MAO Progress

It has been about 7 weeks since I resumed training. It was very hard to start training again after such a long break (7 weeks too!)

I find that I’m finally getting back to what I was last year, although it is very hard to compare, since my training is so different now. MAO follows a very strict  HR based training, which is much lower than my old training method. In any case, I chose some workouts in each discipline to compare to last year:

Run

On January 11th of last year I ran 1:20 at 155 bpm and 10.6 km/h averages, which would have considered a VERY low HR at the time.

About a year later and just 7 weeks of off-season training, I did 1:30 hours at 10 km/h average but 140 bpm! That is about 15 beats under. I think that is quite e positive change!

Keep in mind that when I started after my time off, I was REALLY bad (see previous post).

Bike

Well, I which I could say I had the same improvement on the bike, but reality is that I’m very far from where I was last year. At this time around, I was doing 179 Watts at 141 bpm (80 rpm).

This time around I’m doing 152 Watts at 138 bpm (83 rpm). That is pretty lower than last year (27 Watts or 15%).

Now, having said that, it is also true that I’ve improved a lot since I resume training this year. My first workout after the 7 weeks of break was a shameful 120 Watts at 130 bpm… in one hour! That was brutal. So compared to that I’m doing awesome!

Swim

Swimming is a bit harder to compare. I feel that I’m getting better by looking at my lane mates at the North York Gators Master Swim. After the my break I almost had to change to a slower lane, as I couldn’t keep up at all. I used to lead part of the training before the break… and let me tell you, I was HORRIBLE afterwards.

Anyhow, I’m much better now and although I’m still not able to lead any workout, I can definitely hang in there. Slowly I’m getting back. I’m still following the workouts from the Masters instead of MAO, but I try to follow the distances that MAO prescribes, which for now are less that I would be swimming.

Well, it is off-season, so I’m doing 90% of what I’m suppose to do, but I am skipping the odd workout when I don’t feel like it. This year I will be a bit easier on myself, at least until the peak training starts. I got very burned out last season, which I’ll try to avoid this season.

There is still a long road to get to IM Lake Placid, but slowly I’ll get back in shape and hopefully I’ll do a better time than at IM France.

Wow! Talking about out of shape…

Now that the 2009 season is behind me, I’m staring to look forward for the 2010 Season. I took 6 weeks off and I’ll be starting to train again in November, following the MAO (Mark Allen Online) Maintenance Training Program.

In the meantime, I haven’t done much. In 6 weeks I went once to the gym, ran twice and biked once. Today I put my Heart Monitor on and went for quick run… Oh boy!! I knew I lost some fitness, but I had no idea how bad it was until today. Check these stats:

• Distance: 5.25 km
• Duration: 31:46
• Pace: 9.9 km/h
• HR: 159 bpm (???)
• Cadence: 82 rpm

Now, seriously, 159 bpm at 9.9 km/h? What was that? I don’t remember running this bad in the last 3 years. Granted, I was trying to increase my cadence, which didn’t really work either, I’m usually at 79 to 80 rpm and I averaged 82 today.

My goal during the Maintenance program is to keep my HR in the correct zones and increase my cadence. However, when I concentrate on my cadence, my heart rate goes through the roof! Well, I guess it is combination of things, 5 weeks off and cadence… I don’t know, but to follow Mark Allen’s prescribed HR zones, I’ll be waking, a LOT.

Time will tell. I’ll stick to the program. Hopefully next year I’ll see some improvements. The good side is that it can only go up from here!

How bad am I?

Muskoka 70.3 Ironman – Race Report

This was one of the few races I wasn’t nervous the day before, which doesn’t mean I slept like a baby…

For the first time I had a good pre-race day! My nutrition was pretty good and I was also ready to go to bed at 9pm. Beatriz in the other hand, was VERY nervous and couldn’t sleep. She woke me up at 3am as she was unable to sleep. She was scared to death of the next day race… her first Half Ironman! Who am I to blame her? I was SUPER nervous the year before and also before my full Ironman in June and at both times, she was at my side and patiently tried to calm me down. This time was my turn.

I spend about an hour talking to her trying to get some positives thoughts into her head and getting her to sleep and get some rest… It worked! She did sleep afterwards, although I couldn’t fall sleep again!

Anyhow, the weather was great! Cloudy, not too cold, not too warm. We got at the transition area just after 7am. Bruno, Carlos, Leandro and Rogerio were already there. I got to my bike, unloaded all my gear, including my 3 water bottles: 1 for the aerobar and two on the back of my seat.  Surprise number 1 – LOST MY ELASTIC BANDS to hold my aero bottle!!!

Leandro, you saved my race just there! He had an emergency kit with everything you could ever need. I think you could actually build a bike with his kit! Anyhow, I used his electrical tape to hold it (I’ve done that before). Many, many thanks Leandro!!!

Second thanks of the day goes to Bruno that took care of help m Beatriz as I was trying to fix my bottle problem!

Anyhow, we got all ready and went to the swim. We walked to the beach, zipped up the wetsuits  and even had time for a quick warm-up. Which brings me to my third thanks… Beatriz tried to close my wetsuit 3 times, but it kept opening, a common issue with my suite. It works great once it is closed, but it pops open immediately after you try to close it. Carlos became an expert after IM France, where he spent at least 5 minutes trying to get it closed. This time it took one try! The Helix is AWESOME, but a bit of a pain with the zipper since day one.

