Over the dyna-mo-humm of the trainer, the ringing of the phone interupted my muscle-endurance interval. Not that I answered it, but it did get my attention for a second. No worries, let the machine get it. After yesterday's guilt-free rest day, tonight presented an opportunity to do something important: work on a weakness. Grinding away at a low cadence has never suited me. My typical average in a time trial is around 98-99. Taking a flyer in the final few kilometers of a race, over 100 is where you'll find me. From the very beginning, I always schooled myself to avoid lugging the big meat, and also to use the "float one leg every ten or so pedal strokes" technique that lore has it was practiced by Merckx himself. For the most part, this works great, but when one finds themselves on a 30 minute climb at 8-10%, you need to be able to grind it out with the best of them, or crack and go backwards. Knowing this all too well from experience, this year I decided to devote some effort to improving in this area.
So I got 3 efforts of 4-6 minutes at 75 rpm and 35 kph done. Not really long enough, but this was just to get my feet wet. Earlier in the morning I spun for about 10 minutes, did some core and floor exercises and a good stretch; racing out of work and doing 50 minutes with efforts on the trainer rounded out the day nicely. This brought me up to 23.5 bike hours and 6.5 running on the month, meeting or slightly exceeding my plan. This made me happy.
Climbing off the trainer, it was time to check the answering machine. Oh shit. It was my massage therapist, and apparently the appointment I thought I had for this Friday was tonight. Damn. Lucky for me she is a nice girl, and was very understanding, even going as far as working me in to her schedule for tommorow night. This is a good thing, as she is a world-class athlete and could kick my ass, or at least make me pay with a little deep tissue digging on the table. Thanks Mau, I am so sorry. Oh well, on to March. Now we get serious... Well, sort of. Thanks for reading.
since 2006
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Bootzilla's in the House
Sunday morning dawned with less snow than predicted, but enough to muck up the roads. The shoulders were all covered with an inch or two, because they didn't bother to plow. We were also treated to an entire day of brilliant sunshine. In fact, the road cleared up nicely by mid-day, or so it appeared, but a quick trip outside to check the temps revealed not only was it frigid and windy, but that a bit of black ice had formed here and there too. Not what I had in mind for a road ride. The decision was made: today would have to be a trainer day.
I have no problem with the trainer. One very fit and successful Master on my old team even goes so far as to say "you gotta learn to love the trainer." I'm not in love with it, but the trainer is a useful tool, and truth be told, there is a certain quality you get with trainer workouts you might not get outdoors. Being warm and lightly dressed is more condusive to a nice fast spin than riding outside with cold, aching muscles layered in restrictive clothing.
This would be my 17th time on the trainer this calendar year, but the first time over an hour. I'm not feeling burned out on it at all, which is a good thing. The importance of the trainer multiplies in March and April, as these months represent the most critical period of race preparation. My workouts will be more scheduled during this time; less flexibility of the training plan means indoor options are a must during crappy weather. Race simulations and short intervals fit the trainer quite nicely. Still preferring the feel of an old fan model, I cannot do extreme standing sprint efforts, as the resistance is not there. For everything else, the noise is a bit much, but to me the fan provides more of a road feel.
So Sunday, my motivation to ride was very low, being quite tired from the preceding week. When I don't feel like riding, I usually just start out easy and see how it goes. Approaching the trainer like an outdoor ride works for me, even going so far as to visualize rolling out the driveway and stretching on the bike as I get comfortable over the first few miles. Settling in, eventually the various efforts come as I crest a hill here, or roll it up on a nice stretch of road there. This works better for me than just getting on the bike and treating the workout like a spin class.
Being this tired, a nice easy road spin would have been on order had the roads been clear and the temps friendlier. Going over an hour on the trainer would require music, so taking the time to setup speakers and put the volume control within reach, I started thumbing through CDs. My favorite trainer music is Bootsy Collins' "Fresh Outta P," but this has been AWOL for almost a year. I had looked high and low, and resigned myself to it being lost forever. So for today, I took out a Marvin Gaye double anthology set, and opened it up to get the "newer" CD, and lo and behold, the Bootsy CD was in the case! So now I have a missing Marvin CD, but for today, I was once again spinning to the funk. Too bad I had an easy day planned. The good news is this masterpiece runs about an hour twenty, so my 90 minute ride breezed by. My HR was going nowhere, confirming my fatigue, but I kept up a good cadence with the back wheel turning at 28.5 kph average. Best of all, when the time for an interval workout does come, I am now musically prepared.
I have no problem with the trainer. One very fit and successful Master on my old team even goes so far as to say "you gotta learn to love the trainer." I'm not in love with it, but the trainer is a useful tool, and truth be told, there is a certain quality you get with trainer workouts you might not get outdoors. Being warm and lightly dressed is more condusive to a nice fast spin than riding outside with cold, aching muscles layered in restrictive clothing.
This would be my 17th time on the trainer this calendar year, but the first time over an hour. I'm not feeling burned out on it at all, which is a good thing. The importance of the trainer multiplies in March and April, as these months represent the most critical period of race preparation. My workouts will be more scheduled during this time; less flexibility of the training plan means indoor options are a must during crappy weather. Race simulations and short intervals fit the trainer quite nicely. Still preferring the feel of an old fan model, I cannot do extreme standing sprint efforts, as the resistance is not there. For everything else, the noise is a bit much, but to me the fan provides more of a road feel.
So Sunday, my motivation to ride was very low, being quite tired from the preceding week. When I don't feel like riding, I usually just start out easy and see how it goes. Approaching the trainer like an outdoor ride works for me, even going so far as to visualize rolling out the driveway and stretching on the bike as I get comfortable over the first few miles. Settling in, eventually the various efforts come as I crest a hill here, or roll it up on a nice stretch of road there. This works better for me than just getting on the bike and treating the workout like a spin class.
