Saturday - March 31 (Steve)

Today was a good day out on the bike. It wasn't always easy and the roads weren't always fast but we covered just over 40 miles and we passed a good number of cyclist who didn't have what it takes to keep up with us. It was a little frustrating not having my computer working so I don't know what I was holding when I was pushing it. I know I had some good hard runs but I also know I have a looooong way to go before I'm ready for Vineman. I was feeling a good bit of cramps at the end of the ride and right when I went to get off the bike my hamstring cramped up as I swung my leg over the top tube. I like the way the Giant rides. There's a few things that need to be tightened up and adjusted but other than that it should be able to make it through a flat 24.8 miles just fine. A rolling 56 miles in CA is a whole different story. Actually I know it can make it through 56 miles no problem...that wouldn't necessarly be fast and I sure wouldn't have an easy time running 13.1 miles after. Good thing I still have a few months to go but I know it's going to be here pretty quickly and it takes a good amount of time to gain more strength and endurance so I can't be slacking off now! Best I can tell I should have been riding all winter outside like Mike has been. He managed to beat up on us pretty good, especially over the back 15 miles of the ride. Right now I'm looking forward to getting more speed and doing some bricks after riding longer distances. Oh yea, I'm also looking forward to days that aren't in the upper 30's when we start our rides!

Friday - March 30 (Steve)

Today I started off with a 35 minute bike ride on the trainer. Mixed up the gears and tried to keep the cadence up. Nothing real special.

This evening I wanted to get about an hour running in. I ended up going just about 50-55 minutes, unfortunately I had no watch and I got stopped by one of my neighbors as I finished the run and he chatted for a bit so I had to estimate how long I was talking to him. Ended up being 6.75 miles just at a nice easy pace so I think the run was closer to 50 minutes based on my previous averages. It was a nice day out and it felt good to be outside. I knew I went just the right amount when both my shoes came untied at the top of the street.

Tomorrow should be a good day on the bike, unfortunately it's going to be cold but it'll be good to get the tri-bike outside for a spin!

Thursday - March 29 (Steve)

Tonight was a short bike ride. Shorter and slower than I wanted but it was good to get outside. I went out with one of the consultants at work who is doing an MS 150 this year so I dragged him around the hills of Smithfield. We were out just over an hour and battled the wind. Even with the wind it was fantastic to be outside and get some fresh air on the bike. I realized that even thought I love my road bike I feel much more comfortable on the tri-bike right now. Maybe that's because I've been riding in that position more this winter than I rode my road bike in the past few years. Tomorrow I'll drop my road bike off for a tune up and Saturday I should be taking the racing bike out with Jason.
Total for the day 17.5 miles 70 minutes.

Wednesday - March 28 (Steve)

Today was a day back in the weight room. Tried to keep it moving in there. No rest between exercises. It felt good to have my arms shaking in the afternoon. I need strength back.

In the evening I went over to EP for the LRAC open house. Not many people showed but the ones that were there registered so the team will move forward.

Tuesday - March 27

Today I wanted to get back in the weight room, but decided tomorrow will work better since I have to go to a meeting in the evening and won't be able to workout. So I'll lift at lunch tomorrow. Yesterday I got on the trainer for 40 minutes without paying attention to much. Just wanted to spin out the legs and boy did I feel good. Maybe it's the shaved legs I don't know, but I can't wait to take that bike outside and race it.
Tonight I went for a run since it was in the low 60's. I didn't take a watch (battery is dead) and I just wanted to go out and stretch the legs since I didn't run since last Monday. No sense in over-doing it now.
The first two miles felt kind of rough with the breathing and all the sand in the road from the snow this past weekend, but by mile three I was trying to figure out how to stretch out the run for a little more distance but not so much I get injured so I managed to take on just over a mile and ended up with 5.93 miles in 45 minutes. Just nice and easy. I only picked up the pace over the last two miles because I was starting to feel like a champ then.
I stretched out a little and then did 30 minutes of the Hard Core Conditioning workout. Okay, it was actually 27 minutes before I stopped. Now it's time to eat!

New Day New Attitude

Today I'm over the weekend. I've moved on and I'm refocused on a best attempt at these triathlons, then after that I'm going to get back on my game for swimming. Next year I'm going get some weight back and then whoop the hell out of people.

Wed - Mar 21 (Jason)

Is there such a thing as a reverse brick?

I took advantage of my evening off from class and got over to the gym for a 30 minute run. 5 minutes warm up. 5 min @ 6.5, 5 @ 7.0, 1 walk @ 4.0, 4 @ 6.5, 5 @ 7.5, 1 walk @ 4.0, 4 @ 6.5, 3 warm down. 33 minutes total. 3.3 miles including the walking and warmup. My Shins were tight, loosened up and felt good and then got tight to bordering on pain at the end so I just shut it down.

Hustled on home and hopped on the bike. Probably a little under 15 minutes in between. Almost the first 10 minutes felt awesome. Just cruising at 22-22.5 at 92-96 rpms. Kept the pace going for another 10 minutes but I was clearly hurting. 2 minutes easy. Then 4 intervals: 1m hard, 35s easy. 2 minutes warm down.

Totals: 30 minutes running, 30 minutes cycling, 20+ minutes of ab work on the day.

