HED CX 650C from around 1998 I think.

Xterra Maui

This is a recollection of the race day:

The race started at 9am so there was no hurry to get to the race really early.  The transition opened at 7am and I got there just before then.  There were only about one hundred people there already so I was able to get a fairly good spot.

The Swim.

It certainly wasn't the hardest swim I've done but it was still challenging.  The waves were rolling about 4 feet and crashing into the shallow beach quite regularly.  Unlike other races I've done with bigger waves, there was a lot of movement in the water when they did.  What I mean is that when a wave came in, the water flowed in for about 20 seconds onto the beach and then flowed out for about 20 seconds whereas other races I've done when a wave crashes on the beach it was in and out in 10 seconds.

I started near the center and back a few people mainly cuz I wanted to stay away from people.  I knew I was a better swimmer than most but 30 seconds didn't make a difference to me in this race.  There was really no problem getting through the surf and I got into a rhythm very quickly.  As usual people were killing themselves in the beginning and tired out after the first turn buoy.  I passed several people there and took it easy coming in.  I made the turn on the beach for my second lap, while I was passed by a few people, I passed them back going out into the surf and then probably passed 20 more people heading out to the second turn-around.  There was a time when I was bumping next to someone and I had enough energy to four-stroke a few times and get in front of them.  It was then that I knew that I was probably going too easy and picked it up a bit.  After the second turn-around the water seemed a bit rougher and the waves were probably nearer 5 feet by then.  I surfed in on some of the waves and it was fun.  When I got near the beach I was just waiting for a wave to crash over me.  There were two times that I thought I was going to get tumbled but was in the right spot not to, then about 20 yards away from the beach I had a wave crash over me and tumbled me over a time or two.  I really don't remember how many times I went over because I was patiently waiting to come up and get some air.  I never panicked and came up after about 10 seconds,  I was able to touch the bottom by then, cleared my goggles and swim in the rest of the way. 

Transition was uneventful, I just ran up to my bike, put on my shoes, camelbak, helmet, glasses and gloves and I was on my way.

I started off easy on the bike, I rode it two days before and knew how hard it was.  I stayed to the right with the other athletes that knew was was coming and gave anyone and everyone that wanted to go by a lot of room.  I remember someone yelling for room behind me and then heard some crashing, I didn't look back but thought to myself how stupid they must have felt to crash on the asphalt within the first mile of the race.

The climbs were hard, I knew they would be.  After the fact I looked at my Garmin 810 and counted 5 climbs that were 14 minutes or longer, two of which I had to walk my bike up the rest of the climb.  They were really steep and I didn't want to compromise my run any more than I had.  The downhills were not really that fast, not as steep and fast as Ogden but still rather bumpy, I had my suspension set up too stiff for them.  I seem to be in the habit of setting up too stiff.

The bottom section was fun since it was more like riding the trails at home.  Slightly tight and twisty like Maybury but with more traction from the softer ground.

I finished the bike, rolled into transition in pretty good shape.  I was tired but not exhausted and knew it was going to be a tough run.  I started off short-stepping and watching my heart rate to keep it below 150bpm.  I know at that HR I'm running pretty hard and will blow up if I go much past it.  I had to walk a few time to get my HR down, then after the last climb I knew I was in decent shape to finish the race.  During the first half of the run I probably passed about 30 people some of which seemed quite dazed.  At one point I asked a guy if he was OK, he nodded so I continued on.

A lady in a older Age Group passed me on the last decent, she was nice and was running for a podium so I made sure I got out of her way.  She was nice and cheered me on.  When I got to the bottom the mountain and it got flat again I had to cross the beach, it felt like a half mile but was probably only a quarter.  I looked behind me for anyone but I was alone so I could relax a bit and run into the finish.  In front of me there was a guy finishing with his kids so I waited up a bit and let him go through so I wouldn't mess up his picture.  After the finish I found Karen who had sherpa'd for me, she congratulated me and took some more pictures.

Points about the race:
1.  Know how to swim in big waves and surf.

