Still alive and getting stuff done!

Yes I am although I have been a bit busy of late; family, work and training!

Five weeks of training for St George 70.3 is in the bank…mostly, a couple of missed sessions. I have not been so detailed with posting numbers or blogging as you may well have seen in the past so here is a report on it so far;

   As always consistency is key and so far things are going well. All things considered it’s been a pretty quiet training/racing year but with hindsight that’s been a good thing as I apart from a couple of big injuries I have been at it since 2007. Moving house, remodeling, blending two families (of two boys each) and mostly recently getting engaged and starting to plan a wedding for next year has taken a priority and that’s just fine! Yes in case you missed it I got engaged to the most wonderful and beautiful (and bad ass) TriBeccaTO!

Onwards…

IMSG training Week 7, 8, 9…

Let’s do a quick recap of the missing weeks of IMSG Training; Week 7 Came down with Flu, managed to run, walk and crawl my way through the week! Week 8 Decided to stop training, take 10 days off to clear up the Bronchitis from January and the Flu from February. Week 9 Half a week’s training over the second half of the week, I limped (literally with a niggle in my hip) along as I stopped to cough up my lungs when I ran, I avoided the pool and could feel the fitness start to drain out of me. Week 10 I had an Olympic work up race on the Sunday at the Desert Tri, I picked up a stomach bug that reduced my 10k run to a walk and had me spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at home…but hey I am only one stomach flu from my ideal weight…I lost 8lbs! Week 11 Mostly spent recovering from the Stomach bug. Week 12 (this week) I thought long and hard about St George, which is 8 weeks away, decided to call it and cancelled the hotel reservation…no St George for me. It wasn’t that hard a decision, I’ll spare you all the justification and rationale, if it’s its good by me it should be good by you right! So what’s next, I have a Olympic Tri in June and then that’s it maybe, probably for the year. I have spent the last 5 years racing and when not injured have been on a training plan targeting something. Added to which in a month’s time I am closing on a house and moving so that’s going to take up some time too. I am not moving far and staying local but it does open up some new trails that I have never seen before. I checked the local-est trail last night with TribeccaTO, we didn’t get far due to the failing light but the first mile or so was a bit challenging…1000’ feet of gain, but it looks like we can connect through to some more familiar ones and make a nice loop or out and back. I am also going back to my roots some and one thing that I am looking forward to spending the summer having some fun back on trails on one of these, I mountain biked for years in the UK and did for several more when I moved to the US, I even raced once or twice…yes there will be some Go Pro footage!

IMSG training Week 6

Another week in the bank and I finally feel like I am making some progress. Overall my mileage is down but my time spent training is steadily increasing. It’s a case of more time hitting the weights and pool as well as core work and less time on the bike. I had my first outdoor brick this weekend and while not that longest that I have ever done it was a solid session in glorious mid 70s temperatures!
A good 2 hours on the bike which was made up of 5 miles warming up, 15 miles of hills and 15 miles of TT work finished off with a hours run, The hour was just over my target pace of 8:30 but like I say it feels like it is coming together. I do think that the time in the gym with weights is time well spent as I felt strong on the hills. The downside is that with all the time spent on my trainer my bike bike skills are have eroded and I need to get happier on the downhills. Right now the pucker factor kicks in around 40mph and from what I have heard the course at St George could open me up to speeds closer to 50mph! All I can say is that is effing scary!
This is the profile from my ride, the second big climb averages 6% (500’ gain over a 1.5 miles).

As per an earlier post my plans are changing some and I have added another race to my calendar this year. The Monte Rio Olympic, it’s being put on by the same folks that put on Vineman and I was able to register early enough to give me priority early entry in to the Ironman 70.3 Vineman in 2014 as well as picking up a $10 discount! You can see the revised race schedule here.
So here is the “ongrowing” graph and the digits for this week

It may look like I am back to square 1 but week 1 was an anomaly due to the Tour of Sufferlandria

As always…onwards!

IMSG training Week 4 & 5

I am never that keen on combining training week summaries and there is usually something that I forget from the first week, some great (or awful) moment in an workout that I would want to capture and communicate, not so this time for the simple reason that Week 4 was a bust. It started out well enough but per my last post a sore throat on one day was Bronchitis by the end of the week.  Two workouts for the week followed by five days sick and a sixth rest day, the week was basically a wash. So started week 5.
While I was still pretty “chesty” I decided to avoid the pool and substitute the swims for weights. I managed a couple of weight sessions but nothing greater than usual. One brick bike/run had to be cut short (read no run) as I ran out of time. With that being said it wasn’t all bad. Instead of the brick I decided to retest my FTP using TrainerRoad and despite being sick had a pretty good result upping it from 240 to 251. I also had a short pyramid run session which involved ramping up through my zones over three miles resulting in 8:45, 7:45 and 6:45 and then maintaining that over for varying elevations 4%/1% incline over tenths of a mile I did end the week strong with a 3.5 hour brick; 3 hours on the trainer and 56 miles in the bank and a 30 minute run on the treadmill. I was pleased with that as anyone knows riding a trainer is all riding…there’s no coasting!
I rode this at 120% for the first 90 minutes and 130% for the second and ended up with roughly a 3 minute negative split over the 56 miles. My best time for this distance is still from Vineman in 2:52 so to get close to that on a trainer is somewhat pleasing

So basically Week 4 was essentially a write off, hoping to build on Week 5 onwards!

