Week 13/14 summary

Everyone's been sick -- boy ended up in the hospital with pneumonia from RSV.

I managed to keep my CTL level, minimal work, just stripping back to the critical runs (that is the focus, after all).

I raised my FTP to 259 though, so that's something. It bodes well for my 280 target.

Week 12 Summary

582 TSS on 6.7 hours of training.

Everyone was sick last week, it's my turn this week. Swimming got totally dropped, biking was pretty token. Seeing as this is supposed to be a running focus winter, I just tried to keep that going by repeating the block I was on (30/60/90) last week.

Boy is almost back to sleeping regularly, he's going to school next week for sure. Almost two weeks and it feels like forever.

Week 11 Summary

795 TSS on 8:45 of training.

Boy has been sick since Tuesday morning, so morning swims have been pretty much out of the question, I'm trying to avoid getting sick with what both DW and he have, and as much sleep as possible seems to be the answer.

5 hours of running (50k) this week which is right on track for the 30/60/90 phase of the BP plan. I'll hold it here for another week to let durability catch up to fitness. The Wed night runs are going well at Runner's Choice, there's one dude there who is very fast over short distances, no idea how he does at longer runs.

Did a brick at UW on Thursday lunch, Sufferfest on the phone, then 20min on the treadmill. That hurt. Left a huge puddle.

5kTT on Monday, see how things are going in the last 3 weeks.

Week 10 Summary

868 TSS on 9.25 hr of training.

Finished reading "RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel" by Matt Fitzgerald, which, at its core, is about developing mindfulness in your running practice. Also watched an older video from "the Science of Triathlon" about focus and refocus practice, esp. on bike -- start at feet, release tension, check arms, release tension, check neck, release tension, check head, release tension. Repeat.

Week 9 Summary

820 TSS on 9:30.

Ran a 5k TT on Monday, it hurt but was more or less what I expected.

CP5 is falling, I haven't done any longer hard efforts, going to start on a weekly sufferfest episode with the aim of changing that.

Week 8 Summary

770 TSS on 9.1 hours of training ... CTL has risen to 76, the result of two solid weeks of work. Consistency is going to be key this year.

I'm enjoying the Wed evening runs with Runner's Choice, lots of opportunity to push the pace and very nice people as well. Run duration this week was 3h48m, in line with the current 20:40:60 BarryP stage.  One more week of that before the distances start to ramp up...

I'm reading "Run: The mind-body method of running by feel" by Matt Fitzgerald, which, somewhat ironically, is so far a long discussion of the various types of training plans elite runners follow. I suppose the twist is where he talks about the deviations they take from the plans, and why.

Last year at this time, I was working on a swim focus block, and running 4-5 times/week.

Week 7! Here we go again...

Weeks 1-2 were really just casual, exercise-when-feel-like-it ... the next four weeks were "getting ready to get ready to train". This is the first week of "getting ready to train", so far it feels good (as of Saturday afternoon). Last week, X was sick again, and we spent 4 days in the hospital, so there's a good indication of how badly things could go in any given week.

This week will top out at ~750TSS and 71CTL, but I don't feel shattered by any means. I'll aim to raise that CTL by 2-3 points / week, I'm really trying to just get week after week of consistent training in this year.

Week 48 Summary and Tour De Hans -- end of 2012!

534TSS over 7 hours.

Tour de Hans 100k, done, in the books ... nice day, stayed with the lead pack all the way to 80k, at which point, yup, you guessed it, stuck in a crash. I kept the rubber side down at least, ended up on a lawn, just TT'd the last 30 minutes. Ended up 6 minutes back, at 2:23:02.

So that's the end of the 2012 season, I think my decision to move to a single sport (biking) after July was the right one. Hopefully it'll make it easier to come back to triathlon with some biking strength in 2013.

2013 is going to be a quiet year where I spend time building fitness in prep for 2014. I'm going to take 4 weeks (October, more or less) and just swim occasionally, and run with the dog to build up some frequency (seeing as I haven't run since July).

Week 47 Summary

517TSS in 7:45

Two hard (but not long) rides Saturday and Sunday. Legs are buzzing.

Recovery calculation has been split into its own sheet, tweaked slightly to clean up output.

T pace in the pool was tested at 1:43/100min, got some work to do there, I notice the fatigue sets in earlier.

Week 46 summary

500TSS in 8.5 hours.

I'm still fighting a minor cold, same sort of annoying thing where I run out of gas at about 85% -- which is why Sunday's ride was short, and indoors, even though it was really nice outside...


I put together a spreadsheet restwise clone, mostly to track my awareness of where I am in terms of fatigue.

I'll set it up as a Google docs template soon.

Week 45 summary

496TSS on 9 hours.

Started swimming again this week, very casually, but with my new Garmin Swim. It's not bad, maybe 99 accurate, so that means that over the two workouts I had this week, it miscounted a couple laps. As it turns out, the fancy graphics (which are actually not that useful) only show up if you import through ANT Agent, if you just upload the .fit file, you only get the default time vs. pace chart.

Anyways, Traininpeaks gives you the part that is useful anyways, so no worries.

