Consistently & Patience: A 2013 Road Map

"Carry Water and chop wood! "
More of the same but with Consistently & Patience

Great plan laid out last year and ended up with short season because of illness.
Learned a ton and made some great gains despite few races to so for it.

One big race that mattered more than anything I have done in the sport.
It was able to happen because of Flexibility, Patience, Resiliency!

So where to go from here.
Well it's more of the same.
Need to always keep in mind...  Patience!!!  You will get there, but do not rush it.
Consistency is key.  If you rush it you will not be able to keep the consistency.

Swimming
#1 25x100s keep these going once a week to keep your fitness
 Tower 26 to get to the next level

Gear: Snorkel, buoy, ankle bands. No Paddles!!!

Taught and straight- Swimming fast forces this

4x1000s once a week

1: 4x250 20sec rest 70%, 75, 80, 85 w/gear

2: 10x100 3-7sec rest Hard!!! 90%

3: 2x500 30sec rest w/gear

2: 10x100 30-60sec rest 95%Hard!!! Each swim session add in speed work: 50s, 25s if spent from other training or work Dry land Swim bands 2x 20 min sessions/wk *Be careful not to let over zealous SR ruin your pacing in the 25x100s

Biking
#1Maintain FTH on OLH and with 4x8-10 Trainer
#2MaccaX Overgearing to build race ready powerful endurance
#3Add in long rides

Run
#1 Run easy
#2 Run often
#3Add speed once a week as race approaches

4)Nutrition
-Good job on this last year especially leading up to IMAZ
-More likely to have an impact on race performance than any training so treat your diet the same way you treat the long rides and FTH workouts
-Discipline!!!
-Aim for 175lbs


The Plan 
Consistently & Patience
Key Sessions listed (the rest is short SS in pool and is easy riding at high RPMs)

December
-100s and T26 4x1000s
-FTH on OLH 2/wk
-Run E&O

January
-100s and T26 4x1000s
-FTH on OLH 1/wk & MaccaX Overgearing.  Late January build long Rides
-Run E&O

February
-100s and T26 4x1000s
-MaccaX Overgearing & Long rides
-Run E,O, & S

March
-Build to 35x100s
-Race pace bike and run
-Qualify!

April
-Ease into it
-Oly for fun

May
-Wedding!!!
-Have Fun
-Take inventory

Not a lot up there because in the end it is what I always do but with some Consistently & Patience

2012 In Review

This years review is a bit different.  Only 2 races but some of the best training, some hard lessons, and one awesome day!

"Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" 

I said this last year and it applies this year as well.

Big goals for 2012, as always.   Needed to revise goals along the way, which is good!
Constantly reevaluate!

2012 Goals
1: Complete first IM
2: Run smart
3. Swim 1.2 sub 30

2012 Achievements:
9:44:48 IMAZ!!!!!!
11AG

84OA

Missed Kona by about 8mins

Sep

Big K

-Sub 30 swim

-Very conservative bike

-Conservative on Run

-Kept it conservative because I did not know what to expect given lack of a build and so much family awesomeness (Toni time!!!)leading up to the Big K

-Felt so good to get back into it.  It was a full year between my last race and this one

-Stay away from fiber the 3 days before (this proved big in IMAZ)

Nov

IMAZ

See RR for race details:)

Race Nutrition

Hold race wt in weeks leading up

Bike

-1 gel every 20 mins doubled up on some

-Preform 1 bottle

-Banana (missed a gel)

-Bottle of water per aid station

-Double up on water!

Run

-Tried gels at first

-Half way through swapped to coke

-Dont forget to take in calories
-Coke!!!! Might be trying Coke only run in race prep and next time around

2012 Goals Check!

1: Complete first IM!

2: Ran smart- good start!

3. Swim 1.2 sub 30- Got it!

Weakness

-Entered season with awesome fitness

-Swim mostly on own in races (need to improve swim drafting skills) and poor sighting skills

-Run pacing and speed

-Consistent functional nutrition

-Poor short course speed

-Took months to get to reasonable weight

-Setting limits

IMAZ Race Report

Race Week 
Prioritized sleep and held race wt (178lbs at 5'10... Beefcake Baby!!) 
Workouts were short race intensity sessions
Followed Friel’s Your Best Triathlon book Race Week plan minus 3rd and 4th run sessions (didn't really follow the rest of the book but liked his race week approach) 


Race Day 
3:30am up to eat
2 ensures, bagel, banana then back to bed. 4:30 Woke up then left hotel around 5:15ish with Mary and Mom 


Swim Blue Seventy Helix, Aqua sphere kaiman grey lens (sun wasn't an issue because I was following feet till the turn around) 

Lined up in the middle about 2 rows back 
Breathed mostly to the right (every 2 strokes)
Took a kick to the right goggle but was able to readjust without a water leak! The way back was lonely. It was hard to find feet to follow and I felt like I was all over the course.
Overall tried to keep a steady effort. Felt Good:) 
Swim time 1:05:20 

