Since completing the Toronto Triathlon Festival I have entered into a sort of off-season. For 5 days immediately following the race I don't think I did any training. I was planning on giving myself 7 full days, but I started itching to move around so I cheated. Until August 17th I will be in a strange phase of preparing for a local race while still being in off-season recovery mode. I know I will not be peak performing, I fully expect to lose some threshold ability. The goal is to maintain some general endurance and tweak up my higher end power and speed without too much stress on my body. This summer I have been focusing on upping my endurance from a sprint racing to olympic, so for this race I will be moving back down to the sprint distance. I will go into a bit more detail below.
As I've mentioned above, this year I've put a lot of effort into increasing my volume to make the transition from sprint to olympic distance racing. With that in mind I have put a premium on combining workouts to increase workout times, and in general just increasing duration. With this in mind, I should be able to carry a good amount of this new-found threshold endurance through to my next race. During the competitive season long, slow efforts took a backseat in order to get all the threshold quality I wanted in, so these will be making a return for the next little bit.
In order to drastically increase my muscular endurance work this season I have had to reduce intensity compared to my previous years. I went a little overboard and almost completely wiped out VO2Max intervals from my training, especially in cycling. In this next block I will be focusing much more on these high power, low duration intervals. These intervals can be very strenuous, especially in what I would call my off-season, so I am attacking these workouts in a fairly unstructured way. I am either doing them in a fartlek style workout, or I am going out with no goal number of intervals to complete and calling it a day when I think I've had enough or the quality starts to drop. Always making sure there's at least one more in the tank.
Since this is still an off-season, workouts come on an as-desired basis. I'm finding I require at least some physical activity every day or else I'm not really nice to be around, so this isn't a huge detriment to staying fit. Additionally, hard days are unplanned. If I go out for a run and feel great, I will take this as an opportunity to get some quality in. If not, I'll ride it out a little bit and stay out for the endurance. If it's still no good, I'll call it a day. Case in point - I was planning on cruising around on my friend's bike this afternoon but it started raining. I don't really want to get wet, and I certainly don't want to ride the trainer so I am writing this post.
Finally, I'm doing things in training I wouldn't normally do. This morning at the pool my main set was 5x200m IM. I never do IM. However, I do believe being proficient in all the strokes is probably a good idea so why not now? I polished it off with a couple 50's of sprinting. It was a hard workout! But not hard in the way I'm used to. It was refreshing.
The off-season doesn't have to be boring, and you don't have to get fat and lazy. It just has to be different. Don't let the lack of structure be stressful.
Adam "Have fun, go fast" Fortais
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Accumulated knowledge from a successful season #2: Cycling face-palm
In my time off I am slowly putting together my training plan for next year. In essence I am scheduling out the macro cycles of the plan. In looking forward it's helpful to look back, and since I really need work on my cycling that is where I am starting. As I've been complaining a lot about losing power through the summer, this is the number one thing I'm trying to avoid next year. Initially I attributed this to halting strength training, and this is true... in a broad sense. More specifically I've noticed a glaring fault. I basically lost all VO2max intervals after May. Pretty much all but... five workouts were threshold workouts. This would certainly explain why my lower intensity riding kept increasing but everything above threshold kept dropping. Amateur mistake! Back in the day none of my workouts included intervals longer than 5 minutes, now I have gone in the complete opposite direction. This just makes me more excited to start training again.
Adam "Oops" Fortais
Adam "Oops" Fortais
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Accumulated knowledge from a successful season (AKFSS) 1, Strength Training
After breaking the ice with this new data analysis/training tips segment, I think I'm ready to start unloading some of the things I've learned this season. I'm more or less wrapping up dedicated tri training for the year, so I will likely find more time to wade through the backlogs of topics I've accumulated. I will be presenting topics in no particular order, and again, I do not claim any sort of divine knowledge on the subjects covered here. Rather I am offering some anecdotal tips and whatnot explained the best I can through the lens of articles and books I've read.
Strength training seems to be a fairly controversial topic with endurance athletes, and rightfully so since clearly there is no one size fits all answer. In fact, I would hesitate to say there is even a one size fits most answer. However, I believe I've found the current fit for me, for next season. That's another thing. I think your strength training needs to be assessed every year, especially for time crunched athletes. One year shoring up on a specific weakness might be all you need before being able to dedicate all of your time to swim-bike-run.
So, step one I guess is to determine if you think you need any strength training at all. Of course if you find muscular force, high-end power, pull sets, low cadence/stroke and hill climbing tough you may benefit from some time at the gym. Another thing to consider is your predisposition to injury. If you find you're unable to put on the miles without an overuse injury, you may be suffering from some kind of muscular imbalance. Get that checked out and consider some time to correcting that. In my case, I'm a very ectomorphy-type guy, and a runner-turned-cyclist. As is probably common with my type, I suffer on the bike due to lack of strength. I would consider myself a fast runner, not a strong one. To illustrate the difference, the former would excel at a race on the track or a flat road course. The latter could whoop you off-road, through sand, in ankle-deep snow, etc. So assess your weaknesses and decide if that weakness would be helped by getting a little more strength. And don't assume you will put on weight. You might, but if you're a triathlete... I doubt it. If you're not sure, I'd say pepper some strength training in your earlier cycles of the year and record how it makes you feel. Who knows, you might need it and not even know it.
You have decided to take me up on strength training! Awesome. Here the topic diverges for me based on your reasons for making this choice - to go faster or to be less injury prone. The latter is a shorter topic so I'll hit that first.
