Confidence Building Workout and a Week in Review

This past weekend was nothing but outdoors! It was great! High 30's/low 40's temps never felt so good!

On Saturday I saw glimpses of my former self; I did a 2.5 hour OUTDOOR ride followed by a 4 mile brick run. Although this ride was on paper not the fastest ride I have ever done in that amount of time, it did quell a lot of self doubt that I have been feeling about myself on the bike. I saw wattage numbers that I haven't seen since August that I was able to sustain for a short period of time. For me, seeing those numbers and the way my body was able to recover mid ride really boosted my internal confidence.

I wound up with 47.09 miles in 2:31:15 for an 18.68 mph avg. Not bad considering I have 6 weeks left to fine tune the bike.

Then I ran a 4.05 miler done in 31:58 which also helped put down those confidence demons. My splits came out as:
Mile 1: 8:00
Mile 2: 7:53
Mile 3: 8:02
Mile 4: 7:44

I am still finding that I run fastest after a long ride.

The weather on Saturday was in the high 30's, but with little wind. Fortunately I wore some thicker socks so my feet didn't get as cold as two weeks ago. It was a VERY good day!

And even better I got home and my beef roast was done in the crock pot!!!!

All American Dinner!

Sunday's run was prescribed as 90 mins at a steady pace. It didn't turn out to be the best long run ever, but I did pick a pretty hilly course. I got the run in, and that was all that mattered. Wound up with 10.33 miles in 90 mins for an 8:42 avg pace. I actually weighed myself post run and came in @ 140.8 pounds. I'm down almost 10 pounds for the year! I swear I am eating TONS of food!

So this past week was a good one! It was week #8 in the training schedule. Here are my #'s:
Swim: 9000 yards
Bike: 100.27 miles (two outdoor bikes, two on the trainer)
Run: 31.35 miles
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~13.5 total hours of training

After this past week, my fears are a LOT calmer now about the 70.3 down in Galveston in April. I know I could do a HIM today if I had to, but I always like to execute all of my future races better and faster than past races. I don't want to do Galveston with the excuse of it being a "training race" or a "benchmark of where I am in the season race." I want to race this one as a "race" that will obliterate my body! I want to go into this one 100% knowing that it will be bad execution that will lead to a bad day rather than my legs not being 100%.

As long as the weather holds up during March and I can get in a quality long ride every week, I think I will hit this goal.

FlashBack Friday: Long term swim progress; Um, I have made SOME progress!

I had a killer swim tonight! I did a 9 x 200 descending 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 main set that I held on 3:30 going anywhere from 3:10 as the slowest to 2:58 as the fastest. So 1800 yards of pure beat down! I rounded out the night with 3000 yards.

What F-ing language am I speaking?

Because three years ago, I woulda looked at anyone speaking to me that way and said,

"ooooooookaaaaaayyyy? In English?!?!?"

Well! 3 years ago this is the swim workout that I did:
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Thursday, February 21, 2008

swam a mile tonight

what the subject said. and I swallowed a mouth full of water on the last lap, dang! haha

so yeah, 72 laps, which is 1.0227272727272727272727272727273 miles, sorry.

i felt like i could keep going, but i needed to stop to save energy for tomorrow night, which will be 40 -60 mins on teh bike (using correct heart rate zones!) and then a 25 min non stop run.

Its supposed to snow/sleet all day tomorrow (come on! get warm!) but sunday is supposed to be around 40 and sunny. Hopefully the roads will be all better by then so i can get in ~48 miles.
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Not too many details, but I swam my first mile swim since I was probably 12 years old that night. And I betcha it took me a full hour to swim that mile! Oh, and when I wrote "laps" I really meant "lengths." A few nights prior I wrote this:
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

swim and week 6.2 run

Didnt want to kill myself 2nite with the swim, as I am going to try for a mile on thursday. So I did 50 laps in 45 mins. Im getting there but I am noticing that my form is not really that great. Funny how the more you swim the more you concentrate on your form....duh!
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Wow! Again! When I wrote "laps," I meant "lengths." I wasn't up on the swimming jargon yet back then. So it took me 45 mins to swim 50 lengths, aka 1250 yards. That is an average pace of 3:36/100! Now! I didn't swim it straight. It was most likely well broken up, but still! That is sloooooooooow. In comparison, I dropped a 14:48 1000 yard TT in the pool three weeks ago.

So I guess the whole point of this post is it is ok and fun to look waaaaay back at your early days in this sport and laugh at yourself and know that progress can always be made! I am basically swimming 3X faster now than I was 3 years ago.

Where were you three years ago and how fast were you?

I was that fast listed above and about 30 pounds heavier.

SNORK!

Remember the Snorks? I really don't, but it would be kinda cool to breath underwater. Oh wait, they make snorkels to do just that! ;)

(source)

So I finally bought a snorkel for the pool, the Finis Center Mount Swimmer's Snorkel. I couldn't not buy it and not get pictures!

Gimme Cross-Eyed!

Gimme Creepy Smiley

Now gimme ANGRAAAAAAY!

