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.

Through the first phase of running training building to Triple T

I'm finally though the first 6 weeks of running and things are looking good.

1.  I'm not hurt, the issue with my hamstring last fall has not returned.  I honestly think it's because I've done my best to lengthen the muscles by stretching.  

2.  I've put in the distance.  While I had some downtime because I went snowboarding in Colorado, my running has been consistent.

Weekly Milage

32.8

35.7

41.9

20.4 In Colorado

27.9 In Colorado

31.5

45.6

51.8

I will probably be nearer 46 miles this week as I took Monday off.

3.  I've been working on Cadence and Range of Motion.  I've laid off of pushing cadence up over 180 and brought it up naturally to about 176, that feels comfortable to me.  Last year at this time I was nearer 170-172 which I felt was too low.

I think that increasing my range of motion will help me with running faster this year.  My legs are not that long and it's hard to make longer steps.  Last season while running fast, my cadence was always near 185 so they will not be getting much faster.  Also last year I didn't work on stretching at all since I felt it was unimportant, hopefully going back to it will show improvement.

Swimming is going well too but I'm tired.  I only swam 4 days last week because I've been tired and I felt better on Saturday's swim because of it.  My training partner canceled on me yesterday so I bagged the workout, I feel a lot better today and may get in the pool for a short swim and then go back to my normal schedule tomorrow.

Bike riding is starting to come back up, I started riding on Zwift and it's entertaining.  I'm probably going to start riding some shorter intervals this week and I'd like to build to over 4 hours for the next few weeks.

After the first full week in January

Number one goal going into this year is to be able to train consistently.  So far that has happened.

I've had a very solid buildup in my swim.  I wanted to put more time into it and have done so without hurting myself.  Weekly yardage since I got back from Florida:

11750 yds
14300 yds
15700 yds
17950 yds
13900 yds (I went Snowboarding in Colorado for a weekend)
12100 yds (It was a good break that I needed)
19700 yds
19300 yds

Now realistically I have 12-13 weeks to work on my swim until I need to concentrate on race prep for Triple T.  There will be a few down weeks in there for camps and recovery but I want to keep working on speed and endurance in hopes to drop 1.5 to 2 minutes off of my sprint distance (750Meter) open-water time.

Next, I've had a safe build up of my run.  I originally wanted to be at a higher weekly mileage right now but swimming has taken more time and energy than I thought it would.  Because of that I'm about 2 weeks behind the original plan right now.

Weekly Mileage since Florida:
29.1 miles
32.8 miles
35.7 miles
41.9 miles
20.4 miles
27.9 miles
31.5 miles
45.6 miles

Now the plan is to keep the high weeks between 45 and 55 miles.  I've got one more week of easy then 6 weeks of faster stuff followed by 6 weeks of threshold work then 6 weeks of race pace work.  Again I'm doing the Daniels Marathon A plan which has been very successful for me in the past.

Lastly and the least important of the end of last year's training is consistency on the bike.  I've been riding 2 times a week on TougDeGiro and it's been fairly successful.  I've put the time in and now am ramping it up.  I'll be a 3-4 hours for a few weeks with some high power intervals then bump up to 5-6 hours for a few weeks afterwards.  HFP Camp is 13 weeks away and hopefully I'll be able to get some longer rides outside for 4 to 5 weeks before the Camp.

That's all of the planning I have right now.

2014 Cervelo P2

The aftermath of Clermont Draft Legal Sprint and Challenge Florida

Things went good and not as good...

First the DL Sprint:
I honestly expected to place around 15th in this race.  There were a lot of good athletes there and I wasn't at my best.  My swim was at about 90%, my bike and run were about 80%, still I did better than I expected.

I swam conservative at first which was probably a good decision.  I stayed out of trouble and picked it up after the first turn where I passed about 25 people and came out of the water about 2 min down from the leaders but only about 10 sec behind a decent group of riders.

When I got on the bike I quickly caught a group of 5 riders and stayed with them, the group swelled to about 20 riders between the previous wave, then later waves.  I was one of 6 riders doing the work but needed to go hard enough to keep faster runners behind me so I never went into the red zone.

I got off the bike in fairly good condition but was only able to run a 23' 5K because of the heat (90°F and 80% Humidity) and my poor run conditioning. Because of that I managed to finish 11th in my AG and was just out of the qualifying position.

By some stroke of luck either someone got a DQ in front of me or a previous qualification (there were 2 people in front of me that already qualified for Cozumel) I was given a slot to ITU Worlds in Cozumel Mexico.

What I need to do to better my performance:
The fastest swimmers came out of the water in about 11 minutes and I came out in 13:25.  Realistically I think I can get under 12 minutes but 11 will be a stretch.  If I came out of the water at 12 minutes I could catch the guys just in front of me by my transition speed and biking ability but probably only about 15-20 seconds.  I feel with a good focus on swimming I will be able to swim a 750 meter open water swim near 12 minutes and get into a good group of riders.

The fastest runners in my AG run near 18 for the day.  That is much quicker than I have ever gone and feel that is out of my reach even on a cooler day.  However I do feel that running under 20 minutes is achievable.  It will take a lot of running this winter and a good focus during the summer to achieve this but I feel it's within my reach.

Challenge Florida was a bust:
The swim went well and statistically I do well in no-wetsuit swims.  However it was very hot again (same as above) and I wasn't in the best running shape.  I tried to go really easy on the bike and I probably went too easy.  I had a goal of keeping my HR down near 130 and that was just too low, my power was closer to 150 watts and I should have just rode nearer 160-165 to come in about 10 minutes faster.

