Big Swim Set

I want to do the classic swim set 100x100 on 100.  For those unfamiliar, that means you swim 100 yards 100 times leaving every 100 seconds (one minute and forty seconds). 

Since I've been swimming a lot lately, I decided to do a bit of a test set Sunday morning.  I swam 60x100 on 100.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  It sounds like a tough swim because that's a lot of 100s, but when you think about the total time it takes (one hour and forty minutes) it doesn't sound that bad. I work out for two hours or more all the time, so an hour forty shouldn't be so bad, right?

Right.


As it turns out, this wasn't tough at all.  In fact, it was kind of easy.  I started out pretty easy and swam the first 5 as a warm up swimming about a 1:30 per 100 yard pace. From then on, I swam the rest of them between 1:23 and 1:30 with the large majority of them being 1:26-1:28.  I felt comfortable the whole time and the pace was easy.  I don't even think my heart rate hit 130 at all.  

So I'm feeling confident about the 100x100 on 100.  That workout will take nearly 3 hours (you can do 36 100s on 1:40 in an hour) so I'll try to get some people to join me, at least for part of it, to keep things interesting.  


A look at my weekly swim volume for the year shows why I had a bad swim in Kona.  It also shows why my shoulders are so tired and sore right now.

2011 Swim Volume by Week

I swam just under 24,000 yards this week which put me back in the lead in the December swim challenge on Slowtwitch.  Luckily for me, the competition is based on volume and not speed.  There are some very fast swimmers in the competition.  

I'm Supersquid. 

I don't have a lot of time left to do my 1000 yard TT for the Dark Star ePostal swim meet.  I'm thinking I'll do that this week, maybe over the weekend.  The goal is to break 14 minutes.  That's my current PR.  Coming off two weeks of my highest volume ever, I'm feeling good about my chances.  

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


Later in the day, I got out for what could be my last outdoor ride of the year.  Hopefully not, but I'm not counting on more outdoor miles.  It was 43 and sunny, and in December in Wisconsin....that's riding weather.  

About to head out for what may be my last outdoor ride of 2011.

Aerobic Swimming (More is More)

Aerobic vs. anaerobic.  Intensity vs. Long Slow Distance (LSD - which should be called Long Steady Distance in my opinion, maybe then it wouldn't be so misunderstood).  High volume vs. low volume.  The debates go on and on with no end or resolution in sight.  

But I'm not writing this post to start a debate.  I'm writing about my swimming plan this winter, and how I intend to improve my swimming once and for all.  I'm sure you can guess by the subject line that my plan is going to include a lot of aerobic swimming.  A LOT.  I can see you cringing and crying out, "you have to swim fast to swim fast."  I hear you, and don't disagree.  Let me explain my position, and hopefully you'll see my logic.  Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while to see the results.


Before I begin explaining myself, I'll apologize for the length of this post.  I have a feeling it's going to be a long one.  I get wordy when writing about training methods.  I love this stuff.

Let me begin by defining a term that I feel is often misinterpreted.  Aerobic exercise means "with oxygen." It does not mean "easy."  Yes, aerobic exercise can be easy, but that is not the definition of the word aerobic.  Anaerobic exercise means "without oxygen."   Anaerobic workouts include very short, very intense efforts.  Those efforts are difficult, and since aerobic exercise is the opposite of anaerobic exercise, I believe people think aerobic exercise must be easy since it's the opposite.  Not true.

As for it being slow, well, that's relative.  Yes, it's slow when you compare it to your top end speed.  And your aerobic speed may in fact be a pace that you consider slow in the grand scheme of things if you're not aerobically fit.  All the more reason to address and improve your aerobic fitness.

Plus, triathlon is an aerobic sport so it makes sense to be aerobically fit.  One of the biggest limiters for most triathletes is their inability to hold steady efforts for sustained durations.  Endurance, not top end speed.  I discovered this was my limiter a few years ago and have been working on it since, and continue to work on it.