Swim (1.9 km)- 34:43 (Expected 35 min)

My plan for the race was to draft of Carlos as much as possible and then just follow my pace. That worked for about 2 seconds… then I lost him in the middle of 100’s of other swimmers! So, I just did my thing. I went easy, not going too hard, but not too easy either. I wanted to do my 35 minutes and get out of the water in good shape.

The swim went relatively well, until the last turn. When I turn towards the beach (lest leg) I couldn’t really see the next landmark, I was completely disoriented. I saw some swimmers beside me and just took the same direction, which fortunately was the right one! At this point though, for the first time I can remember, there was two guys passing me from the wave that left after me (yellow cap).

When I saw the yellow caps, I thought “Oh shit, I’m doing a really bad swim today.” But, I tried to keep focused and started to kick the last few 100 meters. That keeps me from having cramps after the swim and it also helps me not getting too dizzy when I stand up after the swim…

I got out of the water, checked my watch: 34:45! “OK, those guys were really good, it wasn’t me getting worst.”

T1 – 5:41

Got the peelers, and the two ladies had a hard time taking my wetsuit off, so imagine how long I would take me to do it myself?

Getting out of the wetsuit

Anyhow, they gave me my wetsuit and uphill I went, slowly trying to bring my HR down. As usual, my HR goes up to Max (184) as soon as I stand up after these longer swims. It takes a bit to drop back to normal, so I didn’t rush to the bike. Don’t take me wrong, I was feeling OK, this is always the case, so I don’t get worried about it. I know it will drop during the bike.

Bike (94 km) – 3:05:51 (projected 3:08)

I started the bike still with a high heart rate, 160 bpm as I was walking out the transition area. As I jumped on the bike and start pedaling, my HR was at 175 bpm… way too high. It kept high until the 4th km.

At this point I was still keeping a decent wattage (229 W), but I wasn’t pushing too hard as I wanted to bring my HR down first.  Keep in mind that this was a pretty hilly portion of the course, so low wattage wasn’t an option. Then my HR finally dropped and I did a great stretch of 36 km (4 to 40 km) at 161 bpm and a good 235W. I was actually trying to stay at 220, as I thought that I would been able to sustain that through out the bike.

Keep in mind that my threshold is around 250W, so keeping it at 235W is pretty close to all I could do! At that point I was starting to feel my legs. They were pretty sore, not a great pain, but I knew it wasn’t good. The pain however, wasn’t an injury, it was the muscles telling me they were tired. So I decided to drop my pace a bit. My goal was holding a 220W average, which I figured would give me just enough for the 30 km/h that I wanted.

As it turned out, dropping the pace was the right decision. When I got the 70km mark, my legs were REALLY hurting. My HR had dropped, but legs and my butt… so much muscle pain. My power dropped to 212W average, with 154 bpm and a 30.6 km/h average.

I was just calculating my average and thinking “I’m going to make it, I WILL do 30 km/h average!” and so I did! One small victory!

I finished the bike with just over 30.3 km/h, 158 bpm, 222W and 89 rpm cadence averages! I’m not 100% sure if this is true, but I’m pretty sure I was still feeling the overtraining fatigue.  But, I reached my goal, with almost 3 minutes to spare! Oh, that included 2 pit stops (29.4 km and 81.9 km), if it wasn’t for that… my average would have been 30.6 km/h (cost me 1 minute each time!)

T2 – 1:42

Into T2

T2 was nice and easy. I got in, took my biking shoes off, running shoes on, another gel down, cap on and off I went…

Run – 2:05:21 (projected 2:00:00)

As I was starting the run, Craig Alexander was just coming in FAST to finish his race… Well, after the bike I knew three things:

1. I was well hydrated, as I had to stop yet another time at the run just before 2 km!!!
2. I was well fed, as I took about 1 gel every 40 minutes, plus 3 big bottles of infinity (which made me go to some many times)
3. I was dead tired. I started the run thinking “Wow, 21 km hey?”

So I had to make some adjustments to my strategy. I though I was going to go really easy till the turn around (~5:55 min/km) and then trying to bring it up to 5:30 min/km. Well, that wasn’t going to work. I came out of the transition running 11 km/h (5:30 pace) and it was DOWNHILL! Yep, so much for increasing my speed after 10.5 km!

I had done some research about the run walk protocol after hearing an interview on IM Talk podcast, and one of the benefits was that it should be easier to keep your pace if you walk/run, instead of trying to run the whole way. Since I was already doing my pace, I knew that my chances from getting anywhere close to 5:30 pace average would be completely out of the question. So I though “What do I have to lose?”

Slow Start

I did the first half at an impressive 10.2 km/h average (5:52), considering that I walked quite a bit!

Then when I turned around, ran for not even 1 km… Who do I see? Bruno! Since he left 6 minutes behind me, I knew that he would or already had passed me! Not much later I see Rogerio. Then I though “$h!t, they all going to pass me?” I was starting to get into a bit of better pace as I also started to talk to a guy, David, that was going the same speed as me… but when I saw both sandbaggers on my tale, I had to give it a good shot.

Both Bruno and Rogerio are much better runners than me, so I decided trying to run a bit more. So I started going much harder (doesn’t mean much faster!) and I still walked and ran, but this time when I walked I looked back, just waiting for a pad in the back from one of them… I ran up to the last km waiting for that pad, thinking “if I keep them up to 500m before the finish line, there nothing in this world that will make me lose them!”

Seriously, I wouldn’t mind if they passed me, but it seemed to be a good “mind game” to keep me going! As it was getting harder and harder to keep the pace (even with the walk/run), I had a little hope that it was getting harder for them too, always thinking “they are better runners, but I can make it at least hard for them to pass me!”

