Since I still haven't started "training" yet, workouts have no real set goals other than, "I want to get a 40 mile ride in today" or a "2000 yard swim." No training in zones or specific days for specific disciplines. As I've said before, that won't start until sometime around May or June. For now, it's just base training and keeping in shape for what's to come. Also, I still have not tested the knee by running and have not scheduled an MRI. At this point, I'm switching into the, "Rest it and see what happens" philosophy. Maybe I'll try running in March....who knows.
Here are a look at the numbers:
JANUARY 2010 TOTALS:
SWIM = 0 yards
BIKE = 364.75 miles (246 tri & 118.75 road)
RUN = 32 miles
JANUARY 2012 TOTALS:
SWIM = 7500 yards (+7500 yards)
BIKE = 258.4 miles(-106.35 miles)(91 tri & 167.4 road)
RUN = 0 miles (-32 miles)
OVERALL 2010 Season (Dec 2009 - Jan 2010)
SWIM = 5300 yards
BIKE = 714.75 miles (514 tri & 200.75 road)
RUN = 62.5 miles
OVERALL 2012 Season (Dec 2011 - Jan 2012)
SWIM = 19,500 yards (+14,200 yards)
BIKE = 353.24 miles (-361.51 miles) (91 tri 262.24 road)
RUN = 3 miles (-59.5 miles)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
IMAZ 2012 - Gazing Into the Crystal Ball
So, after posting my last entry about a week late, and after rereading it, I realized that I don’t have enough activity to warrant a weekly entry. On top of that, what I do have isn’t really that interesting. So, that being said, after this entry, I’ll probably only post when/if anything interesting happens.
Here we are, 9 days away from the PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Marathon and I haven’t done any real running for over a month. When I look back at my training schedule, I’m initially bummed out, but then quickly realize that the running kept me healthy and in shape. During my 4 months of running, I covered 355.18 miles which comes out to about 89 per month. I still haven’t scheduled my MRI yet, but will eventually get around to it and post everything as soon as I can.
I’ve been on the bike twice (total of about 62 miles) in the first week of January and I’m happy to report that there haven’t been any real issues with my knee. So far as I can tell, there is only some minor, dull, soreness.
Looking forward to Ironman Arizona 2012. We won’t “officially” be on a training plan until sometime in June or July, so I won’t really be mentioning more about that until then. While James and Ben say they are planning on qualifying for the World Championships in Kona, my goal is to go sub 11:00:00. There, I said it. It’s out there. In 2010, my sole goal was to simply finish with no predetermined time. Oh sure, I formulated windows and possibilities that I thought were plausible, but never a set time. By letting the cat out of the bag now, many IMers will say that I just jinxed myself and that you keep your goal time a closely guarded secret. Whatever, sub 11 it is. Here’s how I would like it to go down:
• 1:00 swim (1:00 in 2010)
• 5 min T1 (10min 32sec in 2010)
• 5:17 bike (5:37 in 2010)
• 5 min T2 (5min 08sec in 2010)
• 4:25 run (4:51 in 2010)
For me, my swim was spot on. Even if I really tried to go all out, I would probably only eek out 3 or 4 more minutes….not worth it. In 2010, I made the decision to go completely dry in T1. That meant that I had to take off my trunks, get on my cycling shorts, put on dry compression sleeves, etc. This time around, I’ll be wearing my shorts and sleeves under my wetsuit. Hopefully I can shave off about 5 minutes. For the bike, if the weather is like it was in 2010, then all bets are off, but I would do a few things different this time around that could get me to 5:17 if it is. If the weather is perfect, I may be able to push that time down even lower. The only stop I made in T2 was to use the bathroom (oh, and a few extra seconds with the sun screen crew!), so other than that, I was happy with the 5 minutes it took. As for the run, I averaged an 11:07 min/mile. If you look at my results, I didn’t start off fast and then fade, rather I kept a steady 11 min/mile. I did that out of fear. I saw too many videos about people falling over, cramping, and crawling on the run course and didn’t want to be one of them. 11 min/mile was simply a very comfortable pace that I knew wouldn’t get me in any trouble. With that in mind, and knowing my running capabilities (or lack thereof), I think I can shave off about 1 min/mile. Calculating it all out gets me a final time of 10:52. So, instead of explaining this seemingly bizarre time to everybody that asks what my goal is, I’m simply going to say, “Sub 11”
So, for now, it's 5 more months of "base training", entering a few races here and there, and keeping in shape until the real training starts. That's probably when I'll continue with the weekly updates.
Finally, you're probably gonna get sick of me constantly reflecting on my 2010 training and comparing it to 2012, but it's something I enjoy, so with that said:
DECEMBER 2009 TOTALS:
SWIM = 6300 yards
BIKE = 350 miles
RUN = 30.5 miles
DECEMBER 2011 TOTALS:
SWIM = 12000 yards (+5700 yards)
BIKE = 94.84 yards (-255.16 miles)
RUN = 3 miles (-27.5 miles)
Here we are, 9 days away from the PF Chang’s Rock and Roll Marathon and I haven’t done any real running for over a month. When I look back at my training schedule, I’m initially bummed out, but then quickly realize that the running kept me healthy and in shape. During my 4 months of running, I covered 355.18 miles which comes out to about 89 per month. I still haven’t scheduled my MRI yet, but will eventually get around to it and post everything as soon as I can.
