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.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
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.
Friday, December 19, 2008
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!
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.
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.
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