To my surprise, I got to the last few 100 meters and no signed of them! So I did it!!! Another small victory. The interesting was that I kept basically the same pace in both half’s, I only dropped .1 km/h and did the way back at 10.1 km/h (5:56 pace).

So, no I didn’t do the time I wanted (2:00:00), but I think I did quite well adjusting to race. At the end I knew I couldn’t have done any better that day.

Total Time 5:53:16 (3 minutes better than last year)

Did I finished ahead of Bruno and Rogerio? Well, I manage to beat Rogerio, who did a great job for his first half Iron and Bruno beat me by 2 minutes (Awesome job Bruno!)

Carlos? Well, I saw him at the turn around too, like 4 km ahead of me! Great race dude, great race!!!

Leandro finished not too much later. I can’t imagine how he did it with his injured calf. Man, you are persistent! Now get healthy for next year. I know it must be hard with two little kids, but I think what you need is a bit more consistency, then you wont have that many injuries.

When I finished I was so sore, but strangely not as sore as the year before. I thought it was harder, but probably it was about the same pain as the year before, or even less. It is hard to compare pain and RPE. Especially a year later… Anyhow, I was glad it was over and I was really glad that this season was over. This season gave me a lot to think and one of the lessons is that I need to take more time off!

Beatriz

But my day wasn’t over. On my last 1 km, when I was starting to feel relieved that my misery as going to end, who do I see starting the run? Beatriz! I first felt so bad and worried about her. I was hurting so much and the though that she would still have to go through all of that, really got me worried “Oh man, she is going to kill me for convincing to sign up to this race”. Then we got closer and when she saw me, she had a HUGE smile on her face! She just yelled “I did it! I did the cut off from the bike!”

From that moment I knew she would finish! She still had about 3 hours for her half-marathon but she wasn’t going to give up! That is my girl!!! So I finished my race, walked around a little bit congratulating my buddies and looking for Silvia, my sister-in-law, which I didn’t find, but that is yet another story… Then I took my bike back to hotel and literally ran back to the finish line. I didn’t know how fast Beatriz would, but I did know that I wasn’t going to miss her crossing the finish line!

I ran back to the finish line, about 1 km (hilly km!), and every single person was yelling “are you nuts? Are you going for a run?”… “no I have to see my wife crossing the finish line!!!’

When I got back to the finish line, I finally found Silvia. She told me that Beatriz had not finished yet, so we both walked to the last hill, and patiently waited for her. I tried to cheer every competitor that was coming up that hill. Most of them with a smile, some of them the pain was harder, and other just did hear… they all had one thing in mind “I’m there, I’ll do it!”

As the clock was ticking, I kept asking for the time. Silvia just kept saying “Wow, again? I just told you, she still has 30 min… 25… etc.” Then finally, there comes Beatriz!!! Still smiling, enjoying every minute of her race! I started to run with her the last km and she immediately said “Go away! I don’t want to be disqualified, you can’t run with me! This is costing me way too much to get DQ now!”

Don't run with me!

I backed off and went down to the finish line, where I waited for my girl to finish he first Half Ironman! 8 Hours and 15 minutes! That is 15 minutes to spare. She is a “IRONWOMAN”!!! When she crossed the finish line, I was there to hold her in my arms and with tears in my eyes I could only say “YOU DID IT”.

My Ironwoman

There are two types of people in this world, the ones who say “I CAN’T” and the ones who say “I CAN”. Beatriz had the guts to go out there and do it, despite the fact that she works 8 hours a day and is finishing her second university degree at night!

If you think you can do a 8:15 Half Ironman, what are you doing in your couch? Go out there and DO IT! Maybe there is a third type of people, the ones who say “I COULD!”

Special thanks to Silvia (Beatriz’s sister) for all the support and pictures!

70.3 Ironman Muskoka Pre-Race

It is funny that we are now 4 days before the the event and, unlike last year, I’m not nervous at all. It is all about perspective.

Last year was great, but I hope the weather is a bit drier this year and I also hope to improve my time a bit. I don’t think I’m at my best, but I’m sure I’m much better now than a few weeks back. As it turns out, I was overtrained, but I think I got over it! I took a week off, than I cut the training my 40% and stopped any speed work.

Last week I was back to my normal schedule, but that was Tapper, which means that I end up loosing half of my second peak phase after Ironman France. Probably not ideal, but my body just couldn’t handle it. In the flip side, I’m feeling quite good now! Last week I did a 84 km bike ride with an average of 214 Watts! That is my best average EVER in a long ride. The speed average wasn’t that great as we got quite a bit of head wind on the downhill.

This ride was also the last group ride of 2009. Almost all Sandbaggers were there, except Paulo, Fernando and Chris, which was a pity, we had a great time. We left from Bruno’s house and rode around Brampton through some really nice country roads. Other than the 3 flat tires that Lili had… everything went great!

The day before I did a long run, which wasn’t bad either. I was actually pretty happy with my heart rate, which I averaged 144 bpm and 10.7 km/h (5:36 min/km) pace. Considering that it was 1 hour and 30 minutes, it wasn’t bad at all, specially because the HR didn’t change at any time, until I did a quick sprint at the end.

Most important of all, I have NO INJURIES! Knock on wood… not even my hamstring is hurting, which usually happens after a long run. So I guess I’m ready for Muskoka! If not a better time than last year, I’m sure going to have the same fun!!!

