Mr. Cleetus: Training & Travelling

[Mr. Cleetus]

Since having a baby last December all race goals have expectedly gone out the window! After pretty much an all time low of fitness in about March, I am on the build again. Though I am still without any real race goals which has left my training a bit unstructured. Thats fun for a while, but I think it is time to get organised again and maybe doing a training log for the first time in 20 years might help. We'll see how long I manage to keep it going...

Racing for this season is pretty open still with nothing marked for sure. I was hoping to do a half-hearted Ironman WA in November, and I am not sure what the latest is with that, otherwise I will hopefully do some local 1/2 Ironman's, plenty of offroad running racing including some epic weekends with friends, and some bike racing including TT's. (my wife is clearly pretty supportive...)

My current fitness is ok but not great. I have been steady since April except for 3 weeks overseas for work where almost nothing happened. I did a half marathon about 6 weeks ago in 1.33, which was a personal worst, but was expected based on the very little running and no long running I had done, so not disappointing! Since then I have pretty regularly been getting 3 swims/week with a Master's squad, cycling erratically 1 to 4 times/week with a 4 hourish ride on the weekend, and running 2-5 times a week with a few ~ 2 hour runs in there. This past week things have stepped up a bit having done the Mukumuka Munter running race on Sunday, it's a brutal offroad 29km race over nasty nasty terrain, much w/o a track, unbelievably difficult and fun. That one took me 3 hours 50. owa. This weekend I have a 15km offroad race, but a nighttime one where you are required to run with a partner. Its a very hilly one, but not as anywhere as difficult as last weekend. I expect to not be recovered yet, but it still will be a blast.

Sooo, this week has been:
Monday: day off, needed recovery as I was munted from the munter!

Tuesday: lunchtime, 30 min ez flat run. pm, 1 hour spin on the flat on the fixxer

Wednesday: am, Master's swim, 1 hour straight swim, 1st time we have done that at squad. pm, 1 hour hill run at Dry Creek. Still a bit cooked from Sunday.

Thursday: took it easy since still tired and next race already looming, so 1.15 easy spin on the fixxer.

[fredrikw]

good to see you've started a training log. it looks a bit weird talking about a coming race season now at the end of us northie's season.

[Mr. Cleetus]

ja, its always painful to watch you guys talking about racing and training as we are riding in the miserable rain down here!

ok, better keep this up! Day 2:

am swim squad: 1200m steady, 900m with every 4th in IM order, 600 paddles w/heads up every 3rd, 400 kick w/every second on back, 200 w/d. another funny workout design and i felt buggered. (~1hr)

since still tired and worried about race tomorrow, just 30 min spin on fixxy while commuting.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Saturday:
AM - 2.15 ride with one other, easy, but some tuff hills: haywards, moonshine, liverton. Felt a bit tired, but just taking it easy for the race in the PM

PM - Butterfly Creek night race. Offroad, 15km, 800m climbing (some of it wicked steep) and some serious bush bashing on the non-existant middle section of track. Required to run with partners and partner popped about 10 mins up the first climb so we werent moving too quickly from then on. Great fun, lost the track 7 or 8 times, but never got completely lost like some others. I felt great and had too keep waiting on partner - but he did a great job on his limited fitness and he was pretty munted at the end. Not sure what our time was, but it was over 2 hours. I think we finished mid-pack. ah well...

Sunday:
Busy family day, so just time for a quick swim. Main set 4x500 (mix of normal, paddles and pb). I was a bit tired. 2.5km <50mins

[Mr. Cleetus]

Monday

AM: Squad Swim, 1km warmup with various drills (1 arm, catch up, heads up, think that was it), 4x75m IM order, 300kick, 4x75IM order, 400m pull w/every 4th IM order, 400 steady. 2.7km i think I am forgetting a set - I thot it was over 3km. felt ok.

LUNCHTIME: 40 min run, Sam's Course - one ~10min climb and a bit of off road. felt good going up, a bit tired on the way down.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Tuesday
AM: Bike, trainer session. 40 mins total. 30s-3min (off=on) ladder at 300W - which was my FT last time I tested, but clearly is no more! I could not hold it by the last couple. then 6 mins standing. I have some serious work to do - this was the first intensity I have done in many months, and it showed.

PM: Swim, 500m w/u, 500m mix of free and c/u. Then the same session as yesterday as I managed to jump in with the eve version of the same squad. ~4km total. 1.20

I have decided to do a bit of a 2 week swim block. We have a TT coming up in the pool in a few weeks, so a little focus will do me good.

