Thoughts on the week ending 2/23/20:

1.  My back is still hurting.  I've brought down the stress on it by skipping the weights and working on core instead.  It is feeling better, I've taken some Ibuprofen sporadically to help myself out but it really doesn't do much.

2.  My running is getting better, not back to 2014 better, but better than last October.  I had a hard interval day two weeks ago with 10X400 at 6:50.  I completed it, but in reality it was too much for me to complete as planned.  I looked over my notes from Daniels and his recommended volume based on my current mileage was 6X400.  That's about 5% of my weekly mileage.
Last week I did 6X400 and was able to run at the prescribed pace.  I also felt much better afterwards.
I finished with week with an easy 13 mile run doing my best to keep my HR under 135.

3.  My swimming is getting better.  I've been consistent on getting the 3 swims a week for the last two weeks.  I plan to do the same this week.

4.  I added the Tuesday Velodrome workout last week.  Since I was just tooling around on Zwift on that day I figured I'd try it out.  Honestly, it was really fun and not as hard as I thought it would be.
The workout started with an 80 lap lead in (pace-line) that I was only allowed to do 40 laps of because I'm a noob.  I could have kept up for more of it but I wanted to follow the rules and learn the routine.  That was likely the right thing because the pace-line was about 40 people long and stretched half way across the track.  After the 80 laps was finished, the other noobs and I were allowed to do our last 40 laps with the 10 at the black line.
After that we did a drill where we had two groups of 6 riding on opposite sides of the track.  Every lap the front rider would sprint to the back on the other line 5 times through.  The next drill was one group where we sprinted by pairs around to the back of the line 5 times through.  The final drill was a ten lap four person pursuit, we lost two people right away and I switched off leads with another rider that was much faster than I was.
I did a 15 min cool down afterwards.

5.  I'm going to Arizona next week so I'm going to back off the intensity this week a bit.  I'll probably go to the Velodrome on Tue, Wed and Thu but skip Saturday.

January's Rambling Roundup

After thoughts for January's training

Swimming
I had to take the first two weeks off of swimming because of the tattoo.  I started again on Jan 13th and am way behind where I have traditionally been.  I struggle to bring in 100's under 1:30 where before I had no problems being under 1:25.

I feel the best way to get past this is to be more consistent in the water.  I need at least 3 times a week and probably a 4th.

Bicycling
It's hard to say where I'm at on the bike, I've got more time in than last year but still do not have the volume that I'd like to be at.
6:47 First week
7:24 Second week
9:15 Third week
8:02 Fourth week

A lot of that has been done at the Lexus Velodrome as high power sprints and easy breaks in between them.  The 9 and 8 hour weeks are deceptive in that they include a lot of easy time.  I go to the Velodrome on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.
Wednesdays I will warm up with 100 laps (~10 miles) and follow the direction of the coaches.  Normally that's 3X Flying Zeros, 2X Flying 200's, 800 from the Tempo line and 500 from the Tempo line.  I normally cool down with 100 laps again.
Saturdays I warm up with a run then do some strength training and running drills.  After that it's 100 laps on the track, various sprints and then 15 to 30 min cool down. (50-100 laps)

For the last two weekends (last of Jan and first of Feb) I've ridden 2 hours (on Zwift) before going to the Velodrome on Saturday.  I need to bump that up to at least 3 hours.  I also need to bump up Tuesday's ride (on Zwift) to be a little longer.  I didn't have a Thursday ride last week but before that I had either been riding easy or doing Cody Waite's workout. (on Zwift)

Running
I've been conservative in my running lately,  not the big miles like last year but still 25ish per week.  I've been doing a mix of easy running and intervals on 1 day.  I'd like to keep that volume near 30 miles per week for the month of February.  I'm still concerned about my left hamstring.  It isn't giving me any problems but I want to be safe.

Goals for the rest of the February
Be consistent in the pool.

Get the run volume up to 30 miles per week over 4 runs.

Get my bike volume up to a solid 9 hours per week.  Tues 2hrs, Wed 1.5 hrs Velodrome, Thurs 1.25 intervals on Zwift, Sat 3 hours before Velodrome and then sprints on the track.

