Friday Forecast

yes. Yes. YES!

The weather forecast magically cleared up and Saturday looks to be perfect riding conditions. It will be the first real ride on my new TT bike so do I be safe and conservative with a 60km ride? 100km ride? I normally do not advertise a specific kilometer number ahead of time but in this case - screw it, lets go the full 100 Miles (160km). I got the route picked out, now I just have to get the bike off the trainer and make sure all the bolts are tight and I have to figure out what to wear and eat and drink and I seemed to have forgotten how to ride outdoors as it has been so long!

I'm confident that my neck will hurt, shoulders will be sore and I will be cursing the aero position long before the halfway point of the ride but its crunch time, literally. Time to learn the aero position. Riding aero indoors on the trainer is nothing like open road. I haven't been fooling myself, I know its not the same. Next week I begin strength training for the aero position, I really should have started this earlier but oh well. Instead of swapping my training tires, I'm going to go out on my race wheels. Its not windy out and I want to watch them spin. I gotta get my moneys worth here!

Last night I tweaked my calf. 5km into my run I felt something rip and had some pain. I just backed right off and ran with the wife for the last 6km. It was tough not running up front with the big dogs and I struggled to hold myself back and not join them. Luckily my wife was there and I just enjoyed her company and the run without risking further injury trying to pour on speed. I'm ignoring the pain for now, I hope it clears up by Sunday's long slow distance run. It was nice to see my wife's run is coming together quite nicely. Actually I should join her more often because I'm pretty certain her pace is precisely what I'll be doing in my Ironman. I should practice it more.
Originally I was going to swim too, but I figure I would give my calf a chance to heal. I already put an extra swim in earlier in the week so it trades off just fine. It would have just been garbage miles anyways since I would be nursing my injury.

TRAINING

Run - 1:00hrs split speed/slow

Bottle Launchers

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I got home the other day! A small, very lightweight, box contained some carbon goodies that took 3 months to arrive from China. In all fairness, the first batch supposedly was 'lost' in the mail. They re-sent the original order about a month ago. Not bad for low-priority mail from China. More importantly, directly coming from China including shipping meant over 500% savings! Suck on that! I wish I ordered another set but I wanted to make sure it was not a scam before placing a large order with them.

With my Carbon Cages arriving, that completes my bike! Everything is mounted, ready to go. Unfortunately mother nature has other plans for my training plan though. More indoor trainer riding. It looks like I wont get outdoors until next week, I haven't even bothered looking at that long range forecast since they're almost always wrong. In the meantime, the bike remains on the trainer. I need a hard cut-over date because when I take it off the trainer I will mount my new Continental training tires to my training-wheels training-wheelset which means I cannot put the bike back on the indoor trainer. These tires are meant for outdoor use and will probably melt if I try to use them on the fluid-resistance trainer. So no going back once I cross the outdoor line. I have to be certain I am ready to take on the weather no matter what.

I'll be the first to admit - I have limits when it comes to cycling. Limits in the form of I will not do a road ride outdoors until it is +10 Celsius or higher. Anything below that means the wind whips right through me and I freeze to death within an hour. On the other hand, I do mountain bike in any weather. However I need time in the aero bars, not jumping rocks on the trail. At least its a workout. The term HTFU comes to mind as I say this. I don't believe in it though, theres nothing worse than getting all bundled up and riding in the cold. Its uncomfortable with all those layers and blah blah blah execuse, yah I am hearing myself. *sigh*. Its so much easier running outdoors, running in any weather is way easier than cycling. I have no problem gearing up for a rainy, slushy, snowy, cold run. If only cycling was the same. Oh and I really hate having to clean the road/tri bike after a wet gritty road ride. I dont mind cleaning the mountain bike, its built to handle the abuse. But my poor tri bike shouldn't be rolling in road grit and possible road salt still out there.
So what happens next? Do I HTFU and get outdoors on the road anyway? Do I just continue mountain biking on the trails until things clear up, even though its not quite the optimal training type? I don't know the answer right now. If you can actually SHOW and prove to me someone is really getting out there in these conditions then I believe it could be done. That would inspire me. Otherwise, I'm pretty certain the majority of us are still tucked away on our indoor trainers and cross-cross training(MTB).

