Tri-ing Times Ahead

Run, walk or crawl, but get to the finish....

2011-08-08T22:30:00.008-04:00

By now most of you have heard of the tragedy at the NYC triathlon. Two fellow triathletes lost their lives while competing. While these types of events are always tragic, it should be noted that you are far more likely to die on the car trip to the race, than in the race itself. My condolences go out to the families and friends of these athletes, though I didn't know them personally, I know the apprehension we all face when we jump into an unfamiliar body of water; none of us are immune from these possibilities.

While many triathletes (and one Tri Unify member) were up north tackling the raging Hudson river, I opted to stay close to home and compete in a brand new race. The Du the 2 Duathlon had its inaugural running this weekend in Howard county. As it turns out I was talked into doing this race by my training buddy Miguel. I had finished my race program for the year, and initially when he suggested we do this race, I actually developed a training plan specifically for the race. But then malaise set in and I decided I had enough race fitness left over from my previous training to just wing it. Now I should know better. Actually I do know better. I should have just done the race as a long training day, but as the my wave start approached, the competitive juices started flowing and well, I'm sure you can guess the rest........

The Race

So the race starts and I tell myself, "Hold back a bit". I check my watch after 1 mile and I'm running 7 and 1/2 minute miles, WAY TOO FAST! I slow down and finish the first 2 mile run in a very respectable 15 minutes and 49 seconds, but not exactly holding back. Still, I didn't feel to bad and I zipped through T1 in 1 minute.

The Bike

So one of the reasons I agreed to do this race was because I train regularly on the course. Many of my training rides criss-cross the bike course so I was intimately familiar with every hill and turn and I figured this would work to my advantage. Since the bike course consisted of two laps, my plan was to take the first lap relatively easy and then pick up the pace for lap 2. The idea was to ride a negative split for the bike course, finish strong and still have a little in reserve for the last 4 miles of the run. Well I started fairly easily, and I got passed by numerous people in the first 2 miles. All the while I'm telling myself I will catch these folks later in the race. I also was aware of a very stiff climb that was coming up around mile 3.

I yelled some words of encouragement to folks struggling up the climb as I went past and then as I crested the hill my plan totally when out the window. I developed some sort of "bike racer tunnel vision" where every cyclist in front of you is merely someone to chase. While it was fun for the next 10 miles, I averaged 19 mph for the first lap, when I hit the first tough climb of lap 2 I immediately realized I was about to pay for my efforts. For the first time all year I felt tightness and pain in my lower back from all the climbing (1345 feet to be exact). Coupled with the pace I was trying to keep I was seriously beginning to doubt the whole negative split thing. I soldiered on, but my second lap was almost 2 minutes slower than the first.

The Dreaded 2nd Run

This is what makes the duathlon special. You get to run again. In a triathlon, you can spare your legs and generate power with your upper body, but since a duathlon starts with a run you've already used up some of your run energy by the time you get to run #2. I was in good position coming off the bike, probably top 10th in my age group when I started the second run. Then I felt the old heavy legs syndrome kick in. Now I fully expected this, after all, I had just hammered for a little over 26 miles, and by a 1/2 mile into the run my legs started to feel a little better. That lasted until I hit the first uphill on the run. Then the wheels (or perhaps my legs) fell off. I experienced what can only be called a full system shutdown. No power in the engine room. My legs felt like barrels of concrete. From this point (about 1 mile in) it was merely a matter of will whether I would get to the finish or not. At mile 3 I did something I hadn't done for many races. I walked. No shame there, you do what you must to reach the finish, and my training dictated I start walking. The walking actually helped, and about a minute later I started running again. It was short lived, however. I took another walk break and then I just decided I was going to run to the finish if it killed me. Be careful what you wish for, I got to the finish feeling more than a little spacey. I needed a full 15 minutes just to recover from that last 1/2 mile of running. Of course this should have been no real surprise since my training had been woefully short of long runs in preparation for this race. So much for winging it! I lost at least 7 places in my age group on the run and ended up finishing 17th.

Post Mortem

I still have a ways to go about being disciplined when racing. I had a plan, I just failed to execute it. Having a plan was good, not being disciplined enough to follow it, not so good. I also suffered a sore right knee (probably from lack of distance training) and a sore Achilles tendon. Now had I just ridden this race as a training ride, I probably would have finished unscathed. One more reason to race to the level of your training. So now I have some forced rest before I start working on my next race build up.

Coaches Corner

I was talking to some athletes this week about their opinions of their race performances. Many were unhappy with their performances, DESPITE having achieved personal bests! So why might this be? Well it seems lots of athletes THINK they can achieve times in racing, that they don't do in training. They go into races with unrealistic time goals. One athlete asked me how I determined my time goals. The answer was simple. I go back and review my training diary. If I didn't run 6 minute miles in training, it is pretty unlikely I'm going to run them in a race. On the other hand, if I have run 8 minute miles frequently in training, it's a good bet I can repeat that feat while racing. Keep your training journal accurately and you will know what to expect on race day.

Random Notes:

I raced this duathlon with a power meter which yielded a plethora of information. Power meters are fast becoming the preferred method of training intelligently. They are fast supplanting heart rate monitors as the "scientific" means of training. While heart rate monitors are still very useful, power meters give you unbiased information about your race. No excuses! I hope to use this data to race better in the future (such as knowing exactly what power output I can sustain for say 25 miles.) In a future post I will show you how to use a power meter to improve your performance.

Keep tri-ing out there and I hope to see you on the road/track/pool.

Peace

Coach Rob

Duathlon, the step-child of multi-sport

2011-07-29T11:13:00.016-04:00

Duathlon, the name brings fear to triathletes everywhere, or so it would seem. Whenever I ask one of my fellow triathletes to join me in doing one I am greeted with answers like "I hate to run". This surprised me, since for most of the triathletes I know, the barrier to the sport was swimming and NOT running. Yet it seems that once triathletes come to grips with the whole "getting in the water" thing, then running becomes the dreaded sport (to date I have found only 1 triathlete that hates the bike portion, but I concluded that's because the bike is the only leg of the race where you can rest and still make forward progress). So I began to wonder, what is it about the duathlon that strikes fear in the legs of otherwise fit multi-sport athletes?

It could be confusion, the sport used to be called the biathlon (way back in the 80s), which made sense to me, but obviously confused the powers that be in the Olympic community, since they already have a biathlon, which is comprised of skiing and shooting (really, can you confuse these two sports?).

It could be that the really good runners show up to duathlons, since (for obvious reasons) they have a better chance to excel.

It could be that the uber bikers, for a change,have less of an advantage in the duathlon, since the running portion of the race now takes up a larger percentage.

Or it could be the fact that training for a duathlon necessarily means a change in one's training program, always a tough thing of the self coached athlete.

But there are some very good reasons to make a duathlon part of your racing (or training) program:

As a way to get new athletes into the multi-sport arena (just think, no anxiety about drowning).

As a means to improve your run, use a duathlon race to focus on your running for a few weeks as a means to improve your triathlons.

As race pace brick training, duathlons give you two bricks and two transition practices.

Much less stuff to bring to your race, no wetsuits, goggles, towels, swim cap etc.

I have traditionally used the duathlon as a way to get in shape for my A-race triathlons, since the duathlon helps improve my running. This running focus 4 to 8 weeks prior to an important triathlon, has helped me feel much stronger during the run portion of the race. Give it a try, you may find that your runs improve quite a bit.

Coaching Corner

Since I have finished the bulk of my own racing for the year , I have been hanging around a lot of new triathletes. I love their enthusiasm for the sport and I try to allay whatever fears they might. I have noticed these new entrants to the sport race a lot! I understand their desire to race and improve at their new found sport. I think, however, these new athletes miss the importance of training! When you are racing constantly, there is a great need to rest, i.e. recover from the stresses of racing. With such frequent racing, new athlete's bodies may not have the opportunity to adequately recover. In addition, I have noticed a lot of "cramming", trying to squeeze in more training, since the time between races is so short. This ultimately leads to fatigue and poor race performance. I love the enthusiasm, I just wish they would temper that with some patience. Their love of the sport would increase that much more.

Race Expectations:

I often hear athletes talking about how they would like to improve in races. This is normal, often the reason people compete to begin with is to improve. One thing that strikes me is the often unrealistic gains athletes expect to make from one race to another. When I ask them how they expect to make these gains, it often comes across that they do not have any metrics to confirm (or deny) their expectations. This is why a training journal is so crucial. Your training journal will tell you what you can expect in your next race. If you plan to run 10 minute miles after riding 25 miles on your bike, then your training journal should confirm that you have done something similar (or better yet, exactly). I can't tell you how many times I have had an athlete tell me they want to run "X minutes per mile" in a race and when I ask them how many times they have done it in training they tell me zero. If you want to excel in a race you must excel in training first. Your training tells you what your race will look like, so make sure you record your training accurately so you know what to expect.

In the month of Auguts I will be hosting 3 free coaching clinics aimed at beginners. The clinics will cover the following:

How to use a heart rate monitor.

Basic bike maintenance.

How to use your gears.

Clinics 1 and 3 will be accompanied by a brief ride. Dates and times will be posted on Facebook in the TriUnify group and on my website http://www.clarencecycling.com .

Random Notes

I started out as a bike racer, and although I haven't done a bike race in a while, I decided to have a go at the Greenbelt park training race series. It seems I had forgotten how brutal bike races are. It was very humbling, but not without value. I got my heart rate up above anything I ever see in a triathlon, which for better or worse, was interesting, if not painful. I also got some critical power data, so if I decide to go back and race again at least I'll know what power I need to compete. Speaking of power, I just got a new PowerTap laced to a Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL. The PowerTap works great (a review is coming soon) and when paired with my Garmin Edge 500 cycling computer, makes a nice system for gathering data. The wheel does feel a bit heavy though, which may be the result of riding mostly with the Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels which are over 1/2 a pound lighter. I know it may not sound like much, but when racing uphill every gram hurts. Being able to accurately train with power on the road is worth the sacrifice however.

Keep tri-ing out there and I hope to see you on the road/track/pool.

Peace

Coach Rob

Race Report - Tri 2 Win Sprint Triathlon

2011-06-23T13:43:00.002-04:00

While most of my tri club (TriUnify) was down in Washington D.C. braving the Potomac's waters, I opted instead to head north to Westminster, Maryland and participate in the Tri 2 Win sprint triathlon. This race is special to me for a couple of reasons. It was my first triathlon and it also raises money for melanoma research which means by participating I can give back to those in need. This race has become a staple event on my race calendar and I usually bring a few friends along. This year I brought a couple of my old training partners, Mike and Melissa, plus two new participants. One was my boy, fellow Tri Unify member, and first time triathlete Dustun. The other friend, Sean, I met at a Tri Unify training event I led, and he caught the "fever" when he heard us talking about participating in the event. He was so excited he signed up on his iPhone as we spoke! Sean had been out of the tri game for a few years but after his great experience at the training event he decided to get back in the game. Welcome back Sean!

The Tri 2 Win triathlon is a lot of fun and a good event for those just starting out. The pool swim takes alot of the anxiety out of a new triathlete's first event, and for that reason I highly recommend it for those looking to get into the sport. The event has a wide range of fitness levels, so no one will feel intimidated by the field of athletes, while at the same time those looking for good competition will find that as well. Since the event is always on Father's day, there is a nice family aspect to the competition as there is a father/son and father/daughter competion in addition to the indiviual age groups.

I have been doing this event for about 5 years now and I have been steadily moving up in my age group, to the point I can now start looking to get on the podium. I had finished 5th and 6th the last 2 years and since I had limited training time this year I decided to make this my goal race for the year. After carefully studying my results and the results of the last couple of years I figured I would need to do about 1 hour and 17 minutes to make it on to the podium. After having a great outing at the "Flat as a pancake triathlon" 2 weeks prior, I thought I was ready. Although I should note that Tri 2 Win is definitely NOT flat as a pancake.

The Swim:

One of the victims of my reduced training schedule this year has been my swimming. Since I had less time to train early in the season (due to my future triathlete son crawling all over the place), my swimming, which is my weakness, probably suffered the most. I tried to rationalize that since the swim is only 400 meters in this race, its effect would not likely be the deciding factor. I would reassess this point of view during my post race analysis. So as you might have already guessed, I swam slower this year. Not a lot slower, just 18 seconds off last year's pace, but still, I hate to regress. I got out of the pool and hustled my way over to the transition area.

The Bike:

After a fast T1, I hopped on my bike ready to make up some of the time I was sure I lost during the swim. I had ridden the course the day before, so I knew where all the hard climbs were, and I was relying on all the hard work I had put in over the winter and spring. My cycling has seen a noticable bump in terms of power output and coupled with the new bike I worked all spring to get comfortable on, I was sure I could better last year's bike time. The question was, by how much? I averaged 19.3 mph over the 13.5 miles and while that was a nice bump from last year I knew I had my work cut out for myself on the run. I was going to have to run right around 21 and a half minutes for the 3 mile run to get me around the 1:17 time goal. I was trying to not think about that as I entered T2, because I know the last time I ran a 5k that fast I was about 10 years younger (if not more). I had my work cut out for me.