Let's play sports doctor. Rewind to 2006. I am in grade 10 (I think) and believe I'm going to be a runner. I start putting on more milage but once I start hitting 30km/week I begin developing shin splints. I assume it's just a normal part of building up milage and train through it, despite every run starting with an agonizing 10 minutes or so of warming up my shins, and steady pain walking around day to day. They get worse and worse and I can hardly lay my hands on the insides of my shins without wincing. I go to physio and whatnot... Nothing helps. I show no signs of unusual biomechanics. "Coincidentally" I also develop anaemia and am sidelined for a couple months. Sounds like overtraining right? Here's the kicker - I never even hit 40km/week. All of this was happening at very low milage. So what was happening? This final clue should drive the point home. I was 6'2" and a bit under 140 lbs. Throughout the rest of my high school years I slowly managed to put on some weight, and all my problems began improving. However, it wasn't until my first year of university where I was introduced to the UWO Triathlon club and full body, balanced training. Blam, all my leg problems disappeared and I managed to increase my weekly volume by probably around 100%. Agreed, this is an extreme case, but at the very least it demonstrates the point that if you're injury prone perhaps bulking up a little will help. On the other hand, too much weight will make every footfall harder on your joints and ligaments so keep that in mind as well.
For the record, I am still 6'2" but peak at about 160-165lbs.
As for speeding you up, this is probably the least agreed upon aspect of strength training. However in my case, I have definitely seen an improvement in cycling from strength training. In the last two years I have dedicated 2-3 months in the winter to focusing on in the gym, actual weights training. Four weeks of low weight, high rep work to get the skeletal system and ligaments ready for real training, two weeks of low reps, building weight, then two to four weeks of low reps, low weight extremely explosive movements as well as on-bike sprinting. The goal of this last phase is to translate the raw strength gains into on-bike power gains. I did a similar though reduced routine for the upper body. This progression would usually finish around March and I would go into a strength maintenance phase until about May. Through the summer I would completely ignore strength training and go exclusively swim-bike-run. I believe this is the typical way triathletes go about strength training. In my first two years I saw big gains. In the last little while I found myself reaching peak fitness on the bike around June and slowly losing my ability to put out power as the summer progressed. This does not seem to make sense as I increase volume and specificity of cycling training during these months, so I should be seeing an increase in power. Since the only other change is removing strength training all together, I can only guess that this is what is draining my power. It is this reason that I plan on making strength maintenance a part of my training year-long. I have proven to be a sub-par cyclist so I will be putting an emphasis on maintaining strength all year.
I will be doing this in two ways - weekly bodyweight circuit sets during the summer, and sport specific strength workouts. The first is simple enough. Squats, lunges, pushups, etc. This can be done on a recovery day. The second will be things like sprinting on the bike, paddles and elastic bands for swimming etc. This should help me maintain my hard earned strength and not take too much time away from swim-bike-running.
In the winter during my in-gym strength building phase, I stick to the basics. Multi-joint lifts that simulate movements I will be doing in my sport are emphasized. Bonus points for free weights. Squats, leg press, lunges, leg extensions and hamstring curls I find are enough for the lower body. Bench press, lat pull downs, seated rows, shoulder press for the upper body. For all of these exercises, if you push, make sure you keep it balanced with a pull. As in, bench press coupled with seated row. You should work to move the same weight for leg extensions and hamstring curls. Core work I keep as bodyweight with many reps.
Hopefully this is helpful.
Adam "Get swole" Fortais
Strength training seems to be a fairly controversial topic with endurance athletes, and rightfully so since clearly there is no one size fits all answer. In fact, I would hesitate to say there is even a one size fits most answer. However, I believe I've found the current fit for me, for next season. That's another thing. I think your strength training needs to be assessed every year, especially for time crunched athletes. One year shoring up on a specific weakness might be all you need before being able to dedicate all of your time to swim-bike-run.
So, step one I guess is to determine if you think you need any strength training at all. Of course if you find muscular force, high-end power, pull sets, low cadence/stroke and hill climbing tough you may benefit from some time at the gym. Another thing to consider is your predisposition to injury. If you find you're unable to put on the miles without an overuse injury, you may be suffering from some kind of muscular imbalance. Get that checked out and consider some time to correcting that. In my case, I'm a very ectomorphy-type guy, and a runner-turned-cyclist. As is probably common with my type, I suffer on the bike due to lack of strength. I would consider myself a fast runner, not a strong one. To illustrate the difference, the former would excel at a race on the track or a flat road course. The latter could whoop you off-road, through sand, in ankle-deep snow, etc. So assess your weaknesses and decide if that weakness would be helped by getting a little more strength. And don't assume you will put on weight. You might, but if you're a triathlete... I doubt it. If you're not sure, I'd say pepper some strength training in your earlier cycles of the year and record how it makes you feel. Who knows, you might need it and not even know it.
You have decided to take me up on strength training! Awesome. Here the topic diverges for me based on your reasons for making this choice - to go faster or to be less injury prone. The latter is a shorter topic so I'll hit that first.
Let's play sports doctor. Rewind to 2006. I am in grade 10 (I think) and believe I'm going to be a runner. I start putting on more milage but once I start hitting 30km/week I begin developing shin splints. I assume it's just a normal part of building up milage and train through it, despite every run starting with an agonizing 10 minutes or so of warming up my shins, and steady pain walking around day to day. They get worse and worse and I can hardly lay my hands on the insides of my shins without wincing. I go to physio and whatnot... Nothing helps. I show no signs of unusual biomechanics. "Coincidentally" I also develop anaemia and am sidelined for a couple months. Sounds like overtraining right? Here's the kicker - I never even hit 40km/week. All of this was happening at very low milage. So what was happening? This final clue should drive the point home. I was 6'2" and a bit under 140 lbs. Throughout the rest of my high school years I slowly managed to put on some weight, and all my problems began improving. However, it wasn't until my first year of university where I was introduced to the UWO Triathlon club and full body, balanced training. Blam, all my leg problems disappeared and I managed to increase my weekly volume by probably around 100%. Agreed, this is an extreme case, but at the very least it demonstrates the point that if you're injury prone perhaps bulking up a little will help. On the other hand, too much weight will make every footfall harder on your joints and ligaments so keep that in mind as well.
For the record, I am still 6'2" but peak at about 160-165lbs.
