Nov 14-20

Feeling a little under the weather today. I came down with a sore throat last night which somehow as robbed me of nearly all my energy. I stayed home today, working from the home office and front and back porches. That I love ... the run at lunch, not so much. But that's for next week's blog. I'm supposed to be summarizing last week.

The goal after last week was to start adding on some volume while keeping the intensity pretty high. Goal achieved!

Monday
Run: 1hr 23 min with 20 x 30 second strides on 30 second jog. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/128728672

Tuesday
Bike: 1hr steady
Swim: 40 min with my favorite main set (400, 4 x 100 desc, 300, 3 x 100 desc, 200, 2 x 100 desc, 100, 2 x 50 desc).
Run: 30 min hills

Wednesday
Bike: 1 hr w/8 x 4min intervals: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/4054
Run: 55 min w/8 x 400m intervals: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/129474118

Thursday
Run: 30 min recovery

Friday
Bike: 1 hr w/ 6 x 5-7 min intervals: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/4267
Run: 1 hr 16min easy but with the usual 2 mile time trial. Both J-Flo and I made big strides (pun intended) over last week. I shaved like 25 seconds off. My splits were 5:40 and then 5:46 for a total time of 11:26. No negative split tho (J-Flo was 6:01/6:00): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/129474123
Swim: 30 min technique focus.

Saturday
Bike: Usual CX dirt/asphalt mix ride. Rode pretty hard: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/129603905

Sunday
Bike: 30 min easy spin

Summary: Swim: 1 hr 10 min, Bike: 4.5 hrs, Run: 4.5 hrs, Total: 10 hrs 10 min

This week is Thanksgiving so we'll just have to wait and see if I can continue building volume back up.

Saturday was also a big play day for me and the girls. My son was spending the night with grandparents and Jennifer was at her dance practice. So first I took them to a birthday party at the skating rink / indoor putt-putt place (which was FUN) and then we came home and found some new toys had been delivered. Of course we played on them all afternoon - which was even funner! :p

Nov 7th - 13th

This week was a pretty light with the need ease myself back into training following last Saturday’s half marathon. The last thing I want to do is push too hard and sideline myself while I’m just getting started! I think the biggest hindrance to performance right now is my weight. I’m a good 10 lbs over my prime race weight of 150 lbs. I need to get more disciplined with my diet (layoff the snickers) to kick start shedding some pounds.

Monday
Bike: 1hr w/ 5 x 7min @ +-92% FTP Intervals: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/3201
Run: 50 min w/ 8 x 30 sec strides: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/127538992

Tuesday
Run: 35 min recovery

Wednesday
Bike: 1 hr w/ 3 x 12 min intervals at 90-92% FTP: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/3384
Run: 10k trail run on my trails

Thursday
Swim: 30 min
Run: 35 min recovery

Friday
Bike: 1hr progressive ride building to 125% FTP (358 watts)
Swim: 30 min
Run: 1hr 10 min w/ 2 mile TT: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/128168309 I was a few seconds faster than 2 weeks ago with a 5:52 first mile and 5:57 second mile for an 11:51 for a modest improvement. J-Flo had a great improvement from 2 weeks ago by dropping 10 seconds for a 12:20 (6:04, 6:16).

Saturday
Bike: CX ride in the countryside! Once again the Garmin failed me (my own fault) by running out of juice 1.5 miles before the end of the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/128168319

Here are some pictures from the ride …



A sea of cotton. It’s time to pull it in; many of the fields have already been harvested.





One of the fastest stretches of dirt in Lexington County




Heading out



Sunday: Off! I could’ve ridden a hard 90 min trainer session (which was my plan) but I opted for a 90 min ride on the John Deere instead :)

So it was another low volume week with plenty of rest coming off a race, but still had some good quality sessions.

Swim: 1hr; Bike: 4 hrs; Run: 4 hrs; Total: 9hrs. Hopefully building back in some volume this week and keeping the intensity high.

Today (Monday) is our 13th wedding anniversary! Counting the 3 years of shacking up, that’s 16 years together! Wow, how we changed since those early days. Many adventures lay ahead to experience together with the love of my life! For her gift she got horse riding lessons at the stable across the road from the house (Poole Training Center: http://www.pooletrainingcenter.com/). The thing is that she has to keep it secret from our youngest, Hannah. She’s already jealous because her sister Abby takes lesson and if she finds out Mom is also riding, we might just have a full blown 5 yr old meltdown on our hands!

For our anniversary date night we ended up at Home Depot after dinner since Tractor Supply was closed. What have we become??

In other news Caleb was selected along with 3 other students to read a letter to veterans on Veteran’s Day at his school. When I read his letter it literally brought tears to my eyes. I’m having trouble uploading the YouTube video from my phone so I’ll have to settle for this picture. Can’t you sense the excitement??





