Chlorine

So I've been spending A LOT of time in the pool for several months now. It's continuing to pay off, slowly but surely. Most of my gains are from changes to my stroke I think, but I assume I'm continuing to build endurance. This morning was a good test because my main set was 3x500 on 9:03. Before, I was lucky to swim one 500 in 9 minutes, let alone 3 of them. I did them in 8:13, 8:32, and 8:33. Not too bad. I'd like to down under 8 minutes for a 500, but this is good progress...

Still get annoyed when you always smell like chlorine, though.

More Data

Clear signs of progress using the PowerCranks. Today, my plan had me doing a 2.5 hour ride with power intervals. Put it into my hardest gear and go hard for 6 minutes, then 5, then 4, with the rest interval being half the length of the hard effort. Then repeat the entire cycle. Because of the crappy weather, I decided to do this workout on my trainer. Being on the trainer for 2 and a half hours is not my idea of a good time, but I just couldn't bring myself to face the 40 degree, rainy weather again this weekend. I had enough of that last weekend.

So I did my warmup for about 15 minutes, then I shifted into my hardest gear and went at it for 6 minutes. I was holding around 230-250 watts or so for the 6 minutes. Then 3 minutes rest and then do it again for 5 minutes. I made my way through this workout and it wasn't completely horrible. Very, very hard, but not horrible. Then, after about an hour total of intervals, I still had 1.5 hours to go on the trainer. So to pass the time, I started doing 10 minute stints with 30 seconds of rest for my rear end in between the sets. I tried to alternate gears a bit for a variety of efforts. I was still holding around 160-180 watts for these intervals, so overall I averaged 177 watts for the 2.5 hours on the trainer. Normally, on the roads, I average much higher power, but for the trainer, that was pretty good. I am making clear progress. My first decent rides on the trainer after starting to adapt to the PowerCranks were about 125 or 130 watts for 1:15. Now, I'm up to 177 watts for 2.5 hours. That's about a 35% improvement (over a longer time, even). If that improvement translates to a 35% improvement off of a 2:40 half-iron bike split, I will be stoked. We shall see. Also, if I think about the iron distance bike split, my ride at Wisconsin in 2007 was 6:45. 35% off that is gigantic. We'll see how Louisville goes, but I HAVE to be better; just not sure by how much.

The Candy Store, part 2

I don't know how people decide what bike to buy.

I went back to WheelWorks and spent some more time with Joe Santos, who impresses me more and more. He has spent hours and hours with me allowing me to do test rides and I still haven't spent a penny in his shop. I guess that's the way you develop loyal customers. In any case, I am still going through the selection process. This time around I rode the B12 again, twice. I rode a P2 again. I also rode 2 different sizes of P3s.

The B12 felt quite good. It feels stable and fast. The frame may be a bit short for me, but overall it feels good. After my first whirl on it, Joe tweaked the front end and moved my hand position upward. After doing that, I felt really good on it. My only minor complaint was that my knees where bumping my elbows a bit when in the aero position, a sign that the frame/top tube may be a bit short for me.

Next was the P2 again. It also felt pretty good from a geometry standpoint. It still felt a little twitchy and I didn't feel as stable on it as I did on the B12. Otherwise, it felt good. Next was a P3 with 808s. This was the first time I have been on a P3 and the first time I have ever ridden with real race wheels. It may have all been in my head, but I felt really fast with the wheels. Also, I don't think I'll have a problem with deep wheels. It was fairly windy on my test ride, but I never felt like I couldn't control the bike. The fit was good, very similar to the P2, but it also felt a little more twitchy than the Felt B12. Moving to a smaller size P3 helped a little, but the Felt still was a tad more stable for me.

The other option Joe is setting up for me is a really sweet deal on a Felt DA. It normally retails for like 9500, but he can get the '08 version built up with the race wheels and a PowerTap for less than 7000. It's a little more than I wanted to spend, but I want to at least try the bike. The geometry of the frame is similar to the B12, but it has the bayonnet fork (like the B2), so that will be interesting. I still need to ride a B2 and I will try the DA that they build up for me. I may even borrow it for a few days.

I'm to the point now where they all feel pretty decent, so it will be a tough decision. Leaning towards the Felt right now, just not sure which one! Hoping to have a new bike in January!

Slacking

I've been slacking a bit lately on the posts. Between family, work, and training, the last few weeks have been quite busy, but then again, that's the same schedule all the time. From a tri-training perspective, I've had an interesting few weeks.

I met again with Coach and spent some time in the pool. I had reached a bit of a plateau and he hadn't finished off the video from our first session so we decided to meet again and take a look at my stroke progress (or lack thereof). Even though I felt like I had changed it somewhat already, his comments were basically the same. I do too much catch-up, which slows me down, and my timing is off. I need to start me reach sooner. The other thing he added this time around is that when I do reach, I cross over too much, i.e., my right arm goes to my left side and vice versa. So we've added two more drills to help correct these things. A new reach/timing drill where I start my pull before I start my recovery with the back arm and a drill where I concentrate on doing my reach out at 9 or 10 o'clock towards the side of my body. And boy, what a difference. It really feels weird, but the first time in the pool after this little session with Coach, I cut 2-3 seconds of my 50 yd time. I could do a 50 in 0:41, which is really fast for me. It felt quite strange, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I don't have much endurance and cannot keep the good form for very long, so I've still got a lot of work to do. At least I can see a path now towards a 1:10 iron distance swim, which seemed unfathomable before.

Data

Gotta say, I love having the PowerTap. I download every ride and study them briefly before moving on, trying to learn what I can. This week's key bike on the weekend had some power intervals. Warm up, then do a one mile section in the biggest gear trying to accelerate the whole time. Then repeat 3 more times. So I drove down to the hatchery this morning and started from there. I headed over to the canal and did my warmup and then, when I got to 15 minutes, I turned around and started cranking. I was able to accelerate for about 2 minutes or so, but then I petered out a bit. And man did those intervals hurt. They weren't long, but they got my HR up into the 170's on the bike, which is a rarity for me. And pushing along in your biggest gear is no fun. After the prescribed intervals, I headed up to Beals point and finished off the rest of the ride around the lake for a total of 2.5 hours. After that I changed and hit the bike path for a 4 mile run in about 30 mins. I felt pretty good afterwards. Very tired legs, but pretty good.

