Lake Progress

"Three new rubber dam sections will be lowered into place by a crane on Thursday as Tempe works to restore the empty Town Lake."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38731002

Motivational Movie Monday

Ironman Hawaii 2008 Motivation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTrrQ9TDMY4

Motivational Movie Monday

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRNqoqFzTi0

More power!

Scotty we need more power

Last week (week 4 on the training plan) was a testing week, so I had the opportunity to see if my training is resulting in more power on the bike and faster times on the run.

The results were good across the board.

For my run test, I did a 5k time trial at the Rosebowl which has a nice flat and measured 5k loop.  My 5k time was 20:39, or about 6:40 per mile.  That's about 10 seconds faster per mile than I did in my pre-training plan test.  Obviously the run at Ironman Arizona  in November is much father than a 5k, but the testing helps me set my Vdot score, and establish challenging training paces.

For my bike test, I did a warm-up ride, then did a 7.5mile climb from the base to the first peak of Little Tujunga Canyon.  Prior to the start of my training plan, I averaged 223 watts, 10.3 mph, and 65 rpm cadence on the climb. Since I started my 20 week training plan, I've been using 220 watts as my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) value. Last week I improved by over 8% to average 242 watts, 11.5 mph, and 74 cadence on the same exact climb.

The bad news is, today is interval day on the bike.  I had to go and re-work all of my interval numbers using the new threshold value.  I'm guessing I'll sleep well tonight after riding with these new training zones today.

Tempe gets OK to start replacing dam

by Dianna M. Náñez - Jul. 31, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

"Tempe has been given permission to begin replacing the Town Lake dam that burst July 20, draining the lake of nearly 1 billion gallons of water.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources had put construction on hold following the dam's failure."

Read the full story here: Tempe gets OK to start replacing dam

Motivational Movie Monday

Men's 4x100 freestyle relay 2008 Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVZrne7X5ww

Motivational Movie Monday

Ironman Hawaii Motivation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ9luEvSL_4

Strawberry Fields Race Report

The 2010 Strawberry Fields Triathlon Festival was last Sunday, July 18th.

I did this same event last year and this year I improved my time by over 10 minutes!

The Swim

Prior to the swim, we had to take a short walk down the beach to the starting point.  The swim took us a few hundred yards out, then we swam parallel to the shore before turning back and swimming in towards the beach.

The map below shows the course - don't mind all the squiggly lines and loops - Even though the Garmin 310xt is waterproof, it can't get a gps signal while underwater, so it's constantly finding and losing satellite signal during the swim. 

My swim time was not particularly good.  I normally expect to finish 1.5k in less than 30 minutes.  But it was a relatively rough sea, and I did beat my time from last year by about 5 minutes, so I was pretty happy with it overall.

I also used some TYR anti-fog spray to eliminate the fogging problem I had at the Breath of Life Triathlon a few weeks ago.

Swim distance: 1500 Meters
Swim Time: 35:37
(Last year swim time: 41:17)

The Bike

T1 took 2:40.  Not great, not bad.  19 seconds faster than last year.

The bike course is a little short at Strawberry Fields, so the official times always look blazing fast.  My bike split this year was 1:04:40.  It was about 1 minute slower than last year.  Not so surprising since last year was a bike focus year for me, and by July I had just finished training for a double century, so my bike fitness was probably a bit higher in 2009.

The Run

T2 was 0:44:42.  About 5 seconds faster than last year.

The 10k run was the highlight of my race.  I started out with a 7:15 mile that seemed entirely too easy. I was worried that I might be going to fast, but it felt so good that I just kept the pace - for the entire 10k!  My 10k split was 44:42.  Almost 6 minutes faster than last year.

Also, as you can see by all the data I collected on my Garmin, I actually figured out how to use multisport mode on the 310xt and captured every bit of my race.

Total time: 2:28:56
(last years time: 2:39:29)

T minus 4

Four months from now, I'll be out on the IMAZ Course.

Hopefully they'll have water in the lake by then!

http://www.examiner.com/x-42562-Scottsdale-Running-Fitness-Examiner~y2010m7d21-Tempe-Town-Lake-dam-bursts

Motivational Movie Monday

This is the last week of the Tour de France, so please enjoy one more cycling motivational clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdF2lGSJWJ4

Lance is out of podium contention for this years Tour, but I've heard rumors that he's going to do Kona next year.  I suspect he'll get his butt kicked there too, but I love the idea of how much publicity it would bring to our sport.