I stayed indoors on Tuesday for my ride (HHNF) instead of going to the WCC ride, totally killed myself. I then had three nights in a row of moderate drinking, and now am coming down with a cold. Healthy #fail. I could feel myself hitting the aerobic wall coming home from my 80k this morning (as I was being chased up a hill by a boisterous Mennonite bugger driver).

There are now three weeks until Tour de Hans, then some sweet, sweet rest.

Week 44 summary and looking ahead

360 TSS on 6 hours.

Rest week complete! Except I felt less rested than maybe I should. I need to sleep more -- the typical nighttime routine goes: boy into bed between 9:00 and 9:30, then I always seem to find something to do until at least 10:00, and then I'm up next morning before 6... 7.whatever hours later. That's not enough.

Next thing I'm trying to address is getting enough nutrition in after a workout. For example, this morning I burned 1500 calories, trying to replace that in a single meal is pretty tough ... so this morning, I'm trying out the smoothy approach: 4 x 25g scoops of maltodextrin, 2 cups frozen fruit, 2 tbps whey protein, one banana, should be 700-750 calories.

Now I'm trying to figure out what my focus should be for the first few months of the winter ... Build [123], etc of Friel, or filling in whatever time I have available with quality work. hmm.

Week 43 Summary and faint 2013 plans coalescing

513 TSS in 8.3 hours.

Continued the Tuesday double, which was probably an error -- cracked on the last hill on the group ride that night. I was also feeling like I had a minor head cold, I could blame that as well, I suppose. I felt a bit run-down all week, so I'm going to take some extra rest this week; Monday is a rest day, I slept in, and tomorrow I'm just going to do the regular group ride, i.e., no extra morning workout, so more sleep.

Sunday's long ride was good, but my increased fatigue is reflected in the scores for the ride, down 10 from last week, the rest of the week was similar, legs felt more sore.

I've started stretching, 3 x sun salutations each morning, either after getting off the trainer, or just waking up. I can touch the floor again!

I've been putting some thought into what I'm doing after this season end (coming up quickly with the Tour de Hans on Sept 30), the first item will be 4 weeks of unstructured exercise (aka "2x swim, occasional running with the dog"). After that, it's pretty fuzzy, but will definitely feature a winter run focus (a la BarryP/Desert Dude challenge). Other considerations are ramping up for a "serious" shot at the Iron distance in 2014 ("serious" being sub-10), and the Canadian 226 late next year.

Week 42 review

Just doing the work...

Cleaned the bike after a very messy Tuesday night ride with WCC, made for a very nice quiet ride on Sunday.

622TSS in 9 hours of cycling. Need to get a few more 100+km rides in before the end of Sept in time for Tour de Hans, but so far I'm very happy where things are.

Started initial draft of 2013 season: Going to take October off from structured training -- occasional run with Dog, Tues night bikes maybe, though SAMS will be back in full swing, so twice weekly attendance there will keep the swim in maintenance mode.

November will see the start of Epic Run Focus 2013(tm), which will be my attempt to complete Brian Stover's (aka Desert Dude on Slowtwitch) winter run challenge:

My challenge is for you to run 200 miles per month, every month for the next four months. You must run at least 200 per month and you must get your long run up to 2hrs by the end of month 2 and 2:30 by the end of month 4. You must run at least one other run every week at least 60min in length and your average duration can not be below 25min run. You must swim and ride a total of 4X per week and the length of these is not really important. (in other words don't be a dummy and go ride 2x100mile per week or swim 2x9000 (tigerchik this is really for you ;-)) shelling yourself for your running.) The goal is to raise your running to a new fitness level. 

This will run through to the end of March, when I unleash my new-found power on the 30km Around the Bay race. The implementation of this plan falls largely under the BarryP 3:2:1 approach (weekly volume/10 = Easy, run 3x, 2 times that run twice, and long run is 3 times that), so 6 days running a week.

Squad training

Good for going fast, I'd like to just do this without paying lots of money for a coach as well. Tuesday morning seems to be a good time for a track session, maybe other people can be convinced.

Tour de Terra Cotta Race Report and Week 41 review

This was a lighter week, about 7 hours, as Tour de Terra Cotta was on the holiday Monday.

Tour de Terra Cotta

You can see Phil (another rider from Brauns.com) and myself on the far right of the shot here.

This race had the best start ever, as we were doing our neutral roll-out, I hear from behind and to the left "Riding on this side of the road makes me feel so Pro."

The course was about a 9k loop, we did 6 loops. The only difficult portion of the course was a steep hill, probably only a minute long. I managed to stay within my limits on it, the last climb I really had to work to catch the field again, but it was very much like my first race this year, work hard up the hill, recover on the rest of the course.

The course was great, in that it was closed, so you could use up the whole road. That was a good thing, the roads were pretty narrow and that field would have really gotten clogged up. I was on my brakes a lot as it was. The weather was fantastic.

There was a crash in the bunch sprint at the end, and I got caught in it, so I finished about a minute back of the field. It was sort of anti-climatic, actually (just a small cut and sore calf from the crash).

