Hungry Like The Wolfgram

Double Du Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Saturday - Beloit Duathlon (1.8m, 10.4m, 1.8m)

Saturday morning was the annual Beloit Du, a race I've done every year since 2007. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm with light winds.

Quick race report - I came into T1 in third. I took over the lead on the bike pretty early, but got passed about the halfway mark. I repassed for the lead with a few miles to go but couldn't pull a gap and came into T2 just in front of second. I lost the lead coming out of T2 and that was it. 2nd place this year.

Sunday - Delafield Duathlon (3.1m, 17m, 3.1m)

Another beautiful morning - warm, sunny skies and light winds. This was the inaugural race and they did a great job. The race took place at the St. John's Military Academy, which was a great venue for a race like this.

With this being my second duathlon of the weekend, and this race being nearly twice as long, my goal was pacing. I wanted to test out my goals (mainly the run) for my next olympic distance tri a bit, so I went into the race aiming to run about a 6:30 pace for both runs and bike about 90%.

Run 1 (20:11 - 6:30 pace)

I was in the last wave and headed out slow and built into a 6:30 pace, which I held the entire time. It felt surprisingly comfortable. I just stuck to that pace and chased down as many people from earlier waves as I could. The run course was awesome. We ran on some roads, sidewalks, then on boardwalk and then on a golf course. I was loving it. Very fun.

A rare pic of me smiling in a race (heading into T1).

Bike (41:03)

I had a smooth transition and headed out on the bike with the goal of starting out easy and building my effort throughout the ride. After a few easy minutes, I cranked it up a bit and could instantly feel yesterday's duathlon and the first run in my legs so I dialed it back a bit and held it there the rest of the ride. Honestly, the bike was pretty easy. I finished with an IF of about .85 and was very surprised to later find out I set the fastest bike split of the day. That is the result of the work I've done improving my position. I can't quantify the difference, but I'm definitely going faster on less power this year. Working on my aerodynamics is paying off.


Heading out of T1 - slipping into my shoes.

Run 2 (19:19 - 6:20 pace - run was a tad short)

I started out the run just under a 6:30 pace with the hope of stepping up the pace a bit, but first I wanted to settle in and see how my legs responded. I was in second with the leader in sight, but I had passed someone from my wave late in the ride so I knew he put a fair amount of time on me on the first run so he was a runner and would be chasing me down. I was slowly gaining on the leader so I gradually increased my pace and chipped away at his lead. I passed him about 3/4 of a mile into the run, right before we turned onto the golf course, so then I just put my head down and started pushing. My legs were really heavy at this point and I was ready to be done. I was running along the fairway on a long, gradual uphill and had to fight hard to keep my pace. I was hurtin'.

About the two mile mark, the guy I passed late in the bike caught up to me. The words of running coach Jack Daniels came to me, which worked for me late in the race at IMWI, "When struggling....speed up." Just as he tried to pass, I surged and took the lead back. He hung with me but I remained in the lead for the next mile. There was a small hill that brought us out of the golf course and onto the roads that lead to the finish line. I attacked it hard trying to put a few seconds on him and that put a serious hurting on me. As we neared the finish line, he put in a surge and took over the lead. I did my best to respond, and we sprinted to the finish, but he got me by 5 seconds. Even though I lost the race at the very end, I was really happy with my results. I paced the race really well, negative split the runs, ran a 6:11 pace on the third mile of the second run (this proves I have more running speed in the tank and possibly need to learn how to suffer more on the run), set the second fastest second run split, and had a lot of fun. He was flat out a better runner than I am, and duathlon wins often go to the runners, but I gave him a run for his money and made him earn it so I'm happy about that. And my running is improving.

2nd Overall.

The Delafield Duathlon was a great race and assuming I can fit it into my schedule next year, I'll be back. It was well-run, and I loved the course. Double duathlons was a fun and tough challenge.

After the race, I headed out for a 50 mile ride to New Glarus. I was riding easy and enjoying the weather when, about 20 miles from home, I looked back and saw a nasty thunderstorm closing in on me. Oh crap....nothing like being an hour from home with very tired legs and a storm brewing. I pushed hard and did my best, but couldn't out-run the storm. It was one of the worst storms I've biked in. Hail, heavy rain and very strong winds. Fortunately, I had a tailwind. It was so strong, I was passing traffic in Verona doing 38 mph on flat ground. Things got a little sketchy, but I made it home safely....completely soaked.

Riding hard at the end of that ride was the straw that broke my legs...as if double duathlons wasn't enough. I've spent the majority of the week trying to recover from the weekend. But it was a fun weekend so it was worth having heavy legs for a few days.

Next up: The Cooney Duathlon tomorrow - 2m, 21m, 2m. The Delafield Du was all about the run for me so I think I'm going to make the Cooney Du all about the bike and test myself there a bit.

Note to Mother Nature - Seriously? This was the second time in May that I had to bike through hail. Enough already. Cut us a little slack....please.

Learning To Time Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

There's a Thursday night time trial series in Madison, and every year I do a few of them. I also try to do a couple of the MATTS (Mid America Time Trial Series) time trials every year.

I've typically done okay at them, but never great. I've never won my AG or category at a MATTS race. There's always someone faster.

This year, I've decided to change that. I'm putting a bigger focus on becoming a good time trialist. No more just showing up with my ironman set up and doing the best I can. This year I'm putting some real effort into it and trying to see if I can be more competitive. I'm planning on doing about 7 or 8 of the MATTS races. I want to win my category or AG (I race either Cat 4 or M35-39) in at least one of them, make the top 10 overall in at least one TT and break 55 minutes at the WI State Championship 40K.

To start, I've been tweaking my position on the bike. Gone is my ironman set up. I'm still working on my fit and making adjustments, but this is the first round of adjustments....

Big difference.

I've lowered the bars quite a bit and brought my arms closer together. I need to head out for some aero field testing and make some tweaks, but this is a good starting point.

I've also changed my training a bit. With no ironman on the schedule, I'm doing less volume on the bike and working in more VO2 Max work and anaerobic work.

My first test came a few weeks ago at the Cherry Valley 20K TT. I raced this one a few times when it was a 30K so I was familiar with the course and knew what to expect. When I signed up I was feeling ambitious and I signed up to race twice - once in the Cat 4 division and again in the Masters 35-39 division. My goal was to win Cat 4 and just do my best on my second TT.

Race day was tough. It was in the low 40s and the winds were howling. The course is an out and back (more out than back since the start and finish lines aren't in the same place) with the way out dead into the head wind.

The winds were brutal. I did my best to keep my head down and just focus on my power. I came into the turn around a little too fast and hit a slick spot in the road and locked up my rear wheel and slid sideways a bit. Not smooth. It didn't cost me a lot, maybe a few seconds, so that's something to work on for future TTs.

The way back had a tailwind which sucked as well. I was spinning out and my legs were burning. It was definitely better than the headwind, but far from easy. In the end, my power was lower than I wanted and my time wasn't close to what I originally thought I could do on that course. But with the winds, I knew times would be slow so I had no idea how I placed.

Twenty minutes later I had my second TT and my legs were shot. My power was down about 20 watts from my first TT and I finished more than a minute slower. I didn't have any goals for that race so I hoped it was good enough to keep me out of last place.

The results:

Very happy to see I won the Cat 4 division.

I was surprised to see I won Masters 35-39. Small group.

I'm really happy with this first TT of the year. I proved I can win the Cat 4 division, which is encouraging, but I was still well out of the top 10 overall. They only listed the top 6 fastest, but I was nearly a minute slower so I have lots of work to do.

The top 6 overall.

Race Report: Rev3 Knoxville Oly

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:15:00 +0000

Brrrr........

Rev3 Knoxville was my first olympic distance tri in 5 years, my first triathlon of the year and my first Rev3 event. My goals for the race were pretty moderate considering I haven't raced an oly in several years. I wanted to get one under my belt, see where I am and go from there. I was hoping to break 23 minutes on the swim, average 90% of FTP on the bike (which should have been about an hour bike split), run under 42 minutes and make the top 3 in my age group.

Then I saw the forecast - low 50s and rain with a water temp of 58 degrees. At this point, I threw out the bike goal and decided to go conservative and not risk crashing and ruining my whole season. I also decided to take the time in transition to put on arm warmers and gloves.

Saturday Practice Swim. "It's cold."

"It's so cold. Don't make me get in."

The Swim: (21:31)

Race morning. The last time I would smile until after the race.

The swim started a little rough. I started on the left and about a minute into the swim the cold water got to me and I was having a hard time breathing. I was gasping for breath so I decided to side stroke a bit and catch my breath and calm down. A little bit of that and I got back to it and after a few minutes I got used to the cold water and was good to go the rest of the swim. This was definitely the least amount of contact I've had in any triathlon race. I was swimming in clean water most of the time.

It's a river swim so you swim against the current for about a 1/3 of the swim and then with the current the rest of the way. I broke 23 minutes like I wanted, but probably should have broken 21. Overall, I'm happy with my swim but have some things to work on for my next race.

Things to work on: Drafting, sticking closer to the buoys (I swam a little wide and tacked on some distance) and swimming harder (I can definitely push harder than I did - too used to Ironman pace).

Heading toward transition

Transition: (4:31)

There's a pretty long run from the swim exit to transition and my right quad started cramping up (odd - this has never happened before - maybe it was from the cold water?) which had me a little concerned about the rest of the race. I took time to put on arm warmers and thin wool gloves. Otherwise, transition went pretty smooth. I got out of my wetsuit pretty quickly thanks to cutting it and using a lot of Body Glide and Tri Slide.

The Bike: (1:08:47)

Ugh. The bike sucked. About a mile in I dropped my chain. That probably cost me about a minute because I couldn't get that thing back on without getting my gloves caught up in the chainring. After that, I got under way and tried to push the pace but it was tough. It was

Heading out on the bike. Brrr....

raining pretty hard and I could hardly see. There were big puddles and I started playing it safe and sitting up a lot and that cost me quite a bit of time. My right quad wasn't much of an issue but it did get a little twitchy from time to time and threaten to cramp.

By the halfway point, I was so cold my teeth were chattering on the fast sections. It was easily the coldest, most-miserable triathlon bike ride I've ever done. In the end, I was nearly 40 watts lower than I should have been and my bike split was slower than I expected. I figured going conservative would give me a 1:05 ish split. I obviously went too conservative....but I lived to race again another day so I'm not too disappointed.