I'm aerobically fit on the bike.  I can ride forever at 80% of max HR and, if I'm on my tri bike, that's usually 20+ mph.  Not "fast" when compared to my top end speed but not so slow that I think it qualifies at Long Slow Distance.  Steady, yes.  

I can hold 80% of max HR on the run for hours, and in training runs that's usually a 7:30 pace or better.  I've yet to hold that pace in an Ironman.  Hopefully, I will someday.  

I am not, however, an aerobically fit swimmer.

How do I know this?

My form falls apart on long intervals and I can't hold even splits.  I can do 50s and 100s, but make me do 200 and above and I'm a disaster.  I've focused on short intervals for so long that I have a terrible time pacing myself.  I start out too hard and fade.  The end result is a swimmer that isn't aerobically fit who lacks confidence in his ability to swim hard for any real distance (ironman). 

So my plan is to log a lot of time in the pool, and most of it being aerobic (90% or more).  I've tried several things to improve my swimming, but this is the one I haven't really tried yet.  I haven't done big volume yet and built a base.


The Plan:

1. Rebuild my swim fitness after several weeks away from the pool after Kona.  This is done.  I swam a little before Thanksgiving, and since Thanksgiving I've been in the pool 13 days straight and logged 45,350 yards (25 miles).  

2. Threshold test to determine anaerobic threshold speed.  USA Swimming has a test and so does Swim Smooth.  I haven't decided which one I'll do yet.  Possibly both and see how they compare.  This is something I will continue to test periodically so I can adjust my pace as necessary. 


3.  Log A LOT of yards at and below threshold speed.  90% or more of my training will be at aerobic speeds.  It may be slower than I want to swim, but that means I need to improve my aerobic conditioning if I want to swim faster.  The goal is to improve my threshold speed, much like the goal with cycling is to improve your threshold power. 

4.  Long sets.  4x1000, 6x500, 10x400, 10x200, etc.  Aerobic speeds, steady pacing, little rest.  I'll do some sprints here and there, but very little.  I need endurance.  These long sets will also teach me to hold my form for long durations.

5. Continue with my 1000 yard time trials to monitor progress.  Here are last year's times:

 1/9 – 17:13

2/13 – 15:37

3/12 – 15:08

4/10 – 15:15

 5/7 – 14:52

 6/2 - 14:37
8/13 - 14:00

I was in terrible shape for the first one, so I improved about 90 seconds, not 3 minutes.  I signed up for the Finding Freestyle Dark Star ePostal Swim Meet.  That's a postal swim meet (epostal since it's online and you don't actually mail in your results) where you have until 12/23 to swim a 1000 yard TT and send in your results. So I'll be swimming my 1000 yard TT soon to see where I'm starting off my 2012 training. 


6.  Work on stroke rate.  I recently bought a Finis Tempo Trainer and I love it.  I've read in several places that a higher stroke rate is crucial to open water success (here's one of them), and my stroke rate is too slow.  The one and only time I worked on increasing my stroke rate I set my half ironman PR.  I'll be putting in a lot of work on that this year.  I've also been using the Tempo Trainer to help with pacing on long sets.  I've been doing 4x1000 at a 1:30 per 100/yard pace.  I set the tempo trainer to beep every 45 seconds so I get feedback every 50 yards.  Then I let it beep twice between sets so I get 90 seconds rest.  I don't even need a pace clock.  (side note: if you're thinking of getting a Tempo Trainer, do it.  They're great tools, but get the Tempo Trainer Pro.  I'll probably upgrade.  I didn't know about it when I bought mine).

