Consistency...some more thoughts

Yes, more about consistency. I struggle with consistency, so I think about it alot. With a baby in the house, my consistency has gone away, many times based on the whatever the baby happens to do at night.   While cruising the internet for a bit, I came across a couple of must-reads about consistency that I'd thought I'd share:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/General_Training/Consistency_killers_769.html
This article is a few years old but definitely worth reading. Dan Empfield gives some great and REALISTIC  insight into those little things that can keep you as consistent as possible.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/never-miss-a-workout.html
Joe Friel talks about consistency just a couple of days ago. There are some very interesting scientific findings from Randy Wilber at the Olympic Training Center presented in this article. Specifically....after three weeks of no training, you lose 7% of your lactate threshhold. Wow! That should help you get at least three workouts per week.  And there there is "Even just reducing the number of aerobic workouts from 5 days per week to 2 causes a loss of significant amounts of fitness [Brynteson]. And reducing the intensity of your aerobic training below 70% of VO2max has been shown to also cause a loss of aerobic fitness with a decrease in aerobic capacity, time to exhaustion and heart size [Hickson]."  The take-away being that you should get in at least three good, hard workouts per week at a minimum to at least maintain some of your fitness. The final gem that Joe gives us as an answer to a reader's question in the comments section is "Using the WKO+ model, a highly fit person takes about 5 hours of training to make up for one zero (1 missed workout). For a low-fit athlete it takes about 20 minutes."  Think about that next you are going to blow off a workout.

For me, consistency is all about establishing a routine that puts everything in place to make those first few minutes as easy as possible. Many people always say that if you can get the first five minutes out of the way, you're on your way to at least some sort of workout.  Here's a few examples from me that help create consistency...as much consistency as I have anyway(!).

A few years ago, when I was working out right after I got home from work, I noticed my probability of completing a workout greatly diminished if I wasn't out of the house in five minutes after getting there; so, obviously the basic goal was to just get out of the house within five minutes and make do with whatever happened after that.

I have a locker at the gym to hold my goggles and swim trunks. If I at least make it to the gym, I'm guaranteed to have my gear there for a swim. I also have a pair of swim trunks and goggles at home so that I never have to take those trunks/goggles out of the gym. The locker costs $45/year, but it's worth every penny simply because of the gear availability.

I keep a pair of shoes, shirt, and shorts at work so that I always have some sort of gear to workout during lunch.

For afternoon workouts, I use the mantra "just get the first five minutes, and you'll get the rest of the workout." It works every time! Unfortunately, that mantra has only about 50% success rate of getting me out of bed on those days that I don't get going easily.

I take about 30 minutes on Sunday evening or Monday morning to plan out my workouts so that I will actually hit the planned workouts. I no longer have the double-book problem of having a planned a good run at lunch the same day I have a lunch meeting for work.

Adapt to your feelings, both physical and mental. If I don't feel like running, then I reschedule to a bike or swim to get in a workout. If I'm not having fun, why am I doing it? What I really love about triathlon is the varying workouts that can be done. With three types of workouts (long and easy, race distance and near race pace, and short and hard) to choose from for three sports, there are nine different workouts to choose from.  Take advantage of the variety!

Another very important point that Dan points out on the Slowtwitch article is that you should always think about what your effort level is going to do to the next workout.  It's great to go hard and long every now and then, but know how it will impact the rest of your workouts.

Bengal Tri Race Report

The Bengal Triathlon was this past weekend. It's a sprint event that takes two days! We swim on Friday and then bike/run on Saturday morning. This year, the race had 178 racers, whereas only two years ago there was about 70 of us. The race is organized by Smitty Faure, the local tri club prez and overall awesome triathlete who has been on the national teams and travelled to Hungary. This is also a capstone event of some sort for college students in one of her classes, and I think that is really cool. This is supposed to be a small, local race that is inexpensive, has a great t-shirt, and gets people out and about in triathlon in Pocatello. This year was a RAVING SUCCESS! The shirt is a great long sleeve that is an incredibly bright orange (perfect for biking or running at dawn or dusk) and is the perfect weight to be worn every month of the year.

