Tell All Tuesday, Dec 27

After a fantastic Christmas in Tauranga with my Aunt and Uncle it was off to Auckland for a little 10 days of training. We had a quick stop in Whangamata to meet up with Cameron Brown and pick up his keys and then we were off. Huge thank you to Cameron and Jenny Brown for letting us look after there place while they are further South.

This morning I swam with a former top New Zealand swimmer, Mark Bone, and now a high performance coach for some of New Zealand's best swimmers and triathletes.

Pool: 25 meter indoor pool 07:00-08:30
Warm Up: x4(100Swim, 50 kick, 50Pull)
Main set: 6x200 pull w/Paddles on 2:30 send off
100 Easy backstroke
12x100 as x2( 4 fast 1:15, 2 moderate on 1:30 (made this set, but this was a real burner!)
50 easy Free
8x25 HARD Kick on :30, 8x25 fly on :30, 4x25 fly kick on back, 8x25fly head out of water to half way, then polo. We did a few more 25s with some variations with emphasis on fast turn over but I’m drawing a blank.
400 Free with paddles and bands
100 Cool down.

I was starving after this workout! I can handle volume in the pool now, but speed is another story! Once I arrived home I jumped onto the bowl of oats. It is very important to get carbs back into you within 60 min post workout.

Before the bike ride of the day I had another snack to top off off some calories.
Bike Ride:
3 hour ride with 4x15’ at Z3 over rolling terrain (it was very hilly) with easy 3’ spin between, 2x6’ Z4 hill climb with easy spin down, then last hour was TT home at IM goal watts. My goal is to hold between 4.0-4.4 w/kg for Ironman. Took in two bars and x2bottle of EFS fruit punch.
                                 

Finished off with some strength work and then a nice tasty dinner. I made the ride end late as I could go into a more hearty dinner.

Till Next week!

-JAMES

Tell All Tuesday

Lately I have seen a few posts on tri forums about what a pro athletes schedule may look like compared to an age grouper over the course of the year. That being said, I decided I will now bring to you a Tell all Tuesday. Here I will reveal to you what I (the average pro) do during each phase of my build up to Ironman Taupo every Tuesday. Well, I try my best to do so.

This time of year I’m in a general phase (Base) of training were the focus is on more endurance work in the Z2/3 zones. The training volume is fairly high in most session, but the intensity is very low especially in biking and running. Swimming is a little different as I always like to inject some speed into each session. Unlike endurance, where  indicators for endurance improvement normally take 3-4 weeks, speed is 10-14 days. It is always nice to feel fast to boosts your confidence and the belief of yourself while you slog out the aerobic work on the bike and run.

Lets get into my training day today!!

Swim Session in 25m pool. 2x500 set done outdoors in 50m Pool: 1hr 30 minutes for 5.3km
Warm up 600 EZ Free
x2 rounds of ( 4x25 Fly on :40, 2x50 Back on :45, 2x50 breast on 1:10)
Main Set x2 rounds of (10x50 as 25FAST/25 Easy on:45, 2x500 out side 50m pool on 7:00, 10x50 as 25 steady, 25 FAST
300 Cool Down

BREAKFAST: oatmeal with poached egg on top. This is delicious! Quick snack and fueling up before bike ride. Have to have your vitamins as well!
          
Bike Ride: 3:15 ride all Z2 effort. I warmed up 15’ then held high Z2 for 2:45. Then easy 15’ cool down. What did I eat and use? x2 bottles of EFS and x3 bars eating at 60 min, 120 min and 150 min. I use mission care for bib cream.
                     
Once I got home I was straight into lunch. I was pretty beat since there was a stiff headwind going out and back! Plus the roads go and go with no traffic signals. I was a little beat after the swim today and just the volume of the past two weeks. I had lunch #1 of a mince pie and crunchie bar. Lunch two was five minutes later and was peaches and yogurt.
          
After a little down time, it was up for an easy 40 min run. Nothing hard, all aerobic. Then I arrived home for dinner of baked beans on toast and a side of lamb.


Total Workout time: 5hrs and 10min+ 30 minutes of stretching.