This battle came to light last night because I had a 3hr trainer ride planned but could only do 2hrs. I cracked. Mentally I melted down, I couldn't continue. When on the trainer I have alot of resistance setup on it, this is by design and not by choice. I feel like my legs are turning the equivalent of a steep uphill and at 90rpm my heartrate is only 110bpm. At best I could get it to 125-130 with some crazy resistance but its not sustainable without injuring my knees. My HR is just so low, it makes me feel like 110bpm is hardly worth the workout. Is that even aerobic? I think I've done so much trainer riding that my body has conditioned itself to be efficient at it. I need to get outdoors. I need with wind and elements.








TRAINING:

Bike - 2:00hrs Moderate

Carbon Sprinting

The China-Man came through for me. My Carbon Water Bottle Launchers Cages have finally arrived. I only ordered them back at the beginning of February lol. I had photos but someone misplaced the USB cable to download them so I will wait for it to magically reappear where I put it last. Or Else.

Insert Stolen Kitty Picture Caption Here

I have been doing my best to keep my ears closed. It seems the buzz over the upcoming Paris To Ancaster race is surfacing. I decided to skip it this year. Although registration is still open and when everyone starts getting excited about a race, then I want to join in on the fun too! I try to remember that P2A has pretty much been a miserable cold, windy and muddy ride that I curse every year. Yet somehow I always managed to sign up for it again. This is me putting my fingers in my ears and lalalallalala'ing while walking away. No P2A this year! None of that! I think....

Which brings me to my less than traditional training program. I ran hard last night. Real. Frackin'. Hard. It was great! I broke one of my cardinal training rules - Train Alone. I joined up with the Road Rebels and took the lead with a phenominal runner that set a pace at a level just above mine. I stuck to it and held on to the pace the entire way. Instead of my normal 65-70% perceived exertion, I was running closer to 80% the whole way. I joined the running group to surround myself with better runners than me, So I could learn from them and get me to the next level. I say, Bring it.

I know, not traditional training plan material but I have a solid base to work from. It's time to get out of the comfort aerobic zone and see what this body can handle. The next 3 months is going to be alot of fun. For instance, after that tough run I hit the pool for a nice tempo swim. A bit shorter than usual, but better than nothing. I'll take it easy Thursday night and just the same Friday is rest day.

TRAINING:

Run - 1:05hrs
Swim - 0:50hrs

Week 24 Review

You wouldn't know this was a post-race week. I scaled back on the running this week to allow my joints to heal but made up for it in extra biking and a little swimming. The week started off with some really sore legs and I wanted to carry that soreness all week. I like sore legs, its a good indication of a great workout.
I'm glad to put March behind me, that was by far the lowest point in the training program but all that 'rest' made for a great race result so I am happy. From here on in, it's showtime. No more missing workouts and no more weaksauce. The Performance Phase of the training program is here. The next 12 weeks will directly impact the results at Ironman Lake Placid.
This week is a good indication of where things are going. This is a relatively easy week. The numbers on the training plan get scary. This will be a good test of just how good my base really is. I've spent almost 30 weeks building my base. It's now time to put it to bring it to the next level.

TRAINING (Post Race Week)(Set 7, Week 1 -  Performance Phase)

Swim - 2:10hrs
Bike - 6:43hrs
Run - 3:38hrs

Total - 12:32hrs

March 2011 Totals

March 2011 Monthly Totals

Bike Show, Illness, Race Taper killed this months totals. Ouch!
Swim: 6:00hrs
Bike: 7:00hrs 
Run: 11:00hrs

Total: 23:22hrs

~330Km 21Activities

Wheelies

Take some time off. Rest more, exercise less.

That was the doctor's recommendation. I went for some blood work last week and the results show my CK Test was off the chart. It probably didn't help that I had just done Around The Bay 30Km race a couple of days earlier so that likely effected the results. Regardless I made sure he understood that rest is for the weak and I refuse to lighten up. Actually the training program just gets way heavier the next 12 weeks. He gave me a req form for another blood test in August, post Ironman to see if I return to acceptable numbers. Other than that the blood pressure was aboslutely perfect, all other blood levels perfect but I have a slightly under-active thyroid so that may bite me in the a$$ later in life. Considering the amount of gel & cliff bars and electroylte drinks I consume - I'm impressed it didn't screw anything up. Sweet! I can't remember if I mentioned it but I had brutal stabbing pain in my thigh, middle of the femur, not muscle yet the xray didn't show nothing but the ultrasound hasn't come back. The pain is manageable for now, I'll just keep an eye on it.

So last night I put in a scheduled hour on the bike trainer. I was hoping for 90 minutes outdoors but mother nature is a real b*tch this year. Winter is just not going away. I followed the ride up with a solid 1 hour unscheduled swim. That helped me recover from a tough weekend.

