Bring the Intensity; It's Race Time

While there are a couple of months and numerous training sessions between now and my first peak, race intensity workouts have become common place. With my first Xterra race this weekend, I am starting to get into the race mindset and tough workouts really help accomplish this. All of this hard work has been to make sure that I'm prepared to go super hard and hopefully fast during the race. There is no reason to conserve. There are no second chances. The implication of this is severe suffering. Flat out. No way around it. It is going to hurt, but this is why I've been training. My body can take it. The faster I go, the sooner it is over....ha. I am ready.

This week is a recovery week. I am typically VERY ready for recovery weeks when they come. I am reminding myself that I will feel better and better each day between now and Saturday's race. Today I did a 2hr mtb ride with a couple of short LT efforts followed by a short LT run brick. I usually push past LT particularly on brick runs, but I now the purpose of these workouts this week and understand that every little bit I push over LT will prohibit my recovery. So..I listened to my HR monitor and that was that. The rest of the week leading up to the race has a number of easy workouts with short bouts of high intensity. Just enough to keep my body sharp without hindering recovery. Since this race is not of high priority and I have to keep on plugging away at my training plan, I will put in a long endurance ride on Sunday post race. I am off to practice some transitions in my garage. Every second counts.

Building with Perspective

This is the time when hanging tough is tough, but essential. Turning all this hard work into race speed is what I am working on during this build phase. Feeling fast is not really the goal right now although it would be nice. Unfortunately, most of what I "feel" is tired. Focusing on recovery and really listening to my body is super crucial right now. Case in point; yesterday at lunch I did a super hard anaerobic set in the pool where I basically went all out with a much faster (than me) masters' group. This morning before work I hopped on the trainer for one of my key bike trainer workouts which was to be followed by a key run brick. After the prescribed warm-up, I noticed I not only lacked the motivation to complete the workout(s) (which is a lot to do it correctly), but my energy level was nill. I bagged it, went to work and re-convened with the workout(s) later in the day. Mental and physical had been restored and I knocked it out. I enjoy learning about my body and now know that I need roughly 24hrs between "break through" workouts if I want to do them right.

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to help my coach, Brian Grasky, with an Xterra mini-camp at Saguaro Lake, the site of the upcoming AZ Xtreme Xterra. I still feel like I have so much to learn about triathlon, so I went into the mini-camp a little uncertain about what value I could add as one of the leaders. Well, let's just say I've learned a lot and got tons of satisfaction out of working out with a bunch of motivated athletes that were basically in the same boat that I was in just a couple of years ago. I look forward to seeing this bunch on race day and wish them the best of luck. Pre-riding is so valuable for both the seasoned and new triathlete. Particularly related to the value of pre-riding; in the water, we identified numerous sighting points along the route, on the bike, we figured out where the best places to fuel and how to navigate the hike-and-bike sections and deep sand sections and on the run, apart from figuring out that I've been going the wrong way for two years, we pointed out aide station locations and figured out the best places to "recover" after hammering the hills. Worth it!

Looking to the next couple of weeks I am deviating from the traditional 3 weeks on 1 week off routine in order to make the most of the upcoming races which include the Xterra West Championships in about a month while carefully juggling key training sessions and recovery. I have confidence in this direction. A solid base, good milestone testing and a thoughtful plan put together by an experienced coach help, to say the least.

2.4 Miles is Far

Today I did the 2.4 mile open water swim at Tempe Town Lake. It started kind of late, 10:30, which presented a minor nutrition challenge and meant that I would be doing my long ride during the heat of the day (almost 90). These early season, sport specific races are great for testing not only fitness, but pre-race stuff.

Today I focused on nutrition and being super chill, but focused. On nutrition, which seems to get easier with experience, I did my typical cereal breakfast (Kashi mixed with granola and soy milk). 1hr out from the race I ate a power bar. 30min out from the race I had a small bottle of PowerBar Endurance (check the link...it goes to the best price out there...if you aren't already sponsored). I sipped on some water here-and-there. That was it. It seemed to work just fine. I probably won't do anything much different for Xterra.

On the "being chill" side of things, never underestimate the value of getting your gear ready the night before. You will sleep better and won't be as stressed out on race day....and....you are less likely to forget things like goggles, your helmet etc. I am terrible at pre-registering, but I have committed, thanks primarily to my wife, to pre-registering for every race. 1 for 1. So, what all this amounts to is that I was able to focus on the task at hand. For me, physically walking slowly to-and-from the car, start/finish, body marking etc really does the trick. I am also finding that thinking more about execution vs. fitness and what-if scenarios is supremely better for my mindset. I have to have faith in my training and understand that I have been lining up for competitions of some sort for nearly 25 years.

