Training and Racing Rethink

I need help on this one, especially from all of you who are coaches or have been serious about designing training patterns. Even those of you have been on the receiving end of training plans can pitch in. Thank you in advance.

I started out as a swimmer, but more specifically, a sprinter. I was strong for 100 yards, but would typically fall apart at 150 yards. Sure, in the world of triathlon, I can swim well compared to others, but I'm really a sprinter at heart. Back in 2002, when I was focused only on swimming, I did a 500 at New Englands. I didn't know the guy I was next to, but decided to go out with him. I hit 300 in 3:05. My final time of 5:19 shows it was not a well balanced swim.

I like going fast. Fast is fun. Go all out, leave nothing in reserve. Feel like you can't move when you finish because there's so much lactic acid running through you.

No here's the problem.....the sport of triathlon discriminates against the sprint distance. Have you ever seen a sprint on TV? Do you know anyone who is really good and does only sprints? Do you read about sprints in magazines or online? We have slowtwitch.com- is there a fast twitch.com? (Actually, there is, but it doesn't cover sports news.) Let's face it- if you're good, you go long. When most people first get involved in triathlon, they start with a sprint. Then they do some more. Then there's a fork in the road. Some, for various reasons, stay right there. But they don't stay there because they're really good at it. They stay there because they're satisfied, don't have time to train, or have other limitations. The other group moves on to Olympic races. Then you find the same fork. One group caps out there, but again, they don't stay there because they're really good at it. The rest move on to 70.3. No fork here. Once a 70.3 is done, IM is next. Look at the people who do well in Kona. Many of them were on the ITU circuit, then 70.3, then IM. That's everyone's goal.

I was an inconsistent dabbler in the sport from 1989 through 2002. That included my first IM (Great Floridian) in 1999. Six months prior, I couldn't bike 20 or run 5. Things were better for IM Wisconsin in 2004. I didn't get serious until about 2007 when I realized, "hey, I'm pretty good at this." Then the 2008 and 2009 seasons have been really good. Admittedly, there's a "big fish, small pond" syndrome here, but I'm at or near the top of age group most of the time.

The last two years were focused on making Team USA at the Olympic distance. It took a great deal of time, energy and attention, and was a challenge for the family. Making the team and qualifying for the World Championships in Budapest this September is great, but it's more of the same this summer. I'm getting a little worn down physically, but also mentally. I'm tired. And now that I made the team, I don't have a clear goal for the year. I'm going to be in the middle of the pack at Worlds. Does it really make a difference if I'm 40th or 60th? I work better with well-defined goals, and that's lacking.

So even though it isn't even May 1st and we haven't had this season's first race, my mind is already on next year. I received an email from a friend encouraging me to do the New England Swimming Champs next year. That got me thinking. I haven't been even the shell of the swimmer I used to be for a long time now. I like swimming really fast for 52 seconds or so. I like having a fast 100 fly or IM. I used to have a good 50 fly. That would be fun. Fun is good. Fun is really good. Fewer yards in practice, but really high quality. Power, speed, details.

I mentioned in my last post the book "Born to Run." Early in the book, a US coach goes to Western States to watch the Mexican tribe runners who are so good to find out why. What stands out is they are all enjoying running. That reminded me of Chrissie Wellington who smiles throughout the run. If something is enjoyable to someone, they'll be better at it. Distance training isn't always fun. It takes considerable mental effort to put in a good effort for every session.

Back to the pool- No slogging through 3500 yards hoping the fast (distance) guys don't run me over. No more sets thinking, "damn it, I should be faster than that guy." But that's exactly what happens when I'm swimming at noon after a morning bike or run. I'm going for 10-11 hours per week (I know, that isn't much compared to many of you), and I'm tired. I just don't have the physical or mental energy to stay with them. I also think the work on other muscle systems is a disadvantage when compared to those who only swim. I should be able to do sets with send times that are a multiple of 1:20, but I dread them.

