Workout Wednesday - Recovery Ride

Recovery workouts, or easy workouts, are often referred to as junk miles.  Then, of course, there comes along programs that eliminate the "junk."  That sounds good in theory, but I'm not a big believer in those programs.  They have people that get good results with them, but I'm skeptical of programs like 'run less, run better.'  It's good marketing, though.  I'll give them that much.

I think those programs work for people who never had intensity in their program, but for everyone else I think you need your hard workouts and your 'junk' miles.  I'm a big believe in volume.  Just look at American long distance running.  For years our elite athletes tried programs that focused on less volume and we fell off the map.  Now, they're all going old school and running 100+ miles per week and starting to become competitive again.


With that said, I say don't make your 'junk' miles worthless.  Don't make them junk.  Keep them easy so you're recovered enough for your hard workout, but this is the perfect time to work on form.  When running easy, I focus on good form, landing on the balls of my feet and I count my cadence to make sure my turnover is high.  Swimming is all about form as well, and my easy workouts typically have more drills than the others.


Below is what I'm currently doing on the trainer for my recovery rides, which is easy but I try to make it beneficial so it's not 'junk.'  When I start doing these outdoors, I'll try to do something similar although I sometimes just go for an easy ride with friends and enjoy the weather (I don't think those would qualify as 'junk' miles either).


Recovery Ride 1:15 roughly 20 miles


Warm up (15 minutes)
7 minutes easy (80-110 watts)
6x:30 (big ring - 180ish watts/small ring 80ish watts - just to get loosened up)
5 minutes easy


Drills
10 x 1:00 one-legged drills (alternate legs - one minute each leg)

Main Set
35 minutes 140-160 watts (95+ cadence)


Drills
10 x 1:00 one-legged drills (alternate legs - one minute each leg)

Cool Down
5 minutes easy


The one-legged drills can be tough, but they won't kill your hard workout and they help smooth out your pedal stroke.  I like to keep my cadence really high during the main set to get used to spinning fast.  Training for triathlons it seems like I do a lot of time trial type of workouts (even my long rides tend to be like this) and my cadence is usually around 85 so it feels good to mix it up and train my leg muscles differently.  I think it makes you a more well-rounded cyclist.

Effortful Swim Workout

Effortless swimming workouts....huh?  I might have to check that out.  Sounds like the kind of swim workout I can get behind....or maybe it's the kind of workout that makes you fall behind.  

Either way, it doesn't matter.  I find the effortful workouts produce better results.

Other than masters on Monday and my Friday swim workout I already posted, here's my other swim workout for the week:


One Hour - 3000 yards

Warm Up (900)
100 Swim/100 Kick/100 Pull/100 Kick
10x50 on 1:00 (paddles optional)

Main Set (1800)
3x (6x100 on 1:45) 30 seconds rest between sets


Cool Down (300)
300 yards easy


That's all.  Just felt like posting a swim workout.  It's kind of a go-to workout for me if I need a workout with decent volume and only have an hour.

Release the Geek!

When it comes to training, I'm a geek. No doubt about it. I love crunching the numbers and, better yet, comparing them to previous numbers. So with a new year comes a new training season and a whole new set of numbers to compare to previous years. And with this year being all about going as fast as I possibly can at IMWI, comparisons are very helpful in determining if I'm making progress and on the right track.

So I started out by comparing some running numbers. First, overall volume.

2008 = 989 miles
2009 = 1304 miles

That's a nice increase, and I'd like to keep that number growing this year. I don't have a specific number in mind, but I would like to break 1500 miles. That averages out to 125 miles per month, or about 29 miles per week. Mainly I'm just going to log a lot of miles and see where I end up. If I don't break 1500, no worries, but it would be nice.

Then I compared 2008 and 2009 by weekly running mileage:

2008

2009

As you can see, I consistently ran more miles per week in 2009. That came mainly from stepping up my running frequency to 5 times per week. Plus, I bumped up my short, easy runs from 3 miles to 5. You can also tell I like to take some time off to recover near the end of the year.

So my goal for 2010 is to build on that. I'm going to keep my frequency at 5, but I'll bump up my distance a bit and I might run twice a day one day per week during the spring and/or summer to help keep my volume high.

