The warmer than average November weather continued this week, and while we did get some rain we still have been fortunate enough to avoid snow so far. Unfortunately, the rain on Wednesday and Friday meant that I missed all but my long ride, and a combination of cool temperatures (~4C) and a strong, cold wind meant that I didn't end up going as far out as I would have liked. Either way, rain isn't much of an impediment to running so I managed to nail all of my scheduled miles this week and get a nice clean 40 miles.
I was originally going to try and do a simple brick session on Saturday by combining my long ride and the 4 mile recovery run. Near the beginning of my ride, however, I was stopped at an intersection and a nasty gust of wind managed to push me past my tipping point. While I'm pretty good at unclipping in emergency conditions, as I was already at a full stop my guard was down so my reaction time was slowed down enough that I didn't get my right leg out in time. I would have figured that after 6000+km on the bike I'd be over making ameteur mistakes like that, but apparently not :oP Naturally, zero-speed falls like this aren't a big deal so I just got back up and continued on. Either way, when I got home I figured it made more sense to clean off the scratches on my elbow (just superficial) so I elected to just reschedule the 4 miler for the next day.
This, in turn, moved my long run back to this morning. I was feeling a little tired at the beginning, so I intended to shorten it to 14 miles. Fortunately, once I got going it was actually pretty comfortable so I ended up doing the full 16 miles that I had planned. I did end up overdressing a bit, as when I checked the weather station before setting out it read 1.5C with a 30km/h north wind. As such, I switched over to long pants and a long sleeve base layer and ended up cooking for most of the route. While the ambient temperature and wind were cold, the sun was out in full force and more than offset their effects.
As for swimming, things pretty much went as scheduled. Thanks to some high school gym classes using part of the pool, my Tuesday and Thursday swim sessions were a little more crowded than usual. That meant that I had to move from the medium lane into the fast lane, so it did a bit to push me a little harder ;) The downside is that it limited what types of drills that I could do, as I had to avoid getting in other people's way so slow stuff like kicking drills were out.
It was also a bit of an issue as many of the swimmers spilling over from the slow lane didn't appear to be familiar with the protocols of sharing a lane very well. On the Tuesday session, for instance, when I popped my head up at one point I barely avoided ramming into two people on flutterboards kicking side-by-side while they chatted :oP One would think common sense would at least prevail in these circumstances, but apparently not...
Week 49 Totals:
Running: 64.4km (40.0mi)
Walking: 3.1km (1.9mi)
Cycling: 51.4km (31.9mi)
Swimming: 10.2km (6.3mi)
Total: 129.1km (80.2mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,429.9km (1,509.9mi)
Walking: 222.2km (138.0mi)
Cycling: 3,882.8km (2,412.7mi)
Swimming: 140.0km (87.0mi)
Total: 6,674.9km (4,147.6mi)
Tonight's triathlon swimming clinic will be the last session, so we're going to do a shorter swim than normal and then head out for drinks afterwards to finish things off. I still havn't figured out what I'm going to do after that. I did get a lead on a decent masters swimming class out of Thornhill from one of the other group members that I'm thinking about, however I'm not crazy about the idea of spending finite training time/energy on strokes that won't be useful for my races.
As for the schedule this week, it's again going to basically be the same as previous weeks. Those planned cycling sessions are more than likely just wishful thinking, but if mother nature remains agreeable I'll take every opportunity that I can get. With that said, the city has brine trucks out spraying the roadways during my run and corner markers for the snowplows are starting to pop up, so I will probably be bringing the bike into the shop either this week or next in order to prepare it for the trainer.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 16mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Wed 6mi Recovery, 30K Ride
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 7mi GA w/10x100m
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Contemplating Upgrades...
We've had a great streak of weather this winter, however it's coming near the end at this point so the bike will likely have to be switched over to the trainer soon. I'll be bringing it into the shop to have it tuned up and the rear tire and skewer switched over, and that has got me thinking about potential upgrades that I want to look into over the winter. I'm still riding on a mostly stock configuration of my bike, but as I'm looking at getting into some proper races next season it's likely worth considering a few additions to suit where I want to go with the bike.
Aerobars
The one major change that I'm looking into at this point is adding some aerobars onto the bike to better optimize it for what I'm going to be doing. As it stands, I'm currently riding on a conventional road configuration - using drop bars and a 73 degree seat tube angle. This is ideal for group rides and races where you have the benefit of a draft as it provides more responsive controls. In these scenarios, aerodynamics isn't a huge consideration as you are protected from the wind for large portions of the race/ride. In most Triathlons, however, drafting is not permitted so that balance changes a bit.
