Training Update

Little bit of a delay in the blogging lately. I just handed in my Thesis, and I am currently working on no less than three projects due this week, so I will keep it short.

Not much new on the training front this week. I got my arse kicked in the bike workout on Tues night, and had a hard swim on Weds afternoon. Ithink we did 18 x 100 for our main set, and I held 1:27, which I am happy about. Followed that up with an easy 35 minute base run to get the legs feeling normal again. Thursday was an hour and a half bike with overgear intervals to toughen up the legs! Friday was a good swim with 10 x 100 and 18 x 50. The 50s hurt pretty bad by the end, but I was consistently hitting 1:27 and :36 for the 100s and 50s respectively. It felt good and hard, like it was supposed to!
The weekend was high mileage as usual. Saturday was a hard run at Elk Beaver with the legendary Lance Watson, who pushed me to almost puking intensity! The run was unusually long for an interval set, since we finished the intervals and found ourselves pretty far out from our cars! After that, it was off to the pool to do another speed session. Lots of 50s this week!

Sunday was a long bike with overgearing and aggressive hill climbing on the menu. My power is starting to get better on the bike, but it's still early. Follow that up with a seriously solid 45 min run with Nick. It was supposed to be a base run, but those who know Nick know that it is hard to keep it base when hes going fast! A few loops at Uvic and my week was over!

Can't wait for school to be done so I can train harder and longer!

Comox Valley Half Marathon - Race Report

The comox half is really one of my favorite races of the VIRS. A slow uphill until the half way mark, and then downhill the whole way home, the course sets you up for a solid time every year.

Since my triathlon training has been really heavy, I had no plans for any kind of slight taper before the race. That was ok with me. I just love racing, and since I missed my interval workout this week, racing allows the legs to get a good ass kicking, while still being fun!

Other than being sick, I don't think I could have had a worse pre-race routine. I had two hard workouts on Saturday (including a 2.5 hr hilly bike), and worked Saturday night until 11:30 pm. I proceded to get to bed by about 12:30, and woke up at 6:30 to drive up to comox. I few timmys later, I was at the race ready to go! I was just happy to be there, and to get to run with my Dad, so I toed the start line in a good mental stage. I didn't really think of a goal time, but Jeff asked me in the lineup and I guessed that 1:21 would be pretty good for me.

This may sound silly, but I have improved so much from last year's times that I cannot really accurately guess my times this year. When the gun went off, I had a quick thought that today might not be as good as it could be. After all, I can't have every race be a PB in points and times.

The first few km went by nice and quick. For some reason, I was slightly dissapointed with kms of 3:45 and 3:42, don't ask my why. Guess I'm used to 5 and 8k races. As usual, I just concentrated on sticking with Gary and Simon for the first few kms. I am a slow starter, so it's nice to have Gary to keep me working hard at the start.

After the first 5km, Gary and I hit a nice pace. We let Simon go ahead of us, as he was looking super strong. When the uphills really started around 8km, our pace slowed to just over 4 minutes. I hated seeing a four minute km on my watch! But I knew we had to take the hills conservatively, and I trust Gary's pacing better than mine. At around 9km we suddenly caught up to Simon. I was secretely wondering what the hell happened to him, because all of a sudden he was running way slower than before. I was even more surprised at the turn-around to see him almost 400m back. Pretty strange to gain 400m in about a kilometer. On the downhill Gary and I started to increase the pace, and it felt really good. Almost too good, since once the road starts to flatten out again it feels like you are running really slow! Gary and I started to catch up to Sarah, who I assumed was the lead lady. It took us about 5 km to reel her in from about 200m ahead of us.

As we caught up to her, guess who showed up??? Simon! (see picture below of him stalking me from behind!) I was actually thinking to myself "wow that is the most unorthodox pacing style I have ever seen!" Again he looked so strong. I decided to try and tag along with him, since I felt like I could ramp up my game a little more in the final stretch. All of a sudden, Sarah decided that she didn't like her new company, and blew away from us. Simon attempted to catch up, but I think the pace was a little too hot for him as well. Both him and I got stuck in a bit of a no-mans land from km19-20. I could hear Gary catching up to me from behind, and I debated whether I should push to catch up to Simon, or drop back and run home with Gary. I decided to try for Simon. I seriousely have no idea how I caught up with Simon. He was running so strong, and I was in a sort of an unconcious state of mind where I wasn't even paying attention to the road. But with 200m to go, we were neck and neck and I became excited with the prospect of a sprint finish. One of my goals this year was to get in as many sprint finishes as possible to toughen me up for Worlds in september.

