A note about Spinergy Rev-X wheels from a Slowtwitch post a long time ago

To the person(s) or bot that keeps hitting my blog from the Spinergy post from Slowtwitch a billion years ago.  I don't condone the use of the Spinergy Rev-X wheel.  The youngest wheel is probably 20 years old and well past it's prime (if there really was one).

I made a comment on them based on my use of a set and of some friends.  The set I was using at the time was only a few years old and in good shape.  I was about 150 lbs then and I could sway the 650C rear wheel enough to hit my brake pads while climbing but they were fast when riding in a straight line.

Please don't use my experience from 17-18 years ago while deciding to use those wheels or not.  Just don't use them at all.

Week ending 5/31/2020

Second week back into training and I did pretty well this week.

With the addition of a longer bike ride on Monday I didn't plan to push the run volume and originally kept to the 25.5 miles of the run plan but I really felt good today.

Swim:
2 easy swims in Trout Lake.  It's been a while since I've been in the pool so I took it easy and kept the volume down to about 1500 per swim.  Next week I'll try 3 times and up to around 2000 yds.

Bike:
5 rides for 203 miles in 10:50
Since I had the day off I rode 3 hours on Monday.
Tuesday and Wednesday were a little more than an hour each of easy riding.
Thursday I had 4X7(3) at threshold in the 90 min ride.
Saturday was 59 miles in a little over 3 hours.  It included 10X1(2) in Zone 5.  Started about 230 watts and worked up to 300 watts.

Run
4 Runs for 29.5 miles in 4:11
Tuesday for about an hour including 6X2.5(5) at threshold
Thursday for about 40 min including 6X1(2) in Zone 5.  Started intervals in the high 6 min/mile and dropped them down to mid 6 min/mile by the 5th interval.
Friday half hour easy.
Sunday 2 hours easy to moderate.  I felt really good so I pushed the 90 min run to 2 hours and run the last 3.5 strong.

Another good week with about 16 hours of training.  Since I added a 3 hour run in on Monday I had to keep the rides easy on Tuesday and Wednesday to complete all the other workouts as scheduled.  Next week is supposed to be lower volume.  I will probably add a few easy runs to keep myself busy.

Week ending 5/24/20

I wanted to get ready for something so I chose the Xterra Pan American Championships in September because I think it has the greatest chance of taking place. 

I picked the 80/20 HIM plan because the race will take a little less than 4 hours, much longer than an Olympic distance race but about an hour less than a good HIM for me.  In 2017 I was 30 min on the swim, 2:07 on the bike and 1 hour on the run.  Since the bike time is similar to a HIM bike (about 20 min lower) I choose that plan.  I'll make sure I mix mountain biking and trail running into the plan, maybe in July or August I can make a trip to Utah or somewhere that has similar terrain to practice race execution.

Swimming - 0

Bike:
4 rides in 7:35
Tuesday easy 1 hour ride around the flooded parts of Hines drive.
Wednesday easy 1:45 down to DG's house via I275 trail.
Thursday 2:30 ride including 5X6(3) Zone 4 (was supposed to be 4X6(3) Zone 3 but I felt really strong that day.
Saturday I rode all four loops around DTE (with Erik) for the third time in as many weeks.  I remembered to pay attention to my training partner this time.

Run:
5 runs in 4:36 and 31.1 miles
Tuesday nearly 8 miles including 4X8(3) zone 3.  I felt good.
Thursday easy 4.2 mile run around work.
Friday easy 6.7 miles run around work.
Saturday easy 1.15 mile trail run after riding.
Sunday easy to moderate 11.2 mile run on Hines drive.  I started out easy, built up and ran strong but I was tired.  I gave myself an option to run 13 miles but didn't take it.

A pretty good week of training at 12 hours.  I ran strong and easy when I needed to, same on the bike.
I have some friends doing open water swimming at Island lake, I'm going to try and get out there this week.  They claim the water temp is in the low 60's right now (16°C) so I should be able to do that.

Week ending 5/17/20

This should have been race week, the weather in New Jersey looked OK but it wasn't meant to be.

Instead I rested early in the week and then rode pretty hard on Friday and Saturday.

Swim...