The coolest thing about the ride was all the data from the PowerTap. I was up over 300 watts for each of the intervals and averaged around 330 or so for each. I'm also experimenting now with intervals on the PowerTap and I have no idea why I didn't try that before! It makes it so easy. And then, on top of that, even though the SW is not chock full of features, you can add intervals afterwards. My overall ride looked like this:



You can see the intervals at the beginning of the plot. Pretty cool. Then, I zeroed in on each separate interval and you can see the stats for each. Way cool. For an engineer, this is pretty cool stuff and even though training with power is by no means cheap, I LOVE the PowerTap and am really looking forward to tracking my progress. After all, the first step to improving a process is to measure it.

A great way to start the day.

We took the family down to the 2nd annual Folsom Turkey Trot this morning... it was a lot of fun! The race has really grown and the ~3000 runners is a bit much for the course that winds through the trails around Folsom. Regardless, we had a good time. Granpa pushed the kiddos in the double stroller, Grandma ran the 5K, my wife ran the 10K, and I ran the 10K. Good times had by all, in both senses of the word. Emily put together a 52 minute 10K, which is not her fastest, but still quite good considering she had a baby 7 months ago. Also, she will be running the marathon next weekend, so this was a good higher intensity run during her brief taper. I was hoping to do a 10K PR. My current best is 39:30 at last year's Run to Feed the Hungry downtown. We decided to do the Folsom race this year because it is closer to home and we thought would be less crowded. Well, not really. When the 10K course merged back together with the 5K course, I had to weave in and out passing all kinds of people. In some cases, it seemed like they had the whole trail walled off intentionally. In any case, I still did really well.

I started off quite fast and hit the first mile in about 6 minutes. At that point, I was feeling great. Well, of course, it's only one mile. So I kept it up as best I could. I started with the very first runners and tried to hang as long as I could. I ended up in a group of about 3-4 runners that was falling behind the lead group. At 2 miles, I was just under 12 minutes. Miles 3 and 4 had a tad more up and down, so I was up to about 24 and change at mile 4. I was hoping to get below 39 and was really hoping for a 37:xx, but knew that would be tough. My HR hovered around 170 for most of the race, which didn't feel that bad actually. Through miles 4 and 5, there was one guy on my heels as I continued to pace us. When we got to 5.5, he really kicked it up a notch and I tried to hang with him. My HR kicked up to 180 as I came up the final finishing hill, but I couldn't stay with him... crap. Oh well. I crossed the line and had 38:52 on my watch. My chip time was 38:49, so I was pretty happy with that. I think I could've done about 30 seconds faster had I not been dodging 5K'ers for the last 2 miles. I was 3rd in the 30 year old male age group and 12th overall, my best finish for a running race!! I *think* I could take another minute or two off that time if I really worked at it. I haven't been doing any speed work lately so this result is just from the warm-up runs I've been doing and the bricks. Perhaps the PowerCranks really are helping my run!? My next race will be the Carlsbad Half Marathon at the end of January and then probably another half marathon in March at Shamrock'n. I want to see if I can break 1:25 at either of those runs. We'll see.

The Candy Store

So, I've mentally committed myself to buying a "real" tri bike. When I did my first race back in '05, I rode an old used Cannondale I bought from a friend for a couple-hundred dollars. It got me through the first season. I was pretty hooked on tri from the beginning, so when I was getting ready to gear up for Ironman in '07, I wanted to get a new bike. As I went through the process, I couldn't decide between a road bike and a true tri bike. I ended up going with a Kestrel Talon, which seemed to provide a good balance and some versatility. I could put some clip-ons on their and use it for long training rides in the hills around here and still race on it.

The Talon did just fine for Ironman Wisconsin in '07; my bike split wasn't fast by any means, but the bike got the job done. For the '08 season, I wanted to really improve my biking and see if I liked an aero setup so I switched it over to a full-on aero setup with a profile design base bar, profile clip-ons, and bar-end shifters. I worked pretty hard on my biking and did a lot more intensity and intervals. It paid off at Vineman 70.3 '08 where I cut 17 minutes off my bike split from the previous year. I was pretty happy about that and it's what's launched me into my new level of addiction for the sport. Now, I don't feel like a decent runner just getting by on the bike and in the water. Now I'm starting to feel like a tri-athlete and just might be able to start getting close to competing in my age group (not winning, but maybe top 10-15% would be a nice start).

Unfortunately, my new level of addiction means I am ready for a road bike AND a tri bike. My plan is to turn the Talon back into a road bike and put the "regular" bars back on and start shopping for a tri bike. To that end, I spent some quality time at Davis Wheelworks this weekend. I called them earlier in the week and asked them about the best process to go through to get a good tri bike that was the right fit for me. The person I was talking to then told me he should put me on the phone with "somebody who knows more." So I explained to the new guy on the other end of the line what my deal was and he walked me through what he thought was the best process. He suggested I come in for a preliminary fit and they would proceed to set-up several different rides for me to test ride. And not just 5 minute spins around the block. Full-on rides in shorts, jersey, shoes, etc. for ~20-30 minutes each bike. He also suggested I ride as many as I can in one day to get a good viable comparison. If I spread them out too much, then they would all feel good.