Without the protective sheath of the peloton, the aerodynamic drag of the rider and bike is the primary force that a rider's energy is fighting. At my normal flat ground cruising speed (~32km/h), for instance, approximately 78.5% of the power that I am producing is expended to cut through the air. Thanks to this, the market is flush with all kinds of expensive accessories to help improve the aerodynamics of the bike itself - deep dish wheels, wing shaped handlebars, water bottles, etc.
These can be useful tools, however the biggest contribution to drag by far is the rider sitting on top of all of that fancy equipment. As such, anything that can be done to get one's body into a more aerodynamic possition will often have much more effect than anything else you can do to the bike. Thanks to this, for events such as Triathlon, the addition of aerobars has the potential to provide a lot more bang for the buck than any other upgrade. The loss of responsiveness is also less of an issue, as the anti-drafting rules force riders to spread out allowing riders more time to react.
The tricky thing is that there are a wide variety of different designs out there, so selecting the appropriate equipment can be tricky for someone like myself that has no experience using them. Adding to the complexity is that I don't have the luxury of a second road bike, so the aerobars have to be configured in such a way that the bike can still be used in the road configuration when necessary (group rides, hilly courses, etc.). I can naturally defer to my bike shop to help me with the details of how to configure these components, however figuring out which parts to buy is something that I'd rather do on my own (as they're likely to push what they carry over other products which may better meet my needs).
On the other end of the equation, one thing that I do have going for me is that my particular bike model was explicitly designed to function well in both road and TT configurations. The seatpost head can be flipped into a different possition that allows it to provide either a 73 or 76 degree seat angle (partially thanks to a bottom bracket located slightly behind the centreline of the seat post), so by purchasing another head and saddle I can switch back and forth between both geometries. That allows me to use full length clip-on aerobars and get my body into a position that is difficult to achieve with most conventional road bike designs.
Either way, I still have a lot more research that I have to do in order to figure out what I'll have to move around to achieve what I'd like to do here. Simple factors like whether the aerobars are mounted above or below the handlebars make a significant difference in how everything is configured, and with competing parameters (eg getting enough drop for the aerobars while not pushing the normal handlebars too low) it's a complex equation. I will naturally have a fitter work out the details once I buy all of the bits, but I'm still a good deal away from that point.
The other, more indirect, benefit to adding aerobars to the bike is that it makes hydration a little easier in a race scenario. Reaching down or back to frame or saddle mounted bottles requires the rider to move out of their normal riding position, slowing down the bike. On a training ride that's not a huge deal, but during a race one has to think twice about when they want to do this and it can ultimately lead to taking in less fluid than one should. With aerobars, however, there are hydration systems (eg Aerodrink) that can mount directly on the cockpit so that the rider can drink without having to move out of position.
Cyclocomputer
I've posted a few times on this topic in the past and have been going back and forth with my choices for a while now, but it's getting to the point where I need to make a decission one way or the other. The tricky thing has been that each of the options has bits that I want, and all of them are missing somewhat critical pieces that another unit has. I had hoped for some new offerings from the vendors over the last year or so that would resolve that, but unfortunately there hasn't been a whole lot on that front.
Polar's CS600X has long been my favorite design amongst the group, however it has one critical flaw that is difficult to overlook. While Garmin's ANT+ protocol has seen wide adoption from third party power meter vendors, Polar's WIND protocol isn't supported outside of their own set of products. The more that I read about power training, the more and more important it seems to be so this is a major consideration on which computer I intend to go with. As ANT+ devices like Garmin and iBike offer a wide range of different choices on this front (Vector, Quarq, Powertap, SRM, etc.) that is a pretty significant edge.
Polar does have their own power meter, and while a novel solution its indirect measurement technique means that accuracy is sensitive to how it is installed. Without any local vendors that have experience installing the product, I'm concerned about how well they'll be able to set it up (and hence the validity of the information that it provides). I've also seen some degree of concern about its reliability, as the wires connecting the main sensor unit to the battery pod appear to come loose periodically.
As such, it's largely down to the Garmin Edge 705 and the newer Edge 500 models at this point in the game. The former has a colour screen and full navigation capabilities which are tempting, but the latter offers all of the core functionality for about half of the price (saving more money for an eventual power meter purchase). The 500 also has the advantage of a more modern design, such as accurate calorie computations (the 705 uses an older algorithm that is horrendously inaccurate) and a better heart rate strap (soft textile vs. hard plastic). It also has longer battery life and comes in a much smaller package. Further, judging by Garmin's behavour in the past it's also more likely to see substansive firmware upgrades in the future.