Wednesday
AM: Squad Swim, 6x50 free/back, 200 alfred's, 400m getting out and diving in at the end of each length, 6x75 fly, 6x50 sprints, with 5 press ups after each 50, then repeat the 400, 6x75, 6x50. 200 w/d. ick, that was a brutal set, I am gonna have sore shoulders for a couple of days after that one. It was much harder than I thought it was gonna be! 1.15

PM: 1.26 off road hill run. ~16-17km and 600m vertical, around the sanctuary. Felt very good - first time in ages I felt like I had some strength on the climb and some fitness

[Mr. Cleetus]

Thursday: A friend was doing 2x20's at lunch time, so I switched things around to join him. foolish me.

AM: Swim, easy 2km drill set. 45 mins (quite a bit of catch up work...)

Lunch time: bike, 2x20's. I havent done these in ages. I was scared. I decided to not do them properly and just to shoot for a conservative range that I knew I could make w/o killing myself as I thot that was more useful than doing them properly and probably blowing up. I probably just thought that to make my life easier... It might have been more useful to really see what my FT is, but it is soo early for intensity anyway. Last time I did these, like I said the other day, my FT was 300W. Based on the way I have been riding recently I thot 250-270 was a reasonable range to be in. Spring seems to be coming early as we had 44kph winds out there which I struggled with. On the flat and consistent sections 250-270 felt easy, into the wind and up the hills I struggled and my W were low. Clearly I am lacking strength right now, but then, I know that. just confirmed even more. I havent downloaded the PT yet, but I was probably 250ish. eeeek. total ride time 1.15


....don't forget 30mins commuting on bike. not always so easy, so I'll include it.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Friday:

AM: Swim squad, 900m w/u mix drills free, back; 1000m every 4th IM order, steady pace; 1000m w/400paddles, 200fr, 400paddles, pace was pretty hard; 600 steady. 3.5km

Lunch: 44min run. Up the hill again, 230m up, then loop around back down w/a sidle in the middle with some up and down. 280m total. Felt reasonable. Maybe running a few too many hills right now, but thats what i am motivated to do, so I will go with it.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Saturday:

AM. I decided to do one of the early season bike races, even tho I was seriously underfit for it. Just a short race (45km?) so we rode to and from it, something like 3.45 hours total. Weather was shockingly bad. I felt ok during the race, very strong on the flat actually, but had nothing up the last 5 min climb - but I knew that was coming. Winds during the race were 40-50kph with much stronger gusts. A friend avg'd 350 watts at <30kph for one 7 min stretch into the wind. At the time we were riding home, I saw later, there were gusts up to 120kph at various places on the harbour - no wonder 4 of us were simultaneously blown off of our bikes. not fun. welcome to windy wellington.

PM. Inter-squad swimming races. A not so serious swim competition - but the effort turned out to be more than I expected! I did 4 events, 50m relay, 150m drill race (75 kick, 75 feet first), 100m IM, 400m. Considering that the 400m was about 3min after finishing my IM and that I got stuck behind two others (we were circle swimming), and everything I had done previously in the day, I was very happy with my 5.45 400. W/o being stuck behind, a 5.35 might have been reasonable - swimming seems to be going ok.

Sunday:
AM, 90 min very hilly off-road run. We picked up a couple of new harriers guys to the group so the pace was on! Good fun, and I felt strong. Running seems to be finally coming along too.


PM. urrrggghh, the stomach flu my wife had a week ago has finally hit. Looks like there will be some days off for me!

[soniczip]

hi there i decided to look into your log because, when you posted in mine, i discoverd you do triathlons ... it's very interesting from my perspective cause i'm a novice triathlete and my swimming is extremely poor at the moment.

anyway, i've never seen anybody mentioning "watts" in trainings. is it a cycle thing? or maybe australian? how do you see it? also, what do you mean by 2X20's cycling? one circuit, two laps @ different intensities?

see ya

[Mr. Cleetus]

Hi - I just had a look back thru your log a bit more: where's all your swim training?!? I remember being like that back in the early days (I did my first tri in 1985!). I was lucky to swim a few times a month. But in the last 10-15 years I have really started to enjoy my swimming. What it took for me was some concentrated time with a coach and a squad. One solid winter really made the difference for me. Also, moving up to the longer races gave me little choice...

