Our Deepest Fear

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson

This poem had a profound effect on me at first read.  How many times do we think we ‘don’t measure up’ or get psyched out by an opponent or monumental task?  On the surface it may feel like we’ll fail, in fact it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when we dwell on it, but that is really nothing more than lack of confidence in our true abilities.  If we work too hard or we dig too deep then we may very well become what we aspire to be.  That is scary in itself, because what exists after the goal is achieved?  Does that just perpetuate another goal or does that leave us feeling like we hadn’t thought and that we can’t accept that accomplishment and the hard work in reaching that goal?  Do we just raise the bar again?  As we begin to achieve, accept and take joy in that, we inspire others around us to take hold of their fears and to spread confidence that ‘I too can do that’ with the correct preparation, mindset and persistence.  We can hide in darkness, where as, in the light, everyone will see us for what we are.  We are bigger, better and stronger than we give ourselves credit for and by not living up to that potential, we squander what is naturally and spiritually bestowed upon us.  We’re continuously conditioned to live in a state of fear and self-reflection on weaknesses, coupled with insurmountable challenges and a society that forever expects more and more of every one of us.  But nobody puts more pressure on us than the little voice inside our heads.  If we succeed beyond what we ever imagined, then what do we look forward to?  Do we then act the authority on the matter and become the aspirational model.  Yes, that is exactly right.  The benchmark is set and the hard work required to achieve that.  If it were easy, everyone would do it and the credibility would lessen.  The shear ‘going for it’ whole heartedly is the mentality of success.  Failure only comes in the lack of trying.

Providence 70.3 Course Preview

Took the trip down to the Providence course this past Sunday.  The main objective was to get in the open water, finally, and also to get a glimpse of the setting and the first few miles on the bike course. Nancy joined me for the swim and part of the bike ride.  It will be her first half, so she was also anxious to see what the course had to offer.  She's going to be great on race day.

The swim was really nice.  The water is relatively warm, not clear but seemed to be pretty clean. Nice and calm, as well.  I think the swim will be enjoyable at the race.  After that, it gets a little hairy.  The first 12 miles of the course consist of about 900+ feet of elevation gain.  Not horrendously bad, the majority of that being rolling hills, but much more than originally anticipated.  The publicized course states that the total elevation gain is just under 1400 feet with the majority of that being slam in the middle between miles 20 and 40.  Well, looks like they may have underestimated that by half.  However, no importante when racing with power.  A quick turn back at 12 miles or so and a speedy ride back into Lincoln Woods to start the AeT walk/run work.  It was hot!  The little hills around the lake were challenging, with quick ups and downs.  Finished out 45 minutes at just under 8:00 pace. 

Pretty gassed.  This weekend has reveled some cumulative fatigue that is finally taking it’s toll.  The ride Saturday and yesterday sapped me of all my power and after 5:30 of riding within 24 hours, I was fairly well fatigued for this run.  Couple that with relatively strong sun and heat, it made for a challenging couple days.

Race day will be a different story, though.  Remembering back to Timberman 2009, Joey and I went up to Ellacoya park to preview that course.  Granted the bike was a bit longer and harder that day, but I felt even worse on the run with similar environmental conditions.  I raced well and am confident that with a good taper and nutrition for the next four weeks, we will be in a good place to race on July 8. Looking forward to race day.

The Human Machine

The last several weeks I’ve been experimenting with tweaks to nutrition, lifestyle and daily habits to investigate the benefits of certain personal best practices that have yielded results, both with athletes of all kind, as well as non-athletes going about their day.

Let us summarize some of the changes:

Nutritional:

·  Last two weeks, significantly reduced, near eliminated, beer / alcohol intake

·  Last two weeks, substantial increase in vegetables and plant-based products (reduced meats)

·  No red meat

Lifestyle:

·   Sleep improvement.  More structured routine has improved sleep duration and quality

·   Standing workstation at the office (improved posture and core engagement)

Training / Physical:

·   Core, Core, Core!!!

·   30 minute massage every 2-4 weeks

·   Bi/Monthly chiropractic appointment

·   Focused run form: posture, cadence, posterior chain engagement

·   ~12-15 hours a week of multisport and functional strength training

As a result, I’m feeling the best I’ve felt in years, if not ever.  It’s way too early to tell to what extent each of these elements have played in my overall improvement in feel, but I’ve definitely noticed the change.  I’ve experienced a surge in power, vitality and overall well being.

The experiment continues.  More to come…

You know you’ve beasted out an FTP session when…

11.  Your legs burn like you have hydrochloric acid in the veins

10.  You drip sweat more AFTER the shower than you did during the effort

9.    You try to pedal your car at 100 rpm.

8.    You drink your iced coffee from a water bottle

7.    Chamois butter is your new lotion of choice

6.    Even after, you look at your wrist every few seconds to check your Heart Rate.

5.    You smell like a sewer rat in the dead heat of summer

4.    The puddle under your trainer actually looks refreshing

3.    Seeing anything with two wheels makes you want to puke.

2.    You contemplate a trip to the dentist for a drill as being the better option

1.    You wonder how 1 minute of suffering can feel as long as an hour of pleasure.

Comment for additions...

