Blues Skies in winter = Skiing

An absolutley gorgeous day here in Poky. 40 degrees, sunny, and no wind. That means it's ski time! Tera and I took Paul for his first skiing adventure up at Scout Mountain today with the Flickers (with Ethan and Kate!). Two hours of cross country skiing in AWESOME weather. What a great time. Paul did great in his little polar bear snowsuit that Grandma Letzring got for $1 at JC Penney (saved $59!). It's a bit big, but it works. Today was a test run to see if we could take him skiing on the long-weekend trip to a cabin in Island Park over President's Day weekend. The snowsuit worked great. And Tera got some time on skis to build up confidence.

As for the workout, it was an active recovery day with the cross country ski. Two hours of easy cardio, not to mention getting the fresh air and sunshine. That was much needed after last night's bike.

Normally, my muscular endurance bike workout is on Thursday, but I had a meeting for work Thursday night, so I had to do it on Friday night. I was a bit concerned if I would have the right about of energy in my legs for a good workout because I did the weight lifting and swimming in the morning; the weight lifting in the legs is fairly intense for about ten minutes. But I didn't run at lunch to help keep my legs somewhat good for a hard bike workout. It worked.

I moved up to 3 sets of 23 minutes at Zone 4 with a two minute break between sets. That resulted in the first set of 83 average cadence with heart rate of 153. Second set at 81 average cad and heart rate of 157. I thought I was going to die on the third set, but I actually got into "the zone" for about five minutes and pulled an average cadence of 81 again but a heart rate of 164. All in all, this was definintely better than expected, and I would put it in the "championship workout" category because it was really good. Then I slept from 11:00pm to 9am! Then up to ski at 11:00am today. Good times.

I swam only 2x500 on Wednesday then lifted; I had planned to start 3x500 for the swim this week. Nothing spectacular. Ran the standard 5 mile loop on Wednesday at regular easy pace. No workout on Thursday (lazy!). Friday was a good day, then today was good, too. Thinking about going for a run tomorrow or maybe some more skiing. I'm two hours short of my week's goals right now, and I want to hit all the planned hours from here on out. If not for the Thursday evening meeting, I would have ran on Friday and be only an hour short. My weight is pretty steady at 178 right now.

Basically, a good first week of Build 1 phase. I added additional weights and additional swim volume....note to self, don't ever do that again because it doesn't really work out. I wanted to add a fourth run this week, but the Thursday evening meeting squashed that idea; I'll add it next week I guess. The bike is same workouts as before but going longer and harder.

Upgrades all around

I'm now into Build 1 Week 1, and it's upgrades all around. I start a muscular endurance plan for swimming this week that builds to 1x1500yds in 20minutes. I'm starting at 3x500 in 8 minutes with 2 minute rest. I know I can hit these intervals, but I need to make sure my body can handle the overall increase in volume. I also upped the weight in all of my weight lifting routines. On the bike, I move to 3 sets of 23 minutes, up from 4 sets of 17 minutes, both with two minutes rest. I hope to hit four runs of five miles each this week, up from three runs in previous weeks.

Sunday was a Sufferfest. I improved in categories: gearing, HR, and cadence. I'm quite excited about it. I realized that the muscular endurance plan is more than the Sufferfest, but the Sufferest is an all-out 20 minutes (it's a Spinnerval DVD workout on the trainer).

Sunday night was a rough night with Paul, so I didn't get up for PT in the morning. Instead, I shifted the morning workout to after work. I ran five miles at lunch really easy. I realized that I wouldn't be able to swim after work because lap swim doesn't start until 6pm. So all I did was a lift, but I increased the weights all around to the "next up" level. I'm writing this Tuesday night, 24 hours after the weight lifting workout, and I'm a bit sore from that workout still. Interesting for sure. I didn't expect to be sore just from a 10% or less increase, but here it is. We'll see how I do tomorrow morning after I swim 3x500 and then try the same weights.

I got in a bit of a bike workout today, but not what expected. Paul cooperated a little bit but definitely interrupted things. Plus, my legs were sore from the weight lifting, and turned out they were tired, too. So, I ended up doing more of a recovery ride than anything else. 45 minutes at heart rate of 127, with easy gears and cadence. I turned it into a chance to practice good form for 45 minutes.

Who is this Paul guy who keeps interrupting my bike rides, sleep, work, and other things?

Is he the coolest dude on earth or what?

