All Roads...

Ahhh, to be in the thick of it. That's right, the real workouts have started and things are just about smooth as silk. I started the week with a good round of swimming, focusing on technique and mixing in some good sets at extensive endurance pace. In addition to the requisite weight routines, I've also managed a few power-based training sessions on the bike, and a good stretch of running. This morning rounded things out with another quality swim session - mostly long sets at a comfortable pace. The difference between this week and the prior four, is the fact that I'm once again building. You got it, building base. Every time I step out of the water, or off the bike, or untie my running shoes, I know I'm that much stronger, and that much more prepared for 2006.

Oh yeah, and coffee. Nothing completes the picture of quality workouts in the off-season than a good, deep, dark cup of coffee. One at 7:00am, right after my swim, and one at 2:00pm, about 3 hours before my afternoon workout. It's not the caffeine that's addictive, it's the sport. The coffee just happens to go well with it.

So what's going on out there in your world? It's getting to be that time of year when most athletes are starting their base buildup, or at least thinking of starting their base. What are some of your big goals for '06? Go ahead, let the world know what you're thinking. Shout'em out here on The Daily Grind and embrace them!

Until next time...

Behold. The Long Run.

Okay. Raise your hand if you hate going back to work after a long vacation. Yup. Me too. But this blog's about training, racing & coffee. So we shant dwell.

Thanksgiving was good. I found myself in my hometown taking foot to trail for an hour and 20 minutes of romping in the 20 degree winter weather. Headwinds, crosswinds, from-the-back-winds. It was all there. I think there were even winds coming from above, down onto my head. For sure, it was winter out there. But all was rectified with healthy portions of turkey, pumpkin pie and the essential French Roast.

Saturday brought another hour-or-so trail run, this time out my front door and through the park. Afterwards it was time to kick back in front of the fire for the rest of the afternoon. For the rest of the weekend, actually. Somehow, the weekend wound up going by too fast though, and so here we are, getting ready for the week ahead.

Changing gears: I was just about to rant about the recent USA Triathlon decision to "align the age-group criteria with those of the ITU". This means that your age-group on race day will now be determined by your age at the end of that year. Bastardos!!! A cursary calculation had me thinking that this would put me in the Mens 30-34 bracket for the 2007 IM Lake Placid. In fact, it would put me right at the bottom of the (most competitive) age-group. And in this scenario, my chances for qualifying for the big one would be somewhere between Slim and None, with Slim running for the door. Luckily, my math skills are about as sharp as a cold potato, and so upon closer inspection I realize I'll be racing as a 29 year old during the season of 2007. Right at the top of my age-group. Muh-hah-hah-hah! Maybe now Slim will stick around for awhile.

Alright, time to get back to it.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

It's been a good week for gettin'r'dun. Last night, along with the first winter storm of the season, a period of intense pain and suffering blew in; taking the form of an LT test on the bike to establish my power baseline for the next month of training. I hate bike LT testing on a trainer. With running (on a treadmill) for some reason the process just seems a whole lot more tolerable, but testing on a trainer... Argh. However, after all was said and done, I crunched the numbers and am now happy to report a Watts/kg ratio of 3.43 at LT. What does that mean to you, oh faithful followers of The Grind? Likely nothing. But to me, it's a very important number, and one I expect to see grow over the next 4 months.

This morning, I awoke with an excitement usually not found on a typical Wednesday. But given that Thanksgiving is tomorrow (read: vacation!), today was more of a premature Friday - and Friday's never feel as good as when you're only working a 3-day week. So with my dangerously high levels of excitement, I kicked open the front door, whistling a tune and on my way to the pool when I was hit in the face by 27 ridiculously low degrees and gusting winds. SLAM! I shut the door to regroup. Whoa. It's cold. Let's try again. I slowly cracked the front door open, winter hat on, hood zipped up and cinched tight over my face, gloves on my hands and some newfound steam in my stride as I bolted for the warmth of my car. And all together, I suddenly remembered why I hate swim training in the winter. Brrrrrrrr.