Still here…

“Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” Mark Twain

Well it’s not quite that bad but it’s nearly two weeks since my last post.The truth is that there I was merrily starting my training plan and I picked up a sore throat that turned into a cough which became bronchitis! Fun times resulting in 5 days off from training! Added to which my workload has suddenly gone through the roof and after a couple of days off work sick and I was well and truly on the back foot.

That being said a swift kick in the pants with some antibiotics brought me back to life and a restful weekend in Las Vegas was a good R&R prescription. I took this week off from swimming just to get me into the clear and I am feeling a 95% recovered now.

I am still looking to fall into  the “groove” with my training plan for IMSG70.3 in May and there is only 12 weeks to go! For IMAZ I really felt at one with the training but this time around I am seem to be struggling, it’s something quite intangible it may be because last year everything is new? I do think that is a factor along with it’s winter, yes we do have them here! It’s cold, dark and in recent days rainy. It’s no way a pity party but just an observation of how I feel.

The race is practically sold out, there are literally less than 10 slots less I have been told. The Pro list has expanded with the Likes of Craig Alexander, Andy Potts and Sebastian Kienle; the current men's 70.3 World Champion. On the female side Leanda Cave who currently holds the World Champion titles at the 70.3 and Ironman distance, Linsey Corbin and Meredith Kessler, the list is longer but this gives you an idea of the line up. I am assuming the turn out is also to do with the fact that the race is the US Pro Championship.

Some of my other plans for the year are changing but I am rolling with the punches and thinking long term, more info on that when things firm up a bit.

Finally I will leave you with this, it just flat out made me laugh…

I want cake!

IMSG training Week 2

Another week and more miles and time in the bank. This is really pre training and as mentioned earlier I am using the first three weeks to really just get the blood flowing and fall into a routine, especially with the addition of hitting the weights and adding some yoga, something which is new to me.

This week obviously had New Year’s Eve and Day at the beginning so my week ended up being a little back ended, not that that was a bad thing in the end as I had a rest day on Monday during the Tour of Sufferlandria (post Tour write up to follow), what that did mean was I had to double down on two days worth of weights in one day and had to throw in abs and yoga all on the same day but I seemed ok the next day so it worked out fine in the end. Overall I ended up less miles and time than Week 1 but the drop was from the bike.

The other thing that started as 2012 rolled over into 2013 was to jump back on the vegan band wagon, no real issues so far and I am still allowing milk in tea and half-and-half in coffee, I am applying the 90/10 rule and I sleep fine with that.

So here are the deets for the week and log so far;

A little short on my swim for the week…literally 8 minutes, but a great 15 mile base training run on Sunday and I hit all the weights and yoga goals!

Onwards…

IMSG training Week 1

Well here we go again! It was around six weeks ago that I crossed the finish line at IMAZ and having had some serious downtime it’s now time to start ramping things up. In fairness this should have actually have been Week 2 but I got busy and decided to push things back a week, it’s not too big a deal as the first 3 (was 4) weeks were simply prep, get a sweat on, figure out my plan and the like, they were not dedicated training.

So the goals of the first three weeks were to:

1. Figure out the plan
2. Start the strength and flexibility training,
3. Swim, Bike and Run for 1/2/2 hours respectively

Pretty simple really so let’s talk about them;

I am still researching plans, I seriously would like to get a coach but other financial goals (buying a P5 (or like) and a house…not in that order) preclude that right now so I find myself being an experiment of one. Fortunately while I am new to Triathlon, this will be only my second year, I am not new to endurance sports. I ran my first marathon and ultra-marathon in 2007 and since then I have added a few notches on my belt. Right now I am looking at the Joe Friel book Your Best Triathlon, the other contender for a plan is one by Matt Fitzgerald, both of these guys are steeped in history of Triathlon and training so it’s not like I am leaving myself out in the open, but both present different approaches; I will, no doubt have more to say on that when I have decided.

For the strength and Flexibility training I have worked out a plan that has 3 weight sessions broken down into different body parts each day and 2 yoga session a week

• Monday; Biceps and Back
• Tuesday; Core and Yoga
• Wednesday; Shoulders and Legs
• Thursday; Core and Yoga
• Friday; Chest and Triceps

This probably looks overwhelming but the weight sessions last around 25 minutes, the core 18 minutes (P90X Ab Ripper) and the Yoga around 20, although the yoga will increase in time.

The other big event this week was the Tour of Sufferlandria, it’s still going on so I will give you a more detailed write up when it’s finished, but it pretty much took up Saturday and Sunday and obviously boosted my bike mileage into the stratosphere! This gives you idea of the end result, and this was only halfway through the first day…

So back to this week, which actually started on Christmas Eve! It shook out like this;

I missed one weights session on Friday but other than that I hit all my goals, less 3 minutes on the Run, as with IMAZ I will post a graph but for one week only it looks a bit silly!

Onto Week 2…and 2013!