The Run:

I left T2 (after briefly running the wrong way trying to get out of the transition area) with an ominious feeling in my left quad. I've had this before, it's that feeling you get right before your muscle cramps. It's kind of like a warning signal, telling you to slow up or else! I ignored it. Quad be damned, if it was going to cramp so be it, I was going to run hard, until I couldn't run hard any longer. I was feeling pretty good until I hit the steady 1/4 mile uphill on the run. That and the "I'm gonna cramp, I mean it" feeling took a bit of wind out of my sails. I knew right then 1:17 was probably not going to happen, but I remained focused on maintaining my pace. As I hit the turn around, I heard heavy breathing coming up behind me. So far, no had had passed me the entire race, but I knew now someone was definitely trying. With about a mile to go in the run said heavy breather moved past me. I tried to pick up my pace and stay with him, that worked for about ohhhh 15 seconds, nope he was running WAY TOO FAST! I dropped back down to my original pace and held steady to line. A pretty good run, faster than last year and I didn't cramp, despite the warning.

Post Race:

I got some food, as well as some water, to ward off any impending cramps and try and replenish my energy stores. All in all, I felt pretty good. I knocked about a minute off last year's time, but I was about 3 minutes shy of 1:17. 6th place again. Not bad, but after looking at the times of those who beat me the biggest disparity was, you guessed it, the swimming. In fact, the 2rd place finisher in my age group and I had almost identical splits throughout the race but his swim time was over 3 minutes better than mine! I know where I will be spending a lot of time this winter! After a bit of recovery, I watched as my friends came in and cheered them on to the finish. When everyone was done we traveled over to Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville for a great nutritious post tri meal! Hopefully some of you will join us next year for this great race!

Coaches Corner:

I just want to give a shout out to one of my athlete's (and TriUnify member) Derrek Sanks, who broke the 3 hour mark at the Columbia Triathlon. Columbia is a challenging race and Derrek worked hard over the winter and spring to achieve this goal. I also want to wish him a safe return home as he prepares for a deployment in Afghanistan. My thoughts are with you and your family Derrek.

It's been a while......

2010-10-26T12:55:00.015-04:00

It's been a while since I last wrote, over 9 months, which is an interesting observation since that is approximately the length of time it took my new son to arrive, but more on that later.

So what happened in the interim, well it went something like this.......

January

On the day of my last entry (January 4th, 2010 for those of you who forgot) I started the season by taking my first test, a 3 mile all out effort on the trainer. This is a test I use to get a general idea of my fitness. I was a little under the weather that day and turned in a pretty poor time (for me anyway). This was my first wake up call of the season. I knew I had a lot of work to do to get ready for my goal race in May, the Columbia Triathlon. Last year I did Columbia (a great race,you should try it!) in 3:02:29. I remember thinking after the race, that if I had known I was so close to breaking 3 hours I would have pushed a lot more on the run. So my goal for 2010 was to break 3 hours. Everything was going to be secondary to that until I found out my wife was pregnant!

When the good news arrived, I knew breaking 3 hours would be even more of a challenge. My goal was made even more challenging by the unseasonable cold weather we got this winter. I started January with a bit of a cold, but I managed to get in a fair amount of training. In particular, I added some strength training and yoga to my training regiment. After a few weeks I began to feel much stronger,particularly in the pool.

February

February arrived and so did huge amounts of snow and morning sickness! My wife was suffering through a bad bout of nausea and with the huge snow fall the trainer was my only sanctuary, until of course we lost power! This was a really challenge, no power, no way to leave home, and a wife swamped with nausea. Thank goodness for out next door neighbors who helped us through this tough time. Since the first week of February was lost to all the various impediments to training, I was looking forward to restarting my training when the roads were cleared. Once again I turned to my 3 mile time trial and knocked 16 seconds off my January time. More importantly I recorded a 7% increase in average power. This assured me that my training was progressing in the right direction. I spent most of February concentrating on swimming since it is definitely my weakness. I was looking for a swim coach but my work location made finding a convenient coach virtually impossible. I was resigned to getting better so I picked up a copy of "Total Immersion" and studied the book and tried to follow the suggestions as best I could.

One of the real challenges being a self trained swimmer, is that you can't see yourself! Unlike running or cycling where I can get on a trainer or treadmill to critique my technique and position, this is almost impossible to do while swimming. I did come across a pool once with mirrors on the bottom of the pool in one lane, but even then its hard to keep a good head position, while trying to see if you legs are dropping too much. Just one more reason to get a coach.

March

So March rolled around and it's time to take another test and get an idea of where my fitness is. I tackle my 3 mile TT test and knock another 21 seconds off my last test and my average power has increased another 9%! I also noticed my heart rate for the effort had dropped by 10 beats per minute, a sure sign that I was now more aerobically fit as well! Armed with these numbers I decide some racing was in order. When I first started cycling seriously, I used to race in the NYC Spring series, a series of cycling races in Brooklyn every weekend. So I signed up figuring this would push me. I had no intention of trying to win this race, I just wanted to hang with the field and get some tough miles in. I managed to hang on for about 1/2 the race before getting unceremoniously dropped on the only hill in the race. Still, the race provided a good hard effort much like I would need when doing the Columbia Triathlon (especially the last 10 miles of chasing alone! and no I didn't catch the field....).

April

April was my first big volume month as the weather was finally improving. I hadn't planned on doing any races this month, I just wanted to focus on training. One of my good friends, however, wanted to race a 13 hour mountain bike race but needed another team mate. Now I dabble in mountain biking, but strictly for fun. So when she approached me about racing off road, for 13 hours at that, I was a little apprehensive, especially since my mountain bike hadn't been off-road in the better part of 3 years. Not wanting to disappoint, I agreed to help out. This turned out to be the toughest workout all year. Almost 5 hours on a hard tail mountain bike over tough terrain was more than draining, but it a great experience, even if I never want to do it again..... The picture at the top is a look at my first (and last?) foray into competitive mountain biking. After taking a little bit of a recovery after the race, I decided now was a good time to re-test myself. My time dropped by 22 seconds and average power increased by a little over 11%! I am on a roll! At this point my power on the bike was about 5% above what it had been in 2009 right before I did the Columbia triathlon. I was feeling pretty good and I still had about a month of training left. So now it was time to fine tune my training.

May

With my goal race now in site, I started tapering, working on my transitions, and planning to ride the course, you know, all those little things that can screw up an otherwise good race. The one thing I didn't plan for was lack of parking and pouring rain the day of the race. When I arrived at the race site, traffic was backed up for a good mile and it was pouring. I dropped my buddy Mike at the entrance since he went off in an earlier wave then me, and then drove back to look for parking. I found a spot about a mile away and then made a mad dash to get to transition before it closed. The soggy conditions and bad weather just added to the mayhem that is race morning, and in a big race like Columbia it was compounded by all the people. I managed to get my transition area set up just as the transition area closed. Unfortunately in my rush, I forgot to use my Body glide to put on under my wetsuit. I was resigned to having a bad neck rash after the race, when I saw a woman spraying herself with Lemon PAM. I had always heard people used the stuff, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed it. I decided now was as good a time as ever to give it a shot, so I asked her if she could spare some. She gladly obliged and I was lemony fresh and relieved to not have to worry about having a sore neck for the next week. I ambled over to the swim start and waded into the water a few minutes before my wave was set to start. Getting into the water initially is always the worst part of a triathlon for me. It took me a good 3 minutes to get over the initial shock of the cold water and after exhaling under water a few times I started to feel better. The gun went off and I waited for most of the insanity that is a wave start to go out ahead of me and then I started my race. I remained cool and calm for most of the swimming, feeling OK, if not great. I just wanted to get out of the water and onto my bike. I went badly off course in the second part of the swim, which cost me some time, but I recovered and head for the swim exit. I had a brisk transition, and I was happy to notice the rain had stopped as I mounted my bike. Since, Columbia is a fairly hilly bike course, and the course was wet, I decided to forgo aero bars and just use my standard rode bike. I felt the extra comfort and better handling would make up for the lack of an aero advantage on certain parts of the course. I powered my way to a bike split that was 3 minutes better than the previous year. As I was leaving transition to start the run, I noted I had a little less than 1 hour if I wanted to break the 3 hour mark. I had fueled well on the bike and I planned to go with gels every 30 minutes on the run. I knew staying properly fueled would be a necessity if I was to break 3 hours. Columbia has a notoriously tough 10k run. I knew I would have to push a little in the first 5k to stay on my goal pace. At the 2 mile mark, I was concentrating hard when I heard a blood curdling scream! It was Shelly from my tri club at the water station cheering me on! I couldn't help but chuckle inside! That really bolstered my resolve to keep my pace up. I was well on my way to a good 10k time at the 4 mile mark which is where some of the toughest hills in the course come up. I managed to maintain a decent pace and when I hit the 5 mile mark I turned on the jets in the knowledge I had little more than 1 mile to go and a mostly downhill run to the finish. As I crossed the line I looked at my watch and thought Mission Accomplished! 2:58:06. My main goal of the year accomplished, I now decided to enjoy the good fitness that I had acquired over the previous 5 months.

June

In June I started my Thursday evening rides we call Thursday thunder! We try to hit just about every hill in Rock Creek Park. It a leg searing, gut busting hammer fest for most of the ride with breaks at the top of the tough climbs to let people catch back on. It's usually fun too and has most of the elements of a fast group ride. About this time my wife was finally starting to show, for the first 5 months, you could barely tell she was pregnant. So trips to the doctor were becoming more interesting, especially since we were adamant about not wanting to know the sex of the baby. I had but one race planned for June, my annual sprint triathlon, Tri to Win, which raises money for melanoma research. I hadn't trained specifically for this race, but I was confident since fitness had been sky high during the previous weeks. A number of my friends were also doing the race, and this made the event all the more fun. Since it was a sprint, my goal was to push as hard as I could for the duration of the race and see what I had in the tank. Who knows, maybe I could even snag an age group award. I pushed my way to a course PR and just missed an age group award coming in 5th. Oh well, maybe next year!

July

By the time July rolled around I was starting to feel pretty burnt out. My fitness was still high but I had come down noticeably from my peak. As a result, my training tapered off quite a bit from late June to early July. Some due to the impending birth of my child and some from lack of desire to train. Normally this would have been fine, except I had registered for the NYC Triathlon on July 18th! I was not really motivated to do this race but once I pay for a race I'm going to do it unless a meteor strikes. So I traveled to NYC, and was greeted by absolutely the worst humidity I had raced in in a while. One of the reasons I really wanted to do this race was the allure of swimming in the Hudson River (although allure might be the wrong term). Growing up as a kid in Brooklyn the Hudson was always maligned as too nasty, too dirty, too dangerous to swim in. I was also intrigued by the fact that the race director GUARANTEED everyone a swim PR! Well he could not have been more right. Watching the pros the morning of the race, it looked like they were hydroplaning in the water they were swimming so fast! I found out why when my wave started. The race director gave you the option of starting the race in the water, but he noted as soon as you jump in grab the rope attached to the dock. I jumped in and went under, immediately I could feel myself being pulled downstream! It felt like I had rocket propelled flippers on the current was so strong! A couple of guys who jumped in had to be grabbed before they were swept downstream by the current. Of course, the highlight of the race had to be the tire I spied floating by at the 600 meter mark! At least I didn't have to swim through it! Getting out of the water 15 minutes faster the usual was great! Then came the back course which was typical NYC, and by that I mean badly paved! It was so badly paved somewhere on the course I lost my trusty Garmin Forerunner, making this the most expensive triathlon I have ever done! By the time I got to the run it was blazing hot and the humidity was oppressive. I struggled through the run, but still posted my best ever triathlon time. Now I could schedule some down time for the season and get ready for the really tough stuff, having a child!

Hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road, and on the track......

Peace

Rob...

P.S. Part II of the season soon to follow.

Happy New Year! Now Let's Get Started!

2010-01-04T13:08:00.003-05:00

Greetings to all! I hope the new year finds you happy, healthy and fit! I am looking forward to the upcoming season and I am hoping to make serious strides in each of the three disciplines we triathletes engage in. I also hope to re-acquire some skills in my first true love, basketball! More on that later.........

Improving each discipline

While I did well last year with my fastest ever Olympic distance race, a careful examination of my training, showed the need for improvement in each discipline. That's not all bad news however, since some of my necessary improvements just require missing fewer workouts. Taking a look at both your strong and weak disciplines can be very enlightening.

The Swim.

After last year's efforts I learned two things:

I'm a much faster swim
But not necessarily a much better swimmer.

