Weekly Review 02/17-02/23

Week 5 of the TriDot training in the books. I felt better after the lighter assessment week and was ready to hit the training hard again. I did every workout but my heart rate monitor seems to be a little fritzy. It’s probably time to change out the battery and see if that will help. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a call to Garmin to see if they can help me out.

I had a bit of an epiphany on my Saturday ride/run. My legs have been extremely tired and fatigued since I started the TriDot training and I was trying to figure it out. It finally hit me that I was probably low on electrolytes and slightly dehydrated. I know it is winter (even though it’s not cold here in SoCal) but I have been doing more trainer rides and I sweat ALOT during those rides. After my workout on Saturday I proceeded to take an Endurolyte pill and drink a second bottle of HEED. It seems to have helped but I will be sure to share more in the future.

All in all it was a pretty uneventful week. We did start a new DIY project that I will be sure to share when we get it finished this week. Also, check out the next Live Event from Triathlon Research. They are doing a seminar on “To be Coached, or Self-Coached: How to Plan your 2014 Season.” They are also having a drawing for some free coaching, TriSports gift cards, and free Endurance Films Videos. It is Thursday night at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST but they record it an you have a week to claim the prize. Sign up for it here if you’re interested.

Remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 9,900 yards/3 hours
Bike: 70.7 miles/3.75 hours
Run: 24.0 miles/3 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Weekly Review 02/10 to 02/16

After 3 weeks of following the TriDot training plan, it was finally time for another assessment week. The assessments weren’t all that I had on the schedule but the run and bike intervals were definitely lighter than the prior weeks (especially since I skipped one of the bikes!! :O). I had to shuffle my schedule around due to another Sunday night of restlessness and the early morning blues. Plus, Mondays are always much busier than Tuesdays at the pool and it would’ve been very hard to get a lane to do my 800 yard TT swim.

I rescheduled my Tuesday ride to Monday night and proceeded to skip it. The fatigue in my legs was pretty heavy and I felt that a day of rest was in order. Looking back, a nice recovery ride may have been a good idea but hind sight is 20/20 right. Anyway, my Tuesday morning swim TT came around too early but I was up and raring to go with a full day’s rest prior. When I asked my Master’s coach if I could steal a lane for about 15 minutes to do the time trial I got a pretty cold response and long explanation to a simple Yes/No question. Fortunately, it’s not very crowded on Tuesdays and my two lane mates were willing to work with me and more or less stay out of my way I’ll I cranked out an 800.

Nevertheless, I was pretty ticked off by the public display of humiliation the coach tried to give me for wanting to do my own thing for a few minutes before delving back into her workout and I started my warm up at a very brisk pace. I was able to calm myself down before any damage was done and get ready for the 800. I ended up doing the 800 with only one foot grab and finished it in 10:28 which was about 25 seconds faster than my previous effort. That is a pretty drastic change but it is probably a combination of the work I’ve been putting in, the increased heart rate from the pre-swim events, and the fact that I have been swimming 3 days per week instead of 5 or 6 (I was well rested compared to last time).

The rest of the week went as planned with no coaching conflicts and I was able to show improvements on the run but struggled on the bike. The bike was a little slower even with a flatter course than last time and I fought to maintain a high heart rate. My legs definitely felt more tired than my lungs and heart on the ride but I did the 15-mile TT in 38:29 with an average heart rate of 159 bpm. This was a minute and heart rate 13 bpm slower than my last time trial. My 5k run hurt pretty good and I was breathing hard after my 17:57 effort with an average heart rate of 177 bpm. This was the same heart rate but was nearly 30 seconds faster than last time.

These are some pretty good results and I always knew there was something to the high heart rate training. I’m just not sure how long I can keep this up and if the results will stick with me into the race season. Only time will tell but I will definitely continue to work hard and try to keep improving. Even though I don’t have any races planned for a while, I’ve got that 1:55 mark on my mind for Worlds.

Until next time, remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly numbers:
Swim: 9,550 yards/3 hours
Bike: 40.7 miles/2 hours
Run: 16 miles/ 1.75 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Weekly Review 02/02 to 02/09

So this week started out on a rough note following the Super Bowl. Not because I was hung over but because I ended up going to bed at about 8:30 after having maybe one too many drinks. I ended up waking up around 1 am, wide awake and couldn’t get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a little bit I decided to get on the computer and fly the flight simulator mission I had been working on (Africa Relief mission if anyone does FSX). I finally passed the mission and decided to lie back down around 3:30. That made my 5:15 alarm seem way too early and I ended up dozing off and missing swim practice. Oops!!

