Check That One Off of the To-do List!

This morning's planned session consisted of speed work. My good buddy JWest told me about an exercise his coach has him doing that he really "enjoys". Since JWest is crazy fast, I thought I'd give it a try.

1 mile warm up

24 X 400 with 45 sec break between

1 mile cool down

Now JWest is able to throw down 1:15 reps, but I'm not quite there. The Zoomer, Dr. Nitrous, and I set out to tackle the task this morning. I gotta tell you, after the first few there's no way that I would have ever guessed that we would complete all 24. All in all it was a difficult session that totally made us work and stretch our limits.

Staying with the workout and not quitting early was a huge boost in training mentality. All this adds up to being able to SwimBikeRun faster come race day.

My Most Recent Favorite Workout - Ever

In doing a little research on how to SwimBikeRunner faster, I came across an interesting article about plyometric jumps. During a twelve week study, two groups of cyclists were put through similar cycling workouts except one group completed sets of plyometric jumps twice a week. Over the course of the twelve week study, the group performing the plyometric jumps increased their power output by 3% over the control group. It doesn't sound like much, but 3% change is huge. Best of all, these little workouts take about 10 minutes to do.

I did my second set of these this morning after my swim and oi! They were difficult. Where running and cycling require a consistent amount of pressure and power applied against either the ground or your pedals, these require an explosive amount of force applied to complete the jump. Definitely a shock to the system and definitely something that I will continue to do in my effort to SwimBikeRun faster.

Here's my workout:

3 X 7 box jumps with Zero added weight, 10 lbs added weight, then 13 lbs added weight.

3X 10 split jumps with same additional weight plan.

3 X 10 side jumps with no additional weight.

Here are some links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuKx0PvW37w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK11KovyaP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hADsX-H2O5w

Busting The Draft - Frank Maples Tri Race Report

Saturday, I drove up to Scottsboro, AL for their whatever'th annual Frank Maples Reverse Triathlon. The race consists of a 2 mile run, 15 mile bike, and a 200 yd pool swim. Very short, but it's balls to the wall.

The morning started at 4 am. Since I had preloaded the car, I was able to walk out the door, coffee in hand, at 4:20. I arrived for the 8 am start at 6:45. I picked up my goodie bag and t-shirt and decided with 30 seconds that both would be thrown away as soon as I got home. Well, I did put the t-shirt in our bag of stuff to give to Goodwill. I'm not completely heartless.

Around 7 am, I pulled the trainer out of the car and warmed up the legs for 15 minutes or so. Afterwards, I went for a jog that included some race pace intervals. I tried my best not to look around at the competition. I undoubtly start psyching myself out by looking at everyone's all carbon bikes, zipp wheels, and shaven legs. Self doubt has a way a losing a race for you before the gun even goes off.

At 7:55, everyone found their way to the start line. I lingered back just a bit to see who would be jockeying for a quick start. We listened to a local minister in a stereotypical Alabama accent say the prayer and sing the national anthem. And then it was 3, 2, 1, GO!

Legs felt great from the start. The pack thinned quickly and I found myself in 4th place within 400 yards. At the one mile mark, a guy ran up beside me with a Garmin. I asked him about the pace, he said that it was a 5:50. I let him go and reeled back the pace. I knew my limits, and I wanted to save some for the bike. Was this a mistake? Two more guys passed shortly after and I was in 7th. The next guy behind me was choking on his flem, so I knew I was good. I came into T1 in 12:00 flat. Right about where I wanted to be.

In T1, I stuggled with the strap on my helmet for what seemed to be an eternity. It was enough for the flem choker to pass me, in transition!

I finally got on the bike and was in 8th place. Luckily the legs were there and I kept the guy in sight. He had to stay ahead of me for 15 miles and I didn't think he could do it. I was correct. I can't really say too much about the first 6 miles. The legs felt great and the roads were fairly flat. Pace was right on target the whole way. At mile 6, I looked back and saw a familiar sight. A pack of riders bearing down on me. I thought, they may catch me, but they're going to have to earn it. Well, they earned it at mile 8th. I decided that I was going to stay out of the draft zone and attack at various points. Each attack was met with someone jumping on my wheel. So much for the individuality of the sport. Three attacks and no luck. The pace stayed hot and it took a lot out of me to stay with them. I decided that if I didn't make a move soon, then my 7th place was going to turn into a 13th place. I knew their would be no passing in the pool with just 200 yards. With a half mile to go I made my last effort to break away and it worked. I held a good lead coming into T2. Since this wasn't a USAT race, I didn't even bother to rack my bike. I left it on the ground and grabbed my goggles. It was my fastest (and easiest) T2 ever.