Swimming and more swimming

First up is a PRP update

Last week I joined the swim squad at Jellie Park under the guidance of Coach Roly. Boy did I get a shock. I like to consider myself a front pack swimmer when I’m going well, and that usually means putting in x4  2.5-3,000 yards each session with the Nitro crew or by myself while in Texas. I received a big wake up call this week with Roly as each session was 5.5km! You do the conversion and that is around a 6,000 yard swim. The volume initially just destroys your arms and I had to focus so hard in executing excellence on all my flip turns, making sure I was as streamlined as possible at all times during my stroke. It took me three sessions to finally adapt to the volume and move up from last place in the lane. Yes, last place. We all have to start from the bottom and work our way up. I’m really hoping this volume with all the speed injected into each session will take my swimming to higher level. It would great to be able to go sub 2 min and sub 5 min for the 200 and 500 free again!
The biking and running have been coming along much more slowly. The biking increased in volume this week, but there was still only three sessions. I completed the week with a FTP test and was rather surprised with my number. I knew the number wasn’t going to be as high because of lack of endurance training the past 10 weeks. However, all the strength work I did with Scott Woolwine at Wild Basin really paid off and I ended  up in the Cat I. cat in the power profile chart. It helped that I lost a bit of weight and gained more strength to get solid power-weight ratio. Now the goal is to be working very closely at, and around FTP levels in the training toward Tauranga Half Ironman! If you are looking for a great read on Power, I suggest “Training and Racing with a Power Meter 2nd edition”. Has given much more insight on how to improve my cycling in 2012.
The riding here is great with long country roads that go for miles and miles with no traffic signals and little traffic. This is old on Old West Coast road. It was overcast on Saturday so the view was not as spectacular, but you can see the long straights on the green Canterbury plains. Having a blast riding my QR here.

Running is the toughest event for me while training here in New Zealand. Running is so simple with just shoes and minimal amounts of clothing. It is easy to get out of the house, get into rhythm, and just feel great. The running here is great with some many parks and trails with soft surfaces, so  you can see how hard it is to hold back.  Coming back from injury is a slow process. Last week I was running 4 min/ walk 1 min for 30 minutes. This week I advanced up to a whopping 5 min run/1min walk for 45 minutes! This weekend I get to advanced to hill work. As you can see in the pick below, there are some very cool running trials in the Port Hills. Can’t wait!



















Keep training hard. Till Next time.

James

New Zealand #1

Firstly,  a quick PRP update for those who may be interested in the treatment or are on the fence. It has been 10 days since I received my PPR (Platelet Rich Plasma) injection and I’m feeling great! Again, I know things may change, but as of know I’m very happy. I have not thought about my knee since the day after. The site was a little tight and sore the next day. I have slowly introduced my knee back into swim, bike, run activities and there has been no pain and the swelling on the knee is down. You may ask, well how long have you been working out then if you have had no pain? Have been swimming 4.5-5km a day, x2 hour rides Z2/3 on my Quintana Roo CD0.1, andx2 runs at 7:45-8:15 pace. Part of me wished I had stayed in Austin to receive one more shot because as of right now I swear by this treatment. If you want to talk with a great team, get a hold of ProloAustin. Dr. Fullerton is a very smart guy who has dealt with many athletes. So 10 days in, and I am very happy.
I also have to give a big shout out to Dr.Weine who is a fantastic Applied Kinesiologist at Infinity Wellness who helped so much with my knee also through acupuncture/adjustment and diet changes.

Well, we finally made it to Christchurch and have been settled for the past 5 days. Really feels good to be back in my old home town and retrace all my old routes with my wife by my side. The first few days were just the normal when settling into a new place. We opened up a bank account, bought a cell phone,setup a wireless network in my mother’s house, and most importantly…….sign up for membership at Jellie Park. This is the swimming pool/gym that Lindsay and I will be spending a fair amount of time at over our three moth stay in Christchurch.
I received a bit of a scare when I registered as I was told the master squad was at full capacity and will not be accepting any new swimmers! I don’t know about any of you readers, but I get SO bored after 2,000m and lose enthusiasm very fast. Due to the February earthquakes, lot of pools have been closed so swimming space is tough to find. I just decided to walk in and talk to Roly, who is the elite head coach for lots of the elite athletes when training down in Christchurch. Looks as if I will be able to join up with their squad which will make things much nicer. Since I have been out for almost 10 weeks with no S/B/R activity I have been swimming solo every day to get the feel back for the water. Lots of IM sets as I always feel my fitness comes together faster when adding lots of Fly and back. Have been knocking out 5km every day. We have been swimming indoors, but we get to move outdoors in the next week! Can’t wait to be outdoors in a 50m pool.



Today was the first “long ride” of three hours today and I faced a stiff headwind which was very Kona like. Was a brutal slog for the 90 minutes out and then you would figure it would be smooth sailing home, right?  Had a wind switch and faced the same headwind coming home! As brutal as it was I still had a great time despite the realization that I’m so unfit! I think 10 weeks was wonderful for recovery/healing, but not good for coming back into things. Two weeks always does the trick. Here is my QR CD0.1 in the garden. Will get more interesting shots around Christchurch, but I’m far too exhausted to do anything right now.

Over the coming weeks the training will be ramped up granted the health of the knee remains good. Lindsay and I will be documenting our journey. The plan is to race a half Ironman in January then IronmanNew Zealand in March.