JTT's Triathlon Blog

2011 End of Season wrap

2011-11-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

First off it's probably not a bad idea to explain why it's been quiet on the blog: the less frequent posting these days has alot to do with the fact that I raced so often (and early this season) that it just didn't make alot of sense to ping the blog with continuous updates.

End of season for me is a time to reflect on failures and where I can close the gap. While I like celebrating what I did well it doesn't allow enough critical thinking about where I fell short. 2011 was all about improving consistency and "leaving no stone un-turned". 2010 left me scratching my head on a couple of occasions when I didn't ride to the level my power data suggested I could.

In that vein I made fairly drastic equipment changes; focused on sustained power output in training and very high quality volume sessions across swim, bike, run. So, while I didn't blow my old power bests out I did get very, very consistent meaning I was able to reproduce pretty good power when I needed it. Where swim and run are concerned, looking at total volume this season compared to where I've been at historically I was actually a bit lower but I wasn't forcing myself through sessions completely spent whereas before I just made myself do the work. In those other higher volume years I wonder how much my body absorbed when I marched through workouts in zombie mode?

What's 2011 about? More of the same: Consistency and closing the performance gaps. Consistency is always a tough one because we're not robots and the longer an event goes the more nutrition and pacing plays a role. Where performance is concerned, well, I hit the point of diminishing returns a while ago, so in particular where the swim is concerned I've come back to looking at mechanics as a place where I might find some low hanging fruit.

Building out a season: I learned that the further I get away from pure distance events the happier a racer I am. Chalk it up to temperament, when I grew up running I came up doing middle distance; it was painful and short but I always swore I'd never do a marathon unless I could do one really fast; (that ship might have sailed though!) fast forward to Triathlon; long course racing requires lots of patience; you have to pace your body like a Toyota Prius or risk a poor performance.

This summer as I raced the bike leg of improperly measured (long) Half Iron I found myself wanting, almost needing to go faster but knowing I had to run after frustrated those plans.

Lesson learned: you have to race what you like. That said I'll probably find a suitable Half somewhere late in 2011. I'm eyeing the same sort of events, multisport stuff that favors good cycling/run fitness; cycling events that favor strong climbers over the long haul, etc.

Training: It's cliched to say there are no secrets and that you just have to do the work, however it's true. The one thing I can add is that there is no off-season. If you need time off to get healed you have to take it to rehab but to see improvement year over year an athlete just can't be taking huge chunks of time off and expect to PB those training markers or race efforts.

So, no off season for me. I do go as I feel meaning most days there is no specific goal to the work; I just like to workout because I love it. Do I push myself in the off-season? A little bit. Some amount of harder efforts makes life easier in January/Feb when those early season tune-up events are nearly bearing down.

Bring on the 2012 !

How Lung Cancer has impacted me and my fundraising efforts for The American Lung Assoc.

2011-04-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Many of you might not know, but Lung Cancer has impacted me personally. My Grandfather in Queensland, Australia was a tobacco user- smoked and chewed, sadly he eventually contracted throat and lung cancer and died when I was so young I barely remember him; he was only in his late 50's when he died.

I'd like to think that Lung Cancer is the sort of disease that falls into the "low hanging fruit" category, that is highly avoidable. Your donations go to toward these cessation efforts and obviously some is allocated to research to study cures who have cancer.

At this point I've raised $30 towards my $100 goal for the American Lung Association in Oregon's Reach The Beach event. (Thank you very much to those who have contributed!)

I have until May 20th deadline to finish my fundraising so it will be here sooner than you might think.

You can make a donation by logging on to my secure page over at the American Lung Assoc.:

http://action.lungusa.org/goto/joetysoe

The American Lung Association will mail you an official receipt for tax purposes (all online donations get an email receipt).

Thanks again for all your support.

-Joe

A slew of sorta updates

2011-04-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Early season is sorta under way for me, though no actual Triathlon until May/June time-frame.

Today I knocked out the third TT of the season, the only way for me to really get better at these efforts is to do them, not on the trainer inside, I get far too warm and I need a controlled environment for it.

In Oregon we have a TT every week starting in April until at least October. In seasons past I would pick a long climb, something around 10min and belt out a steady effort weekly to get the threshold work and ride flats on Sauvie's Island for the pure TT work but nothing really compares to a race effort. Although I'm approaching these as a step to getting better I'm personally motivated by the crowds, racers in front of me and behind me.

I train faster at the track too when I have people there also.

The TT bike set-up is currently good, I think I can get lower, will give this a try in the next few days. I don't think it's going to drastically impact power output as I dropped a spacer and all seems good now.

Recovery from surgery

I had the big elective surgery a month ago. If I had known what the recovery process was going to be like I might have reconsidered! I was fully down for a week and really not 100% for another week and half afterwards but I was determined to keep working out the best I could as soon as I could.

I have not been on the track in six weeks, hard to believe! However, I am able to S,B,R no problem and will get back to the track next week for intervals.

Carbon & Aluminum frames

I've been meaning to pontificate on this for a bit. I started riding a carbon road bike last fall, something I had that I finally built. The geometry and construction of the bike has alot to do with the sensations I feel riding it compared to the previous bike which was aluminum but I have noticed differences for sure.

To be succinct, my feel is that the roadie is great for putting in training miles over hill and dale, but feels really upright compared to the TT rig even though it is a pretty low slung race bike. It doesn't feel quite as firm in the BB compared to the TT bike which is Alu. Also, it's just more comfortable and really mutes alot of the hum from rough pavement. The front end is more flexy and think that is how much of the comfort is achieved as tuning carbon frames is more do-able then aluminum.. The fact the roadie also has a carbon steerer and thinner fork blades may be a bigger factor, however, I'm the first to say I'm not sure

The TT bike is not a bike for massive amounts of training. I truly don't understand why folks do more than 2/3rds or all of their rides on one. I'm comfortable on mine but it's a race bike and as such has only one "correct" position, in the aero bars- except while climbing then you're on the tops. I do enjoy trainer rides and racing on it, I feel very locked in and part of the machine.

Riding in winter

This winter with commute miles included I've ridden outdoors way more then I ever have, the road bike with fenders is the main reason.

The other reason is gear, I picked up a Castelli winter jacket and some extra tights so that I can rotate the dirty ones with the clean. Also have been using Sportful skullcap and Toko XC ski gloves on very cold days, e.g. I've been snowed on. :)

A plastic rain cape takes care of the rest and fits into a jersey pocket on rainy days. I know that lots of folks would ride in it if they felt they would be mostly warm and dry, I'm proof that you can get through a PNW winter without being miserable on the trainer.

Freestyle instruction: How "kick more" is not useful for Triathlete swimmers

2011-03-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

Kick more? Slow down your arm cadence? Not if you're a triathlete.

Quicken the arm cadence and get a two beat kick dialed.

Thank goodness Gary Hall Sr. showed up on Slowtwitch.com a year ago. His feedback on what Triathlete swimmers need to work on validate my thoughts (and a few blog pieces that I wrote years ago).

http://www.youtube.com/user/theraceclub#p/u/3/l4WOIFXimkw

2011 Season Schedule- building training metrics

2011-03-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

For me June is the start of the season, it might help if I approached racing earlier, say March-ish but I've traditionally not worked hard or long enough to have enough "staying power" in any of the sports; meaning, I can approach or even match the season best values from the previous season but holding on to that pace, velocity, power over some extended period of time is a real chore!

I think I'm in the same boat as lots of other folks here. I will admit that I've fantasized about banging out great early season races and outside of pure running it's not in the cards. Along those lines I'm committed to lots of pure TT events until the season kicks off in earnest.

So, I've got my eye on some races and *if* I get into one or another shapes the rest of the spring/summber/fall.

So here's what's cooking:

Leadville 100 MTB, I watched Race Across the Sky this fall and entered the lottery. I really like long-distance MTB racing because of the parallels with Triathlon, it's primarily a race against one's self.

A few years back I did an event in Corvallis, Oregon called MudSlinger, it was a traditional XC race, I raced Sport class on an XL sized frame, rode waaaay off course all with poorly set-up C'dald headshock and got my clock cleaned but I had a blast and I was wiped out at the desk for the better part of the next work week. I found out about an event put on by the same folks in the same neck of the woods called Test of Endurance, a 50mile race. Twice as far as Mudslinger!

It's never quite fit into my calendar because it's traditionally held in mid/late June and so conflicts with Triathlon, but not this year so that may factor in.

If Leadville doesn't shake out I'm fairly certain I will head to Oro Valley, Arizona for Duathlon Nationals in late April.

July, August, September? Sort of a crap shoot. I can guarantee: more of the same and a few new things. It's a wish list:

Whiskey Dick Tri

Trioka HIM

Rev 3 Pdx

Hagg Lake

TriRock Seattle

Crater Lake Century

Aluminum Man

That's a good start.

October: Victoria Marathon. Speaking of which I should probably register for it now.

So about building training metrics:

Typically what I do is ask: what would I like to do (time, place) accomplish at said event? Is that realistic? If yes, then I look at how long I have to get in that shape based on where I'm now.

This is one of the reasons I almost *never* race early in the season! While I have good fitness, I don't have race sharpness.

And so based on those questions I'll typically build a monthly schedule with week to week variance with built in "wild card" days, e.g. recovery time. I log everything as well, sorry I don't publish it anymore.

There's more of course, like the details on where to place the high intensity workouts, when to do the long stuff, how much long stuff relative to short stuff and what about the dreaded Z3? (Hey, I think Z3 is not something to be completely avoided).

Chuckie V wrote a couple of nice, succinct bits that I highly recommend.

And I know, I know. With lots of the season undefined how can I possibly set up my training metrics!? Well, good run, bike and swim fitness gets me 70% of the way there, I can call audible so-to-speak upwards of six weeks out to get aligned for the event.

What are you doing this season?

The big blog update

2011-02-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

I was asked recently if I blog anymore. Twitter, yes. Facebook, yes. Blogging lately, not so much.

Actually, I quite like blogging and I've had several topics that I've *meant* to get to but putting together a comprehensive, well-written piece takes time and since fall I've been busy between moving, a pretty intense consulting job that has just finished and some bike-related projects. On that note:

__________________

Bike Fit on a TT bike:

2010 season was a good one, I had up and down bike results which I was never able to put a finger on. All of the power data seem to indicate I was ready to rumble and some days I had a great, easy power and other days it was everything I could do to race at baseline.

I decided to make some "big" off-season changes: I had a carbon TCR road frame sitting in my shed that needed fixing and a build. Plus the TT frame I was riding was a 75degree TT frame that worked well with road drops but I was feeling quizzical about my up & down results and chalked it up to not committing to a full TT approach.

Both bikes were finished and as soon as I got the TT rig back I noticed the road bike crankset turned much more smoothly (everything was the same between the two- cranks, bb, drive train, etc.)

As it turns out the bottom bracket that had been on the TT rig was completely shot; it hardly turned relative to the fresh one on my road bike. Yikes. I felt relief that perhaps it wasn't that my form that was off, rather the BB was difficult to turn in certain conditions and maybe that explained some things, especially why I had such a tough time getting power numbers up.

On to bike fit: I had the bikes built up at the only Triathlon shop in town and they did a decent job on both.

Figured I'd get their input on my fit; I was fitted years ago at River City and have tweaked it on my own since then, so I was a little nervous about changing things drastically as that would most certainly impact power output.

The shop suggested getting "forward" and "lower"; we spent some time trying this. I had some issues with how the fit was executed:

-Forward closed my hip angle.

-Lower did not optimize my breathing

-Instead of my glutes powering the pedal stroke it felt as if my quads were the primary driver.

Given that my bike has a 75degree STA getting more forward is not really an option; and in my opinion given the popularity of "forward" and "lower" fitting this is why STA have shifted to 78 degrees.

Along those lines here's a great video done by Dave Scott on time trial fit. This seems to validate my thoughts on "quad centric positions" vs. "glute centric". That said, I do think you can ride "glute centric" on frames with a steeper seat tube more easily but on many bikes, not so much; *and* I think this is one of the reasons I hear folks say things like:

"I was faster on my road bike with clip-ons" or "I could just never get comfortable on the TT bike"

Or why I've seen folks on TT bikes in long course triathlons sitting up on the base bar.

Closed hip angles and stiff quads, that's what happened.

________________

So about road bikes, TT bikes and hip angles

I've always felt strongly about not riding a TT bike for the bulk of training. When I decided to train for (with the goal of just finishing decently) an Ironman in 2005 I trained on a dedicated TT bike. It was trying to say the least, the bulk of the miles were darn annoying and I'm usually able to suffer through lots of training.

I bought a frame the next season with near exact dimensions, but road bars/clip ons and life was much better! I always wondered why. It turns out on a road bike in the drops, hoods or tops your hip angle is not drastically different and you can change it by shifting on the saddle to some degree.

On a TT bike the only position you should really be racing in are the aero bars, except when climbing steeper grades. When you sit up on the base bar or use the hand holds near the brake levers you aren't recruiting the same muscles you are down on the aero extensions.

The position is actually *too* open. Well, sitting up on a saddle like that is akin to riding a beach cruiser (I had one, hated riding it) and super duper uncomfortable if one is trying to make the bike move faster then an leisurely jaunt.

I've linked to great piece on this; definitely read it:

"Why Triathletes need a road bike"

http://iamspecialized.com/triathlon/rider/jordan-rapp#/blog

So you may ask, do *I* eschew my TT bike?

Not at all. I quite like riding it finally in a TT set-up, but training on it regularly? Stupid. Where I ride is mostly very hilly and I'd be flogging myself to ride up those grades that I'd never see in any Tri. Most Tri bike legs are flat to rolling, a serious climb is the exception. Plus, climbing on the road bike recruits the right muscles for flat TT'ing!

I do jump on it once every week or so for trainer intervals and to make little adjustments since it's only recently been re-configured and I'm making an effort to ride Time Trial events this spring simply to get used to racing it thusly.

Aluminum Man, Cycle Oregon and Beaver Fever. Finally, the end of the season.

2010-10-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

I'm happy it's done; I'm back to work and way past my seasonal peak, so time to rebuild, cease structured workouts and let hair grow on my legs.

Alu Man was fun as usual, did it on "Day 0" of Cycle Oregon since it was on the way out to Elgin. Unfortunately did not go one place better but still happy with my performance.

Cycle Oregon was very cool, managed alot of riding at threshold and really built the proverbial fuel-tank for a future run at Long course racing. It was alot of miles in general and I was happy to have it behind me as I was pretty fatigued by the end..

Beaver Fever Duathlon didn't quite unfold the way I imagined it would but happy to have raced decently under the circumstances.

The end of the season is always a bit melancholy really, after all I'm a year older and I have that to look forward to the next year, and well, I don't look forward to it! I have to admit I've had alot of years of great racing, literally thirty years now. :)

It's a time of reflection: what went right, what went wrong, where am I weak, where are areas I can improve more?

The bike: Truth is my riding suffered in Seattle, too much time inside and not enough intensity. I didn't know how far behind I was until the last couple of seasons. I've made steady progress from a power perspective but at this point I *do* have concerns about how much more I want to get the bike nailed. As it is my threshold power numbers are higher then I ever thought they'd be and at my weight, it's exciting, that said I do have a consistency issue, it's not always a guarantee I'm going to pump those numbers out and a bit frustrating when I don't as it's part of the race plan. There are question marks about how I should continue to eeek bigger power numbers.

I'm finally making some changes around equipment, I'll be on a dedicated road bike for training and will race a dedicated TT bike. I really hope to do the TT series more often next year, the mental focus is something that I need to get down.

The swim: Well, I didn't race long but I had a much more consistent season then ever before so there you go. It would have been nice to see if it had translated into something over 2k but c'est la vie.

Run: I'm fine, didn't have a bad run all season.. At Beaver Fever my chest totally tightened up during the first run which was annoying, seemed like an allergy attack and I did have to take it easy for a sec, collect myself and go back to the race, which I did but then I felt odd the whole bike.. Well, it could have been the cold, who knows? Needless to say, I won't be changing much here and I'm not worried about it.

Time to rest.

Mountain Triathlon, Camping, Crater Lake Century, etc.

2010-08-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm recently back from Crater Lake and McCall, Idaho for a century ride and an Olympic Triathlon. Camping figured into both trips, which has made the last couple of weeks interesting as I've spent more time on the ground sleeping then my own bed!

The Mountain Triathlon (Olympic distance) has always been on my radar but I've been unable to get out there for the event due to other conflicts, this year there was no conflict so I made a family trip of it with Seb & Kaale. The event was semi-important because while my season thus far has been pretty good I've had training markers that indicated it could be even better. At the same time I've had a couple of sub-par performances in events I hoped to do better at.

I've felt like if I could control for everything really well: Sleep, equipment prep, being in the right frame of mind, then I'd race really well, or at least to my highest standard. Fortunately I was able race with all of that mostly taken care of.

The race unfolded the way they normally do: So-so swim followed by proper bike and good run. I've chatted with folks who've raced out there coming from sea-level and they reported having a rough swim but decent bike/run which was my experience. My swim fitness has been fine the last couple of seasons, meaning I can race full-out buoy to buoy (whilst still getting gapped) but I'm not endurance limited anymore.

In McCall I found that my chest was tight and shoulders were loaded up with fatigue that I only get in an anaerobic state. In any case the bike did go well. And since the course was hilly I opted to use the race wheels sans power meter, not a bad idea except that the wheel magnet and the chain stay pickup decided not to sync on race day so perceived effort triangulated with speed which is a great metric for me wasn't on the table. I don't like "racing blind" but had to, and like Alu last fall I just focused on counting the number of folks in front and tracking them all down.

By the end of the ride I was sure I'd nearly got everyone but once on the run I was mildly confused since there were lots of athletes out on the course from the sprint triathlon. The run course is, near as I can tell, also the same for the Xterra event just held this past weekend and, even better, was marked in kilometers which I have hardwired from running days.

In any sequence of events, those Nordies (nordic skiers) are darn tough and fit!

First kilometer= 3.24.. hmm, well, the course was on a flat-ish trail to start so I knew it was probably accurate. My PE was low and I thought well if I can click off those I'll do well and maybe catch some folks. I got to the 2.5k mark (turn around for the sprint) hearing that only one male was up the road! I figured waaaay up given my swim time. then got to 4.5k-ish and saw how close I was, which was very close. 5k in 16.58. I thought this was off given the earlier 3.30 kilo splits; the next couple of Ks were on very hilly trails and then we headed back along the same road we ran out on; I figured if I could ever get on the flats and spot the next runner I'd close the gap then.

8k in 30min flat.. Well that squared with the K splits. I chased hard but couldn't quite bridge up and that was that. Then I hear my name announced as the third overall male, 10k in 37min, next closest was 43min). Ugh, turns out first overall I'd somehow missed or mistook for a sprint athlete but fact is my swim was so slow I would have needed a miracle to get him. FWIW, only a handful of folks have ever been under 40min out there and I'm fairly certain that's the run course record; I'll check to be sure and report back. :)

Quick note: checked and nope, XTERRA Wild Ride was entirely in Ponderosa State Park, maybe next year I do the double!

