Road to St George - Weeks 9-12

Okay I admit I am woefully behind with my blog.  Time to catch up and make amends.  A lot has happened since my last update, some fun trips and a couple of decent races.  Still very little in the way of meaningful long workouts but none the less I actually feel in a good place.  Health status is great, this is something I take pride in and employing every recovery protocol that is practical after my workouts certainly helps my recovery and allows my body a fighting chance to hold up to the intensity/volume.  Point of note here is the last two weeks executing back to back races (RnR AZ and 4th Dimension Off Road Duathlon), performing well and recovering after them in a timely manner with minimum disruption to the 'plan'.

Going to focus on highlights from the last several weeks rather than detailed training summaries as in previous posts:

• New Year at Sage Cliff (Cave B) with Cindy and the dogs.  A great time had by all, nice and relaxing and a chance to re-charge the batteries a little.  Good food, good wine, wonderful company and of course a couple of short very very cold runs.  Beautiful views of the Gorge and the Columbia River, will explore this area more in the Summer fingers crossed ;)
• First Week of the New Year.  A great training week which saw me hitting 16 hours or so of training with great balance.  Only downside was getting lazy about signing up for Bridle Trails and for the first time in its history it sold out leaving myself and many other team mates out in the cold.  I see this as a good thing though as it means the popularity of trail running is continuing to rise and people are gettting outside and getting it done.
• Rock n Roll AZ.  A much needed escape to the sunshine with our training group who had been preparing for the last 20 weeks or so.  Cindy and I left late on Friday which was not optimal but once there soon found our bearings and with the use of our good friend Eric Wynn's condo and car for the weekend we were all set.  The Saturday was a bit of blur, woke up, ate breakfast, did some work, went to register, ran a solid six miles, then out to dinner with the team at Oregano's and back to the condo ready to get some sleep after getting race kit ready for the morning.
• The Race. Well what can I say I had an absolute blast pacing Max (and Joe for a while but he was suffering with some kind of stomach bug from earlier in the week, long story but between porta potty stops he still locked down a Boston qualifying time) to a huge marathon PR (over 20 minutes) and enjoying the atmosphere along the way.  It was a great way for me to help a team mate and get a solid training run in.  Max finished in 3:09:54 and was rock solid all day never once faltering even under my shouts and screams to hold things together in the last 8km (which he did) when the going got a little tough.  We essentially even paced the entire run with mile splits ranging from 7:10-7:15 for the first 22 miles then a combination of the climbs and the fatigue slowed the next three miles to 7:20's before the final mile where I ran strong knowing Max would do his best to come with me and in the process break 3:10.  He only needed to go sub 3:20 for Boston so he really knocked it out the park, awesome experience.  I will do more pacing in the future (truly enjoyed it) so if anyone wants to shoot for Boston who knows they are a little erratic and/or need a little motivation when the going gets tough look me up ;).
• Team Mates.  Cindy had an awesome day in the half for her comeback race after getting hit by the car several months ago and ran 1:35.  Not her best time but considering the lack of any speed work and limited mileage a great performance.  We had five Boston qualifiers as a team and a bunch of people with PR's and satisfying experiences on race day.  A real success for the Rock n Roll run program and something we will repeat for next year with a few tweaks here and there.
• 4th Dimension Racing.  Roger Michel and Kevin Reinkensmeyer did a fabulous job of putting on a super great Off Road Duathlon at Ft Steilicoom this weekend.  It was race one of a two race series and was a blast.  I am no mountain biker but thankfully there was nothing too technical and other than couple of rookie errors I got through the ride okay, so don't fear the bike course you guys, come join us for race two on Saturday February 26th.  Some great racing to be had, what a way to test your fitness against some very elite MTB's.  Now if only that second run was 20km ;).  Thanks to all the volunteers (many provided by Team Vo2Multisport) and Roger and Kevin for such an awesome awesome race.

Okay we are now at the start of a new week (today is January 24th) and only 15 weeks (eek!!!!) until Ironman St George, so time focus on staying healthy and injury free, building cycling volume, introducing some 'course' specific run training and generally having fun with this wonderful lifestyle I am able to be so deeply involved with......bring it on.

Thanks to everyone following this blog and those of you that are supporting me in my coaching, training, and racing.  My sponsors Brooks, GU, TYR, nuun, Sports Reaction Center, Headsweats, Dilettante, Rudy Project, QR, and Orca Compression all make my life so much easier as I have everything I need to race fast, recover well and look sharp.

Road to St George - Weeks 6-8

Well it seems i have gotten a little behind with the updates, sorry folks!  I will redeem myself by catching up today.  It has been a similar picture to the last several weeks overall.  Some good key workouts achieved and unfortunately some very key workouts missed.  Good things are my health and body, both are in a good place.  A not so good thing is that wine consumption seems to be back where it was before I entered my preparation phase ;).