WATCH ME	PLACE	NAME	CITY	BIB #	TIME	PACE	CATEGORY	CAT. PLACE	GENDER PLACE
	49	Graham DUNN	Waterloo	542	1:19:53.2		Men 30-39	14/34	48/144

I feel disappointed, like I had the fitness to do more, but couldn't get anything to come together during the race. I seem to be able to keep up to the main field without putting myself into the red too often, most of my focus is on watching out for people doing dumb things like braking hard or swerving.

The new usual

This was the first week of my all-bike training, so 602TSS on 8hr of riding. Legs are sore like they haven't been in a while, and I spent today with a case of the hangrys (hungry + angry). Fuelling is working out well, I'm using just gel, and have been experimenting with replicating Skratch Lab's Hydrate formula, which is a minimal amount of carbs (about 80kcal), sodium, a bunch of other trace elements I don't care about, and the awesomeness of their flavouring. That's really the hard part to duplicate, right now I'm using lemon/lime KoolAid, but it's not acidic enough, and tastes sort of blah. Maybe some more actual fruit would help.

Anyways, the ride this morning was gorgeous, perfect weather and worked hard on the hills, as per instructions.

Had a good TT on Thursday, CP20 = 263, which puts my FTP around 250, which is up from 238 at the end of last year. I would like to get my FTP up to 260 for the end of the year, then next year 280.

Tour de Terra Cotta is next week, which will be hard(?), according to other people in WCC. May just have been a characteristic of the group they were in. I had a good ride this Tuesday where I wasn't stupid and managed to stay in on the end after two loops until the last four riders. Staying out of the red is the key, which is also a sign I need more training in the red.

Directions

I decided that I was going to focus on cycling for the rest of the season. I need to set some goals now... FTP gain => "good finish" in Tour de Terra Cotta. I think Centurion is going to be very hilly, so finishing strong will mean being smart on the climbs.

Bryan just added this week's workouts to trainingpeaks, looks like a good mix with the WCC Tuesday group ride and the ITT on Thursday, plus some power-based work and longer rides on the weekend.

Week 37 review (Transition)

So just some easy base building stuff this week at the recommendation of Bryan, plus I was flying the child care plane solo for the last half of the week, leading to a massive 4.05 hours of training time.

I've decided to leave triathlon behind for the rest of the summer and focus on my bike, with the intention of a few races and building my bike fitness. I would like to raise my FTP to ~260 by the end of the season with the intention of getting to 4w/kg in next one/two years...

Peterborough half RR

Swim (2000m): 36:12 => 1:49/100m
Bike (86km): 2:33:17 => 33.5km/h, Av 188 watts, NP 202 watts
Run (20.6km): 1:51:06 => 5:24min/km

The swim includes about a minute of running out of the water to the timing mat going into T1, so maybe 35:something. Not overjoyed about the time, but it's not bad. I went through a 10 minute phase about 500m in where things felt really bad, but then got better. Maybe I need a longer warmup. Also toe cramps suck. I had two gels 10 minutes before the swim. I need to figure out the logistics of warmup, while waiting until just before the race starts to eat.

The bike was my favourite part of this race, but some of the terrain was discouraging, there were only a couple spots where you could get into any sort of rhythm, otherwise it was up and down. I played cat and mouse with a couple other riders who were passing me on the uphills, then I would zoom past on the downhills. I was trying to keep my power between 190-200 watts, so I would slow right down going up, but 200 watts will get me 50+km/h on a reasonable descent. Psychologically, it felt harder to maintain watts at speed than going up a hill.

Nutrition on the bike went:

0-20 minutes => sip water
20' => gel + water
40' => gel + water
1hr => 1/2 peanut butter powerbar
1:20 => gel + water
1:40 => gel + water
2 hr => 1/2 peanut buttter powerbar
2:20 => gel + water
2:30 => gel + water

That gets me about 850kcal => 340kcal/h which is  beyond what I have ever done in training, especially at that pace, so that was an error.

I was also drinking water mostly by feel, but trying to err on the side of drinking rather than not. This may have not been the best strategy (see run). I probably took in 3 bottles (went through 4, but a lot of that was poured on me to keep cool). I went into the race thinking that it was going to be really hot, but it turned out to be only 25C/78F.

The first 5k of the run seemed to go ok, I was going at an "easy" pace, right around 5min/km. I had about a cup of water, that got me out of the park and onto the long out and back portion, which is much hotter, and much more lumpy. I started to have some stomach problems, feeling full and sloshy. I slowed my pace to try and get things settled, and stopped taking anything in for the first 7km or so. It seemed to get better, so I tried a mouthful of cola, that went okay for another couple km, but then started to feel poorly again (burping, cramps). This pattern repeated a couple times more, once with a gel, once with just water in an attempt to get something in. I started walking up hills, hoping that would help. I spent a lot of that time wavering back and forth between feeling like I was going to puke, and then feeling a little better, so I'd up the pace a little, then right back to feeling sick. With 4k left, I just decided to give up on  getting any more nutrition or water in me and just get to the finish (hoping I could still go under 5 hours). Looking at my GPS files, it doesn't really look like I went any faster (though there were more hills in that last bit), but my RPE was up, I think I was just feeling the effects of battling stomach and heat at that point.

