Starting the taper for Triple T

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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