A New Hope, er, T-pace

I've recently taken to watching Star Wars during my trainer rides, specifically Star Wars IV: A New Hope. I am captivated by the Battle of Yavin sequence, when the Rebel fleet attempts to destroy the Death Star. It's fast-paced, which is helpful for trainer rides that go over an hour. I mention T-pace because in my most recent 800y time trial, I set a landmark PR and have a new training pace, almost 5 seconds per 100y faster than my previous time. That definitely is in large part thanks to swimming with Michelle, Dirk and the masters practices. Basically, yards equal success! Also, since I've been running more for miles than speed, I've come to enjoy running more and feel better as a whole. I hope to keep up the 40-50 mile per week average I've been doing.

This is a little late due to being pretty busy at work... and looking for videos of Red Squadron:

Monday, Dec. 6 - Monday, Dec. 13 (6 swims, 6 rides, 6 runs)

Swimming: 19,800 yards

Tuesday -- Endurance swim at GISC w/ Michelle. Main set of 2x300 (1:20/100y pace, :15 RI), 4x50 (drill/build, :15 RI), 2x250 (1:20/100y pace, :15 RI), 4x50 (drill/build, :15 RI), 2x200 (1:20/100y, :15 RI), 200 kick, 2950y total. Swam alone at GISC around lunchtime, putting in 6x500 to give me 6000y total for the day.

Thursday -- TIME TRIAL! Michelle and I split the lane to add some competitive fire to the TT. It didn't start out well for me... my goggles filled up with water about 75y in, so I had to stop briefly at the 100 to empty them, losing about 5 seconds. However, after that it was SMOOTH swimming. I kept a constant pace and didn't feel tired until the last 50y, where inexplicably I forgot to sprint to the finish. Not at all sure why I forgot, but I hit the wall in 10:22, 1:17/100y average! That is a PR for me. Most importantly, I could have kept going at that pace... I was tired, but not done, totaling 1600y with warmup and cooldown. Another promising sign for the coming months! Michelle averaged about 1:41/100y, down from 1:45/100y a little over a month before. Huge improvements for both of us! In the afternoon I did 2000y of long pull sets for recovery.

Friday -- Recovery swim @ GISC w/ Michelle. Just swam long, easy sets with a 10x100 set (on 1:45) thrown on at the end, totaling 3200y.

Saturday -- CUBU masters swim @ AU w/ Dirk. The coach didn't show up so we had to alternate coaching with other swimmers. Put in 4x300 among other easier sets, with one of the 300s in 3:45, which Dirk proclaims is the fastest swum between us. Take that, Beastman! 3000y total.

Sunday -- Endurance swim @ GISC w/ Dirk. This was near the end of a long weekend and we agreed to take it easy on this swim. Main "set" was 4x300 around 1:20/100y pace, but I can't remember anything else we did. Still totaled 4000y.

Biking: 110 miles

Monday -- ILT on the trainer. 8 minutes on each leg in 30-second intervals. Felt fine, averaging around 180 watts per leg.

Wednesday -- Easy spin on the trainer, 45 minutes. Didn't want to do anything tough before Thursday's swim TT.

Thursday -- Easy spin on the trainer, 35 minutes. Was tired from the TT and a long day of swimming, so took it easy.

Friday -- Spin-ups on the trainer, 45 minutes total over 7 sets of spin-ups. Unfortunately I lost my Powertap info, so no power data!

Saturday -- Columbia ride with Dirk. We rode the Columbia course after a 30 minute jog, and I forgot how tough the course is! Inexplicably, I agreed to do it a second time... I got about 13k into the second go-round and decided to turn back. Too tough of a course to "just do" when you're not in the best bike shape, not to mention "just doing" it twice! Still, totaled 40 miles on a tough course, 213 watt average.

Sunday -- Long trainer ride w/ Dirk. We took it (er, I did, at least) easy on this ride after the Columbia challenge. Totaled 26 miles over 90 minutes, 145 watt average.

Running: 40 miles

Monday -- Trail run w/ tha boys. 8 miles.

Tuesday -- Solo run in neighborhood. 5 miles.

Wednesday -- Easy run around the track. 8 miles.

Saturday -- Columbia course run w/ Dirk. Took it easy with long bike ride ahead. Ran first and last 2 miles of the course. 4 miles.

