This is some serious back-tracking but I thought I may as well document it. Base 2 was from March 4 - March 31 and consisted of mainly long, low intensity work, strength and force-training and the introduction of some longer, higher-effort intervals.
Run weeks focused on very short, hard, steep hill intervals to build up some run-specific leg muscle. The other main focus was to begin increasing the duration of my weekly long-run. This went from 50min to 60min to 75min. The Splash and Dash 1km swim - 10km run race fell on the first week... which wasn't ideal timing wise, but I made sure I didn't over do it. Week two I kept it easy with a 30 minute fartlek run, and I threw in a basic, easy 6km tempo run at 3:50/km in week three.
Bike weeks focused on bike-specific strength training in the form of big gear steady intervals. The weather was still less than great so everything was done on the trainer. A typical workout may include up to 10 minutes of gear-grinding with less than half the interval time recovering, or, getting off the bike to wall sit or squat for a minute or two. Second focus was similar to that of the run weeks, slowly introduce longer, higher effort intervals. Week one was 30 minutes at my "sweet-spot" (80-93% ftp ~ 240W). Week two was 60minute tempo interval (220W) and week three was 3x15minutes (10min tempo (220W), 5 min SS+ (260W))
Swimming was swimming. Just following the UWO tri club's workouts. Hitting about 10km/week in the form of Tues-Thurs morning, 45 minute workouts, and a 2 hour workout on Saturday.
End of month testing went well for cycling, but not so much for swimming. I chalked the poor swim test up to not fully recovering since I hit a new record during the Splash and Dash. The swim test protocol I had been using during base session was 50m invervals on 45seconds to exhaustion, holding whatever pace I want. I picked this since it doesn't take a lot of time, has some amount of specificity, but also focuses on top-end speed which is what I've been trying to increase outside of the competitive season. Last test I managed 10x50m before calling it quits. This month my 10th interval missed the pace time... but again, just like my last post about my most current running test, I did this on a Tuesday after a full training block. From now on, no testing until at least Wednesday.
As I mentioned above, cycling went well. I upgraded my all-time best power over 5 and 20 minutes WHILE ON THE TRAINER... I don't know if anyone else notices this, but hitting your watts on the trainer feels a lot harder than on the road. Physically I don't know how this could be, but it seems to be a real phenomenon. However, I still managed to up to 20 minute critical power to 294W, and my 5 minute critical power to 342W. CP5 was done on a Wednesday, and CP20 was on a Friday. It seems like Wednesday is all right for testing. With this new CP20 value, my estimated FTP (functional threshold power, or, power I can expect to hold for 1 hour) is about 280W. Not bad, not bad.
I decided not to test my running, as the results from Splash and Dash as well as my increasing long runs provided enough feedback to tell me I'm heading in the right direction.
Adam "Catching up on old news" Fortais
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Brief run-test debriefing
1) Eat appropriately prior to testing
Eggs, bacon, cheese and coffee do not provide your body with the proper nutrients to keep from crashing with low blood sugar
2) Take some time off before testing
1-2 days isn't a very long time after 3 weeks of the highest volume of your life. Consider testing at the end of the week
3) Watch your heart rate
Don't be surprised if you crack after 6 minutes above 195 bpm. Especially if last test you maxed out at 195.
4) Know when to pack it in
If you notice your test has been a perfect storm of failure, don't be afraid to call it quits early. You can always retest later in the week.
So all of these things just happened. The test was a 5km TT. I held my goal pace for about 13 minutes before cracking. The speed didn't feel too bad, just everything else wasn't firing today. I called it quits around 4km and plan on retrying later this week. Before quitting I was holding 3:20min/km which seemed completely reasonable. The first couple km were no problem at all. I will be shooting for that again later.
Adam "Keep that frown concave down!" Fortais
Eggs, bacon, cheese and coffee do not provide your body with the proper nutrients to keep from crashing with low blood sugar
2) Take some time off before testing
1-2 days isn't a very long time after 3 weeks of the highest volume of your life. Consider testing at the end of the week
3) Watch your heart rate
Don't be surprised if you crack after 6 minutes above 195 bpm. Especially if last test you maxed out at 195.
4) Know when to pack it in
If you notice your test has been a perfect storm of failure, don't be afraid to call it quits early. You can always retest later in the week.
So all of these things just happened. The test was a 5km TT. I held my goal pace for about 13 minutes before cracking. The speed didn't feel too bad, just everything else wasn't firing today. I called it quits around 4km and plan on retrying later this week. Before quitting I was holding 3:20min/km which seemed completely reasonable. The first couple km were no problem at all. I will be shooting for that again later.
Adam "Keep that frown concave down!" Fortais
Friday, May 3, 2013
Base 3: (Mid-Week, Big-Week)
I'm just about finished the biggest training week of my life and thought I would quickly update with regards to that.
Base 3 was re-designed (or rather shifted) by essentially 2 weeks as per the last post. When you're sick, you gotta do what you gotta do. The hour structure was maintained at 10-12-14-Restandtest, but the focus shifted a little bit. I caught myself doing more very focused race-pace stuff, ie medium-length intervals very near my predicted racing wattage and speed, so I decided to change it up a bit for this last "training to train" period. I moved more above race pace intervals and below race pace intervals into the schedule and plan on training very specifically in the coming build blocks.
More specifically, my quality workouts looked like this (excluding swims, because I don't really know what I'm doing in the pool)
Week 1:
Bike
3x10min at ftp (1 hour TT pace, 280W) w/ 5 min rest
-To get used to intervals in that range again, not too stressfull
3x(5min top-gear low cadence, stand at 2 and 4min, 2 min rest, 2min standing, 1min rest), 2:30 high cadence -Functional strength training, a perceived limiter for my tiny runners legs
30min tempo (210-250W), 10min w/ single legging, 25min tempo+5min Sub-threshold (210-250, ~270W) -I have to be ready to ride hard for ~ 1 hour, rather than 30 minutes this year
Run
6x 200m hill repeats, 1:40 rest
-Gotta be strong
30 min tempo @ 3:40/km
-Right about threshold
Long run
Week 2:
Bike (first week outside)
2x10min ftp (5min rest), 20min ftp, 2x1min HARD efforts
-Building on last week
6x ~1min hills, about 400W
-Pumpin'!