March 20, 21 (Steve)

Just a couple nice easy swims. I know I'm logging one before it happened, but I know I'm going to get in real easy tonight and just cruise around. Last night I just swam 3000 meters again. Worked some 75's and the rest was pretty much drilling and easy swimming. Tonight I'll go about 2200-2500 and I'll throw in a few fast 25's. My rhythm in SCM feels so much better than in yards. Maybe I should move over seas where I can swim meters all the time. I'm kind of anxious to see how the 200 breast is going to go since I haven't been putting a whole lot into my swimming. Part of me thinks it could wind up being blazing fast for me, but I'm not really sure. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Tomorrow is a rest day and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday will all be spent at Harvard.

Monday - Mar 19 & Others (Jason)

Quick recap from the past few days. Saturday, my friend Bob invited me out for a run, promising 5.5 miles. Turns out, he's not in the greatest of shape these days. I did 5, he and our other friend Erik did 3.5. I did a nice easy warmup with them at 13min miles, then took off for about a mile and a half at around 8:15 pace (that's 7.2 pace for those treadmill folks), then walked for a while back to the others and stayed with them until there was a mile and a half left on the bridge. I got my heart rate up pretty high and had a tail wind, but running at 7:00 pace for 1.5 miles was like heaven on earth compared to the 10+ minute pace from earlier in the week. Total of about 5 miles when all was said and done.

By the way, running in the sunshine, outside is SO the way to go. That was simply heaven.

Flew back on Sunday, helped Sarah shovel out her car, then came back and had lunch. Before going out to dinner with Steve and his oh-so-understanding wife, Roxanne, I managed to hope on the trainer for a 40 minute interval workout.

This morning I did a 15 minute core workout. Tonight after class, I hoped on the bike for an hour from 8 to 9pm.

10 minute warm-up spin
3 x { 5 min - fast spin 95rpm approx. 20.5mph
      5 min - harder gear at 92-95rpm approx. 22.5-23.5mph
5 min recovery spin
4 min (1 left, 1 right)
1 min fast spin
5 min - hard gear, build from 22 to 24 mph
5 min warm down

Avg Speed 20.1mph. Definitely whipped afterward, but that's a good thing.

Monday - March 19(Steve)

Quick recap of Sunday...got on the bike for the aero base builder workout. One thing's for sure, if my riding has drastically improved from last year to this year I owe it all to coach Troy from Spinnervals. It felt pretty good but I really need a computer on there and a heart rate trainer to get better feed back on my workouts because I know I've done swims in the past that felt fantastic and they ended up butt-ass slow, and I've had lousy swims that were some of my fastest. That was it for Sunday, no running.

Today I got on the treadmill for 40 minutes and it sure didn't feel good. Felt like a struggle right from the start. I just wanted to go a nice easy pace which felt rough so I increased speed gradually as I went on. 10 minutes 7.6, 5 minutes 7.8, 5 minutes at 8.0, 11 minutes 8.6, 9 minutes 6.5. Ended up at 5.0 miles.

Tonight's swim didn't feel that bad. I ended up getting a 50 breast down to 35 high or 36 low in meters which I was pretty happy with. My other ones were :37's and my freestyle's were coming in at 30.0, back and fly were each about :35. This week it's important to feel good in the water, too bad this meet isn't SCM. I'll swim tomorrow and Wednesday, take Thursday off and then let the racing begin with the 100 back on Friday!

Saturday - March 17 (Steve)

Okay, so it wasn't actually a very active day unless you want to count shoveling snow but I don't remember seeing that in the training plan. Today was distance day at New England's and I just kind of went and lazily slugged my way through it. At least I beat my seed time. Nothing real good about the swim. I realized I totally forgot how to swim the 1000. I was out awfully slow just swimming with the guys on either side of me. That was a mistake because by the time I realized that I was going to make the swim without a problem and I should probably just drop those guys it was too late for me to do much of anything. I guess it's good to shake off some rust and realize I can pretty much even split my swim, but if you're coming in 10:50 on a 1000 you'd best be able to even split it at the very least. Oh well, I ended up second in my age group which is what I expected without a fast suit or a shave. Good enough for a day lacking motivation and for the warm-up I did. I'm actually looking forward to the 200 breast Friday and I don't know why. I know I can't expect to be sub-2:10 with the few swim workouts I've done but for some reason I think I'll be right around there so I'm anxious to see how it all plays out. I felt good in the water today, just took me a while to get moving and it was tough to get motivated over on my side of the pool without anyone around me. Maybe next year I'll actually try to crank it up on distance day. Guess it's good practice for triathlon. If I can do my swims with as little effort and be nearly that pace I'll be in good shape. Tomorrow I hope to get in a bike and run just because I know I'll probably try and get three swims in this weekend before the big meet...which after the 200 breast really doesn't matter that much.

I've got extra motivation to get running now that Jason has said he managed 1.5 miles at 7 minute miles without any pain. Must have had a wind at his back.

Friday - March 16 (Jason)

Woke up at 4:30 to squeeze in a quick ride on the trainer before heading to the airport for my flight to "sunny" Florida. Just 21 minutes.

Cycling on Trainer
Total: 21 minutes
2m Warm Up
8m Solid
3 x ( 2 hard, 1 easy )
2m Warm Down

I know it wasn't much, but it was nice to get in something other than a round of golf today. (102 for the golf wasn't too bad after not picking up a club for 9+ months. I could definitely get addicted to that game again.)

