Febtober in Review

Two months of 2010 are already behind us!  It seems to be a good time to take stock of how things are going so far.  At a high level:

• Injuries: doing reasonably well … my back is less of an issue than in years past … some run- and swim-induced overuse issues seem to have abated without becoming major issues.
• Fitness: feeling strong on the bike and run, rediscovered by feel for the water with a 30,000-yard week last week but still not feeling FAST again there, yet
• Stress & Sleep: staying ahead of things so far
• Austin Endurance Ranch was a blast!!!

And now the fun part – training details.  Let’s compare volume & intensity for January + February over the past six years.

Year	2005 (AG)	2006 (AG)	2007	2008	2009	2010
Swim	17.7	26.1	29.4	44.0	31.6	40.3
Bike	85.6	89.5	56.4	75.2	60.5	89.6
Run	11.3	16.4	41.0	28.2	27.1	39.0
Other	16.8	14.1	19.8	16.6	8.6	4.9
Total J+F Hours	131.4	146.1	146.6	163.9	127.7	173.8

So what is interesting about the numbers above, other than that Chris must be a bit obsessive-compulsive in order to even have all of these numbers written down?

• My high-level training approach in Feb/Mar is “swim/run volume with one day of intensity, minimal bike volume but three days of intensity.”  In January I was more focused on just getting into a routine again, so I had volume everywhere with minimal intensity.
• 2010 volume is also a bit inflated thanks to the Endurance Ranch
• During my last two Age-Group winters, my bike volume was high (riding with a cycling team) but my swim & run volumes were much lower than once I got established racing Elite.  I got my Elite license in April 2006.
• In 2007 I had a huge run focus.  I built up to 74.9 miles in my biggest week ever (31 Jan – 6 Feb) and developed a stress reaction and strained a tendon.  Who would have expected that?  Seriously… I did a “slow” build-up, never adding more than 5 miles/week and never adding for more than two consecutive weeks, but when you step back and look at my monthly totals I had been over 11 hrs/month only once before that build-up, and that “over” was a whopping 13-hour month, so just over 100 miles in a month.  Then starting in November 2006 I did 15.8, 26.8 and 31.0 hours.  Obviously a bad idea.  But since then I have averaged 13.6 hours/month including injuries and time off, with a 20.0 a 24.2 and a 25.4 mixed in.  So if I can get into the neighborhood of 20 hours/month consistently then I should be able to achieve a balance of improved fitness and avoidance of injuries. 
• I had a big swim focus leading into 2008.  2008 was my best year of racing, with the in-the-money finish at Lake Stevens and also some strong ITU races where I almost earned points.  I am happy to see that my 2010 swim numbers are close to those from 2008 in spite of the shoulder issues.

Volume is easy to analyze objectively.  What about intensity?

Swim: I had one test set before my shoulder got too sore to swim: 4x200 @ 5:00 from a dive.  I don’t have a lot of comparable sets in the past, but 2:03-4 seems rather strong.  A longer test set like 20x100 @ 1:15 would have been nice to see, too.

Bike: I have felt biomechanically strong and I have been happy to find a lot of seated-climbing power.  No test yet, though.

Run: Two track workouts so far: two weeks ago was 5x1200 @ 2:00 rest targeting 3:51-3:54, last week was a 3.5-mile cut-down targeting 5:40, 5:32, 5:24 by mile, then 5:16 pace for the last 1/2 mile.  I felt smoother and easier during the first of the two, but maybe that was a metabolically easier workout? 

Ten days in

I “officially” started my 2010 season on January 1st.  What a creative choice of a day to start!  I am trying to “ease into things” a little but I can be a bit excitable … so there have been days of totally overdoing it intermixed with days of remarkable sanity.  Here is what I’ve been up to:

Fri 1 Jan: ez hour on the trainer; some light core & strength

Sat 2 Jan: 3hr bike ride with Recycled Cycles team; 70-minute brick run with Andrew at Redmond Watershed. This felt like a bit much.  About 40 minutes into the run I really ran out of gas.  Afterwards I ate a burrito and tried to take a nap … I slept for 15 hours!