2.  The bike course is the hardest course I've ever done.  Be prepared for steep hills, 5 sections of 15 min of hard climbing.

3.  The run is hard and you have to have enough gas left in the tank for the first half, after that it's all downhill.

This is going to take some work but I know it will be a better bike for me

Missing a spacer for the front axle and the seat post binder nut.

Need (want) to replace shifters, and saddle.  Seatpost has way too much setback for me and the stem is just a little too short.  Will probably change the rear derailleur with a mid cage.

Will replace crank with my P2M.

I don't like the bars and I have replacements ready to go right now, not completely sure about that though.  I will also have to re-cable the entire bike, it's not bad but isn't great either.

Frame sizing looks good, I may have to change the cap under the stem with a smaller one to get the bars low enough.

From the balcony of the condo in Maui

For some reason I posted this, don't know why

Same ting

The spot where a fellow racer went off the cliff. He was OK

Interesting track workout I wanted to write down thoughts about

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1244593145

I've long thought that my run is limited by how fast I can physically run, I've also thought that it's linked to the fact that I've never really practiced running fast.  Yesterday I did something about it.

The workout went as follows:

Run 20X200 on 1:50-2:10
5X200 high knees 45 ish
5X200 butt kicks 45 44
5X200 big arm swing 44-43
5X200 relaxed shoulders 43-41

The groups were to work on different aspects of my run.
The first 5 Reps I concentrated on keeping my knees high, driving them forward and getting a decent push off.
The second set of 5 I concentrated on trying to kick my butt with my heels.
The third set of 5 I concentrated on swinging my arms
The last set of 5 I relaxed my shoulders and hips, put everything together to run fast

In previous workouts with plenty of rest I was able to run at best, a 46 second 200.  Those workouts were a combination of 400's and 200's.  In this workout, while working on specific aspects of the run, we ran a 200 then rested until the next interval started.  We started with 1:50 then moved to 2:10 since we were losing people and it was 90+ degrees outside.

By getting a little more rest I was able to practice running faster than I had before.  I started off near 45 seconds and then the times came down and I got comfortable running faster.  I really think that another 4 weeks of this is what I need and will try to fit it in my schedule.

Triple T post race

Triple T went well, not as well as I'd hoped but the result among the competition was the best I've done.

I'm happy with second place in a very competitive age group but I could have gone faster if I had prepped differently.

Race 1:  I pretty much went as fast as I could in all three sports.  I swam OK, I rode with a higher power than I expected and I ran slightly faster than I expected.

Race 2:  Decent swim but it was short, rode fairly conservative and ran quick but fairly conservative.

Race 3:  I was still a bit tired from the first race but normal.  I didn't ride as hard as I'd hoped but still within my expectations.  I swam better than I expected and ran fairly conservative again.

Race 4:  I was really tired before this race, to the point that I was sick to my stomach before and during the first lap of the swim.  I knew this would go away after I got going so I wasn't nervous at all.  The swim went well, no surprises, I rode within my plan on the bike and let people go that were faster and then the run is where the surprise happened.

There were three of us that were fairly close, Scott, Andy and myself for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  I was in 4th by about 40 seconds and didn't realize it at that time, I thought I was racing Andy for 3rd which we have done before at another race.  Andy passed me on the bike near 35 miles in, he was going too fast for me to follow and still stick with my plan so I didn't try to keep in contact with him.  I saw him go up the climb on route 125 and timed him to be about 1:45 in front of me, after that he rolled away on the fast rollers.  I saw him again on the climb up 3 stage hill, I figured he was about 1:15 in front of me then.  The next time I saw him was in transition where he left about :15 seconds in front of me.

