03.20.10 -- Oh Yes I Did!

Type: LSD
Distance: 20.0 miles
TSS: 271.8
Pace: 8:56 min/mile
Total Work: 1,718 kJ

Man this was a long run. I never hit the wall, but I could tell it was starting to crumble at the foundation, preparing for a great crash all around me. When I finished I felt like I had three or four left in me, which is a good sign. But of course, I also felt like the ability to keep going was soon going to be cut off. My IT Band is a little tight, but outside of that my legs are just tired and not injured. It was a great run and a good confidence builder.

The great news is I achieved a TSS for the week of 1,104, which exceeds the goal that I had set. I thought I would come in around 1,050, but I guess I miscalculated and I pulled it off. Not only is this the highest week I have ever had, it also lines me up to have a fantastic month. I am headed down to St. George to ride the bike course for the IM this next weekend, so my TSS for the week should be solid again. A solid effort next week will help me blow the lid off of what I achieved in February. 

I like little victories like this -- they make the training fun. Tonight I am taking Haus and Mrs. Hot Wife to see a production of Fiddler on the Roof for fun. I hope the legs don't freak out and cramp on me during the play! I am looking forward to this!

03.19.10 -- Tonight I will be Dining on a Recovery Ride...

Type: Recovery Ride
Distance: Does it Really Matter?
Time: Don't Love this Section
TSS: Something Higher than Sitting on the Couch
Average Watts: Not a whole lot
Average Heart Rate: Barely more than what they are sitting at my desk
Total Work: Bah!

You can tell I don't love recovery rides right now. Since I didn't work too hard yesterday my legs felt pretty solid this morning and I wanted to go hard, but I have this little thing called a 20 mile run staring me in the face. Tomorrow I am scheduled for a long run, so I have to save the legs for that one. I would hate to cut a long runs short because I was stupid enough to push a small bike workout. I don't usually cut short, so it is more likely that I would pull something.

With the ride this morning, the TSS for the week is up to 832. I am thinking it will be tough to hit 1,100 for the week like I thought on Tuesday, but I will hit 1,000. I did a ton of intense sets and workouts this week, especially on the bike. I overloaded my muscles like I wanted to, and I am feeling really good right now. Shoot, I may even be able to push 1,000 watts sometime soon. Don't laugh too loud, I did push 932 for a whole 3 seconds on a ride on Wednesday. Here is how the ride was today:

Rant

And oh yeah, Tony Kornheiser, you are an idiot for advocating that people in cars give cyclists "a little push". Your comments are careless and just plain dumb. There is no excuse for that type of language. I hope Hannah Storm beats you down. You really are a genius.

03.18.10 -- Go the Distance Son

Type: One Long Swim Set
Distance: 4,000 yards

Time: 1:08
Workout: Just one long set...
TSS: 73.6

I needed to put together a good long swim together before the race just to see how tired I would be coming out of the water. I was supposed to do some interval workout in the pool, so I decided to change it up. I should have swam a little farther, but bah, there really wasn't a need.

I swam the 4,000 yards at a hard enough pace. Once I had finished, I stood up at the end of the lane and felt pretty solid. I had no head rush and didn't pass out. I jumped out of the pool and while I was a little worn out, I felt solid enough to jump on a bike and ride. I threw down a bottle of water when I hit the locker room, and I didn't have any issues feeling like I couldn't absorb it. It was a great swim.

I feel pretty solid right now. I need to keep the pedal to the medal on the bike, but my training is seeming to come together. Now it is time to tighten up my diet to lose those last three pounds so I can get down to twelve percent body fat.

03.18.10 -- Easy Like Sunday Morning

Type: Recovery Ride
Distance: 21.19 miles
Time: 60:26
TSS: 52.6
Average Watts: 159 watts
Average Heart Rate: 138 bpm
Total Work: 577 kJ

You know, there is something therapeutic about a recovery ride. I woke up this morning and the legs felt alright, but I knew it would be a struggle to push hard watts. The fatigue of the last three days caught up to me. I was scheduled for a recovery ride, and man I took the opportunity to just spin this morning. These weeks with high intensity designed to overload your muscles sure are tiring.