Overall Summary:  For me personally, I met my goals. Swim=9:26 versus goal of 9:45 (perfect goal of 9:20 barely missed!). Bike in about 29:30 versus goal of 30:00 (I must admit the 30:00 goal was for twelve miles and the course was only 11!). Run of 21:25 versus goal of 21:30. I had alot of  fun and met some new people, too.

Weather: Awesome weather on Saturday. About 35deg and sunny with very little wind. National Weather Service had the wind at "calm" although I could have swore there was a little headwind coming back on the out and back bike course! Anyway....we couldn't have asked for a nicer April morning in Southeast Idaho.

My attitude: I felt good going into this race physically and mentally. I set out some goals and then put them on this blog for the world to see. I'm happy to say I reached those goals. The last six weeks have been tough with newborn Noah and just some general tiredness of waiting for spring to get here. I probably peaked in mid-March as far as current fitness goes. But I have til the end of June to get that back and then some for the Pacific Crest Tri.

The swim: I felt good about the swim. Perfect goal of 9:20 missed by six seconds. I had to do three open turns because of my "lane mate" met me at the wall at the same time. I figure two seconds lost there for each open turn equals a total of six seconds I lost there, so I can then say I magically met my goal then of 9:20 if I could have done flip turns then (never mind the affects of the increased oxygen debt!). I swam hard. I think I went out way too fast, but I don't have any splits. At about 350 yards, I started thinking I might need to stop and take a break in a freakin' pool! I gathered myself together mentally and swam it in for a hard finish. I had a top ten time, with many of those other top-tenners being teenage swim-teamers. Go figure.... a friend's ten year old boy beat me by 10 seconds!

T1: Went home and had a nice chicken dinner with my sister and her family visiting for the weekend. Longest T1 ever!

The bike: Started great. Went hard on the way out. Beautiful morning. Pumped my legs really hard the entire way. Average cadence was 88, so that hit that goal. Passed a couple and got passed by four or five. Reality Check:  I busted my ass all winter on that trainer, and I don't think I got much better. We'll see when I head out on the 40k course for the first time in the near future, but for now I don't think I gained anything on the bike (serious bummer!).  Eleven miles in 29:30 puts my 40k at about 1:08 or so versus a goal of 1:00 - 1:04. Average heart rate of 165 is much higher than 154 average during last years' olympic races. Even with an expected higher rate during a sprint instead of an olympic distance, this is was higher than expected. I was thinking I'd come in at about 160. I guess that means I found a higher pain threshhold or I simply have a high lactate threshhold (which would mean I improved at something on the bike at least).

T2: Fast enough but could certainly have been faster. Took off several layers, including the pants.  At least I had the bike layers right because my body temp was just right.

The run: Went mostly as planned.  Left T2 with another guy, and he quickly dropped me (arghh!). I wanted to stretch out on the initial downhill, but it didn't really work that way. I was just focusing on turning over my legs. Downhilll almost all the way out, and then uphill almost all the way back. Still, I did a negative split.  10:55 going out and 10:30 coming back. Not sure how that happened other than the legs loosening up. I have done one transition run this year, and that is definitely evident. So I know I have the endurance and speed in my legs, I just need to work on that first two miles off the bike, which I have planned in the annual schedule to begin next week (normally around spring break, but that transition was pushed back to May 1 because of weather). Anyway, I ran it hard. Average heart rate of 168 is a bit higher than normal. I finished strong.

Where to from here?
1. I need to get outside and ride the bike. The magnetic trainer clearly is not the end all be all trainer item. I'm already planning to buy a fluid trainer for next winter season, mostly because this current trainer has a bad click/hum to it that it didn't previously have.

