Gettin' It Done... Again

Fellow bloggers - first off, a big thanks to everyone who chimed in with their inputs on training and racing nutrition preferences. There's a lot of stuff to choose from, for sure. For years I've used Accelerade as my hydrating drink of choice, traditional Powerbars for my solid food, and GU for my gels. I've also grown accustomed to refueling using Clif Builder bars and generic whey protein mixed appropriately with a dash of L-Glutamine for apres-training on days of big muscle work. So why my question on nutrition when it seems as though I've already gotten my routine dialed?

Well, because there's always room for improvement. Again, thanks for you inputs - I have some good ideas as to what I want to try over the next several weeks before the big races come to town, and I'll be sure to keep you posted.

I hit the track hard and fast today doing acceleration work. The next time you have a hankering for barfing up your lunch, try this one at your local oval:

-3 mile warm-up, building to 10k race pace
-8x1:00 as: 20 sec @ faster than 5k race pace, 40 sec @ marathon pace
-8x1:00 as: 30 sec @ faster than 5k race pace, 30 sec @ jogging pace
-8x1:00 as: 40 sec @ faster than 5k race pace, 20 sec @ recovery pace
-1 mile cool-down

It was another good session at the track, with plenty of good efforts. The only bummer of the afternoon was that, upon reviewing the data from today's speedwork session, my "faster than 5k race pace" accelerations weren't quite as fast as I would've liked to have seen them. It's still early, I suppose, and there's plenty of opportunity to build it up.

Here's to hoping the weather wherever you are is as nice as it is here - keep it easy.

Still

This was the view for a good amount of the weekend... A sea of cement all around me, a television just beyond the horizon of my bars, and a mountain range of unfolded (but clean) laundry just over my shoulder. Yup - the rain started on Friday night and just kept pounding all weekend. And it wasn't that warm, summer rain... It was that cold, stinging, wind-driven, near-freezing sleet of a rain. Major kudos to all who ventured outside.

Me? I stayed in, watched more TV than I have in the past 3 weeks combined, and got real comfortable in my aerobars. And there I sat (and spun) for a very, very long time. It could have been worse, I suppose. My fluid trainer could have exploded, leaving me riding figure-eights in my basement atop a swamp of oil.

My last post on the power "profile" chart of Coggan's raised some clatter. Sorry about that - I just thought it was a pretty cool collection of data presented in a unique format. Just remember that at the end of the day, power is simply a measure of work over time, with work quantifying a sum of forces over a distance. If you work all these things out, you end up with an all-encompassing metric to measure one's performance against - from which you can extract a multitude of useful data.

Moving on.

So here's a question for all of you: What brand nutritional supplements (hydration, protein, bars, gels, etc.) do you use? I'm doing a whole bunch of research on the matter, looking to make a change in my approach to nutrition for my long-course events. I've already been given some really good suggestions, but I'm curious to hear from all of you. What do you use, how long have you been using, what events do you race (e.g., short-course tri's, bike races, run races, etc.) and why do you like your product?

In case you don't know me by now, the more data, the better.

Rolling Nowhere

Yeah, I'd definitely have to say it was a good week. After the tough speedwork session at the track on Thursday afternoon, Friday brought about a beast of a 2800m swim, followed by an hour and a half of easy riding. The ride was a great way to end the week, actually. A cold front was on it's way into town, and so with slightly overcast skies and a calming pallete of greys, blues and browns to immerse myself in, everything about the ride said "relax". An interesting note on the use of power meters when training on the bike: sure they help guide you on your hard training days, but more importantly (as I'm learning) they're invaluable for guiding you on your easy days. That is, I've been consistently amazed to see on my easy days just how quickly I naturally "drift" up into zones of higher power output. As an ardent subscriber to the old adage: "go hard on your hard days, and easy on your easy days" - being able to quantify those efforts to the degree of accuracy in which the power meters provide is truly beneficial.

And speaking of power...

