Monday, January 26, 2009

Taper has Begun

Yesterday's 2 hour run with some long sustained hard intervals marked the end of the grind, and the beginning of a taper for me.

The goal race is the Texas Half 2 weeks from last Saturday, and the taper is welcomed. While the running volume hasn't picked up too much over the last few weeks, the intensity certainly has, and my legs are ready to recharge a bit.

I'm interested to see how they respond to a little rest. I've found that getting into my pace zones hasn't been quite as difficult over the last few weeks, and staying in them for sustained periods has become a bit more tolerable. What has lacked is spring in my step, and the ability to feel fast. I think that is going to come with some rest.

One exciting milestone for me is that my next run scheduled for tomorrow will put me over the 100 mile mark for the month of January. My biggest month ever prior to this month was in the high 80s, so I'm proud of that accomplishment.

Last week ended up being about 8 hours of training and 28 miles of running, and this week will be in the 6 hour range with maybe just 18ish miles of running. There is still going to be some intensity, but not as much grind. A couple of swims this week to keep the cardio in check, and a couple of easy bike rides too.

My goal is to improve on my performance at the San Antonio Rock'n Roll Half Marathon I did back in November. I think with a well executed race, I can do that. I have two weeks to come to terms with how much it is going to hurt, but won't need that much time and will be ready to suffer for a little under 2 hours come race day. It's gonna be good and pukey!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Checking In

Nothing major to report. Just checking in. I'm pretty wiped chilling on the couch with the Mrs tonight. I did an 80 min run at slightly more intensity that normal late last night, did a swim this morning, and a long ride mid day today. Right after my ride, I took my oldest daughter on a short hike down by the lake. Only when the fatigue was settling in did I realize I'd done about 4.5 hours of training in a 24 hour period. Oh well, I'll sleep good tonight.


This morning I drove all the way to the pool (about a 25 minute drive on freeways) only to realize I'd left my swim bag in the laundry room. Luckily, the Sat swim runs from 7-9, so I knew I could get home and back to the pool and still get in over an hour of swimming if I wanted to. My swimming pal Sammy who I'm guessing is about 24 and a Tulane Swimming Alum stuck it out for the full 2 hrs and kept me company to the end of the workout.

This week has been tough. I didn't bounce back from the 15K last Sat like I had hoped. I felt good on Sunday and got in a 2.5 hr ride, then tried to go for a run on Monday but it was too early to be running again. My legs were not cooperating. Coach and I made some changes to the schedule, and I followed up that workout with a spin on Tuesday which felt fair. I tried to run again on Wed and had a very sharp painful knot in my left hamstring that forced me to shorten that workout and was enough to have me concerned.

I got a massage reference from the Gorilla Multisport people on Thursday morning, and by Thursday afternoon was getting worked on by a very knowledgeable and technical massage therapist. I learned a lot about my physical condition just talking to him while he worked on my legs.

I came away from the session a bit fatigued. I've heard a good massage will release some pretty serious toxins from your muscles into your blood stream, and I really could feel it. By Friday morning, my legs were still worn from the session, but the knot was gone, and by Friday afternoon, I'd fully recovered and was ready to do my 80 min run on Friday night, which went as good as could be expected.

I've got a long run tomorrow but the weather should be descent for it.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bold N The Cold Race Report


Bold N The Cold 15K is in the books. The race lived up to its name for sure. We had another seasonably warm day yesterday, but a front came in over night and we woke up to mid 30's weather, and 20+ mph sustained winds out of the NNW. It was around 37 degrees at race start, with a wind chill of about 20 degrees. It was F'ing cold to say the least.

I rode over with David and did my best to stay in the car when I wasn't picking up my race number or hitting a port-o-john.

The race was held in Grapevine just on the South side of Lake Grapevine on a course I've done a number of runs and bikes on, so I was very familiar with the winding course, all of the hills, and the areas where I thought I'd be exposed to the wind coming off of the lake. I wore tights, a long sleeve dry-fit shirt, a wind breaker jacket, hat, and gloves, and didn't shed a bit of it as the race went on.

I probably got off to a bit of a fast start, but it was down hill with the wind for the first mile and it is hard to tell. I settled in at mile 2 and 3 pace wise, but never really got comfortable with the effort.

I was planning on taking in a gel on the course, but the water stops were unpredictable, and the amount of water they were offering in the cups would not have been enough to wash down the gel, so I was a little leery of stomach problems. I pushed on with out it.

