Category: training

Posted on

Happy Father’s Day

It’s Father’s Day and only 5 weeks before my first triathlon of the season.  When I made my race calendar I committed to doing the Olympic Distance at the Inaugural Muskoka 5150.  While I never posted it in the blog, I had a loosely structured framework in mind that would allow me to be flexible enough to get to where I needed to be fitness-wise for the race.

I am nowhere close.  I won’t get upset: as they say, you can’t get upset at the results you got from the work you didn’t do (or something like that).  The usual thing to do is look at why you didn’t live up to your plan and figure out what excuses you were making or whatever kept you from making your commitments.  There is another point of possible failure though: maybe the plan wasn’t right for you and wasn’t really realistic.

It’s enough to make me want to throw in the towel on the whole season and say: “Next year I’m getting a coach, maybe online, with a daily plan that I have to stick to.”  There are so many resources and training methods out there – maybe a Master’s Swim Group, plus a Cycling Club etc. etc..

I’m not going to do that, though.  Why?  Because of my father (you didn’t think I was coming back around to Father’s Day did you?), that’s why.  I always wanted to be like my father.  He was an Olympic level rower at one point, and he always stayed in good shape with tennis, cycling, cross-country skiing and probably a bunch of other stuff I can’t think of at this hour.  He was a the kind of guy who could up and run 3 miles without getting sore the next day, in spite of not having run in several months.  A natural athlete – so strike one on my chances to be like him.

He handled so many household repairs and duties himself; taking as good care of his home as he did his body.  I already pay more people to do work for me than I’d strictly like, but I’m not giving up my passion and hobby to a professional.  During a time of extreme stress in exams, my father told me: “Your brain hasn’t failed you yet.”  So I’m going to keep doing things my way – DIY training is still the Iron Rogue way.

We lost my father to melanoma in 2000; and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him or think about him.  I doubt I’ll PR at any races this year, but Shark Boy tells me he loves me every day (in both English and German), and so does the Lightning Kid (with his eyes).  That’s worth more to me than any medal I could ever get.

And… not for nothing, but today I did a 1500m Open Water swim with about a 2:20/100m pace; that’s my second best pace for Olympic Distance Tri.

Posted on

Last Week’s Links

Just checking in to share some of the better links I came across last week.

  • A Brick workout without a bike, courtesy of Trifreaks: http://trifreaks.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/brick-workout-to-consider-without-biking/
  • Healthy Tipping Point takes a good look at Obstacle Races (please don’t call them Adventure Races, that’s something else).  Very thoughtful analysis, as usual.  
  • Better with Veggies put up a great post about breaking into triathlon from starting as a runner.  It’s how I got involved; I was already using swim and bike as cross-training, I loved pushing the envelope endurance-wise, but it was just too much running all the time, until I found a way to make it all work for me.
  • Speaking of breaking into triathlon, I was thumbing through my wife’s Chatelaine magazine when I saw this article.  Yay for triathlon in the mainstream!




Have a great day!


EDIT: Fixed the link to Healthy Tipping Point.

Posted on

When Your Partner Wants to Train

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend! I was lucky to run into this blog post from Outside magazine, about how parents can train. Having a family makes training for running races or triathlons hard, but when your partner or spouse has their own goals, it can add yet another wrinkle.

My wife is training for her first race since the birth if the Lightning Kid, the Yonge Street 10k in April (maybe I can get her to guest write a race recap) followed by the Sporting Life 10k in May. Meanwhile, looking at the Race Calendar, I’ve got the 5 Peaks Rattlesnake Point trail run on the 28th.

Even though it’s my first trail run, this race doesn’t present an enormous challenge for me in terms of distance, while for her it’s really pushing the envelope for her current running ability.  Due to my longer legs I am the faster runner of the two of us, but in the years since we had kids, the difference in our running fitness has grown.  While parenting is tiring for dads, there’s no denying there’s a more direct physical toll on the moms.  So when we finally got a chance to run together like we used to, how did we handle it?


We did this run together; it is only a little over 4k – so it doesn’t represent a long run for her, nor me, really. Our paces would be much different considering distance alone. What we ended up doing is she kept up a pace suitable for a recovery run (or even over-distance/endurance pace) while I did a mixture of extras to spike my heart rate from time to time.  One trick was to stop for squats, push-ups or whatever Burbathlon-style.  The problem became that my wife wasn’t quite slow enough for me to do too many reps without her catching up to me even when I had sprinted ahead.  Which brings me to the other trick I used: Fartlek sprints, combined with either jogging back again or even backwards running, which uses opposing muscle groups to your run, and can be a way to cross-train and injury-proof your muscles.  So to sum up, sprint ahead, stop for strength exercises till she catches up.