So the TL;DR is: Went 5:02 on a mediocre swim, "good" bike (except the eating part), and a miserable run -- I had hoped to go under 5 -- but the course was shorter than I expected, so it wouldn't really have been what I was hoping to do anyway.

Lessons learned: Don't get stuck in a plan if the underlying assumptions of that plan are no longer valid -- I had thought I would be out on the bike for 2:40, but the course was shorter, and the day was cooler, so I over-ate and drank for the conditions. Not sure if I could have saved the run in any way, shape or form...

[edit] I was comparing my results in terms of where I placed in my AG from when I raced this in 2010 (primarily to make myself feel better:), and though my swim was worse (adjusting for field size), my bike and run were both significantly improved. In addition, I had hoped to place top 10 in my AG this year, and despite my crappy run dropping me 8 minutes outside 10th, I out-swam and out-biked 10th place.

Week 35 Summary

Recovering from my crash last weekend, most of the swelling and bruising is fading, just some lovely road rash is remaining. Thanks to Chris Kraemer at Dearborn Health for giving my knee the once-over and some suggestions for maximizing recovery speed.

This week was pretty light with a combination of taking two complete rest days, plus my wife going for a much-deserved girls-road-trip to Vermont. They make a lot of chocolate there, judging by what she brought back.

The plan is now to get a couple more days of work in before the race without taking away from my energy for the race (keep fitness loss to a minimum while maximizing form -- it's an art form, glad I have a coach taking a look at this).

Tour de Waterloo Race Report

Provisionally a 130km road race, the Tour de Waterloo didn't go exactly as I thought it might have. At the start line, I recognized a lot of fast guys, so the plan was really just hang with the front pack until it started to get stupid, then ride it in with whatever gruppetto I could keep up with.

However, the race ended for me at 12km in when someone veered hard left under braking as the pack accordioned up a hill, crashing into myself and another rider. The two of us went down onto the shoulder, luckily out of the way of the pack behind us. My bike was pretty banged up, but mostly cosmetic, except that my rear wheel was bent enough that it wouldn't turn through my brakes. I had some nice road rash on my leg, and a couple cuts from random rocks / pointy bike bits.

Luckily there's some pretty good support on this course, and after about 10 minutes the mechanics came  by and managed to true my wheel up enough that I could continue. By that point, I had pretty much stopped bleeding, and the adrenalin was still going pretty strong, so I decided to push on.

I was now at least 25 minutes back of the last group of riders, and was now going to start a 118km time trial. On a road bike. With a really bruised knee.

Finishing the climb at Hawkesville:
way off the back, but upright and smiling.
Pics thanks to Ron Head

Over the next four hours I managed to work my way up through some smaller groups and a few individual riders, just trying to hold a steady effort (140-ish bpm). I also had lots of time to practice my nutrition (which went pretty well: hour 1 was a banana plus a power bar, hour two was a power bar plus a honey waffle, then hour three to the end was gels). 


I'd like to just point out here how well this event was managed: All the traffic control was still there, the rest stops were still manned, and the volunteers were there helpfully telling me which way everyone else had gone 40 minutes ago. There was even some pulled pork left when I managed to roll in 1.5 hours after the winners had sprinted through the finish line. Additional thanks to the St. John’s Ambulance team who patched up my cuts/road rash.

So the total damage report is a very bruised knee (I have an impressive limp now), some minor road rash on my leg, butt and side, torn-up saddle, and a rear wheel badly in need of some service.

Not really what I was planning when I woke up.

Guelph Lake Olympic Triathlon 2012 Race Report

PLACE	NAME	CITY	BIB #	TIME	CATEGORY	CATEGORY PLACE	GENDER PLACE	1500M SWIM CAT OVR TIME /100M	40.0 KM BIKE CAT OVR TIME KM/H	10.0 KM RUN CAT OVR TIME /KM	T1	T2
47	Graham DUNN	Waterloo	1474	2:21:55.1	M35-39	10/47	46/255	10 66 26:11 1:45	9 48 1:08:32 35.0	16 59 44:21 4:27	1:38	1:15

Guelph Lake Olympic Triathlon 2012 Race Report

Prelude

I was very concerned about the heat this year because a) the run course at Guelph can feel like running through a brush fire, depending on how keen the campers are with their BBQ activities and that there's very little shade on the course and b) the last time I checked the weather, it was supposed to be 30C before humidex. The lesson here is to actually check the weather the day before the race, because they were predicting thunderstorms, not heat. Luckily, we dodged that lightning bolt and were into the water on time. 

Swim

The swim course was a one-loop affair this year, which I prefer (I think it's mentally easier than knowing you have to go back out once you get to shore). I started near the front of our wave, but way left (which was where the buoys were going anyways), and had clean water for most of the way out, unlike last year where I got trapped in the washing machine for the first 500 meters. I swam on some good feet for large chunks of the race, but had to start sighting more often as we were catching up to the wave in front of us and swim around more people. I swam with clear water in front of me (no drafting, boo) for the last leg in, coming out around 26 minutes (there's a long run up the hill before you hit a timing mat).