Needless to say, it will be a while before I'm outside in nothing but a race kit like in today's blog post picture. Living in the Northeast, it's always hard for me to look back at pictures from the summer and comprehend how warm it was only a few months ago, when it's this cold right now in the off-season.

The pool was strangely over-populated this morning too. Apparently someone sent out a memo indicating that if you swim extra-hard the day before Thanksgiving, you're justified in over-eating tomorrow. Anyhow, I wound up sharing a lane with a pretty strong swimmer who I'm guessing was home on vacation from college. We went our separate ways for about 45 minutes until luck saw her coming off the far wall just as I was going into it. I wouldn't say we collided, but we certainly brushed. A result of her flip-turning and ending up in the center of the lane, and me preparing to flip-turn and going into the center of the lane. Oops. Both our bads. We stopped, floated, exchanged laughs and apologies, and then finished our respective sets. Such as life in a crowded pool.

Thanks for reading.

The Dumper

Enough hype Mr. Weatherman! Just let it snow already!

On my long run this past weekend, I came upon a little piece of trail that was lightly coated with some softly sprinkled snow from the night before. Like powdered sugar on a chocolate muffin-top. That immediately made me think of two things: those early moments of true-winter when the dirt is still shining through the snow, and coffee. The latter, of course, because nothing goes better with a chocolate muffin than a steaming cup of Joe. And nothing soothes the aching beast after a long winter run than that same magical elixir. Anyways, those few hundred yards of trail highlighted by the finest of white outline were all that I've seen of snow so far this off-season. But, as you can see above, that is all supposed to change in the next couple of days. So bring it on.

We have Thanksgiving coming up. A good time to eat, and to sleep. To celebrate early, I'll be doing an LT test on the bike tomorrow night (ugh) to get my baseline power levels for the next month or so. With some of the usual base-building swimming and running later in the week, it will be great to load up and refuel on the good eats.

Keep it easy.

Not Your Normal Potato

Yesterday was my first LT test of the year. For those just coming up to speed on all this, the Lactate Threshold is that magical point in the physiological system where the flushing of lactate in the blood is outpaced by the production of it during intense exercise. Simply, this is where the burn really begins when you work out, and generally corresponds to the highest steady-state output an athlete can maintain for longer intervals (~30 minutes +). Everything in training is based on LT. If you train by heart rate, your training zones are based on your heart rate at LT. If you train by power, your training zones are based on your power at LT. You get the idea. And your heart rate and power values that correspond to your body's LT change with fitness (or lack thereof). So if you're really on top of your game, you test regularly to keep your training zones constantly updated.

The LT is pretty easy to obtain. In a lab, you can have someone actually measure your blood lactate content during an exponentially increasing physical effort. In other words, you run on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike going faster and more uphill every minute, while a guy in a white coat pricks your finger every 30 seconds to take a blood sample. Irritating, but very accurate. Luckily, you can also estimate your LT by measuring heart rate or power over a sustained period and then doing a little math. Generally these estimates are within 1 or 2% of your actual LT, and serve just dandy for calculating your training zones. My test yesterday was a 30 minute 5k-pace run on a treadmill, with the data to calculate my LT coming from the last 15 minutes. Make no mistake about it - LT testing sucks. It's hard, it's boring (when indoors) and it physically breaks you down. But having that number. That one magic heart rate or power value at LT, sets everything in training. So it's essential.

On another note, I generally don't mind insects. Spiders tend to freak people out. Not me, I loved the movie Arachnophobia. Some folks get the heeby-jeebies with beetles. Not me, I think they're pretty cool (provided they're smaller than a silver dollar). I would even go as far as to say that snakes, worms, and all things that slither don't bother me. But there exists one species of insect that I'm positive the devil himself created. This little spawn of Satan is none other than the Scutigera Coleoptrata. The "house" centipede. Here's a description excerpted from Lucifer's Dictionary of Insects:

Centipedes are common arthropods with long, flattened, segmented bodies with one pair of legs per segment. The house centipede is up to 1 1/2 inches long and has 15 pairs of very long, almost thread-like, slender legs. Each leg is encircled by dark and white bands. The body is brown to grayish-yellow and has three dark stripes on top.