Sunday -- Solo trail run. 6 miles.

Monday -- Trail run w/ tha boys. Ran some long hills. 9 miles.

Hooray for chlorine

I swam the most this week that I ever have in one week. No wonder I always smell chlorine wherever I go. Good thing chlorine has a... er... bearable smell. But back to the yardage... it was a lot. Some days I felt really good, some days I felt like a sponge. But even when I felt spongy, I was able to put in some good times. That has me getting pretty confident about my swimming! I finally feel like I'm back in good bike shape after a couple weeks of drill rides and zone 2 rides. Now I can finally get to work on starting to get some speed back, or at least establish a good tempo pace. I also got in 35 miles running, which isn't bad. I'm excited to just run easy. I've had enough of fast running for a while.

Saturday, Nov. 27 - Sunday, Dec. 5 (9 swims, 5 rides, 4 runs)

SWIMMING: 27,946 yards

Saturday -- Endurance swim @ Wilson w/ Dirk. 50m pool. Main set of 2x400, 3x300, 3x200, 3x100 (neg. split first two, pull third), 4046y total. This was really tough and I was tired going into it. Paces were around 1:27/100m, which is pretty decent for me. Dirk was stronger on this day though.

Sunday -- @ GISC w/ Lucas McCollum and Michelle. Main set of 5x200 (on 3:00, 1:20/100y pace), 1x300 neg. split, 5x100 (on 1:30, 1:15/100y pace), 16x25 (on :30, 1:00/100y pace!), 3200y total. This was one of my best practices. Splitting the lane with Lucas helped. Fast triathlete, that I was able to keep up with him means he's either out of shape or I am really improving!

Monday -- CUBU Masters @ Prep w/ Dirk. Main set of 2x(2x300, 2x100, 2x50, 2x25, 1:20/100y pace), 6x75 kick (easy-fast-easy), 5x100 (on 1:40), 2x100 (on 1:30), 4000y total. I felt pretty bad in this swim. Went out too fast in the first part of the set and paid for it!

Tuesday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 3x(200 pull, 3x50 descend), 1x800(odds easy, evens build, finished just under 11:30), 3500y total. Did this during lunch break. Felt better than Monday, but I took it easy for half of the workout. The 800 was pleasantly comfortable and fast, for half of it being easy.

Wednesday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 8x400 pull, 3200y total. Simple! I just wanted to FLUSH OUT THE JUNK!

Thursday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 12x50 (dist./stroke odds, build evens), 5x(150, 100, 50, 1:20/100y pace), 4000y total. Another solo swim... thanks to a fanged deer that nearly killed Michelle. Swimming alone is tough but I did fine the past 3 days. Felt good!

Friday -- Force swim @ GISC w/ a scabby Michelle. Main set of 2x300 pull, 6x50 fast, 2x300 pull, 6x50 fast, 2x300 pull, 3600y total. The fast 50s were around 1:12/100y pace for each. Good to have Michelle back.

Saturday -- Snapple clinic @ W&L pool. Mainly drills, around 1200y total. Later in PM, swam @ GISC, 5x300 pull to get some yards in, 2700y on the day. I learned a few important but easily applicable improvements from Chip Berry, who had the fastest swim split at Nation's a couple years ago.

Sunday -- Muscular endurance @ GISC w/ Lucas and Michelle. Main set of 6x100 (:20 RI, 1:15/100y pace), 6x75 (:20 RI, 1:13/100y pace), 6x50 (: 20 RI, 1:10/100y pace), 6x25 (:20 RI, 1:00/100y pace), 3200y total. This was an AWESOME swim! Splitting the lane with Lucas again helped. We were able to really pick up the pace in each interval. 1:15 felt really good... felt tempo-like!

BIKING: ~100 miles total

Saturday -- Hilly 22.5 mile ride w/ Dirk on his Beach Drive hill loop. It was very cold and windy, and was pretty darn tired from ILT the day before and the swim at Wilson prior to this. Averaged 190 watts.

Monday -- ILT on the trainer, 9 minutes on each leg. Day off on from cycling on Sunday helped, I felt better.

Wednesday -- 15-mile zone 2 ride on the trainer. Felt average. 166 watt average.

Friday -- 15-mile zone 2 ride on the trainer. Same as Wednesday. 165 watt average.