T1 5:29
Wetsuit ripped off (literally in half) by wetsuit gorillas. RIP Helix 

Bike
Cervelo P4
Front H3 with 20mm vittoria corsa evo cx and latex tube @100-105 psi, rear Renn 575 Disk 23mm vittoria corsa evo cx and latex tube @105-110 psi 
Aerobar bottle holder, no rear bottle holder 
Flat kit in P4 bottle, extra tube and CO2 under seat
Spent most of the first 30min trying to pass people so I could settle into my goal power, pushing way too many watts in the process
When I tried to settle into my goal power I felt like shit... my quads were achy, tight, and heavy.
I thought “Oh No! I’m in for a long day”. Next thought was “Yes it’s a long day so back off and take in some nutrition”. After few gels, some sips of perform, and about 20min I was feeling good. This was a key moment in the race for me. The beauty of a long race was I felt like I had the chance to set things right with some patience. 


Lap 1 (217avg watts, 89avg cadence, 137avg HR)
Eased off the watts going down the B Line and once I hit the flats I was settled in.
Lap 2 (226avg watts, 87avg cadence, 145avg HR)
Picked it up a touch as I planned.
Missed a water bottle pick up on the last aid station and felt dehydration kicking in 
Lap 3 (209avg watts, 82avg cadence, 146avg HR) (Last leg around 200watts)
Got to the first aid station and stocked up on 2 bottles (2nd bottle in my butt crack bottle holder (copyright Faris Al Sultan). Kept it steady up to the the last turnaround then began to ease off the watts. 

Bike time 4:50:16 
Power Avg 216 
NP 222 
HR Avg 143 
Cad Avg 88 


Coming into T2 I loosened up the kicks and out of nowhere cramped my right hamstring. Another “Oh No” moment. 


T2 1:50 


Run
Newton Distance 

Started off strong and right hamstring felt good (despite almost locking up when putting on my kicks). Actually I felt great and it was a struggle to focus and slow down the pace. 
I was concentrating on keeping my cadence up rather than on my pace (>100-105 for the first 5-8mls), naturally cadence came down to around 95 for most of the remainder of the run. Up until around mile 18 things were uneventful, but slowly I was having trouble taking in my gels or even water. Without holding down any nutrition my day was going to come to a screeching halt so I flipped to plan B, which was to walk the aid stations to help stomach nutrition. Even with this gels and perform weren't working so I tried cola (never worked for me in 70.3s). The only thing I could keep down and not cramp on was cola. OMG I F'n love Sam's cola!!!! Each aid station I walked and pounded the cola then off I went, no cramps, back to sub 9min miles. I was shocked... it was working! 
Something I noticed while looking at my Garmin data after the race was that my heart rate dropped from the 150s to 140s after I started walking the aids stations and stayed there for the rest of the run. Not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing but I was able to hold it somewhat together so I guess it's a good thing. 

Soon enough I was along the lake coming home! A shout-out to my Girl and my Mom in the stands, the Blazeman-Roll and "You Are An Ironman"!!! 
Run Time 3:41:53 
Pace 8:28 
HR Avg 149 
Cad Avg 96 (including walking aid stations) 

Total Time 9:44:48 

Overall I'm crazy happy with my day. I was aiming for 9:30, but truthfully it was more of a dream than anything else considering this was my first IM. 

A Big THANK YOU to all the volunteers, you guys were amazing! A Bigger THANK YOU to my Mary and my Mom, you guys are even more amazing! 

March Madness DNSx2

3 weeks ago I was stoked to kick this season off with MTS and Oceanside 70.3 when what started out as sniffle turned into a nearly 3 week debacle.   The exhaustion was so extreme I questioned my long term heath and even went to have blood work, a cxr, and took antibotics. Looks like it was some nasty viral illness.  My training came to a halt.  I ended up loosing a tremendous amount of fitness and gaining 10lbs!  I would like to have thought with a little rest (which I took, but likely too late) and self control (which I lacked) I should have been able to kick this thing in a couple days without such a drop in fitness and gain in wt.  Instead I had a pair of DNSs, a big setback in gen prep, and a shit load of wt to loose.

Shit happens and there is not much you can do about it.... Although I might not have been able to prevent this given training hard, working hard and in an ED all place me at crazy high risk for catching some nasty bugs, there were things that certainly contributed to this mess.

1) Overtraining.  4 weeks of >20hrs probably not the best idea.  My TTS was getting high and quickly.

2) Taking on too much!  Should have stuck with my plan and not given into peer pressure and ride Mt Hamilton on little sleep, when what I needed to do was sleep and then get a shorter FTH work out in.

3) Ran in the cold without cloths on!  Long run day before I got sick it was cold and windy followed by going out to dinner.

4) Pushed it to hard when I thought I was getting over it.  Ran 13ml with Alec and also road in the rain:( WTF was I thinking!!!

5) General poor sleep habits.  I know this is my "norm" but I specifically remember thinking "I am not getting enough sleep and this is bad"

Overall a combination of things brought this on but clearly things to work on and in keep in mind as "life goes on".

