Doing More With Less Since 1972
Today when I was swimming I was thinking about how jealous I am of dolphins. They are so freaking fast.
But then I realized that I’m pretty even with them on the bike and have a slight advantage on the run.
Also, I can DEMOLISH dolphins in transition because of the issues they have with shoes and helmets.
So I think I’d rather be me than a dolphin, all things considered.
I’m about 9.5 weeks out from Rocketman Florida, and I’m really digging training on feel in lieu of having a strict plan. It’s especially helpful during times like last week when we had family visiting and I missed 3 days of training completely. Not having a schedule meant I could see that coming and load up on some bigger workouts on the days leading up and just consider those off days as rest. Well, walking around Disney parks with 3 kids for a couple of days isn’t exactly like watching a Scrubs marathon, but it still counts as rest for me. But then I got to do some big training right after too.
I’m getting a little better at letting the speed and distance obsessions go as well. For my last few runs and rides, I’ve had absolutely no idea how far I’d be going. All I’ve been focusing on is time spent in Zone 2 and making sure I get the hours in. Speed (at least training speeds) have definitely suffered, but I really am just letting that go. It’s easier when I listen to things like Coach Brett’s podcast on Polarized Training and learn that even pros spend the majority of their time at ridiculously easy paces.
The weird thing is that my volume is actually up compared to last year. I think that’s because I’m actually more enthused about training. I mean…it’s up to me. I train when I feel like it, and I rest when I feel like I need it. It sort of like unschooling for triathletes. Well…except that I have to make sure I stay away from that Zone 3 “fun hard” pace. That sucks, because Zone 3 feels soooooo good. But hopefully I’ll get to race the last 5k of the run there?
But now the intervals have started. I hate intervals. They supposedly make you faster, which makes me like them at little. But I only like them after I’m finished.
Wait…I take that back. I like the first 25 percent of an interval. I like it when I look down at my computer and see I’m moving at a relatively high velocity, then glance at my HRM and notice that I’m barely into Zone 3. Of course, that doesn’t last very long…then the agony of holding high Zone 4 rears its head.
I’ve almost neglected to talk about the swim. I’ve come to realize that I really need to be swimming about 10k a week to get faster. That means it will have to go down in the off-season, which means my hopes of making any really big swim gains probably aren’t going to happen this calendar year. Still, I’m so slow that even small gains are going to be substantial.
These are happening right in the heart of the time in a program when I get a little bored and take my foot off the gas. Luckily, I’m not using a training plan this time around.
I was travelling last week and have a cold this week, but in between I was able to squeeze in a brick over the weekend–two hours on the bike followed by an hour run. Got in a recovery rid the next day too.
Motivation shouldn’t be a problem though. I have a bunch of friends doing Rocketman. Three of them are guys I’ve known for 20 years, all better athletes than me, and are coming into town just to do the 70.3 and hang out for the weekend. Pissing contest in 3,2,1…
Of course, they say they aren’t training, planning to “just finish”.
Right. That’s exactly the kind of guys they are.
You’re supposed to do something every day that scares you, right?
Every day from now to May 5, I’m going to scare the crap out of myself by training for the inaugural Rocketman 70.3 with absolutely no training plan. When I feel like I need to train hard, I will. And when I feel like I need to rest, I will. I’m training purely on feel.
The genesis of this was that every plan I’ve looked at (the free ones anyway) have much lower volumes for swim and run than I’m looking to do in training. I want to show up on race day thinking those distances are short. I don’t want to use the plan as an excuse to be lazy, either. I think I have a tendency to do that, sometimes rationalizing it by thinking, “well, that’s what the training plan says to do.”
So I started off the first couple of weeks of training just throwing my own workouts together, and I kind of like it. In fact, I’ve stopped looking for a program.
I also like being able to stir the pot and mix things up. For instance, last night I just Googled “3000 yard swim workout” and used the first one that came up with a little bit of variation. I like not necessarily knowing what’s coming next.