Bike

I decided that I was going to put on my bike shoes in transition this time, the run to the mount line was mostly over grass/carpet. I got yelled at by some guy behind me to keep moving as we were coming up to the line, I pulled over to get clipped in, he did a fancy flying mount, but then I passed him 400 meters down the road as he was still struggling to get his feet into his shoes. After allowing myself a small moment of smugness, I started to pick up the pace. My plan had been to try and hold an average of 230 watts (~93% of my FTP), but staying on target was much more difficult than I anticipated. The course certainly isn't mountainous, but is always going up or down, and there was a fierce wind from the SW, which meant that we had a very strong crosswind for most of the home-bound leg (the course is an out and back). The wind and hills make it tricky to ride consistently by feel, so I was trying to check my power meter more frequently, but was often under my target. In the last 10k, I was passed by someone in my AG, so I felt like that was good motivation to push a little harder, and ended up passing him, and then we were back in transition.

Run

I really like to have fresh socks on for the run, which costs me another 10 seconds in transition, but it feels so nice, especially at about 7km in (BTW, that guy I just passed on the bike caught up with and passed me about 500 meters into the run). My legs were feeling pretty good, so I went out a little faster than I would normally, especially as the first little bit of the run is net downhill (the rest of the run is a long uphill to the turnaround(s)). The run course is shaped a bit like a fondue fork, with two tines being mini out and backs, so you get a good idea of who's chasing you (or vice-versa) and where they are by the time you've gone through the second turnaround. I felt like I struggled on the hills on those sections, but once I got back onto the homeward-bound portion of the course, I managed to pick it up. I was really pushing the last 1.5k, and saw Lisa Bentley cheering on her athletes, I tried to say "hey, big fan!", but probably just blurted out "mrhy, bla lmm". My conversational skills are not at their peak at 180BPM. At the turn into the last 200 meters to the finish, a friend told me "three guys about 10 seconds back", so I really pushed (I had been passed by two other guys in my AG already), and luckily the last bit to the line is all downhill, so I managed to make it without any further damage.

Conclusion

It turned out to be an awesome day, maybe a little windy on the bike, but the temperature was perfect on the run. The thing I really like about the local triathlon scene is there's a tradition of supporting the other athletes, getting or giving a "good work" as you go by someone, or saying hi to your friends on the run is not unusual. South-west Ontario has a very active triathlon community, you can race just about every weekend during the summer.

Week 33 summary

Some solid work this week, only missed a couple sessions due to boy not sleeping, 686TSS and 10.1 hours.

Guelph Lake: I talked to Bryan about this on Friday, he had a couple suggestions.

1) Nutrition: Eat your regular pre-race breakfast, then instead of sip sports drink before the race like I normally would, just take in water, but then 15 minutes before the swim start, take two gels. The theory behind this is that waiting avoids the insulin rise that constant sugar will provoke, leaving more sugars available in your system (and also avoiding raising your insulin, which is really designed to tell your body to store the sugar, not leave it around to be burned). Then, on the bike, take one gel after you've settled in and gotten your heart rate down (say somewhere around the first third), then another gel somewhere around the last third/quarter. This should set you up for just taking in whatever sports drink is on the course, or just water, going by feel.

2) Pacing: I was planning on racing at about 85% of FTP (so 230-ish). I was advised to break the ride down into thirds, first third stick to target watts, middle third go up if you feel good, last third either fall back or continue at higher wattage depending on feel. The other pacing suggestion was to try and negative split the run.

Execution of these two suggestions was sort of 50-50. I got the nutrition part down, no problem. It felt good, and I actually didn't take anything in on the run, just a few mouthfuls of water (it wasn't nearly as hot as predicted, so I wasn't concerned). The pacing execution was not as airtight, alas. The course is pretty hilly, and occasionally I would lose focus, so my average watts were lower across the board than they should have been. The first third of the course felt like a struggle to maintain anything close to 230, lots of burning in the quads, but that faded in the middle and last thirds of the race. I ended up chasing a guy in my age group and beating him into T2 (but then was swiftly passed by him on the run. boo.). The run ended up being not so much of a negative split (the first 5k were faster), but the last mile of the race was my fastest mile, so not a total disaster. Average HR was pretty much right at threshold, so I guess that was appropriate, the last 2k were a lot higher though as I was worried about being caught up by some other guys in my AG.

Week 32 Summary and KW Classic RR

12 hours => 770TSS

Friday and Saturday were sort of a write-off as far as training goes because of family stuff, but otherwise had good solid sessions earlier in the week.

I went into the KW Classic with some trepidation, mostly thinking of the scenario where I get spit out the back of the field on the third lap and spend an hour slogging in the wind by myself, shedding bitter tears of regret and shame.

The first lap was a little nervous, and I had a tense moment going into a 90-degree right at the bottom of a hill almost locking up my front wheel, but things calmed down a little after that. I stayed mid-back of the field, moved up on the downhills and worked hard to stay with the group up the hills.

