In Search of Loops

Summer means road trippin' and new training venues. I'm currently down in San Clemente enjoying the warm (and humid) SoCal weather. Arriving here involved a one night stay at the Madonna Inn. I had never heard of the inn until a friend I was driving down with made the reservation. The Madonna Inn is a kitsch hotel of sorts, and the pictures should give you an idea of how "kitsch" the place is. Surprisingly, I liked the hotel and its amenities, and I think I would stay there again. I did a morning run at nearby Lake Laguna, and as customary, I was in search of a looped run. I'm a big fan of loop runs. It seemed like I would be able to run around the lake but no such luck, the trails just kept leading down and into the water. So I set out to find a loop that would lead me back to the hotel, but once again, no suck luck. I did eventually get my loop, but not on the run, but rather on the bike today when I rode from Irvine out to Laguna Beach, up to Newport Beach, and back to Irvine.

Sabotage

I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent person, and a good decision-maker (uh-oh, any time you start by qualifying something, you know it's going downhill). Yesterday, I had a 45-mile hilly ride planned, at an easy pace because the 4,000+ feet of climbing would be the work. Also, the prior day, I put in a 7-hour training day that involved a hard ride, a tempo pace brick run, a swim, and some weights (whew!). The plan was just to back up a hard day's training with some riding to build the endurance and fitness. I had a field trip with my students for the entire day, and going into the workout, I was a bit calorie deficient for the day.

I held my easy pace up the first climb, and I passed a rider. A couple of minutes later, he re-passed me, but I held my pace (good job Kiet). My steady pace found me re-passing the guy again, and then he immediately went by me, inviting me to play I guess. I wasn't supposed to play today so I let him go. But once again, he came back to me, and this time, I admit, I put in about an extra 10% effort to hold him off for good. Even with the incident, the pace was still easy/recovery.

During a flat section, I held a moderate pace, just chilling in my aerobars and enjoying the tailwind. A roadie went by me and after passing, he looked back. He stayed several hundred meters in front of me for some time, and he constantly looked over his shoulder checking in on me, inviting me to play. And out went any intelligence or good decision-making skills I possess, and I began the chase. As I was hammering to pull him back in, I fully knew that I was making a poor decision, and putting myself at risk for bonking. I specifically remember thinking, I'll take that risk, maybe I won't bonk, and I'll just feel good and hold on, and he and I can ride the rest of the way together. Just before I caught up to him, he made a turn. Damn! There will be no company to make the rest of the ride go by quicker. Poor decision Kiet.

As I pressed on solo, I knew the calorie deficient day was catching up to me. My head was becoming foggy, my hands tingled, and I was losing power on the pedals. But I did not reach for food. Once again, I'm smart, in fact, I'm a freakin' coach! I coach athletes to perform. Yet here I am, feeling the bonk come on, and I make the decision that I don't really want to eat. I was over energy food, and I just didn't want to eat a bar. By the time I hit the last climb of the day, I was barely turning the pedals over, and thoughts of calling for a ride was filling my brain. I finally succumbed and reached for my bar, about 5 miles from home. I was a wreck by the time I rolled through the door of my house, laying on the floor, and thinking, why do I sabotage my training? Today's training did not call for me to be wrecked! Do other people do this?

It Is What It Is

Lately, work has been getting in the way of training. Coaching 8-hour track meets followed by chaperoning high school dances, all in one day, is cramping my training style. I wasn't able to get in the mileage I had hoped, and I didn't even crack 10 hours of training last week. My old self would not only be trying to squeeze in or make up the missed workouts, but I would also be stressing about the missed workouts. But for whatever reason, my new self is taking it all in stride, and I find myself saying "It is what it is" when work cuts into my training. Next time something doesn't go your way, just say, "It is what it is", and somehow, I guarantee you that you will feel better.

Two Mysteries

My second cycle of volume week went by quietly, unscathed of dramatic tweets. I found myself doing more and thinking less. I actually found myself excited and looking forward to some of the bigger training sessions, rather than dreading it. I've always thought the more fit you are, the less training drama, it's sort of an extension of this race rule: if you are feeling emotional, eat more! But as fit as I'm feeling, two mysteries still perplexed me this past week.