Being this tired, a nice easy road spin would have been on order had the roads been clear and the temps friendlier. Going over an hour on the trainer would require music, so taking the time to setup speakers and put the volume control within reach, I started thumbing through CDs. My favorite trainer music is Bootsy Collins' "Fresh Outta P," but this has been AWOL for almost a year. I had looked high and low, and resigned myself to it being lost forever. So for today, I took out a Marvin Gaye double anthology set, and opened it up to get the "newer" CD, and lo and behold, the Bootsy CD was in the case! So now I have a missing Marvin CD, but for today, I was once again spinning to the funk. Too bad I had an easy day planned. The good news is this masterpiece runs about an hour twenty, so my 90 minute ride breezed by. My HR was going nowhere, confirming my fatigue, but I kept up a good cadence with the back wheel turning at 28.5 kph average. Best of all, when the time for an interval workout does come, I am now musically prepared.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Saturday in the Park
Yesterday, awaking with a mysteriously sore foot, I skipped running, instead heading out on the MTB for a morning blast around Borderland. The early am daylight, marginal for road riding, is not a problem in the woods, away from traffic. The morning also have the benefit of rising temps, so although it might suck when leaving the house with the air in the teens, after a few minutes racing through the woods you forget all about it. By the time you work up a sweat, the final stages of sunrise give birth to the warmth of a new day. This is much more encouraging than riding at sunset when you are comfortable at the start, but sink into a deeper and deeper freeze as the miles roll on.
The park was deserted Friday morning. Usually I see a few joggers or dog walkers, or at least a deer. This day, it was me and few squirrels, that's it. The fireroad was all frozen mud, just a few scattered ice patches, nothing dangerous. More on that later... I warmed up on the way over through the twisting berms of the town forest, then started on a few speedy reconnaissance loops around the park. Scoping out the scene, once I confirmed the emptiness of my dirt autobahn, I reversed direction and made a full-on TT effort in zone 5B, all the way around and back out to the entrance. This is only a few kilometers, but it was still a very solid 12 minute effort. I cooled down on the way back home through the forest, finishing up with just over an hour on the bike, got showered, into the car, and into cubeville right on time, heh, heh. Not sure why, but I always feel like I stole something when I get in a good ride before work.
Today my foot was still sore. Not real bad, but tender on the outside/top where the metatarsals run down to my two smallest toes. This was weird, because I ran on Wednesday am, and this didn't get sore until the middle of the night on Thursday when I woke up off the couch. Fräulein Kerry was on her way to New Mexico for vacation/altitude training, and I had to have her at Green for a 1:30 pm flight. She knew that if we attempted a bike ride then it would end up being a tense, last minute dash to the airport, so wisely she decided a run was in order. This worried me, not only because of my foot, but also because I am not nearly as fast as the USATF New England Indoor 5000m Champion.
Out the door we went, and for the first two miles the pace was fine. The soreness in my foot was not bad, and it seemed to disappear as we ran along. Running over the frozen tractor ruts in the back of the sheep pasture may have been what brought this one, but today it seemed therapeutic. I was suffering today though, and the slight increase in pace on the way back hurt me. This week had probably already provided more than enough intensity. I struggled to stay close on the way back, and finished up in 33 minutes, which is about a minute and a half less than I normally take to do this loop on my own. I'm not sure of the distance, but 7K would be a fair estimate.
We easily made the airport and off she went. Light snow fell on the drive down, but it seemed ok when I was coming back. Phoning JG on the way, I convinced him we could head out for a road ride without freezing to death if we layered up. He was still working, but he agreed to try to be ready by 3. With a little extra time, I cleaned and lubed the chain on the cross bike, got all my clothes ready, and did some good stretching. Jeff called and said he was on his way out of work, expressing some doubt about the wisdom of going on the road in this cold. Looking outside, the snow was now falling pretty fast, and sticking too. Quickly I called him back and said OK, we could take the mountain bikes out. This was not my first choice, because I get enough of Borderland during the week, and an easy road spin made more sense. Still, even I am not dumb enough to go out and slide around the road dodging sand trucks and morons who can't drive in the dry, let alone a snowstorm.
We did the typical loop that I do all the time, but since Jeff is a single-track magician, we also did all the normally avoided gnarly rockpile boneyard trails. Of course, with the nice new coating of snow, this made things extra interesting. At least we weren't riding hard. It was nice, very technical, talking pace, and only a few portages where common sense overrode the temptation to clean a slippery obstacle. Late February is not the time for a roadie to be bashing his knees on giant rocks.
The ride was good, and the snows picked up throughout. The temps dropped down into the low 20's as darkness approached, but it was comfortable. We headed out around the fireroad where I had done my screaming interval yesterday, this time it was all white, everything coated. This included the tiny trace patches of ice lurking underneath. So when we got to the little climb on the access road, the least technical part of the entire ride, a stretch where a road bike could go, I am on the bar extensions climbing out of the saddle and lose the front wheel on a patch of ice and crash straight to the ground. Just what I needed. Hip, knee, head -- not serious, but hard enough to get my attention. Just another cut for my knee, some stiffness for tonight and tommorow, and I'm sure a nice black and blue for next week. Oh well, at least we got in almost two hours.
Tonight is supposed to bring more snow, so tommorow is looking like a trainer day. Running will probably go on hold until Wednesday. Hopefully this will be our last shot of winter, and all will get sweeter and sweeter in the next few weeks.
