Performance Management

Well owing to family emergency x 2 last week, the death of our furnace, and a car breakdown I missed 4 days of training (gasp!).

I think that's the most I've taken off since 2006 when I broke my right elbow.

I benefitted from the rest in 2 wats, #1 I was present and accounted for in the midst of family crises and #2 I came back with an increase in FTP on the bike.

Currently dabbling in performance management software on Training Peaks, the above is a graph of the last month. The middle blue line is chronic training load, pink peaks are acute stresses, and the yellow is an approximation of race readiness. The small dots are individual data points.

I really don't grasp it all quite yet as it does seem like the "average" scores they refer to for the average athlete are maybe pro athlete and not normal people averages.

With that said, this week being a Marathon race week for me should be aimed at doing short intense bouts which keep the blue line up, while somehow letting the yellow line normalize so that I come into a race somewhat fresh with preserved fitness.

So we'll see how that works out this week!


Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

740

August, what happened I don't know:dizzy spells, racing heart, lackluster training....

September however started with a bang: big training block starting with a 20 mile run last day of August, then the New Haven 20k, another long run, triathlon, and continued threshold training.

The last long run was actually yesterday, partially with the Brickyard group. This was followed by a swim in the afternoon at 2:00/100y pace, bike this am and topped off by another race- the Union Tavern Trot in Windsor. 

Thanks to MapQuest I was totally lost and arrived with 10 minutes to register and line up. So no warm up, 0- Zone 5 a matter of minutes. I didn't have "it" and could only hold Zone 5a today, but I am sure I got the training effect. I realize my 5k is always going to be subpar because I never train for that distance, never taper for the race, and use it primarily for training purposes.

Incidentally I just happened to run into Tracy there. We will try to use her Garmin data from the race to establish some zones.

Also I wore #740 today, the second time this summer. My other 740 was worn in ironman lake placid, the photo is of today's # with my IM wristband. I did a little better with this 740 placewise- #2 AG.

But truthfully the other 740 means so much more to me. A decent race is just that, but a DNF is like your personal key to a treasure map. Without it, I kinda knew what I wanted but was not exactly sure how to get there, now I see the way!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Membership

After a long run with Hartford Track Club (2000-2002 ish, 2006- present) as my only affiliation, U joined HEAT. The plan is to potentially be a liason between the two groups, as per my conversation with Kelly Burns Gallagher. I think this could provide both groups with enhanced opportunities. Here's to an auspicious start!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

As the rooster crows

Last tri of the season. I was very happy with the results as I improved in all three sports, and posted one of the fastest run splits of the day on a pretty gnarly trail. I went from 95/500 last year to 35/500 this year, which I consider a massive improvement.

It's a purely local affair, and my jaw dropped to see the absolute ton of stuff people brought into transition...buckets if water, Duffel bags with several changes of clothes, water bottles, gloves, hats...seriously! For a 1 hour + event!!!! It made for an interesting transition to say the least.  

Strange, when you go to an ironman and will be out on the course 10-12x as long, all you can put on the rack is your bike. That's it!

The swim was like aquatic WWF, I got punched in the eye pretty hard once,  and had three people grab onto my legs and hold on! Ugh. If ya don't know how to swim learn before entering a tri! I used a Finis Tempo trainer, which was great as it helped me stay in pace in the mosh pit.

The bike was also interesting, lots of new athletes out there which is great. However I saw people riding in packs, completely drafting. Instead of going into the drop zone when being passed they would block. I even saw a yellow line violation or two. I saw the USAT ref on a red motorcycle, who did nothing to stop it. My issue is safety, those rules are there for a reason, we don't need added danger in an already dangerous sport.

The run was the best part. My new bike requires different muscle group use, so this rime I got off the bike feeling like I could fly! The trail was a bit messy due to the rainstorm last night, I had a good time out there. It was a lot of fun passing people.

The finish line was the best part.

First of all a rooster wandered into the finish chute, and crossed the finish line with me!!! That's one finish line photo I cannot wait to see.

Most importantly my mom was volunteering today,  and put my medal around my neck at the end of the race. It wad a very special moment.

Good way to end the tri season.

Now as Tray said last week, it's Marathon season!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Zone 1

After several weeks of lousy running, yesterday was a great day. Group run, flat terrain, about 10 miles.

I was able to do the whole thing in zone 1! And still keep up! A few weeks ago when I was struggling my heart rate would have been quite high and very uneven from mile to mile.

Crazy, as the pace was slow, and I would have never embraced a run like this years ago but knowing what I know now....I am recovered and ready for some good fall running.