The run was just a death march.  Hot on the way out, turn along the canal was just baking hot with no wind, turn around into a slight breeze then turn back to the transition area where there was no wind again.  Turned around and did the course again but a little slower.  A 1:58 is all I could manage but with my less than optimal running condition I was happy with it.

Lesson learned:  6 weeks is not enough time between two HIM's to do well at both, especially when the first on was Long Course Nationals and I went in unprepared for that one as well.  I think that if the first one was built up to and the second one was race prepped I could have done better.  This was not the case as Caseville (earlier in the season) was the build up and LCN was the race prepped one.

Also, 4 HIM's in one season is too many bigger races for me.  Next season will have to big races and one bigger race to build up to mid season.

The Prep for Clermont Draft Legal Sprint and Challenge Florida

My running has been going really well for the last several weeks.

I rested a little after Redman but really continued on my long runs and fast runs without issues since then.  Including the run at Redman I've had 5 good long runs and 5 good faster effort runs while continuing my easy days in between them.

The difference between last year's and this year's running is instead of doing threshold I'm doing short and fast intervals with 3 minutes of rest.  I'm hoping that will help me run faster for the DL sprint.

The bike training has been going ok since the weather has been warmer but nowhere near where I was during the summer.

Swimming is going well, I've had 5 good weeks in the pool and now it's time to rest up and see how things are going to go.

This week will be easier with 4 days of running, 3 easier rides and swimming as I feel.  I need to be at 100% to make it in the top 10 at the sprint, I don't know how that will turn out but I do have experience doing draft legal racing that I think others lack.

Now the last 2 weeks are here and I need to be smart and get my energy back. 

A followup from Redman (Long Course Nationals)

The race went pretty well but I was not as strong on the run as I hoped to be.

I had a solid swim, things went well.  I stayed out of trouble in the beginning by staying to the right.  It was a one loop swim and the first turn was a long ways off so I had time to settle in.  Starting on the right makes me a little more comfortable cuz the water is calmer to my breathing side so in the beginning it's easier for me to breathe.

After things settled out I was looking for someone to follow, I found some feet a few times but really just hopped around from person to person.  I remember being on someone's feet most of the return leg but I don't think it helped much.

There was a small (and by small I mean 6 inches) chop on the way out, it seemed like boat traffic waves but they were consistent.  On the way back it appeared to be a little bigger but they were behind me by then.

On the bike the first goal was to get my HR down under 140bpm, it's an arbitrary number I picked because during training most of my pacing practice produced a HR of 135.  It took me about 5 miles to get it down and then planned to ride on the short side of 170 watts.  After a few miles I noticed there was someone about 100 yards ahead of me going the same speed so I figured rather than ride by myself I would sit 10 meters behind him and save some energy.  It took another mile to close the gap and I settled in behind him.  Shortly after than 4 or 5 guys passed me slowly and both of us latched onto them.

It seemed to me that all of these guys knew what they were doing, everyone stayed 7 to 10 meters apart and passed up from the back.  When we went uphill everyone kept the same effort and rode smart.  Sometimes a person would get off the front or fall off the back buy we seemed to ride well together for most of the time.  There were a few guys that rode through us and the draft marshals were on us from mile 30 to 45 but we were clean.  I saw a group of 20 people that was riding fairly close, I was with them for a few miles but they were going faster than I wanted to go and I held back.

Near 50 miles I dropped back to save some more energy since I knew my running was undertrained.  It was a wise decision, as I was able to get my HR down nearer 130 and got ready for the run.

The run started off well, I short-stepped the beginning cuz I knew my fitness wouldn't support a fast run, after 5 miles I started dropping off and was really just holding on.  My HR was really high for that effort but again I expected that.  I wound up running a 1:47 which isn't too bad but is still a long way off of the 1:38 I ran last fall.

Lessons from this race:
Probably need to drink a little more on the bike.  Drinking only 1.5 bottles might have contributed to the higher HR on the run.  At Florida I'm going to try and get 1 bottle down in the first hour of the ride and see how things go.  Hopefully I can get another bottle down in the next 1.5 hours.

Sitting 7 to 10 meters behind someone all of the time really helped the speed.  I road 2:24 on 163 watts.  That's about 7 watts saved.

Starting off conservative on the run was the right way to go again.  I knew in the first 5 miles what kind of shape I was in.  Still 4:47 in a half is good for me despite the run issues.

About 1 week out from Long Course Nationals

While preparing for this race I had an unexpected injury.

On Sept 6th I was participating in an Olympic distance race where I made a wrong turn and wound up dropping out of the race.  I was pretty upset but oh well.

Since I didn't run I decided to run later in the evening, I needed a long easy run and this was a good opportunity to do it.  The run was supposed to be 10 miles, nothing extraordinary, but didn't go as planned.

The run started off easy like normal but about 3 miles in my left hamstring started twitching.  I've had aches and pains before so I decided to run through it.  About 4 miles in I slowed way down and was getting a bit concerned, Karen drove by to check on me but the pain was going away so i waved her on.

It got better for the next mile or so, Karen drove by again and I waved her by like before.  Right after that it started to hurt really bad, I was about 7 miles in and started taking walk breaks, then I wished I would have gotten in the car with Karen.  I ran/walked for another 3/4 mile and saw Karen waiting for me near my 8 mile mark, I hobbled to the car thankful I didn't have to walk another 2 miles and drove to our destination.

It's unusual for me to get an injury, normally when I take time off it's because I've tired.  I'm so close to a big race I needed to make sure it healed up completely rather than have it at 75% and still be fast.  I've got 2 more races after this one so my season is no where near over.