We’ll see how it goes. I wanted to really shake things up from the past year, starting with a different marathon plan in the fall. Having no plan at all is definitely different. But my run and swim volumes are up from last year, and I’m not bored or exhausted yet.
Having some swim coaching has definitely helped the motivation there because the stroke is changing and I know I’ll need a lot more yards than I’ve every done previously to be able to put that on auto-pilot.
I’m still looking for some gold star non-training plan workouts to throw myself as surprises here and there. Suggestions are welcomed!
My favorite thing about coming up with my own timed workouts is that I get to hold all the world records.
There’s a Crossfit workout I really like called “Murph”: For time–run a mile, 100 pullups/200 pushups/300 squats, run a mile.
I did a workout today that’s sort of a modified half-Murph. The exercises are halved, but the run distances are doubled. So it’s run 2 miles, 50 pullups/100 pushups/150 squats, run 2 miles.
The idea, obviously, is to put more focus on running endurance and less on strength. I still think it’s a really good strength workout though because it hits the lats and pecs for swimming, and it burns your thighs up pretty good too, which lets you get a taste of what it feels like to get off the bike and run. Forgot my HRM, but I think this is pretty good practice for controlling pace after T2 and getting the heart rate under control before trying to press a run. That’s something I need lositz work on.
Today’s results
Miles 1-2: 20:19
Pullups/Pushups/Squats: 17:03
Miles 3-4: 21:13
Do I care that he used PEDs and/or blood doped to win the TDF?
Not a bit.
Do I care that he bullied other riders and threatened their careers if they didn’t go along with his program?
Absolutely.
Fan boys, you can say all you want about all the great things the guy has done for cancer research, but it just doesn’t factor in here. Yes, he has used his brand to do a lot of good. I’ll admit that.
But that’s not what he set out to do. That’s not why he doped and bullied. He doped and bullied to be the best cyclist in the world, win the TDF, and get rich doing it.
Green. Get the money. Dolla dolla bill, yo.
Show me a video of him opening up a postmarked letter he mailed to himself back in the early 90s that outlines his plans to start using PEDs and blood doping to build up notoriety so that he could one day stamp out cancer. Show me proof that his true goal from the beginning was to do all of these great things. Show me he started a doping program and threatened other people’s livelihoods with regret, realizing from the beginning that he was doing horrible things, but that the ends would justify the means.
This isn’t just sour grapes over getting my ass whooped by him either.
“Win if you can, lose is you must, but ALWAYS cheat!” ~Ric Flair
How Much Time Does it Take to Finish a Half Ironman 70.3? – Nothing like feeling very average, then reading an article like this and finding out you are very average. #SomethingMustChangeIn2013
10 Questions About Investing In Index Funds – I like the set-it-and-forget-it aspect of index investing. If it's good enough for a rib roast or a whole chicken, it's good enough for me.
We Need A Unified Search AI – People removing 'likes' and other info about themselves on Facebook in 3,2,1…
They won't be rushing over to G+ to tell them about it either.
The Eight Basic Run Types – A nice reference with short descriptions of each type. Easy to digest!
Have you had enough of race t-shirts? Rather have something else (or nothing) instead?
[poll id=”13″]
I guess the benefit of the t-shirt is that it’s more advertising for the race in the future.
Still, I’d like to see some choices available. Things like socks and gu would be way more valuable to me…those are things that really get used up, and they don’t even have to be branded with the race info.
Who am I kidding? I’d take the reduced entry fees every time.
Registration is complete for the Rocketman 70.3 in May! I was tempted to do the IMFL 70.3 in Haines City again to try to get some redemption, but opted for Rocketman instead.
UPDATE: I also have yet to read anything in the Rocketman rules requiring participants to wear a shirt. It’s the little things.
@hungrymother and @mcarthur01 are both doing the Haines City race a couple of weeks later, so I’m thinking of volunteering for that one since I’ll be going over there anyway. Maybe I could get an early shift?