I jumped, not dove, into the pools. Oh, it felt like molasses! I couldn't even consider using my legs. It's a good thing that I had 6 years of experience while swimming without my legs. Yeah, my swim technique isn't the best. After the first 50 yards I looked back to see where my chasers were. They were all bunched together and not within reach. The guy in front of me wasn't in reach either. I knew all I had to do was to complete the swim and I was golden. I hit the final stretch and found the end of the lane to collect my 7th place finish. I was dead, but happy. It also enabled me to finish 2nd in my AG. The winner of my AG finished 3rd so good effort on his behalf.

Overall, it was a great race. I feel good for where I am physically right now. Best of all I am happy for the way that I raced. I had a good tactic and fought through some pretty tough odds to finish strong. If I had given it 3% less, it would have cost me 6 or so slots in the overall field. Hopefully, I can build upon this experience and use it down the road.

It's Race Week!

This weekend is the Annual Frank Maples Reverse Tri in Scottsboro, AL. Now you may be asking yourself, where in the world is Scottsboro, AL? Or, where is Alabama for that matter. Scottsboro is a little town in northeast Alabama that's about a two hour drive from where I am in Birmingham. It was made famous, or infamous rather, a few years ago due to Dennis Covington's "Salvation of Sandmountain". The book tells the story of a fundamentalist church dead set on proving their faith through handling of snakes and drinking poison. Despite their crazy habits they were pretty much left alone until the pastor tried to off his wife with said snakes. It's a sad and odd tale that I'm sure the community would like to distance themselves from. Now, they are known for one of the largest unclaimed baggage stores in the US. Ever wonder what happened to that snowboard that never made it back from your trip to Colorado? Well, there's a good chance it found it's way to Scottsboro. I've been to the store, but have refrained from purchasing. I just can't do it. Well, unless someone just happens to have lost a pair of Zipps. Then it's game on.

Alright, so on with the race. It's a short short race. It's barely worth the drive, but it's a good early season test that will hopefully give me a benchmark to work from. The race consists of a 2 mile run, a 15 mile bike, and a 200 yard pool swim. This race is heavily weighted on the bike if you ask me which is pretty much like throwing me into the briarpatch. I can't say that my bike is still where I would like for it to be, but it should be in good enough form to go balls out for 15 miles.

The last time I did this race was in 2007. I finished 14th, but felt that I got shafted a bit due to getting passed late in the ride by a peleton of 5-6 riders. I didn't know how to handle that then, but I do now and will certainly not let that happen again. The race is too small to have sufficient draft busters so I'll have to let a little anger fuel my legs and keep me ahead of these bastards.

More to come later. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend.

Squash

You know those days when even though you manage to get out of bed to do your workout, you find yourself looking at the trainer saying to yourself, “I don’t know if I can do this”? Walking down the stairs at the house this morning I could feel the effects of yesterday’s run. I found the 8 minute warm up on the Chris Carmichael DVD to be more difficult than it should. The easy chain ring was only allowing me to churn out 80 RPMs this morning. The first set of intervals was 5 sets of 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, followed by 4, 3, and 2 sets. I was able to complete these, but was not able to enjoy the effects of the recovery. It never seemed to get “easy”. After a 5 minute full recovery, the next set of intervals was 5 sets of 2:00 max effort and 2:00 recovery. During the first set I found myself having to dig deep and find that extra bit of strength that comes from the core. I wasn’t sure that I could keep it up. After the second set, I started looking at the time and allowing myself to reason that this has been a good workout and that if I were to stop, it would be justified. But I continued. Despite having my eyes roll back into my head and my total lack of being able to disguise on my face the pain I was in, I was able to finish all five sets without giving in to the temptation to take it easy. It’s days like this when you don’t feel like you can keep it up or that you have every excuse in the world to call it a day that you can draw upon during the race and know you can dig a little deeper and persevere. I may not have been able to produce elite level watts this morning, but I put a huge deposit in the training bank that will pay dividends down the road.