Run
5x(2min I - 1min E - 1min I - 30sec E - 30sec I - 30sec E), I = <3:20 km="" p="">-Worth noting, I did this workout faster and with more reps than I did about 1 month out of my 10k PB last season. Training the high end speed.
Long run
-20km
CN Tower race
-Race report to come. 144 flights of stairs, ~1750 stairs. You can imagine what system I was training here.
Week 3:
Bike
20min @ 280W (100% ftp) - 10min rest, 15min @ 285W (102% ftp) - 7min rest, 10min @ 290W (105% ftp) - 5 min rest
-Keep on building. The goal is to build my tolerance to the longer intervals. I'm used to 10 minute sufferfests, but I need to make 20 minute efforts my bread and butter.
90 minutes of searching and destroying various hills around London. 6 big efforts from 1:30-4:00 climbing.
-Lots of recovery means high watts!
Run
5x400m including 200m of hill, 78 seconds w/ 400m jog recovery
-Speed and strength
4x200m w/ 200m recovery (32sec), 3x1km, 2min rest (3:14), 2x400m w/ 400m recovery (68sec)
-More VO2Max training with some very fast running for economy. Again, running better than last year
Long run
-Nearly 20km
Week 1 and 2 had the workouts spaced to get good solid quality out of every interval session. Things went very well and I was feeling a bit of fatigue creeping up near the end of week 2. The CN tower race demanded that I front-load week 2, and the race itself hurt quite a lot, so some easy sessions followed.
Week 3 has been amazing - I've been quite tired through most of the sessions, but I've still been hitting all my numbers, or exceeding them. The beginning of the week saw well-spaced quality sessions, but I've been exceeding the speeds I was expecting at this point of the season, so I've been doubling up some workouts in the latter half of the week to try and get a bigger endurance stimulus out of the training. What I mean is I'm sacrificing some potentially raw speed and freshness - "workout PBs" for a bigger endurance load. Specifically, I doubled up running and bike quality sessions on Thursday (VO2Max running work in the morning, hill work on the bike in the evening). This was followed today by 90 minutes in the pool doing some above race pace work, and some technique and strength work... into my long run... leaving me "trashed".
Here is the reason I'm doing this. I believe my Base 3 period is meant to be more about training your body to be able to take on the race-specific, high intensity loads you will be giving it during the Build periods to come. Also, you want to be maxing out your pure endurance at this point, so you can put nearly all your effort into race specific work. With that in mind, I noticed I've been hitting my swim, bike and run workouts faster than I ever have, even with all this fatigue building up. However, I am also moving up in race distance this year which plays a huge role in my training plan. Therefore the decision process was that
1) "The hey is in the barn" as far as short speed work is concerned since I've already seemed to have exceeded my speed from last year in every sport
2) I have 2 entire blocks to come that will be concerned with raising my race specific speed even more
3) My biggest limiter is volume and endurance based - I've never raced longer than 1 hour and I believe I have more to gain at this point by addressing these issues.
I don't even see this as a gamble - I hit the times and watts I was hoping to ahead of schedule, so I re-arranged the work I was going to do anyway in such a way to tax my recovery and endurance systems more. That being said... I can't wait for this recovery week! Only 2 more workouts to go... A short swim involving 25m all-out sprints and pushups (a workout that I will drop upon reaching the build phases), and a long slow endurance bike ride. No problem!
In the near future, be prepared for a much shorter review of Base 2 training (a lot less interesting), another race recap, and my thoughts on my swim season.
Adam "lol, the hey is in the barn" Fortais
Base 3 was re-designed (or rather shifted) by essentially 2 weeks as per the last post. When you're sick, you gotta do what you gotta do. The hour structure was maintained at 10-12-14-Restandtest, but the focus shifted a little bit. I caught myself doing more very focused race-pace stuff, ie medium-length intervals very near my predicted racing wattage and speed, so I decided to change it up a bit for this last "training to train" period. I moved more above race pace intervals and below race pace intervals into the schedule and plan on training very specifically in the coming build blocks.
More specifically, my quality workouts looked like this (excluding swims, because I don't really know what I'm doing in the pool)
Week 1:
Bike
3x10min at ftp (1 hour TT pace, 280W) w/ 5 min rest
-To get used to intervals in that range again, not too stressfull
3x(5min top-gear low cadence, stand at 2 and 4min, 2 min rest, 2min standing, 1min rest), 2:30 high cadence -Functional strength training, a perceived limiter for my tiny runners legs
30min tempo (210-250W), 10min w/ single legging, 25min tempo+5min Sub-threshold (210-250, ~270W) -I have to be ready to ride hard for ~ 1 hour, rather than 30 minutes this year
Run
6x 200m hill repeats, 1:40 rest
-Gotta be strong
30 min tempo @ 3:40/km
-Right about threshold
Long run
Week 2:
Bike (first week outside)
2x10min ftp (5min rest), 20min ftp, 2x1min HARD efforts
-Building on last week
6x ~1min hills, about 400W
-Pumpin'!
Run
5x(2min I - 1min E - 1min I - 30sec E - 30sec I - 30sec E), I = <3:20 km="" p="">-Worth noting, I did this workout faster and with more reps than I did about 1 month out of my 10k PB last season. Training the high end speed.
Long run
-20km
CN Tower race
-Race report to come. 144 flights of stairs, ~1750 stairs. You can imagine what system I was training here.
Week 3:
Bike
20min @ 280W (100% ftp) - 10min rest, 15min @ 285W (102% ftp) - 7min rest, 10min @ 290W (105% ftp) - 5 min rest
-Keep on building. The goal is to build my tolerance to the longer intervals. I'm used to 10 minute sufferfests, but I need to make 20 minute efforts my bread and butter.