2. Happy Happy Happy with run capacity right now, but I need to get those transition runs in to minimize the slowness in the first 1.5-2 miles.  I clearly have the endurance, but that transition will be even more noticeable during an olympic distance race.

3. Happy with the swim time. I even think I've lost a bit of swim endurance during the past three weeks because of very little swim time. I need to re-commit to my 8k / week volume goal, and that includes hitting two OWS sessions beginning in mid-May (the lake is already full, but I'm not getting in that water right now!  lucky if it's even 45deg.).

4. I have seven weeks of good training available to me before I back off for the week of the Pacific Crest Tri. That's two good three-week cycles I can hit. I know I can improve on the bike in that time; I just have to get outside no matter what the temperature.

5. Losing this last ten pounds would do wonders all around.  Minimize wine and chocolate and other junk....uuhhh, yeah, this is where I need to prioritize triathlon appropriately with the other things in life(!).

Game On! First Triathlon of the Year is today and tomorrow.

The moment of truth is this afternoon and tomorrow morning. The Bengal Triathlon is today and tomororw. If that sounds weird, it's because it is a bit weird. We do the swim at the local university on Friday, and then the bike and run on Saturday morning. There's some coordinaion issues with the pool that make it this way, so we just live with it and go with the flow in order to get in an early race for the year.

I'm not worried about the swim. My swim time will be what it will be. I've improved my form a bit and hope to come it at about 9:45-10:00 for 700 yards in a pool. I want to average 1:20/100. I haven't been swimming alot lately, but I was doing 500s in 7:00 - 7:15 a few weeks ago.

The bike and swim on Saturday will be interesting. The weather is supposed to be about as nice as it can be in April in southeast Idaho....50 and sunny with calm wind growign to 4-7mph. That means at 0830 it's going to be about 40 degrees! At least the wind won't be blowing.

I want to bike the 12 miles in 30 minutes...going for half of the 60min 40k goal. Realistically, I hope to get 32 minutes. It's a mostly flat course but there is a stop sign that we have to turn left on, which might account for 30 seconds. Some traffic might get stopped, but I won't be blowing right through the intersection simply for safety's sake. I do the course alot, and have ridden it twice already this year, so I'm familiar with it.

The bike is truly the moment of truth for me. Did I make any gains this winter? I really worked hard this winter and put forth significant effort to improve my bike leg. I could have done better, but I did 90% of what I was capable of doing.  The TT race on Tuesday was windy and cold, and I came in at about 50% of everyone, but that "everyone" includes a couple of national champions (no kidding!), so that makes it feel not as bad. But I expected to do better. I don't know how much the start in the small ring cost me, but I figure it was about 15 seconds, which didn't reallly make a dent in the overall time.

The run should go well for me, as the (somewhat) consistent 10k's I've been doing have paid off in the past few timed events I've done.  I've only done one brick this year, so that is the question I'm facing for tomorrow...how will my legs run after a hard bike? We shall see.

Here are my goals and tactics for the race:

Goals
1. Have a good time during the first event of the year.
2. Perfect world times: swim=9:15, bike=30:00, run=20:00
3. Real world goal times: swim=10:00, bike=32:00, run= 21:30
4. Meet some more of the triathlon people around town.

Tactics:
1. Go hard on the bike, don't worry about the run while I bike.
    - stay down and just go hard on the bike.
    - avg cadence should be 88.
2. Dress warm for the bike but everything I wear has to come off quickly for the run.
3. For the run, stride out long and fast on the first half that is downhill/flat. Long and loose.
4. For the run on the second half roller/uphills, shorten and quicken the stride to approx 84.

There it is...my race goals out in public for everyone to see before the race. Maybe this will help me get them.

I just hope it's sunny with little wind..that will make everythign worth it!

And good luck to everyone else racing. Stay safe!

