Even further

We knew this day was on the horizon. After Monday's swim, I was looking to today with a mix of fear and trepidation (doesn't sound so good, does it?) And after a decent night's sleep, as you enter the pool area, you know it can't be a good day if you can read the entire workout from across the pool. Usually the main set is multiple pieces, so it requires 6-10 lines, maybe even multiple chalkboards. Not today. One line. Big print.

1x3000.

Who comes up with stuff like this? We got a few hundred metres to warm up. Then we were off. To alleviate some of the boredom, the set was broken into 3 parts. The first 1000m was ~20m of head-up free (also called 'controlled flailing'), the rest of the 100m as ez free. That small part is exhausting. Then we did 1000m of pull. The finish was 1000m of ez free. I was happy I'm still in a 'shit' lane, because the faster three lanes finished with 500m ez, 500m descending. I'd be dead if I had to do that.

The good news is that I survived. I can't say I was still strong at the end. In fact, I felt like I had swam about 3000m, but I don't think my pace fell off too much. I lead the lane basically the whole day. Someone else took over for the last 250m of pull, and as I was lapping a swim around 500m to go, she decided to burn herself out to lead for 250m. It's a lot easier when you get to be on someone's feet.

No real issues encountered in the day. About 50m into the free set, I got a foot cramp for about 100m. I think this was probably caused from spending 20 minutes with my legs not moving during the pull set. I also could feel that my right side was doing more than its share of the work. I tried to keep it as even as possible, but as I got tired, it could keep going. I'll need to focus during other workouts on maintaining a balance between the sides.

I'm not sure if I would describe this as 'fun', but it's a pretty good confidence booster. We weren't flying through the day, I'd ballpark the effort at about 68 minutes. I think we have a full IM length swim of 3800m in a few weeks. That's twice what I'll need to be able to finish for Muskoka, so once that's done, I'll know I'm good to go.

Swim: w/u - 500m, alternating 100 free, 100 non-free
1x3000 (1000m as 20m head-up/80 free, 1000m pull, 1000m ez free)
c/d - none, too tired
Total: 3500m

Added a quick run after work, after dealing with bus issues. People here can't drive when the weather takes the slightest turn.
Run: 4 miles @ 7.0 mph

Django

Similar to last week, except trying a higher intensity during the work set. Heart rate was very elevated tonight, 8-10 bpm higher than expected. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but next week is a recovery week, so that should straighten itself out.

Bike: 65 minutes, w/30 min @ ~250w
Run: 2 miles @ 7.0 mph

Eye of the storm

Monday was hard. It made me want to cry. (Maybe not, but at least curl up for a while.) Friday ... well, Friday is another benchmark day. It's not the high-intensity work of Monday (turns out, my pacing was appropriate; it should have been 100% from rep 3-4 on), instead it's the longest continuous swim we've done so far. 3000m. No stopping. Luckily, the coach took pity on us, and today was mostly form and drill work, although by the end of the day, we'd still logged some good distance. I'm not passed out at my desk, so that's a step up from Monday.

Swim: w/u - 200 yds free, 200 as 25 breast/25 back
5x200, 30" as 100 drill/100 ez free
(Drills: finger drag, 10&2, forearm flop, full scull, fist)
200 as 25 breast/25 back
4x300, 30" (gloves, pull, finger paddles&pull, free)
c/d - 75 back, 75 breast, 50 free
Total: 3000 yds

And then there was the after work run ...
Run: 6 miles @ 7.0 mph

As the legs turn

Just a repeat of last week's session. Of course, being as competitive as I am, I had to try to beat my power output from last time, even if only by a slight margin. So, during my intervals, I was about 5w higher than last week. Nice to notice, though, that my heart rate was actually 3-5 bpm lower. Some fitness seems to be building.

Bike: 65 minutes, w/ 5x6 min @ FTP (~275w), 90 sec rest
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

This should be obvious, but ...

If you haven't even started your 2008 race season, it might not be time to start planning out your 2009 season and goals.