I then proceeded to chase the cats around making Darth Vader breathing noises.

I got it because I have been working hard lately on getting symmetrical in the pool by breathing to both sides and getting my rotation even. I find it easy to rotate to my breathing side, but not my non-breathing side. By taking the breathing issue out of the equation, there is no side to favor, just both.

Do you ever do face down drills where you run out of breath so fast that when coming up to breath you lose your momentum or form and it takes a bit to get recomposed that by the time you reach the wall, you only got in 3-4 good cycles of the drill? Frustrating, right? This happens to me with skulling and catch drills. These drills are slow because you have little arm pull and you rely fully on kicking to propel you. Since kicking is so oxygen expensive you have to breath often.

With the snorkel, that is no longer an issue!

Here is a REALLY good catch drill that have helped me get a better "feel" for the water....also known as the "Ice Cream Scoop" drill:



I tried it out tonight and my first reaction is that a nose clip is a MUST HAVE. Water goes right up your nose! You don't haaaaave to use a nose clip, but I would highly recommend it. I got by without, but next time I am using one.

So I did some catch drills and they are MUCH easier to do CORRECTLY by not having to breath to the side. I HIGHLY recommend getting a snorkel for drills like this! After doing the drill, I swam normally and OH MY GOD I have a catch! haha! Getting that catch as early as possible is so critical in grabbing that water and getting more propulsion.

I did:
500 WU
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 100 on 1:45
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 200 on 3:30
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3000 yards

Finally, if you want a great read on some do's or don'ts for us mere mortal age group triathletes, my coach, aka THE MAN, wrote up a nice piece.

My favorite part:
"If going long in training, dial down the intensity. If going short, make it count. Duration usually doesn’t cripple us. Intensity doesn’t either. It's combining the two that gets us into trouble."

I wrote him an email tonight explaining "over the past 7 weeks of working with you, I feel sorta super human for this time of year!"

Overcoming Frustration: Ups and Downs

There is nothing more frustrating then, well, FRUSTRATION!

I had a really tough week with a lot of Ups and Downs. But! I accomplished everything that I need to get done, it was just frustrating to get it done. I guess that makes me feel more accomplished? Where do I start?

Let's go with a list with a DOWN, followed by an UP.

DOWN: Last Sunday I thought I would never walk again after a super hard run
UP: Monday my legs felt fine?
DOWN: Monday I was getting sick. It was in my chest and moving up to my throat
UP: Did a 500 yard TT in the pool and finished with a 7:16, 14 seconds faster than 10 or 12 weeks prior.
DOWN: Tuesday I got a flat rear tire on the trainer. Must have been an old tube as the puncture was on the tire side.
UP: Followed it with a good run, despite thinking I would never walk again two days prior.
DOWN: Had two meetings dropped on me on Wednesday that killed my time to swim.
UP: Had an even better run on Wednesday with some decent speed.
DOWN:More meetings killed an outdoor bike ride (it was in the low 50's out!)
Double DOWN: My Thurs PM swim suuuuuuuuuuucked.
UP: My Friday AM OUTDOOR RIDE was PHENOMENAL! My old cycling legs have made a comeback finally
DOWN: My PowerTap hub went on the fritz
UP: My PowerTap hub went into rockstar mode....aka I was pushing 300+ watts on the flats without breaking a sweat? Unless I got injected with 'roids, my hub was fried. Cool to see that wattage though!
double UP: I fixed the hub's issues with new batteries, torque zeroing and a new battery for the cycling computer head unit.
DOWN: Was driving into Manhattan and got hit (sorta sideswiped) by some jerk who thought it would be cool to just come into my lane and THEN flee the scene! Thanks!

The big black is just most of the dirt wiped away from the hit....I gotta wash my car!

UP: It sounded and felt a lot worse than it really was. He left me two 6 inch scratches, no dents(how is that possible?)....still a pain to fix, but at least the car doesn't look like a beater. I am REALLY shocked at how little damage there was! I could prolly fix it with a sharpie marker if I really had to. Still, that guy was a JERK!
double UP: Met up with my sister in The City and ate at S'MAC, a freaking AWESOME mac & cheese place. I got plain old with hotdogs mixed in it. Throw in some ketchup and I am 5 years old again!
DOWN: The 60 degrees of Friday turned into high 30's and SUPER windy on Saturday, killing any chance of a long outdoor ride.
UP: Still had a successful outdoor 90 min run, going 11 miles for an 8:11 pace. I felt like shit the entire way and the wind and crazy-where-the-heck-did-you-come-from-snow didn't help, but I felt accomplished considering the circumstances.
DOWN: The wind never died down and it got even colder on Sunday, again, killing any chance of an outdoor ride
Double DOWN: My compuTrainer went on the fritz and I wasn't able to ride the Lake Placid course like I had planned.
UP: Fortunately "Avatar" is roughly 2.5 hours, so a quick substitute was made and I had a good ride. NO sit bone issues and my legs felt the best all season. Certain wattage is getting easier to hit!
double UP: Killed my 30 min run and did 4 miles, despite sandbagging the last mile. Saw some 7:2X splits.

