jaretj's blog

Jan 31 2012 - 56° outside :)

2012-01-31T19:30:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-30T05:00:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-26T05:46:00.004-05:00

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

2012-01-20T20:21:00.003-05:00

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!

2012-01-18T05:55:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-15T20:20:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-12T05:56:00.003-05:00

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.

Yay!!! It was warm enough for me to run outside

2011-12-19T21:10:00.002-05:00

I'm working a lot of half days this week so I'm not running on the treadmill. Today it was almost 50°F so I ran on Hines drive :)

Swim went well too, don't know why but I swam pretty strong today. I got in the pool a little later than normal so I had to split the lane with others :(

Week ending 12/18/11

2011-12-18T20:14:00.000-05:00

Legs feeling much better this week, I did all of my easy runs easier than before. Instead of building the speed through the runs I kept the treadmill down at 8:10 to 8:20 on monday, tuesday and friday.

I did have a run issue during the week...I didn't eat very much on tuesday night which left me unable to complete my intervals on wednesday morning. I got through two of the intervals and then bagged the rest of the workout. I was completely out of energy that day. I completed the intervals as planned on thursday morning.

Swimming is going OK, I bagged wednesday's swim and swam longer on friday to make up the yards. I'm still able to come in low 1:20's on 100's, a lot of this week's workouts will be on a 1:35 send off so It will be a little harder.

Biking is going well, I'm still doing ~1:10 per workout and trying to keep in the highest part of each training zone. Saturday I had several 2 min Zone 5 intervals which I have not done well on in the past, I was able to start at the low end and finish them at the higher end of the zone. I'm really hoping to bring my FTP up well over 230 this summer which should get me near 3.7 watts/Kg. Ideally I would like to be closer to 4.0 but that may still be a year or two away. If I can get those 10 watts I think I will be able to get closer to 3 hrs at the Little Smokies on the bike and still have a good run.

The only real concern I have now is my weight again. I'm a little heavier than expected and have started my food log again (not the online one) to help me realize how much I'm eating.

Legs feeling better now

2011-12-13T20:44:00.003-05:00

My legs have been pretty sore for the last two weeks despite my reduced off-season volume. I have been pretty consistent with running 6 days a week but have recently started biking a bit harder.

Because of that I think I've not been able to recover. Starting this week I decided to run my junk mile days easier like I probably should be. Instead of pushing monday and tuesday to mid 7 min/miles on the treadmill I've kept it in the low 8's.

Today I felt much better on the bike and now afterwards I'm not nearly as sore. Hopefully this is the solution to that problem.

With the 100/100 challenge starting on ST in 2 days I might actually bump up to 7 days. Most likely I will only be running 30 min on saturday in addition to what I'm doing now but that also depends on how I feel.

What I'm working on now

2011-12-11T18:14:00.002-05:00

Like last winter I'm spending a lot of my time working on my running. I can run a long time but not really that fast so I'm doing something about it.

The recent 10K of 42:28 shows that the work has been paying off. I probably won't get another 10K in until the spring when it gets warmer. I'm been debating on a goal but instead of that I might just going to work on speed and whatever I get is whatever I get. I would like to be under 40 min but I'm not sure if that attainable. I'm going to need to drop from 6:51 to 6:27 or ~24 seconds per mile. I'm thinking that's a pretty tall order and maybe going under 41 min would be a better goal, that would be running 6:35's.

Ultimately I need to go as fast as I can in triathlon so without goals I won't be disappointed or held back. Since paces are set by recent results all of my speed work stimulate improvement.

My basic running week goes like this:
Mon run 4 miles
Tue run 5 miles
Wed run 6 miles with VO2 intervals
Thu run 4 miles
Fri run 6 miles
Sat off from running
Sun run long (12 miles now)

Running during the week is mostly on the easy side. I run a little easier on monday and thursday to help recover from the hard workouts, the other runs are a little quicker pace but not quite fast. I'll run as fast as 7:30's on tuesday and friday but no faster.

I'm doing this while still training on the bike and in the water. Swimming is still going well. When I get the workouts for this week I may change the paces depending on how I feel.

On the bike I'm riding pretty hard and only doing the prescribed workout, I am not addding any extra so I can kill the intervals. I'm using 225 for an FTP and am hitting the top of the zones so I'll keep them there for now. They are hard but I'm not ready to raise them yet.

I plan to keep the volume of the swim and bike the same until it's time to get ready for Triple T which happens to be ~23 weeks away. When I get closer I would really like to get 10+ hours on the bike for ~10 weeks while keeping the swimming the same.

Week ending 12/11/11

2011-12-11T15:13:00.003-05:00

Pretty good week with 6 days of running 3 days of swimming and 3 days of biking.

Swimming:
Made all of my intervals but had to swim at Schoolcraft on saturday because of a swim meet going on at the Rec Center. Water was normally warm but still a decent workout. Dropped some of my send off times to 1:35.

Biking:
3 days, made the top of all the intervals everything going well. A little twitch in my left quad had me a little worried but I've been training through it. It's not really unexpected since I've been going harder on the bike.

Running:
All indoors on the treadmill and the LRC track. Wednesday's intervals went as planned although they were tough. I had a little twitch in my left calf as well but like in my quad, I'm training through it as well.

165 Cranks

2011-12-07T06:11:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention that Last tuesday (11/29) I started riding with 165mm cranks on my Felt S32 which is on my trainer right now. I don't know if they are better for me or not but I have been putting out slightly more power in the last week.

It could be that I'm fairly well focused on bike training right now or it could be that they work better for me. After about 6 weeks (mid January 2012) I'll change back to the 170's and see if there is a difference.

Thoughts on week ending 12/4/11

2011-12-05T06:24:00.001-05:00

Swim
I Felt tired on Monday, swam about 1000 yards and then got out, don’t know why.
Wednesday swim went well, felt strong in the water despite the hard run earlier in the day. I skipped Friday’s short swim because I had stuff to do.
Saturday swim went well despite feeling tired; I made or beat all of my intervals. Finished the week with 8000 yards

Bike
Since I was on the trainer all week I just wanted to get the work done so I did not try to extend any of the rides for junk miles. When starting I warmed up until I felt my muscles burning slightly, turned on the fan and rode another 5 minutes. After that I went into the planned workout. All of them went well. Finished the week with 3:40 on the bike.

Run
Still working on speed
Mon 4 miles on Treadmill
Tue 5 miles on Treadmill
Wed 6 miles with intervals on Treadmill
Thu 3.7 miles (30 minutes) on Treadmill
Fri 6 miles and was able to run outside
Sun 12 miles on LRC track
Felt OK all week, Wednesday’s intervals were good mainly because they were short, Sunday I felt strong and negative split the run by a few minutes.

2012 race schedule

2011-11-29T10:10:00.001-05:00

I’ve planned most of my schedule for next year and have paid for some of it early to save some money.

Races/Events for next year (2012) include:

HFP training Camp from 3/26 to 4/1 (paid)
Dooby Du on 4/15 (maybe)
Triple T Camp from 5/4 to 5/6
Triple T Ohio 5/18 to 5/20 (A race) (paid)
The HFP racing series including (paid)
---Deer Creek 6/3
---Maumee Bay 6/17
---Mountaineer 6/24
---Caesar Creek 7/15
---East Fork 8/5 (maybe)
---Portage Lake 9/16
He tried She tried sprint partner race 7/22 (maybe)
Battle of Waterloo 8/19 (paid)
Allen’s elite race 9/15 (maybe)
Rev 3 Cedar Point Half 9/9 (A race)

And depending on how things go and how I feel I may go to Long Course Nationals again, this time it’s at the Redman Tri in Oklahoma City

I think I’m going to get away from facebook and start putting my thoughts here again.

2011-11-29T09:47:00.001-05:00

I was looking at an update I did on November 5th 2010 and wanted to report on how things went.

Swimming did go very well, I had the best State Meet to date. I PR’d in the 1650, 1000, 500 and did OK in the shorter events. I even found out that eating Jimmy Johns before the 500 helps me swim better. I don’t know why but I swim well on a half full stomach.

Base time is on the brink of changing from 1:40 to 1:35 and I’m still killing the intervals. My shoulders feel good and I’m normally enthused about swimming. Most of the time I’m swimming ~ 2400 yds on Monday and Wednesday, short on Friday and longer on Saturday.

I was on the Mountain Bike a lot last summer, mostly 2 to 3 times a week getting ready for Xterra races, I got a lot better at it. I was on the road at least one time a week for the Tuesday brick where I did intervals with Gary and Jim during the bike portion. Despite not being on the road that much I still got faster there as well. In fact after losing muscle mass in my legs in the winter of 2009/10 I appear to have gained it back last summer and am currently holding in the lower 140’s instead of the upper 130’s.

Biking is kind of on the back burner right now since I’m seriously working on my 10K run speed. I will be 3 hours a week for a few months now, will probably build back up in February.

Running is where it’s at for me right now. I’ve been consistently getting in 35+ miles per week and getting faster. I did very well last summer but because of poor race execution in a few of my Xterra races it didn’t show like it should have.

Races with good running in them last year include the Martian Half Marathon 1:36:30, Dooby Duathlon where I run under 7:00 pace for all of the legs, Waterloo tri where I finished 5th OA, Battle of Waterloo where I finished 7th OA, Xterra Wild’s where I ran really strong on the trails and the Ann Arbor Turkey trot 10K where I ran a 42:28. I’m going to continue to work on run speed until it’s time to get back to triple-t training.

Xterra races I did this year:
Xterra Ft Yargo that I crashed out of.
Xterra Torn Shirt was a good race for me
Xterra Dino Versailles was really hot and didn’t go well
Xterra Sugar Bottom was a good race but poorly executed by me
Xterra Wild’s was a good race well executed
Xterra USA Championships was OK but did poorly on the bike, could be many reasons why but I probably had too high of expectations for the bike.

Another good week

2011-02-27T12:12:00.001-05:00

I only swam two times cuz the pool was closed on friday and saturday. There was a big swim meet going on during the weekend. I had to work saturday morning so I couldn't swim with some friends that offered me a free pass :( I'm still feeling strong in the pool. I was able to get under 1:20 for a few 100's and well under 2:50 for some 200's.

Biking is going as usual...3 hours of various intervals. I feel strong but really want to get back outside. Power zones still feel good. I'm at the top of them most of the time.

Running was a little bit higher this week cuz I ran two times on friday. Since the pool was closed I did a 30 min run in it's place. Wednesday's run had tempo intervals in it which I like a lot better than fast intervals. The long run was just a straight run and fairly boring.

New Pict on top

2011-02-22T19:16:00.002-05:00

This is from Triple T North Carolina Saturday PM race (Race 3 of 4)

I know that cuz I'm not wearing arm warmers from the morning races and I have a big water bottle for doing an Olympic dist race in the warm, dry weather.