Forgive me if I don't give a big race report. I swam a big rectangle for 58:10 minutes (1:22/100y) for 8th AG, 34 overall. I am ok with this I suppose, but I think it's slow particularly comparing to others' times who I regularly swim with. I left about 4:00 - 6:00 minutes on the table. My first 1.2miles (roughly) was 27:24 (1:17/100y). Oh goodie, Xterra races are only 1500m. I recently read a quote that said something about how Pros don't make excuses for their performance, they just fix it for next time. So, next time I won't crash my mountain bike the day before a 2.4 mile open water swim that has left me barely able to even lift my bike off of my hitch mounted bike rack. : )

I followed up the swim with a tough, 4hr road bike ride. I cruised out on the IMAZ course with a nice tailwind. Spun through Fountain Hills, where they always seem to have a festival that messes up traffic. Bypassed the coffee place that has killer coffee cakes....I was only about 1.25hrs into my ride, so I couldn't justify the coffee cake nor my standard 2x espresso. NORBA was in town this weekend at McDowell Mountain, so I road over to the park to check out the racing. The pros were getting ready to go off and all those dudes looked super fast. Pro mtb racers are kind of intimidating to me for some reason...more so that roadies. I ran into to Dan DeMos who rides for Focus Cyclery. He won his age group in Expert. Congrats. He also told me that Tom Obrien crushed the field and won the entire Expert class. Since Tom is an Xterra guy, I really hope I put like 10 min on him on the swim (which ain't going to happen). GO TOM!!! He really needs to give full-time mtb racing a shot. He would be pro in a season. From there, I headed through Rio Verde and up 9-mile hill. Yeah...it really is exactly 9 miles to the top. After topping out in Cave Creek, I headed straight back to Tempe as fast as I could...it was brutally hot. Summer is (almost) here.

Tick-Tock, Back @ It

There are so many things to stress about that it is often easy to loose site of simple things that make fun...fun. I do triathlon for fun. Yes, I want to get better and put up some good results, but I get a kick out of it...the entire process. There, I said it. I often hear people say that "when you aren't having fun training, then you might need to take a break." I don't subscribe to this. As the number of workouts per month, per week, per day increase, the probability of having a workout that I simply don't feel like doing or don't have fun while doing is highly likely. The trick, for me at least, is to call a spade a spade and simply manage through what the cause of my dissatisfaction is. Interestingly enough, the more dissatisfaction I have (read: stress), the more opportunity to manage this dissatisfaction comes along...and...thus the ability to get better at managing it. Where does this leave me....1) at the tail end of a recovery week 2) nearly relieved of stress after a super mellow 2k drill swim / 1hr sunset mtb and 3) completely stoked for the weekend full of somewhat epic training. Epic to me = a) long brick day where b) I have to drive to the training spot...don't ask me why. Maybe it has something to do with packing up the Subaru with a bunch of stuff. Before I get into what is on tap for the weekend, I need to recap a somewhat troubling unresolved situation with my bike. The situation is this, I have to get faster on the bike and have been putting in significantly more time on it. Higher focus = higher expectations. I did a bike test on Thursday and did not get the results I wanted. I will spare you the excuses. Once I got home and downloaded my Powertap data, I kind of freaked out and embarked on a mission to truly understand all the data the cycling software, WKO+ presents. I started to comb the Internet for answers and delved, yet again, into Hunter Allen's and Andrew Coggan's book call Training and Racing with a Power Meter (a must have for those who train with power). Well, needless to say, I now know that I really have a lot to learn. Part of me wishes I could just pay Hunter Allen $2000/mth to solve my mental issues via a robotic like, mathematical masterpiece of a training plan that, in the end, might or might not be better than what I am doing now. Not so fast. Neither Rome, nor my fitness was, or will be, built in a day...or an evening going cross-eyed looking through forums about training with power. Looking back through my data file from the bike test it really wasn't bad. I like doing tests on a long steady hill. This course was rolling with some pretty decently long stretches of downhill. Maybe I just suck because "power is power", but trying to hold 330+ watts going downhill made me prematurely blow up....then fight the rest of the effort to find the pieces. Enough!

My first Xterra race this season kicks of in just a couple of weeks with the DCB Adventures Arizona Xtreme Desert Triathlon at Saguaro Lake, AZ. Last weekend, Tom Obrien, who will likely win the Expert division at this weekend's NORBA National here in AZ, did some training on the course. We did about 2800 of open water swimming in the lake followed by 2x laps of the mtb course and capped off the day by running the 5 mile run course. Tomorrow, I will be solo, but will start the day with an easy run of the running course at zone 1/2, 2x laps of the bike course at zone 2 and then another full lap of the running course at zone 2/3. Pre-riding the course is super important and I am happy I can do it so frequently. The bike course does have two hike-and-bike hills on it, one of which tore the sole off of one of my mtb shoes. These are the replacements, pretty sweet. I opt for the three-strap vs. the buckle to not only save time in transition, but buckles + sand/dirt = NO OPEN. Sunday has another sweet training day on tap. In prep for Ironman Arizona DCB Adventures puts on a 2.4 mile swim in Tempe Town Lake over the actual IM course. After seeing what doing 2.4 miles in a wetsuit is like and what the suit does to the back of my neck (pretty sure it will move well past just chaffing), I will hop on my road bike and do a 4hr+ ride on part of the IMAZ course and then head into North Scottsdale to find a couple thousand feet of climbing.