But first, a triathlon today! Last of the season! OK off to SBR (swim, bike, run).

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Saturday's Brickyard Run

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Yellow Jersies, living strong, drugs, and dreams

Well, seems everyone has put in their 2 cents on the whole Lance fiasco over the past few weeks.  One LA thread on Slowtwitch was over 40 pages long!

So here's my comments:

I started running in 1984 as a teenager, after spending the summer at my grandparent's house in Lanikai, HI. Everyone it seemed was training for this thing called Ironman. On TV I watched a young woman from Maine run away from the field during the first ever women's Olympic marathon. I wanted to do that too! So I did.  I entered a 10k.  I knew of no books, magazines, or resources on the matter, so I made up my own training schedule on a calendar. I finished the race in 1:02, age 14!

Fast forward to high school, I did a few sprint tris and joined the XC team. I liked XC better than tri, simply because everything was about leveling the playing field.  You could not win a race just because you had better equipment, like in a tri. My mom loved biking however, and was probably Greg LeMond's biggest fan. 

I did well in high school running, was even offered a scholarship but did not take it because I wanted to get into the medical field.  The college progam indicated to me that health/science studies were not a good fit for a college athlete's travel schedule.

So I ran non competitively in college, and restarted racing after I got out. By that time, there was a new American cyclist on the scene: LA.  And coincidentally, my first job out of school was in oncology.  Wow, Lance's first tour victory was really an inspiration for my cancer patients. I can remember being in their rooms as they were suffering at the hands of their diseases, and some commercial Lance was in would play on TV.  See, I would say, don't give up. 

On a personal note, it got me back into cycling too, in 2001 I spent my income tax return on a Trek Alpha 1000 in Postal colors of course! At one point I even had a yellow bracelet, although I lost it- it was too big for my small wrists and slipped off. 

Dreams.  I think cross country running gave me the courage to pursue my dreams despite a pretty rough childhood.  Eventually, the dream of Ironman---which I was introduced to at the beginning of this whole journey during that 1984 Hawaii stay with my grandparents, came true for me as well. 

But with all of life's ups, there are always some downs.  For me, it's been beyond hard to realize that I can't save everyone and disease claims young lives. And it's been hard to deal with some of the changes in our healthcare system that at times makes work downright impossible.  Of course, it's been tough accepting that heroes we look up to for inspiration were not all they were cracked up to be.

That said, I think we all need to have dreams and hope.  Looking back on all of this, I appreciate the the dreams that for me have materialized. In retrospect, I am glad I did not choose the scholarship and the competitive athlete's life.  I cannot explain the actions of others, and while I'm disappointed about cycling, Lance, all of the top pros basically---I  still want to believe in dreams and hope. At one time LA provided this for me, but not in the last years.  I've moved on, looking for sources of hope and inspiration in all I see around me and the people I meet every day. 

Life is good. Long live LeMond!

Late Summer update

August was a rough month. Mentally trying to deal with the DNF, as well as other assorted work and personal issues.  In the midst of all of that (?because of all of that) I began having dizzy spells and paplitations.  I caught my heart rate once up to 217!  I think it's all atrial, but I can hear a pretty good 3/6 systolic murmur...It's got a musical quality so I think it's physiologic, but I'll get it checked out sometime soon. 

Anyway, swim training with my total immersion coach is going well. I hope this new style of swimming eventually leads to faster times.  In that vein, I am looking at getting the Poolmate Swim watch to assist with my swim training and data collection.

Biking went well, the tri bike flies!!!!  I calculated approximate power ranges based on speed for a bery specicfic set up on my bike trainer, and am working on increaseing FTP through the use of approximated power training.

And my very own, specially designed "superfoods diet" is awesome.  Gives me lots of energy and keeps that weight down. 

What's not been going well??? My running.  Ugh. Legs tired and leaden. Heart rates wayyyyy to high. Sometimes I have felt like I can't breathe while running. I did manage a course PR at the Lobster Loop 5K in mid August, and a new Olympic Triathlon PR at Lake Taramuggis Tri last weekend. HR still super high, so I QUIT (ouch!) drinking coffee. This seemed to help, I managed to get that 20 mile training run done 2 days ago, and trained all weekend. I had more even readings at the New Haven 20k RR today.  My time was 1 minute slower than last year, but it was a new course, and as I said, I trained right through this one. 

My next and last tri of the season is next weekend. I am thinking of doing my run workouts on my old Nordic Track ski machine to see if that helps foster some much needed recovery.

Posting NH pics- one terrible one of me running (note ice cubes sticking out under my shirt and pained look on face), as well as an HTC group shot.  Good times!