Things to work on: Not sure. Since I went conservative it's hard to say where I could have improved.

Transition: (1:24)

Not much to say. Being so cold I struggled a bit getting into my run shoes, but otherwise transition went pretty smooth.

Heading out of T2....numb.

The Run: (41:42)

My feet felt like bricks throughout most of the run because they were completely numb from the bike. My right quad had loosened up at this point and wasn't much of an issue. I thought I would warm up but I never really did. I was cold the whole time and had worked my way into no man's land so there was a big group way ahead of me and I had a decent gap on the group behind me so I was alone most of the run. I don't know if the cold affected my run or not. I hit my target of sub 42 so I'm happy about that but I finished feeling like I could have pushed harder.

The finish.

Things to work on: Push harder. Suffer more.

Overall: 2:17:56. 3rd Age Group.

My overall time isn't what I had hoped for, but I had a lot of positives during the race and it was a tough day so I'm happy with where I am. I did some things right and if you compare this to my last olympic tri back in 2008 this was a huge PR so that's good. I hit my swim and run goal and got top 3 in my age group which I wanted. And now that I know I can podium in my age group at the olympic distance it's time to see if I can work my way up the podium.


Score. Age group award, new Blue Seventy goggles and Powerbars.

One thing I need to work on is just simply going harder. I know I can race at a higher intensity for 2 hours so I need to work on that for my next olympic distance race, which is about 7 weeks away so I have plenty of time.

As for this being my first Rev3....they put on an awesome race. Knoxville is a great venue for a race. With better weather, this race would have been incredible. Transition is in a parking garage so it's covered and we were able to park right above my bike so that was convenient. World's Fair Park makes for a great finish line and Rev3 puts on a great race. I'll definitely come back next year.

My next olympic tri is in Canada - Muskoka 5150.

Race Report: Run The Bluegrass Half Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:46:00 +0000

When I originally signed up for this race a couple of months ago, I set a goal of 1:25. I felt it was a realistic goal, yet aggressive enough to push my limits. As I got into my training, it became clear 1:25 wasn't going to happen, especially on a hilly course. I just wasn't hitting my times and the weather was making training tough. I broke through and a couple of really good workouts and hit some of my goal times in the final couple weeks of training, but it was too little too late. I adjusted my goal to 1:28.

After getting to Kentucky and driving the course the day before the race, I adjusted my goal to 1:30. I knew the course would be hilly, but I didn't expect it to be THAT hilly. I clearly had not run enough hills.

Race Morning at Keeneland.

Race Day-

This has been the worst spring I can remember. The weather has been absolutely dreadful. Fortunately, race day was the exception - mostly sunny skies, a high of 60, green grass....exactly what I needed. A little blast of spring.

The race started and I went out at a 6:50 pace and felt really good. The course is constant rollers, some pretty steep, with a few big climbs. I felt good on the rollers in the first couple of miles and was feeling confident I could hold that pace.

By the halfway point, the hills had taken the snap out of my legs. They were feeling a little heavy and I had fallen off pace a little. I knew with several tough climbs left, I wouldn't be able to make up my lost time on the second half of the race so I adjusted my goal to finish with a sub-7 average pace.

A long, steep climb around mile 9 did me in. I lost several seconds on my average on that climb and struggled to get my pace below 7 after that climb. My legs were tired and my quads were hurting from the downhills. This was by far the hilliest course I'd ever run. All goals were out the window and it was survival mode.

The last 4 miles were really tough. I felt slow, tired and weak. Mentally it was tough to keep pushing hard. I hit the finish line 1:33:30 with my quads threatening to cramp. I grabbed some food and water from the finish line, did some stretching and found a good spot to watch and wait for Courtney and enjoy the warm sunshine. My legs hurt more than they do after a half ironman.

Courtney has always struggled mentally with hills. They always get the best of her and she ends up walking so her #1 goal was to run the whole thing. Her other goal was to break 2:20. I told her the first goal was well within her control. All she had to do was get really stubborn and flat out refuse to walk regardless of how slow she was running up the hills. Just don't give in. The second goal would be tougher, but I believed she could do it.

She conquered the hills and ran every step of that race and crossed the finish line 2:18. She had a great race.

Despite coming up well short of my goals, I'm not at all disappointed. The course was really tough and I had fun. And I have a new definition of a hilly run course.

Best awards ever.

Even though the course is tough, it's amazing. I loved it and am considering running it again next year. It starts and ends at a race track and runs you by some of the best horse farms in the country. The roads were in great shape and the scenery was awesome. I saw about 4 spectators out on the course, other than the thoroughbreds, and not a single car. The race was really well-run and the race director was really good. I highly recommend this race.

Check out the barrels. Those are the age group awards. I think I was about 6 minutes short of taking one of those home. It makes me want to return next year and see if I can score a barrel...

An Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted. So much for my New Year's Resolution of being a better blogger. Maybe next year.

I've got a few ideas for posts for the next week or so, but I thought I'd start with a quick update since I haven't written in a while.

Winter has been typical. Training is going well, although my run training didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I'm training for a hilly half marathon at the end of March, and it looks like I'm not going to be able to hit my goal of 1:25. I haven't fully given up on it yet, but my training isn't indicating I'm going to hit that time on a hilly course.

Part of the reason is that I spent too much time on the treadmill this winter. I tried to avoid the cold weather and paid for it. I don't care what anyone says, the treadmill does not prepare you for outdoor running. So as a result, I didn't hit my times on a few key workouts. Then I got a case of runner's knee that cost me a few days of running. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but I'm a little behind my plan so I may have to adjust my goals. The race is just for fun so it's not really that disappointing. My main focus this year is olympic distance triathlons and my first race is coming up - Rev3 Knoxville on May 5 - and I feel like I'm on target to hit my goals at that race so all is good.

My cycling is going really well, and I've set some PRs already this year. I've got a 20K time trail coming up in a few weeks so that will be my first real test of the year so I'm looking forward to that.

Swimming is okay. I haven't put as much time in the pool as I did last winter, but I just swam my best set of 500s ever yesterday so I'm feeling good about where I'm at with my swimming right now.

That's about it. Business as usual.

TrainingPeaks Tip: Workout Codes

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:02:00 +0000

I mentioned a few posts back when I announced I made the TrainingPeaks team that I was going to write the occasional post with a TrainingPeaks tip. This is the first of those posts. I have no plan for them. I'll just throw out the random tip from time to time.

Now that I'm getting into coaching, I had to create a new TrainingPeaks account. You don't just upgrade your personal account. You create a coaching account and then you can link your personal account to your coaching account. Talk about the ultimate in self-coaching.

Having a coaching account means my workout library was empty. I could have shared my personal one with "Coach Mike" but I opted to rebuild it instead. This was an opportunity to clean things up and set up a better system.

We all have workouts we repeat. They're workouts, but they're also tests. These workouts help us track our progress, and can sometimes be a better indicator of progress than official tests because we only test occasionally and if the test doesn't go well, for whatever reason, it doesn't provide a good data point.

The problem can be finding these workouts, especially if you want to compare current data to previous years. How do you quickly and easily find all of your 2x20 workouts?

That's where workout codes come in.

Trainingpeaks.com and WKO+ come with search and filter options that help you find these workouts quickly and easily, but you have to set things up on the front end. If there is a workout you do often that you use to track progress, I recommend giving it a workout code. Then you can search by that code and pull up all of the times you've done that workout.

Rebuilding my workout library has had me thinking about workout codes. I came up with a system and I think will work well. I'm starting the codes with letters that indicate the type of workout and then I'm adding a dash and numbers to some workouts to add a little more detail.

Here's an example: BTH-220. That code is for a 2x20' at threshold workout. The "B" is for bike (run workouts begin with R, swim with an S). The "TH" stands for threshold so that indicates it's a threshold workout. The "220" after the dash stands for 2x20.

So now that I have a code on that workout, I can easily search for that code and pull up all the times I (or an athlete I'm coaching) have done that workout. You can also search for partial codes, which is part of the reasoning for my system. If I want to pull up all threshold workouts I just type in "BTH". Adding the "-220" to the code allows me the option of narrowing the search down even more and comparing just 2x20 workouts.

You don't need a code for every workout, recovery workouts probably don't need a code, but I recommend them for key "breakthrough" workouts. I'm adding them for every workout simply because I'm rebuilding my library and it's easy enough to add a code. And your codes don't need to be as specific as mine. You could just type in "Threshold" for all threshold workouts.

Here's a screenshot where I searched for all 2x20 workouts within the last 3 months. You'll see down on the lower left of the screen where you can type in workout codes.

Searching for all 2x20 workouts in the past 3 months.

Here's a search for the same workout in WKO+.


Searching for workout codes in the calendar view of WKO+

If you're in trainingpeaks.com and you want to add or change workout codes to existing workouts, you can easily do that in the calendar list view. Just click in the workout code box and add or change a code.

Below you can see where you can add codes (at the top) to the workout builder. You can get there by either creating a new workout for your library or clicking on an existing workout and then clicking edit. Once you have workout codes for your library, you just drag and drop those workouts onto your calendar and the codes will be there when you upload your workouts. Quick and easy.

You can add workout codes next to the title in the workout builder.

A Coaching Offer

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Half the fun of triathlon for me is putting together my training plan. I love reading about training - the different methods, the great coaches, the science, the studies, etc. In fact, I enjoy that side of the sport so much I've been thinking about getting into coaching for a couple of years now. With my focus being on the Olympic distance for 2013 I'll be scaling back my training hours so I think the time is right to give it a go.

Obviously, a coach needs athletes so I'm looking for a couple of athletes to coach for 2013. The cost is $35 per month.

What you get:

- A customized annual training plan built around your goals, strengths, weaknesses, etc.
- Weekly workouts
- Feedback/workout analysis
- Power file analysis (if you have a power meter)
- E-mail/phone support
- "A" Race plan - help with nutrition plan, pacing, goals, etc.
- TrainingPeaks Premium subscription

What I want from you:

- To follow the plan.

- Feedback.

Why $35 per month:

- Even as a TrainingPeaks ambassador, the coaching edition won't be free for me so I'll have some fees associated with coaching.
- I believe people take training plans/coaching more seriously if they're paying for them.