The park was deserted Friday morning. Usually I see a few joggers or dog walkers, or at least a deer. This day, it was me and few squirrels, that's it. The fireroad was all frozen mud, just a few scattered ice patches, nothing dangerous. More on that later... I warmed up on the way over through the twisting berms of the town forest, then started on a few speedy reconnaissance loops around the park. Scoping out the scene, once I confirmed the emptiness of my dirt autobahn, I reversed direction and made a full-on TT effort in zone 5B, all the way around and back out to the entrance. This is only a few kilometers, but it was still a very solid 12 minute effort. I cooled down on the way back home through the forest, finishing up with just over an hour on the bike, got showered, into the car, and into cubeville right on time, heh, heh. Not sure why, but I always feel like I stole something when I get in a good ride before work.
Today my foot was still sore. Not real bad, but tender on the outside/top where the metatarsals run down to my two smallest toes. This was weird, because I ran on Wednesday am, and this didn't get sore until the middle of the night on Thursday when I woke up off the couch. Fräulein Kerry was on her way to New Mexico for vacation/altitude training, and I had to have her at Green for a 1:30 pm flight. She knew that if we attempted a bike ride then it would end up being a tense, last minute dash to the airport, so wisely she decided a run was in order. This worried me, not only because of my foot, but also because I am not nearly as fast as the USATF New England Indoor 5000m Champion.
Out the door we went, and for the first two miles the pace was fine. The soreness in my foot was not bad, and it seemed to disappear as we ran along. Running over the frozen tractor ruts in the back of the sheep pasture may have been what brought this one, but today it seemed therapeutic. I was suffering today though, and the slight increase in pace on the way back hurt me. This week had probably already provided more than enough intensity. I struggled to stay close on the way back, and finished up in 33 minutes, which is about a minute and a half less than I normally take to do this loop on my own. I'm not sure of the distance, but 7K would be a fair estimate.
We easily made the airport and off she went. Light snow fell on the drive down, but it seemed ok when I was coming back. Phoning JG on the way, I convinced him we could head out for a road ride without freezing to death if we layered up. He was still working, but he agreed to try to be ready by 3. With a little extra time, I cleaned and lubed the chain on the cross bike, got all my clothes ready, and did some good stretching. Jeff called and said he was on his way out of work, expressing some doubt about the wisdom of going on the road in this cold. Looking outside, the snow was now falling pretty fast, and sticking too. Quickly I called him back and said OK, we could take the mountain bikes out. This was not my first choice, because I get enough of Borderland during the week, and an easy road spin made more sense. Still, even I am not dumb enough to go out and slide around the road dodging sand trucks and morons who can't drive in the dry, let alone a snowstorm.
We did the typical loop that I do all the time, but since Jeff is a single-track magician, we also did all the normally avoided gnarly rockpile boneyard trails. Of course, with the nice new coating of snow, this made things extra interesting. At least we weren't riding hard. It was nice, very technical, talking pace, and only a few portages where common sense overrode the temptation to clean a slippery obstacle. Late February is not the time for a roadie to be bashing his knees on giant rocks.
The ride was good, and the snows picked up throughout. The temps dropped down into the low 20's as darkness approached, but it was comfortable. We headed out around the fireroad where I had done my screaming interval yesterday, this time it was all white, everything coated. This included the tiny trace patches of ice lurking underneath. So when we got to the little climb on the access road, the least technical part of the entire ride, a stretch where a road bike could go, I am on the bar extensions climbing out of the saddle and lose the front wheel on a patch of ice and crash straight to the ground. Just what I needed. Hip, knee, head -- not serious, but hard enough to get my attention. Just another cut for my knee, some stiffness for tonight and tommorow, and I'm sure a nice black and blue for next week. Oh well, at least we got in almost two hours.
Tonight is supposed to bring more snow, so tommorow is looking like a trainer day. Running will probably go on hold until Wednesday. Hopefully this will be our last shot of winter, and all will get sweeter and sweeter in the next few weeks.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Morning Ride
Well, there was no snow last night, so it looks like today will be my first outdoor morning ride of the year. The sky starts to brighten before 6 am on a clear day, and even with today's overcast the darkness has relented in time for me to head out for a spin on the MTB.
Yesterday was just a few easy sessions on the trainer. Falling asleep on the couch until 3 am, I then went to bed and tossed and turned for two hours before dozing off until 7. This left me with only 21 minutes spinning before work. Booking it out of there at the stroke of 5:30, session two lasted 41 minutes, all easy, and had me done in time to be eating dinner at a reasonable hour.
The weekend is not looking too good. An encore appearance by winter would not be welcome at this point, but I am going to head out now to make the best of the last Friday in February!
Yesterday was just a few easy sessions on the trainer. Falling asleep on the couch until 3 am, I then went to bed and tossed and turned for two hours before dozing off until 7. This left me with only 21 minutes spinning before work. Booking it out of there at the stroke of 5:30, session two lasted 41 minutes, all easy, and had me done in time to be eating dinner at a reasonable hour.
The weekend is not looking too good. An encore appearance by winter would not be welcome at this point, but I am going to head out now to make the best of the last Friday in February!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Longest run ever
My running has always been a sporadic deal. Starting up in the early fall, usually entering a race or two, then maintaining a minimal schedule through the winter was my m.o. until last year, when I kept it up until the end of May. This made starting again much smoother this past fall, and racing cross provided the incentive to be more consistent. Actually, due to the walking and hiking I did during my 11 months of unemployment a few years back, my mileage and ability to run without soreness or seriously hurting my cycling has be greatly improved. These factors lead to my 5 mile and 10K PRs last October. 6:45 miles is not exactly flying, but as a 44 year old who never ran seriously, I'll take it.
