Thursday, April 29, 2010
The weekend is here
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Workouts in between ice baths
After the swim I headed straight to Karen and Damien's house to use their ice bath. I hopped in from the waste down for about 14 minutes, then hurried home and headed off to work.
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My knee was sore most of the day, and I can't seem to get it completely comfortable at work. I wanted to get another bike workout in before Friday, partly just to make sure I can still ride a bike. After work, I hurried home and hopped on the bike for a quick 20 miles, averaging about 22 mph. I didn't push it too hard, and the whole ride felt pretty easy with no stress on my knees. Perhaps even better, by the time I hopped off the bike, my leg muscles had loosened up enough to allow me to run without discomfort. So hopefully, regardless of how I feel on Sunday, adrenaline, combined with a good bike leg, should allow me to roll on the run.
After the bike ride, I hurried over to Karen's for another ice bath with the iCool. I love the ice bath, and it continued to work wonders. Karen and Damien are so nice about letting me stop by and use it. Here's a free plug to my 7 official followers and 20+ unofficial followers. Go check out www.ozperformance.com.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Taper Time
I have been icing on and off for the past three hours and Karen and Damien are letting me use their ice bath over the next two days before I leave for San Francisco. Hopefully between the treatment and rest I should nip this thing before Sunday. Regardless, I should be able to compete well enough on adrenaline.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Rocky Tribute
Saturday, April 24, 2010
I can finally run again!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
This knee thing
This doesn't hurt for any activity other than running. I did lots of sprint drills and lateral drills to loosen up and felt nothing, until I started running in a straight line. Hopefully 1-2 more days of rest does the trick.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Transition work/800 repeats
I actually only swam 300-350 because the girls were much faster in the pool. However, my swim today was as fast as its ever been. I guess the competition helped. As expected, my biggest problem was getting in my bike shoes. A couple times, Julie and I hopped on our bikes at the same time and she'd gap me by 10-15 seconds. I can un-clip on the bike well and hop off, but getting in my running shoes is equally pathetic. The first two intervals I finished way behind, but on the last two I was close enough to catch up on the run. We took about 5 minutes recovery to re-set our gear before starting the next interval. I was absolutely gassed at the end, but hurried home to shower and head to work.
After work, I headed to the track for the usual Tuesday night workout. Despite the wind and rain we had a great turnout today and the storm clouds had cleared by the time we got going. Today's workout was a repeat of last week, 6 x 800 meters. I was drained from this morning, and my right knee was hurting on the warm-up, so I stayed in my trainers and tried to keep the first few repeats slow, letting my body control the speed. By the 3rd interval I had loosened up and was running my usual pace. On the 5th I changed into racing flats to get a couple quicker reps in. My splits today were 2:29, 2:25, 2:21, 2:22, 2:18, 2:13, with a 3 minute (400 meter) recovery in between each interval.
I cooled down two miles on the grass and headed straight over to Spa Gregories to cash in one of the free massages I won at the Spirit Run last month (see first post). I'm doing much better now, but am still really sore from all the recent work. I'm going to have to force myself to start tapering.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Last ocean swim before Alcatraz
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Mom snapped a few more pictures as I cleaned up and we headed home for a nice bowl of oatmeal. I decided to delay today's run until this afternoon to give my legs a few more hours to recover from yesterday. If not, I'll go longer tomorrow.
(5 hours later...) Energized by the Laker win, I ran easy 7 down to Crytsal Cove and back. Nothing too special. 40 miles for the week, 7500 yards in the pool, 55 miles on the bike.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Super Brick
After I got home I hung up my bike and quickly as possible, threw on the running shoes and headed out for a 6-mile tempo. I did a "warm-up" mile down to Back Bay road, and got going at the first mile marker. I wanted to get in 4 "road miles" and finish the last two on the CdMHS track, before jogging home. The target was 5:40 pace for the first few miles, but I went out a little too hard the first half mile. The first four splits were 5:29, 5:41, 5:41,5:45 (uphill). The fourth mile finished right at the track so I jogged over to the finish line and tried to drop the pace. I probably over did it a bit, because the next mile was 5:15. I hadn't taken water at all on the run and knew it wouldn't end well if I didn't get fluids in my system so I took a 2 minute break before the last mile to get water at the pool (jogging the whole time of course). Water was a good call; I finished mile 6 in 5:08.