You Can't PR Every Day

...no matter how cool that would be! On Wednesday, I hooked up with a Masters' group that swims out of Scottsdale, AZ (near my work) for a lunchtime swim. After a standard warm-up...BAM...the coach says "1500 for time"....yuck! A 1500 is something that I kind of have to mentally prepare for. Within 30 seconds of the coach saying this, I was off on my swim. I had no expectations other than to complete the swim without falling apart. To my left was Lewis Elliot a local pro triathlete who was/is faster than me (100 over 1500 to be exact) and another life-long swimmer-type on my right (a couple of lengths faster than me over 1500). Great pacers to say the least. 19:40 later I was done. PR. 1:18/100y. Just two weeks back I did a 22:40, which I was satisfied with. I am trying to figure out how this happened. 1) I did not have anyone to pace off of two weeks ago, 2) The pool I swam at two weeks ago is more of a rec pool with lap lanes vs the pool I swam in a couple of days ago which is a pure lap pool, 3) My new stroke (catch and work the water back) is coming around. Whatever the case, a new bar has been set. The great thing is that it is only March and I know I can and will get faster. When I compare this swim to the swim I did with a different Masters' group in Mesa, AZ this morning (lots of 200s), I've come to the following conclusions: A) You can't PR every day. I felt sloppy and just flat out slow in the water today. This might be gross to some, but I was working so hard to over-compensate for my lack of form that I threw-up in my mouth after one of the 200s. This display leads me to B) Go to Masters with a plan. We've all been done it. You show up at Masters looking to get a "good swim", but end up throwing down just because. I did this same thing last year over and over again and it ended up leaving me too toasted to get anything else with quality done. Lesson learned!

On tap this weekend I'll be heading out early for a 80+ miles of hilly road riding with one of my local tri buddies, Mike Wares, who just qualified for Kona at IM New Zealand! He rocks. On Saturday I have a full day with a long trail run with zone 4/5+ intervals, a zone 2/3 MTB and a nice swim set with plenty of drills and a little variable speed work, nothing above tempo. Rock and roll.

The Wheel Turns

Cruise control has officially been engaged because workouts are getting harder, work never lets up...and....there are still only 24hrs in a day. The good thing is that I never seem to get bored with pushing my body...especially when the positive results continue to roll. The first week of tough Base 3 workouts were tough and have left me pretty tired. Not too tired though to take on another couple of weeks. This week will increase the volume a bit and has me wondering where it is going to fit, but I am confident it will get done. I've found a nice balance doing 4 swims/week. I have been doing 1 short/drill swim solo and then hook up with masters for the other 3 sets. It is prime lake swimming time here in AZ, so I might round up some tri-buds and head to do some open water swimming this weekend. My new Zoot Xenith is screaming at me to be used. I can't wait. On the bike, I am looking at 2 super hard trainer workouts, 2 super easy short/recovery rides, 1 long zone 2/3 road ride with plenty of climbing and 1 fun day w/a couple of hours on the mtb. I have been really pushing the envelope on the trails (Hawes/Red Mountain) near my house. I am getting super comfortable on my Cannondale Taurine and think I have found a nearly ideal tire pressure for desert riding. 25psi front and rear. What good is all this hard training if I waste it all making up for poor handling? The run is progressing well and I pretty much feel more comfortable and faster with each and every run. 1hr on the trails seems par for the course and is readily becoming "fun." I am thinking of throwing in some more run-only races, but we'll see. Time to set up the torture rack (trainer) for tomorrow mornings ride.

Heading in the Right Direction

I have crested the hurdle of how to positively manage higher volume and intensity. This is a great feeling because I no longer freak out about how I am going to fit everything into a day and, more importantly, I am physically and mentally ready for each workout....easy or hard. So, three cheers for a having put in extra long early base training. Fully into base 3 now, all tests indicate that I am not only heading in the right direction, but am ahead of schedule. The first true test will come on April 26 at the Arizona Xtreme Desert Xterra. I'll be out of the lab soon and into race season mode. Key training highlights for the swim are that I've added 1-2 extra easy/drill set swims per week. These are really helping my times consistently come down and are great for all around recovery. Biking is going as planned and, similar to the swim, I have added some additional easy miles. On the run I've integrated higher intensity bricks off the bike. These never feel "good", but really get my mind and body into race mode. I will be throwing in some more race specific workouts as the April 26 race draws closer like lake swims, swim start simulation sets, short interval bricks (swim-bike-swim-bike) and, fortunately, lots of pre-riding the course....it is 15min from my house. All in stride for now. Onto a trainer workout this AM, an easy jog around beautiful Paradise Valley at lunch followed up by a nice easy spin tonight after work..maybe even a night mtb ride instead.