Tuscon Tri Camp - Day 2

Day 2 is in the books. A pretty full day for sure. We started off the morning with a 5:50am wake up call, 6:00am breakfast, and were on the bikes at 7:00am to roll out for our first ride.

This ride was called Colossal Cave and it was a pretty good one. 50.5 miles, with 1,800 ft of climbing, with a summit at just over 3,500 feet. It was a much more gradual climb compared to yesterday's mammoth steepness. In fact, there was no paramount spot where you knew you were over the top, you just all of a sudden realized you were done going up and were flying back down the back side.

Bob Seebohar and Seton Clagget who I spoke of yesterday joined us for our ride. They were very strong cyclists who kept the pace up for most of the day.

Two gripes about the rides around here, and when I do the day 3 review, I'll really hammer on the later. First, all of our rides start out with about 45 minutes of slower riding with lots of stops at lights as we make our way out of the city. Once we are out there, it is great, but getting there pretty much stinks. Second, the rodes here for the most part suck. Lots of pot holes, cracks, bumps, glass, etc. On a tri bike, you really feel all of that stuff so the wear and tear on the hands, shoulders, and taint are gruesome at times.

Here are a few photos from day 2's ride.

The highlight of the ride for me was riding through a giant airplane graveyard. There were thousands of planes. Mostly military, but some commercial. Airplanes go to the desert when they are in permanent or temporary storage because the dry air help to preserve them. There is protocol for maintaining a temp stored aircraft, and less of permanently retired planes, but all of them could probably be pulled from the desert, restored and flown. I took as many pictures as I could from the bike, but seeing it in person was a great experience.

After the ride, we went straight off the bike and on to a 30 minute brick run. Because I'd rolled back in to town with the Bob and a couple of the California based coaches, I ended up doing the run with them. Bad idea, they were flying and I had to hoof it to keep up. I swear, the 50 mile ride was easier than 30 minutes with these guys. When they weren't chatting up a storm, they were giving me critiques on my running form, and I was just trying to survive the pace and the heat. We ran by the Arizona Diamondbacks spring training facility but it was apparent they were away on Thursday.

I was the fourth or fifth person to finish the run, and saw most of the rest of the campers heading out about 20-25 minutes behind me.

I was thinking to myself that I was glad to be finishing early, because for the rest of the day, half of the camp would be doing a swim analysis in the endless pool/flume over at Trisports (the half I was in) in 30 minute appointments scattered throughout the day starting at noon, and running to 3p. the other half would be doing Bike Skills. I was made the sacrificial lamb who had to do the swim at noon. The coaches' logic was that over my swimming career, I would have the most experience with swimming on a full stomach, and since the schedule only showed 60 minutes between the end of the run, and my appointment, they knew it was going to be tight.

What they didn't know was that the ride went long, and I finished 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet for my appointment. I had time to wolf down half of my sandwich, my potato salad, and the next thing I know, I was swimming.

The swim analysis was cool. I'd never swam in a flume before, and seeing myself in the mirrors placed right below me, and ahead at a 45 degree angle provided a new perspective for me. I'd got a DVD of my swim from above and below water, so I'll see if I can figure out how to load it here.

After that, I was pretty much whipped, and headed back to the room to crash.

At 4p, we met again over at Trisports to go over some stretch training. It was led by Bob Seebohar, and it wasn't what you'd think. We did allot of neuromuscular exercises to help train your muscles to fire correctly. It was allot of balance and core work, but we didn't do a single crunch.

After that, we wolfed down a pasta dinner and listened to Bob talk about Recovery Nutrition. Bob had allot of interesting things to say about nutrition that flies in the face of basically everything you have read or heard before. He is very much a believer of less is more, especially if you are trying to improve your body composition. I think we get swept up by all of the marketing hype around training and recovery nutrition to the point that we consume too much product. You can learn allot about him at his site I linked to yesterday.

That concluded our very long day, and I was in bed by 9pm.

Day 3 has an even longer ride on the docket. I realized today that Day 2 was the longest ride of the year for me, and I would reset that mark on day 3, and again on day 4. Oh day 4, don't even want to think about it.

Tuscon Tri Camp - Day 1

The agenda is pretty tight, so getting on my computer to write a post has been a challenge. I'll try to keep them brief so I can do this pretty regularly.

I'm currently chilling on the bed half way through day two, and I am pretty zonked. The tough part of the day is behind me, so I should be feeling fine soon, but I wanted to write about day one before jumping ahead.