Well... I can't even type this without shuddering. One of those little devil-formed bastards decided to wander out of his hiding spot last night halfway through my LT test on the treadmill. Yup. Just casually walked with his ten-million little hairy legs across the carpet in front of me. And rather than wiggle on into a crack or into a hole in the wall or something, he parked himself right in front of me. And stared. That's right - he sat there, twitching his little legs, and teased me the whole second half of my run test. Just toying with me. Knowing I couldn't stop running to come down there and destroy him with the utmost of pleasure.

Picture it. Some triathlete training in his basement, stomping out an LT test: sweat pouring down his face, heart busting through his chest, legs turning over like lightning... And at the same time, shouting at an inch long, devil insect. Threatening to "come down off this treadmill!" Well, the very second my test was over and I let my pulse come back down, I jumped down and grabbed a magazine... Rolled it up and prepared to give Mr. Hairy Legs a really up-close view of the October issue of Triathlete. Just then, and I'm not sure if it was the fatigue or not, but I was sure I saw it extend one of it's little hairy legs and give me the finger before running off into the crack between the basement floor and the foundation wall.

Next time, buddy. Next time.

End-Game

It's been just about week since my last update... Sorry about that, but then again, it is the off-season. But as of this afternoon, I have one full week of training under my feet for this upcoming race season, and I have to say, it's been great to get back into it. The hours are low, and the workouts are relatively light, of course, but just to have the structure back again has been great. The week consisted of some great swim workouts, some time with the weights and on the bike, and of course, the essential trail running. Oh, and lots of stretching, as apparently the body has forgotten what it means to put in the hours twice a day.

While blogging here, I've been watching a recount of the IM World Championship on NBC, which I have to say was pretty good this year. Good choices in music, and good side-stories to tell from the age-group population. In the pro category, however, I was a little disappointed to see that my man Peter Reid could only muster a third place. I've been following his prep for Kona this year and I thought for sure that he'd have it in the bag. Next year Pete. Next year.

Speaking of next year, I've got the races on my mind. I eat, sleep and breathe the races. I'm not sure I've ever had this much focus, this early in the season on upcoming races. And I'm not entirely sure what it is. Part of something bigger, I suppose. But I know the results are going to be completely positive, and it's going to be a phenomenal, break-through year.

In the mean time, tomorrow I'll be entering my second of three preparetory weeks of training before I start the true Base workouts in late November. I'm targeting between 12 and 16 hours of training per week this year, with a growing focus on the run. For the bike, I've (finally!) hooked myself up with a new fluid trainer which has already proven supremely better than my 6 year old unit I trained on previously. All these years I've thought I've been gaining strength in the off-season on the trainer, when in fact, it was probably just the fluid losing it's viscosity over time!

Keep'em turning.

Gone Batty

It's been a strange week here in the Capital District, with temperatures soaring into the upper 60s and low 70s. For November, this is beyond odd for Upstate, NY. But it has made for a great week of playing outdoors during this last week of care-free training.

But things weren't entirely rosey this week - Here's one for you: Yesterday, with the temperatures being near 70 in the afternoon, I took to the roads early from work to bask under the late afternoon sun, and conclude my transition period of training this year by a multi-hour mountain bike ride. Because today, Saturday, is the first day of the new season. At the start of the ride, I stood about my car going through the checklist: Riding clothes... Check. Lights charged up and mounted... Check. Air in the tires and shocks... Check. Mp3 Player locked and loaded... Check. And with that, I was off.