What type of athlete am I looking for:

- Someone motivated. Despite the low cost, I would like athletes who are serious about making improvements.
- Someone willing to follow the plan and provide feedback. This is a test to see if I can coach others to hit their goals, and the test is no good if athletes don't follow the plan.

- Preferably someone training with power and/or gps, although this isn't a must.

Are you interested?

- If so, shoot me an email at mdwolfgram146 at gmail dot com.
- Include a little about you, your racing/training history, your goals/races for 2013 and if you train with power and/or gps.
- I'll pick a few people that I think will be a good fit and we'll go from there. To start, I only want a couple of athletes. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

I hope I covered everything. If you have any questions, email me.

Planning 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I've been itching to do a season focused on short course racing since 2009, and with me not getting a Kona slot and USAT recently announcing that Age Group Nationals will be in Milwaukee in 2013 and 2014,the timing is right to change directions. So 2013 is all about Olympic distance racing with no Ironmans on the schedule.

For those unfamiliar, Olympic distance is a 1500m swim (.9 miles), 40K bike (24.8 miles) and a 10K run (6.2 miles). For me, that means racing hard for 2-2.5 hours. It also means I'll be able to race a lot more which I'm very excited about. I love to race.

I've been so focused on Ironman the past few years I didn't notice all the other options out there. Planning 2013 began with research - Rev3, Age Group Nationals, 5150, Hy-Vee, Lifetime, Best of the U.S., etc. Lots of big races out there to shoot for.

I haven't been this excited about a tri season since 2008.

My season isn't set in stone, but so far it looks like this:

3/30 - Run The Bluegrass Half Marathon - Lexington, KY
4/27 - Crazylegs Classic 8K - Madison, WI
5/5 - Rev3 Olympic - Knoxville, TN
5/19 - Beloit Duathlon - Beloit, WI
6/1 -    Lake Mills Sprint Triathlon - Lake Mills, WI
6/8 -    Capital View Olympic Triathlon - Madison, WI
6/23 - Muskoka Olympic Triathlon (5150 Champs Qualifier) - Huntsville, ON Canada
7/6 -    Janesville Sprint Triathlon - Janesville, WI
7/14 - Lifetime Fitness Olympic Triathlon - Minneapolis, MN
8/10 - Age Group Nationals Olympic Triathlon- Milwaukee, WI
9/1 -    Hyvee Olympic Triathlon 5150 Championships - Des Moines, IA
10/13- Rev3 Half Ironman USAT Long Course Championships - Anderson, SC

My key races will be Age Group Nationals and the Hy-Vee race. I'll also find a few more local races to fill my schedule and will do some of the MATTS time trials, some aquathons, 5Ks, etc.

Right now the tentative plan is to focus on Olympic distance this year switching to more of a half ironman focus next year finishing with a late-season Ironman. I really liked the late season Ironman, but I don't see myself returning to Cozumel anytime soon so that leaves Florida, Arizona or Western Australia. We'll see how this season goes first. I may have so much fun I decide to stick with Olys and halfs.

I'm A TrainingPeaks Ambassador

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The official announcement came out a few weeks ago, but with Ironman Cozumel and traveling to Mexico I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. I was selected to be a 2013 TrainingPeaks Ambassador.

Those who know me or have been following my blog for a few years already know this is the perfect team for me. I've been using their software, both WKO+ and TrainingPeaks.com, for several years now. In fact, when they announced they were taking applications for 2012 and again for 2013, several friends forwarded it to me saying it was perfect for me. I applied both years and made the cut for 2013.

As an ambassador I'll be sure to pass on any news about new TrainingPeaks features, webinars, good blog posts, deals, etc. I'm also planning on doing a few blog posts throughout the year showing some ways to utilize TrainingPeaks to plan your training and analyze workouts.

If you're a TrainingPeaks user, I hope I can be a resource for you. Don't hesitate to ask questions. If you're not a TrainingPeaks user and would like to give it a try, contact me and I'll help you out. mdwolfgram146 at gmail dot com.

I'm looking forward to being part of a team after flying solo in 2012.

Welcome Home

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Mondays view.

So the trip to Cozumel was rough and the race was rough but now I was on vacation and surely that would be easy....right?

Monday was good. There was plenty of sunshine and I spent a good part of the day sitting in a chair on the beach.


The beach at the resort (Iberostar)

Courtney and I on the beach.

I used a lot of sunblock, but still got burned on race day...

My sunburn. My neck is torn up from my swimskin.

My neck from my swimskin.

Tuesday and Wednesday were rainy days. We wanted to go snorkeling and kayaking but ended up doing a lot of reading instead. Very disappointing...

Rainy day.

Then came Thursday. The sun returned and it was a nice day, or so I'm told. I was in the hotel room with food poisoning.

Food poisoning has to be the worst form of illness. I must have vomited 50 times. It was unreal. I spent about 6 straight hours in the bathroom. You do learn a few things when you have food poisoning though...

1. Chocolate ice cream tastes the same going down as it does coming up.
2. There are times in life when death is very appealing.
3. You know your vacation has gone to hell when you find yourself with your face buried in a toilet begging for diarrhea.

"Courtneeeeeeeeey."
"Yes?"
"I need a favor."
"What?"
"I need you to kill me."
"I'm not going to kill you."
"Yes. I'm ready."

Despite my requests, Courtney decided to spend the day on the beach instead of bludgeoning me to death.

After about 3 hours in the bathroom vomiting I found myself begging the gods of food poisoning for diarrhea. Pleaaaaaase....let's change gears and empty the bottom half of my system. That has to be better than this.

But the gods of food poisoning misunderstood my request. "Oh...you want diarrhea too? Done."

Not in addition. Instead.

Now I found myself in the bathroom taking inventory of my resources. I have a toilet, an ice bucket, a waste basket and a shower. I can make this work.

Six hours after it started, I vomited up a little bit of blood and thought that had to be the end. There isn't anything left.

And that was it. It was 3 pm and I crawled into bed and fell asleep. If I stayed still, I was comfortable. If I moved, I got goosebumps and started shivering. Still better than my 6 hours in the bathroom. I stayed in bed until Friday morning when I felt good enough to eat a very small breakfast. Then we had to check out and head to the airport.

Our flight left early. It's the first flight I've ever been on that left early.

Message received, Mexico. You don't want me.

We made it home at 11 pm to a pile of cat puke on the bed. Welcome home.

The culprit....Calvin.

Race Report: Ironman Cozumel

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Ohhhhh......where to begin?

If you followed my progress online, you probably know this wasn't the race I was hoping for. Honestly, I'm not that disappointed. It is what it is. I wanted a better race, but went in with the attitude that this just another part of the adventure that is triathlon racing. Adventures don't always mean PRs, and not qualifying for Kona means lots of possibilities for next year...more on that in a future post.

The adventure began Friday morning. We were flying in last minute planning to stay a few days after the race to vacation. We were to arrive in Cozumel at 1:30pm and had to make it only a few miles to the convention center downtown to pick up my packet by 6pm. No packet pick up on Saturday.

I figured Black Friday would be an easy day to fly and it appeared that way at first. We went from the car through check in, security and to our gate in 15 minutes. Easy peasy. We boarded the plane and then....nothing..

We just sat there and then they shut down the plane. Then they told us they were having mechanical problems and we had to de-plane.

We went to the counter to find out our options and were told our connecting flight in Dallas was our only hope of making it to Cozumel today. The problem with flying on Black Friday is that there aren't many flights so if they need to rebook you, there are very few options.

Being a holiday, the maintenance man was on call so they had to call him in....and he's old, real old, and lost his sense of urgency about 100 years ago. Talk about frustrating. We eventually made it to Dallas on time, but it sure was stressful. We made it to Cozumel and everything went pretty smooth from there.

The Day Before:

Testing out the new swimskin at the practice swim on Saturday.

I went to the practice swim the day before and the water was very, very rough. They had most of the course closed and would only let us swim by the pier. I went out for a short swim and had fun, but could feel myself getting seasick from the swells (I get seasick....can you see where this is headed?).

Later in the day was bike dropoff. The transition area is weird. Bikes everywhere and I had a transition spot that was almost as far from the bike exit as you could get.


The transition area is very spread out.

My bike in T1. Ready to roll.

Race Day:

The Swim: 1:20

It was windy and the water was really rough. I got in the water pretty early so I could get a spot toward the front. The current was pushing us back and we had to swim breast stroke the whole time to keep from getting pushed back to the pier. The swim start was really weird. It was confusing and there was a false start. They kept trying to push us back and eventually someone on a jetski started flying back and forth in front to keep us back, which was a little crazy. I thought someone was going to get killed.

Athletes on the pier about to get in the water.

There was a lot of contact at first, like always, but things thinned out pretty quickly due to the rough conditions. I felt like I was swimming well and toward the front of the field. My swimskin was chafing the right side of my neck and the salt was beginning to burn. We rounded the corner buoys and headed the other direction. The current was giving us a push, but it was also pushing us toward shore. It was rough, but I felt like I was off to a good start.

About halfway, I was beginning to feel sick. It was the swells getting to me, and I had swallowed some salt water (apparently the water down there has a very high salt content). Once we turned the corner again and were back against the current, I felt horrible. My mouth was watering telling me I was probably not going to make it to shore before vomiting. I felt weak and tired. Progress was slow. I wanted out. I was beginning to wonder if I could make it to shore. I looked up a few times and couldn't see the pier or any volunteers. Where were they? I was beginning to feel a little panicky. I was weak and sick and there were no kayaks or paddle boards anywhere close. I told myself to calm down and that I was a strong enough swimmer to make it to shore despite how I was feeling. This was no longer about PRs or Kona or even racing. I was in survival mode (it's funny how feeling sick makes you feel like you're going to die).

I eventually saw a paddle board and motioned for him to come over. As soon as he got there I vomited. Then again. And again.

"Do you speak English?" he asked.
"Si." (I'm a moron)
Vomit.

I hung on the board for a while and wondered if there was an easy way back to shore. "Don't worry. You have plenty of time. You can finish."

Finish? I don't care about finishing. I want out of the water...NOW.