Thursday - March 15 (Steve)

Today was nice and easy. Just a swim tonight and it wasn't even all that long. Good thing too because I couldn't get anything going. This 1000 on Saturday is going to be rough.
400 Swim
500 25Drill/75 Swim

4x 200 Swim 3:00 (2:20's)
100 Fast 1:30 (1:02's-1:03's)

6x100 descend 1:40
8x50 Fast Stroke
200 easy

I could barely get a 50 breaststroke at :34 in there where I should be coming in :32's. I just have to keep telling myself my swimming is going to suffer with all the triathlon training. Just the way it's going to be and I'm going to have to accept it. It'll just take some time. Tomorrow I will most likely rest or just take a short spin on the trainer to have plenty of energy for the 1000. I was hoping to run before the race but with the forecast it looks like there might be too much snow on the ground to run. I'll probably try and get in a good swim workout first if I can and then swim out the 1000. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday - March 15 (Jason)

After last night's debacle, I got up and swam this morning. It's nice to actually be able to push athletically rather than being limited physically like running.

Duration: 1:15
Total Distance: 3800yd

700 Warm Up

8 x 50 on 1:05 - quick (held :30s & :29s)
8 x 25 on :30 - 2 x easy/moderate/no breath/fast
200 kick (2:48)
1:00 rest

8 x 50 on 1:05 - quick (held :29s & :28s)
8 x 25 on :30 - 2 x easy/moderate/no breath/fast
200 kick (2:47)
1:00 rest

 4 x 50 on 1:05 - quick (held :29s & :28s)
12 x 25 on :30 - 2 x easy/moderate/no breath/fast
200 kick (2:47)
1:00 rest

Practice ended here because the team is tapering.
I added in the last set just to get a little extra.

5 x 100 on 1:20 quick & smooth (held 1:03s)

200 Warm Down

It's not what I'd call stellar, but it sure beats running! I'm off to Florida tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I can get up and get in a trainer workout before heading to the airport, then get another trainer workout in on Sunday when I get back. No running until at least Sunday, probably Monday at this point.

Wednesday PM - March 14 (Jason)

One Word: Frustration.

Shins held me back tonight. No ability to push myself. 4.3 miles in 44 minutes. I'll let you do the math on that one. Avg HR = 139. Fastest speed at any point was an 8:13.

Iced for a long time. Took Advil.

I'm ready for the adaptation phase to be over.

Brick House Wednesday - March 14 (Steve)

Today was my first real brick where I went from my bike to the road, not a bike in the gym to the treadmill. Only thing was I did my bike on the trainer. All day I was looking forward to being able to get outside since it was near 70 and I had all these unreasonable expectations that I was going to get out there and tear it up the way I have been on the treadmill lately. Keep in mind my only two timed runs in the past 5 years have come last year, 3.1 miles at the Webster Triathlon and I think I averaged just under 7 minute miles (22.44 including the transition), then the OCY Triathlon which was 3.1 and my run was 21.17 so again just a hair under 7 minute miles. Both of those were without any training for running. So with the work I've put in lately I was anxious to see if I'd be that fast for a longer distance. So how'd it all go?

I got home at a good time, got my running stuff ready near my bike and got on the bike. Today the bike felt pretty comfortable. I didn't feel like the aero bars were too narrow (maybe all that stretching yesterday helped!). I cruised in the small chainring for a five minutes then went a 10 minute cycle of the big ring and my 14 trying to crank for :30 and then back to the small chain ring for :30 recovery. Then five minute spin followed by 10 minutes of 50x13 at a high cadence for one minute with a minute recovery. Then the last five minutes was warmdown with the last three just high cadence with an easy gear to get the legs ready to go.
Quickly put on the running gear ran upstairs for a glass of water and out the door. Three minute transition for a complete change.

Then I headed out on the running route. The workout schedule called for a 30 minute bike followed by a 10 minute run at half ironman pace. I know I should be sticking to the plan sort of but I wanted to be longer and faster. I tried to push the first mile and came in at a disappointing 7:03. I felt like I was going a lot faster so I guess I don't have a good feel for speed unless I'm on the treadmill, or treadmills aren't accurate. I kept the pace up through where I was pretty sure the two mile mark was then toned it down slightly because I was putting too much pressure on myself and kept thinking I should be faster. So I started doing some :30 hard, :30 pace for 10 minutes to help time go by. Then some stretches just seemed to take forever. Those roads go by much quicker on my bike. By the time I got back to my house my watch just rolled over to 35 minutes for 4.85 miles. I know I can certainly keep that pace up through 6.2 miles, but my bike will be much more intense over that hour. If I do keep that up I should come in 44:50 for my 10K at St. Anthony's. I think that's reasonable as long as I don't start off as hard as I was trying to start off today. I'd still like to be faster. I'm not going to get to do my brick next week unless I move it up to Monday because I'm going to rest my legs slightly for the three day swim fest at New England's.

As I sit here and update this now I feel like I should be satisfied, I still want to be faster and I don't have a lot of time to find speed. If I try the same workout next week I think I should be able to be faster just since I'll know the route a little better and be able to plan ahead a little better. I was sure to take 15 minutes after the run to stretch out the legs really well. Got to take good care of them. Swimming tomorrow night should feel good since I haven't been in since Monday and I feel like I need to be surrounded by water.

Total for the day: 35 minute bike/35 minute run.

What have I been up to?

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been missing in action, I've been doing the work (mostly), I just haven't been putting it down here. But all your workouts are keeping me motivated, so thanks.