Parallel to that thought was the realization that the triathlon world is skewed towards the long distances. Those are all about pacing and nutrition. Our sport misses something here. Sure, physiologically, we are better suited to back off on the intensity as we age and go longer. But if I was better suited as a sprinter when I was 20, why aren't I still better suited as a sprinter relative to others my same age?

So my thought process then moved on to next year. I'll do only sprint races, and more importantly, train appropriately. Shorter distances, less time, much better quality. If I'm only going to run a 5k, there is no need to ever run more than 50 minutes. If I'm only going to race 12 miles on the bike, there's no need to ever go more than 30. With that, I can cut my training hours down to about 8 per week, doing 7 workouts in 6 days- three swims, one bike, one run, two bricks. Only once per week do I work my legs on back to back days, giving them plenty of rest to focus on the next session. Only once per week do I have a morning workout before a noon swim, making that much stronger. And very importantly, my energy level overall should be higher with the family.

The goal race would be USAT Sprint Nationals in Burlington. Due to the skewness in the sport, I imagine much of the talent will do the Oly race the day before. Other races will be sprints only and stay in the great state of Maine. And before that, I might be a real swimmer for much of the winter, only doing one bike and one run per week until March or so- just enough to keep the feel. I'd swim 4-5 times per week, and also likely do some really good dryland training. Oh, and Alina.....maybe I'll find my way to Harvard.

This all sounded so good to me that I began wondering why I couldn't do much the same this year, although in 10-11 hours, not 8. So I've put together a weekly schedule that I'd love to get feedback on:
M- B 90 min
Tu- S 60
W- (AM) B 60, R 45 (PM) S 60
Th- R 70
F- S 45
Sat- B 2.5 hrs, R 45
That totals 10:25 per week. The Monday bike and Thursday run would include lots of intervals and hill repeats.

I think this would give me more energy, speed, quality.......and fun. And if isn't fun, why do it? Fun is good. Speed is good.

Vacation, a great book and a training update

I feel like I barely have time to write anything. Maybe it's because I have too much to talk about and I don't know how to get it all out. But I'll give it a shot, using a bunch of pictures to help tell the story.

We had an incredible trip to the BVIs. We were four families, each with a boy and a girl. Nick was the oldest, but there was another boy on our boat who is just nine months younger. There were two other girls a year older than Leah. Then there were two boys who are in second grade, and a girl in kindergarten. Everyone got along famously- at least until one boat stole the other boat's water balloons. We had two catamarans, so each family had a hull. I grew up with two of the other three dads sailing summers in Castine.

When I think about it, the trip was full of potential problems- there easily could have been problems with the flights, weather, boats or personalities. We talked with someone who was in St. John who had three solid days of rain. We saw the rain down there, but never had a problem. The only rain we had came at night (plus our return to Road Town, Tortola at the end of the cruise). The first time, I awoke in the middle of the night to light rain coming through the hatch. When I looked out, I saw nothing but stars. Strange.

Our route took us from Road Town to Norman, Peter, Spanish Town, Bitter End, Cooper, and back to Peter. Each place was great and full of stories. So here are just a few highlights...the last day, like I did three other times, I want for a short (20-30 min) open water swim. On this one, I nearly bumped into a shark (about 3 ft long), then saw a sting ray....

Peter Island

The whole group

Deadman's Bay, Peter Island

Cooper Island, perhaps the best snorkeling I've ever had.

Weeeeee!!!

An amazing sunset-

Saba Rock, off of Bitter End, Virgin Gorda. The entire island is one acre, taken up entirely by this restaurant and resort. One of the most spectacular settings I've seen.

Richard Branson's island, where you can stay for a cool $5,000 per night, per person.

We found a gap in the rocks at the Baths that the surf would drag the kids in and out.

Dragging the kids off the transom while sailing-

If you've made it to the bottom of this post, good work. As for triathlon......I didn't bike or run for eight days to give my knees some rest. In the last three days back home, I've done two bricks (20 & 3, 41 & 6) and run 7. I think I've overdone it a bit. When I got back in the pool at noon today, I was mentally back on our trip and tired from the last 2 1/2 days of training. I crapped out at just 1500 yards. I figure it's far better to get out and come back with some real energy in a couple of days as opposed to hating it.