This winter running has been good to me. Despite fairly minimal cycling, my weight has stayed at a comfortable level, just five or six pounds above my summer racing mass (even in the best of times, I am no Rasmussen.) This benefit has been realized even though my weekly running mileage averages just 8-15 miles.
Last Sunday's choice of the 5K over the 10 miler at Foxboro was a good one, but it also made me realize that if I ever want to run a race longer than 10K, stepping up my mileage will be required. Today I decided to work in a longer than usual run. A review of my HR zone bar charts clearly showed my February runs have been fairly intense, while my bike rides have been all zones 1 and 2. An adjustment might be in order, so today I went out in the morning and tried to relax and run steady without driving up my heart rate. It was 16 degrees F when I left at 7:30, but the sun was strong and by the time I got done 1 hour and 5 minutes later, it was up to 27 with a real feel several hashes higher. Bogging down just a bit when I got past my usual 35 minutes duration, my HR crept up a tad from my efforts to keep a steady pace. My route went all over the place, some woods, some footpaths that connect the dorms at the local college, some fields, some roads. Running the approximate route through walkjogrun.net yielded an estimate of 12.5K, so my pace was in the low-mid eight minutes/mile range.
By noontime the temps were up to almost 40. I logged off work for a lunch ride, and motored out of the driveway on the cross bike with road tires on it. After 15 minutes I was in full TT mode (well, as full as you can get on a cross bike with a jacket on) and put in a good 20 minute effort at LT. I kept it brisk all the way home and pulled back into the house in exactly one hour, covering about 31K. Right back to work. :o)
I love telecommuting. Too bad it is only one day a week.
This winter running has been good to me. Despite fairly minimal cycling, my weight has stayed at a comfortable level, just five or six pounds above my summer racing mass (even in the best of times, I am no Rasmussen.) This benefit has been realized even though my weekly running mileage averages just 8-15 miles.
Last Sunday's choice of the 5K over the 10 miler at Foxboro was a good one, but it also made me realize that if I ever want to run a race longer than 10K, stepping up my mileage will be required. Today I decided to work in a longer than usual run. A review of my HR zone bar charts clearly showed my February runs have been fairly intense, while my bike rides have been all zones 1 and 2. An adjustment might be in order, so today I went out in the morning and tried to relax and run steady without driving up my heart rate. It was 16 degrees F when I left at 7:30, but the sun was strong and by the time I got done 1 hour and 5 minutes later, it was up to 27 with a real feel several hashes higher. Bogging down just a bit when I got past my usual 35 minutes duration, my HR crept up a tad from my efforts to keep a steady pace. My route went all over the place, some woods, some footpaths that connect the dorms at the local college, some fields, some roads. Running the approximate route through walkjogrun.net yielded an estimate of 12.5K, so my pace was in the low-mid eight minutes/mile range.
By noontime the temps were up to almost 40. I logged off work for a lunch ride, and motored out of the driveway on the cross bike with road tires on it. After 15 minutes I was in full TT mode (well, as full as you can get on a cross bike with a jacket on) and put in a good 20 minute effort at LT. I kept it brisk all the way home and pulled back into the house in exactly one hour, covering about 31K. Right back to work. :o)
I love telecommuting. Too bad it is only one day a week.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Procrastination Pays Off
Traditionally, President's Day means a longish road ride, taking full advantage of the day off from work. Today, the motivation to stick to this tradition was just not there. Fatigue from yesterday (despite no ride and a 4 hour afternoon nap), combined with the first temperature check showing 9 degrees seriously dampened my enthusiasm. Sitting around the house surfing the web and eating, I kept waiting for the ambition to come. And I waited. The forecast said afternoon temps would be in the mid 30's, and with the bright sunshine it seemed possible. Hourly checks showed the mercury climbing at a glacially slow pace. By noontime, it was 26. I started to think about a trainer ride.
I just did not feel like another cruise around the local trails on the MTB. There will be plenty of those in the weeks to come when that is all I have time for in the morning. Constant checks of CyclingNews for live updates from the Tour of California yielded nothing. I cooked an omellete, had some pancakes and a smoothie, and even made a slice of garlic bread. Still no motivation.
Around 2 pm, the thermometer struck 30. It was crunch time, do or die. Figuring that I would have to take my own advice and keep my water bottle in my pocket to keep it from freezing anyway, I put some road wheels on the cross bike. It has been dormant since snowy Nationals, as it came home nice and clean. This way I also got to wear my MTB shoes, which are roomy enough for thick wool socks, and much warmer than my Rocket 7's.
I was on the road at 2:15 pm. It was damn cold, and I thought if I could last an hour, then head in the house for another 40 minutes or so on the trainer then it would be a victory. The wind was out of the southwest, and I headed straight south for about 5 miles before turning straight into the wind. After about 30 minutes, I started to get more comfortable, although some effort was required to keep my hands away from the bare metal areas on my handlebars. Now 1.5 hours seemed doable. I rode a nice flat loop, around roads I know very well from years of riding. At one hour, while stopping in a cowfield for a nature break, I pulled on my rain cape to see how that felt. When I rode away I was much more comfy, and when the the "go home or keep going" intersection came up, I took the "keep going" option. Circling back west for a bit before going north and then toward home, I wound up with 2:20 total, and was not critically chilled in any area. Tradition was saved.
I just did not feel like another cruise around the local trails on the MTB. There will be plenty of those in the weeks to come when that is all I have time for in the morning. Constant checks of CyclingNews for live updates from the Tour of California yielded nothing. I cooked an omellete, had some pancakes and a smoothie, and even made a slice of garlic bread. Still no motivation.