I have a bit of time on my hands today. A dangerous amount, it seems.

Let's promise to NEVER do that again

OK, so by this point we've established that I'm not a natural swimmer, and that 20+ years out of the pool does not make one very fast. We've also established that paying attention to the coach, learning as much as possible, and working hard can get one faster. (Not fast, mind you, but faster.) And further, if you've known me for a while, you are aware that almost 100% slowtwitch muscle fibers. Endurance is my forte.

Why do I mention all this? Because today was among the worst things I've ever done to myself. I've been out of the water for three hours at this point, and I still hurt. Everything from the base of my neck to my lower back, across the lats and shoulders, down to my fingers, aches. Why? Because a few months ago I had the stupid idea of becoming a triathlete, which meant I'd have to swim.

This morning's workout wasn't really a workout. It was a Test Day. (Anything with capital letters should be feared.) This isn't like the 2000m long set we did. That might be called a test, but it was at a reasonable effort and not timed. It can't be a test if there isn't a stopwatch involved. No, today was the Test, and Tests are hard. After a good warm-up, we got shuffled somewhat in the lanes, so that each "heat" would people of reasonably close speeds in it. Then it was 8x100m, on 4 minutes. The faster you finish, the more rest you get. I'm pretty sure this a torture technique developed at Guantanamo Bay. "Water-boarding" has a whole new meaning.

The goal was to go hard, but not all-out on the first few, or else you'd fall apart in the later reps. (Guess what I did?) Lined up beside me was one of the swimmers who is usually in lane 3 (one step faster than my lane, it's my target lane. It's the "suck" lane.) I took off at a good clip, hit the wall at the same time, and was able to make a move in the last 20m to clip her at the line. Good for 1:38.

That was the last time I was close to her. My next five reps were in the 1:44-1:47 range, and the last two were 1:49 and 1:51. I could have saved a bit if I hadn't spent so much on the first one, but pacing in the pool isn't a strong point, and some times competitive instinct overrides every good sense in your brain. My form wasn't great on many of the reps. It felt at times that my left arm was just along for the ride. I get a few good strokes, concentration would go to something else (like "how much further?"), and I'd lose it. Midway through the test, the coach told us that if our times were slipping, not to try to go harder (that won't work), but smoother. That helped somewhat on the last few reps. Taking longer pulls at 90% effort may have cost me a few seconds from my best times, or been the reason I only lost a few seconds from my best times.

After we finished, and I said the line that titles this post, I was informed that we'll be doing this again in about six weeks. We'll be expected to go faster. If I knew that, I would have sand-bagged a little more.

Swim: w/u - 400m ez free
300 as 50 back/50 breast, 100 free, 50 back/50 breast
4x50 hard free, 30"
200 ez pull
8x100 hard free, on 4' (1:38-1:51)
c/d - 2x50 breast/50 back/50 free
Total: 2200m

Good enough

I like sleeping in on weekends. And by "sleeping in", I mean staying in bed until 7 am. That's about as late as I can handle. What happened to the days when anything before 11 was an ungodly hour?

After the morning's caffeine fix, it was time for my run/ride workout. I like this day because it's on the longer side, but with nothing intense. I can just groove along at a casual pace, and let time go by. The heart rate stayed down for the entire run, so it may be time to move the pace up so I can keep the aerobic benefit. Six miles and 30 minutes of zone 1 cycling later, I could eat and nap.

Sundays are fun.

Run: 6 miles @ 7.0 mph
Bike: 30 min, zone 1

Like a frying pan

That's not a description of the heat in my basement. It's actually not too bad down there, as long as the fan is going. It's a description of the terrain of the Netherlands, which my simulated ride took me through today. Sticking with the Tacx RLVs, today I followed the first half of the Green Heart Classic. It reminded me a lot of West Texas. Except for the occasional bridge or highway overpass, I was treated to over two hours of 0.0% grade. (Reasons it's not like West Texas: it wasn't 100 degrees with 25 mph winds, and I wasn't chased by any dogs.) Pan flat.

