If a 6 month old can go swimming at -0F…

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Dad

Well, it seems that a number of us are still wimping out about getting back into the pool in the New Year.  Of course the Endurance Nation folks gave some of you a reprieve based on their _STRONG_ opinion that if you could swim the Ironman 2.4 miles in 1:15:00 or less, that in the Off Season you should ‘STOP swimming’ and focus on speed on the bike and run…details in an earlier post:

https://irondaughterirondad.com/endurance-nation-says-outseason-key-3-stop-swimming/

Sadly, I’m not in that group at an optimistic 1:30:00 now…maybe…okay, well ‘was’…alright…never really _did_ swim it that fast but could have…I thought…maybe

…so felt that I would benefit from 2 days a week of swimming in the Off Season…1 drills/lesson, 1 form focused speed.

As it turns out, my 6 month old grand-daughter is first in line for her swimming lesson these days at her local YMCA…even in the -0F temperatures of her native Canadian winter…and youngest in the class…and most enthusiastic.

…knowing the competitive nature of her loving parents, it’s going to be no time at all before they have her challenging her ‘Popsie’ to a few laps in the pool…and triathlon and Ironman can’t be far off.

Okay, okay…I’m going to find my Speedo and get over to the pool.

Geez…I feel like the old, seasoned quarterback when the young whippy-wristed youngster shows up in training camp

🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Swimming | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Try yoga online

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Dad

With my recent hamstring warning shot, I’m back into yoga with more frequency, to make sure that I’m getting stretched out a bit.  My introduction to yoga was a ‘Men’s Only’ class many years ago…details in an earlier post:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/mens-only-yoga/

Recently, I find the easiest way to fit it in, is online…I use:
http://www.myyogaonline.com/

Rather a cool website, in that they have a wide range of yoga classes available…all online…all instant…and for any amount of time and type and level of yoga that you’re looking for…oh…and at $9.95 a month for as much yoga as you can stand, quite a bargain 🙂

Of course, there are benefits to going to a ‘live’ yoga class…most useful, would be correcting positions to be more accurate…(in some classes there’s a lot of instructor involvement…in others none)…or the camaraderie of being with your buddies in a class…or the energy of being in the class with others…or the ‘quiet, focused atmosphere’ of a yoga class, or being inspired by the other students or live instructor…or a particularly interesting instructor, or…

Offsetting that however, is the elimination of the time overhead of finding the right class, with the right instructor, at the right time, on the right day, and getting there ahead of time, and getting ready, and driving back.

I like a Vinyasa style class…fast paced, flowing yoga style…and even on a busy day, there are a couple of 30 minute classes with instructor Clara Roberts-Oss that find myself heading to…online…that I can fit in between calls and email.

I do find that it’s harder to shed the day off in an online class…so may not be as good for the mind as a live class…although I do find that I often get a class in, that otherwise just wouldn’t happen…so better for the body than skipping it. 

Of course, the best of the yogi’s don’t need an online program at all…a cave and a candle, and they’re all setup…I’m not quite there…yet 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, yoga | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I’ve got a cape. I think I can make it.

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Dad

One of my all-time favorite cartoons

…reminds me _so_ much of _so_ many elements of my life along the way…including Ironman

…cracks me up every time I see it 🙂

I just must make this into a t-shirt for training.

Click on the image for a bigger version.

from the comedic mind of Jason Love

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

I’m _really_ liking these bike workouts

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Dad

I’m on a Short and Fast workout protocol in the ‘Off Season” (OS) so far, following the Endurance Nation workout schedule.

I have to tell you…I’m _really_ liking the bike workouts…tweaked my hamstring on the run workouts…so it’ll be a few weeks before I’m cranked back into that… at least…but the bike…very cool.

Here was my workout from Saturday, on the tri bike, on the static indoor trainer…total time was 1 hour 20 minutes:

  • Warm-up: 10′ (minutes) easy,
  • then 3 x 3′ @ 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard with (1′) easy spinning between each one
  • Main set: 2 x 8′ (2′) @ 95-100%/Z4/Hard
  • Then 2 x 15′ (2′) @ 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard

My current FTP (Functional Threshold Power) is 255W (Watts) so, for this workout my targets for power were:

  • 80-85%/Z3/Mod-Hard = 204W – 217W
  • 95-100%/Z4/Hard = 242W – 255W

…notes as I entered them in my training log…some notes for clarity added in brackets for this post:

as planned, 3×3′ in 20 min warm-up @ Z3 206W (Watts), 205W, 206W,
…then Main set 2×8′: 244W, 247W…HR (Heart Rate) running up to mid 140HR’s and staying there again, so pretty much on the money…could move it up a hair probably
…2×15 Z3: 208W, 210W… I think that I can move up those Z3 sections to 215W, since HR is low 130HR’s avg… – pretty strong workout, CP60, 204W, 214W norm…entire workout 189W, 205W norm
– I really do like these bike workouts with a balance of Z4 and Z3, like today with 16min Z4, then 30 min Z3…feel like I’m get a good balance of Threshold (95-100%) and then Endurance (80-85%) 
– and for an indoor trainer workout, the time goes quickly

I have my computer setup with an Internet connection in front of the bike setup, so can watch stuff with Netflix online…although I find during the Hard sections, fast paced, techno music is a better fit…so on Saturday ‘Spartacus’ on Netflix and BPM on XMradio.

At the end I was surprised to see that it was an hour and 15 minutes into the workout, so bit of a cool-down and done…cool!

Posted in Achieving Goals, Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Training | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Pulled hamstring…ouch!

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Dad

It’s been an interesting exercise week for me.  On my run last Sunday, on the first 1/2 mile acceleration of the workout I pulled my hamstring on my left leg…usual ‘pull’ thing…sudden sharp pain in the middle of the hamstring…ouch!

So I stopped and walked it home…it had become a dull pain…but no problem walking…so that was good…it took me a couple of days to _admit_ that I’d actually pulled it…just a bit of a strain…well, it’s that _sharp_ pain thing that’s the pull part.

I’m usually very sturdy…and have very few injuries over years…a bum knee yes…and a ‘pulled’ calf muscle a few years ago…cranky recovery before I could ‘trust’ it again…but I haven’t generally seen lots of little things hamper me like a lot of my Iron Buddies…so this really wasn’t expected…if anything I thought a calf issue may pop up again.

…I have been doing more short and fast workouts this season…but I’m over a month into doing that…and my mileage hasn’t shot up in the past couple of weeks…although there was the run test last Thursday, so maybe some residual weakness on top of other accumulated speed stuff…the fast downhill was the trigger though.

Where we live now is all hills all the time…I have been making mental notes of the hilliest of the sections, and been avoiding the fastest work on the steeper downhills…this was on a rather modest downhill, but still obviously led to too fast a speed for the muscles to handle, and they showed their displeasure…note to self:

stay away from _any_ downhills for fast speed workout intervals…always!

…whatever the exact cause, my hamstring decided to give me a warning shot…the ‘pull’ was 20 minutes into the run, after a proper warm-up, on a rather cold day.  My Main Set workout for the day was scheduled to be 2 x 1/2 mile, and then 1 mile Z4 Hard, on 3 minutes rest…so not really horrible…half way through the first 1/2 mile it went out. 

There are 3 levels of hamstring pulls in modern medical definitions…luckily, mine is the lowest level, and appears to be more of a warning shot than debilitating…no bruising, no follow-up pain…can fully extend my leg without pain…can pull up my foot against the bottom of a shelf with no pain…all good things.

Hamstring injuries can be very cranky…and continue to pop up once weakened…and if bad enough, have a _long_ rehab…I was therefore interested to see how workouts were going to go this week 🙂 …those darn stubborn age-group athlete’s

Light yoga on Monday to stretch things out a bit, and see what’s going on…did get one sharp tweak at one point…rats…by Tuesday no pain, but some stiffness in the hamstring…the real good news was that my bike workout on Tuesday wasn’t impacted at all…strong workout, no hamstring issues…so very good…and since I was warmed up, took a very light run off the bike for 25 minutes…no issues…so good…and a followup run on Wednesday…very light to light…I was going to be really irritated with myself if I came up lame again…but didn’t..and good solid bike ride on Thursday…so good…Friday rest day.

…rest, rehab, doctors, massage, are all options for a hamstring pull…so why run a few days after?…bit risky I knew, but I guess I needed to know how bad it really was by running on it, not from an ‘opinion’…just having moved into the area, I don’t yet have a doctor…went to a local ophthalmologist for an eye exam the other day that was long overdo, and when asked who my family doctor was, I said “I guess you are” 🙂

Soooo, planning to keep the running light to very light, until it feels back to normal…right now there’s still a bit of a stiff spot, although no pain, so feels like I can keep it lightly moving…and getting back to the yoga to get stretched out…yoga had fallen out of the mix…and probably lay off the swimming for another week anyway since the kicking brings the hamstring into play…okay okay…maybe a therapeutic swim…I do need to get back into the pool…and continue to hammer the bike workouts…and probably do some research to find a good local sports doctor and massage therapist…just to be ready.