Around 2 pm, the thermometer struck 30. It was crunch time, do or die. Figuring that I would have to take my own advice and keep my water bottle in my pocket to keep it from freezing anyway, I put some road wheels on the cross bike. It has been dormant since snowy Nationals, as it came home nice and clean. This way I also got to wear my MTB shoes, which are roomy enough for thick wool socks, and much warmer than my Rocket 7's.
I was on the road at 2:15 pm. It was damn cold, and I thought if I could last an hour, then head in the house for another 40 minutes or so on the trainer then it would be a victory. The wind was out of the southwest, and I headed straight south for about 5 miles before turning straight into the wind. After about 30 minutes, I started to get more comfortable, although some effort was required to keep my hands away from the bare metal areas on my handlebars. Now 1.5 hours seemed doable. I rode a nice flat loop, around roads I know very well from years of riding. At one hour, while stopping in a cowfield for a nature break, I pulled on my rain cape to see how that felt. When I rode away I was much more comfy, and when the the "go home or keep going" intersection came up, I took the "keep going" option. Circling back west for a bit before going north and then toward home, I wound up with 2:20 total, and was not critically chilled in any area. Tradition was saved.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Wampanoag 5K
Last night's banquet kept us out a bit past my bedtime. Thanks to the Mai-Tais and teryaki, your hero was not feeling too well this morning. I stayed at my teammate's house, but didn't have my bike with me. He and our captain braved the elements and took to the road at 9 am. Good luck dudes.
There was a 10 mile and 5k running event in Foxboro. I had some thoughts of doing the 10 mile, but due to my condition, the cold, and the fact that I have never run more than 7 miles at a time before, I wisely opted for the 5K. Registration seemed a bit chaotic, as the start lines were in different places, and the timing crew was streched a bit. They had something like 360 runners for the 10 mile, but only 90 for the 5K. This surprised me, but I guess the people that are serious enough to run in these temps are more the 10 mile crowd.
Drinking water all the way to the race did not do much for me. The dryness of the air combined with my hangover left my mouth totally parched before the race even started. The field was tiny, but Dick Hoyt was there pushing his son in the wheelchair. I ran the first mile in 6:20, but then the second mile started with a few corners and an uphill before going onto a wide, straight road right into the wind. I thought my intensity and focus were OK, but my split was 7:00. Yikes. I kept drilling it, and the last mile was sort of downhill, so that helped. My third split was 6:30 and the clock showed 20:19 when I went into the chute. The legs felt OK, but the lungs were seared from the cold, dry air. Still, I felt a lot better than I did before the race.
I have to be pretty happy with this, as the pace was a bit quicker than my 5 mile and 10K prs run this past fall. The bike training is going to have to take precedence in the coming weeks, but maybe I can hold the running together for a few more races and put in a decent time if I can avoid things like last night's acts of stupidity.
There was a 10 mile and 5k running event in Foxboro. I had some thoughts of doing the 10 mile, but due to my condition, the cold, and the fact that I have never run more than 7 miles at a time before, I wisely opted for the 5K. Registration seemed a bit chaotic, as the start lines were in different places, and the timing crew was streched a bit. They had something like 360 runners for the 10 mile, but only 90 for the 5K. This surprised me, but I guess the people that are serious enough to run in these temps are more the 10 mile crowd.
Drinking water all the way to the race did not do much for me. The dryness of the air combined with my hangover left my mouth totally parched before the race even started. The field was tiny, but Dick Hoyt was there pushing his son in the wheelchair. I ran the first mile in 6:20, but then the second mile started with a few corners and an uphill before going onto a wide, straight road right into the wind. I thought my intensity and focus were OK, but my split was 7:00. Yikes. I kept drilling it, and the last mile was sort of downhill, so that helped. My third split was 6:30 and the clock showed 20:19 when I went into the chute. The legs felt OK, but the lungs were seared from the cold, dry air. Still, I felt a lot better than I did before the race.
I have to be pretty happy with this, as the pace was a bit quicker than my 5 mile and 10K prs run this past fall. The bike training is going to have to take precedence in the coming weeks, but maybe I can hold the running together for a few more races and put in a decent time if I can avoid things like last night's acts of stupidity.
Smells Like Team Spirit
Saturday was our annual team banquet. Classy bunch of serious athletes we are, this is held in the karaoke lounge of a large Chinese restaraunt. What better way to start the season than by drinking like Mickey Mantle and Pelle Lindbergh while devouring a nutrionally void and calorically loaded meal? You will have to use your imagination as to how this played out, but yes, myself and several of the mates formed a quartet and rocked the house with "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer," as well as several other favorites by Johnny Cash, AC/DC, and others. We ended the night by having a pair of our newly found female fans model some of the team clothing that we had along while we bought them drinks. Like I said, we are a real classy bunch.
This is an annual event, so I knew in advance the sort of things the evening would bring. This motivated me to get out on the MTB for a bit longer than I would have otherwise ridden on such a frigid day. I rode the local trails, as I am lucky enough to be able to ride the woods almost from my house. Staying more or less on my normal morning route, it was comfy in the woods, out of the wind and getting some hard pedalling in spots where the ground was not quite frozen. There were a few remaining areas of snow, and of course roto-tilling the knobbies through six inches of crust takes a bit of effort. I went easy-medium for the first hour, thinking that I would pick it up later, but a surprise lay in store for me.