There was a nasty crash mid-race that took down two or three riders, and a bunch of near-misses as everyone negotiated around them.

After that, I focussed on recovering on the flats and downhills, preparing for the climbs (there were two) on each lap, which seemed to work out pretty well. I managed to stay up with the field up the climbs each lap, except the last one where I was seriously going backwards up the first steep climb, managed to catch back up to the group, then hung on through the final climb, and the sprint to the finish.

So as far as my first "real" road race goes, I had a good time, got a lot of work out of it, and managed to stay with the main field and not crash. Victory! :)

Edit: Results are up now -- 30th place, 1:31:30, 39.2km/h, +00' 05"

Week 31 Summary

Back at it this week, 12 hours logged. Went for my first group 3a road ride with WCC Tuesday night, it wasn't too bad. I'm signed up for the O-Cup KW Classic (13 x 4.5km loops), so I'm feeling the fear. Also decided that weights were something I need to start investigating, both for performance, and also because I'm getting older, and want to stay as active as possible.

I'm starting out gently, 5x10 squats with just the bar + 10lbs, 40lb tricep pull downs and 120lb leg press. Looking to ramp up quickly.

Week 30 Summary

Transition week!

Only 9 hours of work, mostly swim ... I started back swimming Tues and Wed, Thursday was an easy trainer spin, Fri was an easy run + swim, then a bunch of cycling on Sat+Sunday. Quads were still very tender from the TripleT hill beating.

OCA licensing

My next race is the KW classic here in Kitchener, which is an O-Cup race, meaning that it's affiliated/sanctioned by the Ontario Cycling Association. This means you need a valid OCA license, obtaining said license is a bit of navigation through some twisty passages because there are two options, 1) a vanilla UCI license or 2) a Citizen's permit.

The UCI license will let you race whatever, whenever you like, but costs $148 for the year.

The Citizen's permit is $48, but can only be used for three races, and only for specific categories -- typically Masters 3 in the road/XC races. At each race you'll pay your race registration fee, *plus* have to purchase a Citizen upgrade permit (which is $12 at the KW Classic).

Because I am 1) slow, and 2) unlikely to race more than 3 O-Cup races this season, I decided to purchase the Citizen's permit, and pay the upgrade fee.

Update: If you purchase a Citizen's permit, and then decide you need a full UCI license, the OCA will credit your Citizen's permit cost to your UCI fee.

Triple T summary -- "Choose to walk, not forced to walk"

Last year's goal was "don't walk" ... a year's worth of training and experience later, and that seems amusingly naive. This year, the goal was "don't blow up again." So Saturday, the mantra was "this is not the race, tomorrow is the race", and then on the Sunday bike, "this is not the race, the run is the race."

My goal was to be sub 12:00, I was 12:04 with a slight unplanned 5k detour during the Saturday morning Olympic.

Best stat that describes this bike course: over a 10 minute period, I averaged 250 watts at 12 km/h.

Fri -- wasn't stupid, (26min-ish)

Saturday AM Swim : 25:53 (1:43 min/100m)
Saturday AM Bike : 1:31:33 (got lost, added 5k onto distance), NP=216W, 29.7km/h

Saturday AM Run : 1:00:50 (5:49 min/km)

Saturday PM Bike : 1:21:36, NP=201W, 29.9km/h
Saturday PM Swim : 26:16 (1:45 min/100m)
Saturday PM Run : 58:49 (5:38 min/km)

Sunday Swim : 30:45 (1:37 min/100m)
Sunday Bike : 3:19:52, NP=165W, 27.9 km/h
Sunday Run : 1:51:30 (5:43 min/km)

I was happy with how I raced, I was very even on the bike, steady on the runs, walked up the steep hills and opened up on the downhills (my quads paid for that, but it worked for the race).

I did what I had planned to do in this race, I'm going to give it a rest for a while, maybe do it as a team in a couple years.

Week 28 summary

whoo... 5.3 hours of training! Luxury! Unintended taper, but hey, I'll take it. Any work that did get done was at least reasonable intensity (strides). There was a fair amount of non-specific training: baby jogger errands, bike trailer school commute, etc, but maybe only another two hours worth.

Week 27 summary and Mudpuppy Chase 5k report

Working on adding some intensity this week, getting ready for Triple T. Didn't get a lot more intensity, just reduced work (only 7hr of training this week -- snuck in work as possible, child care responsibilities have higher priority :).

Good news was a quick performance at the Mudpuppy, I was hoping to go under 20min, ended up 18:39, so that's nice, if a bit scary for my required training paces now.

Week 26 Summary

11.5 hours of training, with a focus on intensity => 750 TSS. I would like to get one more week of this flavour of training in, but boy is sick right now, and I would be surprised if I get any sleep this week. Might just have to take it easy for week 27 (just get in whatever possible), then go back to intensity for 28, then taper in 29 before Triple T.

Hoping to race Mudpuppy, going under 20 would be sweet.

Week 24 Summary and P2A report

Big TSS bump this week (843) due to the P2A race on Sunday.

"Dry and fast" they said.  Hmph.

