Swim drafting is tough stuff.

I got to the gym early on Wednesday. I wanted to do a short hard run. I thought about intervals and then I remembered a graded treadmill test that I used to do – I thought it would be fun to compare these results to the last time that I did the test – August 2007.

On this test I would start at 6.0 MPH and increase the speed 0.2 MPH every minute. With my heart rate monitor I would record laps (Lap HR, Lap AVE HR, LAP MAX HR) and chart the HR at each minute. You continue until you cannot hold the pace.

This is a challenging test! While on the treadmill I noticed that guy next to me was wearing a ½ iron New Orleans shirt. I am always quick to make conversation. While I could still maintain a conversation I invited Ren out to the OWS later in the day.

I noticed that at 6MPH my heart rate was higher than it normally would be at that excretion – It is usually way low at that speed. I had looked at my last results from two years prior and new where I needed to finish – 10.4 MPH (total time of 23:00 minutes). As the speed increased I was getting worried about failing. Surely I am in better ‘shape’ than two years ago – I certainly know that I feel that I am in better shape and all of my other measurable criteria would indicate that I am in better shape.

However, not on this morning. I stopped the test at 10.0 MPH and 21:00 minutes. I was a little bit dejected. I did, however, continue on and do about 25 more minutes at a lesser pace. However, there is one inconsistency with this test (other than the fact that the treadmills are 2 years older) and that is that I did not record the slope of the treadmill. I may have had the treadmill at the default slope of zero and now I always use a slop of 1. I will attempt this test again in the near future.


At lunch I was practicing my swim stroke. Just nice and easy swimming. Jim was there and we talked about the weather, literally. The 10 day forecast showed that the Friday before the race in Louisville the high could be 78 degrees – how nice would that be? Now it shows the high on Saturday at 84 – still pretty nice. The swim consisted of 6 sets of 500 yards – I felt good the entire swim – no problems – none!

I picked my bike up from Drew at Hattiesburg Bicycle. He replaced a couple of cables and gave the bike the complete once over. The bike looked and felt great. I made it out to the lake just as everyone was gathering. We had a big crowd. There were most of the regulars (Lance, Raland, Jen) plus about 4 new guys – including Ren from this morning. I bet we had 10 people! Sam even showed up. Mike headed out and I waited for Sam to get started. I was going to try to jump on his feet. Sam blew by so fast – I attempted to catch up – he was about 20 feet ahead of me. I tried to catch him for about 50 strokes and just short of blowing up I had to let him go. I would swim the 600 or so yards solo. This swim also felt good. Later during the swim Sam practiced some drafting drills with Mike and me. Sam told me to try and keep tapping his feet. I was going full speed and his feet were just out of reach. And then I got them and he would speed up a little just out of reach again. This went on for a few minutes and then I was just done. I slowed a bit to recover and then swam at my own pace. I finished up the swim with about 1800 yards of valuable swim experience.

LT run and swimming lessons

I did an easy 30 minutes on the exercise bike yesterday at lunch and then 30 minutes of back strength training. After I got home from work I attempted to ride the rollers again. My goal is to be able to ride them for 30 minutes with clip pedals by the end of the month - 13resolutions.

Today was a LT run on the treadmill. I warmed up for 0.5 miles and then increased the pace. I did not want my heart rate to go above 175 beats per minute. This is at the upper end of my aerobic zone. It is hard to maintain. I started at about 7:03 minutes / mile and increased every 0.5 mile or so by 2 tenths of a MPH. My heart rate hit 175 beats per minute at around 6:30 minutes / mile. I did not want to but I had to back off the pace for the last mile to maintain my heart rate below 175 beats. The results are as follows:

WU 0.5 miles 4:21- 126 HR AVE
1.0 mile - 6:46 - 158 HR AVE
2.0 mile - 6:31 - 170 HR AVE
3.0 mile - 6:50 - 173 HR AVE
CD 0.5 miles 4:14- 161 HR AVE

The total was 4 miles in 28:44 for a combined pace of 7:11 minute / mile.

I have my furst swimming lesson in about half an hour!

Time Trial - running

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"

I followed the diet yesterday even though it was a holiday - I did not get the results that I wanted 13resolutions.

I took yesterday off as a complete rest day - I never do this. The training plan called for a 75 minute easy spin on the bike. I hate days like that - it is hard for me to do the easy stuff and I almost always go harder that I should. So I skipped it by justifying that the training plan did not call for a 4000 yard swim on Saturday and only an hour run (not the 1 1/2 hour run that I did) and only a 2 hour bike ride (not the 2 1/2 hour bike ride I did) on Sunday. So I took the holiday off and did some yard work. I put pine straw out in the flower beds and chopped on some stumps with the axe - and practiced axe throwing for fun - I was better in the fall. I also followed the diet pretty close.

This morning I did a 30 minute running time trial (TT). These are hard. They are mentally hard. They are physically hard. I woke up early and got to the gym by 6:30AM - no breakfast - just running on empty. I jumped on my treadmill - I always use the same one - and did an easy 10 minute warm up (real easy 10:00 minute / mile pace). At ten minutes I pushed up to a 7:00 minute / mile pace and held this for another ten minutes. This is were it gets hard. You take your average heart rate for the next 20 minutes. At the end you should feel like you have given everything. Not easy to do on a treadmill when you are not chasing someone or there are not wolves or bears chasing you. So twenty minutes into the run (10 warm up and 10 harder warm up) I pushed the pace to about a 6:27 minute / mile pace. I was able to carry this for about ten more minutes and then I had to back off just a little. I was, however, able to finish strong for the last five minutes and slowly, incrementally, increase the speed - by a tenth or two at a time. I finished running the last minute at a 6:00 minute / mile pace.

This was not my best time trial - my best was outside running to work last spring. The distances do not matter only the heart rates (but the working set of 30 minutes I covered 4.5 miles and 7.7 miles for the hour.) The last twenty minutes of the Time Trial I averaged 174 beats per minute (that is just about were I was last spring). Theoretically this should mean that I can carry that heart rate for about an hour without blowing up. Easier said than done. I will try this heart rate out in a tempo run some time in the near future.

Swimming at lunch.

Anaerobic Threshold Test -

I decided to do some benchmark cycle performance testing on my indoor trainer. My trainer will display (on the computer) your heart rate, speed, cadence, and power. Using these parameters and the instruction from Joe Friel’s The Cyclist’s Training Bible I set out to conduct the test. I warmed up for 2 miles (about 6 minutes) on the trainer. I loaded a 10 mile course with 0 slope. The test instructs you to start at 100 watts and increase your power output by 20 watts every minute. At each minute you record your power, speed, heart rate and perceived exertion (scale from 6 – 20 - very very easy to very very hard). I wish that the results were a little better but it gives me a baseline to improve upon.



I will retest this approximately monthly to determine if my cycle training is improving.