The course was 76.7 km, so I broke it into four sections, each of 20 km (except the last was 16.7). Each block I stepped up the intensity, starting at 65% of FTP (~175w), and going up by 5% (or 15w). The last block wasn't hard, per say, but definitely required attention to keep the intensity up. By the end, I knew had gotten in a very good ride, that by the same token, wouldn't leave me so hammered I couldn't do the same tomorrow. That's the key for workouts right now: hard enough to promote the training effect, but only as much as necessary, so more work can be done the next day.

Bike: 2.5 hours, zone 1-2, 65-80% FTP (175-220w)

Late, but caught up

The alarm, as it usually does, went off at 4:50. I don't think I'll ever get used to that. (Search the blog to see how often I've made that comment. I'm still not used to it.) After a quick breakfast and gathering of gear, it was off to the pool. Next week we have two test workouts, so this was the last chance to build anything before then. As I was exiting the highway almost at the pool, I scratched my nose and found my glasses on my face. Crap, I forgot to put in my contacts. I guess I could swim without any visual aids, I'd have trouble seeing the line at the bottom of the pool. So I double-timed it home, put in my eyes, and made it back to the pool midway through the warm-up. I hopped in at the end of the line, then progressed through the group until I was leading my the end of the first block of the main set. It was a very good morning in the pool. I really felt like I was catching a lot of water, even with my left arm (which always felt like it wasn't doing its share). I added the missed laps from the warm-up to the end, to make sure I got appropriate mileage for the day. It's tough to complain when things feel that good. Now I need a nap.

I'll run 4 miles after work. Just sayin'.

Swim: w/u - 150m each (free, back, breast)
150 as 25 quick/25 ez free
1x800m as 200 ez/200 moderate, 1'
2x(50 breast/50 back, 30"
3x100 free, mod-hard, 30")
1x400m pull as 100 ez/100 moderate, 1'
c/d - 2x(50 each back, breast, free)
Total: 2900m

Run: 4 miles @ 7.0 mph

I'm tired, so this is a short post

Tempo work on the bike tonight. I'm doing this to offset the harder work on Tuesdays. It's fun, but tough. Transition run post-ride as usual. If I'm feeling like I'm compromising my recovery, this will become a strict zone 1-2 ride in future weeks.

Bike: 65 min w/ 30 min @ 85% FTP (~230w)
Run: 2 miles @ 7.0 mph

Heavy Metal Jog

LSD might be associated more with hippy music, but for tonight's Long Steady Distance run, it was time to break out the metal. I figured a nice blend of new school (Five Finger Death Punch, best album of 2007) and old school (Megadeth) would be the way to go. And so, six miles went by very quickly. There's some fatigue from last night's ride still in the thighs, but one more good sleep should clear that up. And I'm looking forward to that.

Run: 6 miles @ 7.0 mph

Another good day out front

Monday's swim was cancelled for the new holiday. That means I got five days rest coming into this morning. It also means I got five days of not waking up at 4:50. The extra sleep was nice, but my nerves about missing my alarm this morning caused me to wake up at 3:10, 3:35, 4:10, 4:25, and 4:47. I'm better when it's a regular part of my schedule.

With the freshness (or staleness) I hit the warm-up, and actually felt pretty good by the last time through the circuit. Not perfect, but better than I expected. Today's main set had some long sets, and I was once again chosen to lead the lane. During the first set, the group was pretty much on my pace, but I did notice during the rest that others had worked harder than I did. The second long set, two of us distanced the group by a few seconds, and during the last one, I lapped all but one of my lanemates. So it seems I was feeling pretty strong today.

There were times when I could my form slipping, so I need to make sure my mind doesn't wander too much during the long sets. I'll lift my head a little, and my left arm doesn't do its share of the work (the catch is sloppy and the pull is too short). When I concentrate, I can take care of that, but until it becomes natural, I need to stay on top of it.