More soon...

Matt

Wednesday - March 14 (Jason)

I took a recovery day yesterday because my body was simply shot. After getting home at 10:35 last night, walking the dog, and doing some work, I finally went to bed around midnight. Up at 5:50 for 40 minutes on the trainer before heading to law school for my law review proofreading hours.

Cycling - 40min + a little bonus time

10m Warm Up
3 x { 6 min - alternate 1m left leg, 1m right leg
    { 2 min - both keeping smooth and strong
4min Warm Down
2-3min working on getting in and out of shoes while on bike

Wasn't too tired after this, and it was good work for individual leg action. I was able to be smooth at 24mph & 85-88rpm for 2minutes after each set of 1 leg drills.

The shins are still sore, but I'm going to probably try running a short while.

Tuesday - March 13 Part II (Steve)

Thanks for the comments Matt. If I want to make the aero bars wider I'll have to cut the tape on the bars and slide them out some more, but I'm thinking it's because the ones I had on my Cannondale were out very wide. I hope it's just a matter of getting use to it. I didn't have any real pain, just some discomfort over the back of my shoulders and I figure I'll give it a little bit to adjust because I spent the winter with the wider position on the Cannondale. I definitely plan on getting a professional fit, I have a gift certificate for it but the guy that does it at the place isn't there that often and his next appointments aren't until May! So I'll have to make due until then. I just want to get my body use to the setup right now. Perhaps I need to stretch more which leads me to this evening...

Tonight the East Providence pool was closed because someone dropped a deuce in the pool in there was no swimming. So I came home and did a little of that "S" word. That's right I actually stretched. I actually got home while the sun was up and did a DVD of Hard Core Conditioning. I could only handle 35 minutes of the non-stop ab workout and then put in a DVD that was Yoga for the Endurance Athlete. Guess that's a good way to finish off the day. Now it's time for a nice big plate of pasta.

About today's run, I guess I know I can't hold that pace for St. Anthony's. Sub 40 minutes would be awfully fast for me. But I'm pretty sure if I just had to run a 10K I could do it in 42-45 minutes I guess. I have no idea how it'll be after 70 minutes on the bike. I'll definitely do my best to try and be in this range but that might not be realistic because I know I'll have to get the legs warmed up for running before I start trying to crank it up or I'll be toast.

Tomorrow calls for the brick for me. I know it's listed as a 30 minute bike 10 minute run, but again I'm feeling confident about my training so far so I'm going to shoot for 45/45. I'll mainly try to spin out the bike at a good clip and then try to crank up the run pretty good for about 1.5 miles then just jog out the rest as a warm down/aerobic recovery. It's supposed to be just about 60 tomorrow so I'm hoping the rain doesn't come in and I can get out of work a little early to make a good night out of it.

Tuesday, March 13 (Steve)

Today's goal was "high endurance run" with 8x:30 intervals, but before we get to that...
The morning started off with my first trainer ride on my tri-bike. It felt good! Big ring felt better than the small ring. I think I'm going to get to like that 50 tooth chain ring much more than I thought I would. I don't know if the bike just fit me a lot better than the Cannondale or if it's all that carbon that just made the whole thing seem so much more enjoyable. If I have any complaints it's that the aero bars are set up as wide as I can get them and it sort of pulls at my shoulders a little more than I'd like but I have a month to get use to it before it's first true race and four months to get use to it before the Vineman. I wound up doing some hard intervals because it was fun even though I just wanted to keep it relaxed and get my legs warmed up for the day. Since I'm not 100% sure on the placement of the cleats since this is a whole new pedal system for me I should probably be taking it easy to get my legs ready for it and to take care of my knees. But I was stupid and pressed on. Check back in a few days/weeks/months to see when the knee pain creeps in.

High Endurance Run:
Busy day at work but I still managed to grab some time to hit the treadmill. I know I probably could have gone outside today but I don't have a watch to do intervals. I've got some huge hills right around my building but no pace clocks, so treadmill wins.
Started off 10:30 warm up at 7.8mph (the entire run was with 1% incline). Then jumped into:
10x :30@9.5/:30@8.0
This made time fly by and felt better than the warm up but I sure don't think I could hold the 9.5 pace for 6.2 miles.
Then jogged until 30 minutes @ 8.5 and warmed down five minutes @ 6.5mph.
Total distance 4.75 in 35 minutes. I've decided the work treadmills aren't nearly as nice as the treadmills at my gym, but it's a great convenience so I shouldn't complain.

Tonight will probably be a swim at EP to get ready to swim the 1000 this weekend. I'm not expecting anything fast this weekend, maybe just cruise in at 11:00 or something like that. Unless the swim is really interesting tonight it's probably not worth mentioning. I just want to get in the water and swing my arms some.

Monday - March 12 (Steve)

Today was supposed to be my high intensity swim/bike day. I was unable to get any cycling done with the day and I'd prefer to flip flop the run and the bike between the Tuesday/Wednesday on the schedule so I brought my running stuff to work. I didn't get any time to be able to run so I'm going to shoot for the bike and run tomorrow. Bike should be in the morning and run at lunch. I'd like to finish the day up with a swim at EP if I can get out of work at a good hour. I actually geared my swim tonight for triathlon and did very little stroke.
Short Course Meters:
300 Swim
300 Pull (no paddles)
6x50 K/Dr :55 IM
3x100 descend 1:30
12x25 build each 3
3x100 pull 1:30
12x25 2K 1Swim 3 of each
300 Pull
8x50 :50
200 Easy

Then we had a parents meeting for the next season for Little Rhody Aquatic Club so the swim had to be quick and short. Then it was straight home for 24!