I took the day after (Monday 9/7) off from running, 

Tuesday I rode my bike, tried running but quickly bagged it.  

Wednesday I rode easy then tried to run again, I got around a mile and bagged it.  

Thursday I ran a mile after riding and then bagged it, it felt better though.

Friday I ran 4 miles at lunch, the hamstring still twitched a bit but it was better,  

Saturday I rode 80 miles and ran 3 miles, it was OK.  

Sunday I ran 7 miles at Island Lake, it was twitching around 6 miles so I just ran back to the car and waited for Karen to finish swimming.  I ran 2 miles later that evening, it was OK.

Monday I took off from running and just swam, I felt great in the pool and got 4000 yards in.

Tuesday I ran 4 miles at lunch, I stretched my hamstrings very thoroughly and felt much better.  Later that day I rode, 3X10' very strong and felt great, I wanted to run afterwards but didn't just because I was concerned about healing up.

Wednesday I wanted to run long, my goal was 10 miles and hoped to run 12 if I was feeling well but would have been happy with 8 miles.  I wound up running 13.1 miles and felt pretty good.  I felt a few twinges but I really think they were from my lack of running and not from the injury.  All the miles were easy so I wouldn't stress anything.

Thursday (yesterday) I rode 3X20' HIM pace on the bike then ran 5K afterwards, I felt good but noticed my lack of fast run practice.  The leg/hamstring felt good and stretching seems to help a lot.

Now Friday, 8 days out from LCN I feel healthy but and concerned about run speed.  I need to have a very good run to make Team USA, I figure I need to go under 1:40 combined with a strong swim and bike.  Today I'll swim only to make sure my leg is healing up.

Plans for the near future:

Saturday:  Swim open water, bike ~45 miles and run easy

Sunday:  Run 10 miles max with last half at HIM pace ~7:45

Monday:  Swim, Run easy

Tuesday:  Bike moderate maybe run

Wednesday:  Run easy, start driving

Thursday:  Finish driving, maybe bike

Friday:  Easy bike, run a mile or two

Saturday:  Race, start driving home

Sunday:  Finish driving home

Front end of tri bike

Cannondale R800 CAAD5

Cannondale R800 CAAD5

New wheels

draft legal bike

Signed up for:
HFP Georgia Training camp 4/6-12
Triple T Camp 5/1-3 (15 people / 3 Cabins)
American Triple T 5/17-19
Rev3 Rush 5/30/31
TTF Series throughout the summer
TTF Middle of the Mit 6/20
TTF Selfridge Air Base 6/28
TTF Caseville 7/12
TTF Race for the Border 7/26
TTF Stony Off-road 8/9
TTF Holly 8/26 (Wednesday)

Cage

2014 Triple T

I want to write about this while it's still fresh in my memory:

Race 1:

It was cold and wet, thankfully it was short too.

Good quick swim for me, the water temp felt like it was in the mid to high 60's and cooled off a little near the exit,  The bike was fairly strong, it was a bit cold because I was wet but 11 minutes of that wasn't too bad.  The run was fairly strong and comfortable.  Not a particularly fast performance for me but still good and I was happy with it.  I wasn't as winded on the run as I had been in previous years so I finished strong.

Race 2:

It was cold.

The water seemed to be a little colder than Friday evening and dropped a few degrees at the swim exit.  It was a fairly strong swim for me despite having to swim through people on my second loop.  I was able to pick up the pace when needed and settle back in when things cleared up.  Overall I thought it was good.

This was only the second time I've worn a coat on my bike since I started racing in 2003 and I know it was the right choice.  My ride was strong, maybe too strong as I didn't follow my power plan like I should have but I felt set up for the run.

This run went exactly as planned, 26 minutes out and 24 minutes back for a 50 min run.  I felt a little flat in the beginning but strong coming back down the hill.  I was happy with this effort.  Like others my feet were numb when I came off the bike, I couldn't feel anything from heel to toe.  I got the feeling back about 4 miles into the 6.55 mile run.

Race 3:

It was cold but not as cold as the morning race was.

Since the bike portion was first and it was sunny I did not need a coat.  Instead I wore arm-warmers/ knee-warmers and was perfectly comfortable.  I was a little more conservative on this ride, maybe too conservative but again I was set up for a good run afterwards.  Something I had done for this race was that I used an 11-32 cassette and never had to stand the entire race.  I even spun up Thompson Hill and did not stand.  The gear gave me the ability to keep my legs moving at a fast enough cadence to produce power efficiently.  I think that was one of the keys to a good performance

The swim afterwards was cold but about the same as the morning.  A volunteer was right at my transition spot to help me put my wetsuit on and did a terrific job.  The swim went without a hitch, I was comfortable and OK with my time.  The field was spread out quite a bit so I had plenty of room to swim and not bump into anyone.

The run went as planned and better than I thought it would.  I wanted to run a 50 again this time, something I've never done before, and was pleasantly surprised.  I felt strong from the start and short stepped so I wouldn't go too fast.  At the turn around I was at 25:45, so :15 ahead of the morning run, ran strong back up the hill and down to the finish for a time a few seconds over 50 again.  I still held back on the downhill because I knew I had to race again on Sunday.

Race 4:

It was cold...again...really cold...did I mention it was cold?

