I'm not sure where the saying "sick as a dog" came from but it fit this past week. Last Sunday I started to feel iffy, Monday much worse and called it and slept the day away, Tuesday not really much better but I had to go to the office, Wednesday another day of sleeping the day away.
Now as an athlete we tend to feel invincible and immune to the flu, or at least better equipped to get over and recover quicker. So Thursday rolled around I was feeling better, so I headed out for a solid run in the afternoon. 1:20 minutes of easy tempo work, as the run started I was checking my HR and it was right in line where it should have been and I felt great. I debated turning around at 30 minutes but I still felt good. Clearly I was not well. 20 minutes later my HR spiked and my pace dropped off a cliff. It wasn't helped by the fact the temp dropped 10 degrees and the cold rain started falling. 10 minutes later I could barely lift my legs off the ground to continue moving forward. I did make it back to the finish but was close.
Friday was borderline but not great, but my coach and I exchanged emails about the planned Sunday race and he strongly recommendd I not run, in my mind I was going to run. Yeserday I spent an hour on the trainer which nearly killed me as not from the workout but the fact that it was dry and moderately warm outside and I really wanted to be riding outside. So today I had already resolved that I wasn't going to race but I did get out for a 50 minute run. I'm clearly not back to "normal" yet but I was feeling better.
It's a funny thing trying to separate the athlete from the neutral observer. As a coach I'd never recommend an athelete I coach run in this condition but again as an athlete the work that's been put in and the desire to race sometimes cloud your rational decision making. This is one of the advantage having a hands on coach as opposed to be self coached or just getting cookie cutter workouts, that little person on your shoulder your alter ego who can be the voice of reason.
So I'm hoping that this is it for the flu and me this year and that I get back to "normal" this week, because it's time trial time this coming weekend. It should be interesting, short and sweet, and utterly painful. I'll let you know how it goes.
So towards the end of last season I was begining to think about coaching after getting a few inquiries. So after some debate I decided to take on a few athletes for the 2009 season and donate the coaching fees to a charity I support called Charley's Fund. So I have a few athletes I'm coaching this year and I got my first test yesterday with one of the athletes I coach racing at Ironman New Zealand.
I'm calling it a success. I wasn't too excited when James told me he wanted to do this race for a couple of reasons. First it's early season (for us in the northern states) and second he lives in Detroit which, well frankly is known for it's snowy cold winters which is not great for training.
After some discussion and negotiations we agreed that he should race with the expectation that this be a "get your feet" wet first Ironman. James goal is to qualify for Kona but given the training conditions in winter, the timing of the race and his swim and run fitness, looking at the history of the qualifiers from this race and the fact that he is also planning on racing at Ironman Lousiville later this summer I didn't think this was the one to go after.
So we set up a plan to focus on some basics and focusing on James weak spots to ensure he had a balanced race. I believe if we hadn't taken this approach it would have been such a success as he would have been relying on his strength on the bike which I believe doesn't set you up for a great overall Ironman. The work he put in over the past couple of months has been fantastic and the improvement in his swim and run has been great and he's done just enough this winter to be balanced on the bike. Above all he's stuck with the plan and been consistent which is key to any good Ironman program.
I haven't talked to James since he finished but it looks like he executed the race plan just as we discussed. He had a great swim it appears finishing the swim in 1:05 which is significantly faster than I would have expected given his swims in the half distance races last season. He had a solid bike effort given the fact that most of his riding has been on the trainer with the exception of 1 week in Florida posting a bike split of 5:05. The big unknown for me was how the run would go. I think the cooler temps and not expending too much energy on the bike really helped him limit his losses on the run. He finished up the run in 3:42 (not sure but this might be his marathon PR), I honestly wasn't expecting this great a run from James but a coach always likes being surprised by their athletes performances.
Overall James just missed going sub 10 in his first Ironman finishing up in 10:00:52, good enough for 23rd in his tough 35-39 age group and 106th overall. Way to go James, take this week off and by the way you'll be paying in the upcoming months for sandbagging the swim and run.
The takeaways is have a good training plan (an engaged coach is recommended), be consistent in your training and train with focus (most of us don't have unlimited time to train) and success will come.
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.
Wheez…hack…Wheez…hack. I bruised my ego tonight on the track.
As part of my “plan” for this season I felt I needed to get some really hard intensity in my running. Now I throw in plenty of intensity but we’re talking about very different levels of intensity. Two years ago as I was beginning to find my fitness after a bit of a respite from running my intensity was low but steady working towards being able to go long but there wasn’t a whole lot of faster running. Last year I added in tempo work consistently and it paid dividends as my overall run pace dropped. At the end of the season I assessed my current running and drawing on many, many years of running on the track, trails and roads I knew what I needed to do to take it to the next and move to the next plateau in my run fitness…I had to hit the track.