To me, this run together was some of the most fun I’ve had on a run in a long time; I missed my running buddy, and I kept myself highly amused with the extra exercises.  To her, I bet it was a lot like taking a dog for a run… SQUIRREL!

Posted on

Best Laid Plans

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”   – Woody Allen

After building this year’s Race Calendar, the next logical step was to build a training plan.  Obviously the way to attain goals is to stick to a plan that will build you up to the point where you can achieve them.  I wanted to write something up that was structured, and stand on the shoulders of giants by following or adapting something made by professionals.

I like the book Training Plans for Multisport Athletes by Gale Bernhardt.  Each chapter is a different training plan for a different scenario: they differ by athlete’s level of experience, the event type and length, and the athlete’s goals/expectations.  Looking into the book, I figured that my plan should resemble one of three plans:

  1. Faster Olympic Distance Performance.  This is basically what I want to achieve, but the plan involves 2 workouts in different disciplines a day, even in the General Preparation phase (where we basically prep the body for the training to come).  It just isn’t terribly realistic for my schedule and life, and most structured training plans look more or like this one.
  2. 6 Weeks to an Olympic Triathlon for Athletes with Limited Time.  This one is nice and simple and also geared not only to my race type/distance, but also my schedule.  I do have more than 6 weeks to play with, and the plan isn’t structured with regards to types of workout (speed, tempo, long distance/endurance).  I wanted to get a little better in regard to having more specific training sessions, so this one isn’t ideal.
  3. Multisport Fitness Plan.  This is my favourite as it is more of a lifestyle plan for athletes who like to do multisport, and allows for some cross-training (e.g. basketball, hockey, or jiu-jitsu in my case) in your schedule.  It isn’t geared for specific race goals, but it is 24 weeks long, which was just about right at the time I made my race calendar plan.

I struggled with trying to hybridize these plans as the structures got pretty complicated, but I liked the idea of a general preparation phase (of about 4 weeks) so I decided to focus on that.

Mon
Tues
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun
Week #
DATE
27/02
28/02
29/02
01/03
02/03
03/03
04/03/
1
Main
Swim
Run
Spin
Rest
Spin
Run
Circuit
Backup
Spin
Circuit
Yoga
Pushups
Swim
Yoga
Bike Trainer
Sec. Backup
Jitsu
Body Blast
Circuit
Jitsu
Yoga
DATE
05/03
06/03
07/03
08/03
09/03
10/03
11/03
2
Main
Swim
Run
Spin
Rest
Spin
Run
XC Ski
Backup
Spin
Circuit
Yoga
Pushups
Swim
Yoga
Sec. Backup
Jitsu
Body Blast
Circuit
Jitsu

Knowing how chaotic my life was I tried to match each day to what might be available in terms of work schedule (meetings near lunch would eliminate lunchtime workouts), gym group exercise schedule (spin classes for bike workouts, spacing strength workout apart appropriately), and other extra-curricular considerations like when I would most need to be at home. Each day had not only a backup workout in case I missed my first shot (pool closures, bad weather, work related rescheduling), but a backup-backup workout. So every day had a primary, secondary and tertiary workout option. I included possible workouts like Yoga, the 100 pushups workouts, group exercise at the gym, and jiu-jistu. I tried not to plan rest days (the purple field is a tentative/possible rest day), because I knew they might happen unbidden (based on experience), but boy did I ever underestimate that!

Here’s what happened.

Mon
Tues
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun
Week #
DATE
27/02
28/02
29/02
01/03
02/03
03/03
04/03/
1
Main
Swim 1500m
REST
Spin
Run
Backup
Sec. Backup
DATE
05/03
06/03
07/03
08/03
09/03
10/03
11/03
2
Main
Backup
Sec. Backup

I started off sticking to the plan, but by Wednesday, Shark Boy had gotten sick with a fever and throat infection which kept him miserable throughout the day and woke him up several times a night.  After waking up, he was generally inconsolable for almost an hour each time.  Through visits to 2 after-hours clinics and his pediatrician, we ruled out strep throat and ear infections.  The wake-ups continued when the fever was down through drugs, and when he had no fever at all anymore.  Without turning this into a family drama post, suffice it to say that sleep was hard to come by – to a degree I hadn’t experienced since he was a newborn.  The red in the table represents days I didn’t do any exercise at all – forced rest days.