Monday, Mar 12 (Jason)

Holy hip flexors and calves, Batman!

6am Wakeup for a little fun on the trainer. Popped in "Stranger Than Fiction" with Will Farrell to keep me company this morning. I was just looking to get in about an hour with a number of longer moderate-hard intensity long intervals. Definitely was hurting (the good, non-running kind of hurt) by the end. Doubt if I'll do anything when I get home tonight.

5m Warm Up
20m Moderate-Hard Intensity at 95-98rpm approx 21mph
2m Recovery Spin
10m Mod-Hard higher gear at 88-90rpm approx 21.5-22mph
2m Recovery Spin
10m Mod-Hard as before at 85-90rpm (consistency goes as I get tired)
6m Warm Down

55m Total

Sunday, March 11 (Jason)

Worked around the house today. Recaulked the bathroom tub, so I went over to the gym for a quick run and shower in the evening.

Run - 30 Minutes - 3.09 Miles
5 at 6.2mph, 5 at 7mph, 5 at 6.2, 5 at 7.2, 6 at 6.2, 4min walked warm down at 3.5mph

Left shin splint really kicked in at 26 minute mark, hence,the walking at the end of the run. I'll take some advil tonight and probably avoid running tomorrow.

Rest Day

Today was my rest day. I really wanted to get on my bike but I know I've got to take the rest days. That's why they're there. This morning I got my tri-bike all lubed up, cables tightened, gears adjusted and ready to go after putting the pedals on yesterday and getting the cleats on the shoes.

I got on it for about 10 minutes to spin through the gears and see how everything felt. The size feels perfect, almost better than my road bike. The shifting could afford to be a little less quirky but I think that's because of the compact crankset on there. Sure the wheels could be more aero but I didn't feel like dropping the cash on the Zipp 808's but you'd have to admit that even if I don't ride this bike fast it would have been one of the best looking bikes with a set of Zipp 808's. Maybe I'll find a cheaper alternative before the big race so I don't get smoked. I'm not too worried about hills on this bike. With the 50/34 up front I'd imagine hills will be a breeze with the 11-23 cassette. I already enjoy climbing on my road bike and that's a standard 53/39 11-23. Give me that 34 and I shouldn't have to hit the 23 I hope. Can't wait to take it out for its maiden voyage! Maybe I should take it to a bike shop first so everything I tightened doesn't come apart on my like it did on my Cannondale when I made all the adjustments myself before the OCY Triathlon last fall. This time I'll at least get out there and try to do a trial run on the bike rather than just race with it.

I've got a set of Tufo tubular clinchers on the way, unfortunately the place I ordered them from didn't have any more red in stock so I'm stuck with yellow. I know it's not going to match as well. But that's okay as long as their fast!

Saturday - March 10 (Steve)

Thanks to Jason I don't have to type up the swim workout, just take the 500 off the warm-up and there you go. The swim was good practice for open water with all the bouncing around. It was like swimming at East Providence, only with more waves. Good thing workout involved lots of 25's to keep things under control.

Run...
The run was good. It was fantastic to be out in Boston and be able to see where you're running to on a nice clear day. It sure beats the loops around my neighborhood where you'll probably never see much more than a few hundred yards ahead of you and you'll be sharing the road with all the MA/RI drivers in the area. In other words, you're better off on the treadmill for safety. The run felt good. Nice aerobic pace, covered a good distance without pain and just worked on the endurance run. Running around the Charles is a great loop and I'm looking forward to doing it again. One thing I'm very glad about is being dressed appropriately for the weather. Hat, gloves, long pants, Under Armour shirt, dry fit shirt and Pearl Izumi jacket. Some may think I was over dressed but I drove by the Charles on my way to the pool and it was a big sheet of ice. There's no way wind coming off that was going to feel good. Luckily I was prepared, tomorrow would have called for the shorts and two shirts but not today.

After the run was also productive as I got to hit New Balance and get some new sneaks. Another set for training and one for racing. The racing ones will be a little lower (according to the guy in New Balance who seemed to know what he was talking about) but offer the same stability as the 857's I'm running in now. He said it was the lighter version. So for an extra $35 I'm getting less sneaker!

Until tomorrow, rest hard!

Saturday - Mar 10 (Jason)

Didn't get home until 7:15pm last night, so I skipped the trainer. Good decision. Jogged the dog down to the park last night and had pretty good shin pain afterward. Made me a little worried for this morning's run. Fortunately, swimming comes before running...today, and in triathlon. So, I get to enjoy myself before the pain.

Swimming - IM Workout
Distance: 3600yds
Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes

-----------
500 Warm Up

16 x 25 on :35
   4 IM Order
   4 12/3 free 
   4 Build Series
   4 Reverse IM

12 x 75 on 1:20
   4 x { 75 fly-back-breast
       { 75 back-breast-free
       { 75 free

4 x { 100 easy on 1:50
    { 100 fast on 1:50
    { 4 x 25 on :40 Build Series

8 x 75 on 1:20 breaths by lap
   odd - 3, 2, 1
  even - 1, 2, 3

Felt okay for the workout. Left shoulder is bugging me, but that should go away if I can keep getting in the water regularly. Afterward, Steve and I got changed and went out for our run. The GPS watch was a little flaky today, so it only reported running 6.7 miles, but Splitr reports this as being 7.18 miles, which is probably a little more accurate.