I flew in a day early (Tues night) because flights looked packed, so I had all of Wed morning to my self. Check in was at 11am over at the TriSports store. I have spent a few thousand dollars with TriSports.com over the last couple of years. I bought my bike box from them in '07, and my Zipp 606 wheel set, 3 tubie tires, and some other things last year. It is the best online store. Turns out they are located in Tuscon across the street from our hotel, and they are hosting us for this weekend. We met the owner Seton last night, he rode with us on Day 2 and gave us the nickel tour after dinner last night on day 1. Cool guy, amazing outfit he runs. They are in a 25k sq foot facility complete with a warehouse, show room, endless pool, kids corner, chill lounge, internet cafe, offices for 45 people, a photo shoot room where Triathlete Magazine was there shooting a new Quintana Roo bike that Trisports had on hand, apparently only one of ten in the world. It was amazing. TriSports runs great deals, has good prices, etc so buy from them the next time you need something. I'll be getting my next bike from them through their fly and buy program. They've got every bike you could imagine, except Specialized (which Seton said they turned down last month).


Anyhow, we met at Trisports, had lunch in the multi purpose room, then geared up for our first ride of the camp. The terrain was beautiful once we got out of town. Desert, mountains, cactus.

The ride was called Gates Pass, and while I don't have any ride data at my finger tips that I can load to the site, it was a 38 mile ride with 1,800 feet of climbing, and it peaked out at the top of the pass at just under 3,000 ft.

Believe me when I tell you, the last 5-7 minutes of the climb which lasted for about 30 mins was without a shadow of a doubt the steepest thing I have ever been up. I downloaded my power data last night, and during the last 7 mins of the climb, my HR averaged 177 (my max is 186) it got up to 184 for about 60 seconds at the top, I averaged nearly 300 watts, and I was going 6.6 mph. For once in my life, I wasn't sure I could keep the pedals turning over. And I actually did much better than most all of the other riders.

Here are some photos, although believe me when I say they don't do this thing justice.

This is the top of the pass looking down the side we'd just come up. That void over the edge is where things began.

This is the steepest part at the top that was hell climbing. See the little cars struggling up it?


This photo is from the same spot as the one above, but just shows a little further down the road.


And here is my self portrait at the top

The rest of the ride was pretty tame. Of course it was downhill quite a bit which was nice, but we rode through downtown Tuscon around 4p and that was a bit stressful with the traffic.

As we left the top of the pass, we had a hill to bomb down, and decided to regroup just 2.5 miles down the hill so we weren't strung out all over the place. I averaged 31mph down the 2.5 miles, and didn't pedal once. I actually was on the brakes most of the way. Some of the turns were harry and the roads are very spotty. Nice some time, terrible others. I wasn't looking to get launched off my bike by a bump. Here is a photo of the side of the pass we went down.

Dinner last night was great. Mexican food, Fat Tire beer. Funny thing was that after dinner, we had a presentation by Bob Seebohar who is an elite coach and sports nutritionist. His claims to fame are the coach to Sarah Haskins (2008 USA Triathlon Olympian placing 11th in Beijing) as well as serving as the nutritionist to USA Triathlon in Beijing. He planned all of the meals while the team was together on foreign soil before heading to Beijing, and while there.

Any how, Bob railed on our dinner after we'd already eaten it giving us all a good guilt trip. It really wasn't that bad. He was a very cool guy (rode with us on day 2) and had lots to say. He is very big on training slower, changing the way your body metabolizes energy stores, and switching your energy systems to consume more fat stores (which you have about 180k-200k calories of) during training than glycogen stores (which you have 1.5k-2k of). Common sense stuff, but he had some interesting data on testing he'd done, and some ideas on how to put it in practice.

After the nutrition discussion, we got the nickle tour of TriSports from Seton I spoke of earlier, then it was bed time.

A good day in all. The other campers are all very good people. There is a pretty wide range of abilities but I'm on the top end of the spectrum so it gives me the opportunity to push if I want, or sit back and be more social.

More later.

The Diesel

This was clearly the highlight of the NBA Allstar Weekend.



Here is the instrumental version of that Nas' song.

Hero (Instrumental) - Nas

Power Test

I did a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test on the trainer last night. I was trying to use the test protocol as prescribed in the Coggan and Allen book, Training and Racing With Power. Ironically, I couldn't find the book last night, and had to do the test based on my vague recollection of how it was laid out. It turns out I was close enough, and think the way I did it will give me good results. The key is repeating the test each time to track improvement.

I wanted to get a test in prior to heading of to AZ for 5 days of riding, and at the start of this Half IM build. I've never really tested myself regularly on the bike, so I'm hoping to learn a bit about myself with these tests.