R/R weekend

A nice weekend so far, ending a nice week to catch up on personal stuff. Thursday night was my muscular endurance bike workout. I'm at 4 sets of 17 minutes with two minutes rest on what I call my 8th gear on the big ring. I'm such a bike newbie that I don't even know the right terms for my gears! Anyway, I nailed the first two sets faster and easier than the previous week; my third set was about the same as last week (same Heart Rate, average cadence 1 rpm higher).

My fourth set was something else! I think the skiing from the previous weekend was still sitting deep in my legs because I got really tired. I couldn't hold over 70rpm in the same gear, so I had to ease up one gear, and I still got an avg cadence of only 75. I was really mashing, and I can feel it in my left knee now. That was interesting thing to learn about biking; I MUST keep a higher cadence because the mashing in a low gear has a fast and nasty effect on my knees. Anyway, I pushed through that last set, debating the pros and cons of stopping early because of my knee. Ultimately, I kept going just so I can have all my "data points" filled in on my workout spreadsheets that I use to gauge improvements in fitness.

The only thing I did on Friday was the weight lifting, and I backed off about 10% on the weights I use. That was a smart thing because for some reason I could barely do those sets.

Today, Saturday, I sat in the hottub for 30 minutes for a morning workout. That's my kind of workout! It felt really great and I really think it will improve the rest and recovery that is supposed to be happening. Then we took Paul to his first college basketball game, the Idaho State University women's game against Sacramento State....we won and it was a good game.

Tomorrow is my "test" during the R/R week. I use a spinnerval Sufferfest! for this test. It's a 20 minute time trial on the bike trainer. Again, I use the gearing/cadence/average heart rate data to determine if I'm improving. My legs are good for at least 20 minutes.

Monday I'm planning to finally get that swim video!

Race Schedule coming together

I have some extra time in this R/R week, so I'm putting together my race schedule and signing up for some races. This is what it looks like so far:

May 30: Rigby Lake Tri....thinking about it but that's pretty early, meaning really cold water!
June 6: Vikingman in Burley is possible but I'm not sure I want to race that early.
June 14: Bismarck ND Tri. I'll be in my hometown of Center for a high school reunion, and this race is only 50 miles away. I'm planning on doing it, but haven't signed up yet.
June 20: Janet's Triathlon in Hebgan Lake near Yellowstone. I'm guessing on the date right now, but I'm planning on it being this weekend because that's when it was last year. I consider this my first fishing trip to Yellowstone National Park with a triathlon thrown in. This is really a nice course and is a mountain bike and trail run. This is the same weekend as the Redfish Triathlon in the Sawtooths, which is simply too far for just a triathlon, although it's in a gorgeous area.
July 4th: no race this weekend.
July 11th: probable fishing trip to Yellowstone during the salmon fly hatch (good times!). Otherwise, the Idaho Falls Blacktail Tri is this weekend.
July 18th: Twin Falls Tri is a possible. This will be a late registration if I feel like I want to do a race that weekend. Tera will be out of town this weekend, so babycare is an issue.
July 25th: Burley Spudman....lottery draw this year, and it costs five bucks just to get into the lottery, and then another $70 if you get in. Quite expensive, but only an hour drive. It's a really big triathlon with good swim times. I'm not too keen on swimming in the Snake River. Probably won't do it.
Aug 1: Pocatello Tri. Doing it.
Aug 8: no race. Probably a fishing weekend!
Aug 15: Rexburg Tri in Rainbow Lake. Doing it. Registered tonight.
Aug 23: Portland Tri. My primary race of the year. Registered last week. A family trip, too.
Sept 12?: Probably date for Bear Lake Brawl. I'm planning on doing it whenever it is. I did it last year and liked the course. It's a nice family camping weekend, too. This will be a primary race, too, and the last chance to break 2:08 for the year. If I get a good swim, it is doable.

That's the line-up at this point. Getting this pinned down makes training alot easier because it's easier to stay motivated with specific goals in mind.

Another "two-day workout" in the books!

Back from the yurt trip, which I'm calling a two-day workout. It's not a full two days, of course, but it feels like it. This weekend I went to the yurt again, so it was two days of backcountry skiing for my cross-training. Honestly, it's a five-hour workout for both days, skinning uphill and then skiing downhill. This weekend, I tried to slow down on the downhill and make many turns and burn up my quads, and I was pretty successful at that. I got in a lot of runs, too, so there was more uphill skinning than last week. My whole body is pretty tired tonight. The weather was beautiful, the warmest and clearest skies I've skied under in January. We got in a few runs under the stars, too, which were awesome.