The local state park is not exactly Yellowstone, but it is 1000 acres of woods and swamp in the middle for suburbia. Lots of people walk dogs in there, but most stay on the main fireroad that circumnavigates the pond around which the park is situated. Even on a chilly weekend day, there are still enough walkers to make me try to avoid this and stick to the more remote parts of the park. I was on a loop about as far into the woods as I could go when I came upon a small black lab mix, looking frightened and cold. I stopped to check the little girl out, she had a harness and tags, but there was nobody around. I rode the loop once very slowly, and the dog tagged along, but found no one. Great. I couldn't leave her there, but she was not big enough to keep up if I rode hard. So off we went on the trip back to park headquarters. The way there was mainly a bike-a-hike trail that I normally avoid because it is too technical and has a few wet spots. At least the numerous portages kept me a bit warmer. I spoke with some hikers on the way out who said they heard that a dog had been reported missing. We made our way out, and Avery, as she turned out to be named, perked up a bit when she seemed to pick up the scent of her human. Sure enough, the guy was waiting at headquarters, and was quite thankful, although not exactly the most scholarly guy I have ever run into. By then I was pretty cold, as the past 45 minutes had been pretty low intensity.
Wrapping up the ride with another 45 minutes of more spirited riding, I finished with 2.5 hours. Longer would have been even better, but by then my water was frozen and I called it a day.
This is an annual event, so I knew in advance the sort of things the evening would bring. This motivated me to get out on the MTB for a bit longer than I would have otherwise ridden on such a frigid day. I rode the local trails, as I am lucky enough to be able to ride the woods almost from my house. Staying more or less on my normal morning route, it was comfy in the woods, out of the wind and getting some hard pedalling in spots where the ground was not quite frozen. There were a few remaining areas of snow, and of course roto-tilling the knobbies through six inches of crust takes a bit of effort. I went easy-medium for the first hour, thinking that I would pick it up later, but a surprise lay in store for me.
The local state park is not exactly Yellowstone, but it is 1000 acres of woods and swamp in the middle for suburbia. Lots of people walk dogs in there, but most stay on the main fireroad that circumnavigates the pond around which the park is situated. Even on a chilly weekend day, there are still enough walkers to make me try to avoid this and stick to the more remote parts of the park. I was on a loop about as far into the woods as I could go when I came upon a small black lab mix, looking frightened and cold. I stopped to check the little girl out, she had a harness and tags, but there was nobody around. I rode the loop once very slowly, and the dog tagged along, but found no one. Great. I couldn't leave her there, but she was not big enough to keep up if I rode hard. So off we went on the trip back to park headquarters. The way there was mainly a bike-a-hike trail that I normally avoid because it is too technical and has a few wet spots. At least the numerous portages kept me a bit warmer. I spoke with some hikers on the way out who said they heard that a dog had been reported missing. We made our way out, and Avery, as she turned out to be named, perked up a bit when she seemed to pick up the scent of her human. Sure enough, the guy was waiting at headquarters, and was quite thankful, although not exactly the most scholarly guy I have ever run into. By then I was pretty cold, as the past 45 minutes had been pretty low intensity.
Wrapping up the ride with another 45 minutes of more spirited riding, I finished with 2.5 hours. Longer would have been even better, but by then my water was frozen and I called it a day.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
How to survive a mild winter.
Yesterday was the kind of New England day that Lewis Black jokes about in his routine. We experienced at least three of the four seasons in a period of just a few hours. The day started out like late early summer. There was still a pretty good snowpack from last week's snow (trust me, this one was only a "blizzard" to the media), and when I headed out for my run at 7 a.m., the temp was almost 60. Despite the combo of warm air and snowpack, there was little fog, probably because the airmass that had floated in was already moist when it got here.
I did a 32 minute run, went pretty easy, staying mostly on the new concrete sidewalks that they put in around my village of residence. Usually my runs divert away from public roads for a significant portion of the route, which makes it difficult to determine the true distances. The odometer calibration on my mountain bike is a little bit suspect; it is calibrated for an overall tire diameter somewhere between the big knobbies and the street slicks that I sometimes interchange them with. So today I tried using an online GPS applet which looks to be built from the googlemap API. You can find this at walkjogrun.net. This thing is still a bit buggy, but you can zoom in on the 'hood, click the points of your route, and voila, a turn by turn distance report is produced on the page. Pretty cool idea. I came up with about 4 miles for my run, so that it not too bad, as I was keeping my HR in z1 and z2 for most of it.
Oh yeah, the weather. So I went to work and began to toil away. Around 11 a.m., the skies darkened, the wind picked up, and suddenly it is raining sideways. Not just a little bit either. This was like the opening credits to Gilligan's Island. Huge trees curling horizontal, sheets of rain, nearly dark as night. This last about 10 minutes. By 1 p.m., the sun is out, there is not a cloud in the sky, and the temps have plummetted into the low 30's. So much for an early spring.
The good news is the two days of warm weather combined with the brief rain significantly eroded the snowpack. The streets and sidewalks are all clean now. I am not sure about the woods, but I think that it will be mostly runnable and rideable, so long as it stays cold enough to keep the mud frozen. That shouldn't be a problem, as tonight's low is supposed be below zero.
What does all this have to do with training? This is about flexibility, not the physical kind, but in your training activites. You have to be prepared to make the most out of what nature presents to you in the way of weather. Sure, the first two weeks of February were pretty damn spring-like, and we all got in some good road miles. My view, however, is that only the foolish started ramping up like it was time to start the Spring build. Take advantage of the nice days, sure, but why go out for four hours if you might not be able to do that again for five more weeks? In the coming days I will elaborate more, chronicling my techniques for training in the late winter conditions, but suffice to say that running, MTB, cross, XC skiing, and indoor workouts are all prime tools to used during base conditioning. Continuing to do these activities even when the conditions would allow you to head out on a road ride will keep you interested and able to make the most out of your training when the the weather isn't so cooperative. Once I start getting out on the road every day, I find it a lot harder to enjoy the trainer on the stormy day when I am stuck inside. So don't be afraid to go out on the road when things are good, but stay involved in your winter activities so that you are prepared to get something out of them when they are all you can do. Running is the best example. There are far less hassles to running than cycling in crappy weather or cold, because you don't have the artificial wind chill and there are less light-related safety issues. You have to keep the running consistent though, because if you drop it for three weeks when the roads and temps are good, then you won't be able to push it enough when running is the only option.
