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 :(
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Week ending 12/18/11
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Legs feeling better now
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.
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.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
What I'm working on now
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.
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
165 Cranks
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.
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.
Monday, December 05, 2011
Thoughts on week ending 12/4/11
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
2012 race schedule
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
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Another good week
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
New Pict on top
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 :)
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
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.
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.
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