On the trip I read "Born to Run." If you haven't, get a copy. It covers personal stories, anthropology, ultra racing, physiology, the sneaker industry and more. It's a great book, and could possibly change the way you run, train and race. Seriously, it's that good.

Mentally, I'm also working on a plan for next year already. It includes triathlon, but from a very different angle. More to follow.....

The season-opening race in Saturday, May 8. The Polarbear sprint includes a pool swim, which helps. I have no idea how it will go. Parts of my training have been very good compared to prior years. But then there's a week's layoff, how I feel now, and what I see others doing in training. I guess we'll see.....

Fits Like a Glove

I ride best in my aero position and on my P3. And it's been a very long time since I've done that.

Last night we went to a wine tasting / birthday party that went way too late. [And why is it that we can run/ride forever but standing up for three hours is completely exhausting?!] We got home at 12, then Christine stayed up talking with our babysitter until after 1 at which point I woke up. Then for some reason my mind latched onto a presentation I'll make in front of the Town Council in a few weeks on something I feel strongly about. I could NOT fall back asleep.

All the while, my 5:00 wake up loomed. I was going to meet Jeff S. for a ride a little after 6, and had to prep my P3. So after a cumulative three hours of sleep, I got up. It was all about mind over body. I was excited to ride long again, but was very sluggish. With the bike, I had to swap the cog on my training wheel (powertap) so it would work with the 10-speed P3, and a bunch of other items. It took way too long, and wasn't ready to go until just before 6. There goes my 30 minute trainer warm up.

But then it happened. I turned out of the driveway, settled into the aero bars, and it felt great. Fast, aero, easy to shift, all of it. I hadn't been on the machine since Nationals, but it felt like I never got off. It was just so easy.

Jeff and I had a good ride through Cumberland, up to Pineland, over to Freeport and back. It was cold, but clear and not nearly as windy as forecasted. We picked out a few sections to work, and blasted along. They were about 10 minutes each, and felt great. For me, the ride was just short of 50 miles- Jeff, who's training for IMLP, probably did about 70.

At this point, I was pretty sapped and not looking forward to my run. I debated whether I should do it later in the day after some rest. In hindsight, I definitely made the right decision and went right out for a hard two (6:40 ish) and easy 2.5. With the way I felt the rest of the day- dehydrated, sluggish, basically like I'd been run over- I never would have done it. Finally, I HATE getting into ice baths. I've done it two weeks in a row now, ice cubes and all, and that first 60 seconds is terrible. But I can tell they are good to do.

In general, training is going well. Six of the last eight weeks I've been over 10 hours. The last two were 11 and 11.5. But my knees are feeling it, much more than in years past. Even simple steps or sidewalks, if not approached deliberately, can cause a jolt. So I really feel like I could use some time off just to let my legs recover. And I don't mean just a day or two. Which leads me to...on Friday, we fly out of Boston with three other families of four to Tortola, BVI for a week of cruising. It's going to be an absolute blast. And I won't run or bike for eight days. It should set me up well for the early season. And I like the idea so much, I'm trying to think of another time to do it this summer so that I'm at my strongest in early September.

Elbow Room

Some may think elbow room means extra space. Others will remember it as a bar in Ft. Lauderdale that college swimmers frequented. In my case, it means time since I broke mine. On December 20, I fell on my stupid snowboard, broke my elbow, and put a serious dent in my swimming. After a great run of 13 weeks with over 10,000 yds/wk, I went 6 weeks with zero yards. Zip. Nada. My bike and run made great improvements, which are far more important, but my "ego" sport took a major hit.