7.  Form work. As always, I will continue to work on form, but it's not going to be the focus this time around.  I personally think form is over-emphasized in swimming. I'm not saying it's not important, and if your form is horrible that's definitely the place to start (if you swim about 2:00 per 100 yards, work on your form).  By over-emphasized, I think there's so much talk about how much swimming is all about form that it gets triathletes (me included) thinking  that there's a magical fix to our stoke that will suddenly have us swimming a 1:15 pace effortlessly.  Form matters, but so does fitness.  It's time for me to address fitness, which I believe will also improve my form.  

8. Swim A LOT.  Did I already say that?  


Before I wrap this up, I want to address one more thing:  what about swimming faster to swim faster?  

Yes, I agree you have to swim fast to swim fast.  However, I don't need to swim fast.  A one hour Ironman swim is a 1:24 per 100 yard pace.  That's not fast.  That's steady..  1:00 per 100 is fast.  

Yes, I will do some speed work and swim fast sometimes, but that will not be the foundation of my program. First I need a base.  I've been so focused on swim speed the past few years that I've never really taken the time to build a base.  

Swim long and taper.
 

An Update

The past couple of weeks have been kind of busy with work and the holidays so I haven't had much time to write.  So I thought I'd write up a quick update.

Gluten Free Month

My gluten free month went well.  I didn't really write much about it, but it was good.  I actually enjoyed it.  It was difficult at times, but I think I developed some new habits.  I got used to eating salads for lunch, and now I prefer them over the sandwiches I was eating.  Going gluten free is a great way to clean up your eating because a lot of the processed bad foods have gluten so you have to avoid them.  You're forced to eat real foods.

I didn't quite make it the whole month, though.  My boss found a new job and November 30 was his last day we had a going away pizza party for lunch so I decided to end my streak a day early.  Since then, I've had some gluten to test things out and have found that I definitely have a threshold.  A little bit and I don't really notice it, but a little more and I feel like crap.  Mini Wheats put me over my threshold.  I don't know how I used to eat those for breakfast all the time.  

I felt better not eating gluten, so I'll probably stick with a gluten free diet but I won't be super strict.  If I want to go out for a burger and fries, I will.  If I want a sandwich, I'll eat one.  But I think, for the most part, I'll try to stick with the diet I ate last month because I felt a lot better and was eating much healthier.  

Training

I haven't officially begun my 2012 training program yet so I'm still in the "train as I feel like it" stage.  That stage, believe it or not, has included lots of swimming.  I am determined to improve my swim for next year.  So I'm swimming a lot.  Since Thanksgiving, I've swam more than 30,000 yards (this is as of Sunday morning, and I'll be swimming about 4,000 yards today).  Volume.  More is more.  I'm also going to be working on my increasing my stroke rate (more on that in a future blog post).

My knee

I was hoping I wouldn't have to write about my knee anymore, but the pain has returned.  I did a track workout to prepare for some turkey trots and an upcoming alumni indoor track meet.  I felt fine during the workout, but the day after the tendons in my knee were stiff and sore.  I don't think I tore them again, but I definitely did some damage so I haven't been doing much running in the past two weeks to play it smart and make sure it heals so I don't have another major setback like earlier this year.  I've also hit the weight room again.  Doing one-legged hamstring curls, I noticed my right hamstring is still much weaker than my left which either caused the injury or is a result of the injury.  Either way, I will be hitting the weight room this winter to balance out those muscles and build more strength in the muscles that support my knee.  

Reading

I've read a couple of really good books lately that I'm planning on writing about so I'll try to get that done soon.  

Twitter

I've been using Twitter lately, so please follow me on Twitter.  I need some followers, otherwise it's kind of pointless tweeting.


http://twitter.com/mikewolfgram





 

24 Hours of Pain

This past weekend, I participated in a 24-hour Indoor Team Time Trial at SBR Coaching.  It's a team event done on Computrainers.  Each member of the team rides one hour, and the team with the most miles at the end wins. The race started Friday at 5pm and ended Saturday at 5pm.  Most members of the team ride twice, some only once.  I rode twice - 11pm and 4pm.  SBR did one of these last spring - March, I think - and it was such a success, and a lot of fun, that they brought it back this winter with one in November and another one in February.  My team won the event last year so we came back to defend our title.  