Here's a photo of the hills that we climb up and ski down. It's generally about 800-1,000 ft of vertical for each run, and the below photo is a snapshot of one area.

Signed up for Portland Tri today, and a good bike workout

Signed up for Portland Triathlon today! That's my primary race to break 2:08 in the Olympic distance tri. My plan is to bust my butt in training, and then take advantage of training at 4500 ft elevation and racing at 37ft elevation. Plus, it's a family trip....so Tera and Paul get to see the family in The Dalles and Portland.

I'm really excited about this triathlon, but the bike course might be tough because I'm not so great on hills, the course has a 400ft elevation gain in 1.5 miles, and you have to do three loops, so you gotta go up that hill three times! Oh well, there is a perfect hill right by my house for race specific training...the hill is 450ft gain in one mile, so it is very similar to the race hill.

The swim is in the Wilammette River, and the run is a loop around downtown and goes up and over a couple of the bridges, which is elevation gain but nothing serious.

As always, the race fee gets some add-ons; in this case, I added $5 for Oregon Trout organization that works for clean rivers for good fishing (I love fly-fishing, too!) and I paid $2.25 to offset the carbon created for driving there....two bucks is easy enough, even though I don't completely buy into the global warming but I think we need to do something about pollution simply because we are to be good stewards of what God has given us.

Tonight's bike workout went well. Thursday is muscular endurance day. It's a bit early to be doing muscular endurance, but the overall plan is set that I have to be doing it now to reach one set of 65 minutes at the gearing/cadence/heart rate I need to go 24mph for an hour.

Tonight's set is a continuation of the 4x17mins w/ 2 min rest in gear 8 (second hardest). The racing goal, what I'm working up to, is 65 minutes at gear 8 w/ cadence of 88 and heart rate of 152. Tonight's stats: all sets in gear 8, first set cad82/hr152, second set cad 81/hr 154, third set cad 77/hr 154, fourth set cad 77/hr 148. I bonked a bit the last two sets, but I have two more of this workout sets before I move to 3 sets of 23 minutes.

I make significant progress each week, so I know my plan is working. Last week, I did the same cadences and heart rates but in the next easier gear, so I know I improved this week...and motivation was only average. The weight lifting I'm doing with my legs (leg curls, leg extenstion, leg press) is paying off, and this will make it easier to get to the gym in the morning!

Great weather for a run!

Went for a run today at lunch. AWESOME weather! 29degrees, sunny, and NO wind! It was simply a nice day to go out for a run. Life is good.

This morning I got up with Paul at 5:05am to feed him. I thought "What great timing. I'll be able to go to the gym now!" As he fell asleep at 5:35, I started thinking I should go back to bed because I was tired, I needed to recover some more, and I was scheduled to go to a work meeting tonight that includes a 90 minutes drive through rural SE Idaho (ie sleeper drive if I'm tired). That's right, I pulled the safety card on myself; kinda crazy. After 15 minutes of arguing with myself in the dark, I made it to the gym.....and the meeting was cancelled, so I'm glad I went.

This blog looks pretty bland compared to others I've looked at. I'll try to spice it up for the many readers. An associated web site will have some of my training files on it, photos, and other good stuff. Still working on that!

Stay At Home Dad - First Day Done

So.....I get to stay at home with Baby Paul on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning today and ending in early May. Tuesday and Thursday are the days that Tera is working this spring semester. I wasn't sure how it would go, and I wondered if I could get in workouts.

Today was the first day, and it went pretty well. I handled all his fussing and got some things done. As I noticed him starting to fade off into sleep at 4:00pm, I thought "This is my chance to get in my bike workout!" I moved him and his swing down to the pain cave and hopped on the bike. He woke up as I started the Spinerval video. I kept going, and got in the first set (5 min warmup, 10 minutes of work). At the beginning of the second set, his fussiness got to the point where I had to tell myself that Paul has the priority in life, and I need to get off the bike. Just as I was getting up my sweat! The first set was great!

Anyway, the minute I got him back upstairs he was back to hanging out casually and nicely in the swing. At that point, I was out of the frame of mind for a workout. Oh well. I thought about going to the gym this morning if he woke up at the right time, but he woke up at 4am instead of 5. When he was back to sleep, it was only 4:45am, so I went back to bed. Lazy bones!