I really had a good time at that race. 3rd in Masters is a good result for me especially since the weekend before I was 27th at Nationals. My buddy Gavin said I looked stronger at Triple T than I did at Nationals :)

An update

2011-02-22T12:03:00.004-05:00

Just a note to remind myself how I'm doing.

Swimming is going very well. I decided to ease back on the swim volume this winter and focus on running so I've been swimming 3 days a week between 2500 and 3000 yards at a time.

Things that I've noticed are:
My shoulders don't hurt anymore
I don't dread going to the pool
I get right in and kill the intervals
I'm noticeably faster now that I've ever been before

I think the reduced volume has allowed me to swim harder since I won't be going as far. It's not uncommon for me to bring 100's in under 1:20 and 200's under 2:50 when I need to. For the last few years I struggled to bring them in under 1:30 and 3:00. I swam 23:54 in a 1500 at a local swim meet, my previous best was a 24:07 :)

Biking seems to be going well too. While looking over last year's data I noticed that I'm 10 to 15 watts higher this year for the same type of intervals. I'm only doing 3 hours a week now, when the weather breaks I'll get longer rides in. Hopefully the trails will dry out quickly so I can get back on my Mountain bike too.

Running appears to be going well too. I've been consistently running 40 miles per week for the last 3 weeks and have only missed 3 days of running this year. This was cuz I hurt my ribs while snowboarding :(

The fast intervals age getting more comfortable and the tempo intervals are getting to be more fun than work. I enjoy running 7:20's (tempo) much more than before and hopefully this will translate quicker times in my short course racing and Xterra.

Speaking of Xterra, races I've planned for this season include:
Xterra Ft Yargo (Atlanta GA)
Xterra Torn Shirt (Brighton MI)
Xterra Dino Versailles (Versailles IN)
Xterra Appalachia (Indiana PA)
Xterra USA Championships (Ogden Utah) hopefully I can qualify

Other Xterra races I'm interested in but probably won't do are:
Xterra Last Stand (MI) interferes with Triple T Ohio
Xterra Scales Lake (IN) If I could ride with someone I'd go.
Xterra Sugar Bottom (IA) Long drive
Xterra DINO Logansport (IN) interferes with Battle of Waterloo on 8/14/11
Xterra Dairyland (Sheboygan WI) If I could ride with someone I'd go too.

2010-11-05T13:34:00.005-04:00

I got my new mountain bike on tuesday :)

Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29er

Screw long-course triathlon...I'm going to Xterra next season

2010-10-29T21:05:00.002-04:00

I was just informed today that I did not make the roll down for ITU worlds at Long course nationals. I missed it by 2:19, and got beat by a bunch of runners that got lucky from a cancelled swim :(

Going to focus on shorter stuff next season...mainly Xterra. When the official schedule comes out I'll put up my plans but unofficialy I'll be doing up to 6 off-road races.

Long Course Nationals

2010-05-28T06:36:00.000-04:00

I'm offically signed up for the 2010 TriSports.com Halfmax National Championship at the Myrtle Beach Triathlon on October 2, 2010.

With any luck I'll be able to qualify for the 2011 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Las Vegas on Nov 5 2011. I need to score a top 20 in my age group to make it in.

Nothing new, training as usual

2010-03-10T07:23:00.002-05:00

Just plodding through the workouts. I've been a bit tired on the swim but other than that I'm good.

The weather has been better so I've been running and biking on Hines Drive again. Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday I got decent rides in with Tuesday being much warmer. I was able to ride without my heavy coat but the other days I was bundled up pretty good.

My last 2 longer runs have been outside too which is a good change from running on the rec center track. It's been warmer in the afternoon too so I'm able to run at lunch and split my MWF run and swim workouts by a few hours.

Another week

2010-03-01T12:01:00.003-05:00

Pretty good week again with some ups and downs:

Ups...FTP test on the bike was tuesday...Went well, I started on the aggressive side and was able to hold it for the whole test period. I figured that I would be able to hold low to mid 220's for the 20 min test and I did. 223 for 20 min after the long warm up and 5 min blow out portions.

That puts me very close to where I was last year at this time but am not dreading the workouts. Last year I started in October instead of January and rode hard through the late fall/early winter.

For the sake of numbers I'm going to increase my FTP to 212 from 200 untill I'm told to do something else by Mike. (That's ~95% of 223 watts)

Downs...FTP test raised my bike training zones by 12 watts :(

Downs...I had to cut monday and wednesday swims down cuz I was so tired.

Ups...Friday I felt really good in the water again.

Downs...The two pools I have access to on Saturday were both closed :(

Ups...The two pools I have access to on Saturday were both closed :)

Ups...I was at Mt Holly on my snowboard with Gavin for 8 hours on Saturday cuz both of my pools were closed :)

Downs...The snowboarding made my saturday bike ride more difficult...but I still did well :I

Ups...I got to run outside on sunday for my long run and didn't have to circle around the track at the rec center 120 times :)

Downs...It was colder than I thought outside but still comfortable :I

Ups...I reached 143 lbs this morning and am allmost to my first goal for weight loss :)

This year so far

2010-02-22T08:47:00.006-05:00

Since just before Christmas I had taken some time off from training. I felt that I needed a break before going into the next season so a few weeks off running was in order. I still kept swimming and had a very good month of it in December.

Starting in January I got back on the bike. I started off with 30 to 60 min of easy riding to get my legs back into spinning. Along with that I started to run ~30 min 5 days a week. For the next few weeks I did my EN workouts from last year and they were just boring. I could not stand to do longer intervals near FTP and frequently missed workouts. After 3 weeks of that I decided to interview some coaches, I really had my mind set on Mike Plumb again but I needed to know what was out there.

Now I used Mike back to 2006 and in my opinion he made me much faster on the bike. I learned a lot from his workouts which took me from a 1:08 in a 40K to 1:02's. As well as that, his run program taught me how to run faster at threshold as there was much more time spent there than I had previously done. That racing season had mixed results mainly because of my poor race execution at the big race and the fact that I raced entirely too much that season. I chose to go a different way the following season for two reasons...I did not like the swim workouts and at the time Mike did not use power meters on the bike.

In 2007 I went with Matt Fitzgerald's plans to take me to IMMoo...that race had mixed results too because of my inconsistent training. I honestly do not like to do Ironman races and was very demotivated for the 6 weeks before that race. Still I went 11:30 there with a disappointing run.

In 2008 I went with Matt's plans again with better results but aiming at the Half Ironman distance, a distance I really like. I had a good Triple T early in the season and what would have been a good race at Steelhead had it not been for the swim being cancelled. I really didn't care while racing that and pretty much blew off the run.

In late 2008 I decided to go with Endurance Nation for the following year. I started on the bike early October and rode hard on the trainer all winter. I had a disagreement with one of the coaches after purchasing my plan in January of '09 which was supposed to be specific to Triple T and wasn't so I decided to quit EN and modify the plans myself to take me through the season. I used those plans through Triple T and was very strong going into the race. The only problem was that I screwed up my taper, I set myself up to be tapered on Sunday and not Friday, those two extra days of rest would have made a big difference. So mixed results from Triple T left me unsure of the plan but a little wiser about tapering.

The rest of the 2009 season was spent focusing on the Spirit of Racing HIM and the HFP Wheelie Fun Series. I trained exactly as planned for Racine, executed the race perfectly according to my abilities and had the best HIM of my life. All of my goals were met and/or exceeded. The hard work on the bike and race execution paid off. The good performance at Racine was followed by another good performance at Breakwater which had a particularly difficult bike portion followed by a good run for me. The season ended with my 7th oly distance race of the season at Portage Lake near Akron OH. I did well, 2nd on the swim, led the bike but could only hold on to 3rd for the day during the run putting me 2nd in the series standings...Still a good result.

Now...after rambling on about the last few seasons...In 2010 I found myself not doing my prescribed workouts. I had nobody to answer to so I decided to go back to a coach or coaching plan. After interviewing with 3 coaches I decided on going back to Mike Plumb again for these reasons:

He made me faster in the past and I know why.
He now uses power as a metric in cycling.
His swim workouts are more in line with my goals.
He is willing to set me up of different races.
He has experience with my abilities.
I needed someone to answer too.
His fees are very fair

So now I've been back with him for 4 weeks. I've done every workout he's given me and I'm feeling that I'm getting faster already. The workouts can be tough but still doable.

One thing I'm specifically working on this year is losing weight. I was 148 to 152 lbs most of last season, I'm 145 now down from 154 last November and still dropping. My goal is to get under 140 lbs and then assess my situation then. That will put me ~10 lbs lighter than most of last season, hopefully that will translate into faster times on the bike and run

--
Please support Race for the Cure
http://www.active.com/donate/detroitRFTC09/komenJJohnso15

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Week ending 11/29 plus monday for the end of month

2009-11-30T19:38:00.002-05:00

A up and down week as I don't think I got enough sleep.

Swim 14,000 in 4:30
Run 33.10 in 4:34

I was tired swimming most of the week and kept it short on friday cuz I didn't feel that strong. After taking it easy on friday I felt much better on saturday. I swam at Livonia rec center W,F,S cuz Franklin and Schoolcraft were closed for the holiday.

The run volume was planned to be a bit shorter this week and I pretty much hit my goals. Tuesday's run really took a lot out of me and slowed me down untill saturday.

(2 miles E pace + 5 X 5 min T pace w/1 min rests + 1 hr E pace)

Saturday I was feeling better with 3 reps of 1K with a few min rest between them plus warm up and cool down. By sunday I was whipped and took the day off.

Monday I felt pretty good, I ran 5 miles on the indoor track at the Rec center and then swam 3600 at Franklin High School. Warm up then sets of 400 on the swim that I really felt strong on.

Finished the month with:
55200 yards of swimming
155 miles of running
I only biked once and it's not worth mentioning.

Short run

2009-11-22T21:15:00.001-05:00

Ran 30 minutes 3.7 miles

I was restless so I went for a short run

New Pic on top

2009-11-21T15:28:00.002-05:00

I put a new pic on top of my blog. That's from the beginning of the second race on Saturday at Triple T last May. It was a really high resolution pic that I zoomed in about 400%

Week Ending 11/22/09

2009-11-21T15:12:00.003-05:00

Swim 13600 yards in 4:15
Run 36.8 in 5:16:51

Swim went OK this week Friday was fun with faster sets but I just didn't feel like swimming so I only got 3200 in. Today we had trouble with the lane lines and it took 10 minutes off of our swim time so we were 400 yards short today. I felt really strong today despite being 4th in line. I need to make some time to see Elena again to work on my technique.

Running was good too, I've got a pair of Zoot shoes to try out. They seem OK but I've got to break them in before I try to go barefoot in them. My latest pair of Fastwitch shoes are dead now. I really like those shoes and will be looking for another pair. My Asics will be my primary pair now that they are broken in. I have a pair of Riders still in the box but it looks like they won't be comming out any time soon since the Asics are starting to feel better, it only took 60 miles to break them in :(

I've lost another 2 lbs this week :) That's good news, if I can keep that pace up then I should make my goal by the new year or a week into it. I'll do my best to get near 140 lbs again. I should be scary thin by then.

