The Sea Monster

Here’s a wrapup of last week’s goings on…

First, some shout-outs:

Jay and Don’s excellent Wildflower adventure (they both stormed the Olympic).

Don and Jay, swim teammates, arrive at the swim team BBQ Sun pm.

Steven was slated for the Eugene Marathon for Sunday and was going for a PR. Not sure if he did it but if you read his blog and follow along, it’s probably a done deal.

Here’s the workouts:

Tue: No workout, but got to meet Dean Karnazes at a tri team event (see post below). Very cool.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get more training in than last week. Approx 5-6 hours this week.

Sat: 3:16 45 mile am bike from Simi thru Thousand Oaks to Westlake via Kanan and back (click here for the map noting that we didn’t start in Moorpark). This was my first real ride of the season. I followed Diva Tracy throughout. There were a lot of lights, turns, a couple of big hills, a few downhills (we both hit 46.3mph on the Westlake northbound downhill… just flew). I only had 3 hours sleep the night before and I felt it until around mile 25 when everything just felt strong. We talked alot so I knew I was managing to stay aerobic. I did have some derailer issues and then on around mile 30 or so, it just went out of adjustment and I had to rid the big ring back :-(. Then at mile 40 or so, I hit a pothole on Olsen going around 25. The yellow sponge fired out of my aero bottle blasted off my forhead, then the rear tire hit and half the gatorade in the bottle drenched me. Ugh! I thought I had torqued the front wheel but it was OK.

We rode straight to a bike shop where we planned to see the Diva’s (yet unmamed, but not for long) new bike getting outfitted (All Professional Bicycle Shop) in Simi.

I left the Sea Horse for a major tune-up and while I was there, I was very impressed with All Pro Bike shop and how the owner measured Tracy. I decided to get measured for for a full-on pro fitting (since I only had a very basic fitting so far) and will return next week to get fit on the bike.

Oh yeah… I overheard Diva Tracy comment to the owner: “Oh he’ll wait… he likes to shop… like a chick.” But wait… it gets worse: I was measured as having very long legs, a short torso, and very long arms. “Hmmm, they don’t make a woman’s bike that big, but it looks like we can fit you to your bike.” (Haha, extremely glad to hear that!). I’ll report back on the fitting in a separate post.

Sun: am swim clinic (water feel, flip turns), then 1100 yard recovery swim: 200 free, 200 pull, 100 kick/fins, 5×100 on 1:45/2:15 30sec RI. 100 cool down. I was supposed to ride 1:50 and I rode 3:16… and today was supposed to be the long swim, but I was _trashed_ and felt it on the swim.

Sun: pm run 50 min moderate pace 137HR throughout. 3.2 miles, 15:23/mile pace (fastest I can go and still have that low of an HR). Ran the treadmill 78rpm (13 right heel strikes/second). I looked like George Burns running but I kept it steady, felt strong, and could have gone another hour. Btw, to run at this pace, I listened to songs from the Killer’s Hot Fuss album (Mr. Brightside, Change your Mind, Why Don’t you Find Out For Yourself). I just go for the cadence… I’m the worst at picking lyrics out of songs. Only the music part. But if you run slow in base mode like I do, it helps.

Sun: swim team BBQ, lots of fun. Here’s some pics…
Most of the team (the rest were in the house):

Queen of the grill (thanks Tracy for the grillin’ and to Bob for the great time and hospitality).

Thanks for reading, hope your training and racing is going well.

Dear Mike,
Best wishes in all your endeavors. May the wind be at your back.

Warm regards,

Dean Karnazes
April 29, 2008

PS, Keep up the night running :-)

Me with Diva Tracy and Dean. They’re dressed like twins… :-)

—–
My tri team had Dean Karnazes speak last Tuesday night. I brought my copy of his book:
Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner to get it signed.

I read his book in my first tri season and was so inspired, I started night running.

When I walked up to meet Dean, I was at a complete loss for words. My friend and fellow triathlete “Diva” Tracy came along and I heard her asking Dean questions on my behalf. I think I heard my voice ask about dogs chasing him on one of his 50 marathons, swimming (he said he likes to do the Alcatraz Sharkfest swim), and triathlons (he has done long course but has yet to do Kona–it’s on his list).

We watched a showing of the documentary about Dean running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states: the Endurance 50). An amazingly inspiring film and it turned out we were sitting next to Dean’s dad. It was so very cool to see how many people Dean has inspired who came out to run with him during the Endurance 50.

For me, it was like getting to meet Batman, watching a documentary on his real-life adventures, then litening to speak about his experiences and wrapping up by answereing our questions.

Coolest thing Dean said all night? “I need to leave now so I can go run later tonight.”