Swim: w/u - 3x(50 yds each free/back/breast/pull)
4x25 hard/25 ez, 10"
1x600 ez gloves, 1'
2x100 hard, 1'
1x600 finger paddles, 1'
4x50 hard, 30"
1x600 pull
c/d - none (ran out of time)
Total: 3000 yds

Bodies

After testing on Saturday, it was time to begin the workouts to raise my FTP back up to respectable levels. My plan is to reduce the number of intervals and increase the length, also increasing the total time at FTP, every few weeks. With that in mind, tonight was 5x6 minutes at FTP, with 90 seconds recovery. The intervals might seem short for that effort, but with the short rest periods it was a good workout. It may not be optimal for the goal, but it will help, and it's a nice re-introduction to higher intensity work. As I noted on Saturday, as much as anything, just becoming familiar again with the sensation of manageable suffering will boost my test values.

I followed it up with a short transition run. My HR numbers were a bit elevated, but that's expected given the effort leading up to the run. Muscularly I was fine, and wasn't taxed in my breathing, just the heart rate was a bit up. No worries.

Bike: 65 min, w/5x6 min @ FTP (270-280w), 90"
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

No workout, so something else

Because of the new statutory holiday, there was no swim today, and other than the swim, nothing else is scheduled for Mondays. So I'm accomplishing nothing today. Yay me! Instead of a workout post, I'll answer a question posted in the comments.

Mark asked whether commuter miles are worthwhile, if it's only 15-20 minutes each time. My commute is a little longer (25-35 minutes), but it's still the same question. Is there any aerobic beneft to be gained through this training? First things first, I'm going to answer from a training perspective. The environmental/economic benefits are too obvious, so not really part of the question. So, should you ride?

The time may not seem like much, but I believe that every mile, no matter how it's gathered, is worthwhile. Fifteen minutes, twice a day, 5 days a week, is an extra 2.5 hours of aerobic work. Ten extra hours per month. And it's time that you won't skip out on because of other commitments, because usually those other commitments are work-related.

Is that 2.5 hours worth the same as an extended 2.5 hour ride? The short answer is no. From a training perspective, the benefit of an aerobic ride is exponential (up to a point of diminishing returns). Two 30 minute rides aren't as good as a solid hour. The continuous demands on the aerobic system are the goalof most training. But the pair of rides are better than nothing, and that's really what we want to compare to.

There is something to be said for multiple workouts, especially regarding calorie burn. There is an bonus effect every time you "stoke the fire". So doing that twice a day is providing a nice little benefit there.

It was mentioned that it takes almost as long to warm-up as it does to finish the commute. We don't want to treat this as a training session per se. Sure, two 30 minute blocks of zone 4 work would be as good or better than an hour of zone 2, but the recovery cost is too great. A commute this short should be the active recovery that is preached. It won't tax your legs enough to hamper an actual training ride in the morning or evening, and on off days, leaves you to enjoy the rest of your life, without dedicating an hour to spinning out any stiffness.

And the last benefit is psychological. Most of us in cycling/triathlon just love to ride, and this is a perfect opportunity to do it without any other demands. No power meters, no intervals, just sunshine and asphalt. You get to ride, slow if it's needed, a bit quicker if you're feeling spry. And if you're in a good state, you can extend the commute just by missing the turn home, and you can steal an extra 15-30 minutes of enjoying the outdoors.

So ride. Enjoy it. If you can't have a 60 minute commute each way that you can make "training", then use it as a chance to work on handling, position, and recovery. Keep the gears light (I love my SS because I can't go hard on it) and have fun.

Easy reverse brick

It's been almost a month since the Goofy Challenge, so it's time to start doing a little more significant work on the run. No speed work yet, that won't be for another six weeks, but I'll begin adding some distance, and having two mid-distance runs per week. Since my legs aren't ready for long runs yet, but I like to get the volume on weekends, I'll be following up my Sunday runs with a brief session on the bike post-run. This will burn extra calories (not that I need to lose weight now, but I like eating, so I get a balance), and let me get a few extra miles on the bike, and every extra mile is a good thing.