As for speeding you up, this is probably the least agreed upon aspect of strength training. However in my case, I have definitely seen an improvement in cycling from strength training. In the last two years I have dedicated 2-3 months in the winter to focusing on in the gym, actual weights training. Four weeks of low weight, high rep work to get the skeletal system and ligaments ready for real training, two weeks of low reps, building weight, then two to four weeks of low reps, low weight extremely explosive movements as well as on-bike sprinting. The goal of this last phase is to translate the raw strength gains into on-bike power gains. I did a similar though reduced routine for the upper body. This progression would usually finish around March and I would go into a strength maintenance phase until about May. Through the summer I would completely ignore strength training and go exclusively swim-bike-run. I believe this is the typical way triathletes go about strength training. In my first two years I saw big gains. In the last little while I found myself reaching peak fitness on the bike around June and slowly losing my ability to put out power as the summer progressed. This does not seem to make sense as I increase volume and specificity of cycling training during these months, so I should be seeing an increase in power. Since the only other change is removing strength training all together, I can only guess that this is what is draining my power. It is this reason that I plan on making strength maintenance a part of my training year-long. I have proven to be a sub-par cyclist so I will be putting an emphasis on maintaining strength all year.
I will be doing this in two ways - weekly bodyweight circuit sets during the summer, and sport specific strength workouts. The first is simple enough. Squats, lunges, pushups, etc. This can be done on a recovery day. The second will be things like sprinting on the bike, paddles and elastic bands for swimming etc. This should help me maintain my hard earned strength and not take too much time away from swim-bike-running.
In the winter during my in-gym strength building phase, I stick to the basics. Multi-joint lifts that simulate movements I will be doing in my sport are emphasized. Bonus points for free weights. Squats, leg press, lunges, leg extensions and hamstring curls I find are enough for the lower body. Bench press, lat pull downs, seated rows, shoulder press for the upper body. For all of these exercises, if you push, make sure you keep it balanced with a pull. As in, bench press coupled with seated row. You should work to move the same weight for leg extensions and hamstring curls. Core work I keep as bodyweight with many reps.
Hopefully this is helpful.
Adam "Get swole" Fortais
Friday, July 26, 2013
Toronto Triathlon Festival (Race report 8), Skip to the end for training tip
Skipping much of the uninteresting bits about the progression leading to the day of competition, I can say that it was relaxing and offered nothing unexpected or detrimental to my performance. As is becoming the custom, I pre-prepared dinner the day before the day before so I did not have to risk the unknown when in Toronto. Chicken and rice stir fry prepared at my girlfriends apartment in London - satisfying and seemed to do the job just fine. Two nights out I went for an unstructured run with some pick-ups... I went sans GPS but I could tell I had my legs back. The night before I went for a hesitant ride through downtown Toronto... The roads were surprisingly empty so I cranked out a bit of time at race pace. Again, all engines seemed to be firing. The temperature had been red-hot all week but were just beginning to dip on Saturday. Sunday was set to be a perfect day.
Transition opened at 5:30 the next morning with my wave off at 6:50, so I was up and eating breakfast at 4:00. Yoghurt, muslix, hemp hearts, home-made power bar and coffee - perfect light but calorie dense. Upon arriving at transition I did not have to fight for a spot on the rack - they were all predetermined based on age/number/wave/whatever. I just had to find my sticker. Easy. Quick bike around the run course for warm up, run around the bike exit/entrance, and almost zero line at the portapotties... Man, everything was going smooth.
Due to the nature of the swim course, they did not offer a swim warm up. Being a somewhat inexperienced swimmer, I have not developed a must-do warm up routine... and sometimes I pretty much forgo warmups in practice anyway, finding myself doing tempo pace swimming instead. UNFAZED (sp?).
My wave included males under 29, relays and para-athletes. This meant that I would be starting with Simon Whitfield, as he was doing a relay. For a second I considered starting near him and wasting myself in the first 25 meters so I could say I swam over Simon... but came to my senses. There is no way I could swim that fast, even for 10 meters.
This was my second race in a wetsuit, and I am loving it. The first 200m was a bit of a washing machine. I took a couple face-kicks but managed to get over all the slower people and find a pair of feet to guide me for the rest of the 1300m. Otherwise, uneventful. I came in with a split of about 22:10, a personal best in or out of the pool. This would be good enough for 30-something on the swim.
Transition was smooth. Not lightning, but smooth. Maybe 10 seconds slower than the fastest person through, but solid.
The bike leg was along the Gardiner Express. I was expecting pancake flat. It was never literally flat, always moving up or down, but never more than about 3% grade so an easy course. Headwind all the way out, tailwind back. The first half of the ride I was averaging about 255W, and came back averaging about 240W. Looking at my power chart from the race, after halfway my power was clearly trending downward as was my heart rate, so I really should have been pushing more. I was passed by slightly more people than I passed, but held a higher power than last race so all was not lost. Regardless, I was worse than 80th on the bike leg, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. Great, since I love riding.
This race I decided to try a different nutrition plan. The goal was 1 gel before the swim, then 2 gels on the bike and one bottle of water. Nutrition as needed on the run. At 10km on the bike I took my first gel. I took water no problem, but could not stop burping and tasting the gel. I couldn't convince my body to put down another gel so I left it on the bike. I still had gut cramps for the first 4km of the run, so I've got to figure something else out.
Run transition was again, smooth, but not the fastest. I could work on this a bit I guess.
Now the run. Despite cramping for nearly half the run, I did not let that slow me down. I was running with a tailwind for the first half, headwind for the second and that is reflected a little in my speed data. Luckily I had a few carrots just ahead of me to work my way to for the first 2km, and a steady stream of bodies to jump to through the rest of the run. I was only passed by two guys, but I think I passed one of them back. In the last mile I caught a guy in my age group in a team Canada suit. Every time I pass someone I assume they would jump in on my pace and let me drag them... This guy let me blow by him, extending my lead to about 25 meters. I thought I was going clear but with about 800m to go I checked back and he had held that 25m. I knew my muscles were wiggly and tired meaning I wouldn't have much sprint so I had to put enough gap into him to discourage the sprint... However he was still able to hold that 25 meters after my final surge. Coming around the final bend into the wide, grassy finishing chute, I just had to take one more look back... and there he was on my shoulder. I had to counter the sprint and I held him on my shoulder for a while. Unfortunately he had just one more second worth of glycogen on me and managed to edge me out by about 1 second on the line. This put me, as previously reported, 5th in 20-24 and 33rd overall. Although I wish I would have podiumed, I improved on my first olympic attempt by 10 minutes and still placed rather competitively at nationals. This was a huge success. Onwards to some rest and recovery, a small build up to a local sprint race, and then a fall running block. I am tres excited.
