Time Out

Photo
I have been messing around with my TT position. The biggest change that I have made is that my seat is now 0cm behind the BB instead of being 3cm behind the BB. This feels much better. When I drop down onto the TT bars I'm not moving to the nose of the saddle as much. I still think I could possibly move forward another 1-2cm but there is not room left for me to do that. Oh well.
Do your like the new LG TT helmet. Snug as a rug. It fits perfectly


I need to take a break from blogging for a while. Other areas of my life are just taking over and I want to make sure things continue to flow freely and well.

In particular, work is becoming very busy and I'm keen to improve my professional development and increase the quality of my teaching practices in the classroom. I really stand by the schools philosophies and I'm motivated to ensure my teaching practices are meeting their expectations. I've found my niche at this school and I'm ready to embrace my enthusiasm for teaching even more.
My training for IM Germany is about to be ramped up and I'm also doing some part time studies in ESL (English as a second language).

At the moment I log all my training onto triathlog and will continue with that site. I'll just add more forum posts over there in place of blogging here for a while.
My plan is to start blogging again once IM Germany is over and work by then should have settled back down.

Time to get into the zone. The 18-22hr training week zone.

I'll be back

fluro

Week 3: Bike Focus

Goals
The goal this week is to buckle down and get through 3 more quality sessions before we take a easier recovery week. Sundays ride is going to be quite tough as we are getting up close to 90k of TTing at HIMeffort within a 4.5hr ride.
Monday
Rest day
Tuesday
Run: (1:01), 11.1km, 125bpm
20min easy, 10min building to lower steady, 20min fartlek building to 4:00min/k, 10min easy
Wednesday
Bike: (2hr)
2 x (6min Stand, 6min BG, 6min TT), 5min RI
Thursday

Friday
Bike: (2hr)
5 x6min @ 160-165bpm
2min RI
30min@135-140bpm
Saturday

Sunday
Bike: (4.5hr)
2x30min @ 150-155bpm
2x20min @ 150-155bpm
2x15min @ 150-155bpm
5min RI
Swim
Bike
Run
Other

Total
Summary

week 2: Bike Focus

Goal this week is to execute the three key bike sessions. Start increasing one run PW up over 1hr. Resume swim training at 3 sessions PW.

Monday
Run: (47min), 9.5km, av hr 125bpm
10min easy
10min LS
10min of 6x30sec strides
7min building to Aet
Felt great running. Legs are fresh and i'm recovering well between sessions.

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs),
main set
4 x 10min BG
1st three seated last one standing.
Pushing around 38kph at 145-150bpm. Couldn't get HR up any higher while I was in my 53/13. Power numbers told me I was sitting at aroudn 150-155bpm watts.


Wednesday
Run: (1:03), 11km, 125bpm
Easy aerobic run.
Swim: (50min), 2km
800m free
200 tempo
4-50 drill
200 Bouy
4-50 drill
200 Hypoxic
4-25 max effort

Thursday
Bike: (2hrs)
main set
5 x 1min hard, building to 160bpm,with a 2min RI
10 x 30sec max effort, ignore HR, RI of 90sec

Friday
Run: (53min), 10.8km, av hr 139
This was a hammer fest
9min on 1min walk. During the 9min efforts I was sitting aorund 4:20min/k's and feeling on fire. My feet paid the price the next day though

Saturday
Bike: (4hrs), 112bpm, av hr 131bpm.
Main set
2 x 20min @ 150bpm, 10min RI
2 x 15min @ 150bpm, 10min RI
4 x 10min @ 150bpm, 5min RI
Was really struggling to get HR up this morning.

Run: (40min), 7.6km, 145bpm
feet were really sore on this run. Other then that the 1st 10min were hard off the bike but then I felt really good

Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
Drag suit today
400
700
4 x 200
4 x 100
Quality stuff. Completely knackered after wearing the drag suit, shoulders are aching.

Sunday
Bike: (3hrs), 82km, 110bpm
easy aerobic ride and then watched the Tokyo marathon

Swim 1.50
Bike 11.10
Run 3.25
Other 1.00

Total 17.25
Summary
Pleased with how this week unfolded. I can really feel the fatigue building up in my legs with the zone3/4 efforts on the bike. By saturday I was finding it hard tov raise my HR up into the right zones.
Overall, while my hours are a little down on the bike the quality of the sessions is certainly making gup for it.

