Jan Run #'s

Run summary for January.

Total miles:  115.25 (average 9:44/mile)
Total runs: 27 (26 of 31 days)
Shortest run:  2.08 miles
Longest run:  8.32 miles
Slowest run:  2.61 miles @ 10:51/mile
Fastest (non race) run:  7.82 miles @ 9:18/mile

The 115.25 miles is the second most miles I've ever run in a single month.  Falling only 4 miles short of August 2009, the month leading up to IM Wisconsin.

Sunday Six

Six mildly interesting things from my week.

1)  Swim clinic Saturday was very useful.  I apparently can't think and swim at the same time.  When given more than one thing to focus on everything goes to hell.  Regardless, I now have three or four things to work on to improve my stroke.  Focusing on one at a time this should keep me occupied for a good month. 

2)  Still can't flip turn.  If I could figure out the water up the nose thing I might get it, or at least be willing to pursue it further.

3)  Bike tests last week went well.  Both tests brought roughly 20 watt improvements over the previous tests.  My 5 minute power (240 watts) is about where I'd like my 1-hour power to be.  Not sure I can get it there, but going to give it the old college try.  Twenty minute power is at 200 watts.

4)  Took a full day off of swim-bike-run training today.  My first this month.  I did not intend to work out everyday up to this point, it just sort of worked out like this.  

5)  I spent said day off on the mountain bike.  Seven plus hours at Rays Mountain Bike Park in Milwaukee with Patrick.  Lots of fun, nice to pedal a bike and actually have it go somewhere.  Even if it is just round and round inside an old Menards.

6)  Surpassed 100-miles of running for January on Friday night.  At about 106 now with 2 more runs scheduled before the end of the month.  Still liking running.

That's all.  One week down, 29 more until IMMT.

Swimmin'

Swimming has me frustrated.  Earlier in the month I was so frustrated with it I was about to go off on a huge rant about my lack in progress with swimming.  Then I had the realization that I didn't have any right to rant, or to be frustrated for that matter.  I simply haven't done any work that would result in any swim improvement.

So the brainstorming began.  The obvious thing, swim more.  And I intend to do that.  I thought about swim every day for a month, but I just don't see it happening.  But for February I'm thinking it is to be a swim heavy month.  19-20 sessions over the course of the month.

2nd.  Lessons.  I signed up for a swim clinic.  It's only one lesson, this Saturday.  But it is a start, and will hopefully get me started in the right direction.

Finally, intensity and goals.  I'm going to focus at least initially on short hard sets.  Not the entire swim, but at least portions of each swim.  I can swim a 25, with a good wall push, pulling and kicking hard, and only breathing every 4-6 strokes, in about 20-21 seconds. 

First goal, get that down to 19 seconds consistently.  From there I'm going to shoot for the following times at longer intervals:

50 - 45 sec (1:30/100)
100 - 1:40
200 - 3:30 (1:45/100)
500 - 9:00 (1:48/100)

Those are pretty ambitious goals for me.  But it gives me something to shoot for in the near term.  I can't get faster at triathlon distances until I can get faster at the short stuff.

30 wks

Thirty weeks until IM Mont Tremblant.  Seems like it should be time to start training with some focus.  When I did IMWI in 2009 I followed a 30-week plan.  G followed a 30-week plan when she did IMWI last year.  So it only seems right that I have a 30 week plan.

But I don't.  I don't really have any plan to get me to IMMT.  And for now, I'm ok with it. 

Biking, I'm six weeks into Jorge's winter cycling plan over on Beginner Triathlete.  Averaging 4-5 hours a week.  Fairly high intensity.  Next week is test week.  I've been dreading it all week, not quite losing sleep over it, but close.  First, 20 minutes all out is not fun.  The 5 minute all out test isn't so bad, but that 20-minute test, it hurts, for way too long.  Then there are the results. Big improvements?  Great, my following workouts just got that much harder.  Little/no improvement?  What the hell am I doing wrong?  It's almost a no win situation.  I do feel like I'm getting stronger.  We'll know shortly.

10 more weeks on Jorge's plan brings us to the beginning of April.  Prime time to start riding outside.  Not sure where I'll go for my structure at that point.

Running is going along fine.  Up to about 27 miles a week.  Still running 6x a week.  Still doesn't feel like I'm running much at all.  My longest run has been just over 8-miles.  Everything easy.  Winter has been very cooperative until very recently.  Twice this week I've shortened runs due to weather.  Thursday it was snowing and maybe 5 degrees F.  About 2 miles in I could feel snow freezing in the corner of my eyes.  Time to turn around and head back to the office.