I finally got in the first week in February and did a whopping 500 yards. Then I gradually built up yardage so I could do 1500 yrs 3x/wk, and picked that up by 500 yds each week. This is the second week in a row of 3x3000 yds. And most importantly, I'm finally able to put in some effort. For the longest time, I had zero speed. I didn't feel tired, but there was nothing I could do to go under 1:20 for 100 yds. Last Friday, we did a single hard 200 at the end of the workout, and I was happy to go 2:25. Today we did a bunch of swims 200-400 yds long, and I was able to bring the average speed down from 1:19 to 1:12. That isn't much compared to where I should normally be, but I'll take it. I can tell I'll be back at it pretty soon.

I've been working on my race schedule for the summer. Other than Budapest, my only Oly race is Mooseman. That isn't ideal, but I'd really like to cut back on the travel time compared to last year. It just took too much time away from home. I added the Fireman Sprint in late August- two weeks before Budapest. Normally I'd like to have it three weeks out to ensure full rest, but there's nothing else that works for me after Bethel. Other than Crank the Kank, I'd like to do some other time trials- three possibilities are Kennebunk, Cape and Freeport. The problem is that they all fall either the day after another race or are the same day. For example, on May 30, there's a new 4 mi road race in Falmouth, Pineland has a running festival with all sorts of distances on the trails, and there's the Cape TT.

Finally, on the drive home tonight, I saw about two dozen bikers on the road. In shorts. In March. I'm really looking forward to a good long ride outside this weekend- the first one of the season. I hope the forecast holds.

Race Report: Irish Rover 5K

54 degrees. On March 7. No wind, clear skies, and 54 degrees. Did I say it was March 7? It was an incredible day, allowing me to go with shorts and a t-shirt without a chill. The race also started at 11:00, allowing for a very gradual morning of eating, stretching, warming up, etc. I could get used to these late starts.

My approach to the race was to be a rabbit for Jeff. He's been 20:20 to 20:40 the last three years, and really wanted to go under 20. I beat him at the Cape 10 mile race after running with him for the first seven miles. He's been training really well, and I wanted to see him break that barrier.

And that's all a load of crap.

I wanted a good time, something under 20, but I also wanted to beat him- in a friendly, ego-driven, collaborative rivalry sort of way. At the start he asked me how fast I would go out. Knowing we had to be under 6:25 average, and adrenaline would get me going, I said somewhere around 6:10. The horn blew, and I got caught up in the surge. At about 1/4 mile, I looked at my Garmin and just about fell over- the current pace read 5:15! Whoa, there! Sure, the buildings could be friggin' with it, but even allowing for 30 seconds, it was way, way too fast. So I eased up a bit, actually feeling pretty good. At the 1/2 mile, I was at 2:53. I hit the big hill at .7, and all of these short, skinny rabbits flew by. One guy was in bare feet. Damn that gravity thing. Mile one came in at 6:05. With a big, slow hill, that was fast. It was around that time when I heard Jeff huffin' and puffin' behind me. We continued on shoulder to shoulder to the turn around and back. The whole time I was wishing he would just surrender. I hurt all over, and had little interest in a battle. But I continued on. Mile 2, 6:23.

Then we got to go back down the hill. You'd think we would have an advantage going back down given our size. But Mr. Garmin doesn't show that. We barely went any faster than on the flats. About 1/2 way down, we heard this rumbling herd behind us. They gobbled up up, spit me out the back, and Jeff tried to hand on. To his credit, he didn't let up at all. Mile 3, which included the down hill, 6:23.

Jeff came in at 19:13, crushing previous times. I finished in 19:27, my best by about 25 seconds. Granted, I've only done a few of these, but I'm pleased.

Takeaways? I really need to work on my hills, especially my downhills. I need to find a flat 10K in the next couple of months. I've never broken 40 min, and know I can do it now.

And as for the post-race nutrition, courtesy of Brian Boru and Allagash....