Bike Focus Begins this Week!

So what’s the go with a bike focus?
There are two important zones that will directly effect how you ride in an IM. You have your IM effort which is generally around the top of zone 1 to lower zone 2. Spending as much time in this zone during your IM specific preps is important for enhancing your economy at that effort. By developing your economy at goal race pace you’re in fact going to ride faster.
At the end of the day the Pro’s and elite age groupers are not racing that much harder then anyone else. There won’t be much variation in the effort but, there will be a big variation in economy and that is what makes these guys faster. They can maintain a higher output at the same effort because they are more economical .
Improving your economy is linked directly to how much training you are able to absorb and not necessarily the intensity. Intensity will improve your economy but it will be at the expense of how much you are able to train. This is where things can become unbalanced. As you enter your IMspecific preps you need to decide how much volume is appropriate in relation to how muchintensity you think you need.
Then there is the other zone which is your Functional Threshold (FT). Your FT is the best effort you can hold for a 40km time trial. Because I don’t train with a powermeter I’ll use HR here. My average heart rate over an all out 40km TT at the moment is 166bpm. Therefore, 166bpm is my FT HR. During the offseason, is a good time to work on improving your FT? Yes because it known that IMeffort is raced at a % of FT. Therefore if you improve your power output at FT you are indirectly improving your power output at IMeffort. Studies have shown that IMeffort is 72-78% of FT power. So by spending some time training in and around FT you'll be improving your ability to ride at a higher output at IMeffort.
Since it is the offseason for me and I have around 8 weeks left before I start my IMspecific preps. Now is the perfect time to do a bike focus and improve my FT. I have purposely placed the bike focus right before my IM specific preps so that I can carry over as much power on the bike with me into my IM training. By improving my FT on the bike I’m also improving my strength and muscular endurance as an added bonus .






I’m about to embark on a bike focus block of training over the next 6-7 weeks. The idea is to improve my FT power on the bike before I start my IM specific preps. There’ll be 5 others joining me with the bike focus and this should help keep everyone motivated, especially with it being so cold here in Tokyo at the moment.
Here is a sample of the 3 key bike sessions that I will be doing this week. I aim to include another 1-2 easy aerobic ride of around 1.5hrs.
Paul (FT HR 166bpm)

Monday


Ride 1
2hr ride
1hr main set
3x20min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI


Run:(30min), 5.5km, 130bpm.
Easy run around the canal. Knee about 6/10

Wednesday
Swim: (50min), 2km
200
2-100
200
2-100
200
300
3-100
6-50
200 easy
Holding around 1:30/100 pace in the 25m pool. Just under 1:30's with the bouy.
Run (40min), 7.2km, av hr 125bpm
this was a 20min to and from the pool. It was very wet and cold.

Thursday

Ride 2
2hr ride
5 x3min @ 160-165bpm
5min RI
This was tough session. I did the 1st 4 repeats into a strong headwind and I only averaged 28kph. The next 2 were into a crosswind and I averaged around 34-36kph.
I found it really difficult to break 160bpm on the 1st effort after that it was okay.
Friday

Saturday

Ride 3
4hr ride
2x20min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI
4 x10min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI
Felt strong on the bars. started to feel fatigued on the last rep. Rode these with Eric. Pace was pretty good going into a slight headnwind (ie around 35kph). At a 150-155bpm I feel like I can hold 38-39kph. Just can't quite crack 40kph yet.
Run: (22min), 4.5km, no hr
Felt like I was flying today and my RPE was really low. This has been my best run this year in terms of pace and RPE off a solid bike effort.
Swim: (50min), 1.5km
Mainly a series of 50's, drills and we worked on our tumble turns.
Sunday


Total
swim 1:40
Bike 8:10
Run 1:42
Other 1:45

Total 13:07

Summary
I was really cautious with my training this week. With the start of the bike focus and coming off my knee injury, I decided to knock my hours back and give myself a little more rest. This seems to have work well. I executed the 3 bike sessions as planned and my knee has fully recovered.


next week I aim to bring my hours back up to around 18hr while still maintaining some higher quality bike sessions (x3).