Our team was the same as last time with the exception of our name.  We were now StravaJava.  Huh?  It turns out there's a really cool site that's like Facebook for cyclists: Strava.  Check it out:  www.strava.com.

My first TT.  11pm-midnight.

My first ride was at 11pm, and my team had a 4-5 mile lead.  Competition was tight.  Last year I went in with the plan of riding sub-threshold for both rides.  I rode at 11pm and again at 7am, and that seemed like a good plan - try to average the same wattage for both rides.  It worked out well, but this year I opted for the other option - do threshold in the first TT and see if you can back it up again in the second.

There is a third way to ride this TT, but first I want to go over my power file a bit.  I'm improving at time trialing, but it's still a skill I have yet to master.  It's more mental than anything, I think.

1 Hour.  295 watts. 83 rpm.

 
 At first glance, this looks like really solid pacing.  The short drop off at the end is because they switch riders every hour so we actually only TT for about 57 minutes.  I wanted a full hour so I kept going after my ride ended and the resistance on the computrainer dropped off so my power dropped while I manually increased the resistance so I could continue.  


But upon further inspection, my pacing needs work.  I averaged 294 watts for the first 20 minutes.  289 for the second 20, and 297 for the final 20.  That's not terrible, but I have a bad habit of dropping my power in the middle of a TT, and I need to be building my power.  I'm happy with my overall average.  It's a good place to be right now, but I didn't go there to average 295.  I went there aiming for 300, and I believe I had it in my legs.  It was my brain that failed me.  

Nothing new.


I was the strongest rider in that heat by quite a bit so I extended the team lead by about 5 miles.  Throughout the night, our lead continued to grow from the 9 miles when I left to "does it matter?"

By the time I returned for my final ride - the final hour of the race - we had more than a 40 mile lead which meant I didn't even need to ride.  No pressure.

Ride 2.  57 minutes 280 watts.  85 rpm.

Not quite so steady this time.  But I did have some distractions (other than my tired legs):

Slacking a little during the final TT.

We successfully defended out title.  The team gave me the "trophy" to hold onto until Feb when we will attempt to make it 3 for 3.

We dominated the dojo.

I mentioned there is a third way to ride this event. You've got sub-threshold, threshold and...

A rider on another team during the 3-4am shift went out really hard for the first ten minutes.  Then he faded a bit, and faded a little more, but kept pushing.  Eventually, my team caught him so he dug deep and tried to pick up the pace and hang on to the lead.  With three minutes to go, he stopped, got off his bike, vomited and went into a full-body cramp.  I heard all this second hand, so I don't know how bad it really was but it sounds like he was in rough shape.  He was okay, eventually, but I bet he's in no hurry to do an hour on the computrainer again.  Ouch. 

SBR also has a series of indoor time trials throughout the winter that I've done for years.  The next one is January 7.  One hour.  I've got 8 weeks to get my time trialing together and break through this barrier (more on that in an up-coming post).

BTW - Never google "vomit" under google images.  

Search Terms

There's a feature Blogger has that allows you to analyze the stats for your blog such as where your readers are, your popular posts, how people find your blog, things like that.  It's pretty rare that I use it, but I check it out from time to time.  Today I was playing around with it and decided to see what search terms people are using to find my blog.  I expected searches like Ironman Wisconsin blog or triathlon blog or something along those lines.

Nope.

Not one of them has triathlon, ironman, swim, bike, run....nothing.  And when I blogged about the old men wandering around the locker room naked, it never occurred to me that people would actually be searching for....well... you know.  

I used a picture of the muppets chef in this post about going to the farmers market for the first time so that explains those searches.   I didn't know that many people searched for the muppets chef, but at least it's not disturbing.


And my vacation to Florida after IMWI 2010 included a trip to Harry Potter Land.

