Workout recap.

The following is a quick recap of my recent training. Well, as you know I did not do the Crawfishman (well no one did) so I had a good day on the Saturday before. The weather was still raining so I jumped on the trainer. For what ever reason it was unbearable!


I only rode for 30 minutes and decided to brave the mists out of doors. I ran a conservative pace for 8 miles. I was soaked the entire run but I did enjoy it. As soon as I got home I had a message about an open water swim.

I prepared a recovery shake and headed out the door. I had wanted to get an accurate measurement of our secret swimming lake. I bagged my GPS watch in a sandwich bad (I actually doubled bagged it) and put it under my swim cap. You have to remember which way you oriented the watch so that you can hit the right buttons to start and stop the watch. But once I started the watch it recorded my speed and distance just fine. I would say that it is accurate and it looks like I actually swam fairly straight!  The swim is 0.25 miles each way.  We have been doing it twice for a mile of OWS.

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Secret training lake!

Today I was in the pool and did a lot of 100’s. I seemed to be getting a little faster. It was a good swim but I definitely need to be more consistent with the swim. After the swim I tested the bench press again for the pump and run challenge.

I think that I have refined my technique. I have been altering my grip placement on the bar. Obviously the closer the grip the more it works my triceps and the further out the more it works my chest. I am trying to find a balance that allows me to get the most repetitions. In addition, I am now aware that the bench press is actually a skill – not just brawn!

After work I jumped on the trainer for a much feared 6 minutes all out power test! Man I hate these. I warmed up for 15 minutes and then I started the 6 minutes of fury. This all out test is so dang painful. I had some techno music cranked up and I was suffering. I am sure that I was making primordial grunting and moaning noises. When I finished I just had to sit still for a few seconds. My legs were on fire, It has been months since I have done that test and I am happy to say that my wattage increased by 8 percent. This number also reflects not just power but performing the test better. Still, I will take an improvement any day!

Tuesday will be a group ride in the morning and a group running interval session at lunch!

Race Report - SWIM - 70.3 New Orleans - 2010

The swim - TIME:  38:21 SPEED 1:49 RANK 500


What a difference a year makes. Last year the lake was as smooth as glass and I was terrified. At this point I had never had a “good” swim in any race – ever. The 1.2 mile point-to-point swim looked like miles and miles. I had a rough swim last year – read about it here if you like.

If it had been these conditions last year I am not sure if I would have even started the race. At the race briefing the day before the officials repeatedly said that you could skip the swim if you were uncomfortable – you would just not be eligible for an age group awards, etc. I understand but then that really is not a triathlon is it?

Anyway, I had an hour and twelve minutes to watch wave and wave start. At the start of the race the water was a little rough but it progressively got worse. I was watching the flags and they were getting whipped around. The conditions changed in that hour. I saw a few people call for help before my wave was even lining up. Their race was over.


To make matters worse there were four 90 degree turns on this course. And I am sure you know how everyone bunches up at a turn buoy. And in these conditions it was even more congested. I liken it to riding on the bike – you know how everyone is spread out pretty good and then you hit that big hill and the better riders pull away. This leaves everyone else struggling up the hill and bunching up. This is what was happening at each buoy – times 4.

From ernestov on garmin Connect (not my swim - I was probably all over the place)

I like to breathe on my right side and this was into the swells. It took me about a quarter of the race to get the timing down so that I could take a breath without a mouth full of water. While I appreciate all of the safety boats and such the smell of diesel was in the air. This was not very pleasant.

It was very difficult for me to sight in these conditions. I was way out to far into the lake and had to angle back hard for the second buoy. Even in the best of conditions I am not very proficient at sighting. I stick my head up and lose momentum. In these conditions I had to come to a complete stop and really look hard to see the line.

Drafting during the swim – yeah right - this was just not possible for me. I did bump into a number of people but being able to benefit from better swimmers was not going to happen.

After making the turnaround I once again veered of course and was closer to the shore than I should be. There were a lot of people off course with me. The swells were pushing us towards the shore and I drifted to my right. I had to make another hard correction to get around that last buoy.

As I neared the swim exit I saw people walking and I stood up. I could barely touch and had to do that tip-toe walk thing. I should have just swum a few more yards before I stood up. Once I got my footing I was able to run out of the water and into transition.

I was really not prepared for the swim this year. I have not done any open water swimming since last August (IMKY) and I have used just about any excuse to skip the swim workout. Don’t get me wrong. I am not making excuses – I take full responsibility for the lack of training. I could have done better.

All things considered I would not say this was a bad swim. In fact, not long ago this swim would have been a disaster. I can now look back and use this race as a confidence booster. With that I am pleased.