Once I figure out a schedule, I think things will be better and I should be able to get in some 90 minute rides on the trainer. When we finally get the jogging stroller and the weather cooperates, I supposed I could go for some long, slow runs with him. That will be cool, but it doesn't really support my training plan the way I would like.

Interesting, while I'm on the trainer, I talk to him and tell him what I'm doing and what my goals are. He seems interested! It's like I'm teaching him everything I know, which only takes one workout, I suppose.

How crazy would it be to put him on a bike trailer to get outside on the bike? I don't think it will be safe enough, personally. And I don't think I'd be able to pay enough attention to him while I'm trying to hammer out a good bike ride. I'm putting this in the "no-go" category.

I have another ski/yurt weekend coming up this weekend. I don't know if my legs are going to be ready, but my mind sure is after the great skiing last weekend! The weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, too. We'll be there Sunday night, and the weather changes on Friday, so hopefully all the wind blows through on Friday and Saturday. Of course, the wind never stops around here, so who am I kidding?!

Not only am I trying to figure out a workout schedule for me, but Tera is also getting back into the PT mix. Last year, I could just workout whenever I needed or wanted to. Now, I have to consider who's watching Paul. If we get a good schedule, then all will be well.

One of the basic problems is that I'm not fond of hard workouts in the morning. If I PT in the morning, I find it to be a basic, low-intensity effort because I generally take a while (and a few gallons of coffee!) to wake up appropriately to put in a 110% effort. During the summer, I love a nice easy jog in the morning, but I can never get the intensity up physicall or mentally in the morning. Right now, I workout in the morning with a simple, easy swim and lifting weights, and that is working really well. I'll drop most of the weight lifting at the end of March, so my morning workout will become the swim time...after a few laps, I can get the intensity up in the pool sufficiently. It's also a good time for recovery bikes/runs.

Awesome Extended Workout Session

So, it's winter, which means cross-training in the triathlon world. For me, winter means skiing. Lucky me, my favorite winter hobby is also awesome cross-training for triathlon. I'm in Base Period Week 3 right now of the training plan I made up using the Training Bible. Technically, I'm supposed to be cutting out cross-training now, but that's where my philosophy and the Training Bible philosphy differ. It's way too early to cut out cross-training.

If you don't want to read about the yurt trip, skip down to below to get my thoughts on backcountry skiing as a good cross-training event.

So, a buddy and me went yurting this weekend. If you don't know what a yurt is, it's a canvas tent in the backcountry. You might think of it as a big tent with all the gear inside: wood stove, bunks, Coleman stove, and a wall and a roof (all the essentials), and you get a sitdown crapper for your $60/night(!). This is the best thing in the world, and one of my favorite places. Anyway...

We took the lift up to the ridgeline of Pebble Creek ski area. Yeah, it's cheating, but this way we get to get in some turns instead of getting too tired just getting there. We made three nice runs in some powder/trees, and then made our way over to the yurt near Inkom Pass and Jackson Creek. We got there a bit early, figuring we'd have to dig out the yurt from alot of snow. Lucky us, there wasn't much digging to do. But we did have to dig out the crapper.

After dinner, we took a long ski night operation, two hours total out in the dark but with enough light from a full moon with cloudy skies that we didn't need our headlamps. Back to the yurt at 9pm from some "yurt medicine," which is just hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps and will cure any ache you have. The next morning, we got up and ate a bunch of Jimmy Dean sausage, which is another standard yurt food.

If you have never skiied in the backcountry, here's the deal: it whoops every muscle in your body. I'm not talking about downhill skiing at the resort with the lift. This is ski up the hill, ski down the hill, repeat several times. Even with the shortened daylight in the winter, you'll run out of energy before you run out of daylight while skiing in the backcountry.

Backcountry skiing gets every muscle, not just your legs. You burn your hamstrings and quads on the uphill, then of course burn your quads on the downhill. The rest of the body gets the workout while skinning uphill. The quickest way to get back up hill (and make sure you get back to where you started, generally what you want to do), is to go straight back up the hill. That means you'll be hiking up a steep hill, which is hard enough in the summer, but with 6-10 pounds of gear each foot (boots & skis), the effort is much higher. Put on about ten pounds of layers and a ten pound pack with water, snacks, and safety gear, and all of a sudden you're carrying alot of weight back up a steep hill.