After assessing my training over the last 6months I have found that 16-18rs PW seems to be my sweet spot in terms of volume at the moment. I think around 6months ago that sweet spot was 14-16hrs. I feel like I'm handling the volume better now and my recovery strategies are paying off. Ultimately I still think I need to be at 20-22hrs PW before I can really jump up to the next level.

Incorporating some high intensity work into the bike focus block and then being able to handle 16-18hrs PW will be a test to see if I'm ready or not for another slightly increase in volume.


fluro












At the start of each week I’ll post the bike sessions in advance for anyone else to use.

At the end of the challenge we'll do a 20-40km TT so assess our improvements on the bike and set up our training zones for the IM specific preps to follow.

It's Snowing!!!!!!!

I did my first ever snow run today. It was very cool. it's times like this that it feels pretty cool to be an expat living in Tokyo.
The photos were taken at school and you can see the building I work in. My room is in the top left hand corner of the 1st photo. The playground below is starting to show a good little cover of snow.

fluro

Run Challenge: week 3 of 4 (20/1/08)

Photo
All I can say is that this was an awesome cultural experience. We sat and stared in awe at how big, how strong and how intriguing this wonderful sport of Sumo is.


Monday
Run: (1hr), 12km, av hr 135bpm (Zone1)
10min easy
20min Aet (zone 2)
20min fartlek (short and fast) (zone 3)
10min LS
Good solid run.

Tuesday
Bike: (1:03),28km, av hr 109bpm
That is a new PB for me. 2 degrees was the av temp for this ride. Sooooo cold. Easy spin

Run: (30min), 5.6kmm av hr 121bpm.
Was feeling really good in the legs tonight. If this keeps up tomorrow I'll run long.


Wednesday
Run: (2hrs), 22.1km, av hr 126bpm.
My longest run in 18months. legs held up much better then expected. left foot wasn't the best but it was manageable. Pretty happy with the fact that I can run over 2hrs again.


Thursday
Bike: (2hrs), 52km, av hr 109bpm
Decided to brave the cold and hit the road instead of the W/T this morning. legs were a little tired after last nights long run. Rode easy to LS with the focus on keeping cadence up.
Run: (30min), 5.3km, av hr 123bpm.
Easy recovery run around the canal. made sure I stayed on soft surfaces.


Friday
Run: (1hr), 11.2km, av hr 125bpm.
Easy to lower steady run. Foot felt pretty good tonight. Running form was good. Holding up really well. 18 runs now in 18 days. whoah hoah!!


Saturday
Bike: (3:45), 94km, av hr 109bpm.
easy aerobic ride in very cold conditions again.
Run: (33:12), 7.2km, av hr 146bpm (right on Aet).
ran easy for 15min then will did 1 lap at tempo (3.7km, 13:37) HR was hitting 170bpm towards the end. Finished off with David. We were moving along at around 4:00min/k. Top run
Swim: (45min), 1.5km
300 w/u
5-100 tempo +10 base (1:20, 1:25, 1:28's) Buoy
4-50 breathing 7 up and 9 back
drill


Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 110km, av hr 110bpm
rode easy to Aet for 2.5hr
2 x 15min TT @ IMeffort (136-140bpm)
30min easy
10min hard (155-160bpm)
20min easy
15min TT @ MSS (145bpm)
Bit flat today but I seemed to get better the more I pushed.
Run: (30min), 5.4km, av hr 121bpm
Felt 100% was very tempted to go for an hour today but then rembered that I must be patient. This has now been my biggest run week in 18 months.
Things are good