First race of the year! TT flat #1

First club TT race was tonight. The sun was nice enough to show up, but he brought his friend the wind...at least 35mph straight tail/headwind. I gave it a full effort but didn't reach today's goal of finding a new pain threshhold. I was on the edge of my current mental pain threshhold but couldn't push over the edge into new territory, mostly because the wind was such a killer that I just wanted to finish. I dipped my toe into that new threshhold for the last thirty seconds or so, though, and it was an interesting visit.

Below is a picture of the course. 10k...three miles out, three miles back. Steady, slight downhill all the way out, a bit of a depression (20ft?) near the turn-around, and then a slight uphill all the way back. The wind loves to blow in this section of road, and there is sometimes road closures because the wind blows the dirt around alot.  Train tracks to the side; as I was huffing and puffing on the way back, a train passed, and I remembered the scene from "Vision Quest," but I didn't have anything left to draw from the inspiration.


Sunny, windy, and 45 degrees. I wore a hat under my helmet, gloves, jacket, two warm long-sleeves under   the jacket, and pants.  Hey, if it's less than 55 degrees, why am I riding my road bike again?  Like I said before, I'm definitely a fair-weather biker. The awesome sunny day made up for the wind and cold, though


My time sucked and is not able to be published, as this is not supposed to be a funny, comedy blog.  Suffice to say that the out/back ratio was about 1:1.75. It took me nearly twice as long to get back as it took to get out......yeah, strong wind today, but at least it wasn't cancelled because it was too windy. It was GREAT to be outside, though! Maybe that 10k lunch run had something to do with it, too.


This year, I expect to hit all the TT and hill climbs except two, which I can't make it to because of work schedules.  The races are free for club members. They're nice and quick for the most part, too. Beats the heck out of a $400 weekend based around one race.

So this is how it's gonna be? Life priorities need to be clear!

From October to March, I had a great winter training season. I was well on my way to meeting all my goals. In fact, in late March and early April, I did meet two specific running and biking goals when I biked twenty four miles in one hour at a specific resistance on the trainer and then a sub-18 minute three mile.  I knew things would change when Noah was born, and they have indeed changed. As I write this, I'm supposed to be at the pool for a swim this morning, but little Noah didn't want to go back to sleep after his Mommy fed him. So I got to stay up (get up out of bed early, really) with him.

In all reality, training is going much better than I thought it would, and I'm getting more workouts than I did when Paul was really small. So, things aren't all that bad. I'm getting in almost the equivalent volume of last year's workouts. I'm just not getting what I want to get this year. I have to learn to live with it. 

This is why I put in my annual training plan that family will always have priority. Tera was so nice and AWESOME this morning when she was trying to figure out how she was going to get back to sleep while I went for my swim and Noah continued to stay awake and cry. She didn't want to ask me to not workout. Of course, the reality was that I needed to cut my swim and take care of the baby, and it was a no-brainer that I should have been telling her that I would do that so she could get some sleep.  In my not-quite-awake stupor, I got frustrated with her for not just asking straight-out to take care of the kid, when I should have been happy that she was trying to figure out how to balance the kids and my workouts.

This year was going to be tough no matter what because we have a newborn in the house. Throw in a 2 1/2 year old and some other competing priorities, and all of sudden there is angst and stress.  Honestly, though, that stress starts to go away when I watch Noah sleeping and making all of his sleep-noises as I drink some coffee and watch the sun come up...God's miracle of life!

I really wonder how the people who train for full distance Ironman events find the time. When I first started this triathlon stuff, I wanted to do an Ironman. Now I don't have any desire because I know I simply don't have time with two kids in the house. I'm having trouble finding time to be competitive at the Olympic distance, and that really only needs 12-14 hours per week to be competitive.  

I can get the first eight hours pretty easily on a couple of mornings and one hour at lunch each day, and I will do ok on that kind of volume. But it's the last four to six that I want so I can be competitive.  On the good days, I get up early and do a bike and maybe a short swim before the kids get up at 7:00am. Then I run at lunch. It's not always easy to get up in the morning, and if I set my goals too high, I tend to blow off the entire workout if I'm tired, when I should simply adapt my goals and do something shorter and/or easier. All of that then combines with the days that I want to workout but can't because I have to take care of the kids in some way. 

