Well, it is now time to face the music and start posting weekly training recaps. I need to be held accountable, and by posting I can receive all the verbal punishment i need if I slack off...that is if anybody even reads my blog!
I use to be a solid swimmer banging out a 48 for the 100 free and a 1:46 for the 200 (yards). Consistency and a strong desire go very far in swimming. Soon as you begin to slack you lose all feel of the water and it takes a bloody long time to get the feel and power back i use to posses. I have been swimming much more the past month and it is beginning to show in practice. For the first time in a while I stayed with Brandon Marsh a.k.a Tex, BM, B or most recently call "the schnoz". Well not the entire time, just longer then normal and it felt good. Brandon Marsh by the way is a hell of a good guy and fricking fast athlete.
I have started focusing my swimming sessions by category. VO2 max, LT, Tempo, and endurance. This has been paying off big time as I am holding my desired race pace much more easily now after only a week of very focused work. As off right now my typical set is:
Endurance
400 steady
300 x3(100 IM)
200 IM
100 Underwater 4x25e
Tempo/race pace
10x100m on 1:20 holding 1:15 (this will increase to 15x100 next week, then hopefully the VO2 max sets will allow me to drop the send off and lower the reps.)
VO2 Max
6x 50 on 35 seconds
Of course I do swim longer but the above is my specific sets. I need more volume because it is the last half of the swim in races that I just fall off the pace. I hope this work will get me tuned up for Clearwater. I have been doing lots of my swims alone which is very hard especially when the pain sets in and you have nobody to chase.
Time for bed.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
New Race Weight
I managed to lose six pounds in 5 hrs on Tuesday night. Hollywood diet, nope, case of a nasty virus, YES. It kicked my butt severly and then just disappeared.
I drove over to Lindsay's place for a nice dinner Tuesaday afternoon and all of the sudden my virus said gidday. I had my head over the toilet every 30-40 minutes brining up crazy amounts of fluid.
Probably a nice extended rest period before intense focused training for World Champs in November.
Peace out.
I drove over to Lindsay's place for a nice dinner Tuesaday afternoon and all of the sudden my virus said gidday. I had my head over the toilet every 30-40 minutes brining up crazy amounts of fluid.
Probably a nice extended rest period before intense focused training for World Champs in November.
Peace out.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Dallas Double
Just arrived back in Austin after a very successful weekend in Dallas. The Fiancee (Lindsay) and I arrived Saturday afternoon for our engagement party at her parent's place. Now, when it comes to crowds I can get a little nervous, especially when the crowds are there to meet your beautiful fiancee and myself. There must have been a good 70 people at party peak! I did have a great time meeting all the friends and family of the Taylor family. I sure picked the right woman with the right family. Thank you Dallas and Veta for a great party. Anyone else who might be reading my blog from the party, it was a pleasure meeting you.
Sunday morning Lindsay and I woke up at 4:45 to head to the Texas Man Olympic distance triathlon. Neither one of us were very happy driving the 60 miles to race site. I was able to register the morning of the race so everything was very rushed. Want to give a shout to Justin Finck at Accelerade for getting me into the race free of charge! Also, if you have not tried Accelerade or Endurox now is the time. Bloody good stuff.
The swim start was a mess! Not enough buoys to guide you around the course even though we all managed to find out way back the finish. There we no lead kayaks for the swim making spotting crucial. I just kept thinking to myself, what if I had a heart attack out here? Nobody would have known! I jumped out of the water in the lead and very excited. Last week has a serious blow to my ego and confidence and I was here to erase the mental block. The bike was difficult for me as I just couldn't seem to push the big gears. The head cold I had was taking effect and I was not too happy. Every 5 minutes I was looking over my shoulder looking for pack ready destroy me. Arrived into the second transition with nobody in site which was a good thing because the run killed me. The course was out and back so as soon as I saw the second place leader running out while I was running back I knew I had the victory in the bag and throttled down big time :) No point killing yourself when you're not feeling great and the lead is big enough, right? Crossed the line and took the win and b-lined straight to the fiancee for some lovin'...(just a big kiss and hug).
It was from here on that became very interesting. My soon to be Father in-law, Dallas, came out to watch the race also. We were all tired from the day before and needed to leave because of the engagements we had planned for later in the day. I went in the transition to get my bike and received a huge slap on the wrist for wanting to take my bike out. I guess some RDs (race directors) don't like letting people get their bike until everyone is finished. Dallas and I decided to get sneaky from here on out. When the T2 director turned his head, I threw my bike over the railing for Dallas to casually walk away with and nobody knowing our plan. I stripped my number so it would look like it was Dallas's bike and he was heading back to car after following racers around the course. As I walk back towards the car I see Dallas surrounded by race staff :) I guess they didn't believe he rode around the course on a P3C with a disc wheel....hahahaha. After all out efforts we had to return the bike and wait to leave. 20 minutes later everyone else wanted to leave and couldn't. Eventually the crowds became too big and they had to let everyone go. We did make peace with everyone after our incident :)
Texas man is a tough and challenging course. Though there needs a bit more fine tuning. So this concludes the Dallas double. Thanks for reading.
Trip recap
1) My fiancee is beautiful in an orange dress. ummmm.