TRAINING:

Bike - 1:00hrs Moderate Trainer
Swim - 1:00hrs Tempo

On the weekend I went to visit my father who gave me the photos and video he took while watching at Around The Bay Race. For the most part, he completely missed me but he did manage to sneak in a couple of shots of Rob & Rich. These guys are hardcore, we have done some 24hr mountain bike racing & Conquer Cancer 200Km rides together except they do it on Hand-Cycles. These guys are hardk0re. Heck, Rob finished an Olympic distance triathlon last fall. Para-athletes are amazing! Rob's story is a true insipiration that I tap into regularly. So I quickly peiced together the couple of glimpses caught on camera. Bare with me, it was the first actualy video I have ever clipped/edited. I have never used the software before, I'm a little disappointed I didn't figure out how to fade the music out at the end. It wasn't until after I made it that I seen where it was. I was in a hurry.


I found a video of Matty-O and his routine training regiment below..

Need More Bike

Great Service from Power-Couple: Rich & Heather

So we took a trip to the 'new' local bike shop we learned about last week. Rich & Heather were more than friendly, it was great to meet them and check out the shop. Sure enough they have regular rides that I would be interested in if I had a damn bike lol. I scudded mine to build the wife's bike thinking that all my riding this year will be solo training for an Ironman. There were no group rides in the area that I knew of at the time so it was an acceptable sacrifice. Now that I may have found people to ride with, I want a bike! I took a Scott cyclocross bike for a spin and surprisingly at a size smaller than usual, it felt like it fit. My thoughts are leaning towards getting a cyclocross bike and swap in road wheels for the group road rides. This should work in theory. I'm just learning the market right now, keeping an eye out for something that catches my eye. I really like prices on Bikesdirect but you gotta wonder. I am my own tech, so I dont need local bike shop support but still...

Anyhow, obviously I missed a few posts last week. I had so much I wanted to post but no way to express it without being long-winded. Instead I just didn't post anything and now I forget what it was I wanted to talk about. Have no fear though, just because I didn't post doesn't mean I didn't train! As a matter of fact I layed it on pretty thick last week. I still have to upload Garmin data so I will post the week review tomorrow.

In the meantime, I hit a stupdily long bike ride on Saturday. I did 70Km of soggy railtrail which felt like 'spinning' on a stationary trainer with the resistance cranked up all the way. No coasting, no speed - just neverending tough sloggin'.  I got chilled to boot so by the end I had a tad bit of frostbite on my 'big' toe. My legs were so sore afterwards that I couldn't even relax.

56cm Felt like it fit. Strange, I'm usually at LEAST 58cm

Sunday brought a 16Km run. The training schedule shows half of that since I should still be recovering from ATB race but oh well. I tagged along with some really good runners that were just a tad bit faster than what I had in mind. They pushed me, its exactly what I was looking for. It was nice being surrounded by better runners than I, and taking it to the next level. If it had been any other weekend it would have been perfect, except after ATB and Saturday's tough ride I had to dig deep to keep up. I was so tired by the end, I could hardly hold a light jog anymore. My poor wife, she did the whole 16km too and practically died! She's still fighitng illness but came out anyways because she's feeling the pressure of too many missed workouts. If there is one word that describes the chick I married, its is "TOUGH". She's one strong babe to come out and tackle a 16Km run with no water, no workouts for several weeks and pretty much the longest run she had done in months. I guess you could call her stupid too, I mean she's with me right? :) lol. I'm so proud of her!

Leaning towards this, I dunno.

So back to regularly scheduled programming. My training program steps up a notch this week but the weather aint' co-operating for the outdoor bike rides. I'm going to have to do some rearranging of my schedule this week. Plus I need to get my head straightened out. Yes, my legs are sore. Yes, I'm tired. No, that is no excuse to miss a workout. I need to make sure I'm taking time out due to injury/sloppiness and not just because of mere fatigue. Although I did have knee pain saturday, but I'll pretend it wasn't there and see if it surfaces during my next ride. Stop the lousy excuses, just do the workouts.

Oh and I had a crazy deep sleep last night, the icing on the cake was that it was through a brutal thunderstorm that shook the house and it just felt that much better. I like lightning/rain/thunder as it makes me sleep that much better. I loved it!

Shopping for bikes is almost as fun as riding them.

TRAINING:

Bike - 4:30hrs
Run - 1:50hrs (Guesstimate, havent looked at GPS data yet)