Steve's running is fricking sweet. Mine? Not so much. I outweigh him by 45-50 pounds and it shows. My hips, knees, and calves were sore during the run, leading two bits of walking for a minute or so. Afterward, the only thing sore is my calves. Gotta work on my form. Just once, I'd like to feel like a run hurts my leg muscles instead of my skeletal system. C'est la vie.

Run: 7.18mph, Duration: 1:05-ish., Avg. HR = 157.

Week 1 - Friday (Steve)

So I know today called for a swim and bike but I have no access to pools on Friday so today was a bike day and tomorrow will be swim/endurance run and Sunday will be endurance bike.
Tonight was 75 minutes on the trainer.
10 minutes warm-up followed by 60 minutes involving high cadence, changing gears, standing, sitting, big gear work etc. Your basic Spinnervals aero base builder. All-in-all a good workout and I'm looking forward to attempting my longest run ever tomorrow and just have to be careful to pace pace pace and be sure to keep my knees warm so they don't take too much of a beating. Should be a good time.

Friday Morning - March 9 (Jason)

Finally woke up for a morning swim practice. The once-or-twice a week thing since the hour swim in January has definitely hurt my performance. This was only a 3800yd workout, and not a particularly hard one, and I sucked. On the last 3x100s I managed to get down to 1:05s and 1:06s. Otherwise, I was around 1:08-1:10 for everything else in the workout. Fortunately, the team is tapering for next week's meet, so I was able to make the intervals overall without a problem.

Total: 3800yd
Duration: 1:07ish

400 Warm Up

400 Pull on 5:40 - Breathe 3-5-7-9 by 100
3 x 200 Free on 2:40
5 x 100 on 1:15
60sec rest

300 Pull on 4:15 - Breathe 5-7-9 by 100
2 x 200 Free on 2:40
4 x 100 on 1:15
60s rest

200 Pull on 2:50 - Breathe 7-9
1 x 200 Free on 2:40 (finally went a 2:14!)
3 x 100 on 1:10

100 Warm Down

We'll see if I manage to get on the trainer this evening when I get home from work. I'm dying to do it, and yet, I'm scared of tomorrows I.M. & longest-run-of-my-life sufferfest.

Note to Stephan: NO PADDLES!

Thursday - March 8th (Jason)

Okay, I've been bullied into joining this blog. Thursday was my 31st birthday. I have yet to understand how another year went by and I'm still fat and slow. Oh wait, now I remember: law school. Hence, no Half Iron for me like the other yo-yos on this blog. (Oh, and no fancy-schmancy training plans either.) I'll settle for getting through more than one Olympic distance race and going a little bit faster on the biking and running while not becoming a "triathlete" swimmer.

Still recovering from my cold that had me out of any exercise for the last 3 days, I woke up and had about 40 minutes to work out. 10 degrees outside = bike trainer. Right now, I've got the aerobic base to put myself into a good amount of muscular pain with a fairly low HR (130ish). So, I'm focusing on building my muscular endurance on the bike.

10min Warm-Up
at 4m did 2 x ( 45s left, 45s right, 1min both legs)

Main Set
1 Mile Rest
2:46 1:06
2:43 1:01
2:44 1:10
2:42 1:05
2:34 1:00
2:32 1:18
2:39

5 min warm down

The "1 Mile" intervals were based on the trainer and a general feel for road speed vs. effort expended. There aren't any power meters or computrainers around so I make due with my rear speed/cadence sensor. Chances are, these are faster than would normally be realistic. I'm looking forward to a warm day on a weekend when I'm around town so I can head over to the Mystic Lake 5mi loop and see where the offseason has left me.

I felt my cold on the last interval, which was just as well because I need to get to work anyway.

Week 1 - Thursday (Steve)

Okay, so I know I haven't been good about following the program yet but I did get the brick in and since I kind of started my training already and have a pretty strong aerobic base built up I decided to go a little longer. I'll probably be adjusting the schedule by sliding everything one day because that will fit into life a little better for me.

First off, it was a fantastic training day! Guess rest days actually do work since that what I did yesterday even though I kept beating myself up for missing a workout. I had my gym stuff with me but had two meetings around lunch so I couldn't even grab 30 minutes to hit the workout room. Tonight I get home anxious to update the blog, then I see Matt puts the temperature in his update. 80 degrees? Are you kidding me? The highest temperature I saw today in my car was 13. Yes that's right only 67 degrees away from Matt's workout. We had a low of ZERO...I know it probably dipped into the mid 50's at some point out there in Cali and they had to break out the hats and gloves.