I may try to swim and/or run a little bit tomorrow depending on how I feel. No more than 2000 yards of swimming or :30 min or running might be in order. I'll see what the weather is like and make a decision.

Midweek 11/18/09

2009-11-19T07:43:00.003-05:00

2 good swims this week so far.
Monday was a broken 1650 with warm up and cool down and Wednesday I did 15X200 on 3:15.

On the 200's I tried to come in at 2:50 but most of the time I was at 2:52-3. I finished out the hour with easy 100's on 1:45.

Monday run was 6 miles of moderate running.

Tuesday I did the Lightfest run in Hines park. I started at the far end (finish line end) and ran with Eric K, Jim C and his sisters. I met Karen at the actual start, ran for 5 min with her, did 20 min of tempo then turned around to pick up Karen again to finish the run. I felt slow that night probably cuz of the slow start and had a difficult time holding 7:30's during the 20 min section. I just couldn't get my feet to turn over. Anywho that was the Q1 workout so I'll get to do the shorter Q2 on Saturday. The entire run was just under 11 miles.

Wednesday's run was a shorter at 4.3 miles just to get run time in. I would still like to keep 6 runs per week through the winter. My left quad had been hurting since monday and I debated on taking Thursday off of running but for some reason it's all better now.

Weight loss is going well. I have actually lost 4lbs in the last 11 days by keeping track of everything I eat (and I really mean everything) and assigning a value to it. I have made better choices to keep myself under 2200 calories a day including the energy foods I eat. I have felt weak in swimming at times but I'm going to have to deal with that untill I get my weight in the place I want it to be.

Week ending 11/15/09

2009-11-16T07:04:00.002-05:00

I missed a swim this week cuz two of the pools I swim at were closed and I didn't feel like swimming on Sunday :P

Swim 10,000 yards in ~3:00
Run 37.7 miles in ~5:17

Swimming was all freestyle this week cuz I wanted to see if my shoulders would feel better if I did so. They did. I'm going to do some minimal stroke work this week break things up a little. I probably will not try to make up the swim distance lost from last week.

Running went well. Tuesday was a faster day with the intervals and Saturday was a long(er) run. I ran 6 days again and felt better. The newer shoes are feeling better but not quite right yet. I would think that with over 50 miles on them that they would be broken in by now. I bought another pair of shoes (Mizuno Riders) to replace the Asics Cumulus if they don't work out. I've run in the Riders many times before, I was just looking for a shoe that I could get more milage out of and normally I was able to do that with Asics shoes.

I've lost 2 lbs last week by writing down everything that I eat. This makes me more aware of what I'm eating and what I require. I'm still targeting ~2000 cals a day and hopefully will be able to lose another 10 lbs in the next few months. It's still hard for me to do this but I'm still just too heavy for my height.

GRRRRR!

2009-11-14T07:44:00.001-05:00

Pool was closed this morning...Now I've got to swim tomorrow :(

Midweek 11/11/09

2009-11-12T07:03:00.004-05:00

1 good and 1 OK swim so far.

Monday was long sets of 400 which I like so much more than doing a bunch of 50's and 100's.

Wednesday was supposed to have a lot of stroke work in it but doing so hurts my shoulder sockets so I opted to do freestyle instead. I had my own lane and wasn't bothering anyone else :) When saturday comes around I'll know if it was the stroke work that hurt my shoulders last week for sure.

3 runs so far...I'm finally getting some faster work. Once again I'm doing Daniels Marathon A plan (verbatim).
Monday was a 6 mile run at an easy pace

Tuesday was about 7.5 miles with 3X4 min hard with 3 min easy between them + warm up and cool down. The last interval was the fastest one as I tend to feel better when warmed up. 2 miles of warm up wasn't enough, next time I do something like that I'll move up to 3 miles.

Wednesday's run was just junk miles like monday, 4 miles of easy running before I went to swim.

I've been struggling with my weight lately. Since I stopped racing I've gained a few lbs. In October I cut out a lot of candy and sweets, because of that I've stayed about even in weight. I cut some more calories in the last few weeks with poor results so I decided to take my own advise and write down everything I eat in a spreadsheet and then assign calories to it.

Here it is.

What I noticed is that I eat a lot of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and chips. I want to know exactly how much I eat and of what so I can make better choices and get my weight down. I also added a section of what exercise I've done that day to help figure out how many calories I need. Hopefully this will make me more responsible for what I eat.

I can count to 16!

2009-11-10T11:25:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to write out yesterday's workout with sets of 400

3500 yards
12X75 Warm up

6X400 with 1 min rest as:

2x400 straight
2X(2X200) :20 rest
2X(4X100) :10 rest

200 cool down

400's came in ~5:50
200's came in ~2:52
100's came in ~1:25-1:26

Week ending 11/8/09

2009-11-08T15:23:00.004-05:00

This week went mostly as planned and I've stuck to the schedule but added run on Thursday and went for a short bike ride today since it was so nice outside.

This weeks totals
Swim 14,000 yards in 4:45
Bike 20 miles in about 1:05
Run 38.65 miles in 5:23:46

I finshed out the week swimming strong despite my shoulders being sore from the stroke work on wednesday. Friday was hard and fast swimming against Fred T, that's what I think I need to get faster. 14,000 yards is more in line with my weekly goals for the month.

Running went well too, I added a short run on Thursday to get 6 days of running. By the time the long run came on Saturday I was pretty tired and it took about 4 miles to get warmed up. The hard swim on Saturday morning also probably had somthing to do with that. Now that I've got 6 weeks of easy running done I've laid out the prep work for some faster training. I'm starting to second guess my origion plan and do a 10K program instead...I'm just not sure of the direction to go in. I feel that mile-speed is what I need and not endurance, I can work on endurance in March and that will be too late to work on footspeed.

I've got one more day to over-analyze this :)

Midweek 11/04/09

2009-11-04T19:57:00.002-05:00

My midweek report
2 good swims on Monday and Wednesday
Monday was a lot of hard free sets and I got 3700 yards in about 1:10
Wednesday had a lot of stroke work and half way through the workout I switched to freestyle. 3000 yards in 1:00

3 decent runs 5.1 on monday, 8 on tuesday, 5.4 on wednesday
Monday and wednesday were junk mile days. Tuesday was my intermediate run day and I finished pretty strong. I'm still running my longer runs in my Fastwitch shoes. I really like those shoes and could run every time in them without issues. The only problem with them is that the soles wear out so fast. I can only get about 200 miles out of them before I've worn the tread off...I've got about 150 miles on my current pair.

I'm breaking in new shoes on my junk mile days and I really don't like them. Asics Cumulus...I've only got 27 miles in them so they really aren't broken in yet. My heels slip, there is a lot of padding in the forefoot so that part is sore, the right heel is bugging me and my right foot was a little tingly when I got done today...probably cuz I had them too tight. Otherwise they're "OK" :P

Week Ending 11/1/09

2009-10-31T17:29:00.003-04:00

This week went mostly as planned and I'm trying to stick to this schedule.

Mon Run Short Swim 1 Hour
Tue Run Mid Distance
Wed Run Short Swim 1 Hour
Thu Off
Fri Run Short Swim 1 Hour
Sat Swim with FAST 1 Hour Run Longer
Sun Off

This weeks totals
Swim 13,000 yards in 4:25
Run 33.5 miles in 4:42:49

I've been building up the swim volume and run volume slowly
I'm up to 33 miles of running this week and have been averaging just over 13,000 yards a week. I'd like to be near 38 miles next week and bump up to 15,000 yards for the the next month.

I'm 5 weeks into swimming and running after my layoff and am feeling good. I've swum almost 60,000 yards this month and my shoulders are finally starting to adjust to the increase and feel better than they did a few weeks ago.

My running is getting better with 5 runs per week for the last 3 weeks and I may add a short run tomorrow depending on how I feel. I've got 1 more week of easy running and then I go into my next phase of my run plan which has a short fast day, a longer day and then easy running for the rest of the week. I'm doing the Daniels Marathon A plan. The weather is getting colder but I've still been able to do all of my running outside. If it gets nasty I'll run on the treadmill and track at the Rec Center.

Swimming will continue as it's been. I've been swimming better since I went to the swim clinic and may spend another 3 days out there to work on swimming technique again. There has been a 5 to 7 second improvment from this time last year. I'm able to regulary come in under 1:20 for 100 if I have enough rest now. 100's on 1:35 is very doable now, last year I struggled with 1:40's.

Biking is still on hold until December when I'll slide 2 sessions in on thursday and sunday.

Plans for the Off Season

2009-10-26T12:39:00.001-04:00

Looking at my strengths and weaknesses I’ve decided to go back to work on my run and swimming again during this off-season. I need to run faster and lose some weight this winter :(

At Racine I rode a comfortable 2:25 and had a good run afterwards. The fastest bike split in my AG was a 2:19 so realistically I will probably only be able to pick up a few minutes on my bike for a HIM. As long as I can repeat that for next year I feel I will be in good shape.

My swims have been in the top 15% for most of my races but that is comparing myself to triathletes and not real swimmers. I would like to drop down below 22 minutes in my 1650 in the pool. That would be a little more than a minute improvement than I did last spring. I went to a clinic about 4 weeks ago and worked with a few coaches. They gave me a lot of little things to work on and I’ve seen improvements already. I’m able to swim long sets under a 1:25 pace where last year I was swimming near 1:30 for longer sets in training. My thoughts about my stroke are a little different now and it seems better. There are still things I need to work on to get me down to 1:20 per hundred for longer distances.

I’ve kept my swim volume at a medium level for right now to keep myself from getting shoulder problems. I’m trying to stay around 13,000 yards a week for another month before I pick it up again.

Running is where I’m going to focus my time this year. At Racine I was 20 minutes slower than the fastest run split of my AG. I ran a 1:44 and the fastest guy ran a 1:25. I figure that I could realistically take 5 minutes off my run time, which is about 23 seconds per mile. That may be a stretch but I feel it’s realistic.

I’m not 100% sure as to how I’m going to go about increasing my run speed. I’ve played around with the idea of going through Daniels Marathon A plan again which I think is a good mix of intensities for me. I’ve completed 4 weeks of building my run volume back up and have 2 more weeks before I would go into any sort of structured plan. Right now I feel a need to bring my threshold pace up and I think that the other paces will follow. That kind of training would include 3 to 8 minute intervals but I don’t know how to mix them yet. I need to ask questions.

Anywho, races and goals for next year are to match my best Triple T performance in the first 3 races and then drop 10 to 12 minutes in the Half. That would be dropping 5 to 7 minutes on the bike and about 5 minutes on the run. I still need to find a second “A” race for next year and possibly qualify for Long Course Nationals. Possible races include Spirit of Racine and Steelhead but I would really like to do something else.

I’m going to stay local for my smaller races instead of doing the HFP series again. That was a lot of traveling and despite the fun I had at those races I don’t really like all of that driving.