This year the following Sandbaggers will be in Muskoka:

• Beatriz: I wish I could say that my wife was ready for this race, that she had trained like hell and it would be a piece of cake, but she has a different type of schedule and training technique, which I will never understand. Having said that, somehow she always manages to finish, so I’ll be there cheering for her and if I’m not too tired, I’ll walk back and run the last few kms with her! May the force be with you!
• Bruno: I think he is going to kick my ass in the run. He is really running well this year. I might be able to beat him because of the swim and bike, but I would not be surprised to see him passim me at the end! It would be great if we can cross the finish line together.
• Carlos (Caca): well, what can I say? The guy always swam better than me, we used to be about the same on the bike and I would run faster… but that was the past! I’m pretty sure he will be faster in all three disciplines this year. He has been training a lot and I think he will be at least 5 min ahead of me on this one. I’ll try to catch up, but I find it nearly impossible. At least I’ll have a carrot to run after!
• Leandro: I have to say, I didn’t have high hopes for him (sorry buddy!) but after biking with him on Sunday, I was amazed how much he improved! He usually didn’t kept up the whole way, but this time was different… I think he is ready too and will do a much better time than last year!
• Rogerio: What can I say about him? I think he has the same coach as Beatriz! Although, the last few months he has been training and not only swim/bike/run, but also how to come up with excuses!!! He is definitely the “Sandbagger Master”. Don’t get me wrong, he is the best runner and used to be the worst swimmer, but after swimming with the ladies at the masters… he is another man! I never know what to expect from him, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him at the run too!

Well, that is it. I wish you all the best of luck in the race, it is now time to relax and absorb  your training! You can’t improve in the last week, so carb load and lets have some fun!!

Cheers!

Garmin 310XT – First Impressions

OK, lets get it out of the way, this watch is AWESOME. The customizable screens and integration with my Powertap is just priceless (well, it has a good price).

Now, lets talk about the stuff that can be improved. My impression is that the watch is great, the software that is provided with it (Garmin Training Centre and Garmin Connect) did not catch up yet! There are a few bugs and sub-optimum reports that can be improved. Keep in mind, I have the watch for 24 hours now and I did two workouts: run and bike (paired with the powertab), so this is really my first impression based on that.

RUN:

After I came back from the run I uploaded the data to both softwares, which is pretty cool. I just got close to the computer and it started downloading automatically. Nothing is required! Well, you have to close Garmin Training Centre for it to work though. The “Ant Agent” runs in the background, detects the watch and downloads the new activities to both applications:

The first time it tried to download it didn’t work, because Training Centre was open, so for some reason it didn’t like it. As soon as I closed it, it worked.

Let me just explain these two softwares before I go any further:

• Garmin Training Centre: a PC software that resides in your computer. You can download it free from Garmin, and it will show you all your activities (workouts that you actually did), your planned workouts (which can be downloaded to the watch). It also provide you with some graphs (HR, Speed, Cadence, etc) as well as a BASIC map with your routes.

• Garmin Connect: a web based application, similar to Garmin Training Centre, but with a different look. It has more information than Garmin Connect, but it doesn’t have from example, a calendar.

Have a closer look at the map in Garmin Training Centre. Not only it has little to non details, but it is actually wrong. I never crossed the 401! I was always north of it! The graph at the bottom is OK, but you cant chose a section to zoom. If you use the zoom button, it will zoom both X and Y axis’s. Although, if you expand the activity (mid left of the screen (see below), you can high light a lap and the graph will be for that lap only:

So, for running, it is actually fine. Other then the map that is totally useless, you can get descent information out of it. I really wished it had at least an average line, but it does show it above on a table. The graphic is also allows you to have up to four data streams at the same time (e.g. Speed, Heart Rate, Elevation, Cadence). Just as a side note, the elevation is useless. The variation form the JPS altitude makes flat look like a rolling hill!

As for the map, you have the option to export it to google earth… which is pretty simple:

Note how the 401 is below the route!!!

As far as Garmin connect goes, it is not bad for running either. It shows the graphic in the “Activities” window, as well as a map and averages.

One of the things I believe is missing is a customizable graphic. Although you have a graphic for HR, Elevation, Pace power, cadence, etc, you can’t see them all in one graphic, nor can you zoom to a particular section of the graphic. If you run a half marathon, the data would be pretty compressed in this graphic. It would be nice to select a portion of the ride and see the Averages, Min and max values… and having the normalized power would be awesome!

There is also the neat option to “Play” your ride. It is basically the map above plus a graph that shows you your data at the specific location (see screen shot below).  The graphic under the “Player” has one option: you can chose two data points (e.g. Speed and Heart Rate). No zoom, no average line… the average is represented at the bottom of the screen and the actual speed/heart rate is a bar that moves as the subject is moving in the map. This would be good “if” you could click on the course and have the data for that point, or even better, highlight a portion of the course and have the graphic dislplayed for that segment (along with a statistical table, including , Distance, HR average, Pace, etc.)

In addition to the “Player” you also have the splits for each lap:

That reminds me that if you ”do workout” (e.g. run 45 min @ HR range), the autolap wont work. Therefore, after you download the data, the table above becomes basically just one lap for your whole workout. This is a pretty anoying bug, since you can’t even add a lap later one.