How did I come to this conclusion? Well I posted a personal best of 35:45 at the Columbia triathlon knocking almost 6 minutes of my best swim time. Along with that however, I had quite a bit of shoulder and arm pain. After talking with my chiropractor it was determined to be due to my habit of only breathing on my left side. I was determined that by my next Olympic tri I would be a bilateral breather. It was so hard to change this habit that I learned some 30 years ago, I actually took 2 months off from swimming and when I went back to the pool I was determined to only swim by breathing on both sides. After about a month and many mouthfuls of water later I had become comfortable, if not proficient, at breathing every 3rd stroke. I should note that while I was making the transition I didn't focus on any other aspect of my swim. All I worked on was being able to breathe on both side comfortably. I didn't track my pace, worry particularly about body position (except how it affected rolling to my "other" side) or worry about stroke count. I was actually prepared to become a slower swimmer, with the idea that the better technique would suffice in the long run. When I was finally comfortable, I went back to one of my standard workouts, and lo and behold, I was actually faster! Without doing anything other than going to bilateral breathing, I had actually picked up between 10 and 15 seconds per 100! I attribute this to 2 things, I now breathe every third stroke which I believe enables me to keep a better body position throughout the course of my swim. Second, I believe my swim is more balanced, i.e. I swim on my side more as a consequence of having to roll to the other side to breathe. I have also noticed I swim straighter and I make fewer corrections to remain on a straight course. I was somewhat skeptical that bilateral breathing would have such a profound effect, but I never write anything off until I at least try it. In this case trying paid dividends, always a good feeling.

The Bike

In general I had a good year on the bike. While I did lament not having the opportunity to participate in any bike races, I felt I had a successful season. One area I found lacking was the amount of intervals I did over the course of the year. I was generally really good at the beginning of the year in preparation for early season races, but afterwards I was slacking a bit and allowing some fast group rides to substitute for interval sessions. This isn't always a bad idea but in general group rides don't always fit into the type of training you may need for an upcoming event. I resolve to be a bit more disciplined this year and hopefully I will be able to reap the benefits.

The Run

OK, let's be frank, I don't really like running all that much. Most workouts that I blow off are run workouts. I love cycling, I need swimming, but really I just tolerate the run. So this year I plan to make sure I don't miss any of those run workout (or at least not as many). I noticed that last year I really didn't do nearly enough speed work either. Speed work, for me anyway, is far more mentally taxing that physically taxing. Once I get out there I'm OK, but actually getting out there is the problem. I'm gonna work on that, but I think I need a partner (any takers????) .

Other stuff

I joined a tri club, Tri Unify which has been great. Meeting like minded people of color who also take an interest in a healthy life style is AWESOME! Check them out at Tri Unify.com

Among other things Tri Unify has open water swim practices, meet and greets, and a wealth of highly motivated people of all levels so no one has to feel intimidated or left out.

Every few months I get an uncontrollable urge to go back to the sport of my youth, namely basketball. One thing I like about triathlon is, no matter how hard the race it is essentially a non-contact sport. Not true of basketball! After just about every game, something is cut, scratched or bruised! The other thing about triathlon is essentially you are always going straight ahead, basketball is about going in 20 different directions, one right after the other, or even at the same time. This requires some specialized preparation since I rarely need to practice running backwards or side to side to prepare for a tri. Anyway, I have caught the bug again and I am about to play in a league or two this winter, I'll keep you posted and let you know how the body holds up.

The Season

I already have 3 races scheduled on my calendar and I am considering whether to step up to the half ironman distance in the second half of the year. A lot depends on how the first half goes, so I figured I would re-evaluate after my sprint triathlon on June 20th. Since we are being hit by unseasonable cold weather I see a lot of indoor training in my future (and yours too!). Don't let this ruin your season, hop on a bike trainer, treadmill or into a spin class somewhere. If this doesn't do it for you get in the pool more often and work on all those things you never work even though you know you should.

As some of you may know I am a personal trainer and I am applying for my USAT coaching license. I will be creating a 16 week training program for the Tri to Win sprint triathlon which is on June 20th. The program will include group training on the weekends and a training schedule for the entire 16 weeks leading up to the race. The training program will be aimed at first time triathletes and those with no experience following a training program. I will be hosting an information session later this month. The training program is schedule to start on March 1st. If you are interested please e-mail me at robert@clarencesoftware.com.

I hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road and on the track......

Peace

Rob

The Off-Season is here... Time to start training again????

2009-10-14T10:32:00.003-04:00

The great thing about October, besides Halloween and Octoberfest, is it usually signals the start of the off-season. For athletes, this represents down time, or as some people refer to it non-specific training. Just go out there and have some fun, do whatever you want to do (or do nothing at all) , all with the goal of refreshing the mind , body and spirit for the the beginning of the next training cycle.

As I got older, however, I have seen my off-season get shorter and shorter mostly due to the increased amount of time it takes me to regain lost fitness. Once upon a time, in my younger days, I could easily take a month or a month and a half off, doing absolutely nothing and need only a short amount of time to get back into a reasonable amount of shape. Now a month of nothing would result in weight gain so large I would need Richard Simmons to have any possibility of being ready by spring. What I realized is I need to continue training almost year round, merely decreasing intensity during the off-season and increasing my base. I attribute my improvements in swimming last year as a result of just such a change.

The off-season is also the time to work on two important tasks for the season ahead:

1) Your race schedule (or goals if you are not competing) and

2) Your weaknesses.

I spent a fair amount of the last two off-seasons devoted to working on my swimming, which is my weakness, and managed to drop 10 minutes off my 1500 meter swim time. During the off-season there are generally no "A" races so there is less pressure to concentrate on speed and/or intensity and much more time to concentrate on form and technique, factors which will help in any sport. For instance, this off-season I am concentrating 100% on learning bilateral breathing for swimming. In the few session I have been working on it, I have already begun to see improvements in my swimming and have managed to avoid some of the neck and shoulder problems I encountered when I increased my pool time last season.

The off-season is also the time to commit to those races in which you want to do well. For some large races, you may only have a day to sign up (for some such as the NYC triathlon, you may only have an hour!). Making the commitment now, means your are committed to putting in the time and effort, but it also gives you the ability to accurately plan your season and the workouts necessary to make the season a success.

The off-season can also be a great time to experiment with new equipment and training techniques for the upcoming season. Want to adjust your bike position or try running barefoot? Well now is the time to try, if it works, great, you have a new tool for next year, if not, you gave it a try and can move on without jeopardizing race day.

One key to making the off-season enjoyable and rejuvenating is to not take it too seriously. Now is the time to make sacrifices for your friends and family that you may have abandoned during the season. Take the time to enjoy time with friends and family, enjoy the holidays, if you do any races make them more about camaraderie with your training partners than about PRs. Maybe even take up some alternative sports to break up the monotony. Enjoy the off-season, it will make the on-season that much more enjoyable.....

Peace and keep training (a little less tho)

Rob

The Race of Truth or The Truth Hurts!

2009-09-17T15:24:00.003-04:00

In August I did a USCF 40k time trial. I hadn't done an officially sanctioned time trial in about 10 years. One reason, they are hard to find. Road races are hard enough to put on, imagine trying to manage a race where riders are starting at 1 minute intervals over the course of 4 or 5 hours.

I had been training fairly consistently since the start of the year for early season triathlons, and I felt I had enough miles on my legs to do a good ride. Since I had been primarily riding my road bike all year I opted to use that for the time trial. I have a nice pair of carbon aero bars which I use for flat to moderately hilly triathlons, and I decided these would be a definite plus for the time trial. Now 40k is not a lot for me to ride. I can pretty much do that in my sleep. However, how often do I actually ride 40k all out at 100%? Not very often. I now understand why guys who are great rode racers don't always make the best time trialists.

Time trialing is a mixture of great fitness, determination, incredible concentration, and an uncanny ability to suffer. I felt I possessed at least the first 2 qualities going into the race, and I figured the race itself would give me a good indication on where I stood on the last two.

The Race Itself

The course was pancake flat. That in and of itself was enough to make me want to compete. The road, for the most part, was in good condition and there were only 2 turns on the course. The one thing I had not taken into account was the wind! A strong headwind was waiting for me at about the 15k to go mark. I overheard an earlier rider advising a friend to save something for the last 10k. I should have listened!

The Start

The thing I always forget about is the "The HOLD". Unlike every other type of race where you just hop on your bike and go, the time trial starts with someone holding you clipped into your pedals. Needless to say, this can make for an embarrassing start if not executed correctly! Gear selection is critical for a good start, and I was careful to start in a reasonable gear to get up to speed quickly. Despite feeling like I was about to fall at any moment during "The HOLD", I managed to get away cleanly, settle in to the aero tuck, and get rolling without incident.

My goal was to finish in 1 hour 15 minutes. This works out to a 20 mph average. I knew I would need to be disciplined and not go out to fast. My first challenge came about 2 minutes in when another racer passed me going around 25 mph! Every instinct in my body tells me to go after him, but I know there is no way I can hold that kind of tempo for the remaining 38k. So I restrain myself and keep my pace at a nice steady 22 mph. It should have been obvious to me that if I wanted to make the 20 mph goal, that 22 mph was probably too fast of a start. Still, at the 10k mark, I felt pretty good. I still had my 1 minute man in my sights and I set a goal to catch him by the finish. 15k came and went and I started to get my first warning signs of impending trouble. The skin suit I had chosen was not doing a very good job protecting my nether regions and this was causing me to move around on the saddle. Normally I can compensate for this type of problem by sitting up occasionally, but by virtue of trying to stay in the aero position this was not to be an option. At the half way point I also noticed a numbness creeping up my left side, and down my arm. As I think about it, I realize I had never spent more than about 20 minutes straight in the areo tuck. I had, at the 20k mark, been in it for 45 minutes! After the 25k mark the numbness had gotten so bad I was forced out of the saddle every few minutes to relieve the tingling on the left side of my body. I was also starting to feel the effects of my effort, but I was still on pace for my 20 mph finish time.

I was encouraged by the fact my 1 minute man was still in my sights, albeit a bit further ahead in my sights. Right after the 25k mark is where I got my first taste of really rough road. Coupled with my bad skin suit problems I was really starting to suffer. I now noticed my minute man is getting smaller, i.e. farther away.... I also notice I am now slightly behind my goal pace, not by much, but just enough to force me out of the saddle to up my pace. Somewhere between the 25 and 30k mark you turn for home onto newly paved road (my nether regions sing the praises of the new pavement), unfortunately with the new pavement came a killer headwind! I was now all over my bike trying to maintain anything close to 20 mph. It was somewhere in the last 6k or so that I lost sight of my minute man and was passed by a few riders who had started after me. The real struggle at this point became staying focused on keeping my speed up. I would take mental breaks where my speed would dip and I would have to get out the saddle to accelerate back up to speed. When I finally saw the 1k to go sign I was so drained I couldn't lift my pace not one iota. I couldn't even muster a fake sprint when I got to the line. Final verdict 1:15:53.

Post Race

I may have neglected to mention that the start line of the race was about 5 miles from the registration and parking area. So I had a 5 mile cool down ride after the race. When I signed up the race I thought this was a great idea. In reality it turned out to be a death march back to my car. I could barely pedal and had absolutely no energy what so ever. I checked the result and was not surprised to see the guy who passed me 2 minutes or so into the race actually won the time trial! 58 minutes and change WOW! I was also pleased to see that my minute man finished only 30 seconds in front of me. I guess I hallucinated him out of sight. I'll be back next year, better skin suit, more time in the aero position and definitely more restraint in the first 20k. 20 mph here I come.........

Peace

Rob

Cascade Lake Duathlon Report

2009-06-08T12:42:00.004-04:00

On May 31st I raced the Cascade Lake duathlon. The race takes place in Hampstead, MD which is about 1.5 hours north of Washington D.C. I was talked into this race by a couple of friends (although it rarely takes much to convince me to race) and I was using this race primarily as training for an upcoming triathlon. The format of the race is a 1.86 mile run, a 15 mile bike and a 5k run. There is also a triathlon that runs concurrently with the duathlon.

The day started off poorly. It was raining and quite a bit cooler than I had anticipated, and I didn't bring a sweatshirt to stay warm pre-race (one more reason not to trust the weather report and bring more than you need for a race). The race starts in a private park which is normally a farm of some sort, as evidenced by the mounds of animal dung everywhere. This I could handle, what was less than fun was the lack of bathroom facilities. This race is definitely in need of some port-o-potties! The start was a bit disorganized as the duathlon entrants had to move after we warmed up to make room for the parking of a few fire engines. Once the race started everything pretty much went off without a hitch. The first run is essentially flat with a tough climb to the transition/finish.

The transition area could have used some work; right outside of the transition area was a very rocky, grassy, uneven surface where you mounted / dismounted your bike. It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't the best either. The bike starts off with a fast decent for about a mile or so, after that the fun is over! This is a very challenging 15 miles. The hills are endless and challenging; while there are some fast descents, they were not nearly long enough to take the sting out of all that climbing. If Hampstead wasn't so far away I would definitely consider going up there for more training rides.

After the tough ride, you head back through the bumpy transition and then out onto the run for two loops of the run course. The run finishes on a brutal uphill nicknamed Anaerobic ridge by the race organizer. All in all not a bad race, but my plea is for the race organizer to add some bathrooms.

Miscellaneous race notes:

I finished 4th in my age group just missing out on a medal by about 5 minutes, that's still alot, so I won't let the near miss go to my head. On a brighter note my good friend, Liz, whose idea this was anyway, won her age group which was very cool. Congrats Liz!

A good friend of mine, who I encouraged to take up the sport of triathlon, chose Cascade Lake as his first triathlon. This proved to be a questionable decision due to the severity of the bike course. However, he managed to survive and finish his first race although he cramped badly near the end. Congrats Cabha on completing your first race! I hope you enjoy many more!