Could be that Iron Dad is a bit rusted…_exactly_ what Iron Daughter has been counting on…stay tuned 🙂

Posted in Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Recovery, yoga | Tagged | Leave a comment

How many push-ups can you do?

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Dad

I was talking with a long-time friend and business associate today, that’s been reading our blog, and having a chat about the challenge of consistency and discipline…and the ebb and the flow as we try to keep it all going all the time.

He’s a personal trainer, and works with a lot with seniors…and turning 65 this year said that he too had a goal…to do 65 push-ups…one for every year…and he’s in on this deal with another friend of his who’s even older, doing his age=push-ups.

We had a laugh when I said “what over 3 days…like is there a time limit on this?”… reminds of when I tell people about the Ironman…similar response to the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run thing 🙂

My immediate thought…and still was late in the evening…is that if I wanted to even try to do any push-ups it would need to be on a day when I had lots of recovery days in front of me…having just written a post about stiff muscles seemed way to timely…and I’m sure that I’d be totally embarrassed at the effort..a few foo-foo yoga ‘planks’ just are not enough to get me ready for a push-up war.

But it did lead me to think about specificity of training…for another post…but more specifically about push-ups.

When I was growing up, push-ups and sit-ups, and how many you could do within a specific time period were the benchmarks of fitness…and I could do a lot…and then Dr. Ken Cooper added on the idea that you might want to add a run onto that equation for fitness definition in 1968 with his breakthrough book Aerobics

…and I remember wearing out his later book called Aerobics Program For Total Well-Being: Exercise, Diet , And Emotional Balance, and still have it on my bookshelf…published in 1985.

Ah, but to keep it going…whatever that ‘it’ is for you…over days, weeks, months, years, decades…a lifetime…that’s a real trick.  For me there’s been an ebb and a flow…the gods of fate allowing, I’ll be standing at the starting line of my 5th Ironman in Florida this year…with my daughter…unbelievable.

But you know, 65 push-ups seemed like a lot to me…so I looked it up…turns out that it is.

The Army ROTC says that for age 62+, 50 push-ups is 100 percentile…(their ‘official’ chart stops at 52-56, where 100% is 56 push-ups)…that is to say, at 50 push-ups at 62+, you can do more than 100% of their testing base…like _all_ of them…everybody…like have the world record…dang.
http://www.armyrotc.mtu.edu/Materials/APFT.pdf

So looking for confirmation…

Lance Armstrong’s website, www.livestrong.com says 

For males in their 40s, completing over 25 push-ups is excellent. Doing 13 to 24 push-ups is good, but performing fewer than nine needs improvement.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/177164-push-up-standards/#ixzz1AyhRcIzX

Well that’s obviously pretty wimpy…I guess not many age 40+ cyclists trying to get into the Army…good thing…they can’t get in with those results…according to the Army standards, the Armstrong ‘excellent’ level of 25 push-ups is only middle of the pack…49th percentile…if you’re 40 years old, you need to be able to do 34 push-ups…60th percentile…to get in.

…and just one more example of a constant theme: expert opinions and studies are all over the place, so _always_ consider the source and test sample of anything that you read

So my friend, at 65 push-ups…as it turns out at _any_ age is so over the top it’s totally incredible…there’s only one thing left as far as I can see that I could possibly suggest…increase the intensity…the triathlete bike equivalent is called ‘VO2 Max Intervals in the Pain Cave’…(more on that in a future post).

I found a video of the equivalent in the push-up world…enjoy…let me how they work out 🙂
(full screen by clicking on the small rectangle in the lower right corner of the video once it starts to play)

play-sharp-fill
Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, strength training | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why are muscles stiff after overexertion exercise

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Dad

As I felt my quads slowly stiffen up the next day from the running test last week, I was reminded that no-one _really_ knows why that happens, or indeed what it is…and one of my Iron Buddies asked me yesterday about what to do about stiff muscles…so here it is 🙂

Medical science isn’t very highly evolved in _really_ understanding how the human body works…we’re really at the stone age level of knowing if we cut this or that, what might happen…or if we do ‘this’ something gets better…usually…but understanding how it all _really_ works, is well beyond our current understanding.

Lot’s of website references on how to ‘treat’ stiffness (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness…DOMS), but not what causes it in the first place

The Mayo Clinic says:

Cold first: To relieve pain associated with sprains and strains, it’s usually best to first apply a cold compress for about 20 minutes at a time every four to six hours over the first few days. Cold reduces swelling and inflammation and relieves pain. For a cold compress, you can use a cold pack, a plastic bag filled with ice or a bag of frozen vegetables; wrap it in a dry cloth or towel to help prevent frostbite.