Bike:

First of all, Garmin Training Centre has NO POWER INFORMATION! NOTHING, NADA, NITCHS!! The data is actually stored somewhere since I exported it and imported to Training Peaks website and I had power info there. However, there absolutely no information displayed in the Training Centre:

It is AWESOME that the Garmin works with the power meter, but the actual software does really “care” about the data! Having said that, Garmin Connect does show the Power information. There is no 5s peak, 30 min peak or anything like that, but is shows the average and so on. It has as much information as speed or Heart Rate:

Now, when I went to the Player for this activity, for some reason the route doesn’t completely match what I did, in fact it is fine in the “Details” window (above), but not in the player! From what I figure, the Player uses less data. I believe it discards a lof of the data, therefore it doesn’t match the actual route taken. If you would take a straight line route, it wouldn’t be an issue, but when you add turns… the point where you changed direction might be discarded, and the representation gets “weird” to say the least.

Another issue that I have with Garmin Connect, is that I can’t use it as my “Log”, since I can’t create manually an activity for swimming. The only way to create an activity is to upload it from the watch… that means that I would have to use my $500 watch/GPS/HR as a stopwatch in the pool, then upload the time. Even in this case, I wouldn’t be able to manually enter the distance. BTW, I could do that in the Training Centre.

So, in short, I find the watch is GREAT. Everything that you see on youtube and Garmin’s website does work. The watch is extremely customizable. One thing that I didn’t mention above is the ability to create a workout (e.g. Hills Intervals) with Training Centre and upload it to the watch! There are several cool features that makes this watch the best Triathlete watch that I have seen. I have the Polar S625X, but that isn’t really close to Garmin 310XT, but in other hand, Garmin has lots to catch up with Polar Precision Performance (Polar’s Analyzes Software).

Oh, one more note. Training Peaks WKO+ does not work with the 310XT. The only option is to use their web app, which is pretty good, but the basic version doesn’t have all cool features and the Premium version costs $119/year. I wouldn’t mind paying $100 for WKO+, but not every year! So that is out of the question.

I’m going to import the TCX files to Polar Precision Performance (PPP) and continue to use it as my training log. I like flexibility of the graphs and reports, which are MUCH better then Garmin’s version. I’ll be uploading to Garmin anyway because I have to do it to create the TCX files and it is so easy it wont be an issue. Therefore, when I want to see the route, I’ll go to Garmin’s webpage, otherwise I’ll check the data in PPP. Well, at least until Garmin gets the software to a point that it is a usable analyzing tool.

Overtraining – Could that happen to me?

Last few days or even weeks, I’ve been feeling pretty crapy. It is normal to have some bad days, but when the number of bad workouts exceed the number of good ones, well I think it is time re-assess the situation and go back to the drawing board.

What hit me was the last race that I did, Niagara Sprint (Subaru Sprint).  This was my worst race since June 2008:

• 700m Swim: 12:59 min or 1:52/100m
• 25 km Bike: 49:25 min or 30.4 km/h
• 7 km Run: 34:59 or 12 km/h
• HR Average: 172 bpm!!

What can I say? Everything felt so hard… I got to a point at the run that I want to give up doing Sprints, which by the way, isn’t my forte. The last time I ran a 5 min/km pace on a sprint was in Milton 2008, which was my second Sprint ever. The only other time that I ran that slow was my first Sprint… which was 5:10 min/km.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time at the race, specially when I saw Rogerio on the turn around, boy he was close to me. I did my best not to let him pass me. At the last 800 m, he caught up, but somehow I manage to cross the finish line side by side with him. We crossed the line without knowing who had won, and in fact we crossed it at the exact same time!

Anyhow, I started to research about overtraining and I found the following at Mark Allen’s website:

Here is a checklist of items that will help your figure out if are at this final plateau. Do any of these things apply to you?

• You have more than one night in a row or more than 2 nights in a week of restless sleep. YES
• Your legs throb at night in bed. YES
• You have a loss of appetite even though you are training a lot. NO
• You are irritable and little things that shouldn¹t are really bugging you. YES
• Your resting heart rate in the morning is 5-10 beats above normal and doesn’t get lower even when you are well hydrated. Don’t Know
• You feel like your muscles are burning even at low heart rates during training. NO
• Your perceived exertion is extremely high even at low training heart rates. YES
• You feel generally tired and cannot sustain normal training heart rates for even short periods of time. NO
• You feel worse after warming up than did before you started working out. NO
• Your training is a seesaw. One day you are flying, then next you are wasted and can barely move. YES

Here is what you do with your results:

• If you answered yes to 1 or 2 of these questions, you might be at the final plateau and will need to monitor your training volume and intensity. Back off slightly from planned workouts and see if the symptoms disappear.
• If you answered yes to 3-4 of these questions, you are definitely on the final plateau and could benefit from a week or two of reduced volume in your training and from cutting speed work out completely.
• If you answered yes to 5 or more of these questions, you have been in an over-trained state for some time and should consider taking three or more weeks off of serious training. Cut back to active recovery workouts only during this period. Avoid the temptation to jump back into full training the second you start to feel better.
• Remember that if you are very overtrained, feeling better will only be a relative scale. You may feel better than you did at your lowest point but you can still be weeks away from being fully charged back up and ready to go back into your full routine.

I kept researching a bit more and read the following articles, which pretty much got me to the same conclusion: I’m overtrained!

