year (which happened to be my best so far). I'm not a great swimmer but do OK. A week ago Karen and I went to a start and turn clinic at a local YMCA, I knew my turns were pretty good but it's the starts that I really needed help with. I know part of what I'm doing wrong but there is a lot I don't know about how to get off the blocks.

Probably the number one thing I do wrong is that I bend my legs while going into the water. I know I do it, I concentrate on not doing it but it still happens about 80% of the time. Another problem is that I don't bend at the hips enough to go into the water in really straight, I do more of a shallow dive and make a big hole in the water and I think that really slows me down.

Other than that I can get in the water without losing my goggles and something like a half sec behind my competition, maybe a full second behind someone that is really good.

The training has going well, there has been a swim meet at my local pool for the last two weekends so I haven't been able to swim on friday, that's OK since I've used that time to get another bike session.

Bike
I've been increasing bike time slowely but it's hard to get in extra time while on the trainer. I've gotten 4.75, 4.75 and 5.2 hours on the bike for the last 3 weeks, all but one ride on the trainer. The weather is supposed to be getting better this week and hopefully I can get some time on the road.

I did a FTP test two weeks ago and while I didn't do as well as I'd hoped I did do what I figured I'd do. 225 watts for the 20 minute period which puts my FTP ~215 watts. So It appears normal for this time of year and I kind of expected it while only riding ~3.5 hours a week for an extended period of time. I've gotten an extra ride in on the last two fridays and I think that will help me out some.

Run
A lot of work is going into this right now, the last 3 weeks have been at 36.5, 38 and 41 miles. It appears I'm done with VO2 intervals for now and into tempo intervals. While I'm able to do them they are a different kind of hard running. A lot of running in the low 7's is quick for me but I know doing them will help me out a lot. A big focus on Olympic distance this summer is probably why my coach is giving them to me.

Most of my running has been inside on a treadmill or on the track at LRC but with the weather getting better I'm hoping to do more running on the road now. :)

Everything is getting back on track

I got a little cold two weekends ago, most likely cuz I have been getting little sleep. Not because I couldn't I just was staying up and watching TV too late. Since I get up for work at 430am I really need to be in bed by 830 to get enough effective sleep.

I missed a few swims and swam two events in a swim meet while sick but am back on track now.

Swim meet at Brighton High School:
Our club "FAST" hosted a masters' swim meet on Feb 5th, Superbowl Sunday, and I had to be there to help run the timing system. I was already signed up for the meet so since I was there I swam my events as scheduled and just kept the option open to bail out if I felt too bad.

I swam the 1500 and the 400 free and while I didn't expect to do my best I did put down some good times for me at this time of year. The best I have ever swam the 1500 is 23:54, I seeded myself at 23:45 and came in at 23:45.57 so I was happy with that being sick and all.
The 400 went pretty well, I swam 5:58.16 which is about a half second slower than my best from 2008. While I'm not the fastest swimmer I did have a strategy...swim the first 100 strong, keep a good pace for the second 100, try to make the third 100 the fastest I could go and do my best to hold the pace for the last 100. I went according to plan and it appeared to work well for me.

Anywho, back to training stuff:
Swmming: Going OK, nothing new, I've been able to bring my pull sets in at 1:15/100 and leave on 1:30 pretty consistantly but swimming without them has been nearly the same. This week I seemed more tired than usual but probably just as fast as I've ever gone.

Biking is going OK, nothing new either. I've been basing my interval effort on 225 watts but that is probably a little high right now since I've been riding just under 4 hours a week. Last week I was just under 5 hours cuz I was able to ride outside on friday. I got my road bike finished and rode it for the first time on friday but only for about an hour.

Running going well, the last two weeks have been ~36 miles with short intervals on wednesday and longer intervals on sunday's long run.