"The end is right there." He pointed to the pier. It was a lot closer than I thought. I figured I could finish off the swim, find Courtney and tell her I'm sick and can't continue and then we'll head back to the hotel and get cleaned up and watch the rest of the race.

Instead I grabbed my T1 bag and put on my helmet and race belt. I grabbed my bike and started heading out of T2. I finally saw Courtney and told her I was sick and not sure I could finish. She said I was as white as a ghost. We decided I would do one loop of the bike to see the course and then I'd call it a day.

Me spotting Courtney in T1.

The Bike: 5:58

I went out easier than I had trained for. Even though the plan was to do one loop, I immediately started following my nutrition plan hoping I would be able to complete the bike. My only hope, I figured, would be to follow my plan. Not following the plan was a guarantee I wouldn't finish. I vomited a couple more times on the bike, but otherwise was able to hold down my nutrition and water and was beginning to feel better. I was riding 'easy' but making good time and passing a lot of people. One lap turned into two.

Heading out for another loop of the bike.

At the halfway point, my average speed was 22.6 mph. I was feeling okay, not great, but good enough that I was starting to think about the marathon. I was wishing I'd had a better swim and could ride to the power I had trained for, but this was looking like it still might be a decent day.

Then I got a flat. Perfect. I fixed it and got another one right away so that one is probably my fault. As soon as my tire went flat again I realized I didn't do a good job checking my tire for sharp objects and that there was probably something in my tire. I only had one tube so I couldn't fix my tire. I was on the edge of town so I didn't have too far to walk back to T2, but I stalled hoping a support car would come by with a tube for me. Nope. Nothing.

I was far enough from T2 that I didn't want to walk in my bike shoes, but the blacktop was really hot and I wasn't wearing socks. I began to wonder what it would take to convince a spectator to give me their socks for my walk back to transition. Just then someone asked if I wanted his tube and CO2. He said he didn't make the swim cutoff. Sure.

So that got me back on my way. There was no salvaging my time anymore so I rode easy and enjoyed the scenery. The beaches and water on the South side of the island, where the winds are, were amazing. I figured that's where the really good diving must be.

About halfway through loop 3 I saw two riders down, one laying in the middle of the road with his bike on top of him and the other laying on the side of the road. I decided to stop and help.

I directed traffic away from them and pulled his bike off him. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"No, I separated my shoulder."
"Me too." The woman on the side of the road yelled. It sounded like they were competing on injuries. I expected him to one-up her by claiming his leg was broken too. Would she yell "mine too" if he did?

Not long after I stopped, help arrived. I tried to explain that I didn't see what happened and that I only stopped to help. The guy who showed up didn't speak English and after a little time explaining I didn't see anything I began to wonder if I was convincing him I didn't have eyes. Something was definitely getting lost in translation. He looked very confused and was pointing at his eyes. "No?" "No. I'm going to go now."

I figured the rest of the loop was sure to be uneventful, but I got another flat with 5 miles left. Seriously? (I saw a lot of flat tires out there). I immediately began walking to T2. I didn't make it far when someone stopped and offered me a tube and CO2. He told me he was way too under-trained to finish the race but would feel bad if he quit so he was planning on missing the bike cutoff. I got my tire fixed and soft pedaled my way to T2.

Again I found Courtney and explained why loop 3 took so long. My stomach felt better than this morning, but was still bothering me a little. I was afraid running was a sure way to GI problems. Like the bike, we decided one loop of the run course to see the course made sense.

T2. What can I say? It's not my day.

The Run: 3:26.

I started the run easy, just taking in the sights and sounds. The crowd support on the bike is pretty minimal, but not on the run course. The crowd was big and loud. By mile 2 my stomach didn't feel any better, but not any worse either. Then I asked myself, "Do I really want to be the guy who quits just because things aren't going my way, because things got difficult?"

"No."

I checked my watch. I was running an 8:35 pace. I took a salt pill and grabbed some Pepsi and stepped up the pace.

As I came back into town at the end of loop one the crowd was huge. There was a marching band and the crowd had taken over the street giving us a narrow path to run through. The band was loud and the crowd was giving high fives and yelling "vamos!" (Go). At the end of the loop I saw Courtney on the side of the road.

"I can't quit." I yelled and turned for loop 2. There's no quitting in Ironman.

They hand out bags of water, which were great. I wish they'd do that in the US. They're 8 ounces and you bite off the end and squeeze the water in your mouth. It's a lot easier than cups. Sometimes the bags get dropped and someone steps on them and they break open and spray someone directly in the face. I giggled like a schoolgirl every time that happened. It wasn't them getting sprayed so much as the startled/confused look on their face when it happened. Priceless.

The bags of water they hand out on the run. 250 ML.

I enjoyed the run. The crowd support was great and my stomach was holding up despite all the Pepsi I drank.

I set a PR on the run and felt like I could have run faster if I'd had to. Not much, but a few minutes, so that was encouraging. I crossed the finish line in 11:02...in the dark. It was well off the pace I had trained for and no where near a Kona slot, but that's okay. Despite the challenges, I didn't quit and I'm proud of that.

It's all part of the adventure that is triathlon racing.

The run course as the sun was setting.

The finish line.

A Quick Update Before Cozumel

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:15:00 +0000

I thought I'd give a quick update on my training before I leave for Cozumel tomorrow (yeah, last minute).

My training was quite a bit different from my Ironman build the past couple of years. I typically hit 20+ hours on my peak weeks, and for Wisconsin this year I topped out at over 30 hours on my solo MN training camp. For Cozumel, I maxed out at 17 hours. Intensity was higher, but overall hours were lower and so was my weekly TSS. It makes me a little concerned about my endurance, but I wanted to try something different.

Despite lower volume, I still did some big workouts. Three 5-hour rides, a 20-mile run, long swims, a 70-mile/16-mile bike/run brick, etc.

Some bike highlights:

I set a PR on one of my all-time favorite threshold workouts- Spinervals Timetrialapalooza.

I got in some high intensity, a workout I haven't done in years - Spinervals Suffer-o-rama.

I cracked in the last 45' interval on this ride, but still got in 5 solid hours.

For the first time in 2 years I was able to put in a solid block of running. My knee appears to finally be 100%. I never ran faster than 5K pace (other than some 20-second striders once a week), but the past two years my training has included almost no running faster than a 7:00 pace because my knee couldn't handle it. I changed things up and started following Daniels Running Formula and as a result, I took 25 seconds off my 5K PR. Some highlights:

A very solid M-pace run.

A good T-pace run.

Another good M-pace run.

Lake Geneva Turkey Trot - 3rd OA, 1st AG - Course was long, but I FINALLY ran a sub-6 pace (been chasing that for 4+ years).

As for swim training, I did several 4x1000 workouts at a 1:25 per 100 yard pace. My best ever is 4x1000 @ 1:24 pace and I've only done that once so I'm not far off that.

Overall, I feel like my training was pretty solid. The big surprise was my running which improved weekly. Typically, I'm all about the bike when approaching an Ironman but this time around I can't wait to get off the bike and run.

One of the biggest changes in my training this time around was mental. I was very relaxed about it all. I didn't put any pressure on myself to hit any pace or power goals. I took rest when I wanted/needed it. I never thought about a Kona slot. I just had fun with it. I still used training stress and the performance management chart in TrainingPeaks, but I didn't obsess over the numbers as much. I think I found a good mix of training by feel and training by the numbers.

As a result, I'm going into Cozumel with a very different attitude than Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, I put pressure on myself to qualify. I had to or the race was a failure. That's a bad attitude. This is supposed to be fun, an adventure.

So this time around it's all about fun. I just want to have fun, race hard and push my limits. If that gets me a ticket to the big island, great. If not, there are a lot of other races out there I'd like to do (I've been itching to focus on short course for a few years so maybe I'll go that route).

I'm well into race week and feeling much better than I did in race week before WI. My taper has been a lot different. It's a shorter taper, but has included a lot more rest. Menally, I wasn't ready to race Wisconsin. My legs were really sluggish race week and I was wishing I had more time to recover. This time around I can't wait for the gun to go off Sunday. I feel good and am itching to test myself. I hope that means I have a good race headed my way.

For anyone interested in tracking me, my number is 2404. You can go to www.ironman.com and then click on coverage and select Ironman Cozumel. They're in the central time zone. Race starts at 7 am.

We're staying at the Iberostar. I can't wait to get there.

A Cozumel Training Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:51:00 +0000

So far I’m two weeks into my Cozumel training. I had three weeks of easy training/recovery and now I’m well into my first build cycle. I thought I’d write an update and talk about how it’s going and some of the changes I’ve made.

Intensity – I cut my hours and cranked up the intensity and so far I'm loving it and responding very well. I guess I needed a change. Typically I’ve spent a lot of time riding tempo on the bike and now I’m doing a lot more threshold and above threshold work. Last Tuesday I did one of my staple threshold workouts, the Spinervals Timetrialapalooza DVD, and hit numbers I’ve never really come close to before. This DVD has always been a good indicator of threshold for me (the average power of all 4 intervals combined is usually very close to my FTP) and this workout indicates my threshold is up about 10 watts to 310. I've also done some very high intensity work. I’m being careful with the running intensity. My hard workouts aren’t super intense, but they’re a lot more intense than anything I’ve done in the past two years. I’ve basically been racing on all easy base miles since 2010. Now I’m doing striders once a week and one workout that’s either long M-pace or a 20’ T-pace interval. No track workouts yet. My swimming isn’t as strong as it was early in the year so I have some work to do there, but I’ve cranked up the intensity there as well.

Core – I’m hitting the core work hard. Hopefully this will help with my swimming, but it should also help with my running because I think weak core/hamstring/glute muscles caused my injury and have been the cause of all my hip flexor issues. Mainly the core work is injury prevention and to help me maintain better form in the pool.

Efficiency – Since I don’t have a lot of time to build fitness, and a lot of what I’m doing is trying to get back to peak fitness, I’m putting a lot of emphasis on efficiency. I figure if I can be just a little more efficient and put more energy into forward motion, that could make a big difference over 140 miles. I’m working on running form/cadence. Prior to working on cadence, my natural running cadence was about 82. Now I’m averaging 88 on my runs and my legs feel better and I’m running faster on less effort. I’m putting a lot of emphasis on swimming form as well to improve my efficiency there, and I’m also working in more efficiency training on the bike such as one-leg drills and high cadence spinning on my recovery rides. It’s too early to say if I’m gaining anything or if I will gain anything. I figure it can’t hurt so I might as well give it a go.