So, I got clearance from my incredibly supportive and loving wife and set off to Davis for my Saturday appointment. When I showed up, they had the first bike on the trainer and ready to go. And it turns out, the guy I talked to on the phone was the owner, Joe Santos. In the first hour, he spent quite a lot of time listening to me describe what I was looking for and getting the first initial fit done so we could "normalize" all the test bikes to the same points in space. He also spent a fair amount of time with me going over all sorts of details about the options, particularly on the wheels. He reviewed some performance data with me on the wheels and explained the difference between the Zipp design and the Hed design. He also talked to me about my plans for the PowerTap and completely understood my dillemma. His suggestion was basically what I was thinking; that it's not good if you train with it, but then don't race with it. So if I got race wheels, I really should go with a PowerTap if I can. Granted, it will be pricey, but this is really the point in training AND racing with power to get the full use out of it.

Felt B12
So after all the fitting and discussion, I set out on my first test ride, a Felt B12. This is the middle of the line bike for Felt, below the DA and B2, but higher than the B16 or S32. It was really interesting to feel the difference between a "real" aero position and the normal position on my Talon, which as it turns out, is not perfect (more on that later). So I set out to do the out and back loop they suggested. I went through town, past the Mondavi center, and out to the country rode. I got down in the aero bars and stayed there for the length of the out and back route. It felt pretty darn good, a very stable and powerful feel. I wasn't a huge fan of the saddle we put on there - a Specialized tri saddle, but otherwise, this bike felt pretty good. The fit may need some tuning, but good overall.




Cervelo P2C My next test ride was a Cervelo P2C. Joe set it up on the trainer and we dialed it in based on my basic points in space from teh fit. I felt really comfortable on this bike. He put a Profile Design saddle on it, which I really liked. Much more comfortable than the Specialized saddle in my humble opinion. So I proceeded back out on the route, through campus, past Mondavi, out to the country. When I got out on the road on this bike, the fit felt good, but I have to say, the handling felt a little too responsive and almost twitchy... much different than the Felt. Joe said he gets mixed opinions on the Felt vs. the Cervelo on how they handle. Some say Cervelo is more stable, some say Felt. For me, it was the Felt.

Kuota Kaliber When I got back, Joe had set up the Kuota Kaliber. This bike has a more slack geometry and less steep effective seat tube angle. And boy could I feel the difference. It definitely compressed my hip angle when in the aero position. I gave it a chance, though, and went out on the ride. Definitely much less comfortable in the aero position.

Scott Plasma Joe said this bike also has a little less seat tube angle, but he set it up as best he could for me. When I hit the road on this bike, it felt great! I really liked it. It had a Fizik saddle on it and I think the Profile Design saddle is more comfortable, but that wasn't too bad. The one thing I didn't like on this bike was the aero bars were too close together and cramped my arms together too much. Not a problem that can't be overcome. The real issue with this bike is the wheels. It is an '08 limited and comes with 808 tubulars. I don't want to mess with tubulars. I might be able to sell the wheels and get some clinchers (with the PowerTap), but I'm not sure I want to go through that hassle. Otherwise, this was a great bike.



After I finished all the test rides, Joe put together the prices for me so I could mull things over. Not only that, when I got home later that night, he had prepared a PDF with a picture of each bike, the relevant specs, prices, and notes from my test ride. Pretty impressive. If anybody is looking for a place to get a tri bike, I would have to recommend Davis Wheelworks. Good choices and great service.

Now, back to the Talon... the next day, I did my prescribed 2.5 hour ride and now that I can ride for short stints in my aero bars, even with the PowerCranks, I got a good comparison between the fit on my Talon and the aero fit on the other bikes I tried. The Talon felt almost exactly the same as the Kalibur. Definitely not a good fit for me. Didn't fell nearly as powerful (not that I'm all that powerful on the bike to begin with, so I need all the help I can get!) Just more evidence that I need to set that bike up as a road bike for training and get a better tri bike. Even though I'm still struggling a bit with the cost, especially for good race wheels, I am more sure now that it will help me in the long run and achieving my rather lofty goals.

The next step is to go back when they receive the '09 Felt bikes so I can give an '09 B2 a try. I am a little concerned about some stuff I've been reading about the bayonnet system on those bikes, but Joe S. doesn't think it's a problem if you get it set up right to begin with. We'll see how it feels.

To be continued after the next set of test rides...

Ups and downs

Well, now I remember what it feels like to feel slow in the pool... like I'm going nowhere fast. When you watch the bottom of the pool and it seems to stand still. In reality, I was still doing alright, somewhere around 4:10-4:20 250s on a 4:30 split. I think for a half-iron, I've saved about 2-3 minutes in the water, and I think compared to my previous full-iron swim, I have probably saved in the 7-8 minute range. But then again, I did a 1:22 before, so it shouldn't be that hard to beat. I think I'm down in the 1:15 range now, which I think is a decent improvement for a couple of months in the pool.

This week, I almost broke the 10K mark for the week, which for most serious folks, is not much. But for somebody with a family with two young kids and a full-time job, that's not bad. I've been getting in at least 3 and 4 swims in most weeks. If I can do a 1:10-1:15 in L'ville without expending to much energy, I will be really happy and I think that is entirely possible. It may be time to begin some bike or run focus in the next few weeks, but I'll have to consult with coach!

Out on the roads

I made my 1st major goal on the powercranks this weekend and did my "normal" loop up Malcom Dixon and Deer Valley. I also added on some extra to fill out the 2:15 that was prescribed on my training plan. Some of the hills were tough, but overall it wasn't too bad. 2:15, 35 miles, 186 watts average, 2500' of vertical. I wasn't blazingly fast, but I could feel stretches where I was definitely capable of more power output at lower heart rates than I would have been able to do before. The cranks basically force you to put out more power. I still am way lower than my "normal" cadence though. Usually, I'm a spinner up around 95-100 rpm, but with the powercranks, I average high 70s or low 80s on the trainer and out on the road this weekend, I averaged like 65. Granted, much of that was grinding up hills, but still very low average cadence. I think after a while, I'll be able to put out a lot more power because I should be able to gradually get my cadence back up, but we shall see. I also figured out how to stand up, which was interesting. It was much easier to do going up hill where you could put more force down on the downstroke and use that as leverage to pull up the other side. Quite a strange feeling at first, but I got a little used to it and I'm slowly getting to the point where I can ride completely like I would without the powercranks. Still can't do my aerobars for long, but I can at least ride in them for short periods.