Lastly, I’m going to be taking a day off per week from triathlon training this winter. Not to rest but to go snowboarding and have fun. Expect to see some snowboarding pictures in the near future.

The rest of the summer races

2009-10-26T11:34:00.002-04:00

I’ve been back at it for about 4 weeks now but here is a recap of what I’ve done after the race in Racine.

East Fork Triathlon, Olympic Distance near Cincinnati Ohio
Part of the HFP race series all the way down near Cincinnati Ohio. I was a bit hillier that I had expected but I was just trying to get series points. The resevoir had flooded a little bit and they had to change the run course. I was tired and didn’t post a good run time. Still 6th place at 2:28:33 was not too bad while training through the race.

The bike and run were much harder than I had expected. This is not a race to train through and I was not well prepared for it.

Vermilion Triathlon, Olympic Distance in Vermilion Ohio
It was a very nice little town that I visited many years ago when I was a kid racing sailboats. A lot of landmarks were still there. Karen and I both did the race prepping for the Breakwater Triathlon. She did the sprint and I did the Olympic (for points). The drive there was nice as it went down Highway 2, a route that Karen had never taken before and we got to see a little bit of Ohio that wasn’t from the highway.

The Olympic distance race got very hilly after 7 or 8 miles out, to the point that at the top of one hill, painted on the road was “Steep downhill…No Joke” and it was no joke. Still I liked the course and had a good time. The run was fairly flat but hot, I did OK for me while training through the race. 2:27:15 got me 3rd place on a hot day.

Afterwards Karen and I walked through town a little bit, had lunch then drove home. I would recommend this race to anyone.

Breakwater Triathlon HIM in Petoskey MI
I couldn’t really call this an “A” race since it was so close to Racine but I trained as if it was one and did a full taper despite it being 6 weeks after the previous HIM. I ranked it as a “BB” and wanted to do the best that I could with what I had left. This was Karen’s first HIM and she executed her plan perfectly and came in right on schedule.

It had been raining for the days leading up to this race and we were pleasantly surprised that it stopped for the race. The weather was still chilly on race morning and presented a unique challenge. The water was rough so they moved the swim course completely into the harbor. That wasn’t bad but I had hoped to swim in the waves outside the break wall and get a better lead on the poor swimmers L

The swim was uneventful and over very quickly, water temp was in the low 60’s so I wore my full Aquaman suit to stay warm.

Karen and I had ridden the bike course beforehand so I knew what was coming and had a plan for it. The course had a lot of rolling hills that came one after another with a lot of false flats too. 220 to 230 watts uphill and 170 to 180 watts on the flats was the plan and it worked quite well. I would ride restrained until mile 45 where I reassessed my abilities and decide what to do from there. At that point I felt very strong and rode by feel afterwards. I caught some people that had passed me earlier, even the girl that had drafted a friend of mine for the previous 30 miles. The only issue I had was that it took me about 10 minutes longer than I had expected but finished very strong.

The run was and out and back heading south on the path along Lake Michigan, it was very flat and easy to run. Since I was near the front of the race I didn’t see many people on the way out. I had figured that I was between 17th and 20th overall. On the way out I got passed by one person very early and passed 2 or 3 people on the first half, one of them passed me back, some young kid that was very nice. I went out a little harder than I did at Racine since I felt good but kept it under control and kept putting down the gels so I wouldn’t bonk. In the last 3 miles I didn’t have enough energy to pick it up and wound up keeping the same pace until the finish. A 1:46 run for me was the second best I had done in a HIM backing up the 1:44 I did at Racine and confirming that the run at Racine was not a fluke. I was very happy with the run since it had come after a very challenging bike ride that took me 31 minutes longer than the bike ride at Racine.

Portage Lake Triathlon Olympic Distance in Akron Ohio
This was the Championship race for the HFP series and I thought I was well prepared for it but still had a disappointing run L

The swim was the regular HFP rectangle and I went out hard cuz I was trying to get as much of a lead as I could on my buddy that was in first place in the point series. I had a good swim and came out of the water in second place J. After a 50 sec transition I was off on the bike, little did I know that I was in first place at that time.

I went as hard as I thought was realistic for me on the bike. The course had some long rollers but nothing too difficult. Karen and I had driven the course the day before so I knew what was coming. When I got back to the transition area the bike racks were empty (a good sign), got my shoes on and was off on the run. Still I had no idea I was in first place.

Well I had cooked off a hard bike ride and didn’t run too well. As it turned out my buddy had a good swim and bike ride too as was only about 30 or 40 seconds behind me coming out of T2. He passed me about 1 mile into the run and I just settled into a “do the best I could run.” There was one section that was kind of uphill and I felt really slow there, on the way back I was quicker. The second lap was about the same as the first but I came back a little harder on the downhill section. I got passed again about 1 mile from the finish, it turned out that it was the second place finisher and I was then in third place. I really figured that I was in 5th or 6th place by then but still finished as strong as I could.

2:15:05 is good for me in an Olympic distance race so I was happy with it despite a slow run. I was much happier when I found out I got third place. I found my buddy and congratulated him on a well-run series, he outran me in every race.

Now what do I do?

2009-10-25T10:15:00.000-04:00

I've been chasing the HIM distance for quite a while now and have been so focused on particular splits that I haven't thought about what to do when I got there.

As early as 2006 I've wanted to have a good swim, bike near 2:30 and run under 1:50, I have allways fell short. At Steelhead in 2006 I was on my way but blew it on the bike while racing my buddie Bernie. In 2007 I went back to IM and didn't work on HIM at all. In 2008 Steelhead was changed to a duathlon, It went well but I really didn't care about the run since the race really didn't count as a HIM to me.

So there I was, half way through the season that has had mixed results and doubting my planning when I had the race of my life in Racine just shattering my previous best effort. Here is what I did different and why I think it worked this time.

Last fall I decided to go a different route for this year and joined Endurance Nation to work with their plans. I focused mainly on the bike for the whole winter and went light on swimming and running. The plan was 3 to 4 hours of hard bike intervals 3 to 4 times a week while running 20 to 25 miles per week of mixed intensities. It didn't have any swimming in it but I still swam 4 times a week for my swim club. I was swimming about 11K a week instead of 15 to 18K that I had done in the past. All of this was taking me about 10 to 12 hours per week, a few hours less than I had done in the past but with more intensity.

At swim meets I was slower in my long events while near the same speed in my shorter ones. At state meet I had mixed results but was very close to what I did the previous year. I was used to large improvements and they didn't come this year.

The run volume was lower than what I have done in the past but had more tempo paced runs in it. The longer runs were a mix of easy running and 15 to 20 min efforts at HIM run pace. I added some volume in the spring cuz I felt the plan didn't have enough in it to prepare me for Triple T. I still feel that was the right thing to do. My average weekly run volume was 35 to 45 miles per week.

My bike training had a lot of harder paced efforts. The long ride had several hard 20 minute efforts as well as some longer race paced ones. On tuesday the brick became a hammer-fest with 3 to 4 of us exchanging leads. It was a lot of 3 to 4 minutes as hard as I could go then 5 to 6 minutes of hanging on in the draft. I got comfortable riding around 250 to 260 watts during that time which is about 25 to 27 mph for me. My average weekly volume on the bike was about 150 to 170 miles or 7 to 9 hours.

Swimming took a back seat this year and I only averaged about 8,000 meters a week. Some weeks where higher and some where lower. I was swimming in a 50 meter pool which really helped get my breathing patterns ready for open water.

Spirit of Racine Race Report

2009-07-20T10:04:00.003-04:00

I was a little concerned the sunday before the race about being overcooked from training and reluctantly followed the plan through the final week before the race. I have been watching my training stress balance on WKO+ to make sure I had at least 7 days in the positive. I went into the positive on 7/10/09 and got as high as +30 for a few days before the race. Sticking to the plan turned out to be the right decision.

Karen and I traveled to the race on Friday evening and got to sleep late. We woke up fairly early and had all day to prep for the race on the next day. No pressure, get stuff packed, go for a swim then turn the bike in. I wanted to get a 30 min bike ride in but things just didn't work out and I wound up taking a 10 min spin to make sure everything on the bike was working. We swam for about 20 min in the cold water (about 60 deg F) before I rode to get used to the water. It was a good thing cuz it was cold and I needed to know how cold.

Race Day
We got to the race in plenty of time and got set up. I forgot my helmet in the car so Karen went back to get it for me while getting ready. I kept feeling that I was forgetting something cuz I barely had anything on my towel next to my bike. All that was there was my running shoes, glasses and nutrition for the run, everything else was on my bike or on me for the swim.

The Swim
My goal was to not swallow any air that would cause me any distress later in the race so I wanted to stay away from people and wound up going a little too wide. That probably cost me about a minute but I really didn't care. The swim was short and I was into transition in about 27 minutes, 4 to 5 minutes quicker than expected but a slower than I could have gone.

The Bike
My goal on the bike was to ride between 175 and 180 watts on the flats and no more than 220 watts on any climbs, I pretty much stayed with that plan. I figured that it would take somewhere between 2:28 and 2:32 to complete the course so when I came in at 2:25 I was a little surprised.

While riding I caught a draft group in the first 10 miles and rode through them. They decided to latch onto me and passed back, after they passed they slowed down and I ran into them again so I passed through them again, this happened about 4 times until I got pissed off and decided to stay off the back. While getting passed the last time a marshal rode by and seemed to be taking numbers, I thought for sure I was going to get popped for a penalty and was kind of upset since I was just trying to get away. When I dropped to the back the group stayed together and rode away from me. I watched them for the next 5 or so miles staying together, oh well.

When I got to 28 miles I checked my average power, I was at 185 watts and was 1:12:30 into the ride. That was a little ahead of my goal on power and time but nothing to be worried about. The course was pretty flat and it was easy to sit on 180 watts for the rest of the ride.

I was having a pretty good time, holding back and eating as scheduled when around 45 miles another draft pack came by me. Again they pulled in front of me, slowed down and I passed up the to front. After one time though that I was pissed and let them go. There were a few people on the back that were riding legal and I stuck with them, They appeared to be as upset as I was. One of the guys was riding my speed so I stayed about 10 meters behind him for the rest of the race. According to the results I came in just under 2:25 so I was happy with that time and how strong I felt.

Here is the PT summary:
Duration: 2:25:28 (2:25:44)
Work: 1500 kJ
TSS: 174.2 (intensity factor 0.86)
Norm Power: 187
VI: 1.06
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 55.678 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 537 177 watts
Cadence: 48 215 90 rpm
Speed: 0 35.5 23.0 mph
Pace 1:41 0:00 2:40 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 259 49 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 709 169 lb-in

The Run
Always my worst event but I did my best to set myself up for a good run. I've had a goal of running 1:50 in a HIM for quite some time since my best ever runs in training at this distance have been a 1:43:xx in 2006 and a 1:45:xx this year. I started off easy to get a feel of what I had to work with and I felt good. I kept trying to keep myself in the 8:20's but the speed kept going up so I went with it but being cautious. The first lap time was 52:22...about 3 minutes ahead of schedule and I felt great.