6-Week Countdown to Providence

This Sunday is the 6-week countdown to Providence Half-Iron.  Since the focus has been mainly on the full Iron, this is much less intimidating to me than it has been in the past, coupled with a very well planned and paced Timberman in 2009.  The difference is that this time I haven’t been controlling my program, so it’s been more difficult for me to see the forest through the trees.  I’m trusting in the process and am confident that I will be completely prepared to race pretty hard, but not used to being dependent on someone to package everything so that the race is optimal.   We’ve thrown around the concept of a sub 5:00 effort, which is very doable if I can race at full potential that day.  My ultimate goal will be to have a well-paced race that is optimal for the day and level of fitness leading into the longer goal of IMFL.  Part of racing optimally is getting down to race weight.  I have some pretty solid numbers on both swim and bike, but my weight is 10-15lbs too heavy for what I call my race weight.  The poundage has stayed pretty consistent throughout the last several months of training which tells me a few things.  Since my body composition is definitely changing, I’m replacing body fat with some additional musculature from swimming and bike riding.  I happen to be a ‘gainer’, so looking at a weight grows a muscle; in this case, endurance training has maintained and enhanced some of that musculature.  The next 6 weeks will have an additional focus on cleaning up the diet.  That combined with a few race rehearsals and open water swims will be just about the ticket to getting to Providence and having a chance at a solid race.  Looking forward to the race, as both a stepping stone to IM, but also as a good opportunity to blow up a PR at my favorite race distance (so far).  The excitement builds…

185 Pounds of Diesel V-Power

Top end speed and power has always been my wheel house to work out of.  Those 20 odd years of playing hockey and spending time in the gym have contributed to the development and enhancement of fast twitch muscle fibers, i.e. a sprinter, power lifter, or anything utilizing the anaerobic muscular system.  This allows me to be very effective at dropping the hammer for short periods of time and blowing the HR up into the 200bpm range, just can’t do that very long.  So what we have is a powerful, muscular, short-distance athlete trying to transform into a lean, aerobic, long-distance endurance athlete that is capable of holding moderate activity all day.  This is doable, but it takes a long time.  Like I’ve posted before, we’re doing lots of things to change the type of muscles we recruit and build by extending durations of moderate activity and doing things like focusing on high cadences and functional strength exercises.  All definitely helping move in the right direction, but we’re not transformed just yet.  So while we wait for such a transformation to occur, let us embrace the heavy beast.  The 185 lbs of diesel engine that plows through the water like a tug boat, barrels down hills and provides a perfect draft for anyone trying to grab a break and practically comes to a screeching halt on any elevation grade of more than 1.0%, has learned to make it hurt.  It has to hurt to cart around this much extra muscle weight all over the place.  The system is powered by two Panzer pistons, two massive propeller arms and a barrel-chested core; hardly aerodynamic.  I guess instead of the Ferrari, you could compare this to a Hummer that has slowly transitioned to an un-sleek suped up diesel pick-up truck.  If there were a Clydesdale category, I believe I would try to gain some weight and podium that group.  Since that doesn’t work, we’ll have to take out the skinny little men in the wake of the tug.

CRW Spring Century 2012

The annual CRW Spring Century took place yesterday leaving from the Wakefield Vocational Technical High School.  It was a warm, but beautiful spring day.  Extremely low humidity and perfect blue skies.  Met up with Matt first thing, planning for an 8:00 departure.  Wheels up at 8:00 and off to New Hampshire and back.  Robin, Sue’s long time friend, joined us for the first 30 or so as she was undertaking the metric century.  We averaged in the 19.0 mph range for the first hour or so, then amped it up.  By the third hour we were cruising at just over 20 mph. 

Matt is a beast!  He pounded the pedals and I worked to stay right there with him.  We traded some pulls, but he led the way, most of the way.  Power was slightly higher than expected from the start, but HR was mostly behaved throughout the morning.  We latched on to a few groups here and there for some recovery and the pace continued to be pretty high.  Onward we pressed, passing everyone, being passed by no one.  Felt really good to go at a good pace with a specific end goal in mind.  At hour 3, I was confident that I wanted to break the 5:00 mark for the 100.

We stopped at the mile 50 and 79 rest stops to fill up the bottles and get a quick snack.  Then away we went back at it, the two us, soldiering on.  Was fun to work together and Matt is so steady it’s very easy to ride with him. 

At mile 65 or so, I started to feel a little tweak in the knee that began somewhere in the quad.  It became a problem as I continued fatiguing and keeping up with the pacing.  Power began to decline and then eventually pace.  Matt finally decided enough was enough and dropped me around 95.  At this point, it was hot, I didn’t have a whole lot left, but I knew I still wanted the sub 5:00.  Sure enough, 100 came and went at around 4:58 of ride time.  Really happy about that!  The last 5-10 were a bit of a grind and ended up with 105 miles on 5:15.  That’s my longest ride ever.  All in, pretty happy with the effort.  Matt seemed to be happy, as well.  Overall, normalized power of 231W which exceeded expectations.