FAST and STRONG

I have been having success after being away during spring break. After the high volume cycling over the weekend I did a recovery trainer ride Monday morning and then biked to work. It was cold in the morning but the temperature climbed into the 70’s later in the day. At lunch I swam with Sam and he pushed and gave me form tips. I always swim better and faster when someone is watching. It an easy 500 warm up followed by 10 x 100 on 1:45. I never do them that fast – I always give myself more time to recover than necessary. These were some of the best 100’s that I have ever swum! I did some abs after the swim.
The commute home was nice. The sun was out but it was straight into the wind. I needed the ride home – it cleared my head. I have been having a little bit of apprehension with my sister and her family moving to Australia – maybe even some jealousy thrown in. I am going to miss them but on the bright side I will be travelling to Sydney in the very near future!
Tuesday brought about an interval session on the bike trainer. I have been struggling with the tempo trainer rides so I dialed in a moderately hard interval session – and I nailed it. I felt strong! The legs were recovered from the volume over the weekend and had bounced back. The cycling is coming along.
STADIUMS were on hand at lunch and we took 10 seconds off of the recovery. Once again the working set was 15 seconds but the time to get across and back down was now 1:25. The first 3 or 4 reps were hard on the legs but they some came back and the session was maintainable. We were all successful. My heart rate was much lower than the same session last year. After the STADIUMS we did 2 reps at the back of the Cochran building. This is very demanding. I would like to add a rep of these each week until it just kills us! That might only be 3 reps – we will have to see.
Back at the gym there was the bench press. I have actually been enjoying the strength training. I loaded up the same weight as last Tuesday – just 2 45’s – approximately 87% of my body weight. Last week I did 4 sets with very little recovery as 15 / 15 / 15 / 12. I was determined to improve upon this!

I started off and felt strong again. I owned this workout and was able to put up the following: 16 / 16 / 16 / 14 / 15! I am not sure where the strength is coming from but I will definitely take it.

packing and loading - with some fun thrown in

Remember, I am still in Austin helping my sister and her family pack up the house to move to Australia.  In between the packing, boxing and loading (we are taking a load of furniture to my Dad'd house) I have managed to get in about 4 runs.  This is Ausitn and it is the hill country.  The runs have been solid.  Also, we have been able to take a few breaks and go to the gym.  I had a good swim session consisting of a warm up / cool down with a 10 x 100 meters working set.  In addition, I was swimming with my brother-in-law who is a bit faster than me.  This always makes me work harder.  I also played around and practiced drafting off of him.  It is amazing how much of a difference that can make.  I would lose him in the turns and have to go all out to catch back up and them I could sit in his wake.  Another turn and all out once again.  These were great intervals with in the intervals.

We went rock climbing last night - just my brother-in-law, my nephew Dan (5 years old) and me.  We climbed for more than a hour.  Now, that is a heck of a workout. As always it is more of an upper body workout than it should be but fun was had by all.  After the shower and a quick visit to the steam room it was back home to more packing.

Spring time BRICK

I woke up to rain failing. However, I had no worries since I had already planned on jumping on the trainer. I pulled up a new workout. It would not be anything too stressful but it would be challenging. I would warm-up for 15 minutes and then go up to approximately zone 3 for 15 minute and then a cool down. I had the internets up and was watching hulu – the time went by relatively quick. I was soaked when I finished.

Even though it was not planned I had extra time to spare. It was not a quick transition since I had not set anything out but I was out the door with my running shoes on within 5 minutes. This would be the first brick in about 6 months (since ironman Louisville). I had no idea what pace to run but knew that I only had time for about 3 miles. I thought that 7 minute miles would be a good first brick. It was warm out and very humid – the rain had just stopped. As I ran I was looking at my paces. I was quickly under 7 minutes and slowly increasing the pace. The first mile went by at 6:33. I always go out too fast.  Although I think I could have toughed it out I pulled up and slowed the pace down. My heart rate was not too high but the effort was challenging. The next mile clicked in at 7:30. That mile allowed for me to regain my composure and I completed the final mile at a very comfortable 7 minutes. So, although I threw the plan out the window (the plan that I had just thought of a few minutes ago) I did finish with a 7 minute average pace.

At lunch I did some more swimming. A warm up and cool down of 500 yards with a 1000 yard time trial I the middle. The 1000 time was a little slower than last year’s bests but I was still working the drills with the zipper and continuing to counting strokes. I am trying to get this into my muscle memory.

After the swim it was 6 or 7 sets of 70% body weight bench pressing. I am not sure of the best training protocol to increase my max reps of 70% body weight. I believe that this is much more about endurance than maximum strength. Anyway, the previous time I tested myself at this weight my triceps were the limiting factor.

Spring time STADIUMS

I have gone back to basics in the swim. Being self taught (you can read that as slow) I have never been huge on drills. I understand the importance but it always seemed like I was sinking when I attempted them. I did do the finger tip drag for almost every swim for about 6 months – this was because I was wind milling wildly.

Well, someone recently suggested that I start doing the zipper drill because of this windmill problem. I had thought that I had that one licked a long time ago. Granted I took a bit of time away from the pool last year but I did not realize that my swim would break down as much as it has. On that note I have started to do the drills again. Mostly I have started with high elbow recovery, either finger tip drag or zipper. That is going well – no problems.