For me, I know that Tera and the boys take precedence over these daily workouts, and I have written it into my overall triathlon philosophy and annual training plan. It's an easy choice for me, if you can even call it a "choice;" I just have to remind myself sometimes. And then I need to make sure I get out of bed and workout on those days that the kids are cooperating.

4x90secs destroys my legs...aka Running Hill Workouts

With the arrival of spring (but not necessarily the departure of SNOW!), I switch up the running a bit by adding some short, hard intervals. This is either my hill workout or a track workout with some 800s and 400s. Because I dislike the 800s and 400s so much, I tend to do the hill workout more often.

For reference, there is an article about hills over at triathlon.competitor.com. Go to http://running.competitor.com/2011/04/training/learn-to-power-over-hills-hill-repeat-repeat-repeat_24020 for the whole thing. For some info on my hill, keep reading!

I call my hill the Alpha Kilo....meaning "Ass Kicker," appropriate enough because it never fails to kick my ass. It is the perfect lunch workout (unless it's raining, which then the trail gets too muddy and slippery). From my office, it's a ten minute jog over to the bottom of the hill, including five minutes on a trail and under or through the junipers. On a nice, hot, dry day, I really like being amongst the junipers and sagebrush.

Anyway, the hill is .15 miles with 177 feet gain, giving it an average grade of 24.6%. See the hill at http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/31789296.

This hill is great! It takes me a bit over 90 seconds to get to the top. Only the last 45 seconds are in pure "I need it to stop NOW!" pain that gets my heart rate up to its true max. I used to think my max heart rate was about 184; then I did these hills really hard for the first time and found that I can still get my heart rate above 190! That really hurt that day. But the pain of these hills is a fun pain, whereas running 400's is a bad, no-fun-at-all pain.

The standard hill workout is a 10 minute jog over to the base of the hills, a few minutes of mental prep, and then I hit 3 or 4 reps on the hill....90 seconds up, 2.5 minutes down (very hard to keep traction coming down), 90 seconds to prep for the next rep, and then the next reps. Then it's a ten minute jog back to work. Total about 45 minutes, and I am COMPLETELY DONE for the day afterwards.

Think about that. I only have to do 3-4 reps of 90 seconds each to completely destroy my legs for the day. That's an effective workout right there.

"Coping With Cold-Water Swimming" quote with comments

Here in Idaho and in the triathlons in Montana and Utah I've run in, the lake water is usually in the upper 50's. BRRRR! It's also that cold at the beaches in California, too.  Over at Triathlon.Competitor.com there was an article about cold-water swimming with some tips from Kevin Koskella, with my comments in italics after each paragraph.

Coping With Cold-Water Swimming:

1.. Wear two caps. You lose most of your heat through your head, and doubling up your “capage” helps you to keep your heat in.  Wearing the regular swim cap required in a race is enough for me. I don't like to wear that swim cap, but it really does help. I can't bring myself to wear two, though.

2. Wear a neoprene cap. Neoprene handles the cold-water better than standard latex and can help keep your head warm  Regular swim cap is enough for me.

3. You also lose lots of heat through your feet. Neoprene socks are also a good idea, but you may want to use these mostly on training swims, as they can be a hassle when it comes to transitioning to your bike!  I've really thought about this, but the cost versus times of use and value don't really add up.

4. Wear a wetsuit, but more specifically, a full suit. The sleeveless suits allow heat to escape through your armpits. I learned this the hard way when doing the Alcatraz swim in 52-degree water with one of these sleeveless, “farmer John” suits. By the time I finished, I was in the early stages of frostbite. Keep in mind that wetsuits are allowed in triathlons for water temperatures 75 degrees Fahrenheit or below, according to USA Triathlon rules.  I would freeze to death if I wasn't using a full wet suit. A bit of water inside warms up fairly quickly and keeps everything good for me.

