Tough week so far.

In my never ending quest to swimbikerun faster, I am constantly working to push myself just a little harder and a little faster than my last workout. The winter months have come and gone. So has the time to work on endurance. Spring is here and it's time to work on speed. I don't feel too fast right now, but I now have some base line numbers with which to build my season on.

Tuesday, I ran a self timed and mapped 5K route to see how far off my numbers are from last year. I was pleased to see that I was only 45 seconds down from last year's peak. This number will still need to improve past my best last year as the run is still where I tend to lose time.

Wednesday was an interval workout in the pool. The plan was to do 5 sets of 150's on 2:50. This means, you finish in whatever time you finish, but when 2:50 is up you start again. After the 5 sets, we dropped the time 5 seconds and did 4 sets. We repeated this process down to 1 set of 150 on 2:30. It ends up being 2250 yards of intervals. While it never seemed that I had enough of a breather between sets, I was able to keep my speed with my last set coming in at 2:17. I'm proud of that. I have to give some of the credit to my attempts to actually kick while swimming rather than just relying on my arms.

This morning, Thursday, we have a regular 7.6 mile route that we run through the tiny kingdom. Last week, we just missed our goal pace by 23 seconds. The rain forced us to take our run in doors this morning and attempt to best our time on the dreadmill. (yeah, I know we're sissies who don't like getting wet). We knew that this wouldn't perfectly correlate to running our route since our course does contain some pretty good climbs, but we had to give it a shot. Well, we hit the goal by 46 seconds. It's not a legit win for us, but if nothing else we learned to suffer this morning. Running 7.6 miles on a dreadmill is 100% suckage. With no wind and nothing to look at except other people working out it absolutely drains the mind and breaks your will to continue. Doing runs like this can only help down the road if I ever find myself struggling mentally during a race. I can draw on days like this and know that I can press on.

This weekend looks absolutely gorgeous. Temps in the 70's and plenty of sunshine. I'm ready to get on the bike and bring the pain. Later taters.

Finally Recovered.

Good grief! It seems like I've been dealing with this sore throat/cold thing for a month. Although in reality, it's only been a week, but I think I'm officially over it. I had a good run this morning with Dr. Nitrous and the Zoomer. We kept a fairly lively pace for our typical 7.6 miler through the Tiny Kingdom. We fell a little short of our goal pace, but it wasn't because of the extra snot I've been carrying around.

This weekend should be one for the books. The Zoomer and I will be staging a multi-brick session from my garage on Saturday. The plan is (after a warm up) to get on our trainers for 15 minutes of fast paced pain then transition into a 2 mile hard as you can go run. Then, repeat as long as you can. I'm shooting for 4 reps of this before calling it quits and heading over to Super Sams for a bit of deliciousness. I'm not sure if my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich counts as proper recovery, but I'm not changing my ways.

Lastly, I've been working on an invention of sorts. I've started noticing a lot of pros using a bottle mounted to their aero bars. Not the Aero Drink! I have that and I hate it! The device holds a bottle in a regular bottle cage attached to your bars. Due to my bike fit, my aero bars won't support a full length bottle. My plan is to devise a system that makes use of a smaller bottle but still contains a straw just like the dysfunctional aero drink. More on this to come. Later taters.

Dear Triathlon

Here's an email that I sent to Dr. Nitrous today. Thought I'd share.

Dear Triathlon,

Please let this serve as notice that due to lingering effects of a sore throat, sinus pressure, continuously feeling like crap as of late, until further notice I am officially retiring from the sport of Triathlon. In turn, I will be sleeping in, eating what I want, and buying pants with elastic waistbands to make room for the impending gut expansion. I renounce any high ideals I might have had regarding striving to continually challenge myself and leave others in my dust. The amount of money that I will safe on entry fees and gear, I will put toward buying that nice set of golf clubs and getting a country club membership. I bequeath all of my power gels, apparel, and aforementioned gear to the triathlon community (aka: those misfortunate souls who haven’t figured out that you are evil yet). With that, I bid you adieu!

P.S. – You can stick this notice where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s going to take a lot more than a runny nose to keep me from kicking your ass every day. Game on!

Here's the Doctor's response. Love it.

Dear Bullet,

Thank you for submitting you comments. However, I regret to inform you that I do not care about you. I have broken down the most elite of your species and I will continue to torment the likes of you until all the oceans and lakes dry up. I will continue to recruit new members at an alarming rate, and it will take them years to figure out that I do not care about them either. My human agents, in the form of race directors, have sold their souls to me, and I will continue to make them rich as they aid in my quest for world domination. You may be one of the few enlightened humans who are able to see through my facade, but you do not stand a chance of changing the minds of those who are committed to me. I will destroy their lives, and they will not even see it coming. On the contrary, they will think they are actually doing a good thing. So, congratulations on escaping the matrix, but freedom is not all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Sincerely,

Triathlon.

Come On Somebody Why Don't You Run?

Some how I've got this hokey country song stuck in my head. At one point it was getting annoying, but the more I think of it, it's a little fitting to my training right now. All I've wanted to do as of late is run. That's RUN! Yep, I'm not talking about the boring recovery runs or the garbage miles. I'm talking like running like you been caught doing something you shouldn't. Running has been my release as of late and my quads have been screaming at me.