But in addition, I have started to count my strokes on every length. This is something that I have gotten away from. The same someone also noticed that I was in the 20 stroke range and then on of non-breath strokes I was shortening them and not rotating. This is a high stroke count and not efficient.

I have worked on these skills. Swimming being such a skill sport has been tough on me. It seems like there is always something that you have to remember. My mind simply cannot remember the 15 or so things that need to happen for good, fast swimming. After about two things I start to break down – most of the time I stop breathing. Oh well – it is getting better.

I have had two high quality swim sessions this week and not a length has been swum with more than 17 strokes! I am starting to feel the water better and the rotating is more even. The swimming is coming along!

On Wednesday, for the first time since late November, we did the STADIUMS. Due to the weather and marathon training I had suspended the STADIUMS. While I believe that these ‘hill repeats’ are a valuable strength training exercise I was not sure how they would fit into my higher volume marathon training. Therefore they were nixed. I was careful pulling these back in – in the past when I have started them back up after a break the recovery was brutal. Brutal recovery - like not being able to walk up stairs for a couple of days. I am trying to be better in all of my training and not just look at the individual sessions but actually looking ahead. Yes, a reoccurring theme – training smarter. I do not want any one session to have such an impact that I cannot successfully complete the next session. I guess I have never fully understood this mentality. I only want to break myself down enough that I get the adaptation but not so much that I cannot do it again in a short amount of time. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe in smashing it sometimes – breakthrough sessions if you will – but I have to have the recovery scheduled. In the long run it does not do me very much good to cripple myself in the short term.

That being said, I took the STADIUMS easy. In the past I had worked up to a 0:15 / 1:15 interval. That is all out for 15 seconds up the bleachers and then a minute and 15 seconds run across the top of the stairs and back down to get ready to do it again. This is a challenging workout out. My heart rate drops great for about the first 5 repeats but then it starts to fail to recover as much. I was successful in the workout several times – by successful I mean I was able to do the last set in the same amount of time as the first set and I think I did this 22 times.

This time I increased the recovery interval to 1:45. This was maintainable – almost easy. My heart rate recovered after each repeat. Next time I will trim some time off of the recovery. I got 15 repeats for a total of 30 minutes.

After the STADIUMS I took off my socks and shoes and ran around the football field 4 times. This field is turf. I am not a big fan of the bare foot running – I have seen a lot of people hurt themselves – but I do believe it can provide some foot strength. I am already a fore foot runner and this bare foot running felt good. It actually felt almost the same as running in shoes.

Strength to weight bench marks!

I jumped back into P90X again and did the chest and back workout on Monday morning. As you know, it is a lot of body weight exercises. I really like the workout.


At lunch, to continue to rest the legs – I have no kick after all – I swam 3000 yards in the pool. This was an easy swim with just 2 x 1500. My times were a little off from my best (less than a minute) but the swim felt good. I need to get in the pool on a more regular basis and pick my swim up. I am ready to get in the open water!

Tuesday I did my last speed session before the marathon and I did it on the treadmill. I had done a similar workout a few weeks ago and this one seemed better. After an easy mile warm-up I did 6 repeats of quarter miles at a 5:42 minute per mile pace (10.5 MPH). Now, the treadmill takes a second or two to get up to speed and a second or two to come back down but it was a solid workout. The recovery consisted of quarter miles at an 8:00 minute per mile pace. The total was 5 miles in 40 minutes with 3 of those mile taking 20 minutes.

After the speed session I did my pull ups.

About 8 years ago I set a goal for myself. At the time I could not do ANY pull ups. I had just started to embrace fitness and a healthy lifestyle. I laid down the gauntlet and wanted to be able to do 30 pull ups (I quickly revised the goal to be 30 pull ups in 3 sets). I used to run around this park that had a jungle gym and I would stop on many of my laps and try to crank out as many as I could. I would then walk a short path for about a minute and crank out some more. I tried all variations of the number of repetitions. Once I was able to get 10 pull ups in a row I add a few more. Maybe a combination of 12 / 10 / 8 would be the secret or maybe 14 / 10 / 6. Nothing worked. I remember the first time I was able to get 20 reps and then 22. I was stuck for a long time.

About 3 years ago I finally achieved my goal. I got my 30 reps in 3 sets. Now that has become my bench mark for my strength to weight ratio. I started doing them again this past month. Eight pounds ago I was topping out in the high twenties.

Twice this past week I have had success -2 out of 2 actually. The first time was 15 / 9 / 6 and then yesterday after my speed work I got the 10 / 10 / 10 (and then added 5 more in a fourth set).

It might be time to try the 40 in 4 – I love a challenge!

Speed work tapering

Giving the legs a break I did another P90X Chest and Back DVD on Monday morning. I decide to wear one of my racing unitards for the P90X session. You know what? I actually liked working out in this outfit. I hate doing pushups when your shirts dragging the ground. In addition, some of these workout sessions involve a lot of jumping around and such – the unitard works great.