Of course, you don't go straight up because it's hard to get that much traction (but it can be done), so you make switchbacks. Making the switchbacks takes some work from your abs. Also, keeping your balance on a 45 degree or more slope takes some ab work. You also push with your poles alot, so that works your shoulders and triceps alot. For some reason (probably bad form!), my lower back gets a workout, too. Finally, your hip-flexors are always working hard moving the skis forward (you can increase the effort by picking up the skis, but that will wear you out before you get enough turns in).

Bottom line is, if you want to get a great cross-training workout, get into the backcountry on skis. Be safe about it, though, and know about avalanches and safety gear.

All told, here's the workout stats of the weekend:

Uphill skinning (including trip back home - it's downhill to get there): About 5.5 hours
Downhill skiing: about 2 hours
Falls: 4 or 5
Faceplants: 2 (not included above)
Peak wind: Estimated 60-70 mph (it blew me over, causing one of the faceplants)
Pack weight: About 30 going in, about 25 coming out.

So, here's my rundown on how backcountry skiing is a complete triathlon cross-training sport:

Quads: get burned nearly all the time. Good for biking and running, of course.

Hamstrings: used extensively on the uphill. Good for biking and running, of course.

Abs: used nearly all the time. A solid core is key to efficiency in all sports.

Shoulders and triceps: used while poling on the uphill. A "close-enough" resemblance of swimming.

General Aerobic: Put all the pieces together, and your heart rate will skyrocket for at least 30 minutes on short uphills. A long uphill can be up to 60 minutes. If you do five runs in a day, that's up to five hours of heart rate at a high level 3 zone.

Now put it all together:

1. You get off the bike and get a great workout, reducing possibility of burn-out come July.
2. You get outside in the winter instead of being stuck in a "pain cave" as some people call it. Fresh air does the body good! The only thing you'll smell is the snow and the pine trees. Yes, snow does smell...you'll learn that during your first face-plant.
3. You get to spend the night out in the woods in the winter! Have you ever been in the woods on a winter night and heard how quiet it is (if the wind isn't blowing)? It's awesome.
4. You get to play with a fire all night trying to stay warm in the yurt!
5. You can eat as much sausage as you want in the morning because you'll burn it off.
6. Every muscle that you can imagine is being worked extensively.

Gotta love the yurt!

Gear talk

I see on many triathlon forums that everyone talks about their gear. So I guess I'll talk about that.

Swim: I have swum with the swedish goggles since I was about 14 years old. (that's more than 20 years if you're counting). I still swim with them, and I don't think I could ever use anything else in a pool. They simply don't leak for me. And they are only $4 a pair! So I don't have to worry about losing them. Last year, I started swimming with earplugs, and it seems to keep the noise level down in the water. I like that. I started using the earplugs as recommended for open water swimming, and now I use them in the pool, too. The earplugs I use are the basic plastic ones that I got at my last job in a distribution center; they're not swimming specific but I like them because I can't feel them. The swim suit I wear in the pool for training is a pair of USMC PT shorts, nothing special and they're only $10 a pair! Do you notice a trend yet? I have a 2XU wetsuit that I bought used from wetsuitrental.com after renting one and liking it. $150 for a once-used wetsuit, maybe not the best deal, but a good one I think. For flippers, I use whatever is available at the pool (free!). I have a pair of Speedo hand paddles that are a size large, and I've realized that they are too big because I noticed some shoulder strain. The vast majority of my swim workouts are straight-up freestyle laps, so I don't use alot of gear anyway.

Bike: I got a Giant Trinity A2 last year as my first road bike. It was inexpensive as tri-bikes go, and I really like it. Theoretically, the frame is really good but the components and wheels are not high grade. I figured that's where I wanted to start for a bike, and I'll upgrade components and wheels when $$$$ available and I need to get speed from somewhere other than my legs and position (which should be a while because I never road-biked before last July). The pedals are Keo LOOK, and I have a pair of Pearl Izumi tri-shoes that I think fit great without socks (I'm moving to no socks for 2009). These shoes are the first I've had, so I don't have anything to compare them to, but I find them quite comfortable. I have an old Schwinn Moab Mountain Bike I bought in 1994 that I use to ride the local trails. For a helmet, I am using a $30 Bell low-grade helmet, but I'm planning to upgrade to something better and more aero this spring. I don't have any special jerseys; I wear compression t-shirts instead and it sheds the wind pretty well and is quite cool on hot days. The one piece of gear that I really love are the DeSoto four pocket tri-shorts. Incredibly comfortable, and they carry all the energy I need for a race. I don't remember my bike computer brand or model, but it's not fancy...just the cadence, avg cadence, miles, time, and such.