• Preventing Overtraining – When Less Is More
• Overtraining: How to Avoid It, How to Recover From It

Well, now that I think I know what is going on with me, I’m changing a few things:

1. I bought a new pillow! Yes, I’ve been having a constant pain on my neck, which I think might be my pillow;
2. I’m cutting back on my training this week. I already skipped my morning bike and I’ll take it very easy in my swim tonight;
3. I’m removing all my speed workouts this week and replacing them with recovery workouts with same or less duration;
4. I’m stepping down from the Level 7 to Level 5 of my training schedule (from Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide book);
5. I will swallow my proud and go easy! I’m not as tough as I thought I was…

As weird as it may sound, but I find it super hard to cut back. I feel like I’m doing less that what I can and should do. I’m also worried about my Muskoka 70.3 IM five weeks from now… but from all I read, I think this is the best I can do. The trick will be how/when/if I should  get back to my regular program within these 5 weeks. I guess I will have to play by ear.

This is one of the reasons I’m planning to get a couch for next season. I think a couch would have been able to pick up on these symptoms much earlier and would had been able to avoid this state. Well, now I have to rest.

Low Heart Rate Running

I’ve been trying to lower my running Heart Rate for a while now. Since I did my 1/2 Marathon in 1:43 but at a an average of 168 bpm… I figured I had to do something about it.

Bryan told me about his training with Mark Allen, and how he started to run at 140 bpm, leaving his pride at home and even walking when his HR went up. Well, why not? So every Foundation run and Long run, I’ve been doing at 146 bpm. I started with 150 bpm, but according to Mark Allen‘ calculations, I lowered even more.

Well, it should be easier right? Well, I’m running much slower, in fact I haven’t run consistently at 12 km/h for quite a while now. I’m not really tired after I’m done with my runs, but I still feel my legs a bit heavy afterwards. The most frustrating part though is that I feel I can run faster and I have to hold back. That really gets to my nerves, but I’m hanging in there. I hope it pays of at the end.

The only drawback of this training is that I know I’m doing it at the wrong time. I should have started in my off-season and through out my base phase, not at the peak phase just a month away of the 70.3 IM. Anyhow, the goal is to get better for next year. Besides, last year I did the 1/2 Marathon (during the triathlon) at 2:06 at an average of 157 bpm… so if I run like now, it would be the same time, just at a much lower rate rate! See below a 2 hour run at the annoying 146 bpm. (BTW, I know that just running is not the same as running at the 70.3)

Breaking News

Thanks to Carlos, I got a spot in Ironman Lake Placid!

Today (July 27th/2010) I got an unexpected call at noon, which fortunately I answered, as I was on another call… Carlos could only say: “Hurry, there are some spots available for Lake Placid!!”. That was all it took. I went to IM Lake Placid’s website and registered!

The nice thing about this Ironman is that it is the closest one to home. We can drive there, no need to fly, no need to rent a bike box… which all translates into a much more affordable trip.

I was concerned about which Ironman I was going to do in 2010, and if I had a choice, I would still want to do the IM Canada… but Lake Placid looks awesome too! As soon as I finish the 70.3 Ironman Muskoka… I will start training for Lake Placid. Oh man, that feels good.

Thanks for calling me Carlos!!! Lake Placid, here we come!

This time it will be different. Well, beating my IM France time wont be that hard!

Slowly getting back

Now that I completed IM France, not in the time I wanted, but still… It is time to get back to my training routine.

I didn’t train for 2 weeks after the race, and the third week I only did a few workouts (5 and half hours). Now I’m training again. I’m now following a 20 week 1/2 Ironman program, but my next major race (Muskoka 70.3 Ironman) is in 7 weeks. So I’ll do the first week of the training just to get the hang of it and then I’ll jump to week 14, which is the last week of the build phase.

I’m assuming I have enough base to jump to the peak phase again in two weeks, specially because the half Ironman plan has less hours per week then the Ironman plan I was doing. If I can and I’m feeling well, I’ll try to increase the intensity a bit. I really would like to get my biking power up, but 7 weeks wont be nearly enough for that. As of now, I don’t think I’m at my best yet. I’m running 10% slower to keep the same heart rate as before the IM race. One would think that after 3 weeks I would be recovered, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.

On Tuesday Morning, I biked 1 hour and 20 minutes yesterday at a ridiculously low wattage of 154W. At least I included some 8 x 30 seconds @ 550 Watts. In the evening I swam 53 Minutes (about 3 km).  Today I’m doing a 45 min fartlek run…

As per my short term plans, on August 9th I’m going to participate in the Niagara (Subaru series) sprint distance race and on August 29th, I’m doing the HSBC Olympic race in Cobourg. Cobourg is actually a slight change on my racing schedule, which will replace Guelph (Subaru series) Sprint. Although I love the Guelph race, doing a olympic distance will be much better tuning race for the 70.3 Ironman. Funny how I was much more worried about the 70.3 last year… It is all relative!

I’m starting to look at the races for next year and I’ll do my best to sign-up for IM Canada. Next year I’m 40, so I have to finish another Ironman, but this time I want to make it right!

I’m also thinking about the 2010 race schedule. Once I figure that out, I might get an online coach too. Most likely I’ll use Mark Allen. I’ve exchanged a few email with him and I was very impressed with the quality and speed of responses. I also have a friend (Bryan) that uses his services and really likes it. Needless to say, Bryan is way better then me. He finished Muskoka like an hour before me last year!

IM France – Race Report

If you haven’t, please read Nice Day 3 before you read this.

I woke up at 3:30 feel tired, but no headache, which was really good news. I had one baguette with ham, two yogurts, a slice of bread with honey and almost a litter of orange juice.