So to give you a quick summary of where things are at from a training standpoint.  Week 6:

• Swim - A big swim week by virtue of Laura's planned 100x100's that took place on Saturday.  I wanted to challenge myself and my swim stroke with this epic swim and was very pleased with the outcome.  I won't bore you with the details but the week ended up with 5 hours of swimming and 17,000+ yards of swimming.
• Bike - Another week of indoor only riding, if nothing else I am a good marketing tool for my business!  I managed to get in 5 hours of ride time with a real mix of work across all ranges, although no vo2 sets just yet.  Most of the focus was around IM Power and LT.
• Run - Not a great week.  Three runs for a total of 20 miles (2.5 hours).  Should have run Sunday just didn't happen, no excuse here just lazy I guess!
• Core/TRX - Three solid sessions, feel really strong in a functional kind of way!  I am certain the core work helped me get through the 100x100 without any 'fade' or loss of form.  I need to work a little more on scapular stabilization and external rotation using the TRX but this is easy to implement.

Total duration for the week was 13.5 hours.

Week 7 was a mixed bag.  Improvement in run frequency but less swimming and core work.  I did take a day off this week my first for 27 days!  I tend to only take days off when I feel I need them and/or when circumstances conspire against me and I simply can't fit something in.  As you can gather most days I don't struggle with at least getting something done.  Consistent training leads to consistent results and helps develop a robust athlete.  Stats as follows:

• Swim - Just two swims this week but they were both decent.  7000 yards 2 hours.  Felt strong in the water during my 2000 straight through, did not 'tt' it but swam strong and went around 26:55.  That will do for now!
• Bike - Well biked four times Mon-Thurs.  No riding Fri-Sun.  Not optimal but not the end of the world.  That outdoor ride still missing!  4 hours ride time, some intensity for sure!
• Run - Four sessions this week, 33 miles and about 4 hours total run time.  Long trail run, track workout, m pace tempo on the treadmill and a trail run with Hawi.  A nice rounded week of running.
• Core/TRX - Just two sessions this week but both were very solid.  Not much more to say on that.

So in summary week seven ended up at about 11.5 hours.  Same old story of missing the long outdoor ride (or long indoor ride as a substitute) but a somewhat well rounded week I guess.

Week eight was Christmas week.  In spite of the crazyness of Christmas I still managed a solid week.  Diet was not optimal but could definitely have been worse.  More wine and chocolate than I care to recall but all in all I did not put weight on and was at a season low of 152.5lbs Christmas morning ;), since moved up a little but hey, I am only human.....  Here are some stats, oh and Christmas day was a day off ;o0:

• Swim - Two sessions, one of 3700 and one of 4150.  Pleased with Thursdays swim, hit 4k in an hour which including rest intervals which was decent.  Need to hit three sessions next week though.
• Bike - Four sessions, one road ride (1:45), and one longer ride on the CT (54 miles).  A decent week, averaged about 240w for the Wildflower course on Friday and it felt good (about 85% ftp).  Other sessions had some intensity but nothing noteworthy, either that or I am just keeping it a secret ;).  Time on the bike 6.5 hours.
• Run - Four sessions, a short night time trail run with Hawi, an M pace tempo run (6 miles at 6:48 pace), t-run (transition run) after the Wildflower ride and a long trail run with Gerry and Eddie on Sunday.  Total run time 4:15.
• Core/TRX - Another week of just two sessions......must try harder!!!

Total for the week 13:45hrs.  Some missed workouts but I am satisfied with the week.  The New Year really is crunch time for me to hit my long brick workout and to build the run volume.  Not in a panic just yet and feeling healthy and strong so that is a blessing.

I shall try and get back on track with the weekly updates in the New Year and get back to adding some nutrition information and other good stuff.  Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to you all.

Road to St George - Week 5

Sorry this is late, been a hectic week.  Week 5 was decent, again a couple of 'planned' sessions never happened but there were a couple of bonus workouts in there so I was on the whole pleased.  Here is the training week in detail:

• Swim - I managed three swims this week and two of those were masters workouts.  I missed my normal post swim4tri workouts due to the pools being closed at Samena so to get three sessions in was pleasing.  I swam approx 10,000 yards and am starting to feel decent in the water.  Monday's Masters session was pushing the envelope for me with super tight send off's, I normally hate swimming like this as I feel my stroke falls apart however I believe there is some value in challenging yourself in the water sometimes (with a tight send off) provided you get the opportunity to re-set and bring your stroke back during the session with some well timed drills and easy swimming.
• Bike - Again the big downer here is the lack of a decent outdoor long ride.  Time to re-evaluate my schedule and look for a day that is a better fit for this.  I don't have the flexibility to just get out when the weather is good and need to factor in my ride leads at the Performance Center with any other planned riding.  Five rides and a total of 6.5 hours of ride time, all on the CT with a decent amount of work at/around IM watts.  Introducing more and more NM work into my rides now and am feeling the benefit.
• Run - An interesting week!  For the first time in a while all my runs were on technical trail with two of them being in the pitch dark.  Not sure how many of you have run off road in the dark with a head torch but it is challenging.  Biggest concerns with this are rolling an ankle and then being out of action for a while, can't afford for that to happen but still got to get the runs in.  I did indeed roll my ankle on Saturday evening which meant I missed my planned run with the team on Sunday but it was not a serious sprain fortunately.  The big news on the run side this week was winning one of the much sought after Western States 100 lottery slots, more on that later!  Total for the week was three runs and 3.5 hours of running.
• TRX/Core - Another good week here and feeling the benefits of hitting these workouts with consistency.  Three very solid 30-45 minute sessions with lots of functional movements.  Helping the body co-ordinate movement patterns and improving NM function makes for a more balanced athlete and a more resilient one, I will build to five sessions a week here and start mixing some TRX into the middle of my bike and run workouts over the next couple of weeks.