On a totally different note, my 2-year-old daughter said today: "OK, I will wait in here and take a short rest" when I put her to bed for her nap. It blew me away ;-)

So that's what it feels like

I did the fastest 100 I've ever done today in the pool. Granted, I'm not a fast swimmer to begin with, but I guess that just gives me more room to improve. I've been doing 4 swims a week for about 6 or 7 weeks now, so I've been pretty consistent. Usually hitting around 9K yds in a week, which is a lot for me, especially when I've got a family and a job.

In any case, I had been hitting the 1:38 to 1:40 range on 100 repeats and doing in the 1:45 range for each 100 yds in a longer set (3x400, etc.) Then today, I did 4 times 5x50 on 0:57 followed by 3x100 on 1:53. In some of the 50s, I was actually doing 0:44 or 0:45 and in the set of 100s, I did 1:34, 1:35, and 1:33. 1:33 is the fastest I have ever gone for 100 yds, and that was the last 100 in the set! I actually felt like the water was gliding over me and started, just a little bit, understanding what it feels like to go faster in the water. While swimming, it was like a realization... ahhh... so that's what it feels like. Pretty exciting for a non-swimmer like me.

A month of PowerCranks

Well, it's been a month with the PowerCranks and things are progressing. I went on a 2-hour ride on the bike trail today and did alright. I am getting better at riding with my hands on the hoods, but that's still not comfortable for long periods of time. Perhaps the hardest thing is that I am not able to stand up yet, and frankly, I don't see how anybody could. An interesting side effect of that is more pressure on your butt for the whole ride. The only time you can take the pressure off your saddle is by standing out of the seat with both pedals at the bottom of the stroke, which is a tad weird. Nonetheless, I did some minor climbing (about 900 feet over 32 miles) and it wasn't that bad at all. I averaged about 16 miles an hour and 162 watts for the 2 hour ride, which I thought wasn't too bad.

I think I may be ready for my regular Malcom Dixon loop which has 1900 feet over 22 miles. Perhaps I'll try it in one of the next couple of weekends.

The down side?

So there is a down side to getting faster in the pool. My coach has made my swims harder this month! He cut my interval times down significantly so today I was working pretty hard to stay with them. In fact, it may have been one of the hardest sets of done... ever. Before I never really pushed that hard for speed. Now I suppose it does make more sense since I think my form is a little better and now I'm sure there is more to gain from more volume. Still getting used to an increased turnover and maintaining that for a while in the pool, but good progress thus far.

The PowerCranks are also going well, I think I may be ready to give my Malcom Dixon ride a shot although I'll probably wait another week or two just to make sure I can do it. It would be about 1900 feet of climbing over 22 miles. I haven't really done any hills yet, but I have done a couple of 45 minute rides out on the bike trail and can go for a while on the trainer now without stopping. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am also making good progress on the bike front.

I definitely feel like this off-season has more purpose thus far, which I think is a good thing.

Progress Already!?

So after only a week of the new swim drills and I think I've saved close to 7 or 8 seconds per 100 yds in the pool. No joke. The 2 tweaks that coach wanted me to make to my stroke have really made that much difference. Turns out, you really don't want to be doing most of your reach under the water. Duh. I mean water is way more resistant than air, so why not do most of your reach in the air. This has made a big difference. The other big difference is a more subtle change in my timing of the reach/pull. Instead of gliding too much and doing too much of a "catch up" stroke, I start my pull a little sooner and use a higher turnover. This keeps my speed up and in combination with the reach correcting some other things, has really got me going in the pool.

So last year I did a 37 minute swim for a half-iron distance; not particularly great compared to the pack, but good for me. The year prior, I did a 38 minute swim and a few years ago was doing >40 minute half-iron swims. 37 minutes is about a 1:45 per 100 yds. If I can hold a 1:38 per 100 yds, that gets me down to 34 minutes and change, nearly a 3 minute improvement already! And this is after a week of doing the "right" drills. I can't wait to see the video tape we made.

Making some progress on the PowerCranks, too. I did a 2 hour ride today and started it with 45 minutes straight! Not bad. Still very low cadence and I can't go with my hands on the hoods for very long, but I can at least keep things moving for a while now. And at the end of the 2 hours, I even took my bike off the trainer and rode around the block. Very weird. Especially as you come up over a hill and have to down shift and your cadence really jumps up high. I think I might be ready to try a short, flat road-ride now. I'll probably continue most of my riding on the trainer as I begin to try to go with higher and higher cadence, but I may try a ride out on the bike path this week. Not bad progress after just a week and a half, but I still have a lot of work to do!

Take 2

Second ride on the PowerCranks this morning... 15 minutes straight, then 1 minute rest, then another 15 minute interval. After the second rest minute, I could only muster to more 10 minute intervals for a total of 54 minutes with intervals of 15, 15, 10, and 10. After I got off, I couldn't get my shoe off without sitting down on my garage floor.

Technique and Form

I suppose in the offseason you should really be working on your form and technique in all 3 sports, right? (Perhaps some strength training, too!)

I got the PowerCranks set up this past week, thanks to Brad at Bicycles Plus, who generously let me watch over his shoulder, so I might actually learn how to do it myself next time. So yesterday, I took the first 20 minute ride just to see what it felt like. I made it 2 and a half minutes without having to stop pedaling. Yes, seriously, 2.5 minutes. I then proceeded to repeat my 2.5 minute intervals with 1 minute rests for the next 20 or so minutes. That was supposed to be my day off, but I was too antsy to give the new cranks a whirl...