During lunch I did an easy swim. I started with a warm up and then cranked out 10 x 100 yards. It felt pretty good. My first few repeats were quicker than average but quickly leveled off.

No workout on Tuesday morning.

During this taper I am trying to cut my volume substantially while maintaining my intensity. The idea is to have my body recover from all of the training during the last 2 months while also not losing any of my fitness. Therefore I continued speed work this week. Due to the Mardi Gras Track on Tap on Tuesday night I had to fit my speed work in during lunch. This was not a problem because there were no classes on Monday or Tuesday – that’s right, there are no college classes for Mardi Gras.

I did the indoor track at the Payne Center. It is an eighth of a mile track and the turns are pretty tight. I warmed up with 1 minute per lap (8 minute miles) for 1 mile and then did 800’s. I clicked off 6 of these 800’s – all less than 3:00 minutes. It was a good workout and I never left my comfort zone. There is only one conclusion. The track is short. These were too easy. I am going to borrow the distance wheel from the pacers and measure this track. I am not being modest – the track is short…

The track on tap was a lot of fun but there were no actives going on for Mardi Gras. The town was dead. We started at the Keg and Barrel and then hit downtown. We all had our masks on and were decked out in beads but there was no one to throw them to. There was a beer wagon and a stage for a band but nothing was going on at 7PM. We were not going to stand around in the cold for a couple of hours waiting. We ended up running only about 3 miles. Oh well, we all still had a good time.

I did a P90X abs workout on Wednesday morning and plan on doing the bike trainer thing tonight.

Confidence boosting tempos

The start of the taper is tough on me. I feel like I am not doing enough. I have said before that I use exercise not just for the physiological aspect but for the psychological as well. On top of all of this I am trying to maintain my weight and the reduced activity does not help.


I did a swim on Tuesday morning and then some treadmill intervals that evening. The intervals were not too hard – but I did cut them short. I was on the treadmill and I planned on doing 10 x ¼ miles at faster than 6 minute miles. I started the intervals with the treadmill set at 10.5 miles per hour (5:43 minutes per mile). I did five intervals and they were not a problem. However, my evening hard running gastrointestinal pain returned. Having a belly full of food (from eating throughout the day) really starts to jostle around. The discomfort was not unbearable but that was all that it took to call it a day. If someone would have been playing racquetball or another game I doubt I would have given up.

On Wednesday I only got a morning swim in – but it was a great swim. Not because it was terribly long or that it was astonishingly quick. It was just a solid swim that I enjoyed. It was a good pace and a good distance. I did a ladder up and down. It was not as structured as I have done in the past. The paces were about the same for all of the legs so I did not get the full benefit. I did 100 / 200 / 300 / 400 / 500 and then down back to 100. A total of 2500 yards – the longest since ironman. I was not over extended. Once again it felt solid.

That was it for the day. I had hoped to get some time on the bike trainer but it just did not happen.

Thursday morning brought a tempo run. It has turned cold here in Mississippi and I headed to the gym. Funny how a little bit of rest and the legs are no longer tired. I do not have the crazy legs that I sometimes get – my legs were just just there. Not roaring to go – not fatigued – just legs. That is a funny feeling.

Although I know that the treadmills are all over the place when I t comes to pace I have to believe that they are fairly close. I remember when I used to run with my Polar footpod that the treadmills were close. I do not remember the pluses and minuses but it was close. There is also no wind on the treadmill. I do however, always set the incline to 1 (whatever that means) to simulate the outside.

I did an easy warm up for a mile and then I decided to run the tempo. I was not sure of the pace I wanted to go. I did not want a super hard work out where I might blow up – I did not want the frustration. At the same time I wanted a challenging workout. I turned the treadmill to a 6:40 minute per mile pace. This is the pace that I ran the Steam Whistle 12K at the beginning of the year. That was a hard 7.45 miles. That was the ‘hardest’ race that I had run up to that point. I was pleased with the results. My heart rate averaged 181 beats per minute. I remember pushing hard for most of the race.

So this should be a solid workout – pushing hard. I did the warm up nice and easy and just set the treadmill and motored though. The workout felt easy for the first few miles. Well, not easy but definitely not hard. I was able to click off 6 miles at the 6:40 minute per mile pace without ever having to push to redline. This was a real boost to my confidence (which had deteriorated the last couple of days). I also cooled down for a mile and finished the 8 mile run in just under an hour. The average pace for the working set was 6 miles in 39:48 @ 6:38 pace with an average heart rate of 168 beats per minute. I have really increased my LT level these past 2 months!