I feel like I'm just surviving the long/steep climbs where I used to feel like I attacked them. I'm doing the same long rides I used to do, but unlike the past where I would attack the climbs, I'm just barely surviving them, and on some days, not even surviving.

The second mystery involves my swimming. I've somehow lost my swim. There have been a couple of days where I've been able to find it, holding 1:10's until the cows come home; but for the most part, I feel like a slug through the water barely able to hold 1:15's. I've been a swimmer most of my life, and I can't remember having so many back-to-back days where I have no feel for the water.

Though both mysteries are a bit perplexing, I'm confident that they will sort themselves as I continue to train and get more fit. Though I spent nearly 20 hours training this week, I somehow failed to take any pictures, so I'm including a GOPro shot from a couple of weeks ago, where I did have my swim groove doing a long course workout.

Guilty

I recently had this blog post sent to me, and after reading it, I admit to making some of these mistakes in my past training. I'm guilty of going too long too often, and I'm definitely guilty of going to hard too often. My 4-week training cycle was built to address some of these issues, ensuring that I go hard when it's necessary, go long when it's appropriate, and rest when it's essential. I think my training is balanced and on track thus far. I've had days when I felt tired due to high volume; and I've had days where I've felt good, and hit my my numbers because I was rested. The biggest challenge thus far are the days when I'm unexpectedly tired, and I can't figure out if I should rest, slow down or cut it short, or carry on with the plan. Most of the time, I find myself carrying on with the plan, and post workout, it usually feels right. I'm excited and looking forward to racing a half ironman in one month's time to test myself.

The Irony That Is Rest Week

I find it ironic that rest week is when my body feels the most tired and run-down. I had scheduled training days during this rest week, and by Thursday morning, I was quite resentful of my alarm when it sounded at 5:15 AM. I laid in bed thinking, how is this rest when I'm struggling to wake up at 5:00 AM to do an easy workout, and why the hell am I waking up at 5:00 AM just to do an easy workout. And wouldn't my time be better served giving my body some extra sleep and giving my mind a mental break from early AM workouts? The rationale seemed to work because I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Rest week from here on out will not involve training, but rather exercise. Training implies that the workouts are pre-meditated and planned, and usually there is a purpose for the workout like tempo run or hill repeats. Exercise is just working out whenever you feel like it. You know, when you go swim, bike, or run just for the fun of it, and just to break a good sweat. Rest week is now exercise week.

The Plan

This year, I've come up with a training plan that will hopefully address some of my weaknesses during the past two years, but still keep things on the fun side. I have a 4-week cycle where the first three weeks is building on each week by 20-25% in terms of hours. The 4th week is a rest week. Each week has a different emphasis and breaks down like so:

Week 1: Less miles more speed (get after those Strava KOMs and CRs!)and equal time paid to swim, bike and run.

Week 2: More miles less speed (Strava of the mind is still okay!) and more time paid to running.

Week 3: Lots of miles, no speed (no Strava!) and more time paid to biking.

Week 4: Rest week, build weight back up and more time paid to swimming and weight room sessions. I find that as I increase the miles, my weight drops. I'll start the cycle weighing 130 pounds during week 1, and by the end of week 3, I weigh in at about 126 pounds. Thus, this week is about fattening myself, and reversing the trend to get back up to 130 pounds by the start of the next cycle. Unlike the past three seasons, I'm determined not to be 121 pounds again!

I just finished week 3 of my cycle, and I did a little over 19 hours of training, and I'm putting a cap on training at 20 hours. If it's over 20 hours, it has to be fun like doing the Coast Ride. It's gotta be fun, this is after all, a hobby.

Keep the Throttle On

We all have different ways to either cope or nail a workout. This morning, the mantra "keep the throttle on" got me through my 10+ mile run. If you've ever driven a motorcycle, or scooter, jet ski, or even a Go Car, you probably understand this analogy. The throttle is used to apply more gas to either accelerate or to maintain speed. When a scooter approaches a hill, if the throttle is kept constant, the scooter will gradually slow down as it climbs the hill. In order to maintain the same speed up the hill, one needs to "keep the throttle on". I did a hilly run this morning where the focus was to work the uphills and keep it steady through the flats and downhills. As the pitch of a hill increased, I had to keep the throttle on to maintain my speed. There was one pitch that was pretty steep and I was unsure if I was indeed keeping the throttle on, but my ascending heart rate popping out of my chest confirmed that I indeed was throttling. Mantras work very well with my obsessive/compulsive brain.