The aftermath has not been too bad.  Iced a little afterward and fell asleep quickly, before 9:00.  I was up early and ready for a nice session at the pool.  Looking forward to building this riding base and know all the hard work is paying off.  Still, running a marathon after that seems extremely daunting.  It’s far…but, we’ll get there.

Vintage Machine

The constant tease in my cycling circles is about my 2004 Cannondale Ironman 2000 Time Trial bike. If I may say, In 2004, this was a pretty solid mid-line aluminum with the slice Aero frame design, full Ultegra group and a pretty little color pattern for celebrating Kona…Fast forward 8 years to 2012, maybe not so cool. It’s an old aluminum coated in rust from sweat, thousands of miles of wear and tear and an awful blue wavy color pattern trying to represent Kona in some way.

We now have bikes with full carbon everything, matte black Batmobile-esque rocket ships with electronic shifters, water bottles built into the frame, race wheels and a total curb weight that rivals my set of Kevlar reinforced Armadillo tires. But it’s the engine that matters, right? It still needs to be pedaled. The Panzer tank pistons pounding on the pedals move the machine forward. Those bells and whistles are not necessarily directly translated into performance, but rather the ‘look’ of speed. Granted new is nice, smooth and technology has improved dramatically, but in 1986 Greg Lemond  won the Tour de France (first American) with ‘vintage’ machinery while averaging ~23 mph over 2538 miles…

So, instead of a new ride this year, I embraced the vintage for year 1 of IM racing and slapped a matte black Quarq CinCo power meter on there. I guess that, in itself looks pretty bad a$$ and says ‘I’m not messing around…and go ahead and try me.’ After all, this piece of vintage metal was with me in 2005 when I did that very first mini-sprint at the pool in Temecula, CA. It was an amazing experience and start to a pretty good run the last 7 or so years. It’s fitting that ‘Vinny’ and I go end-to-end, cradle to grave, from mini-sprint to Iron together. As a single unit: an entity of perseverance and history of overcoming obstacles to take on new challenges together.

Vintage? Yes, but a whole lot more than that. We have history together and we’re not done just yet.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

As I was punishing myself on the FTP intervals tonight, I realized that all I write about is technical, very informative and mostly boring stuff...

Pfft, who cares about that stuff?  I'm not highlighting any of the fun that I'm having. (I am having fun, right?)  It's been about 3 months since I've been hooked up with Matt and formally started working towards the goal.  In that time, I've been pushed on the bike beyond what I thought possible.  I've swum butterfly stroke on a regular basis and I've strained my cottage cheese......kidding...  I've been hooked up with a great set of friends in my new Iron circle, which includes a Canadian that likes to regularly cruise around 4+ hour rides at a similar pace.  How perfect is that?  Makes these rides enduring....I'm learning new things about myself everyday and enjoying this process.  That's what I've been taking for granted.  Through all the data, pushing the envelope, injuries, PT, Chiro, 4:00 a.m. mornings - the process is worth the work. 

As the sweat puddle was forming under the trainer this evening, I continued to feel the acid burn in the quads on the FTP sets while watching the Sufferfest, Hell Hath No Fury video (Women's 2 X 20:00 race sequence).  I was having fun!  Sitting there in misery, in the basement with electronica blasting over young euro girls chasing each other around on cobblestone streets and a fan blowing in my face!  You can't help but chuckle a little over that. 

In the true spirit of the Sufferfest series: "IWBMATTKYAT!"  To the readers: If you can write out that acronym, you win the prize of taking part in all the fun.

My commitment for the rest of the while will be to expose you all to the enjoyable elements of this process.  Ehhh, I'll give you some data once in a while, but otherwise, it is time to get a little spunky.

By the way, BAM...

Zeo Sleep Manager

Last week we introduced a new tool to the training repertoire.  The ZEO Sleep Manager tracks your sleep patterns over the course of the night’s sleep.  It tracks how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you wake up and how long you spend in each sleep zone:  REM, Deep Sleep, and Light Sleep.  Then, based on all those factors it produces a quantitative value for ZQ or the “Sleep Quotient.”  This number can then be tracked as a nightly assessment of your sleep health.   The interesting learning comes from the awareness of the patterns and how a typical sleep compares to ‘normal’ ranges for a similar age and gender.  After compiling 6 nights of sleep data, the myzeo.com website will create an assessment and begin an action plan.  Based on my goals at the start and the baseline sleep from last week, the 7 step action plan has now begun, starting with a relaxation mp3 file to work on reduced mental stress and a more focused relaxation at bed time.  It is amazing to see how the sleep patters or the ZQ variations align with reduced performance and the offset of that impact.  For example, my sleep on Thursday night was horrendous and my ride on Saturday was much more challenging than it normally would be.  Of course other factors were at play, but this insight was eye-opening as to the impact of a poor night’s sleep and how that may predict a poor training or racing day.  I look forward to boosting my ZQ baseline from a 69 into the 80s and get my total Z into the 7:00 range as I learn and practice from the action plan topics.