Training tip/Data analysis
I think I'm going to add a new feature to my posts. A training tips/data anaylsis section, hopefully directly related to the above post. In this instalment I will use my heart rate data from the race and compare it to the rest of my season to determine my triathlon run leg limiters. I may not always be right, but this is my attempt of making sense of the data I have gathered on myself.
In the past I've done max HR tests to determine threshold running HR, but lately I've been basing the number on my total collected HR data all year. Looking at time spent in zone vs HR range (bin size ~2bpm) you should see two distinct downward steps. The first, at the lower HR would be your aerobic threshold, or, where you transition from burning predominantly fat to glycogen. The next is your anaerobic threshold, or, what would be associated with a 10-15km race or 45min all out effort... give or take. For me, these two numbers are about 173 and 185 respectively. For my 10km at this race, my average HR sat at about 183bpm, including the time it took to raise from my naturally lower bike HR. If I was fully rested and running an all-out 10km I would have expected a higher heart rate, but due to muscular fatigue from biking, I was only able to push my aerobic system to that threshold pace, corresponding to a 37 minute 10km. Being that my running threshold heart rate should correspond to a race lasting about 45 mintues, in theory I should be able to push a higher heart rate. I think this is telling me that my limiter for a triathlon run is definitely my cycling and strength. If I was seeing my heart rate maxing out, I would know that the limiter in my running is that my aerobic system can't keep up. Another possibility is that I was so aerobically taxed during the swim and bike that I just didn't have any more to give. This is possible, but my cycling heart rate showed no evidence of this as I sat right at my threshold HR (after allowing it to slowly drop from the swim) until the last couple of km where I allowed my pace to drop a bit to spin out my legs.
Adam "R&R" Fortais
Transition opened at 5:30 the next morning with my wave off at 6:50, so I was up and eating breakfast at 4:00. Yoghurt, muslix, hemp hearts, home-made power bar and coffee - perfect light but calorie dense. Upon arriving at transition I did not have to fight for a spot on the rack - they were all predetermined based on age/number/wave/whatever. I just had to find my sticker. Easy. Quick bike around the run course for warm up, run around the bike exit/entrance, and almost zero line at the portapotties... Man, everything was going smooth.
Due to the nature of the swim course, they did not offer a swim warm up. Being a somewhat inexperienced swimmer, I have not developed a must-do warm up routine... and sometimes I pretty much forgo warmups in practice anyway, finding myself doing tempo pace swimming instead. UNFAZED (sp?).
My wave included males under 29, relays and para-athletes. This meant that I would be starting with Simon Whitfield, as he was doing a relay. For a second I considered starting near him and wasting myself in the first 25 meters so I could say I swam over Simon... but came to my senses. There is no way I could swim that fast, even for 10 meters.
This was my second race in a wetsuit, and I am loving it. The first 200m was a bit of a washing machine. I took a couple face-kicks but managed to get over all the slower people and find a pair of feet to guide me for the rest of the 1300m. Otherwise, uneventful. I came in with a split of about 22:10, a personal best in or out of the pool. This would be good enough for 30-something on the swim.
Transition was smooth. Not lightning, but smooth. Maybe 10 seconds slower than the fastest person through, but solid.
The bike leg was along the Gardiner Express. I was expecting pancake flat. It was never literally flat, always moving up or down, but never more than about 3% grade so an easy course. Headwind all the way out, tailwind back. The first half of the ride I was averaging about 255W, and came back averaging about 240W. Looking at my power chart from the race, after halfway my power was clearly trending downward as was my heart rate, so I really should have been pushing more. I was passed by slightly more people than I passed, but held a higher power than last race so all was not lost. Regardless, I was worse than 80th on the bike leg, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. Great, since I love riding.
This race I decided to try a different nutrition plan. The goal was 1 gel before the swim, then 2 gels on the bike and one bottle of water. Nutrition as needed on the run. At 10km on the bike I took my first gel. I took water no problem, but could not stop burping and tasting the gel. I couldn't convince my body to put down another gel so I left it on the bike. I still had gut cramps for the first 4km of the run, so I've got to figure something else out.
Run transition was again, smooth, but not the fastest. I could work on this a bit I guess.
Now the run. Despite cramping for nearly half the run, I did not let that slow me down. I was running with a tailwind for the first half, headwind for the second and that is reflected a little in my speed data. Luckily I had a few carrots just ahead of me to work my way to for the first 2km, and a steady stream of bodies to jump to through the rest of the run. I was only passed by two guys, but I think I passed one of them back. In the last mile I caught a guy in my age group in a team Canada suit. Every time I pass someone I assume they would jump in on my pace and let me drag them... This guy let me blow by him, extending my lead to about 25 meters. I thought I was going clear but with about 800m to go I checked back and he had held that 25m. I knew my muscles were wiggly and tired meaning I wouldn't have much sprint so I had to put enough gap into him to discourage the sprint... However he was still able to hold that 25 meters after my final surge. Coming around the final bend into the wide, grassy finishing chute, I just had to take one more look back... and there he was on my shoulder. I had to counter the sprint and I held him on my shoulder for a while. Unfortunately he had just one more second worth of glycogen on me and managed to edge me out by about 1 second on the line. This put me, as previously reported, 5th in 20-24 and 33rd overall. Although I wish I would have podiumed, I improved on my first olympic attempt by 10 minutes and still placed rather competitively at nationals. This was a huge success. Onwards to some rest and recovery, a small build up to a local sprint race, and then a fall running block. I am tres excited.
Training tip/Data analysis
I think I'm going to add a new feature to my posts. A training tips/data anaylsis section, hopefully directly related to the above post. In this instalment I will use my heart rate data from the race and compare it to the rest of my season to determine my triathlon run leg limiters. I may not always be right, but this is my attempt of making sense of the data I have gathered on myself.