I need to keep the throttle on for one more week because this is the third and final week of my build cycle, and then some rest next week. There were definitely days over the past week when I questioned what the hell I was doing. On top of work and training, which is normally doable, I've got some extra stuff going on in my life that is making time management more of a challenge. One of the extra stuff involves playing in the kitchen and coming up with my own energy food, stay tuned.

Three Weeks In

I'm three weeks into the start of my 2013 season, and things are going swell. I'm in the third and final week of my build cycle, and next week, I get a bit of a break. After 20+ years of training, I have this huge aerobic base and I find that I get back into aerobic fitness fairly quickly. But getting back to peak racing fitness requires a bit more time, and a lot more racing.

After my good news on January 8, you would think that I would be grateful for every opportunity to train. But when my alarm rang at 5:00 AM last Friday, I was feeling anything but grateful to get up and do my run. Funny how that works. I'm sure the human condition that allows us to heal, is also responsible for causing us to take things for granted. But I did roll out of bed and not only did I get the run in, but I got my swim done and dusted all before 7:30 AM.

I'll get a chance to test my aerobic fitness this weekend when I join 100+ riders for the coast ride from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. My longest ride in the past five months is 49 miles, so I am a bit concerned. My lack of preparation should tell you that this was a last-minute decision, spurred by no other than one Charisa Wernick. The first day is 123 miles from San Francisco to Seaside. The second day is 125 miles from Seaside to Morro Bay. And the third day, well I don't know the distance because I'm bailing after the second day. 248 miles over two days is plenty for me. I have a feeling I'm going to be digging deep, very deep this weekend. I'm looking forward to documenting the experience with my new GOPRO3 camera, I love the way this camera takes pics and videos. I hope the rest of you are having equally fun building the fitness for 2013.

Late Season Fitness

The past two mornings, my alarm has gone off at 5:00 AM, and you know what that means: I'm thinking about racing. Only an impending race could motivate me to get up at 5:00 AM to train. I'm not totally committed to the race yet, but there is a good chance I'll be doing an OLY distance race in two weeks. This morning, I did a run loop I hadn't done since late May. I set out in the early morn, not totally committed to trying to set a PR, but committed to doing at least a tempo run. About one mile in, I decided to do the entire run on feel, and not look at my watch for splits. Aerobically, I didn't feel as maxed out as when I ran a PR on this loop, but my legs felt strong, and the turnover was fast. Based on feel, I really thought I nailed a PR, but upon looking at my watch at the end, I was far off from a PR: 6:50 vs. 6:30 pace. I couldn't believe it was that far off based on how fast I felt. Oh well, I guess feel alone can be misleading. My natural inclination is to ramp up the miles, I'm a mileage junkie, and I started to add a lot of workouts into the schedule. But I caught myself, and I was reminded that I got here doing too little. And then, as confirmation, I saw a tweet or something about racing ironman on very little training. And then just like that, I started crossing out workouts. Stay the course Kiet.

Where was I in my travels. The morning I was to fly from Stockholm to Vienna, I arrived to the airport and presented my passport at the check-in counter. The attendant opened the passport, looked strangely at me, and said, "You don't look 6'2", blonde hair, and blue-eyed Mr. Stubblefield." This has got to be one of the worst feelings when traveling (I got to experience a second worst feeling about 5 days later, to be continued...). My friend and I had accidentally swapped our passports, with my passport being back at the hotel 45 minutes away. KCCO. We were able to make the switch but in the process, I missed my flight. I did make it to Vienna, and my hosts, Peter (who I trained and race IMOZ with during my sabbatical) and Monika were awesome, and they had a great rooftop flat. From my stay in Copenhagen and Vienna, I'm now convinced I want to live in a rooftop flat. Vienna turned out to be my favorite city in Europe thus far, and maybe the 50 meter pool completely lined in stainless steel and oh so clean water might have something to do with it. Or maybe it was the company I was with, I just really enjoyed my time in Vienna. There's something about Austrian/German sensibility and design that really resonates with me. The subway system is awesome, clean, you never wait more than 5 minutes for a train, and it goes everywhere (SF take note!). I also had a favorite eatery, Motto Am Fluss, where I would sit daily eating their yummy homemade granola over Greek yogurt, and people watch. This video will paint a clearer picture just in case your imagination just isn't there: https://vimeo.com/27599728. And now some pics.

