It's a long, fat, road.

Time to get on the austerity diet. Three days of excessive food and drink were great, but now it's time to burn some of those excess calories.

I'm going to get at least one swim in lane 5 this week ...

Power hassles

So it turns out that my vintage Powertap CPU is, in fact, not compatible with the current generation of USB cradles. Some wrangling with Saris later, I'm having a yellow CPU shipped which is, the customer service rep swears up and down, compatible with both my existing Powertap Classic hub, and the USB cradle I purchased.

The current CPU works just fine, now that I've figured out interval mode ... did my LTHR testing on it last week, 238W/242W for 2x20' intervals, which puts a rough estimate at 230W (woo, just north of 3.0 W/kg). Of course, this is mildly inaccurate, but  close enough to train on for now.

POWER!

Top Gear reference.

First trainer ride with power this morning. Not, however, the first ride with power *and* a USB cradle to download the results to.

Sooo... guessing watts today during my 2x15 were around 210. Hard to tell, that might be optimistic.

Getting back on track

Penultimate week of the OS LTHR period. I'm quite excited about picking up the powertap this weekend, and seeing if I can get it to talk to anything -- serial connection, what's that?

Bike this morning was good, though I was in and out of my target HR. I would shoot way high if I got out of the saddle, and trying to time trial it was okay, but my HR would fall pretty quickly (as per usual) if I let up at all.

Run at lunch was a quicky ... a couple km easy out, 5x30s strides uphill, then slightly faster back to work. TSS++, er, ++.

Sunday's Run

Not pretty, but in the books. Week 7 arrives.

Woot. powermeter next week.

The cold is engaging in a fighting withdrawal

Didn't get the bike done yesterday ... two things prevent me from training in the morning: the boy and his stochastic sleeping "patterns", and illness. I can affect these two things to a small degree, but am more or less at the mercy of them. I'm OK with that, I guess.

Ick

Sleeping vs. training rears its ugly head again. Accompanied by its best friend, the minor cold. Scrubbed the bike this morning.
Joined EN using my $200 PSA at work.

Finishing up week 4

Noticing speed improvements on the run... Did the BP:E run today, wasn't pushing it, just cruising, and was running 4:45-4:50 with little effort.

Swim this morning was tough ... 9 x 100, I was coming in around 1:30, then a bunch of IM, then 5 x 100 at the same pace. Gasping by the last one. I think I slipped to 1:33 or so on the last one.

Running Frequency

Getting in 6 runs per week is going to require some logistical planning (as mentioned in my last post). I think I will have to get the MWF runs done at lunch... I was stressing about finding a place to shower at RIM (apparently there are showers though), and was going to have to wander through RIM 3, 4 or 10 in my running gear, sweaty and smelly, asking random ppl which way the showers were (which I suspect 0.5% of the population actually uses).

Then on the way back from my BP:M (which ended up being about a k over what it was supposed to be), I had an epiphany: The PAC. PAC is the Physical Activities Complex, and as an alumni, I can scoot in there and use the change rooms/showers what have you. Truth be told, I suspect anyone carrying a gym bag and looking like they're allowed to be there could use the change room. So now I can go over there at lunch put my gear in a locker, and run out of there. Nice.

And some days it is ...

This morning felt good. Hard hard work, lots of pain in the legs, but that pain you know is just your muscles complaining.

I'm going to try and meld BarryP's 1:2:3 program into the OS plan. I think it can be done -- Mon, Wed are  medium #1 and #2 runs, done from work, Tues is easy #1 as part of the brick in the morning, Thursday off, Friday is easy #2 from work, Saturday is easy #3 as part of the brick in the morning, and Sunday is the long.

The plan is to stick to the EN main set intervals, and then finish out the time/distance required by the 1:2:3 structure (if any additional is).  The volume that is being added is a medium run on Monday, and an easy recovery on Friday. I plan to remove a little volume from the longer brick sets (they call for some strides and longer intervals as the weeks go on) to compensate.

And some days, it's just not there ...

2 x 10 @z4, 2 x 15 @z3 ... just wasn't hitting z4 with anything, and turned 2 x 15 into 1 x 20. Went for a short run with dog,  ate some leftover Halloween candy. Will try again Tuesday.