I have a 40K time trial and a sprint triathlon in the next two weeks and then I'm going to take a break before I start preparing for the end of the year. I plan on switching over to a more run focused program including the Parks 1/2 marathon and the Baltimore marathon. I'm looking forward to the challenge. I hope to see you all there.

Peace and keep training..

Rob

Columbia Triathlon Results

2009-05-19T23:42:00.004-04:00

If you read my last blog, I was proclaiming my return to the blogger sphere with increased fitness to boot. Well I can proudly say that after my first goal of the season, the Columbia triathlon, these were not mere words. Columbia was just my third Olympic distance triathlon, and by far the hardest. It also turned out to be my best performance by far. My swim time dropped from 41:36 at St. Anthony's last year, to 35:45. A reduction of almost 6 minutes and a better than 14% increase in performance! What a difference my 2009 swim focus made in my swimming progress! My race nutrition also improved as, despite the very hilly 10k run course, I did not bonk as happened last year during the St. Anthony triathlon. I also eclipsed my personal best at the Olympic distance by better than 4 minutes, despite a much more difficult bike course and crept with 2 minutes and 23 seconds of the elusive 3 hour mark.

The Race

Columbia is a superbly run race, the lake swim was a cool 70 degrees at the start. The swim is out and back,except the finish is actually at a different point than where you enter the water. It's a wet start, so you can get a short swim in before your wave gets underway.

Conditions for the race were good except for a light rain falling during the start of the bike leg. Luckily, the rain let up about half way into the bike course. The course starts out challenging with a number of tough climbs in the first 8 miles or so. Luckily I had ridden the course before hand so I knew what to expect. I took advantage of the very fast descents to overtake some of the more reluctant riders, who were cautious due to the wet roads. I also noticed a number of riders experienced flats and were forced to stop to repair them, luckily I avoided this fate. I pushed the pace on the bike until the last 2 miles or so when I geared down a bit and started to prepare my legs for the run. I had decided in training to trade some strength on the bike for greater run endurance. This decision paid huge dividends during the 10k run.

The run is one of the toughest 10Ks I have ever run. There are a number of hills that must be double digit grades. It made it very difficult to dial in your pace with the constant uphill / downhill changing of gears. I had prepared by running in my neighborhood which has quite a few hills, but I was truly not prepared for the severity of some of the hills. In the end, I ran just one second slower than the 10k I ran in my first Olympic distance triathlon 2 years ago. I consider this progress given the difficulty of the Columbia course.

This performance has given me enough confidence to try my first half Ironman next year. I may also do Columbia again, depending on life's demands. In the meantime I have 2 new goals on the horizon. My first USCF time trial in more than 10 years is on June 13th and the Tri-to-Win sprint triathlon is the following week. At Tri-to-Win, I am aiming for a new PR so I will spend the next few weeks ramping down the endurance rides and runs and adding doses of speed work. I'm looking forward to some of you guys joining me on those short, but painful days.

Til then.......

Keep training.....

Peace

Rob

I'm back..... and much fitter to boot!

2009-05-07T23:05:00.003-04:00

I know..... I've been away. No excuses, but I do have REASONS! In February, I was abruptly transferred to a new project at work. My nice cushy, leave work at 5, became a , lucky to get home by 7:30! Despite this I have managed to stick very closely to my training schedule. The results have been, well, measurable. I started using my Real Axiom trainer pretty extensively earlier in the year when it was far too (fill in the blank with, cold, wet, cold & wet, you get the picture) crappy outside to ride. One of the real advantages of this trainer is the ability to get your power output. I created a couple of flat time trials of varying lengths late last year and used them as a baseline for comparison of my power output over those distances. About a week ago I took the tests again. My power was up a solid 5%! Not bad for 3 months of consistent solid training.

The constant training also brought with it one unexpected result, injury! Nothing serious, but for the first time in a long while I was experiencing pain directly related to the amount of training I was doing. The most exasperating, had to be the shoulder problems I began to experience with my increase in swimming. Since swimming is my weakest sport, I started my training with an increased focus in January. By March, I had a persistent soreness in my upper back, and a shooting pain down my back and arm when I tilted my head back. My arm would also go numb intermittently for no apparent reason. This made me realize I had some definite flaws in my stroke that needed some immediate attention. I started focusing on my arm NOT crossing over in front of my head during my entry and the pain has dissipated somewhat. I must also give credit to my excellent masseuse Chaye Wise and my chiropractor Dr. Roberson. Both have been instrumental in keeping me in one piece.

My singular focus to this point has been getting in enough training to be competitive at the Columbia triathlon . I rode the course a few weeks ago and it is tough. This makes Chris Lieto's course record of 56 minutes and change that much more amazing! Now that I feel I have enough fitness in the bank for Columbia, I have started to focus on the rest of the season. I am returning to the Tri-to-Win sprint triathlon again this year in an attempt at another PR. I am currently leading the fund raising for the event so if you want to donate to a great cause check out my fund raising page.

This also seems to be the year my training buddies have talked me into doing their races..... I have scheduled a duathlon, something I haven't done in at least 5 years, to support a friend, and my marathon crazed buddy Miquel, has finally talked me into doing a marathon (more on that in a future post).

On the purely cycling side of things I will undertake a USCF time trial for the first time in years in mid June. If memory servers me these are perhaps the hardest rides I have ever done, there really is no hiding in the race of truth.

Random thoughts....

I have put my rides, blogging, some resources etc., into one place, my website at www.clarencecycling.com. This lets people know what I'm up to, where I'm riding, and how to join me if they are so motivated. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think.

The Real Axion review.... it's coming after Columbia, I promise........

Mavic Tri Pro shoes... just got a pair..... review to follow.

Promotional note..... I have just met a triathlete from TriUnify, an organization dedicated to getting people and youth of color into the sport. Check out their website at www.triunify.com

Race season is upon us...... let's get fit out there....

Peace....

Rob

Weakness and how to get rid of it....

2009-01-24T12:12:00.004-05:00

At the beginning of the year, I looked back through my training journal and tried to decide where I could coax a bit more speed out of my soon to be 44 year old body. Two areas jumped out at me immediately. My weaknesses...... swimming and transitions. In most of my races I was generally dead on in predicting my bike and run splits. My swim splits were ALWAYS slower than I would have anticipated. I also noticed, when comparing my times to those around me, my transitions were generally slower. Last year I made a small step in the right direction to lower my transition time by investing in speed laces. Still, I realized there was definitely some room for improvement. I plan to actually PRACTICE transitions this year. I may also invest in a pair of triathlon cycling shoes to speed up the lengthy, but necessary, process of tightening of my road shoes.

With the goal in mind of knocking a few more minutes of my times, it became evident I could really get some bang for my training time buck in the pool. I began a diligent training plan by reviewing my training for last year's St. Anthony's triathlon. I had projected a swim time of around 38 minutes for the 1500 meter swim, I actually finished in about 41 1/2 minutes. While the current was a factor, a bigger factor was lack of significant preparation with longer swims. I had only done 3 continuous swims longer than 1000 meters. This left me with less confidence for the distance than I would have liked. So this year after six weeks of short, hard interval work I plan on doing, at the MINIMUM, 1 longer swim every week up until race week when I will taper.

I am also engaging in an early swim focused training plan. Meaning more swimming early in my preparation when the weather is colder and less amenable to running / riding outside. So far the plan appears to be paying dividends. I swam a 200 yard PR this week smashing my best swim time for the distance by a whopping 19 seconds! My 100 repeats have also been consistently faster. Right now I am keeping the workouts to around 1200 yards, but I plan on increasing them in the coming weeks.

One of the things I like least about winter is running on the treadmill, ughhhhh. As luck would have it, I am always engaged in a search for a better gym and I happened to find one close to my job that has, *GASP*, an indoor track (it actually has 2). Now at least once a week I take my lunch break by running in circles for 30 minutes or so. This has proved to be a great incentive to get out there and run!

Other stuff.....

About a year ago I purchased an Elite Real Axiom trainer for the bike. I have been using it diligently since it got cold and next blog will feature a full review.....

I hope the new (and cold, BRRRRR) year finds everyone happy and in shape.

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

Happy New Year, yada yada yada

2009-01-14T19:15:00.003-05:00

I'm back from a long holiday induced daze. The holidays provided their usual ups and downs. On the upside, being in Florida with 75 degree weather everyday made for a wonderful experience. On the downside, having to return to the low 30's and freezing wind and rain was not so great. On the upside, I did manage to get in some quality runs in the nice weather, on the downside, I managed to sabotage most of it by eating like a starving man. But enough about last year 2009 is underway! I am committed to working on my weakness, and that means a lot more SWIMMING!

I have already started that process by hitting the pool and establishing some benchmarks for this season. I also went back to last years data and was pleasantly surprised to note that I am swimming faster this year if only marginally. One bright spot was my fastest swims, while not consistent, were noticeably faster than last year. If I can just combine that top end speed with some endurance it will be an altogether better swimming experience this year.

From a spectating standpoint, this looks to be one of the most exciting years to watch cycling as well. With the rise of the Schlecks, Basso, Sastre, Cunego and the return of Armstrong, not to mention the removal of many chemically assisted riders, the racing should be wide open. I for one can't wait to watch the Giro, as it could be one of the most exciting of all time.

Speaking of excitement, if you need some video adrenaline, check out the helmet cam video of two mountain bikers on steephill.tv . If you want to know what real downhill excitement looks like this video will give you a good idea. The Stella Artois commercial is pretty funny too.

Since I'm not important enough to hold a press conference, I just announce my major objects of the year to whoever happens to be reading. I encourage you all to join me in training and, if you feel so moved, join me in some of these races as well.

Columbia Olympic Distance triathlon May 17th,2009
Goal: Sub 40 minute swim
This is a hilly race so I think cracking the 3 hour mark probably won't happen in this race. I'll look for something flatter later in the year to achieve that goal.

Tri-to-Win Sprint Triathlon June 21st, 2009
Goal: PR
I need to go sub 1:27:29. My best chance to improve will be my swim and transition times. I plan on devoting a fair amount of time to each. With luck my bike will be a bit better and my run at least as good.

Wednesday night training race series.
I NEED to get into the top ten this season. My best was twelth last year. I'll take a short break after the Tri-to -Win to focus on the bike. Hopefully this pushes me into form.

End of season: 1/2 marathon and century
I will try to improve on last years 1st ever 1/2 marathon by doing the Parks 1/2 again. On a lighter note I will train with my wife for the Seagull century, just for fun.

Misc...
I usually do some early season racing just to get an idea of my form prior to my first big race (this year it's Columbia) so don't be surprised to see a duathlon or a bike race pop onto the schedule in March or April.

Random thoughts:

I'm going to Vegas at the end of March, is there anywhere to ride a bike out there?

I hope the new year has started off well for everyone, now get out there and get in shape!

Peace and keep training

Rob

Happy Thanksgiving...

2008-11-25T23:30:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to wish everyone who reads my blog and all my training partners a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) don't pig out!!!!! I, for one, plan on a nice 4 mile run prior to Thanksgiving dinner. I also tried to do my part by teaching a tough spin class this Tuesday. So to everyone this Thanksgiving, enjoy the festivities and then go RUN!!!!

Peace, health and happiness....

Rob

The Long Season ends, The Long Season begins...

2008-11-09T23:12:00.002-05:00

Well I vanished for a while on everyone. I missed you all greatly, I hope you missed me as well. I must admit I was glad to see the "season" come to an end. I only recently started thinking of my racing as belonging to a season. This past year I had "A" races, "B" races, goals, peaks, valleys, surprises, disappointment and felt like I actually did this for more than just "fun". It was quite an experience.

The Recap:

Training started off badly last year as I was swamped by work. I managed to get in enough training to head into my first race, St. Anthony's Olympic distance triathlon, with a good idea of my level of fitness, but less confidence than I would have liked. My goal was 2:59:59, my time 3:06:59. Grade B-.

My first goal race of the year. The real challenge I thought would be the swim. This is clearly my weak leg. I was shooting for about 38:00 minutes or so. The tide would be an obstacle as I made it to shore in 41:36. My goal on the bike was 1:15:00, I rolled home in 1:15:44 so I consider this a success. I left the transition at almost 2:00:00 on the nose knowing I had to run a 59:59 10k to hit my goal. I imploded somewhere around mile 2 from a combination of inadequate calorie intake and the Florida sun. Lesson learned, I gotta eat more on the bike.

Mountains of Misery: 100 miles , 10,000 feet of climbing. Grade A. I finished, nuff said.

Tri-to-Win Sprint Triathlon: Grade A-. A replay of the first triathlon I ever did. While I improved on every leg over the first time I was hoping for a faster swim for the 400 meters. Other than that I rocked. I was actually able to push on the run, something I haven't been able to do in quite some time.

So now I was supposed to rest, which I did for a little while until I decide to hop into some bike racing. After such a long layoff from straight up bike racing I wasn't expecting much but I was competitive and managed to snag 12th place at one race. Overall a great experience and lots of fun. Grade B.