Watts = power = a measure of energy expenditure. You can get power meters for your bike that are basically a torque meter fitted into either the axle in your rear hub (PowerTap), your cranks (SRM) or your bottom bracket spindle (Ergomo). They are not cheap, however. Watts are a potentially better measure than heart rate, cuz watts are, more-or-less, always watts. Meaning if your ride at 250W up a hill, into the wind, on the flat, or after 5 hours, it is always the same effort. Whereas HR is changed by how well you are, temperature, hr drift, etc. Watts are very good for pacing in longer races (TT's and tris) and also good for interval training. However there is of course good info in heart rate too. It is getting more and more common to use them - Dave Noisy on here also uses one. I love mine! Best training tool I have ever had. It does take some time to learn how to use it properly tho.

2x20 means 2 x 20 min efforts on the bike with a very short rest between (~1-3mins). It is supposed to be somewhat similar to a 40k TT effort. From it you get what some people call your functional threshold (FT) which is more or less your average watts for the 2 efforts. You can use this to test your fitness and also to calibrate other training you do. The 2x20's are hard work, but I quite like the workout and have had good progress from them in the past I believe.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Wednesday: back at it today, we will see how I feel as I am still not 100%

AM: Swim squad. w/u 900m 300fr, 300kick, 300free, then 6x400 and a solid pace with 1 min rest. 200 w/d. We were 5.50 to just over for 6 for the 400's. However I sat in for all of them as I did not want to over do it (and I probably would have had I gone to the front) - except the last one where everybody suddenly disappeared except for me and one other - and he dropped me as he upped the pace to a 5.30. I felt surprisingly ok at the steady pace, I had no top end tho. 3.5km total. 1.05

Lunch: Yoga. 1 hr - its a pretty low intensity yoga - not much strength stuff and much stretching, relaxation.

PM: Off road run 1.10 in the hills. felt ok, but took it easy on the ups.

[Dave Noisy]

anyway, i've never seen anybody mentioning "watts" in trainings.

What the freak - my log is packed full of watt references!!! =P

Jerk!! hehehehee

[Dave Noisy]

Got a Tri question for ya...

Carmichael, coach for Lance, in his book talks about how if you want to get good at a cycling discipline, you should train it a lot.

For example, many cyclists will repeat weeks where they do one day hills, one day sprints, a few long rides, etc.. Carmichael, instead, recommends spending a few weeks doing hills, then a few weeks doing sprints..etc... The specificity of that training allows for much greater development in that area, compared to the 1/week typical cycle.

I'm wondering how that would apply to triathlon...?? What if, leading up to an event, you spent say a month in the pool, focusing 100% on swimming, then a month running, then a month cycling, then in the weeks leading up combining them all again (with a heavier focus on the events trained earlier of course) -- any possibility one might end up with better overall fitness in each?

This is just a thought, and rough outline.. Of course, it might be wise to throw in a run and bike once a week in the swimming cycle, and mix up the others, but overall, *really* focus on specific training..

Whaddya think? (Hope you don't mind me tossing this in your log!! Feel free to create a new topic if you think this warrants more discussion..)

[Mr. Cleetus]

Carmichael, coach for Lance, in his book talks about how if you want to get good at a cycling discipline, you should train it a lot.

ohhh, careful how much you listen to him, you might end up with something funny in your blood! shhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hope you don't mind me tossing this in your log!! Feel free to create a new topic if you think this warrants more discussion..)

no worries, I am finding my log a bit dry myself.


Actually, what you suggest is not all that uncommon, I have been known to put in many 1100km+ bike weeks myself - probably some of my most enjoyable training weeks actually. Depending on when it is in the season you really need to keep up some of your other training during the block too - just at a much lower level. As you say, specificity is the key, so all of your fitness does not necessarily cross disciplines.

You can do many different variations. In normal training people might do 1 week focus blocks where you really focus on one discipline the first week, the next week the next discipline, and the third the last, followed by an easier week - that gets complicated to schedule tho! It might be something like 6 bikes with 2 long ones and 3xSwim and 3xRun for the first week, etc.. And in winter time and early season people often take quite a bit longer blocks to focus on an individual sport - especially if they have identified a weakness (or just want to change things up). Things like racing the harriers season is good in the winter.

It would be hard to do a month long block closer to an event tho as you really don't want to lose the specific fitness of any of the sports. Having said that some of my fastest Ironmans (and Ironman runs) have come when I really focused on the bike (and swimming) all season due to running injuries - so you never know.

--I guess I am mainly referring to Ironman training here, but I guess similar ideas make sense for shorter stuff too.

I think you are right and probably not enough people do this - especially in the early/off season. I think most triathletes would benefit from bike racing and TT'ing as well. I think many have no idea...