Finally, remember that your supply of fortitude is not endless. Don't go out for three hours on the bike in 20 degree temps every weekend in February if this will make you hate the bike and stay inside in March. Your February workouts have only one purpose: to prepare you for your March workouts. March prepares you for April, etc. So keep your base routines consistent and meaningful, but don't empty your tank now in some effort to "get ahead." Trust your training, and trust yourself to follow it.
I did a 32 minute run, went pretty easy, staying mostly on the new concrete sidewalks that they put in around my village of residence. Usually my runs divert away from public roads for a significant portion of the route, which makes it difficult to determine the true distances. The odometer calibration on my mountain bike is a little bit suspect; it is calibrated for an overall tire diameter somewhere between the big knobbies and the street slicks that I sometimes interchange them with. So today I tried using an online GPS applet which looks to be built from the googlemap API. You can find this at walkjogrun.net. This thing is still a bit buggy, but you can zoom in on the 'hood, click the points of your route, and voila, a turn by turn distance report is produced on the page. Pretty cool idea. I came up with about 4 miles for my run, so that it not too bad, as I was keeping my HR in z1 and z2 for most of it.
Oh yeah, the weather. So I went to work and began to toil away. Around 11 a.m., the skies darkened, the wind picked up, and suddenly it is raining sideways. Not just a little bit either. This was like the opening credits to Gilligan's Island. Huge trees curling horizontal, sheets of rain, nearly dark as night. This last about 10 minutes. By 1 p.m., the sun is out, there is not a cloud in the sky, and the temps have plummetted into the low 30's. So much for an early spring.
The good news is the two days of warm weather combined with the brief rain significantly eroded the snowpack. The streets and sidewalks are all clean now. I am not sure about the woods, but I think that it will be mostly runnable and rideable, so long as it stays cold enough to keep the mud frozen. That shouldn't be a problem, as tonight's low is supposed be below zero.
What does all this have to do with training? This is about flexibility, not the physical kind, but in your training activites. You have to be prepared to make the most out of what nature presents to you in the way of weather. Sure, the first two weeks of February were pretty damn spring-like, and we all got in some good road miles. My view, however, is that only the foolish started ramping up like it was time to start the Spring build. Take advantage of the nice days, sure, but why go out for four hours if you might not be able to do that again for five more weeks? In the coming days I will elaborate more, chronicling my techniques for training in the late winter conditions, but suffice to say that running, MTB, cross, XC skiing, and indoor workouts are all prime tools to used during base conditioning. Continuing to do these activities even when the conditions would allow you to head out on a road ride will keep you interested and able to make the most out of your training when the the weather isn't so cooperative. Once I start getting out on the road every day, I find it a lot harder to enjoy the trainer on the stormy day when I am stuck inside. So don't be afraid to go out on the road when things are good, but stay involved in your winter activities so that you are prepared to get something out of them when they are all you can do. Running is the best example. There are far less hassles to running than cycling in crappy weather or cold, because you don't have the artificial wind chill and there are less light-related safety issues. You have to keep the running consistent though, because if you drop it for three weeks when the roads and temps are good, then you won't be able to push it enough when running is the only option.
Finally, remember that your supply of fortitude is not endless. Don't go out for three hours on the bike in 20 degree temps every weekend in February if this will make you hate the bike and stay inside in March. Your February workouts have only one purpose: to prepare you for your March workouts. March prepares you for April, etc. So keep your base routines consistent and meaningful, but don't empty your tank now in some effort to "get ahead." Trust your training, and trust yourself to follow it.
Friday, February 17, 2006
2006 - Day 48
Tomorrow marks the half way point between January 1, the traditional start of the training year, and April 8, the day of the first real race on the NE USCF calendar (the lines between training races and real races have been blurred, so maybe there is something sooner than that, but too bad. I am going with the April 8 Ninigret as the official start of the season. Not that this guarantees that I will go...).
For me, the first two weeks of January are considered break time, and I like to make January 15 the low point of my fitness. From that point on it should be improving. With cyclocross going into December, I don't want' to start too early. The road season didn't used to start until late April, which made a lot more sense, but promoters seem to have figured out that absence make the heart grow fonder, and all the JNC's (January National Champions) will be itching to race, and will fill up any field early in the season. By summer, many of them will be nowhere to be found, and lots of great races will have fields half the size of the spring not-so-classics. But I digress...
No matter what your training program, we are getting close enough to the season that you have to start working now, if you have not already. If you have any plans of racing in April or May, do not delay your base conditioning any longer. OK, this was a crappy post, but I have to go run.
Ideas for future posts (you can vote, but this is mostly a note to myself so I don't forget):
1) Names I have been called
2) Why do all these triathlete bloggers have running races on their scheds, but no TT's?
3) The history of my bike ownership, all the way back to first grade.
4) Why don't bike racers show more love to promoters
5) How to grow the sport of bike racing (a sub-topic of #4)
6) let's hear your ideas
For me, the first two weeks of January are considered break time, and I like to make January 15 the low point of my fitness. From that point on it should be improving. With cyclocross going into December, I don't want' to start too early. The road season didn't used to start until late April, which made a lot more sense, but promoters seem to have figured out that absence make the heart grow fonder, and all the JNC's (January National Champions) will be itching to race, and will fill up any field early in the season. By summer, many of them will be nowhere to be found, and lots of great races will have fields half the size of the spring not-so-classics. But I digress...