Power outage TT Torpedo

As mentioned before trying to transition my power into a TT Torpedo.  It's been a bit more challenging than I anticipated. PR OLH power 360 and Canada TT power 310.  Big drop off!  I was expecting to be able to pound out >330 fairly regularly but this is far from reality.  With some rest, practice, and continued improvement in the flexibility department I hope this will get closer to my climbing power.   I do feel one with the bike on a positive note!

Fish like, OLH 360, Run base building

Swim  38 Mile month!
25x100 near 1:20 2/wk has become the standard.  Mixing in PwP/drills totaling around 15000/week.  Interested to see what this will equate to in a HIM swim.  Shoulders have been feeling good.  Stretching esp straight arms back seems to help. 

Bike
New Ride!  Yeah!


OLH PR 19:30 with a 20min Power 360!  Awesome!  I am so proud of this and shows that you get good at doing what you practice doing.  More evidence to train at race like intensity!  Also leads into the need to transition into a TT torpedo! Overall lots of time in FTH in February. 


Stretching the ITB has been keeping things in check.  At this point I am confident that was the injury back on November.

Run 97mile month!
Got up to 30ml weeks!  Once again, stretching that ITB is proving essential.  Still Kicking it mostly in the Newton Gravity's, which I'm lovin!  Focusing on form as a priority.  Although not a lot to report "no news is good news"as Paul likes to say.

Nutrition
Wt down to 176!  Good job but still have work to do.  At this point each time I eat something I am choosing to win or loose.  Thin to win!  Continue the discipline and get this down.  Eating at home has help.  Continue to make first WO in the day a fasting one.   Power bars, apples and carrots go to at work.  No pigging out ate night.

1:22 to 1:10/100yd swimming

FLA Jill  Feb 17, 12 7:45 Post #2 of 28 (1219 views)

Re: How you went from 1:22 to 1:10/100yd swimming [klingding] - NEW [In reply to] Quote | Reply Step 1: go triple your yardage at minimum. You don't get into 1:10 range by technique work alone. To get into 1:10 range, you need to get into the mentality that feeling like you're going to barf during practice and can barely lift your arms to wash your hair afterwards is a Good Thing.

TT Torpedo

It's time to transition to the TT position!


FTH repeats are all good for overall fitness, but to take advantage of all that hard work you have to turn that fitness into a TT torpedo.  To do this you need to push power in an aero position.  


How to do this?
Engine Engine! OLH repeats= time in FTH. check!
Now get some easy effort in an aero position.  Be sure to focus on flexibility.
Next step is to build interval time trials in aero position on Canada.  


OLH time is a good indication of general fitness but... you need to know how much you can put out in an aero position to understand how fast you can race.


TT Time!

Running- Stick to the plan!

Running has been going well.  E Pace runs focussing on cadence have been bread and butter over the past 6-7 weeks.  Cadence has been consistently in mid 90s and feels good.


Yesterday thought it might be a good idea to do The Dish to simulate speed skills durning a 10ml run.
Not a good idea!  Keep it simple stupid!  
Legs felt achy and had a moment of RLL pain scary similar to last fall.  Although ITB likely the culprit of this Leg pain best to be safe.  Stick with the plan!
Found this on Slowtwitch.  It really sums up what has work for me in the past and should be the direction for this coming season.  

BarryP  Feb 16, 12 7:40 Post #1 of 78 (2483 views)

My running program summed up in 3 points Quote | Reply 1 - run easy 2 - run a lot 3 - add 1 or 2 moderately intense race specific workouts as races approach 3 is the tricky part, but if its all confusing for you, your best bet is a tempo run (run kinda hard for 20-60 minutes) and a tempo run of a different variety (slower and longer or shorter and a little fatser). In either case, consistencey is the key.

Races in the summer are won on the slopes of Old La Honda in January

Swim
Big gains first half of the month putting up a 14x100 sub 80sec avg!  Consistent time in the pool in Dec/Jan seems to be getting me more comfortable in the water.  Not sure my race splits with be that much better, but hopefully I'll have more in the tank for the rest of the crazziness.  Been monitoring right sided shoulder pain- likely rotor cuff impingement.  Stretching esp straight arms back seems to help.  Might need to back off the yardage a bit.

Bike
Revved up the cycling this month trying to get some good time in FTH doing repeats up OLH.  It's so much easier pushing it outside and up a climb.

As I built up time in the saddle I started to noticed similar pain in my proximal fibula, that I had in November 2011, but this time on the left .  I knew it was unlikely to be a stress fx given I took so much time off running.  After some research and mostly dumb luck found some sources hinting a tight ITB as a possible cause. Funny because it is below the knee.  I have been doing tons of foam rolling and stretching both all but eliminated the pain.  Also have been using inserts (Sole and Superfeet Yellow) which might be helping Makes me question my injury DX back in November.

Run
Slowly building back the run.  Kicking it mostly in the Newton Gravity's, which I'm lovin!  Focusing on form as a priority.  Although not a lot to report "no news is good news"as Paul likes to say.

Nutrition
Wt has been around 180-182.  Not dropping the lbs, but training hard and with some patience and discipline hope to get this down.