Week Ending May 6th in Review (Build 2A) – Dead Legs…

Week started off with a failure to wake up on Monday morning for the pool.  Probably a sign that it would be a challenging week.  The good news is that on Saturday, we absolutely slayed the dragon on the trainer in the a.m.  The set called for 5X10’ on 90% FTP intervals.  This means 247W (on the 275W FTP number) for a total of 50 minutes.  Started out strong with a 244W set, definitely holding back on the reigns a bit.  Next 2 sets resulted in 253W and 256W respectively.  Final 2 clocked in at a solid 259W and a powerful 270W!  Purely got stronger with each effort.  Let the tiger out of the cage for the last few efforts.  Felt fantastic. 

Towards the end of the week, the ankle began to flare a bit.  3X9’ AeT intervals on the treadmill caused some pain, but moving up the side of the Achilles, higher up on the Peroneus tendon group.  Improved throughout Friday and Saturday for the long south shore ride.  74 miles.  Felt really good through 2:30 and then the wheels came off.  The legs just were dead for the last 2 hours.  Maybe a combination of the FTP work on Wednesday, the running intervals and a poor sleep a couple nights back, but the power just wasn’t there.  NP throughout was over 220W, but still, felt way more difficult than it should have.  The legs just struggled getting the pedals over in the last hour+.  On Sunday, ran to the track and did some of the drill work barefoot on the Astroturf.  Struggled with cadence (86-88) getting over to the HS – the legs were still pretty heavy.  Felt really natural running on the turf with no shoes.  Cadence was well over 90 and I could really feel the feet working on an improved gait – the feedback of the barefoot stride was profound in comparison to that of the running shoe.  The run home was way more successful in both cadence and form after spending time on the drills and barefoot running. 

Finished the week with a nice BBQ for mother’s day with the family.  Looking forward to the Spring Century next week, but hope these legs start feeling a bit more juicy.  I’m anticipating just a rough ride day on Saturday, but still feeling a little run down so pounding the Vitamin C to reduce any chance of sickness coming on full throttle.

Week Ending May 6th in Review (Recovery 1)

Although the Providence half-marathon was the plan for Sunday, my team of consultants: Ratt (PT) and Matt decided that we’d cap the running at 1-hour for the week.  This being the case, we’ve taken the opportunity to cut back on volume for the week.  However, this did not derail an absolute beast out on the trainer Wednesday morning.  The goal was 3x16min 90% FTP intervals.  Since I’ve turned in some big big numbers for the long weekend rides (like 94% IF for 4+ hours) the new, estimated, outdoor FTP is in the 275W range.  That being said, the goal for the 3x16 minutes intervals (big Varsity set) was between 238W (indoor #) and 247 (outdoor #).  I was feeling good, so guess I blew them both out.  First interval at a solid 244W with the following 2 sets right in the 251W range.  Felt phenomenal and strong.  Notice the text book curves:

Everything worked out in this one.  Cadence is right where I want it.  Power exceeds the targets and the HR follows the expected trajectory.  Lots of good Zone 4 work (48 minutes).  Very happy with this performance.  

The weekend shapes up nicely with a shortened ride at much lower power ranges, followed by another 0:45-1:00 run on Sunday, keeping everything moving forward.  The easy ride on Saturday was too easy.  I wanted to beast out a 5-minute best effort.  I set that up at 30’ into the ride and ripped down a 344W 5-minute.  That’s over 4.0 W/kg.  Happy with this.  Quick brick to finish with and that felt really good.

This week, we got the ZEO sleep manager to start tracking the patterns and learning about enhancing that element of the restorative and performance processes.  This week was the first week that I have begun feeling ‘better than average’ in the injury department.  So very pleased with this progress.  Patience has been a necessary evil for me in getting the ankle back up and running, no pun intended!  

6 Month Countdown and May’s Objectives

Seems like last week that I signed the dotted line for Florida; the day after the event on November 3, 2011.  That was exactly 6 months ago or half way to this year’s race.  Those 6 months flew by.  Indeed, we’ve made a lot of great progress on the bike and swim.  There is no question.  Although the running has lacked, the foundational elements are coming into place so that the next 6 months will be optimally conducive to a successful build up and, hopefully, a completely transformed gait.

There is a lot going on in the next 6 months.  We’ve got two half Irons, a few other events sprinkled in, as well as the big daddy in November.  May is primarily a build month, with focus on the following:

·Run volume up to snuff and consistent without injury and with the correct form

·Continued improvement in injury comments and key daily metrics

·FTP road test

·Breakthrough day on May 20 at the Spring Century

·Build swim lengths out to 2k and 3k, confirming correct pacing

I intend to continue growth in all 3 disciplines in May, with extra focus on strength and stability elements and the re-make of the stride on the run. 

In another snap, 6 months will go by and we’ll be thinking back on the journey.  The time is now – to buckle down and start focusing in on what we’ve got ahead of us.  