So today, my plan was to go about as long as I could. I started with my 2.5 minute intervals again on the trainer, but then later in to the ride tried to stretch it out. I managed a couple of times to get to 6 or 7 minutes without stopping, which I considered pretty good progress for my 1st "real" session. I repeated for a little over an hour and then decided that my hip flexors had had enough. When I got off my bike, I could barely lift my leg up. Nonetheless, I put my running shoes on and headed out for my easy 30 minute run. I did one of my loops around the area that has a couple of pretty good hills. And I may be convincing this of myself or just plain making it up, but my legs did feel different than they normally would after an hour on the trainer. I felt fresher and my legs were not as heavy... perhaps this will really work out, but that will remain to be seen!

Then, after working on the PowerCranks trying to smooth out my pedal stroke, my wife and I went down to the pool to meet my coach for a video session in the pool! I have never done this before so I was really looking forward to it. Can't wait to see the video! In the meantime, I have some really good input and feedback to work on. As it turns out, I was way overemphasizing my body roll and my gliding and losing way too much speed in between strokes. According to my coach, I need to work on my timing and making sure my arm that is doing the pull starts moving quickly enough. I also really need to work on my reach and my turnover. My hand was entering the water too close to my head and allowing my to over-roatate too much and do some funny things with the angle of my palm. Should be interesting to try in the pool tomorrow in my normal session.

These last two week, between warmup runs and weight training, 4 sessions in the pool, 2 intense bike rides, etc., I put in over 10 hours in both weeks. Not bad for the "off" season!

1st Week

One week under my belt on the new "plan." So far, so good. The basics are: 4 swims a week preferable (minimum 3), 3 weight sessions a week, 2 quality cycling workouts a week, and extra running and spinning thrown in where I can, mostly as warmup for the weight sessions. It's more than I would be doing at this time of year if I had not hired a coach, but hey, that's the point, isn't it!? The swims are challenging, but not overwhelming, so that's been good. I'm trying to ease into the weights, so as not to be too sore. The focus is really on the legs and on exercises with multiple muscle groups involved. The first couple of cycling workouts have been good and the running is no big deal. The kicker for the week was the Tour de Tahoe, a ride around the lake. It is, as you might expect, a beautiful ride. It doesn't have as much climbing as some of the other rides around the foothills that I've done, but still challenging. 72 miles, ~3800' of climbing at ~6000 feet of elevation. I made it around in about 4 hours of ride time after riding a moderately hard pace (average watts = 165). And wouldn't you know, I wasn't smart enough to take a halfway decent picture!! Anyway, it was a great ride and a great weekend with the family in Tahoe.

The 2nd week is more of the same (minus the Tahoe ride). The biggest challenge will be to find a good rhythm and get all the swimming and weights in. 5 AM comes early, especially when it's every day. But spending time with the little kiddos makes those early mornings worthwhile. A 2-year old is just plain fun! The stuff they come up with...

I love it when a plan comes together...

I had another meeting with my "coach" yesterday. It's sort of a weird concept that I have a coach now, but I'm really excited about it! Based on our initial discussions, I think he will push me pretty good, which, if I want to keep getting faster, is good, especially with limited training time.

My mission for the next couple days is to do some time-trialing to get some benchmarks in place. Especially on the bike and in the pool. So this morning, I did one of my local loops from my house that is ~22 miles and has about 1900 feet of climbing. Except he wanted me to do it twice. Yup. So I got back to my house after the first 22 and turned right back around and did it again. And this was a hard effort; I was supposed to be going hard to establish a good baseline. I did the first loop in like 1:24 and the second in about 1:23 and change, so I've set my initial pass at this double loop at around 2:48. And the PowerTap had me at 200 watts average and 16.2 mph. A tad slower than I was doing this loop getting ready for Vineman. And oh boy, the legs are feeling it right now! Overall it was 45.6 miles with 3880 feet of climbing, so not an easy route by any means. The plan will be to do this about once a month at the beginning of the month to see how I'm progressing through the off-season and into next season.

In the meantime, coach will be putting together my detailed plans, which will include 3 weight sessions, 3-4 swims, and at least 2 quality bike workouts a week. The idea is to get stronger on the bike and get some more quality going in the pool. I may even have him do a video session in the water because I've never seen myself in the water and I think it would be fairly enlightening. Tomorrow, I'm going to do a 200 yd TT in the pool so he can establish my interval times and then I'll do a 1000 yd TT, probably the next day, to get a good baseline for the month.

I think the trick over these next couple of months is to develop some consistency, but I definitely don't want to get too crazy too fast... but the motivation is good right now so I plan on doing some good off-season work. The objective is to get to January/February of next year and be very confident that I'm in good shape and ready to go to another level. We shall see...

Inaugural Ride

After getting the PowerTap working this weekend (thanks to some help from the local bike shop), I was anxious to get out on a ride, but wasn't able to do it until today. And it was pretty cool. Being the geeky, engineering type, I know I am really going to dig the technical aspects and data related to training with power. I did one of my regular loops from work during lunch with the gang and just took it easy. Averaged about 17 mph and 150 watts for the ride and just knowing this was way cool. I am sure it will be much more useful as I get into more serious training next year, but I can see why people who train with power say that going without it is like training blind. Can't wait for more rides...

Relief!

So I spent about 3 days (off and on when I had time) trying to figure out why the wireless PowerTap I bought wouldn't work. I tried everything! I went through the directions with a fine-tooth comb and did everything it said. First there was the FIND operation, which I tried about a million times. Then I went through each and every setup menu as they are described in the user manual, but to no avail. Still no communication between the hub and the computer. Then I tried replacing the batteries in the hub, but that didn't work either. Finally, I contacted the seller (I bought it on ebay) to see if they had any suggestions. He didn't really have anything to say other than what I had tried, but did offer to pay for return shipping and a full refund if I couldn't get it to work. For what I paid for it, I would expect nothing less. I was getting really frustrated after I had finally convinced myself to spend the money and then couldn't get the stupid thing to work!!