Swim 0:45
Bike 10:48
Run 6:04
Other 1:00

Total 18:37
Summary
Another solid week of training. This is my 3rd week in a row now that I have continued to increase the volume. I’ll do one more big week next week and then I’ll have a week off to get ready for my bike focus to follow.
The highlight this week was running 2hrs. While my feet weren’t 100% I was at least able to manage the pain. It was hurting but it didn’t get progressively worse. It still concerns me whether or not I’ll be able to do an IM run with these issues. Once I enter my IM specific preps I’ll have to put my feet to the test then with some longer bricks.
I’m starting to believe now I might have to run an IM with a run/walk strategy in order to alleviate the pressure that builds up under my feet. This helps me a lot with my training. I like to run 9minutes on with a 1minute recovery walk. If I can just develop my pace enough so that I’m covering 2km in this 10minute block then I’ll be on track for a 3:30 IM run even with a 1minute walk. It is getting close. In training when I’m running just below Aet effort I can cover around 1.9km which includes the 1minute of walking.
Next week.
Break 20hrs of training and run over 80km to finish off the Run Challenge. Over the next week or so I’ll post on triathlog the actual sessions I’ll be doing in the bike focus for the entire 6 weeks. Join me if you like.

fluro

2007 Year in Review

Photo
This was a very vocal ride with Eric today and he wasn't speaking too much either.

Photo
This me doing some resistance training. 80kg of rocks in my two shopping baskets. i think I managed to reach 12kph at one point.

Photo
5hrs in the saddle. 2hrs of climbing, -1 degree, minimum temperature and a nice warm train ride home.

Photo
not a great photo, but boy did it feel good to see some mountains again. Thanks Eric, I can't wait to do this again soon.
Year in Review
Where to start.
Stats
Annual hours: 674.75hrs (13hrs PW)
This is a PB for me by almost 100hrs. I’m pretty happy with this considering how much time I needed to take off due to my foot injury.
Swim: 67.05hrs
Bike: 442.55hrs (11863km)
Run: 89.37hrs(1012km)
As you can clearly see most of my hours came via the bike. My run was almost ½ of what I did the previous year and this year I intend to triple those hours and aim for around 2500-3000km as my goal for this year.
Highs!
My Aet pace is at 4:32min/k. This was a bit of a shock to me. I was hoping that I would be able to get my Aet pace down to around 4:40min/k before IM Germany but to be at 4:32min/k just shows you what a little focused period of training can help move you closer and closer towards your long terms goals. My long term goal (3yrs time) would be to get my Aet pace down to 4:10min/k.
On the bike things have been moving along okay. It is very difficult trying to get in quality training while riding around in Tokyo. So much stopping and starting due to traffic lights. Typical 4hr from door to door generally amounts to around 3.5hrs of actual rising time.
My Aet pace on the bike is currently at 34.2kph over a 20km TT test. My goal before IM Germany is to get it up over 35kph. So I have a little more work to do on the bike in 2008. Once I finish my January run challenge this will be my No 1 priority.
Swimming. This is the most I have swum in 1 yr however, majority of this has been doing just 1-2 swim sessions PW to maintain my current level of fitness. My B/L LSD pace is currently around 1:35/100m long course and I’m happy to keep it at that level for now. Over the next few months I’ll begin to gradually increase my swimming back up to 3 sesisons PW. Once I start my IM specific preps I’ll then start swim around 4-5 times PW.
Lows!
My feet are still causing me some issues. I just can’t seem to get completely on top of this one. I’ve have taken every single course of action trying to get my feet back to 100% injury free, however, I have now realized this will never happen. The best I can do is just work around it to the best of my ability. This does concern me as I feel I still can’t run off the bike without pain occurring very early on in the run. I now it will be an issue for me come race day and I’m just hoping I’ll be able to work around or through it for that matter.

In summary, I think this is the fittest I have ever been in terms of my endurance in and around Aet. I’m looking forward to taking on 2008 with gusto and I can’t wait to start knocking out regular 18-22hr training weeks. I feel once I’m at that volume I start getting big returns for my investment. I feel like the last 3 months of solid training has set me up to be able to handle consistent weeks in the range of 18-22hrs.
My goal at IM Germany is to break 10hrs. I feel everything is on schedule and I have no intentions of reassessing that goal until I have reached it. After that I have some big plans for the next 3 years that I have been developing over the last 6months. I’ll be calling on people to join me once I become a sub 10 hr IM’er.
Are you willing to undertake ‘The Quest?’
fluro

Lights!!!!

Photo
if your ever wondering why my average speed on the bike has dropped so much since moving here to Tokyo, this is your answer. LIGHTS!!!!

The photo was taken in Ginza and is a normal route I have to take on my most of my rides


fluro