Week Ending April 29th in Review (Build 1E)

Intended to be a test week, it turned into a high-volume, get back on your running feet, with massive up and down swings.  With only 11 weeks until the first try at 70.3 for the year and with less than 2 weeks until Providence 13.1, running has progressed slowly but surely.  Now that Ratt is working on me and prescribing a steady dose of rub down, e-stim, ice and a very conservative approach to make my come back, it went fairly well.  On Thursday, after a disastrous attempt at the 2x20’ bike (we’ll save that for another post) I got to the treadmill and ran / walked 3 miles.  This was the longest I had gone in a month.  Extreme focus on posture, core and pulling with hams and glutes.  Lots of concentration, especially later on in the run, to maintain that form.  I wish I had a video that I could look at to ensure I’m actually holding the right form.

Back to the 2X20’ just for a quick recap – didn’t go very well.  It’s in my head.  It’s this one test tricking me and keeping me humble.  My environment is still not ideal, but I expect more from myself.  We know that everyday is not going to be perfect, and I had been in a bad sleep pattern for several days, but I just shut it down after 10 minutes of effort.  There was no will.  If it weren’t for the slight progress on the run that day, it would’ve really put me in a bad place.  The fact that I just threw in the towel on the effort without even getting to the place where I had to dig deep; that’s my failure, in my mind.  Matt made me feel a bit better ensuring me that the sleep deprivation is a huge factor in this, so we will be monitoring sleep a bit better with the Zeo sleep manager.  He also suggests that this test in no way tells the real story on my cycling improvements as evidenced by week over week long and solid efforts on the road.  

That being said, Saturday was a chilly and windy day, but Adam and I were planning the tour of South Shore for around 80 miles or 4+ hours.  We definitely had a lot more power today than last week, and at the end of the day normalized power was up 15W with an increased duration of another 30 minutes.  Really strong effort.  We clocked in ~73 miles in 4:15 with an np of 250W!  A big difference today was that I actually incorporated some nutrition.  This made a world of difference. 
Total Nutritional elements:

Liquid volume:

2x20oz water with Fizz

1X16oz with Fizz and Heed

12oz coffee

Total - 68 ounces

Calories and Na:

1 Roctane - 100 cals/125 mg Na

1 Clif Bar - 240 cals/150 mg Na

1/2 Donut (peer pressure) - 60 cals/60 mg Na

half/half 40 cals - 20 cals/6 mg Na

Scoop of Heed - 100 cals/40 mg Na

3 Fizz tabs - 30 cals/600mg Na

Totals - 550 cals / 981 mg Na

With this, I still lost a total of 3.2 lbs (1.5%-2.0%) over the course of the 4+ hours.  Very happy with the effort.  Down south we averaged around 19+, on the way back we averaged 16ish coming north beachside.  We could certainly feel the difference.

Sunday was run day.  Matt had me scheduled for AeT intervals.  I was a little nervous about testing the ankle like this, but it went pretty well.  I stayed right around 7:40 pace for the 3X9’ intervals.  Iced immediately after, but had some soreness afterward.  During, very little pain but could feel the tightness.  Monday morning was a struggle – sore in the lower Achilles.  It has seemingly gotten better throughout the day.

All in weekly volume ~13 hours.  High volume on the year. 

T-minus 10 weeks until Providence 70.3.  1 week until Providence 13.1, but we’ll see if it’s worth the risk. 

Week Ending April 22 in Review (Build 1D)

It was a challenging week as far as scheduling, injury mitigation and keeping to the schedule.  The beginning of the week was strong.  Good swim on Monday and functional training.  

Tuesday, Jorge cancelled on me, but Matt came out to the hatch shell with his camera and we took some video of the run.  We reviewed some of the detail and also spent time on some of the functional training elements and where the areas of opportunity exist.  As far as run technique, on-the-spot analysis shows a 'pusher' technique and a pelvis that tends to drop forward.  That being said, these two considerations create a significant angle from the ground to the lower leg putting enormous stresses on the lower leg and ankle.  Tada…The 3 major takeaways, until Matt does some additional formal analysis, I'm working on:

1.  tall posture (pelvis core engagement)

2.  'pawing' back using the hammies and glutes vs. pushing

3.  Keeping the arms quiet and pivoting from the shoulder only.  

When the ankle is back under control, these are the key focuses.  We will begin to build the run from the ground up, all over again.  This means several months of drills, drills, drills and focused concentration on some key foundational changes.  This also means significant focus on the functional strength training to optimize the core strength and better balance on single-leg exercises.

PT began on Wednesday.  Peroneus tendon group is the culprit.  Ratt and I will work on getting the inflammation down through ice, e-stim, heat and anti-inflammatories.  He's confident we can resolve.

Towards the end of the week, things got a bit derailed.  Good, but difficult evening 90% (~240W) sessions on the trainer.  Limited by HR, but power was right there.  The environment was less than optimal.  Hot, dusty basement with very little inspiration other than The Gladiator in the back ground.  The good news is, these sessions are lengthening out to 3x10' efforts which is taking us up to the Varsity level.  Last 1.5 intervals was rough, right at LTHR, but I made it through.  Next week is FTP test…yuck!