After July I began to turn my attention more and more toward running. I began preparing for my first 1/2 marathon. My goal was to break 2 hours. To push myself a bit I entered a contest to guess your own time. I guessed 1:56:56 and ran 1:56:50 good enough for a $25 gift certificate.
The long run training was probably the toughest thing I did all year and I can see how it will be beneficial next year. Grade A-. I actually think I can run this race faster next year, and I intend to try.

After the 1/2 I pretty much did NADA.... In fact I did so much NADA I gained 5 pounds in about 2 weeks. I'm not worried though, as I begin to ramp up for next year I'm sure I will shed the extra five.

Lessons learned:

You can't eat too much during a tri!
More long runs and swims.....
Preparation is better than desperation.

I had planned to try the move up to the 1/2 Ironman but I am putting that on hold until I master the Olympic. I also want a few more 1/2 marathons under my belt. I plan to kick off formal training on December 1st for the Columbia Olympic distance triathlon. I picked this as my first "A" race of next season for a few reasons. First it's later in the year so I have longer to get ready. It also means no travel which is another level of stress avoided. In addition, I ride part of the bike course fairly regularly, so I know the bike course. I probably wont break 3 hours for this event since the bike and run are both pretty hilly, but I will try to make a reasonable estimate before the race rolls around.

Other news:

Whenever you get a chance check out my new website Clarence Cycling. It's devoted to all things cycling including triathlon. I'm looking for feedback so all comments and suggestions are appreciated. Now that I plan to be back on a regular training schedule, I should also be back on a regular blogging schedule. One passion drives the other is seems.....

Until later...

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

Focus, focus, focus

2008-08-18T22:56:00.002-04:00

Last week was one of my best training weeks of the year. Not withstanding that I haven't swam a lap in 2 weeks, my running was solid and my cycling was, well FUN! For only the second week in my training I actually completed my prescribed run training to the letter. No missed workouts, no dialing down the intensity. Just followed my training to the letter. As I enter the last 4 weeks until my 1/2 marathon I am feeling stronger and stronger. My running as improved greatly, and I am even starting to feel like my sub 8 minute miles may be returning to me (hopefully for good).

I had started to ponder the eventuality of losing fitness due to age. Then I chanced across this weeks Washington Post magazine which told the story of two African-American brothers ages 84 and 89 who were competing in the Senior Olympics. These guys have been swimming for 50 years or so and apparently have no plans of stopping! I figured if these guys can keep going then I have no excuses. That, coupled with the fact I went on a 50+ mile ride and ended up being the YOUNGEST rider, made me feel I have a long happy athletic career ahead of me.

On October 4th the 12th annual Becca's Run 5k takes place in my Woodmoor neighborhood. The start is up the block (literally) from my house and I have made it a tradition of hosting a post run coffee and donut party (donuts from the FABULOUS Woodmoor bakery) at my house. All are welcome, all you have to do is trudge the 3.1 miles and RSVP with the number of donuts you wish to eat. Showers are available as well. Please arrive early if you do attend as the streets are closed off to accommodate the race.

Coming soon to Tri-ing Times Ahead.... Calculators!

Ever wonder how fast you need to go to say finish that 12 mile ride in 40 minutes? This is the type of thing I ponder all the time before races. So to make that a little easier for me and all those involved, Tri-ing Times Ahead will be adding calculator gadgets for swimming, running and cycling in the not to distant future. I hope you find this helpful the next time you need to calculate your next 40k time trial (or 5k run, or well you get the picture).

Random Thoughts....

Summer seems like a great time to plan your winter schedule so I am planning a few winter indoor training sessions. Trainers provided but you need to bring your own bike...... My wife made me a deal the other day, if I could get ride of three bikes, I could get a new one. Well 1 bike is gone, another I have a buyer for so 1 to go..... Now I just have to figure out what other bike I want. Of course these are the types of problems I like to have........

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

Re-evaluating the season. Again......

2008-08-11T23:28:00.006-04:00

It's been fun competing this year. I achieved most of my goals or came very close. So now with all of my goal races for the year finished, I started to consider how best to use the rest of the season. Since running was a weakness I decided to focus on running for a while. I have probably run more in the last two months than I did in the last six. Hopefully this will pay off on Sept. 14th when I attempt my first half marathon. So far my speed work has been encouraging and my endurance has been OK. If I can stay consistent for the next 5 weeks, hopefully my goal of a sub 2 hour race will come to fruition.

Looking back on the season is often overlooked as a means of improving your FUTURE performance. By reading over my training journal, I realized that one of the main reasons I suffered such a poor 10K at St. Anthony's triathlon was because I failed to take in enough fuel. I also didn't adequately hydrate on the run. Part of that was due to the fact that the swim and bike took place while it was relatively cool. However by the time the run rolled around the temperature had risen 5 - 7 degrees. This was enough to significantly increase my water intake needs. By carefully scrutinizing my diary I was able to correct this when I did the mountains of misery and I never felt drained for energy the whole ride, despite the fact that it was a significantly longer event. I also realized that scheduling a race so early in the season was probably, if not a mistake, then an over estimation of my ability to train adequately during the cold Maryland winter. Accordingly I have schedule my first Olympic distance race a month later next year. If I can train more diligently during this winter I will consider returning to St. Anthony's in 2010.

Having reviewed my training for the year, and still possessing a fair bit of fitness, I plan to try to participate in a few bike races or duathlons just for fun to finish off the season. However, before I begin to focus to much on next year a few acknowledgments are in order. So without further ado, I present the Rob's Training Awards for 2008 (hell everyone else has an award show, why not me?....)

Best Training partner: Jeff - Aside from his ride anywhere, anytime, mentality, he's a good friend to boot and since I can't drop him any more he pushes me just as much as I push him.

Best Non-training partner: Lisa, my wife, has been very supportive , what with the long hours in the pool, on the bike etc. That said, next year I want you to take the Best Training partner award HONEY :-)

Most missed training partner: Miguel, I know you had your first born, but we MISS you man! Drop all the running and get back on the bike!

Most improved: Mike M. Very impressive Mike, now if you can cut down those 8 minute transitions you may just win your age group!

Of course I enjoyed training with everyone, remembering the funny stuff, and trying to forget the suffering.

One pet peeve for the year tho..... no one wants to come with me on the Sunday fast ride, c'mon guys, I know it's fast but hey we've all been dropped before, no shame OK?????

Gadget review:

As I mentioned in a earlier blog this year I purchased a Real Axiom trainer. Over all I have been pleased, but since the weather has been so nice I haven't used it that much. I have used it more than the last time I blogged so here are a few more things of interest.

I dropped $40 on the Alpe D'Huez DVD. Now I have actually ascended the Alpe twice. I must say the actually climb is MUCH HARDER! Now this shouldn't really be news. Its hard to completely and accurately reproduce any real climb on a trainer. One of the more obvious limitations of the Real Axiom trainer is it only reproduces grades up to 8%. Of course the Alpe has grades up to 12% and has an average grade of 8.5% so that explains some of the discrepancies. The course is easy to install and the video is of very good quality. It's a bit amusing watching the "real riders" who are struggling up the climb. In fact, watching some of the video riders will give you an impression of just how hard the climb really is. At 8.5 miles it a good hill climbing workout. On the Real Axiom sight some people have posted times in the 32 to 33 minute range for the climb, which is impressive and makes me think they don't really need the trainer! On little thing I missed are the switchback signs. On the climb up to Alpe D' Huez each switchback has a sign that tells you what number it is and they counts down all the way to 1. This was a great source of motivation as I got closer to the top of climb when I did it 1994. Unfortunately the signs are not really visible on the video. I did, however, see the grass I laid down in when I bonked on my first attempt in 1993. I have to admit, I had to chuckle as I zipped by it on the video. Since Alpe D' Huez is such a monumental climb and such an icon of the Tour de France, after the season winds down I will be throwing a ride the Alpe party featuring French wine, cheese, baguettes, and an opportunity for those so motivated to ride the Alpe (on the trainer of course). Best time wins a bottle of wine!

I'm still working on a full review of the Real Axiom, probably to arrive sometime in September so stay tuned. And if anyone out there has done any LAN racing with it yet I would like to know. I tried a preliminary setup but couldn't quite get it to work. I'm stubborn though and I haven't given up yet.

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

Where I was, where I am, where I'm going and my apologies for being gone so long....

2008-08-03T23:34:00.003-04:00

I've missed blogging..... but I have been busy. So a little catching up is in order. When last we spoke (or I spoke I guess) I was preparing for one of my A races and reviewing gadgets. My legs were also rubbery for climbing all Memorial day. So what happened?

Tri-to Win Sprint Triathlon June 15th Westminster MD.

The race went well for me. I set a new PR for the course taking 2 minutes off my bike time and running slightly faster than 2 years ago. My swim time was only slightly faster which was disappointing, but I plan to devote significant time to swimming in the near future since this is clearly my limiting discipline. The other cool thing was I convinced a couple of friends who had never done a tri to participate. They did great although one of them had an 8 minute transition time due to having their race number blowing away a few times! Other than that, the race was great. We had great weather and the race organization did a great job as always. I plan to participate next year as well.

Once the Tri- to Win was over I had accomplished most of my major goals for the year. I was a little lost. I hadn't planned anything for later in the year so I just decided to relax and go with the flow, ya know, run when I felt like it, swim when I felt like it, ride when, well you get the picture. With the improving weather and longer daylight I decided to resurrect an old ride that used to take place a few years ago.

Thursday thunder is now a staple for myself and a few friends. This ride hits just about every tough hill in Rock Creek park. Its a great test of your climbing legs and a great way to get your appetite ready for Thursday's dinner. Climbing with your friends builds great camaraderie (or animosity depending on their climbing ability and gearing).

After doing a few weeks of this I started to notice my fitness was improving. Realizing I was near a season peak I decided to jump into a training race in Greenbelt. This series is run every Wednesday evening from April through August and is a great way to test your bike form. I went into my first bike race in over two year not really expecting anything. Bike racing form and triathlon form can be very different things. Despite this, I managed to hang with the lead group and managed to finish 16th. My 16th probably could have been better but I forgot some golden rules of road racing. First and foremost, be in the first 5 to 10 riders and avoid using all the unnecessary energy that results from having to chase past riders being dropped from the field. I spent WAY TOO MUCH time in the back of the field doing just that. I did eventually move up but I was toast by the time the sprint started. I went back two weeks later hoping to improve to a single digit placing, but was instead rudely dropped with 3 miles to go. I managed to chase hard enough to snag 20th place. Not great but at least consistent. It also struck me that if I want to do more road racing I need to change my training to adapt to the much less steady pace by incorporating some shorter harder intervals.

All this lazing around made me decide I needed to add a goal or two for the end of the season. Since my run had let me down to some extent at St. Anthony's I decided a 1/2 marathon would be in order to get some run focused work into my training. So on Sept. 14th I will participate in my first foray into the double digit running world. I'll keep in touch and let you know how that works for me. I was also looking for a late season triathlon but nothing really fit into my schedule so I had decided to just bag any more serious training until next year, when I came across an add for a triathlon in Jamaica in late October. Hmmm seemed perfect, the wife wanted to take a vacation this might be a good chance to get a last race for the season in. I also ran across an add for a race in Bermuda, so there may be some warm weather races in my future.

Gadget Update

I have been using Garmin's forerunner 305 quite a bit lately so I wanted to give everyone an update. In my last post I noted a few minor quirks let me update them.

1) Heart rate is so small as to be useless. Well as it turns out you can change what is displayed on each and every screen. I put heart rate into a window which made it easy to read and created a display with all the data I was interested in seeing.

2) Too many options to remember the correct sequence of buttons to push. Well the ability to create screen with the data you want to see more or less solved this problem. The good thing is the instructions are pretty clear and helpful. You can set the watch in the mode you want BEFORE you head out making the need to switch the display more or less unnecessary.

3) With time you don't forget to switch sports, however, if don't reset the watch after switching sport a run and then a bike on the same day ends up showing up as a multi sport workout instead of s separate run and separate bike. I find this somewhat annoying.

I did have the opportunity to record a course (that is, save a workout over certain terrain for reuse). I could then compete with myself over the same course. This is a good way to push yourself when running alone. I will test the workout feature this month and get back to all those who are interested. Oh one other thing, when I started using the Garmin on my bike I didn't remove my bike computer. It was interesting to note that my bike computer's speed readout seems to accurate for instantaneous speed, although I think distance wise the Garmin is more accurate. I still have a lot to learn about the Garmin but the more I do the more pleased I am. I may even splurge for the cadence accessory (although at $40-$60 I think it's overpriced).

Future stuff.....

I'm planning an Alpe d'Huez party. Since this year Tour de France was decided on Alpe d'Huez (apologies to my wife who became a tour window for 3 weeks) I decided to invite folks over for French food, French wine , famous Alpe d'Huez moments (including some of my own) and offer them a chance to ride the fabled mountain. My trainer has a video of the fabled climb so any one wanting to make the climb will be more than welcome. I did the actually climb in 80 minutes in 1994 (about twice as long as it took Carlos Sastre this year's winner on the Alpe). There will be a bottle of wine in it for the fastest to the top.