The water felt like it had dropped a few degrees at the start while the exit felt like it dropped 10 degrees.  I'm guessing it was low 60's at the start and low 50's at the finish.  It was very noticeable in the last 300 meters, like someone dumped a bunch of ice in the lake.  Still with that, I swam well and was happy with the effort.  I came out of the water under 28 minutes so it may have been a little short.  Swimming though the people on the second lap was rougher than it was on Saturday but still OK.  There seemed to be a lot of people struggling on that swim.

I felt flat on the bike but rode according to my plan, conservative on the climbs (just under 220 watts), bombed the downhills and brisk on the flats.  Brisk was subjective as I felt anywhere from 160 to 170 watts would be in the right range.  I got hooked up with a pro woman for the flat loop and just stayed 5 meters behind her for most of it.  She gapped me on the first climb on Route 125 but I caught her on the decent (cuz of my decending skills), climbed 3 stage hill with her and rolled into T2 a few miles later.  I felt a little flat for that ride and was a little disappointed in my performance but after looking at the results I noticed that I had the 11th fastest solo time so I guess I should be happy about that.  All that really mattered is that I set myself up for a good run.  In hindsight, looking over my data it appears to me that I paced the bike exactly as I should have and maybe my original expectations were too high.

I had done everything I thought I could have to set myself up for a good run, that is where the race is won or lost and since I'm not a great runner, I would need an extraordinary performance from myself to have any chance of placing well.  The best I had ever ran there is a 1:52:xx so realistically I figured a 1:50 was a good goal.  The plan was to run 55's for each loop but honestly expected to run a 55 and then hope to hold it.  I started off easy, not really short stepping but comfortable, trying to keep the perceived effort down.  The uphills on the way out didn't seem so hard this year and I got through them with no issues.  At the first turn around I was at 28 minutes, doing math in my head I figured that was a good place to be if not a little behind and I had to run 27 on the way back to make my first goal of 55 minutes.  At the second turn around I was at 54:45 so I was practically right on schedule and felt very good.  At the third turn around I was at 1:22:30 (27:45 and right on schedule) where slightly afterwards I caught Jim while he was walking.  He was way up in the standings on me so I tapped him on the back and said run with me.  I really didn't expect him to last any more than a minute or so but I needed a boost from anything if I had any chance of catching Eric F (which was a real long shot).  Jim ran up the last climb with me and then got a lot of energy to ran 6 min/miles for the 3 miles back down the hill and left me way behind.  I don't know where that came from but good for him.

My run down the hill went good, I just ran on the edge of throwing up the whole way and probably passed 75 people, some on the first loop and some on their second.  I finished strong for a 1:47:40 (25:05) which was well ahead of my goal of 1:50.  Because of that bike/run combination I moved up from 7th to 5th in Masters, 14th overall, the best I've ever done.

Final product

With Derailleur mounted

First mounting to see if it will work

First attempt, I've got the rough shape done

I'm behind on the bike but everything else is going well

This weather has not lead to many good biking days this spring and I should be sucking it up and riding in the crappy weather but I haven't.

I've been getting about 5 to 6 hours a week on the bike when I should be nearer 8-10.  I figured after HFP camp in Georgia I would be getting my regular miles in but I haven't.

Last week I was sick on Tuesday and wasn't able to make the ride up, this week I'm off work with a big bike weekend coming up in Portsmouth OH.  I should be riding some way or another every day this week but Thursday so that will help.  I'll have another few days to get some hard workouts in before tapering down for Triple T.  I probably won't taper volume as much as intensity and keep my last weekend before the race fairly high on miles.

In contrast my swimming and running are going fairly well.  I decided that I was going to be in the pool at least 4 times a week and have done so for the last 4 weeks.  Honestly I feel a bit better in the water than I did at the Ontario swim meet and hope to continue this trend right through to Triple T.  My main motivation for being a better swimmer is that I want to do a few draft legal races and the swim is a much more important part of that kind of race.  There is the Rev3 Rush in Virginia on the weekend of May 24-25 and then Detroit Triathlon on August 16th.  I don't want to get lapped out in Detroit so I'll make my swim the best that I can.

Running is going as planned, 35 to 40 miles a week while going through Daniels Marathon A plan has gone quite well.  I've diverged a little to be prepared a bit better for the hills at Triple T by doing hill repeats up 5 mile hill.  I've also started a group to do them with me, they all seem to like the workout.

Anywho, I'm off work this week to train, I was originally planning to be in Georgia but their weather is just as bad as ours so I decided to stay home and save some money.  I'll probably will be picking up a new wetsuit this week.  I ordered a HUUB Archimedes and hopefully it will be in before Thursday so I'll have time to swim in it before the season starts.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

GP 4000sII exist in 650's

Things are still going well.

Since I last posted I've been in the water 4 times a week, on the bike 5 to 6 hours a week and running 40 miles per week.

With a swim meet approaching I've put some time in the swim despite being tired from my biking and running.  I feel like quitting often but just adjust my pace and send off times so it's a little easier.  By doing that I'm less apt to quit the workout.  For instance...if I'm doing a lot of 100's I would normally bring them in around 1:20-1:22 and leave on 1:35-1:40.  When I'm tired I'll bring them in near 1:27 and leave on the 1:45.

I've been just going through the workouts in the book "Swim Workouts for Triathletes"
Workouts in a binder

I just started at Endurance 1 and then move to the next one for the next workout.  If I don't like the workout I just suck it up and do it anyway.

On the bike I've been getting a solid 5 to 6 hours a week on the trainer but nothing really outside.  I rode once outside but that is it.  The workouts have varied between threshold, endurance and long SST intervals.  Since I need to get some more bike time in before I go to Georgia again I'm going to do one extra day this week on Wednesday and scale back my run for that day.  It's more important for me to be ready for biking rather than running right now.