Decent ride on Saturday.  Great 66 mile, ~4 hour loop with Adam down the south shore out to the Myles Standish monument in Duxbury and then out to Powder Point bridge and back.  Good effort overall, NP at 235W.  I played golf that afternoon.  It was a long day and as a result, I was tapped out for Sunday.  Didn't do hardly anything.  Plan to start fresh tomorrow with 11 weeks until Providence 70.3 to go.

Difficult week in the discipline department, which usually isn't the case.  Will check that at the door this week and buckle down for the coming build cycles.  This coming week is about testing that ankle, testing the bike FTP and getting back on track with the complete program.  Diet continues to be a challenge.

Week Ending April 15th in Review (Build 1C) – Focus!

 Big breakthrough week, in my mind.  Although the run is virtually at a standstill, the bike and swim are progressing rapidly.  A reduced volume week, but nonetheless intense in its own respect.  I definitely experienced a new sense of focus this week that I had drifted from in the several weeks past.  It was all about taking one effort at a time and staying in the present, in effect “drifting” through the effort regardless of how hard it felt.  Started off the week with a very positive criss-cross 95%/105% on the trainer.  Executed very well.  Much better than last week.  The swim test was amazing.  I was so pleased with the result and the ability to buckle down and get it done.  Near perfect execution.  I was planning a long ride on Saturday.  With nobody to ride with and a somewhat low morale to head out on my own, I decided to bag it and shoot for Sunday.  Although Saturday turned into a later-than-expected night, I was able to get up and out by around 7:15.  Still wasn’t too excited about getting out there solo, but that subsided as strength grew over the course of the ride.  Turns out, I rode pretty well.  235 NP for 3:17 over 63 miles.  Down rt. 18 all the way into Freetown.  The last hour was intended to be 85-95% threshold.  I rode right on the high-end of that at 254 NP, averaging over 21mph.  Average speed over 19 mph.  Very solid ride.  The rest of the day I felt pretty trashed, but was up and ready to go Monday morning.  Really great week on the swim and bike.  Next week we need to get back in the game on the run.  Matt is happy with the progress.  He believes we’ve found a good balance between recovery and work, thus enabling very solid workouts.  He says, “this is how its supposed to feel” indicating that most athletes work most of the time in fatigue and without enough recovery.  I’m really happy with his approach.  Clearly my progress is evident throughout these efforts and couldn’t do it without his guidance.  Next week, intended to be recovery, is going to shift in plan and build back up.

The Long Bike...

 

Sometimes it seems like it goes on forever.  When you’re on your own, it gets lonely out there.  The wind is in your face and you travel dozens of miles in search of nothing but maybe a new adventure or road that has fewer cars or has been virtually undiscovered by the local cycling communities.  Cycling takes a long time.  In order to prep for IM, its not uncommon to go out for weekly weekend 4-6 hour rides.  You simply can’t do that running, you’d breakdown, but on the bike, there is no impact.  The stress is all bound up in the major muscle movers, i.e. the quadriceps, which seem to be able to withstand almost anything if done at the right intensity.  You can bike forever, as long as your back, neck and seat can stand it.  With very little fuel to run on, working with the minimalist approach, you do get hungry out there.  Biking is different in that compared to running.  I don’t typically get hungry running; I’d rather take my calories in liquid form.  On the bike, you can eat.  I mean like full-blown sandwiches if you really wanted to.  Couple that with loneliness and boredom (at times) of several hours on the road, you tend to want to feed the system, not to mention, you can easily ride through breakfast lunch and encroach upon dinner.  However, with the minimalist approach, we continue to burn, baby burn.  That’s the goal.  You can’t run for 6 hours, but in cycling, you keep the fat burning system rolling for hour after hour – stoking the fire and destroying the fat reserves.  It’s all very good…but it does get lonely out there and you must rely on internal self-talk which is where the real discovery occurs.  Often times I feel it difficult to find routes that are both safe, have enough variety and exploration while getting the distance in that is necessary.  Having been hit on the bike in Long Beach in 2005, safety is always at the forefront of my mind.  Here in NE, the roads are tight, they’re heavily traveled and now with the Smartphone, people are paying even less attention.  Yes, I too am at fault of this.  Comfort in numbers - finding riding buddies and routes are the biggest challenges.  Group rides work, to a point, but there is no drafting in our sport and there is certainly no one helping you keep pace or pushing you.  The group ride is not where the gains are made.  The gains are made, when you’re out there alone for those long, long rides; where you really put the work in.  It’s out there where you conquer your fears, overcome self-imposed obstacles and learn to rely on yourself and your resourcefulness.  You may be 50+ miles from home and get a flat, some other worse mechanical issue or remember that you’re 50+ miles away from home.  This is nothing different than what we’ll face in our race and in our life.  The long ride becomes bittersweet benefit.  Like the long run, only longer, much farther and more reliant on equipment and mechanical systems not to mention the body’s systems.  You can cross state lines and weather systems without even thinking twice.  A whole new element is explored and it’s during this that you realize the ability to overcome almost anything by spending hours reflecting on your life while chewing up mile after mile.  The quads continue to burn, but you seem to keep moving forward towards that never-ending search towards the goal that is on your door step, taunting and teasing you; daring you to take that personal challenge.