So all together I'm doing well but I want to get more time on the bike so I may cut my friday swim and start riding on that day. I've got 5 weeks before my Camp with HFP down in Georgia and I don't want to go there unprepared to ride the distances on the schedule. Ideally I would like to be near 7 hours for 3 week before the camp.

Jan 31 2012 - 56° outside :)

I got to bike and run outside today

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146241386

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146241391

week ending 1/29/12

Training went well except I was a little tired at the end of the week from going to bed too late.

I missed the swim on monday because I was out of town but I did get a good run in on the Rec center track in the evening. I also missed the short swim on friday cuz I was very sleepy. The wed and sat swim I felt fairly strong.

Tues, Thurs, Sat bike went as planned and felt OK during those sessions. Not strong or weak, just kind of in the middle.

Running went well...Wednesday's intervals started conservative but ended as planned, Sunday's intervals in the long run went well too. Junk mile days were OK...I was tired on friday.

I've lost a little bit of weight, I've been 143 lbs 3 times last week so ~3 lbs in 2 weeks by adjusting my diet and bringing my run back up to where I was at before.

So nothing out of the ordinary other than my leg feeling better, today I'm a bit tired but that's normal for monday.

Report on wednesday's intervals

Wednesday's intervals have come and gone and I still feel pretty good. I'm just about back from the hamstring problem.

7 miles including 5X4' hard 3' easy with warm up and cool down.

Started cautiously at 6:50 then progressed a bit quicker to 6:40, 6:29, 6:22, 6:19. The target was 6:20 to 6:30 so I got there in the last 3 intervals.

Looking back at why I had a problem, here is the chain of events that preceded the issue:

I had been running really strong for several weeks (~35 mpw) and had hit all of my goals in the intervals.

Most of my interval sessions were on a treadmill where I could set the speed exactly where I wanted to.

I was on the holiday break from work so I didn't have the same treadmill available.

My exercise patterns were slightly disrupted.

I was running on the track at the Livonia Rec center on that particular day.

I didn't feel particularly strong that day, most likely cuz I had just woken up ~3 hours before and had been fairly inactive.

I didn't feel warmed up that day but had done my normal amount of warm up at 15min.

I struggled to meet the speed required for the intervals on the first two of 5X4'(2')

I just ran the next two as hard as I could even though they were slower than prescribed.

I noticed a slight pain in the back of my right leg after the second interval, kind of ignored it cuz intervals hurt anyway.

I jogged the last one cuz I couldn't make the pace.

Cooled down normally and still had the pain in my right leg.

Just a note on how I know the pace...I have a Garmin 310xt and the footpod that goes with it. That gives me run speed while indoors but on the track it reads kind of funny depending on which way we run around the track and how I'm running that day. Since it's only on one foot it appears to record the distance of that one leg and assumes the other leg is taking about the same size step, that's not necessarily true all of the time.

The way I adjust the pace for that inconsistency is that I know the track is 10 laps to a mile, on warm up I look at how the watch tracks to the number of laps, that day it was reading low, I don't really know why. With the interval function of the watch it doesn't count out miles and I was doing 15 min warm up and didn't really pay attention to how it tracked that day, it could have been 1.9 miles and only counted 1.8 miles which would put it way off for that day.

I started the intervals very aggressively mainly cuz I had done them quite a bit with good success (this is the hardest of the VO2 interval sets) but should have eased into them a little bit. Combined with the watch being slightly off and me not really warmed up I probably started off way to fast, maybe as fast as 6:10 which is really too fast for me.

With that in mind it's apparent the I didn't warm up enough, started off too hard, and ran much too fast that day. Those things were what I was trying to avoid yesterday and it appears I did a much better job.

Right leg is still feeling good

My hamstring is still feeling good. I ran a little faster today on the treadmill but still stayed cautious. 6 miles averaged 8:00 min/mile.

To keep it interesting I built the speed up to 7.2 mph then went up every .25 miles until I got to 7.5 then back down to 7.2. It passed the time quicker.

Good news!