Shipment from Clif Bar

Oh, it's a good day. I love it when UPS brings something by. It's like having a miniature Christmas. Today, I received a little something from one of my sponsors (read: people I buy stuff from). Opening the box I feel a little like the Old Man from "A Christmas Story" - "Well there could be anything in there!" Well, except that I know exactly what's in there.

It's a little taste of goodness. My favorite type of energy bar hands down, Clif Bar's Blueberry Crisp. You can have your Powerbars and your Snickers Marathon Bars. These daddies are the bomb. The blueberry's (and yes they are real blueberries) keep the bar moist and oh so tasty. Next is a bit of an experiment. I've been a long time fan of Powergel's espresso love, but I decided to give Clif's "double expresso" a try. It has the self attaching tab which cuts down on litter on the road and provides 100 calories with 30 mg of Potassium, 25 g of Carbs, and 40 mg of Sodium. Not a bad mixture.

Lastly, I decided to replace my race hat. I've raced and trained (and pretty much lived in) my blue USAT sweatvac visor. I decided to give Clif and plug and switch it up a bit. It's a sweatvac visor as well so no worries with performance. So yeah, I guess it is all about style.

Training for today:

Swim: 200 warm up, 100 kick, 100 pull, five 200's on 2:45.

Kept good pace throughout the sets. I was consistently between 2:15 and 2:18. Can't be upset with that.

Bike - 40 mins on trainer - easy spin.

That's all for now. Happy training.

Aero Bar Bottle

A while back I mentioned that I was looking into adding a bottle that sits on top of my aero bars. It's a trend that I've started noticing among some of the pro's setups. I have to agree that some of the alternatives out there have left the public wanting. Let's review:

The Profile Design Aero Drink - this invention hit the triathlon world like a storm. It provided a convenient way for the rider to stay hydrated without leaving the aero position. Also, studies were recorded that showed that it was more aerodynamic to have the aero drink on than nothing at all. Supposedly, it broke up the air around the head tube. Finally, it provided an "easy" way to refill the bottle during the ride through the hole in the top. Disadvantages - Annoying as hell. The propensity of the aero drink to lose it's yellow sponge is legendary. It's become almost a game within the race to count the number of sponges on the side of the road during a race. The lost sponge resulted in the rider being deluged with their drink the rest of the ride. Also, unless you used the optional aero drink holder, it was near impossible to keep the bottle straight which helps in producing that aerodynamic effect. These issues have led me to dump the aero drink all together.

The X-Lab Wing - This system which also comes in a more expensive carbon version allows the athlete to place two bottles as well as numerous other bits of gear (tube, air, etc) on the back of their seat. The system puts bottles within easy reach behind the ride which reduces the amount of added wind resistance caused with a bottle on the down tube or seat tube. There is some talk that it creates "dirty air" behind the rider, but I won't get into that. While this system does require the rider to get out of the aero position to reach the bottles, it does make for an easy bottle swap during a race. No need to struggle filling up your aero-drink, just drop a bottle and grab one from the volunteer. Disadvantages - this system launches bottles like it's their job. Slight bumps in the road wreak havoc on these systems. This leads to 1. lose of vital fluids and 2. risk of injury to riders behind you. Sometimes you have find just the right sweet spot for positioning your system which can reduce the number of drops. I have a friend who has loosened his up so that it bounces a little which reduces the shock. I used the X-lab during my IM race this past year and it could have cost me my race if it hadn't been for well spaced aid stations. See the picture below. Notice the odd looking water bottle on my seat tube and only one bottle in my X-lab holder. At this point, I was had lost two bottles. This was not the way I had intended to ride.

So when I saw bottles being attached directly to the aero bars I got a little excited. I doing my research I discovered that the two above-mentioned companies had already developed and were marketing products that allowed you to attach the bottle. Profile's was cheap but looked effective. X-Lab went all out and created an all carbon version. Understandably, it isn't cheap. So what's a spend thrift guy like me to do? Well, I copied the X-Lab version seen below.

I took a hard piece of plastic and a pattern based on a printed picture of X-Lab's version. Drilled the appropriate holes and attached a cage. I used pull ties to attach the holder to my aero bars. They are hidden from the wind and are virtually weightless. I'm not sure how it will hold up to the rigors of the season, but for zero investment I think I have a pretty good alternative. We'll see how it goes. Here are some pics.