It's time for me to be honest -- due to a million factors ranging from the Princess' preschool schedule to the Pea's ear infection, to wanting to catch my beloved Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Big Ten tournament, week five has been a spotty one. As it turns out, all three of those reasons reared their ugly head on Thursday, which meant I was heading into Friday still not having ridden a good workout in about a week.
On Friday, with the Princess at preschool for a three hour block, I hit the bike...
75 min Hill Interval Ride
The specific guidance from the training guide told me to do eight hill intervals of one minute in length. The specific ability of the bike I rode on (admittedly, the one that was in front of the college hoops) was slightly different, but, after choosing the "Alpine Pass" program and inputting 75 minutes, I was challenged nonetheless.
The crazy thing about the workout today was how sore I had woken up. Not having worked out yesterday, having had a very nice massage and a non-impact swim in the days prior, why was I sore from my hamstrings to my ribs to my shoulders. It really made no sense whatsoever -- let's just say that nothing I did outside of the gym on Thursday would have done that. It's one of life's great mysteries, but one you come to expect when training for a distance race. So, I hurt, it hurt to ride the bike, but when all was said and done I had kept my wattage up and, at least according to the bike I was on, had covered a good 22 miles in my 75-80 minutes. To be honest, I remain skeptical of that figure, but I was well pleased with how I pushed myself on the hills and kept up the pace ahead of a long (2:45) bike ride on Sunday and a long swim (2000ish) tomorrow. The Gophers on the other hand? They laid an egg and left everything in the hands of the NCAA Selection Committee -- NEVER a good idea.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Too Strong (and Too Much Information)
1200yd Base and Sprint Swim
If you were anywhere around my family these past few days, you would likely assume that this post would have everything to do with the Princess and her "little problem." Specifically, her newfound love of peeing anywhere but in the potty despite having been toilet trained some four or five months ago.
Nonetheless, with a challenging swim set on the menu for Tuesday, I decided to trust her and the Pea to the gym daycare for a bit and take to the pool. I made sure to have her use the potty, which she did, and also brought spare clothes -- I was set!
Upon entering the pool area, I realized it was not only her being prone to accidents that would rush me on Tuesday, it was the fact that I was suddenly out of sunscreen! Suddenly, what was supposed to be a 1650 yard set, complete with 800 yards of base swim and five 50 yard sprint intervals was going to be those and only a 100 yard warm up and cool down. At 10am in March, the sun was already too strong in San Diego and a vicious sunburn was going to result if I went even a few moments too long. As it is, I am writing this with a bit too much pink on my shoulders and back, thankful that I got out when I did.
I did complete the base swim, however, although I experienced a bizarre physical phenomenon of feeling "too strong," or, more accurately, "too bound by muscle." To be sure, I had swum more yards in the last week than I had prior, and this set was one in which I intended, and did, really push myself, but it felt as if my shoulder muscles were not allowing me to extend. I brought this up with my chiropractor on Wednesday and he confirmed the problem was too many "internal pushing exercises" and not enough of the reverse, pulling style motions. It's true, over the course of these first few weeks, my ability to lay my arms flat with palms up was being challenged. I noticed this especially on my loooong (14+ hours) plane flights, when I couldn't just lay my arms on my side to sleep -- the result is that my arms are rotating inward due to the overuse of the muscles used for internal rotation. There are, apparently, a couple of muscles in the shoulder (primarily) used for external rotation which are inherently underused and my swim sets, without proper correction, was making it even worse. The prescription? A week of doing the backstroke as my primary swim stroke AND a good regimen of external rotation exercises using resistance tubing. I was used to that from rehabbing my rotator cuff in college, so I had the stuff I needed and am happy to oblige.
Needless to say, the "short-arming" didn't help my times any, but as I finished the base set and headed to the sprints, it became less about form (unfortunately) and more about aerobic capacity and lactic threshold. I did complete the five sets, but recovered with deep, gulping breaths after each. It feels good to really push yourself, but not so good to feel how much work is left to come -- but that's why I'm out there!
The coup de grace for the day? As I literally swam my last few strokes, the child care helper was there and asked if I had extra clothes for the Princess. Assuming she had gone potty in her pants again, I sighed and asked for more details -- no "pee," it turns out... no way. She had instead dropped trow and... well, you know. Ahh, parenting combined with an Ironman -- brilliant stuff... ;-)
If you were anywhere around my family these past few days, you would likely assume that this post would have everything to do with the Princess and her "little problem." Specifically, her newfound love of peeing anywhere but in the potty despite having been toilet trained some four or five months ago.
Nonetheless, with a challenging swim set on the menu for Tuesday, I decided to trust her and the Pea to the gym daycare for a bit and take to the pool. I made sure to have her use the potty, which she did, and also brought spare clothes -- I was set!
Upon entering the pool area, I realized it was not only her being prone to accidents that would rush me on Tuesday, it was the fact that I was suddenly out of sunscreen! Suddenly, what was supposed to be a 1650 yard set, complete with 800 yards of base swim and five 50 yard sprint intervals was going to be those and only a 100 yard warm up and cool down. At 10am in March, the sun was already too strong in San Diego and a vicious sunburn was going to result if I went even a few moments too long. As it is, I am writing this with a bit too much pink on my shoulders and back, thankful that I got out when I did.
