VanderTri.com

So when I started in this whole triathlon thing I wasn't exactly a competitive swimmer (and for the record I'm still not).  I grew up on a lake and spent summer days "swimming".  Well if you count doing cannonballs and dives off the springboard on our dock as swimming.  Not the kind of swimming that makes you fast or efficient. 

My first year in this sport (3 years ago) I was swimming 1-2 days a week and mostly in the lake because I hated the pool, to be fair I wasn't comfortable in the pool (I couldn't do flip turns..still can't).   In my second year I didn't improve much but neither did my volume or focus on my form.

Last year I got a coach and my swimming world changed.  Not because he was standing on the deck criticizing my every interval because he is in Canada and I'm not, but because he focused me.  He focused me, focused me on every workout.   Now I don't swim more times per week or significantly more per workout but my focus is deep.  I now don't do a workout without a focus, every set, every interval, every lap and yes every length of the pool. 

It's been a very simple recipe really, just break down the stroke in the pieces and focus on the little things and repeat many, many times.  This is probably one of my strengths; the ability focus on the routine without becoming bored.  This has served me well in the pool and in the evolution of my swimming and it has evolved.  I have the ability to repeat a drill lap after lap after lap.  The real break through has really only occurred recently as I have begun to put all those little pieces together at one time in my stroke and shazam I'm swimming faster. 

A year ago I did a set of six 200's (2 x (3 x 200yds)) and I was estatic with a fastest interval of 2:53 and towards the end I was gasping for air and could only manage a 3:01.  Today I did 10 200's (2 x (5 x 200)) the first set was supposed to be for pacing and the second set was suppossed to be for speed.  Now I still don't fully get the the pacing thing in the water (although I'm getting better) unlike on the run if someone tells me to run 7:00/min mile pace I can pretty much go out and hit that without even the slightest hint (probably the 35,000 miles I've run in my lifetime).  Now back to today's swim I got out hot in the first set but my intervals looked something like this 2:47, 2:48, 2:46, 2:48, 2:51, 2:45, 2:47, 2:48, 2:50, 2:51.  That is improvement and the best thing about it was that except for the last 3 intervals these felt pretty controlled and comfortable and that control and comfort came from better, more efficent form born from focusing on the little things.

So what have I learned about improving your swim.  Be patient, be focused and be consistent and improvement will come.  I really can't wait to see what this seasons swim performances look like.

So every year I've choosen a couple of weekends to make into mini "training" camps.  Last year I did two of these camps in addition to the formal Endurance Sports Camp in Tuscon and my extended camp in Kona. 

What do I love about these mini camps?  They're close to home but not at home, totally focused on training and I believe a great way to hammer in some miles and boost our overall fitness.

So normally I just do these camps alone but this year I decided to see if anyone wanted to join me for one of these camps.  I'm planning my first camp the end of April 4/30 - 5/3 in Hood River, Oregon just 3.5 - 4 hours from Seattle, an hour from Portland.

I've spent lots of time riding in "The Gorge" and love it.  There is some good challenging riding, generally uncrowded roads (both cars and bikes) and good weather. 

This isn't a formal camp. No "pros", big name coaches, or fees hopefully jsut some passionate triathletes who want to spend some time focusing on getting ready for the season and enjoying each others company and learning from one another.  My focus for this weekend will time on the bike with a little running thrown in.  It would be fun to get some open water swimming in but since the columbia will probably only be in the upper 40's I'm not planning on it.

See the Camp page for more details, tentative schedule, dates, accomodation recommendations, and general bike pace guidance (doesn't mean you can't join in if you ride slower or faster).

If you're interested in joining in for all or part of the time get in touch with me.

Well I continue to grind out the winter base training although it's hardly felt like winter in Seattle the past week or so but this I'm sure will come to a screeching halt this week as the rain (that plagued California last week) will return to it's righful home. 

I'm focusing on form in the pool, power on the bike and overall run fitness (speed and endurance). 