Then heat: Start using heat after pain and swelling have decreased, usually two to three days after the injury. Heat relaxes tightened and sore muscles and reduces pain. Heat is usually better than cold for chronic pain — such as from arthritis — or for muscle relaxation.

Apply heat to the injured areas for 20 minutes up to three times a day. Traditional methods include using a heat lamp, hot water bottle, warm compress or taking a warm bath or hot shower.

…and one other reference for the record:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness

As athletes, we get stiff muscles, if we overexert…like in a race or in the maximal test that I did…you would think that someone would know why that happens, but there is no current consensus.

As I was growing up, ‘lactic acid’ was thought to be the culprit…sounds nasty enough…’acid’ and all that…could be it…well some call it ‘lactate’, although they are really different things, and come to find out that although it’s been thought to contribute to the ‘burn’ (acidosis) we feel while exercising…well wait now, that’s no longer the case…ongoing controversy on what causes acidosis in the first place…and lactate is gone out of the system within an hour, so generally off the table as a cause of stiffness…hmmm.

Recent attention has turned to a more or less logical thought that it’s due to minute tears or ruptures to the muscle fibres, and the surrounding connective tissue.  Elevated levels of an enzyme, ‘creatine kinase’, have been seen in blood samples of ultra-marathoners the next day, and deemed to have ‘leaked’ from damaged muscles…but why the ‘stiff’ feeling?

The long and the short of it, is that there a ‘theories’ but no final consensus.

So what?

The thing that I was reminded of is that we are all a science experiment of one…how our body reacts to exercise stress, this exercise program or that one, or this diet or that one, is very unique to us…more unique than we would ever dream possible.

With all the problems in the world, it’s not likely that an exhaustive research program will be launched to determine the root cause of DOMS.

If it really is torn up muscle tissue, should we continue to push those muscles and trash them further…probably not…although I know lots of buddies that do back to back workouts on worn body parts, and seem to be no worse for the wear

…an article at Livestrong.com on working out with sore muscles.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/344124-strength-training-with-sore-muscles/

Science experiment of one…the only thing that’s important is what works for you…oh…and see my recent post on how to adjust a workout if it’s just not happening 🙂

https://irondaughterirondad.com/what-happens-if-a-planned-workout-isnt-happening/

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, Recovery, strength training | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Calories burned on the bike…nobody knows

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Dad

In a chat the other day with one of my Iron Buddies determined to lose quite a few pounds before racing starts this spring…and a cycling fanatic…I told her that I was working on this post…so here it is 🙂

Seems like a simple enough question you would think…how many calories do you burn riding a bike?

Why is this important?…if you want to lose weight, there’s a HUGE difference in the calculators, so you could think that you’re burning more calories than you actually are.

…like for my 1 hour ride yesterday, the difference between 664 and 1181 calories…so over 500 calories difference…these are the 2 numbers in 2 different programs that I use…multiply that by a 3 hour ride…that’s a 1,500 calorie difference in your daily accounting.

My workout was on my tri bike on the static trainer, 60 minutes, 184W avg, 207W Norm power, with a main set of Hard intervals:

  • 10 minute easy warm-up,
  • 3 x 3 minutes @ 80-85% FTP (mod-hard) on 1 minute easy rest
  • Main Set of 3 x 8 minutes @ 95-100% FTP ( Hard) on 2 minutes easy rest
  • then cool down

The first…the 664 calories…is from my PowerTap power meter which calculated 664 kJ of work, which according to the PowerTap manual:

The total work done over the course of the trip or interval is shown in kilojoules. This value is a measure of the total energy expended over the course of your ride. This is roughly equivalent to dietary calories expended.

Enter the same workout into MyFoodDiary, and it gives me credit for 1,181 calories burned (by selecting 16-19MPH).

So which one is right?…turns out, nobody knows…or more properly, the opinions are all over the place…like wildly all over the place.

Here’s just one example from one cyclist in one forum that did a comparison on 4 different monitors, all operating on his bike during 5 actual rides

Respected cycling coach Chris Carmichael puts the bike calorie burn at 8-10-12 calories per minute up to 16 calories per minute when you’re _really_ pushing it…so in my 1 hour, on his scale let’s say 12 x 60 = 720 calories…or was it 13…or 11…you see the problem…since I was pushing it, but not for the full hour…more details in an earlier post:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/counting-calories/ 

…and trust me when I say there are thousands of other articles and opinions, about all of the variables, and why they’re so different, and all the factors such as your weight, and position on the bike, and hills, or wind, and type of bike, and weight of your bike, and efficiency of the human body, power measured at the wheel not accounting for the rest of the body, and whether it’s calculating incremental calories or total calories, and so on.