5. Put in earplugs. When the water drops below 60 degrees, I believe earplugs become necessary- and they aid in keeping your core temperature up.  This should be step number one for anyone swimming in open water. They help in balance, too, when you come out of the water. I use the flexible plastic, industrial earplugs. Foam works, too, but not as well as the foam plastic with little concentric circles.  

6. Practice swimming in cold water in the weeks before your race. It can be a shock to your system that can lead to hyperventilating or a panicked feeling. You will want to swim slowly until you get your breath. The first time you experience this it can throw you off, but with practice, you will get used to it and be able to relax into your swim.  That's the only open water to swim in around here!  This is really basically a "train like you race" principle." 

7. Do a significant warm up (10-15 minutes minimum) the morning of your race. This will minimize the shock effect that cold water can have, and will allow you to get into a stroke rhythm much faster.  Warmup in the water is ESSENTIAL. It will also warm up some water that is inside your wetsuit. It will help you get rid of some of the pre-race nerves and jitters, too. 

8. When the cold water hits your face, the shock causes your lungs to contract causing breathing problems. Blow bubbles before taking off on your swim. Go waist deep into the water and submerge your face to blow bubbles. This helps alleviate the shock of the cold water. I don't think this goes far enough. Get all the way in the water and get your hair and neck wet...that's what really sucks and will suck the life out of you for a few seconds. Better to do that before the race than during!  See Point #7 and actually do a warm-up.

Summary of links for the "BarryP Program" at Slowtwitch

I've made some good gains this past winter by simply running consistently. If you run consistently at a moderate pace, you will consistently make moderate gains.  Read this post for my proof -- that standard 10k run is now down to 47:30, by the way.

Anyway, here's the list of posts/articles written by BarryP and posted at Slowtwitch. Take the time to read them if you want to improve your running. I didn't do that program 100%, but it was the sole inspiration for becoming at least somewhat more consistent in running.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1612485;search_string=runtraining;#1612485 

I also recommend increasing your swim volume to improve your run. Add an extra 500 yards per workout. That's only an extra 10 minutes or so, and you'll should see big improvements. What's the easiest way to find that 10 minutes? Practice fast transitions on a daily basis....get in and out of the locker room as fast as possible.

Family Matters: Choosing a gate for a stairway

This is quite off topic, but it's something I wanted to share with everyone because it is making my life alot easier. We have a two and half year old boy and now a one month old boy. We also have some stairs leading to downstairs. Well, that means we need a gate to keep the little ones off the steps.

The first try at the gate was a miserable failure. It was so bad that when my parents were here last week, I dropped an f-bomb with my mom in hearing distance....yes, the gate made me say the second f-bomb ever in front of my Mom (the first one was when I was fifteen and it should have NEVER happened). Anyway, I hated this gate because it didn't work very well, it was lopsided, and the screws pulled out of the wood and sheetrock, making it look awful. It nearly cost me a laptop, too, last fall when I dropped my laptop down the steps (tile, not carpet) after screwing with the unworkable gate latch.

My wife then got a Munchkin gate that promised sturdieness, ease of use, and no screws required. Triple win, right?!?  Indeed it was!! Simple to install. Easy to use. And quite sturdy. Took me ten minutes to put in, and it is great.

Why waste time screwing around with a gate and screws and all that? Just get one of these Munchkin gates and thank me later. Just sayin'......

What changes do you make for summer training?

Old Man Winter still has his grip on southeast Idaho, but at least it's warming up a bit. The snow is gone here in town, and it's melting away in the local mountains. But there is always a chance that I'll wake up in the morning to an inch or so of snow.