The 911 Ride

Yesterday, I met two friends at 8 AM for a long ride, and the temperature was already in the low 70's, very much an anomaly for the Bay Area. I was wearing an all black kit, and though I heard reports that it would reach the low 90's, I failed to heed the warning.

At some point in the ride, we caught up to a group of 50+ riders, and amidst that group were a lot of long time friends, and it was nice to spend time catching up. But as with many group rides, the pace quickened, people got dropped, and soon it was a hammerfest with lots of hard efforts, hard efforts that I really should not have participated. I was lolly gagging at the half way point and pit stop, and came out of the store to realize the group had left without me. Group rides don't wait for people.

And this was when things turned ugly, really ugly. The temperature was soaring and those earlier hard efforts began to take toll. Though the temperature was soaring, I did not alter the route and take the easier and flatter route home. Instead, I chose to do the hillier ride home. I ran out of fluids during the hardest climb, and the next water stop was and hour plus away. I was feeling the onset of heat exhaustion, nausea and cramping, and I immediately went into ironman crisis management mode. I took deep breaths to try and oxygenate my fluid deprived muscles to keep them from cramping. During an uphill section, both quads seized up, and somehow I willed enough of a pedal stroke to keep from falling, and made it to the shoulder and unclipped. This was my low point. The climb was totally exposed to the sun, I was so freaking hot, both legs seized up, and so nauseous I felt like I was either going to vomit or pass out. And for the first time in my WHOLE entire life during a ride (that didn't involved a crash), I contemplated dialing 911. This was no longer fun, I mean not even type III fun, and instead, I was genuinely scared. I thought to myself, "I'm not even doing a freaking ironman this year and how the hell am I in this predicament of digging so deep in the well?"

Well, I hadn't passed out yet, and I hadn't vomited, thus that meant I could at least continue to ride because stopping wasn't going to get me closer to water. I somehow made it to the parking lot before the descent down to water, and stopped to asked people for water. Not a single person gave me water, everybody was coveting their water. In-freaking-credible! Both of my legs seized up while standing there and after loosening them up, I gingerly pedaled the descent down to water. Once I got to the water station, to add insult to injury, there was a looooong ass line to fill up bottles. I just wanted water soooooo badly! I could go on with details but let's just say it took me a loooong time to get home, and at least three times, I thought of calling for a ride. Well, I didn't die but the truth is, I really put myself in a precarious situation yesterday. People do die from heat exhaustion. People's minds do outlast their bodies, recall the story about Fran Crippen who basically swam himself to death in very hot water. I stopped at a gas station to fuel up, and was told it hit 101 degrees. I'm lucky nothing worst happened, and I can safely look back at this as a good story to tell. But let me be the voice of reason folks, and say, please know your limits, and be safe out there. It's just ONE training session or one race, LIVE to fight another day. And if you live, you get to enjoy things like paleo pumpkin blueberry chocolate chip "bread", and cafes with bright colors and Eames chairs.

Sold!

I meant to get this post up on Monday, post the weekend's training. Somehow, writing it 5 days later takes away much of the authenticity but I don't have much else in the way of creative blog posts right now. But what I wanted to write is that I'm definitely sold on four things after my training this past weekend.

1. WEIGHTS: I've been averaging less than 100 miles per week on the bike this season, and this past Saturday, I decided to do a week's worth of riding in one day. The weather was absolutely perfect here in SF, more specifically it was perfect weather to do the Marshall Ride (not too hot, not too cold, and most importantly not too windy). As I was hitting the 70 mile mark of the ride, I started to compose a blog entry in my head of how much better I feel on long rides this year versus last year when I was doing all of that ironman volume. The difference is the weight training. When I'm mashing on the pedals, it just feels like a weight session. But not long after I composed this entry about feeling stronger, I bonked on the last climb of the ride at mile 80. But I have to say, even my bonk feels better this season. Weights, I'm sold!