The second lap I went a little quicker. At the turn around I had kept my nutrition exactly as planned (1 gel every 2 miles...probably more than I needed but I didn't want to bonk) and decided to give it all I thought was possible. I ran a 7:40 pace for the final 3.3 miles, much quicker than I've ever ran at that distance before. The second lap time was 51:48, a neg split by about 30 seconds for a total time of 1:44:10 and the second fastest half marathon I've ever ran.

Overall it was the very best race I've ever had. Everything went my way, 4:39:06 is 26 minutes quicker than my previous best HIM. I was 13th of 149 in my Age group and 144th of 1207 overall. The planning/training went well and execution went just about perfect. Even though the swim was a little short I'm still happy with the race and would do it again if it fits in the schedule.

Getting back to blogging

2009-07-20T09:54:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've written anything of any worth. I have raced 2 oly distance races since then...Maumee Bay and Ceasar Creek. Both races I trained through and did nothing more than take it easy the day before so doing the best with the state I was in was my goal. I was happy with both races and had started a race report for Maumee Bay but I've been so busy at work with our move and have been spending my lunch time working instead of writing in my blog. I'll do my best to get them up soon.

I've also had some very big weeks getting ready for Spirit of Racine and had put down two 18 hour and one 17 hour weeks before backing off. My taper went well and followed my Endurance Nation plan exactly as written for the last 2 weeks instead of adding a lot of biking and running like the previous weeks.

2009-07-15T20:43:00.006-04:00

I know it's been a while, I've been really busy

I came across this gem today and I had to save it.

This will help my GF understand me cuz it's exactly how I think about fruit.

Thursday long workout

2009-06-19T11:21:00.002-04:00

Bike 3 hours 61.5 miles
Good solid ride up and down Hines drive. Nice and sunny with moderate temps and practically no wind.

Run just over 8 miles in 1:06:xx, out to Newburgh Rd and back. Moderate pace just try to put in miles.

Wednesday

2009-06-19T11:19:00.001-04:00

Swim at LRC 2000 yards as 20X100

I had to teach a tri clinic at REI afterwards so I didn't have time to run

Tuesday

2009-06-19T11:17:00.001-04:00

Another good brick workout on Hines.

21.8 miles ~ 23.9mph 218 watts
6.2 mile run in about 49 min

Hard ride, just about no wind and 3 of us taking leads

Run moderate to start then picked it for the second loop

Monday Swim LCM

2009-06-15T21:46:00.004-04:00

I started swimming in a different pool today, one that I've been waiting to open for a while now. It's a 50 meter pool at Clements Circle in Livonia. I've only swam LCM a few times so to get used to it I just swam a bunch of 200's. It sure is a long way to the other side :]

The pool is OK, water temp was good, it was a little cloudy but hey, it's long course and it's outside so that counts for a lot :) I'm hoping to swim there 3 days a week.

Anywho, 3000 meters as:
15X200 on 4:00. Came in anywhere from 3:30 to 3:45. First one and last one's were warm up and cool down.

I used a pull bouy and paddles on 2 of the 200's just to see how the timing was. I had a good time and the lifeguards were very nice about pulling in a lane line for me and keeping the kids out of the lap lane.

Fri Sat Sun

2009-06-14T21:23:00.003-04:00

Since I couldn't run on Thursday I decided to double on Friday.

Friday
Run 10 miles in the morning in 1:23:08 on Hines drive. Comfortable run, a little chilly and I dressed accordingly.

Swim 2000 yards at LRC
10X100 on 1:45
10X100 on 1:40

Run 10.3 miles in the afternoon after swimming. Around Newburgh lake 3 times running the trails off of the dirt road. I was tired after that :)

Saturday
I had a party to go to at Stoney Creek so I decided to bike and run out there.
Bike 35 miles in 1:46. Just steady riding, I hooked up with Gavin who was there for the same reason I was.

Run 6.5 miles in about 53 minutes. Easy run around Stoney Creek in the evening with Dave D.

Sunday
Bike 77.7 miles in 3:54. Up and down Hines drive 2 times plus a little more. Very nice day and I rode well :)

Run 1 mile to Hines. I was tired and got a ride home from Karen who was just finishing her workouts. This was a big 3 days for me and I just didn't have enough to do more.

This week so far

2009-06-12T15:32:00.000-04:00

This week so far
Monday

Swim 3000 yards at LRC
1100 warm up
5X200 on 3:30 coming in ~2:55 to 3:00
5X100 on 1:45
400 cool down

Tuesday
Run 3.1 miles in ~26 min
21.8 miles in 54 minutes
6.2 miles in 48:30

Run 1 was easy to get legs moving

Bike was hard, I was a little frustrated with how the pacing was going and how some people were sitting and not taking a lead when it was obvious that the leader was tired. That left the people that wanted to push the pace out of the rotation. Dan and I jumped up in front a few times to push the pace but when we rotated back the same things happened again. Near Newburg road I went up the hill hard and put a small gap on the next rider. I by chance made the light while everyone else got caught, instead of waiting for them I decided to go on by myself and try to hold them off. I got caught by some lights and made others but I did manage to stay in front by a little bit.

Run 2 I planned to do some intervals since I need to work on run speed a bit. 1 mile moderate then 5X.5 miles hard with .5 mile moderate recovery was the plan while holding the hard ones just under 7 min/mile. It worked out well and Dan and I completed them as planned. We got a .7 mile cool down which was perfect.

Wednesday
Swim 3100 at LCR

Thursday
Off…I planned on running long but it rained all day and I was unable to get it done. I decided to rest and go to Karen’s house J

Fri Sat Sun

2009-06-12T15:31:00.000-04:00

Friday
Swim 2500 yards at Livonia Rec center
Run 5.1 miles on Hines Drive. Just out and back on normal loop.

Sat
Swim 1500 meters open water in about 30 min at Island Lake Rec area.
Bike 13.7 miles in ~45 min. Easy around the park to get legs spinning and rest up for the race on Sunday
Club party afterwards

Sun
Ann Arbor Triathlon
Swim 800 meters 14:30
Bike 14.3 in about 38 min
Run 5.2 miles in 39:20

Swim went good, I started on the inside and had clear water to swim in. I stayed out of trouble, swam brisk for the first few hundred meters then settled into a comfortable pace. I went around both turns on the inside with no incident and then picked up the pace on the way back. I felt strong and swam 50 strokes hard/30 strokes moderate. I probably passed 3 or 4 people on the way back.

Came out of the water comfortable but the run up to transition had me a little winded. T1 was quicker than I expected at 2:00.

The bike went well too. I was cold to start but then warmed up nicely. Started smooth then picked it up to a comfortable fast pace. By the time I got to Doyle Rd I was riding pretty strong and had to pick my way through many people and even had to pass a van on the road cuz he was blocking me. I probably lost 20 or 30 seconds because of that incident. I came off the bike into a large crowd of people and had to maneuver between them. It slowed me down a little but I was fine with it.

T2 went pretty good, I had a little issue getting the twigs off of my feet but I got my socks and shoes on in a hurry and ran hard out of transition.

I planned on running hard in the beginning instead of pacing myself out from start to finish. I don’t have the run speed others have so I decided to take every bit of speed I had from the beginning and hold on the best I could. Crooked Hill was tough, I wish I could have gone quicker up it but that was all I had. I wore my foot pod for my RS400 so I knew how fast I was going all of the time. I was surprised to see that on much of the course I was running in the high 6’s and low 7’s. The real steep hills had me in the 10’s. On the little dirt road section I felt good and went with the speed, settled down on the hills but still was going as hard as I could. By the time I got to Hankard Rd I still felt good. Going up that hill was a little tough and slowed me down to 8:30’s for a min or so. At the top I got back down into the low 7’s high 6’s all the way to the finish. 39:20 is over a minute faster than last year while overall I was about 2 min faster than last year.
I felt pretty good about my effort and managed 6th place out of 50 in my Age Group. The top 5 guys ran over a min/mile faster than I did so I’ve still got some work to do with run speed. It was a good race and once again pointed out where my weaknesses are.

Thursday 6-4

2009-06-04T20:10:00.000-04:00

Run during lunch on the hilly route 5.2 miles 42:20 but I didn’t hit it that hard cuz I was planning on biking long after work.

Bike long on Hines Drive
74.4 miles in 3:37Very very nice day to ride, temp in the high 60’s and sunny. Started off easy for the first 25 minutes then rode steady for the rest of the ride. The last hour was the strongest of the ride.

Monday – Tuesday

2009-06-02T20:09:00.000-04:00

Monday
Swim 2000 yards at LRC. First time back in the pool for about 10 days so I took it easy.
WU 200S 100K 200S 100K 200S
300 Pull w/paddles
7X100 on 1:45
100 kick
100 easy swim

Tuesday
Amy’s brick with a little more.
Run 6.2 miles in ~ 49 min
Bike 21.8 miles in ~55 min (IF 1.037…a little bit of a NP buster)
Run 6.2 miles in ~ 47 min

Moderate run to start while holding back cuz I knew there was a long way to go. Still went a little faster than planned.

Next the bike ride was plenty fast with Dan, Jacob, Amy and me trading leads. That was the fastest that I’ve ridden this ride. Normally I lead a lot of the ride near 200 to 210 watts. This time in order to keep the pace I was riding ~240 watts to hold 25 to 27 mph. Dan and I finished together at just over 55 min. Previously I had ridden a 56 only once before.

Ran a second time with Dan and Jacob, planned on running the first lap (5K) at 8 to 8:10 but wound up near 7:40 (23:40). The Second lap was a little quicker near 7:30 (23:20).

The run paces were a bit quick for me but I suppose that’s a good thing cuz it makes me work harder at something I’m not that good at. Hopefully it will make me faster in all of my run distances.

The rest of the week ending 5/31/09

2009-05-31T20:07:00.000-04:00

Wednesday – Off

Thursday – Run 5.1 miles in ~ 43 min. I planned on running an hour but I was tired and cut it down a little. I want to stay light to make sure I will recover from TTT.

Friday – Bike 22.8 1:13. Out to Sheldon and 7 mile then back down Hines.

Saturday – Run 3.1 in 24:51. Ran with Karen in the “Race for the Cure” and paced her out for a PR. She did a teriffic job and now as a reward gets to run faster in training J

Sunday – Bike 1 loop on the AA triathlon course. It was bumpy and there was more traffic than I though there would be.
Run 2 loops on the course, once with my Mizuno Elixer’s and once with my Saucony Fastwitch shoes. I wanted to know if I would get rocks stuck in the drain holes on the Saucony’s like I did at TTT camp. They were fine so I will probably use them this weekend during the race. I just have to work on the lacing in the next few days.

Tuesday…Back at it

2009-05-27T19:29:00.000-04:00

I rode the Tuesday brick with FAST and was a little concerned with how I would feel. My plan was to ride as I felt and only run 1 loop around the lake, normally I will run 1 loop before the bike and 2 loops afterwards.