I find that the only way to start sprinting when you are hurting that much is to just start moving your legs wildly and your mind follows suit. Simon and I did the best sprint we could muster, although I laugh when I think of what we must have looked like to the spectators. We were trying so hard but I doubt we were going very fast! My last km was not exceptionally fast, even though it was my hardest working! Simon just took me at the line, and we both shared the feeling of a great finish and a great race!

I finished in 1:22.05, good enough for 24 OA and 1st in my age group. I was more excited at the 24st overall, since my age group was pretty diluted without the likes of Nick Best and others.

Still, that time is over 6 minutes faster than last year. Also my highest points total to date (732).

Monday Dan gave me a recovery day, which was nice. I could catch up on some of my thesis work. Today is a hard bike, which I am excited for!

Another cycle gone

Another training cycle has come and gone....it's amazing how similar I feel at the beginning and end of each cycle!

After UBC, I had a really great week of training, which completed a 3 week buildup. My swims were going really well. In fact, last Friday I had one of the best swims of the season. I was keeping pace with a girl that I never would have dreamed of 2 months ago. Don't worry, she is still way better than me but the fact that I was even near her made me pretty happy. On the last interval of a 10 x 150m, 10 x 50m main set we had a pretty good race to the finish. It's funny how that happens. Neither of us said anything, but we knew we would go as hard as we could. Both of us shot off, flailing our arms as fast as possible. Of course she beat me, but it was nice to throw a bit of friendly competition into an otherwise dreary workout!

I have (or Dan has) been putting a greater emphasis on my bike lately, which is good. It's currently my weakest discipline, so some hard work will do me good. I had a rediculousely hard spin session on Tuesday. It was a Cadence workout which kills me everytime! I have the slowest legs.

Saturday was our usual interval run workout. I tell you, it was a tough one. 8 x 1k at 10-15 sec under 10k pace. Dan and I pushed ourselves as hard as possible (as usual), but our times were a little slow. It sure didn't feel like it! My heart rate got to 190, which is the highest I have seen it go in a while! Of course, the last km interval was an all out sprint to the finish. Dan and I had our usual sprint finish (if you have not read older posts, that is where I sprint ahead with about 50m to go, and then Dan catches up to me like I am walking with about 10m to go, where I then proceed to go Usain Bolt on him and beat him to the line ha ha).

That run was followed by a 1.5 hour bike, and a 3hr bike on sunday.

This week is a recovery week, and it sure feels like that! I'm exhausted every day (probably due to school as well), and have had lack-lustre workouts this week. Same thing happened to me at the end of my last mini-cycle, so I'm not too worried. Comox Half Marathon this weekend! Pray for some sunshine!

Mj

UBC Race Report

The UBC tri came and went in a hurry this year. Considering I could only sign up for the short distance (yes shorter than a sprint), I had no plans for a taper. My distances were 400m, 12km,5km for the swim bike run. I basically was going to this race so that I could see how my running is coming along. A 400m swim doesn't even allow you to warm up, and the same for the bike, but a 5km run is sufficient to see how the legs respond coming out of T2.

I headed over the day before and stayed with a friend, sleeping on the couch. I had a very good sleep, so I was looking forward to the race the next morning. I definately miss racing! Running races are fun, but there is something extra special about a triathlon race! I got there nice and early just to soak it in.

I was a little late coming out of my warmup, so I basically walked right into the pool to start my swim. I was second to start, and I was excited to pump a good 400m warmup swim! The swim felt really good, other than the lane lines were impossible to go under (anyone in the outdoor pool knows what I am talking about). I finished the swim in about 5:30, but with the long transition run it came out something like 7:30.

Since my race was amazingly short, there was only time to put on a windbreaker for the bike. I could suffer through anything for 12km. The bike, true to form, was frieking freezing. Going down Marine Drive around 45km when it is 1 degree outside is not a good idea. My feet were completely frozen. On the way back, my legs started to seize a bit. There was nothing I could do. It's early in the season, and it was too cold to properly get in a groove. If I had done a longer distance, I'm sure I could have worked it out, but you just gotta go all out on a 12km bike (I feel silly even writing 12km bike!).