I’m pulling the trigger and getting some coaching this year.
I’ve been quasi-diagnosed with ODD by some lesser-known psychologists, but I’m actually pretty coachable. The way I look at it, if I’m paying someone (or committing my time even) for coaching, I’m going to be all-in and do what they ask of me. Even if that’s at odds with the way I’m used to doing things.
People who know me may read that and think I’m delusional for saying it, but I’m a slave to a training schedule. I do what it says. Most of the time anyway. And I trust it–sometimes to a fault. That’s what it means to be coachable–trusting the coach and doing what they say to do. No questions.
But I can read the research and follow a schedule on my own. That’s part of the reason I’ve never sought out any coaching for triathlon. Well, that, and I’m cheap.
I don’t need a coach to motivate me to do something I love, right? And I’m pretty hard on myself during training. I know how to dig down deep and get more from my body than it wants to give.
I’m a “pusher”.
At least I thought I was before last year. But 2012’s results have me a little worried that is no longer the case.
Let me back up…
When I first started training to run distance in 2003, I’d been playing rugby pretty much continually for 10 years. A lot of rugby training translates to endurance sports, so it was really easy transition for me. I already had pretty good endurance and strength base, with an especially strong core.
Yes,there are muscles under there.
In that 10 years, I’d never let my fitness go either, and I was used to a rigorous training schedule. There were off-seasons in rugby, but that was a lot like recovery periods for endurance training, and I always kept up my maintenance training during those times as well.
I’m not claiming I was ever the fittest guy on the team, but I was often the fittest guy over 200 pounds.
But more importantly, I had built up a gritty mentality. All of our squad training and most of my training outside was done with the same group of guys or a subset of them. That meant you always had someone watching, even if there wasn’t a coach around. There was always someone there to see you quit. There was always someone who would know if you were bagging it during a sprint. There was always a guy in the weight room who could lift more and would push you to lift more. Everyone had little injuries and hurts at all times, and there was always someone hurt worse than you who was still playing.
It made for a very testosterone driven atmosphere. That was a good thing. I’m not saying that it motivated everyone to push themselves to their limits, and I’m not claiming I always did either. I had my share of lazy days. But that atmosphere and the fact that not everyone was lazy on the same days kept the bar set at a pretty high level at all times. You knew the days you didn’t reach that expectation, just like you knew which guys didn’t care if they ever reached it.
And some of us never wanted to be “that guy”.
So you pushed. You didn’t have a choice.
That was the mentality I had when I started training for endurance sports, and for the next 3 years. Even when I went through periods of what I like to call “taper-training“, where I was really lazy, I could always show up on race day and find some push.
Fast-forward to January 2012. I decided to get back into training for long distances. I decided to kick it off with a 70.3, but I wasn’t really happy with those results. So I decided to do a marathon to try to fix what was ailing my run. And I wasn’t happy with those results either.
I stuck with the schedule for both of these events, and I was really happy with my effort level during training. So why didn’t I get the results I wanted?
I’m not one to beat myself up over that kind of stuff for long. But I have realized there’s a problem that goes beyond the fact that I’m getting older. Injuries and heat aren’t going to cut it for long term excuses either–those are just a fact of racing that everyone has to deal with. So the last few weeks I’ve been doing some reflection, and I think I know what may have happened. It all began at the beginning.
Here’s what my starting point looked like in 2012:
I hadn’t done anything more than an Olympic distance tri since 2006. 10k was the furthest I’d run. I was living in a house with 4 women. Granted, three of them were under 5 years old, but still, it’s pretty much a testosterone-free zone.
I was living in a new town, not actively playing rugby. So I didn’t have an expectation there to meet, and I didn’t even have the peer pressure of being around guys I used to train with and the pissing contests that were involved in everything they do (rugby, running, lifting, eating, drinking, skirt-chasing, etc.).
That, I think, is the real problem in a nutshell...I haven’t been living in a perpetual pissing contest.