Bike: I felt pretty good after about 7 miles and just went with it. Finished the 22 miles in just over 1 hour while getting caught by almost every light L

Run: Like I said, just one loop so I went a little quicker and ran the extra trails behind the lake. 3.35 miles in just over 25 min so about 7:30 miles which is quick for me.
I’m planning on biking about 4 hours and running around 20 miles this week. Swimming will be as I feel but hopefully about 3 times in the water. Next week I should be up near my normal volume with a sprint race on 6/7.

Triple T Race Report

2009-05-26T16:45:00.000-04:00

Prologue

Swim 5:49. Typical swim, I didn’t go too hard but smooth and steady.
Bike 12:28. Again, not too hard but an OK pace
Run 7:10. I felt a bit winded and held onto the pace as long as I could.

I didn’t redline this race really cuz I didn’t feel that strong. I still think that I screwed up my taper by going too hard the weekend before.

Race #2 Saturday morning
Swim 1500 meters, Bike 24.8 miles, Run 6.55 miles

Jaret Johnson 24:57 0:49 1:18:01 1:09 136 51:02 2:35:56

This race went as planned, steady on the swim and bike but slightly slower on the run. Still I was happy with the result. I only ate one gel on the bike and didn’t finish my drink. I had planned to get most of my calories from the drink but since I didn’t finish it, I was short for the run.

Swim: Smooth again, not a blistering fast time still solid. I think the swims were a little bit longer than last year.

Bike: Probably a little too easy, I was really worried about going out too hard.

Run: Smooth again, probably should have run a little quicker on the way back.

Race #3 Saturday afternoon
Bike 24.8 miles, Swim 1500 meters, Run 6.55 miles

Jaret Johnson 1:17:23 2:02 27:04 2:04 53:27 2:41:57

Bike: I felt pretty strong on this ride. I went out conservative and came back much harder. Going up the hill on Route 125 felt good. Started at 225 watts and built up to 260. Back over three stage hill was easy and then soft-pedaled downhill the rest of the way in.

Swim: This was actually one of the better swims of the day at 79th cuz most people biked too hard. I was smooth again in the water with no problems at all.

Run: A little slower than in the morning going up the hills, I should have pushed it a bit more to save some time. Some clouds came out and made the run a little more comfortable.

Race #4 Sunday morning
Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles

Jaret Johnson 32:33 1:19 3:17:55 2:48 1:58:16 5:52:49

Swim: A good solid swim for me despite how tired I was. I was really happy to see that time when I got out of the water. I felt strong after the first couple hundred meters and went with it.

Bike: There was a little guessing game going on here. I road the first loop pretty conservatively. Going up the long hill I felt strong but held the power back to 215 to 225 watts. That seemed like the right thing to do. For the rest of the loop I felt strong. I noticed my split time for the first loop was 1:35, which was on the quicker side of my projected time so I figured that I could go a little easier on the second loop. I felt strong for the entire second loop but I really feel that I went too easy and lost about 6 minutes from the first loop. The time lost I think came from riding too easy on the flat sections.

Run: This is where I went too conservative on the first loop where I walked for 30 seconds on the first steep hill and for 30 seconds on the way back. The second loop I ran the whole way. On the way back when I got to the top of the hill I pretty much ran as hard as I could all the way to the finish. My first loop was ~1:00:30 while the second loop was ~57:45.

My nutrition went as planned for this race. Seven gels on the bike as: One to start then one every 30 minutes. I also drank 3 bottles of Infinit heat mix while on the bike. For the run I ate one gel in transistion and then 1 every 2 miles like clockwork. By the time I got done with the first loop I was still feeling well fueled and strong for the second loop.

Training Thoughts May '09

2009-05-17T20:10:00.000-04:00

I’m getting ready for another edition of Triple T and I feel pretty good about my training so far.

My goals were to get as much time on the bike as I could while slightly increasing my fitness on the run. My swim has really just been in maintenance mode to maintain as much swim fitness as I could.

The bike has gone well. I feel that I’m as strong now as I was last August. A lot of that can be attributed to all of the off-season work that I did on the bike. Instead of laying off the bike and working on swimming and running I was riding intervals on the trainer about 3 times a week. That really prepped me for the spring where at first I tried to get 5 hours on the road and built up to 7 and 8 hours a week. At my TTT camp I did 10 hours of riding which included a lot of hills which I feel really boosted my fitness.

I also purchased a new bike last winter. I got a Cervelo P2 (Ultegra Version) mostly cuz I felt it was the most bike I could get for the dollar. I’m not a die-hard fan of Cervelo but the bike fit me right, had the components on it that I’m familiar with, there was minimal things I needed to buy for it and the price was better than most other new bikes that were of comparable quality. All I needed to buy to complete the bike was an Arione saddle and a pair of Look Keo pedals. In addition to that I bought a rear water bottle system and a front Hed Jet 60 wheel. The bike is ~3 lbs lighter than my Felt S32. Is it any faster? I don’t really feel that it is but it’s new and a little more solid. The Felt has near 25,000 miles on it now and I’m a little concerned about the frame and fork.

The run training has been OK. I could be better but probably as the expense of bike fitness. I’ve been fairly consistent by getting mostly 35 to 40 miles per week for the last 8 weeks and 25 to 35 miles per week for many weeks before that. I feel faster this spring than I have been mostly cuz of the type of training I did over the winter which was faster than I normally run but not necessarily speed work. It was a lot of running that was about 30-40 seconds a mile faster than I would normally run. The only thing that I’m concerned about is that I don’t feel as durable as I have in the past, although I can put down faster miles I have yet to test it out in a long race. My HIM sim a few weeks ago went well when I got my nutrition plan back in order but this weekend at Triple T will be the next test.

Swimming has taken a back seat like I had planned. I really felt like the bike is where I should focus this year and I’ve given up swim time to get it. Still I’ve been swimming 8,000 to 10,000 yards per week and can still swim long distances under 1:30 per 100 so I’m very confident that I can come out of the water in fairly decent shape. State meet in late March had mixed results. I was slightly faster in some things while slightly slower in others. I was a bit disappointed for a while but since I didn’t have a swim focus time I suppose it was all that I could expect. I still haven’t gotten in a lake to get some open water experience this year but this is my seventh season and I’m still fairly confident I’ll be in good shape. Triple T is all time-trial starts so I can ease into it.

The rest of the week

2009-05-17T20:07:00.000-04:00

Friday
Run during lunch 5.2 miles in ~43 min. Hilly route again, felt quick and tried to hold back.

Bike ~55 min on Hines. It was just starting to rain when I circled by near my home. Rather than ride in the rain I just cut the ride short. Ride was pretty quick and felt fairly good.

Saturday
Schoolcraft was closed so most of FAST split up and swam at different places. Some went to Lifetime, some went to Livonia rec center while others went home. I went to Livonia Rec center and swam 3100 yards. Less than I would normally have done but more than if I was alone L

Bike ~30 miles. Hines drive out to 7 and Beck road and then back to Middlebelt where it was flooded. I met some nice people on Hines that were rather chatty, wish they could have stayed with me for company but they couldn’t. Also saw Karen at the flooded part of Hines. After 30 miles I was tired and went home.

Sunday
Karen and I drove out to Island Lake to ride. I wanted to get some more miles on my race wheels and the roads there are fairly free of debris. It was a little bit chilly but after a few miles I felt pretty comfortable.
2 hours on the bike at a fairly steady pace then 1 hour on the run. I felt pretty good while on the bike and worked on nutrition. On the run I had to hold back for the first half staying just above 8 min/miles. On the way back I ran what felt comfortable, turned out to be ~ 7:45’s.

5/14/09 this week so far

2009-05-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

This week so far:

Mon
Swim with LALA 3100 yards 1:00
Swam really well, and since it was freestyle day I was happy.

Tue
Amy’s brick
Run 3.1 25:06
Bike 21.9 56:49
Run 6.2 48:23 Mod first loop, faster second loop
Felt really strong through the whole workout. A local roadie (John) rode with us and helped me push the pace. The second loop of the run I felt great and opened it up a bit.

Wed
Swim 2500 in :50 with LALA
Felt tired and skipped a few 50's of stroke work

Thu
Run Long 13.1 miles 1:46:48 as:
35 min easy
15 min zone 2
10 min zone 3
Finish as I feel

Felt good and had to hold back on the first 35 min. The next 15 was comfortable and the next 10 was just above comfortable. It was easy to run back a little quicker since my legs were used to running faster

TTT camp picts

2009-05-14T21:04:00.002-04:00

Gavin eating something

Suff on the Patio area

Dave Z and Al B

Gavin getting ready for the bike

Dave getting ready for the bike

Al and Karen getting ready

Al on the out and back course, first hill

Karen on the hill

Karen again

Gavin taking a pict of me taking a pict of him

Dave comming up the hill

Dave again

Al, Dave and Karen comming into a gas station for a rest stop

Karen comming in

Me again

Week ending 5/10/09

2009-05-14T20:52:00.000-04:00

A pretty busy week with trying to be ready for TTT Camp. Things just didn’t work out for swimming and I didn’t swim at all.

Mon
Off, I was wiped out from the HIM sim on Sunday

Tue
Amy’s brick at Newburg point
3.4 mile run in 27:30
21.8 mile bike in 58:00
6.2 mile run in 48:50 Moderate first loop, faster second loop

Wed
Run 3 miles in 25:31

Thu
Off

Fri
Travel to Portsmouth for TTT Camp
Run on Lampback trail 6.2 miles in 53:23 cuz it was raining and we couldn’t bike.

Sat
Bike in morning on out and back route 1:25:04
Bike in late morning on HIM course 2:18:27
Run 6.5 miles on Lampback
Bike in afternoon on Thompson Hill course 2:09:49

Sun
Bike in morning on out and back course 1:37:36
Run 3.6 miles on Lampback
Bike in afternoon on shortened HIM course 1:30:16

Sunday Run Bike Run - 2nd try

2009-05-03T17:12:00.007-04:00

After bonking on my last attempt of Gordo's HIM sim I tried it again.

45 min run 5.3 miles HR 134

2:30 bike 47.4 miles HR 132 (30 min ~155 watts, 20 min ~175 watts, 30 min~155 watts, 20 min~175 watts, 30 min~155 watts, 10 min ~180 watts, 10 min cool down)

45 min run 5.6 miles HR 144

Felt pretty good for the whole thing but I wasn't sure what to expect for the second run. I ran 23 min out steady and did my best to come back in 22 min. I was able to and was quite comfortable doing so.

I changed my nutrition since the last time I did this. I have been using using Infinit's "Heat Mix" for the last 2 weeks with very good results. I had used that formula at a race a few years ago and I remembered that it was easy to drink and settled my stomach so I wanted to give it a try again.