Bolder, over in Boulder, recently subjected himself to an LT-test on the bike. Though it's always fun to read about everyone elses test programs and results, ff particular interest to me was this very nice table he provided on his website, compliments of Andy Coggan. For those of you scratching your head, Dr. Coggan is one of the leading pioneers of power-based training tools and methods for cyclists. Anyways, the beauty of this table is that it provides a relative gauge of one's fitness based on power-to-weight ratio - that wonderful number we go through great lengths to measure. Digging through my old records, the last time I did an LT test on the bike I put out an average power of about 335 watts (okay, 336W, but who's really counting?) over 20 minutes. Given that I weigh (hold your breath folks) 148lbs, and my bike weighs about 18lbs, that's a total weight of around about 62kg, therefore making my W/kg ratio equal to 5.42 - or - Exceptional. Now that's cool.

This weekend has been a bit of a challenge, given the cold, raw and rainy weather we've been presented with. I never made it out the door to train today, rather, I spent some quality time on the trainer (guh) watching the tube and listening to the rain fall outside. The workout got done, but - damn - it was boring. Tommorow's weather calls for more of the same, meaning it's going to be one very soggy long run.

Squish. Squish.

Keep it easy.

Blueprint of Hell

The beauty of cycling is this: you're out in the middle of nowhere, farm houses and cows surround you, you're turning the pedals as the sun is beating down on you... Just as the road turns up, you get out of the saddle, you click it down one or two gears, you stand, you rock, you power - and all you hear from behind you are the deeply drawn breaths and silent pleas from those you've just dropped. You regroup at the top (if you're feeling considerate) before you spin it out, let the acid flush, and cruise on home with a tailwind at your back and your sweat evaporating from your core as twilight nears.

And then, there's this other aspect of training for triathlons. No, I'm not talking about the swim, though few things are as mind-numbing as putting in the lengths. I'm talking about run speedwork.

Long sigh. Yup. You know it, and I know it. Those pesky track sessions. Those "necessary" sessions of speedwork to add a little kick to your running stride. The track, in my opinion, represents all that is evil and unholy in run-training - it's flat, it's hot, it's bright, it's rubber, it goes no where, and every moment on it seems as an eternity of pain. Because if you're not going hard in speedwork, you're not going. Yet week after week, in the summer months, I find myself going to the track to work on my run, for I know it to be necessary. Today was the first day back on said track since last season - not much has changed, it's still an oval - and despite my generally downtrodden attitude towards the infinite 400, it was actually a great session today. On the docket were mile repeats at slightly-faster-than-marathon pace. And though my legs felt a bit heavy on the warm-up, I soon found my pace and was turning out sub-7s pretty consistently for the remainder of the workout.

This week's been a solid one, for sure. Tuesday I did some time trial work on my tri bike - working on my position and getting things dialed in there - followed by 60 minutes of running immediately off the bike (the first 10 minutes at 5k race pace). Yesterday was another brute of a day, with a 2500m aerobic-focused swim (including a 1000m piece thrown in the middle) followed by a 50 mile ride. I chose to ride with a local group which, while it was nice to have the company, ultimately resulted in me riding a tad harder than I would've otherwise (big surprise).

I'm thrilled tomorrow's Friday - because there's nothing like the feeling of rounding out a solid week of training, and kicking the legs up for the weekend. Who knows, maybe I might just treat myself to an extra cappuccino on the way to work in the morning.

I hope all of your training days are going just as swell as mine are here - from reading the countless blogs that I follow, it seems like everyone is enjoying the season so far, and everyone's gearing up to race (for those who haven't started already). Finally, a handful of kudos to all the triathletes and runners who ran Boston this past Monday, especially Elizabeth, who not only matches my like for analyzing training data, but provided her bib number in advance so I could spend most of my work day Monday tracking her run splits in real time.

Feed Time

What a great weekend to get back into it. First off, thanks to everyone for the well-wishes with my back injury... I'm very happy to report that with great care, plenty of heat, and some delicie-oh-so coffee, the back mended itself just fine by the end of the week. Wednesday and Thursday I put in some quality time on the trainer to ease back into things - Thursday with a swim preceding the bike, where both felt rather good, actually. Friday was another good day with several hours on the bike. Whereas Wednesday and Thursday I kept things rather light, I started dropping the cadence and upping the power a bit on Friday to really test my back. All was good.