In the past I've done max HR tests to determine threshold running HR, but lately I've been basing the number on my total collected HR data all year. Looking at time spent in zone vs HR range (bin size ~2bpm) you should see two distinct downward steps. The first, at the lower HR would be your aerobic threshold, or, where you transition from burning predominantly fat to glycogen. The next is your anaerobic threshold, or, what would be associated with a 10-15km race or 45min all out effort... give or take. For me, these two numbers are about 173 and 185 respectively. For my 10km at this race, my average HR sat at about 183bpm, including the time it took to raise from my naturally lower bike HR. If I was fully rested and running an all-out 10km I would have expected a higher heart rate, but due to muscular fatigue from biking, I was only able to push my aerobic system to that threshold pace, corresponding to a 37 minute 10km. Being that my running threshold heart rate should correspond to a race lasting about 45 mintues, in theory I should be able to push a higher heart rate. I think this is telling me that my limiter for a triathlon run is definitely my cycling and strength. If I was seeing my heart rate maxing out, I would know that the limiter in my running is that my aerobic system can't keep up. Another possibility is that I was so aerobically taxed during the swim and bike that I just didn't have any more to give. This is possible, but my cycling heart rate showed no evidence of this as I sat right at my threshold HR (after allowing it to slowly drop from the swim) until the last couple of km where I allowed my pace to drop a bit to spin out my legs.
Adam "R&R" Fortais
Monday, July 22, 2013
CDN Nationals in a paragraph or less
I did my best, no podium, no top 20, but 5th ag and 33rd overall. The bike was slightly short at 39km, but 2 hours, 6minutes is nothing to scoff at! More comments to come about each leg, I will be prepare a full race report this week. I will be taking a week off, put in a couple short, fast weeks and cap my triathlon season off with the local St Joeseph Island Triathlon, the sprint. It is the Sault's local triathlon, and it will be celebrating its 10th year! I'll hopefully retain enough endurance and be able to tune myself up for a solid sprint race. Should be fun!
Adam "rest week" Fortais
Adam "rest week" Fortais
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Peaking...
Yesterday I went out for a short run, 30 minutes or so including 5 minutes at post-bike race pace, just to keep the feel. I did not consult my gps watch during this interval and went only by feel. It was "comfortably uncomfortable", as my runs have been over the last week... but to my surprise it turns out this same feeling that was just barely giving me 3:36/km pace earlier was giving me 3:18/km pace. When I got home, I decided I needed to do 1km at actual race pace. This was a joke.
In the water I am comfortably cruising at 1:30-1:35/100m, and blasted a 100m in 1:12 for fun.
Tonight I'm going to sit at the hopefully comfortable 265W on the bike for a bit.
Adam "Trust the taper" Fortais
In the water I am comfortably cruising at 1:30-1:35/100m, and blasted a 100m in 1:12 for fun.
Tonight I'm going to sit at the hopefully comfortable 265W on the bike for a bit.
Adam "Trust the taper" Fortais
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Getting nervous...
One week to go before AG Nationals in Toronto. I'm trying to peak right now and I'm getting a little worried. I gave myself 2.5 weeks to peak... The first week off I felt pretty good, but lately I've been feeling like garbage. This morning I went for a short 8km run. At 4km I decided I wanted to touch race pace for about 5 minutes, for fun mostly... I don't know if I was dehydrated, tired, or what but I started getting a little dizzy and well, it just wasn't there. I shuffled home.
From the end of my bike block onwards my riding has seemed to have gotten worse as well. I'm just not putting out the power. I haven't lost any weight, but it's just not there.
I've been more tired than usual over the last little bit as well. And very irritable. Muscles aching in ways they hadn't before.
I shouldn't be "testing" myself during these 2-3 weeks, and especially not now. I just have to trust all engines will come back and be firing better than ever by next Sunday.
To reassure myself I've been reading articles.
http://www.triathlontrainingarticles.com/Taper.html
This sounds familiar. I'm not doing Ironman-type volume, so hopefully my progression will be a bit quicker. I think I'll just go for an easy swim tomorrow.
Adam "Taper" Fortais
From the end of my bike block onwards my riding has seemed to have gotten worse as well. I'm just not putting out the power. I haven't lost any weight, but it's just not there.
I've been more tired than usual over the last little bit as well. And very irritable. Muscles aching in ways they hadn't before.
I shouldn't be "testing" myself during these 2-3 weeks, and especially not now. I just have to trust all engines will come back and be firing better than ever by next Sunday.
To reassure myself I've been reading articles.
http://www.triathlontrainingarticles.com/Taper.html
This sounds familiar. I'm not doing Ironman-type volume, so hopefully my progression will be a bit quicker. I think I'll just go for an easy swim tomorrow.
Adam "Taper" Fortais
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Post-race bike block
After a fairly dismal, but adequate race at Muskoka, I targeted my bike as the weakest link. Unfortunate since I thought I was a fab biker... but more-so because it's ~50% of the race. Something needs to be done.
First thing was first. Could I find any free speed anywhere? I checked my position... this dude's got the flattest back in the West. I thought about what I did with my head... I keep it low and out of the way. I don't have an aero helmet... but are those really that important? Seriously. I don't know. I recently purchased a wheel cover. I can't afford new wheels. I've moved my bottle between my arms on my bars and got rid of superfluous bottle cages. I've made a tiny flat-pack, wrapped it up ultra-small and zip-tied it under my saddle. Super out-of-the-way. I think I've optimized that side of things...
But still! I'm somewhere under 160lbs, have a nice, well-fit TT bike... and yet, even 290W doesn't get me going 40km/hr. I don't know what to do. Maybe I am "cursed" with a wide body. Maybe my practically concave-chest acts as a sail. I don't know. All I can think to do is train harder.