At this point I was 7.5 miles into the run and sufficiently drained, so instead of extending my cool-down, I took the most direct route home down Jamboree, which unfortunately has two large hills. Near the top of the first climb, my right quad started cramping up, and had I taken 1-2 more steps, it probably would have seized up. I slowed my pace to a near walk and targeted the gas station for a water fountain. Wouldn't you know, they didn't have one. Rather than take faucet water, I tried to jog home at a ridiculously slow pace, and luckily I made it. Somehow got up the last hill to PCH without any issues, made it home in once piece.
Totals for the day, 55 miles on the bike, 10 mile run (6 up-tempo). Tomorrow should be another interesting day.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Laps n Laps
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Resume triathlon training
After work I headed to the pool for my first swim since last Friday (bad Josh). After I stopped referring to myself in the 3rd person, I warmed up 400 yards of drills to try and get my stroke back. Then I went into 8 x 100 yard repeats with 15 seconds rest. I kept all of them between 1:25-1:30, which wasn't too hard and actually very encouraging because one month ago I was repping 100's in 1:40+. Next I took an easy 100 to stretch out and recover and went into 200's with minimal rest. I kept each of them at 3:05-3:10, which is ok, but my lack of pool time over the last week was definitely showing by the end of the workout. Then I cooled down a few laps and finished with some 25 yard sprints for 2000 yards on the day.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Too hot!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Back at it
I went straight to the track from work for the normal Tuesday interval workout. On the docket today was 6 x 800 meters (3 min recovery). I had a rough 2.5 mile warm up and couldn't really loosen up, so I decided to keep my trainers on and not use the flats today, just letting my body go as fast as was comfortable. In my head, I figured that meant keeping everything between 2:25 - 2:30, and it started off that way. On the first 800, I was so tight that the first couple strides actually hurt and I thought about stopping. I trudged through the first 4oo in 74, and then started to loosen up and came home in 71. I made sure to go right into a brisk jog between each interval (about 7 min mile pace for the recovery) so I wouldn't tighten up. This was key as I kept getting faster with each rep. The splits were much faster than expected: 2:25, 2:22, 2:21, 2:20, 2:20, 2:18. Given that I was in trainers, and my legs were exhausted from last weekend, this was a very nice workout.
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After my 3 mile warm-down, I got to do something I haven't done since college. Karen's husband Damien sells portable ice baths (www.ozperformance.com) and brought them to the track today. So after my workout, I got to jump in a 45 degrees ice bath for 10 minutes (waste down). I'm feeling so much better now and all tightness in the legs is gone. As I tell anyone who will listen, the solution to everything is ice.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Carlsbad 5000
Start -I'm on the left
I finally took a relatively easy day yesterday, running 5.5 miles on the Irvine Lake Mud Run course, minus the obstacles, then cheering on Heather, Angela, Mike. The course is much better than last year, so if you read this, Paul Rudman, nice work, but still a ways to go to match Pendleton. I woke up extra early this morning to do a shakeout run and jogged down to the Newport Dunes to watch the Newport Beach Triathlon at 7 a.m. Then Heather and Angela (good job on back-to-back races!) and I drove down to Carlsbad. The weather in Carlsbad was perfect, 60 and cloudy, with some wind. I made a stupid mistake of debuting my new Saucony Grid A3 racing flats, and left the Asics in the car--stupid. The A3's are extremely light at 6 ounces, but were slipping off my heal a bit so I had to make the shoes extra tight and go no socks. Good news is they should get me through Alcatraz, bad news is I got blisters.
I had a great 3-mile warm-up and felt very springy. After then 1/2 mile jog to the start from the Cal Coast tent, I took my place in the corral only to have them hold us an extra 10 minutes while we waiting for the Amtrak Oceanliner train to cross. This happens every year so I should know better by now. After about 7 minutes of standing and shaking out my legs I just sat down to conserve energy, which ended up prompting the entire front line to sit. After the train passed we had about 10 seconds to stand up and get the blood flowing before we started.