Sunday -- 36-mile zone 1-2 recovery ride on the trainer. Felt a little weak for the first hour, was able to pick it up for the second half. 162 watt average.

Running: 35 miles

Wednesday -- 8 mile run on the Wootton track. I can't say I took it easy, averaged around 6:30/mile for 6 miles.

Friday -- 6 mile easy run around neighborhood trails after my trainer ride.

Saturday -- 15 mile trail run with Scott and Steve. Run ended up being quite a bit longer than planned, but it felt just fine. Only issue was my right hip which began to ache a little with all the hill climbing.

Sunday -- 6 mile easy run after my long trainer ride around neighborhood trails.

Farewell for now, running!

With Veteran's Day behind me, I have no more peak races or anything immediate that I am training for. That means I can ease off the running and really work on continuing to progress in my swimming and biking. My running schedule for the next month or so will look something like 1-2 recovery runs, .5-1 track workout, 1 long run (10+ miles). The half track workout will accommodate Wednesday PM masters swim practice. This should hold through the end of December, when I still start incorporating more tempo/fartlek work.

I'm inspired by Dirk's new method of workout logging...

Friday, Nov. 19 - Friday, Nov. 26 (20.5k yards swim, 150km cycle, 16 miles run)

SWIMMING: 20,500y total

Saturday -- Endurance solo, main set of 2x200 tempo, 100 sprint, 2x300 tempo, 100 sprint, 2x400 tempo, 100 sprint (1:15-1:20 pace between sprints tempo), 3400y total.

Sunday -- Endurance w/ Michelle, main set of 8x150 2-2-2-2 descend, 8x100 2-2-2-2 descend, 8x50 2-2-2-2 descend (1:25/1:19, 1:25/1:18, 1:19/1:14 paces), 3200y total.

Monday -- Masters w/ Dirk, main set of 6x (100 on 1:20 {1:12 avg. pace}, 50 kick on 1:20 {:50 avg}), 500 (50 easy, 75 build), 3600y total.

Tuesday -- Endurance (form) w/ Michelle, main set of 4x50 R/L arms, 1x300 neg. split, 4x50 fingertip, 1x300 neg. split, 4x50 catchup, 2x300 neg. split, 3400y total.

Wednesday -- Masters w/ Dirk, main set of 500 all out (1:13 avg. pace), 200 easy, 400 all out (1:12 avg. pace), 200 easy, 300 all out (1:10 avg. pace), 200 easy, 200 all out (1:08 avg. pace!!), 3400y total. This was probably the toughest and fastest workout I've ever done. Dirk and I really pushed each other hard in this workout and swam some fast times between us.

Friday -- Endurance w/ Michelle, main set of 4x150 easy (1:26 pace), 200 kick fast, 4x150 moderate (1:22 pace), 200 kick moderate, 4x150 fast (1:18 pace), 200 kick easy, 3500y total.

Biking: 150km total

Friday -- Power test on the trainer. I averaged 240 watts over 30 minutes. Not great, but it's a good starting point, considering I wasn't in great bike shape at this point. Needed a guide for my training, though.

Saturday -- 40k with Dirk on the MacArthur loop. Was tired from power test and relaxed. Didn't keep track of time.

Sunday -- 24 miles with Dirk on Beach Drive. Was supposed to be an easy ride, but me on road bike, Dirk on TT bike, add in a challenger in full racing gear along the way, and that easy ride turned into a tempo ride. 216 watt avg, including a 700 watt surge up a hill.

Thursday -- Didn't cycle after Sunday because of fatigue from busy weekend and trying to get into some sort of shape for Turkey Chase 10k. Just cycled 53 minutes on the trainer at zone 2, 142 watt avg.

Running: 16 miles total

Tuesday -- Trails w/ Scott. Easy, around 8 miles, a sort of tuneup for Turkey Chase since I hadn't run since the previous Wednesday's track workout.

Thursday -- Turkey Chase 10k. 21st place, 34:48. Race report coming.

Belated: Veteran's Day 10k race report

This is VERY late, but I finally brought myself to writing a race report for what I expected to be my grand finale of a solid/breakthrough year of racing.

Well, that didn't happen! I came in with a goal of sub-33:00, and thanks to RED FOX Jake T. Klim (the T stands for "The), I had developed some good speed that should have translated to a sub-33. I felt pretty good on race morning, and on the warmup my legs felt pretty fresh! I had tapered a little for this, so I thought I was good to go.