My swim workouts have been really good although my coach nearly killed me last week giving me a workout which was almost entirely bilateral breathing (three strokes then breathe or five strokes then breathe).  When I got done my head hurt, yep oxygen deprivation will do that to you.  It doesn't help that I only really get a good breath on my weak side about every other breath on that side (the other is a mouthful of pool water).  Despite this I'm feeling great in the water and was hitting my 100's around 1:20 (no flip turns) and longer intervals are sub 1:30 average per 100 for the most part so perseverance pays off.

I had the opportunity to get out on the bike this weekend for the first "longish" ride of the year with a nice dry 2:40 on Saturday.  It was cool (i.e. - frost on the roofs) when I departed but I was pretty toasty by the time I got halfway through the ride probably due to the freakin hilly route I chose.  Nothing specific to focus on but I definitely noticed a better pedal stroke on the climbs.  I could definitely tell it was early season but I'm really happy with where I am so early in the season and am looking forward to some long training weekends in the coming months with some focus on riding. 

My running continues to be really good.  I'm mixing up the really fast running (on the track) with moderate distance hard tempos and long slow runs.  Overall I'm feeling really good about my running right now and am going to be interested to see how things are shaping up at next months Mercer Island Half Marathon. 

On other fronts one of the athletes I coach will be racing his first Ironman at IMNZ in two weeks and I think he's as ready as he can be given that this is effectively a winter Ironman for us in northern states and the crummy weather and short days.  He's improved significantly in his weaker disciplines and if he holds back on the bike a bit I think he'll have a really good first IM.

This week I'll also be taking time away from my training to attend a great event here in Seattle (well Bellevue technically).  On Wednesday evening at Sammamish High School there will be a screening of the movie "Darius Goes West".  It will be a fundraiser for Charley's Fund and will be a great event with the cast, producer and start in attendance to do Q&A.  If you're in the area I'd strongly suggest that you consider coming it's a fabulous award winning (I mean lots of awards) film and will be a fun evening.  Movie starts at 7pm and it's $10 per person and other donations will gladly be accepted.

Other than that just getting my miles and laps in, getting my work done, keeping my athletes up to their eyeballs in workouts and looking forward to the longer days of spring and summer.

Well as we're well into 2009 I though I should probably make a post.  Frankly I haven't posted anything lately as I didn't think there was too much going on that warranted a post.

So I've set my race schedule, identified my goals for the year and my coach and I have agreed on a plan. 

It's going going to be a good year.  Here' the race plan for the year.  Kick things off in late May in a local sprint triathlon just to get me in the racing frame of mind.  I'll be heading to Boise in mid June for Boise 70.3.  Then in mid July I'll be heading south for go at Vineman 70.3.  My "A" race is Ironman Canada at the end of August where I'll take my shot at qualifying again for Kona (in a new age group no less).  Assuming things go well at Canada I'll be in Kona in October for Ironman Hawaii.  The plan is round out the year in Vegas at The Silverman Triathlon (Ironman distance and very tough course).  The last race is more for the challenge than racing hard as it will be my 3rd IM in 3.5 months if the season goes to plan. 

So what is my plan to get ready for all those races?  At a high level we'll kick things off with a longer base phase this winter focused on the run.  Why the run? Well while I'm a strong runner both my coach and I agree there is time to be gained on the run.  So more volume this winter and early spring and more fast running (i.e. - I'll becoming cozy with the track again).

On the bike I'll also be focusing on shorter power building ride workouts as I've got really good endurance on the bike (and it comes quickly for me) so as we add in the overall power increase the logic would suggest I'm either faster or don't expend as much energy (saving more for the run) going similar speed. We'll start adding in long rides this spring as it's going to be a long season.

The swim.  Pretty simple the goal is to be about same speed or maybe a little faster but using much less energy.  So my volume probably won't change significantly but we'll continue to focus on the form and getting better at pacing.

We'll be doing things a little differently in appoaching the races this year.  Last year I didn't race either of my 70.3 races with any real taper which pretty much means I was hitting race day usually as part of a big volume or even a peak volume week so I still don't know if I've seen what I can do if I'm rested ready to rock a 70.3 race so I'll get that chance twice this year as both 70.3 races won't be part of a big training week. 