Here are the week's totals:
Swim: 8100 yards
Bike: 92.64 miles
Run: 32.3 miles
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13 total hours

7 weeks exactly till the 70.3 down in Galveston. My run is there and I am exited for it to get even better. My swim is there, and like the run, am excited to see it get honed. BUT! I am getting worried about the bike. I had a good outdoor ride last weekend and that good outdoor ride on Friday, but I really need get out longer outside at least 5 times between now and then. I know my bike can improve a lot more, but I am really limited by the trainer. I just does NOT replace the outdoors, no matter how hard you try.

Hope you had a good weekend!

How Long is your Work Commute?

Long? This guy might have you beat! Came across a great article in Outside Magazine.

"This is usually understood to be by car. It's not clear, then, how the Census would categorize Joe Simonetti, a 57-year-old psychotherapist who lives with his wife in Pound Ridge, New York. His commute takes him from the northern reaches of exurban Westchester County to his office just south of Central Park.

It's about three and a half hours each way.

By bike."

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

This article not only struck me (no pun intended!) by where this guy lives (Pound Ridge is just up the road from me and I ride up there every now and then) but why anyone would want to commute to the city. Eh, people often wonder why I do what I do. So I guess nobody is perfect ;) Kidding!!! haha!

Now, this guy isn't some "Nine to Fiver" making the commute to-and-fro 5 times a week. 7 hours? I don't think so. He does it 2X a week and has a "crash" pad in the city. Yeah, the dude has some bux not only to live in Pound Ridge but to also have a "crash" pad in NYC. This commute isn't out of necessity, lets just say!

But aside from that, the article touches on another guy who has mounted video cameras on his helmet and saddle to get all angles of cars who buzz by him too close.

So this article got me thinking about my interactions with cars while riding for 10+ years.

Fortunately I have had little issues.

In NH, the only issue was "Buck" the giant dog coming out after me. There was the occasional idiot kid who yells out the car as they zoom by.

I rode down in Savannah, GA, where putting a nascar #3 number on my jersey was prolly a smart idea (I never did this). I did get used to 18 wheelers giving me 6 inches of room. That was fun the first few times (dropping a "NOT "joke here!).

Riding in the Provence was the best. Cycling is part of the French Culture, so I was basically a family member in every village I rode to.

Riding in NY is like riding in NH. I pick roads and routes that aren't car busy and have good road conditions.

I'd say I have had more issues with hitting potholes and going down and being bitten or chased by dogs than humans in cars!

I guess I should count myself as lucky to not be a statistic.

Have you ever had any "bad" encounters with cars?

Yes, I think I'd like a 2004 Continental Rouge with my Foie Gras, s'il vous plais

Unless you live under a rock, you surely have heard of Lance's Retirement 2.0. Yes, THAT Lance. Need I be more specific? The MAN is hanging up his (road) bike professionally for good.

Will he full fill his alter-ego's (Juan Pelota....you do the translation; its pretty funny!) ambition of doing a triathlon this year with hopes of qualifying for Kona and competing regardless of a pro or amateur status? Who knows! Last I heard he was nursing a nagging injury that has him not running. But him competing would do wonders for this sport and the Ironman brand.

If you are still reading this, you might be asking youself, "What the heck does this all have to do with the ridiculous title of this post?"

Oh yeah! Came across a cool VeloNews article today about a bicycle mechanic, Nick Legan, who worked for Team Radioshack last season, including working one on one with Lance. Did you know that Lancey-boy ages his tires before using them?

"Second are Lance’s race tires. Julien Devriese ages them. The tubulars Hutchinson provided to the team all came with a manufacturing date stamp on the base tape. A few dozen are held back every year for Lance. They are stored in a cool, dark place (his wine cellar) for years before being brought out and glued to wheels. The “youngest” tire I glued on for Lance was five years old and in perfect condition (better than new actually thanks to the aging)."

Hey, if it works! Why not, right? I sure like to race on tires that I know are in perfect condition, after all that is the rubber surface between you and the road.

Also, did you know that Lance will NOT use a brand new saddle and prefers only one specific type and brand already broken in? Wouldn't you if you sat on a saddle for hours on end every day? I prefer only one brand and type of running shoe, and I prefer to have them broken in before I race on em.

"Lance is very technically oriented, with three things in particular. The first is his beloved San Marco Concor saddle. He won’t ride anything else, but he hates them when they are new. There’s a story that his personal mechanic in Austin would hand out new Concors to local riders to break them in for Lance."

If you can't tell, I am fascinated by the specific details of a racer and the maybe-superstitious things they do to have a perfect day. Hey, we all got em!

Do you have any superstitious things that you do or use come race day?

(source)

BACON! If Bacon was a God...

I'd be a Baconist.

Roasted Red Potatoes with strips of bacon and three loose-yolk fried eggs done in bacon grease. A ruby red grapefruit on the side.

THIS is a breakfast!

Have a good one!