The Bottom Line

For me I use a PowerTap, and since it’s generally the lowest calculator of all, I just plug in that number..at least I’ll err on the low side.

…the caution is that if you use _any_ other method, it’s going to give you a higher number…and most of the time, _much_ higher…as we see in the chart above, it could be over double.

If it were me, without a PowerTap, I’d use one of the following methods to get the number closer:

  • for an easy ballpark number, I’d use the MyFoodDiary calculator…or equivalent, and lower it by 30%,
  • or read  One of many Carmichael articles and use that…he’s one of the lowest on the calorie burn opinions…and also promotes ‘Fast’ intervals as the best way to lose weight and improve your bike speed

Of course, you’d have to think that counting calories is worth the effort for any of this to be of any value anyway…but a discussion for another day 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Biking, Nutrition | Tagged | 3 Comments

Adjusting to snow and ice in the South

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Dad

As another BIG snow and ice storm rolled through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, I’m reminded that this is more than a little weird for the Southern triathlete…and it’s more disruptive than training in the more traditional snow belts, when you just go indoors in the winter, plan for it, and that’s it.

Growing up in Canada, I’m used to it…left to go south in part to have a more pleasant winter…ride outside year round…that sort of thing…but this year in the East, you have to go _really_ far south to do that…like south Florida or the Caribbean…North and South Carolina just don’t do it anymore.

So what to do?…I’m inside for the winter…I have my tri-bike permantly setup in my Kurt Kinetic static trainer…special trainer tire and all…and rollers also setup and ready to jump on with the road or mountain bike, if I’m looking for variety.  For years in Charleston, SC I’d watch the weather channel for days, trying to adjust and manage workouts for the ebb and the flow of the weather…and group ride leaders would do the same thing…it’s disruptive for training though…and I would look to the ‘rollers’ with dread if there didn’t look like a suitable break in the weather.

The weather this winter in North Carolina has made it easy…I’m not even going to worry about trying to find a day to ride outside…always the same climate indoors.  Over a lifetime I’ve run outside when it’s cold…and still do as long as the footing isn’t slippery…getting old I guess…and the gym treadmills are only 1 mile away as a default.

…so if you live in the in-between-warm-and-cold belt, consider just setting up properly and planning to train on the bike inside…Short and Fast…and include specific spinning classes if you like to sweat in a group at a specific time.

…I never thought that I’d enjoy it as much…I think largely because the ‘trainer’ was my lousy default if the weather was lousy…and I really didn’t have a planned workout for the trainer, so not much quality when I was ‘forced’ inside…and had to pull out my stuff, and get it setup which added to the pain.

…time really flies by when you’re flogging the effort indoors, and have planned for it, and executing the plan…and there is Netflix online…or great music on the stereo depending on my mood…and a table for my drinks…and a fan with remote control…and I know that’s what I’m going to do on any one day, so I get in the workouts as they come up without any second guessing for days in advance..and ride Fast

The good news is that I will be much faster when the snow clears than if I had a fragmented winter, trying to fit things in around lousy weather.

…and if a brilliant weather day shows up somewhere, and I get to take it outdoors…triple bonus points 🙂

Having said all that, there was that winter that we spent in West Palm Beach a couple of years ago…5 months…never wore a long sleeve shirt on a ride…flat and _Fast_ Lake Worth group ride on Saturday morning with 40-50 other riders, beside the ocean at 25-32MPH…priceless.

Posted in Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cool bike graphic

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Dad

To provide a break from some of my rather _heavy_ testing posts recently, here’s a cool bike graphic that came across my desk, with the component names in text…a very creative piece of work from Aaron Kuehn.

More info about the graphic on: http://aarline.info/ and subpage http://aarline.info/hotaar/?p=35

Posted in Biking, Dad's Blog Posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Testing completed…Ironman goals updated

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Dad

Interesting week, with the first bike and run tests of the new season completed…and very happy with how I executed them both…particularly considering that I haven’t done a maximal speed test in quite some time…so time to re-evaluate my training goals.

