Wednesday, May 21, 2014

"Gentlemen Start Your Engines"

In honor of the Indianapolis 500 this weekend, my triathlon race season will be kicking off on June 1st with Ironman Raleigh 70.3.   Looking forward to a great race this year.    I will provide some updates in the next week on my training and preparation for next Sunday.   Look forward to a great race.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

2014 Race Schedule

Here is my reschedule for 2014.   Hope to see you at these races.


  • Jones Racing Company - Belews Lake - April 12, 2014
  • Ironman 70.3 Raleigh - June 1, 2014
  • Ironman 70.3 Syracuse - June 22, 2014
  • Set Up Events – Triangle Triathlon - July 19, 2014
  • FS Series - Battle of Buckhorn - July 26, 2014
  • Ironman 70.3 World Championships - September 7, 2014
  • Set Up Events – Wilmington Triathlon - September 27, 2014
  • Sunday, November 17, 2013

    Functional Overreaching Block Training

    There is a constant debate on what is the right mix of volume and intensity.  Some are believers of reduction in volume replaced by high intensity workouts with recovery and a larger mix of anaerobic workouts vs aerobic workouts.  Others believe in enormous volume to improve aerobic base and sustained speed will be a byproduct of aerobic fitness.

    I have tried doing each of these approaches over the past years with some success but probably no big surprise here, you need to have both volume and intensity in your training to really build sustainable speed for long distance racing.  

    The intensity approach tends to really fatigue the body and mind which increases recovery requirements and decrease the focus on aerobic fitness.  With this approach, I tend to generate speed but lose some of that overall fitness required for sustainable power over long races.

    The volume approach tends to build habits of just getting workouts done without any focus on quality.  I end up just focusing on getting it in and not really any process of building a combination of speed and quality.  I will tend to sacrifice my intensity workouts for adding volume. 

    I believe the best approach that has worked for me over the past 10 years has been “functional overreaching” (training through heavy fatigue).   Be warned, that this a higher risk approach that could lead to overtraining if you don’t time it correctly.  I think this works best for athletes that have a strong aerobic base from years of volume training and may have reached a plateau in performance.  
    Here is how “functional overreaching” works. 

    Set the base
    Start with a 4-8 week block of consistent training in each discipline.  You may have to work up to this based on your fitness level (pre-base training).  Set the base with a minimum of 3 swims, 3 runs, 3 bikes.  One easy aerobic, one tempo, and one anaerobic workout for each discipline.  Do the same workouts for 4-8 weeks.   Don’t increase volume or length of intensity during base setting.  Base may vary based on your current fitness and volume levels but just keep it the same for 4-8 weeks.

    Overreaching blocks
    Now it is time to push into the overreaching zone.  Start with only increases in volume for the first few blocks.  Increasing intensity can be tricking because it is harder to control exactly how much fatigue you get and you risk turning some of your aerobic workouts into anaerobic ones.   Start with increasing volume across all disciplines by 15% in week 1.  If you are struggling to recover after the 1st week, then maintain this increase for the next 2 weeks.  If you feel normal, increase volume by another 10%.  As soon as you start to feel unusually fatigued hold that volume for 2 weeks.  

    Recovery week
    The biggest mistake that is made in overreaching is not using the recovery week correctly.  Many people just go back to the base week that was set during our first 4-8 weeks.   You really want to drop back 60% off your base week with a lot of sleep.  If you have completed the overreaching block correctly, the body should be fatigued and needs this rest to rebuild.  If you still feel bad after the recovery week.  Take another week at about 40% off the base week and then do another  overreaching block starting where you left off with volume for the previous block. 

    Monitoring Fatigue
    Include a 5-6 mile run when you are setting your base training that you will run every week right below threshold.  Run this at the same heart rate each week.  At the end of the run, time how long it takes you to get below 125 bpm.  If you see sudden increases in recovery time, you have reached fatigue and the overreaching zone, continue your overreaching block for 2 weeks.