Diet – I'm going to write up another post on that because I've made a few changes and don't want to make this post too long. So far I'm 7 or 8 pounds lighter than I was at my IMWI weigh in.

Recovery – I’ve already talked about this so I won’t beat it into the ground. I’m giving myself more recovery and my easy days are ridiculously easy. I don't think most people would enjoy riding with me on an easy day right now. The pace is way too slow. Sometimes I just tip over on the bike path I’m going so slow. I averaged 110 watts in my recovery ride the otherday. That’s about 37% of threshold. I did some single-leg drills and high cadence spinning on that ride.

So that's my update. Lower hours, higher intensity, more recovery, less food....and PRs. I'm feeling good and really enjoying the training.

Next up is another IMWI power file analysis.

Danger Danger!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:53:00 +0000

I've got a couple of power files to dig through and post, but in the meantime I thought I'd share this picture a friend of mine posted on FB to show everyone how dangerous the area I'm living in is. I'm risking my life every day I train.

Read Aug 14.

I would love to know the thoughts that go through a person's head prior to calling the police on a squirrel.

If you're concerned about the mailbox on Aug 6, don't worry. It was found in the neighbor's yard. Perhaps the suspicious squirrel had something to do with that.

Power File Analysis: IMWI '11 - Scott Roehrborn - KQ

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:15:00 +0000

A few posts ago, I asked for some power files to analyze and post. I received one from Scott Roehrborn, an ex-teammate of mine from the Gear Grinder team. It's from Ironman Wisconsin 2011, where he qualified for Kona.

To give you a little background on Scott, He's 40, 5'9" and 138 pounds. He has 20+ years of multisport experience with a running background going back to high school cross country and track. He's a self-coached athlete and this was his fifth Ironman, all of them being IMWI. His threshold is 235w.

There weren't a lot of surprises in his file. He did a great job pacing himself, as expected. Typically, when people qualify for Kona, their power files are great examples of pacing.

Scott's splits from the race:

Swim: 1:05:48
T1: 5:30
Bike: 5:28:03
T2: 2:42
Run: 3:25:18

Total: 10:07:21 (5th in AG)

Metrics from IMWI '11

Taking a quick look at his metrics from the ride, there are a few key things I want to point out. First off is that Scott rode at an Average Power that is 68% of his threshold and his intensity factor was .71. This is on the lower end of recommended zones for Ironman so Scott may have ridden more conservatively than he needed to and left a little time on the table, but that's hard to say for sure. I'd have to see the data on his big training rides because ultimately you need to decide how to ride on race day based on your long rides, plus he qualified for Kona by taking 5th in his age group so it's hard to say he didn't pace himself well. He clearly did. But I see potential for faster bike splits by riding at 72-75% of FTP and an IF of .75-.78. This depends on Scott's bike fitness and how confident he feels he can ride that hard for 112 miles and run well.

Another metric worth pointing out is his VI at 1.04. That's low for the Wisconsin course and a sign of very good pacing. This means he controlled his effort and didn't hit the hills too hard, but also kept his power up on the flats. Basically, he spent a lot of time right around his goal power. VI is NP/AP so you can see his Normalized Power and Average Power are very close.

Sidenote: I read a really good summary of what Normalized Power and Average Power is that I want to share: Normalized Power is how hard you worked, Average Power is how fast you went.

Scott's TSS is 279, which is good. A general rule of thumb is to try to keep it below 300. He burned almost 3200 calories and had a cadence of 93.

When looking at an Ironman power file, one place I like to start is the power zone distribution:

Power Zone Distribution

This is a great example of good pacing. Scott has the majority of his time in his endurance zone (51%) followed by tempo, recovery and very little time at threshold and above. You can get away with more time in the tempo zone, but that depends on your strengths and weaknesses. Strong cyclists will be able to push closer to the top end of the endurance zone and will end up with more time in their tempo zones. This power distribution looks really good.

Power Distribution By 20w Zones.

This is his power distribution broken down into 20 watt zones. A few things to point out - the tallest bar is 160-180w. Scott spent nearly two hours right in that zone, so nearly 36% of the right was right at Ironman power. Another thing that stands out is the 0-20w bar - that's time spent coasting. Scott spent 18 minutes coasting, only 5.5% of the ride. One last thing to point out is how quickly the bars drop off to the right of the tallest bar. This shows little time spent around and above threshold. This is where his low VI came from - very few hard efforts, very little coasting, lots of time right at goal power.

Time Spent Above Threshold

I always like to create this chart, which just shows all time spent above threshold. For Scott, that came to less than 10 minutes. That's very good for a course like Wisconsin with all the short, steep climbs. This shows a lot of patience and discipline on Scott's part.

Power With Threshold and Trend Line

In the chart above, blue is power, red is threshold, green is the power trendline. Here you can easily see how little time Scott spent above threshold and how he doesn't have any sustained efforts at or above threshold. His power trends downward slightly, which isn't bad. That's pretty typical. You can see he basically maintained even power throughout the entire ride.

Quadrant Analysis

If you're unfamiliar with Quadrant Analysis, the horizontal line is Scott's threshold. The vertical line is threshold cadence. The line you need to be most concerned with here is the horizontal line, the division between quadrants I&II and III&IV. It might be hard to read, but the big thing to point out in the quadrant analysis is how little time Scott spent in quadrants I and II (the top two quadrants). Those two quadrants really zap your strength and glycogen. For an Ironman, you want your power in quadrants III and IV. The way to accomplish this is to limit your time above threshold (recurring theme if you haven't picked up on that yet :)

Nutrition: I always like to take a look at nutrition because I think one of the big advantages of having a power meter is that you get accurate calorie information (KJ = Calories burned). A lot of people get hung up on calories vs. body weight or how many calories they think they can take in per hour, etc. I like to compare calories taking in vs. calories burned. I've had good luck replacing around 40% of calories burned. (Gordo Byrn recommends replacing 50% of calories burned). Scott took in 1400 total calories on the bike (250 per hour), which was a mix of Carbo Pro and 4 Espresso gels with caffeine. He burned 3,176 calories so he replaced about 44% of the calories he burned.

Overall, this file is a great example of how to pace yourself well and set up a good run. Obviously, it takes a certain level of fitness to KQ, but one of the biggest keys to qualifying is proper pacing on the bike. A lot of people throw their races away in the first two hours on the bike because they lack the discipline and patience to hold back. Scott held back and was rewarded with a ticket to the big island.

One last sidenote: Scott rode a 50/34 compact crank with a 12/27 cassette and said it was perfect (I ride a 50/34 compact with 11-25 cassette).

Scott is racing Kona in a couple of weeks, and if he can pace himself this well again I think he'll have a good race. Good luck in Kona, Scott. Thanks for sharing your power file.

The Return Of The Recovery Week

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0000

No one has recovery dialed like that cat.

I mentioned in my posts about my Cozumel plan that I want to focus more on recovery, then I said my new plan isn't going to have any recovery weeks. My goal was to go with a more moderate build and include more rest within the weeks.

I picked up the new issue of Triathlete Magazine and there was a qualify for Kona 7-week training plan. I looked it over, but couldn't quite get a handle on how hard it was. It looked like there were a lot of big days, but big days aren't necessarily hard days if the intensity isn't high.

I decided to open up the spreadsheet I said was getting shut down for the next 3 months. (That didn't last long)

I plugged in an estimated training stress for each workout in that plan so I could see the training load per week. Then I graphed it...

Triathlete Magazine Kona Plan TSS Per Week

Two big weeks, one recovery week, two big weeks and a taper. Then I wondered how that compared to what I did in 2010. I feel like I really nailed that taper/race...

Triathlete Magazine Plan compared to my IMWI 2010 build/taper.

Interesting. I didn't expect them to line up so closely. This got me thinking. What does 2012 look like compare to these two....

Triathlete Magazine plan compared to 2010 and 2012 build/taper.

Again, a similar shape, but the big difference is that easy week one month out. Volume that week drops off a bit in 2012, but not nearly as much. There's also a dip in training stress in 2012 in week 5 but that wasn't planned. That was fatigue forcing me to cut my long run really short that week. Otherwise it would have a similar shape to the taper.

I couldn't resist and plugged in my TSS for my Cozumel plan to see how that compared...

Triathlete Magazine, 2010 & 2012 IMWI and Cozumel Plan

The chart starts to get busy, but you can see my Cozumel plan is very flat. No really big weeks, but no recovery week.

The wheels kept spinning....how important is that recovery week one month out? Or recovery weeks in general?

I started digging through my old training logs looking for patterns. I've done this before, looking for a repeatable, predictable pattern that led to great workouts and avoided bad workouts. I always focused on how quickly my training load was ramping up each week, but this time I took a different approach and looked at the training load per week and for the first time I started to see some patterns.

I have historically had some of my best workouts in the first two weeks after a recovery week. Week 3 is a little more hit or miss and anything beyond that gets sketchy. A lower training load and I can sustain it longer, but there's still a point where workouts suffer. I started to see what appeared to a be a grey zone in terms of training load per week. You always read about grey zones in regards to intensity, but not much on weekly training loads.
It seems like there's a zone where I'm not really doing enough to build fitness, yet I'm doing too much to truly recover. Some of my best workouts have come during big training blocks that were separated by a very easy week. Training blocks that came after recovery weeks that fell into that grey zone weren't as good. Even blocks that were all in the grey zone but had no big weeks eventually fell flat. It just took a little longer.

It appears, at least for me, that the recovery week really does serve a purpose. I think it becomes especially important close to an Ironman when you have some big days/weeks. Earlier in the year when volume is more manageable, I think you can go longer before stepping it back.

So I decided to bring back the recovery week. I tweaked my plan a bit and now have a 3-week build, a recovery week, two big weeks and a taper...

New Cozumel plan compared to Triathlete Magazine plan and IMWI 2010.

I'm also working on building more recovery into each week. One big change is my running program. I'm basing my training on Jack Daniel's book this time and I'm doing a lot more short 30 minute runs. The past two years my short runs have been 45 minutes, but slower than my 30 minute runs are going to be. I also ran 5 times per week and now I'm going to run 6. I'll also be focusing on improving my run cadence.