Bike was good enough for third fastest, I could have given more but riding blind was less then ideal. Swim= Meh. I'm happy with the race to be sure as it validated my fitness.

Enjoyed the open kegs post-race (& got a cool bag of gift certs as a podium finisher too) and was fully wiped from the drive back early last week.

That takes us to Crater Lake Century.. Damn. 8kft of climbing but most of it in a 40mile stretch with wind to boot. I'm currently two days removed from it and a little foggy. The middle stretch with the climbing I went on alone at my own pace which I needed but it tore me down pretty good by the end. That ride is very much on par with STP one-day (200mi) in terms of difficulty.

I've lots of racing still in front of me and I'm looking forward to it, though at this point I'm back to building/training again which is great, I love the bread & butter day to day of getting after it!

Hagg Lake, Fitness and Skill components

2010-07-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

I revisited Hagg Lake Triathlon (sprint distance) after a many year absence from racing out there. My first ever Tri was out there, oh, about 8-9 years ago. Lots has changed since then with my racing to be sure.

One thing that hasn't changed in all of my years racing, road running, track, XC, Tri, etc. is a skill component. I could go on and on, share examples but I'm sure you know what I mean: racing smarts.

I'll give my performance at Hagg this past weekend a very generous "B-" because even though the bike and run stood out; as well as a solid overall placing I really did everything wrong along the way.

First, I got very little sleep, it was hot here in town and I should have took an extra fan out, it was restless sleep; I'm fairly certain we're talking a couple of hours at best. In spite of this I actually felt fine in the morning and kept wondering when the fatigue would sink in before the start, it didn't but I was not in the best frame of mind; I was already subconsciously preparing for a sub-par performance even though I kept telling myself I'd be "o.k."

The swim was in my favor, mostly in that it was short-ish. :) It was tight one loop course (three turns counter clockwise) that we would share with Olympic distance athletes who were on their second loop since they started about 15min before we did. I needed to swim hard to the first buoy to get some breathing room between myself and other athletes in my wave (39 and under) and Olympic distance athletes.

I did not and got a little boxed right at turn 1 to turn 2, I did make up gobs as things thinned but still.

On the run I let someone sneak in front of me just before we crested the last hill, my plan was that I would simply kick past him in the final stretch.

Wait. What final stretch?

The run finishes in a confusing set of S curves with no finishing straight to battle it out.. Annoying because I did run this guy down off a great bike and run. But still my fault, I didn't even know he'd hung around, so kudos to him for being a smart racer.

Net, at this point in the summer fitness is not an issue, it's execution and heads up racing. Given how much I spend to race these events I ought to be a little more attentive.

The Blog as a marketing tool

2010-07-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

A year and a half ago I happened onto a piece in The Oregonian about cycling in the snow, it was fine for what the objective was: Conveying simple information about riding a bicycle in inclement conditions, author sprinkles some personal anecdotes in about their own experience.

Pretty formulaic.

Then I read the author's bio and there was a trite remark about "triathlete bike handling skills" and I was ready to gag because well, I'm a triathlete, a decent bike handler and I'm thinking, "Oh great, this person is living in Portland.. just jumped on a bike in the last couple of years, is influenced by the hip bike racing crowd who just can't help themselves and sneer at the mention 'Triathlete'. "

And, the anecdotal portion of the authors piece in The Oregonian mentioned not being able to keep up in the snow with the group she was riding with so I seized upon this and zinged the article/author's fitness here on my blog.

A day later all hell broke loose. The author's friends descended on my blog, posting comments which I faithfully published, every last one. I find the author's FB page, which was not locked down and the comments to her wall, and there were alot, were soooo bad, nasty, snarky, what have you.. On top of that, I know a few of those people, who are (or were), gasp, Triathletes.

Seriously?

Alright, so I have a point here, and it is this:

If you claim writing as your profession, not just a part-time gig, then on some level you're obligated to stay above the fray.

For example if someone comments on your work vis a vis the comments page on The Oregonian it's one thing if you respond to a legitimate remark. It's another if you patrol your article and delete every comment that you don't like. Or blog. (Guess what, I've seen this happen and no, they weren't my comments, I haven't bothered commenting)

Or, someone takes a shot at your style, content, point, etc. You're a writer, it's like being an artist actually, not everyone is going to like your work, get your point and you're in the public eye so suck it buttercup. :)

And, if you've positioned your blog as a marketing tool vs. a personal blog then I reckon it's a bit odd that seven to ten of your local followers (uh, friends?) descend on another local blog with caustic remarks.

It's like a fight in the sandbox then isn't it? Someone says something you don't like and your friends rush in to get your back.

Net, it's great to inspire that sort of loyalty among your friends who follow your blog but it's really indicative of having not risen to the level of professional writer.

"It's in his kick"

2010-07-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

Another illuminating post that I think is worth sharing.. (link below).. Ever go to a pool w/an uber swimmer? They always have the same feedback:

"Your stroke rate is too high" or "Slow down and reach"

Gah.. Right.. Stroke rate is a function of many things; however the strength of the kick has to be biggest single factor in stroke rate, assuming you finish the pull at the hip.

Uber swimmers forget about their kick because it's second nature to them, for most of us it's far from second nature. This last weekend I did a marathon set of 300s on short rest at FAP (equal to fastest avg pace for 10x100 on short rest).. the back half of the set I focused on kicking, while I was able to hold pace better it was aerobically more trying to be sure.

I do like kicking. I finally started learning a bit about what makes a kick work just this year, so don't get me wrong, I'm not eschewing the kick at all. In fact, I'm pro kick.

Enjoy:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=2846444;search_string=kick;guest=106756579&t=search_engine#2846444

Time Trial notes...

2010-06-29T20:42:00.001-07:00

Did a 10mi TT last week.. raw data supported what I knew: I'm fine.

Right at or above last year's June/July power so I'm doing well. No aero gear for this, just wanted to know power.. Did ok too, results up at http://vbc-usa.com/time-trials

The big thing is to have one ride a week like this, and the rest of the rides are simple, solid endurance rides to maintain what I have for racing. The other sign I'm coming along is that I get back on my Mtb and raise the seat ! Raising the seat for me on it allows me to really climb well in the summer.. In the winter, lower seat equals more control in Forest Park. Also because I'm seated a little bit closer to the BB on it I get a "near" TT work out, I can feel it on my inner thighs the way I can after intervals at Sauvie.

Today was out on a recov ride (did a good 70miler on Sat) and punched in all time best 10min power heading up Logie Trail Rd. This was not my intent, it just happened. My legs did feel a teensy flat at the track tonight though! :)

Swim Myths

2010-06-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Gary Hall Sr. posted these on Slowtwitch, and they are amazing once you have a decent understanding of freestyle stroke mechanics. They are pretty self-explanatory but I'm willing to explain them to folks off-line if it isn't evident what he is saying or the swim lingo is hard to make sense of..

Here you go:

_____________

Myth #1 To go faster in swimming one must push out the back of the arm pull.

I believe this myth may have originated with an article that appeared some time in the 90's. The article showed a swimming figure mimicking Alex Popov's freestyle pull. It showed the figure with the left arm in front and the the right arm in back ready to exit the water for the recovery. A graph showed the velocity of Popov's body in the water as a function of the position of the hand. The velocity ranged from nearly 3 meters per second down to about 1.4 meters per second during a single pull cycle. The slowest speed occurred when the hand appeared to be at around the shoulder and the fastest speed occurred in the position shown in the figure. The author erroneously concluded that since the speed was so high as the right hand was about to exit, that this is where the most power must be....hence push out the back.
My study with the velocity meter doing freestyle concurs that it is these two positions that consistently show the highest and lowest velocities of the stroke cycle in freestyle (though I was seeing more like a 30 to 40% drop, not 50%). But it is not because of the power out the back that we see the speed highest in this position. It is because it is by far the position of least drag (most streamlined). The propulsive power in this position actually is derived mostly from the left arm out in front and the kick, with little or no power coming from the end of the arm pull. The propulsive power may be even greater when we see the hand at the shoulder (slowest body speed), but because the arm is jetting straight out, perpendicular to the body, the drag coefficient skyrockets and our speed drops instantly.
The harm that is done by pushing out the back is that it delays the recovery and slows the stroke rate. Most of the arm propulsive power is derived from the entry to the shoulder (called the front quadrant....about 1/2 of the total arm cycle time is spent there). So the sooner one can get the hand back to the front quadrant after leaving the shoulder, the better.
If you happened to be blessed with Mercury motors for legs, like Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, Gary Jr, Natalie Coughlin etc, then you can afford to use a slower stroke rate...but hold in front, not in back.
For the rest of us mortals, keep your arms moving faster and in the front quadrant. Think you can't do that for 2 1/2 miles, think again. Lot's of distance swimmers use high arm stroke rates. You just have to train that way and get fit.

Regards,

Gary Sr.

________________

Myth #2: Aside from shaving, wearing a cap and a high tech suit or wetsuit, the only way to reduce drag is by streamlining off the start and turns.

Of the 3 fundamental laws that govern swimming technique, drag, motion and inertia, drag is by far the most important. Drag is the number one enemy of the swimmer...something we learned 250 world records after changing suit fabric from lycra to polyurethane. What most swimmers fail to realize is that there are three common mistakes made by far too many swimmers that add significant drag to their swim (more than the suits reduced) and they make them through every stroke cycle...over and over again. The first is head position. Most swimmers hold their head position way too high, looking forward. I call it defensive swimming, because after running into some feet in a triathlon or getting smacked in the head by someone veering over into your side of the lane, you will start to swim like Tarzan. Problem is lifting the head causes the hips to sink and the surface (wave) drag on your head to increase. Swimming through the water like a hammock, or if you have no legs, at an angle of 5 to 10 degrees from head to toe, creates a huge increase in drag.
If you have your head in alignment with your body, you should be looking down and you haven't a clue where you are going. So don't swim for 200 strokes out in the lake or ocean without looking up (briefly) and charting your course...or you may be swimming faster, but out to sea. Second is the underwater arm position. Keep your elbows high (also called early vertical forearm) as this position of the arm as you pull through the water reduces the drag coefficient significantly over pulling with the arm deep with a dropped elbow. Holding this high elbow position, particularly during a breath or with good body rotation, is challenging and requires good extension (negative angle) of the shoulder. Finally, if you insist on kicking hard, do so with tight narrow kicks. The act of bending the knee too much to get that big forceful kick increases the drag way more than the benefit of the extra power.

Gary Sr.

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Myth #3: The reason one should rotate the body along the long axis in freestyle is to reduce drag.

Please don't tell me this is not a myth. I hear this from beginner coaches all the way to some of America's top swimming coaches. Rotating the body is very important....so is reducing drag. I just don't think we do it for that reason. If we did, kicking on our side would be faster, whether underwater or on the surface, than kicking on our stomach...and there is not much difference in speed either way. Besides that, we really spend very little time on our sides in freestyle. Most of it is in transition from one side to the other and closer to horizontal than vertical. Finishing a freestyle race in a pool on our side is also important...because we can extend our reach further..not reduce drag.
So if body rotation is not about drag reduction, why do we do it? Two reasons. The first is to gain more power. By rotating, we put our arm into a mechanically better position of strength, engaging much bigger muscles in our back and core to help with the pulling. The second reason has to do with the counter-rotation. When we enter our right hand in the water, for example, our body is rotating to the left. At the very moment we begin our catch, the body has stopped rotating left and initiates the counter-rotation back to the right. We call this point the connection (between arm and core/hips). This counter rotation creates a stabilizing force that gives us something to pull against. Remember, it is you and the water molecules out there...no walls, starting blocks or pitching mounds to push off or pull against. So we create our own stabilizing force out of the rotational motion of our own body. The faster and longer the counter-rotational turn, the greater the stabilizing force and the better distance per stroke (dps) we can achieve. This is one advantage the hip/leg driven swimmers have over the high stroke rate swimmers...holding in front longer gives them more time to rotate/counter-rotate the hips. But before you all go rushing back to that technique, if you don't have the legs driving you, even that extra dps cannot overcome the inertia problem. You are still swimming 'stop-and-go' freestyle..not as efficient as the high stroke rate.
Most swimmers I teach swim very flat...like a surfboard that grew arms and legs. That would be ok if we had the buoyancy and drag coefficient of a surfboard, but we don't. We are bricks and to move a brick through the water, we need the added power that the body rotation gives us. BTW, this is why wetsuits enable one to get away with swimming flatter.
Can you use good body rotation with a high stroke rate? Yes...but it takes work. The body rotation doesn't just happen. You make it happen...but because there is less time, it becomes more oriented from the shoulder and less from the hip which takes longer to turn (although hip motion is still important). Thus the name shoulder-driven freestyle.

Gary Sr.
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Myth #4: The reason you keep the elbows high on the underwater pull is to increase power.

I hear this often from both coaches and swimmers. When one looks at the underwater shots of the world's fastest swimmers, sprint or distance, one finds the recurring position of high underwater elbow, also called Early Vertical Forearm (EVF). The elbows are not just high, they are unusually high...almost in a contorted position with extreme extension (negative angle) of the shoulder joint, particularly when coupled with the body rotation in the opposite direction. it begs the question, can one really be stronger in this almost contorted position? I believe the answer is no. To test this, one can go in the gym and using the Free Motion pulleys, that many gyms now have, pull as much weight down with your arm relatively straight forward, then try it with your arm at the side, shoulder extended and elbow up. You will not be able to pull as much weight in that position. With the shoulder fully extended (negative angle), it is simply not in a good mechanical position of strength.

So if this weird high elbow position is not about power, what is it about? Drag. By changing the position of the arm as it moves through the pull cycle, one can reduce the drag coefficient significantly...not eliminate it. To prove this, kick with fins all out for 25 yards extending one arm above the head and the other straight down toward the bottom of the pool. You will soon learn how significant the drag of your protruding arm becomes when it is at right angles to your long axis. In fact, you will have to work to keep the arm in the position and with any speed at all, it will shake in the water like a palm tree in a hurricane in the Keys. Now try the same drill, but instead of putting your arm straight down, let it protrude straight out to the side but bend the arm 90 degrees at the elbow, as if you were swimming with a high elbow. You will feel considerably less drag in this position. Same arm...different position...a lot less drag.
Now I realize that this is not quite the same as while swimming, when only the upper part of the arm is moving forward throughout nearly the entire underwater part of the pull cycle (In order to cause frontal resistive drag, the object must be moving forward). However, the upper arm is also the largest part of the arm and changing it's orientation in the water also reduces the drag coefficient. Achieving an EVF is simply maintaining the upper arm in a position closest to the line of motion and thus creates the least frontal drag.

The good news is that most coaches are telling you the same thing, pull with your elbows high underwater. Now you know the real reason.

Gary Sr

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Myth #5. The reason we pull freestyle underwater with a high elbow is to increase the surface area of our arm.

Forgive me. In case you hadn't noticed that I am preaching high elbows a lot, there is a reason. At the end of each camp at the Race Club I always end by prioritizing the 10 or so points that I make to improve speed and efficiency. The top three are 1) High elbow 2) High elbow and 3) High elbow. Dropping the elbow is like taking a drag suit into competition...only worse, because you don't feel or see what is happening to you...until your tongue is hanging out.
So when I ask campers and coaches, why the high elbow, I usually get increased power or increased surface area. I don't think either one is right.
We all know from throwing on a pair of hand paddles (which, by the way, my coach Flip Darr, reinvented in 1967...Ben Franklin was the first to use, I believe) we get a surge of power from the added surface area. So by creating EVF, do we also increase the surface area of our pulling arm?
First, the only area that matters is the part of the arm that ends up creating propulsive drag, which is the hand and forearm, so we can forget about the upper arm for this argument. Now the question is do we have more surface area of the hand/forearm in the EVF position than we do in the deep arm/elbow position?
We are really talking about the surface area projected onto a plane perpendicular to our long axis, which is the area creating the propulsive force in the backward direction. In theory, one could argue that a poor swimmer leads so much more with the elbow in the dropped position (the hand/forearm creates a forward angle at the elbow joint) that the surface area is reduced.
But with reasonable swimmers that is not what you see. From head on or from the rear, you don't see much difference in the surface area of the forearm/hand regardless of whether it is in the dropped position or the EVF position. The surface area of the arm remains the same.
Therefore, I rest my case. The reason we like the EVF position is to reduce drag....and drag remains the #1 enemy of the swimmer.

Gary Sr.
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Myth #6: In order to reduce the air bubbles behind your hand underwater, you must enter the hand delicately.

Many beginner swimmers are taught to enter the hand into the water just in front of their head and slide it underwater forward as the elbow extends. Or some are told to slow the hand down before it enters the water, kind of like one of those new toilet seats with the spring shock absorber on it. The reasons, I can only assume, are to try to reduce the number of air bubbles one gets when the hand pulls through the water.
Having a lot of air bubbles behind the hand reduces the amount of propulsive drag one can generate as the hand moves backward in the propulsive phase of the pull. And, if you haven't already noticed, most of the great swimmers have little or no air and the not-so-great swimmers often have lots of air. Why?
Well, it doesn't have to do with laying the hand in slowly or sliding it out from the head forward, because none of the great swimmers do that. In fact, quite the opposite, they move the arms/hands aggressively and quickly forward through the recovery, hurrying to get them back into the water again.
So how do they manage to get rid of the air? Good question. My old coach, Doc Counsilman at Indiana U., used to evaluate swimming talent by how much air he saw on the hand underwater. Proprioception is what he thought made the difference. Great swimmers could sense where to find and hold water....that includes getting rid of the air.
Many swimmers enter with the thumb down and roll the hand (externally rotate the shoulder) to accomplish this. Others spread or move the fingers slightly. And of course the small amount of movement of the hand in the saggital plane as the hand goes through the underwater cycle also helps.
Bottom line, as much as I hate to say it, is that one is mostly born with this ability. Just don't try to get it by being delicate with your hand or slowing your stroke cycle, because that just leads to creating more problems than it helps.
Even great swimmers have some air bubbles. Just accept what you have and move on to the things you can control.

Gary Sr.

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Myth #7: When it comes to getting oxygen in freestyle, breathing every cycle is as good as it gets.

In almost every other sport but swimming (freestyle), we get the luxury of breathing whenever we want. Typically, with maximal exertion, that means we are inhaling at a respiratory rate of between 50 and 65 times per minute. Not so in swimming.
Most swimmers breathe every cycle and to one side only (a cycle is two arm strokes, or hand entry to hand entry). Since most triathletes turn their arms over slowly (say 35 to 55 strokes per minute), that means the respiratory rate while swimming is 18 to 28; hardly what one would do voluntarily, if one had the choice. (try running or biking with that respiratory rate and see how you do!)
But you do have a choice...sort of. First, you can learn to swim with a higher stroke rate and second, you can try a different breathing pattern. Specifically, I am referring to a 2:3 pattern rather than a 1:2 pattern of breathing. What that means in the Left Stroke Breath Right (LBR), Right Stroke Breathe Left (RBL) Left Stroke no breath (L), Right Stroke no breath (R) terminology is the following:

LBR, RBL, L, RBL, LBR, R, LBR, RBL, L etc

So, as is so common in swimming, this too presents compromise. What are the pros and cons?