The formula has a little over 200 calories per 20 oz of drink and I've found that I'm not using as much GU as before. Yesterday 1 drank 3 bottles and ate 1 GU in 3.5 hours on the bike. Today I drank 2 bottles on the bike with 1 GU in 2.5 hours, 1 GU after the first run and before the second run. I also drank about half a bottle before the second run and didn't have any sloshing around in my stomach.. I carried to GU's on the second run in case I bonked but I was well fueled and didn't need them.

That was a little confusing, I'll try again this way.

45 min run

1 GU

2.5 hr bike 2 bottle Infinit + 1 GU

1GU + 1/2 bottle Infinit

45 min run

finished the drink I had left over after the run

I also used my race wheels today to get some time on them. The same rear wheel as last year and a new Jet 60 front for this year. I got some aftermarket stickers that I think look cool.

Saturday - Long(er) bike day

2009-05-02T19:47:00.004-04:00

Swim in the morning at the Rec center. The pool was shut down for 10 days for maint and cleaning, when it opened last thursday they claimed the temp as 62 deg. I waited a few days and swam with LALA again yesterday cuz I was worried about the temp. This morning the temp was 77 deg F, just perfect as far as I'm concerned.

1500 yards in about 30 min, I was tired and didn't feel like swimming.

Bike at Island Lake, 70 miles in 3:34.
I planned on going out a bit on the easy side and then build from there looking for about 3.5 hours, I figured it would be about 5 laps.

Started out conservative and built each lap and felt really strong on the last one. Lots of small hills, targeted 160-170 watts for most of the ride, tried not to go over 250 watts on the hills but occasionally did.

Good ride, I'm happy with the session.

Friday 5/1

2009-05-01T21:07:00.002-04:00

Run at lunch 5.2 miles 43:35 Hilly route

Run at home on Hines drive 4.3 miles 36:06
Out and around AA Trail Lake to make up running time for yesterday

Swim with LALA 50 minutes 2600 yards
A bit tired from the runs but OK

Thursday

2009-04-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

Run at Livonia Rec Center cuz it was raining too hard for a long run on Hines drive

11.4 miles in 1:33, that was all I could take of the indoor track.

40 min easy
15 min zone 2 (7:51)
5 min zone 3 (7:32)
10 min easy
15 min zone 2 (7:42)
5 min zone 3 (7:28)
3 min easy cool down...I couldn't take another 27 min of going in circles

I'll probably make up the 30 min tomorrow

Mon, Tue, Wed

2009-04-29T19:52:00.004-04:00

Mon
Day off, I had stuff to do and the pool was closed.

Tue
Run, Bike, Run in Hines park
Run 45:38 5.45 miles
Bike 1:06 easy, I rode with Jon for a while
Run 43:35 5.55 miles

Felt really good on the second run, was easily able to run under 8:00 on the way back.

Wed
Bike 1:21 27 miles
15 min warm up
3X15 hard 5 min rests
Cool down ~10 min

Biked from work to Hines park cuz I had to swim at 5:30 and I figured it would save time...it did.

Swim with LALA
3200 yards in about 1:05

Week ending 4/26/09

2009-04-26T21:38:00.003-04:00

I fell a little behind on the blog, here is what happened this week. We had a lot of bad weather so workouts were light in the beginning of the week and heavy at the end

Mon
Swim with LALA 1:00 3200 yards

Tue
Run 30 min 3.6 miles

Wed
Bike 30 min on trainer
Swim with LALA 1:00 3000 yards

Thu - finally some good weather
Run during lunch 6.4 miles in about 54 minutes
Bike 45 miles in about 2:15

Fri
Bike 58 miles in 3:04, out to Whitmore lake and back
Swim with LALA 50 min 2500 yards - I was a little tired

Sat
Swim with FAST 1:25 3800 yards
Bike at Island Lake and Kensington and a few repeats up Tower hill - 37 miles in 2:04
Run for a few minutes at Island lake but the rain came and I had to bail
Run 5.2 miles in about 44 min on Hines when I got home

Sun
Run 14.3 miles in 2:03. Steady pace...It was a little warm and I was tired from stacking workouts over the last 4 days

The rest of the week ending 4/19/09

2009-04-19T20:05:00.000-04:00

Thu
Run Bike Run on the normal tuesday brick course, Hines was not flooded where is was the day before.
Run 3.1 miles 25:15
Bike 22.0 miles 1:03
Run 6.2 miles 48:46, ran faster on the second 5K. I felt good

Fri
Swim at Livonia Rec center
2000 yards
10X200 on 3:30
Not really hard, came in 2:55 to 3:00 most of the time. Last 200 was a cool down

Bike on Hines, planned a moderately quick ride which turned into a warm up and 30 min TT with a friend in pursuit. I won the sprint points but couldn't hold off the finish points :)
22.2 miles 1:06:55

Sat
Swim with FAST
3300 yards in about 1:15
Hard sets of 100 mixed up with other stuff.

Run, Bike at Island Lake
Planned on doing a Gordo Brick but I was unable to do the second run. I was so thirsty and tired that I stopped earlier than planned.
Run 45 min 5.44 miles
Bike 45.5 miles 2:11
It was a good day, like usual I learned a bit about myself with this workout.

Sun
Run long
16.1 miles in 2:13:44
75 min easy/mod
20 min at 7:50
10 min easy/mod
20 min at 7:40
Finish easy/mod
Felt good for the whole run, I started conservative since I knew I would be running fast on the way back. 8 miles in 1:09 and the last 8.1 in 1:04:44.

Wednesday

2009-04-15T19:30:00.001-04:00

Bike 60.5 miles in 3:05

Up and down Hines drive, shortened by some flooding.

Started going east and was stopped by water at Middlebelt so I turned around looking to ride out to Whitmore Lake. I saw a friend riding so I turned around and rode back to the water with him.

Heading back to Plymouth we saw another friend, turned around and rode back to the water again. After that I rode by myself to Sheldon/7mile and then home. 30 miles into the ride I decided to put some more intensity into the ride since I was feeling fairly strong, targeted 180 watts from there

I saw a lot of people riding on such a nice day. It was High 50's with a little north wind.

Tuesday

2009-04-15T11:16:00.002-04:00

Just sitting at home feeling blah...was going to just watch TV then decided at the last minute to do my run workout. It was raining so I ran on the indoor track at the rec center.

8 miles 1:06:40
2 miles warm up
4X1 mile hard with .5 mile rests
(7:43, 7:32, 7:24, 7:21)
.5 mile cool down

Tough to get going but felt pretty good by the 3rd interval.
Got a little bit of stretching done afterwards.

Monday - back to swimming

2009-04-13T20:12:00.003-04:00

This is the first time I've swam in a week :P

3200 yards
500 warm up
300 pull
10X100 on 1:45 (in at 1:28) moderate base intervals
100 kick
8X100 hard on 2:10 (in at 1:21)
300 (12X25) kick with fins
200 cool down

Felt better after 5 of the 100's, I swam better after that.

Sunday

2009-04-12T21:32:00.000-04:00

Run long on Hines drive 2:02 14.8 miles of mixed intensities.
60 min easy
15 min M pace5 min easy
2X12 min HM pace with 3 min easy
Finish as I felt like running ~ 8:15

Saturday

2009-04-12T21:29:00.000-04:00

Swim

Our swim practice with FAST was canceled cuz the lifeguard didn't show up so I didn't get to swim.

Bike
Rode the MTB on the Poto. 1 loop, 18 miles in 1:48
There was a lot of mud on the Goslin loop and that slowed me just a little. There was 4 or 5 places that I could not ride accross and had to put a foot down and drag the bike through.
I broke my chain about 5 miles into the ride but was able to fix it with my multi-tool. Serves me right for neglecting my MTB maintenance. Origionally I wanted to do 2 loops but I figured that I was pushing it after the chain issue.

Run
Run on the trail after the bike ride, not hard since I was fairly tired. Started from the parking lot to the beach, then from 1 to 2, 9, 8, 3 to the dirt road, turned right to 7 and back to the parking lot. I wore my trail shoes and didn't get a distance but I figure it was around 4.5 miles in 43 minutes.

Friday

2009-04-12T21:28:00.000-04:00

Friday
Run 1:00 7 miles of easy paced running for junk miles

Thursday Run Bike Run

2009-04-10T10:29:00.003-04:00

Run 5K out to my turnaround on Hines.
25:56 easy running to get warmed up. It appeared that I didn't have any speed anyway.

Bike 23 miles 1:11:xx on Hines drive.
4X10 min @ FTP 4 min rests (222, 223, 204, 206) plus warm up and cool down. The second two I had some fairly long downhills that made it difficult to keep the power high since I don't really have enough gear to do so. I felt fairly strong for the whole ride though.

Shawn came up behind me on one of the intervals and surprised me, when I finished the interval I rode back and talked with him, Roman, and Jay during the rest period.

Run 6.4 miles in 52:39, moderate on the way out and MP on the way back. I saw Karen with about 1 mile to go so I stopped and talked for a minute.

The second run was unusual in that I didn't run fast cuz my legs were physically tired and I didn't have the strength to turn them over faster. Usually I have an overall tiredness or lack of energy that prevents me from going faster.

Wednesday

2009-04-09T07:33:00.000-04:00

Wednesday
Run during lunch 5.4 miles in 44:45, hilly run.

Bike 50.7 miles in 2:33 on Hines Drive. About 50°F and breezy.
Rode end to end and then some more. A brisk ride targeting 180 watts, the stops lowered that a little bit. I finished as strong as I started although I could have had a little bit more Gatorade.

Monday

2009-04-09T07:26:00.002-04:00

Monday
Swim 1500 yards
Just warmed up and then cooled down, I didn't feel like swimming

The rest of the week

2009-04-05T21:36:00.002-04:00

Fri
Swim 3200 yards with LALA/FAST

Sat
Swim 3800 yards with FAST
Run 11 miles on the Poto in 1:33
--A bit chilly out there, I had planned to bike then run but decided to just run a little longer.

Sun
Bike 1:16
15 min warm up
10X3 min hard ~2 min easy
cool down
Run 1:00
Moderate pace out then MP on the way back

This week so far

2009-04-02T20:17:00.003-04:00

I've taken monday and wednesday off from swimming but will return on friday.

Mon
Run 8 miles on Hines drive

Tue
Bike 1:10, 3X15 min hard
Brick run 30 min easy

Wed
Bike 2:10 fairly hard for a 2 hour bike, targeted 80 to 85% (175 to 185 watts) it was really windy

Thu
Bike 1:00 hard targeted 95% of FTP (205 watts)
Brick run 3.1 miles Z2 to Z3

Michigan Masters State Meet times

2009-04-02T11:40:00.005-04:00

I did get myself out of the hole and got my balance up to 12.5 going into the weekend of swimming, I felt fairly strong. I was getting a little bit ansy for a few days of not training but am now back into the full swing of tri training again.