I did complete the base swim, however, although I experienced a bizarre physical phenomenon of feeling "too strong," or, more accurately, "too bound by muscle." To be sure, I had swum more yards in the last week than I had prior, and this set was one in which I intended, and did, really push myself, but it felt as if my shoulder muscles were not allowing me to extend. I brought this up with my chiropractor on Wednesday and he confirmed the problem was too many "internal pushing exercises" and not enough of the reverse, pulling style motions. It's true, over the course of these first few weeks, my ability to lay my arms flat with palms up was being challenged. I noticed this especially on my loooong (14+ hours) plane flights, when I couldn't just lay my arms on my side to sleep -- the result is that my arms are rotating inward due to the overuse of the muscles used for internal rotation. There are, apparently, a couple of muscles in the shoulder (primarily) used for external rotation which are inherently underused and my swim sets, without proper correction, was making it even worse. The prescription? A week of doing the backstroke as my primary swim stroke AND a good regimen of external rotation exercises using resistance tubing. I was used to that from rehabbing my rotator cuff in college, so I had the stuff I needed and am happy to oblige.
Needless to say, the "short-arming" didn't help my times any, but as I finished the base set and headed to the sprints, it became less about form (unfortunately) and more about aerobic capacity and lactic threshold. I did complete the five sets, but recovered with deep, gulping breaths after each. It feels good to really push yourself, but not so good to feel how much work is left to come -- but that's why I'm out there!
The coup de grace for the day? As I literally swam my last few strokes, the child care helper was there and asked if I had extra clothes for the Princess. Assuming she had gone potty in her pants again, I sighed and asked for more details -- no "pee," it turns out... no way. She had instead dropped trow and... well, you know. Ahh, parenting combined with an Ironman -- brilliant stuff... ;-)
Sunday, March 8, 2009
One Night in Bangkok
I'll have to ask you to excuse the intermittent posting of the last week -- just as I'll have to ask myself to excuse the odd workouts missed. You see, as I mentioned previously, work took me to Thailand this past week. Amazing, really, as in a span of four days I went from San Diego and back again. Thankfully, my cousin has a condo in Bangkok, so in addition to a "posh" place to stay in a city which, despite all of the wonderful culture, can overwhelm you with its "grit," I also had a beautiful pool in which I was able to complete a good workout. There was a workout room as well that had a stationary bike, but I decided to let my body rest from and for two 24-hour travel stints and just focus on a nice, long, partly recuperative (from the 90+ degree heat anyway) swim.
2000yd Base Swim
Stepping out onto the sixth floor pool deck from my cousin's Bangkok condo was inspirational enough. A very modern city these days (as opposed to 20 years ago), the skyline sat on the horizon. Plus, it was one of those "horizon" pools where you look across water level and it just "falls off" into infinity. A little unnerving, understanding how high I was, but there's no real risk of floating off into the abyss.
What there is in one of those pools, interesting enough, is a bit of a current. You see the pool is fed from a gorgeous fountain on the left side, and the water travels across to the right, where it runs over the edge onto a filter which pumps it (presumably) back to the fountain. The water traveling left to right actually created a bit of a surface current and complementary undercurrent. Nothing a moderate swimmer like me couldn't swim through, but a bit of an added challenge for a long set nonetheless.
I also needed to keep in touch with the outside world during this swim. I had traveled to Bangkok for a US Embassy appointment, but due to extreme heat and a problem with the Embassy's air conditioning, attorneys were told to stay out and only permitted to discuss matters post-interview. So, I had to keep my phone (and internet) close by. This resulted in a 5x400 yard swim, checking my phone quickly after every 200 yards and the phone and internet after every 400. I did get a few messages, and even a text from the Lovely Wife who was home enduring a deposition at the time, but thankfully the client matter didn't need me until after the swim.
All that being taken into account, the swim was fairly uneventful. The pool was only 20 yards long (as opposed to the typical 25yd pool in America), so I had to turn more often, but that was basically immaterial. The short rbreaks every 400 yards left me feeling refreshed as I started every new set, and the current forced me to pull hard through the pool while at the same time focusing on technique so that I could keep my pace for two kilometers. One solid sunburn and a soak in the air conditioned internet room next door for a few hours and my mission of getting a workout in before my 24hour flight back home was accomplished.
90min Foundation Bike
Despite every intention of working out the day after I returned home, life got in the way. Not fatigue or jet lag so much -- in fact, I was blessed with what amounted to basically no jet lag on my return -- but more crap that needed to be done that had been put off for two weeks of travel to Asia and Europe.
On Saturday, however, an opening appeared for me to get in the "long ride" of this, week four. Thankfully, every fourth week is a recovery week, so that ride was only 90 minutes long. An easy ride to accomplish on the bike at the gym -- when done on a Saturday afternoon, there's also plenty on the attached television to take your mind off of the slogging.
And slog I did. Finishing the ride fairly strong, averaging approximately 16mph (23+ miles completed) and 155 watts (not great, but not bad considering I was off of the bike for a week), I was happy to have completed the ride. At least a dozen times my mind tried to convince me to go less than the full 90 but, frankly, knowing I'd have to admit my transgression to the poor souls who read my blog kept me plugging. Plus, the USA/Canada baseball game was a pretty good one, even though Justin Morneau stranded the winning run on second base to essentially end the game for Canada. As the USA celebrated its victory, the clock struck 90 and I headed home feeling as if I was ready to get back on the horse for week five.