On November 27, 2010 I wrote about my 12 hour goal for Ironman Florida in 2011
https://irondaughterirondad.com/how-fast-to-go-to-hawaii/

And on December 6, 2010, broke down the bike further into a 20MPH goal…and felt that I’d need a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of 285 Watts to be in a position to race at 20MPH
https://irondaughterirondad.com/whats-it-take-to-bike-20mph-for-112-miles/

And on December 7, 2010, broke the run down to a 4:35 goal…and felt that I’d need a minimum 41 vDOT in a 5K test to get there
https://irondaughterirondad.com/whats-it-take-for-a-43500-ironman-marathon/

So a month later, my testing this week confirms my current position as a 249W (although with a more perfect test, maybe 255-260W) FTP, and 37 vDOT…and I’m feeling confident, that if the old body stays intact, my target 285 FTP and 41 vDOT are both doable….although frankly, both goals are an ambitious increase from my current fitness level.

My training plan for the next 14 weeks is primarily focused on Short, Fast and Hard workouts…to move these two test numbers up.  I then shift focus to the 12 week race preparation for the Vancouver Half Iron race…turning the Fast into Long….and then a 4-6 week transition and then a 12-14 week race preparation for Ironman Florida. Once past the first 14 weeks of the year, I wouldn’t expect my FTP or vDOT numbers to improve much, if at all…the idea is to be able to apply whatever speed I have 14 weeks from now, to the longer distances.

Whether I get there or not, I think is largely a matter of how much recovery time I’ll need between intense workouts…and therefore how much I may need to cut back the intensity or time-at-intensity of planned workouts…and therefore how much total high intensity work that I can get in over the next 14 weeks…so there’s bound to be some goal adjustment depending on how it all goes.

In terms of the bike, I have confidence that I can get there…although a bit of a reality check…I’ve _never_ been at a 285W FTP before…so on that criteria, ambitious to say the least…although for some obscure reason, my current 249W FTP, is almost my lifetime high number (250W for CP30 in 2006)

…although I always ‘zero’ the PowerTap at the beginning of every ride, that reminds me that it’s also time to get the PowerTap wheels sent in for service to get the calibration checked 🙂

In terms of the run, _if_ the bum knee holds up, I’m confident that I can get to a 41 vDOT. Since I’ve done so little speed work over the past few years,  I feel that I have a lot of room for speed improvement once I wake up the legs.  Fundamental to getting there will also be to lose 10 pounds in the next 14 weeks.  If it’s fat and not muscle, that theoretically gives me an extra minute in the 5K, and therefore a ‘free’ 2 vDOT points, so my 37 becomes a 39 starting point…I _really_ like the odds then.

Oh…and there is that swimming thing.  As I look at where I want to be on the bike and the run, as I’ve written earlier, I can see where the swimming may need to take a back seat for the next few months.  My general plan is to do a lesson/drills on Monday and form-focused-speed on Friday each week…I plan to adjust these if I feel that they’re interfering at all with the recovery for the bike and run workouts.

So what if Ironman Florida was 12 weeks away…today

Let’s see what my perfectly executed race plan would be, with my current numbers…I’ll use a 1:30 swim and 2 x 10 minute transitions for the calculation.

On the bike a 249W FTP …means that my race should be run at 70% of that (okay there’s a range, but I’ll use a single number for these purposes), so 249 x 70% = 174.3W, so let’s call it 175W.   In Ironman Florida 2009, I averaged 173W for an average speed of 18.6MPH, and a time of 6:01:44…in 2008 Ironman Florida I averaged exactly the same 173W (how freaky is that) for 18.9MPH, and a total time of 5:56:04…so let’s call it a 6 hour bike ride to be a hair conservative.

On the run, a 37 vDOT…means that my run ‘potential’ is a 10:49 pace, or a 4:43:36. so let’s call it 4:45 for a round number.

This all adds up to a 12:35:00 Ironman, with great conditions, and perfect race day execution:

  • 00:20:00: transitions at 2x 10 minutes
  • 01:30:00: swim
  • 06:00:00: bike
  • 04:45:00: run

So to get to a 12 hour potential, I’m going to need 35 minutes somewhere in the next 10 months.  Although there may be a few minutes in those transitions, I’m going to leave that for now, since the transition times could also easily be higher on race day, based on ‘bodily needs’.