90 minutes of searching and destroying various hills around London. 6 big efforts from 1:30-4:00 climbing.
-Lots of recovery means high watts!
Run
5x400m including 200m of hill, 78 seconds w/ 400m jog recovery
-Speed and strength
4x200m w/ 200m recovery (32sec), 3x1km, 2min rest (3:14), 2x400m w/ 400m recovery (68sec)
-More VO2Max training with some very fast running for economy. Again, running better than last year
Long run
-Nearly 20km
Week 1 and 2 had the workouts spaced to get good solid quality out of every interval session. Things went very well and I was feeling a bit of fatigue creeping up near the end of week 2. The CN tower race demanded that I front-load week 2, and the race itself hurt quite a lot, so some easy sessions followed.
Week 3 has been amazing - I've been quite tired through most of the sessions, but I've still been hitting all my numbers, or exceeding them. The beginning of the week saw well-spaced quality sessions, but I've been exceeding the speeds I was expecting at this point of the season, so I've been doubling up some workouts in the latter half of the week to try and get a bigger endurance stimulus out of the training. What I mean is I'm sacrificing some potentially raw speed and freshness - "workout PBs" for a bigger endurance load. Specifically, I doubled up running and bike quality sessions on Thursday (VO2Max running work in the morning, hill work on the bike in the evening). This was followed today by 90 minutes in the pool doing some above race pace work, and some technique and strength work... into my long run... leaving me "trashed".
Here is the reason I'm doing this. I believe my Base 3 period is meant to be more about training your body to be able to take on the race-specific, high intensity loads you will be giving it during the Build periods to come. Also, you want to be maxing out your pure endurance at this point, so you can put nearly all your effort into race specific work. With that in mind, I noticed I've been hitting my swim, bike and run workouts faster than I ever have, even with all this fatigue building up. However, I am also moving up in race distance this year which plays a huge role in my training plan. Therefore the decision process was that
1) "The hey is in the barn" as far as short speed work is concerned since I've already seemed to have exceeded my speed from last year in every sport
2) I have 2 entire blocks to come that will be concerned with raising my race specific speed even more
3) My biggest limiter is volume and endurance based - I've never raced longer than 1 hour and I believe I have more to gain at this point by addressing these issues.
I don't even see this as a gamble - I hit the times and watts I was hoping to ahead of schedule, so I re-arranged the work I was going to do anyway in such a way to tax my recovery and endurance systems more. That being said... I can't wait for this recovery week! Only 2 more workouts to go... A short swim involving 25m all-out sprints and pushups (a workout that I will drop upon reaching the build phases), and a long slow endurance bike ride. No problem!
In the near future, be prepared for a much shorter review of Base 2 training (a lot less interesting), another race recap, and my thoughts on my swim season.
Adam "lol, the hey is in the barn" Fortais
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Race Report 2 (Queen's Spring Fling)
"You can't win 'em all... So when you lose, make sure you have some excuses."
- me
Race specifics:
This "triathlon" was a two-day affair, with a 750m TT swim on day one, and a 3k-20k-5k, time-gapped duathlon the next. The swim was in a pool, the duathlon was on the cold, wet, windswept roads (and bushes) of Wolf Island, right next to Kingston. This was to be the University Multisport Series' championship event.
Me specifics:
This event was to take place during the weekend of my first week of Base 3 training. This meant I would be hitting about 10 hours for the week including some fairly strenuous training leading up to it. I certainly would not be at my top form, but I should have been fairly fit and ready to go.
The race:
The ride down was uneventful. I managed to get a ride with some tri club teammates, had a burrito or something for lunch, and simply relaxed. I was feeling very confident in my abilities as training had been going splendidly, I felt a bit tired but on the whole ready to go, and was excited to test out my swim speed.
My group arrived earlier than most. We checked into the hotel, hung around a coffee shop, then headed to the pool. The pool, I was told, was fairly new and I could tell. Iunno. It was nice. We were there very early, but I wanted a chance to shake out my legs and get my arms moving. I had completed a fairly long swim workout the day before including a main set of 400m - 2x200m - 4x100m, long course, coming in close to what I was expecting for short course race-pace. I got about 2k of warm up, including some fast 50s, and was amazed how smooth and fast I felt. I could tell it was going to be a good evening.
Official warm ups started a while later, but I was already pretty much good to go. I did a couple more 50s mostly to keep warm.
One lesson for next time - during the warm up, if you plan on using a pace clock for racing, work on sighting the pace clock. During the race I lost it and was swimming "blind". A second lesson - KEEP COUNT OF LAPS!!! After 200m I had lost track. I don't know how my race would have been affected knowing the accurate distance to go, but for the last 250m or so I kept thinking, "probably only 2 more laps to go..."
Regardless, I cruised into a massive new PB, 10:5-something, or, 1:27/100m. My previous PB at this distance was something like 1:35/100m. Huge success. This set me up to start first in the duathlon the next day (by 15 seconds).
I spent the rest of the evening watching the other divisions, eating a pizzaburger, and figuring out how I would get to Wolf Island. Nothing special to report except pizza burgers are things! It's a burger wrapped in, essentially, a pizza pocket. Yes I had that the night before a race. Who are you, my mom? I don't have to answer to you.
Oh, I also had to share a bed.
Oh, apparently he was sick with something.
So I started waking up at about 2:00 am, then almost every 30 minutes thereafter. My dreams in between involved me and the people I know becoming infected with red crablike alien monsters which would then control the host's body. Every time I'd wake up, my throat would be more sore, and my skin a little more sensitive. By 5:00 am I gave up on sleep and layed awake until it was time to pack my stuff. My throat was filled with mucous and I could barely breath. I had a meagre breakfast as I couldn't really stomach to eat too much and decided I would just shut up with all this "I feel sick" business and get the day over with.