1800yd Base Swim
Having accomplished the long ride of recovery week four, now I needed to focus and try and accomplish the 1800 yard weekend base swim. The Lovely Wife provided good motivation on that front as she wanted to swim as well. The kids seemed to be over their colds, which had ravaged the whole two weeks I was traveling, so the gym day care would suffice.
For a little over 40 minutes, I reintroduced myself to the gym pool, the sun of San Diego (as intense, but significantly less hot than that in Bangkok), and the muscles which had been beaten up first by a 24-hour flight, and then by a 90 minute plod on the bike the day before. To be honest, the damage was minimal. I had a little wrist pain partway through (the result of my vigorous 90 minute muscle massage in Thailand?), but all in all, the 1800 yards felt significant but hardly insurmountable. In fact, I commented to my wife that I think I could comfortably swim it again, closing in on the 2.4 miles needed in August for the race. Now riding a bike 112 miles afterwards? That's presently a different matter, but God knows there's plenty of time.
See you next week for a new twist on the baseline work, now that the recovery week is concluded. The bikes will incorporate more hills and the swims more sprint work. Both have the effect of making me gulp for air, but then that's a good thing, right? See you soon... ;-)
2000yd Base Swim
Stepping out onto the sixth floor pool deck from my cousin's Bangkok condo was inspirational enough. A very modern city these days (as opposed to 20 years ago), the skyline sat on the horizon. Plus, it was one of those "horizon" pools where you look across water level and it just "falls off" into infinity. A little unnerving, understanding how high I was, but there's no real risk of floating off into the abyss.
What there is in one of those pools, interesting enough, is a bit of a current. You see the pool is fed from a gorgeous fountain on the left side, and the water travels across to the right, where it runs over the edge onto a filter which pumps it (presumably) back to the fountain. The water traveling left to right actually created a bit of a surface current and complementary undercurrent. Nothing a moderate swimmer like me couldn't swim through, but a bit of an added challenge for a long set nonetheless.
I also needed to keep in touch with the outside world during this swim. I had traveled to Bangkok for a US Embassy appointment, but due to extreme heat and a problem with the Embassy's air conditioning, attorneys were told to stay out and only permitted to discuss matters post-interview. So, I had to keep my phone (and internet) close by. This resulted in a 5x400 yard swim, checking my phone quickly after every 200 yards and the phone and internet after every 400. I did get a few messages, and even a text from the Lovely Wife who was home enduring a deposition at the time, but thankfully the client matter didn't need me until after the swim.
All that being taken into account, the swim was fairly uneventful. The pool was only 20 yards long (as opposed to the typical 25yd pool in America), so I had to turn more often, but that was basically immaterial. The short rbreaks every 400 yards left me feeling refreshed as I started every new set, and the current forced me to pull hard through the pool while at the same time focusing on technique so that I could keep my pace for two kilometers. One solid sunburn and a soak in the air conditioned internet room next door for a few hours and my mission of getting a workout in before my 24hour flight back home was accomplished.
90min Foundation Bike
Despite every intention of working out the day after I returned home, life got in the way. Not fatigue or jet lag so much -- in fact, I was blessed with what amounted to basically no jet lag on my return -- but more crap that needed to be done that had been put off for two weeks of travel to Asia and Europe.
On Saturday, however, an opening appeared for me to get in the "long ride" of this, week four. Thankfully, every fourth week is a recovery week, so that ride was only 90 minutes long. An easy ride to accomplish on the bike at the gym -- when done on a Saturday afternoon, there's also plenty on the attached television to take your mind off of the slogging.
And slog I did. Finishing the ride fairly strong, averaging approximately 16mph (23+ miles completed) and 155 watts (not great, but not bad considering I was off of the bike for a week), I was happy to have completed the ride. At least a dozen times my mind tried to convince me to go less than the full 90 but, frankly, knowing I'd have to admit my transgression to the poor souls who read my blog kept me plugging. Plus, the USA/Canada baseball game was a pretty good one, even though Justin Morneau stranded the winning run on second base to essentially end the game for Canada. As the USA celebrated its victory, the clock struck 90 and I headed home feeling as if I was ready to get back on the horse for week five.
1800yd Base Swim
Having accomplished the long ride of recovery week four, now I needed to focus and try and accomplish the 1800 yard weekend base swim. The Lovely Wife provided good motivation on that front as she wanted to swim as well. The kids seemed to be over their colds, which had ravaged the whole two weeks I was traveling, so the gym day care would suffice.
For a little over 40 minutes, I reintroduced myself to the gym pool, the sun of San Diego (as intense, but significantly less hot than that in Bangkok), and the muscles which had been beaten up first by a 24-hour flight, and then by a 90 minute plod on the bike the day before. To be honest, the damage was minimal. I had a little wrist pain partway through (the result of my vigorous 90 minute muscle massage in Thailand?), but all in all, the 1800 yards felt significant but hardly insurmountable. In fact, I commented to my wife that I think I could comfortably swim it again, closing in on the 2.4 miles needed in August for the race. Now riding a bike 112 miles afterwards? That's presently a different matter, but God knows there's plenty of time.
