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.