    I am looking forward to implementing this starting with base through December and January and then into some overreaching blocks.  I will keep you updated on how this works.  

    2014 Triangle Multisport/Inside-out Team Mission

    I am excited to be training and racing for the Triangle Multisport/Inside-out Elite Team in 2014.  We are going to work hard to have great year as a competitive team and providing some great services to the local community continuing to support Cid Cardoso Jr and Dave Williams commitment to youth triathlon and family fitness.   Child obesity is continuing to rise and as triathletes we need to support wellness through exercise in our community.  

    2014 First Endurance Sponsorship

    I am happy to announce a sponsorship with First Endurance for 2014.  I love their products and will be providing reviews throughout the year.  

    Wednesday, September 11, 2013

    Ironman 70.3 World Championship Race Report

    Overview
    What a great experience in competing in the 70.3 World Championships.  I think this was a good step in my ultimate goal of qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Kona.   The Las Vegas course was the most challenging 70.3 course I have done and the competition was the deepest I have ever seen including the 5 Ironman events I have completed.   There were 1000 athletes from the US and 1300 international athletes that were all very strong, fit, and serious.  I have never seen so many $10,000+ bikes.  I evaluated the pro finishing times from years past and I know I had to reset my expectations and add about 20 min to my finishing time so I set my goal to finish under 5 hours.   I ended up finishing 4:58 and 68th in my age group out of 494.  Here is a summary of my race.

    Race Morning
    I got up at 4:45am and Julie and I were planning to leave the room at 5am.  I walked to the swim start the morning before to do a practice swim and it was about a mile walk from the hotel.  Our plan was Julie was going to grab me a bagel and coffee and I was going to head to the race start to get my bike ready because transition was closing at 6am.  I knew I was going to have a lot of time between transition closing and my race start of 7:28 so I figured a bagel and coffee would be perfect.

    My first "SUCK" moment (remember my theme for the site is Embrace the Suck) was getting to the hotel lobby and seeing a complete downpour outside.   It never rains in Vegas but this morning it was pouring.

    Like and idiot I stuck to my plan and walked to the race start in the cool, dark, rain.  I was the only one walking down a path that was very crowded the morning before but failed to find out that the hotel shuttle was taking people to the race start.  I saw 4 shuttles pass me and I could just hear the athletes inside saying "who's that idiot walking".

    I actually enjoyed the walk and gave me time to reflect and prepare of the race.  By the time I got to the race start I knew exactly what I had to do.  I prepared my bike, pumped my tires, loaded my water bottles, and was ready to roll.

    Luckily, there was a large covered bridge that went over the lake that provided cover from the rain.  I went in there to look for Julie but there were 1000s of people set up everywhere.  I walked and walked and could not find her.  Like a idiot, I gave her my phone in the morning so I had no way to contact.

    I saw a small opening on the floor next to a nice family with matching yellow shirts.   I set down and they instantly adopted me for the morning.  They were the Palmers from Ellicott City, MD and there daughter was Lauren Palmer competing in 25-29.  She actually qualified at the Raleigh 70.3 in Laura Gersten's age group where she finished 6th overall.  Small world.

    They let me use there cell phone, gave me a bagel, peanut butter, and some water.  I finally found Julie and was ready to go but had to make one final stop at the porto potty.

    My "SUCK" moment #2 - NO TOILET PAPER.

    Finally ready to go.  Put the HUUB on, sucked down a gel with some caffeine, got a great hug and last words of encouragement from my wonderful wife, and off to the start.




    Swim
    We were suppose to have 3 waves of the 40-44 group but they decided to start us all together.  494 guys fully jacked up.  I anticipated a lot of bumping.  I had my usually plan I discussed with Raz and JP.  I swam about 50 meters to the swim start which is an in water start.  The lake is very narrow and very dark in color. It was the color of a dark tea.  After treading water for about 2 minutes I move up to 3rd or 4th row.  I started out fast and then jumped on feet.  It was not rough at all.  I think everyone is very experienced so we gave each other room and started drafting.   I thought we got to the turnaround pretty quickly and it started to spread out. I saw a guy much bigger than me and jumped on his feet.  He created a great draft for the second half of the swim course.  I thought about jumping out around him but every time I tried I noticed my energy level sky rocket and I was only going to gain 20 sec on the guy.  I thought conservatively and stayed on his feet.  I was pleasantly surprised when I exited the water that I swam a pretty comfortable but hard 32 minutes.