See you next week for a new twist on the baseline work, now that the recovery week is concluded. The bikes will incorporate more hills and the swims more sprint work. Both have the effect of making me gulp for air, but then that's a good thing, right? See you soon... ;-)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Trying Not to Rush Things
It's 7:40 in the morning and the day is already behind schedule. You see, the Princess has Spanish preschool at 9:30 am, I have a roughly 90 minute workout schedule (travel time and shower included) ahead of me, and they haven't even eaten breakfast yet.
Throw in that both of them have noses running at an alarming rate (at least for anyone who shares childcare facilities with them) and there is quite a decision to make. You see, I'm leaving for Thailand (yeah, not helpful) on Saturday night and I need no excuses not to work out. I've run through the "getting all of the workouts in" scenarios in my head and, needless to say, taking a day off to wipe runny noses was not in the plan.
Having convinced myself that they aren't sick, only waking up, I pack the car and, around 8, hit the road. I'm to the pool by about 8:15 and, after the obligatory poolside wait for a lane to open, I'm in the pool around 8:30.
1300yd Fartlek Intervals
The nice part about doing a Fartlek set is that it might actually finish in a reasonable period of time. As opposed to a "one hour" bike set, which cannot be hurried no matter how you slice it, swimming hard through an interval workout means that I am a bit in control of my own time (sort of).
The flipside risk is that form goes all to @$%$ -- it's amazing when I feel like I am putting in maximum effort versus when I relax and really focus on my form. Long story short? They result in basically the same level of performance. Which is exactly why today I focused on form and found myself at a pretty good pace.
300 yards in the Fartlek intervals commenced. The length of each interval is increasing over time (this is the third week), but the intensity still allows for me to grow into my stroke. At the moment they are 150yds long, alternating 50 easy with 25 hard. Out of curiosity, I counted my strokes on the easy set versus the hard sets -- similar to what I had thought, I was only saving two strokes per length, but yet the hard sets were causing me to gulp for air. So, with about four of the six interval sets left, I tried to maintain form during the hard lengths as well. Lo and behold, I was suddenly moving and moving well. Sure, as we closed in on the final couple of sets I was losing steam, but I've got time to build endurance -- this was about confidence.
A quick 100yd cooldown, picked up the kids, and made it to "la escuela" by 9:35. All told a good morning -- I'm ready for that 2000yd swim on Saturday and the rest of my swim season.
Throw in that both of them have noses running at an alarming rate (at least for anyone who shares childcare facilities with them) and there is quite a decision to make. You see, I'm leaving for Thailand (yeah, not helpful) on Saturday night and I need no excuses not to work out. I've run through the "getting all of the workouts in" scenarios in my head and, needless to say, taking a day off to wipe runny noses was not in the plan.
Having convinced myself that they aren't sick, only waking up, I pack the car and, around 8, hit the road. I'm to the pool by about 8:15 and, after the obligatory poolside wait for a lane to open, I'm in the pool around 8:30.
1300yd Fartlek Intervals
The nice part about doing a Fartlek set is that it might actually finish in a reasonable period of time. As opposed to a "one hour" bike set, which cannot be hurried no matter how you slice it, swimming hard through an interval workout means that I am a bit in control of my own time (sort of).
The flipside risk is that form goes all to @$%$ -- it's amazing when I feel like I am putting in maximum effort versus when I relax and really focus on my form. Long story short? They result in basically the same level of performance. Which is exactly why today I focused on form and found myself at a pretty good pace.
300 yards in the Fartlek intervals commenced. The length of each interval is increasing over time (this is the third week), but the intensity still allows for me to grow into my stroke. At the moment they are 150yds long, alternating 50 easy with 25 hard. Out of curiosity, I counted my strokes on the easy set versus the hard sets -- similar to what I had thought, I was only saving two strokes per length, but yet the hard sets were causing me to gulp for air. So, with about four of the six interval sets left, I tried to maintain form during the hard lengths as well. Lo and behold, I was suddenly moving and moving well. Sure, as we closed in on the final couple of sets I was losing steam, but I've got time to build endurance -- this was about confidence.
A quick 100yd cooldown, picked up the kids, and made it to "la escuela" by 9:35. All told a good morning -- I'm ready for that 2000yd swim on Saturday and the rest of my swim season.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Back on the Horse
I'm not sure if a study has ever been commissioned which sought to determine the effects of 48 hours of travel and about fifteen pints of quality lager on the human body -- but after my last week, I can tell you there is no need. It causes fatigue and lots of it.
With a five day trip to Munich and London, with a good friend of 30+ years traveling with me to boot, I wanted to be sure to bookend my trip with the workouts called for in the third week of my training program. I had hit the bike and pool hard in the first two weeks and while week three would be split over two weeks, I didn't want to lose any momentum.
Monday, February 16
1:20 Bike, with 8 x :20 Power Intervals
Writing this some ten days hence, I just remember that I felt really good after a solid weekend swim and challenged myself to maintain the 200 watt pace that I had been able to accomplish on the power intervals the first two weeks. As with other rides, the presence of a ghost rider made it really easy to get motivated (not to mention the week off staring me in the face) and I rode REALLY hard. In fact, not only did I leave the 200 watt pacer in my wake, I also beat my ghost rider by several minutes. Cruising into the completion of a challenging 21 mile course ahead of the 1:20, I also eclipsed the 17mph marker, one which seemed unlikely just two weeks earlier.
I felt real good and I was ready to attack the break.