Run: Nothing special here, either. I ran in Montrail Hardrock shoes last year, and I really liked them. I like Montrail brand for anything on my feet, to be honest. I'm looking for a deal on Montrail Streaks now...I've missed them on Steep and Cheap a couple of times, and I might have to pay retail for them (gasp, the horror!). Most of my runs are on trails, so I prefer trail shoes. Someday I might get road shoes for races, though, if they are significantly lighter. I run in standard USMC PT shorts or a pair of Champion running shorts and a basic dri-fit shirt.

Accessories: I'm not into accessorizing. I have an old pair of Oakleys with polarized lenses that I wear, and I have to say that everyone should always have polarized lenses. They just seem to make bright sun alot easier on the eyes, and you can see fish better when you're fly-fishing. My heart rate monitor is the base Timex Ironman model and doesn't give much beyond HRs for splits and such....that's all I need. However, some day I would love to have one of the really cool HRs that do cadence with GPS and HR and that can then make a bunch of graphs....I would like to see how the hills affect my HR and cadence.

Nutrition: Hammer Nutrition is the only way to go! I trained the first half of last year without energy, and I fought my way through the hard workouts. I tried Hammer Gel once, and I couldn't believe the boost I got from it. Then I tried GU, and the boost just wasn't as good. Recoverite and Endurolytes also work wonders. Hammer is also all-natural, which I really like.

I consider my local bike shop to be ROBs in Pocatello. I like the guys down there, and they hooked me up with the bike that fit my needs and price range. Customer service is AWESOME!

Finally, I have to mention the most awesome and versatile backpack available. The Camelback Menace is the bag I use almost daily year-round. In the summer, I can put my shoes and sweaty shirt on the back and my work folders in the bag itself as I ride my MTB to work. I also use it for fly-fishing and dayhikes in the summer. In the winter, it's the perfect backcountry ski pack, with safety gear slots and room enough for a stove and coffee along with requisite layers; I put skins and layers on the outside, too, for easy access. Got it on Steep and Cheap for $30!

That's the rundown on my gear. Nothing fancy, and I have to save money for the race entry fees. If I get "good enough" to warrant expensive gear, then I'll probably upgrade my bike a bit. A primary tenet of my triathlon philosophy is to keep it simple and not spend alot of money. I figure I'm about as simple as you can get while being relatively serious about it.

Life with a newborn

So I went into this second triathlon season having a very high but attainable goal and knowing that I'd be dealing with a newborn and everything that goes with that. Paul is two months old, born Oct 26, 2008. Training is going well, but it's getting the sleep I need that is tough. It's like I lost three hours each day. Paul is an awesome little man, but he doesn't like too sleep much when he's supposed to sleep (I guess he gets that from me!), and he seems to have a stomach that takes a while to digest and doesn't always feel great. I think I get more frustrated with why he cries more than I care about losing sleep. That frustration adds stress that I don't really want. Anyway....

Saturday was a beautiful day around here. The sun was shining in full force with no clouds or wind. That in itself is a great day after many days of snowy weather with lots of wind. It's the wind that really gets to me, which is funny cuz I grew up in North Dakota, where the wind is always blowing at least 30mph. And, I went to college at Univ of Oklahoma, you know...where the wind comes rushing down the plains....but after several years in Japan and then in SoCal, I got used to not alot of wind (except a month of Santa Annas, of course). So, a day without wind AND sun is special. We went for a snowshoe for one hour up a creek trail in the local mountains, and it was awesome. That was my workout for the day; nice recovery activity.

Sunday's weather was just the same. I found myself taking care of Paul and sitting inside. As he got sleepy in the afternoon, I saw my opportunity for a bike workout. I got in a good 80 minute muscular endurance workout. I actually skipped ahead four weeks in my muscular endurance bike plan, which is not good, but I guess that's where I'm going to be now. It's not that bad, actually, because I need to be at this point in the plan anyway because now I'm on track to be at two 30minute sessions at spring break at the end of March, when I want to be all outside for my bikes. I rode four sets of 17 minutes at avg cadence of 83. I wasn't very motivated other than to simply get in a workout, so I think I could have gone harder, but it's nice to get that workout in.