Bike:
3 rides
Tuesday 2 laps of Island Lake on the mountain bike in near record times.  Both laps in 58:35 and 57:45, so pretty quick.
Friday 56 miles on the road bike, rode the 275 trail to Willow Metropark and back.  The trail had some water covered spots between Eureka and Sibley roads but other than that it was pretty good.  The last 10 miles was in light rain but it was warm.
Saturday I road all loops of DTE again with friends.  I rode well but need to pay attention to my riding partners and make sure they are OK on mountain bike rides.  I didn't realize I let a friend bonk when I should have stayed with him.  He's an experienced rider but that's no excuse for me letting him down.

So a decent week of riding, probably a little harder than I should have but still OK.

Run:
3 runs of 3+ miles each.
Tuesday 3.3 miles at work
Thursday 3.5 miles at work
Sunday 3 miles on Hines drive, cut down from 7 miles cuz I was tired.

So next week I'm going to start another plan to get ready for Xterra Utah.  I don't know if that's going to happen but it's something to keep me going.
I'll be doing the 80/20 HIM Plan that I'll introduce Mountain Biking and Trail Running into.

Week ending 5/10/20

An easier week for me (as planned)  9:35 total time.
Overall, I feel better with Thursday and Friday off.  Because of those days off I ran really well today (Sunday).

I'm probably going to go 1 more week easy, I was planning to race next weekend and would have rested anyway.  After this week I'm going to get back into regular training for an event happening on 9/19/20.  As of now, I'm not sure what I'll do if that race doesn't happen.

This will end my 20 week training cycle.  With the 2 weeks easy I'll get the rest I need to be ready for the next cycle.

Swim - 0

Bike
4 rides all on the Mountain Bike Total 80.6 miles 6:54
Monday - Easy at DTE Energy Trail.  Green and Blue loops clockwise.
Tuesday - I rode the Poto by myself hoping to ride well and set a PR.  I rode moderately in the beginning and faster after I got past the sand pit.  I think it was my second fastest loop I've done 1:33:09 (1:35:01 ride time, I had to straighten my bars after I bumped something :( )
Wednesday - I rode 2 loops by myself with my 4th and 1st fastest times (33:09, 32:35) then 1 more loop with a friend.
Saturday - I rode all 4 loops of the DTE Energy Trail counter-clockwise.  I've said in the past that the trail was boring and predictable but now that I've ridden the Winn and Sugar loops I like it a lot better.

Run 18.5 2:42
Tuesday I ran for 2.2 miles after riding the Poto.
Wednesday I ran 3 miles after riding the first 2 loops at Maybury
Sunday I ran 13.2 miles, started easy and then built up to 8:25's for the second half.
I blew off the short run on Thursday cuz I didn't feel like running and it was windy and snowing.

Brick
I decided not to do the brick this week, I moved Thursday's long run to Sunday cuz it was cold on Thursday (and I blew off the short run on Thursday anyway).

Week ending 5/3/20

Another good week 14.5 hours of Bike/Run

Last of 3 harder weeks.  I was supposed to do USAT Cross Nationals in two weeks and I trained as if I was racing but it was moved to September 13th, now I'm not sure of what I'm going to do for racing.

In the next few weeks I'll probably know if later season races are going to happen and I'll make a decision then.  For now, I'm approaching 20 weeks of training and I need to plan a break.  From what I wrote back on January 3rd I'm near my limit on absorbing training and will need 2 weeks of easy/unstructured training and will then get back to a regular schedule.  That schedule will either be a HIM or another Olympic plan with Mountain biking built into it.

Swim

Nothing again and probably won't until the end of May.

Bike

4 rides plus the multi segment brick again.  157 miles for 10 hours 20 minutes.

Tuesday Mountain bike at Maybury 3 loops, 2 moderate and 1 easy.

Wednesday short zone 3 intervals on Hines drive

Friday easy ride on Hines drive

Saturday Mountain bike Island Lake 3 loops 2 quick and 1 easy.

Sunday Zone 3 riding on Hines drive as a multi segment brick.

Run

5 days of running plus the multi segment brick. 30 miles for 4 hours 13 minutes.

Monday 30' easy

Tuesday 50' easy

Wednesday 40' easy

Thursday 1:35 easy

Sunday Zone 3 running on Hines drive as a multi segment brick.

Brick

Nearly the same as last week, just a little longer cool down.

Bike 30 minute warm up

4X

     Run 7 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1

     Bike 10 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1

Bike 20 min cool down

Observations:

I rode on Hines drive, starting at Nankin Mills and turning around at Middlebelt Rd instead of on Zwift.  The sections were slightly longer than 13 min.

I kept the bike warm up at 30 min.