1000 Yard Time Trial Beast Out

On Thursday, another 1k TT had been planned for the pool.  The time to beat was 15:12.  My secret goal was sub-15:00, also the projected month-end target we were shooting for.  When I began that morning on the functional training work, I knew I was strong.  I hardly broke a sweat going through the exercises that typically would begin perspiration immediately.  It was then that I knew, as long as my stroke felt strong, that I would be beating my PR for the 1000.  As soon as I hit the water, I knew I had it.  I was anxious getting through the first 1800 yard drills, etc, to get to the TT.  Finally I launched at a pretty good clip.  The idea was to negative split this so that I could finish strong.  The main difference between this and the last effort was a greater sense of urgency coming off the wall and a renewed focus.  I maintained bilateral breathing throughout the first 750 or so.  Having peeked at the clock after 500, I knew I was in for a record-breaking split.  7:13 at the half-way point.  I was feeling pretty fatigued, but knew I would have enough to break 15:00 (I hoped).  Switching to unilateral breathing, I blasted the last 100 finishing up on the back half with a 7:11 split.  14:24, all in!  Absolutely destroyed the goal with perfect pacing and execution.  This is a 52 second improvement in 1 month, representing a 5 s/100yd gain over the threshold distance. 

Swim training is certainly paying off.  I have enjoyed the pool work, to date, and the ability to ‘feel’ the water has massively improved my technique.  The drills, non-free work and the consistency of all these are paying huge dividends.  The swim is not going to be something just to get through now, its going to be a key, strategic tactic and advantage for my race planning going forward.

Good Friday and Easter Rides

Tour de South Shore…Good Friday morning I took a solo ride from home down 3A to Duxbury.  The plan was to ride endurance (170W-200W) for the first 2 hours and then hammer down for the last hour at 85%-95% FTP (225W-250W).  3A is a bit of a sketchy road.  At parts, the shoulder is good, but in other areas there is no shoulder.  The worst part about it is that the cars drive on the 2 lane road like it’s a highway; pretty scary.  In any event, bundled up pretty good since temps were in the low 40s.  Tried out the bibs, Chamois Butt’r and the shoe covers.  Let me just say, I absolutely love the bibs – better for 135 bucks, but definitely make a big difference.  First 2 hours were pretty easy, plugged along at 200+W (a little too hot, but within reason) and then got off the bike in Marshfield after lollipopping around 139 to stretch a bit.  The back was a little tight and the ankle was feeling it with powerful pedal strokes.  Took off North on 3A at a steady state in the 240W range.  I found it difficult to maintain the steady work with the rolling hills on 3A, so focused on the average wattage being within range.  Worked well.  At one point, down the driftway, I didn’t feel like I had enough power to carry on, but was able to press those thoughts and feelings away.  I stuck with 1 Fizz tab only and the back was sore for that last hour.

That afternoon, headed over to Cycle Lodge to pick up my race kit – nice!  Beth was able to quickly squeeze me into the schedule and made some adjustments to address my pelvic twist that is still in play.  Replaced the Romin with a Tri-tip and we noticed that it squared me out a bit.  Furthermore, we raised the bars slightly and the seat for optimal power.  Beth believes this would reduce pinching in the shoulder and the back strain. 

Easter Sunday, went out with Adam M. on his Tour de South Shore.  All back roads through Norwell, Marshfield hills, Scituate and Cohasset.  Pretty good loop with some beefy terrain.  We kept it pretty easy in the Z1-Z2 range, but it was really fun getting out with him and testing his route.  We got in 45 miles, with plenty of add-on potential.  New saddle worked well.  I like it much better.  Bar set-up was insignificant due to limited time in the bars, but some back and shoulder discomfort remain.  Ankle appears to be feeling a bit better.  The quads were fatigued to some degree after Friday’s effort and Saturday’s squats and deadlifts…Cadence was low, but taking into account the hills, its was a reasonable tradeoff.

Great weekend of riding.  Got nearly 6 hours in on 100 miles.  Making some good progress on bike strength as this has been the focus due to my laying off of the run and the potential to make some big gains on the ride. 

Week Ending April 1st in Review

It was mostly a very solid Build #1A week, despite the ongoing ankle issue which resulted in a “no more running for a while” approach towards the end of the week.  In this, we scrapped the weekend long run for a second long bike ride.  Needless to say, we got a lot of volume in on the bike this week.  The quads have officially called time out on this one!  Good soreness coming from there and good effort, all in.