I did a 10 minute warm up building up to what ended up being Zone 2. At 10 minutes, I gave a 10 min max effort interval. The purpose of this interval is to knock some of the freshness out of your legs for the real test to follow. Then I recovered for 15 minutes in Zone 1, then the test came with 20 minutes of max effort.

the 20 minutes felt like they lasted forever. The trainer tends to do that to me. I found myself squirming around a bit from the discomfort of the interval trying to find a place that didn't hurt. I'd do some time down on the aero bars, then pop up for a second onto the hoods, then I'd down shift a bit and do a high cadence span, then up shift and grind it out some. Then I'd stand and push a big gear for a few seconds. Just about anything to pass the time.

I recovered with a 5 min spin.

I'll re-test in a few weeks and hope that we see some improvement.

What's Next, and Thoughts on Training and Families

Here is how the Spring season is shaping up.

Feb 25-Mar 1: Gorilla Multisport Training Camp in Tuscon, AZ. Lots of riding, some speakers, some swim and bike skills clinics, and more riding. I'm hoping this camp will help to accelerate my riding a bit. It will be a good way to kick off my build to my A race this Spring.

Mar 14: St. Patrick's Sprint Tri in Keller, TX. I have 3 friends doing this race and it will be a first tri for all three of them. I'm more interested in seeing these guys out there than I am doing it myself. Two are work buddies (Jason and Jon). We were all running on the treadmill a week and a half ago and I sort of in passing suggested they try a triathlon some time. That led to 10-15 minutes of questions about how they work, what the distances are, etc. A week later, they signed up. They've been to the pool twice since to make sure they can cover the swim distance, have been peppering me with swim tip questions, and are fired up to give it a try. Jason has a road bike, Jon is going to borrow his brothers after deciding he didn't want to use his mtn bike. The 3rd friend is Patrick who lives a couple of blocks away and has kids who are friends of mine. Patrick is at the beginning of what will be a 10 month effort to get him to the finish line of Longhorn 70.3 in Austin this Oct.

Apr 5: Lonestar Qtr Iron Tri in Galveston, TX. This will be the 4th time I've done this race which makes it the staple in my race portfolio that I never miss. This course serves as a good measuring stick for me. I've improved my time every year I've done it (although the first year swim was the 1.0 mi Oly distance, not 0.6 mi qtr dist), and hope that continues. I've got two Houston friends (Tim and Darren) doing this race and am excited to see them out there, and David will be there with a few of his athletes doing the Half Iron distance. Perhaps my buddy Alberto will be there. He is training for IM Brazil in May, so timing may not work for him. It is fun watching him improve at this race every year. He's turned into a serious contender in the AG.

May 17: Florida 70.3 in Orlando, FL. This is my A race for the Spring. I'll be doing a 14 week build up to it which starts this Monday. The build is a little short relative to what most of the popular training plans call for, but I did a 12 week build up to Longhorn last year and was starting from a much lower fitness level, so I think this should work out alright. In the past, staying to a plan for more than a handful of weeks had been a challenge for me, so last summer 12 seemed like just enough to get ready, and was what I thought was achievable. I've learned that a plan that is not achievable, or is more an ambition than a plan is a waste of time that has negative consequences. During last year's 12 week build to Longhorn, I learned to enjoy the process more and it helped me to sort out my priorities which has instilled positive change that has stuck. 14 is a reasonable increase that is (key word) achievable in my mind, so we'll give it a go. The course in Florida is mostly flat, it will be warm, and I hope to have a good day. The trip will include a visit to Disney with the kids, and we'll be bringing my in-laws along. Lots of distractions, but that can work to your advantage some times if it distracts you from wasting time and energy on frivolous or nervous activities.

After that, I'll take it easy in June before starting a build up for Longhorn, and will build a plan incorporating what I learned last year during the Longhorn build up, as well as what I've learned this Spring.

My wife (Ingrid) has started running again. She has some pretty impressive run results to her name from a few years ago and is just getting back after 4 years of hiatus to have some babies. She's retained the services of David and is starting to build back into it with a half marathon later this Spring as the goal. We've coordinated our schedules so that we can make all of our workouts when we want them as it fits with all of the other activities we have going on. The complexity is impressive, but it will be routine in no time.

I'm very lucky to have a wife who is in to athletics, staying fit and training and racing. At night when we are putting the kids down, sometimes I'll have already changed into my running or cycling clothes so I can get my workout in as soon as they are down. My kids know that when they see me in workout gear that I'm going out to train but they haven't figured out that tight spandex = ride, and short shorts = run. They always try to guess which one I'm doing and sometimes after I tell them they'll ask "why." Ingrid will tell them that Daddy is going to workout because it is important. I have to believe that my kids seeing me be active and working towards a goal will be a good thing in the long run, as long as my goals don't get in the way of their goals or development. It is a fine line, but having an understanding wife who will have dinner after 8 or 9pm most nights without questioning why is a luxury I cherish.

