I just completed a good week of training. My first structured week of training in some time. I've hired a coach (David) which should help take some of the stress out of game planning, get me focused on the little things that you often overlook when time is an issue, and help with motivation.
I'm a long way off where I've been, so we're building this thing up from the ground floor. It is nice not to feel like I'm rushed.
I've also signed up for Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, TX this Oct 17. I've got an Olympic on the calendar in July between now and then, and may add something else if it works with the calendar.
This week, I trained just shy of 8 hours. Here are the stats:
Swim: 6,400 Meters (7,000 yds)
Bike: 60 miles
Run: 11 miles
TSS: 483
Kj: 2,653
weight: 174.2
BMI: 18.2
The summer is upon us in North TX. Temps well into the 90s by mid day. It is a shame our Spring only last about 6 weeks, and are windy as hell. I'll never get used to it.
Happy Memorial Day.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Life
Work has been too stressful, I am too "connected" too often, and I am not taking care of myself. That all changes tomorrow. Baby steps. I will think more about what I eat, I will get out the door at the end of the work day with energy to spare to devote to my training and family. I'll sleep better. With yoga I will improve my flexibility and core strength making me feel better. I'll get back to regular training, and with all of this, quality of life will improve.
Monitor this space for updates...
Monitor this space for updates...
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Train to Train
Today brought to a conclusion my 6th consecutive week of adding hourly volume, and TSS accumulation on top of the prior week. By no means am I rocking the house - week one was less than an hour of training, and week six had me just crack the 7 hr and 400 TSS barrier. The other milestone I eclipsed was that I trained 6 of the 7 days this week.
I think the plan is that I'll build up to 8 hours and perhaps 450 TSS next week, then start writing down workouts for each week, as opposed to doing what I want when I feel like it.
I've got some weight to drop, but it is coming around. I started logging my diet into the Daily Burn iPhone app, and am learning a lot about my food consumption habits. I naturally eat too many carbs, and not enough protein. I'm going to make a conscious effort to shift my diet in a more balanced direction, and hope I'll fell good in doing so.
I think I'll try to do a little build up for the Lonestar Oly in Galveston at the end of April. Perhaps slip in a local sprint in March weather permitting.
For now, the focus is base training, getting my running legs back, and being consistent.
I think the plan is that I'll build up to 8 hours and perhaps 450 TSS next week, then start writing down workouts for each week, as opposed to doing what I want when I feel like it.
I've got some weight to drop, but it is coming around. I started logging my diet into the Daily Burn iPhone app, and am learning a lot about my food consumption habits. I naturally eat too many carbs, and not enough protein. I'm going to make a conscious effort to shift my diet in a more balanced direction, and hope I'll fell good in doing so.
I think I'll try to do a little build up for the Lonestar Oly in Galveston at the end of April. Perhaps slip in a local sprint in March weather permitting.
For now, the focus is base training, getting my running legs back, and being consistent.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Trip to London
I just returned from a short trip to London to hang out with my friend and co-worker Guillermo. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Craven Cottage to take in my favorite EPL side Fulham take on the Black Cats of Sunderland.
The trip was a ton of fun, mostly because I was there with a friend, and felt a slice of what it was like to live in London as opposed to doing the touristy visit I've always done in the past.
Here is some video from the game, and a hand full of photos I selected to post to the blog.
Enjoy, and more later!
This was as the Whites took the pitch for the second half.
A view down the street from Guillermo's front gate
Guillermo and his family as we headed for the park in Chiswick
A cool view atop the bridge over the Chiswick Rail Station near Guillermo's house
At the football grounds, looking at the Johnny Haynes stand from Stevenage Rd
Me on Stevenage Rd with Craven Cottage in the background
Guillermo and I from the Johnny Haynes Stand before the match
Fulham take the pitch, with Clint Dempsey ready to do battle
The Whites ready to go 90 mins
The Cottage from the inside
Just minutes to go as the Whites hang on to their 1-0 lead
It all over, 3 pts for the good guys as security rushes the field
A gritty Clint Dempsey leaves the pitch, no doubt thinking about how he'll dismantle England in So. Africa on June 12th
The trip was a ton of fun, mostly because I was there with a friend, and felt a slice of what it was like to live in London as opposed to doing the touristy visit I've always done in the past.