The temperature had dropped about 5-10 degrees (C) from the day before, the wind had increased by about 25km/hr, and it was very overcast. As I should have guessed, the wind would only get worse on the island, and of course, surrounding yourself with water will only make it colder. So I decided I would just shut up with all this "the weather is disgusting" business and get the day over with.
I went through the motions of setting up transition and warming up. I tried to do a couple minutes at ftp on the bike as warm up but had quite a bit of trouble. My legs were fried and I could hardly breath being so filled with mucous. So I cut the warm up short and decided to try and just stay warm.
The girls went first, and there were reports trickling in of people making mistakes on the course and running the 5k instead of the 3k at the beginning. I took a quick look at the map and it seemed clear enough. Just kidding. It made no sense at all. I asked the race director for some insight... "It's really not that bad, start here, take a left then a right, but not that right, that right is for the bike, then left but make sure not to turn onto the street, but weave through this backyard..." Ok, it wasn't exactly like that, but in my state, and well, it might as well have been that bad. I'm not kidding about running through backyards, the race started by cutting through a field behind a community centre, and exiting in a residential area... I gave up trying to learn the route and assumed I would figure it out on the go.
I lined up on the start line, cleared my mind of how bad this would probably turn out, and told myself if I could hold an honest pace for this first 3km, I could catch my breath on the bike. The 3k felt hard, and I forgot to look at my watch due to my suffering. I got on the bike proceeded to get knocked around by the wind more than I ever had. Sadly I only managed to hold about 250W and come in around 39:00 for 20km... which is very very far from what I would consider a riding to my potential. I was extremely unhappy with that. Later in the day the race directors decided to make the bike optional. I don't know how that works in the context of a race, but it was a good thought to cut that hellish suicide run out of the race.
I got to the 5k still leading... although it was an absolute death march. At times I was running above 4:00/km. I finished in first by about 1-2 minutes. The worst was over. Now all I had to do was be disgraced.
Apparently I had made a mistake on the 3k run at the beginning. I was running up the proper road and saw a pilon with arrows pointing into a path through a bush. Obviously this was a sign to go into the bush... However, the true route required me to pass this pilon, turn around a little further up the road and then go through the bush. So for my mistake I was (and rightly so, don't get me wrong) penalized 5:00. This slotted me comfortably in 2nd, about a minute and a half down. So be it. Just because I didn't know I cheated doesn't mean I didn't run less than everyone else. It just sucks. Lesson 3 - preview the route.
I'm sure there were some more lessons to be learned in there. Something about trying your best, you can't win 'em all, get back on the horse, whatever. I was pretty bummed for a while, and being sick certainly didn't help, but never once did I get discouraged. The hardest thing was accepting I needed some time off to get better before I could put more time in to get better. That's a good sign.
Anyway, my effort garnered a new pair of compression socks which I gladly wore all the way home. It also earned me a sinus infection which essentially halted all training during the next week. This forced me to start Base 3 all over again on April 15th. I then had to work on re-organizing my schedule leading up to my A races. Speaking of which, I have some A races planned! Actually, there is a plethora of news! But I will make a separate post for all this good stuff. In the mean time, I am writing this mid-week of my last big week of new Base 3, my biggest week of training ever... and I think it is going very well! I've hit 10 hours, 12 hours and am on my way to 14 hours this week... But I'll get to that shortly. Look forward to another race report, a review of Base 2, and my summer plans.
Adam "hard race? race hard" Fortais
- me
Race specifics:
This "triathlon" was a two-day affair, with a 750m TT swim on day one, and a 3k-20k-5k, time-gapped duathlon the next. The swim was in a pool, the duathlon was on the cold, wet, windswept roads (and bushes) of Wolf Island, right next to Kingston. This was to be the University Multisport Series' championship event.
Me specifics:
This event was to take place during the weekend of my first week of Base 3 training. This meant I would be hitting about 10 hours for the week including some fairly strenuous training leading up to it. I certainly would not be at my top form, but I should have been fairly fit and ready to go.
The race:
The ride down was uneventful. I managed to get a ride with some tri club teammates, had a burrito or something for lunch, and simply relaxed. I was feeling very confident in my abilities as training had been going splendidly, I felt a bit tired but on the whole ready to go, and was excited to test out my swim speed.
My group arrived earlier than most. We checked into the hotel, hung around a coffee shop, then headed to the pool. The pool, I was told, was fairly new and I could tell. Iunno. It was nice. We were there very early, but I wanted a chance to shake out my legs and get my arms moving. I had completed a fairly long swim workout the day before including a main set of 400m - 2x200m - 4x100m, long course, coming in close to what I was expecting for short course race-pace. I got about 2k of warm up, including some fast 50s, and was amazed how smooth and fast I felt. I could tell it was going to be a good evening.
Official warm ups started a while later, but I was already pretty much good to go. I did a couple more 50s mostly to keep warm.
One lesson for next time - during the warm up, if you plan on using a pace clock for racing, work on sighting the pace clock. During the race I lost it and was swimming "blind". A second lesson - KEEP COUNT OF LAPS!!! After 200m I had lost track. I don't know how my race would have been affected knowing the accurate distance to go, but for the last 250m or so I kept thinking, "probably only 2 more laps to go..."
Regardless, I cruised into a massive new PB, 10:5-something, or, 1:27/100m. My previous PB at this distance was something like 1:35/100m. Huge success. This set me up to start first in the duathlon the next day (by 15 seconds).
I spent the rest of the evening watching the other divisions, eating a pizzaburger, and figuring out how I would get to Wolf Island. Nothing special to report except pizza burgers are things! It's a burger wrapped in, essentially, a pizza pocket. Yes I had that the night before a race. Who are you, my mom? I don't have to answer to you.
Oh, I also had to share a bed.
Oh, apparently he was sick with something.
