Week of 12 March Training

It's been a busy few weeks with work and training so I'm playing catch-up a bit. Fought off a nasty cold and some hamstring soreness (physical therapy worked wonders to re-hab this over the past 2 weeks) in time to feel great going into Nautica South Beach Triathlon next weekend. Bike and run splits are looking really solid this early in the season, swim still needs some work but still much improved over last year.

Week of 12 March Training (Recovery Week):
Total: 14.5 hours
Bike: 9:14
Run: 3:14
Swim: 2:16 (short week here) / 9,000 yards

A very much needed recovery week after a few weeks of really solid training block including 4 hour ride on Saturday w/ 7,000 ft of climbing (see pic at top the of Grant Mtn after interval #4). Spent most of this week travelling around the country for work and got back late Thursday night (picture of San Fran Bay run attached). Ended this week with a hard interval ride saturday averaging ~240 watts and 24 MPH. This looks pretty promising to try and push 25 MPH+ in Miami without blowing up. Same story on the run: 25 min hard run off @ 5:50 pace from this ride - solid solid!!

26 Jan - 4 Feb Training

Aerobic week
Bike: 6:30hrs
Run: 4:30hrs
Swim: 3:30hrs

Good week of training despite battling a serious cold. 4 weeks out from the start of the season and everything is starting to come together. Thankfully the cold is almost gone as of Sunday evening. Had several really solid swim sessions with race pace sets @ 1:24 this week. This is much improved from last season - still alot of work to go here before Vegas. Crazy week of weather in HSV as well. Battle 35 MPH winds while running speed sets on Friday and ended the week with a long aerobic ride yesterday and run today in you guessed it... more wind 25-30 MPH. This photo is pretty much the only time our bikes weren't getting blown all over the place.

It was a good news type of week...

Lots of great news this week...

#1: The baby and mommy are healthy at week 18... and we are having a boy!! K and I were thrilled to see Baby Stock (name to be released upon delivery) do a flip turn in the womb and see it was definitely a boy.

#2: Fleet Feet will be sponsoring several triathletes this year... and I will be joining them. We had a meeting Thursday night to try on our race kits (Sugoi Elite - frickin saweeeet!!) and get all the details. Really excited about this opportunity. I'll be racing Guntersville Olympic, Heel and Crank, Frantic Frog and Goosepond half for sure as part of my sponorship commitment. Still on the fence about Rocketman since it's so close to IM 70.3 Worlds - may do a relay though.

#3: Honey stinger sponsorship. So, for 2012 (and hopefully beyond) I'll be a proud member of the Honey Stinger Hive. Thrilled about this. Pretty much the only product (gels, gummies, and waffles) I can tolerate without GI issues during races. Looking forward to supporting all their products throughout the year.

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".