Here is some video from the game, and a hand full of photos I selected to post to the blog.
Enjoy, and more later!
This was as the Whites took the pitch for the second half.
A view down the street from Guillermo's front gate
Guillermo and his family as we headed for the park in Chiswick
A cool view atop the bridge over the Chiswick Rail Station near Guillermo's house
At the football grounds, looking at the Johnny Haynes stand from Stevenage Rd
Me on Stevenage Rd with Craven Cottage in the background
Guillermo and I from the Johnny Haynes Stand before the match
Fulham take the pitch, with Clint Dempsey ready to do battle
The Whites ready to go 90 mins
The Cottage from the inside
Just minutes to go as the Whites hang on to their 1-0 lead
It all over, 3 pts for the good guys as security rushes the field
A gritty Clint Dempsey leaves the pitch, no doubt thinking about how he'll dismantle England in So. Africa on June 12thThursday, November 19, 2009
IMFL or TDF?
I thought this footage was great for two reasons. One, it exposes the amount of drafting that goes on in IM races. I don't recall seeing packs this size at FL 70.3, but with it rather flat, there were some groups. Two, it is just some sweet footage. I wish I new what the guy was doing. He seemed to be up on the hoods until reaching the aid station, and was getting passed like crazy, then went down on his bars an ate some people up, then as a peleton went by him, was back up on the hoods.
Monday, November 2, 2009
How HR Works
I just read this from Alan Couzen's blog. There is no mystery here - the harder you work, the more O2 your muscles need, the more your HR beats to deliver the O2 to your muscles.
Here is how you calculate required HR given a certain work rate:
Say you are riding your bike at a certain wattage that requires 3.5 Liters of O2 per minute. What will your HR be?
You need to know a few things about your physiology that most of us don't unless you've had blood work or anaerobic testing done, but if you did know, here is how you'd calculate it.
If you have 12g of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood, this deciliter would carry 160ml of O2 per liter of blood (assumes avg hemoglobin per deciliter and 100% blood saturation).
If your muscles require 3.5 liters of O2, you would need to pump 22 liters of blood per minute (3,500/160).
If you assume a cardiac stroke volume of 150ml, it will take 150 beats per minute to deliver 22 liters of blood to the muscle.
HR to push the certain wattage? 150 bpm.
Here is how you calculate required HR given a certain work rate:
Say you are riding your bike at a certain wattage that requires 3.5 Liters of O2 per minute. What will your HR be?
You need to know a few things about your physiology that most of us don't unless you've had blood work or anaerobic testing done, but if you did know, here is how you'd calculate it.
If you have 12g of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood, this deciliter would carry 160ml of O2 per liter of blood (assumes avg hemoglobin per deciliter and 100% blood saturation).
If your muscles require 3.5 liters of O2, you would need to pump 22 liters of blood per minute (3,500/160).
If you assume a cardiac stroke volume of 150ml, it will take 150 beats per minute to deliver 22 liters of blood to the muscle.
HR to push the certain wattage? 150 bpm.
October Recap
Well, October is in the books. All in all, a good month.
It started with work life balance getting back in order after working long hours during the month of September as my company was involved in a flurry of transactions revolving around entering into aircraft and engine contracts, as well as securing liquidity to bolster our balance sheet. All in, we bought 22 aircraft, did a multi billion dollar engine deal securing engines for our 787 Dreamliner aircraft we have on order with Boeing (a deal I was on the negotiating team for), sold over $1B worth of forward year air miles to Citi, our affinity program credit card partner, did a EETC debt offering and over $1.6B in sale lease back transactions (a deal I was also involved with), then did two equity offerings and one convertible debt offering.
I put on about 10 lbs between eating all of the catered food at our outside counsel's offices, and not being active while still recovering from the collarbone reconstruction. October would be the month I tried to get things back in order.
I did a fair bit of traveling in the month of Oct which made building into a routine a challenge. I was in Atlanta and Minneapolis recruiting MBAs early in the month, in Ann Arbor in the middle of the month, and had a week of meetings in DC at the end of the month.