When we went out on the run I was really gassed, more so than I thought I should have been, but so was Andy and I saw him short stepping near my pace.  I thought I might be able to stay with him and did.  At the first turn-around we were about 30 seconds apart then at the second turn-around heading out for the second loop I was catching him.  When we went into the woods and up the first small hill, I caught and passed him, I didn't say a word, I mean really, what was I going to say to the guy I was racing for third, was a good friend and fellow Georgia Camp training partner?  I didn't even look back to see his reaction, all I knew was I had to gain about a minute on him and I'm a better hill runner than I am a flat land runner so I kept going hard hoping he wouldn't follow.

When we got to the switchback (my favorite part of the run) I didn't see him for a minute or so and kept going hard up and over.  At the turn-around I timed him to be 3 minutes behind me and just thought to myself that with his long legs he would catch me going downhill.  (He's about 6'2" and I'm 5'4")  I ran hard up the hill, when I got to the top I decided that I'd try to hold a HR of 140 going down.  That worked well, so well that I caught my breath and decided to push it a little harder after the switchback.  I tried to hold a HR of 150 for the rest of the way since I know from experience that I'll fell like I'm going to throw up if I go harder, while doing so I was passing lapped runners very quickly.  In my mind I was running scared to stay in front of Andy who I thought was going to be right behind me and ran hard right up to the finish line.

I was pretty wiped out by then and just sat down, Karen greeted me with some water and congratulations.  About a minute or so later Scott B finished, I really thought nothing of it.  Near 4 minutes later Andy finished and then Dave D finished shortly afterwards (at least I think).  I was pretty happy about being in 3rd place and when the announcer called out the podium spots he said I was second, by :14 seconds.  I was surprised and happy that I ran so hard down that hill all the way to the finish to get the best result I'd had at that race.

In hindsight, my transitions were the key to me getting 2nd instead of 4th
Fri pm :43, :40 ---(1:23)
Sat am :57, :56 --- (1:53)
Sat pm 2:29, 1:09 --- (3:38)
Sun am 2:00, 1:40 ---(3:40)

My competition was:
Fri pm :42, :42 --- 1:10, :48 --- (1:24, 1:58)
Sat am 1:51, :47 --- 2:13, 1:36 --- (2:38, 3:49)
Sat pm 2:12, 2:35 --- 3:59, 4:00 --- (4:47, 7:59)
Sun am 3:13, 1:38 --- 3:59, 2:03 --- (4:51, 6:02)

Transitions do matter and I'm happy that I practice and execute them well :)

I did something last weekend that I rarely do

I pretty much took the weekend off.

I was just tired and didn't want to deal with the cold weather crap.

I swam 4000 on Saturday morning, started biking on Zwift in the late afternoon.  I got about a half hour into it and said screw this, I'm tired.

On Sunday I got dressed and went outside for my planned 8 mile run.  It was cold, my ankle hurt a little, I was tired so I said screw it again and went back inside.

All of this the weekend before Triple T...I'm just tired of being tired.  I want my energy back going into this race and if I'm a little under-trained, then so be it.

On a positive note...Monday I ran at lunch, swam 2700 fairly strong then rode 23 miles fairly strong.

Ramble Ramble Ramble...I did the 2X20 on the trainer...some interesting notes

It's much easier for me to pace the interval on the trainer than outside but there are a few differences.

Since it was raining I decided to ride Zwift instead of outside (good choice) even though it was warm in my bike room.  I warmed up like usual for 1 lap of Richmond (~30 min) then went straight into the 2X20(4) on the flat section.  Using the flat section, it's easier to hold a steady power cuz I don't have to ride downhill.

It was difficult at first and I was trying to hold my cadence above 77 (just something personal I'm trying) then after 10 minutes, I was able to bring my HR up a little more.  During the last 10 min I was holding back a little cuz I knew I had another interval.

The second one felt much more comfortable right from the start and I just built on it a bit.  Just before the second one I re-zeroed my PM just to be sure it was right. (-653, -655)  As the interval went on I felt better and better so I went with it.

Here's my rambling...

The power for each interval was 213 and 224.  A little lower on the first one than I expected but within the acceptable range.  I'm a little lower this year on FTP and I don't know if it's the PM, training, freshness, a combination of all or something else.

