Bike rack review and thoughts and Results of the Duathlon Great Experiment

Two points in this post: Quick thoughts on Feedback Sports A-Frame Event Bike Stand and the results from tonight's grand experiment at the local club duathlon race.

Have you ever wondered about getting your own bike stand? I saw one at the local bike/tri club race series tonight. Built by Feedback Sports, this bike stand is rated at eight bikes racked by the saddle. Tonight, it seemed that six would be the max for any race event; eight seems fair if you're taking your time to put the bikes in place neatly.  It was quite sturdy, taken down by one guy in about two minutes (that I saw, might have been quicker), and then put into a great looking, durable carrying case.  Anyway, it's a great piece of gear if this is what you are looking for!

Experiments can be useful in validating race strategy, but it's hard to find the right time and conditions to try them. I find it difficult to experiment wildly out of my norm during a race I paid for because it just seems like paying to suffer isn't my idea of fun; paying to go slow while following a plan is doable, though.  And tonight's race was my chance to experiment with an all-out effort on the bike to see what would happen on the run because it's a no-kidding race and it's free (so easier to deal with if it goes horribly wrong).

Tonight's course was the regular 10k bike (5k out and back) followed by a short 1.5 mile run (originally 3 mile, changed to 1.5mile for whatever reason I don't know). Sunny and windy, and at least it wasn't freezing cold...somewhat warm in fact.

Anyway, I beat my previous times for this year by about a minute but still slower than last year's best, and I think the wind has everything to do with that. I went all out on the bike, with average heart for 10k bike at 164 versus last years 40k bike average heart rate of 152. The heart rate of 164 matches the all out efforts from the previous two races.

After a quick transition, I sprinted out to start the race, and I immediately blasted to heart rate of 174. Wow! I didn't know that was even possible outside of doing the Alpha Killer / Ass Kicker hill workout.  That effort didn't last long, and I backed off after a couple minutes, and then backed off again after a couple more minutes until I finally settled in at at a hard pace and heart rate of 162ish. From there I started building faster until finishing strong with a heart rate of 164, right where my average was last year during the 10k runs of an olympic race.

So, tonight's experiment was a success. I learned that I can't bust it all out on the bike and then sprint out of T2 and expect to run well. Best to keep a good, hard effort on the bike and then set a cruise pace right out of T2 and build to finish...pretty much my tactics from last year, but this year I can push just a bit harder right out of T2.

It was a great day to be riding and running!

The Simple Ways to Sabatoge Your "A" Race

I've been busy with some travelling for work the past two or three weeks, and there was a holiday in there somewhere, too. Days fade into each other after too much rain. And there it is, the truth of the matter in two short sentences.

I have done more to sabotage my training plan for my "A" race than I could possibly imagine. None of it on purpose, of course. But all of it is my own doing.  

So, while running today (I have actually run my 10k loop three days in a row!), I came up with the first few of probably 7-10 ways that you, too, can sabotage your own race. Here are the first few. This is a look into my real world at this point.

1. Schedule your "A" race within three months of the birth of your child. This will do absolute wonders for everyone in your house. Of course, you prioritize the baby before your training and race (at least you should!), but the lost sleep and missed workouts start to creep into your conscious as something you wish wasn't your new norm. Then that piles onto the dumb comments you say while stressed out because the baby is screaming that awful "baby scream" for the last 15 minutes (hint: feed him, will work 90% of the time).  And then you have the car ride with a screaming baby and stops every 90 minutes for breastfeeding....I'm looking forward to making a ten hour ride into 14 hours.

2. Schedule your "A" race for June if you live in the Pacific Northwest and you don't like to ride in the rain or the cold. I can count this year's outside bike rides on my fingers at this point because of all the rain, wind, late winter conditions, and generally crap weather. So, when those conditions are outside, you can guarantee my bike is not outside. I can run in -20 with snow, but the minute it is cold, windy, and wet, I'm going to make it a swim day inside.  Speaking of swimming, you won't get any open water swim practice because everything is flooding in the spring, and the water is just to damn cold (45deg?) and generally dangerous to think about getting in. My psychology and confidence is in a downward spiral right now because of my lack of following my training plan.  At this point, I'm just happy to do something that makes me break a sweat.

3. Break your indoor trainer eight weeks prior to the race and during the crappiest weather of the year. Because you will now not ride a bike trainer for three weeks til you finally break down and buy one, this will guarantee that you lose nearly all the bike fitness and progress you made by busting your ass all winter. Refer to #2 on why you can't just ride your bike outside.

4. Schedule as much work travel as you can during the 3-8 weeks prior to your "A" race. Build period? What's that? Combined with the broken trainer in #3, you now certainly won't ride your bike very often. Nor will you get in any consistent running of good quality because you don't know good courses in the towns your visiting, and you're generally downtown in the smog and traffic anyway, and who wants to run in that crap when you're used to running in perfect mountain air? You might find a pool and be close to it if you're lucky...I got lucky, but it was so cool to then swim in a 50m outdoor pool that I don't think I can get back into the 25y indoor pool back here at home. 