I just received my new K-Swiss K-Onas in the mail on Friday and have been doing my best to wear them out since then. I absolutely love these shoes. They're super light and have these neat little holes in the bottom to drain all of the sweat that typically fills up my shoes during a race. They actually fit my wide foot which is an added bonus. They're great with or without socks. Enough words, here's a pic.

So since getting the shoes, I've been doing the best to work toward race tempo. My workouts have typically consisted of above race pace intervals. For the last couple of weeks, I've alternated between 2:00 mins hard/2:00 recovery, 2 miles hard, 4 min recovery, 1 mile hard/.5 mile recovery. Hopefully soon I'll be able to stretch these distances out into one consistent run. Endurance at race speed just isn't there yet, but here's to hope!

I'm about 1 month out from the first race which is a short little reverse Tri up in Podunk, AL. It'll be a good warm up and test for my fitness. There's always hope for hardware, but it just really depends on who shows up. More of that later. For now, it's time to RUN!

Swimming And the Medius

Today's swim session included some drills and speed work. Typically, my Intermediate race goal is to keep my pace around 45 seconds per 50. Today's speed work involved 4 sets of 150 on 3 minutes, 3 sets of 150 on 2:50, 2 sets of 150 on 2:40, and 1 set of 150 on 2:30. I was happy to see my splits staying in the 2:14-2:18 range until the last couple of sets which saw times around 2:23 (I was toast). While it's still early in the season for me swimming wise, it was good to see that my lack of speed work over the winter months didn't totally kill what I had accomplished last year. I still struggle with kicking even the least bit. I'm working this extensively in drills. What could I do if I only knew how to kick?

Afterwards, I hit the weight room for some light shoulder and back work. Also as all good little triathletes should do, I made sure I did adequate core work as well. But the newest exercise to my regime is working the all important gluteus medius. I've listened to even podcasts and read enough articles on the importance of this little muscle to know that I need to start paying some attention to it. Having a strong 'G.M.' can greatly decrease your chances on IT band injuries. The muscle works as a pelvic stabilizer while running. Odd eh? The exercise is aptly name the "fire hydrant". Basically you get down on your knees and elbows and do your best impersonation of a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. 3 sets of 10 reps per side will have you screaming for mercy, as well as looking like an idiot.

That's all for now. Tailwinds to all.

Tuesday Morning Hill Repeats

First of all, this past weekend was amazing. It was our first sure sign of Spring. Temps were in the high 60's and the sun was blazing. Dr. Nitrous and I had a great ride on Saturday which left my aching during my run on Sunday. It was good to hurt.

After taking the "day off" with a pool session yesterday, I decided to tackle hill repeats this morning with my training partner, the evil Dr. Nitrous.
The good thing about the Dr. is that he's just a little bit better than I am on the run. He's on form right now with a recent 1/2 Mary in 1:33. Nice work and definitely on track for NOLA 70.3 in April.

The plan this morning was to get a 1 mile warm up in and then tackle a .32 mile hill beside my office. Yes, this is the same hill that I get to see the local Cross Country kids run during the day while I'm stuck inside working. After today's workout, I won't feel so bad about being the one in the office in the future.

I thought that I would have been fully recovered from this weekend's training after the day off, but half way up the hill I could start to feel the fatigue of the weekend start to creep in. During the second interval, my body was asking if this could be our last. My quads felt tight, swollen, and dead. Despite the pain, I was only 3 seconds slower. I could feel a bit of a change in my third hill and actually felt faster, but still was 3 seconds slower than my first. But no drop off. The fourth and yes final hill actually felt like my best. My body was adapting and my legs felt a little lighter. I came in 1 second slower than my first hill. Not bad.

The workout was short and sweet. Overall, only about 3.5 miles of running, but it was quality work. Next week, we'll see about adding a 5th and maybe a 6th.

Tailwinds.

Let's Talk 2010

Like a bear emerging from a long winter's hibernation, triathletes all around are gearing up for yet another exciting year of triathlon. This triathlete is no exception. 2009 was great. I made some great strides in stretching my abilities and have learned a lot about myself and where I want to go, but it's time to build on that and not rest on any past laurels.
2010 will be a year to focus on speed and more speed. Due to a new baby in the house, I've taken IM out of the equation and will focus on sprints and Olys. I've laid out a manageable and exciting schedule that has me racing twice most months this summer. The hope is seek out a few races that I either haven't done yet or haven't done in a while.
So physically where am I right now? Honestly, since my last post it's been a lot better. I've picked up two pool sessions a week where before I was maybe only swimming once. I'm not exactly happy with my technique right now, but the times are still there. I'm about 80% where I want to be on the bike. Endurance has picked up, but I'm just not climbing the way I used to right now. I'm on the bike/trainer at least three times a week right now so hopefully that will change soon. The run is still an unknown. I've had good days and bad days. I'm ready to stretch out some of the speed work I've been doing to see if I can maintain my goal pace for the entire run. This is where I've fallen back in the past in Sprint races. I'd love to be able to get under 20 minutes for a 5K in Sprint but I haven't been able to maintain that pace.
This biggest thing that needs to happen is for this damned winter to end. It's making life and training way to difficult and complicated. I'm ready to sweat and suffer on the road instead of in my garage or on the dreadmill. Regardless, the motivation is there, and it's time to get serious. 2010 is here and I'm ready to play. Game on!