The HR for each interval was 139, 139.  I feel it should have been higher on the second one but maybe the PM was low on the first interval or high on the second interval.  Compared to the one I did outside last week on my tri bike, the power was 217, 207 the HR was 148, 152 there is a definite difference between riding on the trainer and outside.

I'm going to put more emphasis on the 2X20 this year rather than the 8X5.  When I do the 8X5 I'm going to keep more effort on the rest interval as well and see what that does.

In addition to the 2X20 I'm going to add it some VO2max efforts for 6 weeks after Triple T to raise my FTP and sprint effort power.  Probably start with the 5X3'(5) and progress to 5X5'(5)

2 weeks of thoughts

Week ending 5/1

Swim: OK, nothing new

Bike: OK, did the 4X10 went about as expected holding near 210-215 watts.  Ran well on the brick run.  I'm slowing down that run so I can concentrate on the Quality run on Wednesday

Biked long on weekend, got 60 miles in but the rain started and I cut the last 10 miles.

Run: OK.  Not showing any improvement on the pace for the Hill Run but did see a slight decrease in HR.   I was a little tired for the long run on Sunday but still managed to run 15 miles easy as planned.

Overall a pretty decent week with a little less volume

Week ending 5/8, Triple T Camp Week

Swim: OK, tired but nothing new.  Swam Monday, Wednesday and OW on Saturday

Bike: 2X20 on Tuesday, faded at end, should have targeted 210 for the first one instead of 217.
Triple T bike rides went well, I just wanted to ride the courses and not kill myself.  While I rode hard, I was nowhere near all-out.

Run:  Ankle hurt on Tuesday so I took it off (the run).  It rained on Wednesday so I just ran easy at lunch, good thing cuz I was tired.  Ran the hill at Shawnee on Thursday evening, brick run once on Friday.  Didn't run on Sunday after the drive like I should have.

Overall a short run week and I'm not satisfied with the run volume.  This week is the last week for harder training and the weather doesn't look good so I'm going to have to suck it up and train indoors.

Goals for this week:
There is a swim meet this weekend (for the kids) so I'll need to get my swims in earlier, probably MWTF.

Bike: 2X20@210, 4X20(5)SST on Thursday, longer and easy on Saturday.

Run: Hill workout but keep HR in a lower zone more in line with the effort I will target at Triple T.  I'm thinking around 150bpm and see how I feel from there.  Sunday I'm going to go with the Daniels plan (2 miles E pace + 10 to 15 min T pace with 3 min rests + 30 to 45 min E pace)

Catching up on Thoughts

It's been 4 weeks since my last post on March 29 and here's what's happened

4/3/2016 

Rested a little bit near the end of the week to get ready for Georgia camp

I didn't have a long run but still got in some solid work during with week with the 8X5'(:30).  I felt better on the workout than I thought I would.

Swimming went OK but still tired.

4/10/2016

Georgia Camp Week

Drove down for the annual camp with HFP Racing in Georgia.  While it was cold, everything went fine and completed every workout.  

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I felt really strong and held back a bit.  Thursday's run was OK but wasn't as strong as I'd hoped to be.  Friday's ride was OK and I was holding back just a little bit on the rollers cuz I felt everyone was riding them harder than they should, turns out I was right and rode strong up the last climb. I chose to ride with Erik and Dave on Saturday because we were hoping it would warm up a bit, it didn't but it took a lot of stress off of the ride.

All of the swims went OK, I held back on them to save energy for the bike.  All of the brick runs went well too.

4/17/2016

I was tired like I was supposed to be.  We started the hill runs on Wednesday and I ran better than expected.  I ran fairly strong on Sunday as well (12 miles)

I took Tuesday off from the bike, Thursday I was tired but still rode an hour, Saturday I felt a lot better.

Swimming was hit or miss but by Saturday I was better.

4/24/2016

Feeling much stronger overall during this week.  8X5(1) on the bike on Tuesday and 4X20(5)SST on Friday.  I moved the long ride to Sunday because of the weather and still rode strong despite running long the day before.

