It's Resolution Time, Baby!

Seeing as how we are now firmly in the new year and I have not posted anything in over a month, I figured that I should take a moment to reflect on past accomplishments and ponder future goals. On the whole, 2010 was a pretty good year. I lost about 50 pounds (and have been successful at keeping it off since September), upgraded to Cat 4 on the road (not exactly what I wanted, but I will take it considering my limited racing), got closer with Kari (always good when trying to woo one's woman), managed to run my photography company in the black all year (I ended slightly in the red, as planned, for tax purposes), and continued to make progress on my dissertation among other things. There are definitely some areas that I would like to improve; however, 2010 was definitely a good year.

What is the best way to capitalize on my achievements in 2010 and grow them in 2011. I have been told that 2011 is the year of follow through, so it only seems appropriate to grow bigger and better this year. Here are some of my goals for the year in no particular order (I do not really believe in resolutions or change for the sake of change, but I am a huge supporter in goal setting, writing them down and sharing them with others - that'd be you).

For cycling, my goal is to upgrade to Cat 3. To do that, I have been establishing a base and following Brent's instruction at every turn. Why bother finding an Olympian to coach you if you are not going to listen? Just a thought. As the off-season progressing, I will publish more of my power results (first batch coming today) and map out the prep for coming races. My first race is currently the Kenosha Spring Training Crit Series on March 14th, and I plan to race as much as possible throughout the summer to get enough experience to upgrade to Cat 3 by September. While this is completely doable, it will take work.

For school, my goal is to finish my dissertation by the Summer, if not sooner. Even though I doubt I will spend much time in the field, I am not a quitter. I am passionately against quitting, so I will finish.

For my photography business, my goal is to operate another year in the black, but grow to recoup the totality of my initial financial investment along with purchase some new equipment with the profits. This will require that I am the lead for a couple weddings this year. If you know of anyone, I am fairly cheap and always willing. Check out my work here (I know that was a shameless plug).

For my marketing business, my goal is to grow it to where it brings in a couple thousand a month on an ongoing basis, so I will have more options in life while finishing up my degree and planning a future with Kari.

For my relationship with Kari, my goal is to get engaged sometime this year (I have a feeling she'll let me sooner than later) and start to work on planning for our wedding.

For general life, my goal is to read more and spend more time growing myself as a person. I feel this was an area of weakness for me last year; even though, I do enjoy reading.

For weight, my goal is to maintain my weight at 180lbs. I am very satisfied with my results from last year and Kari will not let me get skinnier.

I believe that those are all of my goals for the coming year. There are probably more, but those are the ones that are most important and in the front of my mind.

Now onto the interesting stuff, the results of my baseline power test with Brent. In 10 minutes, I covered 3.83 miles (an average of 23 mph). My average watts were around 300 for the 10 minutes, my average cadence was around 100 rpms and my average heart rate was around 180bpms. I did not do a good job of setting my Garmin at the beginning and end of my test, so I am just going off of the spreadsheet Brent compiled for me. It is definitely a good start point for the beginning of January with a few more months of indoor training until the race season starts. Guess who is excited?! Also, Kari did great! She covered 3.08 miles for an average of 18.5 mph. How awesome is that?!

What Does Chris Do All Winter?

Answer: Freeze his toosh off.  No, seriously, this whole triathlon lifestyle I'm living makes me a regular freezy cat.  I've had the electric mattress pad rolling for more than a month now.  Long sleeves and sweaters have been in the wardrobe rotation fro just as long.  Maybe body fat does keep you warm.  Who knew?

 

As for training, I've studies my last few years.  Looked at some race results.  Not all mine, mind you.  And come up with some goals for the upcoming twelve month period (that is a year for those readers who are not so quick).  I will, most likely, write down those goals here in a few months.  But, for now they reside in my head.  Remember that my goals and mine and should not affect your life in any way, shape, or form.

 

Any who...  How to get to those goals.

 

Here is the general plan that I'm looking to follow until mid-January:

 

2 basic bike workouts every week with a FTP type workout every second week thrown in just for fun.

 

3 interval based swim workouts every week.  My "test" interval will be 6 or 7 x 200m.

 

1 long (read painfully boring) swim workout per week.  I do get some of my best thinking done during these swims, so I may become a dunce if I completely forego them.

 

4 solid runs per week with one at or below my goal race pace every two weeks, or so.  Weekly mileage should be above 30 miles during "work" weeks and around 20 on a recovery week.

 

I am an avid stretcher so yoga and stretching are just part of my life.  So, that will be there.  But, I don't count it for anything.

 

About the bike:  A typical training workout for me would be 4 minutes easy and 1 minute hard.  "Easy" and "Hard" will be by feel.  My intention is to do a little sleeping in and just keep on friendly terms with the old bicycle.

 

About the swim:  This is my new project.  Had I known I could get faster with just a little real work, I would have done this years ago.  Anyhow...  Now I do a warm-up, a drill set, two work sets, and a cool down.  This has also reinvigorated my desire to swim.

 

About the run:  This is still the third that I like best.  I intend to do about the same total mileage that I did in 2010 in 2011.  But, I intend to do a lot more speed work and even some track workouts.  These next 6 weeks, or so, I will just be getting my body ready to go a little faster than it is comfortable with.

 

Unfortunately, my personal (read "my family's" and really "my wife's") training schedule will not allow me to attend too many of the Brent Emery lead training sessions at the Milwaukee shop.  But, I will make attempts to make as many of those as I can in order to be in shape for the spring road races.