Summary 0:59:33 @ 156 beats per minute

- - - - Time- - HR Ave
01 - 0:09:49 115
02  - 0:06:40 154
03  - 0:06:38 165
04  - 0:06:37 168
05 - 0:06:37 172
06 - 0:06:37 174
07 - 0:06:39 175
08 - 0:09:52 149

Swimming and biking - break throughs

Let me just say that my weight fluctuates – a lot. I hit my race weight over the weekend – and then I did the Super Bowl thing. I have come to the conclusion; everyone says that they eat pretty good most of the time. What does this mean? I’ll tell you, I know the answer because I eat REALLY, REALLY good most of the time – it means that sometimes I eat like crap. I mean that sometimes I REALLY, REALLY eat like crap. So that being said, I went from my race day goal weight (I weighed in at 154.8 this weekend) to a Monday morning weight of 163.0. Yes, that is right an overnight weight gain of 8.2 pounds. That is about a 5 percent change in weight over night. Now I am not in the weight range of the biggest losers’ – I am pretty lean (meaning I have some body fat to lose) – 5+ % overnight. I do realize that it is mostly water weight (I am down 2 pounds today) but I am still amazed at how my body fluctuates. It did this last summer on long training days and it still does it today.


Anyway, my upper body is sore from the P90X from Sunday morning – a little tender. It was especially noticeable in the pool at lunch on Monday. I could really fell my arms and back from all of the pushups and chin-ups. Speaking of the pool – it is coming around. I did an easy warm up and then for some intensity I did 10 x 100 yards with 30 seconds rest. I know that is a lot of rest but … I was pushing semi-tough and my times were a few seconds lower than last week. I was about 5 seconds per 100 quicker than my last years 500 and 1000 averages. And then it happened. It has happened before and I am always awe struck. I decided to slow down my stroke and really stick the arm out there. Stick it out and hold it out there for a long pause. I was holding it out there long enough for my other arm to start entering the water. Total Immersion calls this ‘front quadrant’ swimming. I have such a difficult time with this whole counter-intuitive swimming thing. Slow down to go faster. For the last 3 100’s my times were 2 – 3 seconds faster and I was swimming easier. I know that I am not a speed demon in the water but I’ll take these little victories.

Strangely, my legs were tired on Tuesday morning. I did no running on Sunday or Monday. Why were they tired? I don’t know (accumulated fatigue – probably ready for a taper or maybe I am just being a wuss). I jumped on the trainer for more intervals and the legs came around. It was comfortably hard. I did not get off the trainer and need to lie down or anything – just a solid session. I am doing speed work tonight after work – not too much just 10 quarters.

Pulling the swim back in

Friday was another good swim. I swam 1000 x 2 and recorded my times. They are, of course, a good deal slower than last year when I was swimming a lot. But I am feeling good about the swim. So far, it has come back easy. I do not fight the water. The 1000 yard times were off by about 45 seconds. That is nearly 5 seconds pet 100. I have some work to do but on the bright side I was not pushing anything hard. It was not like I treated these as time trials. They were just 1000 yard swims. If I swam these hard I think that I would be pretty close to my TT times.


Right now it is Saturday morning and it is 45 degrees in Mississippi. I will be heading out the door for a long run. I hope to be able to get on the bike a little bit later in the day (easy group ride – not too fast)!

Swim, Bike, Run, Recovery

I went to the track on Tuesday evening – just as I have for the past 6 weeks. My training plan called for 10 x quarter miles at 1:27. I am faster than this but the 10 seemed daunting. I started warming up by myself and my legs were tired. My legs have been tired every track night. After the first interval they loosen up some. I am sure that this would have been the case. As more pacers started to show up I walked, ran and talked with them. Charles showed up and he said no speed work for him!


It was easy to talk me out of the speed session. I decided to let the legs recoup. Charles and I ran a couple of miles on and around the track. Low and behold, Jim showed up. He ran with us for a couple of more miles. It was a fun run and I am very glad that I did not blow off the entire night just because I was not feeling speed work. I ended up with about 7 and half miles of easy running finishing the run at an all out sprint with Jim. We decided to do one last lap hard – well I decided to do one last lap hard. Jim came with me – he is quicker than me and had fresher legs. I increased the speed three times during the sprint. Jim was on my shoulder the entire time. I think he could have overtaken me but just let me run. At the last push to the finish line we were deep in the 5’s (the watch had deep in the 4’s – but you know how that current pace thing works on the GPS). The last 100 yards was all out and it felt great.

Wednesday would be early swim work. I am getting back into the groove of the pool and I actually extended my planned workout some. My nose was all stopped up and, I know this is gross, but the swim always clears me out – if you know what I mean. I alternated sets of 250 yards with and without paddles. With the paddles I can really feel the muscles in my back. This is so different from when I first started swimming. My arms used to get so tired with the swim. Anyway, I only swam 1750 yards but it felt good. I still would like to do the masters swim thing but I may have missed my winter window. Before too long I will be back on the bike in the mornings.

I had planned on hitting the trainer after work on Wednesday but I was under the weather. The nose was stopped up again and I was going through tissues like it was nobody’s business. I scrapped the trainer ride.

If you remember my trainer ride was also compromised on Tuesday due to a flat tire. Well, I did change that tire when I discovered it so the bike was ready to go on Thursday morning. I loaded the new interval training plan. Last week the intervals were 1 on / 2 off times 7. I changed the ratio some so that it is now 1:15 on / 1:45 off – a small change – increasing the working set by 25 percent. This was a solid workout. I was drenched when I completed it! The trainer is a solid workout but I am ready to get back outside.