It should be a good year. I'm hoping to learn more, stay healthy, and enjoy the investment in myself.

Cheers!

The Texas Half

Okay, race report time.

In the days leading up to the race, I came down with a head cold. I've noticed that with my improved fitness over the past year, I've had a good string of avoiding the 2-3 major colds I had traditionally been getting every year that would knock me out of commission. When I have caught a bug, I've been able to shake them off pretty easily.

This cold was sort of lingering, but hadn't knocked me out. It just wouldn't go away. Terrible sore throat, and a real stuffy nose, but it didn't move to my chest.

On race morning, I woke up feeling how I had the prior morning, really sore throat, and lots of head congestion. I spoke with David the day before and we'd decided not to take any meds. I hadn't been taking anything in the days prior, and we figured it didn't make sense to experiment on race morning.

I had a mini bagel with peanut butter, 1 vanilla ensure, a bottle of G2 gatorade, and about half a cup of coffee.

I rode to the race with David and Sarah. Sarah was doing the race with me along with 3 of David's other athletes (Fred, Katie, and Patrick).

It was unseasonably warm that morning. 63 degrees at 6:30am on our way over, with a forecast in the 70s with lots of wind. Not great, but better than 30 for sure. I wore shorts and a short sleeve dri fit.

I hit the porto-john, did some stretching and a light jog and was ready to go.

The course was a loop and change around White Rock Lake. With the wind to start, and against the wind to finish.

I wanted to get out in the 8:40s and sit there for the first 3 miles or so before dropping down under 8:30s, but only managed that for the first mile before my pace crept up. I thought some of it was due to the tail wind, by my HR would suggest that I was working too hard at the beginning. The RPE didn't correlate so I'm lead to believe some of it is elevated HR due to the respiratory infection, but who knows.

Here were the splits (HR):

1. 8:41 (170)
2. 8:26 (175)
3. 8:34 (177)
4. 8:24 (177)
5. 8:25 (176)
6. 8:24 (176)
7. 8:27 (176)
8. 8:37 (175) turned into the wind here
9. 8:27 (175)
10. 8:32 (175)
11. 8:53 (175)
12. 8:55 (174)
13. 9:20 (172)
13.1 8:58 pace (174)

Time was 1:53.39 (175 HR).

Things never really felt right. I could feel my lungs working real hard the whole way. I didn't have a cruise control I could sit in in the first half of the race and just commute and conserve.

Right at the 10 mile marker was where things unraveled. I was uncomfortable as I had been the whole way, but didn't feel as if I was coming undone. I'd just popped my last gel as I was approaching the aid station, and was looking for a lot of water to help wash it down, and because the heat/humidity had me pretty parched at this point. So I find my volunteer and plan to take two waters, but she only had one (the other hand had gatorade in it). No problem, hopefully it is a full cup, but I looked in the water cup she'd given me and it had about an inch of water in it. I had taken 6-7 steps past the station when I realized this, and decided it wasn't enough, and turned around to go back to the table and grab another cup. I walked a bit during this detour, and as soon as I stopped running, my quads immediately locked up something terrible. I couldn't get them going again, and the lactate just continued to build for the last 3 miles.

I was very close to walking a few times, but found that I could keep moving at about 9min miles, and that is what I did.

In looking back at my HRs, I think getting up over 174 so early in the race probably put me out of my aerobic zone too early, and too often, and I couldn't get rid of the lactate fast enough, and I was essentially a ticking time bomb that blew at the 85 min mark. In San Antonio in November, I didn't hit 175 HR mark until mile #9. Infections elevate the HR as does dehydration and I think I was impacted a little by both.

That all said, I think I did pretty well on the day. Had I gone out a little slower, I probably could have got closer to my PR (I missed it by 29 seconds), but I wasn't there to match a PR, and so I went for it from the beginning.

I'm very sore the day after in the quads. Ironically everything else feels fine. Hamstrings, calfs, etc are ready to go, but the quads are completely shot. And the little head cold has blossomed into a full on whopper of a cold, which will shut me down completely for at least another day or two and hopefully no more.

David's other athletes all did well. They are training up for the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston and seem to be progressing well.

Sarah's dad got some good pictures out on the course. Unfortunately I was in a world of hurt for many of them and don't look too good in any of them.

Any how, good experience, my running has jumped leaps and bounds this winter, and I'm eager to apply it to tris this Spring.

2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft Order

Here is a short audio file of the release of the draft order for the 2009 Rice MBA Fantasy Baseball League. Click HERE.

Hanging On

I seem to have come down with a little cold. It hasn't got the best of me yet, and still is only hanging out in the head, but timing isn't great.

I'm taking lots of zinc (which will make you puke on an empty stomach I've found) trying to hold this thing off.

Wish me luck.