Pros: You get 27% more oxygen than if you breathe every cycle, and with oxygen you'll produce 15 times more ATP than without it, and hopefully produce less lactate. You get the associated benefit of breathing more...less fatigue. You get to see the scenery on both sides of the lake or pool.

Cons: Most swimmers feel awkward breathing to their weak side. The act of breathing slows the stroke rate. Breathing often results in the arm being pulled too far under the body, creating more drag. If there is a nice swell on one side, breathing to that side may lead to swallowing more water.

So this begs the question, if this 2:3 pattern is so good, why don't world class distance swimmers use it? Not sure. It may be that it is yet an undiscovered technique...or, more likely, in the world of superbly conditioned, oxygen deprived distance swimmers, it may be that the cons outweigh the pros. But for this almost 60 year old not so superbly conditioned swimmer, who enters an ocean swim once or twice a year, I love the 2:3 pattern. And for those triathletes who dare to try it (and it takes some getting used to), you may not jump out of the water any faster than by breathing every cycle, but, barring swallowing more water, I'll bet you will feel a lot better.

Gary Sr.

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Myth #8: All swimming drills are good for you.

I am a great believer in doing drills. In fact, if most swimmers would spend a little more time doing drills and not worry so much about getting their hour or so of aerobic fitness in, they might come out ahead. The biggest problem with drills is that too often, they are being done without any real understanding of what they are supposedly teaching you. Unless you are planning to enter a drill race, there is not much point in doing a drill unless you understand what it is for. Coaches often go to great lengths to explain how to do a drill properly, but then forget to mention what the drill is for.
And sometimes the drills that are being recommended actually teach you the wrong thing. For example, if you have no kick and you are trying to get faster by learning how to increase your stroke rate, then a catch-up drill may be doing you a big disservice. Or if I ever see anyone who has been told to flick water with their hand/wrist out the back end of their stroke, I kindly ask them to hit the delete button. Or what does sliding your finger tips across the surface of the water (finger tip drill) teach you that helps you swim faster?
So all I ask is that you do drills nearly every time you jump in the water, even if for warmup. But that you understand what the drill is trying to teach you AND that the drill is designed for the technique you are trying to learn.

Gary

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Swim Myth #9:When it comes to swimming fast, kicking is overrated.

Kicking is anything but overrated. As some of you learned from my earlier post, It's in his Kick.... I believe that it is the power of the kick that separates the great swimmers from the not-so-great ones, more than anything else. But here is the problem.
First, even if you are stellar on the bike and run, which, by definition means you have strong legs, that does not mean you will be a strong kicker in the water. In fact, if you are relatively new to the water, the chances of you developing a fast kick are slim and none. So what do you do?
A six beat kick can potentially serve four functions; 1)provide propulsion 2) provide lift 3) act as part of the stabilizing force for your pull and 4) sustain a more constant speed. If you can't kick fast, you aren't going to get much propulsion, but that is ok because most of it comes from the arms anyway. You can, however, even with a weaker kick, still get lift and counter-force for your arm pull...both very worthwhile. So don't give up on the kick. If you can wear a wetsuit, you don't have to worry about the lift part, but you still need the counter-force to improve your dps.
A two beat kick can still provide that counter force you need and give you some lift...and with a lot less energy expense; not a bad way to go for a triathlete.
So here is my advice to you. Work your legs in practice, because you still need to be able to kick. But don't dwell on the legs. Your precious little time to train could be better spent on some hard pull sets or working on getting your stroke rate up. Or learning to swim with high elbows and head down.
In racing, use either a two beat or a soft 6 beat kick, except for the last 100 meters of the swim. Turn the power up a notch or two on the kick for the end so that when you stand up and start running to the transition zone, your legs have some blood flowing in them and still remember how to run.

Gary Sr.

More on PineHollow..

2010-06-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Mostly I'm recommending it at this stage because my race reports are all the same: I came out of the water further back then I wanted and had to work like a mad man on the bike and the run to catch folks.. That's exactly what happened this time as well, the only difference this season is that I'm not wasted from the effort in the swim these days!

So, on Pine Hollow.. Yes, you must do it if you have not. Next year will have the Enduro style event again (twice around), the venue is very, very pretty; it's so grassroots and you can step outside your A-Frame and tent and have your gear set up in T1/T2 in under 5min.

Next year there are some changes that will take the bikes finally and completely off gravel so there's that too..

The only downside I can think of? I wish I had more time out there, it's that nice.

Maybe folks who also like out there would be up for doing a training weekend sometime out there? Anybody game? :)

www.pinehollowtri.com

My new training program.. and PineHollow Triathlon race report to come

2010-06-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

I'm on the Simon Lessing training program going forward, of course if you aren't aware of the details it's pretty simple, train hard and often. There are a few interviews he's done out there but it's a template I've used to pretty good effect in the past.

More to the point, it's plan that works w/my strengths, when we have some dry weather that is..

Oh, PineHollow Triathlon race report to come when the official results are up..

I will provide one juicy tid bit from the race since hiding my run fitness is next to impossible as everyone can see what I'm doing at Duniway. :) ...I closed the win with a 17.20 5k - and that was my B+ game.. the course was GPS'd 2x so they figured it was potentially upwards of 90 meters long.

I always say give me a run course anything like the track, I need something that lets me get up to full gallop.

Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon Race Report...

2010-06-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Ah, in a nutshell it went "o.k." ..

I have snippets from various chats over the last couple of days, (below) what I would add to all of those quotes are reasons why I couldn't get my watts up. In a nutshell I did two pretty significant FTP workouts the week of the race. I know better but I figured a serious taper would off-set that.

Also, swimming is going really well and I raced well for once in the swim but didn't push because all I wanted to do was track the top guys in my wave thinking that was going to put me in touch w/them on the bike right away. I thought I was doing that but about four of them got way up the course and a result I was complacent. This has happened to me before (Lake Padden on the bike).

Oh, I did ride the wheels off two folks who I raced at the Aluminum Man Sprint who are strong riders and finished on the podium that day. I was worried that my bike sucked (I still think it kinda did!) and figured if I biked slower then those guys who rode fast at Alu then I was in trouble with my training. Turns out I'm ok and relative to last year's opener I did a better wattage average so there's that.

In a nutshell I'm annoyed at executing poorly but having the fitness to have placed higher. I just need more racing miles. :)

"The deets: 11th OA, 3rd AG. Not what I'd "planned" for, but better then my season opener at Issaquah last year. Swim/Bike, just "ok". Had trouble getting watts to come up. Run not a weapon sadly, felt tight in my tummy & had to fight through- that's part of the sport, you can't always have your "A" game across the board each race, no matter how much you might want/plan for it.

Next time. :)"

"Results up this morning. Good Grief after all this time I still stink it up in the swim. Badly. Help."

"They did wave starts, 3min apart. So annoying, I just focused on "winning" the 35-39's.. So thought I was in the money and figured I caught the whole wave on the bike & run but apparently not. 3rd AG."

"Swam slow but it felt fast and not bad the way it usually does.. I just need more racing miles.. first one is just a rust buster.In fact, didn't think anyone gapped me on the swim when I was sighting so I was so sure I'd win the whole thing."

"Sadly some guys got in front a lil far in front that I didn't visually track. slow run really. Bike was rough, they are doing construction on Marine Dr so the pave is unfinished and made riding quick a chore. My avg watts were higher then Issaquah last year so I'm ahead of where I was last year."

Reach the Beach- done & done

2010-05-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, after five years of waiting I finally did it, living in Seattle and family obligations have consistently kept me from being able to do it.. Of course I waited too long to sign up and just made a donation to the American Lung association as my penance.

As centuries go, not easy.. Hills to start in the first 50mi and then wind over the last 50 miles.. I'm sunburned, tired and still recovering today after managing a little swim earlier this evening.

This year of "doing what I haven't done yet" on the sporty-non-competitive front is fun.

Swim myths

2010-05-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I had something more philosophical planned but I did have this one on tap.. So here we go..

First off, I was going to attempt to articulate all of it from various posts Gary Hall Sr. has made over the last year or so on the Slowtwitch forum... Low and behold I'm searching the archives for something else and Mr. Hall has started a "ten swimming myths busted" topic (link below) as it applies to the freestyle stroke.

In a nutshell he says (among other things): Focus on a strong efficient pull & don't get hung up on stroke rate.. Makes sense since at least 90% of the propulsion is derived from the entry/catch/pull phase..

The kick is tricky to get right, so much so that it's mostly a low ROI function of swim training, I'm not saying it's a poor use of time, heck, I've had some instruction on my poor "wooden" kick and it helped, I'm swimming easier & slightly faster for my test sets, for example I did a broken 1200 holding 1.25/100y- that's close to where I was last season and I was on 2/3rds more yardage for months and months- relative to now, that's a great improvement.

And frankly in Tri circles where the swim is concerned at least one prominent coach (Rich Strauss) preaches that once you're at 70min/IM swim fitness the best ROI in terms of race performance, (where IM racing is concerned) is spent on the bike and run.

Implicit in this line of thought is that you're mostly limited by your pull strength and your limits are pretty finite, you'll approach some performance threshold that's not worth getting beyond via incremental improvements not related to a pull. Further, your speed is your speed, and that's kind of depressing because as that applies to shorter racing, you'll just have to deal with the gaps as 70min/IM'er racing Sprints and Olys once on the bike and run.

However, I think there is still something to be said about maintaining proper front quadrant mechanics via a pull that is finished properly and getting body position right, after all, as in my case those two pieces have helped me go mildly quicker with less effort.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2g5azhc

Intelligence

2010-05-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

"Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definitions."

Mentat Text One (decto)

Chapterhouse: Dune

Whining sucks and somebody you know has it worse

2010-05-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

Or will.. People don't feel compassion toward others who whine, they feel compassion when someone struggles against a set of circumstances that are pretty darn tough.

Holy Moly. I have two people in my life, one I know socially and and another I consider a good friend. One has a life-threatening illness in the prime of their life and the other experienced a life-altering change in social circumstances. Not small stuff, big stuff.

Ok, that's pretty vague. I don't know if they read this and I'd prefer to keep their business private here.

On the other hand..

I have people in my life who are immature whiners. And, not calling anyone out but seriously, if you've had your way paid to one of the top ten universities in the nation, have a decent job and you "can't figure out what to do with your life" and figure this gives you license to abuse the living bejesus out of folks close to you, abuse your body, etc. all in the name of "finding yourself" I have news for you:

Wake up. It's time to get real, you have the whole world right in your hands, commit to that big, scary dream, whatever it is and start down the path to making it happen. If it doesn't happen you'll know it and then it's time for Act II in life. And don't worry if you fail because life is pretty darn long.

Or, is the alternative sauntering around in a fully self-masturbatory life-style that may please friends, family and a few loser hangers on? Whilst whining of course.

You know who I (and everybody else) roots for in life ?

People that pick themselves off the ground when things are rough and get on with the business of living. Live like they mean it.

Paschelke Swimming Hole

2010-04-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

What sets you free?

2010-04-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

I've just finished Kerouac's 'On The Road', it's often compared to Mark Twain's 'Tom Sawyer'. Near as I can tell, it's a modern Zen Buddhist version of it.

I literally can't recall how many times I read and re-read 'Tom Sawyer'. Mostly I was interested in understanding how someone else would articulate freedom, through the eyes of Tom, Jim or Huck it all meant something a little different. The same goes for Sal and Dean in Kerouac's story.

Recently I stumbled on to a photo I've been looking for almost twenty years. It's a picture of a swimming hole I spent countless summer days at. It wasn't just any swimming hole, it wasn't close to my house so I had to ride to it and ride back; the reward for getting there was, well, freedom.

No parents, no adults, just a handful of other kids who went there for the same reasons I did: An immense high dive and rope swing that dropped kids into pleasantly warm, calm water with a sandy beach on the other side of swimming hole worth swimming across to once you'd flung yourself halfway across via swing or jumped from the high dive.

In all the intervening years since I've left that town I've never forgotten what it was like to have boundless summer days and bottomless energy for adventures in the creeks and rivers that fed the swimming hole. I can't forget because when I ride my bike up and down the quiet former logging roads now, smell the sap from the trees and feel as if I've done an epic day on the bike I'm reminded of what it was like to have worked just to get to the old swimming hole.

Or, when I smell the wild apples or plums or more often, road side blackberries from the saddle of my bike I go right back to age eleven all over again. And sometimes when I smell the dust, leaves, needles and mud on the trails I run on too.

That feeling of freedom as it turns out also happens to embue folks with strength and inspiration to seek more of it. Whatever you might find in your daily life that makes you feel free, healthy happy and strong is certainly worth chasing, however small or large.

If you find that you're not on a path that provides that then it's worth finding the strength to choose another route.

Country pleasing to the eye and Witness Trees

2010-04-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

Somehow in all the time I've been riding I've finally fallen for a ride partner.

It's the country side I ride through. :)

Ok, that's hokey but I sort of wondered aloud a couple of weeks ago, in the company of other cyclists, if it was possible to fall in love with a landscape?

One person answered in the affirmative and I knew I wasn't totally crazy. I thought that maybe Thoreau and John Muir's effusive work was, well, potentially eccentric or maybe that I am eccentric because some ride partners have in the past looked at me sideways when I've broached the subject.

Case in point: A few weeks ago someone made a comment about the large oak trees in the Willamette valley and I excitedly explained that many were probably Witness Trees. All well and good until I went on (nearly) ad naseum about the trees a few minutes later.

Ooops. I think, because I got some blow back in the form of: Ok, that's enough Joe.

Of course then I began to wonder if there was something wrong with folks who "don't get it".. I mean after all, there is plenty of time to focus on data popping out of the power meters but when you round a corner and descend into a valley from a different vantage point and it's bathed in sunlight just so how can you not at least mentally pause to capture that image and make a point to chit-chat about it later?

Over the last month I've been lucky to have a great group of ride partners who are mapping new chunks of the country I've been riding since '05 and so I've been treated to some great, all new to me riding, different vantages, riding swaths of the hill sides I've always been curious about, or tiny communities that time forgot tucked away on roads that are far off the beaten path.

I need this in my training, it is effectively the "reset button" in that it refreshes me from a tough week of training, work, life, what-have-you and I'm ready to go again.

It took me awhile (seasons and seasons) to notice what I was riding through and I wish it hadn't because chances are I missed alot.

Time for another update...

2010-04-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

Well the weather has turned very spring-like and not in a good way. Far too much rain for my taste which has meant alot more bike rides on the trainer but as a result easier weeks without those extra hours.

I'm joining a group mid-week for a swim which has been a nice change of pace and I'm getting some help on some elements of my stroke, (recovery and entry) that I've ignored for awhile. Everything under the water is propulsion so of course I've only paid attention to that for a couple of seasons, my reasoning went, get the mechanics under the water right and repeat, over and over.

I'm still convinced that for me I need to swim more volume then the typical triathlete, but while I'm taking time to refine the recovery phase I'm slowing down, not looking at a clock all time and trying to get 3-4 things sorted.

Oh, maybe another quick piece around Freestyle stroke myths. There are at least three that are repeated over and over by coaches who are simply repeating 25 year-old swim dogma. I'm excited to get this one done.

In other news: For the second time in as many weeks folks have made remarks to the effect of "you're looking fit/thin"- while at the track... When have I not been thin or fit? C'mon. Even if I'm not racing or training "fast" (whatever that really means) I've always been thin and fit in nearly every sense.

I don't weigh myself, but I'm sure that I'm fine on the weight front, so who knows why I'm getting that feedback.

Professional stuff: It's been quiet and I'm beyond bored. I have a quick little piece I'm working on, something like "Demystifying Compensation Analysis" since this is another functional area that hiring managers frequently deal with and folks in HR look upon as another "black box", "Heaven only knows what those crazy Comp Analysts do ! " ..

So, yup looking in Boise & Sacto. Of course the west coast, Portland is still muddling through and to be candid there isn't enough project work out there for an "independent" out there to make a go of things as the firms get first dibs, then the remainder gets farmed out.

Saturday Ride Picture

2010-03-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

From the top of Logie...

The Saturday ride was the longest of the new year for me, a whopping 3hrs! :)

(I like the hard 2hr rides and just cap it there)

Kat hooked me up with some Tifosi-branded shades that worked w/my new Limar helmet, April and Sue in the pic too.

Great day for a ride, sunny and mid 60's.

An entry that's not a quote

2010-03-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a mostly non triathlon related update.. I did say to start that I'd do this from time to time, after all, if you're not training you're working and living, there is alot in life to experience outside of training.

It's not as I don't have anything to say these days, as matter of fact, just the opposite.

Plenty of things swirling around though that may not allow me to get a real cogent set of ideas down..

In no particular order:

Training:

What I've learned this past fall/winter/spring is that a person can simply train at a high level with no real plan around performance metrics, have fun and see improvements simply through consistency.

Ok, that person is me and your mileage may vary as they say.

My feel for things though is that folks that have been working aerobically for a long period of time can simply plug in hours without too much thought around structure and do just fine.

Nothing revolutionary here, train hard for alot of years *with* structure and then train w/out structure, you'll probably be ok.

Personal relationships:

I think a few folks read the Ryan Bingham quote I had up a couple of days ago and let's be real, the movie presented a character, not a real person but I think the quote is food for thought.

My relationship with training and racing is easy and fun even on the toughest of days, for the most part I know what I can expect, there is consistency.

Personal relationships on the other hand are, well, littered with inconsistency. Here I don't refer to myself specifically, I mean all of us.

My mantra as it applies to relationships outside of work and at work is have little to almost no expectations of those you do not know well; the aggravation, etc. saved is priceless.

Unfortunately having expectations of those we place some amount of trust in or know fairly well tend to be areas associated with the most risk.

How we do mitigate this risk?

You can't force a person to behave consistently so what we need to assess is their track record of consistency (and so on) before entrusting them with, oh say, an important project at work.

Where individuals and personal relationships are concerned: actually easier to metric, though unfortunately littered with many more opportunities for allowances mired by the personal relationship.

Once we have visibility of these short-comings it's up to us to assess how much more important work or some important aspect of our existence we entrust to folks; and we should do this based on Risk-Reward analysis.

That may sound bad but hopefully you trust that I mean it in the most academic way.

What I'm reading now, will read, have just read:

Kerouac- His writing can be moving, think Steinbeck or Fitzgerald but another generation. The characters are so sad and down-trodden that it is a bit depressing.

Dune, Frank Herbert- Yeah, there a gazillion books here. It's one long treatise on the behavior of humans in their manufactured constructs. The basics of the stories are entertaining by themselves if you want to skip the deep-thinking. :)

Ayn Rand- I simply cannot believe I've missed all this and I'm going to the bookstore immediately, will start with The Fountain Head

The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas- How you can not read this and root for the protagonist?

Work-related Projects

The pipeline looks better then last winter/spring but nothing firm on the horizon. I'm looking in town, would do Seattle on contract and I would consider moving under the right circumstances to a select few west coast cities.