I managed to get it together enough to attend a spin class on the Friday and on Saturday I decided I would use the scant time I had to do a tempo run.  My thinking was that since I couldn’t go long, I could at least go fast.  I had obviously contacted some kind of infection of my own; I was coughing throughout the day, but I had read that you can train with a cold, as long as it’s not in your chest.  Does having a cough count?  Apparently it does, because I was sick as a dog by Monday and took Tuesday off work.  I spent the rest of the week recovering and trying to help Shark Boy do the same.

I’m not sure when I felt physically up to training again, because mentally I had just about given up on the idea of committing to anything (even though I’ve paid for a couple of race registrations already – see the Race Calendar).  I was really down in the dumps, and I guess I needed the entire week to regroup.

The good news:

  • Shark Boy still wakes up a few times a night, but he’s much easier to get back to sleep again.  He’s feeling well and his disposition during the day is delightful; just like it used to be.
  • I lost about 3-4 pounds somehow during all this.
  • At the time of this writing I’ve gone for a run and a spin class this week already.

Getting back into training after a hiatus is an injury trap for me; I had to tell myself the following to make sure I eased back into it (yes, apparently I talk to myself on Twitter):

 I’m happy to be doing something physical again.  I don’t feel up to anything hardcore (or doing any strength work) yet, and I don’t have a structured plan, but I do have the desire again at least. 

Posted on

Monday Swim

Though my training plan is not yet solidified (I need to do a little more research and work), I know I’ll need a base phase to prepare my body; up till now workouts have been not totally infrequent, but not regular enough for real training.  I need to get up to 6 days a week of workouts.  The weekend was a little tough on my knees, so I opted for a swim on Monday which is in keeping with what I had planned for that Monday (and most Mondays going forward).

I didn’t feel like following a prescribed program or doing much drill work, so here’s how it turned out.

  • Warm-up: 300m
  • 1st Drill: 2x 100m with a pull-buoy.  I held the pull-buoy between my shins on the first set, since I believe it’s there to teach me to use my core to stay level in the water, and carrying it higher simply makes it do the work for me.  It was a little hard (like holding a plank for 2 minutes) so I brought it closer to my knees on the second set.
  • 2nd Drill: 2x150m with hand-paddle gloves.  I was testing out my shoulders here since a little impingement issue flared up last week.  I honestly meant to do 2x100m, and accidentally kept going on the first set, so why not do 2x150m?
  • Main set: a pyramid with increasing intensity:
    • 100m in 2:07
    • 100m in 1:59
    • 100m in 1:52
    • 100m in 1:57
    • 100m in 2:17
  • Cool down: 100m breast-stroke and 100m back-crawl.
Posted on

A Rebuttal To Swim Bike Mom’s ‘Brain Bills Job Kids and Triathlon’ Post

So, the estimable Swim Bike Mom posted about how triathlon can come into conflict with one’s Brain, one’s Family, one’s Job, as well as Bills, Sleep and even the Body and Heart.  Go on and read it at the link above, then come back here.  Good, now allow me to rebut that post.  Yes, I know she’s a lawyer… but I am Without Fear.  Here goes…

BRAIN: Hello Triathlon, I just wanted to give thanks for the long training sessions.  They really help me get away from a lot of the hustle and bustle.  Sometimes I even get my best work done when it’s just me, body and the road or water.

HEART: Yo, I know what he means.  Right now I’m chilling at a low rate thanks to those little parties you throw all the time…

BODY: Sure, you guys don’t feel any of the pain involved… to you there’s no downside.  Still, I guess I like to be prepared for when the kids need me.  Speaking of pain…

KIDS:  Papa!  Carry me!  Upstairs! Downstairs! Through the mall!  Across the Parking Lot!  Can we go for a run or ride in the Chariot?

WIFE:  Thank goodness for you, Triathlon!  He’d be a corpse after all that if it wasn’t for you… I’m also a big fan of your work with BODY over there…

BODY: I like you too, lady…

JOB: Break it up you too.  Triathlon, thanks for keeping the man healthy and sane.  Our reports indicate a below average number of sick days taken.

TRIATHLON:  Thanks you guys… I couldn’t do it without you either…. wait, excuse me who are you?