2. TIME TRIAL BIKE: The TT bike is much faster than the road bike...if you are racing against the clock. I've only ridden the TT bike twice in the past 3 months and the above pic are the results of those two rides: PR's for both rides. It is fast and my riding partner will attest to the change in speed when I'm on the TT bike. If you are a non-drafting triathlete, you should be racing on a TT bike.

3. INTENSITY/RECOVERY: Though I've done less volume, I've upped both the intensity and the recovery, and this precious balance seems to be yielding good results. In fact, this is the way I used to train from my late 20's to late 30's where I set most of my PR's. Somehow, I moved away from this mode of training and started training for training sake. I don't have regrets about training to do more training because when it came down to it, I had fun training to train. But who wouldn't when you're traveling to Kona and the Gold Coat of Australia to train.

4. PALEO DIET: I have no gluten allergies, but food, specifically carbs have always had a very strong effect on me. One summer when I was coaching a swim clinic at Stanford, I realized just how sensitive my body can be to carbs. I had a very big, carbohydrate-loaded lunch, and I had to coach immediately after. While standing on the pool deck, I was extremely lethargic and worst, I couldn't fight off this powerful sleep that made my eyes so heavy, I was struggling to keep them open. My head kept bobbing as I was fighting off sleep during the coaching session. Next thing I knew I was in the water. My blood sugar was so out of whack that it caused me to fall asleep and I passed out into the pool. I scared a lot of coaches and swimmers that day. Though my diet does not restrict carbohydrate consumption, all I know is that I feel so much more energetic, and less bloated when dinner consists of a salad and a steak. And the next day, my poop does not float, and I learned long ago while taking a wellness class during college, one of the indicators of a poor diet is consistent floating stool.

Confirmations

Those of you who follow me know I'm a big fan of the Universe, and the clues it sends me. Lately, I feel like the Universe has been confirming some of the things I'm doing this season.

First, I've been doing weights...consistently. I'm not a big fan of the weight room, so in order for me to get the job done, I need some endorphins flowing through me. I usually hit the weight room post-run when I'm experiencing the runner's high, and motivation is at a peak. I've used the runner's high for other things like cleaning the bathroom, writing long essays, and cleaning the garage. A friend sent me this article on weight training post endurance workout, and confirmed what I've been doing is a-okay: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/mixing-weight-training-and-aerobics/.

Second, I've been doing single leg squats for the past 6 months as a way to get in some extra strength training when I'm not in the weight room. I was catching up on blogs and low and behold, Kim is blogging about the benefits of single leg squats to increase hip strength and stabilization, to improve your run stride. And well, my running has been on fiiiiiiire of late. Who knew?

And finally, as I was waking up this morning, I looked down by my bedside and saw this tag line: "Race Faster By Training Less". Exactly.

You Know You're Fit When...

You know you're fit when:

You do a tough weight session, and follow it right up with a swim workout including 10 x 100s holding 1:05s and think "How the hell did I do that?".

And less than 11 hours later, roll out of bed sore at 6:00 AM to do an 11 mile run and somehow hold 6:56 pace.

And after said run, go out for what was to supposed to be a 45 mile ride, but turned into 86 miles and the wheels did not come flying off.

You start a swim workout thinking "how the hell am I going to float", and your legs burn and you barely are able to kick; but when the coach makes you do 5 x 200 descend 1-5, somehow you turn it on and descend to a 2:12.

When you actually feel better and prefer to have your heart rate in between 150-180 versus 120-150.

When both your body and your attitude sucks while warming up for a track workout, but when the set begins, you somehow find another gear and hold season best times.

I think I'm getting fit, but unlike the past, I will not covet this fitness. I will simply enjoy it while it is here. I thought it would be cool to do the Dwell Magazine Marin House Tour via bike this past Saturday. The plan was to do my 11 mile run in the morning and follow it up with a recovery 45-mile spin and look at some homes I'll never own. Well, the ride turned out to be 86 miles and I didn't step foot back at home until 7:00 PM. Here are some pics from the day, and the last one is not from the house tour, but rather is a pic of my very new (1 week old) niece's bedroom, yikes!