My run training is going pretty well right now.  Since I got back from Georgia I've gone straight back to my training plan without missing a beat.  The hard runs on Wednesday and Sunday have beaten me up a bit and caused me to swim a bit slower but I know if I keep with it I'll be ready for the runs at Triple T.  I'm still capping myself off at 40-45 mpw.  I haven't gotten sick during this training session (knock on wood) unlike last year where I got the pneumonia in December and the Flu in March.  I've been getting good quality weeks done and am happy with where I'm at.  After Triple T I'm going to change the plan a bit to work on faster running since that is where I am weak.  I've never done a really fast block of training so I'm going to have to do a bit of research on how to do it correctly.  I've got some books, friends and coaches to get info from.

It's been a little while

But I've gotten a lot done...

Over the past month I've gotten consistent on the swim and bike, put in some quality miles on the run and have stayed healthy.

Number one thing that I'm happy about is that my elbow is much better than it had been.  I have been swimming a bit easier giving it some time to heal up and am finally able to use paddles again, in fact I think using the paddles (gently) has helped me strengthen it up.

During the FAST swim meet I was helping with the timing system when a friend of mine, Jeff Kong from Tri-Covery Massage looked at my elbow and offered to work on it.  I'm a little skeptical when it comes to massage but I've heard nothing but good things about him so I decided to take him up on his offer.  He found a little spongy mass that he worked out and asked me to ice it 3 times a day for the next several days.  It hurt like heck while he was working on it and did so for another day but after that it got much better very quickly.  I feel because of that I was able to heal up a little quicker.

So swimming is just starting to come back around.  I wanted to be deeper into training with it but have only been in the pool 3 to 4 times a week for 2000 to 3000 average per workout.

I took a trip to Helen Georgia last weekend and got some quality riding done.  It was a last minute decision and I'm glad I did it.  I rode Saturday, Sunday and Monday with around 40 miles each day.  Up and down the mountains for 2.5 to 3 hours each ride.  I was still a little sore yesterday but am feeling much better today.

Running has been going really well too.  I've been averaging ~42 miles per week while following Daniels Marathon A program.  I seem to be in a section with a lot of marathon pacing in it right now which will probably be very close to my half IM race pace.  The beginning of this week has been a bust for running because of the recovery from last weekend but I had planned that into my schedule and will continue on with Week 15 of the program.

So now with about 5 weeks to go until the HFP camp in Helen GA I know I have a lot of riding to do so I can be prepared for it.  After that it's going to be prep for Triple T in May and then prep for USAT Nationals in August.

Fwd: Chainring

This is an FSA 110 36 tooth inner chainring.

Notice the small indentations at the mounting holes.  I have a Power2Max FSA Gossamer powermeter and tried to put a similar chainring on it.  When tightened, the chainring twisted at each bolt hole making it unusable.

For a temporary fix I turned it backwards and used it on the trainer for a few weeks until I got a Shimano 5750 110 34 tooth chainring.  

This was a post I put up on Slowtwitch and decided to take down because it didn't answer his question correctly.

Pacing for a Half:
Determine FTP however you would like to do it. Repeat the test a few times to make sure you have a good range.

Practice intervals during your workout, Threshold, SST and Easy. Know what they all feel like and if you are a HR fan, find what HR's are associated with those efforts.

Do a HIM practice simulation...I like the 45' run, 2:30 bike, 45' run sim. First run at long run pace, bike just under HIM effort (80% of FTP), Second run ~15sec/mile faster than first run. You need to feel strong on the second run.
If you can do that then your bike pacing and nutrition are probably OK. If you cannot then you will have to adjust your bike effort and/or nutrition. Do this about 7 weeks out and one more time at least 4 weeks out from your race.

The course you are doing will dictate how you control your effort. If it's flat, then just sit on 80% (of FTP) the whole way. If it's rolling then go slightly over 80% uphill and then back off on the back side. If you are in bigger hills or mountains, then you may have to go higher depending on the grades, you will have to adjust you run time according to how much you went over your target.


jaretj 

Got a lot done last week

I got a lot of work done last week...training and at "real work"

On the bike 4 days last week and felt pretty good.  I've been riding a 25 mile course on my computrainer that I converted from a local ride.  It's pretty mild so I can choose my intensity but it has enough small ups and downs to keep it interesting.

I ran 40+ miles again last week and felt pretty good.  I'm through week 10 of my long distance plan and still feel good.  I've been reading 5K and 10K Training by Brian Clarke  and am getting the sense he has about having the right energy for doing certain workouts, it's an interesting view on running.  His book is for shorter distances which is what I'm going to work on right after Triple T so I'm going to take some of his ideas and apply them to my plans.

I finally got back into the water after 10 days off to let my elbow heal up.  I only swam 1500 yds, I could have swam more but I want to take it slightly easy until I know it's good.  Probably swim 1500 on friday then ~2500 of saturday if everything still feels right.  I'm not sure how I hurt my elbow but it was probably a combination of a few things...First I have been working on EVF (early vertical forearm).  We had a hard/fast set with paddles and I ripped them off pretty fast (for me).  While doing that I was concentrating on EVF and I think I just over-did it that day.  I swam for another 3 weeks to let it shake itself out but it never did.  During that time we had a lot of snowfall and I did a lot of shoveling too, that probably didn't help.

Anywho, it's a lot better now and I'm able to grip things without much pain so hopefully it will get much better in the next few weeks.

