Back to Tri

This week marked me getting back in the pool and back on the bike with training in mind for the first time since last June. Running has decreased, and I've added two swims and two indoor cycling classes to my schedule. Hell, I even did a brick on Tuesday! How's that for being a triathlete again

Scheduling and planning

Planning my training has always been something I enjoyed. I've never done it well, and it has been mostly cutting and pasting from books, but I've enjoyed it.

In the past, my planning has consisted of:

1. finding a training plan for x weeks
2. count out x weeks prior to the race I was looking to peak for
3. play around with scheduling and workouts a little bit
4. fill in my time while I was waiting to start the program with other training

This worked well to get me through my first few triathlons, but it never really got me anywhere. I wasn't looking at the big picture.

I had the pleasure of attending a coaching seminar with Philippe Bertrand last fall, and it really opened my eyes to what I should be doing versus what I was doing. He spoke a lot about looking at the full year ahead, not just the next race. Determine what you need to work on now to get you to that race, and what you should continue working on when it's done. Set out short, medium and long term goals and building a plan to meet those goals.

So the plan. I'm going to set my sights on running the half (maybe full) marathon at the Ottawa Race Weekend in 2012. That gives me 16 months to break into cycles and figure out what I need to focus on in each.

I'll start with my general plan, and update with more as I figure it out

Feb 2011 - May 2011

• take my swim training out of maintenance mode and work back up to a decent amount of weekly swimming
• Get on the bike and start building some bike fitness.
• continue running 40ish km per week
• continue weight training

May 2011 - Sept 2011

• full on triathlon training
• cut back on weight training slightly

Sept 2011 - Dec 2011

• start cutting back on swimming and biking
• focus on rest and recovery from the busy tri season

Dec 2011 - May 2012

• Running, running and more running
• damage control (ie. trying to stay injury free)

Goals for 2011

What I'd really like to do is finish the year injury free. 2008, 2009, and 2010 either started or ended with an injury of some sort (meniscus tear, adductor problem, achilles tendonitis, etc...) What I'd like to do differently this year is not actually get injured. How I plan on accomplishing this goal:

1. Stop running long. I'm going to be content running and racing short. No half marathons, no long triathlons, just 5k or 10k runs, and Sprint or Olympic triathlons for me this year.
2. Stop running fast. I'm trying hard to stick to my pace zones, as prescribed by JD. Sometimes it's hard, but it's better than getting injured

So, assuming I can stay injury free, I want to race more this season. For Christmas, I bought myself two Somersault gift certificates; one for a sprint tri and one for an olympic. I couldn't decide what races I wanted to do, and since Jan 1st was the cutoff to get race entries at 20% off, I went the GC route. Worst case scenario, I can sell them if I don't need them.

So that's two races. Meech Lake will be a third, since I can't not race at such a great venue. My duties as OTC coach, also gets me entered one Somersault event, so already I'm up to 4 (2 more than my HUGE race season a few years ago) So 4 triathlons. I think that's a pretty good number.

Next up is running. Since a fellow OTC coach is racing the Ottawa Race Weekend 10k with his new baby, I may have to show off Casey's running prowess by competing against him and his daughter. Though Casey is a month older, he's nice and lean, so that should give me an advantage. There is also the Hintonburg 5k that will need to be raced, since it goes right by my house, and it's a great course through the neighbourhood.

Last up a swim... Participants in the Bring on the Bay 3K swim last year got pretty good swag, so I may just have to swim this. This means that I may have to start swimming more than once every few weeks.

So, stay healthy and race. Simple, but important goals and considering my little guy will be crawling/walking this summer, I think I'm going to be pretty busy with other things

Bad Blogger

One year since my last post. Good thing no one reads this or they'd be disappointed.

So here's what I have been up to since Jan 18, 2010:

- Casey was born June 14

- Raced the Meech Lake Triathlon, sleep and training deprived, but still managed to finish faster than the previous year

- Picked up Jack Daniels' Running Formula and read it cover to cover a few times

- Mostly stopped swimming and cycling to focus on running, and sleep

That's about it.

Enjoying the time

While I'm waiting for my run volume to ramp back up, I'm enjoying my free time. It's winter so my bike in on my seldom used trainer. My pool is open again, but I'm only making it there a few times a week.

I'm trying to get to the gym for some weight training a few times a week to work on some muscle imbalance, and I'm enjoying the free spinning classes at work 3 to 4 times a week.

So while I'm still more active than probably the majority of North Americans, why do I feel so lazy?

Could it be because I'm logging less than 10 training hours a week when I'm used to closer to 15 or 20?

Could it be because I'm rolling out of bed at 6AM to play videogames, instead of running?

Could it be that I spend too much time on slowtwitch, or listening to triathlon podcasts with people who are training hard?

Regardless, I'm enjoying my lazy days of winter.

Reset, again?

Things have changed, yet again in the past few months. I was sidelined with another injury (my achilles this time) and decided to call it quits on my plan to run a marathon this winter and an ironman next summer.

This is actually a good decision, I think, for several reasons:

1. My wife is pregnant and due in June.
   
2. It's cold outside
3. I need to address the source of these constant injuries if I want to not only finish an Ironman, but finish well

So, I'm going to take the rest of the winter to relax, and just train for fun. I figure if I can run well for 3 or 4 months without an injury I'll be better off than if I ran hard for 2 months and injured myself again.

In the spring, I'll ramp it up and try to squeeze in a few sprint or olympic distance tris before the baby comes in june.

Keeping Busy

Training Today:

• Morning Run: Hills! 1 mile warmup, 1x30 sec hill interval(is it really an interval if i do only one?), 1 mile cooldown
• Evening Swim: 600m warmup, 1km various drills, 1x1km, 6x200m pull, 200m cooldown (total = 4km)

This week, besides starting training seriously again, I'm trying to get stuff done around the house, while my wife is off in Kitchener/Waterloo for work. The two projects I want to get done are paint the stairs (which really need it... they're an eyesore) and build a linen closet (which we really need so that we can put our linens somewhere)

This will be my first attempt at framing and actually building some sort of solid structure, so we'll see how it goes. It seems fairly straight forward. The only thing that could pose a problem for me is the precise measuring... I'm generally an approximating kind of guy, which I hear doesn't work well for building. We'll see if I can adjust.

Lastly, I will be continuing my quest for homemade bread. I was raised on homemade bread, and am determined to make my own. Unfortunately, every attempt at this sourdough recipe has resulted in a very foul tasting brick.

I'm hoping this book, which should be waiting for me at home will help.