Flat tires and calculators

After the race on Sunday I attended a running club meeting. Shortly after the meeting I went to bed. I was dog tired after the race. It was a combination of getting up at 3:30AM and running a solid 30K.

Monday I let the legs rest and slept in a little bit. At lunch I had a swim. An easy 250 warm up followed by 10 x 100 alternating using paddles. I could really feel my back muscles during the swim.

After the swim I did a quick circuit training round. Nothing much.

On Tuesday morning I was going to jump on the bike and extend the intervals that I started last week. I want my get my bike back in shape – I have been concentrating on the running for the past few months. I programmed the trainer – the intensities would be the same but instead of 1 minute on / 2 minutes off I was increasing the on and decrease the off. The new intervals would be 1:15 on / 1:45 off. I was excited. When I did the intervals last week they were comfortably hard – it felt solid. When I got on the trainer the tire was flat. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather have a flat indoors at home than out on the road – but it did put a damper on the training session. I changed the tire quickly even though I had to remove some of the trainer attachments (cadence sensor, etc.) but there was just not enough time to complete the session. I made a mistake and tried to do a much harder, shorter workout. This was not to be. I am still planning on hitting the track after work. I will get my running intervals. Maybe I can get an easy ride tomorrow.

I have talked about the “McMillan Running Calculator” before (turn your volume down), but this thing continues to impress me. When I first started looking at it a couple of years ago I would input my 5K times and it would spit out fantasy half and full marathon time. I mean they were nowhere even close to what was possible. My real half marathon times would equate to a 5K time a minute slower than actual. Well, as I have updated my time the calculator, it is coming into line – perfectly. Updating the tool with my latest 30K time – my 5K time is now ‘projected’ to within 2 seconds of actual and my 25k time is within seconds. This calculator projects my marathon time to be 3:06:19 at a 7:07 minute per mile pace. It also says that I have been sand bagging my half marathon time – it wants me a minute faster. I will try to prove the calculator correct.

Easy swim and recovery

I slept in on Monday. I needed it. My legs were tired. I watched the Colts and Saints at the Keg and Barrel on Sunday. They had an all you can eat BBQ buffet. After logging the miles I was first in line. On a positive, I did not have a single beer. I have noticed that alcohol really does affect my recovery – so I am getting smarter.


At lunch I went to the pool for an easy swim. Chris was there and we talked for a minute or two. He had a swim workout that he found somewhere. It was challenging – a ladder up and down progressively faster. I attempted the workout but it got too quick for me. I need to work on the swim. I had forgotten how much better I swim with a structured workout – the time few by!

Body fat? I wonder...

I got up on Wednesday and all that I knew was that I did not want to go for a run in the 25 degrees. Having run the Yasso 800’s the night before the legs needed a rest. The fitness center would be opening back up toady and I had trouble deciding just what I wanted to do today. I could ride my trainer and watch some television on the internet or I could go to the gym and ride the exercise bike and read a book. I have been enjoying reading but with my race bike on the trainer it is difficult to read - I am in an aero position in the aero bars – it just does not work well for the reading. Watching television is not a problem.


Anyway, I weighed the pros and cons and it cost me valuable time. I do so much better when I actually work a plan and just follow it. With the running I have not been following a plan but there is some structure. I am doing my main workouts – intervals, tempo and long runs – with several races spaced throughout the plan. It is the cross training where I am having difficulties.

So I decided to just stay home because driving to the campus and then walking to and from the gym would eat up even more minutes. I only rode about 20 minutes on the trainer – it was a little more intense but I should have managed my time better.

At lunch I got in the pool for the first time in about 2 months. I took my wetsuit but, fortunately, it was not necessary. I do wish that swimming was like a bicycle. I feel like I have lost a lot of swim fitness. Sam and Chris were also in the pool and we just worked on drills. I only got about 1000 yards (20 minutes or so) but it was productive – the numbers are just not impressive. I spoke with Chris about a Dexa Scan – so that I could get a baseline on my body fat. I have a Bioelectrical Impedance scale but it is not accurate, however, I do believe that is precise. I have always just used it to track trends. Used in this method it is functional. But, I would like to know the offset. In the athletic mode the scale reads my body fat in the 7’s but in the normal mode it reads about 20 – big variance. I had calipers done a year or so ago and it was around 15 or 16. Before the ironman they had a Bioelectrical Impedance scale at check in and it read 12 percent. So I do not know where I am – with the Dexa Scan, the new gold standard for body fat analysis, it will give me the offset – I will know how much to add to the 7.x. Much better tracking.

I had some time on my hands after work and I hit the gym again. I wanted to run on the treadmill at a 7 minute pace – to see how that felt and make a determination if that is the pace that I want to run this weekend’s half marathon. That was my gold medal pace for the Ole Man River Half. I ran that at a 7:09 but I went out way too fast. I think that I have some more speed – just not sure if it is 7 or FASTER. The last race that I ran – the Steam Whistle 12k – I was able to ‘hang on’ for the 7.45 miles at 6:39. I have been thinking – wondering – if I could have held on for another 5 miles. The answer is NO – but what about a 6:50? Not sure on that one but I would love to see a 1:29: xx!