Saturday the sun was shining and the weather looked promising for a good long-ride. I wound up putting in a solid 50 miles (49 of which were into a headwind), meandering my way up through horse-country in Saratoga Springs. After a delightful solo ride, I met up with my lovely Liz for lunch on Main Street followed by cappuccinos at the corner 'bucks before calling it a day. Life doesn't get much sweeter.

Rounding out the weekend, I put my back through the final test today by pounding out a solid 80 minute 10 mile run under the cool morning clouds on Easter morning. When all was said and done, I was thrilled to have healed up and gotten back into things as quickly as I did. Very fortunate, I know. Despite losing a week of high-intensity work, I still managed to keep things moving along, while at the same time, keeping things easy enough to promote healing. A perfect balance. Now, folks, we can get started with the harder stuff.

Thanks for reading.

Be Right With You

Do you remember back in school when the professor would reiterate time and time again: "if you can do the homework, you can do the exam"? And sure enough, the exam comes around and there's a homework problem on there and yet there's always someone who gets the question wrong and makes a big deal about it while the rest of the class is thinking: "how many times did the professor say that would be on the exam?!?!".

Well.

I must have 3 or 4 fully loaded bookshelves of training books, and I must have read in every single one of those books hundreds of times the importance of stretching before a workout. Stretching is pretty important before swimming. Stretching is incredibly important before running. And you're just plain dumb not to thoroughly stretch before cycling. Add these up, and if you're a triathlete who doesn't stretch before each and every workout, then you're that kid in class that gets the exam wrong, and then makes a big deal about it. This past weekend (whisper) I was that kid. Argh.

Here's how it all went down:

Last Thursday, during my scrum-diddly-umptious recovery week, I was confined to my office for an abnormally long period of time. Most of the day, I was scrunched up in my chair, tense, and working my little self away - taking only the briefest of moments to get up and walk around (error 1). I didn't work out Thursday, and I sure didn't stretch out (error 2). Friday was more of the same, except I worked out - without stretching before hand (error 3). On my tri bike (error 4). Hard (error 5). Saturday, I woke up with a mighty stiff lower back (SIGNAL!!!) and decided to enjoy the warmer weather and go for a run (error 6), but with minimal, lazy, half-assed stretching beforehand (error 6,7,8). All throughout my run, I felt like I was running on stilts; heavy and awkward was every footfall (SIGNAL!!!). I stretched a little bit when I came home from my run, but my lower back was so tight, I pretty much bagged it without thoroughly loosening up (hold your comments please - error 9). Sunday morning I awoke, and with the sound of the birds chirping and the warmth of the sun beaming, I was looking forward to a delightful long ride. Walking down the stairs, however, I couldn't believe just how sore my lower back was, even all the way down into my hips (SIGNAL!!! SIGNAL!!! SIGNAL!!!). Hmmm... Must have been the way I slept (error 10). Reaching down to get a fresh mug out of the dishwasher, it finally hit me. The perfect injury. The coalescence of errors 1 through 10, and the ignorant obliviousness of me missing all the signals. I reached for my mug, I straightened up, and BANG! A shotgun blast of pain up through my lower back, around my core, into my hips, and through my spinal cord - the most painful "snap" I've every felt in my body. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a moron down. I repeat, we have a moron down.

So, yeah, I strained my back by pretty much doing everything that any half-baked amateur athlete knows not to do. And another thing: don't be fooled by the softness of the word "strained" - Because a "strained" back, as I now know, can be the most painful and debilitating injury known by anyone in the athletic community. Put it this way: breathing hurts, okay?

So I've missed two workouts this week, but things are on the mend. I've rested, rested, rested - and I've spent more quality time with my heating pad and my Motrin than with my own family. I'm happy to report that I can actually walk now without looking like a lame cyborg from some 80's sci-fi movie. With the high dosages of Motrin (and a little coffee), I feel flexible enough to start stretching things out again (duh) and getting on the trainer in the near term; hopefully rounding out this week with at least some base miles. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Anyways. Don't be like me, people. Stretch it out.