The rest of the week went pretty much perfectly to my TriDot training plan. I am really starting to feel the fatigue in my muscles after 3 weeks of high heart rate work though. My Saturday bike ride consisted of some zone 4 intervals and I was barely able to break into it even though I was climbing and pushing hard.

As I was climbing my last hill (about an 8 minute climb), my watch showed 160 and climbing and then seemed to freeze right at 166 (my Z4 starts at 167). I just stared at it while I pushed harder and harder, trying to get it to crack into the next zone. Finally after what seemed like forever, it cracked 167. Wooh!! Now hold this for 3 more minutes….nope. I ended up hitting 168 about 30 seconds later and then cracked and it dropped back down to 164ish. I guess I am pretty fatigued to be unable to get my heart rate up that high.

I am realizing that I really need to get back into rolling my legs out daily. This is a good recovery technique and will allow me to be able to push my muscles to drive the heart rates I am shooting for. It is very hard to roll them out though because it can be uncomfortable and all I want to do at the end of the day is go to sleep. But like I said before, recovery can actually be the hardest part of training.

Until next time, remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 6,350 yards/2 hours
Bike: 73.8 miles/3.5 hours
Run: 23.7 miles/2.75 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Weekly Review 01/27 – 02/01

Alright, Wednesday and I am just now getting to last week’s review. What can I say? Life sucks sometimes and gets in the way of the things you’d really like to do but everybody’s gotta make their Costco and grocery runs. Anyway, back to triathlon.

Last week was week 2 of the TriDot training program I signed up for and it was more work in Threshold heart rate zones and above. I was actually able to do all of the workouts as described and felt pretty good throughout the workouts. I can definitely tell that my mileage would be much more consistent and around the right ratios throughout the year with this program.

It was kind of a boring week except for the fact that I did every workout all the way through. I guess the highlight workout of the week would be my Sunday run where I did 5×5’ intervals targeting 5:45 pace. I did 5:50 on the first three, then 5:40, followed by 5:33 averages. Not bad but gotta get those first three under 5:45 and then get to the point where I can hold them for 6 miles straight with no breaks. A few more weeks and it will come.

As far as racing goes, I have pretty much decided not to do any triathlons until the June/July time frame. Last year I started in February and by the time Nationals came around in mid-August I was completely burnt out. I figured I would give myself a long “out season” to build and build and build and then race later in the year. I’m sure I will speckle in a swim meet here and a half marathon there but nothing serious. Especially since I plan to race through the beginning of December and do only 70.3 distance after August I don’t want to start too early and burn out mentally.

Until next time, Remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 9,600 yards/3 hours
Bike: 72.5 miles/3.5 hours (2 hours trainer)
Run: 24.7 miles/ 3 hours
Strength: 0.5 hours

Weekly Review 1/20 to 1/26

The first week of the TriDot training plan is in the books. I was able to complete a majority of the workouts but had some trouble getting my heart rate up to the specified zones for the majority of the workouts. I guess that is why they call them training goals. I am sure that it is because the majority of my workouts prior to starting the program were low heart rate/maintain workouts not really shooting for anything in particular (i.e. pace, heart rate).

Since the workouts are planned with intervals and specific goals, I was finally able to use the “Workouts” feature on my Garmin watch. I had a few glitches with the heart rate zones but I think I have figured them out and can get it to work for me in future workouts. I really like the feature because I just program it in (using the website is so much easier) and go. I don’t have to remember what zones I need or how long of rest I get. It beeps at me when it’s time to start the next set and even tells me the zone I should be in. Pretty sweet.

I only had one workout that I missed (or skipped….:/) and that was the Saturday one. I blame it on the fact that I was in Big Bear and it was really cold in the morning. Like actually cold, not Southern California cold, it was in the mid 20’s when I woke up. That and I was a little reluctant to try to do threshold repeats at 7,000+ ft of altitude after all of my training has been done at close to sea level. Someday I’ll take a week off of work and go up there to get some altitude training in. That’ll be pretty sweet too.

I have to admit that I haven’t seen anything mind blowing as far as the workouts that I got from TriDot. It follows a similar pattern to what I have tried to follow in my normal season training as far as pattern of workouts. But this is the “out season” and I would be interested to see what a “Race Prep” training plan has to offer. It is REALLY nice to have all of the workouts laid out for me and not have to try and conjure up what I am going to do. Also, there are some pretty good bike workouts that actually include intervals instead of 40 miles in 2 hours with hills. Coming up with bike workouts has always been the hardest part for me.