I’ve been on the bike twice (total of about 62 miles) in the first week of January and I’m happy to report that there haven’t been any real issues with my knee. So far as I can tell, there is only some minor, dull, soreness.
Looking forward to Ironman Arizona 2012. We won’t “officially” be on a training plan until sometime in June or July, so I won’t really be mentioning more about that until then. While James and Ben say they are planning on qualifying for the World Championships in Kona, my goal is to go sub 11:00:00. There, I said it. It’s out there. In 2010, my sole goal was to simply finish with no predetermined time. Oh sure, I formulated windows and possibilities that I thought were plausible, but never a set time. By letting the cat out of the bag now, many IMers will say that I just jinxed myself and that you keep your goal time a closely guarded secret. Whatever, sub 11 it is. Here’s how I would like it to go down:
• 1:00 swim (1:00 in 2010)
• 5 min T1 (10min 32sec in 2010)
• 5:17 bike (5:37 in 2010)
• 5 min T2 (5min 08sec in 2010)
• 4:25 run (4:51 in 2010)
For me, my swim was spot on. Even if I really tried to go all out, I would probably only eek out 3 or 4 more minutes….not worth it. In 2010, I made the decision to go completely dry in T1. That meant that I had to take off my trunks, get on my cycling shorts, put on dry compression sleeves, etc. This time around, I’ll be wearing my shorts and sleeves under my wetsuit. Hopefully I can shave off about 5 minutes. For the bike, if the weather is like it was in 2010, then all bets are off, but I would do a few things different this time around that could get me to 5:17 if it is. If the weather is perfect, I may be able to push that time down even lower. The only stop I made in T2 was to use the bathroom (oh, and a few extra seconds with the sun screen crew!), so other than that, I was happy with the 5 minutes it took. As for the run, I averaged an 11:07 min/mile. If you look at my results, I didn’t start off fast and then fade, rather I kept a steady 11 min/mile. I did that out of fear. I saw too many videos about people falling over, cramping, and crawling on the run course and didn’t want to be one of them. 11 min/mile was simply a very comfortable pace that I knew wouldn’t get me in any trouble. With that in mind, and knowing my running capabilities (or lack thereof), I think I can shave off about 1 min/mile. Calculating it all out gets me a final time of 10:52. So, instead of explaining this seemingly bizarre time to everybody that asks what my goal is, I’m simply going to say, “Sub 11”
So, for now, it's 5 more months of "base training", entering a few races here and there, and keeping in shape until the real training starts. That's probably when I'll continue with the weekly updates.
Finally, you're probably gonna get sick of me constantly reflecting on my 2010 training and comparing it to 2012, but it's something I enjoy, so with that said:
DECEMBER 2009 TOTALS:
SWIM = 6300 yards
BIKE = 350 miles
RUN = 30.5 miles
DECEMBER 2011 TOTALS:
SWIM = 12000 yards (+5700 yards)
BIKE = 94.84 yards (-255.16 miles)
RUN = 3 miles (-27.5 miles)
12/25/2011 - 12/31/2011
This week, more than almost any other, food, pastries, and beverages seemed to be around every corner. It has now been about 2 weeks since I’ve tried to run and over a month since I’ve been able to make any REAL effort. It’s been about the same for my cycling too. That being said, I haven’t had any pain or issues with my knee, so I figured that a solid moderate ride was in order. I figured that I’d test my knee on the bike to see what, if anything would happen. On Wednesday, I took off from my office and rode my road bike on a 31 mile loop that averaged 18.7 mph. I felt a little something in my knee right around mile 20, but nothing alarming. Overall, I actually felt pretty solid and didn’t have any residual effects from my effort. Thursday didn’t see any pain or discomfort either. Armed with this information, I was going to put in another ride on Friday with two others. I’ve ridden plenty of times with Tyler and George (who recently completed Ironman Cozumel!), but never with this much time off. We agreed on the 50 mile Rio Verde Loop (I’ve discussed this route a few times in my 2010 blog) that took us down 9 mile hill. I was able to hang with them, while taking my fair share of pulls up front, for about 35 miles. That’s when we start climbing up Shea Blvd. It’s nothing too difficult and I’ve done it dozens of times before, but this time, I was popped off the back about 50 feet in. We eventually regrouped (they waited for me) and made our way back to the office. Somewhere between miles 42 and 45, I was as close to bonking as I could possibly be. The combination of too little calories and so much time off the bike caught up to me in an instant. I simply told George and Tyler that I was done and that they should just go ahead. I crept my way back to my car only to see 49.4 miles on my Garmin. Well, at this point, nothing was going to stop me from hitting 50, so I rode a few times around the building before shutting it down. Once in the car, I realized that I had the shakes. I was so hungry, I couldn’t think straight and was literally shaking. The closest place to get something was a CVS store. Since I didn’t bring a change of clothes, I had to walk in wearing my kit and my cycling shoes. I clopped over to the cooler section and grabbed a half gallon of milk and then clopped over to the other side of the store for a protein bar. After clopping back to the front to pay and clopping back to my car, I immediately opened the milk and started guzzling it down. I don’t remember how, but I managed to get the wrapper of the bar while drinking the milk and promptly took two huge bites. One more gulp of milk and it was time to start the car….I was still in the parking lot. The route home was probably in the area of 13 miles and 20 minutes. About 6 miles down the road, I realized that I had completely finished the bar and HALF (1 liter) of the ½ gallon of milk…..it didn’t stop when I got home either as I grazed on everything within arm’s reach for the rest of the evening.
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