The girls have gotten really good at flying their kites:

Oct 31 - Nov 6 Rock N Roll Savannah

The focus this week has been getting in some good all-around tri training before heading back home to Savannah for a visit with the family and to run Rock and Roll ½ marathon as part of the Lowcounty Down's Syndrome Society team. This year we had 21 runners and next year we hope to have 100! If you want to help support LDSS financially, please donate here: https://dsal.worldsecuresystems.com/Donate

The Garmin has been a real challenge this week so I'm missing data for some of the training sessions the Tuesday big gear ride which had to have had an average cadence in the range of 50-60 RPM!!



With the impending 1/2 marathon on the weekend, the volume was a little low this week ...

Monday

Bike: 1hr, intervals http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2617

Run: 8 x 200m with Ole Tender Nip along with some easy running

Tuesday

Swim: 30 minutes with the highlight being 50 meter repeats holding best average. Let me just say that I have a looooong way to go to back to where I need to be in the water!

Bike: 90 min ride smashfest with J-Flo and Scott in the Northwest (Peak loop). This was a BRO (big ring only) ride with the bro’s with me doing my best to ride them off my wheel and drop them on climbs while mashing the biggest gear possible. I was able to manage most of the route in 53 x 11 gear, which utterly shredded my quads. I had doubts about my ability to make it up the Mike Stuck climb in my big ring, but in the end I pulled it off (with the help of my 28 rear cog). The Garmin crapped out so no data for this one unfortunately. I'm thinking cadence would have been in the 50-60 range.

Wednesday
Run: 1hr, hill repeats on Carl loop

Thursday
Swim: 30 min longer intervals
Run: 30 min easy with hills

Friday
Bike: 30 min easy spin
Travel day!

Saturday
Run: Rock N Roll Savannah 1/2 Marathon, 1:25:00. I'll have to say that this race was a lot of fun! Running down Liberty Street with crowd's lining the course screaming and then hanging with friends and family in Forsyth Park afterwards was just awesome!

Mini race report:For some crazy reason I started in the 2nd corral instead of the 1st one where I was assigned. This made the first 2 miles a little slow as I navigated through the crowd. Also interesting to note is that my Garmin measured the distance at 13.2 instead of 13.1. I believe this is because I was unable to run tangents through most of the corners because of number of runners on the course. Evidently there were 14,000 running the 1/2 and another 5,000 running the full. I ended up 50th overal, 8th in M35-39. I had the time I expected but obviously would have like to have gone faster! You can't rush fitness though. It is one it's way though and patience is the key (and losing a few lbs). With any luck I'll be able to run this time off the bike at the Charleston 1/2 ironman in April. We shall see ...

finish line before it got really crowded



Me, my son and sis after the race



Post race in the park



Race spectating really wears the kids out!



cousins Ethan and Abby playing

Sunday

Bike: 1hr. Easy cruise from parents house down to River Street where I was able to ride some cobbles and then back home with a short detour through Ardsley Park to ride by some old stomping grounds. Here are some pictures from the ride:

Riding through town




Trump Square






Broughton Street



cobbles



River Street


Along the water



more cobbles



one of many squares

Totals: Bike: 4 hrs; Swim: 1hr; Run: 4 hrs = 9 hrs.

Something Different

Tink basking in the sunlight on the front porch.

I’m going to try something new with the old bloggy, not just use it for race reports. At some point in the whirlwind of the summer of 2011 I stopped logging my training online, which has left me with a lack of hindsight. We all know hindsight is 20/20 ... so you either have a perfect picture or no picture at all. Right now I have nothing, which is not that big of deal since I did next to nothing as far as training is concerned during that time. Up until this summer I had systematically logged every workout since 2007. A bit OCD? Yes. But that’s me … all or nothing!

My logging tool was beginnertriathlete.com, which seemed appropriate since in 2007 I was a beginner triathlete. I appreciate this tool as it offers many fine features at a price that can’t be beaten (free). There is also a social aspect to the website that I rarely leveraged, but which seems popular for those seeking answers to common questions and those looking to provide answers to common questions :p So instead of logging each training session online, I’m going to use this blog to summarize the week’s work and share the data from a few key sessions each week. For in-depth analysis I’ll use my own tools. But the weekly discipline of summarizing the training will also give me a chance to document some highlights of family life for posterity. Now all that’s left to do is to do it ... week in, week out, just like the training!

Training

This week is really the second consistently solid week of all-around triathlon training in many months. It’s been like sitting in a really hot bathtub. At first it stings really bad but as you ease in deeper it gets more tolerable … until the water gets to that one spot … ouch that burns!!