I rode a bit harder this week, I targeted just below 200 watts (3.1 W/Kg) which is the very top of Zone 3

I ran from Nankin Mills east 5 min out and 5 min back.  I ran hard for the first mile then backed it down.

I ran a little quicker than last week, something I wasn't sure would go well.

Overall I'm pretty happy since I rode and ran faster than last week.

Losing the extra weight has really helped my run, I'm under 143 lbs now

Good run day

I haven't been putting out mid-week posts but since I did one this morning, I figure I'd do another one.

I had a really good longer run today.  My long runs have been ~90 min and have been generally easy.  I used to do 120 min runs, hold back on the first half and then run as I felt.  Most of the times I'd be down in the 8:20's and it was on the fast side of easy but not Zone 3 yet.

I felt like that today.  I started off in the high 8's and brought it down consistently until the last 2 miles were under 8:20.  All miles after the 3rd were in the 8:20's  I probably should have stayed there but I wanted to get my average under 8:30 and had to put in some quicker miles at the end to do so.

Anywho, a quicker but not too taxing of a run today and I felt good :)

Under 142 lbs today :)

That's 12 lbs lighter than last December.

Week ending 4/26/20

More of what I expected.  13.5 hours of training.

Swim
Still nothing :P

Bike
4 rides plus a multi-segment brick.  Tuesday and Saturday on the mountain bike at Island Lake, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday on Zwift.  There were no intervals on the bike this week but rode fairly strong on Tuesday in the cold, cold weather, Saturday for one lap of Island lake and Sunday on the four 13 min segments of the brick.  All other riding was Zone 2.

Run
5 run days, it would have been 6 but I skipped Tuesday because I was cold from riding, plus it was windy and snowing.  Wednesday was 4X6(3) Zone 3, Friday was long and Sunday was four 10 min segment of the brick.  All other running was Zone 2.

Brick
Nearly the same as last week but four times through

Bike 30 minute warm up
4X
     Run 7 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1
     Bike 10 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1

Bike 5 min cool down

Observations:
I increased the bike warm up to 30 min and felt much better.
I ran the same route as last week.
I ran about the same pace on each run but the last one was a little faster.  The runs were a little faster than last week.
Riding in Zone 3 was easier this week.  I use the Zwift Yorkshire short loop (Queen's Highway).
Doing same brick next Sunday.

I'm still under 144 lbs. Sometimes under 143 :)

Week ending 4/19/20

While more difficult than last week I still only worked out for 10.5 hours

Swim...nadda

Bike
4 rides plus a brick. 1 outdoor ride and the rest were indoor; the weather didn't cooperate with my tolerance levels :)  I made all my intervals with no issues and rode the planned time.  Unlike other weeks I didn't do over.

Run
4 runs plus a brick.  I missed one short run because of rain, I don't want to get sick and I don't have a race coming up.  I'm feeling much better on every run, instead of struggling with pace and motivation I find myself holding back a little bit to stay at my planned effort levels.

Brick
This was unusual for me but since it's in the book (80/20 Triathlon) I just did it.
I rode on the bike trainer on the Zwift Tempus Fugit (flat) and ran outside from home.

Bike 15 minute warm up
3X
     Run 7 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1
     Bike 10 min Zone 3 / 3 min Zone 1

Bike 5 min cool down

Observations:
I still need more warm up, 30 min would be better.
To make the run timing easier I ran out 5 min then turned around and finished 1 mile in Zone 3.  After than I ran easier back home to finish out the 10 min.
I ran progressively faster on each run because I felt better.
It took a few min to get going on the bike, while it was mentally difficult to ride in zone 3 I was able to do it.
Most of my transitions were under 2 min.

I do the same brick next Sunday only 4 times through.

Edit:  I almost forgot, this is the first day I've weighed in under 144 lbs :)

Cervelo derailleur hanger

Week Ending 4/12: A lighter week

Bike
I rode 3 times last week:  1 loop of Island Lake on the mountain bike on Wednesday, some zone 3/zone 2 stuff on Zwift on Thursday and then back on the mountain bike for two loops of Island Lake on Sunday.
Wednesday was moderate and for fun.  Thursday was a little more serious and Sunday I burned off two back to back laps both under an hour (which is decent for me but I've gone under an hour several times).  While I had some intensity there, overall it was an easier week.

Run
4 Runs for 26.7 miles, a zone 4 interval run, two short half hour runs and a 90 min run with some zone 3 effort at the beginning.
Like on the bike it was an easier week.