With that in mind, cue bike "crash" block. Probably not the greatest name considering the sport... Never the less, I went for a very easy ride the Monday after the race and started from there. I road every day for 11 days (if one includes race-day as part of this week (who wouldn't)). I reduced my swimming and running during this phase, but did not eliminate them. Here is the breakdown:
Monday: 1 hour bike, easy
Tuesday: 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W, 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W -- 7:30 rest -- 20min @ 280W INTO 10 min moderate tempo run
Wednesday: 45min easy ride
9x200m swimming, various pull/paddles/swim, 1500m TT pace
Thursday: INDOOR - 15min @ 280W -- rest -- 3x2:30 >320W w/2:30 rest
(Deceptively hard. Holding 280W for 15min did not feel particularly easy as it probably should have been.)
Friday: 40min @ 280W -- 3-4 min rest -- 2:30 > 320W INTO 5km up-tempo run (17:46)
Later that night, 30 minutes easy running to shake the legs out a bit
Saturday: various HARD hill repeats. Anaerobic stuff for sure. 4x 3ish minute intervals. Finish it off with a little bit of threshold time.
Sunday: 40 minutes of moderate-hard fartlek running. Mostly moderate to be honest.
70 minutes easy riding
Monday: 20min @ 285W -- 10min rest -- 15min @ 285W -- 7:30min rest -- 10min @ 285W -- 5min rest -- 5min @ 285W
Later, 20min tempo run, 5ish mins rest, 1km fast
Tuesday: 50 min easy ride
10x200m swim intervals at around 1500m TT pace, 15 seconds rest between
Wednesday: 20km TT, all out. Power plumeted in the second half of the trial, only could average about 270-ish Watts and 31:30. Very tired, legs destroyed.
2x1000m swimming, long, slow, fairly easy stuff, broken up a bit into various strokes
This lead me into my "peaking" phase. I'm prepping for the Toronto Triathlon Festival, which I have learned is AG Nationals this year. Better get it right this time. More on peaking later. After the race. As a bit of a teaser... I'm feeling like I'm recovering... nervous I'm detraining... and not really feeling like I'm getting fast yet. Perhaps this crash week was a little too much and I just need some time... Come Monday I go into "race week" meaning dedicated recovery, so maybe I'm right where I need to be. We shall see...
Adam "Too late to fix anything now" Fortais
First thing was first. Could I find any free speed anywhere? I checked my position... this dude's got the flattest back in the West. I thought about what I did with my head... I keep it low and out of the way. I don't have an aero helmet... but are those really that important? Seriously. I don't know. I recently purchased a wheel cover. I can't afford new wheels. I've moved my bottle between my arms on my bars and got rid of superfluous bottle cages. I've made a tiny flat-pack, wrapped it up ultra-small and zip-tied it under my saddle. Super out-of-the-way. I think I've optimized that side of things...
But still! I'm somewhere under 160lbs, have a nice, well-fit TT bike... and yet, even 290W doesn't get me going 40km/hr. I don't know what to do. Maybe I am "cursed" with a wide body. Maybe my practically concave-chest acts as a sail. I don't know. All I can think to do is train harder.
With that in mind, cue bike "crash" block. Probably not the greatest name considering the sport... Never the less, I went for a very easy ride the Monday after the race and started from there. I road every day for 11 days (if one includes race-day as part of this week (who wouldn't)). I reduced my swimming and running during this phase, but did not eliminate them. Here is the breakdown:
Monday: 1 hour bike, easy
Tuesday: 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W, 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W -- 7:30 rest -- 20min @ 280W INTO 10 min moderate tempo run
Wednesday: 45min easy ride
9x200m swimming, various pull/paddles/swim, 1500m TT pace
Thursday: INDOOR - 15min @ 280W -- rest -- 3x2:30 >320W w/2:30 rest
(Deceptively hard. Holding 280W for 15min did not feel particularly easy as it probably should have been.)
Friday: 40min @ 280W -- 3-4 min rest -- 2:30 > 320W INTO 5km up-tempo run (17:46)
Later that night, 30 minutes easy running to shake the legs out a bit
Saturday: various HARD hill repeats. Anaerobic stuff for sure. 4x 3ish minute intervals. Finish it off with a little bit of threshold time.
Sunday: 40 minutes of moderate-hard fartlek running. Mostly moderate to be honest.
70 minutes easy riding
Monday: 20min @ 285W -- 10min rest -- 15min @ 285W -- 7:30min rest -- 10min @ 285W -- 5min rest -- 5min @ 285W
Later, 20min tempo run, 5ish mins rest, 1km fast
Tuesday: 50 min easy ride
10x200m swim intervals at around 1500m TT pace, 15 seconds rest between
Wednesday: 20km TT, all out. Power plumeted in the second half of the trial, only could average about 270-ish Watts and 31:30. Very tired, legs destroyed.
2x1000m swimming, long, slow, fairly easy stuff, broken up a bit into various strokes
This lead me into my "peaking" phase. I'm prepping for the Toronto Triathlon Festival, which I have learned is AG Nationals this year. Better get it right this time. More on peaking later. After the race. As a bit of a teaser... I'm feeling like I'm recovering... nervous I'm detraining... and not really feeling like I'm getting fast yet. Perhaps this crash week was a little too much and I just need some time... Come Monday I go into "race week" meaning dedicated recovery, so maybe I'm right where I need to be. We shall see...
Adam "Too late to fix anything now" Fortais
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Muskoka images
I have just recently finished a fairly intense bike block, details to follow. In the mean time, enjoy some Muskoka stuff.
Race morning
Into T2
Heading out on the deathmarch
The most comfortable I felt all run
Let them see you suffer and they'll tear you apart
T-Dead
Monday, July 1, 2013
A BEE STUNG MY EYE, My first olympic triathlon, and other short stories (Race Report 7)
Muskoka, or as I would learn, the city of Huntsville (Muskoka is NOT a city), was to be the setting for my first attempt at Olympic triathlon. This was part of the 5i50 series - as I understand, and off-shoot of the Ironman brand, heralded as the largest non-drafting olympic distance triathlon series freakin' anywhere! Additionally, 1st place in each AG secured the winner a slot at AG World's next year, and top 5 in each AG got a complimentary slot at 5150 championships in Iowa. What better place to try the distance out?