2) The Taylor's know a lot of people
3) Victory is very nice and it is in defeat you learn to perfect your execution
Sunday morning Lindsay and I woke up at 4:45 to head to the Texas Man Olympic distance triathlon. Neither one of us were very happy driving the 60 miles to race site. I was able to register the morning of the race so everything was very rushed. Want to give a shout to Justin Finck at Accelerade for getting me into the race free of charge! Also, if you have not tried Accelerade or Endurox now is the time. Bloody good stuff.
The swim start was a mess! Not enough buoys to guide you around the course even though we all managed to find out way back the finish. There we no lead kayaks for the swim making spotting crucial. I just kept thinking to myself, what if I had a heart attack out here? Nobody would have known! I jumped out of the water in the lead and very excited. Last week has a serious blow to my ego and confidence and I was here to erase the mental block. The bike was difficult for me as I just couldn't seem to push the big gears. The head cold I had was taking effect and I was not too happy. Every 5 minutes I was looking over my shoulder looking for pack ready destroy me. Arrived into the second transition with nobody in site which was a good thing because the run killed me. The course was out and back so as soon as I saw the second place leader running out while I was running back I knew I had the victory in the bag and throttled down big time :) No point killing yourself when you're not feeling great and the lead is big enough, right? Crossed the line and took the win and b-lined straight to the fiancee for some lovin'...(just a big kiss and hug).
It was from here on that became very interesting. My soon to be Father in-law, Dallas, came out to watch the race also. We were all tired from the day before and needed to leave because of the engagements we had planned for later in the day. I went in the transition to get my bike and received a huge slap on the wrist for wanting to take my bike out. I guess some RDs (race directors) don't like letting people get their bike until everyone is finished. Dallas and I decided to get sneaky from here on out. When the T2 director turned his head, I threw my bike over the railing for Dallas to casually walk away with and nobody knowing our plan. I stripped my number so it would look like it was Dallas's bike and he was heading back to car after following racers around the course. As I walk back towards the car I see Dallas surrounded by race staff :) I guess they didn't believe he rode around the course on a P3C with a disc wheel....hahahaha. After all out efforts we had to return the bike and wait to leave. 20 minutes later everyone else wanted to leave and couldn't. Eventually the crowds became too big and they had to let everyone go. We did make peace with everyone after our incident :)
Texas man is a tough and challenging course. Though there needs a bit more fine tuning. So this concludes the Dallas double. Thanks for reading.
Trip recap
1) My fiancee is beautiful in an orange dress. ummmm.
2) The Taylor's know a lot of people
3) Victory is very nice and it is in defeat you learn to perfect your execution
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
LA Triathlon Disaster
Well, last weekend couldn't have gone any worse on such an important weekend! I had put in some solid training in the lead up to LA triathlon and was ready to go. I had two weeks of training on the Big Island of Hawaii and boy was my running and swimming coming along. I was setting run PBs up my street every Thursday on speed days. For the first time since Clearwater I was feeling good.
The problems starting coming when work forgot that I was heading over to LA and the phone calls and text messages were stressful which resulted in lots of strain before race day when i should have been relaxed. Now, the thoughts of what was going to happen when I arrived home was constantly on my mind.
Come race morning I woke up feeling very tired and it took a few shakes from the fiancee to get me up and out off bed. The cold waters of Venice beach sure woke me up as I fought for position. I thought I was going well with a nice draft until I looked up and saw the pack had gradually pulled away and I couldn't make up the groud. Come out of the water in good company with Simpson, and Griffen. Things went down hill from there as my seat post dropped a good three inches and boy did I feel like a amateur. Here is were stress does not tie in well with race day preparations! I failed (yes I take blame, no excuses here) to tighten my bolts on my new P3C. A slip of the seat post doesn't do wonders for power output. Coming into T2 my race was done and it was a cruise to the finish line.
Lots of things to do differently in my last couple of races left this season that I'm glad happened at LA so they will not be made at Clearwater this year. I hope to improve on my 7th overall from last year.
Lessons learnt:
1) Turn off the blackberry
2) Complete full over inspection of bike
3) Make sure work has not forgotten time off request
The problems starting coming when work forgot that I was heading over to LA and the phone calls and text messages were stressful which resulted in lots of strain before race day when i should have been relaxed. Now, the thoughts of what was going to happen when I arrived home was constantly on my mind.
Come race morning I woke up feeling very tired and it took a few shakes from the fiancee to get me up and out off bed. The cold waters of Venice beach sure woke me up as I fought for position. I thought I was going well with a nice draft until I looked up and saw the pack had gradually pulled away and I couldn't make up the groud. Come out of the water in good company with Simpson, and Griffen. Things went down hill from there as my seat post dropped a good three inches and boy did I feel like a amateur. Here is were stress does not tie in well with race day preparations! I failed (yes I take blame, no excuses here) to tighten my bolts on my new P3C. A slip of the seat post doesn't do wonders for power output. Coming into T2 my race was done and it was a cruise to the finish line.
Lots of things to do differently in my last couple of races left this season that I'm glad happened at LA so they will not be made at Clearwater this year. I hope to improve on my 7th overall from last year.
Lessons learnt:
1) Turn off the blackberry
2) Complete full over inspection of bike
3) Make sure work has not forgotten time off request
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