That said, this is my home. I have family here and without being melodramatic that's the number one concern for me, how to maintain my connections to those things here while being successful, I've done it in the past so no reason currently to think it cannot be done in the future.

Happy Training !

Being whoever you want to be

2010-03-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

Shamrock 8k... quick report

2010-03-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Good times.. and I don't mean my actual time, although it was just fine. Shamrock is roughly 22,000 folks running an 8k, 15k or 5k; then having a beer and some chowder after.

Long story short I knocked a highly controlled 28min 8k, good for 13th overall. What's interesting was I had little idea of how well or not I would do, the entire idea was just to benchmark run fitness, run controlled and possibly have some fun in the last mile.

(No fun in the last mile (meaning kicking), though I did pull away from the "chase group" as soon as we hit Naito/Front and was surprised that nobody came with me or try to chase me down)

In retrospect, considering how easy it was I should have run with the group that split off the front and gone for top 5-ish, it's always easy in retrospect to say this though !

More interestingly I'm on a weekly mileage plan of about 25miles, MAX. No kidding.. That doesn't take into the swim & bike aerobic volume of course, but still, I'm happy with how easy that was off the current volume.

Still no firm plans around racing, I think it's going to be a fun summer for me though, pick and choose stuff that I like, places I haven't been, etc.

We are not swans. We are sharks.

2010-03-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

"How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now.

You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag.

Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks." -Ryan Bingham, Up in The Air

Egalitarian curtains

2010-03-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

Flew Alaskan Airlines recently.

Observation: The old school, "keep the riff raff out" heavy vinyl curtain dividing first class and coach is gone? A sheer curtain is in its place that allows the people in coach to see through, viewing the pomp & circumstance.

Ridiculous!

Anyway, after I made my way up from steerage class, myself and another passenger had a lougie spitting contest off the side. Then, after we danced around a bit I sketched her naked a bit later.

Darn egalitarian curtains.

Strange but true... early season on-bike power

2010-03-04T15:23:00.001-08:00

Watts are higher relative to last season's on-bike winter power.

And if it's not apparent I have had no plan around training either, I'm out there out of habit because it's fun.

So last night I decided to peruse power files from a ride I do at least 1x weekly and sure enough I'm "better" on the same ride relative to last year, even summer, though summer deserves an * as the load was much higher. Uh, wow. I wonder if this should entice me to actually plan on racing?

Clearly having fun and no plan with training is the best thing to come along in awhile, who would-a thunk?

Sums things up..

2010-02-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

"I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won't bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead." - Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Cliched but true: The fog's been lifting

2010-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

Not quite sure when or how, well, I do have a mild sense of when and how as matter of fact but either way, somehow or another I'm coming back around.

It's been a slow and sure process, happier about the workouts, feeling stronger, able to complete more and more of them at roughly the same speed/intensity as last season.

To be candid it's indicative of whatever malaise I've been wading through *finally* being kicked.

And just tonight, after coming home being "absolutely, brilliantly and perfectly soaked running in the rain" ..

I felt a great sense of zen sitting on the door step; instead of getting out of my wet shoes hurriedly I sat and untied them slowly just to see the rain come down gently, feel the light fatigue and wonder whatever I might wonder about right then.

Typically I wrap these things up with an attempt at a neat and tidy summation, but I don't have one and I think I have to try less hard in this regard in the future to produce clear summations, lots in life isn't neat and tidy, clear, black and white, etc.

It appears that as with workouts, racing and life it's plenty of ebb and flow and I'm cool with that.

Hard work: Honor, Loyalty, Perseverance, Strength

2010-01-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

Often times these days I think of where I came from, how I came to be.

Why?

Well, quite simply I think personal values a person develops at young age have a significant impact on what kind of sports and direction they self-select.

_______________

Originally born in Australia, I lived there and Arizona as a young child. Before my parents divorced we lived in suburban bliss in warm weather where I could play in the sun, ride my bike and swim nearly every day, this of course did not last long.

Shortly after the last trip to Oz we moved to Oregon and I was raised as the oldest of three in a small town in the shadow of the mountains outside of Eugene. It wasn't immediately blissful and we weren't a forward thinking hippy family nor were we like the folks that worked in mills in and around Eugene-Springfield. My mother is a hard driving, no compromises NY Italian and my father, an Australian who grew up in a mining town in Aus outback. Suffice it to say there was no coddling.

My father eventually left, in a nutshell Mum and Dad weren't ever going to get along, how they lasted nine years is a miracle in itself.

And soon enough there were new challenges, the house lost its oil heater and so we heated the old two story house via woodburning stove.

I grew up chopping wood everyday and living like Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn as much as I fantasized I could. I did read all of Mark Twain's works cover to cover several times over then.

To be candid, I loved chopping and stacking wood. It was a year-round task, in the summer we were in a rush to be sure that our wood would be split and stacked against the side of the house in time for winter and in winter eventually we'd need to have more split and I'd have to cut kindling everyday so that I could start the stove back up when I came home from school.

Chopping wood is hard work, and I was only eight years old when I started. Somehow I found the small challenges in each small thing I did each day. The loads of un-split cords looked mountainous and my friends would revel in helping me whittle them down. Once split, the task of stacking was as physically tough as splitting.

As you might imagine it's also rainy in Oregon, so much of the fun I'd manufactured for myself was "enhanced" by the conditions !

The parallels to running, swimming and riding in all manner of crud winter conditions might be apparent now I hope. Two hours on the bike in January, no big whoop. Let's find a suitably hilly route and lose ourselves in the effort ! A really muddy run or day on the mountain bike? Get it !

Eventually I fished out of streams, spent summer days floating down all the streams in town and lazing around a perfect swimming hole as soon as school was out. I was already developing a propensity to rest and play like an endurance athlete.

That upbringing certainly shaped who I am now. I've had a wealth of experiences in my life that many take their entire lives to collect. And, that includes the good and bad. Learning the value of hard work on my own very early distilled down to some basics now that drive most of the values now.

If a choice seriously compromises a basic value then I probably won't be happy and it likely wasn't right. All well and good until we mix in the behavior of others, unpredictable as it can be.

And I do think we, (I as well), who have selected endurance sport as a life long pursuit "get it" meaning they love the simple intrinsic value in the work. They see the pile of wood as a worthy pursuit not because there is an end to it but because the challenge in getting through it is reward in itself.

There cannot be endless cords of wood so to speak, our freshness and verve will blunted; we need continuous and creative new challenges and adventures that bring out the best in all of us, whatever those might be.

I'm sick and training has taken a dive. Help me Gods of Multisport

2010-01-20T18:50:00.001-08:00

One of the current adages to off-season form is that de-training to some degree is necessary. Post-Soma I dropped the longer sessions but kept a sharp eye on speed and power so that I could enter pre-season not having to work to get that back. I did de-train, but to plan.

All was on track until two weeks ago: Two day fever followed by light recovery followed by normal week training equals where I am now: on the couch, day 3 and a fever. I'm very uncomfortable and not sure when I can train again.

Any ideas I had about a good early season are out the window, which is fine as I rarely race until June or July.. to me, there is little point. A hard training session can tell me as much as an off-peak race.

To each his own though, perhaps someone without the time in endurance sport could learn a bunch about his own strengths/weaknesses in early season racing.

What about the actual season? June to Oct? ... I really don't know actually.

I felt I proved to myself in '08 and '09 everything I'd always felt was reasonable when I first started.

Last season specifically I only raced in town once (more on that) for the bigger races to the north in the "elite" waves (mix of Pro and competitive Age Group athletes)... It was eye opening to be sure.

What I proved to myself is that in spite of my technical weaknesses as a swimmer I can usually race my way into the fray for an AG podium or better. At Issaquah a stupid mistake in T2 (3min looking for my shoes !?) cost me the OA AG win in the 35-39, a scalp I would have been happy about for a stretch. :)

Then there was Bellingham Erin Baker's, Seafair (both elite waves), the very sub par Lake Stevens, and of course Aluminum Man, plus SOMA 70.3.

So, here I am wondering what I need to do this season for myself.. Is it a time I want, a place in a certain race, what?

Actually, none of those.

In the gazillion years of racing I have I always wanted the best competition where I went. Last year, to get it, I left Oregon and I got it, the fields were deeper and faster. For example anytime you see a race w/more folks per AG and closer finishes to the respective athletes as compared to another comparable event you have a deeper field. :)

Aluminum Man? Yes, I would have liked a certain cadre of guys to show up to the sprint. As it was they were somewhere else.. I'll go on record to say that prior to the last few years @ Alu the fastest times out there were posted by Arash Kia and Andy Heiman and we finally just got back there in the couple of years, point in fact.

Not only that but the sprint event is historically deeper and more competitive then it's sister event, it just is, results demonstrate this.

In God We Trust, but in numbers We Trust more !

And although I "only" finished second the person who beat me was in another epoch as a cyclist and a swimmer relative to even the best regional folks, hence his course record. Lots of what ifs on my end (if my PM had been on could I have taken a chunk out of him riding?). I am happy with running a course record run split though.

And SOMA ! I wish, wish, wish I had not had that darn bike accident prior to SOMA.. I felt I could do a 4hr 20min-ish time on the course and w/the bike and run I posted proved that was in the cards. No podium but so close with a shoulder that is still discolored and gives me fits to this day.

Finishing first in Aluminum Man (or an AG podium at SOMA) would have been totally meaningless to me unless I feel that I was in a race.

If you just run away from the competition, it's hardly a test.

Do *I* feel I was tested at all my races in 2009? Yes. I wanted the best and got it. And wondering post-event if results would have been different had another competitor had showed is a waste of mental bandwith; at all of my races the best on the day were there, bar none and I raced at my limit each time even on the one bad day.

So, if you ask me what I want this season, I want a test of my abilities at my peak, something new though. I need a little inspiration, like my time as a runner I'm feeling my time as a competitive triathlete is starting to run its course, there is more in the tank but I need something more.

Gods of Multisport, bring it in 2010. :)

The Basic Week..

2010-01-04T14:21:00.001-08:00

Here goes: My basic week for the new year and new season, the variation in the week accounts for the weekend parenting and the need for some mild rest/recovery. Some of it is subject to change, e.g. it's nice and dry out then I will ride outdoors and swap ride days around, unless we're talking a "key" session, of which there aren't going to be many in the near future.

No goals around volume, suffice it to say I am off the seasonal volume but in terms of power, speed in run & swim everything is A-Ok at the moment so I have "de-trained" but only in terms of endurance, unlike other off-seasons where I lose huge chunks of power and speed.

Monday

Swim

Bike

Tuesday

Bike

Track

Wednesday

Swim

Run

Thursday

Swim

Run

Friday

What I feel

Saturday

Swim

Run or Bike

Sunday

Run

Swim or Bike

Fighting for what you want

2009-12-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

It's always been my philosophy that what a person wants out of life is worth fighting for, I guess that may explain why I've been so emotionally tied to my racing for nearly thirty years.

Yeah, I said thirty, 3-0. :) I've been racing endurance sports since I was a middle school kid, so yup, it's been awhile.

I think every important race over those years I've invested alot of my heart into, I always thought that if I put nearly everything I could muster into the training then the results would come. Results aren't everything of course, what's funny is that on a couple of occasions racing while I was having the time of my life I didn't necessarily have the race of my life!

A friend of mine recently commented to me that he wasn't like me, he'd never wanted a thing, anything as bad as he estimated I must.

This is hard for me to understand because I assumed, incorrectly, that everyone is passionate on some level and that they manifest it uniquely. Turns out I am a bit naive and that some folks, right or wrong are the "check the box", experience-orienated around their pursuits.

All well and good, but I'd suggest that diminishes the path and in the end it's a memory that sits in a mental trophy case, to be dusted off at the occasional class reunion or cocktail party.

Elitist? Maybe. But I think anything less then passion is superficial, non-commital and a person will never know their real emotional depths thus cheating themselves of something real. Why go only half way or three fourths, etc. when self-actualization requires all of one's self?

So here I am on the cusp on another New Year, same sort of goals: race hard and fast, enjoy a few foot races hopefully, try some new things, work on the issues and so on.

I've learned alot of lessons in training & racing endurance sports, while chasing Ironman twice I learned about the depths I could endure to reach a goal and while racing I learned that as bad as I might feel all I had to do was look around and see that somebody probably had it worse.

The seasonal cycle has some uncanny parallels to the life cycle and so it's time to give it all another go as we get ready to enter another early, early season and give it some fight knowing it's a process of ebb and flow, sometimes more fight, sometimes less fight.

Not a bad way to approach life either.

Gosh, I don't have a material update...

2009-12-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

I've just been going through the motions lately, I suppose the idea is not to get too from decent shape so that I'm to begin working in earnest January-ish..

This training may be worse then what I did solo all summer long because I really don't see a soul on the roads, am inside pedaling (outside of one day I MTB'd), and folks have disappeared from the pool.

It will get better.

I'm so glad I don't race Cyclocross...

2009-11-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yeah, the geek factor appears to be higher then triathlon..

Ok, I'll fess up. I raced "B" once at USGP a few years ago on my old (and now gone) S Works hardtail.. got killed.. Of course I was a month out from no racing and it was an ironman season. Still totally different power profile, I'm just a little diesel, that kind of racing requires big, chunky watts and followed by the steady go hard power until you're finished. Anyway.

Finally, what's up with the fashion and especially the hats?

The first thought I had when I saw the hats was, "did everybody from Seattle decide to race CX down in Oregon" ?? Because, you know, all the hip kids wear their hats askew up there, except in the summer.

Thought provoking..

2009-11-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Science, sports and coaching.

As someone who firmly believes in a "scientific approach" to my own program I found this a good read (see below). That said, if we looked at my running program what you would find is that it hasn't changed much other then volume since the mid-90's.

I learned how to get myself into good shape, get the intensity flowing early to mid-season, keep it there and sharpen, taper and race.

That's not technically scientific because other then my benchmarks at the track, I'm not doing LT testing, not really super concerned with increasing one or the other metrics. What I *can* say is that I know very specifically what training inputs will produce Y racing outputs.

Cycling, more scientific by a long shot and the power meter has made life alot easier with regard to training myself to race properly.

I'm getting there on the swim after a couple of seasons of actual thought applied to it, sad to say the other seasons I didn't even bother thinking about the swim or even really trying to improve mechanics and workout selection.

Here you go..

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/10/coaching-and-science-asset-or-liability.html

For my Ivy league and Stanford educated friends..

2009-11-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Enjoy.

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

How I didn't manage a 4.30 x 70.3 or did I?

2009-10-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

I've been stewing the last few days trying to figure how I only managed a 4.41 down in Tempe at the Soma Half Ironman since I was sure I was on track for a mid 4.30-something.

Swim was an issue, first 1k was ok (17min) next Kilometer my back and shoulder wasn't happy.

At any rate I was just thinking about the swim time after looking at my pics today and it suddenly dawned on me where the time went...

So it was 38minutes when I got back to the stairs where we jumped in the water but I used a wetsuit stripper and that was a mess as usual, I really should have skipped it but I was out of it and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The timing mat was just before I ran into T1 to grab my bike a good ten meters after the wetsuit strippers, so my official swim didn't "end" until I ran across that mat..

That's where all the time went !!!!!!!!!!!

ARRRRGH.

I should have known better then to use one of the volunteers, idiocy on my part !

Now I have to stew until next season !

At anyrate now I know I did a 4.37 which is what I thought I'd done..

Validation.. The swim will come down more as will the other stuff.. Yes, I was due for this as I've been in 4.30 shape for sometime, was it a "good time for me"?

Technically "no" because I've been in great shape and had good form for quite some time.

In a sense the 4.41 is fine with me.. Other folks will look at it and just underestimate me, which I like as I just fly stealth before and during the race.

Here's the little race report I threw together the day of the race when I got into Flagstaff.
_________________________________

I hate to make excuses but since the accident I really haven't been swimming great plus have had to do Naproxen for the pain and usually faded pretty badly in longer workouts, so I knew that was an issue and might be a problem today..

I figured I'd make up for it on the bike run.

Anyway after the turnaround buoy at 1k I was tired even though I had clear water.. (If only Lake Stevens had been free and clear, I was swim fit then..) Today, well, I was decently fit, but my upper and lower back felt like it was unhitched from my bum and upper back.. It felt weak..

Next time !

Bike is really no faster then Boise, Troika or Black Diamond (I've ridden all three in races or training) in fact, avg'd 230w here today to do "officially" 2hr 28min so about what I'd have to do anywhere else really, or at least equivalent bike courses.

It had so many turns and 90 degree turn abouts that it scrubbed off all of your speed, it was 3 loops.. at least it was closed to traffic.

Run went well.. I went beserk in the first mile and ran 5.45.. oops.. When I came in off the bike clock read 3.12 so figured all I had to do was run under 1hr 30min..

First Half of the run I was on track to do right around 1.20, although, I was shooting for under that and thought it was possible.

Wound up going 1.27.01 w/pee break.. was darn hot too, got up to nearly 100, so second loop of run was rough.

Oh well..

I shouldn't have been greedy for a huge pr and just done Black Diamond in late September..

But, before the accident with the dog I thought if I didn't completely screw up the swim, biked a low 2.20 (only one guy got under that in 2.19 today.. everyone else in the mix was 2.22-2.30.) I could do a 4.20..

Turns out 6th in AG.

Could not have said it better myself

2009-10-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

"To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks."

. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks."
Scott Martin

Thoughts on next season...

2009-10-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well, as the end of yet another long season rolls around I'm faced with the same questions I had in front of me ten years ago when I was 27/28 and had run a gazillon miles/hours in a several year quest to lower my PRs.

Mixed feelings is the way to sum things up. As much as like the sport I'm not sure how to sustain the lifestyle at the highest level I can sustain *and* have a healthy social life plus a productive, meaningful professional life.

It's not about having run out of challenges.

There are many, many more and plenty of un-met challenges, but like my go at competitive running, I started feeling I'd nothing left to prove to myself.

Is that the case now with Triathlon? I don't know. end of season fatigue and hard training days have a funny way of making a person question the amount of hours they'll to put forth the next season..

Diminishing returns: Well, I've been at this point for awhile and now it's even more apparent that to get to the next level as a swimmer I need to swim another 10k yards a week *consistently* above and beyond the 12-15k I managed at the height of the season.

Can I do that? Yes, I can physically.

Do I want to? Harder question to answer.

What does it net me?

If not this approach, then what?

New challenges.

XC Ski marathon(s). I need to do one.. I think I'm going to get my bum kicked but that is ok.

Mountain Bike marathons.. I'm still interested in TransRockies solo.. That would still require a ton of cycling.

Fun stuff?

Would love to just ride new places with cool people. Not sure what that looks like but all the solo training is tough, be nice to have friends who are competent enough to ride 30-40mi no big whoop.

Is there another approach to the sport that allows me to stay competitive, enjoy the training and have more balance? I think so.. that means more like 3-4x swim/bike and run as much as I like..

Amp it as a long-course race approaches and not worry about it. Will it get me results? Who knows, I might have to try and see. :)

Who the heck knows about the 2010 schedule !