Wednesday Bike Intervals

Wednesday is Bike Interval day with a short (30 min) brick run after the bike.

Yesterday's assignment was:


Warm Up: 10-15 minutes Easy,
then 3 x 1min intervals with 1 minute rest in between.

Main Set 2 x 12min intervals with 5 minutes rest in between @ FTP
(Basically 12 minutes fast, then 5 min recovery, then repeat)

My current FTP is around 210 watts. (That's the highest watts I can hold steady for 20+ minutes)

Here's the power graph from yesterday's ride.

I marked a red line at the 210 watts mark on the graph.  That's the mark I was trying to hit and hold during each of the intervals.  So the graph shows about 15 minutes of warm up, then the three short 1 minute intervals, followed by the two longer, 12 minute intervals.

I love training with power. It takes the guess work out of the equation, and I always know how hard I'm working regardless of road conditions, hills, or wind. 210 watts is always 210 watts no matter what the speedometer says.

18.5 weeks to go

Ironman Arizona training is in full swing now.  I'm in my second week of a 20 week Ironman training plan purchased from Endurance Nation.

The typical week looks like this:

Monday - Swim
Tuesday - Interval Run
Wednesday - Interval Bike + Run (Brick)
Thursday - Swim, Long Run
Friday - Swim
Saturday - Long Bike
Sunday - Bike + Run (Brick)

Then every 4 weeks, there's a testing week to check progress and establish new pace and power numbers.

So today for example, I have a 1hr bike interval session with a 30 minute run off the bike.  I do the weekly bike interval sessions on my CompuTrainer so I can set the exact interval difficulty and duration

Last week I completed a 1.5k swim on Monday
Half-mile hill intervals (running) on Tuesday
1.5k swim and 17miles of interval work on the bike on Wednesday
1.5k swim and 80min run on Thursday
Friday was a rest day for me (which is why I added the extra swim on Wed)
68 mile ride on Saturday
and a 30 mile ride followed by a 10k run on Sunday.

The volume is still relatively low (about 11hrs for week 1), but the intensity is pretty high.  Those interval workouts are especially killer.

I'm capturing all of my run and bike workouts on my Garmin 310xt.  By capturing all of my bike and run data, I'm able to see a Training Stress Score (TSS) for those workouts.  The TSS is calculated by Training Peaks Software and basically factors in the intensity and duration of a run or bike and assigns a score.  As my fitness increases, I adjust my baseline numbers in TrainingPeaks so the Intensity Factor (IF) is adjusted.  As the weeks progress, I need to go faster or farther in order to earn the same number of TSS points.  

I'm looking forward to the first testing week so I can gauge my progress.

Motivational Movie Monday

Lance is no longer a contender, but the Tour continues...
Enjoy "The Beauty of Cycling"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4dS5jsl7tc

Motivational Movie Monday

Happy Independence Day!  Enjoy these 40 motivational movie clips in 2 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

Breath of Life Olympic Triathlon Race Report

Last Sunday I finished the Breath of Life Ventura, Olympic Distance Triathlon.

The 30-39 mens age-group was the first wave and we started promptly at 7:15am.  I love it when races start on time!

The swim was in a protected harbor, so other than the fact that we were swimming in salt water, it was more like a lake swim than an ocean swim.  It was a relatively easy 1500k out and back swim.  My only problem during the swim was my goggles kept fogging up, and it was pretty overcast so I had to stop several times and de-fog my goggles to make sure I was heading in a straight line.

Swim time: 28:31

T1 was uneventful, but the transition area was long and narrow so it took a little while to get from one end of the transition area to the other.

T1 time: 3:09

The bike section was flat, fast and fun!  There was a short out-and-back section on Harbor Blvd with a 3-loop circuit in-between for a total of just over 25 miles (a little longer than a standard 40k course).

I averaged 20.4mph on the bike section with each loop of the circuit faster than the previous.

Bike time: 1:19:42

T2 time: 1:13

The run was also flat and fast.  My average pace was 7:44 and I finished the (slightly long) run in 49:46.

My finishing time was 2:38:00.  That put me in 179th place overall.  This was an age-group championship qualifying race, so there were a LOT of fast athletes out there.

The only two problems I encountered during the race were my fogged goggles, and the fact that I didn't put my Garmin 310xt into multi-sport mode so each lap was tracked as "Other" instead of correctly labeling each lap as Swim, Bike, or Run.  Since both issues are fixable, I really can't complain.

Next race is Strawberry Fields on July 18.