Sun 3 Jan: 14-mile run with Shelby’s group at Redmond Watershed; 10,000-yard swim with Stephanie at UW.  The “10k” swim is a bit silly, especially when I’d only been in the pool *once* in the last 7 weeks… but this “10k” workout is one of my new ideas for 2010 and I figured as long as I go easy I should be okay.  I started out a bit too strong and slowed down quite a bit … but I survived!

Mon 4 Jan: ez 5–mile recovery run with Andrew in Bridle Trails

Tue 5 Jan: AM shakeout ride on trainer: 15x1min targeting 290-300W on the trainer w/ 1min rest; brick run with Andrew in Bridle Trails – about 7.5 miles.

Wed 6 Jan: nothing. My Wednesday schedule will eventually include a long AM swim w/ Dave and a hard PM run on the track … but I felt like I might be starting to fight off a bit of a cold … and I knew that the weekend was a bit much … so I took ‘er easy today.

Thu 7 Jan: early meetings at work … so after work I did an hour pf ez biking on the trainer and an hour of easy running alone in Bridle Trails

Fri 8 Jan: rest day. I would have liked to get a swim in over lunch or after work … but work was rather busy and by the time I wrapped up there I was rather tired.  Is this the type of game-time decision that I should be making?  I could be convinced that I’m better off skipping workouts when tired than just pushing through like I’ve always done in the past.  Hrmmm…

Sat 9 Jan: another RCR team ride – 4 hours this time.  I felt strong for 3 hours then faded a *lot* after Snohomish.  I ate a decent amount early on, then ate a lot more in Snohomish but my legs just started saying “no” as we climbed up Broadway.  Y’arrrr…  I took maybe 60-90 minutes between workouts – snack, clean-up, errands … then went to the gym to run on the ‘mill and watch football.  I wanted to run an hour but got into the game and ran like 12.5 miles at an EZ pace – about an hour & forty minutes.  A bit much?

Sun 10 Jan: 14-miles run with Shelby’s group at the Watershed, then another “10k” swim workout, this time solo at the Pro Club.  The first 2000 yards were pretty tough.  My body was shot from the run, and from yesterday’s work. But I just tried to stay smooth and relaxed and eventually I found a bit of a groove.

In total:

• Swim: 2 sessions, 20200 yards, 5.5 hours. Avg 10-day period in 2007/2008/2009 was 5.1/5.8/3.9 hours.
• Bike: 5 sessions, 180 miles, 10.25 hours. Avg 10-day period in 2007/2008/2009 was 9.0/10.0/11.2 hours.
• Run: 7 sessions, 69 miles, 8.5 hours. Avg 10-day period in 2007/2008/2009 was 4.4/4.8/3.5 hours.

So my swim and bike volume are reasonable but I should try to get in the pool a bit more often.  I am running a lot more than I typically have for long stretches of time … but those yearly averages are a bit misleading as they include tapers and rest periods.

So I had two Saturdays and two Sundays where I went NUTS, then two rather mature “unplanned rest” days during the week.  As I get into the meaty part of the season I will move to more of a focus on intensity and less of a focus on volume … but as I break out of my offseason, I figure volume is a good thing … at least it would be if I could do it within reason.  Reason is not yet my strong point this year, but the body is holding up pretty well so far.

Next Thursday I head to Austin to set up for the Ranch.  Sweet!!!

Keeping it Weird in Austin

Even though this winter has been a bit drier than normal in Seattle I jumped at the chance to spend 11 days in Austin, training more and working a reduced schedule remotely – basically the same approach as last summer’s Boulder trip.

I’ve been feeling a bit flat on a lot of the workouts.  I got dropped on the Austin Tri-Cyclist taco ride last Saturday, although I hope that a part of that was sleep deprivation from my early flight the day before.  My Sunday ride felt pretty weak, too, but it was hella windy out here so maybe that had something to do with it.  Even with the wind, the weather here in Texas has been fantastic.  Sunny every day and high temperatures in the 80s more often than not!

