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.
So I had cramped up in the pool the other night doing some hard 25 yard efforts. It was bad news and all I could think was "oh no". My leg has been sore since the cramp and it's swollen and I've got a huge bruise that goes from the top of my hamstring to half way down my calf. I'd post a picture but it's pretty gruesome looking. Should be a hit at the pool in Kona.
Thankfully it looks worse than it is. I saw my Physical Therapist yesterday and she said go ahead and train on it. I rode for two hours last night and while it was a little noticable overall it felt good. Today will be a very easy effort swim (not much kicking - mostly pull buoy) and then a run a little later. My mantra for the next couple of weeks is don't do anything stupid.
Well I'm in my final few weeks leading up to IM Coeur d'Alene and just 14 days from IM 70.3 Hawaii and I'm just trying not to do anyting stupid.
Well so much for not doing anything stupid. I had two workouts scheduled for yesterday a run and a swim. I did the run in the late afternoon a solid netative tempo. 10 min warmup followed by 30 minutes at a moderate tempo which was just over 7:00 per mile pace. The negative tempo is run over the same distance I had run in the first 30 minutes but you want to go faster. I had a good day doing the second tempo at 6:34 per mile pace. Overall a good solid 11+ mile run. It was the first warm day we've had here in Seattle this year with temps during my run in the mid 70's and a bit humid.
Now here's where the stupidity comes into play (although innocently enough). After my run I headed home to refuel the body and hydrate which I did a good job. Then about 2.5 hours after my run I hit the pool for my swim workout. The swim workout went fine and I was in my last set whcih was a number of 25 yard all out sprint efforts. On my second 25 about 2 yards from the wall suddenly my whole thigh (inside of leg) cramped, well pretty much siezed. After about 5 minutes I was able to move it enough to get out of the pool (yeah no more 25's or cool down). Basically swim before I run or bike or leave half a day between workouts to prevent cramping issues swimming.
Where it had cramped was sore, crampy and swollen last night and still is today although not nearly as painful. I don't think I did anything serious (tear, strain, etc...) but I also couldn't run or bike on the leg today if I wanted to. Thankfully today is my rest day. I'm hoping that it's loosened up by tomorrow as I've got a long run in the morning and a follow up run in the afternoon scheduled with a visit to the Walk for Aidan in between.
Needless to say I need to be much more thoughtful of when I'm doing the my training here in the last few weeks leading up to the races and with the increasing tempeatures to ensure that I minimize stress on the body.
Besides this incident training has gone well of late and the body is feeling good. I raced last weekend in a half marathon and it went well with a 10th place finish overall in 1:25:27 on a hilly tough course.
Well we're getting ever closer to the first races of the year and the hard training weeks continue. This week wasn't the big volume of last week but it had some really good intensity.
Two strong run workouts early in the week; hill repeats and a negative split tempo run which was a good rebound after a tough netative tempo run last week. This weekend was strong with a double run on Saturday totaling 21 miles and a good swim workout. My running is hitting its stride so to speak. My long runs (15-18 miles) are now comfortable at mid 7:20 range and feeling fresh at my top end on my tempo's are now sub 6:00 minute mile pace which I haven't hit in years.
I was out on a long ride today and the weather really cooperated it was nice not to have to worry about snow and freezing cold. I was out on my new ride (Cervelo P3) today and was leary about how today would go after the tough day yesterday (two runs and a swim) and being on a new bike. The day ended up steller my legs were a little rough to start but warmed up and the bike was phenomenal and will need little dialing in, it's fast and has lots of get up and go. I was supposed to ride 6 hours today and hit it nearly perfectly with a good mix of hills, descents and flats, keeping the effort high but not a crazy effort. It was a solid 112 miles in just under 6 hours with plenty of punch at the end of the ride. Highlights of the ride was holding 26 mph tempo along E. Lake Sammamish (8 miles) and hitting 52 mph on the descent to Duvall from Woodinville.
All in all things are going great, I'm feeling strong, fit and beginning to get mentally prepared for the races. Next weekend I'll be racing in the Kirkland Half Marathon to get myself in a bit of race conditions. I also have to name my new bike.