When I sit down and make my annual training plan, I always plan a change of focus around the time of the university spring break. I say "around the time of" because who knows what the weather will be like. The last few years, our spring has been cold and wet. The Climate Prediction Center at the National Weather Service says it will be cool and wet again this year.

What changes do you generally plan for when spring hits? I suppose some of you in the south have been riding outside all winter or at least maybe the past two months or so. I like to add in more outside biking (of course!).  Because most of my races are in June, I make a point of doing two OWS each week in May to get used to that kind of swimming again; it's more of a head-game than physical, but it works wonders. As for changes in the run, I'll be changing one of my basic, moderate effort 10k runs at lunch to a hill workout that I absolutely hate to love because it hurts, but it definitely provides some gains.

I've put my skis away and I'm hoping summer gets here quick!

Recovery Swims really work

A few posts back, I commented on an article at www.triathlon.competitor.com by Matt Fitzgerald that talked about using swimming as a recovery from running. Also, I put forth a really big effort on my three-mile run at Marine Corps drill this past weekend, and I also had to do some situps and pull-ups, all of which made me quite sore and tired Monday morning. I planned to sleep in on Monday and then "swim it off" at lunch on Monday, but I bailed because I was tired and wanted to have lunch with my parents who are in town to see their new grandson.

Anyway, I did the recovery swim today at lunch (after sleeping in!). And it worked out GREAT! This morning, my abs were still sore, and my lats were still quite sore from the efforts on Sunday. Interestingly, my quads and glutes are sore, too, and I don't know remember the last time they were sore from a run effort.

I did about 40 x 25yd all freestyle, concentrating on a good form that was streamlined and strong. I kept the pace really easy. It was actually fun and relaxing to swim this way! Better yet, I was stretching out those lats and abs that were so sore, and the legs were moving from a bit of a kick.  All in all, I got out of the pool refreshed nearly 100% and ready to hit it tomorrow morning.

Bottom line: the "recovery swim" is the real deal and you should make use of it. Plan for a recovery swim next the next time you have a breakout run session planned. If you're like me, you'll love the results.

Run Progress Test = SUCCESS!

One of my main goals this year was to run consistently at a moderate pace to bring down my run time. I haven’t been 100% consistent, but I’ve hit many of the workouts. My weight is still kind of high, but it seems like I’ve plateaued and the weight will start coming off (we’ll see!).

Anyway….yesterday was a Physical Fitness Test at drill. It’s a standard three-mile course that we’ve been running once every month. This month, I wasn’t expecting to run it really hard, but when we started, I felt good and decided to go with it. There were a couple other Marines running about 20 yards ahead for the first half, and I was just trying to stick with them to see how long they would hold the pace. I didn’t know how fast we were running, but we hit the half-way point at 8:40. Wow! At first, I started thinking that we were slow, running an 8:40 mile, but then I remembered it was 1.5 miles at that point, and I started thinking “Hey, maybe I can hit the holy grail of 18:00 and max this thing!”  Going into the turn-around, I had surged a bit, and then kept up that surge right after the turn and passed the two other Marines.  I held the pace, and put forth a 105% effort to come in at 17:40, holding off a last-100-yard surge from another Marine.

This is a life-time Personal Record. I never ran this fast even in my college days. So, my strategy for run training is working. Yeehaw!

Now I just need to confirm if the bike training is working. The indoor test a couple weeks ago was nice, but I’m not confident it gives me the whole picture.  It might be a while yet til I get a nice afternoon with enough time to do my 40k route. I’m excited about it, but I think I’m going to be a couple minutes shy of the goal. I wanted to double my bike volume from last year, and I’m only about 60% higher than last year; my average run volume has fully doubled, and that successful progress is evident.

California Ironman on scene report

Im at drill at Pendleton and cheered on some age groupers at lunch. Nice day, maybe kinda windy on the bike. Wish I was racing!

California Ironman on scene report

Im at drill at Pendleton and cheered on some age groupers at lunch. Nice day, maybe kinda windy on the bike. Wish I was racing!