Tell All Tuesday

Now I’m back and settled in Texas I’m going to make a good effort at getting back to consistently writing posts. So back to tell all Tuesday. This will be posts of a 70.3 champions training days in a bid to regain form in 2012.

SWIM:
Was a crazy swim this morning with lighting and thunder still going strong at 0530am. It took my a while to get in the pool as I was feeling rather our tired. Our dog was pretty frightened last night and jumped on the bed. Normal this is a no in our house hold but we made an exception. She was all over the place and Lindsay and I had very little shut eye.

WARM UP:
400 Swim, 300 Pull, 200, 100

MAIN SET:
4x200 IM
100 kick
4x200 Pull with buoy and band
100 EZ
4x200kick
Since I missed a fair amount of warm up I went 400 pull, 3x100 IM on 1:30, 200IM as 25IM/25FR, 200 Cool down. 

BIKE: Computrainer
WARM UP:
20 min easy build to Z3

MAIN SET:
4x20 min each building to upper Z3/RP efforts with 2 min easy between

RUN:
30 min easy stroll around the neighborhood finishing with 4x 30seconds fast.
Did the run in some of my new shoes that arrived in my little shipment. Now, just FYI I’m sponsored by K-Swiss. I have really enjoyed running in there shoes over the years and they have stepped up another level with the Blade-Max Stable!

This shoe blew me away! I will be doing gear review in the coming days on the Blade-Max Stable and the Polar RCX5 heart rate monitor which is the bomb!

Polar too have stepped it up. I use to wear the watches back in 2000-2005. The watches are back to thin and sleek. Very good looking watches again with the RCX5 series.

Pics of my run today in the hills.

  

Till next time...which will be sooner.

-Cotter

Saddle up

It gets very tough to keep writing a blog on how yet another race did not go as planned! This has been my story for the past year or so now. Instead of dwelling on the race I’m going to go over the positives and why I’m keeping on going.
The trip to New Zealand was a big venture for Lindsay and I. Leaving home and our core group of people we work with was going to be a risk, but a risk we were very keen to take on. I wanted to see if I could put in the training required for Ironman and have my then buggered up knee able to handle the load. Lindsay, she just needed some good old R&R for personal reasons.

Positives:

• Training went perfect! No pain after bigger run volume and more run frequency.
• Established a huge aerobic pace that will serve me well for the year.
• Swam with one of the best swim coaches I have every had. Coach Roly Crichton. My lane mates Dylan McNeise, Tom Davidson, and Julia Grant were awesome.
• Fantastic training grounds in Christchurch.
• Catching up family and friends.
• Driving a sweet beat up Honda Civic.

• Reon Nolan
• Getting to meet and talk with legendary triathlete, Scot Molina.
• Know I don’t have to retire because of my knee.
• Even though the IM was cancelled, probably a small blessing for knee and not having to recover for 2 weeks.
• Getting the Polar RCX5. The RCX5 is the bomb.

• Riding Gorges and Old West Coast at least twice a week .
• All my data suggests I’m in fantastic shape.
• I’m swimming well.
• If it was an Ironman I would have gotten top 3. HAHA I’m allowed to say this because the race never happened.
• Lindsay and I are both in a good place.

Thanks to K-Swiss, Quintana Roo, Profile Design, Base Performance, LeadDog, Polar, and Em’s Power Cookies for all you help and support during my time in New Zealand. Even though it wasn’t what I was hoping for, I’m very motivated and fired up for 2012.

RACE REPORT
Very cold morning race morning with a good amount of chop on the lake. Went to water 15 min before start and did the normal warm up before heading to start line.

I always get so nervous in the water because you just don’t know how violent/fast the start is going to be while trying to set up for a top spot in the first 200-400 meters. I decided to go a little further left of the main pack and was with Marko Albert and Terenzo Bozzone. The gun went off and so did we! The pace was on and Marko was off and put in a little gap between T and I. I decided to go for it and bridged up to Marko with T on my feet. The main pack merged with us and somebody cut into T’s spot behind my feet. 200m later I looked back and Marko and I had a gap. It really opened up. They guy who cut in front of T lost my feet and allowed the gap to open. I was feeling fantastic, but then I lost focus because of the chopper that kept hovering over Marko and I. I have maybe 10 off strokes and Marko had the gap. I was dissapointed but didn’t panic. I swam my own race and the main chase didn’t make up anytime on me. At this point in the race the confidence was sky high. Second out of the water in Quintana Roo Superfull wetsuit (more people need to be in this suit. Amazing).
My race report comes to halt after 5km on the bike. The legs did not show up at all. I was not able to hang during the climb up Highway 5.