This week is going well so far.  On the bike twice and did my hard Wednesday workout so now it's just coasting to the weekend where I'll have a pretty hard run on Sunday.  I think it's something like a few miles of warm up then 2X10 min hard then an hour of easy.  I don't really want to go over two hours on that run.

Week ending 1/12/14

I hurt my elbow a few weeks ago while swimming.  We had a hard, fast pull set and I was working on EVF and somehow hurt my right elbow.  Pain is just above the joint on the outside.  It had gotten a little better but then after shoveling all that snow it seems to have gotten worse.  I'm choosing to take a week off of swimming to see how it feels.  If it gets better I'll probably give it a little while longer, if not, then I'll seek medical opinions.

Running is going well, I'm starting week 10 of my running plan and it's going well.  I'm not up to the volume I expected to be at but I reached 40 miles last week.  With some time off swimming that will probably increase a little bit.

I suppose it's time to get some consistent riding on the bike now.  Since I'll have 3 to 4 hours a week open from not swimming, I'm going to ride in its place.  Starting off easy for this week, then into some sweet spot intervals the following week.  I'll see how I feel and then decide on what I'll do.

Week ending Jan 5 2014

For the last two weeks I've been doing a pretty good job of training and I'm happy where I'm at right now.

Swim:

I've been in the pool 3 to 4 times a week consistently with only one hiccup in the last month.  I hurt my elbow somehow two Mondays ago, I think it's from working on EVF (early vertical forearm).  That day had some really hard pull sets and I ripped them off pretty hard for me and that's when it revealed itself.  I did do some dryland work with my friend Brian G but I was very light on that workout and don't think that it contributed at all to the problem.  This is very unusual for me since I rarely get hurt and with swimming it's normally my shoulders that will have an issue.

Despite that, I have gotten stronger in the pool, I really wanted to work on some dryland stuff but this is going to put it off for at least another week, maybe two.  I can see myself being back to normal in a few weeks.

I'm starting to change some thoughts on swimming...instead of just searching for lower drag I've got to work on pulling harder too, I don't think there is any other way around it.  I've stopped using my paddles as much as I had been doing but am going to put them back into my training starting next week.

Biking is still in maintenance mode, if I get two moderate rides in a week I'll be happy with that for the month of January.  I started using my Computrainer, I'm not impressed.  I actually like riding with the Kurt Kinetic better.  Having to change efforts without warning is unappealing, I like to be in control of my efforts and the CT rides I've been doing seem unpredictable.  On the contrary, Karen seems to like doing her rides on hers, that good :)

Running has been going well, I just finished week 8 of my run plan and will continue with the 24 week schedule as planned.  I'm actually 3 weeks ahead of the plan ending on Triple T weekend, this is because I'm going to take a week down from running to make a bike focus week in late February, another week in late March and a third week in early May.

Goals for January is to keep building run volume while following my run plan, keep swimming 3 to 4 days a week and ride the bike two times a week for another three weeks and then start building that volume with easy riding to prep myself for harder training in February.

Week ending 12/15/13

It's cold here in SE Michigan :(

No outdoor training this week at all mainly cuz I'm a cold weather weenie.

Swim:  In the pool 3 days this week with the last one being cut short.  Our normal pool wasn't open on Saturday so we swam in the small warm pool.  I could take about 40 minutes of that then I got out.  Good sessions on Monday and Wednesday while Saturday was not so good.

Bike:  I did not ride at all this week but did work on my mountain bike fork. I found out why there was no dampening in it, the seal was bad on the bottom of the dampening tube and all of the oil leaked out and into the lower.  I need to find a new seal and that may be difficult with such a cheap fork.  I've been looking for a new fork and have found that I can get a Fox Float for around $400.  My origional budget was $300 but I can get so much more for that extra $100.  I'm looking around to make sure I can find rebuild kits for the forks I'm interested in.  If and when I can find that I'll probably make a purchase in late January or into February.

Run:  I ran 7 days this week which were all indoors.  4 days on the treadmill and 3 on the indoor track.  I was getting bored on the treadmill so I did a faster workout on Wednesday where I took a Q2 workout from Daniels Marathon A program and adjusted the speed down just a little.  I may do that this week too just to get past the boredom.

Plans for this week:  Swim 3 to 4 days again.  Get on the bike 2 times at whatever pace I feel like doing.  Run 7 days again, maybe double on one of the days if I'm free.  The 100/100 challenge started again on Slowtwitch so I'll be logging my stuff there too.

2013 in review

I started of the year with a large running block.  I was running 50+ miles per week until late January when I started riding seriously again.  Unlike previous years I did not take any time off after my last race in 2012, I got right back to work after LCN in Oklahoma.

That running block had me running 8 times a week with key workouts on Wednesday and Sunday.  Wednesday was normally faster intervals, sometimes threshold, sometimes faster.  Sunday was a long run in the morning then a 4 mile run later in the day.  The second run really wasn't that hard to do but when monday came I was normally pretty tired.  All other days I was running easy, normally just half hour runs.

Schedule went like this:
Mon 6 miles
Tue 4 miles
Wed 8 miles
Thu 4 miles
Fri 6 miles
Sat 4 miles
Sun 14+4 miles
(I'm writing this from memory so I may have goofed a little)

In early March I made a trip to Georgia to ride in the mountains with my late friend Shawn Tyrrell.  We did the 3 Gaps out of Helen one day, a flat ride the next and 3 Gaps out of Dahlonega on the last day.  Riding was fun but visiting with friends was better.  It was colder than usual there, I expected 45+ degrees but wound up with low 30's :(  Still I got my riding in.