Awesome.

First, the Kahuna published an article about this week’s shark attack on a triathlete in Solana Beach. I’ve surfed since I was a kid, have logged many hours scuba diving, and now I’m an ocean swimmer. Most of my time spent in the water has been in in LA and Orange County waters and I am lucky to have never seen a shark, but it’s always in the back of my mind. Condolences to the swimmer’s family and friends.

I got in around 5 hours total last week… a light week but key for a few reasons. I was able to stay below my plans HR thresholds and I noticed that I ended each workout feeling very strong. On my long bike and my run, I felt like I could have gone another hour.

* Tue:
- PM 60 min masters swim: We were doing 50s, 75s 100s, and 150s on a short rest interval set. I was able to hold 75s on 1:10 with a 1:20 send-off.

* Sat:
- Long bike: 1:40 _gym_ bike ride, kept HR at 142. 25 miles, averaging just 145 watts. I fully blew it and forgot my gels and ran out of energy around 1:20 into it. I kept the cadence at 90-100 and was relaxed, breathing easy, and felt I could have nodded off. But I kept the HR at or below 142 for the duration. No tail wind, no sweet downhills, no rest, no Starbucks, but no constantly stopping for traffic lights. I wore loose knee length baggy lycra gym shorts over my tri shorts (when in Rome…) and I kept sliding down on the seat. Note to self, if riding the hell-bikes in the gym, wear full bike shorts.

* Sun:
- AM swim clinic. We broke down the freestyle stroke and worked on catch and pull drills. Afterwards, I got some rotation drills and several things clicked and I learned some things I need to work on. Basically, I do the pull phase like a pitcher who just throws the ball w/out a wind-up. I rotate but I’m not tying everything together. When I did it right, I felt much more fluid.

- PM run: 50min _gym_ treadmill. Kept HR at 137. Had to run really slow (15min mile, 78rpm pace) continuously to do that but I got it done.

My old HR monitor, the Polar M32 finally quit (it got waterlogged a few times but pulled through). I’m looking at the new Garmin GPS/HR monitors. If anyone reads down this far first, thanks and second, any recommendations?

Hope you’re training and racing is going well!

I was really intrigued by the plan Iron Dave (see below) received from MarkAllenOnline.com so I joined with a plan to ramp up for Camp Pendleton Olympic. It’s the perfect point in the season for Arizona in November because it’s 20 weeks out and they have a plan starting on that date to carry me through.

Once I joined, I was able to enter some variables, plan my rest day (Monday), and pick which days I wanted to swim, run, bike, and lift. The plan emphasizes various degrees of weight training. They offer maintenance and peak plans. I signed up for the peak plan.

For this olympic plan, there’s 11 workouts per week based on 3×3 events plus 2 weight sessions. (You can ramp that up or down at the initial plan creation phase.) The most challenging part about setting up the plan was so that a minimal number of events were consecutive. You get a day or week’s view (no month view). One notable feature is the absence of a traditional periodization schedule–you just look at the higher HRs for a given workout and you can tell when it’s a build week for a given sport.

MAO’s Coach Luis explains further: “Ours is a little different that most… We have a three week cycle. but the sports are not in synch. So you may be on a recovery week on the run but have a build week on the bike. This results on a more even schedule and not some huge week that breaks you down but at the same time not a very easy week either.”

Here’s a typical week:

Here’s a print version of my schedule:
Sat: long bike (did 1/3rd last sat)
Sun: long swim, moderate run (did 1/3rd swim, full run)
Mon: REST
Tue: am run, pm swim
Wed: am bike, pm weights
Thu: am run, pm swim
Fri: am bike, pm weights

Given my work and commuting schedule, this is pretty ambitious so if I miss a workout, I’m just going to have to skip it and move on, there’s no makeups. The website has a place to log comments about a particular workout and the level of completion. Every week is different and clicking on each icon reveals the details of the day’s workout. There are details for the different kinds of weight training workouts as well.

Swim workouts so far are on intervals, but there’s an emphasis on RI (rest intervals instead of send-off times). I’m going to have to figure out how to incorporate the swims into my masters swimming 2 nights per week).

In general, if I have any questions, the coaching staff is just an email away.

This seems to be the missing piece for my training and ties together everything that I’ve worked on over the last few years. The price is very reasonable as well.

So far, this is very awesome (fins up).