This afternoon I was out in a light freezing rain which resulted in icy sidewalks and wet then fogged up glasses.  And it was windy.  So I couldn't see, running on ice, and I had to avoid the wind, cause it still wasn't exactly summer.  The hell with it.

I actually have this run plan/build set up to take me all the way to IMMT, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to keep at it through spring/summer.  This is a fairly quiet time at work, so running 4-5 days a week at lunch is doable.  Come spring who knows.  I'd love to be able to keep at it like this, I just don't know if it will work.

Swimming.  Swimming is coming along slowly.  To sum up my progress, I almost swam a 200 yesterday, but my son apparently can't count and we came up one length short.  That has been my longest interval so far.  1,500 has been my longest session.  Still swimming with the kids, mostly at open swim.

There are lots of good things about swimming with the kids.

1.  I'm swimming harder, pushing myself to keep up.  With P it's an all out effort just to stay next to him, if he's trying.  With Mel, I'll give her 5-yards then try to catch her.  Either way I'm not just lazily swimming along.

2.  Neither one of them likes rest between intervals.  It's open swim, they want to get back to playing.  I pull them in individually for short sets throughout my swim, so the sooner we're done, the sooner they play, and the less rest I get.

3.  I'm learning new things.  Today's lesson was flip turns.  I doubt I'll be doing them anytime soon.  But I tried.  Most efforts left me sitting on the bottom of the pool.  At least the kid's got a good laugh.  Mel is determined to teach my how to butterfly as well.  I can't even dolphin kick well.

4.  And perhaps most importantly, I actually want to go to the pool.  I still have no desire to solo swim.

But I have absolutely no swim plan, I know what kind of volume and sessions I need to build up to.  Just no plan per se.

And there you have it, 30-weeks until IM Mont Tremblant.  Fasten your seat belts, keep your hands in the car at all times, enjoy the ride.

Streak

My 2012 running streak may be over.  I had no intention of running every day, for any period of time, but I have run on each of the first 11 days of 2012.  Starting with the 5-mile New Year's Day Dash and including an 8+ mile outing.  11 runs, 45.5 miles in total.

Yesterday I ran in shorts, it was 50 degrees, sunny, no wind. Today it's supposed to top out around 20 degrees, the wind is whipping, and it's started to snow.  We're looking at maybe 6-inches of the white stuff.  This weather in and of itself wouldn't normally be enough to stop me, but I also have a lunch time obligation
today.  Lunch is when I typically run.

So the streak may end.  I'm ok with it.  I may be out running in Stoughton at 6:00 tonight, but it'll have nothing to do with extending the streak one more day :)

Goals - B

B in this instance would be bragging rights.  It is my full intention during 2012 to unify all the meaningful endurance titles within the household.  And my meaningful, I mean anything that doesn't rely entirely, or significantly, on swimming. 

G and I likely split these titles fairly evenly at this point, but we can't have that any longer.  It's time to put my foot down and show her who wears the pants tri/running shorts in this family.

As far as triathlon goes G holds the sprint and olympic distance triathlon titles at this point.  The sprint title will be mine after J-Hawk in late April, the site of our first triathlon, and a race G has done 3 or 4 times now.  I'll need to go around 1:24.  Should be a cake walk, if the weather cooperates, which it usually does not do.

As for the olympic, a return to Lake Geneva and the Bigfoot Triathlon seems in order.  G and I did this race together in 2008.  She started 10 minutes after me and we popped out of the water right next to each other.  Did I mention I can't swim?  This was my only olympic race, she has done a couple.  I think I'll need to go about 2:52 to take this one down.  Probably be my toughest challenge, given the long swim relative to the rest of the race.  This distance may be removed from the "meaningful" list depending on how I do.

I hold the the half and full Ironman belts already, but just to remove any potential asterisk in the record book, I'll be shooting to beat G's Door County record of 5:48 at Kansas, two weeks before Bigfoot.  The asterisk, in case anyone is  wondering, or reading, is due to the  fact that I finished the 2009 Racine 70.3 in 5:35, but the swim was way short.  My swim time was around 13 minutes faster there than at any other half I've ever done.  So, we'll shoot for 5:48, in 2009 I think I finished Kansas at 6:14.  As for the Iron, I'm no longer concerned about losing that title, but I'll hopefully cement it's legacy at Tremblant anyway.

As for stand alone run events, I'm not entirely sure where we stand on those.  She's been running long before I even thought about toeing a line, so without significant research I don't know the standings.  Therefore, in 2012 I'll plan on running at least one of each common run distance.  I think I have them all included in my race plan for the year, but I'll have to go back and check. 

