Building a Road Map

I’ve recently been looking over some of my old training data and trying to apply it to training for three sports instead of one (swim/bike/run).  I thought it might be a fun idea to share a little bit about how I track my training/racing.

TrainingPeaks.com

TrainingPeaks.com is an awesome resource for tracking training and metric data.  One that I’ve been using for a long time in conjunction with WKO+.  Thankfully, both utilities work incredibly well with triathlon.  Essentially, TrainingPeaks.com allows you to both plan workouts and then go back and analyze data as well as gauge fitness.  This includes things like power/heart rate data, GPS, and your own personal description of the workout.  You can track race data as well, but it’s not quite as robust as it should be.  The main issue is handling multisport files.

Back in the Pool!

After several weeks of not being able to swim post surgery, I finally got back in the pool today and did a solid 1200m.  I decided to keep the workout short so I wouldn’t overdo it on the wrist, but I wasn’t in the slightest bit of pain the entire time. Yeah!  Also, I didn’t realize how much the cast was holding me back.  I got in the pool and was easily keeping 1:40/100m pace and didn’t have any problem kicking up to 1:20/100m.  Mind you, before, I was averaging closer to 1:50-2:00 comfortably.  Man, fiberglass sucks!  Still a crappy swimmer, but at least there is hope now.  I’m hoping I can get down to a 1:30 before the Boulder Tri, but we’ll see how that goes, I’m a little short on time for that.

A Shameless Plug

In my last post, I mentioned having a problem with a pain in my abdomin when running.  Well, about 30 minutes after I posted that, Matt Gibble of Raining Faith Message messaged me with a couple of tips and a YouTube video on some things to try (the video is posted below).  They worked and so this is my shameless plug to Raining Faith Message.

For those unfamiliar with Matt and RFM, this sort of thing is extraordinarily common with him.  I’ve worked with him for the past couple of years and anytime I have a question or concern, he always goes above and beyond to help me out.  His messages are second to none and he also provides motor pacing in the Broomfield, CO and surrounding area.  As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today without his help and I know there are many more just like me who owe a lot to his expertise.

Surgery Sucks!

I’m two(ish) weeks post surgery and all I can say is I hope others reading this blog don’t have to got through the same issues as I have.  The drugs are terrible, the pain is so bad, even with medication, that I can’t ride on anything but the trainer and not being able to swim eight weeks out from my first race is sort of a problem.

On the plus side, bike and run training are actually going pretty well.  On the run side, my anticipated 5k time has continued to drop.  I now estimate it to be around 5:45 a mile, down from 6:00. And I am getting more and more comfortable on my long runs.  I do plan to add some more transitions runs shortly, so I don’t flop coming off the bike when it really counts.

The Holy Grail of Running: The Track

When you talk to most endurance athletes, they will tell you about how many yards they swam, how many miles they biked or hours run, but there’s something that many miss: speed work.  When asked about structured training (speed work), it’s almost like ask a war veteran about their experiences.  No one likes to talk about it.  There’s this sense that the thing that athletes fear most is hard intervals.  It’s easy to just drone away for endless hours in the saddle, but allow me to set the record straight, and I make no apologies for what I’m about to say, if you are serious about getting fast and want to take your racing to a new level, you have to learn to love hard training.  There’s no two ways about it.