In the Soup Now

You call that a recovery week! " . . . eh eh I guess" (hear Garth's voice) Each preceding recovery week has left me feeling refreshed, enthused and ready to roll. This past week it took until after the rest day before I felt good. Each workout seemed harder than it should be. I think that even though my body was recovering my mind was still suffering from training fatigue.

I had rearraned some of the workouts and ended up doing most of the true recovery work at the beginning of the week leaving the intervals and hills for later in the week. A tactical error on my part.

On a side note, I'll be glad when each news cycle doesn't contain a new study about the cardiac risks of triathlon. Apparently it's about 3 times that of marathoning. In talking to the Doc, we're not even sure where to begin to get my risk assessed. Most cardiologists offices aren't set up to test someone who's resting heartrate is 48 and can run for a few hours. From what I've found, it would take a full radiological echocardiogram to see the thickening of the heart wall called "athlete's heart." A regular ekg could detect a dangerous rythym, but I think the Doc would have noticed that - although she hasn't listened to my heart in a while. Maybe it's time to get the Doc to play Doc.

The articles aren't helping her nerves about the whole IM adventure. [Ramsey - skip this next line or two] The only good news is that the risk seems higher for newbies with little open water experience. Our bay of the lake was free of ice yesterday, so I should be starting my open water experience for this season in the next couple of weeks. Cold water heightens the risk - um, Lake CDA is COLD. Hopefully it won't be as cold this year as it was last. I haven't checked on the snowpack out there which will be a good indicator.

Anyhow, the forecast for Friday is calling for 45 degrees. I'm currently vowing to take the bike outside for my 1:45 ride. The 4 hour ride will be on the trainer - NS Rob is coming over again.

Long run of 2:10 on Saturday. I'm planning on putting the 10/1 plan into action as it will be closer to what I'll be doing on raceday (hopefully).

What are you on?

People ask me that question sometimes. For different reasons than this though:




Wasting time on youtube and couldn't resist posting it here. There's a whole slew of pretty cool Nike commercials and one for Dick's Sporting Goods that you're sure to see here later.

The recovery week continues with a 40 minute run and yoga today. Short swim and some intervals on the bike tomorrow.

It's beginning to look like we're going to have 6 or 7 guys riding the 100 miler at the Minnesota Ironman Bikeride the end of April. Should be fun (although I don't plan on seeing any of them for the last 50 miles).

Another Recovery Week

Hey out there. Seems like this blog is turning more into a rest and recovery blog than a training blog. That could be because the only time I feel like I have the time or the energy to do a post I'm resting or recovering.

Had a great week last week. Both my 3:45 bike and my 2 hour run went awesome. NS Rob came over and to the subterranean spin studio for the long bike. I punished him with both country music and hip hop (not simultaneously) after watching What It Takes - a documentary about 4 IM athletes. He lost focus a bit at the end, but considering his last ride period was at least 3 weeks ago I'd say he was a trooper. As he will attest - "Cowgirls Don't Cry." I think he might have liked "I Love College" even better.

For my long run I got out and ran along the Mississippi from Stone Arch down to Ford Parkway and back. It was beautiful on Saturday - I even have a bit of a matchstick tan going (brown head - white everything else). Although I still have my racing stripe on my back from a long ride last year where I missed a swath on my shoulder with the sunscreen.

I was a bit sore still this morning, but after a massage from Larry @ The Fix Studio, I'm good to go - even going down stairs.

This week should be nice and easy - it almost didn't seem worth the trip to the gym for the 1,700 yards in the pool this morning.

At the end of this week I will be 1/2 way through my 24 week program. One more build cycle before I start the peak (there's really not a discernible difference - the volume still builds throughout the peak).

This week's video is less motivational than it is informative. It's Paula Newby Fraser giving some insight to the CDA course. So if you're signed up for the race or curious about a few of the specifics it's worth checking out.