    Here is a video from Julie on the swim start.  You can see me wave to her.  I have red on the back of my swim skin.



    Bike
    TI was a pretty long run and most of it was very muddy from the rain.  It was still raining as I got my bike and headed out on the course.   The first thing I see is my amazing dedicated family including my in-laws Bob and Judy, Mom and Dad, and my daughters Ashley and Mackenzie.   They made me laugh as they stood in the rain with their garbage bags on just like IM Lake Placid.

    The bike course starts with a pretty steep hill. My heart rate was high from the swim at about 160 bpm and I tried to settle down but there are so many hills in the first 5 miles before you get a really good down hill to catch your breath.  I started getting past by about 5-7 guys in my age group was in a normal race is very unusual for me.  Then another 5 guys passed me.  This was starting to make me mad so for the next 10 miles I rode with these guys but my heart rate was skyrocketing.  I had to put my ego away around mile 15 and settle back to my pace.

    The next 30 miles were constant up and down hills.  Nothing we can really simulate in our area because it so consistent  and long there.  You go up and then go down all the time.  By mile 40 I started feeling really good.  I began to pick it up for the last 16 miles and I am really happy that I backed off some on the bike. I ended up passing a lot of people in the last 10 miles that were just out of gas and I also felt great going into the run.   The course is really narrow out in the desert.  There was not a lot of room and I saw one bad wreck that needed an ambulance and A LOT of flat tires.  Not sure why there were so many flat tires.  I thought the road conditions were good.  I did not see a lot of blatant drafting but there were definitely guys working together on the edge of legal.  For the most part, I think it was fair racing and really challenging course.

    I kept to my planned nutrition taking in a gel every 40 minutes and I only had a couple of salt tabs.  I had prepared for 100 degrees on the bike so I was carrying 3 bottle but only went through about a 1 1/2 bottles per hour.   It was still raining and overcast with the temperature in the low 80s.

    Run 
    When I got to T2 sun was out so I knew the run course was going to start to heat up. It still was not that hot but probably in 80s.  The run course is challenging with 2 challenging climbs on each loop.  You end up running the 3 loops so it ends up being 6 climbs.  I did this first loop pretty comfortable and then starting pushing myself for the 2nd and 3rd loops.  My run pace was what I expected with running about 8:15 to 8:30 on the up hills and 7:00 to 7:15 on the down hills.   I continued nutrition on the run course taking a gel about every 3-4 miles.   I also drink water and used ice at every aid station.  I began taking down coke on the last loop and finished hard but feeling pretty good about my day.

    Here is a quick video my passing my family near the finishing line.



    My Support Team
    I want to thank my family Bob, Judy, Mom, Dad, Ashley, Mackenzie and Julie.   They are always so supportive and understanding when Dad has to do weekend workouts. I also wanted to thank my coaches John Payne and Raz Cuparencu that did a great job preparing me over a short timeframe for this race.


    Saturday, September 7, 2013

    Ready to go

    Just finished a simple pasta dinner and ready to go to bed. Got to get up at 4:45am tomorrow. These point to point races require a lot of travel time to the transition areas so I am a little tired tonight. I was able to get most of this done this morning. Dropped my run gear off that included sneakers, visor, sunblock, gels, water bottle.  I decided to try to carry a water bottle on the run because of my experience with heat at IM Wisconsin. It may not be as hot as expected tomorrow but I am have prepared for the heat. I dropped my bike off at T1 after IOS worked on the shifting and the the run from the swim exit to the bike is long and hilly.  I anticipate a long transition.  This is a really hard course and it should be challenging but fun tomorrow.