The other thing that will change is I won't be tapering as much leading into my IM races.  I came out flat at Kona and we believe a contributing factor was too much taper (more specifically not enough activity and intensity race week).  A taper needs to be build around the individual so there really isn't a cookie cutter taper.  For me I had more volume and intensity the week of IMCDA last year as opposed to Kona and I woke up fired up the morning of IMCDA with lots of energy and power and almost nothing at Kona.  I notice this in training as well if I take 1 day off a week the next day I usually feel pretty good in training.  If I take two days off I'm normally sluggish and slow in my next workout so we're going with keeping the activity and intensity higher race week.

I'm excited about the plan and am happy to have a reprive from the cold snap, two weeks of snow, slush and then rain and floods.  Although it isn't "sunny" just not having any wild weather and some milder temps is really nice.

I'll be back posting more frequently now that we're into the new season.

My vacation has turned into a pretty intensive training camp. The first few days were a good mix of workouts and windsurfing but the heat has been turned on and the wind has dried up.

Last weekend and the first part of the week had temps in the mid 80's and it has slowly increased into the triple digits with the high tomorrow expected to be 107 degrees.  Despite all of the heat the training has been great with a focus on the bike. 

So far this trip (since Sunday I've logged 320 miles on the bike and with one more ride scheduled for tomorrow I'm going to top 420 miles.   I've also logged 35 miles since last Saturday with another long run scheduled for Sunday.

Saturday through Monday was either runs or rides followed by some solid windsurfing sessions.  As the tempeatures began to heat up the wind dropped off and the focus became the training. 

Tuesday I tried a new route from Lyle to Goldendale up highway 142 (and back).  The route climbs very gradually for the first 12 miles along the Klickitat river.  Before finally climbing up a steeper grade for 4 miles up to the plateau where the road rolled up and down through wheat farms for the final 12 miles or so.  The ride was beautiful but the road was rough and tough on the body.  On the way back to Lyle I was fighting a serious headwind roaring up the canyon and just wished that I could get done.  It was maybe the hardest 72 miles I've ever ridden (hard on the body).

Wednesday was a good run in the heat of the day.  A negative split cruise but not too fast as the temps were in the upper 90's. 

Yesterday was supposed to be the big day of the week but with temps forecasted in the low 100's.  I didn't swim I just got out on the bike before it got really hot.  I explored another new route east of The Dalles on a road called fifteen Mile Road.  It was a great ride out this canyon the road wound it's way past farms and scrub brush.  I turned around at 15 miles although the road continued to go on for who knows how far.  I was tempted to keep going but was running low on water and though that around each corner would be just a little sign of civilization but not place to refill my bottles and knew I had 20 miles to the nearest refill.  The wildest part of this ride was all of the coyotes I saw.  I saw probably 20 including a pack of about six.  Pretty unusual to see them out in the heat of the day.  I also had a run in with a ground squirrel, well actually I ran over the ground squirrel.  Thankfully I wasn't going too fast otherwise it could been ugly for me.  I don't the the squirrel was any the worse for wear. 

I finished off the day with a short one hour run up the Rowena Grade and back about 3 miles up at a steady 7-8% grade.  Of course this was in the hottest part of the day.  My frozen water bottles were turned into hot water by the end of the run. 

Today was my "off" day but given the forecasted high of 105 degrees I hit the river for a standup paddle board adventure, I did a 90 minute trip from our house in Rowena to the mouth of the Klickitat river and up the river a ways and back, it's a pretty cool way to see the river.

 Two more fairly big days with another long run tomorrow and a 2 hour run on Sunday.  I plan to hit it early.

Hope to post some pictures and possibly some video at the end of the week.

I was doing some thinking this morning.  I know....crazy.  I was thinking about the choices I had made yesterday in particular one decision.  The choice to ride.