So I started waking up at about 2:00 am, then almost every 30 minutes thereafter. My dreams in between involved me and the people I know becoming infected with red crablike alien monsters which would then control the host's body. Every time I'd wake up, my throat would be more sore, and my skin a little more sensitive. By 5:00 am I gave up on sleep and layed awake until it was time to pack my stuff. My throat was filled with mucous and I could barely breath. I had a meagre breakfast as I couldn't really stomach to eat too much and decided I would just shut up with all this "I feel sick" business and get the day over with.
The temperature had dropped about 5-10 degrees (C) from the day before, the wind had increased by about 25km/hr, and it was very overcast. As I should have guessed, the wind would only get worse on the island, and of course, surrounding yourself with water will only make it colder. So I decided I would just shut up with all this "the weather is disgusting" business and get the day over with.
I went through the motions of setting up transition and warming up. I tried to do a couple minutes at ftp on the bike as warm up but had quite a bit of trouble. My legs were fried and I could hardly breath being so filled with mucous. So I cut the warm up short and decided to try and just stay warm.
The girls went first, and there were reports trickling in of people making mistakes on the course and running the 5k instead of the 3k at the beginning. I took a quick look at the map and it seemed clear enough. Just kidding. It made no sense at all. I asked the race director for some insight... "It's really not that bad, start here, take a left then a right, but not that right, that right is for the bike, then left but make sure not to turn onto the street, but weave through this backyard..." Ok, it wasn't exactly like that, but in my state, and well, it might as well have been that bad. I'm not kidding about running through backyards, the race started by cutting through a field behind a community centre, and exiting in a residential area... I gave up trying to learn the route and assumed I would figure it out on the go.
I lined up on the start line, cleared my mind of how bad this would probably turn out, and told myself if I could hold an honest pace for this first 3km, I could catch my breath on the bike. The 3k felt hard, and I forgot to look at my watch due to my suffering. I got on the bike proceeded to get knocked around by the wind more than I ever had. Sadly I only managed to hold about 250W and come in around 39:00 for 20km... which is very very far from what I would consider a riding to my potential. I was extremely unhappy with that. Later in the day the race directors decided to make the bike optional. I don't know how that works in the context of a race, but it was a good thought to cut that hellish suicide run out of the race.
I got to the 5k still leading... although it was an absolute death march. At times I was running above 4:00/km. I finished in first by about 1-2 minutes. The worst was over. Now all I had to do was be disgraced.
Apparently I had made a mistake on the 3k run at the beginning. I was running up the proper road and saw a pilon with arrows pointing into a path through a bush. Obviously this was a sign to go into the bush... However, the true route required me to pass this pilon, turn around a little further up the road and then go through the bush. So for my mistake I was (and rightly so, don't get me wrong) penalized 5:00. This slotted me comfortably in 2nd, about a minute and a half down. So be it. Just because I didn't know I cheated doesn't mean I didn't run less than everyone else. It just sucks. Lesson 3 - preview the route.
I'm sure there were some more lessons to be learned in there. Something about trying your best, you can't win 'em all, get back on the horse, whatever. I was pretty bummed for a while, and being sick certainly didn't help, but never once did I get discouraged. The hardest thing was accepting I needed some time off to get better before I could put more time in to get better. That's a good sign.
Anyway, my effort garnered a new pair of compression socks which I gladly wore all the way home. It also earned me a sinus infection which essentially halted all training during the next week. This forced me to start Base 3 all over again on April 15th. I then had to work on re-organizing my schedule leading up to my A races. Speaking of which, I have some A races planned! Actually, there is a plethora of news! But I will make a separate post for all this good stuff. In the mean time, I am writing this mid-week of my last big week of new Base 3, my biggest week of training ever... and I think it is going very well! I've hit 10 hours, 12 hours and am on my way to 14 hours this week... But I'll get to that shortly. Look forward to another race report, a review of Base 2, and my summer plans.
Adam "hard race? race hard" Fortais
Sunday, March 10, 2013
There Aren't Any Cobwebs to Shake... (Race Report 1, UWO Splash and Dash)
Preamble: I have just completed my first race this season. I went into it this morning at my lifetime peak swimming fitness (not saying much) and EXACTLY 100 miles of easy running as of January 1st. No quality whatsoever. The goal was to use the Western Splash and Dash 1km swim, 10km run as a swim test, and a shake-of-the-cobwebs, get-ready-for-some-real-running effort. This is the last day of my first week of Base 2 training, so was the tail end of a decent 9 hour week of training. I decided to do a full 2 hour swim workout last night since a race at such an early point in the year was not a top priority for me... So without further adieu, the classic Race Report
Classic Race Report 1: UWO Splash and Dash, (1000m swim, "10 km" run)
5:00pm Saturday - Begin long swim workout. Anticipated a full 4-5km workout but Zorian came prepared with a <3km 100m="" 200m="" 2x200="" 2x50m="" 33sec="" 34sec.="" 3:08-3:10="" 400m="" 4x100m.="" 5x200m="" a="" about="" after="" all-out="" and="" ankles="" because="" between="" blocks.="" both="" buoy="" but="" choice.="" definitely="" do="" ellen="" extend="" had="" i="" im="" in="" intervals.="" into="" just-shy-of-4km="" kyle="" less="" main="" more="" nbsp="" need="" next="" no="" off="" opted="" or="" p="" pace="" people="" per="" proceeded="" pull="" pulled="" race.="" recovery="" rest="" set="" sets="" short="" some="" strong="" swim="" tempo-paced.="" territory.="" the="" then="" there="" these="" this.="" through="" time="" tired="" to="" was="" were="" whatever="" with="" work="" workout="">
Hahaha what happened up there?
7:30pm Saturday - Wait in Monte's Pizza for what seems to be my traditional Saturday night pizza. I wonder if this is turning into a habit...
8:30pm Saturday - I finally remove myself from my couch and begin setting out my things for the race
5:45am Sunday - I am awake, again, as I have been waking up nearly hourly since I went to bed at 10:00pm. I decide I might as well just get up since I was going to start moving at 6:00 anyway. I finish packing, eat some yoghurt and berries and muslix and hemp seed and am out the door, off to grab a 7-11 coffee (meh...) and get to the Rec Centre.