I am going to try and keep my weekly updates a little shorter from now on so I can spend some more time writing articles that will actually be of use to you all. With that being said, I bid you adieu.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,100 yards/ 3 hours
Bike: 28.7 miles/3.25 hours (1.75 hours trainer)
Run: 7.5 miles/1.5 hours
Strength: 0.5 hours

Weekly Review 01/13 to 01/19

This week I did my swim/bike/run assessment for the TriDot training I signed up for. It consisted of an 800 swim (yards or meters), a 15 mile TT bike, and a 5k or 10k run. All of these were supposed to be at your threshold pace of not blowing yourself up but not having a kick at the end of the effort. I did mine on almost consecutive days because I had already procrastinated a few days and was eager to get the ball rolling. Here are the results of my efforts:

Swim: 800 yards in 10:52

Bike: 15 miles in 39:26 @ 172 BPM average

Run: 10k in 37:09 @ 176 BPM average (18:25 and 18:43 5k splits)

I am pretty happy with these times and I feel that they accurately represent where I am at in my training right now. They aren’t quite what I would hope for at the peak of the season but it’ll be a good place to start the new year off. Next week I will start the training routine they provide me and I will be sure to keep you all updated in how it is going in my reviews to let you know how each week is going.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,050 yards/3 hours
Bike: 65.4 miles/4.5 hours (1.25 Trainer)
Run: 7 miles/0.8 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Weekly Review 01/01 to 01/12

I know, I know, this is more than a week to review but I figured I would just make it start with the beginning of the since I missed my review last time. The New Year for me started out great!! I went to bed pretty late the night before, 11:30 :o, (I knew I wouldn’t make it to midnight if we didn’t go out) but I got to sleep in and was ready to go the next day. I got my longest run of the new year in and followed that with the longest swim the next day.

I took Saturday pretty easy because Sunday was the third day of the Triple Crown with 100 repeats on 1:20 and I knew it would be a hard day. That meant Saturday was going to be spent studying flight stuff and maybe a light ride in the afternoon. Much to my delight, I got a text from a friend saying they were going flying and asked if I wanted to join. HECK YEA!!!! We flew up to Camarillo for lunch and back. It had been too long since I had been in the air and I am so glad I did it.

Sunday morning it was time for the big day. My original intent was to alternate 100 and 75 yards but when I got there my lane mates were chickening out and making me doubt the set. Instead we decided to do 100+2×75 for the set of 100. It was probably a good thing that they held me back because during that first 75 after the 100 I was huffing trying to catch my breath after getting 2-5 seconds rest. That then gave me a 75 to get my arms underneath me and ready for the next 100. We ended up doing 8,350 yards for the set and I had completed my first Triple Crown!!!

Surprisingly I wasn’t as tired or sore from the third set as I was from the previous. I still decided to take Monday off from the pool and ran instead. I’ve decided that I need to spend a little less time in the pool than I have been. Ever since my swim month in October I’ve been going 5 to 6 times a week and, although it has been showing in the pool, I have been neglecting the other disciplines. I also figure I will be limited to one workout a day most days when I start flying in a few weeks and I will need to mix up my morning routine with some running and biking to keep my fitness up.

Another highlight of the week was my Tuesday trainer ride. I showed up to Mike’s house with my Endurance Films DVDs in hand and was ready to do some Lactate Threshold work. I was pleasantly surprised when he told me to put my bike on his CompuTrainer so we could track my power and he started a new video from Strava. This was the Functional Threshold Power (FTP) video with a warm up effort followed by a 20 minute pain fest of steady, hard effort riding.

When the 20 minutes started I was pushing about 275 watts and was calling out my wattage every minute to be recorded. I really had no idea what kind of power I should be pushing and was just trying to keep it up and at a pace that felt right for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, the video surprised me with an “OK….Let’s see if you can pick it up a notch!!” and I thought “Alright, here we go.” and took the power to over 300 watts. I ended up with an FTP of about 280 watts (average power over 20 minutes * .95).

I found a few articles about power compared to the pros and I am still not entirely sure where I would fit in. The most interesting article I found was from Luke McKenzie’s Kona Power Data where he averaged 281 watts for the ride in Kona. Now don’t get too excited, he was able to hold that average over 4 hours and 112 miles; I did it for 20 minutes (and I was ready to stop after that 20 minutes!!). This tells me 2 things with the most important that I need to spend a lot more time on the bike. The other thing it tells me is that I have it in me to put out that kind of power over some portion of time; now I just need to get used to doing it over 4 hours with an hour swim before and finish it off with a sub 3 hour marathon….Ugh!! 😀 In time….in time.