Five seconds after the gun went off there were about 25 people in front of me, including Bill Walton on a custom gigantor road bike. I stayed calm and didn't move up until we turned south(left) onto Carlsbad Drive. At the 1/2 mile I was in 7th, but perfectly boxed in behind four people to block the headwind. I stayed in this position through the mile (4:46! perfect) to the turnaround at 1.4. I came out of the box about 50 yards before the turn and took extremely wide approach, which worked perfectly because when spun around I had moved effortlessly from 7th into 4th. There was a small incline after the turn and my momentum and a tailwind carried me alone into 3rd, with nobody joining me. I tried to go with the two guys in front of me but couldn't ease my way up there and didn't want to blow up with 1.5 to go. With the tailwind pushing me north I cruised the next 800 meters through 2 miles in 9:33 (4:47!) and felt great. This was my second fastest two mile split ever on the roads (9:27 en route to 14:54) so I used a small adrenaline boost, courtesy of my 2 mile split and the crowd,to try and pick up the pace and catch the guys in front of me. Not much good happened over the last 800 meters.
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Just passed 2 miles
15:20 is my second fastest time ever on this course. It's great progress from the 15:50 rut I've been stuck in the last couple years, a byproduct of not much training. I still think I left 10-15 seconds on the course, especially struggling downhill the last 200 meters. Still I had a great race, executed the race plan I wanted, but just couldn't finish it. This will come with more strength from added mileage and swimming.
I walked back to the Cal Coast tent, high-fiving
Friday, April 9, 2010
Short and Sweet
Morning - drove to Newport Ridge and ran 45 minutes in El Morro Canyon. The marine layer blinded out the canyon I was running in the clouds most of the time. Hilly, up-tempo 7 miles.
Afternoon - didn't have much time before evening festivities so drove to the pool and swam 1200 non-stop. Took about 20 minutes, no stress whatsoever. Then did 4 x 50 sprints, and cooled down 200 for a mile in the pool.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Back Bay Loop
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The best part about training for a triathlon...
Success. After a 200 yard warm-up, I cruised through my 8 50's in 38-40 seconds taking only 10 seconds rest on each. The 4 x 100 repeats were all 1:30 with 15 seconds, and in complete control. Both 200's were right around 3:10, and I got through the last 400 in 6:25. All splits were 2-10 seconds faster than last Friday, and I was significantly less winded. After I finished the build up, I cooled down an easy 200, then 100, then decided I had enough energy for 2 x 50 yard sprints (both about 33 seconds). I cooled down a few more laps and hopped out of the pool for a 2400 yard day. Once again no cramps and minimal use of my legs. My shoulders and arms feel great, and it's obviously very encouraging to know I'm getting faster every time I get in the pool.
Carlsbad tune-up
The 1200 was perfect. I ran 69, 69, 68 for a super-controlled 3:26. It could not have felt easier, and having Cush there to help pace it was nice too. I made sure to jog an entire lap, instead of just circling around for 200 meters. The lap jog really helped my recovery and my hamstrings were no where near as sore for the 800s. I led the first 800 in a pedestrian 2:17, with perfectly even splits, then took another lap jog as part of my 3 minute recovery. Cush led the second 800 through a little quicker and we ended up running 2:14, again with perfectly even splits. I kept the same recovery routine in preparation for the last 800. Cush was a little tired and didn't want to overdo it on the last one so I led us out in an easy 68. My legs felt great at 400, so I decided to pick up the tempo a bit and burned the back straightaway before cruising home in a 64 for 2:12, then took another lap jog, and put on my trainers. Julie and J.C. joined me on a 3-mile cool down on the Eastbluff grassy path over looking the Back Bay. 8 miles for the day, and I am definitely ready to go fast at Carlsbad.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
3-Day weekend: Par 3
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First, the good. I could have gone much faster, but spent more time just trying to maintain line of sight, and get a gauge of my ocean fitness. Second, my sighting was great and I maintained a mostly straight line during the swim. Third, my equipment was phenomenal. The wetsuit more than made up for the choppy surf, and my new goggles did not fog or let water seep in. Now the bad. It was a very choppy day, probably much like San Francisco Harbor in a month, and I was completely disoriented when I got out of the water. Also, as a result of my disorientation in and out of the water, I had a difficult time getting out of my wetsuit. At least I have time to work on this. Still, 5000 yards in the pool and ocean this week, looking to bump next week up to 6-7000.