And I like pissing contests. I need pissing contests.
I wasn’t coming into training in couch-potato shape or anything like that. I don’t think fitness is the problem at all. I think I may have forgotten what it’s like to push. I mean really push. I think it’s something I may have unlearned. I mean, I think I’m pushing during training, but how can I tell if I really am?
So that’s where coaching comes in. A coach can see what you’re doing from the outside and test you, make you run that one extra interval. A coach can throw you a surprise workout that an 18 week schedule can’t. A coach can disrupt everything. A good coach will do all of these things.
Hopefully, a coach can help me reset my definition of what “push” means.
So I’m starting a triathlon specific swim clinic at the gym on Tuesday. I’m hoping everything about my swim gets torn apart and rebuilt. I’m in a good situation to do that–my cardio is fine, so I can handle long workouts, but I haven’t been swimming enough lately to have my horrible habits burned into my muscle memory in the way they would have been if I was coming off a training plan.
I’m planning on a running coach for February and beyond too. I’m hoping to maybe fix some mechanics, and definitely fix my head.
If I’m completely wrong, and I don’t get pushed that much, at least I’ll get some information I didn’t have before, meet some training partners, get some new workouts, and a new source of accountability.
But I’m pretty sure I’m right about the pushing thing.
About The 2013 Challenge – I like it. Instead of making a fitness resolution for yourself, resolve to help someone else stay on track this year.
30 Ways To Promote Your Blog Posts In 2013 – Key point: it’s not about blogging, it’s about promoting. That part isn’t as fun though. And at some point you have to think, “who am I really doing this for?”
I read Charlie’s post a while back on why triathlon is a stupid sport and why triathletes are assholes, and I got a good chuckle out of it. Parts were ridiculous, which made them funny. Other parts were true, which made them even funnier. I talked about it on Twitter with some other MOP age groupers, and it seemed to be a consensus that Charlie was sort of right–there are a bunch of assholes at triathlons. I’ve been thinking about this article a little more, and I’ve been asking myself, “why?” I think he’s right, but not necessarily for the reasons he listed.
He seems to be pretty fixated on the fact that the average tri-geek is an “elitist prick with a bullshit job and money to burn.” Not sure where he pulled his numbers from, but I can infer from his statement that dude doesn’t like his boss very much. Fair enough. But the truth is, when you go to a race you are going to be around a bunch of over-achievers who are pretty competitive and focused on doing their best and growing their list of accomplishments.
You know, the kind of people who eventually end up being your boss and making more money than you.
I don’t think there’s anything inherently assholish about that, but those traits make people appear that way when the heat is on. The place I’ve witnessed it most is in transition setup. The only real assholes there are the people who try to take up a whole bike rack and then freak out about “who touched my stuff?!?!?!” when someone tries to correct it. This makes the person who moves their stuff look like a jerk too.
That’s what I see the most at races–people who appear to be assholes because they are keeping to themselves. Actually, most are just focused, nervous, and don’t really know that many people at the race. The nature of the beast is that you have to spend a lot of time training alone. Swimming doesn’t really lend itself to a lot of chatting. And while you can bike with others, that’s not allowed in the race, so it’s not very helpful to spend your training time in a big group. Besides, other people get rightfully nervous when they see show up for a ride with aero bars. When someone you don’t know is riding behind you at 25mph and may or may not have access to their brakes, well….
Cool Ironman Kona Infographic – Check out the decrease in bike/run splits. And the fairly level swim splits.
The Future Of Working From Home – Things are definitely moving this way. I’m pretty sure if I had to go back to a normal office situation, I’d struggle with it.
Chrissie Wellington: The Mind Over Body Battle – And you think you suffer? Love hearing how this affects even the super-humans.
Easily Monitor and Manage all of your WordPress Sites with WP Remote – Thanks to @mwender for this one. Great time saver
Google Turns Turtle and Takes Street View Underwater – Coming soon to iPhone5!