Run: 6 miles @ 7.0 mph
Bike: 30 minutes, zone 1-2

Post #200 - Why do they rock so hard?

Well, I've spent a couple of weeks spinning easy on the bike, getting comfortable in the aero position, and (somewhat) getting my bike legs back. So with that, it was time to perform a test day, to set up the next few blocks of training. It's been about 5 months since my last FT test, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

The 5 minute time trial was a step back from last time, but since I haven't done a lick of high-intensity work since then, I couldn't really expect the edge to be sharp. I overestimated a little to start, and lost some juice in the last 60-90 seconds. If I paced myself a bit better, the numbers would have been marginally higher.

After a brief rest, it was on to the 20 minute block. Given what had happened in the 5 minute TT, I held back a fair bit. Good thing I did, too, since that was pretty much on the maintainable pace. I was able to get a few extra watts (5-10) for the last 3 minutes, but there was no way I was going to hold even that extra bit of effort for the whole duration. I've suffered a pretty significant drop in threshold power, but I'm not too concerned. And here's why:

There are a few reasons what this result is "counterfeited". First, the Tacx i-Magic can be somewhat finicky, so a new bike with new tires (and subsequent calibration) will produce a different result than before. Second, it's well-publicized that in the TT position, a rider will generate less power than in a roadie position. The trade-off is a significant gain in aerodynamics, and a faster speed, at lower cost. And third, as I've noted, it's been a long time since I've done any high-intensity work, especially on the bike. I haven't suffered at that type of effort for a while. When I test again in six weeks, I'm expecting a big rebound effect, and a gain of at least 15w at threshold.

Now I can set my zones for the next couple of blocks, and I'll be adding a weekly FT ride to "raise the ceiling". Check back March 29, when I crush these numbers.

Bike: 2 hours, FT test + 30 minutes zone 1-2
FT test - 5 min TT=352.1, 20 min TT=285.7w, FT=271.42. Weight=64.5kg, W/kg @ FT=4.21

Quick run

With the last day of my rest block, it was another short run this afternoon. Nice and easy, I'm hoping it should set me up for a good test day tomorrow. Now a decent night's sleep, then time to bring out the hammer.

Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

Missing a day can be good or bad

Every time I'm in the pool, I'm trying to get better. Using the scale developed by powerlifter Dave Tate, I'm working to get from "shit" to "suck". (My expectations are pretty low.) Some days I can feel the improvement; other days, not so much. On a day like today, I was all over the place. Some sets felt fantastic, I was pulling a lot of water, moving quickly, not much effort. Other sets, I was flailing, barely moving. So it seems consistency would be a good thing.

The warm-up was kind of rough, but that's what warm-ups are for, to work out the kinks. It's hard to believe that those two extra days out of the water could have a dramatic effect, but any extended break makes those first few lengths harder, where the focus needs to be on form to get back in the groove. Once we got into the main set, I was feelign strong, and leading the group. This is what may have caused the breakdown later in the workout. I was leading, and pulling away from the group for all of the early sets. They came back up to me with a vengence later. All told, it was a good day, lots of metres, and lots of hard work. Because of the Family Day holiday, there's no swim on Monday, so I'll by land-bound until Wednesday.

Swim: w/u - 200 free, 2x50 breast/50 back
400 free, as 25 head-up/75 ez, 30"
400 free, as 25 quick/75 ez, 30"
4x100, 30" (1-3: med-hard free, 4: 50 breast/50 back ez)
400 pull, 30"
400 free, descending 100s (this is where I got tired), 30"
4x100, 30" (1-3: med-hard free, 4: 50 breast/50 back ez)
c/d: 100 each: free, back, breast, free
Total: 3200m

Still rest weeking

Happy Valentine's Day. Seven months until the big day.

Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

Missed

So it's Wednesday, and there should be a post about swimming. But there isn't. I didn't go this morning. Why not? Did I sleep through the alarm? Nope, I woke up before the alarm went off. Was the weather too crappy? Nope, when I went out and shovelled the driveway it was actually kind of nice, for a February morning. But the weather WAS too crappy last night, and there was still about 6 inches of fresh snow on my street. I like my car, but it's not good at handling any real amount of snow. So I was stranded until either the city plows out the street, or enough traffic goes through to put in grooves that I can follow. We got a half-assed attempt at plowing after last Wednesday's snow, but nothing after Saturday, or last night. And I'll bet whoever is supposed to do it checks it off as done at the end of his shift. All I would have to do is get to the intersecting street, since The City deems that important enough to clear, to the risk of not making it (or finding another uncleared street) was too great. So no swim for me today. Instead I went back to bed and stewed in anger for an hour.

Then I got up and rode my bike. I was scheduled for a short ride this afternoon, but with other plans tonight, I was either going to miss it, or cram it between swimming and heading to work. So that's the aluminum lining on this cloud (it's not worth enough to be silver). A decent spin just to open my legs up since I'm not bike-commuting either. At the very least, I'll be very rested for my FT test on Saturday. I better kill it.

Bike: 30 min, zone 1-2

Barely worth titling

Just a quick 3 miler tonight. These easy days at the end of each training block are kind of nice.

Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

Busy day, short post

Swim: w/u - 200m free, 2x50 breast/50 back
1x500 free, 1'
5x100, 15" (odd: tempo trainer or med-hard free, even: 50 breast/50 back)
1x400 pull w/ gloves, 1'
4x100, 15" (as above)
1x300 pull, 1'
c/d - 50 breast/50 back
Total: 2800m


Later...
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

It's what you do today that matters

These longish brick workouts on Sundays usually require a movie to help pass the time. With 90 minutes of EZ work on the bike and 3 LSD miles on the treadmill, I settled in for a session with Blackhawk Down. It's important that the movie have lots of action, and not require being able to hear all the dialogue to keep up with the story, and this one fits the bill. It's a great story, wonderfully told, with far-reaching impact, but more important today was lots of stuff goes boom. I like things simple when I'm riding.

By the time the two hour workout had ended, I was ready to have a bite, and lay down for a while. Although the intensity is way down in this training block, the volume is still enough to wipe me out. Give me a few hours to recover, and I'm ready to tackle the world (as long as the world wants to stop by my place, since it's too cold to go outside).

Bike: 90 minutes, zone 1-2
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

Last Saturday of Block One

Today was another spin through Germany. Roth Ergovideo, Ride 2, Parts 1, 3 and 4. This makes for a total of two hours, done at -25%. The effort was pretty good, but I could have gone harder. This leaves out section two, which includes the longest, toughest climb, but gives me the distance/time I wanted for the day. Next week is the first FTP test of the year, so in a week's time I'll be resetting all of my training zones. Everything could suddenly get much harder after that.

Bike: 2 hours, Roth RLV, Parts 1, 3-4

Today's lesson

Guess what? If you do a bunch of work, with a portion of it pretty hard, you'll get tired, and won't be able to work as hard. That's what I learned this morning. Not that this is an earth-shattering revelation, or that I didn't know it before, but there was solid evidence of this phenomenon this morning.

I got to lead all sets today, since the people who I usually trade with weren't here. No draft for me, which makes for a tough day. During our main sets, we did timed 100s. My times (which are notably NOT Olympian): 1:47, 1:48, 1:50, 1:56. Pretty good for the first three, then a collapse. At about the 75m mark, I felt like I came to complete stop, and nothing could get me moving. I was cooked. But it was a great workout, lots of fun, and, as always, I'm counting on this for more huge improvements.