But hey, at least the run felt easy on the knee.

The End

3 days to go!

I have had a fantastic time back in my home town of Christchurch, New Zealand. The training has gone very well and my level of confidence as an athlete has grown here after my disaster of a season in 2011. I hope to have a great showing at Ironman New Zealand and get back on track to success in 2012.

It’s GO TIME!!! and BASE TIME

First off I’m thrilled to announce my new partnership with Base Performance supplements. Chris Lieto started this company up a few years ago, so you know they will meet the needs of endurance athletes. They make a great multivitamin and a fantastic electrolyte salt ! If you crampa lot, this is for you. The salt is also great to sprinkle over meals leading up to races. The recovery activator is great to use in addition to your post race recovery drink. It helps facilitate  faster glycogen absorption so you come back stronger! The base amino is perfect for taking care of your muscles during strenuous exercise. If you are looking for something new to help stay healthy and fast all year, Base Performance is where you need to be looking.


Now lets talk training back in Christchurch.
Well, all the base work/miles/volume has been accumulating and I’m starting to see big gains in the ease holding wattage and run pace at heart rate is getting quicker. It has all started kicking in at the right time because the next three weeks are going to be big weeks and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about going long again!
On the schedule Saturday was a 4hr and 30 min ride. I had been eagerly waiting for this weekend workout! There is a great loop called “Gorges” that is 140-150km long. I did this ride on Wednesday as well with Triathlon legend Scott Molina. Scott is still in phenomenal shape and was up front pushing the pace for a good chunk of the ride. I made sure to pick him out when he wasn’t crushing it to ask some questions since he racked up lots of Ws in his career. Great guy and I’m going to see if I can can buy him beer at some point during this trip!
The riding here to me is great because it is very flat and straight. Lots of people may argue this is boring. However, I have crazy mind that hates going down hills or  riding rolling hills because it messes up my average power during sets! I love working hard and pedaling the entire time to burn up more kilojoules. The more kJs I burn the more moro bars/candy and pies I get to eat for my re-fueling! That is how my mind works.
The main set was 6x30’ at high end Z3 power with an easy 7 minutes between efforts. The ride started out going out back behind the airport which is pretty neat when 777 and 767 are taking off or landing right over you. I spent lots of time out here while I was flying and earning my private pilot’s license way back in 2000. Once out of the vicinity of the airport you hit old west coast road which is dead flat and straight for a good 45 minutes but the view is pretty cool.

Once the long flat section is done, you pass over the Waimakariri bridge which is nice sight. You get to parallel the Waimak the entire time on the flat section and gives a very “Lord of the Rings” feel.

20-30 minutes after the bridge you arrive in the small town of Oxford for the refuel break. I opted out of a coffee stop and just bought a powerade so I can get going again. I did have a new bar in the back the pocket that I was wanting to try, and it was worth it! The EM’s Power cookie bar was DELICIOUS!!!. The gal who makes them, Emily Miazga, is x3 winner of the coast-to-coast race here in the south island. It is a race from the west coast to the east coast and consists of Kayaking 67km, Runing 36km, and Cycling 140km over some very tough terrian. I will be using these more from now! Chocolate oat explosion is my favorite.
The beautiful, slick, and fast QR CD 0.1 at the diary.
   