Not too ready, though, as I managed to do absolutely nothing until my return on the 24th. In fact, my friend busted out a pretty good 48 minute run on a beautiful Saturday in London -- while I sat watching rugby on the couch with another friend who also pooh-poohed the exercise.
Tuesday, February 24
800 Yard Base Swim
Funny I should use the word "poo," as that is exactly what I felt like as I hit the pool on Tuesday morning. First of all, the fates were not in my corner in even allowing me to do the swim -- as I made my way to my standard pool, the entire facility was closed due to a water main break. Never fear, I thought, as the "alternate gym" about three miles away was equipped with a lap pool -- not my first choice, but it would do in a pinch. Only just.
You see, I jumped in and started to swim my base sets, which were supposed to be 1450 yards, even with my modifications, and I trudged along slowly. Slow and steady, to be sure, but slow nonetheless. I was happy to be back working out, but also feeling as if the last few nights of drinking, not to mention the 22.5 hours of flying the day before was well and truly doing me in.
Then came the reprieve. I don't wish to make it seem like it was welcome, as I had actually hit a rhythm when the maintenance crew announced that they needed to "vacuum the pool." Vaccum the pool?? Seriously? It's a 24 hour fitness facility - is 10:30 on a Tuesday the right time?
Maybe it was kizmet as I pulled myself out after a hard final length, sat in the jacuzzi for another ten, and "eased" myself into the rest of my training. Did I mention I would be heading to Bangkok on Saturday? At least there my cousin's pad has a pool and gym, but it does without saying that I was eagerly anticipating a couple weeks off when I could put my head down and hammer out my workouts -- not to mention spend a bit more time with my kids.
Wednesday, February 25
1hr Foundation Bike
If Tuesday was my day to rediscover my sea legs, Wednesday served that purpose for the bike. For the first time, I was heading to the gym by my daughter's school -- no fancy course on the screen, only the depressing news on CNBC, and fewer stats, but a good hard spin bike that would let me churn out an hour at a reasonable pace and absorb the good weeks I had put in already in February.
Unfortunately, even that interval ride last week seemed a million miles ago, at least at first. Lactic acid was the winner on this day as I could feel the heavy, thick stuff filling my thighs and calves from minute one. I didn't quit, which I would like to think is an improvement on where I was early in my half-Ironman training in 2007, but I didn't impress either. I rolled along at about 150-160 watts, getting in a good 15 miles and breaking a solid sweat, but the 170-185 heartrate I had been getting to the first couple weeks was replaced by a decent, but uninspiring 145-155. It still felt like hard work and it all has value -- there is a reason, after all, that it's called a foundation bike -- I'm laying the ground work for some serious efforts to come. I'm happy to have stuck with it and happy to check another workout off of the list (still not having missed one!) -- another ride sits there for me on Friday, not to mention a challenging swim tomorrow, so I'll keep on plugging.
With a five day trip to Munich and London, with a good friend of 30+ years traveling with me to boot, I wanted to be sure to bookend my trip with the workouts called for in the third week of my training program. I had hit the bike and pool hard in the first two weeks and while week three would be split over two weeks, I didn't want to lose any momentum.
Monday, February 16
1:20 Bike, with 8 x :20 Power Intervals
Writing this some ten days hence, I just remember that I felt really good after a solid weekend swim and challenged myself to maintain the 200 watt pace that I had been able to accomplish on the power intervals the first two weeks. As with other rides, the presence of a ghost rider made it really easy to get motivated (not to mention the week off staring me in the face) and I rode REALLY hard. In fact, not only did I leave the 200 watt pacer in my wake, I also beat my ghost rider by several minutes. Cruising into the completion of a challenging 21 mile course ahead of the 1:20, I also eclipsed the 17mph marker, one which seemed unlikely just two weeks earlier.
I felt real good and I was ready to attack the break.
Not too ready, though, as I managed to do absolutely nothing until my return on the 24th. In fact, my friend busted out a pretty good 48 minute run on a beautiful Saturday in London -- while I sat watching rugby on the couch with another friend who also pooh-poohed the exercise.
Tuesday, February 24
800 Yard Base Swim
Funny I should use the word "poo," as that is exactly what I felt like as I hit the pool on Tuesday morning. First of all, the fates were not in my corner in even allowing me to do the swim -- as I made my way to my standard pool, the entire facility was closed due to a water main break. Never fear, I thought, as the "alternate gym" about three miles away was equipped with a lap pool -- not my first choice, but it would do in a pinch. Only just.
You see, I jumped in and started to swim my base sets, which were supposed to be 1450 yards, even with my modifications, and I trudged along slowly. Slow and steady, to be sure, but slow nonetheless. I was happy to be back working out, but also feeling as if the last few nights of drinking, not to mention the 22.5 hours of flying the day before was well and truly doing me in.
Then came the reprieve. I don't wish to make it seem like it was welcome, as I had actually hit a rhythm when the maintenance crew announced that they needed to "vacuum the pool." Vaccum the pool?? Seriously? It's a 24 hour fitness facility - is 10:30 on a Tuesday the right time?
Maybe it was kizmet as I pulled myself out after a hard final length, sat in the jacuzzi for another ten, and "eased" myself into the rest of my training. Did I mention I would be heading to Bangkok on Saturday? At least there my cousin's pad has a pool and gym, but it does without saying that I was eagerly anticipating a couple weeks off when I could put my head down and hammer out my workouts -- not to mention spend a bit more time with my kids.