I travelled with my ever supportive father. We drove down the day before, a simple 6 hour drive. We travelled with dinner since all I wanted was chicken breast and pasta, and like hell I'm gonna pay $20 for that if I don't have to! This was all planned in advance.
We checked into out nice little hotel, unpacked some stuff and headed to the race course. After some aimless driving (we're men, of course we don't need an address, directions, a map, or any inkling as to where we're going...) we found the course was less than 3km from our room. Nice! I got my race kit, scouted the transition area and decided to come back later, after the racing was done for the day to preview the 5150 course.
We drove the majority of the bike... It was either uphill or downhill. I defy you to find any flat on that course! I thought that this may be to my advantage... I still don't know if it was. We'll get to that later. 225m (~750 feet?) of climbing over 40km doesn't really sound like much I don't think, but it certainly isn't a typical time trial course. The run was sort of all over the map, involving some off-roading (which I love) and lots of turns (which I hate), a 5km loop done twice (which I think I like). All in all a tough course (which I'm indifferent to). We "peaced-out", went back to the hotel where I ate dinner pt II, watched some TV and had an early sleep.
The next morning I was up at 5:00am to eat and digest. Yogurt+hemp seeds, a banana, a coffee and a piece of toast is all I really want. We packed our stuff and made our way to the course. Transition was set up nice. Each age group had its own rack (COOL) and mine was second from the end, closest to the bike exit, right after the elite men. I got a spot second from the edge which was perfect, did some warming up... All systems go. Body marking ensued. Age: 22, number: 22. Cool! In all this time I never got pre-race jitters. Just calm, collected, and ready to do work. I had no fitness setbacks leading to this race, my prep was as good as I could have had, all I had to do now was go as hard as I could. The only thing standing in my way at this point was squeezing into my freakin' wetsuit, but that was fairly easily done. I proceeded to do a little swim warm up and "baptise" myself as a true triathlete. I peed in it.
Wave 1 consisted of pro, AG elite and Junior athletes. They went off 4 minutes ahead of wave 2 (me). My wave was 20-30 and some group of 60ish athletes. The swim was about 150m downstream, left hook around 2 bouys then a straight shot against the current to the transition zone.
I did some solid swimming this year but was unsure how that would translate to this race. I knew I wanted to be better than mid-pack out of the water but wasn't sure how close to front I would be... So rather than having to swim over people I thought I would prefer to be swam over. I'm a nice guy like that. I'd rather draft off you going 20 seconds/100m too slow than accidentally bump your shoulder. JUST KIDDING. I started on the far left side to get a better, closer turn on the two buoys, but that required me to be two people back. I got stuck behind the first person and boxed in on all sides... unfortunately for him at one point I was literally on top of him. Sorry dude. I did feel bad, for real, but all's fair in a mass-start swim amiright? Anyway, I got on the next set of feet but they started drifting to the right... and pulling away. I kept sighting, and refused to believe they were going the correct direction. In fact, all the people ahead of me were drifting away from the buoy. We got there and because of my proper line I had made back the 15m or so gap they had put on me. I got back on those feet and then the same thing started happening again! Got that distance back on the turn. Weird. For the rest of the swim I stayed within striking distance of that person (first woman out of the water from my wave). In the process we passed a number of Wave 1 swimmers... and this lead me to being the 4th out of the water from my wave in a time of 24:3-... passable considering we were supposedly swimming against a current... and later I would find, 21st overall. Needless to say I was pumped. A bit of fumbling with the suit and I was into transition.
I believe transition went fine. It wasn't the fastest time, but it was fairly close. I fumbled getting my paddle-like feet out of my suit but big deal. There is video of this forthcoming.
The bike... I don't know if it was the fatigue from swimming, or ... iunno. But I just couldn't keep my power up. I ended up averaging about 240W, far below my ftp of 280W. This was the only place of my race I took any form of nutrition. I had a double-concentrated bottle of sport drink mix. I would later find out that this was a big mistake. I drank all of it, but never felt like I was getting hydrated. I never felt strong during the bike. I got passed quite a bit, but I never saw anyone from my age group go by. Not a lot to report here. I just kept my head down and tried to push the power out, to no avail. A disappointing 1:10 (39th...) and I was into the run.
I had a bit of trouble with the shoes, but I was ready to go. I scouted the rack and was pleased to find only my bike. I was tired, but I'd run feeling more tired before I think. I got out on course and started making up for that bike. However, after about 1km I was feeling weary. Not brick-workout tired, but just drained of energy. I took a gel before the swim and 200 calories on the bike so I reasoned that it's not likely due to fuel. I passed on everything at the aid stations for the first 3km and I started cramping in my gut. I tried to take on some water but ended up choking on it. To top it off, at about 3.5k a large insect crash-landed on my face and stung me below my left eye. An unfortunate combo of expletives erupted from my mouth. I hoped no one heard that. The rest of the run consisted of me trying my best not to slow down (which I did. Big time.) and trying to splash water on my face to sooth my acutely aching eye. Never the less, at my dismal pace I was still picking off other athletes left and right, and was never even close to being passed. Surprisingly, 39:30 was enough to give me the 11th fastest run on the day. Brutal.
So where did this put me? 2:16:47 for the day... which was good enough for a 20-24 win! 17th male overall. Fantastic! I earned my World's spot! Plus I think I made my Dad proud. I was worried he would be a bit bored during the race, but he commented how really enjoyable the whole experience was. He photographed the whole event and commented on how nerve-racking the waiting period between times he saw me was. Always counting the athletes and keeping track of my place. I really enjoyed having him there too. I wish my mom could have been there too. Hopefully next time.
Regardless, not the time I'd hoped for, but I accomplished my goals for this race. I was upset with the last 2/3 of the race, but I believe nutrition had a large part to play. Regardless, I've been putting in a big 10-day bike frenzy to get ready for Toronto on July 21, and I've been practising with nutrition. Hopfully I can get these things sorted out and have a really steller showing. I think Toronto is Nationals.