Tentative race schedule:

Arizona Training Camp 3/1/20 to 3/8/20
Georgia Training Camp 4/10/20 to 4/19/20
USAT Cross Championships 5/17/20
Shawnee Camp (Weekend of 5/31?)
Motus Illinois Wilds 6/13/20
Maumee Bay Sprint 6/21/20
Xterra Dino North 7/25/20
Alum Creek Sprint 8/2/20
Motus Dino South 8/8/20
Portage Lake Sprint 9/13/20
Xterra Utah Pan American Championships 9/26/20
USAT Long Course Championships 11/15/20

Ramble Ramble - What I'm doing now January 2020

I've started a base training plan from Cody Waite, I bought it last fall and went through it loosely once but now I'm serious about every workout.  The only issue I have is that I'll be unable to swim for another week or so because of the tattoo I got.  See the tattoo post here.

I'm doing most of my bike workouts at the Lexus Velodrome unless I have to do them on Zwift or on the road and my run workouts are on the treadmill, Livonia Rec Center track or on the running track outside of the Velodrome.

The plan has strength training built into it, I've not done strength training since 2004 so I'm doing exactly what it says to do.  Cody Waite has a spreadsheet for the plan and videos showing how to do everything.  Strength training can be done at LRC or the Velodrome.

Ramble Ramble about the end of 2019

Things that have happened to me at the end of last season.

I hurt my left hamstring, to the point I sought professional help.  I've not gone that far before so it was a big learning experience.  Fortunately I have a friend that is a physical therapist and she was able to see me the day after I stopped running due to the injury.

Four weeks into therapy I was doing really well.  Pain was gone, I finished my racing season and thought I was on track to train for Long Course Nationals again but I hurt it again.  After that setback I let go of my interest in LCN and just went for recovery.

Along with that I was tired.  I had a difficult time getting my HR up for any workout, I knew I needed time off but never took it.  The hamstring injury presented a good time to get that time off.

I had started training for 2019 Triple T back in November with a lot of running.  I quickly got up to 45 miles per week, peaked at 50 and then went back to 40 when I added my bike training in January. 

I went to a training camp in Arizona with HFP and rode well, not at peak form but good for that time of year.  I then went to Georgia camp in mid April and rode well there.  Everything was going well but I was getting tired, by the time I got to Triple T camp I was beyond peak and on a downswing. 

I did well at Triple T but could have done better.  I was really gassed on the bike and run in the last race but still wound up winning the AG.  There were 2 to 3 people there that should have beat me but they had issues on Saturday that affected their Sunday race and 1 that I was able to out-run on Sunday.

After Triple T I raced a Sprint in each of the next two weekends.  I felt I did well in both of them but in reality I should have taken that time off.  Everything else went downhill from there.  I never ran well again, I was just tired all of the time.

By late August I got the hamstring injury and forced time off.

So what did I learn from this:

From looking at my training data, I have it all the way back from 2010 thanks to Garmin Connect, I noticed that I'm able to put 20 to 24 weeks of good training and then I need a break.  For several years I've had a good spring race, decent summer races and then the fall races were hit or miss.

The good fall seasons had 2 weeks of downtime in the summer which I think let me rest and rebuild up for the fall.

Also, when I noticed a twinge in my hamstrings it probably already too late to rehab and keep racing.  I need to keep them strong with strengthening and stretching.  I'm going to keep up that routine throughout my training schedule.

I got this yesterday (leg band triathlon tattoo)

Goggles from Swimoutlet.com

My crowded bars...Playing around with the 820

Harlequin taping on The Evil Twin. It's harder to do than you'd think

HED CX 650C from around 1998 I think.

Xterra Maui

This is a recollection of the race day:

The race started at 9am so there was no hurry to get to the race really early.  The transition opened at 7am and I got there just before then.  There were only about one hundred people there already so I was able to get a fairly good spot.

The Swim.