Not super-impressed with my time this year (2:45, 380th OA) -- which is 20 minutes and 100 places down from last year -- some of that was due to me starting at the back of Wave 2, as they started filling the corral while I was on a poorly-timed warmup ride, and some of that was due to the course being really messy this year (thanks to a two hour deluge just prior to the race).

The single-track portions of the race were pretty brutal, more than half time I either ended up pushing/carrying the bike, or grinding through at walking pace. My wrists and triceps are sore from wrenching the handlebars around, trying to keep the bike upright and in a straight line.

Tips for next year: Get into the wave 2 corral early, dip my glasses in RainX before the race, and get my bike in the washing station *before* I have a shower.

More powah!

That was meant to be read in the voice of Jeremy Clarkson.

So I've been getting more and more interested in owning a Computrainer as I've been using Golden Cheetah to keep track of my power scores during workouts on my Powertap  equipped P2.  A new CT, however, is stupidly expensive ($1600+). The good thing is that they last forever, so they're a pretty good item to purchase on the second-hand market.

Even used, they carry a fair premium, usually fetching $750-$1000 for the "Pro" model, and $1000-$1200 for the "Lab" model. However, up until 2000, RacerMate, the manufacturer of CT, made a system for the Super NES that let you race in 16-bit glory. There were two models, the standard (750W resistance unit), and the Pro (1500W resistance unit), which occasionally make appearances on Ebay/Kijiji/Craigslist. I found a Pro model on Kijiji two weeks ago, and managed to secure it.

So now you're thinking, "yeah, that's nice, maybe you can use it in erg mode, but so what?". Well, RacerMate sells upgrade kits, which are basically a chip that you replace, and a USB->stereo jack cable for PC control, et voila, you have a Pro model 8200 computrainer for ~$600.

Tried it out briefly last night, awesome.

Week 22 Summary

630TSS on 9.6 hours, 7 of that was biking. Two good bike workouts Sat/Sun, with the 2hr ABP ride netting me the same TSS as the 3 hour zone 3/2 ride.

A nice 3000 yard swim early in the week, but not a lot of running, and I had hoped to get more time in the pool, but had to go to boy's appointment in Toronto. It was transition week for the run, so I took any opportunity to take it easy in that department. The legs were feeling it on Saturday evening from the bike.

I'm starting up my Master's swim again, hopefully I won't get smoked too badly.

Race rehearsal this coming Saturday, I hope it's warm enough to ride outside.

Week 21 Summary

Sick this week, boy is also sick, my focus was just on recovering, and getting healthy for ATB. I think it was largely successful -- I would have made my target if I hadn't stopped to pee at 8km. I'm really proud of the pacing in that race: negative split by 4:30. Probably means I took it too easy in the first half.

I also put my carbo loading plan in action the day before: Big breakfast, 4 x 72g maltodextrin sports drink through the day, large pasta dinner. Nutrition through the race was 150g malto + 50mL water + 3 drops vanilla to form a gel. Finished the gel by 2h into the race, washed down with course gatorade/water. Oh, and a half-strip of bacon.

Team Brauns.com introduction post

In the spring of 2004, I started swimming with a local master's group in an effort to get a good cardio base going into my karate black belt grading later that year. Well, adult-onset swimming often leads to triathlon, and I was no exception.

I dabbled for the next few years at sprint and Olympic distances, two or three per year, a marathon here and there, with largely MOP (middle of the pack) results.

Fast-forward to 2010: the year of Getting Serious. I bought a real TT bike, signed up with a local triathlon squad and applied structured principles to my training -- periodization, lactate threshold, FTP -- all previously unknown, but now very familiar.

2011was going to be the year of Results : I had a series of 70.3s (half-iron distance) lined up through the season, with the goal (admittedly a "best case scenario" one) of qualifying for the World Championships in Henderson, Las Vegas. This is where I will mention how I gained a visceral understanding of the phrase "the best laid plans of mice and men." I spent four weeks working full-time, trying to take care of my ill son, and trying to get 12-14 hours / week of training in on less than 6 hours of sleep per night ... it didn't work. So I regrouped, decided to cut way back on the training hours, and target local sprint and Olympic races (I actually ended up placing better than I ever had before at those distances) and keep my sanity in the process.

At the end of the year, I entered in the Tour de Hans, and despite the miserable weather, and walking the last 4k after a mechanical, had a great time.

What I had learned in the last two years was that training in a group makes you work harder, and get better faster, so when I heard Braun's was starting up a racing team, I got involved; I'm going to be in more straight-up bike races this year, so that seemed to be a no-brainer to train with other motivated athletes, and to learn from Winston and Jason about bike racing.

In the last 8 years, I have learned that the self-coached amateur athlete is like one of those plate-spinning jugglers -- child, significant other, job, training : you're not just keeping all the plates spinning, you need to keep them spinning at the proper speeds; neglect any one too long and you're going to be picking up the pieces. Training with a motivated group lets you get the most out of those limited training hours.

2012 sort of feels like starting over: I'm a novice at racing bikes, and that's what most of the season is. It's exciting to not know what you're getting yourself into.