I also signed up for a 2 month trial of the TriDot training systems.  I am excited to see what it is like having a coach to plan my workouts. I will keep you posted on my progress with my coach and let you know how it goes. I’m sure it will be a great experience and if nothing else, I will learn some new workouts to put into my arsenal.

All in all the first week and a half of 2014 has been good to me. Now it is time to start planning out the season and getting a feel for what the year has in store. I think I may try to start a little later this year because last year’s February to August run was pretty rough on me mentally. But to do the full Wildflower would be an awesome  experience and would be sure to keep me in my place (or not and maybe earn that elite status…but it would probably kick my butt!!).  Decisions, decisions.

Until next time remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim:  26,500 yards (~16.88 miles)/5.8 hours
Bike:  50.9 miles/4.5 hours
Run:  22.4 miles/ 2.5 hours
Strength: 0 hours

2013: A look at the numbers.

I would say that 2013 was a pretty successful year for me with some big accomplishments. These accomplishments came through a lot of hard work and a year full of training. Thanks to the USMS Fitness Log system and Strava, I am able to log and look back at my numbers for the year. My total training time is logged to be 428 hours covering 3,650.9 miles for 2013.

In all of that training I had several accomplishments and breakthroughs in my. Some to note were:

• New personal record for 100 SCY swim of 1:06.
• Longest swim ever of 7,525 yards.
• Longest ride ever of 82.2 miles.
• First sub 1:10-400 meter lap since high school.

A year full of training would not be complete without the accomplishments made during racing. Here is a list of some of the biggest racing accomplishments I achieved in 2013:

• Completed first ever Half Marathon in a time of 1:22:13.3.
• Completed first ever Half Ironman in a time of 4:51:46.6.
• Set two Olympic Distance personal records; 2:05:30 in March and 2:01:52 in August.
• 76^th Overall place at first USAT National Championship appearance.
• First sub one hour Olympic Distance bike split.
• Qualified for 2014 Team USA and ITU World Championships in Edmonton.
• First ever swim meet (1500 SCM in 21:48.14).
  
  

This last year was also a very big and exciting year for me because Iwas selected to be a member of the Endurance
Films Racing Team and given the chance to represent Endurance Films and all of their fine sponsors. With the sponsorship I have gotten several goodies that are of the highest quality an athlete can get. Some of the things I have received from them are:

• Endurance Films RIDES DVDs (my trainer buddies keep begging me to bring these).
  
• Endurance Films Cycling Fitness Results (another requested series from the trainer group).
• Champion Systems racing kit, hat, jacket, and beanie (keep me racing fast and looking good.)
• AquaSphere goggles (clear as glass and oh so comfortable!!).

It has been a pleasure representing them and I hope to continue representing them throughout the next year and for years to come.

Believe it or not, there is more to life than training and racing and sometimes the accomplishments outside of the water and off the road make your multi-sport life that much more fulfilling. Some personal changes that happened to me last year were:

• Moved to Irvine, CA for a new job.
• Started my blog (this is mostly tri-related but I have more than tri stuff on there).
• Re-kindled my passion for aerospace and flying and seriously started progressing to earning my private pilot’s license.
• Moved into a place with my wonderful girlfriend, Julie, and her dog, Tucker.

The year started out for me in a new place with few friends or connections. Thankfully there is no paucity of multi-sport athletes in Southern California and I was soon surrounded by new training partners and friends. The beautiful weather of my new surroundings has been very conducive to a successful season and my continuing offseason preparation for a new year of racing and reaching my goals.

I look forward to 2014 and the many dreams I wish to accomplish. They say that two of the best ways to achieve your goals is to 1) write them down and 2) share them with others. Well, here’s for killing two birds with one stone:

• Break 2 hours in an Olympic Distance Triathlon.
• Go sub 4:30 in my 70.3 distance races.
• Complete my first Century ride (100 miles…not metric century).
• Complete 10 hill running workouts in preparation for Wildflower half distance.
• Compete in 3 swim meets (800 SCY, SCM, or LCM or above).

I am excited to continue sharing my journey with you through the next year. I hope that I can pass on some good stories, knowledge, and passion for the multi-sport lifestyle to you in the upcoming year. Until next time, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Review 11/11 to 11/17

This week started off with the lingering sickness from the previous weekend ruining my Monday workout plans. I woke up for swimming after 9+ hours of sleep and still felt exhausted with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and head in the sky feeling. After a great internal struggle, I got back into bed and fell right back asleep. I knew something was up because when I usually do that I lay and ponder about how the other guy is doing his workout right now and getting faster than me but this time I fell right back asleep.