But, while it's nice to see numbers broken down like that, I already knew I ran more in 2009 so that wasn't really that helpful. So I wanted to get down to a more micro level and see if I could learn something from the numbers to determine if I'm on the right track, see if I'm improving. I feel like a better runner, but if you compare IM marathon times I was nearly an hour faster in 2008. The weather had a lot to do with that, but I have no proof that I would've run faster in cooler weather. Feeling like a better runner doesn't necessarily mean you are a better runner.

So I focused just on the month of January to see how this year compares to the previous two years:

2008
Blue = Distance Maroon = Average Pace Red Line = Average Heart Rate

2009
Blue = Distance Maroon = Average Pace Red Line = Average Heart Rate
If you're curious about the run in the middle of the month with the high heart rate, that was a snowshoe run.

2010
Blue = Distance Maroon = Average Pace Red Line = Average Heart Rate

Obviously, there's not a lot to look at for January 2010 yet, but getting these charts set up in WKO+ is going to help me compare years and see my progress. For example, I ran on January 6th in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In 2008, I ran 2.9 miles at a 10:13 pace. I must have forgotten my HR monitor because there's no HR data.

In 2009, I ran 4.5 miles at an 8:50 pace and my average HR was 75% of max heart rate.

In 2010, I ran 7.18 miles at an 8:22 pace and my average HR was 72% of max heart rate.

So, not only have I gradually increased the distance, but I'm running faster and my heart rate is lower. This tells me that I'm still gaining fitness. I'm building upon previous years and making progress. I feel that right now I'm on the right track and plan to continue using the running plan I was on last year. I made good progress and found some things that work.

If you're wondering what those are, here you go:

- Frequency. I ran 5 days per week. T-F and Sunday.
- Consistency. You can see by the weekly volume chart that I kept my weekly mileage fairly consistent all year. I had some easy weeks for recovery, but I never really let my volume drop off too much.
- More long runs. I ran 10 or more miles 34 times in 2009. I plan to increase that number this year.
- Heart rate. I tried to keep my HR on my base runs around 80% of max. If I found my HR starting to get too low, I'd pick up the pace.
- Negative-split HR tempo runs. There's a mouthful. I did quite a few of those, and I think they helped a lot. I ran out for about 32 minutes at 70-75% of max HR. Then I turned around and ran back (about 28 minutes) at around 90% of max HR. That's a really good workout.
- Hills. I ran Elver hill repeats a lot. This year I'll be doing a lot more hill work.

That's the bulk of it. This year I'm adding a short strengthening routine 3 times per week. I'm also adding yoga to help with injury prevention. And, I'm going to do more track workouts this year. I did a few in 2009, but not many. I love track work so I'm looking forward to getting out there and pounding out some laps.

One more thing about 2010....I plan to set a new weekly mileage personal best. So far the most miles I've run in a week is about 45. I hope to break 50 at least once this year.

I figure I'll need to run a 3:30 marathon or better at Ironman this year (that's an 8 minute pace) so I have my work cut out for me.

Week one is done

Week one of training is in the books, or to be more precise, in Trainingpeaks.com. The week went well, but it wasn't quite the easy first week I'd planned on.

My first run after nearly a month off was a little rough. I ran at night in the snow and didn't see a hole and rolled my ankle. Surprisingly, my ankle felt fine, but I think I tweaked a muscle in my quad because it has been hurting since. Running aggravates it so I'm taking today and tomorrow off running to see if that helps the pain go away.

Other than that, the week went well. I got 8900 yards of swimming, which is a great first week. Training for Florida I only had 7 weeks with higher volume than that, and topped out at less than 15,000 yards on my biggest week. So I'm ahead of last year with my swimming.

Running and cycling will come around. My fitness is low right now so I'm working on getting it back, which shouldn't take long, and then I'll focus on building strength and endurance.

If you notice, the chart has 30 minutes of 'other.' What's 'other?' Yoga. I'm adding yoga to my routine this time around to increase flexibility and strength. I'm not flexible so yoga is pretty tough for me, but I'm not going to give up on it this time around. I'm determined to keep at it until I improve enough that it's more enjoyable.

I'm also going to begin strength training this week, which will include some weightlifting but mainly core work. A strong core helps prevent injuries so that's going to be crucial if I'm going to survive another year of ironman training without an injury.

Swam with my H2O Audio again Sunday, and I love that thing. I got it set up in the locker room before getting in the pool and that worked out much better. From that point on, I didn't notice it. The ear phones stayed put and the music sounded good. A great b-day gift. Thanks mom and dad.