Snooze Please

Man. Seven days since my last update... I'm so very sorry for that.

"Yeah, seriously Joe, did you fall off the face of the earth or something?"

No, and for the record, I don't think that would be possible. Given the gravitational pull of the earth, you'd need around about 64,000 kilojoules of work to overcome such force. That means speeding out of our blue skies at 39,600 km/hour. Close, but a bit faster than my bike race pace.

Okay, updates are coming soon. I promise. Although I'll tell you right now there's no really big news to report on, no ground-breaking, earth-shattering stories to unfold before you. Just a whole lot of tough workouts coming down the pipeline, and one great season ahead of us to report on.

Stay tuned, and keep it easy.

Word

Well my friends, we've made it through. We're officially done with the Base building of 2006, and with a week of recovery coming up, it's time to rest up and prepare ourselves for the real work of the Build phases.

Though I came in a little shy on my hours this week, I'm pretty satisfied with the way in which my Base ended this year. After Thursday's 70 mile jaunt through Connecticut with Sebastian, I took Friday easier than I probably needed to by only doing about 20 miles at recovery pace on the bike. My legs were telling me all day that a short recovery spin was just what the doctor ordered (as opposed to the trail run I originally had on schedule), but in retrospect, I probably could've gotten a little bit more time in. Oh well. The weekend was rounded out with another 70 mile ride today through some of the great hills of Nowhere, NY, where I saw some great power and apparently quite a bit of sun, as my legs are now glowing red from the mid-thigh down.

Today's ride did have kind of a "downer" moment. I wound up hooking up with a group of guys from the area to have some company over the miles and to help motivate me to pour the power on a little bit more than usual. As we rolled out towards the West, the wind was on our face making whoever was at the front work like a hound. For the added training, I actually hovered right at the front the entire time, while everyone else rotated through - essentially never leaving the wind in order to reach the power numbers I was aiming for. Beyond the halfway point, however, when the wind was on our backs, the group decided it was time to take advantage of Mother Nature and collectively push the pace on the way home. Cruising along on the flats with a strong tailwind at our backs, I made my way to the front frequently. On my last rotation of the day, I moved up - my hands on the hoods and my head down - and I started laying it on heavy. For the first few minutes, I was turning around about 330W and pulling our group along at near 30mph - this pace quickly approached 35mph as I upped my wattage to right around 380, with periods over 400. With heavy breaths and heaving gasps behind me, I glanced over my shoulder to see the group finally strung out and splintered. Satisfied, I gradually wound it back down to a more manageable pace, helping the group re-collect. But then, just as I was pulling off the front to recycle my position in the paceline, I heard that dreaded sound of wheel-touching and scraping metal... A couple of our riders in the very back had overlapped wheels, and as a result, one of our group's guys went down. Hard. Very hard, in fact.

After the dust cleared, a few of us helped stabilize him while the others worked on calling the local ambulance via 911. It was his own best guess that he broke his arm and/or dislocated his shoulder in the crash. Of course, like any true-cyclist, his attention quickly turned away from his own injuries to that of his bike's status. Luckily, both seemed to be "okay" when measured against just how bad a slip like that could have been. And this guy seemed remarkably tough, so no doubt he'll be back out on the road in no time, dicing it up with the rest of the locals just fine.

Incidents like this are just little reminders that we always need to be careful out there and fully cognizant of our own abilities and limitations. And we need to abide by those by riding within our limits to keep ourselves - and those around us - safe.

Now. Back to our regularly scheduled program. After the incident, I broke off from the group and took "my own way home". I met Liz at the local park & ride and together we did 20 miles or so under the warm afternoon sun... With no fear of crashing. As we rolled home together, I took great satisfaction that Base is out the door, and in a week's time, we'll see things get really interesting as we progress through the first several weeks of Build workouts, and pre-season races. As always, I thank all of you for reading, and I hope you'll continue to stay tuned!

Keep it safe out there.