7:45 am - I'm all registered, I have set up my transition zone, and begin my run warm up. The race is set to start at 8:30 so I plan for 15-20 minutes of running and 20-25 minutes of swimming.
8:00 am - I arrive at the pool deck, ready to start my warmup. As I am about to enter the water, I notice a large group of girls are also ready to enter the water. They fill every lane. The women's race is starting right now. I am promised warm up time once they start exiting the pool. I wait and finally get a chance to hit the water. I swim 200-300m then practice a dive and do 2x50 accelerations. I head to the bathroom to blow my nose with plans to do a little bit of easy back stroke before the start. I get back out to the pool and am told "25seconds to go"... Yikes. I find my lane and am stepping on the blocks as they count down from 5. Good job, me!
It's long-course so I'm expecting slow, but I find myself hitting the wall after the first 100m at 1:27. Woah. That didn't even feel hard. I decide (smartly) to slow anyway, and hit my first 200 around 3:03 I think. From there I lost track of time, but I knew I was holding nice and steady through 500m. 600-700m was a tough mental exercise but I made the best of it as I could tell I was beginning to lap the guy in the lane beside me. I pulled on through to 800m and used the "only 200m to go, only 150m to go..." game. I popped out of the water with an alarming 15:30! Even more alarming was that aside from Kyle and Zorian in the relays, I was first out of the water.
Transition was somewhat relaxing as they insisted we take 5 minutes before leaving. I opted to run in my jammers, but put on some long sleeve underarmour-type shirt, and my UWO triathlon jersey. The shirt was hard to get on, but I had plenty of time to get everything in order. I had time to watch the other guys come out of the water and saw I had 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00 on the next three. I've yet to have someone come out of the water after me and pass me. I was determined to keep this streak.
My GPS watch was unable to get a signal for the first 200 meters or so, but it didn't matter really. I was more interested in my heart rate, though I didn't really look at my watch at all. Started quite hard, and consciously backed down the pace by about 400m. So I'm getting better at that. There is not much to be said for the run, I saw the other guys but only at turn-arounds. I tried to ballpark how far behind me they were but wasn't having much luck. Interesting note, adding the 200m I believe it took to get a signal, the 10k course was only 9.4km. This makes sense as I finished my run split in 33:40. Either way, assuming I held that pace I would have come in for 10km at about 35:48. Only 20 seconds slower than my 10km, exclusive, only-running PB. What cobwebs, homie?
As per usual, I had a theme song today. Actually, two. Kinda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w4y1ekS_LE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LywyW0gLRX8
I won an XXL Sugoi tri top. It fits like a running singlet. Still a great prize.
So what does all this mean? Keep on swimming hard, my improvements are huge but I know I can make more. Running fitness has hardly deteriorated at all. Great news. Time to start quality training. There is a 5/10k I am scheduling myself to do in 2 weeks.
Adam "Happy" Fortais
Classic Race Report 1: UWO Splash and Dash, (1000m swim, "10 km" run)
5:00pm Saturday - Begin long swim workout. Anticipated a full 4-5km workout but Zorian came prepared with a <3km 100m="" 200m="" 2x200="" 2x50m="" 33sec="" 34sec.="" 3:08-3:10="" 400m="" 4x100m.="" 5x200m="" a="" about="" after="" all-out="" and="" ankles="" because="" between="" blocks.="" both="" buoy="" but="" choice.="" definitely="" do="" ellen="" extend="" had="" i="" im="" in="" intervals.="" into="" just-shy-of-4km="" kyle="" less="" main="" more="" nbsp="" need="" next="" no="" off="" opted="" or="" p="" pace="" people="" per="" proceeded="" pull="" pulled="" race.="" recovery="" rest="" set="" sets="" short="" some="" strong="" swim="" tempo-paced.="" territory.="" the="" then="" there="" these="" this.="" through="" time="" tired="" to="" was="" were="" whatever="" with="" work="" workout="">
Hahaha what happened up there?
7:30pm Saturday - Wait in Monte's Pizza for what seems to be my traditional Saturday night pizza. I wonder if this is turning into a habit...
8:30pm Saturday - I finally remove myself from my couch and begin setting out my things for the race
5:45am Sunday - I am awake, again, as I have been waking up nearly hourly since I went to bed at 10:00pm. I decide I might as well just get up since I was going to start moving at 6:00 anyway. I finish packing, eat some yoghurt and berries and muslix and hemp seed and am out the door, off to grab a 7-11 coffee (meh...) and get to the Rec Centre.
7:45 am - I'm all registered, I have set up my transition zone, and begin my run warm up. The race is set to start at 8:30 so I plan for 15-20 minutes of running and 20-25 minutes of swimming.
8:00 am - I arrive at the pool deck, ready to start my warmup. As I am about to enter the water, I notice a large group of girls are also ready to enter the water. They fill every lane. The women's race is starting right now. I am promised warm up time once they start exiting the pool. I wait and finally get a chance to hit the water. I swim 200-300m then practice a dive and do 2x50 accelerations. I head to the bathroom to blow my nose with plans to do a little bit of easy back stroke before the start. I get back out to the pool and am told "25seconds to go"... Yikes. I find my lane and am stepping on the blocks as they count down from 5. Good job, me!
It's long-course so I'm expecting slow, but I find myself hitting the wall after the first 100m at 1:27. Woah. That didn't even feel hard. I decide (smartly) to slow anyway, and hit my first 200 around 3:03 I think. From there I lost track of time, but I knew I was holding nice and steady through 500m. 600-700m was a tough mental exercise but I made the best of it as I could tell I was beginning to lap the guy in the lane beside me. I pulled on through to 800m and used the "only 200m to go, only 150m to go..." game. I popped out of the water with an alarming 15:30! Even more alarming was that aside from Kyle and Zorian in the relays, I was first out of the water.