Well the plan was to start off the day with a bike ride, instead the day started off at 3AM with a call to 911 because there was some awfully suspicious activity on my street that woke me up and then I saw four people crawling into the window of a house three up from mine. So I decided to test out the Vonage 911 service and four police cars, four people walked out in cuffs, and an hour later I get back to sleep. No biggie I was working from home anyway so I decided to save my brick for the afternoon. Ended up with nearly an hour on the bike just working cadence and estimating my heart rate because I'm not all high tech like Matt (but I will be soon). Rather than getting right out to run I had to get in my car and head to the gym which is 10 minutes away (Did I mention it wasn't 80 in MA?). I get a treadmill and was feeling pretty good because my legs were already warmed up. But I was good and did a warm-up on the treadmill anyway. 10 minutes at 7.6mph with 1% incline. Then I decided I felt really good and went the next 20 minutes at 8.4 leaving the incline at 1% the whole time, then went 9.1 for 10 minutes and then 9.7 for two or three minutes and warmed down at 7.6. I was really excited with how I felt because I'm pretty sure I could have stayed on there for a while longer. I ended up just over 6.5 in 45 minutes. Definitely my best run of all time. I couldn't believe how good it felt. The only issues was a little tightness at the base of my left knee at the beginning of warm-up and it went away before I cranked up the speed.

Then headed over to Bryant and got in my swim:
300 Swim 4:00
2x200 IM Kick/Drill by 25 3:30
300 Swim 4:15 100 Free-100Breast-100Free

6x50 Odds Free/Evens Breast :55
12x25 1 Easy Free/3Fast Stroke :30
6x75 2 Easy Free/1 Fast Breast 1:20 (Got down to :52 on my breast which was solid)

3x(300 Free technique 4:15 / 200 Build Stroke 3:00)

200 Easy
Very happy with how the day went. Tomorrow will be a longer day on the trainer. Saturday I'm planning a good IM workout at 7AM in Boston (ugh!) followed by and OUTDOOR 8 mile run around the Charles with Jason. Looking forward to it!
If this is how I'm going to feel after the rest days, I've got to quit giving myself a hard time when I can't get a workout in. The only thing I'm dreading tomorrow is being on my trainer while thinking about how Matt gets to ride outside around the Rose Bowl without having to worry about loads of sand and salt in the road and having to avoid pot holes.
Even though it was a good day I'm still lacking the confidence of knowing I can "race" 56 miles on the bike followed by 13.1 miles of running. 13.1?!? What did I get myself into?

Week 1-Thursday (Matt)

Another brick in the wall...

Actually, it's the first brick of the year, and the first in a very long time. The plan called for 35/10, but I did a little more:

Bike 53:00 avg HR=130
Run 10:55 avg HR=149/HR@end=168

But the specifics are more interesting. I biked to the bowl (the Rose Bowl) in a roundabout way, hitting numerous lights, and slowly warming up. After an easy lap around (the road course around the Bowl is about 3.05 miles, and a great place to ride without worrying about intersections), I did a timed loop just for giggles. I went 9:08@145avgHR. This was OK, but back in the day I was able to do loops just under 9:00 for 90 minutes, and avg low to mid 150s. Let's just say I have a way to go to get back to that.
After biking easily back home, I changed into running gear, and set out. I really, REALLY forgot how bad you can feel running off the bike. After swearing to stretch more, the clunky legs were quickly replaced by labored breathing. Did I say "replaced"? I meant "joined by". Still, a fun time was had by all, or at least one.

Bike 15.4 miles@17.5mph avgHR=130
Run 1.5 miles@7:16/mile avg HR=149

Done for the day!

Week 1-Wednesday (from Matt)

Wednesday arrives, and the first H.I. run of the plan. The goal was to do a warmup run, then complete six 30sec uphill sprints, each one followed by a 2 minute recovery. To get to a decent uphill, I had to run mostly downhill, but that's OK. How it went:

Warmup 18:00 avg 145
6 x uphill fast, 2:00 walk back down
11:15 run back home 155 avg
Total 44:19 Avg HR146/max HR 168
approx 11:30-12:15, temp 80

Average heart rates don't mean much on a run like this, but I sure could not get t down low on the way back home. That's probably an indication of my fitness level (low).
I was supposed to swim later in the day, but planned things badly, and only got in 600yds (boooo).
I biked about 10 miles commuting, but I'm not counting that...

Matt

Week 1 - Tuesday

Talk about feeling like garbage...today sure wasn't one of the better training days. I planned on getting up and getting on the trainer this morning. Didn't happen. Far too tired and I knew it was going to be a long day at work and that's what pays the bills so I'd better be on my game there. I got out of work pretty late and headed over to the pool for my workout which was a feat in itself just getting myself there.

500 - 200Swim 100Kick 200Swim
4x100 50 Fist Drill/50 Catch-Up 1:40
9x50 Kick 3 @ :60, 3 @ :55, 3 @ :50

4x100 1:20 1650 Pace (Could only manage to hold 1:04)
3x100 1:25 1000 Pace (1:02's)
2x100 1:30 500 Pace (1:00's)
1x100 200 Pace (1:00)

3x(75Build 1:10 - 100 Moderate 1:20 - 75 Fast 1:30)

400 Smooth no breathing 2 strokes in or out of the turns

200 Kick/Drill by 50

Nothing really felt good. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day. I don't have a hard day planned. I'd like to get to the gym at lunch but I have meetings packed right around that time so that's a bummer. I'll have to just suck it up and do my evening swim.

Week 1 - Monday

Well, I had every intention of starting off gang-busters out of the gate, but I ended up having our cat jump up and down on me all night so I skipped the morning bike ride. Figured I got in plenty of cycling over the weekend so I'm in good shape.

Lunch today involved a 35 minute run at lunch. Wish I had more time but I'm limited by my job. 32 minutes at 8.0mph with 1% incline then 3 minute cool down. 4.5 miles.