To glide, or not to glide?

I'm sure this is a common triathlete story:

I was okay in the water when I started triathlon; I don't remember not being able to swim, but I was never competitive. So I looked around for ways to improve my freestyle, as I was going to be racing, and found TI, which stresses wringing every last bit of distance per stroke you can get out, along with good rotation, balance, etc. This is good for swimming and not drowning (a favourite approach of mine in the water).

However. You eventually start running into problems like the huge dead spot before you start your catch as you're gliding, and the lack of oxygen from waiting so long between strokes to breathe. So I'm going to try and bump up my stroke rate with some of the articles from these guys.

Run training with pace

Last night's run was based on speed, rather than heart rate. So my 800x3, 2x1600 were at pace z4 (4:10-3:55/km), rather than 158-168bpm. Turns out that those two are pretty close to each other. I like the speed zone because it takes my heart rate a while to climb up to the required zone in between intervals (my HR drops pretty quickly once I stop exercising).

I can see some drawbacks with pace, especially bringing hills and headwinds into the picture.

Week three of the OS plan

Core muscles are sore and stiff, ironically from yesterday's yoga class. Might get to make up my missed brick from this morning, or at least the bike portion. Boy was up in the middle of the night again with a cough... 40 minutes in the bathroom with the shower running seemed to help.

Probably not going to be able to make it up.

Special training ... costs vs benefits

Got an email from Iron Heart Fitness about their ERG training series -- basically a coached series of training rides on the Computrainer. It would be good for me, but not sure how much more money I can spend on this stuff now. I've committed to the EN OS plan, so would like to see that through.

There's also the Studio Energi spin classes, both the short weekday morning and longer weekend rides, that would help ... it's tempting to just run between these things. I think that would be a bad idea though, right now -- I suspect I would hate training by the spring, or I would be have purchased a Computrainer or something. To be honest, I'm waiting for one of the many people I know who went out and dropped $1600 on a Computrainer to decide that they're not really into triathlon anymore in a year and maybe get one cheap.

I think I'm in a place now where I just have to do the work in the OS plan over the winter, and then see what sort of place I'm in come March at the end of the plan.

Swimming going well

I need to work on my form, maybe I can get one of the fast guys to point out things to work on. Not getting a lot of sleep due to boy's 9 hour sleep maximum.

40 is the new 20

At least, according to the New York Times it is. For triathletes. And according to the article, as a middle-aged triathlete, I have a median salary of $175,000 / year, and spend $22,000 of that on triathlon gear.

I eagerly await the cheques that will start arriving to remedy the clear disparity in my income from the norm ...

More bike intervals .. learning to go hard

I do all my indoor training in my basement now, on my KK Road Machine, watching old Hawaii Ironman and spinervals. As the EN OS plan is gearing up (2x6min@z4, 2x15min@z3), I find I really need to work to get my HR up, at least on the first set.

I'm glad I did those spin classes at the studio, I think that's the best value from an instructor lead class, to learn how to go hard (I still wince at the memory of 6 minutes of 20s sprints). In a perfect world, I'd have the budget to do my own training and go to spin classes. Oh, and a pony.

Supposedly legs day off

Except that boy needed to be taken to school and our car is unavailable ... so that means hooking up the Chariot (CTC) to the Surly (Cross Check) and going for a 25 minute time trial. Hammered there, realized it was wind assisted. The cruel corollary was a headwind with a 40lb boat anchor on the return. Eschewing triathlon tradition, I didn't take any gels or salt tablets.

Rest day

No karate tonight. The boy is in full on crazy mode and there was grocery shopping to be done...

Oh, here's a picture of me winning 2nd in my AG at the Oktoberfest 10k here in Waterloo (the dude on the right is the coach of the triathlon squad I train with  -- Jeff Beech).

Long day ...

Good swim this morning, 12x100 1:30 pace on 2:00, plus a million meters of off-stroke. I'm enjoying hearing that I'm punishing my colleagues in Lane 4 :) though I'm sure they'll catch up to me in the next month.

Started my EN OS plan today, did the LTHR test (40 min hard) on the bike. Not working hard enough yet. My LTHR HR is around 155, this was 142.