Half marathon results and pics of the new steed to come soon.
I made my annual trip to Coeur d'Alene for some focused training the last weekend of April. I headed into the weekend a little unsure of the conditions given that it snowed on Tuesday and the fact that my coach had a huge weekend on tap for me.
I arrived late on Thursday evening got settled in my hotel. I was lucky enough put in the same hallway with the busload of high school kids (not sure why they were there) but I was not excited about the prospects of the late night antics but suprisingly they quieted down by about 10:30.
Up early on Friday with a plan to ride the IM bike course. Cloudy, windy and cold to start the day. I eased into the ride along the lake and back to CdA before picking up the effort on the way out to Hayden Lake. The weather started to clear a little towards the end of the first lap of the bike and I headed back for the hills of Hayden. As I hit the hills the skies clouded up and the temp dropped. As I hit the big hill on Hudlow road the snow flurries started but I survived the ride with dry roads. The north end of the course was crazy riding on the road with snow banks on either side 2 feet high. Overall it was a good ride, no crazy efforts and I finished up the ride in 6:30.
Saturday was going to be interesting. Long run scheduled with an afternoon bike and t-run. I hit the road from my hotel at 7am. It was sunny and cold (temps in the upper 20's) to start and I cruised down to to the lake before heading out along the lake. I was comfortably cruising along at a pace in the low to mid 7:00 minute range. I hit my turnaround time just a half mile from the bike turaround and headed back to town.
Lots of bikers out as there were 3-4 camps going on this weekend. The Multisports camp group rode by me and Michael Lovato gave me the a look and said "Pick it up" with a big smile on his face. I was really working the hills with solid efforts near 7:00/mile pace. At 1:30 in I hit a 15 minute tempo holding right at 7:00/mile pace. I felt pretty good cruising back up the hill to my hotel finishing off the run 18 miles in 2:10. Very solid effort.
Back on the bike in the afternoon for a solid effort of 56 miles with one loop of the bike course. I was worried the legs would be cracked but they help up well and I finished off the day with a quick short transition run of 20 minutes. Quick dinner and good nights sleep before the final day.
Sunday morning I was up early, got breakfast and was on the bike by 7am. It was sunny but really cold, with highs forecasted for upper 60's I knew it would warm up so I was a little under dressed. I decided to ride a slightly different route and headed directly for Hayden Lake. It was very cool riding through upper CdA early in the morning as there were no cars on the road which was nice. I hit the Hayden Lake road and started the first little climb this would be the state of things for the next 20 miles. This is a great ride it twists and turns and undulates up and down with no huge climbs and the scenery was amazing (I even saw a wild turkey). Almost no cars on the road, I'm sure in the summer things become more busy on the road but it was pretty much just me. My legs were feeling the previous two days for the first 1:30. After coming off the lake I connected with the IM course north of Hayden Lake and started pushing the pace. I had a solid 2 hours on the hills and along the lake pushing hard.
I spotted a couple riders about a 1/2 mile ahead of me along the lake just before the big hill (where run turnaround is) and they became my new target to catch before we got back to Mullan Ave. I hadn't made up much ground by the turnaround so I put the hammer down. No excuses but they were pacelining on TT bikes and I was pushing solo on my road bike. I didn't think I was going to catch them when coming around a corner they were just 300 yards ahead of me just before the rise in the road (Ford motivational mile). I was closing fast just 100 yards before the crest of the hill I blew past them (I actually love this hill as I can hold 22-23 mph up it, last year I was doing 28 mph during the first lap of the bike). Having satisfactorily caught and finished off my prey. I backed off my cooked legs for the final 30 minute spin back to the hotel to finish off the 70 mile ride in 4 hours. I finished off the day with another quick t-run. Overall a great day.
Reflecting on the weekend I felt great putting in 230 miles on the bike and another 24 miles running in just 3 days. I've got two more big volume weeks to this block but am feeling good about my fitness. If I've got a weakness in my mind right now it's the bike but with a few solid weeks ahead I'm sure this will take care of itself as these big rides will really help and lets face it training isn't race day.
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