Wednesday, February 25
1hr Foundation Bike
If Tuesday was my day to rediscover my sea legs, Wednesday served that purpose for the bike. For the first time, I was heading to the gym by my daughter's school -- no fancy course on the screen, only the depressing news on CNBC, and fewer stats, but a good hard spin bike that would let me churn out an hour at a reasonable pace and absorb the good weeks I had put in already in February.
Unfortunately, even that interval ride last week seemed a million miles ago, at least at first. Lactic acid was the winner on this day as I could feel the heavy, thick stuff filling my thighs and calves from minute one. I didn't quit, which I would like to think is an improvement on where I was early in my half-Ironman training in 2007, but I didn't impress either. I rolled along at about 150-160 watts, getting in a good 15 miles and breaking a solid sweat, but the 170-185 heartrate I had been getting to the first couple weeks was replaced by a decent, but uninspiring 145-155. It still felt like hard work and it all has value -- there is a reason, after all, that it's called a foundation bike -- I'm laying the ground work for some serious efforts to come. I'm happy to have stuck with it and happy to check another workout off of the list (still not having missed one!) -- another ride sits there for me on Friday, not to mention a challenging swim tomorrow, so I'll keep on plugging.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Test Before the Rest
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Sorry I didn't post yesterday (thanks for noticing!), but it was one of those days. Actually, it was the typical "boil your workout down to the essentials" kind of day due to the occasional time constraints that kids and life put on you. I had about 90 minutes to get back and forth to the Princess' preschool and also get my workout in, but manage something I did.
1100 Fartlek Swim Set
If I'm remembering correctly, the assigned set here is some 1900 yards. To get it down to 1100 (oops!), I lopped off two 200 yard drill/kick sets and another 200 yards off of each of the warmup and cool down. Not a long term strategy for success, for sure, but one that is sometimes necessary in life. What did I do? The "meat and potatoes" of the swim set -- specifically, 6 x 150 yard Fartlek swim intervals in a 50 yard build and a 25 yard descend pattern. I continue to struggle with what build means in swimming -- especially, as I seem to have about a half-dozen speeds and all I do is switch from one to the next to the next until I'm sprinting and then, not surprisingly, descend to a sluggish crawl more slowly on the backside. But, either way, I felt it, and that remains the key at this early stage. With only ten seconds between sets, I didn't really have time to fully catch my breath, which is a good thing -- all the more work on improving my VO2 max, which is, in layman's terms, the body's threshold level for exerting and still using oxygen efficiently. The more you work on your lung's resistance, the more they can take down the road, just like anything else.
Plus, I also wasn't concerned about trimming this workout because I knew I had a swim/bike brick planned for the next morning. For those not familiar with triathlon terminology, a "brick" workout is one which combines disciplines, similar to and often in the same order as you would in a race. In my case, where I'm eschewing the run for now, my brick workouts will almost always be swim/bike. In terms of what I was trying to do Saturday, it was my full long-swim workout as prescribed for the weekend, followed closely by a hard 45-minute bike ride. I planned on putting in maximum effort, knowing that I would be taking Sunday off, doing one power interval set on the bike on Monday, and then leaving town for a week. Considering the travel is international and there's no guarantee I'll see any exercise until the following Monday, this brick workout was meant to be intense... It did not disappoint.
1300 yard swim/45 minute bike
I got to the pool about 9:30 on Saturday morning, only to observe a crowd there as large as I've ever seen -- not normally a good thing, especially if you're planning on putting in a good 45-50 minute swim in one of the eight available lanes. The good news is that no one was in the pool yet. The bad? At 10am, an "indoor" triathlon was going to get underway and the pool was going to close. Yikes! Needless to say, I stripped down to my suit, jumped in with my goggles half-off and started swimming as hard as I could. My goal for the day was 1800 yards, but that simply wasn't going to happen in 25-30 minutes (when they would kick me out). A strong (read: not me) triathlon swimmer covers a mile (1750 yards) in 25 minutes. I am more like 35 when I'm really laying the wood.
The good part about the time pressure is that I discarded the pleasantries and I swam HARD. I kicked hard and long, stretched and pulled with all my might, and completely ignored the maelstrom going on around me as they readied the pool for the upcoming race. After about 1200 strong yards, I noticed that they were starting to empty the pool. I managed another 100 yards, bringing me to 1300 in about 27 minutes (which I am pleased as punch about). It wasn't a bad effort, and I probably burned close to as many calories and built up as much lactic acid as if I had gone 1800 at my normal pace, so the effect was roughly the same.
With timing being everything, I passed by a childcare worker on the way in who notified me about a needed diaper change -- I changed quickly into my bike gear, freshened up the Pea with a new set of drawers, and headed for the bike.
Man, is doing the disciplines in combination a different world. I mean I have felt STRONG on the bike these last couple of weeks. I know I got my bum kicked by myself from last spring, but still, I completed every workout as planned, went up and down hills with aggression, and hit all of my speed milestones. Today I nearly passed out after about 15 minutes -- no joke.