Then this weekend, I decided to take it down to the local bike shop, Bicycles Plus in old Folsom, and see if somebody could help me figure it out. I got there and it was fairly busy, as you might expect for a Sunday afternoon. Even though he was in the middle of about a zillion other things, the mechanic there (Brad) took the time to help me figure it out! It turns out the computer/head unit is new and had not been connected to the hub yet. For a brand new setup from the factory, they come connected, but this new head unit had to be manually setup with this hub. It said nothing about this in the instructions and I didn't see anything about it when I looked online for troubleshooting tips. You figure something like this might be good to know. Makes sense for you to need to do this if you use one computer with multiple hubs. In any case, it finally worked!! I was so relieved! The guys at the shop hooked me up!

So I chatted with Brad for a few more minutes. He had also noticed that the axle on this hub was a little out of whack, which explains why my cassette removal tool hadn't fit perfectly when I put the cassette on. I had them order a replacement. As an added bonus, the seller offered to pay for any work they need to do to fix the axle and the loose spoke. I also asked Brad about learning more about maintaining your own bike and he said there are clinics once in a while. He even offered to spend some one-on-one time with me sometime after the shop closed to go over some basics. I told him I had a set of PowerCranks that I would want to install so he could show me how to do that... perfect!! I was so impressed by the shop and their willingness to help; it reaffirmed my attitude that they are definitely the best shop in the area!

Now I just need to do the work to put this power meter to use.

New toys

This sport is expensive. For some reason I've been on a buying spree lately and in the last month have purchased a pair of (used) PowerCranks, a wheel with a wireless PowerTap (again used), and decided to sign up with a coach for the '09 season. I'm not sure what exactly overcame me... normally, I am quite conservative and frugal financially, but for some reason, I've splurged recently.

Having already done the damage, now I'm excited to use the new toys! It will be interesting... I'm not going to put the PowerCranks on my bike for about another month because I am signed up to ride the Tour de Tahoe next month and there is no way I can do that on the PowerCranks. So, I will do that ride with the club/team (Team Revolutions) and then put the cranks on and see what happens. My plan is to do just a few minutes everyday on the trainer to get used to it. And I have time this off-season to do it. Then, hopefully, I'll get to the point where I can do at least a little bit of riding out on the roads (or the canal or bike trail). In the meantime, I plan to put the PowerTap on my ride and get some good baseline data on some of my usual rides. I will probably even do one of the local time trials which run for the next several weeks to get a good established set of "pre-PowerCranks" numbers. Then, I'm going to spend my whole off-season, if everything goes according to plan, getting used to the cranks and smoothing out my pedal stroke. We'll see what happens...

And to top it all off, I am going to hire a coach this season to help me work towards my goals. In addition to the PowerCranking, I plan to work with him on my swimming and try to turn myself into a halfway decent swimmer. We'll probably do just the bike trainer and swimming for several months and skip the normal fall running races. That will bum me out a bit, but hey, there are 3 sports to work on!!! When I did my first Ironman, I just followed a basic plan and modified it for my needs. This time around, I want somebody to help me figure out how to get the most out of my limited training time.

Should be an interesting off-season.

25 minutes of anaerobic pain...

So I did a local time trial this evening... that was a new experience. I prefer longer course triathlon, so going as hard as you can for "only" 10 miles was a a whole new feeling. I think I may have started off a bit too hard to say the least. My heart rate soared into the upper 170's which, for me, is extremely high on the bike. And weirdly, it stayed there (>174 or so) for most of the ride. I finished in around 25:30, but I'm sure there were some very serious bikers out there that went significantly faster than that. They do this time trial every Wednesday evening for the next 3-4 weeks, so if I can find the time to do it again, should be interesting to see if I can squeeze out a few more seconds.

Tri 4 Real race report

I made a last minute decision to do the TBF Tri 4 Real olympic distance race yesterday.
Earlier this year, at their June race, I cut over 10 minutes off my previous time on that course, so I was curious to see how I would do after Vineman.

I had a decent day... the swim was about the same as my previous times in Rancho Seco. I felt fairly good and was thinking I might actually beat my previous time, but I came in within like 10 secs of my previous time. I guess I'll have to spend some time working on my swimming this off-season.

Came out of the water and run up to transition. As is normal, I had a little trouble getting my wetsuit off, but nothing big. Got my socks and shoes on, race belt, and helmet, and was on my way.

The bike course is an out and back with no real hills, only some rollers to keep you honest. I felt pretty good on the ride out to the turnaround and was only passed by one guy in my age group. Got to the turnaround in ~32 minutes, so I thought I was doing OK. Then after the turnaround I realized I had been wind-aided all the way out and now had to fight the same wind on the way back. I was definitely going slower than last time, but I didn't know how much it was going to be. Came in at 1:08 or so, which was about 2 minutes slower than last time. Approaching the bike-to-run transition, I tried something new (yes, boneheaded mistake), and took my foot out of my shoe as I approached the dismount. Well, I had never tried this before and quickly learned that it was not easy. My pedal flipped over and my shoe was hitting the ground on every downstroke. It finally popped off. I slowed down to go get it, but a nice spectator saw it and told me to keep going; that they would follow me in. Got my running shoes and hat on and headed out on the run.

The legs felt fairly good early in the run and I reeled off the first 2 miles in about 14 minutes. I was hoping to hold a ~7 minute pace and see if I could break 44 minutes for the 10K. At this point I realized that my friend (who started in the wave behind me) was probably already out ahead of me on the run. Little did I know he had passed me in the water!!! I finally saw him as I approached the turnaround.... he was having a great race!! Anyway, I kept chugging in the hopes I might at least catch him on the run and cut his lead back under the 5 minutes from the wave start. Then around 4.5 miles I started slowing a bit and was quite tired. I just didn't have that extra gear. I came in at about 44:45 and around 2:25 overall. Slower than last time by 2 minutes, but considering I wasn't as motivated as last time, not bad. My friend beat me by 7 minutes, but that will at least give me motivation for next time! It was good enough for 5th out of 17 in my age group, but I still need work.