*************

Facebook. What can I say about Facebook? Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's cool to keep up with people you don't see often. Sometimes it's a little creepy. And sometimes you see things that make you wonder why you friended some of the people you did....

If this had been one of my male friends, I may find it funny. But a female friend? It's a little disturbing. I figure later tonight she'll become a fan of dutch ovens. I mean, why not? If you're a fan of farts, you surely must be a fan of being trapped under the covers with one. *sigh*

**************

The Olympics are coming!



Some great pics of the torch:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/olympic_torch_relay_heads_to_v.html

If you don't make your booty move....

Indoor TT #1 didn't go very well for me - for various reasons - so I was determined to make this one better. I had only one goal - suffer. I didn't care what place I came in. I wanted to stay focused for the whole race and get my average watts back where I think it should be.

Mission accomplished.

Last time I believe I averaged a little less than 250 watts. This time I finished with an average of 297 (from my Powertap, not SBR's computrainer). I averaged 315 in my best TT last winter so I still have a lot of work to do this year but I finally feel like I'm on track. My focus is back. My motivation is back. My holiday weight is disappearing.

It's amazing how quickly fitness disappears. Last spring at the Double Bong TT I held 280 watts for an hour...and improved my endurance throughout the summer. Now I can barely top that number for 16 minutes. I realize it's important to take a break and recovery both mentally and physically, but it's frustrating to see your fitness disappear.

So it goes.

After the TT, I met Dennis in the arb for some snowshoeing. We looked for the lost city, but it is in fact lost. No sign of it. We figure that's probably because of the snow, so maybe I'll find some remnants of it this summer if I do some trail running in the arb. It could also be because we stuck to the trails and didn't venture off into the Lost City Forest...maybe there are some signs of it out there.

4 miles

The Lost City was a planned subdivision back in the 1920s. They started it, but didn't get very far for two reasons: the Great Depression and the soil. Basically, it sunk. It's funny how nealy 100 years later it's fun to search for "The Lost City" when in fact it's really nothing more than a bad idea that probably cost some dumbasses their jobs. Big mistakes tend to lead to interesting historical trivia.

As an ex-Teamster I feel it's my obligation to head back there this summer and see if Hoffa is buried there. You never know.

*******

I didn't feel like spending a lot of time creating a fancy schmancy spreadsheet for my Great Floridian training, so I joined TrainingPeaks.com. I've been using the software for a year now, but I haven't had the online subscription. Online, you can create and track your training plan. The software just allows you to upload and analyze workouts.

The online version is awesome and I wish I had joined last year. I can create my yearly and weekly workout schedule easily and access it anywhere, which is nice because I tend to forget what my lunch workout is supposed to be. I e-mailed it to myself a lot last year, but now I can just log on and see exactly what I'm supposed to do. Here's a shot of the weekly planner for this week. I'm doing 3 weeks of prep before my actual training program begins and I believe this was week 2:


I wanted to post my whole training plan, but the whole thing doesn't fit on one screen and I don't know how to use Hypersnap well enough to get a snapshot of the whole plan. So here's the first few weeks....


This is very similar to the plan I used for IM Wisconsin, except I created it all in a spreadsheet and it took a lot of time. I know it looks involved and confusing, but it's really not that bad...especially when you do it on TrainingPeaks.com. Basically, I'm just following Joel Friel's book and creating my own workouts. The x's on the right side of the page designate the types of workouts I'm supposed to do during the week (speed, muscualar endurance, testing....). I mostly ignore those and do whatever I want. This year I'm going to try to follow the plan a little closer but I suspect that won't really happen. So it goes.

Here's part of my training plan from my IM spreadsheet...


I know.... crazy.

*******

I'm not the biggest Lance fan you'll ever meet, but for some reason I'm very interested to see how his comeback goes. Here's a good Lance video...

If you don't make your booty move, your booty must be dead.

The Final Four

I've been thinking about the Spirit of Racine Triathlon, what I learned, what I could've done better, what I need to do to different in the future.

I'm starting my final four weeks of hard ironman training. After that, I taper for a few weeks and then it's race day. Here are some things I'm going to focus on or change in my training for the next month....

1. Hammer the bike. I typically race a little harder than I train, and that's worked for short events but it didn't work well at Racine. My long rides have been in my endurance power zone and I want to do more long tempo rides and work in some long tempo intervals into my 100+ mile rides. This way I can back off a bit on race day and hopefully come off the bike feeling pretty good.