The race started and I stuck around Chris Sloane, who is in better shape than me, but was going for a similar goal... sub-33, but a little faster. I felt great for the first 3.15 miles, right on 16:30 pace, right where I wanted to be.

Then quickly, VERY quickly, things fell apart. I felt a strong ache suddenly in my back going through the turnaround, and suddenly I had trouble breathing. I felt a big knot form in my upper-left back and it hurt like heck! I had to adjust my stride and arm movement to make up for it, and couldn't find a comfortable way to stand... I sort of arched my back and held my head back, but that got painful too, and was reduced to wiggling my body in different ways to try and

find the most comfortable position. The breathing was the worst part, as I started wheezing and only taking in half-lungfuls of air. My time started slipping, as each mile got slower and my per-mile average fell to 5:29 by the 6 mile marker.

Nothing I could do... I felt pretty helpless. My legs begged to go FASTER but my lungs and upper body wanted none of it. I essentially tempoed to the finish in 34:06, a second SLOWER than my PR, which I achieved on the same course last year.

I was pretty dejected for some time after this race. I trained hard and the training went well. The back problem is no longer bothering me, as I found the way I sit up at work may be behind it (I had similar but less painful aches at work in the same area leading up to the race). But I feel I wasted weeks of good training, and missed my chance at a 10k PR in 2011.

2 weeks later, I've been able to put it into perspective and realize that it's JUST a PR. I put in the work and was on the right track. I just need to re-rail myself and focus on my training. I've been swimming a lot and it's going very well, same with biking. I'll just keep that up and focus on the future... namely Cherry Blossom 10-miler and Columbia!

GRRR!!!

Ouch! When is this over?

Photos courtesy of Charlie Ban, who has a sweet bike.

Cardinal 5k and Weekend

I ran the Cardinal 5k as a tuneup for this Sunday's race, and it went all right. I went out a bit fast, 4:50, as it was downhill and flat for the whole first mile. It felt fine then, but it was too fast. I died off a bit on the hills for the second half and lost my 3rd place position to Jason Dwyer, a former GRCer, late in the race. I felt like I had plenty left in the tank... but this wasn't the time to utilize those resources. Finished 4th overall, 16:32. Time wasn't pretty, but I've run slower on flat courses and this was actually quite a bit hillier than I expected. Most of all, I left the race without soreness or fatigue... I felt like I put in a workout and realized again my thirst for competition. I also ended up beating a guy by 15 seconds who is a mid-15 road 5ker and a low-33 10ker. I think that indicates my fitness is not an issue! I just need to be smart on race day and BE CONTROLLED!!! As Jake said, the best times at Hain's Point come to those who go out conservative. That'll be the name of the game on Sunday... go out in 16:30 or 16:35 and work hard the second 5k for a sub-33.

Later in the day I rode with Michelle for about 21.5 miles, half easy, half tempo effort (with a tough hilly portion). It was cold but the hills warmed us up.

Sunday I swam 2000y with Michelle at GISC with a 1000 @ tempo effort, followed by some drills and easy strokes. I headed to Silver Spring to meet up with Dirk for a ride, but a broken spoke and fear of cold (kidding!) was enough for Dirk to suggest we watch the NY Marathon instead. After watching my favorite, Tatyana Pushkareva, fall back, I stopped really caring. After the leaders finished, we went to Wilson, where I swam 3200m (1000m total warmup, 10x100 (1:40), 5x100 (1:35), 700 total cooldown). My arms felt tired and sore afterward, but I can attribute that to taking a break between swims that was probably too short. Or maybe it's from swimming about 5000m on the day....

This week is about tapering. Last real race of the year for me and one I've been waiting for since December 13th of last year, so I'll be sure to be rested.

The cookies are in the jar (corn in the silo too...) and it's time to eat.

Focusing on running

Tomorrow is the Cardinal 5K, and I'll be racing in it. I'm viewing it as a tune-up race that I have a chance to win. I'll of course go for a PR if possible, but I'm not sure what I can do at this point on a hilly 5k... so my focus will be going hard but NOT emptying the tanks. That time will come next weekend. For now I'll just enjoy the race and competition and get my mind in the right place for Veteran's Day 10k. My left hamstring is a little TENDER so I'll listen to it carefully.

