19-26 February

Swim: 12,000 yds
Bike: 160 miles
Run: 40 miles

The foundation is solid, now time to build the house. Another really solid week of training ended by rock solid long run today after big ride/run day yesterday (17 miles, all negative split ending w/ 6:30 pace). 4 hours on the trainer yesterday was a doozy, but all in all not that bad. Speed and endurance were much improved again this week. Low 6 min run pace and 250 watts are becoming comfortable. Still 5 weeks out from race #1 in Miami Beach. More to follow next week...

13-19 Feb 2012 Training

Another really solid week in the books - 17 hours total. Third week of bringing speed and threshold workouts back into the mix after a recovery week where I felt absolutely horrible. The solid work durig the base building period is paying off. Body is responded fantastically this week topped off with a 25 min hard brick run off a 2:15:00 hard interval ride - very pleased with my pace and fitness level (sub-6min very confortably) this early in the year. Swim workouts were much improved this week and adding more volume/speed work as we inch closer to race season. Coach is really starting to dial things in prep for South Beach Triathlon April 1st.

The Not so "Off-Season"

So, alot of changes since last season have been implemented. New focus (IM 70.3 worlds), new coach (Torsten Abel), new training philosphy... After Augusta 70.3 I took about a month off from heavy workouts and just had fun - my run times were insanely fast from all the extra rest. I've spent the rest of the off-season (November-Jan) building my "base" or aerobic engine so there is more to work with this year. That meant alot of hours and miles at much slower paces than I was accustom, kind of boring but had to be done. What this equates to: "building a bigger foundation for a much bigger house". Another focus was fixing my swim form (drills, drills, drills... yards, yards, yards...) which was in pretty bad shape. I started swimming 4 years ago and have never done really taken the time to focus on proper form so after losing several races due to a poor swim it was time to really get serious and fix the problem. I've dropped about 15 seconds per 100 thus far with alot more room to grow. Several people (big thank you Dan Cox) have taken extra time to help out in the swim department and masters swim is defintiely starting to payoff.

The bike... I was really disappointed in my bike last season. I just wasn't riding well and was slower than in 2010. Talk about frustrating!! Well, the bike is back. I've been riding with a powermeter since November and have really focussed on improving my overall power and efficiency. Alot of tough interval workouts on the trainer a starting to payoff. Really looking forward to this season on the bike... Should be much improved over last year.

The run... As many of you know this is my strongest leg. Same as with the bike last season, I just wasn't putting up the times I was capable of... Well, that will change this year. I've been putting in alot more volume  (35-45 miles/week) and speed is much improved from last year with a ton more endurance. I'm very excited about where my run is right now and looking to keep improving throughout the year up to Sept 9. "Bike for the show, run for the dough".