On Tuesday we amped up the FTP intervals to 3X8min.  I didn’t realize this would be as challenging as it was, but the last effort was pretty rough.  I tore through it and finished the sets, but the effort was up there.  Wednesday’s run tempo intervals decidedly took the ankle problem to a new level, thus reformatting the rest of the build week to even more bike focus, where it already was the focus to elevate up to the “varsity” level.  Thursday’s criss-cross (95%-105% FTP) was hard to sustain.  Seems I was very capable of keeping the 105% effort up, but when trying to lay off and hold up the 95%, that’s where the power decline was realized.  Like any of these efforts, I’m sure the next time will be easier, but this was a new workout for me.

Saturday’s long ride was changed up to be a long Z3 effort inside since rain / snow was in the forecast.  2 hours on the trainer at Z3 effort.  I most certainly need a new solution to keep the morale on the trainer.  I watched the entire feature of “Invincible” with Marky Mark (one of my favorite actors).  Great flick with an especially good quote, which I’m modifying to my own, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work as hard!”(More on this later) Even with this film and the IMFL course map next to me, it was hard to focus and seemed a struggle.  Going to try and pick up some new videos, playlists and pics for the walls that will continue to motivate me.  

Sunday’s ride was much more enjoyable.  2:30 hours, solo, out in the sun.  It was a chilly morning, so I was geared up, but my toes became numb, none the less.  Going to have to invest in shoe covers for the spring.  The rest of me was heavily armored in winter gear, including balaclava, gloves, tights, etc.  Everything else was warm.  Took a trip to Hull gut, then down through Cohasset back roads to Scituate light and then center.  Took a quick stop for a small coffee to warm up and after that, it was a battle.  Headed back down 123 and then home on 53 – lots of traffic.  Those last 45 minutes were a struggle.  Very uncomfortable in the saddle and no power left, so average power declined about 10 Watts.  The good news is, my sustainable wattage outside is much better than inside, for a given heart rate.  I maintained an average Z3 wattage of 210W, where HR was actually in Z1, approximately 137 bpm.  This never seems to be the case on the trainer.  Every Watt seems much harder to achieve.  Started out a bit hot in the 220 range and settled into that for the first 1:45.  After the stop, power declined to a 210 average.  I was SO hungry coming off the bike.  As soon as I got home I devoured everything I could find.  My hunger never diminished throughout the day. 

I think the bike work was really good this week.  Not without it’s challenges, the 2 tempo+ efforts, coupled with the long back-to-back weekend rides were a good boost to the cycle training which we’ll realize in due time.  This build 1A, although the run work was limited, the swim was maintained and the cycling was the true focus. 

Week Ending March 25th in Review

This past week was a bit of a battle: humbling.  Demoralization kicked in on Monday and the only way to combat that is to continue fighting and trying to stay on the course: trusting the process…Lots of fatigue setting in early in the week with a swim TT, track work and an FTP set.  

The ride with the Landry’s group on Saturday was the first day outside and so unbelievably refreshing. Although it was their ‘Recovery Day’ I was able to spend some time in the back giving chase. Definitely felt much more manageable to hold my higher wattages while outside, in addition to massive top end bursts of power well into the 1100W-1200W range.  As Matt would say, this is suited to my strengths.  Quick anaerobic bursts followed by full recovery in the pack.  I really enjoyed riding through the towns of Sharon, Foxboro, Easton, North Attleboro, etc. and riding with the group was a great break from 4:00 basement sessions on the trainer.  I changed out the tires and put on the armor-plated, lead-weighted Armadillos.  Good for training and burning up on the trainer.  Nice and solid ride.  Pat helped me adjust the seat a bit nose down which helped alleviate some front-end pressure.  Overall, 2:15 on the Phenom saddle was fairly benign.  Not bad at all.

Sunday’s run was to go out on AeT for 3X18’ with 2’ recovery.  It was a very manageable day with focus on 8:00 pace.  My HR didn’t come anywhere near the AeT projections which is good as far as fitness goes and also attributable to a nice cool day.  Brought some fizz tabs along for electrolyte support in water.  Later that day the ankle / Achilles was sore, right behind the right ankle bone.  Didn’t feel anything happen on the road, but noticed it afterward and beyond.

Good improvements this week.  It is now time to ratchet up the biking to the ‘Varsity’ level with longer intervals and durations, improving muscular endurance.  

April's Goals

Performance goals for the next month have been identified and include:

· Sub-15' swim at the 1000yd distance

· Sub-46' run at the 10km distance

· Lifting FTP up to a legit 270 watts via the 2x20' test.  

This would represent around 1-2% improvement in each sport which is extremely good for a short 4-week block.  This would ideally happen within the context of a plan that shows increasing volume around weekend key bike & run workouts that are designed to build aerobic efficiency.  The expectation is such that we haven't yet seen the true endurance limiters yet since most of the workouts have been relatively short by ironman standards.  Bike rides will be approaching the 4 hour mark by the end of April, and long runs perhaps approaching 2 hours. Some interesting stuff may happen as we stretch these long workouts to these durations...

Build 1 of 3 begins Monday.