Well that's all for now.... I'll be back much quicker this time with news, ideas, stories, and general trivia for all who are interested. Send me some feedback about what you like, what you don't, and what you'd like to see included. I'll do my best to include it.

Peace and good training....

Rob

Miserable Mountains, Gimmicky Gadgetry, and Hellish Heatwaves,

2008-06-09T22:11:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been a while since we last blogged together. Not to worry, I have been thinking about you and I have many things to tell you. When last we spoke I was preparing to tackle the Mountains of Misery. A 101 mile ride with 10,000+ feet of climbing. This eventful ride takes place in Southwestern Virginia very close to Virginia Tech. Before I get into the gory details of the ride let me first give thanks to the people who made the ride possible. First and foremost, my wife for being understanding during those long weekend hours I spent on the road and in the gym. She was quite helpful, being very supportive of my training and I can't thank her enough. I also want to thank my buddies, Jeff and Chris, who did the ride with me and made a long day in the saddle not only tolerable but enjoyable. All these accolades beg the question, "How miserable was it?" Surprisingly, not nearly as miserable as I had anticipated.

The day started out ... COLD! Evidently its cold early in the morning in the mountains. I was decked out in my King of the Mountains climbing outfit for the day and the only thing that kept me from freezing my gonads off was the, imagine this, constant climbing. We went barely 200 yards before the first climbing started. As we were climbing for the first hour I saw an old guy (not me or my buddies) weaving up one of the easier climbs. Since we were less than 20 miles into the ride I couldn't help thinking, this guys is in for a BAD day.

After climbing more or less steadily for the first 20-25 miles we hit what is probably the highlight of the ride, in terms of fun, a 7 or 8 miles switchback descent. It reminded me of being in France and swooping down the Alpine descents. At the bottom was one of the friendly rest stops stocked to the brim with everything a hungry century rider could want. Fruit, PB and J, water, Gatorade, all kinds of stuff. This was also the point where you had a fateful decision to make, 101 or 124 miles. I looked incredulously at some of the riders who followed the 125 mile sign and set off in the other direction. The next 30 miles or so were rolling hills but very manageable. This despite the fact that my riding partners were by this time cursing me out for convincing them to do this ride. I would have felt worse for them, except that I DID NOT convince them to carry enough gear to sustain a small army. Granted my jersey pockets were stuffed with food but I think Chris had a KFC restaurant in his back pack (more on that later...).

At mile 55 or so you hit the last rest stop before the first BIG climb. Now I have done some big climbs in my day so I should have remembered that some of the worst climbs start with the what seems relatively easy slopes. So when I began cruising up this first BIG climb I should have been suspicious. NOPE, I just kept going at a good pace oblivious to what might wait ahead. The slope curved slightly to the left and into the trees, still cruising, up ahead I started to see people walking hmmm... Slope now turns slight right OUCCCCCHHHHHHH! in what seemed like 2" the slope went from 4-5% to 12-15%. Talk about leg burning! I saw (no lie) in the 10 feet in front of me, about 10 people walking, 2 people fall from the sudden slope increase, and a carbon fiber recumbent rider stuck in the middle of the rode unable to get started again. So now I'm dying, trying to avoid the mayhem in front of me (did I mention I only had a 39x27) and then this guys comes cranking by me, hits the now STEEPER part, gets a cramp and rides right off the rode! No he wasn't hurt, but it gives you an idea of how hard this particular section of the climb was. Luckily there was a rest stop right over the top. This was the only rest (other than the finish) that I REALLY REALLY needed. About a minute of 2 later Jeff and Chris roll over the top cursing me for the next, oh, 10 minutes or so.

Luckily for us the next 10 miles or so are downhill or mostly downhill and it also took us back past the start line. Chris who by now has been complaining about feeling dead decides to put the rucksack he was carrying on his back in the car. Feeling 10 pounds lighter he began to feel better (imagine that...). This was the very deceptive / demoralizing part of the ride. From mile 80 to about mile 90, some of the steepest climbs in the entire ride reside. These would have been bad enough in a 40 or 60 mile ride but at mile 80 they really sap your strength. I felt proud that I got over all of them but I would pay later.

Mile 90 to 95 is kinda cool. Mostly downhill, you would think this is good except for the fact it makes you climb the last 5 miles out of the hole you just descended into. The first mile or so, not so bad..... the next 2 miles, uh tough, but manageable. The last 2 miles, I think I have blocked them out like any bad experience. It took me 30 minutes to go the last 2 miles. It was also the only climb I really had to stop and rest on. I really needed out about another 30 gear inches or so. What the made the entire experience worthwhile was

1) Getting my shirt
2) Getting a massage at the finish.... (the food was pretty good too)

What sucked...

1) Some guy did it in a bit over 5 hours ( 8.5 hours ride time for me).
2) Jeff and Chris couldn't get shirts to fit them (somebody copped em first)

Would I do it again? Ask me in a year.....

Gadgets......

I love gadgets. I am a geek I confess. Bike gadgets are some of my favorite gadgets but I must confess they have a history of letting me down. So it was with some trepidation that I purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305 (on sale at REI). The forerunner is a GPS enable running / bike computer. It will tell you how far, how fast, your pace, your heart rate, your elevation gain/descent while running or cycling (you can also get cadence with an accessory). It also comes with some cool software to let you download all the information onto your computer. So here is my impression so far.

The Good

1) Its much smaller than the previous Garmin GPS running computers. Still a bit bulky, but significantly better than previous models.

2) The software works really well. Downloads are easy and the information can be viewed graphically to impress your friends!

3) The GPS mileage is much more accurate than guessing how many miles you ran.

4) One option allows you to pace yourself or race against yourself, very helpful for speed work and tempo runs.

5) There a bunch of other features I haven't even tried yet but they look promising, such as creating workouts with the software and uploading them into the watch for use when you train.

6) The battery seemed to last much longer with the newer model.

7) You can now record a brick workout with 1 device!!!! YEAH!

8) Moving the watch from the bike to the my arm for the run is easy with Garmin's multi-sport accessory.

The Bad (minor stuff mostly)

1) Heart rate is VERY VERY small and hard to read making it practically useless when running.

2) With so many functions it can be tough to remember the correct sequence of buttons to press to do something.

3) If you forget to switch sports on the watch your run can end up looking like a REALLY slow bike ride (which I did once by accident).

Even with those minor problems I think the Forerunner is worth the investment.

Another gadget I've been playing with is training peaks software which is supposed to give you all kinds of revolutionary information about how your training is progressing. I will give a complete report once I have used up the 14 day free trial.....

The HEAT IS ON!!!!!!

During the mountains of misery ride we were blessed with near perfect weather. However, the last few days have been anything but! I went running Saturday and didn't stop sweating until almost Sunday! Sunday, as luck would have it, I was doing the Bicycle Place ride so at least the ride was done by 10:30 AM. With less than a week until my last scheduled triathlon of the season I plan on waiting out the heat even to the point of getting on the treadmill if necessary. This next race is somewhat special since this race was the first triathlon I ever did. I hope to better my course time, at least in the swim, since that is by far my weakest link in the sport and the one I have the best chance of improving on. I'm just hoping the weather cooperates.

Until we get some relief from this heat.....

Stay frosty......

Peace & Luv,

Rob

The year ahead.....

2008-05-12T14:20:00.002-04:00

With my biggest race of the year behind me, I had to decide what to do with the rest of the year. Being a personal trainer I often have too convince my clients not to try to do too many things so they can maximize their goals. So of course, what do I do? I try to train simultaneously for a 101 mile century with 10,000 feet of climbing and a sprint triathlon. I knew this would be tough since trying to do enough climbing and endurance work would ultimately blunt my speed and make speed work on the track more difficult. So taking my own advice, I decided to make my sprint triathlon a lower priority and concentrate on the century. If I can't practice what I preach, I might as well stop preaching.

The ride I'm doing is called the Mountains of Misery. I haven't done a century in quiet some time and this is a tough one. It ends with a 5 mile climb. Check out the link for all the gory details.

My training has been going pretty well. I have been feeling strong on the bike and the last few weekends I have done upwards of 50 miles each day with lots of climbing and felt pretty good at the end of the ride. For those of you familiar with the climbs along Beach Drive, I have even started going up Forsythe Ave. on my way home just to try to get an idea of how to suffer at the end of a tough ride (for those not familiar with Forsythe Ave, it is about a 20% grade with speed bumps!, Ouch!).

I plan to take a short break after my June 15th Sprint triathlon and then start preparing for my first 1/2 marathon. I realize that my weakness in triathlon lately has been my run ( I know my swim is my weakest event, but I have been steadily improving in that event). My running seems to have been deteriorating a bit so I decided to focus on it for a while in an attempt to finish strongly in any other tri's I decide to do (either this year or next).

I have been trying to include more and more of my friends on my weekend rides so if I don't have your e-mail address, drop me a line and I will include you on my weekly e-mail ride list.

Hope to see you all soon.

Peace and keep training.....

Rob

The Day After.....

2008-04-28T12:21:00.003-04:00

Well my first big event of the year has come and gone and like most of life there was were some good things and some not so good things. Let's start with the good stuff.....

The Triathlon....

2 big thumbs up, WAY UP! For an event that has 4000 + participants, this is one of the best events I have ever entered. I fully intend to enter this event next year. Every thing was well organized, every thing went off on time and the event and sport expo was great even if I didn't buy anything.

The Competition

Every once in a while a pro or top level amateur shows up at an event I do, well there were at least 3 whole waves of both at St. Anthonys! When I arrived at the transition area on Saturday I came across Faris Al-Sultan. For those of you not familiar with Faris he is the 2005(?) Hawaii ironman world champion. I also noted that Faris' bike was probably in excess of 10 grand (hell his handlebar assembly looked to be around 2 or 3 grand. There is nothing like riding with the big boys to get the adrenaline pumping. U.S. Olympian Matthew Reed ended up winning in the ridiculous time of 1 hour 46 minutes and change. Andy Potts who finished second completed the swim in a ridiculous 18:21! When I entered the swim - bike transition I heard the race announcer say the Greg Bennett was chasing the two leaders (mentioned above) while running at a 5 minute per mile pace! So make no mistake, there were some amazing athletes present.

The Course

The swim was in a bay so that was a good thing. The day prior to the race I saw a dolphin jumping around so that was kind of cool as well. The water temperature was a comfy 74 degrees. So what could go wrong you ask? The waves were a bit high so it made getting a good rhythm going tough, and when we turned for shore the tide was constantly pushing me away from the swim exit. I actually ended up swiming perpendicular to the swim exit to compensate and I ended up getting out of the water in 41:38 about 3 and a half minutes better than my previous best. So I was happy about that.

The Bike.

Rumoured to be completely flat, the bike was MOSTLY flat. There were some stretches of false flat but you really couldn't ask for much flatter. The one downside to the bike course was the number of turns which made it a bit hard to keep your speed up. All in all, a very doable course, I was slightly off my projected bike time, but only by about 1 or 2 %. Coming so early in my season I really can't complain about that.

The Transitions

When you do a race with more than 4000 participants the transition area is HUGE! Most of my bike - run transition was just getting out of the transition area! I will say that the speed laces I purchased must have knocked a good 30 - 60 seconds off my transition, so I highly recommend them. I will also highly recommend Body Glide for the swim - bike transition. For one thing it prevented the nasty neck rash that I developed the last time I did an olympic distance tri, a result of the wetsuit rubbing as a turned my head to breathe. It also made getting the wetsuit off immensely easier.

The Run

OK the run is on a nice out and back course, it is also under the BLAZING Florida heat! When I got off the bike I was right on schedule to break the 3 hour mark (my goal for the race). I needed to run a 9 minute mile for the 10k, something I normally can do, no problem. Somewhere during the run (by my recollection about mile 1.5), someone cut off the power and I struggled to a 1:03 10K. Arrgh! I missed my mark by about 6 minutes! that was the minute per mile that I lost in the 10K. My last Olympic tri I ran 56 minutes for the 10k so I guess I have to focus on the run for next year.

The Miscellaneous

We found a good English pub before the race and I had the best mixed drink I've had in years. It's called a dark and story (Dark rum and ginger beer very invigorating). They also made excellent black and tans (they received a 1999 perfect pour award from Guiness), top that off with the Guiness burger (beef marinated in Guiness and onions) and you everything a hungry triathlete needs post race.

Random thoughts...

2 days prior to the race there was a report of a triathlete attacked by a shark in San Diego. This seemed like a bad omen, but the sharks evidently were alarmed by having 4000 people in the water and they left us alone.

Use tri bike transport.... I used the service this year which allows you to drop off your bike locally and pick it up at the race. As someone who has traveled frequently with my bike, I must say, this saved alot of time and effort. On top of that it's only $25 more than the airlines charge and it's a whole lot more reliable, plus there's no need to assemble / disassemble your bike, a nice perk.

Pre-Race neurosis....

A race buddy of mine, who shall remain nameless, evidently was a bit perturbed that the hotel they were staying at had the nerve to book a wedding reception the night before the big race. After verbally abusing the hotel staff my buddy managed to compose themselves enough to actually try and get some sleep. Alas, all the water my buddy drank to hydrate for the race, undermined their effort by forcing them to wake up every hour on the hour. Moral of the story: Be nice to others or the race Gods will get you.......

