Well the weather is finally turning (from sun to pouring rain to snow to sun.....) and I'm starting to ramp up my volume and intensity a bit.  I was starting to get a little anxious to get things going but have to remember it's a long season as my first Ironman (IMC) isn't until the end of August, but it just seems like it's time. 

Swimming has been great of late I've swimming some longer swim workouts and feeling really comfortable and strong in the water.  I still don't swim a lot of swim workouts I just don't feel like the payoff for the investment is big enough.  My swims are just longer last year I was swimming 3500 - 4000 yds and I'd be pretty well gassed at the end, this year I'm swimming 4000 - 5500 yds and I feel pretty good at the end of the sessions and I'm swimming these much faster.  I can say I am very focused in every swim workout focusing on different parts of my stroke and it really is paying off as I put it all together it's just taken some time but I think I've improved pretty quickly in just the last 18 months.

I still haven't done that much outdoor riding but that's starting to change with the weater.  The few rides I've done outside have been good and I can already tell the winter power work is going to pay off this season.  My climbing power is already great and exceeding where I was last year.  Now it's just a matter of getting in that volume to build my endurance.

My running is also coming along nicely.  I've been throwing in a good mix of higher intensity work and long slow stuff (I normally tend to run too hard on my longer runs).  My hard stuff has ranged from short very hard work on the track to mile fartleks on the trail and roads to extended tempo's at high intensity. 

Here's some fun matching you can do.  See if you can figure out what goes with what from some recent workouts:

1) Average speed for 6 mile bike hard effort?                                             A) 6:18

2) Split for final 400 yd interval (3rd of 3 descending time)?                         B) 24.8

3) Average mile pace for 20 minute tempo (2nd half of 40 min tempo)?        C) 5:39

Figure it out? 

Well the bike effort should be easy, 24.8 mph for miles 20-26 of a 30 mile ride into a stiff headwind.  I didn't have wattage but I would have to believe it was in the 270-290 range (I'm not sure how guys like Sinballe hold 300+ watts for an Ironman race). 

My final 400 yd interval at the end of a set of 3 x 400 descending was 5:39 a new record by a bunch and best of all the set was descending (5:53, 5:47, 5:39) all of this at the end of a 4600 yd workout with a whole bunch of drill sets where my splits were all under 1:30/100yd. 

Finally the second half of my negative split tempo run last night was at 6:18 per mile pace.  These are great workouts. Run 20 minutes at a moderate/hard pace then turnaround and run the same distance you just ran for 20 minutes but at a hard effort (typically I target 20 seconds faster per mile).  My total 38 minutes of tempo work (20 minutes 1st half and 18 minutes 2nd half) was at a 6:38 per mile pace average which is great considering where my heart rate was and how I felt at the end.  Normally I'd be stiff after a workout like this effort but today I feel great.  I think I'm turning the corner and finding that extra gear I used to have in my running legs in my early 30's.  I'm not feeling much like a 40 year old these days. 

I'm definitely looking forward to my upcoming mini camp (i.e. - long training weekend) in Hood River.  Still looking for any taker who want to join me for a little suffering in what I hope is sunshine, moderate temps and raging headwinds in the Columbia Gorge.  One thing I know is that I'll be fine if I have to go it alone as it allows for that deep focus on those long rides, hard climbs and TT efforts.

I think I'm on track for posting some great performances at the 70.3 distance races this year and at IMC.  Look for updates from Hood River in a couple of weeks.  Who knows I might even take my camera along and snap a few pics.


 
 

Well I'm two weeks removed from my bout with the flu bug.  It's taken me a while to get back to feeling ok.  Thankfully I'm back and feeling pretty good.  My runs have been good, my bike rides ok and my swims pretty darn good.  The challenge of late has been work and frankly the weather. 

I was planning on riding in the first of the Carnation Time Trial bike races last Sunday.  It didn't happen, the time trial happened but I didn't get there.  When I awoke on Sunday it was cold and wet and I just frankly wasn't up for driving 30 minutes waiting around for 2 hours and then going all out for 30 minutes on the bike on wet and slick roads.   As it turns out it was worse than that, it was snowing and there was slush on the roads and several cars had gone off the road on the course from the reports I heard. 

I was thinking that will be the last of the bad weather it's got to get better now with only the occassional wet or cooler day.  I rode on Monday evening for a quick ride as I left my house it was not raining and I thought a window of opportunity for a dry ride.  10 minutes in and the light rain was falling as I made the turn to head south I was riding into a very wet misty rain and a 20 mph cold headwind.  Oh and this morning, more snow.....

My two runs this week have been wet, wet, wet.  Yesterday I ran a little over an hour and it was really coming down when I headed out and you know what it just rained harder and harder as the day went.  I was running along the Sammamish Slough (a slow moving river) and it was literally frothing white with foam from how hard the rain was falling and how big the drops were.  For the first 20 minutes I was trying to run around the big puddles but finally gave up because I realized I was running in standing water everywhere so why bother.  To add to the misery it's cold.  This winter has really worn me out and I haven't even been riding outdoors like last year which makes me so glad I don't have an early season Ironman. 

Our average high tempearture in March is supposed to be 52 degrees this year 40.5 degrees and March is historically significantly warmer than February not this year, colder (February this year was 41).  Now I know it's worse in a lot of places but if you live there you expect it and can mentally get ready for it. 

Thankfully there is a rumor that we will have a couple dry days this weekend before it turns wet again early next week.  It's pretty sad when dry is you measure of a beautiful day (not sunny, not warm, just not raining or snowing). 

I've got a couple weeks until my mini camp in Hood River and I definitely need to get some miles in on the bike or it's going to be a long, hard couple of days and I'd rather it be hard but not potential, continuous bonking. 

Updates on bike upgrades, review of the new GU Chomps which I've had the opportunity to sample, hopefully some new pictures and maybe even some reports on dry warm rides.