Finally a good weekend of training

I needed this past weekend. I am not racing for a bit, and I have some pretty big aspirations for my next race in Sarnia, so I thought I needed a solid weekend of mileage. On Thursday morning, I put in a huge swimming day, 4400m and felt really good. Here are the details:

Swimming - 4400m total. Main set was 4 x 400m descending pace on 6:30 (5:54, 5:43, 5:27, 5:12). 600m of IM drill rest, then 4 x 200m descending pace on 3:30 (2:55, 2:50, 2:44, 2:32), then another 600m of rest, then a final 2 x 200m at best time (2:36, 2:31). I was absolutely toast after that, but it was good to get it going.

Friday morning was an easy 13km run (0:54), not too many hills, and a gentle trail following the river. Saturday and Sunday were brick workout days....easy bike, hard, quick run. Here are the dirty details:

Bike/run combos - 55km riding on Saturday (easy, some hard steady state stuff), followed by a 6km run (24:23). Sunday was a 103km ride (easy, 1 big hill) followed by a quick and dirty 4km run (14:15). The runs felt good, the bikes were really slow as I was riding with my fiancee.

Overall, it was good to get some mileage in this past weekend, and now we need to push the speed a bit. That will come today and this weekend with some time trialling on Sunday morning. I will fill you in on the details.

TOUR de FRANCE!!!

Unfortunately this year it looks like Lance is going to run away with it again. Not that I don't want Lance to win, I do as he deserves it as the fastest human on a bike. I was just hoping for a bit more of a push. Heras and his team looked good yesterday during the TTT, but Ullrich and Vino will be in tough I think. Basso won't have it in the big Alps because of his Giro showing. He put so much energy into that race, that it will be tough to do it again in the Tour. Stranger things have happened, but I see Lance winning by 7 - 8 min this year.

That's all for now.

Back to the basics

It has been a bit since I last wrote, and I am back riding and swimming again. I have also decided that running once a month is not going to get me where I need to be for my next race in July. I need to be running 4x/week, to achieve my goal of sub 37:00 for the 10km off the bike. I know I have the engine to do it, but I don't have the legs now. 4x/week for 4 weeks should do it. I have a big weekend planned of all 3, so hopefully that will put me back in the swing of things.

Swimming - Big morning in the pool today. I did about 4200m and our main set was 3 x 400m descending and negative split on 6:30. We hit 5:53, 5:38, and 5:19! We followed that with a cool down set and then 3 x 200m descending and negative split on 3:30. This is where the pain hit. I hit 2:54, 2:45, and finally 2:31. That 2:31 is getting close to a PB, as I don't think I have ever broke 2:30 for a 200 in a practice.

Cycling - I have just ridden twice since Muskoka. Wednesday was an easy 65km on one of my favourite routes around Guelph. On Friday we did just over 90 km in 34C heat, and I almost melted. I normally don't have too much trouble in the heat, but for some reason, it hurt a lot! I need some more time in the saddle this weekend in the heat.

Running - As I said before, I haven't done much of this recently. I will start the 4x/week this week, with 3 run sessions this weekend, and one during the week. I hope these 3:45 km will start to get easier, as I do suffer now a bit below 4min.

This has been an odd summer with all of life's changes, and all of them have been positive. Normally I track every workout, heart beat, meter in the pool, and km on the bike and run. This year I have been much more relaxed, but my competitive side needs to come out a bit more.

By the way, the Tour starts this Saturday so I know how I am going to be spending my days from now on. I love the Tour. I will be hoping Lance wins again, but I also hope Basso has a great tour. Lance needs some competition for his 7th. T-mobile has too many generals and not enough workers. They won't factor in much.

Cheers,

Craig

Muskoka Aftermath

Well,

I guess sometimes you take your lumps. I had been brave (stupid) enough to put my goal times down on this blog to see what happened. I also found out that if you don't train, it eventually catches up with you. Overall I had an OK day. The swim was good, although I think with the buoy change it made it a bit longer than last year, the bike was OK but I was starting to lose momentum by the end, and the run was good for the first 12 km. Details below:

Weather - Cloudy, cool but not windy so generally a good day to race

Swim - Water was a great temperature, about 70, but the water was really high, which meant a fast current up the channel. I decided since I have been swimming well I would start at the front of the pack and establish a bit of a position. Instead I got kicked, punched and almost drowned. I had to pull off to the side, catch my bearings and get back into it. As I approached the first buoy I was in a slow group, and wanted to bridge to the next one. After the right hand turn, I saw that they were about 20 m ahead so I tried to bridge the gap....didn't do it. I ended up about 10 m behind them and 20 m infront of the previous pack, stuck in no man's land. Therefore I just kept swimming for the final 1200m on my own. The fast guys who started the wave behind me just caught me before the last buoy. I was out of the water in 31:20, but to the mats in 32:16 (1:37/100m).

Bike - I decided to wear socks on the bike and that ended up being a good idea. It was cold enough that my feet would have paid the price if I didn't do it. Overall, this is the greatest bike course in Ontario. It just doesn't stop rolling and beats the heck out of you. I steadily made my way past the fast swimmers and I seemed fairly comfortable. I spent a lot of time by myself as I was faster than most age groupers, and way slower than the pros, so I biked by myself. I didn't get passed until 45km into the ride when a group of 3 riders that were drafting went by me. I can't do anything about it so I just kept my head down and rode. In the last 5km I realized that my legs were starting to get a bit tired, and I knew that wasn't a good sign going into the run. The damage was 1:31:52 (35.9 km/h).