After an hour of rolling along, the sun was officially setting at around 5:15. Glancing over the hills at the salmon pink skies, I took a deep breath and secured a mental photograph of the scene, as I knew it would likely be one of my last warm, outdoor rides for a while. The trail darkened, and the lights went on. Twisting and turning through the singletrack, tossing up leaves as I rocketed down the descents, snapping twigs and tossing rocks on the long uphill grinders... Life was good. At about an hour and fifteen minutes in, I noticed a very unusual phenomenon - leaves were falling in front of my face in the narrow corridors of the singletrack and just sort of... Hanging... Or bouncing up and down in my line of sight before falling out of the glow of my lights. It was almost like these leaves were, uh, flying. And then it hit me. Literally. THWACK! A "leaf" hit my helmet. Hard. And suddenly, as I was ramping up the speed on another long descent, THWACK, THWACK!

"Wait a second" I thought. "These aren't leaves!!! These are... These are... Gulp... These are BATS!!!"

Apparently, a combination of the warm weather and the late season was just enough to stir up all the bats for a Friday night buffet, of sorts, for the nocturnal. And here I was, going "head to head" with them, so to speak. Completely freaky. But as much fun as this was (said with the highest degree of sarcasm), there was more to my night. After the bat population began to dissipate, I put the power back on and began the long grind back to my car. Rolling down a slight drop, I splashed my front wheel into a tiny little mud puddle, tossing up a spittle of mud in between my face and my glasses, and into my left eye. Right into my eye, and onto my contact lens. I'm not sure how many of you have had mud or dirt on your contacts, but it feels a bit like sand paper on the underside of your eyelid. Needless to say, the only solution was to remove my contact and toss it out. Now I'm riding along, pitch black, bats bouncing around here and there, and my vision essentially only out of one eye.

"What else could go wrong?" I thought. And then, as though the Gods of misfortune were reading my mind like a book: Cha- Cha- Cha- CHANG! My chain broke, and got sucked between my chainring and chainstay. Loooooooong Sigh.

After a brief fix-er-upper job on the trail by headlamp, and a litany of curse-word combinations, I was back on the bike and heading home. Only able to use my big chainring, and of course, only uphill to the car, it was a long, slow trip. But, as I tossed the bike on top of the car and packed things up for another night (season?) I paused to enjoy the warm air around me. Something that in a few months, I'll be craving, even if the price of it comes with a broken down bike and a pisser of a ride.

Boo!

Oh what a very spooky Halloween it's been - complete with all the little neighborhood ghouls and goblins searching for candy after night fall. Good children, take the candy, and keep it away from me! Actually, this is pretty funny: I follow a good number of blogs from day to day, all rooted in endurance athletics. Some are blogs of pure runners, some of pure cyclists and many of them, of course, are of other triathletes. Yet in each and every one today, there was mention of candy, and of how difficult it is to say "no" to it the day after Halloween - as if the holiday itself is geared towards throwing our diets off track just as we start to enter the beginnings of off-season training. As for me? Well, seriously, there's a whole bowl of candy left, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in it. Mmmm... Chocolate Fuel.

In other news, it's game-on for 2006. This morning I registered for the Timberman Triathlon in New Hampshire. The Timberman is part of the newly launched 70.3 Half Ironman Series, and serves as an official 70.3 World's Qualifier this year. That's right, a World's Qualifier. I've also planned to do a practice Half Ironman earlier this coming season in Tupper Lake, NY; The Tinman. With things locked in now, with two Half IMs this season, it should be a jam-packed off-season of training with plenty of incentive to get out the door on the coldest of days for the essential workouts. And as you no doubt may have guessed, or if you've heard me alluding to it in previous posts, this is all part of a grand build up to race IM Lake Placid in 2007.

So, there it is. Written in stone, so to speak - blogged for every one to see, and for every one to hold me to it. Ironman Lake Placid, 2007. But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there are more immediate goals to focus on. Specifically, there's a lot of work to be done in all three disciplines this winter. Volume and stride work for the run, Volume and power work for the bike, and Volume and stroke refinement for the swim. Notice a common thread?

Now it's off to the candy bowl.