I got my new mountain bike on tuesday :)
Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29er
Friday, November 05, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Screw long-course triathlon...I'm going to Xterra next season
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.
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.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Long Course Nationals
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Nothing new, training as usual
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.
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.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Another week
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, February 22, 2010
This year so far
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
jaretj.blogspot.com
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
jaretj.blogspot.com
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