I set off to get my running legs back under neath me, and after a few weeks of pain and suffering, dealing with all of the new runner aches and pains (shin splints for me) I feel like I'm getting closer. A run doesn't feel good yet, but we are moving away from the painful realm which is encouraging.
I was able to spend the weekend of Oct 24-25 in Austin visiting my parents and serving as a race day volunteer at Longhorn 70.3. I worked my tail off moving around transition backs for the two transition area race from about 5:30am until my back could take no more around 10am, then enjoyed watching the pros race with the special access my volunteer shirt provided me.
A few reactions after watching the end of the bike, most of the pros run, and their post race social scene:
It started with work life balance getting back in order after working long hours during the month of September as my company was involved in a flurry of transactions revolving around entering into aircraft and engine contracts, as well as securing liquidity to bolster our balance sheet. All in, we bought 22 aircraft, did a multi billion dollar engine deal securing engines for our 787 Dreamliner aircraft we have on order with Boeing (a deal I was on the negotiating team for), sold over $1B worth of forward year air miles to Citi, our affinity program credit card partner, did a EETC debt offering and over $1.6B in sale lease back transactions (a deal I was also involved with), then did two equity offerings and one convertible debt offering.
I put on about 10 lbs between eating all of the catered food at our outside counsel's offices, and not being active while still recovering from the collarbone reconstruction. October would be the month I tried to get things back in order.
I did a fair bit of traveling in the month of Oct which made building into a routine a challenge. I was in Atlanta and Minneapolis recruiting MBAs early in the month, in Ann Arbor in the middle of the month, and had a week of meetings in DC at the end of the month.
I set off to get my running legs back under neath me, and after a few weeks of pain and suffering, dealing with all of the new runner aches and pains (shin splints for me) I feel like I'm getting closer. A run doesn't feel good yet, but we are moving away from the painful realm which is encouraging.
I was able to spend the weekend of Oct 24-25 in Austin visiting my parents and serving as a race day volunteer at Longhorn 70.3. I worked my tail off moving around transition backs for the two transition area race from about 5:30am until my back could take no more around 10am, then enjoyed watching the pros race with the special access my volunteer shirt provided me.
A few reactions after watching the end of the bike, most of the pros run, and their post race social scene:
- If you think you want to be a pro male triathlete, then you ought to have about a 28 inch waist, plan on being no taller than about 6 feet tall, and no heavier than about 145-150lbs.
- A 1:12 half marathon is a completely different race than a 1:50 minute half marathon.
- Not all, but some of the top pros came in and couldn't walk well when they were done. Good to know it isn't just me. (2nd place Brian Fleischman and 3rd place Nicole Hofer were pretty gimpy)
- After years of thinking Joanna Zieger was a "big girl" because she was so much bigger than most pro female triathletes, I now realize she is small, and the others are tiny.
- Nicole Hofer could give Desiree Ficker (who road the lead bike for the 1st female out on the run course) a run for her money for the hottest pro female triathlete
Long horn was fun to watch, and I look forward to participating next year. Here is hoping for the same ideal conditions next year. October 17th, put it down!
After Austin, I headed to DC for work, but I was able to catch up with my friend and Pro Triathlete Lindsey Jerdonek. I met Lindsey at an industry conference in DC back in April and we've stayed in touch since. Lindsey had just wrapped up her first pro season of racing, so it was interesting to hear about her plans for next year. You can follow Lindsey and her teammate Lauren (9th place at Longhorn 70.3) at their soon to be renamed blog.
The last week of October was my best week of training since my crash. I'll actually be frank and say it was the only week that I could say felt like training and not just random acts of exercise.
I logged 6.5 hours (3hrs of running, 3hrs of biking, and 0.5 hrs of weights) this week, and even did an FTP test on the bike last Tuesday. While the results of the FTP test proved how far I have to go to get back to the level of fitness I had before the crash, it was good to get a marker so I can begin to measure my progress.
Looking ahead to Nov, here is hoping for health, productivity, and drive. I've already logged an hour in the pool this week, and am laying the ground work to give this yoga thing a try. More on that later.
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