Another change is my recovery rides. They've been getting too long and I don't think they're serving their purpose. They're too long to truly let me recover, but not hard enough to build fitness. So now they're very short and very easy.

I'm also focusing on losing some weight, improving my day-to-day nutrition and coming up with a better nutrition/hydration plan for race day. Mine works now, but I want to simplify it a bit so it's easier to remember. I do really well sticking to the plan in training but tend to wing it a bit on race day.

So now with all my Cozumel training plan posts, I'm sure I have everyone so confused they have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Fortunately for me, it's all in Training Peaks and a spreadsheet or I'd probably be just as confused. :)

Looking For Power Files

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I enjoy digging through power files and analyzing them, so I thought I'd throw this out there....

If anyone has a power file from a race and you don't mind sharing it, I'd love to get some files to dig through and post my analysis of them on my blog. You could remain anonymous if you want, or I could post a link to your results from the race and a link to your blog if you have one. Either way works for me.

I'd prefer Ironman files, although halfs would probably be good too. Analyzing short races gets tough because pacing isn't as big of an issue. I'm not asking for any money, just some files. It will be a learning opportunity for me, and you'll get another perspective on your race.

If you're interested, shoot me an email at mdwolfgram146 at gmail dot com.

Applying The "Basic Month"

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I apologize if you find these posts about my training plan long and boring. I have to put the plan together so I figured why not do it on my blog (which I've largely ignored all year) and just throw it out there for everyone to see.

To apply my new "Basic Month," I started by working backwards from race day. Wisconsin and Cozumel are 11 weeks apart so it's just short of 3 full months. I want my key workout 3 weeks out from race day, and I think it fits best in week 4 of the "Basic Month" so that's where I'm starting from. I place week 4, then add in race week, taper week (two week taper) and fill in the rest. It now looks like this:

After Placing Key Workout and Taper

Now that I have that established, I need to chop some of it off to allow for recovery from IMWI.

Adding Recovery from IMWI

Next I apply the "Basic Month" and make a few tweaks to it (mainly adding in recovery from IMWI and here's what I have so far (the first Monday on this is the day after IMWI):

The First 5 Weeks

The Final 6 Weeks

That's my basic outline right now. For my key workout 3 weeks out from race day, I decided to cut out an intensity day and put the key brick on Saturday. Sunday will be an easy day, perhaps a good day to ride with some friends and grab a cup of coffee somewhere. One of the mistakes I made with my IMWI build was not giving myself enough easy days before and after my key workouts. For 2010 my structure looked a lot like this and that worked well.

My final hard bike on the Saturday before the race will be a threshold test plus a some additional suffering. The StravaJava team is getting geared up to try and reclaim our title at the 24-hour indoor TT that weekend. My plan will be to try and talk the team into giving me an early morning slot that day. I'll hammer out an hour and then hop on the trainer and do some time at IM power. It should be hot and humid in there, perfect training for Cozumel. I did a similar workout a few weeks before IMWI 2010 that included the 40K State TT Championships followed by several 30K "TTs" at IM power. It was a great workout.

*****

I didn't do this exercise for my 2012 IMWI plan. I mapped it out in my fancy schmancy CTL spreadsheet. It wasn't this colorful. It was a lot of numbers. Seeing the plan laid out in color like this is kind of nice. I see a fair amount of blue. I suspect if I were to go back and convert my IMWI plan to something like this I would see tons of orange and green, some blue, some purple and no red. I haven't done much high intensity the past few years. I've done tons of long, hard workouts.

My next step is to set some benchmarks I'd like to hit before the race. Then I need to dig in and add the details, the specifics, the workouts. That's time consuming, but not that difficult. I keep it simple. I'll come up with a small handful of workouts and repeat them over and over and over. I keep my workouts pretty simple too. To quote Joel Filliol, "Variety is for the weak-minded, and interferes with the learning process."

*******

I think I'll probably go through an exercise like this for next year's plan. Courtney laughs at me and thinks I'm just dazzled by all the puuuuurty colors, which may be true, but seeing it visually instead of numerically is giving me a better grasp of the overall plan - where the intensity is and isn't and where the fatigue is likely to be. The numbers are supposed to be good for that, but you can't turn Ironman training into a math problem...as much as I'd like to.

A New Training Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Sorry, but this post is a long one. If you don't enjoy reading about training plans, you'll probably want to skip this one.

In my last post, I said I'd share a new monthly training structure I'm working on. I decided to work through this on my blog, so I apologize if this doesn't come off as very organized. I'm just putting my thoughts out there and using my blog as a bit of a white board to work through things.

*********

The problem with my recent training is that I've gotten too focused on things like CTL, KJ per week, TSS per week, ramp rates, TSB, etc. I wasn't chasing specific numbers, but I was getting too focused on those things.

With training, the more you do, the more you can do. This is good. The fitter you are, the more volume you can do and not get beat down.

But when you start getting obsessed with the numbers that statement gets flipped around a bit: The more you do, the more you HAVE to do. If your CTL is 100, you have to do more this week than last week to build that number. Then more again, and again, and again. You get the picture.

It reminds of the song Mr. Brownstone by GnR: I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do it so the little got more and more. I just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than before.

The funny thing is, if I were coaching someone I never would have had them do what I did my final 4 weeks before tapering. That's the tough thing about being self-coached. You're emotionally attached to the training plan, and greed gets in the way of common sense sometimes. You start thinking, "if I can do just a little more...."

My fancy schmancy CTL spreadsheet is getting shut down for the next 3 months. I'll still watch the metrics in WKO+ because I do think there's a lot of value in them, but I won't be planning my IMCOZ training based on TSS per week.

My focus will be on hitting benchmarks and making sure I never let myself get too tired. I was good about that a few years ago. I didn't force things and I took rest when needed. I didn't put pressure on myself.

This new plan is a mix of my old and recent training.

Some things from my old training:
- Short, intense rides (group rides, maybe cyclocross practices since it's fall)
- More short rides/runs
- Easy days are embarrassingly easy
- The "easy weekend"
- Biking to work
- Hard days are really freaking hard, easy days are really freaking easy

Some things from my recent training:
- No more recovery weeks
- The ridiculously hard long ride
- Hard bike earlier in week than hard run
           (hard running hurts my cycling more than hard cycling hurts my running)
- Long Sweet Spot rides
- Benchmarks

I know some of the things I'm taking from my recent training probably sound like the things that created all my fatigue, but they're not. It was the not letting up between those things that beat me down. It was also the big days. I did way too many big days - metric Ironmans, broken Ironmans, training camps.... This new plan has fewer big days, and maybe a little more consistency to it. The big days can hurt your consistency.

To start, I divided the weeks into blocks:

IM Cozumel Plan

Recovery from WI is a pretty big block, which will allow me to fully recover and build back into training mode. Week one is more or less a week off. Week 2 is really easy, Week 3 is moderate and Week 4 will have a little bit of intensity but still be pretty easy. Then it's a 3-week build block, 2 weeks with some key workouts and a taper. 5.5 weeks of heat training. This will allow me to build into the heat training a little more than I have in the past.

Here's the basic monthly structure I came up with (just focusing on bike and run right now):

"Basic Month"

A few notes about the Basic Month:

- Intensity on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Volume on the weekends.

- No official rest week, although the cycle ends with an easy 4-day block that includes a complete rest day. If you manage fatigue, you shouldn't need a full week of recovery. The difference here between what I do now is that the easy block falls on a weekend rather than during the week. It's the return of the...

- "Easy weekend." I think I've been doing too much on the weekends lately and it can be physically and mentally exhausting.

- Two full rest days. Monday workouts are optional so there's potential for 4 full rest days.

- On weeks I do a medium length/medium intensity ride or run (orange) during the week, I go long and easy for that discipline on the weekend. Short/Intense (red) is coupled with med/med on the weekend. This is done in hopes of managing fatigue. We'll see if it works.
- No more long/hard workouts for both running and cycling on the same weekend. It beats me down too much. It's one or the other.

- Two long/hard rides on the weekend (orange) and one long/hard run (orange) per month. You recover quicker from riding than running, so I think this makes sense.

When you add in a hard swim session on Wednesday, my "basic week" looks like this:

"Basic Week"

So there you have it. A new basic structure. Not a lot different from what I do now, but enough that I think it's an improvement.

In my next post, I'm going to take this one step further.

Moving on...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I was disappointed in how my race went and kept thinking about the race and my training. I started a thread on Slowtwitch about breaking through this plateau I'm at and got some good advice. Friends sent some great emails and FB messages that also had some great advice, but more than that it showed that I have some great support. To everyone: I really appreciate it.

This is from an email a friend sent, and this paragraph really hit home:

Mentally, you do have some self doubt and I've seen it in your comments. You also remember too much about past performance. You need to have a short memory and move on - you are way too hard on yourself. I saw it in your face after the swim, you were already discouraged but 1) still had a PR swim and 2) it wasn't going to hurt you going forward. The swim wasn't helping but you weren't necessarily behind at that point. You are incredibly talented, you need to believe that and be confident - that is a fact.

Although no one said it in these words, the underlying messages were: You're upset about a 10:11? Get over it.

And you know what? They're right.

I set a PR in the swim, a PR on the run and an overall PR. I've often said, "all you can do is keep making progress." That's exactly what I did. I made some progress. Not as much as I wanted, but progress is progress. And I think I learned a lot.

What now? Move on.

I've come to a few conclusions:

- I got greedy with my training and did [way] too much and couldn't fully recover by race day
- I need to have more confidence, especially in my ability to run well - this will help my         cycling because I've gotten too conservative on the bike
- I need to stop dwelling on past mistakes, let downs, whatever...
- I need to have the confidence to rest/recover more
- I need to have the courage to completely blow up
- I need to train a little more like I used to
       - It's time to bring back the intensity
       - It's time to bring back "the easy weekend"
       - It's time to bring back the fun
- Coke is magic

In my next post I'm going to share a basic monthly training structure I'm thinking about trying. It's a lot more like what I used to do, but incorporates some of the things I've learned the past couple of years. It's taking elements from my early days of training, my recent training, everything. I tried to take all the good stuff and leave the crap behind. I think it looks good on paper, but I'll have to give it a shot to see how it goes. What looks good on paper doesn't always work out in the real world.