Here were my mile splits:

1: 8:07
2: 8:24
3: 8:27
4: 8:18
5: 8:17
6: 8:27
7: 8:23
8: 8:14
9: 8:31
9.3: 7:47 pace

Overall I was 1:17.44 ish (8:20/mile) with a 173 HR. The race had just under 1,000 feet of ascent.

Heart rate was pretty low, but I think the cold weather had a lot to do with that.

The race did give out sweatshirts, and a skull cap (a toque for you Canadians out there) which was generous given the modest $25 entry fee.

Overall, I'm modestly pleased with the effort. I'm not sure what it tells me about myself. An 8:20 pace is about where one would guess you'd be if you are around 8:06 for a 10K, and 8:38 for a half marry. When I plug the time into this pace predictor, it tells me the effort correlates to a 50:46 10K (52 secs off my PR) and a 1:51.35 half marry (1 min 35 secs better than my PR), so who knows.

The conditions were miserable which will be good practice for whatever gets thrown at me at the half marathon I'm running next month. We'll hope for something more pleasant however.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Bold in the Cold 15K Preview

This Saturday, I'll be running the Bold in the Cold 15K in Grapevine, Texas. The weather is looking to be a bit on the chilly side, but it should be okay.

I'm curious to see where I am. I've got a good bit of miles on my legs over the past few months, but am not sure where my overall fitness is. I'm up a few pounds from my last road race, which could come back to haunt me.

The game plan will be to get out fast in the mid 8's, and to bring it down to the low 8's and hang on. There are going to be hills which will mess with the splits a bit, but I'll focus on the effort and hope it smoothes out.

I'll post the race report over the weekend.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2008 Training Summary

So 2008 ended up being a pretty good year on the training front given work, little kids, a new baby, and some international travel. the second half was more productive than the first in terms of both quality and volume. Here are some stats.

2008 Hours:
Total: 315 hours
Most in a month: Aug - 55
Least in a month: June - 9

2008 Swimming:
Yards: 130,850
Most in a month: Sept - 30,700
Least in a month: June - 0

2008 Biking:
Miles: 2,479
Most in a month: Aug - 528
Least in a month: Dec - 71

2008 Running:
Miles: 641
Most in a month: Oct - 83.5
Least in a month: June - 15.1

Other Stuff:
Races: 6 (Lonestar Qtr, CapTex Tri Oly, Timberman Sprint, Longhorn 70.3, Four Seasons 10K, San Antonio Rock'n Roll Half Marry)
PRs: 4 (Qtr, 70.3, 10K, Half Marry)

I've been tracking my workouts in a similar format since 2002 when I first got into triathlon, and I can tell this is the 4th biggest swimming year by volume over the 7 years I've been tracking, the 2nd biggest biking year (2005), and the biggest running year (by 5 miles over 2005) since 2002. My biggest training week by volume was Sept 1-7 and was 14.9 hours.

If you look at my volume by month, most months were a little light relative to past years, but August and Sept were huge and moved the year forward quite a bit. No wonder I lost a ton of weight over those 10 weeks or so, and picked up some great fitness and speed that I'm slowly eroding away over the winter months here.

Nov-Dec have been more productive than normal years so I shouldn't be starting in as big of a fitness hole in the Spring as is usually the case. The run focus will surely pay benefits next year too. Finally, I've signed up for a tri training camp in Tuscon Arizona this coming February and should get in 16-20 hours of riding over a 5 day period if I can handle it pushing the biking volume forward big time.

When I was swimming competitively in High School and College, I never logged my workouts with an regularity, so I have no stats to draw back on. That is what the coaches were for. But I know that in High School over our Christmas Holiday break, I'd do nothing but train. My team called it Black Xmas and it was miserable most of the time. I was a walking zombie for 2-3 weeks but my family never travelled over the holidays because I didn't dare miss this training. It would set up your entire season. College winter training was intense too, but we'd cap out the NCAA mandated 20 hours per week max pretty easily which limited volume. Anyhow, I know for a fact that we would swim over 100,000 yards a week during Black Xmas. Considering I swam 132,000 yards in 2008, I know there is a lot more I can be doing at least mentally if not physically to maximize my potential.

There are lots of people putting in much longer hours than I am, so I don't kid myself into thinking this is impressive by any means. I've always been a stat and numbers guy, and this is just a way for me to quantify a part of my life which is how I prefer to view things, and is good for motivation which I am regularly short on.

I'm looking forward to 2009 for many reasons. Here is to a healthy and prosperous new year to all of you. May your goals be lofty, and your accomplishments plentiful.

Happy New Year.