Today is the first day of running with any kind of speedwork. My coach Mike Plumb allowed me to adjust my effort according to how my hamstring responds so I started out cautiously.

Workout is Run 6 miles include 4X4' hard 3' easy. I normally use Daniels I pace for hard and that is a 6:27 min/mile.

I ran on a treadmill and started easy at a 7:40 pace, after that I increased the pace ~20 sec/mile for the next 2 then a just a little bit for the last one. I wound up with 7:38, 7:23, 7:02, 6:53.

So far everything feels good, I got through the workout with no issues but am still going to be cautious for the next week or two.

Week ending 1/15/2012

Right leg is feeling better, I ran 6 days this week, just a little bit of pain. Ran 6 miles twice this week and ~4 miles every other day. I'm going to put a little speed in the comming wednesday.

Biking is going good, rode outside on tuesday but had to ride the trainer on thursday and saturday.

Swimming went very good this week. Swam strong on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Swam short on Saturday and swam a swim meet on Sunday.

A few new personal best times during this meet.

1000 free 13:41 which is 20 seconds faster than before. This was the first swim of the day so I was pretty fresh for it. I actually negative split the swim with a 6:52 then a 6:49.

200 free 2:26.X I wasn't going to swim this but Karen made me feel guilty about skipping it to stay fresh for the 500. Maddie said I would swim 2:25 but I let her down :( I can remember seen a 1:12.x for the first 100 so the second must have been a 1:13.x

100 free was a 1:06.4 I had a decent start and swam strong. I was actually surprised to see that.

The other race was the 500 free 6:46 which was 3 seconds off of my best. I really wanted to beat by pace from the 1000 and this was the last race of the day. I was kind of tired from swimming the 200 free and in the 4X100 relay back to back but did well anyway.

Update 1/12/12

The last few weeks have been interesting, most important is the run.

During the holidays I hurt my right hamstring during some track intervals (12/28). Things started off slow, I've been doing these for quite a while and know what I'm capable of, I appeared to struggle to hold the disired pace (<6:30) and developed a little pain in the back of my right leg.

Now this has happened before, I was running hard and expected to have some pain but this one stayed with me. When I got to the 5th rep I decided I was too tired to complete it so I just ran it out at an easier pace and completed the milage for the day. Afterwards I had the nagging pain that wouldn't go away.

I tried to run thursday with the option of bagging the run and I did. I walked about half a mile and then ran a half mile then quit. I took friday off from running.

Saturday I ran about 30 minutes and have been doing so up until last sunday (1/8) where I did 6 miles. It was feeling OK but not 100%. Monday and tuesday were 4 miles, yesterday was 6 miles and it's feeling much better. I started stretching it last sunday and putting a heating pad on it while watching TV. The reason I didn't start stretching it earlier is because I believed part of the muscle was damaged or torn, I did not want to stretch a torn muscle and tear it some more. Sunday I felt that it was time to start lengthing the muscle again so I started stretching.

Today I feel pretty good and plan to continue running easy for another week.

On the bike I've been fairly strong, not as good as before the Christmas holiday but still good, I've met all of my goal on the workouts except for last saturday where I rode outside and it was too cold for me. I came home, put the bike on the trainer and couldn't really get any motivation to finish the workout. On another note, The compact crank on that bike (with 650's) doesn't have enough gear to do zone 4 intervals with a slight tailwind and with the cadence I like to pedal at. It will not be a good choice for me to train or race with on the road.

I was able to get out on the road last tuesday too, it was a little warmer and dry. I rode the P2 for the right gearing since it has a standard crank on it.

Swimming has been going very well, it appears with my drop in run volume I'm much stronger for swimming and have been really strong in the pool. I've been consistantly bringing in 100's in 1:20 and 200's well under 2:50 so I'm pretty happy with the training.

I'm swimming a meet at EMU this weekend. I've signed up for the 1000, 500, 200 and 100 free but I really want a good 1000 and 500 time.