Sunday, March 28, 2010

Big Brick

Yesterday was big brick day. Plan was 50/6. Ended up being 60/60min. I am not sure how far I went. Google maps doesn't have the road I ran on, so I ran 30 minutes out, and 30 minutes back. Exactly a straight split, which is weird. Legs felt like 1000 lbs on the run.
First 40 of the bike, my heart rate stayed at 120. I kept an average of 18+ mph. As the wind picked up, one way got slower, and the other way got faster. At 40 miles on the bike, my hr started to increase. 130's for 40-50 miles, and 140's for 50-60. I am thinking this is cardio creep that I have to keep under control. Most likely I had to take in more water during the first 40. I went through 3 24 oz bottles during that time, and I had a PB&H at about 35-40 miles in. That could be a factor, where it COULD be that cardio creep was a result of solid food on the bike. Hypothesis #2 would be that rather than cardio creep being caused by not enough fluid in the first half,it could be that digestion of solid food pulled water into digestion rather than used for blood pumping and keeping cool. I am going to have to change one thing for next time, so if i am able to get some liquid energy for next week then i will remove solid food for the bike and see how the cardio goes. If not, then I will add a bottle and force myself to drink it in the first 15.
Run, as i mentioned was heavy. I didn't feel quite right until 30 minutes in, which is not so good, and it was mostly muscular. Possibly I need to prime the potassium pump, and get more electrolytes in at the end of the bike. couple that with more fluid and I should be better. I also need to plan a pee break in T2. This time, pee break was about 20 minutes in, and as I was walking out of the ditch, I saw a REALLY BIG GATOR. He was really big because he was about 15 yards from where I was peeing and I was still walking out of the ditch when I saw him. At that point, he looked to be 10 feet long... but on the return trip I figured he was more like 6. Adrenaline added some height to him. I would have laid down next to him to measure, but eh...not so much...
So, before my race, I need at least two more huge bricks like this one, and I likely need a couple more which are about half of this one that I can do during the week. This way I can get my nutrition down, work on my endurance, and work on my transition running. Then after the race, I can work on my speed and more on form for my next A race in October.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I shod the sheriff...

Today seems to be a good day for me to post my shoe quandaries. Last night at the YMCA tri practice we had a foot doctor answer some of our questions about feet. He talked about all the things that could happen to feet, and since you probably don't care, I wont tell you about them. I WILL tell you about what he says about shoes and running styles. Essentially, he says you should get shoes that accommodate your feet. If you have high arches, then you should get high arch support. If you have flat feet you should get shoes to help with over-pronation. If it hurts to run, then you should get shoes that make it not hurt. I asked about tri specific shoes. He mentioned that they will likely hurt your feet, and not help at all, and the drainage will not likely be a factor for anyone but the elite athletes. Also, he says barefoot running and near-barefoot running is crazy, and that running style is extremely hard to change because it is instinctual and you should get shoes to accommodate your running style, instead of changing your running style.
These are most of what I expected a foot doctor to say. I kinda feel weird disagreeing with someone about feet who does feet for a living. My contention is : try heel striking with no shoes on. You won't do it for long.... I really like my Zoots.

I also don't agree that you should wear regular shoes for training and break out your racing flats only for races. I say, practice in what you race in. If you have different shoes, mix them up. I like to wear my Zoots sometimes, and regular running shoes sometimes. I have my elastic laces in my shoes all the time, not just for races, because "Nothing new on race day". Plus I can just pull on my shoes. I am lazy like that. Who knows, because of this I may get injured, and in 5 years be a convert to the wearing shoes to accomodate my bizzarro feet, but for now, I am trying to train my body to work as close to natural as possible.

There is an arguement that "Back in cave-man days there was no concrete or asphalt." I agree. I still wear shoes. They did have hard-pack dirt, rocks, and other types of terrain that I could not even imagine like roots poking up and prickly bushes to contend with. I bet they rarely ran flat out, and if they did, they were sorry for it for days to come. They did not run flat out through cush grass or soft pine needle trails, either.

Anyway, aside from my ingrown toe-nails, and the occasional muscle soreness from super-bricks, my feet are fine, so I am going to keep on-keeping on with my current regimen. I.E. wear whatever the hell shoes i feel like. Speaking of which, I am going to get some new ones soon. These have several hundred miles on them, I am sure, and are due to be retired.

Until next time!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Weekend Training.