After a few more weeks of riding I made another trip to Georgia again only this time I was riding with the HFP guys.  During that week we rode about 320 miles, ran 5 days (1 long, all others short) and swam 4 days.  It was a pretty epic week.

It took about 10 days to recover from that week of training and it really helped me.  Unlike last year I was much stronger compared to the same group of people, instead of getting dropped by the second group I stayed with them.  When I got home it was apparent that I gained a lot of fitness from that week by comparing myself to my training partners.

A few weeks went by and I went down to Portsmouth OH during the Triple T since Karen was racing the AB and I already had the cabin.  We stayed the weekend so I could do some more hill training, I felt strong and just put in miles.  It was nice to be there and be able to ride the courses comfortably.

In a couple more weeks it was time for Long Course Worlds, I'd never been to Europe before.  I had a good time, I'll write a report about it.  In short I did about as good as I expected to do.  Since the swim was canceled it was turned into a duathlon so I was put at a disadvantage since I'm a better swimmer than a runner.  Karen and I spent 5 more days in Switzerland and had a good time.

After a few weeks of recovery I was ready for racing.  I did the Sprint race at Maumee Bay, a race that I've done the Olympic distance 3 times.  The swim went OK, the bike was fairly fast but my run was better than expected.  I think I ran a 20:30 which is faster than I've ever gone before, I was pleasantly surprised.

The next race was the Half at Caseville.  It was a smaller race so I expected to do OK, the swim went OK, the bike was pretty fast then the run was slower than normal but there was 7 miles of running on sand so a 1:48 was OK with me.  We got to spend some time with JD and Noah in Tawas so it was another fun weekend.

In August I did the Sprint in Sylvania, it was another race that I have done before.  I have done the Olympic several times and the Sprint once.  In fact the sprint race was my third race I'd ever done back in 2003.  Again I was happy with the result, I had a strong swim, a very fast bike ride at 25.4 mph and a fairly strong run for me at 21:07

In September I was at Rev3 Cedar Point, this was supposed to be my "A" race of the year and trained exclusively for it.  Swim was really rough on the NE side of the Point so they moved it to the SW side.  We swam through the harbor then outside of the breakwall.  Swim went well, Bike went according to plan then the run was within my expectations.  Finished a 4:53 and 3rd in AG (33 OA), that was the best I have done at a bigger event.

I origionally planned to go to Rev3 Anderson but the people I was going with bailed on me and I was looking for another race.  I decided to go to Rev3 Florida instead.

That turned out to be a very good choice.  First we had mild weather in October that allowed me to train on the bike.  Next we have friends that have a house down there that they allowed us to stay in for free.  Third the weather was really nice there for the race as well as the short vacation, and lastly, the race was put on really well.

As for the race, I did better than expected since this really couldn't be called an "A" race, the best I could catagorize it would be a "BB".  The swim was really smooth on race morning and I came out of the water in pretty good shape, 33 min is a decent swim for me.  The bike was really smooth and flat, it was the fastest 56 mile ride I've ever done (2:21).  The run was OK, a little slower than expected but it was fairly warm and this was a "BB" race.  Still 1:50 is OK for me and a 4:48 HIM, 2nd in AG, is my best result in a few years.

So it was really a pretty good season with Long Course Worlds, 2 sprints and 3 HIM's (70.3).  I didn't die at any of the races, I had good training and didn't get hurt.  I felt that the season progressed well with short races to work on skills and enough time between the big races to do well at them.

Now it's time to start getting back to work for next season.  It's been 4 weeks of doing whatever I wanted to do and I need get going again.  I've got 17 weeks until HFP training camp and 23 weeks until Triple T.  That gives me a little more than three training cycles before camp and four cycles before Triple T.

Week ending 12/8/13

Got a little behind on the running this week.

Ran 5 days for about 30 minutes at a time.  All of it was easy, a couple days outside but the rest inside on the treadmill.  Next week starts the 100/100 challenge on ST so I'll be up for that when the time comes.

Goals for next week is 7 runs with one being about an hour long.

I was in the pool 3 days this week but all pretty decent swims.  Monday 2X200 SKIPS (Swim,Kick,IM,Pull,Swim) so 2000 yds.  Wednesday masters 2800 yds, Friday masters 4300 yds

I was on the bike twice this week, once on the road and once on the Computrainer.  It was my first real workout on the Computrainer, it was OK, I was only on it for an hour.

I think I have the road bike fitting better, I found a stem that is a 120 -17°.  The bars are up slightly higher and out front a little better.  I moved the hoods a little higher after the ride on Wednesday and they feel better.  I think that's the last adjustment for a while.  Now all I need is a new seat, I'm actively looking for a Fizik Arione on Ebay, when the deal comes in the color I like I'll take it.

Week ending 12/1/13

Gotten to part of my goal:
Ran 6 days and swam 4 days, it was the most swimming I've done in quite a while.

Just a half hour for all the runs except for today where I ran an hour.  With the exception of the Turkey Trot on Thursday I ran easy for all of them.

At the Turkey Trot I ran a 21:00 for the 5K.  I'm pretty happy with that right now since I haven't been running much.  It's short of what I ran last summer but it was expected.  With that time I have some paces to work with
Easy 8:39
Marathon 7:41
Threshold 7:12
10K 7:03
5K 6:46
Interval 6:36
Repetition 6:11

I haven't done any testing in swimming yet, I may do a swim meet soon but not in the next few weeks.  I still know what I can do in practice and will use that as a guide for now.