2. Run more. I need to increase my weekly mileage and get in more tempo work and hills.

3. Bricks with long runs. All of my bricks so far have been long rides followed by a short run. That's good, but I need to do more with a shorter bike (40-50 miles) and a longer run. It's not that tough to run 2 or 3 miles on tired legs, but 7 or 8 miles is a different story. This will also help me figure out my nutrition. Two miles isn't enough for you to pay the price if your nutrition is off.

4. Longer mid-week runs. I've been getting in my long runs on the weekend, but now I want to increase the length of one of my midweek runs. This may be a good time to do a long brick.

5. More rest. I need to get more sleep at night and take more rest days.

6. Make the key workouts count. I've been getting stuck in that middle zone, meaning my hard workouts aren't hard enough and my easy workouts are too hard. I need to focus on my key workouts and make them really good. If other workouts suffer, it doesn't matter.

7. Improve my nutrition. I've been better the past few weeks, but now is the time to buckle down and eat well. More fruits and veggies. No more Pop Tarts.

I'm starting out with a 56 mile tempo ride tomorrow after work. My average power goal for ironman will be 190-205 watts (most likely I'll shoot for 195-200) so tomorrow I'm going to do 56 miles on the IM course and go for 220+ average watts. 230-240 would be ideal, but I'm not sure I can keep my watts that high for that long. A few rides like this and a 195 watt average should feel easy (well....easier).

Then Sunday I'm running 15 miles, starting out with a lot of hills - Midtown road.

Taking it easy is hard on a person

Since I stopped working out a week ago to let my knee heal, the weather has been perfect...for this time of year. Lots of sun and about 50 degrees. It doesn't get much better than that in late October in Wisconsin. Perfect for training...except I'm not training. I'm confident the weather will turn to crap when I resume my training.

When I started the week off I had hoped some rest would take care of all the pain and I would feel like a new man ready to take on some serious training weeks...not the case. Not at all. I overstretched my hamstring several days ago and it's really tight and sore now. Overstretching results in tight muscles. Go figure. And my knee hurts more than ever. I can't wait to get back to training because all this rest is too painful for me. I can't take it.

So tomorrow I'm going to do my first workout in over a week. I'm going to go to the pool, a good low impact workout to get back in the groove. It feels like I haven't trained in months. I feel lazy. I'm looking forward to the workout and getting back on a schedule. Maybe this will get the blood flowing and loosen up my hamstring. I figure it can't be worse than resting, which seems to do more damage to my body than working out.

I've been hooked on podcasts lately. It's been slow at work lately so I listen to them when I'm doing paperwork or running sales reports. Here are a few of my favorite:

The Competitors - I just discovered this one, and it's awesome. Definitely my favorite. Lots of great interviews with athletes. They've even interviewed David Bailey a few times, one of my motocross heros (I learned how to ride by taking his dad's motocross classes) who went on to win the Kona Ironman in the wheelchair division after a crash that left him paralyzed. Very good podcast.

Tri-Talk - A short podcast, but it has a lot of good, technical info to help you improve your tri times and training. Good stuff.

The Fredcast - A cycling podcast. Not as good as the other two, but entertaining nonetheless. Lots of good cycling news.

1 down, 11 to go

I've finished my first month of Ironman training, and I'd say everything went well. I believe I gained some fitness, but most importantly I learned a few things. Here they are:

- Stretch. Increase (or at least maintain) your flexibility. If one muscle is tight others overcompensate and that's when injuries happen.

- Get a professional bike fit. I went to Crono Metro and got a bike fit the other day and they made quite a few changes. I can tell a big difference already in my pedaling efficiency. I still need to get a new stem to put my handlebars in the ideal position so my bike isn't perfect yet. The stem I need has a 17 degree rise and I'm going to have a hard time putting a stem like that on my bike. I'd rather buy new forks and add more spacers so I don't have a stem that looks like it came off a comfort bike. They said I'm really stretching the limits of my frame so I think I technically need a larger frame.

- Form is king. Swimming, running, cycling. It doesn't matter. Good form will make you faster and prevent injuries. I actually learned this a long time ago when I raced motocross, but it was reinforced this past month. Always work on improving your form. It's a never-ending process.

- Have a plan. Don't just go through the motions. Have a plan for every workout. You'll progress much quicker.


Month 2 has me throwing in a few more interval workouts so it's definitely going to be a tough month. Hopefully, everything will go well and I'll gain some strength and endurance. I'm looking forward to it, that's for sure.