Here's the thing when you've got a full time job that you spend 40, 50 or 60 hours a week at, finding time and motivation some days to workout is tough.  I don't know if would be different if working out was my job but I suppose it would be.  In the end after a busy day in the office I had planned to ride from work to get my 2.5 hour ride in.  As the day was coming to a close I looked east and it looked questionable (i.e. - wet and stormy) we get this this time of year in Seattle when it gets warm.  I decided to drive home and ride Mercer Island which is a shorter ride but the weather in the foothills wouldn't drift that far west. 

After driving home I went to get my kit on and I found myself really not motivated to ride.  I didn't feel like I had much energy, my body had been sore lately, my hip and back acting up and just didn't want to go.  I walked from my bedroom to the kitchen and back several times and finally I said "you need to go". 

I put on my kit and grabbed the water bottles and headed out the door, right smack into the evening commute.  It's not really that bad but the first 2 miles are basically waiting at traffic lights with the commute lemmings.  The first 6 miles of this ride has a lot of short steep hills and I was amazed at how good my legs felt, I was just spinning up these hills. 

My coach had prescribed just time in the saddle.  The Mercer Island ride is a great little 20 mile out and back on the island (total ride is 36 miles).  The first half of the ride I just kept the bike in the small ring and spun.  At the turn I decided to push a bit the way back I loaded the bike into the big ring and got into a great cadence, my legs felt full of power. 

I love this section of the ride because it twists and turns and the speed limit is 25 miles an hour.  Many times a car (on Mercer Island it's usually a Porsche, BMW, Mercedes and the occassional Ferrarri) will come up behind you waiting for a spot to pass and then you hit one of the twisty turny sections and you're putting a gap on the car, they eventually will catch you and pass you but it's still great.  I was holding near 30 mph and just under 300 watts for this entire section.  I spun the hilly section the rest of the way home and and felt great. 

This morning I felt great, I mean great.  My body wasn't sore, my hip and back didn't hurt and I felt motivated to workout.  This is what led me to think about the choice to ride I had made.  Now let's be clear, the ride yesterday wasn't a tipping point but it's just one example of how our choices affect us.  The choice to have a regular latte or non-fat, the choice to let a car merge in front of you in traffic, the choice to say please and thankyou, the choice to do your daily stretches and the choice to swim, ride or run.  The choices we make affect our lives in ways we aren't even aware of and I believe it's like a bank account for your physical, mental, emotional well being.  Will I think about every choice I make no we make too many of them each day but I think I'm a little more aware of how they affect my and others lives. 

Next week I'm on vacation and am really looking forward to the the training I'll be doing.  I've been scouting new rides on the map in and around the Columbia Gorge so I'm looking forward to exploring those rides.  I already know one choice I will be making assuming the wind blows, that is the choice to windsurf (hopefully it won't come back to haunt me).  Look for updates from the The Gorge. 

It's been a good two weeks since IMCdA and I'm really starting to feel recovered.  

I spent last weekend in Hood River, Oregon celebrating the holiday.  I managed a couple of rides (probably a little more effort than I should have put in), a good solid recovery run with a little intensity and a couple of windsurfing and standup paddleboard sessions. 

It was a good weekend but I was a little sore Monday and Tuesday.  Not sure if it was from the riding or the windsurfing, I'm thinking it was the windsurfing as you use some muscles that I haven't been using. 

I've been in the pool twice this week and I'm feeling great in the water. One of my best swim workouts ever (consistent and fast splits).  I'm continuing to really get better with my form and it's amazing how little tweaks can really make me more efficient and thus faster through the water.  It also makes me in awe of the Olympic swimmers never in my wildest dreams could I swim near 1 minute for 100 yards and yet I imagine many of these guys and gals train at that pace.

While it's going to be tough training this summer schedule wise I'm looking forward to getting back to some proper training and really building on an already great base of fitness.

The fact that I'm already feeling recovered really has me believeing that there is time on the table for the taking in Kona.  I know the second half of the marathon in CdA wasn't that fast so I think my legs have recovered faster than expected. 

Getting ready to start ramping it up again.  

Well it's finally here, I thought it would never get here, it's time to taper to Coeur d'Alene.  There was no taper to the Kirkland Half, there was no taper to the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii so this is a welcome relief.  Time to get the body energized, fueled up and mentally ready to race. 