Race Report: Ironman Wisconsin 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:18:00 +0000

I was surprisingly calm race morning. Nervous, of course, as usual, but not nearly as nervous as IMWI 2010 or Kona last year.

The morning went quickly like it typically does, and I soon found myself crossing the timing mat and heading into the water. Swimming out to the start, my goggles leaked. *sigh*

The Swim: 1:04:27

As I got close to the inside buoy where I wanted to start I heard someone call my name. It was a friend of mine, Matt, so we hung out and waited for the swim start while I tried to get the water out of my goggles and get them to seal properly. Before the start I saw another familiar face, Summer. I swam with her one or two times at an SBR Coaching swim. I knew she'd be targeting an hour. She was also the only pink cap in the group and has a straight arm recovery so I thought she'd be easy to keep track of. As I squeezed in front of Matt, he gave me a funny look. "She's my rabbit." "Oh... you're my rabbit." So we got in line - Summer, me, Matt - although I'm pretty sure Summer was oblivious to all of this.

We didn't do a good job chasing our rabbits because I finished 4 minutes behind Summer and Matt finished 4 minutes behind me. I lost track of my rabbit immediately.

There's not a whole lot to say about the swim other than my goggles leaked immediately so I swam the whole way with water in my eyes which is quite annoying. Also, people really need to learn how to pace themselves. This is not a 500-yard swim race, although you'd never know it by the way people start the swim.

Coming out of the water about to head up the helix.

The Bike: 5:23:17

*sigh* The bike sucked. I never felt like I got moving. My power was low and my legs felt a little heavy. Ironman power felt like work.

Fifteen minutes into the ride I reached down for some maltodextrin and my bottle was gone. So I started doing the math on how many gels and Perform I would need to grab on the course throughout the ride and when I should eat those. I did the best I could, but math is fuzzy at best in a race. I was aiming for about 1400 calories and as I look back I can only account for 700 calories. I may have had more, but I came up well short of the 1400 I've been training with.

I knew Courtney and the Fam would be on Timber Lane. Here I am looking for them as they stand right next to me cheering (white coat, brown coat, blue coat, my dad is blocked by me).

Gnorman the Gnome came out to cheer.

I finished the bike 6 minutes slower than 2010. All the time I made up on the swim was gone.

The Run: 3:34:07

The run was weird and all over the place. I came out of T2 and saw 6:37 on the race clock, the exact same time I started the run in 2010. I was aiming for 6:20ish this year so I was way off pace. I felt weak as I started the run. My hands were a little shaky. I ran around the capitol and hit State Street and that's when it hit me. I am starving. The pizza smelled amazing. I saw a guy biting into a piece of pizza and I nearly quit the race right there so I could eat. I still think about that piece of pizza.

Aid station one and two were ridiculous. The volunteers laughed at me as I grabbed Perform, pretzels, cookies, grapes and a gel. I've never taken more than water and a sponge at an aid station. I must have eaten 500 calories in the first couple of miles.

I wanted a sub 3:30 run so I started at an 8 minute pace. I faded quickly from there. By mile 10 I was running an 8:25 pace and averaging 8:15 overall. Then I got passed by someone in my AG and I got frustrated and discouraged. This wasn't going how I'd hoped it would. I've never taken Coke in a race, but people seem to love it. I wonder what will happen if I start slamming Coke.

Every aid station was 2 or 3 at a time. By the halfway turnaround, I felt great. The next hour I ran a 7:46 pace and caught and passed the guy in my AG. Maybe sub 3:30 is still in the cards. My overall average was now down to 8:05. But I got sloppy and started neglecting my nutrition. I missed some gels and stopped slamming Coke. I hit a huge wall about mile 20 and was soon struggling to hold an 8:45 pace.

I told myself to start slamming Coke again, but I got to an aid station and took a sip of one Coke and moved on. Not sure why. With about 2.5 miles to go I got passed by someone in my AG. Just keep him in sight and maybe you'll feel better soon, I told myself. Then someone else in my AG passed me, the guy I passed earlier. No, I said. I got a little pissed, a lot stubborn. I immediately passed him back. He tried to repass. NO!

The race was on. He pushed. I pushed. The next 18 minutes we averaged a 7:37 pace and finished off the race with a minute at a 6 minute pace. I beat him by 10s.

Where the hell did that come from? Why was I able to step up the pace so much toward the end? I was no longer high on Coke (never written that before). There is a mental side to this game I need to figure out.

I didn't get my sub 3:30 marathon but I did set a PR on the run and an overall PR for the race.

Gnorman the Gnome waiting at the finish line.

The finish.

Overall Time: 10:11:42 13th in my AG (no Kona) and 63rd OA.

I won't lie, I'm disappointed in my race. I realize 10:11 is a good time, but it's not what I was after. I've got some things I need to figure out before I begin training for Cozumel. I've been working on that already, and have 4 more blog posts written and scheduled to publish in the next week or so. It's time to change things up.

What is it going to take to qualify?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:02:00 +0000

Yesterday I picked up my packet. No lines, no waiting. It was nice.....then I got stuck in rush hour traffic.

I'm number 1850 so if you go to www.ironman.com on Sunday and click on the athlete tracker at the top of the page, you can track my progress if you want.

The Numbers Are In:

Last night I did my last real workout before the race. I swam easy at lunch and after work I did a brick. I biked 90 minutes easy with 3x10' at ironman power. Then I ran 20 minutes starting out slow building to ironman pace. My legs still felt heavy and sluggish, except when doing ironman power or pace. That was the only time I felt good. Strange. I don't know what that means. Today is a rest day. Tomorrow is a short swim, bike, run. The whole workout will take about an hour. Then I'll do some final prep, rack my bike and go out for dinner and try to get some sleep before race day.

Since signing up for IMWI last September, here are the numbers:

Total - 733 hours (2h ave per day)

Swim - 563,736 yards (320 miles)
Bike - 7,309 miles
Run - 1,265 miles

What Is It Going To Take To Qualify?

My best guess - 5th place. In 2010 my AG got 8 Kona slots, but since then IMWI has lost some slots with the addition of new Ironman races. I'm guessing my AG will get 5 slots, maybe 6. I'm only counting on 5.

My AG is absolutely stacked this year with 3 guys who have gone sub 9:40 and been to Kona. Then there's a multi-time USAT AG champ that hasn't done an IM in a few years, but definitely has potential to go sub 9:40 if he has a good race. I suspect he'll be racing for overall amateur along with another guy from my AG.

So assuming those 4 show up and have a good day, that's 4 slots right there (assuming they all take the slot and don't let them roll down). That leaves one slot and about 10-15 guys with sub-10 potential fighting for that one slot. Including me, there are 7 guys in my AG that are either signed up for Kona or have been to Kona (that I know of - and that doesn't include the USAT AG champ). That means that some people who have already been to the big island in my AG will not be getting another ticket.

It's going to take a good day.

For 2010, I didn't focus on the competition so much as the time I thought it would take. I estimated I needed to go no slower than 10:15. It turns out I went 10:15 exactly and got the final slot. It was via rolldown, but that approach worked.

Here's what 5th place looks like over the past few years:

5th Place Times the Past 6 Years

So the finishing range is 9:49-10:04. With a tough field, I think you absolutely need to break 10 hours if you want a shot. In fact, you may need to break 9:50, but history shows that if you can go 9:50 you're in line for 5th. I think you'll need to break 10 hours for a shot at a roll down.

The swim range is 1:02-1:04 so that's what I'm targeting. It's interesting that 5th place has never broken an hour. My solo 2.4 mile swims at Devil's Lake this year have been in this range, with my best being 1:00:50 so I feel confident I can hit this number. I'm hoping for 1:02 because I swam 1:12 in 2010 so that will knock 10 minutes off my time right there. Based on these numbers, you absolutely need to break 1:05. If I don't, I'm switching to "just have fun" mode and going to hammer the bike and see what happens because I've always wanted to do that and at that point I won't have anything to lose...it's already lost.

I should be on the fast end of the bike, if not faster than those numbers. I rode a 5:17 in 2010 and have made some good gains on the bike since then, mainly due to my nagging run injury. My power will be 10-25 watts higher than 2010 (will most likely shoot for the middle of that range) so I'm hoping to break 5:10, but that all depends on conditions. If I repeat my time from 2010, history shows I'm still in it.

The run is where things get tough for me. If I run well, I'll still be on the slow end of that scale. I ran a 3:37 in 2010. I think I've improved since then, but it's hard to say for sure since my running has been a little off and on with my injury. It's good now, but did interrupt my training at times over the past two years. My goal is to run sub 3:30. I believe I can do it. We'll see.

So....if I swim 1:02, bike 5:10 and run 3:30 and add 9 minutes for transitions that puts me 9:51. Historically, if I can do that, I'm fighting for 5th.

But can I go 9:50? I don't know. My training indicates those numbers are realistic, but you never know. Anything can happen out there. I'm not making any predictions. I'm only saying what I think it will take to KQ and that I think I stand a fighting chance if things go well.

The Weather:


Wow.

How about that? You can't ask for much better than that.

The forecast works for me and against me at the same time. Cooler temps help. I feel like I handle the heat pretty well, but as a bigger guy (in the endurance sports world "big" starts at about 165 pounds) the heat can get to me. The downside to this is that cooler temps mean faster run times which means the runners will run well. I hope this means I will to. I believe you need to race your strengths, which means I do the best I can on the swim, bike toward the front of the race and then hang on for dear life on the run. That's what I'll be doing Sunday, and the runners will be running well. I'll need to dig deep and push hard and risk blowing up.

However....winds are forecasted to be from the N or ENE. Those are the worst winds for fast bike splits. Winds from the N give you a headwind on the flatter, faster portions of the loop and give you a tailwind when you're climbing. They also give you a headwind on the way back to T2, but you probably won't have that tailwind on the way out of T1 since winds are typically pretty calm early in the morning. This works to my advantage. The tougher, slower the bike, the better I typically do. The runners will want S winds to speed up the bike and make it a little easier. I want N winds to do just the opposite. It will slow my split as well, but that doesn't matter. It's all relative.

So there you have it. That's what I think it will take to get a ticket to Kona this year. My taper is typical, I bounce between confidence and doubt. Right now I feel pretty calm and have accepted that it is what it is. There is nothing I can do now about my fitness so I'll just go out there and do the best I can and hope it's good enough.