Vineman 70.3 - Race Report Catchup

Vineman 70.3 – The 2008 Version

Pre-race

We stayed in Santa Rosa again, but NOT in the Travelodge after last years’ fiasco (long story). This time we went for the Quality Inn, which worked out just fine. I didn’t sleep that well in the hotel, but never really do before a race. My wife and (now 2) kids and my parents were all in the hotel and we were planning to all get up together to get to the swim start early to see off one of my friends (his 1^st half-iron and he did awesome… just not fair to be that naturally talented). As predicted, he was out of the water quite fast, at least by my standards. Once he was out on the bike, I started getting ready. I waited in line at the port-a-potty, made last arrangements at my T1 spot, and put on my wet-suit. This time I didn’t really forget anything; I did have to run back up and put my bike sunglasses on my bike, but nothing serious. Once my wave came around I was in the water and ready to go; quite looking forward to it because Vineman is a great course and a fun race!

Swim

Last year, I did the swim in around 38 minutes and change. This year I was hoping to basically do about the same, since I haven’t really been focusing on my swim much this year. My wave was quite large as it always is being in one of the more competitive age groups, but I found a nice spot in the middle. Usually I just let everybody else go and start behind, but I thought I might try to stay with a pack a bit more this year just to see. And off we went. Not too bad at the start, the water was a comfortable 70 degrees and I just started cruising. A little bumping, but after about the first 5 or 10 minutes it started thinning out and I had some open water. The swim is in the Russian river, which is about 4-7 feet deep throughout the course. It’s an out and back and sighting is fairly easy on the route. Not a huge amount of current, but it’s definitely faster coming back from the turnaround. Last year it took me about 21 minutes to get to the turnaround, where I stood up for a second, checked my watch, and got started again. I thought I would do the same this year. This time, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see about a 45 second improvement. I was hoping I could turn that into a slightly faster swim than last year. On the way back, I concentrated on extending out my strokes and trying to go with the current. A few times I got caught up in small packs, but not too bad. I even swam around some people, which is strange for me. Approaching the swim finish, I started to get ready for my T1. A pretty good swim overall and a little over a minute faster than last year. Out of the water and up the small hill to my bike.

Time: 37:05

T1

Last year I was getting ready for Ironman Wisconsin and wanted to practice changing into my bike shorts and jersey. This year, I went with my tri shorts and tri jersey and was going for a faster transition. In an earlier wave, I had seen a guy stop in the aisle where the carpet is and strip his wet-suit off there. Great idea! Save time by not having to balance or sit on the rocky transition area. I tried it and it worked well. Took my wetsuit to my bike, put it in my transition bag, put my race belt on, put my socks and shoes on, put my helmet on, and I was off. I probably could’ve gone a tad faster, but not bad. I was out on my bike for the scenic course through the vineyards.

Time: 3:05

Bike

My plan on the bike this year was to push hard and stay in my target middle-endurance heart rate zone about 10 bpm higher than last year. I don’t have a power meter (yet), but I figure this was significantly more power than last year since I had concentrated a fair amount on biking throughout the off-season and in peak training. The first part on River road wasn’t bad although it was a tad cold, maybe in the 50s. My feet were a bit cold and I probably could’ve gone with arm warmers, but I knew that I would be fine as time passed. Made the turn to go under River road and onto Westside Dr. This part of the ride is rolling and somewhat technical with curvy, rough road. I just tried to get settled and over the rollers without too much slowing. I also started eating about 15 minutes into the bike. My plan was to do a half-Clif bar at 0:45 and about 2:00 with gels every 45 minutes and a salt table with each gel. I had tried this out in training and it seemed to be OK. Kept going on Westside and after a while started looking for the next turn onto Dry Creek. I was felling pretty good and started wondering how fast I might actually be going. Last year I averaged 19 and was hoping to do at least 20 this year, but I didn’t pay much attention to my average speed on my bike computer, because the one thing I forgot to do in transition was reset it… oops. Oh well. I think it’s probably better that I don’t know my average speed anyway. Made the turn onto Dry Creek, which was somewhat of a relief because the road is smoother. There is not a ton of climbing on this course, but is by no means flat. The first notable climb is the turn onto Canyon as you head up over the ridge and down towards Geyserville. I hit this turn and made it to the top of Canyon around 1:20 I think, which was good because this was just about halfway. Now the turn onto 128 and through Geyserville. Took the descent pretty fast, but there’s a turn at the bottom so had to slow down for the turn. Took a Gatorade at the aid station in Geyserville and was on my way. My goal was to be to the top of Chalk Hill by 2:15, which would give me a shot at getting back in 2:45. Kept pushing on 128, which had a bit of a headwind, but not horrible. Last year, this section had a tail wind and felt great, but I think I was still going faster into the headwind this year. I knew I was going to crush my bike time from last year, but the biggest question was how I would hold up on the run after pushing it more on the bike. Along 128, there was a guy in his 40s and a gal in her 20s that both seemed to be of the same ability. We basically took turns passing each other for a while. We weren’t drafting (at least not intentionally), it was just that one of us would make a pass and then the other two would push to keep up and not get dropped. Then the one that passed got a bit tired and would get passed. We repeated this cycle all the way to Chalk Hill road. I made the turn and didn’t see the gal anymore, but the guy was still a little ahead. I kept on my merry way and headed toward the climb. It’s not a huge climb, but it is enough to make you hurt. Once I got to the climb, I pushed it a bit and passed probably around 20 people on the climb. Since I started in such a late wave and am an improved biker, I spent the whole bike ride passing people (except for the 40-year-old super bikers), which was a nice change. My legs were definitely feeling it at this point on the climb as I pushed hard, passing people. Anyway, up and over the top and it was around 2:12! Ahead of schedule… I started toying with the idea of trying to crack 2:40. The last 10 miles are basically down hill, so I had a shot. I made my way down the descent and kept going down Chalk Hill road. Still felt pretty good and tried to start thinking about my run transition. I had stuck to my nutrition plan, but was feeling a bit thirsty so I tried to drink a fair amount in the last few miles, knowing it would continue to heat up. I made it back to Windsor and the last few turns and finally onto Windsor road headed back towards the high school and still felt good and was still passing people. With the wind at my back, I was still pushing. I pulled into T2 and stopped my watch… just a tad over 2:40! 17 minutes faster than last year and about a 21.0 mph average!! I knew I would be a better biker this year, but I was definitely happy with that.