Now that I know my audience better, I've decided to take the blog in a new direction.  Au naturel elderly culinary fantasy.  Lots of naked old men hanging out with the muppet chef at Harry Potter Land. Gotta give the people what they want.  My blog is going to be so popular.


Be careful what you search for.
 

WIAW

A while ago I was searching for some clean eating food blogs hoping for some ideas and inspiration to help clean up my diet.  In my search, I stumbled upon a blog called Clean Eating Chelsey.  If you like food blogs that are updated a lot, and I mean a lot, this is the blog for you. I can't keep up with her, and even super-reader Courtney has a tough time.  

Every Wednesday she does "What I Ate Wednesday" and posts everything she ate that day.  The best I can tell, this idea came from a blog called Peas and Crayons. It seems it has become a regular thing among the food blog community.  

Even though this isn't a food blog, I thought I'd give What I Ate Wednesday a try.  Here's what I ate today on my new gluten-free, healthy-eating diet.

Breakfast:

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oats with chia seeds (for omega-3s), cinnamon and shredded coconut, two scrambled eggs, a low-sodium V8 and coffee (yeah, still decaf).

 

Morning Snack:

Mid-morning, I had a salad that was primarily spinach with some butter lettuce mixed in.  I added celery, raisins, garbanzo beans and goat cheese.  I'm loving the goat cheese on salads.

 

 

Lunch:

Lunch was mostly left-overs from dinner last night.  A pork chop, boiled red potatoes, a banana, yogurt, cucumber and a couple of squares of dark chocolate (probably the first time in my life a chocolate bar is going to last an entire week).

 

Afternoon snack:

Cashew Cookie Larabar.  I also had an apple and some raisins when I got home from work before heading to the pool to swim.    

Dinner:

Grilled mahi mahi, cauliflower puree, roasted asparagus and a couple of squares of dark chocolate.  

  
That's my day in food.  I'm not sure if I'm going to make What I Ate Wednesday a regular thing, but I thought it would be fun to try.  I will say, though, that having to post everything you ate in a day for everyone to see really makes you think about your food choices that day.  Maybe I should post my meals everyday.  That should ensure I eat healthy.  

Gluten Free?

For a while now, I've been wondering if I'm sensitive to gluten.  I know I'm not allergic to it or have Celiacs, but I think I may be sensitive.  So I decided to cut out gluten for the month of November to see how I feel.  

I have a few reasons for doing this, one of them being my belief I may be sensitive to gluten.  One other reason is that I eat a lot of gluten....and I mean a lot.  I typically start the day with cereal.  I eat sandwiches for lunch, and dinner if I'm rushed for time.  I eat bagels, pasta, crackers, etc.  I don't remember the last time I went an entire day without a piece of bread. 

My second reason to cut out gluten is to force me to find other foods to eat.  I'm not buying gluten free bread, cereal or bagels, at least for the month of November.  I'm trying to stick with foods that are naturally gluten free.  This will keep me from taking short cuts and living off cereal and sandwiches.  If I continue with gluten free living, I'll buy some of those products from time to time.

Another reason is that the more I read about grains, the more convinced I'm becoming that they're not good for you....especially wheat.  I'm still eating grains like quinoa right now because I'm not yet fully convinced grains are bad for you.  More research is needed.

One problem with my experiment is that I'm not only cutting out gluten, so if I feel great at the end of the month it will be hard to tell for sure if it's the lack of gluten or the improved diet.  Ideally, I would eat the same foods while only cutting out gluten.  But I've decided to use this as an opportunity to make changes to my diet and eat healthier overall.  I'll eat some gluten at the end of the month to see how I react.

My rules for my gluten free month:

 - No gluten/wheat (obviously)
 - No candy with the exception of dark chocolate
 - Fish at least twice a week
 - A salad every day


So it's more of a change in diet than just a gluten free test.