The meet went OK, not as quick in some events as last year but still solid times for me.
From memory
1650 free 23:22 last year 23:06
1000 free 14:05 last year 14:07
500 free 6:49 last year 6:45
200 free 2:30 last year 2:28, I was tired
100 free 1:07.06 last year 1:08, very surprised
50 free 30.2 last year 29.5, a bit dissapointed

The nice people driving down the road.

2009-04-02T11:24:00.003-04:00

The main road that goes by my place was resurfaced last fall. When they did it, the city changed the lane markings on the road. It used to have a 6 foot shoulder on both sides, now it has a center turn lane and no shoulder markings.

There is just a .25 mile stretch that I actually have to run on the road, there is a sidewalk that I use for the other .75 miles. After that first mile I get to Hines drive and have a lot of room to run on either shoulder, the path or trails. It's got to be the perfect place in this corner of Michigan to train.

Well most of the people driving down the road give me extra room to run and even go as far as moving over a bit into the center lane if it's safe to do so. When I can I give them a little wave and mouth the word "Thanks" as they are passing. I think many of them understand what I am saying and they appear to be happy to accommodate me.

I'd like to take the time to say "Thank You" to everyone that gives me that little bit of extra room. You make that short little spot on the road a little bit safer for me.

Thank you

2009-03-25T17:02:00.003-04:00

I would like to thank the person that just about ran me over today for opening my eyes.

Your mirror brushed my shirt.

Pulling myself out of the hole

2009-03-18T21:39:00.000-04:00

I know I've dug myself pretty deep but I knew that a break was comming and I didn't want to let up too early. I'm not down so far that I'm cronically tired, hurt or sick, just had a high training load for 2 weeks longer than origionally planned. This is essentially my tapering for the Masters State Meet. I have omitted swimming from this formula since I don't track it with WKO and will taper that sperately by reducing volume ~25%.

For those of you that are familiar with WKO you will know what I'm talking about.
Right now I'm sitting at a balance of approx -40 which means that my 7 day average (ATL) is 40 points higher than my 42 day average (CTS). I need to bring that to a +10 by next thursday without losing much of the training effect that I have worked so hard on all winter.

Here is where the number crunching starts. My CTS is about 520 TSS/week right now and my ATL is near 800 TSS/week, a difference of 280 TSS/week or 40 TSS/day. I need to drop my training so that I accumulate just less than 500 points in the next 7 days. Breaking that down 50/50 for bike and run I can spend 250 points on each dicipline.

250 for the run will yield about 20 to 25 miles of running and 2 to 2.5 hours of biking...Not much for a training week but my goal is to be strong for the swim meet. After that I will have 8 more weeks to work with, 6.5 to dig myself again and then taper for Triple T. This taper plan for the meet will give me some practice with WKO and how easy/hard it is to calculate my fatigue.

On a good note, I do feel healthy and have been able to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night for the past several weeks. I'm strong and have been able to complete workouts as planned but am no where near 100%. I'm not physicaly hurt in any way, my knees, hips and shoulders feel good and I've lost 2 lbs in the last 3 weeks :)

Wednesday

2009-03-18T20:36:00.003-04:00

Since yesterday was a pretty hard day I didn't run long today. I didn't want to put BT workouts back to back. I ran a bit shorter today and will run long tomorrow.

Swim 2000 yards
20X100 as before

Run 8.1 miles on Hines in 1:08:40
Moderate run for junk miles.

Monday Tuesday

2009-03-18T20:27:00.002-04:00

Monday I took the day off. I've dug myself into a pretty deep hole and need some rest.

Tuesday
Run 5.1 miles in 42:xx
Bike 39.8 miles in 1:58:xx
Run 5.2 miles in 42:xx

1st run was at long run pace
Bike Warm up, 3X15 min hard 3 min rests, finish time in zone 3
2nd run was a little quicker than first

Yes, that is what you think it is...A kid's bike :)

2009-03-17T22:17:00.002-04:00

I just got it, still needs tweaking before I put it on the road.

Sunday

2009-03-16T10:45:00.004-04:00

Swam the Milford swim meet. I was still pretty tired but did OK. No PR's

I really don't want to write any more about it :(

Saturday

2009-03-16T10:42:00.002-04:00

Bike 2 hours out to 7 mile and Angle roads. 7 mile is getting pretty rough and I'm going to leave it out of my lists of good rides untill the road gets better.

Run 5.1 miles, felt pretty tired on the way out, ate a gel at half way and felt much better

Friday swim

2009-03-16T10:40:00.001-04:00

Just swim on Friday
3000 yards
800 warm up
10X200 hard on 3:45 (comming in around 2:50 to 2:55)
200 cool down

My neck was hurting a bit and I don't really know why, just annoying. I'm going to take tomorrow off swimming anyway.

A good ride on the trainer (if one is even possible)

2009-03-12T19:45:00.000-04:00

I felt pretty good on the trainer today and since I feel that I haven't been going hard enough lately I tried to kill the workout today, even though I had a hard day yesterday.

Bike 1:10 on trainer
WU 20 min including 6X30 sec hard
4X10 min hard (~215 watts) with 2 min easy rests
~4 min cool down

I went fairly hard on the first interval and was able to match or exceed it with the following 3. Normally I start off too easy and have a lot left at the end but not today.

Run on Hines drive, the water has receded a little bit and I was able to run past Wayne Rd for my normal 5.1 mile route. I under dressed for this run and was a bit cold the whole way. It wasn't as warm as yesterday, about 29 deg F.

Run 5.1 miles in 42:53
Just some more junk miles to get my "Thirty by Thursday." I had to eat a gel about half way out and walk it off cuz I was running on fumes and felt a bonk comming.

Wednesday long run

2009-03-11T20:15:00.002-04:00

It's finally getting to a long run

12.7 1:45:33 HR 145
35 min warm up easy
2X1 mile hard with 1 mile easy
Finish out however I felt

Very windy on Hines drive and the water is still rising. There is more water over the road today than there was yesterday. There was a big lake just west of Nankin and accross the street.

Since there was so much water I decided to run down Ann Arbor Trail with the short loop on the back side of Hines then out to Haggerty. Running out against the wind was cold and I put my headband over my hat to keep my ear warm. When I turned around I was very comfortable (heatwise).

Wednesday swim

2009-03-11T14:20:00.003-04:00

I changed it around a little. Instead of going on 1:45 I kept dropping the interval.

20X100 as:
5X100 on 1:45 warm up
5X100 on 1:40
5X100 on 1:35
5X100 on 1:45 cool down

I could have done more but I only have so much time during lunch to swim :(

Tuesday

2009-03-10T20:01:00.000-04:00

Just run today cuz I had to wait for Comcast to come and fix my cable.

5 miles on Hines 42:xx

Just easy junk miles

Monday's running intervals

2009-03-09T19:16:00.000-04:00

Run 8 miles on Hines. There was water everywhere cuz of the rain, water over the road at Wayne Rd and just east of Nankin. I chose to stay on the Wayne road side cuz the road was closed to traffic.

Anywho...Some longer intervals which seem to really help me a lot. These are getting easier to do again so it may be time to retest.

Warm up 2 miles
3X1 mile (7:35, 7:25, 7:15) .5 mile rests
Cool down the rest of the time.

I didn't get a swim in since I was late comming home from work and there wasn't enough time to swim and then run while it was still light outside. We have an VCA audit tomorrow and needed to do some final equipment checking.

Week in review

2009-03-08T21:14:00.003-04:00

I met my goals again this week with all 4 of my swims, 5 hours on the bike and near 40 run miles.

Swimming the 500's has gotten better. I'm tempted to add another 500 to the sets on monday.
I'm still time contrained on Wednesday and Friday has been consistant with 3000 yards. I'd like to get back to the 200's this week but we'll see how things turn out.
There is a swim meet next weekend that I'll be in so I'm going to cut the saturday swim and try to move the longer bike ride to friday.

Biking has seen 5 hours again with 2 of the rides outside but the longer one was on the trainer. I rode harder than I thought I could for that distance on the trainer by doing some intervals. I may only see 4 hours for the next week.

Running was at 38 miles with 3 days of that having a bit of intensity. Sat and Sun were just junk miles. If I had more time today I would have gotten the extra 2 in but the rec center closed at 5pm and I could only get 30 min in.

Next week will be a little bit lighter cuz of the swim meet but I will welcome the slight drop in volume. I will be hitting it hard for another 2 weeks then start to taper for the state swim meet. After the state swim meet I can hit it hard for 6 to 7 more weeks prepping for Triple T.

Sunday

2009-03-08T18:33:00.002-04:00

Ride long on trainer
2:30 41.8 miles on pure torture on the bike trainer. Thank god I have 3 seasons of Robot Chicken to watch while riding :P
I didn't want to ride an even effort so I broke it up like this:
30 min warm up
2X10 min as 3 min hard fast cadence, 3 min next gear up, 1 min 1 gear up, 1 min standing, 2 min easy.
10 min moderate ~ 70%
Repeat 2 more times
Finish last 20 min in zone 3

Run on the track at the Rec center cuz it was raining cats and dogs outside
30 min 3.7 miles

Saturday Swim and Run

2009-03-08T18:23:00.002-04:00

Swim with FAST at Schoolcraft
4000 yards
500 warm up
5X200 on 3:15
100 easy
200 moderate
5X100 on 1:40
100 easy
100 moderate
2X250 as 100 Free, 75 breast, 50 back, 25 fly but I swam all free cuz I hate off-stroke stuff
300 kick as
8x50 weird breathing stuff
100 cool down
200 post cool down cuz I wanted to make it an even 4000

Run on Hines drive
8 miles 1:07:xx, it started raining at then end but I made it back before it came down too hard

Friday - another warmer day

2009-03-08T18:19:00.002-04:00

It was near 60 so I had to ride outside again. The only problem is that swimming is high on my priority list too since state meet is drawing near.

I decided to ride after work then swim with LALA a little later.

Bike 1:18:xx 25.8 miles of tempo riding out to 7 mile and Beck and back

Swim with LALA at Franklin High School
3000 yards in 60 minutes with a lot of fast 200's, 100's and 50's

Finally a warm(er) day

2009-03-05T20:04:00.000-05:00

Bike on Hines drive, it was 52 deg when I got home from work so I had to ride outside.

1:18:30 24.5 miles
3X15 min hard, warm up and cool down

Run just over 6 miles 49:18 HR 145
2miles WU
2X1 mile hard .5 mile rest. Finish 8:15

Wednesday long run

2009-03-04T21:02:00.002-05:00

Run on Hines drive

12.1 miles in just over 1:40
4 miles warm up
2X1 mile hard, 1 mile easy.
Finish out time with some M pace and a little easier.

Felt good, a little under dressed. Strong for the last 3 to 4 miles. Wish it was warmer outside.

Swim 100's

2009-03-04T18:34:00.000-05:00

Still sticking with the 100's for Wednesday...It's working for me.
I felt tired untill I got into the water and warmed up, then I felt great.

20X100 on 1:45 as:
5X100 warm up touch near 1:30
5X100 touch 1:25
5X100 touch 1:22 to 1:20
5X100 cool down