Adam "Thanks everyone for helping me do something really fun like this!" Fortais
I travelled with my ever supportive father. We drove down the day before, a simple 6 hour drive. We travelled with dinner since all I wanted was chicken breast and pasta, and like hell I'm gonna pay $20 for that if I don't have to! This was all planned in advance.
We checked into out nice little hotel, unpacked some stuff and headed to the race course. After some aimless driving (we're men, of course we don't need an address, directions, a map, or any inkling as to where we're going...) we found the course was less than 3km from our room. Nice! I got my race kit, scouted the transition area and decided to come back later, after the racing was done for the day to preview the 5150 course.
We drove the majority of the bike... It was either uphill or downhill. I defy you to find any flat on that course! I thought that this may be to my advantage... I still don't know if it was. We'll get to that later. 225m (~750 feet?) of climbing over 40km doesn't really sound like much I don't think, but it certainly isn't a typical time trial course. The run was sort of all over the map, involving some off-roading (which I love) and lots of turns (which I hate), a 5km loop done twice (which I think I like). All in all a tough course (which I'm indifferent to). We "peaced-out", went back to the hotel where I ate dinner pt II, watched some TV and had an early sleep.
The next morning I was up at 5:00am to eat and digest. Yogurt+hemp seeds, a banana, a coffee and a piece of toast is all I really want. We packed our stuff and made our way to the course. Transition was set up nice. Each age group had its own rack (COOL) and mine was second from the end, closest to the bike exit, right after the elite men. I got a spot second from the edge which was perfect, did some warming up... All systems go. Body marking ensued. Age: 22, number: 22. Cool! In all this time I never got pre-race jitters. Just calm, collected, and ready to do work. I had no fitness setbacks leading to this race, my prep was as good as I could have had, all I had to do now was go as hard as I could. The only thing standing in my way at this point was squeezing into my freakin' wetsuit, but that was fairly easily done. I proceeded to do a little swim warm up and "baptise" myself as a true triathlete. I peed in it.
Wave 1 consisted of pro, AG elite and Junior athletes. They went off 4 minutes ahead of wave 2 (me). My wave was 20-30 and some group of 60ish athletes. The swim was about 150m downstream, left hook around 2 bouys then a straight shot against the current to the transition zone.
I did some solid swimming this year but was unsure how that would translate to this race. I knew I wanted to be better than mid-pack out of the water but wasn't sure how close to front I would be... So rather than having to swim over people I thought I would prefer to be swam over. I'm a nice guy like that. I'd rather draft off you going 20 seconds/100m too slow than accidentally bump your shoulder. JUST KIDDING. I started on the far left side to get a better, closer turn on the two buoys, but that required me to be two people back. I got stuck behind the first person and boxed in on all sides... unfortunately for him at one point I was literally on top of him. Sorry dude. I did feel bad, for real, but all's fair in a mass-start swim amiright? Anyway, I got on the next set of feet but they started drifting to the right... and pulling away. I kept sighting, and refused to believe they were going the correct direction. In fact, all the people ahead of me were drifting away from the buoy. We got there and because of my proper line I had made back the 15m or so gap they had put on me. I got back on those feet and then the same thing started happening again! Got that distance back on the turn. Weird. For the rest of the swim I stayed within striking distance of that person (first woman out of the water from my wave). In the process we passed a number of Wave 1 swimmers... and this lead me to being the 4th out of the water from my wave in a time of 24:3-... passable considering we were supposedly swimming against a current... and later I would find, 21st overall. Needless to say I was pumped. A bit of fumbling with the suit and I was into transition.
I believe transition went fine. It wasn't the fastest time, but it was fairly close. I fumbled getting my paddle-like feet out of my suit but big deal. There is video of this forthcoming.
The bike... I don't know if it was the fatigue from swimming, or ... iunno. But I just couldn't keep my power up. I ended up averaging about 240W, far below my ftp of 280W. This was the only place of my race I took any form of nutrition. I had a double-concentrated bottle of sport drink mix. I would later find out that this was a big mistake. I drank all of it, but never felt like I was getting hydrated. I never felt strong during the bike. I got passed quite a bit, but I never saw anyone from my age group go by. Not a lot to report here. I just kept my head down and tried to push the power out, to no avail. A disappointing 1:10 (39th...) and I was into the run.
I had a bit of trouble with the shoes, but I was ready to go. I scouted the rack and was pleased to find only my bike. I was tired, but I'd run feeling more tired before I think. I got out on course and started making up for that bike. However, after about 1km I was feeling weary. Not brick-workout tired, but just drained of energy. I took a gel before the swim and 200 calories on the bike so I reasoned that it's not likely due to fuel. I passed on everything at the aid stations for the first 3km and I started cramping in my gut. I tried to take on some water but ended up choking on it. To top it off, at about 3.5k a large insect crash-landed on my face and stung me below my left eye. An unfortunate combo of expletives erupted from my mouth. I hoped no one heard that. The rest of the run consisted of me trying my best not to slow down (which I did. Big time.) and trying to splash water on my face to sooth my acutely aching eye. Never the less, at my dismal pace I was still picking off other athletes left and right, and was never even close to being passed. Surprisingly, 39:30 was enough to give me the 11th fastest run on the day. Brutal.
So where did this put me? 2:16:47 for the day... which was good enough for a 20-24 win! 17th male overall. Fantastic! I earned my World's spot! Plus I think I made my Dad proud. I was worried he would be a bit bored during the race, but he commented how really enjoyable the whole experience was. He photographed the whole event and commented on how nerve-racking the waiting period between times he saw me was. Always counting the athletes and keeping track of my place. I really enjoyed having him there too. I wish my mom could have been there too. Hopefully next time.
Regardless, not the time I'd hoped for, but I accomplished my goals for this race. I was upset with the last 2/3 of the race, but I believe nutrition had a large part to play. Regardless, I've been putting in a big 10-day bike frenzy to get ready for Toronto on July 21, and I've been practising with nutrition. Hopfully I can get these things sorted out and have a really steller showing. I think Toronto is Nationals.
Adam "Thanks everyone for helping me do something really fun like this!" Fortais
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