The ride was awesome and I added some more kilometers to finish off the day. Sunday was a very promising run as well.
Hope the training is going well for you all.
JC

Nice Weekend

Having just really starting to work with and learn about Training Peaks WKO+ makes weekend long rides so much more exciting! This weekend I had a 5hr ride scheduled. Normally I would be excited to get the ride done, just because you know you want to get in “x” amount of big volume rides to go into an Ironman to gain confidence. Now, not only can you become excited about heading out for a ride, you can become very excited about coming home and downloading the data! The past few months have been pretty huge as I have been able to slowly transform my riding style. I still have a long way, but the results are starting to become evident. All the graphs scream at you letting you know exactly what you are doing wrong. Me, I was a masher who used high force and slow cadence to generate my power which would leave me a little drained when it came time to running. I  have slowly been evolving myself into more spinning so I recruit a different set of muscle fibers. This then allows me to burn less glycogen. Not only do I feel fresher, I’m much more efficient during my rides. The biggest bonus is how the efficacy translates to the run off the bike. I really hope this comes full swing on March 3rd.
The ride ended up being 120 miles with kJ burn of 4560! That represents more of a burn I’m expecting to burn during IM. I now  know how I should feel coming off the bike! Very exciting time of training for me. There are some equations that you can use to calculate the burn you will have if you hold ‘X” amount of power
The Sunday run was out at McLeans Island. Not super long but still a good test. I have been basing all my runs off heart rate so far for this build. Lots of people have switched to pace, but I really like HR and more old school methods when it comes to the run. Pace is getting quicker  each month at my zone I train at. Here are some pics of the run.

I love this straight.

15km of MTB trails just off to the left.

Waimakariri

Little fueling with my secret formula and some Base Salt.

Yes, I roll in compression socks and my FAVORITE shoes, the K-Swiss Konejo II. I’m eagerly awaiting to try the new Blade-Max series though.

Shakey Week

This has been a pretty shaky week since arriving back from the North Island. After another long haul of  9-10 hours of driving and a 3 hour boat crossing we arrived back to Christchurch on Tuesday morning (2am). Once Lindsay and I were settled in bed, we heard a rumble, and then we had a nice 5 second shake of 3.3 I think it was. Pretty much every morning around 2-4am we have had shakes. More to come on the bigger one we had this morning.

This week was another solid and consistent week for the log book. Received a nice surprise when I arrived on deck Thursday to see Bryan Rhodes! All the other guys are down south for the Tri New Zealand elite training camp. Rhodsey and I put in two days (Th, F) of 6km session.

Thursday was 1000 warm up, 4x25 Fly, 4x50 drill, 100 kick, 3x300 fast to slow+4x25 fly, 1000 Pull, 3x300 slow to fast, 1000Pull and

Friday we were 100o warm up, 8x100 and 200 Pull, 6x100+400Pull, 5x100+500Pull, 5x100+500 pull, 4x100+600 pull. The 100s were descending ending with 1:15s. It was pretty tough!

Saturday was a great long ride on the Quintana Roo CD 0.1  out near Porter Heights ski field. It was a VERY WINDY day which can be a good and bad thing. The set was 3x1hr Z3 and 40min 90-95rpm, 20 min/ 75rpm, 40min 90-95rpm/ 20 min 100rpm, 1hour Z3. Since it was so windy it was not going to be possible to turn where I had wanted. Going out the max speed was 16-18mph…..Coming home the average was 35-37 mph!!! It is not so much fun trying to holding power with so much power pushing you along!

Sunday was the day I was really looking forward to as it was the long run over the Port Hills. The day started off at 0247 this morning when the dressers slowly started banging the walls to REALLY banging against the walls. Next thing I know, Lindsay grabbed my arm pretty tight. It became pretty violent for 3 seconds then settled  for about another 6 seconds. We has a 5.0 this morning and it got the HR and nerves up pretty good. The rest of the day it feels as if you just departed a boat. You aren’t sure if the earth is shaking or if it is in your head!

After the nice wake up call in the morning, a good feed, we were off to the Port Hills for a big strength endurance run with lots of climbing!

5 min up climb

Traversing the climb. Can you see the trail?

The switch backs going up

Video from the top (WINDY)

I was very surprised at what happened today during the run. I guess it has taken 29 years and a serious injury to finally have some common sense when it comes to training. In my head I wanted to run for X amount of minutes. I never reached X amount of minutes because my ego did not get the way! I still have a few more Sunday sessions to go before I can reach X a few times! I also had a very good chat with x10 Ironman New Zealand winner about training and racing. He put lots of things in perspective for me. As athletes, some of us tend to train so hard that we have nothing left on race day. I was that guy.Sometimes to much ambition can be a negative.  Pay day is race day, and I will now be very careful with how much intensity I exert each session.