More later............and remember, no matter how bad you got it, somebody always has it worse. But the guy at the end of that line is Guy Sajer.

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.

85% swim pace best for tri races

I agree with this article...mostly. I prefer a 90% effort myself. Really, isn't this just science confirming common sense? You can't go 95% of max heart rate  on the bike and expect to run well, either.  A good red-line effort for a sprint or olympic tri is probably 90% of max heart rate in very general terms.

Triathlete.com » Faster Swim Times May Not Lead To Faster Finish Times

Results concluded that with an exertion of 80-85 percent and 90-95 percent of maximum swimming intensity, athletes maintained faster cycle times. The overall triathlon time was faster with swimming at 80-85 percent than swimming with a 98-102 percent exertion. Additionally, when triathletes swam at maximum intensity, their stroke rates went up, so they were doing more work.

Therefore, researchers concluded that performing at a swimming intensity below that of a time trial effort significantly improves cycling and overall performance in a race.

Spring Break Progress Test = SUCCESS! 40k bike progress

A good training plan has some built in testing periods to see if your plan is working. Of course, those tests should be built around your goals for the year.  If you are self-coached, it’s important to work in some of these tests throughout the year so you can make appropriate changes early enough to give you the results you want on race day.
In my case, my goal for the year is a 60 minute 40k bike, so my test is to see if I can ride 24 miles in one hour at a tension that is similar to what I’ll find on race day.
I did a scheduled spring break progress test today to see if my winter workouts on the bike were successful. I didn't really take a break this week, so my legs weren't completely fresh, but they're close enough for the info I wanted.
This week's workouts consisted of 3,000 yards swimming on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. This week had a definite swim-focus  because the pool is closed this weekend and all next week for spring break repairs, and I wanted to pick up my swim efforts. On the bike, I did only a 30 moderate-effort miles on Monday morning. For running, I ran 3.5 miles on a round-about-route to the pool and back on Thursday and Friday. With such little bike and run this week, I still felt fatigued in my legs a bit as I walked up the stairs last night; I guess a three fold increase in swim volume can really affect your entire body!  
Below is my expected progression chart for bike, run, and swim. The March 15 date was not a hard date when I set it back in November or so; it was meant to be a day somewhere around spring break, which today fits.
 

The bike goals are the second and third columns in from the left. I have to put “gear/cad” because I don’t have a power meter and that is my control factor. In any case, I ended up doing the test today on Gear 9 (the highest possible) plus an additional turn harder on the trainer tension, equivalent to an extra gear harder.
My average cadence was 72, much higher than the 68 listed. I only went for 65 minutes (five minute warmup plus 1 x 60 minute set), though, but I had already done 25.44 miles in that 65 minutes. Since the overall goal here is to be able to do 24 miles per hour for an hour, I have met that goal. And, I’m pretty sure my tension is set at the equivalent of road resistance with no wind. I’m very happy with my results, but the “rubber will meet the road” when I actually get out on the road….that might be a while because it snowed again today, and I’m a fair weather rider.

As far as the swim goes, I couldn’t hit that 2,000 yards in 24 minutes today, and that’s probably too fast of a goal anyway. I can hit 1500 yards in 22:00 in the pool at an 95% effort. That’s as far as I’ve gotten in the pool this year. I’m not really worried about it, though, because the swim endurance can come back fairly quickly, and this past week was the first week I really even cared about the swim workouts; almost all swimming prior to this week was done break up the monotony of biking and running all the time.
I hit that run goal two weeks ago. My average for the 10k loop is right around 50:00 on a very moderate effort. I routinely hit faster than 49:30 on that loop if I put forth any amount of effort beyond moderate. That 10k loop is very hilly, with three 200foot elevation change hills on it. I think that if I can hit that route routinely at 46:00 during standard workout weeks with a lot of volume in my legs, I should definitely be able to run a 42:00 10k in a race. That’s still a bit short of the 40:00 goal, but I’m being very conservative and not adjusting for elevation or race adrenaline.
Here’s a chart of what my run progression looks like. The data points are times run on the same course. I tried to run the same “moderate effort level” every time I ran it. You can see how the average time, represented by the red line, trends downward even though I drastically increased bike volume and then the swim volume during that time while gaining about ten pounds(!). If I can lost ten pounds, I’m sure the graph will continue its downward trend.

All in all, I’m very happy with where I’m at right now, assuming that bike tension is equivalent to road resistance. The only thing I’m not happy about is weighing 185 pounds when my goal weight is 170-172. I knew I was going to gain weight when I quit dipping, but I thought I would be able to get it off sooner or later if I had did enough volume. That’s not the case so far.