Running was back on track with Wednesday's hill run and Saturday's long run with HIM paced intervals at the beginning and end.  My left ankle still seems to be a little sore from the previous Wednesday's hill run.

Swimming is still hit or miss.  Monday and Thursday I was OK.  I started doing shorter pacing intervals with a lot of rest to be ready for racing in a few more weeks.  Fast 50's on 1:10 (under :39) and fast 100's on 2:00 (under 1:20).

This week is just starting but I'm dropping the run volume to 38.5 miles this week while holding the bike and swim volume up.  Next weekend is my Triple T Camp and I have 17 people going.  Erik has volunteered to ride with a B group so I'll be able to focus more on my own efforts while getting ready for the race.

Chain line on The Evil Twin

Time to take a little rest

I've had 12 solid weeks of training dating back to the first week of January and I'm in the place I'd hoped to be.

The swim came back a little this week,  I felt fairly strong on Friday and Saturday.  I'm not 100% but expect to be stronger after taking it easier this week.

I backed off of the bike intensity again this week.  I really didn't feel like riding long on Saturday so I only road 30 some miles.  This week I'll probably ride 30 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The running this week went well with Wednesday running 2X20'(10) and a long run on Sunday.  I felt fairly strong on the Wednesday run and finished the week with a 15 mile easy run with friends on the Hilly Northville loop.

Over all I'm healthy and ready to back it off to be completely recovered for the training Camp in Georgia.

Some more ramblings...

3 weeks done in the third run phase and I'm feeling OK

Two weeks ago I felt really good in my running and completed all the workouts as scheduled.  I was surprised that I warmed up quickly and got into the intervals on that Sunday's workout so quickly, normally it takes me 3 to 4 miles to get warmed up.  I thought the mile repeats on Wednesday would be more difficult but they went very well.  Everything went as planned and I finished the week strong.  

This past week went well too but didn't feel as strong as the previous week.  Sunday I completed on schedule but needed 3 miles of warm up instead of two, and I held the M pace better than I expected.  Wednesday I did the 2X15'(3)+10 and those intervals went on schedule as well.

Biking is going well, two weeks ago I finished the 2X20(5) to end the rotation of threshold workouts and did 3X20 SST on Thursday.  Last week I started the rotation over again with 8X5'(2) and moved Thursday to 4X20 SST.  Saturday the mountain route opened on Zwift so I did that, I kept the pace reasonable and finished just over 50 miles in 3 hours.

I thought swimming was coming back but am still tired.  Last Saturday I lead Dave in the workout where he's been leading for the few weeks before that.  I was able to put in some decent 100 repeat times but nothing extraordinary.  I still feel that I'll be able to swim much better when rested and am just going to put in the work now.

This week I'll be back up near 50 miles of running 6 to 7 hours of biking and 3 to 4 swim.  After that I'm taking it easy for a week to rest up for Georgia.  I most likely will not be running long on that Sunday or riding long on Saturday. 

After the first week on the third phase of running program

My legs still feel pretty good and my swimming is coming back.

It's taken a while but I've finally got more energy for swimming.  Swimming 100's on 1:40 is not a chore anymore and might drop back to 1:35 soon.  I've been consistently swimming 4 days a week near 12,000 yards.  All of those weeks with high volume without a break was just too much for me.  If I do another swim block like that I'll make sure I get an easy week every once in a while.

The bike is coming along well too.  I've been going though my regular rotation of threshold workouts and found doing them twice a week is a little too much for me right now.  I did the 5X8 on a Tuesday and Thursday, on the Thursday I had a difficult time on the last 3 intervals.   The following week when I did 3X10 on Tuesday, I did 3X20 SST on Thursday and felt much better for that workout as well as the weekend.

This week I had the 3X15 and felt pretty good.  My workouts for Wednesday to Friday got jumbled around because of a personal issue so Thursday's bike workout was only an hour which allowed me to ride a little longer on Saturday.  Overall the week was still productive.  Next week I'll do the 2X20 on Tuesday and 3X20 SST on Thursday.