Swim: w/u - 200m free, 100 back, 100 breast
2x25 head-up/25 ez, 15"
4x50 swim golf (scores between 102-106)
4x(300 drill, 30"
100 timed free, 30"
50 breast/50 back, 15")
Drills: 1) 50 quick turnover/50 ez, 2) gloves, 3) finger paddles, 4) free
c/d - 100 free, 100 back, 100 breast
Total: 3000m

After work I'll go for a quick run, so I'll write it down now.
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph

Looking at the times now, I now part of it was fatigue, but I notice that during swim golf, I was doing each 50m in 50-53 seconds, at about 90% effort. I'm surprised, then, that I was no better than 1:47 for a 100% effort 100m. It definitely might be a case that when I try too hard, I'm actually slower from a more frantic stroke. I'll have to check this out at my next opportunity.

No blood, no foul

So I spent a good part of last night in the emergency room. As far as can be told, it ended up being nothing serious (at least not treated last night), but appointments have been made with specialists, and if there's any recurrence, I'm to head back ASAP.

What does that mean for training today? Well, if I was in the midst of a high-intensity block, I'd scale things back appropriately. But I'm not. I'm riding easy, so I will continue to do that (and keep a close eye on my "issue"). I did a repeat of Tuesday's workout, including the run. Nothing bad happened, which was good news. My HR was somewhat elevated (about 3 bpm on the bike, 5-8 on the run), but I'm willing to ascribe that to the 3 hours sleep.

So, it looks like I'm not dying, or at least not any faster than I was on Tuesday. We'll keep on keeping on until we get told otherwise.

Bike: 65 min, zone 1-2, w/ 20 min @ 240w (mostly zone 3 at this power tonight)
Run: 2 miles @ 7.0 mph

Not going to work, but still working

Since we have some contractors coming by the house today to do some work, I'm not at work. That's kind of nice, but it's not like a day of total relaxation. I was still up at 4:50 to go swimming, and came home to shovel my driveway (which will need to be done again ... why am I not living in CA or TX?). Now I'm relaxing with a giant cup of Ethiopian Yigracheffe, and reading. I'll be back out with the shovel later, and I'll hit the treadmill for a 5 miler this afternoon. Not bad for a snow day. Better than work, that's for sure.

Swim: w/u - 200 yds each free, non-free, pull
4x(50 scull, 50 fist, 50 free), 10"
300 gloves, breathe every 4th or 5th, 30"
300 free, descending 100s, 30"
300 as 25 back/25 free, 30"
6x25 sprint/25 ez, 10"
150 gloves, breather every 4th or 5th, 30"
c/d - 25 breast/25 back

Run: 5 miles @ 7.0 mph

Riding easy is hard

I'm still in a prep phase.

I need to keep telling myself this. If I don't, I'll end up going way too hard, and it will probably catch up with me in the summer. And since I'd like to avoid that, I need the reminder.

Still, it's tough to keep things reined in all the time. Like tonight, for instance. According to the schedule, it was 60 minutes of zone 1-2. And for the most part, it was. But since I'm a bit of an idiot, there was a big block of upper zone 2, edging into zone 3. It's not like I was doing VO2 intervals, so this wasn't that far off the plan. It was nice to see that upper zone 2 is about 240w, and that I could hold that easily for 30 minutes. I guess I'm getting stronger again.

Bike: 65 min, zone 1-2, w/ 30 min @ 240w
Run: 2 miles @ 7.0 mph

In further notes, Trisport Canada added a Motionbased map of the bike course to their website. The nice thing about Motionbased is that I could save the map as a GPX file, which I could then convert to a PGMF file. So now, I have the Muskoka bike course as a route on the i-Magic. I'm going to try not to use it as my sole ride, but just every once in a while, mostly as a scouting report on the climbs and such. But this will help with the next few months.

Drills make me sink

Since our other coach was back with us today, there were more drills (inlcuding some "almost drowning" drills), and much shorter sets. It's probably a good thing to go back to some form work every once in a while, but if it's only every 5th or 6th session, will we really improve in any of the drills, and have it transfer to the strokes? I could definitely handle having a portion of each day dedicated to drill work, but that's not in the cards right now. I'm not sure if I did the stroke count correctly. It was a big departure from my usual stroke, for the sake of minimization. I don't know if this was the intent.