First of all, it was quite apparent how hard I swam -- when I mentioned lactic acid earlier, I meant it. My hamstrings and thighs felt like molasses, slogging through all of the pedaling rotations and struggling to make it up even the smallest hill. At least three different times, during the most challenging of inclines, I nearly came to a complete stop. I'm not going to lie -- writing this blog kept me going at least once. I am determined to admit when I cut workouts short on here, and I just didn't want to do that today. I have a week off (sort of -- I have one more ride on Monday) and this was the first time I had combined the swim with the bike. I'm allowed to struggle through it a bit, but I didn't want to allow myself to stop before my prescribed 45 minutes, even if that meant I rode at 14-15mph (a full 2-3mph slower than on Thursday). Thankfully, as I recall from many races, my legs started to get back under me by about 10-15 minutes in and, while I remained slower than my bike-only sets, I got to a good 15mph average seven miles in and finished the 12 mile set averaging 16mph in the 45-minutes of time I had allotted. I was completely spent, soaked to the bone, and literally sat on the bike seat draining a 16 oz water bottle, but I did it and now I have Valentine's Day with my family and a day off on Sunday. I trust further that it did my body and my preparedness some good. At least I certainly hope so...
Sorry I didn't post yesterday (thanks for noticing!), but it was one of those days. Actually, it was the typical "boil your workout down to the essentials" kind of day due to the occasional time constraints that kids and life put on you. I had about 90 minutes to get back and forth to the Princess' preschool and also get my workout in, but manage something I did.
1100 Fartlek Swim Set
If I'm remembering correctly, the assigned set here is some 1900 yards. To get it down to 1100 (oops!), I lopped off two 200 yard drill/kick sets and another 200 yards off of each of the warmup and cool down. Not a long term strategy for success, for sure, but one that is sometimes necessary in life. What did I do? The "meat and potatoes" of the swim set -- specifically, 6 x 150 yard Fartlek swim intervals in a 50 yard build and a 25 yard descend pattern. I continue to struggle with what build means in swimming -- especially, as I seem to have about a half-dozen speeds and all I do is switch from one to the next to the next until I'm sprinting and then, not surprisingly, descend to a sluggish crawl more slowly on the backside. But, either way, I felt it, and that remains the key at this early stage. With only ten seconds between sets, I didn't really have time to fully catch my breath, which is a good thing -- all the more work on improving my VO2 max, which is, in layman's terms, the body's threshold level for exerting and still using oxygen efficiently. The more you work on your lung's resistance, the more they can take down the road, just like anything else.
Plus, I also wasn't concerned about trimming this workout because I knew I had a swim/bike brick planned for the next morning. For those not familiar with triathlon terminology, a "brick" workout is one which combines disciplines, similar to and often in the same order as you would in a race. In my case, where I'm eschewing the run for now, my brick workouts will almost always be swim/bike. In terms of what I was trying to do Saturday, it was my full long-swim workout as prescribed for the weekend, followed closely by a hard 45-minute bike ride. I planned on putting in maximum effort, knowing that I would be taking Sunday off, doing one power interval set on the bike on Monday, and then leaving town for a week. Considering the travel is international and there's no guarantee I'll see any exercise until the following Monday, this brick workout was meant to be intense... It did not disappoint.
1300 yard swim/45 minute bike
I got to the pool about 9:30 on Saturday morning, only to observe a crowd there as large as I've ever seen -- not normally a good thing, especially if you're planning on putting in a good 45-50 minute swim in one of the eight available lanes. The good news is that no one was in the pool yet. The bad? At 10am, an "indoor" triathlon was going to get underway and the pool was going to close. Yikes! Needless to say, I stripped down to my suit, jumped in with my goggles half-off and started swimming as hard as I could. My goal for the day was 1800 yards, but that simply wasn't going to happen in 25-30 minutes (when they would kick me out). A strong (read: not me) triathlon swimmer covers a mile (1750 yards) in 25 minutes. I am more like 35 when I'm really laying the wood.
The good part about the time pressure is that I discarded the pleasantries and I swam HARD. I kicked hard and long, stretched and pulled with all my might, and completely ignored the maelstrom going on around me as they readied the pool for the upcoming race. After about 1200 strong yards, I noticed that they were starting to empty the pool. I managed another 100 yards, bringing me to 1300 in about 27 minutes (which I am pleased as punch about). It wasn't a bad effort, and I probably burned close to as many calories and built up as much lactic acid as if I had gone 1800 at my normal pace, so the effect was roughly the same.
With timing being everything, I passed by a childcare worker on the way in who notified me about a needed diaper change -- I changed quickly into my bike gear, freshened up the Pea with a new set of drawers, and headed for the bike.
Man, is doing the disciplines in combination a different world. I mean I have felt STRONG on the bike these last couple of weeks. I know I got my bum kicked by myself from last spring, but still, I completed every workout as planned, went up and down hills with aggression, and hit all of my speed milestones. Today I nearly passed out after about 15 minutes -- no joke.