SLEEP: I’m SLEEP… we don’t know each other very well….

 

   

Posted on

Back to the Pool Part 3: Shark Fin!

Today’s pool workout:

I did 250m of warm-up, then moved into 3 sets of 100m going from easy to medium to hard pace with 30 seconds to a minute between sets.

I completed the first set in 2:15, forgot to time the second set, and finished the third set in 1:52.

Then I moved on to the technical kicking drills.  I did 6x50m of the side kick drill (described in the link).  It’s lucky I found another description of the technique as I had been putting one arm ‘in front’ of my body as in, in front of my chest last time, rather than ‘in front’ as in, the direction of travel.  If you ever find swim training advice, make sure instructions are given relative to the pool, water or your direction of travel.  Swimming is a three-dimensional exercise – ‘up’, ‘down’ and ‘in front’ don’t mean much without a frame of reference.

Doing the sets 50m at a time rather than 25m at a time was taxing on the breathing, but I liked that: I noticed that my stroke count went down most likely due to taking breaths less frequently (every 4th left-right stroke pair rather than every 3rd), so training my lungs to get by with fewer breaths might pay off.

From there I did 12×25 of the ‘Shark Fin’ drill (also described in the link).  As I brought my hand up to the goggle line (it felt more like a military salute than a shark fin, to be honest), I found myself sinking well below the surface like my friend the whale shark over here.  I think that might be the point: your body should stay near the surface even as your arm moves up and out of the water for your next ‘catch’.  If your stroke causes you to bob up and down in the water, it’s not efficient.

The kicking drills took up a lot of time, so that I only got 850m worth of swimming in the 45 minutes I could afford on the workout.  Still, one of the things I’m discovering is that they give a great core burn, especially the obliques.  I’m all for strengthening my core, which not only makes my swim more efficient/powerful but should help stave off the injuries, be they triathlon or fatherhood related.
 

Posted on

Winter Running Tips and Reality Checks

If you’re near the 49th parallel or North of there, you probably have a better idea of what real cold is, and all the extra challenges that come from it.

With the holidays I had a chance to take my eldest son (2 years old, and will be known from here on out as ‘Shark Boy’) out in the Chariot on a run.  It was pretty cold, so precautions needed to be taken.  Around this time of year there are plenty of articles about how to accommodate the colder temperatures, and most of them repeat a lot of the same good advice.  I’ll take this one from Active.com and look at some of the tips while adding what they really entail:

  • Gear Up: Wear trail shoes or a traction device like Yak Trax. They will give you better traction and stability in the snow.  The problem with this advice is that traction devices work best when there is ice and snow, but that isn’t the case for 100% of your run.  Sometimes the sidewalks are clear due to diligent neighbours, so wearing your traction devices on concrete is uncomfortable and you’re better off without them… until you hit that patch of snow/ice than hasn’t been cleared.  The best option I’ve found is to be able to take them off or put them on as needed.  When you’re not using them, you have to be able to carry them: run a belt through them or stick them in a pack you’re carrying.
  • Take Extra Time To Warm Up: Your body will warm up more slowly in cold weather, especially if you run in the morning. Take at least five minutes to walk briskly before you start to run.  It’s especially true if it’s been a while since you ran and you need to get used to extra pounds you’ve put on from the holidays, or simply the different equipment you might be wearing/carrying due to the season.  Don’t rush, take your time (this will come up again).
  • Accessorize: Having the right apparel makes all the difference in the world. Layering is the key to avoiding over- or under-dressing.  Putting on all that extra gear takes extra time; you’ve got to integrate it with your iPod/phone/whatever and any other running accessories.  Same thing when you’re done, it takes that much longer to strip and hit the shower so budget for that extra time.  It will probably come out of your time to actually run, when you take real life into account.
  • Run During Light and Warmer Times of Day: If possible, run during daylight hours so you can absorb that needed sunshine we rarely get in the winter.  Sure, this works great if you have the day off like I did on the 27th.  Otherwise, that might mean running at lunch, where time is already way too limited.  You will probably run in the dark.
  • Hydrate: It is just as important to drink fluids in your winter runs as it is in the summer. Bring a bottle of water along with you, especially if you’re like me and the only drink you had before dashing out was a cup of coffee (which dehydrates).

For all that extra time and effort, I’d still rather be out there than on a treadmill; I want the 2012 Winter season to have as much running as I can fit in!

Posted on

Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.

Posted on

Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.