No biking yet cuz I really don't want to.  I did some work on my road bike and mountain bike recently.  I replaced the bars on my road bike to something shallower, I need to find a different stem to raise them just a little bit.  I have a 120mm -30° and want to go to a 120mm -18°.

On the Mountain bike I replaced the rear shifter (right) with one I got on Ebay.  I didn't like the way the original one shifted so I found a M770 shifter (Deore XT 3X9).  This one has a little shorter throw to make a shift.  When I get it on the trail I'll see how it works.  I also removed the top headset spacer and mounted the stem right on top of the bearing.  I'm going to have someone at work make me a new one that is much smaller.

Getting Consistent (ramble, ramble thoughts)

I've had the last 3 weeks off doing basically whatever I want to do and now I need to get back to some consistent but easy plan.

I'm going to spend the next 6 weeks doing short/easy workouts just to get back to training.  Plans are:

Run at least 30 minutes each day

Bike up to an hour 3 days a week

Swim at least 4 days a week.

That should take me into the second week of January where I will still have a few weeks before I get serious on the bike again.  By then I will have decided what to do with my running plan.  Right now I'm leaning towards a Daniels type plan and I'll be a few weeks ahead so that if anything happens I'll be able to back it down for a week and recover.

I would like to get back to bigger run milage like I did last year.  Then I started running a lot in early November and was running 50 to 55 miles a week.  It will take me more than 6 weeks from now to get there so I don't hurt myself.  Realistically I will be able to hold that volume of running until late February/early March when it should be warm enough to ride outside again.  When that happens I'll bring my running volume down to 40 miles a week.

I'm still really undecided on my swimming.  I want to swim faster but the return on the time invested is low compared to running.  I can see myself swimming 4 days a week for a while which normally gets me some improvement but in order to get much better I'm going to need 5 days and some instruction.  I don't know if I'm capable of doing that while running a lot again.

Since I'm planning on going to USAT Nationals swimming is a bigger part of that race.  The best I've done in an Olympic distance race is a 2:10 and I need to go under 2:05 to have a shot at making Team USA.  I think with good swim training I could drop a minute off of my 1500 time and with good run training I could drop 2 minutes off of my 10K time.  That still leaves me 2 minutes short of my goal as I don't think I can ride much faster than a 59 minute 40K and still be able to run effectively afterwards.

Looking at the results from last year 20th place went 2:05, I think 2014 will be faster but just using that as a target I'm probably need to go something like:

22 swim

59 bike

42 run

1:30 in transitions

That is the best that I think I could realistically go in the best possible circumstances.

What do I need to get there:

Swim:  I need consistent training, I'm probably already there but if I got better that would take some tension off of the other sports.

Bike:  I'm already capable of that speed on a flat course.  I've done 1:00:30 at Maumee Bay in 2012 and I'm a stronger biker now than I was then.  Still I will need to be consistent in bike training and not able to slack off.

Run:  This is where I need the most work but have the most room for improvement.  The best I've run in an Olympic distance triathlon is a 43:30 a few years ago, recently a 44:00.  That means the run would have to go from a 7:05 mile to a 6:46 mile or a drop of ~:20 per mile.  Last year I ran a low 20 min 5K so that indicates I was a little better runner but still have a lot of work to do.

Going out on my own

Well I've broken away from my long time coach Mike Plumb after 4 terrific triathlon seasons.  During that time I've gone to Long Course Nationals twice, Triple T 4 times, Xterra USA Championships, local series races and a few Rev3 races.  I've also made USAT All American 3 times, I don't know about this year yet.

Just this year I've done particularly well with an expected mid-pack finish at Long Course World Championships, a 1st in AG at the Sprint at Maumee Bay, 1st in AG and 4th OA at Caseville Half, 1st in AG and 6th OA at Sylvania Sprint, 3rd in AG at Rev3 Cedar Point Half and 2nd in AG at Rev3 Florida Half.  This is mostly do to the coaching that I got from Mike Plumb at Tripower.org.

Now I'm moving on to do somehting a little different that having a coach wouldn't let me do.

Number one thing is that I'm going to work with my tri club FAST (swimfasttrifast.com) to put together a team of people to compete at USAT Nationals.  This is for anyone and everyone in the club regardless of their abilities.  I just want people to go and do the very best that they can.  In doing that I want to put together a few weekend camps at a local park where we can concentrate on triathlon all weekend.  I'm looking to do one in May, June and July.  Along with that I would like to put together a few single workouts to help people doing Long Course Nationals.

Personal goals for 2014 are to do the best that I can at Triple T in May, USAT Short Course Nationals in August and Xterra Nationals in Late September.

In route to doing that and being competitive I need to increase my run speed, I think I have plenty of endurance just lack the ability to run fast for short periods of time.  My current abiltiy to run a 44:00 10K in an Olympic distance triathlon is just not fast enough to be competitive on a national level.  I can only do so much with a fast bike ride and decent swim.  In the following posts I hope to document my improvements.  I've 46 years old and can't expect to keep getting faster for much longer, I think the next few years will be my fastest yet.

2012 Felt F5 that I purchased last summer

Bike Room

Joule

picts

Fwd: New Message

Me and some HFP friends

Shoe laces

I can't upload picts on Slowtwitch during the day so I'm sending them directly to you.  If you would like to post them there that would be fine with me.

This is the way I did my laces last year.  These are my Fuji Racers that I used at Battle of Watterloo last August.

On this particular pair of shoes I used the top 3 sets of holes unlike my road race shoes that I used the top 2 sets.

I like to use a heavy bungee cord type of stretchy lace on top (I think they were Yankz) and then the normal shoe lace on the bottom