I was quite disappointed to learn that Barton Springs is closed for annual cleaning for the entirety of my trip.  They actually closed three days before I got here and they’ll reopen three days after I leave!  I did two swims at Deep Eddy – a *long* one with a wetsuit and a short, frigid attempt on Monday morning.  62 degree water + 58 degree air == a short swim!

I had a nice ride on Wednesday morning on one of my favorite loops: Southwest Parkway – 71 – Hamilton Pool Road – Old Fitzhugh – 290 – Nutty Brown – South MoPac, more or less.  I was unsure of my legs during the warm-up hour but once I hit the first interval I felt good.  It was fantastic to roll out at 7:30 AM under sunny skies with just arm warmers & leg warmers.

My running has felt flat most of the time but I had a surprisingly strong effort last night.  About 8 of us left the shop at 6pm expecting to run 7.5 miles easy … George suggested 7:00/mile pace but Pat Darragh and I were probably the most guilty offenders in pushing the pace just a little bit harder.  Heh… We whittled the group down to just three – Pat and me and Tim Sandfort, who I raced with at the Age Group Worlds in Madeira in 2004.

As expected, a lot of great eating has occurred on this trip – Rudy’s BBQ, Tacodeli, Havana, Taco Cabana … of course a stop at the flagship Whole Foods … but I still need to find time for some Amy’s Ice Cream and a bit more Tex Mex.

One tough part of “camping” in Austin as opposed to Boulder is that there are both an upside and a downside to knowing a bunch of folks in town.  It is great to see everybody and to catch up a bit but I haven’t been sleeping as much as I should.  I’ve kept the beer to a minimum, actually cutting it out completely after Monday, but my recovery hasn’t been quite what I’d like.  I am probably not eating enough.  I am getting some large meals in but not enough smaller in-between meals and snacking.  Maybe I’ll go find a snack right now!

2008 Training Review

I know that intensity matters a bit more than duration in my training, but it is a lot easier to measure duration.  So here is a quick look at how 2008 compared to past years ... and how it went from month to month.

Here are my total training hours for each of the last four years, broken down by sport.  "Other" includes lifting, core strength and miscellaneous cardio (like elliptical when injured, or the occasional pick-up football/basketball game or brisk hike or cross-country ski excursion).

 

Year	Swim	Bike	Run	Other	Total
2005	105.6	457.8	82.3	53.7	699.3
2006	152.2	401.0	140.7	54.4	748.3
2007	184.6	327.4	158.9	94.5	765.4
2008	211.9	362.6	173.9	51.5	799.9

A few observations:

• Clearly I didn't look at these numbers before 12/31/08 or I would have done an extra 6 minutes of *something* and gotten over 800 hours.
• I had a lot more "other" in 2007 than in other years, mainly because of two running injuries that gave me a lot of rehab to do.
• I'm glad to see that Swim, Bike and Run volume all increased from '07 to '08.  The Boulder trip probably helped a lot.  More on this later.
• The total hours haven't gone up very much as I went from Age Grouper in '05 to rookie elite in '06 to mid-level elite in '08.
• 800 hours in 366 days averages out to a touch over 2hrs 11min each day.  By comparison, 700 hours in 365 days in 2005 meant 1hr 55min each day.
• Weekly volume: Swim - 4:03, Bike - 6:56, Run - 3:19, Other - 0:59, Total - 15:18.  So that's a really rough ballpark figure for "what it takes" to be an almost-competitive pro triathlete.