Transition was somewhat relaxing as they insisted we take 5 minutes before leaving. I opted to run in my jammers, but put on some long sleeve underarmour-type shirt, and my UWO triathlon jersey. The shirt was hard to get on, but I had plenty of time to get everything in order. I had time to watch the other guys come out of the water and saw I had 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00 on the next three. I've yet to have someone come out of the water after me and pass me. I was determined to keep this streak.
My GPS watch was unable to get a signal for the first 200 meters or so, but it didn't matter really. I was more interested in my heart rate, though I didn't really look at my watch at all. Started quite hard, and consciously backed down the pace by about 400m. So I'm getting better at that. There is not much to be said for the run, I saw the other guys but only at turn-arounds. I tried to ballpark how far behind me they were but wasn't having much luck. Interesting note, adding the 200m I believe it took to get a signal, the 10k course was only 9.4km. This makes sense as I finished my run split in 33:40. Either way, assuming I held that pace I would have come in for 10km at about 35:48. Only 20 seconds slower than my 10km, exclusive, only-running PB. What cobwebs, homie?
As per usual, I had a theme song today. Actually, two. Kinda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w4y1ekS_LE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LywyW0gLRX8
I won an XXL Sugoi tri top. It fits like a running singlet. Still a great prize.
So what does all this mean? Keep on swimming hard, my improvements are huge but I know I can make more. Running fitness has hardly deteriorated at all. Great news. Time to start quality training. There is a 5/10k I am scheduling myself to do in 2 weeks.
Adam "Happy" Fortais
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Calendars and Things
As promised, here are my training calendars and other pertinent details about my fitness. As previously (maybe?) mentioned, I have not planned a thing past April. I likely will be moving into some build phases, but I want to race a bunch too, and I actually don't know where I will be living/what I will be doing so it's a little hard to make decisions right now. Anyway, on with the pictures.
Hopefully visible is the annual training plan. Things to notice are the weekly hours through each base phase, as well as races starting as soon as Base 2. I don't intend on being fiercely competitive during these early races, but I figured I might as well break up the monotony of base season with some quality. In the past I believe I have peaked at 12 hours in one week. This season I will be attempting to push that up to 14 in Base 3. Oh! I also wrote in some objectives. Testing every 4th week is a must - I always intend on doing this but push it aside. Consistency in training - I have mapped out every week with a what-sport/how-long calendar (below) so I don't have to make it up day to day. Increase volume and listen to my body and stretch - I can honestly say I have not had a time-off injury since grade 10 (horrible shin splints, lasted pretty much all through high school). I want to keep it that way. I've already fallen off the stretching wagon.
These are fairly self-explanatory. Note the large weekends and easy Mondays. I understand you old people now. I don't like it.
I like this chart. Y-axis is my watts/kg, x-axis is duration. Dotted line is maximums from the 2012 season, solid line is this season. As a spoiler for later posts, notice how the lines meet around the 5 and 20 minute marks. These are the two times I test every 4 weeks.
Another neat chart. WKO+ is a training program that lets you dump all your GPS/power/HR/everything data in, organize it, plot pretty much everything you could ever be interested in, and have it plot things you never knew you could plot. There are some not-so-complex-but-time-consuming-to-explain calculations it does with your running speed and power data based on your functional thresholds that allow it to estimate your training stress volume. Pink line is your acute training stress (over 7 days, accumulated stress), yellow line is essentially your restedness, and the blue line is your overall fitness. Red line with points is top-10 1 minute powers, black line with points is top-10 20 minute powers. Check out the pink line 5x peak-plateau-drop. The last three correspond to 1st, 2nd and 3rd weeks in Base 1. I bet you can guess where Sat-Sun are. Notice also the progressively deeper pits I'm digging myself in the restedness department. However, there is quite a nice rise in overall fitness. I am currently on a rest week, so you can see my restedness climb and my fitness drop a little bit. Acute training stress should also drop quite a bit. This chart only tracks biking and running.
 |
| Base training overview |
 |
| Nov-Dec Weeks |
 |
| Dec-Jan-Feb-March Weeks |
 |
| March-April Weeks |
 |
| Power to weight vs Time |
I like this chart. Y-axis is my watts/kg, x-axis is duration. Dotted line is maximums from the 2012 season, solid line is this season. As a spoiler for later posts, notice how the lines meet around the 5 and 20 minute marks. These are the two times I test every 4 weeks.
 |
| Performance Manager chart |
So on the whole, these are the overarching things I use to track and plan my fitness. I will refer to them often from here on out. There isn't much else to say about them, as I am saving the specifics for later posts. If anyone is reading and would like more information, please send me a message or leave a comment. I've never had either happen and I don't know how to tell if it does, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Adam "A Good Presentation Has More Pictures Than Words" Fortais
Monday, February 18, 2013
A Repurposing of Sorts
The motivation for maintaining this blog is not all too clear to me... So I propose a re-purposing of sorts. Rather than chronicling my training in semi-ambiguous, boring detail I will be ultra specific. In the coming days I will be uploading my calendars, hours, and all forms of data that may be interesting. At the very least this will be a permanent back up of my training log. At the very best I would receive feedback, suggestions and comments on the rhyme and reason behind my training. I love planning, graphing and analysing data, and I find training theory very interesting. Were physics not an option I have no doubt I would be a kinesiology student. Maybe I still will (just kidding).
In the mean time (before I work up the motivation to fire up my scanner (which literally only needs to be usb-plugged into my computer (...which I am obviously on right now))) perhaps I can fill in the details since my last post.
So uhm, I ran a comparatively fast 10k at the end of October and then I proceeded to sit for two weeks. Actually though. I just checked my training log. Blank between October 28 and November 12. However, I sprang into action, getting an eight-week strength plan under way...