  • 10 minutes: Swim: should be there
  • 20 minutes: Bike: If I can race plan at 200W, that would give me 24 minutes here (20MPH = 5:36:00)…so an FTP of 285W x 70% = 199.5W
  • 10 minutes: Run: although I’ve not run to my ‘potential’ in Ironman races so far…but it could be that I was actually pressing harder on the bike than I really should have, given my actual fitness level…a 41 vDOT would give me a 9:59/mile potential in the run, for a 4:21 potential, so 4:35 ‘should’ be doable

Sooo, it still feels ambitious…like a ‘stretch’ ambitious…but still doable…I guess if I can keep it that way all the way to race day, then in reality I will have achieved my current triathlon goal for the year…which is to show up on race day with a 12 hour potential for Ironman Florida.

To actually be able to convert that 12 hour potential into a 12 hour Ironman race, would be triple bonus points…but I see race day execution as a very separate and distinct goal from the training goals.

As funny as it may seem, for me it’s really more about the training ‘numbers’ than the racing ‘numbers’…and the associated life style…exercise and diet…that it encourages me to follow…and the great people that I meet and hang out with along the way as a result.

And of course, it wouldn’t be half as much fun for me to write this story after the fact, as it is going forward…it’ll be very interesting to see what ‘life happens’ stuff disturbes the perfect training plan…hopefully it’s not too jarring…and what adjustments that I’ll need to make to my ‘goal’ ideas…and ultimately what the gods of Ironman fate have in store on race day.

Having said all that…
I think it’s fair to say that you’ll never achieve a goal if you don’t have one 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Ironman Florida, Racing, Training | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How do you know that you need a back wax?

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Dad

Getting back to the pool next week, I’m reminded of a little personal grooming tip for the guys today.

If you’ve asked your friend to help zip up your wetsuit, and your back hair keeps getting stuck in the zipper
…you just might need a back wax

If you’re in Puerto Rico waiting for the hotel elevator from the pool, and a woman that you don’t know offers to shave your back for you
…you just might need a back wax

If you’re walking out to the ocean for a swim, and you notice that children are clutching their mother’s leg, and pointing at you
…you just might need a back wax

If you’re wondering if you should get a back wax
…you just might need a back wax

oh…and you _will_ swim faster 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Swimming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

5K run test nailed: 37 vDOT

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Dad

I did my run test yesterday, and it was about as good as it gets…well, not so much for the speed, which still needs work, but for the actual test itself 🙂

I felt smooth all the way through, and although my right quad was starting to sing with 5 minutes to go…and I knew that I’d feel it the next day…nothing traumatic through the end…I didn’t leave much on the table.

12.5 laps on local 400M track = exactly 5K (kilometers), so 4 laps = virtually 1 mile (1600 Meters / 1750 yards / .994 miles ) …1 mile is 1760 yards.

I clicked the lap timer, every 4 laps, so the time and average heart rates were:

#1: 8:12, 145HR avg, 149HR max (8:15/mile)
#2: 8:11, 152HR avg, 154HR max (8:14/mile)
#3: 8:06, 155HR avg, 158HR max (8:09/mile)
last 200 meters: :58, 157HR avg, 158HR max (7:47/mile)

So I had it cranked up to the top, and still eked out a negative split run (ended faster than I started)…here’s how it looked from the Heart Rate monitor..highlighted section the test…heart rate in red, speed in blue:

My pacing was eerily consistent, and almost exactly what I thought it might be in a Post that I wrote a month ago on December 9, 2010, after a 27:00, 5K sub-maximal run during a workout on a rolling hill course…I had said:

…so maybe a minute faster I’d say in an all-out test on a flat course, so 26:00 would give me a 36 vDOT, or maybe even a 25:30, for a 37 vDOT

https://irondaughterirondad.com/running-speed-picking-it-up-a-bit/

I used this prediction as the basis for my initial pacing in the test yesterday, and ended up with the 5K at 25:28…at an average pace of 8:12 per mile…and a 37 vDOT (actually 37.5 since 25:46 is a 37, and 25:12 is a 38)

…and since I run in an area that’s all hills all the time, my running Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) is particularly important since pace doesn’t stay constant going up and down hills

…a general testing protocol to establish a running LTHR is to take the average Heart Rate in the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute maximal test. Although I was specifically testing for pace/vDOT in this test yesterday, we can approximate my LTHR by taking the average HR for the entire test (151HR), and then for the last 2.1 miles (154HR), and see that my LTHR is probably between 151-154HR, which is 95-97% of my maximum 158HR for the day.  That tells me that my legs, not used to fast running for quite some time now, may have given out a bit before the heart…that, my friends, is a good thing 🙂

vDOT explained in more detail in a prior Post:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/running-pace-vs-heart-rate/

and what vDOT means to training and race pacing:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/whats-it-take-for-a-43500-ironman-marathon/

So what does this all mean

Well, to get it out of the way, I’m definitely slower than I was 5 years ago.  I’ve done very little speed work in the last few years…particularly since the knee started to act up a couple of years ago…and it shows.  In 2005, the last year that I was focusing on marathons, and the first year that I started triathlons, my 10K speed was 7:35 – 7:40/mile, as recorded on Oct. 15 (163HR max), and Nov. 26 (158HR max)…this would have given me almost a 44 vDOT…not likely to see those days again.