Less Is More

After this weekend's training, I'm convinced that less is more for me this season. And that being less committed and not-so-consistent ain't such a bad thing either. I set my alarm for a 5:30 AM wake-up 4 times last week, and I went 1-3 with a losing record for waking up and working out, or one could look at it as a winning record of 3-1 for staying in bed. But on the tail-end of this losing streak, I somehow managed to pull off my best track workout of the season on Thursday night, seeing 71's for the first time in quite some time. On Saturday, I committed to an 86 mile ride with about 6,000' of climbing. My longest ride this season is 74 miles, completed in early January, and my longest ride for the past 4 weeks is 36 miles. I was scared for Saturday's ride not only because of my lack of cycling miles, but also because I'm notorious for bonking on long rides; it's just my thing, bonking on long rides is something I do particularly well. Like many things in life, fear is a good motivator, and my fear of bonking meant I stayed on top of my nutrition from the get-go of the ride. I don't really know how I did it, but the ride was a huge success in terms of training numbers, and I didn't bonk (which I made sure to text to my fellow bonker, Charisa)! In fact, during this 4-mile climb, I dug deep and I was able to drop my Cat 3 riding partner in our epic battle, and I recorded a time I have not seen since my early 30's. I apologize if it sounds like I'm gloating, I'm just really stoked that the ride was such a success rather than a bonkfest.

Yesterday, the schedule called for a 10-mile brick run. It was Earth Day and I had made a pledge that I would make all effort not to produce any garbage by eating food with little to no packaging. Uh oh. I took a handful of cashews, stuffed them into my jersey pocket and off I went. I was feeling a little depleted off my bike and getting ready for my brick run. Uh oh once again, 10 mile run with no packaging, like no gels? I made a quick smoothie from contents with no packaging and took down as many calories as I could without making me puke for my run. Starting the run, no way did I think I could pull off 10 miles, thus I adjusted and said 8, or even 6 miles would be cool. 10 miles later, I was elated not only because I did all 10 miles, but I was able to hold 4 miles at dream half-ironman race pace. Right on!

Less is more seems to be the right balance for me this season. Though I missed three workouts and I didn't put in all the miles I had hoped this week, I still managed to hit the efforts when it counted: on the track, during the climb, and during the brick run. Train to race. And oh, in other news, I'm an uncle for the fifth time. Welcome to this world Reese Yen Murphy!

Training to Race, Part 2

I had no intentions of writing a part 2 but I had this blog post conceived and completed in my head by the end of my run last Friday, finding the time to post it took a bit longer. This past Friday, I once again had to go out and earn a PR the hard way. When the alarm sounded at 5:30 AM, both my body and my mind were slow in waking up. Unlike last time, the first couple of steps in the early morn didn't feel so great, and with those lackluster steps came the doubts. I thought to myself that if this was race day, I had two options: keep racing or quit. I pressed on hoping that maybe my body would come around, and if not the body, maybe my mind could will the body to come around. Though I didn't improve on the two STRAVA segments I had hoped to PR, my mile pace for the entire 7.5-mile run was 40 seconds faster than one month earlier. I reflected post run and came up with these lessons:

I'm ditching the feedback (mile splits, pace) if I'm not seeing good numbers. If I'm running as fast as I can AND still finish, then who cares what my speed is, I'm going as fast as I can. I actually learned this lesson last summer during the Kona training camp, allowing me to stop checking my mile splits after the second disappointing mile.

Take care of the details. The day prior, I skipped a meal and didn't really take care of my caloric needs. I also skipped my yoga class which is basically lubrication for my joints. Missing one might have been okay, but missing both proved detrimental. Next time I need to earn a PR the hard way, I'm taking care of the details.

Races are salvageable, I just need to be resourceful.

And finally, even though I may fall short of my outcome (time, placing) goal, I can always fall back on my performance (race gutsy, give it all I have on that day, empty the tank) goal.