Training the past 2 weeks haven't been much to write home (or blog) about, as it's mainly maintaining swim fitness while trying to get faster for the 10k next weekend. Biking has taken a backsaddle and is mostly consists of isolated leg, spinups and 60-90 minute easy (one tempo) rides with Michelle mainly as a recovery mechanism for my running. But yeah, it's been mainly about the run. I've done a long run every weekend for the past 4 weeks, a Wednesday track attack and a Friday hill or tempo/progression run. These are my last couple of weeks of hard run training before I back off a la Dirk and pound the bike and swim for the coming several months.

My track workouts have been awesome. I have to thank Jake for coming out to each workout just to shout out times and go over strategy with me, that kind of help can't be appreciated enough. And except for my first workout in early October (4xmile), my workouts have gone nearly flawlessly. So his workouts + encouragement have helped me reach a pretty good level of fitness that I think will push me to a sub-33 10k. I'm confident in that!

Last week I did 6x1200, negative splits (cutting from 3:56 down to 3:48, all under my expected 10k pace), and it felt solid. This week I did 12x400 (:75, :74, :73, :72, :71, :71, :70, :70, :69, :68, :66, :67), starting at 5:00 pace and ending around 4:24 pace. It's nice to see I have speed... that'll help me when I need to pick up the pace or am getting tired.

I guess most of all, I'm finding that my pacing is really coming along well. I can race smart, but I often go out too fast, both in races and workouts, as Dirk is quick to remind me. But the past several track workouts I've started out slower and ended up with negative splits. That's really encouraging to me! It's how I want to race. Jake's wisdom plus being able to get back out there with the team at B-CC has been a key to my most recent growth spurt as a runner. Now I just need to show what I've learned on race day.

Chicken Tender vs. Beastman

Workouts since Friday:

Friday 10/22 -- Hill workout at Black Hills Regional park with Michelle. Long winding uphills, about .21 miles long, something like that. Ran around 10k pace for each, and it was really hard. By the last one, my legs were wobbling like bowling pins that were struck lightly by a heavy ball.

Saturday 10/23 -- Swam with Michelle and Dirk, around 3000y with a main set of 4x300 descend (4:25, 4:18, 4:10, 4:05), didn't feel great but it got better as the swim progressed. Michelle had her longest swim since starting up again. Biked with Dirk afterward for about 40k in the hilly farmy-lands, shakeout ride with some hill power climbs.

Sunday 10/24 -- Ran long in the morning with Michelle at a very memorable place for me... Greenway trail heading south after Riffleford Road. Way back when, I ran a marathon (28.5 miles) on this trail, after a month of "training". I finished the dang thing and got 9th, but that's a testament to the lack of competition more than anything else! Anyway, in this portion of trail, my good pal Scotty Koonce tore away from me as I struggled to keep up. That's where I met that flannel-wearing goon. And had the most sufferfestacular run/race of my life. Ah, memories. And a primary reason I am boycotting marathon racing. For a long time. Michelle and I ran there, 90 minutes, and it went much better this time. She fell down like 503 times though. In the afternoon I rode a 40k MacArthur/Falls/Oaklyn route with Dirk, going hard and heavy, averaging nearly 23.5 mph, while outputting around 250 watts average during each lead (paceline with alternating 2 mile leads, the usual). I was a little tired at first but woke up halfway through and averaged over 25 mph for the last 10k. We reminisced on how just earlier this year, I was amazed that I could average 22 mph barely hanging onto Dirk's wheel. It's nice to improve.

Monday 10/25 -- Lifted some weights and biked nice and easy with Michelle. Had a good Columbia chat. Met Dirk later for a Prep CUBU masters swim. Main sets of 8x125 and a block of 4x100 on 1:35, 4x100 descend (starting at 1:20) and 2x100 VO2 max effort. We did the descends in under 1:16 for the last 3. On the 2x100, I hit 1:09 and 1:09!! That must be my fastest 100y swim ever. No blocks or flipturns either. Not bad. Dirk hit 1:12 and 1:12 for both, leading to disappointment on his part for not beating me and my colorful swim suit -- maybe next time, Beastman. We both swam pretty darn fast though (for us). Total of 3700y or so.

Our battle in the water. I was Godzilla this time. Dirk was the crab. Accurate representation.