Evening Swim:
300 Swim
2x(3x100 1:30 3x50 K/S :60 6x25 Drill/Swim :30)
12x75 2Moderate/1Fast IM 1:15
6x50 Kick 2 @ :55, 2 @ :50, 2 @ :45
15x50 2-3breaths per 25/1Fast Stroke :55
250 Drill

I feel like it's a good start. I've got to keep up the swimming right now to make it through New England Masters Championships so I can swim my 13 events without totally bonking.

Until tomorrow, happy training!

Let's go!

It was a great weekend here in New England so it was time to get moving with the triathlon training.

Friday night was a 75 minute ride on my trainer with Spinnervals. I trained virtually with coach Troy and a whole load of people from Ft. Wayne Indiana doing the Aero Base Builder workout.

Felt pretty good. But I feel like I should be riding longer and faster. I really need a heart rate monitor or I've got to get a computer with cadence on my trainer bike so I don't wuss out when it starts to hurt.

Saturday:
Dove in the pool just like every Saturday morning. But unlike every other Saturday we had six breaststrokers in the water! It's always nice when you can easily assemble a 400 Breaststroke relay with an average age over 30 that could still get under 4:00.
Yards:
4x125 - 100Swim/25 Tarzan 1:50
8x75 Odds: 50Kick,25Drill/Evens: 50Drill/25Swim IM 1:20
2x(
3x100 (50Free,50Stroke/50Stroke,50Free/100Stroke) 1:30
3x50 Descend Stroke :55
)
Pull: 1x300 Negative Split 4:15
2x150 Negative Split 2:05
3x100 Descend 1:20
6x50 Descend :45
Swim:
8x75 Odds: 3 breaths, 2 breaths, 1 breath by 25/Evens: reverse it.
1x200 Swim-Kick-Swim-Drill by 25.

Immediately after I headed out for a jog with coach Katie from Bryant. She did an Ironman last year so she gave me some good pointers about training. We kept the run kind of relaxed and were out for just over an hour. Perfect weather for my first outdoor run of the year.

Sunday is usually recovery day but I didn't want to sit around and do nothing so I popped in another Spinnervals but this time it was a time saver technique workout that's just over 30 minutes. At the end of the weekend my weight was holding steady at mid-160's after hitting a low of 161.5 on Saturday which was excuse enough for beer and frozen pizza for dinner that night.

Why Tri?

In July I'll be attempting my first Half Ironman. Why? I really don't know. I guess I just like to challenge myself and it should add a new dimension to my training. I know I'm not going to earn a 70.3 qualify spot because my cycling is mediocre at best as I hope to be able to average 20mph, and my running has never been fast enough to even be considered running. Hell, I'd rather swim the 13.1 miles...as long as I could wear my wetsuit.

Tough to say why I'm doing this. I guess I just like to do things that not everyone else is doing. Sure there's thousands of people across the country who do triathlons of various distances every year but that's just a small percentage of the population. I've only done sprint ones and it seems like an hour is just a waste of time. Guess I'm just looking for a longer competition. I don't have anything to prove at this point, and it's not like anyone has ever said to me "you couldn't do a half ironman". I managed to get through college swimming just fine, maybe a little on the heavy side for a Division I swimmer (okay sometimes a lot on the heavy side) but I ended up with a swimming career I could be proud of.

After ballooning up to just over 220 lbs shortly after college my old coach always told me I've got to keep the upper body up. I've always tried but I guess I didn't try hard enough because yummy food always found its way to my belly. I guess part of why I'm doing this is to keep the upper body up, while I get to treat myself to some of the foods I love.

My quest to get in shape started about 18 months ago when I started training hard for Masters World Championships. If I didn't have a supportive wife who was very understanding for all the times my alarm went off at 5:10AM so I could get to the pool then I'd probably be about 300 lbs by now. Since I was training with Mike who had to open the pool so we could swim I could never sleep in or miss workout. Just couldn't do that to my workout partner. Once last spring rolled around we added a lot of cycling into the training mix. Cycling can be so much more fun than swimming because things are actually happening around you. You're not just staring at a black line like you do in the pool. If you did that you'd probably crash pretty hard. Good thing there aren't black lines on the road to stare at. So last June my friend Jason challenged me to show up and race the Webster Lake triathlon. After a few days of talking trash I decided I'd go even though I hadn't ran in over two years. It turned out to be just a crappy day. Woke up at 4:00AM to get out there drove there in the pouring rain. Stood around and froze for a while then raced on my road bike. The race was actually fun and I did enjoy it. Jason and I finished with nearly identical times despite going in different waves so now I have competition and more reason to train.

Once again I let Jason talk me into a race. St. Anthony's in FL at the end of April. My first Olympic distance race. At first I was thinking 6.2 miles would be long. Now that I've signed up for Vineman I'm feeling much better about the 6.2 miles. I know I can make it, I just want to be able to do it as fast as I possibly can. So now that I've signed up for Vineman 70.3 my old coach Matt has signed up as well. He's done the race before and he's going to kick my ass pretty good. Since he's racing it and he's got experience he'll be a great source of guidance on my training.

So I guess this blog is to hold myself accountable. Log my training so I don't slack off. Maybe even get advice from other athletes who have raced this distance or longer. Who knows maybe someone will actually like the workouts I do and want to try them for themselves.

If you're a serious triathlete and you wanted Vineman2007 as part of your URL, I apologize it got taken by a hack swimmer.

Happy Training!