A Mackinaw Peaches Day

I had a great day, and I've come up with a term for it- it was a "Mackinaw Peaches Day." Seinfeld fans know what I'm talking about. For those that don't, or those that want to see the skit again, click here:

The day started with a two hour trainer ride. My goal was to include a one hour TT effort and average over 240w. I took that from TrainingPeaks WKO+ which showed that my best one hour effort since August was 235w. Now don't get me wrong- two hours on the trainer and a one hour TT both fit squarely in the category of serious misery. But after lots of intervals recently, I felt a desire to crank this out. After 25 min of warm up, I started in. My countdown timer went off every 10 minutes, getting me to stand up for about 2 minutes. This went on...and on....and on.... for an hour. I hated it after 15 minutes. I moved the towel to the side occasionally to check on my effort, and generally saw it between 240 and 260, so I thought I was doing fine- not feeling fine, but doing what I set out to do. As it turns out, I averaged 247w. The only single day that was better since 1/1/09, including races, was the Crank the Kanc TT last May. Three other days were within a few watts, including Mooseman which registered 246w. So this was one of my best long steady-state rides ever. Given that last week was my first week this season with more than 2.5 hours of biking in a single week, I'm thrilled. Woot!

After the ride I went for a short 3 mi. run with our weimaraner in the warm weather (38*). I didn't worry at all about the pace, and didn't hit the first mile until about 8:15. But near the end, still without effort, I was down to about 7:10.

I then moved on to a great breakfast sandwich- two eggs, salami and american cheese on oatmeal bread. While I'm on the subject of food, I finished my smoked mussels for lunch, and had a great homemade clam chowda' for dinner.

This afternoon I caught lightning in a bottle when Leah asked to "build something" out in the garage. We had a great time designing and building a rack for Nick's snowboards. I got her to use her math, taught her about countersinking, and she was a master with the drill. After a while she moved on to her own project- I'm not sure what it is, but it was all hers. We both had a great time.

Then the two of us went to the basketball game between the school where I grew up, (Cape) and where we live now (Falmouth). This was the third game between them this year, splitting the previous two, which were each other's only losses of the season. Falmouth won, sending them to the state title game. While I won't admit it too loudly, I was pulling for Falmouth. I will say, however, the Cape fans are far more enthusiastic.

Today wrapped up a huge training week for me. For a couple of years now, I've made this week a sort of "training camp" with lots of volume. I find it vaults me to a new level. I'll probably put in a few more this year, but always 6-8 weeks apart. I started on Monday, a holiday, with a two hour ride and 3 mile run. My elbow and swimming are improving, and I put in three 1,500 yard days, still without any intensity. I've also "graduated" from PT. Total hours were 10:45, about 50% more than what I've been doing. Biking went from 2.5 hrs to 6.2 hrs. Next week I'll take the volume back down, somewhere between this week and what I was doing.

To be honest, this electronic age (blogging and FB) acts as an incredible motivator. It seems like everyone around me is training really hard and already putting up some good early results. I feel more pressure from folks around here than I do thinking about Worlds.

"The Mackinaw peaches, Jerry, the Mackinaw peaches!"

Race Report: Mid Winter 10 Miler- Welcome Back

The 2010 race season kicked off today, and I'm thrilled with the results and how I got there. But to get the full story, lets back up for a minute....


1. My broken elbow got me out on the road much more than last year, starting about six weeks ago. In the last nine weeks, I've logged 205 miles, including snowshoeing. That compares to 137 miles last year. That's all good, except for the possibility I have an injured achilles tendon. 2. On Tuesday this week, I had an exhausting two day, one night trip to Orlando. I was up at 4 AM Tuesday, and back home at 11:30 Wednesday night. I did get one warm run in outside, which felt great. 3. On Thursday, the mass of airport germs beat my immune system, and I went downhill. I briefly wondered if I should race, especially considering it was 10 miles, but come on, it's just a cold. 4. Our dog Jasmine woke me up at 3 yesterday morning, and I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up at 4 to get all kinds of work done. So in summary, this has been a tough pre-race week- I'm tired, didn't train much, sick, but the last two months of training have been good. Needless to say, I wasn't quite sure how this would all work out.