Training to Race

As I was preparing for my swim workout on Saturday, I found myself falling back into the old routine of training to train. The day before, I swam 5000 yards with the main set consisting of 3 x 1000's, negative splitting the 500's. I certainly did not need another long, aerobic swim set but that was where my mind was going on Saturday. It then dawned on me that I needed to break this bad habit of training to train, but instead, train to race. And just like that, I came up with a more race specific swim workout:

Warm-up: straight 800 broken down as 400 free, 200 back, 200 reverse IM

Straight 700 flutter kick broken down as 25 FAST, 75 moderate; 50 FAST, 50 mod; 75 FAST, 25 mod; 100 FAST, 300 hold best pace

4 x [3 x 50 @ :50]
-1. 12.5 yards ALL OUT off each wall
-2. Middle 25 yards ALL OUT
-3. Last 25 yards ALL OUT

4 x [5 x 100 Free @ 1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15, 1:10 no extra rest in between rounds]
-Rounds 1 & 2 swim
-Rounds 3 & 4 pull [buoy, band, paddles]

Warm-down: 300 perfect freestyle technique

Total: 4400 yards

Like all of you, I spent the rest of Saturday glued to my computer watching the amazing performances at IM Melbourne, and then followed it up with the Mooloolaba World Cup race.

Make Every Day An Important Day

How about some bike porn to start this post. Those red tires on the Reynolds wheels, oooouiiii! I believe consistency is the best way to improve and get fast, and for the past three seasons, I've strived to make every day an important day. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of defining an important day as a day chock full of training. If you follow me, you know that my racing season was pretty much a bust last year, and I now think it was in part to this belief that an important day has to involve some type of training. The past couple of weeks of training has taught me otherwise, that in fact, an important day might include no training whatsoever, but instead a lot of relaxation and recovery.

Since coming back from my mystery ailments, I've been averaging about 6-8 hours of training per week, way down from the 16-24 hours of training I was doing this same time last year. Not only am I training way less hours, the number of days where I take completely off, meaning no physical activity, has been averaging 2-3 days per week. And if you recall from my last post, I'm hitting season PR's and my numbers are no worse than what they were this same time last year. I'm not stressed about missing workouts and going for days without training, and as a result, I'm more relaxed and rested for when I do hit the pavement. Last season, I think I was training to train, in other words, I was training to be able to do more training. This season, I'm training to race. Granted, if I had an ironman on the schedule, I would be doing a lot more hours, but maybe not as many hours as I used to think I needed. Because when it comes down to it, you can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Make every day an important day.

And somehow, this blog is becoming a foodie blog. First, I discovered blossoming baby bok choy which go great in your pasta, and how about some low glycemic potatoes? I can now enjoy roasted potatoes with my grilled veggies again. Finally, I leave you with a pic of my post-run, pre-swim meal: paleo tea service (herbal tea with duck, beets, carrots, and kale), squash dumplings, curry egg salad with fuji apples, and a quinoa waffle.

A PR...The Hard Way

The accidental PR where you're just doing a sesh, feeling great, and oila, you set a PR, is easy. The preconceived PR, the one that you stare at on your training schedule, the one that you know you have to do next week or in a couple of days, is much more tough. It weighs heavy on your mind, and you know that you have to go out and make it happen, regardless if your body is on...or worst, off. But it is this PR that most simulates racing, it's this PR that trains us to be "Game Day'ers", and aren't we training to race, and not training to train?

All week last week, I knew I had to go out and make a PR happen come 5:30 AM on Friday. I do this run loop in the morning and in prep for my upcoming half mary in April, I needed to inject some speed and run a season PR for the loop. For whatever reason, my head was in the right space that morning, and I remember rolling out the door, taking my first couple of steps in the dark, and I immediately knew, I was going to will this PR. I can't say every planned PR on the schedule I've ever had went this smoothly, but on this morning, it was copacetic! And just like that, I trained my mind and my body to race, and not just to train.

The Sunday post run, I got a pleasant surprise with an accidental PR whilst chasing my friend Tyler on our bikes. It was a sufferfest and I found myself losing his wheel several times, but he would slow down and let me reel him back in, only to punch the pace again once I got on. And though it felt like survival riding, I somehow landed home with an accidental PR.

All this PR stuff meant a reward in the form of some good eatin'. In this case, some grilled cauliflower with pasta and a non-dairy, low sugar chocolate bread pudding.