Back and shoulder healing...

2009-10-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks now.. Slowly but surely I can move my arms in natural movements without yelping.

The yelping of course is mildly embarrassing since I manage to move my arms and/or twist my back funny at least two-three times a day, it happens in the store, or getting of the car. You get the idea.

Someone recently mentioned to me that I should let the whole dog accident thing go.. Are you kidding me?

The owner endangered not only my life but another person's life that day. Everything we have, all that we are could have been gone, or our bodies could have been wrecked beyond healing.

No, there is no high road or low road and someone has to be responsible.

I'm glad I'm ok, but tonight I had a sub par swim and let's face it, my fitness is fine but my range of motion is limited. It's not my fault, and I doing all that I can every day to get my range of motion back.

Anyhoo, I'm not angry, that won't help me heal. I'd rather have a positive state of mind.

I have some impulse buying issues..

2009-10-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Good Grief..

Somebody save me from me..

I bought a bike that doesn't really fit and now I get to sell it.

Idiotic. It's as if I thrive on creating problems for myself to solve.. Guess somebody is going to get a bunch of bike parts cheap.

Lest anyone think Kona is a cake walk..

2009-10-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

Yup folks, it's not..

From my friend Ben Bigglestone's FB update feed

Ben Bigglestone the wind on the queen k weird today, fierce about 20 miles into the course and dead against. MPH and Watts for the 5 miles into the wind and on the return 19.9/227, 15.5/243, 16.7/227, 14.4/239, 13.4/217 and the return 35.7/97, 33/162, 30.5/147, 25.8/185, 27.3/170

Ben is an exceptionally strong cyclist and swimmer and obviously a good runner since he picked up the slot in a 70.3.

As you can see it takes alot of power to move around on that island..I still don't get folks back here who make random assumptions about getting there...The big watts aren't impressive when you're a *big* person, the w/kg factor is still average, though the w/Cd gets people excicted...

Ben is not a big guy and likely has a threshold closer to the pedal mashers around the area, plus he's small so Cd is really in his favor.

Major Reality check, eh? He's super strong and motors decently into the wind. Imagine you aren't at that level.

It's a major lesson for me to see this and really consider retooling fit this off-season to maximize power to Cd.

Disaster Week

2009-10-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, of course, coming off a bike wreck, what else would I expect?

More. I guess I got it, because you know, when bad crud comes downs in goes down in buckets.

Today I'd planned on riding an hour on the trainer and fiddling w/the TT bike fit. To do that I swapped pedals from the old bike to the new. Got basically dialed in and heard, "click" from the left pedal.

Ok... and, cleat won't engage pedal. I take it off the bike and tension seems gone from the entry/release mechanism. Pretty sure it can't be fixed..

Perhaps I was due for a "rest week" and this was how it shook out?

Normally I have something mildly philosophical to say, but it is a simple case of much being out of one's control. Kinda of shocking that health and desire to be healthy is in many ways are linked to "fate" and chance.

When I've dealt with this in the past it's always a strong reminder to keep with it, that's every training day is an important and not insignificant because you just don't know when something out of one's control is going to intervene.

The upside? I guess the stroke is not gone, and I'm not feeling out of shape..

I just don't want this last race of the season to slip away, I need one more shot at that racing thrill.

Life is not a dress rehearsal

2009-09-27T23:51:00.001-07:00

Ah, it's a little trite but hey sometimes we need a reminder we're up on stage and it's for real, you've always got to be a rock star and live like you mean it.

My reminder?

Pretty solid bike crash. I can't swim for a few days, might not ride for a day. It could have so much worse and I'm lucky I had a friend (thanks Kat) nearby who could have helped if it was much worse.

I've had three solid crashes, they all took my breath away, literally. I just can't talk, I'm just too stunned and hurt to run my motor mouth.

Well, the wake-up call came in the form of the "no swimming until your stitches are out" (just four days out of the water) and running will hurt like heck tomorrow.

It's always worth it to live like a rock star where the passions you follow are concerned because you're live out there on stage, and it's not a dress rehearsal.

Being Excellent. No, not like Bill and Ted.

2009-09-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, late summer/fall.

Most of us have done a few races, maybe even a couple more.

In any sequence of events I stuck something on the calendar that is super late season, the third weekend in October. Argh.

Of course what this means is that while everyone else in the Triathlon community either gets a pass because they are training for Kona, and therefore not available to do Happy Hour, etc. I have to continually explain why I'm busy living monastically, turning up to workouts when most have given it a pass and so on.

I guess I didn't mean for it to be about me.

It's not. The whole "being excellent" idea is just that to be your very best it usually takes a special kind of focus and discipline.

Notice I didn't say being the best or most excellent above all others. If in the course of being your best or most excellent you exceed others relative to you then of course that's a bonus.

Why did I write this? Well, again it's not about me. Nobody really cares about my stuff.

I've just observed folks who aren't necessarily being excellent at anything they do and I wondered why?

Being excellent is unique in that it requires extreme focus on one goal for an extended period of time, the ability to block out distractions during that block of time, and being really, truly true to yourself meaning believing that path and process you follow (in life, sport, business) will deliver you.

Not being excellent is more obvious.

It's a scattered, unfocused, seemingly random approach to a variety of things(life, sport, business) that may or may not be in your best interest, those activities sometimes contain purpose, but often times not and they may be pursuits you've been convinced by others who are themselves un-excellent that are worthwhile.

For example: You're invited to trivia night when you really need to swim a few thousand yards before your last big race of the year?

It's easy, eh? Plenty of time for trivia nights after the race.

All of it is pretty applicable to real life; examples abound.. like folks doing Grad or Med school are great examples of people who know how to be excellent, or more precisely follow the path to excellence.

On that note. I'm off for a nice long ride up in the Gorge today, last one of the week; but there is always next week and being excellent never gets old.

Aluminum Man Sprint

2009-09-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Cutting to the chase: 2nd place overall.

That's what folks want to know after all.

I'd sort of planned on racing this late season event assuming I was free, it's out in The Dalles, Oregon and if anybody who does Triathlon is in town they usually come to race the event so it's solidly competitive.

It's been eight years that I've been racing in the sport and in my first season I raced this thing a neo pro from Australia won, over the years the local guns, e.g. Kona qualifiers have come out to race and win it.

Long story short, I always figured I could win (or get darn close) at this venue due to the rolling hills and out & back run course. Rolling hills work w/regard to my power/weight and out & back run means you can spot folks ahead and track what kind of time you have on someone as well.

I raced it last year only two weeks after Canada and I was really just a mess, it was bad idea to race but I still did ok, and in doing it I learned exactly what I needed to do win the thing.

At the same time I've wanted to send a strong message about my leg speed since Ironman training was pretty much awful for me. I was strong last summer and that was it, I had no snap. If there was any doubt about the bike power and run speed, hopefully I've erased it.

Yes, I need to work on my open water swim performance. Still. But as long as I'm not stuck in a slow pack and have a little open water I'm fine. Not great mind you, but I'm not going to be a great swimmer.

Net, the race (and the others up in Washington this summer) validated my approach to the sport. On a good day I'm happy to put my bike & run up against anybody in the age group ranks.

________________

On to the race:

Swim & T1:

Goal here was the same as always. Keep the front pack in sight, swim cleanly, avoid trouble. My swim was much better because I wasn't completely tired from having just done an Ironman.

Was able to do that got into & out of T1 as quickly as I could

____________________

Bike:

My friend Paul warned me last year's winner was "very fast on the bike"..

I had to smile at that remark only because I knew I could potentially split the fastest bike time if things went right. Sure the guy who won last year is no slouch, he won the year before that too. He hammers the swim/bike and holds on. It has worked well, no question about that.

Started the bike and noticed my Powertap was not working. It was measuring as a "bike computer" and not giving normal readings. Ugh. My fault for not clearing it properly.

My plan all along was to ride at 100-110% of threshold (around 280-320w) where it counted.

I rode by feel the rest of the way and just worked on catching everybody.

Bike was out and back; I saw a guy really, really far in front and wondered if he was an Olympic distance guy since they went off first. More on that in a bit.

At the turn around I caught a group of about four riders, my friend Eric was in the group.

I had no intent of "riding legally" with them since they had 5 others in front of them and didn't seem to be catching them. I wasn't going to make the same mistake I did in Bellingham and not work hard enough to bridge up to the next group.

That group tailed me the rest of the way, and, in fact since I'm so light and descend pretty slowly they actually caught me on a longer descent before I dropped them again on the flats and hills.

Around mile 8 (just guessing since I had no data) I could see the next group and knew that I'd come into T2 right on their heels so working really hard to catch & pass them wasn't necessarily the best strategy since the run was where I was going to give it full gas.

______________________

T2 & Run:

Coming into T2 I wasn't entirely sure if the guy who was way out in front on the bike was in the group that I visually tracked in there. They were onto the run maybe 30 secs before me.

I could see four guys in a bunch plus one up ahead and they were actually running hard.

Opened it up, caught that group and those guys were breathing hard. At this point I was still not sure if the bike leader was in the group, so there was a thrill of "is this the winning move and I'm going to make it?"

It didn't last too long because I was by them in a flash which clearly surprised them, thought maybe somebody would try to hang for a bit but the out portion of the run favors someone with lots of leg speed and if they did try it was short-lived.

Saw the photographer and asked him how many up front.

One.

Damn. Ok, well, I was approaching the turnaround and figured I had to be putting time into somebody.

When I saw him he was already around the turn around by about 400m.. At that point I figured that unless he was running really slow (he didn't look bad) I was going to finish second but had to keep pressing.

Well, that's kinda of it. :) The rest of the run folks kept encouraging me to catch the guy, I felt good and really went after it, but obviously it didn't happen.

If I could have seen him up ahead of me I would have gone Mach 5 for as long as it took to catch up. As it was, I just couldn't spot him.

___________

The aftermath

The young guy who won is the collegiate national cycling champ in the Ominum from cycling powerhouse Whitman & he broke the bike course record by about 3min.

The standard is about 35-36min and that kid obliterated it.

Here are the bike splits:

BIKE SPLIT TIMES (MPH)

1. 0:32:22 27.81 AE Colin Gibson 22 M 686 Walla Walla , WA

2. 0:36:11 24.87 AE Evan Cumpston 49 M 695 Hillsboro, OR

3. 0:36:42 24.52 AE Jeremy Hyatt 38 M 717 Portland, OR

4. 0:36:43 24.51 AE Joe Tysoe 38 M 743 Beaverton, OR

If you take out Colin's unreal bike split then I did what I planned on doing in riding near the top split, without the benefit of the power meter. ;)

Oh, and Colin is a solid distance freestyle swimmer at Whitman too. Love the power of Google.

I just have to smile because while Colin set a new bike course record I set the run course record by a good chunk trying to catch him.

Such is life. 2nd felt as good as a win considering how competitive it was and I was up against a kid who (google him) at 6ft 3in is built like Taylor Phinney and is a national class time trialer.

Well, I need to keep plugging away through October for one more race. Whew, it's been a long season!

Mad Minute La Vuelta survival guide

2009-09-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Best part of the video..

"Be thankful you're not riding with Triathlete."

http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?db_oem_id=23000&sid=-1&catid=-1&id=647495

Apparently I stirred the pot...

2009-09-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have some friends from a triathlon club I'm associated with in who are considering signing up for an Ironman.

In all but one case every single one of them is very new to the sport of triathlon. One of them asked me my thoughts. My thoughts, almost word for word are the bullets at the end of my previous post.

*Obviously* it's not for me to say whether it's right or wrong for a person to do an Ironman. In the example I refer to my friend has some on going issues with a running injury that would necessitate training injured and probably racing injured; meaning that the marathon would be a walk, not a run.

Given this person's innate talent I offered that it'd be better to get well first and then consider the event.

A couple of other folks have finished a half ironman event along with some sprints and Olympic distance races and few years in the sport. They didn't ask for advice, but had some updates via the ubquitous social networking sites that gave the impression of indecsion, so I weighed in with, "hey, give this some thought" and posted Friel's article.

Man, it upset some folks. Lesson learned: People don't like to be told what to do; or maybe better yet, be preached at. Maybe it was Friel's tone? I thought he was pretty neutral but maybe it could have been read as condescending.

Net, it's not for me to say what is right or wrong for anyone with regard to racing but I happen to agree with Friel's sentiment which seems to be that being an accomplished athlete at distances other than ultra distance events (marathon, triathlon) is to be admired and something that a person could alternately aspire to.

Oh, and here is Friel's follow up post:

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/08/more-on-everyones-winner.html

Reaching for the stars?

2009-09-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

Joe Friel wrote an interesting blog piece that has received alot of attention..

Here's the link (http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/08/everyones-winner.html)

To save you some time here's what is most interesting (to me)

"Our fascination with long-distance events concerns me. I don’t think it’s good for the future of any endurance sport when going slowly for a long time just so one can cross the finish line is held in higher regard than going very fast for a short distance. The person who starts out with an Ironman will likely have a very short triathlon career. Then what? Three-day adventure races? And after a couple of those what’s next?"

__________________

Friel focuses on the value in getting faster and wonders why people don't pursue that route.

When I started running I personally was always fascinated with the events that required speed: 800m, 1500m and to a lesser degree 3k/5k.

Everything else seemed like a slog. I was never interested in marathons, and I'm still not. (As an aside, I was never really fast enough (by my standards) to keep pursuing faster and faster 5000m's which was probably my best distance on the track.)

Fast forward to Triathlon. How did I ever become interested in a sport where a short race is still an hour? Well, turns out that I really like running fast (or trying to !) and some of the formats in Tri still allow for that because the runs are relatively short but long enough for me to feel like I can put a good dent into fellow competitors leads.

Except Ironman.

The whole darn thing is a measured slog and I'm not a fan of the slog for the sake of it.

I'm digressing, so back to the Friel: I'm fascinated with the folks who Friel suggests migrate from sport to sport seeking to attain the zenith of endurance achievement in the form of going longer then everyone else at their respective water cooler.

I know a woman socially, let's call her "Renee", Renee did a few triathlons, all of them sprints while finishing solidly back of the pack.

(Not judging her performance at all.)

Then, suddenly she's "all into" adventure races the next year, gets on a team with a few other men and in her biography it says: "Renee got bored with triathlon and marathons".

Really? Ok, that's cool. I mean, if you master something then I can understand being bored with it but to finish a couple marathons and a handful of triathlons then become "bored" is odd.

I never spoke to her about why she started adventure racing but I thought the statement of boredom was slightly ignorant or disrespectful to folks who actually make an effort to go faster in those respective sports.

To sum up here's what I think about going long:

-It's not for everyone. If you wind up injured or in state where you can't perform optimally you are giving up the joy of having full use of your body.

-Racing beyond your endurance threshold isn't really racing. Long course events may burn out folks that might otherwise have a longer term horizon in that respective sport (triathlon, running)

-Finishing these ultra long events is a huge achievement but racing one is far different then surviving the event.

-Going and getting fast at shorter distances is just as hard, if not more so then going long. There is plenty of challenge in maintaining your athleticism v. becoming a diesel engine.

Hoda and Natalie Morales Triathlon

2009-09-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

Sweet

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32951879#32952712

Of Tri tards, clubs, in-fighting, etc.

2009-09-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, I've belonged to enough clubs, teams, etc. over the years across the spectrum of endurance sports and they all have plenty in common.

In-fighting, political intrigue, members dating each other or breaking up with each other and it goes on.

One of the more interesting dramas are the movements of folks to and from 'new-to-them' clubs.

People take this stuff so seriously that in the process of leaving one club for another I've seen myself de-friended, via Facebook of course.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I asked another friend if this happened to them also and apparently they had also been "de-friended"..

Good Grief.. So, my friend and I chatted about what might happen when we ran into the de-friender socially, or more likely, at an event.

Just be pleasant we decided.

De-friender was at a large-ish Triathlon recently and pulled the full-on "I don't know you snub" while my friend que'd up in the water with de-friender, who quite simply, ignored her.

My friend proceeded to take care of business and put it to the de-friender hard. And, then she said "Hi" to her on the run, just so there was no confusion.

What gets into people? Sadly, I don't have an answer. And, we're talking about adults; or least people who take on the form and shape of fully formed adults.

So, today, a scenario un-folds at the track where a dude, let's call him "Dave" who I know as an acquaintance and, like the aforementioned de-friender left a club I once belonged to for another, more "exclusive" club.

I said, "Hi" to Dave and I didn't even get a look of recognition or an acknowledgement.

Guess Dave didn't like being lapped.

And it gets better, somebody from Dave's "elite" club showed to club group ride recently, got shelled and complained it was too fast. Huh, ironic considering that very club is essentially a cycling club, since they don't do anything else other then ride.

I thought they were tri cycling studs?

You know, I'm sort of hoping adults start acting like it. I've been in clubs since my college days and I can't say anything has changed.

Good grief. It's one reason why I just refused to get involved at the board level of sports clubs, making changes requires shared vision and consensus, not to mention a great group of people who share that vision on some level.

When you have random acts of adolescent behavior you have a collection of individuals doing their own thing under the guise of club.

Sigh.

"Aero" frames?

2009-08-29T14:01:00.001-07:00

Just a random post but talking to folks this year got me thinking about some misconceptions that float around..

________________

If a bike has aero shaped tubesets it will save the rider watts vs. a round tubed bike

Maybe.

The bike accounts for 15% of drag, rider is 85%.

If a rider position isn't optimized then the drag reduction could be negated partially or even entirely.

Aero tubesets are just better then round

Sadly, in many cases this is not the case.

Girth of the tubesets on the downtube (along with girth of head tube) are key factors in how aero the frameset is.

There are multiple frames that simply test terribly relative to their competition and in some cases provide no advantage (Scott Plasma 1, some older C'dales, some Ceepos, Beyond Fab, Isaac Aerotic) because the headtube and downtubes are frickin' huge and fat relative to their less turbulent competition.

There are also cases of properly shaped tubesets with appropriate girth (or lack of it) set up with forks that create more turbulence than minimize it.

Exotically shaped tubes and hidden brakes are aerodynamic

The front brake mounted behind the fork creates more turbulence then on the headtube.

Many of the really pointy frames w/a gazillion different angles look cool, but it's a marketing feature and many smaller outfits simply don't test the bikes in the wind tunnel.

What to do?

Find a bike (that fits your morphology) that has actually been tested in a wind tunnel as part of the engineering process, not as an after thought to market it.

Generally larger manufacturers (Trek, Giant, Felt, Cervelo, etc.) will have budget to do this, smaller outfits many times have licensed rights to place their name on a frame that is generic (Planet X, Beyond, XLAB and so on).

_________________

Net, I'm not really partial to any frame or manufacturer at all.. It's important to be real about what you're going to ride if being "aero" is important to you. Buying a frame that looks cool to you with aero as after thought is not the end of the world but it is willfully ignorant if you're a competitive athlete, e.g. place is important to you.

Ouch

2009-08-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

Quick thoughts from yesterday's Lake Stevens experience, in no particular order.