First of all, it was quite apparent how hard I swam -- when I mentioned lactic acid earlier, I meant it. My hamstrings and thighs felt like molasses, slogging through all of the pedaling rotations and struggling to make it up even the smallest hill. At least three different times, during the most challenging of inclines, I nearly came to a complete stop. I'm not going to lie -- writing this blog kept me going at least once. I am determined to admit when I cut workouts short on here, and I just didn't want to do that today. I have a week off (sort of -- I have one more ride on Monday) and this was the first time I had combined the swim with the bike. I'm allowed to struggle through it a bit, but I didn't want to allow myself to stop before my prescribed 45 minutes, even if that meant I rode at 14-15mph (a full 2-3mph slower than on Thursday). Thankfully, as I recall from many races, my legs started to get back under me by about 10-15 minutes in and, while I remained slower than my bike-only sets, I got to a good 15mph average seven miles in and finished the 12 mile set averaging 16mph in the 45-minutes of time I had allotted. I was completely spent, soaked to the bone, and literally sat on the bike seat draining a 16 oz water bottle, but I did it and now I have Valentine's Day with my family and a day off on Sunday. I trust further that it did my body and my preparedness some good. At least I certainly hope so...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Kicking My Own Backside
Today proved to be quite a comical exercise in how the brain works. In talking with my friend Peter, we discussed why it is that some days seem easier to work out and others harder. Peter posited that perhaps it's more mental than anything else -- seems to make sense, after all, especially when you've had similar rest, food, training, etc. I guess I was a bit skeptical, but not anymore...
1 Hour Foundation Bike Ride
You see, I hopped on the bike this morning with what has to be the wrong mindset. When I see the words foundation bike ride, my mind goes off to some park with a cruiser bike and streamers hanging off of the handlebars. Thankfully, I have the power meter to keep me a bit honest, but even if I set that to 180, we're talking about a heart rate in the 150's (hardly high exertion), a comfortable 15-16mph, and an hour later I'm hitting the showers feeling accomplished but not fatigued.
My company on the bikes didn't help any either. The woman next to me was seriously wearing a headband circa 1975 with a head of hair that resembled Will Farrell in that terrible basketball movie he did last year. She hardly seemed to be pedaling and a quick peek at her screen told me that she had covered 9 miles in over an hour and had an average heartrate of 94. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that Lance Armstrong probably has a 94 heading up the Alp D'Huez, but this was not because of supreme fitness -- she simply was going for a stroll. Not that I mean to criticize -- I, of all people, understand that people do their own thing, but it didn't do a lot to pump me up as I pedaled along halfheartedly at the start.
Then I caught a glimpse at my own screen. Turns out that while I was keeping the pacer in my rearview mirror, there was a "ghost rider" who was taking me to the woodshed. In my first five minutes of riding, he had already created a one-minute lead on me. Who was this ghost rider? A little more research let me know that it was myself just nine months earlier... Guess what -- I had my jackrabbit.
For the next fifty-five minutes, I pedaled at a rate that barely would have allowed me to carry a conversation. This particular route had a couple of very steep (40-50%) inclines and I attacked them with all the energy I could muster. Believe it or not, I never gained any ground on myself and ended up "losing" by nearly a minute and a half. Nonetheless, on a day when an hour of pedaling alone would have done, I ended up averaging nearly 18mph (a full two better than I had done on Tuesday during my power ride) and probably lost about four pounds of water weight.
I am now as convinced as ever that your body will do what you ask of it on most occasions -- even on days when you seem sluggish, it might be in your mind and not your legs. Sitting here five hours later, I can tell you that I feel strong, I feel (truly) accomplished and I feel wonderfully motivated. I wonder how I felt nine months ago when I kicked my own #$% -- hopefully, I'll be back there soon.
1 Hour Foundation Bike Ride
You see, I hopped on the bike this morning with what has to be the wrong mindset. When I see the words foundation bike ride, my mind goes off to some park with a cruiser bike and streamers hanging off of the handlebars. Thankfully, I have the power meter to keep me a bit honest, but even if I set that to 180, we're talking about a heart rate in the 150's (hardly high exertion), a comfortable 15-16mph, and an hour later I'm hitting the showers feeling accomplished but not fatigued.
My company on the bikes didn't help any either. The woman next to me was seriously wearing a headband circa 1975 with a head of hair that resembled Will Farrell in that terrible basketball movie he did last year. She hardly seemed to be pedaling and a quick peek at her screen told me that she had covered 9 miles in over an hour and had an average heartrate of 94. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that Lance Armstrong probably has a 94 heading up the Alp D'Huez, but this was not because of supreme fitness -- she simply was going for a stroll. Not that I mean to criticize -- I, of all people, understand that people do their own thing, but it didn't do a lot to pump me up as I pedaled along halfheartedly at the start.
Then I caught a glimpse at my own screen. Turns out that while I was keeping the pacer in my rearview mirror, there was a "ghost rider" who was taking me to the woodshed. In my first five minutes of riding, he had already created a one-minute lead on me. Who was this ghost rider? A little more research let me know that it was myself just nine months earlier... Guess what -- I had my jackrabbit.
For the next fifty-five minutes, I pedaled at a rate that barely would have allowed me to carry a conversation. This particular route had a couple of very steep (40-50%) inclines and I attacked them with all the energy I could muster. Believe it or not, I never gained any ground on myself and ended up "losing" by nearly a minute and a half. Nonetheless, on a day when an hour of pedaling alone would have done, I ended up averaging nearly 18mph (a full two better than I had done on Tuesday during my power ride) and probably lost about four pounds of water weight.
I am now as convinced as ever that your body will do what you ask of it on most occasions -- even on days when you seem sluggish, it might be in your mind and not your legs. Sitting here five hours later, I can tell you that I feel strong, I feel (truly) accomplished and I feel wonderfully motivated. I wonder how I felt nine months ago when I kicked my own #$% -- hopefully, I'll be back there soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)