The run did not work out – my legs were just too tired. In addition, I lack motivation in the evenings. It is much harder to get the job done. I canned the run after mile and did a little strength training. I then called it a day.

I am still working the health eating plan and I am having success. I weighed in at 159.8 – the first time that I have been in the 150’s since just before my ironman (just prior to the taper in fact). I have been eating very well and it has been easy. I do very well when bad food is out of sight – it truly is out of mind. This is what my dinners have been looking like – good stuff.

A little bit of swimming

I am getting better at jumping around thanks to the Plyometrics P90X session. This session is fun and it makes you work pretty hard. I have started to skip a lot of the breaks and even some of the ‘slower’ 60 second routines. The session is set up in a way that you do 3 intense exercises and then you slow it down a bit and do another exercise for 60 seconds. These longer exercises, although you are still moving and stuff, are not as strenuous as some of the other more ballistic exercises. So, sometimes I hit the skip button and get right back in the action. However, I am sure to make up for the missed exercise by repeating some of the more dynamic exercises – the really jumping around exercises. The first time I did this session the soles of my feet were really burning – you spend a lot of time on the balls of your feet. That burning sensation is starting to go away – maybe my feet are getting used to it or they are adapting.

At lunch I hit the pool for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was an easy workout – probably too easy. I think I did 12 x 100 yards on 120 – that gave me a lot of rest. I was swimming easy and finishing the 100’s right about 1:35 – 6. I really was just going through the motions. After the swim I hit the weight bench. Boy, the bench press is weak after swimming even if it was just easy swimming.

I fell of the diet a little bit last night with a little bit of cookies and beer – both at my weaknesses.
Totals:
Cals: 2,936 Fat: 21% Carbs: 42% Protein: 20% Alcohol: 17% Fiber: 51.0 grams

TRACK ON TAP - returns!

The legs were a little bit sore when I met up with the group ride on Thursday morning. It was still dark but we ventured into the black. The darkness requires a good warm up and that is probably for the good of the group. In the summer a warm up would consist of salutations and an easy half mile spin – then someone would drop the hammer. At least this way we get to chew the fat a little more and actually get the blood moving. Lance got to tell the stories of the Olympic race from last weekend. Robin got second in our age group!

Lately, even after the sun has risen we have not been putting in real hard efforts on the bike. There will be a few good pulls and then we back off a bit. My legs were sore – not tired but actually sore from the STADIUMS the prior day but they felt good to be moving. The soreness was not a limiter – it was just noticeable. I rolled into work with 28 miles under my wheels.

I was fine walking around campus and such but whenever I took the stairs the legs let me know it! They felt like they were getting better but I took a flight of stairs down and they screamed to attention. As the morning went on they started to hurt more. At lunch I went to the pool for a little, easy, quick swim. I met Chris there and we did a pathetic more-talk-than-swim 1200 yards. It was fun but the swim did not have much of a purpose. I was still glad I went. I had planned on taking it easy in preparation for the evening TRACK ON TAP. It has been months (May) since the running club has had one.

There was a group of about 10 of us that met at the trail head at 6:30. I brought along my blinkie light from my road bike. It would be dark soon. We debated for a bit about which direction to go – If we went to the west it would end up being about a 6 mile run so we headed east instead. The TRACK ON TAP is generally a monthly occurrence where we set off on foot to various pubs, bars, and taverns. The first stop was the Keg & Barrel. We made our way down Fourth Street along the future Longleaf Trace downtown extension. This was a TRACK ON TAP _ TRAIL EDITION. My legs were killing me – it was almost like a run shuffle but I was fine as long as I did not have to hit any stairs. Jim was there and we were wearing our matching ironman finisher hats – it was fun telling our race stories and listening to everyone else’s. These types of events are what make the running club so much fun!

We were all very careful tonight because it seems like someone always takes a fall - into a ditch or runs into a park bench or just does a face plant on a rough sidewalk. We eventually hit Nick’s Ice House (such a dive) and then the End Zone. I am happy to report that there were no scrapes, falls or incidents on this run. Everyone remained on two feet. Running from campus – all said and done I got about 3.5 miles and not quite twice as many beers.

This was such a fun day – I started in the dark on the bike and ended in the dark on the run (with a swim somewhere in the middle)!

Hydrodynamics

The response to the hair has been very encouraging! Come on now, Telly, Destro, Professor X !!! What do these people have in common – well, they are all bald and … sexy! That is right bald and sexy. I can live with that for sure.

So I got to test out the hydrodynamics in the pool yesterday. It was an easy nothing swim of 200 yards straight. I was expecting the head to feel funny or neat or something – but not really much at all. Oh well, my times were right on so no complaints. The swim felt good. I really am going to join up with the masters swim class in a week or two and make all of my pool time productive. I mean, I am spending time in the pool and I have made improvements but I think the team environment will benefit me and I hope to see improvements!!!