I finished the faster stuff on the run in the last two weeks and moved on to threshold runs.  The faster stuff I was able to get near 6:45, a little short of the 6:30's I really wanted to be at but I'm training for what I'm capable of and not the goal pace.

Now I'm on the longer threshold stuff so it's a little slower but much longer.  This week was 4X10'(2) near 7:30's, next week has some mile repeats and then to 2X15 +10.  I've done all of those before and feel pretty good about them.  What I need to do is a 5K race to see what I'm capable of to reset or confirm my training efforts.

I'm still not running on Mondays, I think it's the right thing to do because the rest of my week feels so much better and is more productive.  Even though I'm taking that day off I'm still running the recommended weekly mileage, I just double on Tuesday.  Monday is just a swim day now.

A post from last June that I decided not to put on Slowtwitch but felt it was important for me to remember

I've had this saved in a note pad for a while, I thought it was an important point:

At Rev3 Rush I was the 3rd fastest runner in my AG and that showed in the first 2 races where we were kind of figuring out who could do what.  One guy was hands down the fastest runner, the next guy was almost as fast and then there was me.  I was clearly the strongest biker.

In the third race those two guys came out of the water 10 sec in front of me, I caught them on the bike, (which wasn't easy) rested for a lap then drilled it for the next few laps.  Because of that I felt that I wore one of the guys out and was able to outrun him afterwards.

So yes, the fastest runner won the race but the third fastest runner got second because of his bike strength.  I really think it came down to the capacity to do work, while I appear to have a max speed that I can run at, it isn't affected as much by a hard bike ride as some others may be.

jaretj

4 weeks into the second phase of running

My legs feel a lot better.

Again following the recommendation volume for the Daniels plan and I was at 44.6 miles last week for running,  I took Monday off and felt a lot better going into last week.  Tuesday I was ready for the bike and Wednesday I ran the intervals a little quicker.

I swam 11,800 yds last week in 4 swims where Monday was tough and the rest went well.

I got 6.5 hours on the bike last week with two 40 mile rides with 3X12'(3) intervals and a 51 mile ride done moderately. 

Overall I felt strong the whole week finishing with a straight, easy 2 hour run.

This week has started well, I took Monday off of running again, I could have run but I really wanted to know how I would feel today (Tuesday) after having another Monday off.  Swimming was OK, not where I hoped I'd be, but it's not bad either.

I'm going back to my regular rotation of bike intervals during the week starting with 8X5'(2).  I'm adding an extra minute of rest time in there mainly cuz I need to fill in the 40 miles and feel that the extra minute will allow me to perform and recover better.  I may do some SST on Thursday or stick with the 8X5', I'm not sure yet, it depends on how I feel.

The revised rotation is 4X10'(3), 3X15'(4) and 2X20'(5) where I've added a minute to the rest time on each set.

3 Weeks into the 2nd phase of running

My legs are tired

I've been following the recommended volume for the Daniels plan and I welcomed last weeks lower values.

The last 3 weeks have been 40.1, 40.7, 38.4 miles and with the higher intensity on Wednesdays and Sundays the volume has been about right.  What's been nice is that I've been able to get on the road a few times and off the treadmill and track.  That has made the training more pleasant.

I've backed off the swimming hoping that I'd feel stronger and I have.  I've going to give it another week of lower volume to see if I feel even better.  The last 3 weeks have been 11,700 14,900 and 9600 yards.  I'm planning to be near 10,000 yards again this week.

I've picked up the bike riding this week.  The last 3 weeks have been 4:42, 4:34 and 5:25.  I would like to bring myself up to 6 hours for the next 3 weeks and then 7-8 after that.  I've doing 3X8'(2) two weeks ago and 3X10(3) last week, I'm planning on doing 3X12(3-4) this week and then move into my normal rotation of 8X5(1), 4X10(2), 3X15(3) and 2X20(5) after that.