It certainly wasn't the hardest swim I've done but it was still challenging.  The waves were rolling about 4 feet and crashing into the shallow beach quite regularly.  Unlike other races I've done with bigger waves, there was a lot of movement in the water when they did.  What I mean is that when a wave came in, the water flowed in for about 20 seconds onto the beach and then flowed out for about 20 seconds whereas other races I've done when a wave crashes on the beach it was in and out in 10 seconds.

I started near the center and back a few people mainly cuz I wanted to stay away from people.  I knew I was a better swimmer than most but 30 seconds didn't make a difference to me in this race.  There was really no problem getting through the surf and I got into a rhythm very quickly.  As usual people were killing themselves in the beginning and tired out after the first turn buoy.  I passed several people there and took it easy coming in.  I made the turn on the beach for my second lap, while I was passed by a few people, I passed them back going out into the surf and then probably passed 20 more people heading out to the second turn-around.  There was a time when I was bumping next to someone and I had enough energy to four-stroke a few times and get in front of them.  It was then that I knew that I was probably going too easy and picked it up a bit.  After the second turn-around the water seemed a bit rougher and the waves were probably nearer 5 feet by then.  I surfed in on some of the waves and it was fun.  When I got near the beach I was just waiting for a wave to crash over me.  There were two times that I thought I was going to get tumbled but was in the right spot not to, then about 20 yards away from the beach I had a wave crash over me and tumbled me over a time or two.  I really don't remember how many times I went over because I was patiently waiting to come up and get some air.  I never panicked and came up after about 10 seconds,  I was able to touch the bottom by then, cleared my goggles and swim in the rest of the way. 

Transition was uneventful, I just ran up to my bike, put on my shoes, camelbak, helmet, glasses and gloves and I was on my way.

I started off easy on the bike, I rode it two days before and knew how hard it was.  I stayed to the right with the other athletes that knew was was coming and gave anyone and everyone that wanted to go by a lot of room.  I remember someone yelling for room behind me and then heard some crashing, I didn't look back but thought to myself how stupid they must have felt to crash on the asphalt within the first mile of the race.

The climbs were hard, I knew they would be.  After the fact I looked at my Garmin 810 and counted 5 climbs that were 14 minutes or longer, two of which I had to walk my bike up the rest of the climb.  They were really steep and I didn't want to compromise my run any more than I had.  The downhills were not really that fast, not as steep and fast as Ogden but still rather bumpy, I had my suspension set up too stiff for them.  I seem to be in the habit of setting up too stiff.

The bottom section was fun since it was more like riding the trails at home.  Slightly tight and twisty like Maybury but with more traction from the softer ground.

I finished the bike, rolled into transition in pretty good shape.  I was tired but not exhausted and knew it was going to be a tough run.  I started off short-stepping and watching my heart rate to keep it below 150bpm.  I know at that HR I'm running pretty hard and will blow up if I go much past it.  I had to walk a few time to get my HR down, then after the last climb I knew I was in decent shape to finish the race.  During the first half of the run I probably passed about 30 people some of which seemed quite dazed.  At one point I asked a guy if he was OK, he nodded so I continued on.

A lady in a older Age Group passed me on the last decent, she was nice and was running for a podium so I made sure I got out of her way.  She was nice and cheered me on.  When I got to the bottom the mountain and it got flat again I had to cross the beach, it felt like a half mile but was probably only a quarter.  I looked behind me for anyone but I was alone so I could relax a bit and run into the finish.  In front of me there was a guy finishing with his kids so I waited up a bit and let him go through so I wouldn't mess up his picture.  After the finish I found Karen who had sherpa'd for me, she congratulated me and took some more pictures.

Points about the race:
1.  Know how to swim in big waves and surf.

2.  The bike course is the hardest course I've ever done.  Be prepared for steep hills, 5 sections of 15 min of hard climbing.

3.  The run is hard and you have to have enough gas left in the tank for the first half, after that it's all downhill.

This is going to take some work but I know it will be a better bike for me

Missing a spacer for the front axle and the seat post binder nut.

Need (want) to replace shifters, and saddle.  Seatpost has way too much setback for me and the stem is just a little too short.  Will probably change the rear derailleur with a mid cage.