Alternative ways to ride The Downward Spiral – I created a Spotify playlist based on this. A couple of the songs weren’t in Spotify, but I found some good substitutes. Just reading this makes me afeared.
Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now? – Is it wrong that this seems completely reasonable (and likely) to me?
Solo or Group? Train Your Way – I’ve been opting for the solo route a lot lately. It’s quiet.
How To Determine Your Long Run Training For Any Triathlon Distance – Some really good info here. It’s hard to train for a distance event and fill like you got enough running in. The truth is, you really just can’t, but you can get the optimal amount.
Accessing SharePoint Lists with SQL Server Integration Services SSIS 2005 –
Raising Children To Become Productive Adults – In short, walk it like you talk it. Applies to pretty much everything in life.
Simple Tips to Help Your Grocery Budget – As always, thanks to @couponkatie for all the amazing tips and deals she points us to!
A Glass All Empty – When your S.O. gets on the wagon. Both of us are for the most part…one due to pregnancy and nursing, the other due to choosing brownie calories over beer calories. Must to get faster, and those calories slows me down.
I’m a 1:3 breather right now, which means I breathe every 3 strokes. This works out because it lets me breathe on both sides of my body which is easier on the neck and get a good look-see to both sides. The downside is that you don’t get much oxygen breathing that way. As a result of that (and horrible technique overall), I’ve never really swam to what I think my potential is.
In races I usually throw in some periods of 1:2 breathing, which is breathing every other stroke, always to the same side. More oxygen available, so I do this when I need to accelerate.
2:3 breathing is 2 breaths every three strokes. So it’s R, L, (R), L, R, (L), R, L, (R), L, R, (L)…
I’m going to spend a couple of weeks working on nothing but changing to the 2:3 technique and doing a better job of keeping my head low and reducing bow drag. Going to a January swim clinic to work on everything else.
Tell me doping isn’t happening on a pretty broad basis among age group athletes, and I’ll be more surprised than if you told me it is.
No sour grapes here, mind you. I’m an MOP age-grouper, and I’m only racing myself. So it doesn’t matter to me if age groupers are doping or not. It just seems very likely that it’s happening.
Let’s look at my age group as a ferinstance. If you check out the bikes at a big event, the nicest bikes seem to be in the 40-50 yo age group. It seems like there’s a higher density of high-end bikes there than there is even in the pro group. Based on nothing other than the bikes I see, I’d guess (have no stats on this) that the median income of my age group is well above the median income for triathlon pros, and my observation is that lots of guys in my age group don’t have a problem dropping cash on gadgets and equipment.
In other words, they are more than happy to pay for speed.
In addition, I’d imagine it’s not very tough for a guy in this age group to obtain prescriptions for a wide-range of pharmaceuticals that can help their performance. The question is, how many would actually do it?
Let’s look at a hypothetical situation many of us may be able to relate to. Let’s say an athlete starts off in triathlon in his 30s and works up to the 140.6 distance. Over the next few years he completes multiple iron-distance races, reads a gazillion books, buys a top-of-the-line bike, hires a coach, gets his diet in order, and trains like a madman with hopes of one day qualifying for Kona. We’re talking about years of preparation for a single goal.
He wakes up one day and he’s 39 (turning 40 in the calendar year). He’s moved up an age group, and does a little research to find that he’s on pace to be about 10 minutes away from winning a Kona slot at his A race which is scheduled later in the year. Ten minutes doesn’t sound like much, but then again, 10 minutes is a lot of time to cut off of the time he’s worked so hard to get over so many years. Can you imagine the level of temptation he’d be facing to employ every tactic available to get that 10 minutes and get that Kona slot?
Think very few triathletes would do that just because it’s against the rules?
Remind yourself of that next time a peloton blows by you on the bike during a race.
Now, if all those people in all those pelotons in all those races are willing to let people see them break a rule to go faster on race day, why would they care about breaking a rule in the privacy of their own homes during training to go faster on race day?
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