Why do I need to hit the track? For me and many other runners and multisport athletes who grew up running there is difference between running hard on the road or trails and running hard on the track. There is something about the track that is associated with speed, fast running and frankly pain. So for me it’s a motivator to help me run hard. My goal with hitting the track isn’t to become a top class miler or 800m runner but rather to shock my system a bit. The focus is to run hard for short durations with a focus on form, fast turnover and pushing the body hard for short durations. The goal is over time that my body will begin to remember what it’s like to run hard and run tired because to be fast on the track you have to be able to finish strong.
So tonight I returned to the track. It was short, intense, painful and ego bruising. I ran over to my local high school track and proceeded to test myself with 4 x (400m hard/200m jog recovery/200m hard/200m jog recovery). The goal was simple; run hard, run consistent and focus (pump the arms, turn the legs over, drive forward hard and run through the finish). I did well but it hurt. Tonight I hit my 400’s pretty consistently at 1:25 (5:40 mile pace) and my 200’s were at 40 seconds (5:20 mile pace). I started to doubt whether I could hold the pace for all the intervals after the second one but I managed.
Now here’s the dark side of getting back to the track. My ego got a little bruised tonight. Not by anyone else running there tonight but rather by my youth. The last time I was doing track intervals was quite a few years ago and at that time I was doing 400’s repeats in 1:12 and in my prime in college a typical track session would be 15 x 400 averaging between 58 seconds and 1:02. Tonight if I had spikes on and was running an open 400m I think I would have been lucky to break 1:10. I have learned from the past few years that you can’t compete with your youth because you won’t win but if you want to improve you need to live in the moment and savor your abilities and accomplishments today.
So when you get stagnant think outside the box a little and push yourself, go further, go harder and shake things up and you just might find a little bit of your youth again.
Now I need Advil, an ice bath and a cold recovery beer.
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.
Saturday is going to be a great day. I'm going to get my morning swim workout done, I think my coach may have lost it he posted 5 swim workouts for me this week at a pace which I'm pretty sure I will drown if I try to hold.
Then I'm settling into the couch with a beer and bag of unhealthy salty snacks and watching this years Ironman World Championship coverage. I love it.
No better motivator to get you fired up. It was just three short years ago that I watched the coverage and decided that day that I would do an Ironman. At the time I was 30 lbs heavier, eating crappy food and too much of it, and couldn't run 3 miles without walking. Oh how the mighty can fall only to rise again from the ashes.
The coverage starts at 2:30pm Eastern Standard Time on NBC. I'm not sure what time it's showing in the other time zones so check your local listings as they say. If you want to wet your whistle a bit you can check out the trailer on YouTube on the Ironman Channel.
It's been a while since I posted but I'm back at it. Nothing too intense just focusing on basics and some solid base training. I'm mostly just focusing on my swim and run.
My swims have been focusing on form, mixing shorter moderate/hard interval efforts with longer intervals to ensure I'm building good base and I'm already beginning to see improvement in the pool. My run has been basic base training with more tempo miles. I'm starting to add the bike back into the mix but mostly it's about trainer sessions to focus on building power. It's going to be a long season with my "A" race not until the end of August and I want to make sure I don't burn out mentally and frankly there is plenty of time to build up the miles on the bike. I think this past season the long rides took their toll mentally especially the long rides in the cold and wet of the winter.
It's definitely a different deal when your setting your own workouts instead of having a coach prescribe them. I'm getting that perspective as I'm coaching a few athletes this coming season and it's a very different experience when you're assessing training and plans when you're not emotionally attached to the training plans. I'll be starting back up with Shawn in a couple weeks but honestly I know he's checking in on my workouts as I get an occassional email from him now and then that say "hey add this in". It's great to have a coach or advisor, a neutral perspective and frankly the support.
In other news the Zoot GU team is not going to be continued in 2009. Which is disappointing but I'm still a strong supporter of both companies and think they make exceptional products. I will be continuing a more formal relationship with GU in 2009 as I'll be a athlete ambassador for GU this coming season. When you need energy in training and racing get your GU on!!!
Finally I got my new ride. No this one's not a bike it's a car. I love my SUV but when gas was over $4 dollars I decided to get a smaller car and ordered a car last summer well it finally arrived just in time for for the gas to be back near $2 a gallon. Well it's still nice getting nearly 40 miles to a gallon. Zoom zoom!!!
Ok I had a little trouble updating my site from Maui where I was recovering from my race in Kona. I'm now back in rainy Seattle but had a great recovery on Maui.
I did pretty much nothing for a week, well not exactly nothing. I did manage to eat well, drink well, nap and read several books. The picture above is one of the most delicious pizza ever. Now it's not exactly pizza despite it's name, it's crispy tostada, with ailoi humus, ahi sashimi sprouts and some delictable sauce. Holy cow it was good. You can get this little treat at Haile Maile General Store which I highly recommend. I also got severl doses of the ahi sahsimi tuna from my favorite restaurant in the world Mama's Fish House. It's like candy for the sashimi fanatic.
Between naps and reading I did get to catch up with a few friends and did get a couple of nice easy swims in on the south shore at Keahakapou beach down to Wailea and back and a easy run in as well.
Now that I'm back I'm looking forward to some unstructured activities this fall to get my engine charged back up.
Here's a link to Kona race report
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