By mid-afternoon I was feeling a lot better but didn’t want to risk it and took the afternoon off as well to ensure that I had really kicked this thing in the butt. I took the time to catch up on some reading and finished my flight ground school which was really exciting even though I still have some practice with charts and weather briefings before I will feel comfortable taking the ground test .:/

Tuesday morning I was up and at’em dark and early to meet the group for the trainer ride I do. I brought my Florida Rides DVD from Endurance Films and we got a good hard interval ride in. It was a good change of pace from the technique and strength workouts we have been doing. The hard work was nice and allowed us to practice some of the technique we had been working on under real load.

Wednesday I decided to do something pretty crazy…I ran to work!!! (Well I actually made the decision Tuesday and brought clothes and my lunch for Wednesday but whatever.) Granted I only live 4.5 miles from my house but that makes for a 9 mile day by the time I get home. If you think people look at you crazy when you show up on your bike, imagine the looks I got when I walked through the door (and left) in my running shorts, shoes, and little camelback pack I used to carry my keys, wallet, work id, etc. I got some pretty crazy looks and some ataboys when I was asked what I was doing.

The end of the week brought some really warm weather (>85^o F) and funky winds that made my allergies go absolutely bonkers. I usually don’t have a problem with but for some reason or another I was totally grounded by something in the air and had a hard time until I finally got some allergy medicine in me on Saturday morning.

Enough excuses had been made this week already and after finally finishing our DIY projects from a few weeks past I decided I was going to do my longer ride with a run after that I had promised myself I would do. This could be the last weekend to do a long workout before my half in December with moving next weekend and the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. (I’m still gonna try to sneak one in next weekend…Shhh!! Don’t tell. :D)

I pulled down The Shiv and went out for a 46 mile ride where I kept my heart rate in zone 3-4 for the majority of the way (even up most of the hills) only letting myself go into the upper regions of zone 4 toward the end of the ride going up the last few hills. This was followed by a 3 mile run at my recently comfortable 6:27/mile pace with plenty of gas left in the tank. Granted it is a pretty flat course I have been running but the race in December is going to flat as well. I am hoping that I can translate this training pace into the longer distance with the help of a little more calories consumed and the adrenaline of the race atmosphere to get me through the last few miles.

I would say it was a pretty good week filled with some good workouts and some good rest. Hopefully this upcoming week will be better than ever since I have seem to found my motivation to get out on the road and not just the pool.

Remember, train smart and recover hard.

 Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,400 yds (~5.9 miles)/ 3.3 hours
Bike: 57 miles/ 3.5 hours
Run: 12.1 miles/ 1.25 hours
Strength: 1 hour

Weekly Review 11/04 – 11/10

After my post last week I realized how much of a slacker I was being and that I needed to get my butt in gear if I wanted to survive the 70.3 race I signed up for in December. I started the week out right with some swimming and strength work in the beginning and progressed my way through the week into my run and trainer routine.  This was on track to be the best week of my off-season yet and I was feeling good.

After my run on Friday night and just as I was getting ready to start a weekend of lots of running, my throat began to feel sore and I dreaded that I might be getting sick. I tried to chase the feeling away with my go-to airborne and went to the hot tub in hopes of opening myself up a bit. Early Saturday morning was greeted with an unpleasant feeling of a sore throat and I barely managed to croak out “throat lozenges” to Julie who kindly pulled some out for me followed by a nice hot cup of cider.

While the drops and liquids soothed the throat, they did not stop the drained feeling I had about half way through our morning errands. At about 12:30 or so I was ready for a nap and promptly returned to bed when we got home about 2 hours later. Well, there went my running time that I had planned for. Sunday was no different with morning chores and football (it starts early here in CA :p) exhausting me to the return to bed in the early afternoon. I am still unsure if it was a cold, sinus, or allergy problem but it sure did manage to knock me off of my feet for three days.

So, my run miles were as high as I wanted them to be. Big deal, I did the smart thing by resting and next week will be better. I won’t try and “make up” those days because that would eventually throw me into an endless loop of catch up and would only lead to fatigue. Instead, my focus is to get better and try again next week to get a little better than I was last week.

I did discover a new trainer video that I really liked, Rides New York by Endurance Films. I rode it on Thursday and was blown away by the quality of the production. I had my flight training videos pulled up and ready to watch during the dull moments of the ride but there wasn’t a single one. I don’t want to give it all away because I am planning to do an extensive product review on it but I was very happy with it and it made being stationary enjoyable.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:

Swim: 13,950 yards (~7.9 miles)/4.5 hours
Bike: 27.2 miles/2 hours (trainer)
Run: 9.1 miles/1 hour
Strength: 0.5 hours