I did this same plan last year, more or less, and thought it was pretty great. The program is broken up into a three main phases. Part one builds on volume. Low-medium weight, lots of repetitions and sets. This builds over four weeks. Part two is a maximum strength phase. Low reps, medium sets, super-high weight. This is two weeks long. Part three is the ultra-important power phase, because what's the point if not to get that snappy sprint that every triathlete* is looking for (*kay, maybe I haven't given up my single sport cycling dreams). This is low weights, medium sets, very fast movements. Also, one sprint set on the bike a week. I will fill in the details with real-deal numbers shortly. Not today. Don't hold your breath either.
During this phase I started my much needed swim campaign. From what I have heard, it's pretty tough to over-do it in the pool in terms of injury and burning out, so I decided to forget traditional periodization for swimming this year and go all-in right from the start. I mean, I certainly won't be swimming slower for trying it. I have a very limited swim background so when I tell you I've been managing about 10km/week fairly consistently all winter, you will bite your tongue! Since I've become such a high-volume, heavy hitter in the pool, I've seen some huge improvements. Additionally I took the opportunity to get my stroke filmed earlier in the winter, and I believe I have managed to improve my stroke. Another filming session is coming shortly. Don't hold your breath. Breath bilaterally. Really though, this will also be its own post soon.
Otherwise, strength phases consisted of just enough running and cycling to not get too out of shape. Which is code for "pretty much none". I bike to work every day though so that's gotta count for something right? Turns out it must, because heading into my first real base phase (of which I am currently in the heat of) I had increased my cycling functional threshold power (according to a 20min test) by 15 watts (from 250 to 265) from Nov 22 to Feb 1st. I would like to re-emphasize that the total extent of my riding was 1-2 hours at an easy endurance pace (150-200W) plus riding to work every day on my roughly 3.0 gear ratio fixed gear (~6km one-way). This is also fodder for another post. I have some theories as to what I can attribute this improvement.
So here I am, week three of a four-week base period. I'm training more consistent than ever, and feel healthy and all the regular stuff you'd expect to hear when things are going well. It's a little tough getting the hours in what with full time work, but I find the time. This means up at 5:00 am a minimum of Tues/Wed/Thurs but I like it. I've started to level out in terms of priorities. Swim is still the top of the list, but in terms of hours, cycling is picking up and so is running to a lesser extent. Another post coming on what I've been working on specifically.
Last (possibly) interesting piece of information, I am planning on upping my racing this year. Again, this will be better explained in a later post, but starting next month I will be doing some races for the sake of training (2-3 before April at least). Additionally, I have some ideas of what I want to do in the summer, but I have declined to plan any further than the end of April, or, the end of my base periods.
So in recap, look for a couple more posts on
a) my training calendar for the year
b) weight training
c) swimming hard all year
d) commuting performance gains
e) base 1 recap
f) race planning
Done.
Adam "Don't hold your breath" Fortais
In the mean time (before I work up the motivation to fire up my scanner (which literally only needs to be usb-plugged into my computer (...which I am obviously on right now))) perhaps I can fill in the details since my last post.
So uhm, I ran a comparatively fast 10k at the end of October and then I proceeded to sit for two weeks. Actually though. I just checked my training log. Blank between October 28 and November 12. However, I sprang into action, getting an eight-week strength plan under way...
I did this same plan last year, more or less, and thought it was pretty great. The program is broken up into a three main phases. Part one builds on volume. Low-medium weight, lots of repetitions and sets. This builds over four weeks. Part two is a maximum strength phase. Low reps, medium sets, super-high weight. This is two weeks long. Part three is the ultra-important power phase, because what's the point if not to get that snappy sprint that every triathlete* is looking for (*kay, maybe I haven't given up my single sport cycling dreams). This is low weights, medium sets, very fast movements. Also, one sprint set on the bike a week. I will fill in the details with real-deal numbers shortly. Not today. Don't hold your breath either.
During this phase I started my much needed swim campaign. From what I have heard, it's pretty tough to over-do it in the pool in terms of injury and burning out, so I decided to forget traditional periodization for swimming this year and go all-in right from the start. I mean, I certainly won't be swimming slower for trying it. I have a very limited swim background so when I tell you I've been managing about 10km/week fairly consistently all winter, you will bite your tongue! Since I've become such a high-volume, heavy hitter in the pool, I've seen some huge improvements. Additionally I took the opportunity to get my stroke filmed earlier in the winter, and I believe I have managed to improve my stroke. Another filming session is coming shortly. Don't hold your breath. Breath bilaterally. Really though, this will also be its own post soon.
Otherwise, strength phases consisted of just enough running and cycling to not get too out of shape. Which is code for "pretty much none". I bike to work every day though so that's gotta count for something right? Turns out it must, because heading into my first real base phase (of which I am currently in the heat of) I had increased my cycling functional threshold power (according to a 20min test) by 15 watts (from 250 to 265) from Nov 22 to Feb 1st. I would like to re-emphasize that the total extent of my riding was 1-2 hours at an easy endurance pace (150-200W) plus riding to work every day on my roughly 3.0 gear ratio fixed gear (~6km one-way). This is also fodder for another post. I have some theories as to what I can attribute this improvement.
So here I am, week three of a four-week base period. I'm training more consistent than ever, and feel healthy and all the regular stuff you'd expect to hear when things are going well. It's a little tough getting the hours in what with full time work, but I find the time. This means up at 5:00 am a minimum of Tues/Wed/Thurs but I like it. I've started to level out in terms of priorities. Swim is still the top of the list, but in terms of hours, cycling is picking up and so is running to a lesser extent. Another post coming on what I've been working on specifically.
Last (possibly) interesting piece of information, I am planning on upping my racing this year. Again, this will be better explained in a later post, but starting next month I will be doing some races for the sake of training (2-3 before April at least). Additionally, I have some ideas of what I want to do in the summer, but I have declined to plan any further than the end of April, or, the end of my base periods.
So in recap, look for a couple more posts on
a) my training calendar for the year
b) weight training
c) swimming hard all year
d) commuting performance gains
e) base 1 recap
f) race planning
Done.
Adam "Don't hold your breath" Fortais
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