Then yoga... my legs are shelled. Rest day tomorrow (possibly karate tomorrow evening).

Today was not rest day

40:16 in the Oktoberfest 10k. Missed my goal, but PB'd. VDot of 51.5, which means more pain in the coming weeks trying to run those z4 intervals at 4.01min/km.

2.5km splits were something like 1: fast (9:45), 2: slower (10:15), 3: about the same (10:15), 4: slightly faster (10:00) .

Yesterday was Rest Day

Oh, got bumped up last week to lane 4. Swimming harder now, getting better.

Tomorrow is the Oktoberfest Run in Waterloo. Sub-40, this is my dream. Maybe with some puking, I can do it. If I can hold 9:45 for the first two 2.5km splits, I'll have a shot (a very long one).

Monday is the start of my Endurance Nation outseason (OS) 20 week plan in preparation for the Ohio Triple T race.

Next 5 months ...

Going to follow the EN OS plan, getting some short runs in when needed with the dog.

2011 Season

AmZof / TripleT / savageman? Which one? ... Ohio Triple T gets the nod.

Purchased the EN outseason intermediate ... going to work with BarryP's run plan from ST. So I'm mixing high-intensity, short duration bike workouts with lower volume, greater frequency running (1:2:3) .

Aftermath

Had a good race in Muskoka -- something flew into my eye and scratched it, took three days before it didn't feel like a piece of dirt was still in there.

Now there's something wrong with my left foot. I hope it's not a stress fracture. There was no warning, it felt fine in the race, on Tuesday after the race, it started to hurt when I was walking. It's fine until I walk for more than about 45 minutes, then it starts to ache, progresses into a sharp pain, about an inch inside the blade of my foot.

Swim goodness and transition

Moses springer was deserted -- a combination of my 2pm start and the 67F temp... 300m warmup and then a straight 2k swim. Good wetsuit practice.

Transition practice went well, except for where I ran out of transition with my helmet on. Oh, and my chain needed oil badly. Did they even lubricate it at Ziggy's?

Tune up -- riding in the rain

Took my spare bike to the training ride indoors Saturday, so Sunday was the first day out. It rained. Cold, soaked feet. 50 minute ride, 10k time trial at the end. 20 minute run at 10k pace.

Indoors on the roadie

2 hours at the studio, then a fast 45-min run -- much faster than I've been running, I think the track workout tweaked the central governor. Feeling good for muskoka.

fast

the track workout was fast ... torrential downpour, but 2x1k @ 3:40-ish, 6x400@1:26-7, and 4x200@sub-30. Soaking wet.

Crowded swim

Yesterday at Moses was choppy! Also hot.

Swim

Lovely temp for a wetsuit swim ... the 3/2 breathing is really nice when you have the additional flotation.

Victoria's Du ReRun

Previously:
Total: 1:27:15
Run 1: 16:35 4:09
Bike: 51:16 35.1
Run2: 17:42 4:26

Yesterday
Total: 1:33
Run 1: 19:57 4:39

Bike: 54:23 32.3
Run 2 : 19:11 4:43

Slower overall, which was sort of the point, I was trying to keep my HR to somewhere around HIM pace. 

Following the black line

New breathing technique in the pool today -- alternating between same-side and bilateral breathing, so stroke, stroke, stroke/breath, stroke, stroke/breath, repeat. Hopefully this will help  me go in a straight line too.

Oh, motivation note: Jumped in front of a guy I thought was slower than me, noticed that at the of the length he was right on my heels. Crap. Go faster. 50m later, he's still there. Crap. Go faster. Finally got away after 250 meters. Fastest 300m set in the history of ever.

Muskoka gets closer

21k, tempo finish. This is all to avoid the suffer-fest that was the run at Peterborough. It not being 35C with stupid humidity will help too. Next weekend is the last chance to get more speed in, taper starts thereafter.

Felt like crap all day yesterday after my bike. I blame lack of sleep -- 6 hrs. Slightly more last night (7.5).

Cycling comfort

Just picked up a pair of Sugoi RS bib shorts, and some Chamois Butt'r (Euro formula -- ie. the tingly stuff). Went for a 4 hour ride, no numbness or chafing. I'm a convert. Too bad I can't wear them during Muskoka.