The big caveat here is the marathon, she's finished two, I've registered for two, started one, finished none.  I'm contemplating one post Ironman, I just don't know that I'll have the motivation to keep training for another couple of months. Maybe 2013, destination type race, Kel?

And there you have it, the B goals, almost completely, totally, partially in jest.  Almost.

Tired

Got up this morning at the crack of stupid for my first morning swim of the season.  Oddly, I was actually looking forward to it since my eldest was to join me.  So like a kid on Christmas morning I woke up at 4:00 and never really got back to sleep before the alarm went off at 5:00.

Woke boy wonder and we were at the pool by 5:30.  I thought I'd need to push him to get moving but he was in and did 50 yards before I even hit the water.  The swim itself was uneventful.  I was getting tired after about 1,000 yards.  At this point in training I don't see any point in pushing once I feel my form falling apart so I called it a morning after 1,100.

I really enjoy swimming with my kids.  They are both excellent swimmers, and being able to share training time with them is pretty exciting.  P and I discussed it last night and agreed to do this twice a week.  We have a slight disagreement between Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Thursday, but either way I'll do whatever it takes to not have to swim alone.  If I can manage this and mix in one or two weekend swims with them or the whole family, the worst part of Ironman training may just turn into the best part.

Other than being completely out of it at the moment, the worst part of the morning was leaving the pool while it was still dark outside.  I am not a morning person.

Goals - A

A, as in arbitrary.  These are the goals I'm setting for 2012 that are completely arbitrary, but if I hit them, I should be on a good track to hit the more meaningful goals I'll lay out in a later post.  Unless otherwise noted, I intend to hit these numbers prior to IMMT in August.

Swim - 100 miles.  Shouldn't be a problem.  In 2009 training for IM-Wisconsin I came up just short of this number, but was happy with how my swim training prepared me for the race.  I see no reason to spend much more time in the pool this go round.

Bike - 5,000 4,000 miles.  I've gone back and forth on this one a lot.  I really really want to say 5,000 miles by IMMT, but I just don't think it's reasonable.  So let's say 4,000 training for IMMT and 5,000 in total for the year.  It's still a stretch, but I need to set at least one goal that will be tough to hit.

Run - 1,000 miles.  This shouldn't be a problem either.  I've started to build a solid base already this winter and intend to continue this into spring.

That's it, three largely meaningless numbers to target, but like I said, hitting these should put in good shape for IMMT and other more meaningful athletic related goals I have for the year.

Average

That is me.  Average.  At least in today's race, among the men.  Finished 92 out of 184.  Little below average in my age group, much better than last year, when I finished dead last in AG.

When I woke up this morning all I could hear was the wind howling.  I knew it was supposed to be windy, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be.  Temps were in the low 30's, 20ish mph winds.  Lovely, but still much better than last year. 

Then to top things off, while still in bed, I hear the snowplow come down the street.  Great.  But it was worse than snow, a nice little layer of ice came down overnight.  Welcome to 2012.

And there is your setting to the 2012 New Years Day Dash.  5-miles of fun and excitement to start your year.

My race number, only interesting because it also happens to be our house number.

I do really need to start taking pictures at these events.  For today that is all you get.

Typical prerace, but within the first 100-200 yards of starting it was clear that this wasn't going to be a fast race, at least for most. It was slippery.  Much of the field immediately went to the grass between the sidewalk and the road.  Myself included.  Problem with this, other than the uneven footing, were the slippery driveways every so often.  Fun. 

I spent a good part of the race in the grass, either off the road, or off the bike path.  The concrete curb and gutter at the edge of the road was often the second best option, but the road was very hit and miss.  Sometimes it was good, then it got real slick without warning.

Other than the obvious difficulties of running under these circumstances, when running in the grass or at the road edge, the course basically became a no passing zone.  Settle in behind the one in front of you, or risk passing and going down on the ice.  I only saw one fall, but my friend Wade went down three times.

All things considered, it was still a good race.  The wind was coming from a direction where we didn't spend a lot of time going directly into it.  Lots of cross wind and the occasional tail wind.  I spent a lot of time taking off a hat, or a glove, or unzipping, or bundling back up for a turn into the wind.  Things you get used to running in Wisconsin in the winter.

Finished in 42:28 with unofficial splits of 8:58, 8:52, 8:17, 8:20, and 8:00.  Happy with my time all things considered, was hoping to run 41 on a dry course.  Registered today for the Point Bock Run in early March.  Another 5-mile run where I set my PR of 39:20 at this distance in 2010.  That PR is definitely going down come March, provided there is no ice.