Will replace crank with my P2M.

I don't like the bars and I have replacements ready to go right now, not completely sure about that though.  I will also have to re-cable the entire bike, it's not bad but isn't great either.

Frame sizing looks good, I may have to change the cap under the stem with a smaller one to get the bars low enough.

From the balcony of the condo in Maui

For some reason I posted this, don't know why

Same ting

The spot where a fellow racer went off the cliff. He was OK

Interesting track workout I wanted to write down thoughts about

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1244593145

I've long thought that my run is limited by how fast I can physically run, I've also thought that it's linked to the fact that I've never really practiced running fast.  Yesterday I did something about it.

The workout went as follows:

Run 20X200 on 1:50-2:10
5X200 high knees 45 ish
5X200 butt kicks 45 44
5X200 big arm swing 44-43
5X200 relaxed shoulders 43-41

The groups were to work on different aspects of my run.
The first 5 Reps I concentrated on keeping my knees high, driving them forward and getting a decent push off.
The second set of 5 I concentrated on trying to kick my butt with my heels.
The third set of 5 I concentrated on swinging my arms
The last set of 5 I relaxed my shoulders and hips, put everything together to run fast

In previous workouts with plenty of rest I was able to run at best, a 46 second 200.  Those workouts were a combination of 400's and 200's.  In this workout, while working on specific aspects of the run, we ran a 200 then rested until the next interval started.  We started with 1:50 then moved to 2:10 since we were losing people and it was 90+ degrees outside.

By getting a little more rest I was able to practice running faster than I had before.  I started off near 45 seconds and then the times came down and I got comfortable running faster.  I really think that another 4 weeks of this is what I need and will try to fit it in my schedule.

Triple T post race

Triple T went well, not as well as I'd hoped but the result among the competition was the best I've done.

I'm happy with second place in a very competitive age group but I could have gone faster if I had prepped differently.

Race 1:  I pretty much went as fast as I could in all three sports.  I swam OK, I rode with a higher power than I expected and I ran slightly faster than I expected.

Race 2:  Decent swim but it was short, rode fairly conservative and ran quick but fairly conservative.

Race 3:  I was still a bit tired from the first race but normal.  I didn't ride as hard as I'd hoped but still within my expectations.  I swam better than I expected and ran fairly conservative again.

Race 4:  I was really tired before this race, to the point that I was sick to my stomach before and during the first lap of the swim.  I knew this would go away after I got going so I wasn't nervous at all.  The swim went well, no surprises, I rode within my plan on the bike and let people go that were faster and then the run is where the surprise happened.

There were three of us that were fairly close, Scott, Andy and myself for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  I was in 4th by about 40 seconds and didn't realize it at that time, I thought I was racing Andy for 3rd which we have done before at another race.  Andy passed me on the bike near 35 miles in, he was going too fast for me to follow and still stick with my plan so I didn't try to keep in contact with him.  I saw him go up the climb on route 125 and timed him to be about 1:45 in front of me, after that he rolled away on the fast rollers.  I saw him again on the climb up 3 stage hill, I figured he was about 1:15 in front of me then.  The next time I saw him was in transition where he left about :15 seconds in front of me.

When we went out on the run I was really gassed, more so than I thought I should have been, but so was Andy and I saw him short stepping near my pace.  I thought I might be able to stay with him and did.  At the first turn-around we were about 30 seconds apart then at the second turn-around heading out for the second loop I was catching him.  When we went into the woods and up the first small hill, I caught and passed him, I didn't say a word, I mean really, what was I going to say to the guy I was racing for third, was a good friend and fellow Georgia Camp training partner?  I didn't even look back to see his reaction, all I knew was I had to gain about a minute on him and I'm a better hill runner than I am a flat land runner so I kept going hard hoping he wouldn't follow.