I've done Lk Stevens, PacCrest & Wildflower (ok, just TT'd the bike in'06)

The run is tougher then WF & PacCrest by a long shot, and the bike is comparable..

Swim was bedlam w/the fog... I don't know about others but I got caught behind slower swimmers in my wave about half way out to the first buoy and then we got ran over by the previous wave's front pack guys.

It went to hell in a hand basket from there..

Needless to say I wasn't aiming for the splits I put together, but it is what it is.

Ideally, more like, low 30min swim, 2.30 bike (did do 1.17 on the first loop but I got trapped behind a traffic over the last 6/8 mi, who knows how much that added?)

I've run 1.26-29 off the bike in the last few races, and given how my run is this summer 1.33 was a serious bummer.. I started knowing my legs felt dead, it wasn't going to be "fun/fast" pace at all..

That's more like high 4.30's.. Whoops. :)

I think the hilly bike had something to do w/that for everybody.. As for me specifically, I was a little weary of taking in more food then just liquids since my stomach was so upset during the swim...

Only two bottles and 1 gel on the bike might have impacted me a bit on the run.

Also had the scary/bad hamstring cramps during the swim (surprisingly).. Needless to say, after doing a multitude of 2x1k swim repeats in right about 15min I was not happy w/39min but what are you gonna do?

Late Oct is SOMA Half..same course as IMAZ, I've done it before in '06.

I'm 90% sure I'm doing it, but may do Austin 70.3 instead.

What it takes..

2009-08-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

Per Matty Reed: "8 x 400m(hard) on the track old Brett Sutton session. No slower than 64 no faster than 62..."

And he's been racing 70.3 this year.

Quick update

2009-08-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'm avoiding the other social networking sites these days, huge time suck. And, after all, I have a busy corporate skeddy to attend to.

Since Seafair have been on top of the usual and ready now to sharpen things up over the next few days/over the weekend.

Lake Stevens should be fun but in no way a place to set a personal best based on the two recon rides I've over that course. The main focus should be to swim decently, ride strongly and have a good run.

Banged out some solidly fast 800's (low 2.30's) over at Nike campus a couple mornings ago, in line w/what I've done all summer. Alberto, Rupp, and the Oregon Project boys were just finishing up as was I knocking them out.

Post Lake Stevens I'll have a little down time, camp in the North Cascades National Forest and run a 30k over Labor Day weekend at altitude for "fun"...

September/October will be fun racing and then I'm looking at a late fall Half to round things out.

Just for comparison: Seafair vs. Issaquah

2009-07-22T16:02:00.001-07:00

Here we go:

Seafair: 12miles, 32.30, 22.13mph

Issaquah: 15miles, 37min, 24.32mph

I think we can infer that Issaquah is a much faster course since it required less power to go much faster.

I'm using these (vs. chunking in the Bellingham event) since they were flat-ish and the profile on paper at least looked similiar.

At Seafair (unless I was traveling on a descent (rare) and at a very high rate of speed (26mph+) ) I was focused on keeping power near threshold. Higher then that I could feel my legs start to sing.

While at Issaquah, I worked in a window slightly lower then Seafair.

Those times aren't too much to get excited about on flat courses where I had to fight wind. I do have a hilly long-course event coming up where my weight and those power numbers should help nicely. :)

Anybody wanna lend me a Zipp 404 or 808 w/Powertap hub for Lk Stevens? :)

Seafair: done and done.

2009-07-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

That was eye opening.

I'll have more soon, but that "elite wave" stuff is no joking around. All people up in Seattle do is swim and then swim some more.

As a point of reference: The women's winner did Fat Salmon 3mile open water swim the day before, which of course, she won. I was watching Fat Salmon thinking: "Wouldn't be a bad idea sometime, I'll just swim pretty slow."

Anyway, in a nutshell did fine in the swim but decided to swim my own line. Bad idea. Once I chose to do that I swam considerably slower. I probably should have changed course to pick feet back up, sigh.

Bike went well, new historical bests for power were established, I'm getting close to 5w/kg @ threshold, which, by itself is exciting.

Run: Think I ran 17.20 (5.43, 6.15, 5.20) that middle mile was partially uphill, obviously part of the last mile was slightly down.

Mixed feelings since I was busy trying *not* to look really bad in front of 2000 people and I wound up executing a not too bad race while managing to improve on performances from the first couple of races so far. However, at the pointy end of the event were local ITU guys who are in another world w/regard to swimming. Duh. I'm never going to get there and that's not a too devastating thing to say, and I've always known going long was what I'd have to do. So..

Big takeaways still absolutely have to be learning how to swim with front pack swimmers and learning to hurt while doing it.

Either way, I've a three block of hard training block in front with a long-course event directly after.

The rust is off.

Quick how's it going this week..

2009-07-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

Bellingham was almost two weeks ago and Seafair is one week off.

Not sure how I want to approach the week heading into Seafair, it makes sense to taper given that I really don't want to embarass myself.

At anyrate, swim has been sharp, run has been sharp and power on bike is coming easily these days.

It's not magic, we've just had a cooler week to train, so in a sense I'm lucking out; if next week is brutally hot you can guess how much I'll do leading up to the event.

It's confirmed: Lake Stevens and *not* Hulaman, though Hulaman is mighty tempting given the particulars.

One thing I need to do is see how well I can go over 1mile in open water. The 800m at B-ham was promising, but only half the distance.

Running off the bike...

2009-07-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Paulo Sousa I don't have to write a thoughtful, cogent post on this.

http://thetriathlonbook.blogspot.com/2009/06/running-off-bike.html

You also might guess how often I "practice" running off the bike. Maybe once a month, if that.

Incidentally, how I approach "running off the bike" really hasn't changed this season vs. last season even though I'm not doing IM..

(Well, *maybe* I'll sneak into IMAZ but that's just a rumour ! )

Oh and hey.. those darn results got posted.

2009-07-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I was a little off on how close to top three I was, no biggie.

I figured I'd point it out before the Anon poster, whoever he or she is points that out.

Incidentally, I'm having so much fun racing stuff that isn't iron distance this year.

Purposeful Training - Week of 7/5

2009-07-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell this week looks "good" on the books as it were, but coming off Lake Padden last weekend I was hoping to hop back into the old routine: swim a ton, bike intervals and run track..

Turns out the weather and my schedule had a hand in my ability to get stuff done.

Yes, the frequency was good across the board; I did have a good swim set early in the week at Samena and did some fun riding in scouting out the Lake Stevens course (though I have not signed up yet) and a great ride to the top of Larch Mt on the fourth of July as the Corbett Country parade was starting and finishing.

My main purpose this week was to get through the workouts while the temps were about 95F all week and not blow it for the next session & day. Mission accomplished, but, I'm looking at the quality and it just wasn't there.

Well, we have some cool temps here over the next week, and in two weeks I'm off to race Seafair so I better buck up so that I have a good showing against those fleet Seattle boys.

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie": Managing your race matters

2009-06-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

Official results not up yet but I'm pretty sure I remember everything pretty closely so here goes..

At some point a few years back Bellingham was an ITU stop due to Erin Baker's sponsorship of USA Triathlon, this was the companion event for the non ITU crowd.

Chose this one because I didn't want to sacrifice family face-time and I was faced w/not racing and attempting to train out in Bend during Pac Crest weekend as "a big weekend" or racing Hagg Lake in two weeks time. None of those things were/are palatable when compared to racing at a cool venue with lots of history.

To sum up: Non-choppy swim in a really clean lake, very hilly and technical bike which reminded me of Escape from Alcatraz and run on semi-hilly trails around Lake Padden.

It helps to have it done this before, it's a locals affair at the pointy end and they clearly have the bike wired. At anyrate:

Swim

Standard goals here, get up front, good start, don't get blown away and hang on to the feet of the front to set up a smart bike ride.

Went off in the front "elite" wave of "fastest swimmers"... (sure there were faster swims in waves behind but whatevs)

Did pretty well through the halfway point (swim was 800m) then had sun coming back to shore, slowed a bit trying to navigate back to shore.

Got out and it looked like maybe 10-15 were out before me. Not bad, but not great.

12min and change. About what I expected.

Bike

First mile is up a steady climb. Passed five/six folks that were not going to be in the mix. A descent started and so did the drafting and worse, blocking..

What appeared to be the lead woman went off on the wheel suckers and they cleared as I yelled, "C'mon guys get out of the way" as I didn't want to break the yellow line rule and risk my life.

One doode latched onto my wheel directly after that just as I was putting down 320w to motor on a 2% grade. Lead woman who was riding behind cleaning balled this guy out and just as she was done tearing him a new one he comes out of my slipstream and pulls ahead as the hill crests.

I told him not to ride my wheel anymore, stood on the gas and didn't see that group for the rest of the ride.

Caught two more guys and asked one how many more were up the road, he said "Probably six"...

Hmm, ok no worries. So I worked my way up to two more who I thought were the lead bikers since they had an official van following them. The ride was hilly and twisty so I had a moment of doubt and wondered if I should breakaway and find the next group.. The next hill I did but they caught me toward the end of the next long descent.

This always happens, at a buck forty I'm not the quickest descender and no amount of power to pedals will trump physics. Well, it could.. But I'm not going to ruin my legs on a descent to do so.

So, rode a clean race w/these two guys and jockeying back and fourth, me climbing faster, both of them catching me on the descents.

And me wondering if I was doing the right thing.

Of course I knew what sort of split was fast last year (53-57min) so I figured I was ok w/a 57min split thinking I'd run fast off that..

Run

Got out of transition w/no problems this time (42 sec). Started the first lap of a 5.2mile trail run around Lake Padden.

Each lap was 2.8miles.. First lap I was confused about whether I was on the right trail since nobody else was around, trail was not marked and it was unclear how many more were in front (6 to 13 reported).. Figured I'd follow the trail closest to the lake and if I screwed up, such is life.

Fortunately I was on track and came round that first loop in a surprisingly quick 15min.. I was hoping to get out there and drill a sub 30min 5.2 miler, so it was possible and I was pushing at times to run this pace over the first lap.

Next lap was totally crowded with folks from several waves behind me, felt good and continued to motor figuring I'd be in at about 30min for the 5.2 miles.

Dah ! 32min high.. I guess that works out to around 30min for an 8k which is good off the bike but in the context of this race not good for me.. Don't know how I slowed 2min 40s on that second lap since I thought I was picking it up and it was not a race leading split.

__________________

10th overall (1hr 43? Odd mins).. But 1s-10th was separated by 3min. Argh.

Ok, so I made some mistakes:

Mistake 1: I imagine all those Bellingham boys came out of the water together and probably rode legally with the classic triathlon gentleman's agreement to fight it out on the run..

And me electing not to break away and looking for the next group up the road (and assuming there was none), turns out they rode about 2min faster then me and swam a min faster as I scanned the results..

Mistake 2: Out of sight out of mind part deux on the run.. I should have run like a meth addict until I started catching folks, if I'd split a rarefied run split I might have put myself in the winner's circle.

Net, I'm pretty happy with everything.. I'll be thinking aloud soon enough about whether I'm riding and running these things hard enough and whether I need to go longer this season (I will eventually but maybe not this month)...

Congrats to Pac Crest'ers and fellow Tri the Cookie athletes.

Regarding yesterday's post...

2009-06-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking for another gig and part of that process are the inevitable rejection letters..

Some of them are clearly form letters while others are individually tailored. I don't have a preference for either.

Yesterday I got something that I thought was hilarious.

_________________________

Hi Joe,

I would like to thank you for applying for the position here at XYZ. Although you could certainly bring a lot to XYZ, we are pursuing other candidates that fit our needs more closely. We enjoyed reading your resume and we wish you the best in your job search.

By the way, if you know anyone who might be interested in learning more about our company, then we will present you with a $500 bonus for each referral who becomes a client - perhaps a family member or friend who is involved in sales, marketing or management. Just ask them to watch this sample movie at something or other URL.

I know that this sounds weird, but it might be an easy way to earn some quick cash without much effort.

I wish you the best. Take care.

Stephanie

________________________

Ok, first of all I don't know this person who may (or may not) have reviewed my resume and then responded with this note.

If I did know her then the request might seem less strange. But still.

I found it in massively poor taste to ask me to send out their URL to anyone and everyone I know.

Here's why:

- If it is an easy way to make quick cash then why doesn't she send the URL out to her entire network? After all she's better positioned to explain what their value proposition is.

-What is the value proposition of this organization? That wasn't articulated in her note and we haven't chatted so how would I know?

-Of all the bios on the "About" section only one person appears to have a role that is not biz development orientated, seems to me if you're asking a person who's applied for a job that isn't a biz dev role to drum up business for you in a rejection letter through their network your sales force is doing a poor job.

-Finally, isn't it just really stupid to ask a person you rejected via a form letter to promote the company to their associates? It seems, well, inappropriate and wrong.

Incidentally, this was how I responded:

_____________________________

Hi Stephanie,

Hmm, that's an interesting "thanks but no thanks" response.

I have to wish you best of luck with your efforts because I've never quite seen anything like this before.

When Malcolm Gladwell contacts me to write a chapter for the next addition of "The Tipping Point" I will be using this as example in the chapter where we cover the "stickiness" factor in advertising.

With your permission of course.

Kind Regards,

-Joe Tysoe

______________________________

So, I don't think she got the joke, since Malcolm Gladwell posits in the Tipping Point that to spread your message you need "Connectors", "Mavens", "Sticky messaging" and "Context" to successfully create awareness around your value proposition.

Connectors are folks who are widely associated with many people, Mavens are subject matter experts, Sticky messaging is a message that catches and keeps a persons attention longer than usual and Context of course is where & how a person will receive the info.

Obviously the sales folks they have aren't doing their job as Connectors if they need to rely on the networks of rejected candidates, they must be poor Mavens if they can't (or don't) articulate the value proposition of their service (which, ironically enough is a high value added ROI tool for marketing !), Sticky messaging? Well she did get my attention, as for their other strategic efforts to market their "value added marketing tool"? who knows .. And naturally the context was totally inappropriate.

At anyrate here was her response:

_______________________________

Run that by Mike Jingozian, CEO. At the very least he’ll be intrigued and want to talk further which could be good for all parties.

Stephanie

______________________________

Jeez Stephanie, good idea. I think I will reach out to Mike.

On that note, I'll let you all know how that goes.

The legal definition of idiot

2009-06-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Some state constitutions still contain suffrage laws that ban "idiots" from voting.

Here is the historical definition which lawmakers used as context:

"In 19th and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation or a very low IQ level, as a sufferer of cretinism, defining idiots as people whose IQ were below 20 (with a standard deviation of 16); Mongolian idiot (or Mongoloid idiot)"

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie" (Bellingham)

2009-06-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's confirmed I'm racing this one Saturday, should be a fun (sorta) Olympic Distance race, featuring a calm swim, very hilly bike and run on crushed limestone paths..

Looking forward to it actually.

Good luck to all the Pac Crest'ers and obviously congrats to the IM C'da finishers, see you guys in town soon.

"Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical"

2009-06-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

- Andrew Coggan, PhD

No other words need pass.

FTP work, Bronchial spasms, Albuterol, Swimming fast to swim faster.. Life is changing.

2009-06-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

My mom is moving end of the month, it's a stressor. Arizona is not a bad place for me to visit in winter months but not having her around for those long training weekends when I'm in weekend dad mode will be interesting.

Not to mention the pressure it puts on me to stay in Oregon with zero to few job prospects. Hey, no pressure right?

Training has been going ok though.. About two weeks ago just before Issaquah my chest freaked out and filled up w/junk and was totally inflamed. Visiting Seattle and racing up there relieved everything.

So, I'm punching in really controlled solid training.. 1x a week intervals bike & run plus hitting the swim as hard as *I* can (which is to say, not hard enough by true swimmer standards).

And along those lines I get to the pool yesterday and bang out the best set of 500 repeats in awhile, holding low 1.20's.. good for me. On top of the world and I go for an evening run later.

Shortly after the run I have a glass of wine and I have really serious bronchial spasm. Chest feels really tight and I hit the albuterol..

I got some relief but slept pretty awful last night. Argh. It was pretty bad and I haven't had this kind of thing happen since I was as young as my kids. I've been laying off alcohol almost entirely over the last week or so; perhaps the wine was a mistake.

Today my afternoon run was iffy and the early evening FTP work on the trainer after I dropped off the kids was pretty awful, the perceived effort for normal output was out of whack.

What a roller coaster ! I like to pretend training through the seasonal allergies and the asmtha like symptoms is like training at altitude. It sure feels like it, however this has been trying.

So, I've got one more week of hard training in front of me, then cutting some volume and racing soon thereafter. With the chest so tight I'm wondering if the best thing to do is just work the aerobic base, keep the volume high.. Swimming is really going to hurt unless this lets up.

In the meantime my mother is gone and I'm off weekend dad duty, back to single dude status.

The family life piece is pretty roller coaster-y too, no doubt about that.

All that said, I'd be in a spot of discomfort even if I was alot less training so I figure if I'm gonna suffer it may as well be the full monte.

Triathlete Magazine and physiology...

2009-06-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. Apparently there is a piece in Triathlete that strokes the ego of the tri-tard community in that it suggests the community "checks each other out" at races to admire one another and to see who's fit..

Now I've been hearing people I know say, "Oh sure, I check people out to see how fit they are.. that tells me if they are gonna go fast at the races."

Barf.

Guys, c'mon. It's bad enough Bikesnob and Bike Lemming ream the community for easy stuff, but this is bad.

What a person looks like on the outside, assuming all other things are equal, comparing two folks is just stupes.

Everything that you need to know is happening *under* the skin. We're talking about historic training load, acute training load and how that would impact power numbers, which is in turn driven by LT and Vo2 numbers. On the bike of course.

On the run? Almost the same deal. Vo2 is the only number that really matters because it's an expression of oxygen uptake relative to body weight, so you can theoretically compare different body types fairly.

Triathletes seem to be fooled into believing that improving performance is external to their physiology.

To a large degree improvements can be gained through mechanical efficiencies e.g. cleaner swim stroke, optimizing bike position relative to power.

However, special running shoes; clinics where you learn how to run (didn't we do this in grade school?), and specially formulated nutrition are not things we had as a population even 15 years ago.

Age groupers are not going statistically significantly faster across the board now (vs. 15 years ago) in spite of the advancements which mostly boil down to marketing hype. Nutrition for example is not formulated any differently. The top aero bikes then still test as well as the top bikes now. Running shoes? Not much has changed.

To sum up: Fitness is mostly internal, potential to maximize fitness is governed by genetic makeup. Once you have managed the external mechanical issues (which, to be fair takes time) then the rest is optimizing your gifts.

Good track session yesterday...

2009-06-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

My L pace is still a bit off what it was when I was doing stand-alone running (like 15sec a rep over an 800!)..

M Pace? I won't even go there! that might leave me in a hole for a few days. :)

L & T pace though is where the bulk of the work for racing really works for me. Can I get it down? Yes but it's a painful process but what the heck? It's mostly out of pride, somebody asked me why I just don't outsplit the field everytime out a year or so ago and the answer was that I hadn't really been doing the work to run decently fast, I'd spent too much time messing around.