I met with Ignacio at lobby at 4:50am. We walked to the transition area with the Beatriz and Natalia (his wife). Interesting enough, I wasrn’t eally nervous. I was focused, but not nervous. I was horrified with the number of bikes… it was an ocean of bikes.

I found my bike and pumped up the tires, put my gels and drinks on the bike and got a good luck kiss from Beatriz. I thanked her again for taking care of me and told her “I would not  be here if it wasn’t for you!” I truly believe that.

Now, the race… a long day:

Swim 1:09:54:

Mass start with 2500 people, that tells you something… it was crowded! Now, what did surprise me was that it was not as rough as one ould think tough. I was in a blender with1000’s of people, every one was on the same boat. People were less “aggressive” the any other race I have ever done. I was swimming with my head out of the water for about 3 minutes before I could start to swim properly, but even then I could not get to my pace because there was too many peo0plearound me. I started to drift to right to get some room and I started to go around the mass. I passed a lot of people, but I swam at least 100m more.

Mass Start 1

Mass Start 2

Swimming with the Mass!

On the first loop I started to feel my neck burning from the wetsuite, it is very different in the salt water, I never got that on a lake. When I got out of the water (first loop), I was a bit dizzy, but because I started to kick at the end of the loop, it wasn’t too bad. I walked a bit and re-enter the water. This time I had much more space to swim. I manged (somehow) to get a good line to the buoy. Oh by the way, I NEVER saw the buoy until I was really close. I was just “following the herd”. First loop pace: 1:56/100m

I finished the second loop and I was like “Wow, this is going to be easy!” I was feeling absolutely great, not tired AT ALL. Second loop pace: 1:37/100m

T1  13:32:

What can I say? I wasn’t on a hurry. I was trying tofigure out how it works with getting the bag, sticking the wetsuite bac into the bag, finding the person to return the bag… very differnt from any triathlon I’ve ever done. The only thing that I did do right was sunscreen. I left the transition area totally white! Oh, who do I see at T1? Carlos! I couldn’t believe it. I thought I would be at least 5 min behind him.

Bike 7:28:26:

First mistake, the Aero-Helmet. There are a lot of long climbs, thus low speed and a lot of sun! Hot, Hot, Hot! I was cooking my brains.

Anyhow, I started feeling great, but I thought it would be wise to hold back on the first 20 km, till the first long climb. The first 500m of climb at grade 13 or more, and my heart rate was 185 bpm! I looked at it and just thought “this can’t be good”. Fortunately it was just 500m and the climb wasn’t very steep afterwards. I mange to bring the HR back to 150’s and I continued trying to keep my wattage at around 200W. At the first down hill, I passed through Carlos. I just shouted “Go Sandbagger!!!” and continued the downhill.

Can’t remember how much we went downhill, but it was a good break. We then started to climb again, but this time for 20km. The worst was the heat. As I mentioned, my head was cooking. I ran out of water at the last 5 km of the climb and I was really suffering. At the last water station of the climb I stopped, got water, inifinit and Carlos passed through me.

I’ve catched up  with Carlos and we finished the climb together. We even “hold hands” for the camera… which was not a good idea. Carlos felt flat on the ground! The camera man came running to check on us, but fortunetely he was fine, and he told us that the picture was good!

Once at the top, 70 km into the bike course, I was starting to get a bit worried. There was a big flat, and I thought it was time to get some speed… but I couldn’t keep up more the 120W. Just like on the computrainer. Carlos picked up a bit of speed and I was going to try to stay with him, but I just couldn’t do it. To make things worse, my chain came off and I had to stop completely to get it back on. It took me at least a minute to put it back on.

Then the first downhill! I started going down and I get a noise “flap, flap, flap”. My tires… the front tire. It didn’t feel like it was flat though. I look at it (didn’t stop) and I saw what look to be a tape on my tire. I kep going until the 180 degree turn. I stopped again and removed the tape from the front tire. I kept going downhill until the first flat spot, where I stopped for the first pee break.

The problem was that I was still feeling very weak. I was at the 80km mark and I thought “I wont finish if I don’t get better”. Until the 60 km, I was very good with my gels, but after that, I started to get full. So I decided to get a coke next stop, which went down like a real meal! I also took a banana After that point I started to feel much better. I got to the turn around, which is flat, and I could already do my 180W (my target).

I saw Carlos again, and I was about 5 minutes behind him. When I got to the 100km mark, another short climb (7km). This time there was a lot of trees and I managed to keep a 150 bpm at ~190W. Slow, but good. I was at the same pace as everyone else on that hill. I started to feel that I could finish again!

As the last 7km hills were behind me, I thought to myself “This is my downhill, this is my hill now!” I didn’t want to go down like crazy and end up in a stretcher, but I was going to go as fast as I could feel safe! The first part of the downhill wasn’t very steep, but it was getting there. I started to pass everyone that I was riding with. I could recognize the names of the guys that passed me on the way up. They really looked like pylons.  I kept shouting “On your left” all downhill. The problem was when I got after the shopper… Oh, did I mention that there was a shopper “parked” in the middle of the downhill? Yep, a big ambulance chopper which was there to pick up someone that crashed. Fortunately there was enough crew guys to tell me to slow down, betofore I hit the chopper!