Now I go back to normal training (sans swimming) for a few weeks.  It's going to be a little more stressful because I was selected to go back to work again (being an essential team member and all).  I hope the weather gets better :)

Week ending 4/5/20

I found that the two races I was interested in have been moved to the end of the season.  That was no surprise.

USAT Cross Championships are the weekend of September 13
Xterra Oak Mountain is the weekend of August 30.

Since Xterra Utah is the weekend of 9/19 it makes doing USAT Cross Champs difficult.  I don't plan on advancing past those races even if I qualified for Maui or ITU Cross Champs so I might just kill both of them.  I don't know how much vacation I'll have left anyway.

I might find some local races and prep for USAT Long Course Nationals instead.

On to rambling about my week.

Cycling and Running have gone quite well.

I rode 4 times this week, twice on Zwift, once on my Mountain Bike and once on my road bike.  157 miles in a little over 9 hours.  Zwift was easy riding on Tuesday and Wednesday, I did two laps of Island Lake on Thursday, one by myself and one with a training partner.  Saturday I road 70 miles on Hines with some long Zone 3 intervals and short Zone 4 intervals.  All of the rides I felt good.

5 runs for 31 miles with some high Zone 3 intervals on Tuesday and a long run today.  I thought I'd be tired for today's run after that longer ride yesterday but I felt well and ran stronger than I'd thought.  Still holding around 30 miles a week so I don't wear myself out, this is the 3rd week of it and will be backing off a bit next week, thinking of 15-20 miles.  After that I'm going for another 3 week block.  I normally do two week blocks but changing it around this year.

This next block will end where I would have been tapering for Cross Nationals.  I'll evaluate where I'm at then.

Hopefully I'll be back in the pool in May but we'll see what happens.

End of the Month Wrap-Up

Practically speaking...it's the end of March and time to ramble on about it.

First thing - I canceled my Georgia Training Camp.  I hated to do it but I think it was the right thing to do. 

It keeps me and my training partners safe,
It may keep others safe.
It may put less strain on Georgia's health system.
It keeps me from breaking the law.
It enables to do some concentrated training without too much overload.
It enables me to participate in a remote research project.

What it doesn't do is let me play with my friends so I suppose it's a good trade-off.  I'm still not happy about it :(

Anywho, that's enough crying about it, I'll try not to do any more of it.

What's happened this month:

Swim
It started off well, I was feeling better in the water but it's been put on hold.

Bike
I've gotten my rest after the Arizona Camp.  Unlike last year when I got back into it too quickly, I basically a took a whole week off and then got back into it.  The second week back I held the volume down but added intensity, the third week I went back to 9 hours with the same intensity.  I'm going to give it one more harder week then back it down for some recovery whether I think I need it or not.

I think I'm improving on the bike again, I want to keep that going and will be roughly sticking to the 80/20 Olympic plan.  The only exception is that I will likely be riding longer and with less intensity on the weekend.

Run
Like on the bike I've gotten my rest after the Arizona Camp and eased back into training.  The last two weeks have been really solid training weeks and I've achieved my goals for intensity and volume.  I've done my short runs a little harder, completed my faster pace intervals on schedule and completed my longer runs at an easy pace to keep me ready for the next week.  I will also be sticking with the 80/20 Olympic plan with the run.  It's similar to the older EN plan I did back in 2009.

(By the way, if you haven't noticed you can find that plan in the Training Zone section on the right)

The Plan for the next month:

One more hard week then an easier week followed by three hard weeks.  I'm going to continue to train as if I am still racing in mid-May.  When swimming comes back I'll get back into the water, while I'm not the greatest swimmer, I am confident in the water and will pace myself according to my abilities.

If the USAT Cross Nationals are canceled then I'll be looking at Xterra Oak Mountain.  If Oak Mountain is canceled I'll start looking for another path.  It may be off road, short course road, long course or a combination of each.

About the Camp

We'd been planning it since last September.  We were supposed to go to Helen Georgia and ride the Gaps again.  I've done this every year since 2012.  Seven times with HFP and once with just my training partners.  This was going to be our second year on our own and planned 10 days instead of the usual 7.

In the past we did one epic ride after another.
Unicoi to Brasstown and back.
Helen 3 Gap
Helen 6 Gap
A long run to Ruby Falls
An easy day
100 mile ride around Devils branch and Clayton.

This year we were going to have a day off between most rides to recover.  On those days we were going to swim and run.  When the swimming got canceled we were concerned.  Our friends from Ohio canceled last week.  We waited until the last moment to cancel (14 days out) when we decided to pull out.  Our concerns were:

1.  We're pretty sure it's a misdemeanor to violate the Shelter at Home orders given by the Governor's of Michigan and Ohio.