Needless to say after a 17.45 5k off the bike in Issaquah on totally crud surface I'm jazzed to keep this form and apply it to something more suitable.

On that note I've seen Triathletes over at Duniway doing all manner of strange workouts; most of it doesn't involve actual running, like 8/10ths of it were drills, strides and the like, seems bizarre to me since, unlike swimming where drills are helpful to fine tune mechanics the only way to get faster running is to, well, run.

Oh well. I won't give away the secrets..

O.k. maybe a little bit, but you'll have to work for it.

Find Greg Bennett's interviews on some of the Tri podcasts.. Or look at Mr. Whitfield's run sked.

They train like the local ringer 10k guy does, same for the girls. Ironman distance folks? Alexander and McCormack are doing the same thing with a long run done at tempo every couple of weeks as a "marker" workout.

My template/protocol for getting FTP up (or maintain it)

2009-06-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

I use three types of workouts per week to boost my FTP:

-1 threshold workout (2x20 genre: 1x40-60/ 2x20-30/4x10-15, etc....40-60 minutes at 95-105% of threshold)

-1 VO2 workout (6-10 reps of 3-5 minutes at 115%+ of threshold, equal rest to intervals)

-1 long ride of 2.5+ hours at 70-85% of threshold. (Just did one today...)

- 2-4 hour easy riding twice a week

I don't rely on any one on of three regularly, but will default to really long and moderate if that's all I can do.. I'll drop something based on my planning & race sked, focus on something specifically if need be.

Right now in the middle of a build I usually do all of these. In the past I've gotten away with distance only.. (Still works pretty darn good if that's all you like to do)

I know alot of folks in the sport that sub in a bunch of threshold riding to the exclusion everything else..

That'll get you pretty far (plus that's hard work, no question), but it has sharply diminishing returns in the form of reduced run and swim performance, it takes some folks longer then others to see this. (it happened to me over 6 months)

If you only swim 2x a week, and run 3x a week on the "threshold all time" sked you might never see this happen. If you can perform well off that volume you are probably a good swimmer and decent runner and a genetic outlier as well. :)

Long Chain Carbs vs. Short chain as endurance racing nutrition..

2009-06-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

I have no official opinion on one being better then another; tried both, like/tolerate both.. A friend uses both in their drink (CarboPro, scoop of gatorade, plus Nuun)...

Love the press for both..

Hammer uses Malto base:

http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=1252

Gatorade Endurance uses Dextrose:

http://www.gatorade.com/products/#/performance/endurance/instantmix

Pros & Cons are pretty obvious for both..

Long chain: easier on GI Tract, longer lasting, processed slower, tastes generally strange

Short chain: Causes some GI issues, spiky energy delivery for some, some folks report feeling more alert more quickly using it, tastes generally really strong

On that note, I'm going to eat pizza as recovery food. Chomp.

In case you're wondering what happened at Issaquah..

2009-06-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Course profile... 400m swim, 15mile bike, 5k run on random grass & bark chips..

Signed up for the race a week ago but then found out at packet pickup they eliminated the elite wave which was too bad, apparently USAT sanctioning doesn't allow for it now..

At anyrate I was at the front of my wave 35-39 thinking a winner for the overall would come from it..

I tracked everybody in front of me on the bike through T2 so just a few guys.. just prepping to run them down over the 5k.

Got into T2, couldn't find my shoes at the bike rack.

Thought they'd been moved or taken, but nope, I was #753 but racked my bike @ #653 that morning, finally found it..

T2 = 3min.. should have been 30-45 secs.. That cost me the win in the AG.

Unfortnately the winner came from another wave w/a very fast time so I would not have contended for Overall even assuming I didn't screw up T2.

However, if we'd had an elite wave I'd have had to rack in the "elite rack" and maybe had a chance since missing my stuff in a single rack marked "elite" would have been next to impossible, but who knows? :) ..

Whoops....

2009-05-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Apparently transitions are important. I won't be screwing that up again, sheesh.

Finish Swim T1 Bike T2 Run

1. Brady Brewer 1:02:49 0:05:25 1:45 0:36:25 0:51 0:18:22

2.Bryan Urakawa 1:03:42 0:05:46 1:27 0:35:42 0:56 0:19:50

3. Shawn Burke 1:03:45 0:05:25 2:10 0:36:00 1:04 0:19:05

4.Gilbert Clarke 1:04:16 0:05:19 2:18 0:35:12 0:55 0:20:31

5. Brent Binge 1:04:19 0:05:05 2:35 0:35:49 1:03 0:19:46

6. Joe Tysoe 1:06:01 0:06:21 1:51 0:37:00 2:58 0:17:51

Want to how it's really done?

2009-05-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Read some of Doc's posts over on the Team Bike Boutique blog..

Simple formula: work hard, get rid of unneccessary weight, cut out the grog and go really well.

http://www.teamtbb.com/forum/

You aren't living life if you are scared to try.

2009-05-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

I hope it isn't too trite to start with this. But I had a conversation with an "old friend" the other day, and it was eye-opening for me.

My old friend and I met and made fast friends eons ago under some common assumed shared values. Old friend was extremely active; the typical stuff running relays, a marathon, hikes, winter sports, even mountain biking occasionally.

Old friend has had a tough last few years, a few bad breaks, some strange bouts of illness and the requisite break-up thrown in for good measure.

Well, I sort of expected Old Friend had dusted themselves off and saw all of the rougher stuff as an opportunity to try new things, reflect on where they had been in previous pursuits; that sort of thing.

In fact, I was excited to get Old Friend headed down this path while offering a hand..

But, over the last couple of weeks after inquiring about OF's level of activity around life in general it became very apparent that OF's had some unusual road blocks.

"I'm not up for running much outdoors, I just wouldn't want to get caught out there without water or have to walk home."

And so OF runs the treadmill at the gym.

If it were isolated to a couple of months it wouldn't be that big of a thing, but it's on going. And it isn't limited to not running outside, there are a mound of excuses about doing much of anything outside of punching the clock at work.

Somewhere along the line my Old Friend became frightened to live.

I don't have grand pronouncements to make about how to live, I mean, who am I to say?

But I can say that the absolute worst thing a person can do is dig a moat around them in tough times; it's not the same thing as self-destructive behavior and I think the "moat" of excuses is semi-excusable socially because it's not the worst thing a person can do while they are getting back on their feet.

It's just my feeling that if you live in fear of trying something semi-difficult and attempt it with a half-measure it's hardly living life to the fullest.

Old Friend.. if you wind up reading this I'm imploring you to get the heck out of the gym.

We need a meaningful update..

2009-05-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, the dry stuff.. I've done about 5 weeks of progressively steady & hard training, you know, progressive overload and managed to get more fit while my Achilles healed..

Amazing right? But not really.. I just managed to rest it pretty strategically between sessions, ice a couple of times a day and so there you go.

It is now time for some sharpening, reducing the volume by a little bit, we'll start it all over in about a week and a half.

The less dry stuff.. well, I'm attempting to stay engaged outside of the massive hours in the sports stuff. I've been reading voraciously, and need to add a few more books to the que!

I've plowed my way though some fiction lately, specificly I've been revisiting Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogy. Lots more going on there then the simple story I've been enjoying so much, in different iterations mind you, since I was thirteen years old.

What's kept me coming back are the core values each of the key characters are imbued with, they are classic tragic heroes, love that when it's written well.

The great "new" discovery is the running commentary around government, laws, religion and where they intersect.

I wouldn't have come back to these if I hadn't heard that his son (Brian Herbert) had written several prequels which, naturally, I read too. They are different from the original body of work with the main distinction being that Brian Herbert wanted to create a more accessible Dune for folks just discovering the Dune world.

I've also recently read Bill Bowerman's Biography, "Men of Oregon" (Kenny Moore); most folks will know Kenny Moore from Sports Illustrated. He was the right person to write the book due to his relationship as an athlete to Bowerman and his writing palmares. The story of Bowerman is nothing short of amazing, touching and powerful.

If you feel like you've lost touch with your core values picking up "Men of Oregon" should get your brain wrapped around getting re-acquainted with them.

At any rate, on to Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" and "Tipping Point". I'll let you know how it goes.

Ok. one more Steve Larsen post..

2009-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously, you must listen to the Competitor Radio interview with Steve...

He was on the National team w/Hincapie, Julich and Lance in the early 90's..

Steve was *the* talent then on the U23 team and this man clearly raced clean when the sport became exceptionally dirty in the 90's..

Again, find the interview on Competitor and listen.. He raced a Grand Tour (the Giro) and rode on a ProTour team before dominating the Mtb scene and then Triathlon.

Here's a nice link of memories from his racing days:

http://triathlon.competitor.com/blogs/steve-larsen-a-study-in-balance.html

If only we could all aspire to be such stalwart business people and versatile athletes.

Perhaps Steve lived life by the credo: What we do in life echoes in eternity.

Wow...

2009-05-20T15:31:00.001-07:00

Thoughts go out to everyone who was close to Steve.. He was clearly a good family man as well as an exceptional talent at whatever he did in life..

http://www.velonews.com/article/92239/pro-racer-steve-larsen-dies-of-heart-attack-during-running

Sheesh, maybe I should be doing some road races...

2009-05-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

Interesting report on the Iris Festival 5k...

http://blog.oregonlive.com/runoregon/2009/05/race_report_keizer_iris_festiv.html

"...my splits (5:06, 5:19, 5:27) had hemorrhaged seconds with every mile, but I had competed and gone out hard, and that's all I could have asked."

I would guess the leader went out at 4.55 and added about 10sec a mile. Ouch.

Def. not criticizing but these guys are fast, mid 16's is super pedestrian for them, but the reason why they ran that is pure impulse control, went out "hard" and faded. Man, how many times have I done that?

Waaaay too many.

Maybe it was venue.. If it'd been a race on the track with a good sized pack runners in 3rd & 4th would have caught and dropped runners 1 & 2..

As it stands, it was road.. The leader got out far enough ahead that it was probably mentally very difficult to will themselves into a tempo that got them within striking distance.

Nah, I won't go to the roads... I would much rather lay down some good run splits later this summer.

Still, it sounded fun in that report didn't it?

A tribute to Nanny ...

2009-05-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

And to my Granddad too.. We're headed a bit off the beaten path today.

Lucy Depeppo is my Grandmother and she's known as "Nanny" to myself, brother and sister; she lives on Staten Island, NY. She is amazing woman who has cancer and it's not good lately.

To say it has been weighing on my mind is putting it lightly.

You may be thinking everyone loves their Grandmother, and sure, many Grandparents are amazing people.

Nanny is really special though, since most of her grand kids are grown she's spent around the last twenty years volunteering in as foster Grandparent in the hospital system in NYC. Over the years she's been flown to Washington DC to receive awards for her role as a foster Grandparent and, even after battling her own issues with cancer for about twenty years is right back at with the kids who need her as soon as she can be.

My Grandfather Jim was a lucky man to have been married to such a selfless, tireless, dedicated and loving woman.

I feel compelled and qualified to write this because as young boy and later as teen I spent parts of my summers, and later entire summers with Nanny and my Grandfather on Staten Island. Not that my cousins and brothers and sisters don't know Nanny, but c'mon.. It was a little nutty to be o.k. with spending so much time around my Grandparents.

The wonderful thing about summers there were the lessons I learned from my Grandparents through direct observation of their relationship and listening to their stories..

One story I will never forget was the story of how my Grandparents dealt with World War Two. My Grandfather received his draft notice and waited for his orders to report to a duty station.. It was, to say the least, stressful and emotional for them. Nanny had recently given birth to a child and as it turns out the policy at the point was to exclude draftees with children from service.

What struck me was the emotion etched in his eyes and present in the voice of my Grandfather, it was wholly apparent to me that as he told the story he was re-living the emotions of that time in his life. I came to believe that there was more than just the telling of that story, it was a way of expressing still tangible love between them.

Nanny provided the emotional bedrock of that relationship as near as I can tell and that my Grandfather treated her so well over a gazillion years of marriage speaks to that.

I talked to her today. She sounded fine and vibrant, like she always has. I heard her voice and it sounded the same to me as it did when I was a small boy on Christmas day phone calls. There was not air of worry or concern, she just hoped to heal up soon.

I hope she does too, without being obviously trite the family needs to have Nanny's reassuring graces over many more family and holiday dinners.

What is your one guiding principle?

2009-05-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

You really only need one.. It is your personal mission/vision/values statement and all that you do and act on must align with it.

Mine:

What we do in life echoes in eternity

It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, how much or how little money you have or make or made.

It's never too late to find something and live by it.

It doesn't matter if they are your own words or not.

Chances are you always knew what that one guiding principle was all along but could never put it into words, or there weren't words that you could find that would describe that principle.

I have to admit I attempt to distance myself this archetype...

2009-05-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely hillarious...

The type A Triathlete described to a "T"....

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/How_(Euro)_cyclists_see_triathletes_P2324370/

I'm in the boat of I don't get it either... As an ex-collegiate runner we ran plenty of long (hard) runs sans gels and water.. (I still do)

Though, to be fair if you do a run somewhere that you have -0- access to water a Fuel Belt might come in handy..

I've used mine less then ten times.. Came in handy XC skiing this past winter actually, I guess I kinda felt like Batman with it strapped to my bum.

There's a chance I'm setting the bike like this..

2009-05-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

We shall see..

http://www.grahamwatson.com/2002/olano/cover.html

http://www.bike-zone.com/tech.php?id=photos/2003/tech/features/giant_tcr100/giant1

I may need to find a decent road bike for the majority of my miles.. BMC Streetfire maybe?

Quick update, week of 5/10

2009-05-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Managed to punch in a solid week of training..

Things started slowly Monday & Tuesday time-frame, last weekend my allergies went beserk and I desperately took some decongestant over the weekend while the kiddos were visiting which put a damper on my sleep, I think it messes my REM sleep terribly...

Took Sebastian and Kaale to the pool and did a 1k time-trial.. I have to say that the decongestant masks alot of physical sensations, so I swam pretty well (for me) on very little perceived effort.

At anyrate, the rest of the week has gone well since it's rained like mad in Portland, cleaning up the air nicely. Thursday I had a big day of long swim, short bike and intense run, it was a nice way to find out if I can race crisply off big volume.

Naturally I felt pretty wiped out after all that but c'est la vie..

I'll keep plugging away as the outdoor season is about dawn on Oregon soon!

Managed to get back to the Track...

2009-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

After a couple of weeks absence..

So, managed 5k of 500m repeats w/varying rest (sometimes 100m jog float, other times 300m jog between the sets) @ L & M pace..

L pace stuff = 80 sec per 400m

M pace stuff= 76/77 sec per 400m

L= as a rule 5 sec per 400m faster then 5k race pace.. I think I'm in high 16min shape

M= 3 sec faster per 400m vs. L.. Or your 3000m race pace. 9.30 3000? Ooooh, that doesn't sound very sexy..

Anyhoo, the session was 6th run in six days, I was a little tired but got through it and my achilles felt fine..

Today resting it and a little ice. It'll be that way for a bit and I'll try to keep it on the trail as much as I can; but I think I'm good in terms of getting it back to healed.

Why I ride road drops on my TT bike...

2009-05-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have the TCR Aero 1 Team ONCE bike..

It's the same thing (other than material) as a Giant Trinity or Giant Aeryn (women's version)...

(As a matter of fact it is more stiff then the carbon bikes with all of extra gussets around the bottom bracket, not that I need it, but it's noticeable)

When I got the frame I never once considered riding it with time trial cowhorns and bar-end shifters...

Why?

For starters, it's my only bike and I've lived in places where space is at a premium. If I'm going to have a couple of bikes one will be set up to ride long distances in a near road position (I'm about 74.5 degrees actual (vs. 72 for pure road), the seat post is 74 degrees neutrally) and the other will be a mountain bike (which I have, well it's in the shop waiting on a new fork)..

Last summer I blogged about why I thought my folks would actually benefit from riding their TT bikes with road drops, ala Chrissie Wellington (and before that Thomas "Hell on Wheels" Hellriegel)

http://juhaviren.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-mean-time-people-still-think-they.html

Wellington's old coach, Brett Sutton goes on about why he set Chrissie up like this for all but straight line races.. You can read about it below as I linked to his interviews.

Outside of one season on a GT Edge TT bike w/cowhorns and bar ends I've always ridden this way, it doesn't make it right for everyone but for me the one full season I did ride exclusively on a TT bike I was uncomfortable much of the time and some days so much so I cut the ride short.

In the end, I knew I needed to optimize for comfort... The next two bikes had the same exact geometry and dimensions as the GT, the only change was swapping out the cockpit.

At any rate, in a racing situation, the idea is to stay as low and neat as possible...

When you see folks sitting up on the cow horns descending or cornering they aren't doing that; of course, it's better they don't take a risk and take a spill but here again, but I think we might be making another point for drops..

Anyway, here are Brett Sutton interviews:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Brett_Sutton_Interview_Part_1_j452.html

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Brett_Sutton_Interview_Part_2_459.html

Earlier in the week I was pontificating on the subject of Hammer Fests

2009-04-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Thought folks would find this a thoughtful piece around the subject:

http://www.xtri.com/coaches_display.aspx?riIDReport=5550&CAT=41&xref=xx

Hillarious: Caveat Emptor

2009-04-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Can't say I disagree with Mr. Sousa. :)

http://thetriathlonbook.blogspot.com/2009/02/caveat-emptor.html

A really quick word on race nutrition..

2009-04-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Someone recently said to me:

"All you really need is malto, water and salt to get through a ride"

Well, that's basically true.

I think this person read this: (I lifted it from the source verbatim)

"This is a summary of the use of the 3 limiting agents in endurance exercise.

Sugar (maltodextrin) Salt Water Period.

Everything else is pretty much marketing gimick.

The method I use to mix maltodextrin into my bottles for IM and HIM racing.

You need a measuring cup and a gram scale. The mix is a pure maltodextrin, no others sweeeteners, no taste, and no salts. I add these to the solutions."

Hmm, well, again basically true.

-Malto is carbohydrate which you need for energy, how many carbs you need in the formula is really something you need to gauge based on duration and intensity of the event. Obviously there are general rules here and I don't really need to list them as folks can vary by as much as a couple hundred kcals an hour of exercise.

There are other alternatives to a carb source outside of Malto, (it's really not the end all, be all) it all really depends on how you use (process) the carb. Dextrose is also a commonly used "agent" for carbs.

Without ponitficating on the advantages of one or the other it's worth giving either a try to see how they work for you.

-Salt is, uh, salt... How much you need is a tough one.. A person can have their sweat rate measured and attempt to leverage the data.. As a rule most humans fall into the same spectrum of salt loss, and naturally there are some outliers, folks who retain salt and others who lose alot of salt.

-Water is, duh, water and you need this for hydration.. The salt and water are critical components together because without the salt your ability to absorb water is diminished. Too much salt and an athlete becomes bloaty.

Marketing gimmics?

Well, there is peer reviewed research that supports the other agents added to a sports drink formula.