 

Send me an e-mail if you want to get together for some winter training fun.

Tachyon Team Emery's Third Coast Meeting

Our Tachyon Team Emery's Third Coast is meeting next Thursday Dec 9, 6pm to see what we want to do as a triathlon and road team for next year. Plan is to meet at the Lisbon Ave store. Bring your bike and trainers. We'll be riding easily while chatting. Movie for the night will be Breaking Away or American Flyers. Invite anyone you know who has been riding with you/us or that we can suck into the vacuum of common sense.

 

All are welcome come on out and join us.

 

Yes, even if you are only a little interested, come and join us.

 

No, really, you are welcome to come.

 

Hope to see you there.

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.

It has been a while

Well, gentle reader, I didn't want you all (ya'all to the folks south of the Mason-Dixon line) to think all I have been doing is sitting around and eating big hamburgers.  Sidebar: Big hamburgers are delicious.

 

Now back to the story at hand.

 

The Jayhawk Latebird Tri.  Ben did a great job explaining his side of the story.  Now for the truth.  Or, at least my rendition of the events.  Yes, yes I know that the race was a month ago.  I've been not being a triathlete for a while.  So, you just had to wait for this gripping tale.

 

The whole Emery's gang was there.  Brent, Julie, my Julie, Ben, Kari, Matt, Andy, Scott (my hero), Anna, and I were all in attendance.  Ben's Steve (actually Anna's Steve but he was Ben's Steve first) was out due to injuries and or other commitments.

 

I have to admit that it was my hope that all the fast guys like Scott and Andy would be exhausted from IM WI and other training to allow me to contest for an overall win.  Not so.  But fun was had.

 

Leading up to the race Ben and Kari started swimming again.  From our conversations, it was learned by me that both were definitely faster that I was.  This made me happy because Kari was in my lane for the swim.  I was planning on drafting off her for the entire swim.  Well, that didn't happen either.  I started first in the lane and Kari right behind me.  Throughout the swim she was right behind me, but never passed.  So, there I was stuck actually swimming.  I saw Ben get out of the water as I started my last 50m.  At that point I knew I has him.  Not only was I starting about 2 minutes behind him, but I knew my transitions would be faster than his.

 

Sure enough, as I exited the pool into transition, there was Ben messing with his wardrobe.  I understand that fashion can influence speed on the bike.  But I'm not sure whatever Ben was messing with was worth it.  I believe he was color coordinating his earrings and nail polish.  I'm not sure, but that is what I am going with.  So, I passed Ben while he was standing still in transition.

 

On to the bike I went.  Pedal, pedal, pedal.  At the first turn, which might be about 1.5 or 2 miles in, I glanced back and saw nobody.  I continued to pedal, pedal.  I did finally see Ben after the turnaround at about mile 7 or 8.  By my computer's clock I had a bit over a minute on him for sure at this point.  I kept my pace nice and even figuring that he would have to seriously blow himself up to catch me on the bike.

 

In T2 I had a good transition and was not able to see Ben at all.  Figuring transition time, etc. I figured I had over 2 minutes at this point.  I didn't think Ben was going to run 6 minute miles, so I went on to concentrate on my run and hopefully a decent overall time.

 

Mr. Garmin kept me at 6:45 pace through the whole run.  Which had me feeling quite good.  Sidebar again: Mr. Garmin had my average pace as 6:48 min/mi for 3.24mi but timing and scoring had me at 7:11 for 3.1mi.  I finished the run strong and feeling pretty good.  What was really cool was that I was the first person through the forest section and I was able to run with a family of deer for a little bit.  Not exactly a normal race thing.

 

In the end, I think I was 6th overall.  Andy beat me this time where I beat him in the spring.  Ben, although he was looking really good (earrings and nails you know), came in a couple of minutes behind me.  It was really, really cool to see all the Emery's folks finish. 

 

My Julie really did well.  She wound up 3rd in her age group and with a personal best course time.  I have to admit that her accomplishment far outweighs anything I did that day.

 

End of the race season.  That was the last of the races for 2010.  I might do a couple of running races yet.  But, we'll see.

 

I made it through the Monday and Tuesday after Whitewater without working out.  By Wednesday the ants in my pants required some feeding.  Since then, I've just been working out for workout's sake.  No real goals, just staying in shape.

 

I've taken a look at my results this year.  Although my swim times have not been poor, they were not front of the pack kind of times either.  I, to date, have really only done aerobic swim training.  I'd go swim 800, 1500, 2000, 2500 meters straight.  If I ever did pace work, it was rare.  And, I mean rare.  Like, maybe, 10 times in the last 5 years.  My race plan has always been to not work too hard on the swim, catch the fast swimmers on the bike and try to run as fast as I can.  I think my strategy may need to change a little for next year.

 

I know what I was capable of swimming in my youth (yut south of M-D line).  I also know that I am not 20 years-old any more (even though I try to act it).  So, my "until new year's resolution" is to swim like a swimmer for a bit.  I should be able to get my aerobic swimming pace into the high 1:20's over the next few months.  Maybe coming out of the water with the lead pack will allow me to conserve a little on the bike to allow my runs to be stronger.  Come along with me and we'll see.

 

So you've been warned.  If you see me in person I'll smell like chlorine, I might have marks on my hands from my paddles (which are way fancier now then they were in 1989 the last time I used paddles), and as usual I'll have a new goal to be working towards.

 

If you're looking to school me in the pool, give me a shout via e-mail, etc.  I am more than will to suffer if you can get this old man any faster.