Winter Training!

On Tuesday, last week, winter training began! Hooray! Who does not love spending hours on the trainer, staring at the wall, working on technique, building base, power, speed and endurance? I know I love my trainer. Well, not exactly. I just keep remembering that all the work I am putting in now will be worth it when the race season begins.

Last year, I entered winter training weighing close to 230 lbs. While I was building power into my legs, I was also trying to lose weight to get to my race weight for 180-185 lbs. Not the ideal situation for preparing for the upcoming season.

This year, I entered winter training at my race weight 180 lbs. Instead of having to worry about cutting weight, I only have to focus on building power, a much easier task at hand.

For winter training this year, I am incorporating the things that have been successful in the past for physical growth and performance. The winter prior to my shoulder injury, I spent one day a week riding my trainer for 4-6 hours, in addition to the other rides that Brent had. I have never felt that strong on my bike. Unfortunately, I destroyed my shoulder on my first ride back on the road of that season, which sidelined me for several weeks. In addition to the long rides, Brent added yoga to last year's training regime and I noticed huge gains in flexibility through that, something I plan to continue to do. After talking with Brent, the game plan he has me on has me doing the three training sessions at Emery's each week (Tuesdays 5:30-7pm, Thursdays 6-8am, and Saturdays 7-10am at the Milwaukee shop), one long ride of 3-6 hours (probably on Sundays), and lifting on Mondays and Wednesdays. It has been a while since I consistently lifted, but I always had huge gains in the past and know that it will help get those extra few mph in my sprints.

After the first week of winter training, I am definitely excited about where I can take myself this off-season. The legs feel great and are anxious to spend more time on the bike.

Word of warning: Regarding my training schedule/plan, each week and workout has a different purpose that repeats every 7 weeks. I am also not going 100% to allow my body to get used to what I'm asking (telling) it to do before I really ramp it up in about 6 weeks for the second cycle of the program. The first cycle is more about building base than killing myself. Also, while I took a week completely off my bike, I was still riding over 100 miles a week through mid November (thanks to our unusually warm Fall).

Now that the warning is out there, come join on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the shop. And if you're interested in joining on any of my other workouts, just comment to let me know.

Happy training!

Where have ya been?

Back by popular, or at least regular, demand, here is a blog post. Now, stop asking me, "When are you going to update us?" You can still e-mail me any questions. I just have not been in hyper-training mode. Actually, i forgot about the blog a little. Don't tell anyone. OK?

I've had a chance to unwind after the triathlon season. I've done a bit of running, biking, and swimming just for fun and fitness. That was actually kind of nice. Friday afternoon runs have been peaceful to say the least.

Now, the meat of today's topic: Reviewing the year's results/accomplishments and thinking a little about 2011. Overall, 2010 was a good year. Other than High Cliff, which kicked my a$$, I improved my times (Note plural here. It is called foreshadowing) from last year. Well, kind of and we'll get to that.

Over the course of the year I intended to run a little more than I did last year which looks like I will do.  Last year I ran just under 1,200 miles and this year I'll be over that for sure. For this year, as opposed to last year, I only ran 4 times each week. Basically, I cut out those 2 or 3 mile "short" runs with the intent to put those minutes in on the bike.

On the bike, I really had two main goals for the year. One was to get a solid tempo ride and a solid "long" ride in every week. The second was to complete the bone ride and be functional the next day.

My bike training consistency was more than I could have hoped for. Darn near every Monday I did a solid tempo ride and just about every Friday I, and the gang, got a good 60+ mile ride logged. I do have to note, and challenge some others, that I did most of my tempo rides alone. I quickly learned that when I got into pedal, pedal, pedal mode I quickly could leave others behind if they were not willing to push a little. Even when I did all the pulling, I would sometimes get into a zone where I would forget to look back every once in a while. Not wanting to be a jerk, I just figured that tempo ride was a day for a little alone time. Hint: Ben and Steve get on your trainer now so you can keep up;)

The Bone Ride this year saw more great weather and completing it was not even near the exhaustive effort it was in 2009. I can only credit this to the stupid number of 3+ hour trainer rides I did in February, March, and April.

Well, those are the two sports I did better in during 2010. I would really say that consistency of training allowed the gains I saw. I plan to do a very similar program in 2011 with a little more specificity. How's that for a fancy word, huh? Basically, I hope it means I'll have a power meter for next year to turn my engineering mind onto. Also, I have been experimenting with low heart rate running and have found that very interesting. That may find its way into my early season training too.

Now for sport number three: Swimming.

I will admit that, before about six weeks ago, I was a pool slacker. I read in some book somewhere when I started triathlon that swimming in a triathlon should be an aerobic effort and that I should be doing long distance workouts. So, off to the pool I went to reacquire the skill of swimming I had in my youth. With a solid eighteen years out of the pool I started training myself to swim longer and longer distances. As my swim fitness grew, my times got faster. But, as my race results show, my swimming speed stagnated (I have a word of the day subscription if you didn't know). I also found swimming, as I was doing it, bring with a capitol "B". I would often, turn a 2000m swim into an 800m swim just because I couldn't look at that stupid black line any more.

What did I see that jumped at me from my race results from the past three years? My swim times were all about the same. My swims didn't improve at all let alone in relation to my bike and run times.

Verdict: Get serious about swimming. Or is that a sentence?

Being college educated, maybe overly so, I looked into what kind of training I should have been doing and got myself started. Heck, I even went out and bought a pair of paddles. I have to admit that I will not buy a pull buoy because I don't want to be labeled as the tri guy at the pool. Everyone knows that triathletes go to the pool and stick that thing between their legs just way too much. Anyway, I have been using the paddles and actual drills (Yes, I am doing swimming drills) to reestablish proper form and intervals to work on going faster. So, far it has been so good. Let's see what happens in 2011.

That is what has been on my mind. Swimming faster and just logging a few rides and a bunch of base aerobic runs. Oh, and I might have been playing husband and father too. Now you know why I haven't posted anything.

One final thought. I really want to log a least one outdoor ride a week this winter. I'm not sure how that will work. So, far I've bailed on a bunch of Ben's morning rides. Now that I am skinny (or at least close to it), I have a hard time staying warm. Heck, I have the electric mattress pad on the bed already.

OK. A second final thought. One of my ideas for 2011 is to race about eight or nine pounds lighter than in 2010. For most of 2010 I went between 175 and 178 pounds. I have a feeling that being in the high 160's may pay dividends come race day. Editor's Note: Julie thinks this is crazy and this may make riding outside in the depths of winter even harder. The Wii Fit in the family room says I should weigh 166. Can you take training advice from Nintendo? I just want my Mii to look better.

 

Route Page

Note the new link to the side titled "Routes". Over time, we will add more routes that we enjoy (and name) to help spread the joy of pedaling with others. If you have any good routes that you would like to share, please drop us an email.