Goals

Another year of haphazard racing and training. Right now I have the time (single), motivation and experience to put something together for next year.

Goals:

1) General fitness. I like almost all Colorado sports (running, biking, climbing, hiking, snowboarding, etc) and a bunch of others (surfing, swimming), so the primary goal is fitness to be able to do all of these. Being able to include weight training, yoga and climbing into my training is important to me.

2) Endurance. Most of the "A" events will be 4 hour up to 10-12, but maybe even a 24 hour race. Getting some base miles in over the winter is critical as well as getting used to some longer days on the bike.

3) Motivation. To make this work, it has to be fun. I want to be able to incorporate trail running, mountain biking, TTH rides, morning runs with the dog and maybe Master's Swim into the workouts.

4) Skills. For mountain bike racing and swimming - technique seems to be holding me back more than fitness. I need to schedule time work on these a bit.

Starting up again...

First cycling race of the year - Frost Bite TT - I'm not in shape yet and definitely wasn't ready for the wind. The race was 1/2 way between Wellington and Carr, Colorado

In Wellington
Wind 9-12mph with gusts up to 20mph. I
In Carr
Wind 20mph with gusts up to 34.5mph

26th
34:51
Adam
Johnson
Fort Collins Cycling Team
Fort Collins
SM 35+_4

Thinking about next season

The 24hrs of triathlon was a great event (like the racing underground/without limits events more each time I do them). Now I need to get motivated for next year...

Thinking about Ironman Louisville. Just need to sign up and get started. This working out 2-3 times a week in a completely disorganized fashion isn't getting me anywhere.

training update

Not keeping up with this...

The weather has been pretty nice the past couple of weeks and I decided that for March I'm going to try and keep the swim volume steady and build up some running miles (April/May to increase bike volume). Can swim 400yd in ~8 minutes right now without getting completely wiped out. Need to do another 1000yd test (last one was ~22:30).

Week of 3/9/2009 - 7:41 hrs

Moday:
swim: 3200yd - long stroke technique and 8x250 paddles/buoy

Tuesday:
run: 4.31 miles, 34 min
bike (trainer) : 10.66 miles, 43 min, 155w avg

Wednesday:
run: 4.39 miles, 34 min
swim: 1600yd - 2x400yd

Thursday:
rest

Friday:
swim: 1500yd - 3x (150,100,50 increasing pace)

Saturday:
bike (trainer): 11.7 miles, 47 min, 161w avg

Sunday:
run: 7.02miles, 1:02

Stress level last week was an 11... Next week getting a bike fit at colo multisport. I moved my seat forward 1cm and have been having cramping in my hamstrings. Definitely need help in finding the right position.

Third time's a charm?

Ok - so I usually have no training plan. I mean to - I really do - but I get sidetracked by work, laziness or tasty beverages on a Friday night. This year - I'm going back and doing the 5430 series again. I did all three of them my first year of triathlon, so will have an easy benchmark to compare to as the courses are the same.

The biggest difference this year is swimming. I've never been able to swim more than 200yd - and even then it was almost a hypoxic workout. My head was too high, elbows too low, swam too flat etc. A couple of different Master's swim coaches told me that the only help they could give me was tossing a life preserver. But - a couple of video sessions and more drills and I swam 800yd the other night (part of a 1000yd time trial that I had to stop in the middle of). So hopefully no more personal kayak escorts while I'm closing in on the cutoff time.

I'm going to count this as week #1 since - if I run tomorrow - it will be my first full week.

Monday:
swim - 2500yds - main set 6x250yd paddles w/buoy
Tuesday:
run - 3.56 miles - 28min
Wednesday:
swim - 1500yds - main set 2x500yd swim
Thursday:
run - 4.9 miles - 38min
Friday:
swim - 1500yds - ~1000yd time trial (800, rest, 200) 22:20
Saturday:
1st ride in months - 26.57 miles, 1:43

Goals this year?
1. sub 5 hr half iron distance
2. 1000yd swim in 20 minutes
3. get comfortable on the bike
4. end of season - ready for Ironman training next year!

New Year

Finally getting some traction on swimming... Hopefully this year I won't have any race where the kayakers follow me around the course (seriously!). I hope to work up to a 5x400m main set, but right now I'm happy to be at 2x400m. It takes me a long time, but I keep movin'.

Soon it will be time to scrape the cobwebs off the bike and start riding. It was 60 degrees today and low winds. It's been blowing shingles off my house lately - so probably not the best riding conditions on the plains.

Maybe this weekend I can get a ride in...

Eagleman

Eagleman was sweltering - 95 degrees and 75% humidity. That compared to the 90 degrees, but only 13% humidty in Colorado today.

Ragbrai has days like that. Cross country in high school had days like that... It was pretty rough for me. Normally I'm bad about hydration, but at Eagleman there was no choice. 28oz/hr on the bike and who knows how much water on the run. I'd grab two cups, drink half of one, pour the other one on my head and slowly pour and ounce or two every hundred yards or so to the next rest stop. After I figured out that I needed to carry water from stop to stop, I probably was 30sec/mile faster than the first 6 miles.

Didn't figure out any was to cool off on the bike. Just no where to go. Every time I tried to push the pace - just started to get nauseous and had to back off.

Anyway - disappointing time 6:01:24. Master's swim - here I come... Need a bike fit and some racing flats that won't get as waterlogged as normal running shoes do.