It was a really boring ride. The benefit of a ride like this morning is you build up your endurance base. Rest and recovery is a very important component of any workout program, and it is especially in triathlon. I have a long run scheduled for Saturday, and I need to be recovered somewhat by then. If the weather holds this afternoon, I am going to go out and bike an easy 20 miles. I still have a long swim scheduled for tonight. If I play my cards right, I could go into the weekend with a TSS of 850 by the end of day Friday. That means I may be able to hit my goal of a TSS of 1,100 for the week. Here is how this morning played out:

03.17.10 -- Pounding the Rollers

Type: Good Old Fashion Pedal Mashing
Distance: 30.69
Average Speed: 20.89 mph
Time: 1:27:28
TSS: 142.7
Normative Power: 222 watts
Average Watts: 191 watts
Average Heart Rate: 148 bpm
Total Work: 1,009 kJ

This was a great ride through rollers. I took a different route than what I did yesterday. Yesterday's ride was mostly flat, so my TSS was 130. Today I had rollers that I really pushed, so I got a TSS of 142.7. I was two minutes slower today, but I really pounded it today. I was really worked when I finished up today. My TSS for the week is 653 so far. I may actually meet my goal of 1,100. Here is how it went down today:

Product Review

I downloaded the new PowerAgent 7.5.0.30 the other day and I wanted to play with it for a couple of days before I took the chance to review it. There are several additional tools that the new version provides. One tool I like is called "Peak Power". On this tab, it details for how long you were able to hold a specific power output. Here is how it looks for the ride I took today:

This is a really cool tool to see how you are progressing. I am trying to pound my 5 second max up to 1,600 watts. I have a really long ways to go, but it is this type of objective tool that helps you make the improvements that we all seek.

03.17.10 -- Recovery Run

Type: Recovery Run
Disyance: 7.0 miles
TSS: 93.4
Time: 58:00
Pace: 8:15 min/mile
Total Work: 711 kJ

I woke up this morning and decided it was time for a little ground and pound. The weather is going to be fantastic today, so I can get my bike ride in this afternoon, so instead of spending an hour on the trainer this morning, I opted for a quick 7.0 miler instead. It felt really good to get the legs stretched out and moving. The only concern that I have is my runs have either been 7.0 or 10.0 miles lately, meaning I am training my body to run that far right now. I need a couple of long runs sprinkled in there to make sure I can conquer the marathon during Ironman St. George. Those runs need to be soon too...there isn't much time left before my taper needs to start.

I may substitute a long ride on Saturday with a long run instead. I need a couple of 20 milers between now and about tax day. I am headed back down to St. George on the weekend of 03.26 to get another ride on the IMSG course before the race. I am going to meet up with some friends and see if I can keep up with their speediness...

Even without a long ride on Saturday, my mileage on the bike this week may just end up right around 180 miles. After my 40 miler today, I will be at 130 miles. I hope the weather holds for at least one more day so I can get in one more outdoor ride before the weekend when it is supposed to return to winter again. Hooray for indoor riding. It is purely craptacular.

03.16.10 -- Tempo Ride

Type: Tempo Ride
Distance: 30.41
Average Speed: 21.1 mph
Time: 1:25:25
Normative Power: 214 watts
Average Watts: 200 watts
Average Heart Rate: 146 bpm
Total Work: 1,036 kJ

Great ride outside this afternoon. I didn't take the same route as I did yesterday, so I did not have the rollers to tackle today. As a result, my average watts were down a little, but my speed was up. I did not push my ride so much because I knew I had to maintain for 30 miles instead of just 20. I held off the throttle a little, but not too much. From mile 23 on, I tried to keep my speed at 24 mph. It was a fun ride.

These rides are fantastic tests of my fitness. Today I really pushed some good numbers. I hit 243 watts for 5 minutes today. Tomorrow's weather should be really nice, so I am going to see how long I can hold 300 watts. I am going to see if I have the time to do 40 tomorrow. Here is how it all played out:

And the Good News is...

My TSS for the week so far is 417...I just bumped my goal for the week to 1,100.