Week 2 Recap

I decided this week that I need to scale back my training a bit these first few months. I got carried away when I came up with my program and the volume these first couple of months is a little high. It's wearing me down, and I need to give my body some time to adapt to the workload. I can step it up again next summer when the days are longer and the Ironman isn't 50 weeks away.

So instead of shooting for 18.5 hours of training for week 3, I'm cutting it back to 16.5, which is still a lot of work so it's still going to be a tough week.

Week 2 Stats:
Total Hours: 14:23
Bike: 164 miles
Swim: 3800 yards
Run: 17.89 miles

Hit by a car...almost

People think driving is dangerous. So they go out and get the biggest, meanest SUV they can get their hands on. They look for vehicles loaded with safety features...air bags, side impact beams, you name it they want it. Then they run stop signs, talk on their cell phone and apply makeup while driving through a school zone. You think driving is dangerous? Try being at the mercy of these people. Try being a pedestrian, runner, cyclist.... That's dangerous.

Tonight I had my closest call yet. I went for a 5.5 mile run. I headed out at about 7:30 so I grabbed my flashing light knowing it would be dark when I got home. I will admit I was wearing dark clothes and my light isn't that big so I wasn't nearly as visible as I should've been. But....had this woman stopped at the stop sign everything would've been fine. I assumed she was going to stop (my mistake) so I started crossing the road. She only slowed down and then proceeded to turn right. I stopped and turned back just in time. It was so close I actually touched her vehicle as I turned around. When she saw me, I could tell it scared the crap out of her.

I assume partial responsibility since I wasn't as visible as I should've been, and I think I'm going to buy a reflective vest as much as I don't want to wear one. But I'm really getting tired of close calls with people doing rolling stops. Stop signs aren't suggestions. Stop! Look around. Don't assume it's clear.

Enough of my rant. Back to the training. That's what this blog is really about anyway. Today...besides my run...I had a great bike ride. I rode the Sunset Loop with the guys at lunch, and we had a strong tailwind down Seminole on the way back. Jeff pulled for a while, then Bruno, then it was my turn. I put my head down and never stopped pulling. I pushed 30-32 mph the whole stretch. It was great. I thought the group was on my wheel, but when I got to the big tree I looked back and I had put a pretty good gap on the rest of the guys. Man that was fun.

My training plan is 3 weeks of increasing volume followed by a recovery week of significantly decreased volume. I'm following the Triathlete's Training Bible program. Basically I spend 3 weeks beating myself down, and 1 week rebuilding...hopefully coming back stronger than before. I do this 12 times in the next year. I'm trying not to think about the whole year of training because it's a little overwhelming. I'm taking it one month at a time. That way I only need to worry about putting in 3 hard weeks. That's not so bad.

It's On!

I'm 3 days into my training. So far I've logged a total of 57.5 miles - 5 hours of training. I've swam 1.2 miles, biked 49.3 and run 7. So far it's going well, but it's not without challenges. I have tendinitis in my left knee which has been giving me quite a bit of pain in the past few months. It doesn't affect my workouts and doesn't slow me down so I'm not too worried about it. I'm supposed to go in for physical therapy so hopefully that will help and the pain will disappear before the first of the year. The other challenge...my wheels. The spokes came loose again today...even after taking them to the bike shop to be professionally trued. They're awesome wheels, but this is the 3rd time the spokes have come loose. You'd think a $3500 wheelset would be trouble free....you'd think.

So far the only workout I've done worth talking about was last night. I did my first brick workout of my Ironman training...many more to come. I haven't done a brick in a while, and it felt great. I pushed hard on the bike and learned a little more about training with power. The power meter is like a video camera. You get to see the real story, and it's not always the same as your perception of the truth. I noticed I tend to back off when riding into a headwind. It felt like I was working harder, but my watts dropped from 240 to 180. So I stepped it back up to 240 and tried not to think about the wind. This power meter is definitely going to take my training to next level. I forgot how tough the bike to run transition can be. I felt sluggish and slow on the run. I can tell I haven't been running much lately. Time to step it up and get some miles in. Here are the stats:

Bike
Miles = 24.26
Time = 1:14:47
Ave Speed = 19.45 mph
Max Speed = 33.18 mph
Average Watts = 212
Max Watts = 757
Ave HR = 147
Max HR = 168

Run
Miles = 3.51
Time = 27:33
Pace = 7:51
Ave HR = 153
Max HR = 167