Then the main event started. Coming in off the bike, I was determined to lay down a solid run. My feet were numb, but after about 1km they were feeling slightly better. Right from the start I assaulted the run. My cadence was high, and my form felt great. First km went by in about 3:58, but it was all uphill and I wasn't too worried about it. Km 2 went by in about 3:29, and at the turn around I was still feeling awsome. The lungs were open and I was ripping along! The next two kms went by in 3:32, and 3:31. Coming into the final km, I was prepared for an all out assault on the finish line. Then, about 400m into it, I spotted the finish line and was thinking "uh oh, there is no way I could be that close!" The last km was ridiculousely short! I ran it in like 2:30, although I know I was going at about a 3:30 pace. The shortness pisses me off, since I had a great run, but finished with a 17:05 5km. That is clearly not my 5km race time! I'm upset because I know I would have had a PB, but I'm not about to start telling my running buddies that I ran a 17min 5km, because its not possible. I estimate that the course was about 300m short, and that I still would have ran it in well under 18min, which is great!

Overall the race went well. I came second overall in that distance, and won my age group. Can't get too excited, since most of my competition was in the other distances, but I'm still pleased. Well worth the ferry ride over, to see where I am at in my training and what I have to work on (BIKE!).

Post race I hopped on the trainer and rode for about an hour and half. More training news to come, including my new HOT YOGA experience!

Another Fantastic Update

Here is the update on this week of training.

After last Saturday's hard workout, my legs were definitely feeling tender, which made my 3 hr ride on Sunday pretty painful. Actually, the ride itself felt nice and easy, but whenever I hit a slight uphill my legs were useless! I actually checked my rear brake a few times to make sure it wasn't hitting the wheel! I threw in a few Observatory climbs during the workout to spruce things up, and when it was all said and done, I had knocked off about 75km (with a few stops).

Monday was definitely a feel-good day. I jumped in with the UVic tri club after class and had a great workout. We were doing longer intervals that were intended to get us ready for the UBC triathlon this weekend. For the workout we had to jump in the pool every 5 seconds and swim up and down all the lanes (true UBC style). I swam in second position and felt amazing. I tried not to push the gal in front of me, but could have easily passed her if I wanted. We ended up doing the 200's in around 2:48, which felt very comfortable for me. It definitely was a change from the last time I swam with this group, which was about 3 weeks ago. I think others noticed my sudden improvement as well. Finished doing some other stuff and racked up about 3.2k that day.

Tuesday was a hard spin workout, in which I decided to go to the Lifesport workout for once. It was amazing! Too bad it is on the same day as the PIH workout, or I would be there all the time! Workout out on the pool deck was crazy! I must have lost about 3 litres of water I was sweating so hard! The workout was all about high cadence and I thought I was going to bounce off my seat!

Weds was a massive workout in the pool! The main set was 1 x 600 with 1' rest, followed by 6 x 100 HARD with 10 seconds rest, followed by an easier 4 x 50. We did that again as 1 x 400 then 4 x 100HARD, and 1 x 200 and 2 x 100 HARD, all with 4 x 50's to recover. About a 3k main set! I held my pace all the way through, and it felt wonderful. I pushed really hard at the end and fished my last hard 100 in 1:25, which I will definitely take with arms like jelly! I had the funniest character in my lane, who was swimming's equivalent of a sandbagger in golf! The guy swam so slow for the first 2.5 km of the MS, (including throwing some backstroke in there, as well as missing entire intervals!), and then in the last 2 x 100m he comes alive and starts to challenge us for the lead in the lane! It was so funny! The best part was when we finished the workout he has the gall to ask us if we slowed down near the end! Then he goes on to tell us that we must have gone out to hard!! I dunno, but last time I checked you should be tired by the end of a workout, not fresh as a Daisey!!! And triathletes do not bust out backstroke during a MS of freestyle buddy, sorry!

Second workout for the day was a nice 15k run at a steady clip, which felt great (did anything not feel great this week).

The mileage has been decreased a bit this week (probably due to the race on Sun), but I feel like I'm getting more out of my workouts, since I'm not just slugging through them.

Next stop is the UBC triathlon on Sunday! Forecast is for snow!!! Can't wait.