The first few days of a taper are always hard on my body.  I get very sore and stiff as my activity level drops pretty significantly and I need to fight off getting sick as my body's defense mechanism drops a bit.  I'm faring pretty well and I could already start to feel the power in my legs on my short run yesterday.

The big concern for many is what will the weather be like 9 days.  It snowed in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday and the lake is still really cold (around 52 degrees).  So cold in fact they've announced that wetsuits are going to be mandatory, skull caps highly recommended and booties are going to be allowed.  Shawn (that's my coach) doesn't want me doing much if any swimming in the lake before the race as he wants me to feel fast on race day. despite his wishes I'm going to do my Sunday morning swim in Lake Sammamish to make sure my wetsuit is fitting right and I'm comfortable with my skull cap and booties.  Sammamish is around 58 right now so it'll likely be a little warmer than the lake on race day.

Looking at the long term forecast I think the weather on race day is going to be great.  Looks like it will be dry and sunny with highs in the mid 70's.  I couldn't ask for much better conditions and am really glad I went to Kona and got some heat training in.  Now if we only get a break from the wind. 

I've got another ride tomorrow and it's going to feel short compared to my rides in Kona and last weekend at around 3 hours.  I'm going to have to watch myself out there tomorrow as the Flying Wheels ride is going on, on the same roads I'll be riding so I've got to watch myself.

I'll hopefully be posting more updates and pictures from CdA once I arrive mid week next week. 

Yeah I'm in the Motherland of triathlon..... Kona.  I'm loving it.  I'm splurging and staying at the Mauna Lani Hotel and Resort which is hosting the IM 70.3 Hawaii race next Saturday.  It's great. 

The race isn't really the focus it's getting the final big training days in before my taper to IM Coeur d'Alene.  I love this place.  Running is tough but the swimming and riding are phenomenal.  I've been swimming every morning in the ocean at Mauna Lani Bay Beach Club it's like high speed snorkeling.  Today besides a crazy assortment of fish over the coral reef, I saw a bunch of rays, a big school of rather large something or others which I was swimming through and one little shark cruising about 30 feet below on the bottom. 

Today my coach scheduled a 25 minute "race" effort.  I took my GPS watch and put it in a zip lock and placed it in my swim cap to see just how much I've improved over the past year in the swim department.  When I downloaded the data I was shocked.  25 minutes = 1 miles.  That would put me just under 30 minutes for a half IM swim.  My fastest ever was a 34:30 which I think was a short course every other swim of that distance has been consistently 36:30.  If I can take 6 minutes off my swim time it would be crazy and today wasn't really race pace as I wasn't racing I was swimming solo. 

Riding here is also fantastic.  I'm sure over time it would get a little boring as it is an island but so far the roads I've been on all have great shoulders not a lot of debris and the drivers have been pretty cool.  The part I like best is I seem to be riding really fast here, part of it no doubt is the fact that I've got my race wheels on (Zipp 808 front and 1080 rear which has been a mixed blessing with the wind), or the aero helmet but I think it's just the terrain and I actually am enjoying the heat.  It's been really windy, there is no direction that I haven't been hammered either by head winds or side winds. 

I rode on Sunday the day after a long trip and hit 84 miles at just under a 20 mph average.  Today I rode 73 miles at just under a21 mph average.  Crazy as neither of these were crazy race efforts so I figure I'm good for about another 2-3 mph average in the race Saturday and it's giving me big confidence going into IMCDA in a few weeks.

Running is tough, it's hot and humid.  I did manage an 8+ mile negative tempo run in the heat of the day yesterday with my negative split at sub 7:00 pace.  Needless to say it's going to be a long hot run. 

My coach has changed the race plan.  Put in a hard solid swim effort to see how the winter swimming has paid off and then ride like a man possessed.  The run is now just get through it as close to 1:40 as possible.  I was quick to inform him that a 1:40 would be a half IM run 2 minute PR for me. 

I'm feeling great with the final hard training and feel like I would really love to be back here in October for the big dance.  Now just to put it all together on race day.  I'll post how things went.