Now let's look month-by-month:

Month	Swim	Bike	Run	Other	Total
Jan	25.5	34.4	14.0	9.8	83.7
Feb	18.5	40.8	14.2	6.8	80.2
Mar	13.2	29.4	14.6	4.1	61.3
Apr	20.0	24.2	14.9	2.7	61.7
May	16.2	32.0	9.4	4.4	62.0
June	15.8	31.2	11.1	5.9	64.1
July	25.2	45.5	25.4	0.6	96.6
Aug	22.3	33.2	20.0	4.0	79.5
Sep	19.3	18.3	14.0	0.8	52.4
Oct	11.6	26.7	10.0	0.8	49.1
Nov	5.3	19.8	10.2	1.8	37.2
Dec	19.0	27.1	16.1	9.8	72.1

Observations:

• My best run split of the year was probably my 1:18:30 at Lake Stevens in early July.  Note that it came after two of my lowest-volume running months.  Odd.  (I'd hurt my IT band in late May.)
• Most of November was my "off-season" 3-week break.
• July was freakin' huge b/c I got to Boulder on the 22nd.  I trained for 46.5 hours during my first ten days in Boulder.
• My September volume was pretty low b/c I raced at Pac Grove and Portland, plus Tinley's in early October.

Okay, that seems like enough number crunching.  I'll try to make my next post a bit less geeky.

Training Camp Summary

Now that I am on my way back to Seattle, let's do a quick roll-up of what I did in Boulder.  The last three days were a bit light as I had to head out of town on business, so focusing on the first 3 weeks of the trip:

• 18 swim sessions; 68k yards; much of this was long-course
• 16 bike rides; 704 miles; two rides of 100+ miles and two more of 70+; Flagstaff repeats, a hard ride up Rist Canyon w/ Dave Messenheimer, "easy" rides up Left Hand, S St Vrain and N St Vrain Canyons, a day of T1 + first four minutes simulations, a few chill rides...
• 16 runs; 150 miles; 5 Long Runs of 14.5-17 miles, including 2x2 or 3x2 tempo miles at progressively faster paces

I learned that this mix of heavier training and working a little less didn't give me any additional free time!  But I found that I was able to be productive working remotely so I expect to take similar trips in the future -- maybe winter in Kona or early Spring in Arizona...

Next up: this Sunday's Kelowna Continental Cup and then a few weeks of intensity and sharpening work leading up to Pacific Grove and Portland.

The High Country in Pictures

I went on a fun 100-mile ride three days ago -- Boulder to Lyons to Estes Park, past Raymond and Ward to Nederland and then back down to Boulder.  The 20 miles from Lyons to Estes Park included a 15-mile climb and a 4-mile descent, then it was another 30 mostly-uphill miles to Ward.  I started at 5430 feet of elevation but spent more than half the ride about 7500 feet.  I wasn't always putting out a lot of power but the effort level was there, and I felt surprisingly zippy when I swam "down" at 5430 feet that night.

I found that somebody else uploaded this route to Bikely but they went counterclockwise while I went clockwise.  I also found it on Map My Ride but that rider started in Nederland.  Here is the elevation profile from that starting point.  I like to think of miles 30 to 80 on their map as a fifty-mile climb.

Now on to the photos...

Here is the only flat section between Lyons & Estes Park.  You can see the peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park in the distance.

About to start the descent to Estes Park...  Unfortunately I was going to fast to get a picture of the lake as I entered town.  You'll have to check it out yourself some day.  I had stayed dry so far but the sky looks ominous, eh?

The lonely road to Ward... I've been sprinkled on a few times by now...

Finally, the summit!  Why is it that the highest town I passed doesn't have an elevation on the welcome sign?  Estes is at 7500 and Ned is at 8200 -- both are in valleys -- while Ward is at like 9200 feet.

Finally, here is a shot from just past Ward that captures the "edge of the world" feeling that you get up there.  Someday I'll have to ride with a real camera instead of snapping pictures with my cell phone.

The sky opened up between Ward and Nederland, so I didn't take any more pictures.  I took shelter in a convenience store in Ned and tried to warm up a bit before the final descent down Boulder Canyon to my Home Sweet Home Away from Home.