Run - Since I didn't really care where I finished, and I just wanted to have a good race, I decided to set my tempo on the run and try to hold it. I was holding pretty close to 4min Km throughout the first 10km of the course and I was drinking and snacking well on gels. At 12km, there is a little riser over an overpass and I noticed that my speed was starting to drop and I could do nothing about it. I had started on Pepsi at the 10km mark and thought that would be enough to hold on, but alas, it was not. The last few Km were pretty tough. At the end of the day, I finished the run in 1:03:11 (4:13/km).

I finished in 3:09:01 64/670 overall, 7/34 in my age group. I can't complain too much about the race as I just haven't been able to train the way I used to. Next race is Sarnia in a month or so, but I don't know if my training is going to get any better.

My calves are still a bit tender today, so the massage this afternoon is going to feel great. Let's see if I can get my butt in gear and train a bit more.

Until I post again.

Craig

Muskoka Prep

Well, we are a few short days from Muskoka long course in Huntsville. This is by far, my favourite race in Ontario. The swim is upstream, the roads are hilly and rough, and the run is hilly and lonely. All things that break other people's spirits.

I had a great taper swim today, which is the only sport that I actually can taper for since I have to actually train to taper. I will put this out there, and state my goal times for the race, and in brackets, my times last year. I am only going for fun, but if I feel good, I will run like it's a 5km.

Goal (last year)
Swim - 28:30/1:25/100m (33:40/1:41/100m)

Bike - 1:28/37km/h (1:30:14/36.6km/h)

Run - 59 min/3:50/km (1:01:31/4:07)

Total: 2:57:30 + 2min transitions = 2:59:30 (3:07:02_

LET'S GIVER SHIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!

The Big Weekend

The weekend

Had an amazing weekend. Did the ride to Ingersoll on Thursday. It ended up being 95km long, and bloody hot! It took me just under 3 hours, including water stops and the first 45 min across the city. Once out of the city, I was averaging just over 35km/h into a pretty stiff, and very hot headwind. I ran out of water for about 30min, but I did survive and didn't suffer too much.

Friday did about 1:30 recovery ride

Saturday did a 48 min run with 4 x 3 min hard with a 4 min recovery. Felt good, I was running fast and the HR was in control, but in the high 170's.

Sunday - Slept in, and proposed to Colleen! Very excited.

Monday - Swim - 2500m
- a lot of drill stuff for IM, and some fast kicking

Tuesday - No swim, up late answering emails and phone calls
- Tempo run in the heat. 35 min hard pace. Prep work for Muskoka this weekend.

The rest of the week: I have a very busy week with work and life so I am not sure how much training I am going to get in. Not great for the big race on Sunday, but perspective says that racing isn't everything!

Muskoka is my favourite race of the year. I can't wait for the 2km swim, 55km bike and the 15km run. Last year I went 3:07 and this year it would be nice to break 3h. I haven't done the volume that I normally have done at this time of the year, but I have been racing and running well so who knows what will happen. Maybe all this positive energy will propell me under 3 hours.

More talk soon.

Craig

My first entry

Hey there,

This is my first entry into my Blog. This is a very new concept for me as I am not a journal writer, and never really wanted to be. Hopefully this will help keep me on track with my workouts and keeping myself accountable with my business dealings too.

First, a little about me. I am 29, living in Waterloo, ON with the greatest woman in the world; my girlfriend Colleen. I own a business in Kitchener called Personal Edge Training Inc. (www.personaledgetraining.com). Our business is personal training and fitness consulting, and have been open for a couple of years. It has certainly consumed much of my life for the past 3 years, but I look back on every moment with fondness. My hobbies include triathlon, tennis, my work, our cottage, and eating. I love to eat, one of the many reasons I work out so much!

Now my triathlon life. I have been competing for about 5 years. I did my first race in 1998 in my home town of Sarnia, ON. It was a 1km swim, 40 km bike and a 10km run. It crushed me. I love finding things I am not good at, and going out and trying to conquer them. This certainly qualified. I don't remember my time, but it would have been about 3 hours. After that, I decided that I would pursue this sport and put some time and effort into it. In 2000, I went to volunteer and sign up for Ironman Canada 2001. I spent a year preparing and training for the race, and had a great experience. My time was a little slower than I had hoped (12:36) but overall, an amazing time, that I don't know if I want to repeat anytime soon. With lots of races in between, my last long race was the Sater Long Course Triathlon World Championships in Sater, Sweden, on July 3, 2004. The course is 4km swim, 120 km bike, and a 30 km run. I really like this distance. Short enough you can race it, long enough you have to pace yourself to finish strong. I did very well there finishing in 6:58, and ended up the 3rd Canadian overall.

This brings me to present day life. I am swimming with the Guelph Marlins masters club, which has improved my swimming immensely. I have a great group of guys I bike with on Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons, and I rarely run, unless it is with Colleen. I can't seem to run on my own.

Today's Training

Swim - Lots of kicking today - total m - 3600m
12 x 100 m warm up (50k/50sw and 50sw/50k) on 2:00
6 x 150 m (100k/50sw and 50k/100sw) on 3:00
12 x 25 drill
6 x 100 m (50k/50sw) on 2:00 descending pace time by 5 sec
3 x 50 m drill
Do the final 2 sets twice

My skinny little legs don't propel me well in the water, although I was able to hit 1:27's for the final 100's which last year, was a fast swimming 100.

Bike - Ride to Ingersoll - 80km (approx)
Colleen and I are at a conference all weekend so I am going to bike to Ingersoll and she will meet me there with my car, and her bike. Hopefully we can get out a couple of times on the weekend, at least for a run. We shall see. I hope to do it in less than 3 hours...My guess is 2:35. I will update you all on Monday.

Cheers
Craig