For me, it truly doesn't matter what extra stuff goes in there, and I guess I'm lucky in that regard. Mostly I need lots of carbs to keep going, a little salt (I'm pretty average in terms of salt loss) and my hydration needs usually (go figure) revolve around the weather.

So, just to clarify I've had extra stuff (beyond the basics listed above) and just haven't noticed a difference.

The big takeaway here has to be that we learn to train and race on the products that will be available at our key event race course, unless there is compelling reason not to.

I'd say if you load up the Tri bike w/four bottles of special formula and you eject a bottle in the course of Ironman then you have limited choices: You either go without the extra bottle or you grab what's on the course.

What would you rather do?

A week in workouts... 4/26

2009-04-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

All the gory details.

Week of 4/26

Monday-

Bike- Gorge ride, 2hrs 15min; flatted 5mi from car

Swim- 3000y, 750w/up & cool down, then 300,200,100x2 (4.38, 3.02.1.27) 200 pull, (4.45, 3.08, 1.32) McM community pool is rough !

Tuesday-

Bike- Just a touch over 2hrs out in McM, another warm day. (80's), just trying to punch in time and recover.

Run- early evening 50min to Linfield plus 2mi running on track. It was really warm!

Wednesday

Swim-3k=750w/up & cool down, then 300,200,100x2 (4.38, 3.02.1.27) 200 pull, (4.45, 3.08, 1.32) McM community pool is like swimming in the ocean, argh, no lap lanes.

Run- 30min to Linfield and back just going easy

Thursday

Bike- Trainer set

10min w/up 3x15min at 85% of FTP (HalfIM race wattage) 230-240w 10min c/d

Felt comfortable, but not a fun way to ride the trainer.

Friday

Moving into new place, super duper busy all day so workouts had to go out the window.

Run- easy run 30min to Nike campus & back

Saturday

Bike- 60mile Hammer Fest, err.. I mean fast paced ride done in Z4 most of the time.

Swim- late day I struggled through a truncated set about 2500 yards (250free, 250 pull paddles, 50 kick, 200 drills, 300,200,100, 250free, 250 pull paddles, 50 kick, 200 drills)

Sunday

Run- Good solid run w/Bryan & Matt on Wildwood (zoo to Pittock), 1 hour ten min

Swim- just north of 3k yards+

Set= 250free, 250 pull paddles, 50 kick, 200 drills, 3x500 (7.45, 8min flat, 8min flat on 30sec rest), 250free, 250 pull, 50 kick, 200 drills; The fives were a little rough because I shared a lane, but c'est la vie.

The Group Workout dynamic..

2009-04-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hmm, when I lived in Portland I started getting more detached from group runs as a runner, then as a Tri geek I loved the rides (not many group swim or run opportunities then)..

As a runner it was mainly because at the track I had my own program and didn't (still) didn't want to do a random workout that didn't fit into the meso cycle; I wasn't really ever worried about going too hard, as a runner I ran hard all the darn time!

What I was worried about though was running hills... Strange as it may seem when you're running seriously on the track the hills deaden your legs faster then anything.. So group runs that were hilly I avoided like the plague; though a couple of times I showed for some fun.

Once I moved to Seattle a couple of years ago even finding folks to ride with was a chore; sure I had groups I did weekly trainer interval sessions with (actually miss that) but I can count the number of times I rode with groups outdoors.. I didn't make a decision not to ride with folks so much as the option wasn't really there.

Swimming up there gave me plenty of options, but, I stayed away from masters swims in the morning because, while I get fit from the push, inside of two weeks of morning swimming I will have a niggle in my left upper back, just a knotted muscle but annoying. Something about the intensity that early in the morning freaks my bony little back out.

Where am I going with all of this?

Ah, well today I did my first group ride in ages and in Portland no less. It was an absolute hammer fest and while I was semi-prepared to deal with that the approach to the long ride it was much different then how I've approached building my cycling fitness.

Here are the over-arching tenets to my training approach as regards cycling:

-Build endurance:

My strategy with the cycling component of Triathlon is to be able to get off the bike fresh and run hard.

I've had mixed results with a cycling-centric approach and found success & balance in riding 4-5x a week an average of 2hrs a session.

That's still pretty darn hard when you're a working stiff, but it can be done, a person simply has to slice and dice the schedule to find time to to do so.. Again, reference my last post, I follow mod/hard days with easy days.

On easy days I ride how I feel and the wattage is the wattage meaning whatever the computer tells me is fine, I don't need a goal on an easy day other then getting out there for a spin and enjoying it.

-Build race specific speed:

Cycling in triathlon is unlike stand alone time-trials in that they are (usually) much longer than what single sport athletes deal with and as a result the emphasis really should be on endurance, not speed.

But, that said an element of speed is an important in a program where the orientation is performance and that happens to be me.

How do I get there? Wattage based training.

For each distance I race I take my Functional Threshold Power(FTP) and multiply it by an Intensity Factor (IF) to determine race goal wattage.

For example, if I race a Half Ironman distance I will target roughly 85% of FTP, but due to the vagaries of wind, descending and other elements beyond a rider's control in a race "hitting average race wattage" is usually difficult, if not impossible.

Finally, and most importantly, I approach the time-trial portion of a triathlon with the goal of going as fast as possible on the least watts.

This approach has served me really well, most of last summer I had top bike splits at most local races I competed in and rode 5.30 split at IMC on a windy and hilly course.

More importantly, if I use less watts for the same, or in many cases, better speed then another athlete it gives me an advantage when it is time to run..

"Ride for show, Run for dough."

As far as training is concerned, I allocate a small component of my training to sub-race wattage efforts; again for example I will find a course where I can ride steady wattage at (using the example above) 80% of race effort.

Why not faster? See below.

-Approach cycling as a subset of another sport: Triathlon

If you are a long course athlete chances are you workout a couple of times a day. If the first workout wrecks you it has a direct negative impact on the second workout.

This means that when you have a "quality session" on the schedule you'll need to be aware of either the scheduling of the other workout or how the intensity of one or the other workout impacts each other.

Additionally, due to the sheer volume of work we (I) do, a really significant element of intensity isn't important; think of the corollary in the Lydiard athletes (Snell, Halberg, etc.) also given the demands of the events the main emphasis is endurance.
____________________

So, what does this all have to do with the group workout dynamic.

Right. Yes, here we go:

Today I did a 60mi group ride. I came home and downloaded the data and was not shocked to see that I nearly recorded new "best average power" norms for 5min, 10min, 20min, 60min power.

I did, however, record a new best two hour power average.

A couple of things.. I was disturbed by this..

The ride was 3 hours and to be candid I think hitting those numbers should only ever happen in a controlled test or time-trial (in fact all of my best averages come from those kind of testing efforts) not in a group hammer fest.

My other thought was that perhaps those old norms aren't the norms anymore and I need to retest (it's entirely possible)...

All that said, I'm sticking to my philosophical guns on this one: Testing power happens in a controlled manner, training is training, and I like to follow the Bowerman axiom, "there will be no racing during workouts"...

Unfortunately I've found out that I need to control either how often I do these rides and accept that they are race-pace efforts, or just let people ride away..

Today I had a friend who had bonked hard and he really needed a wheel back to the car, I was more than happy to help and save myself for an evening swim set.

Next time? I dunno. I will probably only do group work rides that are super easy from here on out !

Figuring out what works and some other stuff

2009-04-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

And what doesn't.

It's funny that it has taken me roughly, uh, all six or so seasons to figure what works for me in Triathlon, and surprisingly, when I've tried to make a list about the what works for me in "life" I cannot pin down a solid list (only because I think some things are negotiable)...

It's a good exercise and I really think all of my friends who haven't tried it could benefit, so here's my Tri list:

What works:

1. I need to swim 3000y a session at least 3x a week to be a moderately poor performing triathlete.

To be a better than mediocre triathlon swimmer then we are looking at 3500y 4x a week average.

2. I perform better as a swimmer if I do dryland drills and use strength cords. I've never done it consistently but after a little consistency (recently) and having a good discussion recently about how women can really benefit from strength in the sport it dawned on me that I am in this boat, although, I am not a woman. :)

3. One day hard on the bike has to be followed by an easy day. I improve when there is a strong element of control in my program.

4. Running everyday year round works wonders for me as a triathlete (it did as a runner too).

5. Track works for me but I have to be careful with ratcheting up intensity. If intensity goes up too quick I usually have a niggle that lingers.

What doesn't work:

1. Failing to account for good recovery in terms of: Sleep and eating right.

2. Drinking too much. It leaves me tired, reduces my power measurably on the bike and in the swim and I can't run as long, though from years of hard running I can run pretty much any distance in any condition, I will just suffer to do so.

3. Lack of stability in life schedule: Duh, it makes it hard to plan a workout sked. Currently this a non-issue. I've moved back to Oregon; live near a pool & Nike campus (track, running trails) and have no job. The environment is conducive to plenty of training and not having a job makes it easy to plan sessions.

4. Emotional stability: I suppose it's a personal admission but when everything is hunky dory on the home front I can knuckle down and train with more focus and verve. It's linked to job and, well, personal life with a stable mate who is supportive.

5. Over-training. Seems obvious, but it's not for me. It's ride related; for example, I have tendency to "go bananas" when it's nice out and ride a ton as if I'm never going to see a sunny sky in another six months, but that's dumb and I'm used to training in pretty poor weather.
__________________

What have I been up to?

Well, it's been a couple of weeks of training, one of those was so-so and this last week and a half has been good. I got sick in the process of moving and that zapped me but I've been on top of doubles with a rest day (single) here and there and it's been going well since being ill..

Not setting the world on fire, but the consistency is there and I'm seeing little improvements; it is still spring time so the big thing is not be hurt, tick over good gears on the bike, run and swim alot without drilling myself.

And I also recently had a rude awakening around my perceptions, re Short-course racing.

I am not a short-courser.

Well, I know that *anyone* could have told me that but it took finding out that a guy who really got the best of me in a very short race last year I absolutely killed at IMC.

I've always suspected that maybe my lack of 20k/40k TT speed (and inability to swim fast for any distance) was an issue. Now I have proof.

All that said, I still *love* sprints darn it. I think they help me build fitness for the longer stuff, and as long as they are not a focus I think there is value in racing them.

Oh, the mountain bike is still in the shop, waiting on the replacement fork.. That will be fun too.

Training updates..

2009-04-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I've been pretty bad about getting detailed stuff up here... To be candid I sort of feel like it's boring, and well, the folks that follow things that closely know the routine.

Suffice it to say I've had a solid winter of base and managed to get my hip healed and strong.

The last couple of weeks things have been good, the main focus as usual is getting in the water lots and that's been happening. I'm not sure I've had any performance break through but I think that being able to swim "workout pbs" on the volume I'm doing is something. Not that those times would get anyone except me excited.

Running has been going nicely. I've started the winter lighter then normal and I've stuck to my diet plan from last season because, well, it worked to keep me light. I'm not trying to shed anymore weight, low to mid 140's is about right for training/racing. Also, I've been back at the track for about 5-ish weeks now, and the workouts are promising, meaning without really trying I'm doing the same sort of times I had just before IMC; again I chalk that up to weight.

Cycling as you might surmise is good. Power is where it should be, and maybe a little higher then it was last winter/spring and my weight is down.

If we benchmark progress using watts/kg then I'm doing great.

I can't really change my aerodynamics too much more unless I make some equipment changes, who knows, that could happen. As it is I'm pretty well optimized in races with the exception of the bars, I'm not really willing to change because we're talking about minimal ROI for straight line performance and most of the races I'm interested in are hilly enough that road bars are more beneficial when I climb.

So there you go. I'm being cautious with how hard I'm pushing because having good early fitness is great, having mid and late season fitness is even better.

This Organizational Development thing, let's demystify it...

2009-04-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Org Dev is a function under the HR umbrella whose primary function is to optimize the performance of an organization vis a vis programs whose aim is to benchmark key performance indicators, metric individual employees against those KPIs and broadly speaking, work with internal stake holders to optimize organizational structure (e.g. the org chart) for higher performance.

That's alot of corporate-y sound words.

Really what we're talking about is a function that at it's essence is about program management.

For example there are a variety of models "OD Practioners" employ to improve performance, one example being "Balanced Scorecard"..

(The jist of Balanced Scorecard incidentally is to benchmark and measure performance at the departmental level in an org because those activities are a leading indicator of near and mid-term success. Balanced Scorecard advocates allege fiscal results are a lag indicator (true) and look to sync those departmental (lead) indicators with the lag indicators.)

At it's heart Organization Development is a defined body of knowledge that's easily learned.

The primary difference between an effective OD function and not is applying the right model to the organization. Conceptually Balanced Scorecard and other models are all the same, but the discrete differences centered around those models are how they apply to small, mid or large organizations.

Naturally, things can be taken a step further; in large outfits such as IBM or Microsoft where individual business units or products really comprise a distinct business from other business units strategic application of discrete OD models could (and are) applied to optimize performance
in those respective business groups.

Pretty simple right?

So, if we could weight the qualities of a tactical and even a strategic resource's success we'd probably be talking about weighting program management expertise followed by smart application of domain knowledge/subject matter expertise.

Why are folks in HR so darn mystified by OD?

I call it the "black box syndrome"...

Folks either have a vague understanding of it or just don't get it period; if they are tasked to provide something for an OD program (an input) that input enters the program and later on the OD group magically produces some result (usually a report) that isn't fully understood either because it's not properly explained (or maybe marketed) by OD or we have a knowledge gap issue on the receiving side of the equation.

Net: stuff goes into the magical OD machine, really smart people with a master's degree in OD do stuff with it, but we don't know what and, poof, incomprehensible babble appears.

(That's from the POV of the HR folks participating in the process)

Solution:

Transparency around process and what the strategic vision and objectives of the OD program are.

Paint broad strokes, get folks in HR on board, some of them may be foot soldiers so-to-speak for the OD cause and having an "I don't know why I'm asking & collecting this data from you (internal stakeholder) but I have to because of XYZ initiative" doesn't do much to engender high levels of participation in a program.

Next up.. I'll explore building world class HR organizations, why we aren't, how we can in small and mid-sized companies.

Management Consulting models: relevancy, market share, context

2009-03-25T17:45:00.001-07:00

I've been giving this some thought for a stretch because right now management consultancies, regardless of industry, have at best a static pool customers (vs. a growing # of customers) with, again, at best, a fixed budget for outsourcing certain strategic activities to management consultancies.

At worst of course is a scenario where budget for that type of outsourcing is (or has been) reduced.

Assuming that the "pie" of revenues(mix of existing new & existing business) is not growing folks need to look at the marketing and biz dev component of their business as winning away customers from the competition.

There is really no other alternative when market conditions are showing stagnant or shrinking top-line growth.

The key selling point to customers for management consulting firms is that an org gains a high value added strategic (and/or tactical) partner.

Your business model must reflect that to the customer.

Historically consultancies will typically scale their business while marketing the value based on the equity holding partners who are usually the most experienced and hand off components of the client projects to junior partners who work for relatively small monetary rewards (relative to the partners), yet this practice winds up diluting the high value add value proposition.

Recently I've looked at some regional consultancies biz models and wondered how they sustain themselves..

Well, I think I've answered my own question !

Here's what needs to happen in this climate to win business:

Reduce number of junior partners the firm retains when project needs allow for it.

Equity partners get involved at the tactical biz dev level

Sr. Partners (equity or otherwise) pitch recommendations in appropriate client facing scenarios

Monitor scale of projects the firm takes on; if required leverage existing pool of junior partner relationships for those expanded client engagements.

Push your firms competitive advantage relative to industry niche

Refine or use creative pricing structures to entice new business and attract existing clients to provide additional project work.

At any rate, those were my thoughts on one or another bike ride last week..

Let me know if I can flesh this out differently, better, etc.

JTT's Triathlon Blog

2011 End of Season wrap

How Lung Cancer has impacted me and my fundraising efforts for The American Lung Assoc.

A slew of sorta updates

Freestyle instruction: How "kick more" is not useful for Triathlete swimmers

2011 Season Schedule- building training metrics

The big blog update

Aluminum Man, Cycle Oregon and Beaver Fever. Finally, the end of the season.

Mountain Triathlon, Camping, Crater Lake Century, etc.

Hagg Lake, Fitness and Skill components

The Blog as a marketing tool

"It's in his kick"

Time Trial notes...

Swim Myths

More on PineHollow..

My new training program.. and PineHollow Triathlon race report to come

Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon Race Report...

Reach the Beach- done & done

Swim myths

Intelligence

Whining sucks and somebody you know has it worse

Paschelke Swimming Hole

What sets you free?

Country pleasing to the eye and Witness Trees

Time for another update...

Saturday Ride Picture

An entry that's not a quote

Being whoever you want to be

Shamrock 8k... quick report

We are not swans. We are sharks.

Egalitarian curtains

Strange but true... early season on-bike power

Sums things up..

Cliched but true: The fog's been lifting

Hard work: Honor, Loyalty, Perseverance, Strength

I'm sick and training has taken a dive. Help me Gods of Multisport

The Basic Week..

Fighting for what you want

Gosh, I don't have a material update...

I'm so glad I don't race Cyclocross...

Thought provoking..

For my Ivy league and Stanford educated friends..

How I *didn't* manage a 4.30 x 70.3 or did I?

Swim was an issue, first 1k was ok (17min) next Kilometer my back and shoulder wasn't happy.

At any rate I was just thinking about the swim time after looking at my pics today and it suddenly dawned on me where the time went...

I hate to make excuses but since the accident I really haven't been swimming *great* plus have had to do Naproxen for the pain and usually faded pretty badly in longer workouts, so I knew that was an issue and might be a problem today..

Could not have said it better myself

Thoughts on next season...

Back and shoulder healing...

I have some impulse buying issues..

Lest anyone think Kona is a cake walk..

Disaster Week

Life is not a dress rehearsal

Being Excellent. No, not like Bill and Ted.

Aluminum Man Sprint

Mad Minute La Vuelta survival guide

Apparently I stirred the pot...

Reaching for the stars?

Hoda and Natalie Morales Triathlon

Of Tri tards, clubs, in-fighting, etc.

"Aero" frames?

Ouch

What it takes..

Quick update

Just for comparison: Seafair vs. Issaquah

Seafair: done and done.

Quick how's it going this week..

Running off the bike...

Oh and hey.. those darn results got posted.

Purposeful Training - Week of 7/5

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie": Managing your race matters

Regarding yesterday's post...

The legal definition of idiot

Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookie "Tri the Cookie" (Bellingham)

"Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical"

FTP work, Bronchial spasms, Albuterol, Swimming fast to swim faster.. Life is changing.

Triathlete Magazine and physiology...

Good track session yesterday...

My template/protocol for getting FTP up (or maintain it)

Long Chain Carbs vs. Short chain as endurance racing nutrition..

How I didn't manage a 4.30 x 70.3 or did I?

I hate to make excuses but since the accident I really haven't been swimming great plus have had to do Naproxen for the pain and usually faded pretty badly in longer workouts, so I knew that was an issue and might be a problem today..