Now That's a Rest Day

This is how I spent just about all of Saturday. The kids went to a retreat at Luther Park so the Doc and I used it as an excuse to continue up to Larsmont on the North Shore. She worked out Saturday morning - I didn't pack any shoes or spandex for such activity so I took a REAL recovery day. We both finished a book.

Those of us who are addicts often look to those "more" addicted to show we're not really addicted. I mean look at that guy, I'd never: drink malt liquor in a paper bag, sell my wedding ring for some coke, or in my case, run an ultra-marathon. I mean those people are truly crazy. I'm "just" going to do my first Ironman. The Doc still cringes everytime she hears or read first Ironman. Anyhow, I read "Off the Deep End" about a 45 year old guy trying to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 50m free. Now that's truly crazy (he didn't quite make it, but he did win the Masters Nationals and better his college swimming time).

The most intense undertaking of my Saturday is shown below:

We wandered around on Lake Superior for a while. Sunday after we got back to town I had a 50 minute run and had to continually hold myself back. My HR stayed low and the legs felt great. It was 60 degrees (which in March means there was a hearty South wind) but it was awesome to be free of tights and the jacket. I'm going to need the rest with the 3:45 bike and 2:00 run, plus 1.2 mile swim TT this week.

I'm still kicking

Wow, it seems like the last thing I want to do after finishing up my training for the day is talk about it, log it or blog it. I haven't put anything in my log for 2.5 weeks. I'm still doing the workouts. The runs are in my watch and the rides are on the computer so I can dig up the stats if I want. I probably should just to see the total hours rise.

Last week took a pretty big toll on me. I was nowhere close on my wattage goals for the long ride. After 1/2 hour all I wanted was off the bike. I spent the next 3 hours watching my wattage drop. I did spend the full 3 1/2 hours moving so I'm chalking it up as a mental toughness ride. Fortunately this week eases up a bit with the key workout being a 1:30/30 brick. Next week the long stuff returns 2 hour run, 3:45 bike and a 2,112 (1.2 mi) TT in the pool. I'm sure I'll be begging for mercy by then. I am going to try and get the run in AFTER the bike next week.

On a happier note, my weight seems to be moving in the right direction - despite the weekend dietary debauch in the Dells. I'm craving healthier foods which is good. M&M's new pricing strategy (those Easter bags are on 12.6 ounces, they used to be 14 ounces and 16 before that) is helping. Thank you M&M/Mars you finally figured a way to price out one of your heavy users.

I better get cleaned up and start on dinner. Hope your training is going well.

Not the 225 pound weakling we thought!

Despite the graph at the bottom of the page, I did train last week. I just haven't logged it yet at trifuel.com. I've responded well to last week's recovery week and am feeling pretty recharged. I'm sure the 11 mile run and 3 1/2 hour ride will knock that feeling back a bit this week.

I went in yesterday to redo my LT test. The last test showed an LT at 153 bpm and a paltry 180 watts. None of my rides were corresponding to those numbers so we knew something was funky. The retest showed my LT at 150 bpm and 240 watts. While this doesn't put me in the Ain-Alar Juhanson league (his LT is a ridiculous 453 watts) or even the Tor Sindballe (LT of 400 watts). It does mean my power to weight ratio is 2.4 instead of 1.8 which is good (weighing 100kg sure makes the calculations easy!). Now if I can get that weight down to 90kg with a slight increase in power all will be good (to 300 or something).

I'm going to try and push 220 watts for 1.5 hours on Thursday, we'll see how that goes. Friday I'm doing my 3.5 hour ride and will probably shoot for around 200 watts and see what my heart rate does.

We found a conference for the Doc at the Wilderness Resort in the Dells so the whole support crew is headed there Thursday night. The midwest faction of the extended crew is coming also. We'll get to meet the newest member, which is pretty exciting. (The Doc does love the smell of newborn scalp)

Does the fact that I'm hauling my bike and computrainer seem over the top to you? If it doesn't cause you to even raise an eyebrow you're my kind of people. If there's no snow or ice on the roads I can get my hill workout in on Saturday - otherwise it'll be on the dreadmill in the resort.