Total training time for week 5 about 14.5 hours.  Relatively well balanced but definitely missing two key things, that long outdoor ride and the forth run.  Will try and remedy that this week but looks like the weather might be against me a little.

So as I promised in last weeks blog here is some detail as to how my year will shape up with regard to planned races, training camps and 'big weekends'.  Having key BT (breakthrough) workouts/camps/prep races on the calendar really helps to break up the year when training for an early season race where inevitably you have to train through some rather inclement weather. The more things you have to look ahead to the more focused you will be on your intermediate goals, and the more likely you will be to hit key workouts and get to the starting line mentally and physically ready to toe the line:

• January 8th Bridal Trails 50km - This will likely be a game day decision.  If conditions are good (would prefer cold snow covered trails or dry conditions, slim chance) then I will likely run if not then maybe the 10 mile race will be the way I go or talk Cindy into the pairs race!
• January 16th Rock n Roll AZ Marathon - I will leave on Friday evening, and return on Monday.  My plan is to run long on South Mtn Trails on Saturday and race the marathon on Sunday.  I care not about the outcome of the marathon the goal is come out of the weekend with two solid over distance runs healthy and injury free.  I will still however run as fast as my legs will allow me.  Would be nice to go under 3:10 for the marathon.
• February 10th-13th - Tour de Palm Springs Century ride.  This will be combined with a moderate duration ride the day before with a short t-run, the century on the Saturday and a long run and swim on the Sunday.  This will probably be the first real opportunity to get in a solid long ride outside on the tri bike since training started in November, will be good benchmark as to where my riding is as I will aim to ride the century (where congestion etc allows) at goal IM power.
• March Tucson Training Camps - Week 1 will be dedicated to bike volume with at least one key session dedicated to work at LT.  As the focus in on the campers though it will be a case of simply getting in what I can while ensuring everything runs smoothly and the campers leave happy and fulfilled (read as completely shattered from all the training ;)).  Week 2 will be a hardcore training week as I shall hopefully have Cindy along to do most of the support duties and as this is labeled the 'elite week' the quality of the athletes in attendance should ensure I get adequately smashed in training.  Would like to rack up at least 300 miles a week of riding, 40-50 miles of running and 12-15k in the pool.
• April 13th-17th - St George and Rage - Plan is to fly to Vegas on Wednesday early morning, drive up to St George and ride one loop of the bike course followed by running a portion of the run course.  Thursday will be full ride of the course followed by a loop of the run course (big day).  Friday, early swim, then drive to Vegas and register etc for the HIM on the Saturday.  Saturday will be interesting if nothing else. I will 'race' to the best of my ability given the fatigue I will be carrying into the event.  Sunday will be a chilled day with perhaps a recovery spin or more likely a short open water swim (opportunities to get in open water will be limited before race day so makes sense to take advantage while I can).
• April 21st-24th Ironman Coeur d'Alene Camp 1 - This is now two weeks out from IMStG and will be my last week of significant volume.  I won't train a lot during the camp but will execute on some final key sessions to ensure my race plan is dialed in and my power/paces are locked in.

Adding this kind of structure sure helps focus the mind and gain a little more commitment.  You can't show up to a century for example without some bike miles in your legs so the drive this provides to get some riding in before the event is very useful.  The same goes with the Tucson camps.  Without some condition I will not be able to do the volume I desire and more importantly would compromise my ability to recover and absorb the said training.  One thing I don't have margin for given the volume of my typical 'in town' week is to miss any training through injury/illness so it is imperative that I balance fatigue cost of my workouts and structure adequate rest and recovery between some of these key events that I have planned.

The big addition to my 2011 race calendar is the Western States 100 trail race.  If you like this is kind of like the Kona of trail running in that you have to qualify (unlike Kona however it is not that challenging) however unlike Kona once you qualify (along with 1600 or so others) you then have to register and wait for the lottery which this year was on December 4th.  Only 220 or so runners get selected so as you can see the odds are long.  I entered more because I was proud of my race at Whiteriver and less to actually get into Western States but as 'luck' would have it my name came out of the hat!! It will not influence my St George prep other than I might try and get a couple more longer trail runs in than i would otherwise have done and then after the ironman it will be run, run , run and run some more!

The blog now has good reason to continue after Ironman St George so keep reading.