Last week I swung the old leg back over the bike again and did an FTP test. It came back as 273. After spending some time getting my bottomside reacclimated to riding my time trial bike, I tested again this week and came back with 288, which puts me just above the magical 4 watts/kg level ... woohoo! Wait, why is 4 watts per kg important again???. I think more than any fitness gain, the hike in FTP shows the resiliency of hard earned fitness. It may drift away when you take a break, but it comes back much faster than it took to get there in the first place! Raising the FTP is bittersweet though … sure it gives you a confidence boost, ensures the training you are doing is making you stronger, gets you daydreaming of being able to go X for your bike split in your next race, yada yada yada, but it also means that your bike workouts are about to get that much harder!!

Swimming is coming back the slowest. I'm only swimming short sessions twice a week and keeping the intensity really high. I hope my times start coming back down soon or I may have to reconsider this minimal volume / maximum intensity approach.


Workouts

Monday
Run: 50 min with J-Flo, I mean "Ole Tender Nip", including 6 x 0:30 strides (+- 5min/mile pace): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124442721
Bike: 1 Hour Ride. FTP Test which reset my FTP from 273 to 288: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2211

Tuesday
Bike: 30 min spin for recovery
Swim: 30 min: short intervals
Run: moderate with hills: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124442728

Wednesday
Bike: 1 hr. Ironman pace (IF: .77): http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2309
Run: include 4 x .5 mile at 5:40/mile pace on .5 mile easy: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124460851 + a cool down run with my wife to measure her run loop. Jennifer rode her bike with me during the warm up and intervals and filmed this little video on one of the intervals. If you've never seen my crazy left foot, here it is:

Thursday
Bike: Hour of Power ... ouch: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2361
Swim: 30 min short intervals
Run: 30 min recovery

Friday
Run: 1hr 10min with the Flowmaster (I mean "Ole Tender Nip"). Easy run 9.3 mile run. Well, except for the 2 mile time trial part in the middle and the huge hill at the end. I negative split theTT with a 5:58 1st mile and 5:55 2nd mile for a total time of 11:53. I'll be looking for 11 even before the season begins! http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124984539

Saturday
Bike: Dirt/Road mix ride on CX bike: Fun ride on a beautiful but windy day. I put some short videos from the ride on FaceBook and some pictures below

Sunday
Bike: 1hr30min on the trainer. Easy ride of varying efforts, annoyingly easy at times. NP 200w, avg HR 123. I would never ride this easy on my own, but I followed the program and did it.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2585
Run: quick transition run off the bike

Totals: Bike: 6.5 hrs + Run: 4.5 hrs + Swim: 1hr = 12 hrs. Nothing impressive but glad to have a solid week of work under my belt.

Until next week ...



Some pictures from bike ride Saturday:



Fall Colors are here:


It's that time of year:

SC Sprint Race Report and Update

Return on Investment

Result: 3rd place, splits not worth noting :p

I jumped back into triathlon racing last weekend with a little sprint race in Greenwood. The goal was to knock out a race as part of an effort to reach 5 setup series races (needed 3 more races) so I could qualify for series awards and hopefully win some money and get a new pair of cycling sock and technical tee. I knew I wasn’t fit to race, which is very evident if you look up my splits!

After the usual warm-up swim (and taking some crap for racing the sprint instead of the half from my friends) we were off. I’ve swam approximately 1800 meters in the last 2 months so I got out of this part of the race exactly what I invested, not much! I ranked 3rd in the swim but I’m not misleading myself into believing that it was anything more than what it was … an abysmal performance. For the bike I’d put in roughly 4 hours of training in September so it was no surprise that I couldn’t hang with my competitor on the hills. I ranked 5th on the bike … not good for me in a small race like this one. As disappointing and the first two disciplines were, then run took the cake. Over 20 minutes for a 5k!!! What else can I say … other than I ran a faster pace on the same course for the 10k run at FoF Olympic with a broken rib, torqued calf and knee and road rash all over in much hotter temps back in June!! It’s a sad state of affairs as far as fitness is concerned. Thankfully other parts of life are so totally awesome or I might be down in the dumps!!!


What I’ve learned is that I hold myself to a high standard when it comes to triathlon and to really enjoy the sport I have to be fit and fast. And if I’m not fit and fast I’m just wasting time and money by racing. While racing provides a good hard training session, I’d be better served to work on the high priority personal projects, obligations and obstacles that are keeping me from getting the necessary training done to be fit and fast and enjoy racing! If I didn’t have to pay entry fees it would make more sense to race regardless of fitness (if for nothing else than the training benefit). But since racing requires a monetary and mental commitment and time away from family and projects, I need to be prepared to race when I race … and right now I’m not.