Anyhow, after the shopper, there was a pretty steep downhill. That is when I caught up with a bus. It took me a while to pass it, as the road was narrow and I wasn’t sure if there were cars coming uphill, but I managed to pass it. Not much later, there was a car… also managed to pass it, then the ambulance, I left it behind too. Now the moment of fear: after I passed the bus, the car and the ambulance, there were no bikes in front of me! No one, nothing. I got to a relatively flat place and I couldn’t see anyone behind or in front of me. I started to think “Damn, I must have passed a turn while I was passing the cars.” I slowed down and started to think if I should turn around and make it up the hill… but then finally I saw a bike coming down and passing me (I almost stopped at that point). It never felt so good to be overtaken! I continue the road following the guy and at the next cross I could see the “M dot” mark again (every crossroad had one marking the way). I felt so relieved, you have no idea.

At the end of the steep downhill I passed Carlos again and we went together the rest of the downhill. He kept some distance so that we were not disqualified. When the hills were done and we got to a flat spot I had to stop for a nature call. Carlos kept going, but I did catch up with him on the flat, which told me that he wasn’t in very good shape as he is always faster than me on the flat.

T2 10:34:

Carlos and I were chatting and we decided to go together on the run. Again, a very long transition with plenty of sunscreen!

Run 5:21:03:

I think this was the most frustrating run that I ever did. I started to run with Carlos and I was feeling quite good, considering the bike course that we had just done. We started the run at about 11 km/h (about 5:30 min/km).  However, it was very hot; it was around 30C, no shade, no cloud in the sky.

We decided to stop at every aid station to get wet and hydrate. I had some gels with me too, but I couldn’t eat them anymore. I think that was probably my biggest mistake. I drank only coke for the first o two of the four loops of the marathon. When I started the run, I was already feeling a “want to cramp” on my left hamstring. That was the sign that I missed completely. At this point I should have started to eat bananas and take Infiniti at the aid stations. Brian also passed us, but he was in his 3^rd loop!

Anyhow, we continue the run, and the heat was brutal. At half way on the first loop, I stopped the first time to stretch my left hamstring, but as I was stretching the left one… the right one started to cramp! So I decided to continue easy enough to avoid the cramp. That is when I started to get very annoyed. I was feeling OK, my HR was 130 and I was running at 8 to 9 km/h, I couldn’t go much faster.

Carlos in other hand looked tired and welcomed my company. I look at my watch and I was 1 and half hour out of my target… I thought “whatever”, let’s just finish it. So Carlos and I continued in that pace until we finished the first loop, walking at every aid station and running between them (well, jogging at 8 km/h).  When we finished the loop, we got our first “chou-chou” (the band you got when you finished a loop). I kissed the chou-chou and another three and I was going to be an Ironman!

The second loop was just pathetic. We slowed down to 7 km/h, my heart rate at 125 bpm. I was really annoyed, and just looking at the other athletes with the 3 “chou-chou’s”. I had only 1. I started to eat bananas at each aid station, on top of the coke. At the end of the second loop I was feeling quiet well. I kept with Carlos for another half loop, but then I felt he was slowing down too much.  I wanted to see if I could maintain a better pace as the sun wasn’t as strong. The temperature had drop to probably 26C (from 29-30C).

The second half of the third loop I started running again at 10 km/h at 144 bpm. At each aid station I took bananas and Infiniti. I thought I need salt… should thought about it in the first loop! I kept going, but I couldn’t go faster as I was still feeling that I would cramp. Beatriz was on the middle of the loop (i.e. 2.5 km from the starting line) and as soon as she saw me running (I mean more than 7 km/h!) she started to cheer a lot. It was great, but I told her that I was feeling great, but I couldn’t go any faster because of the cramp.

I finished the third loop. One to go!!! I could do it; I knew it was going to be very feasible. When I crossed with Beatriz again, she had a banana in her hand, which although I wasn’t suppose to take anything from someone outside the event… I took it anyway. Reality is that the bananas on the aid stations were small slices and a bit black and smashed, unlike the one I got! I ate almost the whole banana and continued. I continue to run at 10 km/h but walking at each aid station for more bananas and Infiniti, as my left leg was really cramping. At the end of the last loop, about 100 m to finish, I could see the “Finish Line” sign and the crowd shouting “Allez Hans!” but I had to stop 3 times because of the cramp.

Finally I sow the actual Ironman sign, the announcer shouting something that sounded like “You are an IRONMAN” and I started to run again, the last 30m I was running like a pro! OK, maybe not a pro, but it was a descent run.

I crossed the finished line and I thought “Wow, I did it, I did it!” then I looked at the time again and the second thought on my mind was “Man, I will have to do it better next time”.

Looking back, I think I’ve done a few basic mistakes:

1. Aero helmet: as I mentioned, way too hot for this course. There are just too many long hills to use one. I didn’t know it could make such a difference. That really dehydrated me on the climbs, where I ran out of water twice.
2. Food (Bike): I started well with the gels, but I needed something else. Maybe another flavor to mix it, or probably even better, salt pills.
3. On the run I should have started earlier with the bananas and not rely as much on coke as I did, since it didn’t have any salt or electrolytes.
4. I need to improve my bike. Although I think that I could have done much better on the run if I had eaten properly, I don’t think I could have done the bike much better. Even with the right helmet.

In summary, I loved the race, I will do another Ironman. However, I’m definitely not happy with my performance. I think with the training that I did, I could have done much better, but the experience is priceless. Doesn’t matter how much you train, the actual race is much harder. You need the experience (yours or someone else’s) to do it right.

Leaving and learning, that is what it is all about. As long as I’m having fun, it is all good! Maybe not the time I wanted, but it was much better than staying at home watching TV!

Oh, I forgot to mention. I got an Ironman “tattoo” on my neck.

That is as close as I will get to a Tattoo!