Thirty-Three Hours

Ever wonder how much you'd be able to train if you didn't have to go to work every day?  I now know my own answer to that question.  (Well, sort of ... I worked remotely from Boulder for about 25 hours last week -- so more flexibility than usual but I'm still not a "full-time athlete.")

When I planned out this three week "work part-time while training a lot" trip I envisioned tons of free time -- afternoon naps, social events with the big-name pro triathletes in town, exploring the local restaurants, driving up to the mountains, visiting friends in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs ...  but it turns out that training full-time eats up a lot of time!  (Especially with the half-time work thrown in.)  I've been just as busy as when I'm at home working full-time, perhaps busier... and more tired thanks to the altitude and the heavy training volume.

My first week in Boulder included:

• 26500 yards of swimming, mostly in a Long-Course Meters pool (so yes, I converted that workout volume to yards for my log b/c I am that obsessive)
• 300 miles of biking, including a 103-mile Long Ride on Sunday and a 16-mile climb to Ward on Friday
• 55 miles of running, including a 15-mile long run... 90% on trails or the track

I don't think that the next two weeks will include quite as many miles as I ramp up the intensity a bit more...  but it was a fun experiment to see if I could Cram all that Graham.

I'll close with a gratuitous photo of the Flatirons:

Sunset on the way home from East Boulder Rec Center.

Boulder Rocks!

I've been living the high life for three days now and I have to say that it's gorgeous out here.  Lots of mountain views, bike lanes and sunshine.  They do seem to get a few more afternoon T-storms than I'm accustomed to but you can plan around 'em.

So far I've done a few runs on the South Boulder Creek trail -- dirt surface, not too many rocks, gentle grade...  I've been swimming at Mark's favorite spot, Scott Carpenter Pool.  It's a 50m outdoor pool, which is a nice change of pace for me.

I've biked to the Northeast (Longmont), the Southeast (portions of the Coors Classic course) and today the Northwest -- I hit up the steady 16-mile climb through Left Hand Canyon.  The first 15 miles are a steady 4-6% grade and then the last mile kicks up.  You're at 9000 feet of elevation by then and you've been climbing for over an hour, but at least you have delicious cookies to look forward to at the General Store in Ward.

I took a few pictures during yesterday's ride, so here are a few beerless pictures to feast your eyes upon:

The Flatirons, looking west from from Clovervale Rd.  These mountains are very close to downtown Boulder -- it is hard to see how close from this picture -- and are often used as a symbol of the town.

The Flatirons again, this time from the corner of routes 128 & 93.

You shouldn't try to take pictures of yourself while riding... it really isn't safe...

Last year's training volume

Since I have 3+ years of training logged in a spreadsheet, I figured it would be cool to add up some numbers and see how much I really train in an average week.  I was also curious about how this has changed over the years as I've focused more on the swim and run for draft-legal racing.  Here are my totals over the last three years, measured in hours per week since that is somewhat standard across the disciplines.  "Other" includes lifting, core strength exercises and non-SBR cardio.

	Swim	Bike	Run	Other	Total
2005	2.03	8.8	1.52	1.03	13.45
2006	2.93	7.71	2.71	1.05	14.39
2007	3.55	6.3	3.06	1.82	14.72

I expected to see my swim & run volume rising but was disappointed to see how much my bike volume has been dropping off. 

I'm not surprised to see my run volume double as I started training with Tom's group and consciously increased my mileage. But I had about 10 weeks in 2007 where I couldn't run because of injuries - in the weeks where I could run I averaged 3.8 hours or about 30 miles/week.

My "Other" volume was pushed up by all of the physical therapy that I've had to do with the injuries. 

The total weekly volumes are all a bit lower than I'd expected but recovery weeks are averaged in there, too...  I think that my "on" weeks are typically 14-17 hours in-season and 17-21 hours in the base-building period.  My max weeks during 2 or 3 high-volume camps have been about 25 hours. 

If you've been keeping logs, what are your typical & average weekly totals?  Post 'em to comments.