Time: 2:40:26

T2

The dismount is a ways away from the bike racks, so I clipped out and headed down towards T2, passing 2 or 3 people along the way. The legs felt decent, so the only remaining question was how long would they last as I continued to push. Got to my spot, took off my helmet, sunglasses (decided not to bring them as it was still a bit overcast), changed shoes, put on my hat, and was off. I got rid of my trash, grabbed a drink and made sure I had my 2 gels and my salt tablets. Off to the half-marathon.

Time: 2:22

Run

The run course is an out and back from Windsor high-school to the La Crema Winery. It is not flat. There are several hills; not huge, but enough to take it out of you. I made the first turn and into the neighborhood feeling pretty good. I got to the mile 1 marker and checked my watch… 6:45… whoa, Nellie! Slow down!! I backed it off a bit and although my goal was 7:30s, decided to go for it and try 7:15s or so. After the first 3 miles I averaged about a 7 minute mile and was still feeling good. About this time, I passed my friend and realized that I was going to have to continue to keep pushing to come anywhere close to his time ;-) About another half mile and then the bike ride finally started to catch up with me. I felt fine aerobically and could keep the pace, but I started getting a twinge in my right quad. Uh-oh. Last year at Wildflower, I had to walk/stretch several times because of cramps. I thought I had taken care of that by using my salt tablets more, but here we go again… At the next aid station I took 2 salt tablets with some Gatorade and water. I had about 4 left at that point and figured I should use them! I felt OK, but I had to slow my pace especially on the hills, otherwise, I would get a cramp. Around mile 5, I finally decided that it was better to stop and stretch for a few seconds. It was one of those things where you stretch your quad and your hammy cramps. Then you stretch your hamstring and relax your quad, but then it cramps. A viscous cycle! Anyway, I pushed on, hoping the salt pills would help. I made it over the next couple of hills, but definitely had to slow down. My pace dropped to about 7:45s or 8 minute miles, still not bad, but not ideal. It was also starting to get hot. The clouds/fog had cleared and the sun was out. I made it to the winery, but continued to have some cramping issues, usually brought on by a hill. I was doing OK still, but frustrated that I felt good but had to slow down some. I probably could’ve pushed more if not for the cramps. By mile 8 I was down to 1 salt pill. I was approaching the next aid station and was having a debate with myself. Should I hold onto this last salt pill or take it now and hope the last 30 minutes goes OK?? I popped the top of my little canister of pills and grabbed a cup of coke at the station. I had the canister in one hand and the coke in the other and started to take a sip of the coke, but in my moment of indecision, I looked down and my last pill was gone!!! Doh!! Dumb mistake. Oh well, guess we’ll have to see how it goes. I plugged along trying to avoid cramps. At mile 9, I started realizing I actually had a shot at a sub-5 hour HIM, just had to real in those last miles in about 30 minutes. I started running with this 23 year old who would also slow down some on the hills. I noticed that I was feeling OK with no cramps. I guess my prior salt intake was helping. I got to the 10 mile mark and realized I had to do the last 5K in about 21 minutes to break 5 hours. I could do it and probably fairly easily when I was fresh, but did I have it in me now? My goal coming in was to beat my time from last year. I had shattered that time. I thought I might be capable of a 5:10, but in the back of my mind, thought I had an outside chance at 5 hours. I was close. I got just past the mile 11 point and had about 14 minutes for the last 2 miles. Then I crashed… just 2 miles short. I started feeling a lot worse, but was so close!! I tried to keep up the pace, but couldn’t quite muster it. I got back to the neighborhood and got to the last mile marker and realized I wasn’t quite going to make 5 hours. I got to the high school and made the turn into the finishing chute and there was my friend with his other college buddy. He told me what his time was as I ran by full of adrenalin (love the finish of these things!). I crossed the line and had just barely made my run goal of 1:40, which was about 3 and a half minutes faster than my run last year. Overall, I was about 24 minutes faster than last year!!!

Time: 1:39:24

Overall Time: 5:02:24

Post race

Overall, the race was great. I regrouped with my family at the finish and felt very happy; spent, but very happy. The last time I felt like this was at CIM ’05 when I qualified for Boston… so much emotion goes through you at the finish when you connect back with your family after such an experience. To beat your PR for the distance by 24 minutes is a great result. But I guess the curse of this hobby is that you’re always thinking about what’s next. I was one slight modification to my nutrition plan off of breaking 5 hours. Of course, the longer term goals are a bit loftier, but to get down to 5 hours at the HIM distance would be an excellent start. Now, instead of being a runner trying to bike and swim, I fell like I can ride my bike a bit and may actually be a “tri” – athlete now. I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I’ve made great strides this year. My goal was to get faster before tackling my next IM, and I’ve done that, at least at the Olympic and HIM distances. Now, I need to keep working on my biking and start to think about how the heck I’m going to turn myself into a swimmer.

Transitions.

Sitting at the airport, reflecting on the conference I just attended and killing time on the internet on my computer.... I had a pretty good year from a race standpoint, but am now thinking about my plan for next year and the "transition" to next year. When to start, what races to do, what training approach to take, do I hire a coach, what equipment investments do I make, etc.

I read a lot of blogs, mostly about long-distance triathlon and decided I should start my own to document my journey to Ironman #2. I haven't registered yet (because it's not open), but I am planning on doing Ironman Louisville 2009. I did Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 and had a great experience and would say that I'm now officially addicted to triathlon. So here goes, it's August '08, so I've got a year until August '09 and the next big race. To be continued...