Monday I got back into the gym now that it's open. I did a 1x500 swim in 7:45 for a warmup to my weights workout and to keep a feel for the water. I was up to 2x500 on 7:45 before the gym closed for semester break, and I figured I wanted to ease back into the swim. My weight workout went well, and I started 10% lighter weights than before the break. Tomorrow I'll go back up to the weights I was at before the break, and then next week, I'll add some weight. I can feel myself getting stronger in the swim and bike, definitely.

Today was a great Spinerval 28 workout plus 20 minutes of steady state ride (SSR). I don't follow Coach Troy's advice for aerobic HRs; instead, I try to make it a hard, lactate threshold level for each set. For the 8x1min sets, I used my highest gear and keep a cadence of 85. Second set of 16x45sec, I used my second highest gear with cadence of 85. Then the third set of 20x30sec, I use the 15 gear and cadence of 90-95. The first two sets are good, but the third set with the easiest gear is hard to keep up. After a four minute break, I did a 20 min SSR that really felt good with the second gear up and cadence of 85-92. I don't know where that energy came from, but I found an awesome groove with some AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest on the MP3! My heart rate monitor said I burned 1202 calories, which I find hard to believe. I do know it was a great workout though.

I'm using some Hammer gel during these workouts to keep up the energy level. I do half my workouts with no water or energy gel, and the other half with. I like knowing I can push my body with no water or energy to find it's absolute limits in the faster manner, which might not be the smartest thing to do, but as a Marine, I like to prepare my body for the worst conditions. When I train with water and energy gels, I certainly push the performance level up a notch, which is part of the Endurance Nation mentality of going fast during the winter and then adding the "far" after you've built the fast.

So that's the update for now. The rest of this week has swim/weights on Wednesday and Friday, and the muscular endurance bike on Thursday night. I probably won't get any runs in this week, which is ok because I'm not concentrating on that right now. I would normally run on Thursday at lunch, but I have a work meeting. Then Saturday I'm going to the yurt for all day backcountry skiing on Saturday and Sunday, which burns more calories than I'll be able to take in no matter what I try to eat; and, the endurance levels are definitely pushed during yurt weekends!

This week looks like it will be a high-intensity week but short on volume, mostly because of the gym hours. I would rather swim/lift in the mornings like I was doing before the semester break. That allows me to run at lunch, when the weather cooperates. I'm a bit of a fair weather runner, for sure.

Resolutions v Goals

Happy New Year Everyone. Good luck with any resolutions you made. I don’t do resolutions; I do annual goals. For the last ten years, I have written out goals for each year for each facet of life (family, church, fitness, finances, etc). A couple times each year, I write an update note next to each goal, usually as something as simple as “yes” or “no” with a quick note as to why or why not. I have about ten years of these goals, and it’s fun to look back at them to see where I was in life.

This year, my physical fitness goals are a plan all by themselves because I really want to hit the 20-60-40 triathlon mark. Honestly, I don’t do much different with the plan than I would without the plan, but I also have a few spreadsheets that keep track of times and heart rates that help me look back to see if I’m getting better. So, the plan is a bit more than a simple plan; it’s a data dump that I can use for analysis. The plan is really just a simple road map and basic motivator when I get tired and lose motivation.

I went skiing again yesterday for New Year’s. We did a 3.5 hour backcountry ski, and my legs were really tired. More of a deep fatigue than simple tiredness. I’m pretty sure it’s from starting to run again this week because the weather was fair, the gym was closed, and the roads cleared up. But it’s great to get outside and breathe the fresh air. I really do love living in Pocatello because the local mountains are challenging enough without being too challenging, and they are close….it took us twenty minutes to get to the trailhead yesterday.

I finally remembered to get my resting heart rate in the morning this morning. I’m at 56bpm, which is average for me for the amount of exercise I’m doing. Last fall I was down to 48-50 at peak fitness.

I haven’t got my swim video yet! I made a link-up with somebody who is interested in doing it. That’s Smitty, who is the president of the Pocatello triathlon club. She said they’re going to have a swim clinic for the club in February, and I think it would be really cool to video everyone during that time. I’ll have to get more memory for my camera!