After the swim I changed and drove up to Newport Ridge to go for a short run in El Morro. For casual runs it's easier to drop in from the top because the inclines and descents are not as dramatic. My joints were sore so I was just looking for an easy run on soft surfaces. I headed out along Bommer Ridge Road to Morrow Ridge, then retraced my steps back to Fence Line and did some freestyle walking along the single person trail. Run was about 41 minutes for 6+ miles. Total mileage for the week is 48. I'll try and keep it below 50 until May.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
3-Day weekend: Part 2
By the time I got home the endorphins were flowing and I was suddenly very motivated to keep this going. I quickly threw on some running shorts and headed off to Back Bay Road. This ended up being one of those runs that was meant to only be about 5 miles, but I just felt so good I kept on extending it. I ended up running to the end of Back Bay Road, keeping a comfortable 6:25ish pace for most of the run. Total time was 58 minutes, 9 miles.
I still had 45 minutes to kill so I did some extended stretching and a core/ab/push-up circuit until it was time to get the car. Between that and the unexpected long run, I'm very happy with the work put in today.
Friday, April 2, 2010
3-Day weekend: Part 1
I wanted to take full advantage of the day off so met Blake at the pool 30 minutes later. I also wanted to start experimenting with food intake, because I habitually cramp up when I swim, so I need to figure out a way to avoid this (aside from not kicking as hard). I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a Gatorade and oatmeal raisin Power Bar. These worked wonders as my legs never came close to cramping during the pool session. I warmed up 200 meters and then we started the workout Julie recommended yesterday: 1600 build-up. First you need to figure out a 50 meter pace (40 seconds). Then do 8 x 50m at that pace with a 10 second recovery. Then 4 x 100m with the same net time (laps a little slower, but same recovery), then 2 x 200m, and finish with 1 x 400m. After this, Blake and I sprinted 2 x 50m which we won easily, then I cooled down and called it a day--2000 yards it the pool today. I rewarded myself afterward with a Jamba Juice smoothie for breakfast.
I was very encouraged that after 12 miles and 2000 yards in the pool my legs did not cramp. I going to try my first ocean swim of the year on Sunday. The plan is to duplicate the power bar intake and light Gatorade beforehand. Hopefully that will get me through at least a 45 minute ocean swim.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
All is right in my world
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I need to elaborate on this UPS situation since a few people have chuckled about it. This actually started yesterday with Citibank, when I got a voice message saying "my Citi card has been compromised." I went online to check my activity and didn't see anything abnormal, but had a message online saying Citi was "investigating some suspicious account activity." These are two similar, but distinctly different messages. I called Citi, and the first person I spoke with confirmed that my card had been deactivated, but she would not tell me why. We went back and forth on this for a while until I got her supervisor on the line who finally confirmed for me that Citi fouled up and someone had hacked their server and had access to my account number. They deactivated my card and informed me I would receive a new one in 24 to 48 hours. I calmly explained to the supervisor that if it took any longer than 24 hours for me to get a new card, I would soon be a proud new client of Visa.
So I'm without a credit card for the day, which is fine, but I go home, and I'm expecting a UPS package waiting at my front door. The contents of this package contained a TYR triathlon backpack, new goggles (they are awesome BTW!), and body glide for my wet suit. I basically had to re-enact the Citi conversation with a few UPS people. We re-worked the delivery schedule and I may have mentioned if they left a note on my door again I would refuse the package and they wouldn't get paid. It's only $7 but it's the principle of the matter! So what was waiting for me today when I got home? A new credit card, and five minutes later, a UPS delivery. For now, all is right in my world.
Training wise it was a pretty good day. I woke up and ran an easy 41 minutes (or approximately 6+ miles). Ran around Balboa Island and added some junk time down by the Newport Dunes. It's a mostly flat concrete/asphalt run, actually terrible for my knees, but at least its a different route. I wore the half tights today, which was very beneficial for my hamstrings, even though it was fairly warm.
After work I drove out to Tustin to have my second swim lesson with Julie Ertel. Julie is a stud, 2008 Olympian, and by far the best triathlete I know (here's her bio: http://www.usatriathlon.org/athletes/julie-ertel). She drilled the crap out of me for an hour and once again I came away feeling so much faster. I'll probably go nuts in the pool tomorrow with the hope that some of this sticks. We did a lot of work on my breathing, pacing, and sighting without losing too much speed. This is my weakest part of ocean swimming as I frequently veer off in random directions when I swim by myself. Approximately 1000 yards in the pool, but more so it was a quality session. Three-day weekend upcoming which means some ridiculous training days ahead, starting with 10-12 with Karen tomorrow morning.