Fast forward to today…to meet my race goals for Ironman Florida this year, I predicted that by race day I would need a bare minimum vDOT of 38, and a preferred vDOT of 41 to leave a bit of room…so by those standards I’m in pretty good shape to get into that range, all other things being equal.

Jack Daniels, the developer of the vDOT concept, says that you should be able to raise your vDOT 1 point every 4-6 weeks if all is going well and your workouts seem to be getting easier…this means that by the time that I test again in another 6 weeks, I would ideally be at 39’ish, and in another 6 weeks after that at 40…in time to begin my 12 week race training focus for the Vancouver Half Iron.

During the race specific training, the idea is to turn that ‘fast’ into ‘far’, so I wouldn’t really expect to see any vDOT improvement after that, since my focus will shift to applying that speed to longer distances, rather than actually improving the speed…although the Half Iron training still has some speed stuff, so _might_ still see some minor speed improvement an optimist would say.

…and having said all that I do have a secret plan to still get to vDOT 41…lose 10 pounds…would technically make me 1:02 faster in a 5K, which is 2 vDOT point’s…seems like a no-brainer vs. pounding training for 8-12 weeks for the same 2 point improvement by just working out 🙂

https://irondaughterirondad.com/lose-weight-race-faster/

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Racing, Running | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What happens if a planned workout isn’t ‘happening’

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Dad

We’ve all been faced with it…a planned workout just isn’t going as planned.

One idea is just to press through, and push the workout according to the original plan…generally a bad idea though from my experience…unhappy and fried body parts are probably telling you something

…like “fogettaboutit…I’m gonna break something to get your attention if you don’t lay off”

This doesn’t mean wimp out a the first sign of exercise stress…it means, if things _really_ aren’t going well, adjust and come back for another day.

For me this is typically a bike ride or run where my legs are toast…I’m pressing hard, but my legs just don’t have enough juice to get my heart rate up.

The Endurance Nation folks…that promote a training style that is hard and fast…recommend that you adjust it this way:

  1. Cut the Interval Length but Keep the Intensity. IOW (in other words) if 2 x 15′ on the bike at 95-100% of FTP (functional threshold power) really isn’t working for you, can you do 3×10 with more rest or 4×7.5, etc.
  2. Do the Time but Drop the Intensity. If #1 doesn’t work, then get in your 2×15′ at 90% or 85% of planned intensity instead.
  3. Do the Time Only. If #2 doesn’t work, then just get your 45-60 minutes done.
  4. If You have Zero Motivation and #3 is Wicked Unappealing, Do Nothing. Stretch, core, etc is okay but take the day. Better to save now than pay later.

Or it you have longer term issues, like sickness or injury, or recovering from an accident, Coach Gale Berhardt says consider keeping the intensity and adjusting everything else, pointing to a real life example where due to a crash an athlete was severly restricted in what he could do, and still had remarkable gains doing Miracle Intervals, so something like this:

  1. Keep the intensity, but shorten the work interval and increase the rest interval
  2. Or, even increase the intensity but severely decrease the work interval and severely increase the rest interval

The final word

The one thing the experts appear to agree on is:

  • don’t be afraid to make an adjustment to a planned workout, if it’s really not happening for you
  • …and _really_ consider keeping the intensity by reducing the time at the intensity and increasing rest periods

…and then come back and crush it another day.

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, Training | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Never too soon to get started

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Dad

Well, the gym is packed again for the New Year…_truly_ all ages, shapes and sizes out in their new exercise togs…and treadmills and steppers and ellipticals that only a few weeks ago, were dusty, and forlorn, bravely standing at attention, while their bearings slowly dried out, are now pressed into action, creaking and humming under the weight of one sweaty and puffing ‘athlete’ after another…it’s all good of course.

And I’m reminded that it’s just not just the hard-core stuff that ‘counts’…if you’ve ever been at a wedding and danced the polka all night long as I have, with a conga line of eager aunts waiting their turn, you’d know what a _real_ workout is 🙂

…so never too soon…or too young…to get started with a bit of exercise…however it’s defined

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise | Tagged , | Leave a comment