Things to icky to comtemplate....

What do you do at the 750 meter mark in the swim if you have to pee???? Well if you ask most guys they will say just pee..... If you ask most women, apparently, the thought of having their own urine in their wetsuits with them makes them say "I'll just hold it..." We did find one woman who admitted to peeing in her wetsuit and we noticed no one was willing to carry her wetsuit for her. The moral of this story: If you're a girl just lie about it.....

In conclusion.....

Well it was an EXPERIENCE....... I look forward to it again next year (after I get over the soreness). Now I move onto to my next goal, a century in four weeks time (more on that later). Till then keep safe and keep training.....

Peace

Rob

28 #&@!!#^ degrees.....

2008-04-14T13:55:00.003-04:00

Sorry about the blogging delay, but with my first big event of the season coming up (not to mention taxes and family) I have been a bit preoccupied. So what does the title of this months entry mean? Well that was the temperature at start time of my first race of the season, the Central Park Duathlon (March 30th). Yeah it was that cold! Luckily (if you can call it that) I had brought clothes to change into after the race and I was able to use those to stay warm in the race itself! I had hoped to better my time from last October when I did this same race. The weather, however, had other plans. In addition, I found out one of my tri buddies, Eric, was injured and would have to miss both this race and the St Anthony's tri in April. I felt bad for Eric knowing how hard he was training. At least he can defer the St. Anthony's race until next year. I did however, have his sister Melissa for company and she soldiered on with me in the brutal conditions. What amazed me more than anything about the race was the insane racers in SHORTS! Yes, people we racing as if the temperature was in the 60's not the 20's! I managed to finish in a respectable 1:19 for the 2m run, 12m bike, 2m run. My bike time was almost identical from last year, but my runs were substantially slower (it was really hard to get and stay warm). Anyway I tried out my reconfigured Kestrel (replaced the drop bars with cowhorns and aero bars) and the new setup worked OK. I say only OK because, the bars were slipping just a bit and I still think I am a bit too stretched out. I may go to a shorter stem for a bit more comfort.

Other than the trials and tribulations of racing, training seems to be rolling along well. I took 5 days and jetted off to St. John with the wife for a relaxing vacation. Nothing like splashing around the Carribean to take the edge off. This was a recovery week in a big way. I came back feeling refreshed and rested and my first time back on the bike the legs felt great. I am looking forward to renewed vigor for the remaining weeks of training. Hope to see you all in Tampa.

Peace

Rob

Unremarkably consistent...

2008-03-18T11:13:00.002-04:00

As a personal trainer, I always tell my clients that the one thing that will benefit them, above all, is consistency. Well I have been unremarkably consistent for the last 3 months and I have seen the benefits in a few different ways.

1) I have dropped about 5 pounds from my high of 183 pounds.
2) I have increased my continuous swim length to 800 yards (about 1/2 my projected swim).
3) I have steadily increased my intensity.

So while my training hours have stayed more or less constant, I have started to push the pace a bit. Of course I would have done well to remember the old driving safety commercial, "Speed kills". Ignoring this has caused me to experience all manner of small aches and pains. A sore back here, tired arms there, sore Achilles etc... U get the picture. Some of this was due to the sheer enthusiasm I have experienced at being able to go and actually ride my bike OUTSIDE!!!! While I am enjoying my new trainer, there is no substitute for the great outdoors. I went out on one of my favorite (hilly) rides this weekend and felt great... until about 5 hours later when my back began to acknowledge the stress of riding up and down actual grades. Still it was worth it to experience that "wind in your face feeling...".

I am planning to really push the next few weeks racing both this weekend and the next. I will be attempting my first USCF race in 2 years followed by an easy run. Then the following weekend I head to NYC for a duathlon. These races are just a way of seeing where I am in my preparation. In fact, the duathlon is approximately 1/2 of the St. Anthony's tri so it will give me some perspective on my race legs, even if there is no feeling quite like the second run in a duathlon.

After pushing myself for the next 2 weekends I plan to jet off to St. John in the Caribbean and take a much needed rest. This will be the start of my taper for Tampa. I feel fairly good about my progress, but now I need to get serious about my nutrition to make sure I have the fuel necessary to make the most of my training. Here's hoping everyone is doing the same.

Peace,

and good training....

Rob

No time for.. blogging.....

2008-02-26T13:11:00.001-05:00

I must confess I have been deficient in my blogging, but for good reason; I have been training! I have been able to get very consistent with my training and now with a little over 8 weeks to go, I am starting to feel good about my fitness. My weight has dropped (I'm down 6 and a half pounds since early January), my running has gotten stronger and even my abysmal swimming seems to be improving. Make no mistake however, I am still dreading that mile swim.

I have started my 2-a-days (meaning two workouts in one day) and I have begun to feel some of the fatigue I anticipate in Tampa in April. This is good though, because at least I'll be prepared for it. Last night in my swim class, my legs were dead from running and it really showed, my 600 yard time was a minute and a half slower than my previous best. I have been gradually increasing my long swims until eventually, I'll be up to 1650 yards in the pool. Hopefully by then I'll start to feel confident.

The weather in Maryland has started to cooperate and I am now able to do my runs outside; stationary training is VERY, VERY boring as I'm sure anyone training during this part of the year must know. I was speaking with another triathlete at the gym who does Ironman distance races and he told me he does 2 to 3 hours on the treadmill to prepare for early season Ironmans (Ironmen????). I would have to be committed to even run 45 minutes on one of those things.

On the bike I have been keeping my spin classes going and also using my new indoor trainer, the Travel Trac by Real Axiom. I promise a full review in an upcoming blog. The trainer has actually kept me working really hard on the bike and I feel I have my best January fitness in years. I even took the radical step or renewing my USCF (United States Cycling Federation) license and planning some road races to get the competitive juices flowing. I am looking forward to a strong start to the season.

Good luck to everyone out there and....

keep training :-)

Rob

Chaffing, Kickboards, and other training gremlins...

2008-02-09T23:15:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while, and ironically enough it hasn't been because I've been TOO busy. Actually quite the contrary, I have gotten in some quality time training the last few weeks. I have gotten some helpful training aids (more on that later) and I have had mostly productive training sessions. Despite all the good fortune, there is always a training gremlin (like those buggers in Bugs Bunny or the Progressive commercials) lurking, ready to pounce. Mine caught up to me last Sunday on my first run over an hour. It was a little chilly and I threw on the first pair of tights I could find. Bad idea. They were kind of old and a bit tight, I ignored it. About halfway through my run I felt a sharp stinging in my groin area. Not really pain, just kind pin pricks so I ignored them like all guys do..... Another bad idea. I got home to find my base layer blood soaked and my skin chafed to the bone (ok not quite but it certainly felt that way!). To make matters worse I had swim class the next day and of course we started out just kicking. Nothing like a tight swimsuit and constant kicking to give the raw groin area some stimulation!

OK but enough of my problems, outside of that bad one two punch I have started to feel pretty good with my progress. My hundreds in the pool have started to fall, and my running is certainly stronger. My only laggard at the moment is my cycling which is traditionally my strongest discipline. Mostly due to the weather, I haven't spent much time on the bike. It has been my intention all winter to get a CompuTrainer. This highly recommended training aid however, was somewhat out of my budget at almost $1700. So I decided to get a cheaper alternative. The Performance Travel Trac Real Axiom trainer. This trainer has alot of the same features that the Computrainer has, but with the 20% discount Perfomace was throwing in it turned out to be about a third of the price. So far I have only played with it, but my initial impression so far is favorable. I plan to do a full review in a future tri-ing Times blog.

Notes:

A blog or two ago I was chatting up Polar's personal trainer FREE web site. So far I still approve, but recently the website has been unavailable for no apparent reason. Being in the IT field I know this happens but I was still surprised at the frequency it was happening to polar's site.

A number of my tri buddies have been sick lately so I'm sending out my best wishes... Get well everyone and get back to training!

I made a couple of new tri buddies in swim class so hopefully I will have some new riding partners when the good weather finally rolls around.

Peace and keep training......

Rob

3 months, time to get serious...

2008-01-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well my calendar says I've got 91 days left until race day. Now that I have some solid training behind me and I'm starting to gain just a tad of confidence, I'm starting to actually set some goals for the race. For me it's not enough to just finish the race. Since I know I have the base fitness to complete the race, I want to strive for something more; I would like to finish in under 3 hours.

To accomplish this feat I first need to accurately assess where my fitness is now and how much I can/must improve over the next 91 days. To that end I have scheduled tests (i.e time trials) in two sports for the upcoming weekend. I intend to do a series of 3 mile time trials on the my newly configured Kestrel. I tested myself on a particular stretch of rode about 4 months ago when I was preparing for a duathlon so I have a good idea what kind of time I should be capable of. I suspect I will be a bit slower due to a decrease in saddle time and some adjustment to the new bike, but I know I will improve once the weather cooperates and warms up. After all the bike is my string sport.

More of confidence builder for me will be my 300 yard time trials in the pool. I need to get an idea of where my swimming workouts have gotten me so far. I plan to repeat these test every 3 -4 weeks to gauge progress and fitness. I plan to do my running time trial next week. Running fast for me is bit more mentally challenging then the other two sports so I try to set it apart so I can concentrate on just that workout for the week.

I had my first long (for me anyway) run today. I actually felt pretty good. While swimming is the sport I have the least confidence about, running is by far the sport it takes me the longest to feel comfortable with (I guess it's that whole weight bearing thing). So far though, I have felt pretty good and since I seem to be staying close to an 8 minute mile in training I'm hoping for some good times in the next few weeks.

While I haven't really started practicing, in the back of my mind are those dreaded transitions. I have already been sold on lock laces to speed up my previously snail-ish bike to run transition. I also plan to invest in a healthy supply of Body-Glide to get that damn wetsuit off (provided of course I get to use it).

Other random thoughts:

I need a training partner, this training alone stuff can get lonely......
Lifting has really helped.... I should keep this stuff up.....
Can vegan cake be considered good nutrition? I had the best cookies and cream vegan cake the other day (please say yes....)
My wife is great but why won't she ride her bike in the cold????

Peace and good training...

Rob

100 days and counting....

2008-01-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

Well there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Just 100 days to go. 100 days never seemed so short. After battling some adversity the first week or so of the year, not to mention a bad cold, I have had 2 solid weeks of training. I am happy with my progress in the pool, many thanks to the swim instructors at Montgomery aquatic center for the pointers, and my running is starting to come along. Since I had some time and some money, I took my 18 year old Kestrel (the original all carbon fiber bike I might add...) and added some time trial bars, aero bars, aero brake levers and created a time trial machine! I took it out for it's inaugural ride last Saturday and it felt pretty good. I need to tweak my riding position a bit, but other than that it should be good to go for April. No more standard rode bike for time trials!

Speaking of April, how do I know today leaves me exactly 100 days before the race? Well I stumbled upon the Polar personal trainer website. This website lets you track your workouts, heart rate related stats, fitness measure and, to some extent, your events. What makes the site even better is its FREE! Just go to site and register, enter some personal profile information and you are ready to use the site. You can even register your Polar heart rate monitor (which I highly recommend) if you have one . The site will also devise a program for you based on the information you provide. While not a foolproof way to plan your training, it will at least point you in the right direction. One limitation I found with the site is you can only enter 1 event. It would be nice to be able to enter your entire racing program, but I guess you can't have everything.

In my attempt to keep work from derailing my training, I have joined the free gym in my building. At least now on days I need to stay late, I can hit the treadmill and/or the weights at lunch or in the evening. This strategy has already paid dividends as deadlines approach. Although I don't exactly look forward to the treadmill, it sure beats running in the rain, snow, sleet and cold the area has been getting lately. I hope everyone else's training has taken a turn for the better so I leave you with this thought: Great fitness is just around the bend....

Peace

and keep training....

Rob

More Tri-ing Times...

2008-01-09T23:14:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone,

I know the last few blogs have been off the training topic a bit, but that's how life is sometimes. Just today I found out one of my training buddies, Duston, is off to Iraq. So I wanted to take this time to wish him safe travels as he goes to sacrifice way more than I can imagine. I wanted to give him my gratitude and wish him and his wife good fortune as he embarks on his perilous journey. While he's away I can stand losing a good training partner, but I can't imagine losing a good friend. Safe travels Duston, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

While I eagerly await Duston's arrival back on home soil,I thought about the importance of having a good training partner. I've had a number over the years and I have to admit each one brought out something different in me. Some made me work harder, some made me rest when I wanted to hammer and still others instilled in me there are times when a bike or a run is just good therapy for what ails you. So that's my advice for this week, go find a good training partner. Someone you can hang with, someone who'll push you, someone who will just make sure you get to your workout. Whatever you need somewhere out there is a partner waiting to fulfill that need.

On that note, I wanted to say a cheerful G'day! to my old training partner and Aussie Alain, who I spoke with on New Year's eve. Alain departed for sunny California about 2 years ago and I miss his enthusiasm and insanity everytime I get on the bike. I MISS YA MAN !!!! Come back to the east coast and let's do an event together!