03.16.10 -- Recovery Ride

Type: Recovery Ride
Distance: 21.06 miles
TSS: 56.7
Time: 60:57
Average Watts: 166 watts
Average Heart Rate: 134 bpm
Total Work: 604 kJ

Yesterday my total TSS for the entire day was 230. Needless to say, I was beat when I hit the pillow last night. I work up to the wonderful sound of my alarm this morning and was still a little beat. This morning I was supposed to ride intervals, but there was very little chance of that happening. The weather is really nice out today, so I am going to ride this afternoon. All of that combined made me decided to hit a recovery ride this morning. I think it was a good call. We will see when I hit the road this afternoon.

The ride was really uneventful. I just pedaled and tried to keep my wattage between 165 and 175 watts. Here is how it played out:

A Cry for Help

I am still having trouble with my Garmin recording the wattage from my PowerTap Pro+ meter correctly. I have zeroed the two out together, so according to Saris there shouldn't be any problems. I am thinking it may have something to do with auto pause, so I am going to shut that off this afternoon and just take the time hit when I stop at the one stoplight I encounter on my ride. My Garmin has the latest firmware, so I don't think it is that.

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

03.15.10 -- Great Outdoors Ride

Type: Tempo Ride Outdoors
Distance: 20.34 miles
Average Speed: 20.9 mph

TSS: 105.2
Time: 58:09
Normative Power: 234 watts
Average Watts: 212 watts
Average Heart Rate: 152
Total Work: 741 kJ

Oh what a beautiful day it was. The sun was shining, the wind was lightly blowing, and the temps were up. I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to cut out early as long as my work is done. I write grants for school districts across the country, and as long as I am not under deadline, I can go for a late afternoon ride most days.

Todays ride was spectacular. The enthusiasm of being outdoors really carried me through the ride. I went out to hit some rollers I know of. The goal was to keep the speed constant as much as possible on the rollers, so that means I was really pushing the wattage on the uphills. I was really excited that I really mashed my pedals hard today. I had a peak 1 minute output of 305 watts today. Now all I need to succeed at IMSG is to be able to push that power for about 6 minutes. Man that is going to be crazy...here is the chart.

Hard Core Swim

Tonight I put a 2,000 yard swim together. I pounded out 2,000 yards in a VERY crowded pool tonight. I really am getting tired of competing for space at the pool with adult learn to swim classes and the aqua joggers. I try not to complain about people, but I would really appreciate it if my pool required that if you are going to use the pool during lap swim, you educate yourself on pool etiquette. People are funny sometimes.

03.15.10 -- Interval Ride

Type: Great Interval Ride
Distance: 21.2 miles
TSS: 84.5
Time: 60:27
Average Watts: 188 watts
Average Heart Rate: 144 bpm
Total Work: 679 kJ

Man I hate Daylight Savings Time. Getting up on the Monday after the switch to workout is really rough. I wanted to ride 90 minutes this morning but the bed won the battle of the sheets this morning and I slept in for another 30 instead of getting up and riding. Slacker.

The ride I ended up doing was pretty solid. This may be the best TSS score for a one hour ride on my Trainer. It actually rivals a 20 mile ride on the road. My intervals were brutal for the first 30 minutes and then I decided to make them punishing. At the 30 minute mark I bumped my interval up from 225 to 275 watts. At the 35 minute mark I took it down a notch to 250 watts to set myself up for some really tough intervals. At the 40 minute mark I held 350+ watts for one minute. At the 45 minute mark, back down a little to 260+ watts. I knew what my goal was this morning for a TSS score, so I knew I had to dial up the intensity. At the 50 minute mark I pounded a 30 second set where I held 410+ watts. The last two intervals were the most intense of the workout though. At the 55 minute mark I held 425+ watts for another 30 seconds and the for the final interval, I held 380+ watts for the same amount of time. I would have liked to have seen that over 400, but the legs were spent. Here is how it played out:

And now I am trying to get out of the office early for a ride this afternoon. The weather is fantastic -- sunny, warm, and with little perceived wind. I need to be mashing some pedals right now...