Last year I hadn't run more than 6 miles at once before this race. I used the first 2-3 miles as warm up, and proceeded to descend each mile, finishing in 1:14:53. At the time, I was happy with the time considering my base. My competitive spirit, however, noticed a slew of friends were all tight together, and about 3 minutes ahead of me. It seems like everyone has been working really hard, 3 minutes is a lot to make up, so again, I wasn't sure how it would work out.


Given it's early February, the weather was about as good as it could be- somewhere around 15 degrees and a bit of a cold NW wind. Once the race started, the entire bunch I wanted to stay with shot out and had 50+ yards on me within the first 1/2 mile. A peek at my Garmin told me I was going 6:50 pace. Way too fast for the start, but I didn't want to give up too much distance. So I backed off a bit and tried to relax. A bit later, I noticed Jeff behind me, and I happily dropped back to join him for what turned out to be seven miles. We hit the first mile in 7:05 and agreed that was plenty fast enough. The second mile got into some hills, but we stayed around 7:20. These hills were by no means huge, let's call them four big rollers, and my HR was well over 160. Given my HRmax is about 174, I knew I shouldn't go any harder so early.

I should also note I have never raced with my Garmin (I bought it last March), and haven't raced with a HR monitor in several years. I just don't need it for Oly (or shorter) triathlons. The data really helped, and I feel I was still able to run my own race using feel- the watch was a guide, not a dictator.


Jeff and I continued on, likely each thinking the same thing, "Man, I'm working hard, I hope I'm not holding him back, I really should slow down." We saw Mary about 50 yds. in front of us, and she stayed right there. Bob and Mark were together, about 200 yards further up. My plan was to stay at this pace, and not worry about running them down until mile 7 or so. Starting with mile 3, we split 7:16, 6:54, 6:52, 7:04 and 6:51. I'm willing to bet that if the course was flat, each mile would have been within 5 seconds of each other. We are similar runners- swimmers, really- big for runners, not a lot of experience, overstriding and heel striking.

Just before the crest of the last meaningful hill, just before mile 7, I saw I was catching Mary. I kept up the pace and figured it was time to start to move up in the field. After the top of the hill we had a long gradual downhill- perfect for me- not too steep, not too shallow. Then the road was flat until another long down hill just before mile nine where I caught Mark and Bob who were still shoulder to shoulder (mile 8 was 6:36). It took considerable effort to catch up given the pace and headwind, so I decided to tuck in and stay behind these two for as long as possible. Ideally, I didn't want them to know I was there, but that idea didn't last long. I stayed tucked in behind them as we headed back up a gradual hill, and planned to stay right there until we reached the Fowler Rd. intersection, about a 1/2 mile from the finish (mile 9 was 6:55). Just before that point, Mark started moving out, so I got up to his shoulder. I couldn't afford to give him an extra step at this point. At a 6:33 pace, I knew I was at my max. We turned into the High School, and Mark was able to accelerate away through the three turns enough so I knew that race was over. Now I just had to worry about Bob. I couldn't hear him, that was probably due to the headwind. I actually wondered if he was willing to turn himself inside out for this. With 50 yards to go, I heard the announcer say Mark's name, then mine, then someone else- the guy I just passed. That told me Bob wasn't close, and I thankfully backed off just a tad. The last mile took 6:38, but the last half mile was 3:00. I had nothing left. And as it turns out, Bob was willing to turn himself inside out- he vomited just as we turned into the school.

With a finishing time of 1:09:25, I improved by 5 1/2 minutes over last year. My average HR was 163, much higher than I thought I could handle. I was very consistent, with the difference between my fastest and slowest miles just 44 seconds. I owe a great deal to Jeff who kept me consistent for the first 7, Mary who had a lovely target on her back, and Mark and Bob who dragged me to the finish. It probably would have been a different story without those motivations. It felt great to have those pre-race butterflies again, see and chat with all of my friends, and dig deep at the end. I can't wait to do it again.