Swim: w/u - 2x50m each free, kick, drill (three-kick switch), pull, 15"
3x(100 free, 20"
2x50 drill, 20"
100 free, 20"
2x50 stroke count, 20")
Drills were: 1) three-touch, 2) 25 head-up/25 free, 3) finger drag
25 ez/25 hard
50 ez/50 hard
75 ez/75 hard, 30"
c/d - 100 non-free/100 free
75 non-free/75 free
50 non-free/50 free
25 non-free/25 free
Total: 2400m

Too much ... fun

What was scheduled: 75 minutes of zone 1-2, followed by a 3 mile LSD run
What I did: 75 minutes of zone 1-3 (about 25 minutes zone 3+), with 5 minutes in zone 4 (hanging ~300w), followed by a 3 mile run at 7.0 mph (which right now counts as LSD)

I went harder than I should have, but I had a lot of fun, and hours later I feel fine. If I'm good in the morning, than I might start pushing my other rides a bit more. I'm still 8 months out from the A race, so I need to be patient, but opening things up every once in a while can't be a bad thing. Even if it's only in my head.

Happy Groundhog Day

According to the Canadian groundhogs, Spring is on its way. Of course they'd claim this the day after the biggest storm of the winter; anything now is an improvement. Who knew weather-forecasting rodents would play the odds like that?

Since it is still winter, I'm still on the trainer (where I figure to be until April-ish). And by on the trainer, I mean, "in Germany". I did the last 3/4ths of the Roth Ironman Ergovideo, at -30%. This made for an almost two-hour ride, in mostly zone 2, with a few moments down to 1 or up in 3. It's still early in the season, so rides like this are what I need. Just saddle time, some moderately harder work, but mostly just fun.

And as long as I'm riding, it's fun.

Bike: 105 minutes, zone 1-3

I can't see that from here

I started with this swimming thing in late September. I was slow, and struggled to do any more than 50 meters at a time. Fast-forward four months ...

This morning was the first test set of the season. After an all-too-brief warm-up, we looked at the big board and saw: 1x2000. That's far. On a clear day, that's about as far you could see towards the horizon. And now I have to swim that far. That's even a bit further than I'll have to do at Muskoka (1.2 miles=1932m). We're given the option at the 1000m mark to switch to pull, but we should keep moving.

Somehow I was called upon to lead our lane. I have some trouble here, because when it's called upon as EZ, EZ for the first swimmer can end up being too easy for the followers in the draft, so the leader can end up pushing too hard to set a decent pace. Like a team TT, I traded off pulls every few hundred meters with another swimmer. We kept up a good, but manageable pace. At 1000m, she switched to the pull buoy, so I let her most of the leading from that point on. Other than these switches (each lasting 3-5 seconds), the swimming was non-stop.

We finished in about 44 minutes. Obviously, we weren't blazing. I feel like the pace could have been higher in the last 500 or so meters, but that may be due to me being in the draft for much of that. Even with that, I feel good that accomplished such a long continuous effort. My pace will need to go up, but there's over seven months for that. In a race where I can catch a legitimate draft, and wear a wetsuit, I think I can handle getting to a sub-40 pace for 1.2 miles. I'd love to be able to do 35 minutes, but that may be a stretch.

One thing that felt really good was catching the water. I put a real emphasis into the "forearm flop" and could feel myself catch a lot of water from wrist to elbow with each stroke. As I continue to get stronger, hopefully that will get me even faster.

Swim: w/u 100m each free, back, pull, breast
1x2000m free
2x50 breast/50 back, 15"
2x25 sprint/25 ez free, 30"
c/d: 1x50 breast/50 back
Total: 2800m

Tonight when I get home (and finish shovelling the driveway), I'll do a short run.
Run: 3 miles @ 7.0 mph