Week 20 Summary

The week started off well, nailed the run in the morning, good swim at lunch. The week built to the Big Day on Sunday, which felt pretty good. 1 hr + 45 min intervals at 80% on the bike went well. Took the run easy, trying to keep the HR < Z4, as I still have some sick left in the lungs. boo-urns.

Oh yes, next week is Around the Bay. I've been trying to figure out a strategy for racing this ... basically the first 20k are more or less flat and pretty fast. However, if you get to 20k and don't have fresh legs, you're screwed: it goes up and down a lot after that for 8k.

So my goal is to finish < 2:20, which means 4:40min/km average... First 10k, just under 4:40, settle into 4:40, then hold on, try to negative split? It seems sort of foolhardy because it would be really easy to blow up on those hills trying to hold 4:40. However, if I try to go out and bank time, am I even going to be able to run in the range I need to by 20k?

Week 19 Summary

Still recovering from whatever chest cold thing was going on last week. I'm still missing the top 10-15% of the performance I could get in the past ... if this is the same thing as last year, it'll be another couple weeks before it's situation normal again.

Long run this week was epic rainy and windy, cut it short at 15k, but did some speed work at the front end of the workout, so we'll call it closer to 20 (and running into a 60kmph headwind is very much like hills, so there you go :).

Did Local Hero + Extra Shot, the snow is melting, maybe one of the last Sufferfest rides ...

Big Day coming up this weekend.

Week 18 preview

This is the week we'll be in Toronto for boy's CI surgery, and there's a workshop Tues/Wed, so this is going to shape up to be a very light week. Probably for the best, I can shake this cold, and go into the Chilly not feeling like death.

Week 17 Review

I did my 5k test on Wed, but had to stop half way through and then dial the pace back for the remainder because of knee pain. I've spent a lot more quality time with The Stick this week since that happened.

The week was more of the usual, save Sunday, which was the first Big Day of 2012. Details as follows.

Time	Nutrition	Details
5:45am - 6:30am	1 package crunchy granola bars	travel to pool
6:30am - 7:30am		swim
7:30am - 8:00am		travel to home
8:00am - 11:00am	2 x 350kcal bottles + water as needed	bike
11:00am - 11:15am		change to run clothes
11:15am - 12:15pm	gel midway	run
12:15pm - 1:00pm	bottle recoverite	shower
1:00pm	big lunch

Swim

T-Pace Test WU: 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim.
MS: Swim 1000 yards/meters at a constant pace and good effort—as if racing. Record your average pace per 100.
3 x 50 f/s desc, 500 pull, 3 x 50 f/s desc.
CD: 100
Total: 2600yds/m

Bike

MS: 30' @ 65-70%/z1-2/Easy
1 hour at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 80% / z3 / Upper-Steady
10' Easy
45' at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 85% / z3+ / Upper Steady, as you aim for a negative split.

Run

MS: 30' @ LRP / z1 Very easy run to start, wrap your head around one more hour to go today!
30' at MP / z2 (or as close as you can) Working towards a negative split if possible.

Estimated kcals:  in: 200 + 700 + 100 + 200 = 1200 out: 525 + 1750 + 800 = 3075

Results

Swim: as expected
Bike: 250kcal/hour was slightly high. I’ll try it again and see if I adapt. It was OK at 80%, but 85% was too much. Didn’t make my target watts in either hour: 195 vs 200 , and 195 vs 212. So the low wattage is bad, but also missed the negative split. Target was too high?
Run: 5:14min/km out LRP, 148BPM, 4:57min/km back MP, 158BPM


Recovery went well, but today, Monday, I feel like crap with a bad cough. I'm not sure if that was in the mail anyways, but the 5 hours of exertion probably didn't help.

Week 16: Rest 'n Test

The aim is to lower the total hours, and keep the intensity (the testing part) high, as well as the same number of sessions.

Biking is sort of a wash so far, but I'm actually getting firm numbers now, as opposed to the hand-wavy estimates I had before: CP5 = 286, CP20 = 243.

I don't really have a test planned for the run, should probably think about a 5k effort somehow. I missed a chance to run an 8k race last weekend, that would have been good. Maybe an abbreviated brick on Sunday, with a 5k test.

Swim test puts me exactly where I was a month ago. I know if sounds clichéd, but I feel faster than that. To be honest, the 400 felt mentally easier in comparison to all the 500s I've been swimming for the last month.

Going to start merging in the EN workouts, as they tend to be more muscular endurance focused, as I get closer to the races.

Feeling like I'm on the edge of a cold, going to scrub Sunday's brick -- the holiday Monday is going to be a long run (2.5hr), then a 16k Sunday, then it's the Chilly the following Sunday!

Week 15 review

Things that went well:

1. Fuelling during and after the long run on Thursday.
2. I feel like I'm starting to get my head around the hard intervals on the bike. Pacing myself with music seems to help with keeping the effort up on longer (>5min) efforts.

Things that went not-so-well:

1. Tempo run on Tues. Had to bail at 6km (of 8). Head and legs were not in it. 
2. Need to take better care of my legs -- massage on Sunday night is full of pain.