If not, there's Cozumel.

Beyond Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:59:00 +0000

It's early Thursday morning on race week. packet pick up for IMWI opens today. I've made the mistake of going to packet pick up on my lunch break in the past and I won't be doing that this year. The lines are way too long. Instead, I'm going to swim at lunch and pick up my packet on my way home from work. Then it's a short, easy brick workout tonight and some race prep. I've gone over my bike so now it's time to start laying things out and making sure I have everything I need.

I've had a distraction late in my IMWI training that has helped a lot - Ironman Cozumel. I signed up about six weeks ago. Courtney has been itching to go to Mexico. I noticed IM Cozumel was still open and half-jokingly asked if she wanted to go to Cozumel in November. The next thing I knew I was registered, flights and a hotel were booked and it was a done deal.

Training became a lot more fun after signing up for Cozumel. I have two races to think about, and an opportunity to mix up my training a little and see what happens. I'm looking forward to putting my Cozumel training plan together. I also no longer have all my Kona eggs in one basket, which takes pressure off IMWI. I can completely screw up WI and have another shot at Kona.   I like that. I also have the opportunity of getting a slot in WI and racing Cozumel just for fun. I like that too.

Then there's the best part - IMCOZ is part race, part vacation. We're flying in late, a little later than I want, but flights were limited. We'll arrive the day after Thanksgiving, 2 days before race day. I'll have to hustle that day and get my packet, get to the hotel and get my bike built right away. It's not ideal, but I think it will work. We're staying several days after the race so once the racing is done, I'm on vacation.

In fact, the vacation doesn't end in Cozumel. I've decided to take two full weeks off training after this race....and that means absolutely no training - no fun rides or runs....nothing but rest for two full weeks. After that, I'm doing two weeks of whatever I want. I'll train when I want and however I want....and if I don't feel like it, I won't train for the day. I've been training hard for a few years now and I think a break will do me good - physically and mentally. The timing is perfect for a break since it will be over the holidays and training can be tough to fit in that time of year anyway.

Tomorrow I'll post what I think it's going to take to qualify in M35-39 and how to track me on race day.

The Last 28 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:19:00 +0000

A few days after the Stevens Point Tri, I raced the second Janesville Aquathon. The heat returned and the high was 100 for the day. This time I actually swam the correct course (I caught a lot of crap during the pre-race meeting). I went out hard and led the way for most of the first lap. A friend of mine, Allison, came around and started pushing the pace. As she came around me I took a peek back and saw that she wasn't dragging anyone with her and that we had a gap so I figured I'd let her do the work....not that I had much choice. She's a good swimmer and was doing a relay so she had no reason to hold back.

I came out of the water just behind Allison. I got in my shoes and decided to start the run slow and settle in and see it goes from there. It was smoking hot and going out slow and watching HR worked in Steven's Point. My ultimate goal was to run a sub-20 5K. I've never gone sub-20 at an aquathon. I don't know why, but running after swimming is really hard.

I started out at an 8 minute pace and started building. At the first mile turn around, I got a split and saw that I had about a 30-second lead. At the second turn around, just past mile 2, I only had 8 seconds. That chaser was Zach, the winner of the first aquathon. I pushed hard and dug deep. I held him off for the win and ran a 19:59. Even though I went out slow, I ran faster than I typically do, suffered less on the run than usual, and won my first aquathon. There's something to this pacing thing.

**********

I've been busy getting ready for IMWI. The past 28 days have been big. I spent 6 days in MN swimming, biking and running (and watching the Olympics) every day. I logged 34 hours of training in 6 days and ended my camp with a 5.5 hour brick - 90' swim, 120' bike @ race pace, 120' run. The run was supposed to be at race pace, but I was too tired so it was a little slower. Still a great workout.

This was my first time doing a solo training camp like this. I learned a lot and plan to share some of that in another post later this week.

I gave myself some easy days after the camp and then got back at it. In my final build, my focus turns toward my key workouts. Everything else is about supporting those. This year I tried some new things, and to be honest it was a little too much. It looked good on paper, but in practice it was flat out exhausting.

I'm officially in my taper now so the goal is to shed this fatigue and absorb the training. This is the point where I ask myself, "did I do enough?" When I decide the answer is yes, then I ask, "did I do too much?" We'll find out on September 9th.

The last 28 days - 1042 miles cycling, 142 miles running, 60,570 yards (34 miles) swimming

Race Report: Steven's Point Triathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:43:00 +0000

Every season has a turning point, sometimes several. Galveston was a turning point. I signed up hoping it would serve as early season motivation. It did, but motivation was higher after than before the race. Not ideal, but not the worst scenario either.

Janesville served as another indicating I was perhaps a little too motivated and pushing too hard at times. The week after Janesville was a recovery week, which means reduced training volume. This week, however, meant severely reduced volume. It was time to be smart. I just put myself in the back of an ambulance at a sprint tri, for crying out loud. Common sense prevailed and Monday through Friday saw only 5 hours of training, half of it in the pool. The week included a lot of rest, easy workouts and the VO2 Max test I won at the Janesville Aquathon. It also included scouring the web searching for a sprint tri. I was itching to race again.

I found a race that Saturday in Steven’s Point, WI. I barely snuck into pre-registration, which actually required a phone call. I’ve never registered for a triathlon over the phone.

Courtney had to work Saturday morning so I was on my own. My first solo triathlon in a couple of years. Who was going to carry my gear back to the car for me?

I got up early Saturday morning and drove alone to Stevens Point concerned about how my day might go. In the previous 5 days I’d logged more hours on the couch than my bike. That’s unusual and not good for my confidence.

Pre-Race.

I picked up my timing chip and number and set up transition and then headed out for a warm up ride. I dropped my gear off at my car – turns out I am capable of doing that myself – and pinned my car key to the inside of my tri gear.

Being in the middle of one of the worst droughts in many years teaches you to ignore the weather. I’d given it no consideration until my warm up. It was a cool morning, in the low 70s, which was a nice change of pace. I like the heat, but was getting tired of 100 degrees. My legs quickly loosened up and then….rain? Sure enough, the skies were turning dark and it looked like we might be racing in the rain.

The rain felt good... really good. So did my legs.

I returned to transition with confidence. I had to force myself to hold back through my entire warm up and the roads were really nice. I was anxious to return to the course. I finished setting up transition and headed to the swim start.

The swim. ¼ mile. 9:14

Not a lot to say, really. I fought my way into second place early on and stayed there for the duration of the swim. There’s a long run from the swim to transition so I tried something a little different and stopped to take off my wetsuit right away rather than running in it to transition. This worked well although I dropped one position doing this. I checked my heart rate and it was in the low 170s. I thought about the things I’d learned in my VO2 Max test and where my thresholds are. I opted to jog slowly to transition to get my heart rate down.

This is where we came out of the water, a little sketchy but it worked. Yeah, the water was muddy.

Long run to transition.

I passed the person who passed me while I took my wetsuit off so I started the bike in second.

The bike. 17 miles. 39:42. 25.7 mph.

It was still raining lightly, which felt great. The roads were smooth and I was ready to hammer. I’d been looking forward to getting back on the bike for a while now. But as I stepped up the effort, my heart rate spiked. What do I do? Should I listen to the advice given in my VO2 Max test and keep my heart rate under my suggested caps or should I ignore heart rate and ride only by power like I typically do?

I opted to try something new and back off to get my heart rate down. It was killing me because I felt strong and my power was much lower than I wanted. But this was worth trying, I figured, and what was the worst that could happen?

I kept my heart rate just under my lactate threshold and a few miles in I was able to step up the power a little. I could now see the leader and the lead vehicle….a carrot. My legs still felt strong and this cap was killing me.

I was slowly reeling in the leader and an occasional look back indicated I had a sizeable advantage over third. We were only about 5 miles in so there was no need to panic.

I continued to monitor my heart rate, which continued to settle a little lower so I increased the power a little. I soon caught the leader and moved into the lead. I’d never led a triathlon before. Perhaps this was my day. I’ve been working toward an overall win for several years now.

About halfway through the bike, my heart rate settled down even more and I was able to really start pushing the watts. I’d never felt this good at the halfway point. The rain had stopped, but the roads were still wet. 300 watts felt good. So did chasing the lead vehicle.

The course was flat and now that I was pushing hard, my speed often exceeded 30 mph on the flats. This was fun. At times my average speed hit 26 mph. I had already decided I would return to this race next year. These roads put Madison's to shame.

I came into transition with about a 40 second lead.

The run. 3.1 miles. 19:14. 6:12 pace.

My running has been frustrating recently. In 2008, I ran a 6:20 pace at what was only my fourth sprint tri. Lately, I’ve struggled to hold a 6:45 or 6:50 pace. In comparison, my bike is much stronger than my run so I often put myself in a position to get passed on the run. Losing run speed makes matters worse.

I set out of T2 holding a comfortably hard pace. I wanted to push, needed to push if I stood a chance of holding this lead, but also wanted to be smart and pace myself. I gave it a minute before checking my watch for heart rate and pace. Based on races earlier this year, I suspected I was running a 6:50 pace. My watch said 6:20 and my heart rate was right where I wanted it. Have my running legs decided to return? If so, the timing couldn't be better. Time to push a little.

Leading a triathlon was a different experience. I was the one waking up all the volunteers as I came by. I dug deep and every time things got painful I reminded myself how long I've been working toward this. I wasn't about to lose this race because I didn't want to be uncomfortable for 20 minutes.

There was a small out and back around the two mile mark and I was able to get a split. I had around 40 seconds, but someone else was in second so I knew he was running me down. 40 seconds was a lot of time to make up in a mile, though.

With a half mile to go I took a wrong turn. There was a fork in the road with no course markings. I quickly realized my mistake and ran across a muddy field to get back on course. I later learned that second place did the same thing so I didn't lose any time, but was sure that was the mistake that was going to cost me the race.

I held on for my first overall win. It felt great. Finally.

Total time: 1:09:06

For my win I got a gift card to a local spa, which I gave to Courtney because she felt so bad for not being able to come along.

I drove home with renewed confidence and a lesson learned: I can take more rest than I'm used to. I won't lose my fitness in a couple of days.