Peace

Rob....

Start the new year, by looking back...

2008-01-06T23:25:00.000-05:00

With 2008 well under way I was contemplating how this year would be different. How much better my training would be, how much better I would eat, etc. All those thoughts led me back to thinking about 2007.

Last year was a tough one for myself and my family. In the space of one weekend I lost my best friend and my sister to various ailments. In October my dog lost a long battle with kidney failure and just recently my wife's mom died and my father was diagnosed with cancer. What does this have to do with training you may ask? It shows how trivial our training can be when compared with the much tougher job of living life. I know for a fact that anytime I start to suffer even a little while training or racing, I can draw great strength from remembering how my sister fought cancer for 7 long years. I know that any pain I may be feeling is trivial compared to what she went through and what's more, I can stop it any time I wish. She rarely had that choice. I can also feel a certain amount of joy that my lifestyle has up to now allowed me to enjoy great health. As I've watched many friends and family struggle with cancer and diabetes, I have had the great fortune to be relatively healthy. Many times I have tried to cautiously persuade those close to me about the great benefits a healthy lifestyle can bring, but everyone must choice their own path. As I reflect on these things I try to also keep in mind that those close to me are also trying to break me of my own bad habits and I resolve to be more diligent about listening to their advice. With these thoughts in mind I intend to dedicate the 2008 season to all those that we lost prematurely in 2007.

So for Sis, Steve, Chrissy, and Joyce I'm gonna do my best to improve and honor your memories. I remember you all and I miss you all greatly.

Peace & Love
and keep training.........

Back on Track... Finally...

2007-12-29T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well I knew it was only a matter of time before I got the whole training thing together again. The holidays can really stress the process and this year proved to be no exception. But I'm back on track with three good days of training and hopefully a fourth to come tomorrow (I'm trying not to jinx it). Of course the holidays can undo you in more ways than one, when I went to the pool today no one bothered to inform me that they we closing 1 hour early. So I ALMOST had another aborted swim. This time though, I went to my new gym L.A. Fitness, jumped in their pool and finished up. Anyways here is a synopsis of how I got the motor running again...

Thursday: Back in the game FINALLY! 15 minute elliptical warm up and 20 minute run on the treadmill at about an 8:45 pace. Wanted to ease back into running. Then I went and lifted for about 75 minutes hitting the upper, lower and core.

Friday: Hit the trainer on the bike. Worked on my pedaling technique doing 1 leg pedaling drills and some big gear strength exercises. Felt good to be on a bike with real shifters.....

Saturday: Got out and ran my 5k course. Didn't feel to great though, maybe because..

POP QUIZ

A) The long layoff
B) Running and lifting a few days ago
C) Cycling less than 24 hours previously
D) The brutally hilly course I run
E) ALL OF THE ABOVE

Give yourself 95 if you picked A,B,C or D. You get 100 if you picked E.

Saturday(still): Went and worked on my swimming, my bete noire, remember? I have been working on a program for gearing up to a mile swim. Here's the link if you want more info: Swimmer's mile. This program is 6 weeks long and I figure it will give me a good base to start from so I can work on improving the last 10 weeks or so before St. Anthony's. I did the workout nine days ago ( I know, I know, 3x a week cut me some slack it was Xmas!) and I have already shown signs of improvement. My 100 yd. times dropped by about 7 or 8 seconds per 100. Now I know that most progress comes early in training, because the less fit you are, the bigger the initial gains, but hey any good news is encouraging.

I should point out this is one great reason to keep notes in a journal about your workouts. I didn't really feel any faster or better today, but obviously I've improved something in the pool, my form maybe , or my stamina, or something... so I will continue to work and monitor my progress. My 50's went down less (by about 3-4 seconds per repeat) and my 25's were about the same. Still the progress is encouraging. In addition, I've dropped about a pound or 2 since November so hopefully having less of me to drag around may help as well.

OK enough about me let's hear from you guys! How's everyone's training going? Problems? Solutions? Just want to vent or give advice? Drop me some comments, I can't wait to hear.

Peace,

Rob,

P.S. Keep training....

Gifts for your triathlete...

2007-12-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

Since this is the holiday season, what better time then to think about what to get the tri-guy or gal in your life. I really hadn't thought to much about this until I received some Xmas presents of my own. In the spirit of the season I would like to make some recommendations.

Of course, for most triathletes the ultimate gift would be a new bike. Now, I am not suggesting you all run out and get yourself, or someone you know/love/care about, a new bike. But if you can afford it, I highly recommend it! My wife got a new steed right before Xmas and I am already having bike envy. Her bright sparkling, super light weight Serotta carbon Attack with Dura Ace groupo, Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, and carbon bars is making me lust for a new bike on a daily basis. Since that will be too expensive for most folks let me suggest some other alternatives.

Since winter traps most of us indoors for an inordinate amount of time think about getting your tri-person a few Spinervals! These DVDs will take the monotony out of spending time on your indoor trainer plus give you a program to follow instead of mindlessly focusing on re-runs of Mork and Mindy.

So much for the practical gifts..... The best gift I got this year was totally unexpected and completely geeky (kudos to my wife for this one). As a triathlete I am always looking for feedback to inform me of how my training is progressing. I have a body fat monitor scale, numerous cycling computers (wired and wireless, with and without cadence), a number or heart rate monitors, I had a GPS device for running but lost it (damn...), you get the idea. But now I have the ultimate feedback device the HydraCoach! It's a fancy-smancy water bottle that keeps track of how much water (or anything else in the bottle I guess) that I consume in a 24 hour period. You start by telling the bottle how much you weigh, your sex and it gives you a hydration goal in ounces per 24 hours. You can alter the amount higher or lower, depending on your personal preference. For my 180 lbs. the HydraCoach suggested 90 oz per day. You then start the clock and it keeps track of how many ounces you drink, the percentage toward your goal, ounces per hour stuff like that. Too cool! You can stop or reset the timer whenever you feel like it. After 24 hours the clock stops and tells you how you did, pretty interesting. Now you may be asking yourself is this really necessary, well of course not, but if I'm not the best hydrated athlete on April 27th I can't blame HydraCoach or my wife.......

Happy Holidays....
and keep training........

Life sucks......

2007-12-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

OK so maybe it's not that bad...... but sometimes that's how I feel when a week of training gets disrupted like the one that just passed. In fact, the week was so hectic I didn't even get to write my blog (shudder the thought). Here is how my best laid plans went into the toilet last week.

Monday: The dreaded deadline reared its ugly head again. So there went lifting after work as I arrived home around 10:30 PM with temperatures in the 30's and no food in my stomach.

Tuesday: See Monday, but update the get home time to 1AM!

Wednesday: Another late work night but only until about 9, a pattern is forming here......

Thursday: Brief respite, got home around 8:45 or so, with the promise of the next day off for all my hard work. YEAH!

Friday: Here is where life can really piss ya off. Got some sleep and used most of the day to catch up on things I had neglected due to working late hours. I had planned to join the new gym up the street and then go workout there. I got as far as joining the gym when my phone rang. It was my wife telling me her car had broken down and I needed to pick her up. So I jump back in the car drive to where she has broken down. Push her car about 10 feet and wait for a tow truck..... Oh well there goes Friday's workout.

I managed to make it all the way to Saturday without really getting in a decent sweat. Finally, on Saturday, I made it to the gym for 2 solid hours of lifting and cardio. I balked at doing anything specific for my training plan since the week was shot. I just did whatever I felt like doing and enjoyed it.

Sunday: The last insult came Sunday when I went for my swim. I was about 20 minutes into my workout when the whistle blew and the life guard told me I needed to get out of the pool so the kids could have a swim meet. Feeling robbed I sulked to the hot tub determined to get, at the very least, a relaxing soak. I put my foot in...

the water was cold.....

Life really does suck sometimes.......

but I keep training anyway....

Planning plan blah, blah, blah....

2007-12-09T00:02:00.001-05:00

Ah yes remember all that stuff I said about planning? Well this week was a perfect illustration of what happens when life gets in the way. One good reason to make a training plan is the simple fact that life will do everything it can to throw your plan out of whack. Knowing what days you have open will allow you to reschedule your training when your plan is overcome by events, as mine was this week. Family members visiting and a deadline at work made short work of my training "plan" for the week. I was forced to skip a few days and try to make up some workouts on the weekend.

This brings up a good question, "What should I do when I can't make a workout I have planned?" My first advice, don't panic. One or two workouts will neither make nor break your training plan. If you can make it up on a rest day then go ahead, but if it's going to cause you more stress than skipping it just skip it. The only suggestion I would make in this regard is, if you must miss a workout, try to miss one in your strongest sport. In my case, since I'm a strong cyclist, if I need to miss one workout I am more likely to sacrifice a bike session than a run or a swim. I always try to make sure I get my weaknesses covered since it helps my confidence on race day. I race better knowing my weakness was sufficiently covered in training.

One other thing I should have noted last post. Know what your going to do for any given workout is just as important as knowing when the workout is. Alot of people just "wander" through a workout instead of focusing on a specific training need. For instance, while I consider cycling my strong sport, I know I need to work on my aero positioning since most of my cycling background was racing on the road where you aren't in the areo position nearly as long. So I need to do work on getting comfortable in that position in preparation for the hour and fifteen minutes or so I need to be in that position. Your need may be power or endurance or just saddle time to get comfortable on your machine, but whatever it is you should have that worked out ahead of time.

Next week I'm going to start chronicling my actual training regimen to give you some idea of what I'm going through and hopefully get some feedback from my readers. Until then, safe swimming, riding, and running....

Peace

Rob

Failing to plan means....

2007-12-03T23:01:00.000-05:00

Well day 2 certainly was better than yesterday. Today I officially embraced my plan. What plan you say? Oh that.... using the resources at my disposal I have laid out the first month of training in preparation for the St. Anthony tri. This is an often overlooked step in preparing for an event. Alot of people just "workout". But to train requires, that you know your goals, and how you plan to get there.

For instance, I have 21 weeks until St.Anthony's. I plan to split this time into 4 periods of training.

Preparation: 4 weeks Get the body in shape and prepare for future stresses.
Base: 4 weeks Start building my endurance in each sport.
Build 1: 4 weeks Start increasing intensity and volume.
Build 2: 4 weeks Fine tuning race strategy and fitness
Taper: 1 week Rest up for the big day.

Now I haven't planned every workout for the entire 21 weeks, that would be too hard, plus other obligations are bound to arise. Work, family obligations etc. I plan each period about a week before it's due to start. This also allows me to fine tune my training to take into account how the previous period went. One good place to start if you are not sure how to plan your own training is the following:

Training plans for multisport athletes

This book is an excellent resource with a wide variety of training plans for different types of events and different types of athletes. So get busy and get a plan, the season is closer than you think....

Rob....

Training Day...

2007-12-02T21:49:00.000-05:00

Remember the movie Training Day? If you didn't see it, a short synopsis would go something like this.... Good cop gets paired with REALLY REALLY bad cop, almost gets fired , killed, corrupted etc.. but ends up surviving through some combination of luck and seemingly Divine intervention... So what does this have to do with triathlons you say? Well can you imagine Ethan Hawke's character (the good cop) the next day? He must have thought, "Well I'm set now 'cause it can't get any worse!" Well my first training day went something like that...

It started innocently enough, I woke up and plodded downstairs ready for breakfast. After all, you gotta fuel up if you want to work out, right? Oh damn... no food! No milk for my cereal, last bagel is moldy, well U get the idea. I know, I'll get dressed and run over to Tastee Diner! I walk outside, damn again, I forgot, my car is in the shop and it's 39 degrees out! Now this could dissuade many an athlete but I was not to be deterred! I pumped up the tires on my mountain bike (I figured riding on knobbies would lessen my wind chill) and off I went.

I was frozen solid in about 5 minutes, but with bottomless coffee and my friend and waitress Claudia awaiting, I rode on. Of course, trying to ride on the previous nights dinner of wheat thins proved tougher than I had anticipated. I managed to make the 5 mile or so ride nonetheless and proceed to imbibe a whopping 3 coups of coffee (not to mention 2 eggs, whole wheat toast, grits, and a couple of glasses of water for good measure). So now nicely filled up I pedaled back home. With some carbs in me to power my brain I thought, "I guess its's time to start training!"

So where do you start when training for an event? Step 1: set a reasonable goal. My last Olympic distance tri I did in about 3 hours and 11 minutes and my bete noir in that race was the swim. I simply didn't have enough endurance. So my first thought: Train my weakness.

So to the pool I go. Oh, did I mention that by this time it is now colder and raining? A smarter man would merely have switched workouts and say, rode indoors on their trainer, but not I! I will ride my bike to the pool, I mean, so what if it's cold and slippery and by the time I return it will probably be dark?

When I arrived at the virtually empty pool I was greeted with the "That guy is crazy look" and I began to think they might be right. I was so wet I could have just swam in my cycling gear, but to keep from making a spectacle of myself (or at least less so) I changed into my swim suit. I haven't swam in about 3 months and it showed... Tired arms, weak kick, you name it. But at least I managed to get my training started. And much like Ethan Hawke in Training Day, I figure from here on in it's got to get better......

Rob....