No matter what your training program, we are getting close enough to the season that you have to start working now, if you have not already. If you have any plans of racing in April or May, do not delay your base conditioning any longer. OK, this was a crappy post, but I have to go run.
Ideas for future posts (you can vote, but this is mostly a note to myself so I don't forget):
1) Names I have been called
2) Why do all these triathlete bloggers have running races on their scheds, but no TT's?
3) The history of my bike ownership, all the way back to first grade.
4) Why don't bike racers show more love to promoters
5) How to grow the sport of bike racing (a sub-topic of #4)
6) let's hear your ideas
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Trainer
So far this year, 26 hours on the bike, 10 running. Today was 24 minutes on the trainer. I didn't want to be late for work, and just did not get on early enough for more, but this was fine. I looked over last year's logs and I was on the trainer a lot, and also doing a fair amount of real work. This year my trainer days have been mostly just spinning, but I have got outside almost weekly, and I am also running fairly hard sometimes, so I have gotten some intensity in with that.
I am trying to set a good example for a young lad in my club. I can hear you now, thinking what a joke, 24 minutes? The lesson here is consistency. You have to do something. I have ranted about all the so-called expert coaching out there enough already, but here goes some more. Of course in a perfect world all bike racers who were just starting out would follow the expert advice of their coach, and carefully complete the well thought out plan that was assembled for them. Armed with a powermeter and a scientific blueprint for success, the young charge would quickly ascend the categorization ladder and be on to greatness in no time.
Too bad the world is not perfect. I looked back at last season, and took note of the results of a few riders who I knew to be Cat 5's at the start of the year. A couple of them had already got their results and moved up, and look promising to keep going. These two guys have something in common: they love to ride, and they ride hard often. This is the way a lot of great riders started out. This is also something a lot of the coaches out there seem to have forgotten. A carefully done plan with specific work and periodization may be appropriate for a seasoned rider, but beginners need to pay their dues and build a base. Is it scientific? No. I have said many times that too many medium days makes a medium rider, but if you are a Cat 5, moving up to medium doesn't sound too bad, does it?
The moral of the story is that if you are in your first season or two of serious riding/racing, don't worry too much about the finer points of planning your training. Get out their and ride, get strong, get tired, get mean, and get out of Cat 5.
I am trying to set a good example for a young lad in my club. I can hear you now, thinking what a joke, 24 minutes? The lesson here is consistency. You have to do something. I have ranted about all the so-called expert coaching out there enough already, but here goes some more. Of course in a perfect world all bike racers who were just starting out would follow the expert advice of their coach, and carefully complete the well thought out plan that was assembled for them. Armed with a powermeter and a scientific blueprint for success, the young charge would quickly ascend the categorization ladder and be on to greatness in no time.
Too bad the world is not perfect. I looked back at last season, and took note of the results of a few riders who I knew to be Cat 5's at the start of the year. A couple of them had already got their results and moved up, and look promising to keep going. These two guys have something in common: they love to ride, and they ride hard often. This is the way a lot of great riders started out. This is also something a lot of the coaches out there seem to have forgotten. A carefully done plan with specific work and periodization may be appropriate for a seasoned rider, but beginners need to pay their dues and build a base. Is it scientific? No. I have said many times that too many medium days makes a medium rider, but if you are a Cat 5, moving up to medium doesn't sound too bad, does it?
The moral of the story is that if you are in your first season or two of serious riding/racing, don't worry too much about the finer points of planning your training. Get out their and ride, get strong, get tired, get mean, and get out of Cat 5.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Reinforcement
I stumbled across a network of triathlete blogs while looking at Blogshares related to some bike racing blogs. In contrast to bike racers, triathlete bloggers seem incredibly supportive of one another. This is interesting. Bike racers all talk smack and berate each other, albeit mostly good-natured. The triathletes seem all lovey-dovey by comparison. Weird. I don't know too much about the triathlon scene, but I am guessing that it does not have as bad of a poser problem as bike racing does. It makes sense, because in bike racing, any Fred or Wilma can drop six G's on a ti bike with all the goodies, strap it to the roof of their new Volvo, kit up team gear, and go to a race with no training. They can cruise the parking lot looking all pro and stuff, then get dropped on the first climb and be out of there before the real racers get back. Later on, it is simple enough to say you flatted, or whatever. Triathlon probably doesn't have this problem, because the poser would promptly drown at the start of the race. End of problem.
Time trials are called "the race of truth" among bike racer types. The reason is obvious, as most of the normal variables are not present, and you ride as fast as you are capable of riding, no BS. I have to admire triathletes, because all their races (at least the traditional ones) are like time trials. Running is much the same. You cannot hide the truth about your time. You are either fast or you're not.
A lot of bike racers are afraid of the truth, at least the truth about their TT ability.
Fear or not, bike racing is not just you against the course. We race each other. This may be the key difference. Of course triathletes can be all encouraging to one another. Especially in the endurance events, the primary goal is to finish, to beat the obstacle. Bike racers compete against each other; you can't win unless you beat everyone. No wonder we talk shit about one another.
Time trials are called "the race of truth" among bike racer types. The reason is obvious, as most of the normal variables are not present, and you ride as fast as you are capable of riding, no BS. I have to admire triathletes, because all their races (at least the traditional ones) are like time trials. Running is much the same. You cannot hide the truth about your time. You are either fast or you're not.
A lot of bike racers are afraid of the truth, at least the truth about their TT ability.
Fear or not, bike racing is not just you against the course. We race each other. This may be the key difference. Of course triathletes can be all encouraging to one another. Especially in the endurance events, the primary goal is to finish, to beat the obstacle. Bike racers compete against each other; you can't win unless you beat everyone. No wonder we talk shit about one another.
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