2.  We didn't want to get ourselves or anyone else sick, which we all thought there was a very slim chance of doing because we were going to bring our own food and everyone had their own rooms.  We had no plans to go out and mingle with anyone.

3.  We thought that the Governor of Georgia (Kemp) was going to issue a Shelter at Home order which would have killed our training.

4.  We were concerned that if one of us got hurt we would have to access an "already strained" health system.

So, my next planned event was supposed to be USAT Cross Nationals in New Jersey.  While it hasn't been canceled, I think it will.  Second option was Xterra Oak Mountain (which was my original planned A race before Xterra canceled 70% of their USA races)  I'm going to continue to train as if the race is happening.  If it doesn't, I'll assess my situation then.

So that's where I stand now, hopefully this will blow over in the next 6 weeks and I can get back to the pool, velodrome and normal training.

I Canceled my Georgia Training Camp

It's a sad day :(

Week ending 3/22

The running went well but I was tired on the bike.

My goal for the week was to go a little faster on the shorter runs.  An effort with my HR just under 140 bpm or nearer 8:45 min/mile.  For the last year or so I adopted the run easy/run a lot approach and I don't think it's worked out for me.

I'm shifting back to a run as fast as I want as long as I can complete all my prescribed workouts approach and I'm going to keep my volume near 30 miles/week  This is what I did for many years and it appears to have worked for me.  I'm not going crazy on the easy runs;  I'm going to keep them with a HR of 135-140 and a little bit under 9 min/mile which is still on the easy side.

My second goal was to do all the intensity prescribed on the bike and hold the easy rides a little harder than I have (155 watts compared to the 135 I've been doing).

That didn't work as well as it did for the run so I'm going to go back to a slightly easier effort and put in a little bit more volume for the next two weeks.  I'd like to bring the time on the bike up to 7-9 hours with less intensity.

About the last post

As I reread the title (COVID-19 BS) it appeared to me that it's misleading.

I don't think the issue is BS, just that I have to deal with the problems it created for me.
Everyone should be taking precautions to slow the spread of this virus, I was just annoyed (wrongly) about how it's affected me.

COVID-19 BS

I've had to cut out all my swimming and velodrome workouts...I'm not happy about it.  Swimming was coming along well and I was really having fun at the Velodrome.

My plan was to go straight into Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Olympic plan to get ready for USAT Cross National, now I'm not sure that is going to happen but I'm still going to train like it will.

The race is 5/17/20, 10 weeks away.  I'm at week 11 of the 80/20 Olympic plan and it's going well.

Solid bike rides that aren't too long and runs with intervals and at the top of my aerobic zone.

Going to keep the 80/20 bike targets and add enough volume to the run to get me near 30 miles per week.  I don't know what I'll do about swimming yet.  I don't have any fears about racing so I'll see where it goes.

February Ramblings

My back
It feels much better.  I dropped the lifting and went to core workouts hoping to strengthen my back before I go back to strength exercises.

Swimming
Lots of swimming at Camp and consistent swimming before that.  It's going OK.

Bicycling 
I said in my last post that I wasn't sure where my skills were at on the bike but after Arizona camp my questions were answered.
Endurance-wise and threshold I'm probably the same as last year or better.  I was nearly the same speed on the 2.5 hour climb up Mt Lemmon and was 6 min faster on the 1.5 hour climb up Kitt Peak.  I never had a problem responding to accelerations in the group but am probably still near the same short climb power as last year, perhaps 10-15 watts stronger as I knew I could hold 260ish watts up short climbs.
I've had more time on the bike this winter but the run was much lower leading me to think that my overall fitness would be lower.  That really wasn't the case on the bike.  Because of that I'm not going to do anything drastic to get ready for Georgia Camp.  Just normal VO2/Threshold/Endurance training.

Running
It is going OK but I focused on the bike more than the run.  The last two weeks have seen 2 and 3 hours of running.  This week will be significantly less, but next week I should be back to 30ish miles.

The Plan until Georgia Camp 4/10 to 4/19
Swimming:  Be consistent in the pool with 3 to 4 swims a week.
Bike:  Do my best to get 8 to 10 hours a week on the bike
Run:  Get back to 30 miles per week.

I'm starting to plot out Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Olympic plan on Training Peaks to use as I guide for my volume and intensity.  I'll write more about that next time.