I am also having second thoughts about a full marathon – I have two schools of thought –

1. I’m not getting any younger – If I want to Boston Qualify I need to make my gains right now!
2. The recovery and time away from making gains in triathlon are huge. Take out the run training and you still have a huge taper and a huge recovery – 6 weeks. I will do better next time but this transition after the ironman has been excoriating.

I could compromise and try to nail a really good half marathon and then decide if I want to pursue the full marathon. I could train for a little speed and still not have to rack up huge mileage in a sub 1:30 (fantasy run) half marathon.

I am starting to get excited.

Hair today - gone tomorrow ...

I got a good swim in on Friday afternoon but I am still drifting – undecided – for my next goals. I have determined that I am going to join the Master’s Swim club down a t the YMCA. IT seems like a good program – everyone raves about the coach and I respond pretty well to direction. I am sure just having an experienced set of eyes on my swim technique will benefit me more than just splashing around on my own.

With a triathlon and a century ride within a couple of hours of Hattiesburg I knew that there would not be anyone up for the Saturday group ride. Regardless I set off towards the trail head to see if there were any stragglers. I ran into Pierre again. He is in the French Navy and is stationed at the naval base in Meridian for a couple of years. I met him a few weeks ago and it turns out that we have done many triathlon races together and not realized it. He is pretty quick – always placing in the 20 – 24 age group. We only got 30 miles – I was not looking for much – I just wanted to get out and get a few miles before the rains set in – It has been raining tons here. After the ride I did some much needed yard work, cleaned out the garage and spooned new tires on my training wheels for my race bike. I got a lot of things done that have seemed to pile up – It feels like I have tons of time on the weekends.

I also shaved my head. I have wanted to do this for a very long time and I have just not had the guts to do it! I really thought hard about it before the ironman but did not want to risk sunburn or anything. I did not want to change anything up for race day. It definitely looks different but it is growing on me… Let me know what you think – try to disregard the deer in head lights - looks like I have been beat look.



I got an easy 6.5 mile run in on Sunday morning and ran into Steve P (the postman). He was out on a recovery ride – He had done the century ride the day before and averaged just 20.1 MPH solo. He is training for IMAZ and has really been getting the volume. We chatted for a couple of miles and I turned back towards home. The marathon training plan that I have been looking at has day1 being 3 x 1600m @ 6:12 (1min RI). At mile 5 I decided to pick up the pace to see what was in the tank – is this training plan even possible? I started strong and was able to maintain but the time was not happening. I clicked off the mile at 6:30. That is a far cry from 6:12 much less with two more reps to go. In the spring this would not have been a problem but I guess I am still waiting for my speed. I thought the streamed line dome would have at least given me a few seconds.

Recovery and everyone gets a minute

I gave my legs a couple of days off following the ironman. In fact there was no activity on Monday (10 hour drive back to Mississippi) or Tuesday. On Wednesday I went and splashed around in the pool for an easy 1500 yards. My legs were definitely tired after the race but nut achy or anything. They did not really hurt walking up and down stairs and such. They were, however, sore to the touch. If I pressed on my quads – ouch – they were tender. This tenderness went away by Thursday and I did the morning group ride. Although my legs did not hurt - this ride was taxing. My legs just did not seem to have any snap. They were still just very tired. On Friday I hit the pool and just cruised for 2500 yards in just over 40 minutes. It was a pretty good pace for me and it felt easy – water jogging again. I hooked up with a couple of guys for a 40 something mile ride on Saturday and then another 30 miles on Sunday. I have not yet. The legs still do not have that snap but they should be coming around soon. I also guess I am still a little tired. On Sunday night I was exhausted and took a late afternoon nap of about 2 hours then hit the sack and slept all night. I have not felt spent or run down but I normally don’t take naps. I guess that the body needed it.

On the ironman front, they have revised the times. Apparently the time clock for the run was not synced with the start clock and everyone got a minute. So my official time is now 11:18:14. The minute was subtracted from the marathon so I guess I ran / walked a 4:01:xx. So close to sub 4 hours. On a side note, I can’t believe that I forgot to mention it, the inspiration board during the run. There must have been a mishap because both times that I ran across the mat my message was:

Way to go Poo Bear – from pawpaw…

I hope that I did not steal anyone’s thunder. It just made me smile.

I am currently evaluating my next goals. I am not sure what it will be. I am thinking a Boston qualifying marathon time would be a lofty goal (3:15). I can run 7 minute miles for a half but for the whole thing that is a different story. I am also thinking about an Xterra (off-road triathlon) or something even though I do not yet own a mountain bike or have those mountain biking skills. Trail running also looks cool. There is a 20k, 50k, 50 mile trial run here in Mississippi in the spring. I am also considering joining the masters swim class at the YMCA. I have heard such positive stuff from a few of the team members and now that I am getting proficient I could really work on the speed.