First, congrats to Diva Tracy (who competed last Sunday at the Toyota Desert Palm triathlon in So Cal’s palm desert (in tree-bending wind!). The Diva doesn’t have a blog (yet!) so here’s the results:

500m Swim: 12:24.8
T1                    2:23.6

14 mile bike: 49:42.1
T2                     2:16.1

3 mile run    29:18.3

Race Time:      1:36:05

I’ll post the race pics when they’re ready…

As for me? I did an am swim clinic… lots of drills with an emphasis on feeling the water on our forearms, keeping our hands loose, our heads down, and on staying relaxed at different speeds. Lots of 50s and 100s turned this into more of a workout.

I got in an unintentional afternoon weight session in when I carried a load of groceries up 3 flights of stairs to my place… bags of giant Smart Water bottles ensured that each trip was real quad-burner.

PM moderate run 45min at the gym. I followed my MAO plan which had me stay under 142HR so I had to run 5 and walk 2 for 45 at 3.9mph but I stayed in the zone.

I figured I’d rough it and use the treadmill that was missing its own TV. I ended up craning to look around at everyone elses TV. One guy had Terminator 2 on and I settled into a good pace but then he left and the next person cut over to Lifetime TV :-(

Me and the Sea Horse free range, originally uploaded by the seamonster.

Somewhere out in that sprawl, there’s a Starbucks waiting for me… giddyup!

Had to snap a pic so Diva Tracy knows I’m putting in the miles.

The ride was 13 miles in a small loop that includes some respectable hills. I’ll call it the Granny Gear loop (to compliment the Big Ring and the Little Ring loop rides).

I rode with a low level of perceived effort except for some reason on the climb up Lost Canyon, I couldn’t get my cadence up… turned out I accidentally did the entire climb on the big ring. Ugh!

(sent via mobile, sorry for any typos)

Iron Dave, originally uploaded by the seamonster.

I sat riveted to my PC watching Ironman finishers cross the line at IMAZ. I tracked Dave throughout the day on my iPhone and did some rough math to make sure that I was able to be watching at the right time.

Swim team mate Dave learned how to swim last Feb, is now a competitive swimmer, and here he is crossing the line.

Dave, YOU ROCK!

(When are you getting the tatoo?)

AM masters swim clinic, originally uploaded by the seamonster.

Diva Tracy lounges with the pool boy (his name is Marco)!

We did a butterfly clinic that was just tremendous fun. Laughing and swimming are mutually exclusive though so I drank more pool water today than I have in recent memory. As an aside, our coach knows some cool water tricks.

I opted out of the early am ride… so I swam an extra 600 yards (200 free, 200 pull, 100 kick/fins, 100 free) after practice before they would let me go to Starbucks :-)

(Me and my favorite coffee brew… I should just put a Soy Latte at the end of my lane at practice).

I’ve done the last three Sunday clinics… back, breast, and fly and have done some gym rides and runs over the last week. I’ve taken it easy, successfully battled off a cold that others got nailed with, and I feel _really_ strong to start ramping up.

Huge shout out to Dave who did the swim, the bike, and he’s on the run right now at IMAZ! It was very hot–in the 90s!

Hope all your training and racing is going well!

(sent via mobile, sorry for any typos)

The Daves… good to go for Ironman AZ, originally uploaded by the seamonster.

Two of the Ironman triathletes on my swim team… both named Dave, both ride Griffen bikes, and both are racing in IMAZ on Sunday!

(Correction, both Daves are going, but only the Dave on the right is racing.)

Have a great race guys!!!

(sent via mobile, sorry for any typos)

AM base ride… top of the big hill, originally uploaded by the seamonster.

Rode with my fellow swim team mates… “Iron” Don who just stormed Oceanside Half, and “Diva” Tracy whom I thank for encouraging me to get out of the pool and ride. They rode out from the Valley and over the pass… several miles of long climbing. We met up and I escorted them around Simi, and out to the Regan Library. When Don mentioned he wanted this to be a small ring ride, I didn’t realize it meant because he wanted to climb! :-)

Riding at this time of year in these parts is in the 40s at dawn and 60s once the sun comes out from behind the overcast. I only wore 3 layers this time and could have probably shed at least one layer.

I call the big 60+ mile ride around the three valleys (San Fernando, Simi, and Conejo) “the big ring.” My part of this ride was 25 miles around Simi so I’m calling it “the little ring.” Here’s the map: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1763071

This was just a fun time. I got in a base ride, they let me chat, stop to take pics, and I got to take them on a tour of some of the neat things in Simi… the 50 meter pool, the outdoor mall with the massage chair guys you can walk your bike up to, and all the restrooms , 7-Elevens, and Starbucks on the route.

They went on to ride a total of approx 50 miles each after they headed out of Simi.

Interestingly, the roads in and out of Simi were historic stage coach routes… it’s kind of cool that cyclists ride over them now.

(…and yes, I definitely visited the massage chair guys later in the day!)

(sent via mobile, sorry for any typos)