So, Saturday was a pretty good day at the AAA Triathlon Camp. We got to learn about aero positions and time savings, work on transition, and do some biking, as well as having a body composition analysis. Friday was a family birthday celebration for my middle son, and so the food I had in my belly for Saturday was not optimal. It seems like as I get more fit, the bad food feels worse. Steak, Guinness, and cheesecake ganged up on me and made me feel like a practice transition was harder than a full race. Lesson learned....til next time.
I feel like I was pretty savvy on the drills we did, and like I was at the top of the group as far as performance. That is pretty good if you ask me, since this tri group tends to sweep the podium at local races.
Sunday was a brick, which was not as good as it should be 6.5 weeks out from a race. 40/2. I did the 40 in just over 2 hours, which is not horrible. I think my bike time will hopefully be sub 3. That will be -10 or more minutes. 2 miles running should have felt better. I was hurtin for certain. My run was 2:49 before, and I would like to get most of my savings there. The swim will not be 'downhill' so I am probably going to have to make up some time, but my swim stroke is a bit better. We will have to wait to see what the water looks like on race day. So, essentially, I need to take a look at my run time and see if i can get better at running out of the bike. I could probably do something about these 5 minute transitions, too. More bricks are in my future for the next 6 weeks.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Sprints, AGAIN!

Y Not Tri workout last night was a timed run and sprints! Here is where I figured out that my great speed that I found lasts about 2-2.5 minutes. Unfortunately, the run was about 1.25 miles. 8 loops of the "track" (footpath around a field and bathrooms). 1st lap was 1.05, then 1.20, then it went downhill for a while until the last lap where I pushed through and did it in closer to 1.10. Then we did sprint/relay/games. We finished with capture the flag. I think it is a blast when adults can play games like kids. I also figured out that in an all out sprint, there are not many who can beat me, and my recovery is really pretty good. This being said, I think more intervals are in my future. I know that too many sprint/interval workouts will make you prone to injury, but they are also shown to improve your fitness by incorporating slow AND fast twitch muscles, increasing your VO2 Max, yadda yadda yadda. They are also supposed to be better for changing your body make-up because they get all muscles burning for a longer time. So if you don't like it then... bleh.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The big experiment

Ok, it took a week to get to the experiment, and i didn't have my video camera, but here is (roughly) how it went.

I know a guy who runs wicked fast. like 6 minute miles in a 10k fast. So when i found this entry online by Jessi Stensland, I had to try it. I think one of the main keys is having someone who can do 10mph running next to you with no effort.

So, warm-up, 6mph for a bit. no sweat, that is my pace! My friend was almost looking frustrated at the slowness of it.

Interval at 7 mph. This took a little effort for me, but was not too bad. 1 minute was a short enough time to not get pooped. then a walking rest.

Interval at 7.5mph. Still not too bad. It helped having someone go effortless right next to me. Kinda made me relax to look over and see that he was having such an easy time with it. then a walking rest.

Interval at 8 mph. Here is where my running buddy noticed that my hands were too low. I thought I had my elbows at 90 degrees, but he said they started at below 90 degrees and fell down from there. This was essentially putting on my brakes and taking way tons of energy to keep going. I decided to focus on arm position for the rest of the intervals. walking rest.

Interval at 8mph. This one was focusing on my arm position and the effort on this one was not too bad. I could tell i was going fast, but in the minute+ that i held this speed, i did not really get out of breath too bad, and was not getting overly tired. I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Interval at 8.5 mph. This seemed not so much faster than the 8. I held the speed, and with him running effortlessly next to me, I tried to be effortless too. I kept dropping my hands, and at this speed i could really tell.

Interval at 9mph. Wheee! this was fast! Elbows have to stay at above 90 degrees or I was going to fall off of the treadmill! Stay light, Stay forward, stay balanced, and keep my arms UP! Old people all around us are looking at us like we are nuts. 1.5 or so minutes at 9mph. walking rest.

Interval at 8mph. This was just to see how it felt. I have to say, this felt much easier - not as easy as 6mph, but a lot easier than 8mph would feel like before. My friend called it "resetting your easy button." True-dat.

I think that at the faster intervals i had some balance problems. Those may be core strength issues, or just that I need more practice at that speed. Either way, I need to practice and get core strength up. I also need to keep my arms bent more than I have been. This saved SO MUCH energy, I was surprised. Amazing to think that my arm position could have been keeping me slow for so long.

If you do this experiment, be careful. Treadmills are scary, and should be used with caution. Don't base your experiment on my blog, or I will have to come up with some sort of waiver of liability. Base your experiment on the link above. She is a professional.

I am going to do this for a couple more weeks in a row, to see if i can extend my faster running to a 5k distance. Then it will be time for another experiment. I am going to try this one by Gail Bernhardt

That is all for now.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

still here.

I have not been posting much. Not much to say. Swim, Bike, Run. Run. Swim. Bike. Blah blah blah.

I DID get two complements in the last 24 hours from people who say I am trimming up. One from someone who spent a while looking at my butt on a bike ride, so I guess I have to believe them.

Tomorrow i am doing an experiment on running efficiency. I will fill you in on the details if it works. If it doesn't work, I will take pictures of the bruises and/or casts and/or general carnage. I hope to find some padding to either wear or set up some mats to protect us and the equipment and walls around us.

hey, maybe i will also take a video! that would be cool. I will bring the digital video thing.

Til then,

Ryan