                            **************GIVE AWAY**************************

Ok, Wild Kiwi is owned and operated by my uncle. He has some very nice shirts. I will give away one shirt of your choice to a lucky winner. Please go to Facebook and like Wild Kiwi Clothing and give him a “Go Wild Kiwi”. Post on blog that you have done so and tell me shirt of choice and size from looking at website www.wildkiwiclothing.co.nz. I will then pick a winner. Or just give Wild Kiwi a like! Trying to get him more followers

JC

Tauranga Half And Wild Kiwi

GIVEAWAY!!!

Ok, Wild Kiwi is owned and operated by my uncle. He has some very nice shirts. I will give away one shirt of your choice to a lucky winner. Please go to Facebook and like Wild Kiwi Clothing and give him a “Go Wild Kiwi”. Post on blog that you have done so and tell me shirt of choice and size from looking at website www.wildkiwiclothing.co.nz. I will then pick a winner.

 

After a fantastic 10 days of training in Auckland it was time to head back to Tauranga to compete in the Tauranga Half. It is a quick 90 minute trip through beautiful green scenery which makes all trips that much faster. After meeting up with Team Wild Kiwi it was on!

The Half Ironman was on Saturday and I was entered in with Team Wild Kiwi. Jack was going to be our swimmer and I was going to be doing the bike-run. Jack is extremely talented athlete and is well versed in all sports. He is one of those guys who can show up to any events with minimal training and do well. Jack decided to do the swim and probably did 5-6 swims max before tackling the 1.2 mile effort. Jack came out of the water in 35 minutes!! Pretty incredible since he is not a swimmer. Here is Jack and I after the race.



The goal for me on the bike was just to execute IM goal watts. It wasn’t too hard to hold back as the pro men had a 40 min head start. Although we were up front in our race, there was no rabbits to lure you along to do something stupid. I ended up riding very strong and easily holding IM goal watts. Was my split close to the lead men splits? No, but that was not the goal of the day.

Bike Nutrition:
x2 bottle: Bottle #1 and #2  was two scoops of horley’s electrolyte powder, 1 scoop base amino, pinch of base salt.
x2 trail mix bar

The run included two loops around Mount Maunganui as was beautiful. The run is all along the drag in town and is littered with support. I had not run 13 miles off the bike since Sept 11, so it was going to be a great test. I ran steady and used it as a solid training day. Great news was that knee held up! The confidence is growing and it perfect timing since the mileage is going to be turned up.
Caught some flack from team manager and owner of Wild Kiwi for stopping and having two 5minutes chats during the run! Still managed a 1:40.

Of course we had to have Burger Fuel after the event!

JC

Training in Auckland

We have been in Auckland for the past 10 days and the training has been fantastic! It is a nice change to Christchurch since there are so many hills around this area! I have used this past 10 days as a solid strength training block. The running here is also great with many trails minutes from the front door.
Once you head out the door it’s about a 10 min jog to get to the start of the main trail head Lindsay and I have been running, and it is a nice hilly route to get there. I think a big focus of the beginning of the year needs to be incorporate lots of hills to develop and strengthen the quads. Since they compliment the heart to make efforts and distances much easier to sustain later in the year. Strong quads will also reduce risk of injury around the knee as well. Trust me, I know:). The more you use and activate the powerful quads the better off you are in my mind.

Below is the part of the climbs I run aerobically up. So, head to hills regularly to keep the quads strong which will help keep a good knee lift throughout the duration of your running or triathlon events. Now this is Cameron Brown country back here, and I now know why he is such a strong runner who can hold his form so well, especially during IMNZ each year. He dominates it that run!

I’m on a huge injury prevention, cover all the bases mission this year. I just wish I could back to my 21 year old self and tell him/me to stretch and strengthen everything. Then again, I don’t think my 21 year old self would have listened at all. I have been working lots on ankle flexibility…WHY? Because the device is in Cameron Brown’s house, so I’m doing it! I’m also using the TP Massage ball kit daily!! This is the must have item for all athletes. I swear by this device. I spent lots of time on the quads, IT band, and TFL.
                                    
Today was in training was a steady Z2/3 ride followed by a 60 min transition run with 4x4’ hill efforts. This was a huge day for me as the two previous days were 45 min and 90 min runs. Good to know that the knee is holding up. Since I logged a good three hours I earned myself a treat!!!
                





Until next time…