If you’re reading this and don’t really know me very well you may be asking yourself why am I not prepared … in short, because I’m not putting in the time training right now. After breaking my rib in the bike crash at the Festival of Flowers race in June I was forced to take some time off to heal. Once healed we were finally able to purchase our new home which we’d be arduously pursuing for nearly 2 years (long, long story - it was a short sale). With it came the enormously taxing task of moving a family of 5 and settling in. The house is newer (built in 2005) and very well constructed both inside and out, but not being lived in for about 3 years and having 15 acres of property, it needed substantial work to bring it back to life. Triathlon, being a hobby and passion of mine, is important to me but it is not at the top of my priority list and therefore it had to be put on the back burner (and will have to remain there for several more weeks) while we work through the process of getting settled.

In the meantime I have a little marathon down in Savannah in 4 weeks that I’m well under prepared for. However I’m already chomping at the bit to immerse myself in the daily ritual of getting the work done to make myself fit and fast for 2012. I hope to have my best season of short course racing ever in the first part of next year and culminate that fast racing with a super strong showing at the Charleston Half ironman in May, and then follow that up with a sub 2 hr Olympic at FoF in June. Then I’ll shut it down for the summer while it crazy hot and perhaps build back up for a late season ironman campaign.

Hope all is well with all my friends out there in cyber land. Best of luck to my friends Chris Olson and Scott Woodbury racing the Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii this weekend!!! Make it worth the investment!!

Festival of Flowers Triathlon Race Report

Wow, what a race ... crazy!! The misfortune continues. First the heat stroke/dehydration induced DNF at IMSG, then a bike crash on a training ride two weeks later, and now a second bike crash during this race. I'm lucky Jennifer hasn't pulled the plug completely on this whole triathlon thing! I'm well overdo for some boring old training and racing with no drama.

The result of this one was a 6th place finish in a time of 2:03:14 after taking a hard fall on the bike. Here are the results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=2438


Today I'm still sore especially my ribs which I think may have some cracks and my upper calf and knee which are preventing me from running (just tried it - hope it's nothing serious). I was able to get back on the bike this morning (Tuesday) and hope to get back in the water tomorrow. The road rash is annoying but managable.



j-flo and me before the start

So the swim went well I felt. I haven't felt fast in the water lately and swim training has been the least consistent for various reason so I was doubtful for a very good swim.
I was relaxed the whole time (as is usually the case when I swim no wetsuit) and found a good set of feet in the front bunch and stayed on them until the last few hundred meters. Came out of the water in 22:30 or so in 6th place and with the run to T1 the official time was 22:49 just at the back of the lead group.

T1 was pretty smooth and I managed to get out before Peter Kotland who came out of the water ahead of me, moving me up to 5th place.

The bike started well I passed one guy within the first 2 miles and moved into 4th position.
I was playing cat and mouse with Peter who I was looking forward to battling on the run and we swapped places for 4th and 5th a few times. I should have figured it was going to be an strange ride when I hit and killed a squirrel at about mile 7 or so. Lucky I didn't go down then. About 26 minutes into the ride a dog came out at me and in trying to avoid him I got onto a rumble strip on the white line and went down hard (it looks like I need to work on my bike handling skills!!). My bike ended up on the other side of the road and I got more road rash (road rash on top of the road rash from 2 weeks ago) on my legs, arms, back, shoulders, etc and got the breath knocked out of me. Also I did something bad to my upper gastroc just below the knee, not sure if I twisted my knee or what. We (Peter and I) were being followed by a draft marshall and police officer and the officer stopped to help me (I was lying on the side of the road near my bike). He asked if I needed to be picked up. Initially I said yes but after laying there for awhile I got my breath back and told him I wanted to continue the race. He offered to follow me and told me I could pull over anytime and he'd radio for help if I needed it. Only one person came past me in those few minutes on the side of the road. I determined the whole incident took a little over 2.5 minutes by taking the official bike slit chip time and subtracting my Garmin time (the garmin was is set to auto-pause so it stops recording when the bike isn't moving). The rest of the ride was uneventful except for pain from road rash on aerobar pads. Ride time was 57:12, official time was 59:56. Ranked 11th on bike which I'm okay with given the circumstances.

Bike data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91884931

Onto the run the calf/knee was bothersome but I wanted to at least try to get back the spot I lost and put up a respectable run.
I started out fairly conservatively and then picked it up in the last few miles. I almost took back 5th place but came up 12 seconds short. I felt very controlled and probably should have pushed harder out of the gate. The result was 39:04. Looking at the Garmin file it is a dead accurate 10k (when does that ever happen in triathlon!?). Ranked 6th on the run.

Run data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91884941

In the end I'm pleased with the 6th place result and 2:03:14 finish time given the difficulties of the crash. I'm proud of the fact that I pushed-on despite the pain and I look forward to getting back out there. Gotta take care of these injuries first ...

**** Follow-up ****

After trying to swim unsuccessfully I had this x-ray taken showing the broken rib. There's not much you can do for it, it just takes time to heal (6 weeks +-)