When we got to the switchback (my favorite part of the run) I didn't see him for a minute or so and kept going hard up and over.  At the turn-around I timed him to be 3 minutes behind me and just thought to myself that with his long legs he would catch me going downhill.  (He's about 6'2" and I'm 5'4")  I ran hard up the hill, when I got to the top I decided that I'd try to hold a HR of 140 going down.  That worked well, so well that I caught my breath and decided to push it a little harder after the switchback.  I tried to hold a HR of 150 for the rest of the way since I know from experience that I'll fell like I'm going to throw up if I go harder, while doing so I was passing lapped runners very quickly.  In my mind I was running scared to stay in front of Andy who I thought was going to be right behind me and ran hard right up to the finish line.

I was pretty wiped out by then and just sat down, Karen greeted me with some water and congratulations.  About a minute or so later Scott B finished, I really thought nothing of it.  Near 4 minutes later Andy finished and then Dave D finished shortly afterwards (at least I think).  I was pretty happy about being in 3rd place and when the announcer called out the podium spots he said I was second, by :14 seconds.  I was surprised and happy that I ran so hard down that hill all the way to the finish to get the best result I'd had at that race.

In hindsight, my transitions were the key to me getting 2nd instead of 4th
Fri pm :43, :40 ---(1:23)
Sat am :57, :56 --- (1:53)
Sat pm 2:29, 1:09 --- (3:38)
Sun am 2:00, 1:40 ---(3:40)

My competition was:
Fri pm :42, :42 --- 1:10, :48 --- (1:24, 1:58)
Sat am 1:51, :47 --- 2:13, 1:36 --- (2:38, 3:49)
Sat pm 2:12, 2:35 --- 3:59, 4:00 --- (4:47, 7:59)
Sun am 3:13, 1:38 --- 3:59, 2:03 --- (4:51, 6:02)

Transitions do matter and I'm happy that I practice and execute them well :)

I did something last weekend that I rarely do

I pretty much took the weekend off.

I was just tired and didn't want to deal with the cold weather crap.

I swam 4000 on Saturday morning, started biking on Zwift in the late afternoon.  I got about a half hour into it and said screw this, I'm tired.

On Sunday I got dressed and went outside for my planned 8 mile run.  It was cold, my ankle hurt a little, I was tired so I said screw it again and went back inside.

All of this the weekend before Triple T...I'm just tired of being tired.  I want my energy back going into this race and if I'm a little under-trained, then so be it.

On a positive note...Monday I ran at lunch, swam 2700 fairly strong then rode 23 miles fairly strong.

Ramble Ramble Ramble...I did the 2X20 on the trainer...some interesting notes

It's much easier for me to pace the interval on the trainer than outside but there are a few differences.

Since it was raining I decided to ride Zwift instead of outside (good choice) even though it was warm in my bike room.  I warmed up like usual for 1 lap of Richmond (~30 min) then went straight into the 2X20(4) on the flat section.  Using the flat section, it's easier to hold a steady power cuz I don't have to ride downhill.

It was difficult at first and I was trying to hold my cadence above 77 (just something personal I'm trying) then after 10 minutes, I was able to bring my HR up a little more.  During the last 10 min I was holding back a little cuz I knew I had another interval.

The second one felt much more comfortable right from the start and I just built on it a bit.  Just before the second one I re-zeroed my PM just to be sure it was right. (-653, -655)  As the interval went on I felt better and better so I went with it.

Here's my rambling...

The power for each interval was 213 and 224.  A little lower on the first one than I expected but within the acceptable range.  I'm a little lower this year on FTP and I don't know if it's the PM, training, freshness, a combination of all or something else.

The HR for each interval was 139, 139.  I feel it should have been higher on the second one but maybe the PM was low on the first interval or high on the second interval.  Compared to the one I did outside last week on my tri bike, the power was 217, 207 the HR was 148, 152 there is a definite difference between riding on the trainer and outside.

I'm going to put more emphasis on the 2X20 this year rather than the 8X5.  When I do the 8X5 I'm going to keep more effort on the rest interval as well and see what that does.

In addition to the 2X20 I'm going to add it some VO2max efforts for 6 weeks after Triple T to raise my FTP and sprint effort power.  Probably start with the 5X3'(5) and progress to 5X5'(5)