Fishing tomorrow through Thursday

Tomorrow I go to Yellowstone for a week of fishing (and hopefully catching!). I wanted to completely wear myself down this week, kind of like a crash week that I've read about, I guess. I got close. Had I been able to do a 40k bike followed by 5k run tonight as planned, I would be there. However, with 50mph gusts from a crazy front coming through, I decided I didn't want to chance getting blown into a car or simply blown over on my bike.

So the only workout today was the same lunch routine as yesterday....run to the gym for a swim (that sounds cool...run to the gym for a swim!). Today was only a 1x1000, but I swam it a it harder to see if I could maintain this new stroke technique I "found" on Tuesday. I held for everything but the last 100 yds. Came in at 7:30 and 7:50 for the 500 splits.

I wonder how this fishing trip will affect my endurance. I certainly need a bit of a break, after five weeks of pretty consistent (albeit non-morning) workouts. I have a 4 mile hike in and out, mostly flat, with a 35 pound pack (I'm guessing...have four days of food in there!). The walking around all day (literally fishing about 10 hours per day) should do some good. I'm pretty sure I"ll be in a calorie deficit the entire time (-500 cals/day?). Last year, I hiked ten days in the Sawtooths and I think it actually helped alot, in mid August for the September Bear Lake tri. That was mostly walking 8-10 miles per day with a pack, rather than fishing. But at this point, I'm ready to do some fishing and sleep under a full moon tomorrow night!

I get back Thursday, then Friday after work we head back up that way to Rexburg for the Rush Tri on Saturday morning. I see the lake for the swim every time coming back from Yellowstone and wonder what this race will be like. I know I have to get in a quick bike spin and easy two-mile run Thursday just to knock some rust off. This race has separate locations for the transitions, and I'm worried about how that's going to work out because I've never done one like that. Tera will be there to make sure my stuff gets to where it needs to be...she's awesome!

I realized I'm not going to hit the 20-60-40 goal this year. My bike has come down about six minutes on the 40k home course, and the run came down about a minute. My swim has lost about 1 minute for a 1500. Overall, I'm thinking I'll come in at 22-69-46 if I have an average race. The bike course has a big hill on it, so I'm thinking that might a couple minutes. I really think I could hit a 1:06 (66 minutes) on a flat course right now....there's just no flat courses in Idaho!

I'm thinking about the Portland Tri now too, the following week. How do I maintain fitness while not over-doing it for that race? I guess I'll just keep it short, with a few hard intervals thrown in, in each of the events. I'm not looking forward to the 9 hour drive, either. Plus, I have to go to North Dakota (12 hour drive each way!) for four days in between the races for my Mom's surgery. God is asking me to make some decisions on priorities in my life, I guess. The decisions are easy, though.

In any case, water temp in the Willamette was 72 degrees yesterday. If it's that warm in three weeks, I'm thinking of not wearing a wet suit. But it will be 58 degrees (avg morning temp every day of August in Portland is 58!), so coming out of the cold water and hitting the bike in 60 degrees or so might be too cold for me. Not sure. We'll see.

No posts til Thursday, and hopefully there will be a photo of a nice Yellowstone Cuttthroat to go with that one!

Technique realizations

At lunch I swam a 1x1500 in 24:01. Time was slow, but I realized that I finally "found" the "feel" of a "good stroke." Before all the open waters swims in May, I pulled through my freestyle mostly with arms and pecs, always wondering why I didn't feel my shoulder roll and using my lats more...like I read about all the time. Back into the pool after five or so open water swims, I felt a change in my stroke...more efficient and almost getting to that point of rolling my shoulders and using my lats more. Well, today I felt what that feels like, and I LOVE IT. It is a noticably different stroke for me, much more efficient and just as fast. I can actually feel my shoulders roll "over the barrel" and the pull in my lats. Today I easily averaged 10 strokes per arm per 25 yds. Today was a good swim, obviously. And I ran to the gym from work (one mile each way) as a recovery run. I found that this is a workout that I really like for an easy day.

After work, I biked a 20k in 40:25 as a recovery ride. This was my first ride back with a bike computer, and I realized I am back down to an average cadence of 80, from 84 in April and May before the bike computer broke. So, clearly, the cadence meter helps me on that front. But now I guess I've built up a good slightly-anaerobic base in the last six weeks by not using the bike computer to gauge cadence. This is all quite interesting to me because I felt like I was losing endurance in the past few weeks but gaining power.....and I suppose that is exactly what was happening. Hopefully I can get my average cadence back up to 84-86 and see that this was a blessing in disguise to get my power up and still have endurance. Lesson learned: bike computer data is definitely useful.

And finally, I thought of a strategy for the bike during races. You have to power into and out of the turn of an out-and-back course. Last year, I rolled casually into the turn because I didn't have any bike handling skills whatsoever, and then casually rolled out. I figure I can gain at least 15 seconds on a more intense turnaround that I ride into hard, slam on the brakes, and then burst out of onto the backstretch. Now I have to remember to do it in a race.