The iBike Aero is still on my radar, but it is significantly more expensive than the other options and has a bit of a kludgy design (limited UI, short life batteries, offboard wireless radio, etc.). I still love the idea of having air speed data, but I'm not sure that that's enough to offset the disadvantages of the design. iBike is rumored to have a new model coming down the pike in the spring that may resolve these issues, but without specific evidence that it addresses my concerns I've already waited far too long to make this decision.
I'll likely head over to some local shops to check out the two models once the Edge 500 starts coming into stock and make a decision at that point, however after thinking about this for nearly a year I really have to make a move ;) Naturally, if I'm going to get some aerobars mounted it's a good opportunity for them to install the new cyclocomputer and its sensors.
Naturally, I will want to add a power meter to the equation at some point in the future but that doesn't appear to be realistic at this juncture. The Metrigear Vector has the potential to open the door to that, however even at it's expected price it'll still likely take a while to save up the money to add that into the mix. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as it'll give the new product some time for a shake down in the market before I buy into it.
Either way, I'll be looking into more detail on these topics over the coming weeks and figure out which way I want to go but I wanted to get my thoughts in here in case anyone has any suggestions on either front. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist with these things, and that means I waste a lot of time digging for every shred of information I can find on all of my options. That helps to avoid making mistakes, but it also means that it can take me forever to come to a decision ;)
Aerobars
The one major change that I'm looking into at this point is adding some aerobars onto the bike to better optimize it for what I'm going to be doing. As it stands, I'm currently riding on a conventional road configuration - using drop bars and a 73 degree seat tube angle. This is ideal for group rides and races where you have the benefit of a draft as it provides more responsive controls. In these scenarios, aerodynamics isn't a huge consideration as you are protected from the wind for large portions of the race/ride. In most Triathlons, however, drafting is not permitted so that balance changes a bit.
Without the protective sheath of the peloton, the aerodynamic drag of the rider and bike is the primary force that a rider's energy is fighting. At my normal flat ground cruising speed (~32km/h), for instance, approximately 78.5% of the power that I am producing is expended to cut through the air. Thanks to this, the market is flush with all kinds of expensive accessories to help improve the aerodynamics of the bike itself - deep dish wheels, wing shaped handlebars, water bottles, etc.
These can be useful tools, however the biggest contribution to drag by far is the rider sitting on top of all of that fancy equipment. As such, anything that can be done to get one's body into a more aerodynamic possition will often have much more effect than anything else you can do to the bike. Thanks to this, for events such as Triathlon, the addition of aerobars has the potential to provide a lot more bang for the buck than any other upgrade. The loss of responsiveness is also less of an issue, as the anti-drafting rules force riders to spread out allowing riders more time to react.
The tricky thing is that there are a wide variety of different designs out there, so selecting the appropriate equipment can be tricky for someone like myself that has no experience using them. Adding to the complexity is that I don't have the luxury of a second road bike, so the aerobars have to be configured in such a way that the bike can still be used in the road configuration when necessary (group rides, hilly courses, etc.). I can naturally defer to my bike shop to help me with the details of how to configure these components, however figuring out which parts to buy is something that I'd rather do on my own (as they're likely to push what they carry over other products which may better meet my needs).
On the other end of the equation, one thing that I do have going for me is that my particular bike model was explicitly designed to function well in both road and TT configurations. The seatpost head can be flipped into a different possition that allows it to provide either a 73 or 76 degree seat angle (partially thanks to a bottom bracket located slightly behind the centreline of the seat post), so by purchasing another head and saddle I can switch back and forth between both geometries. That allows me to use full length clip-on aerobars and get my body into a position that is difficult to achieve with most conventional road bike designs.
Either way, I still have a lot more research that I have to do in order to figure out what I'll have to move around to achieve what I'd like to do here. Simple factors like whether the aerobars are mounted above or below the handlebars make a significant difference in how everything is configured, and with competing parameters (eg getting enough drop for the aerobars while not pushing the normal handlebars too low) it's a complex equation. I will naturally have a fitter work out the details once I buy all of the bits, but I'm still a good deal away from that point.
The other, more indirect, benefit to adding aerobars to the bike is that it makes hydration a little easier in a race scenario. Reaching down or back to frame or saddle mounted bottles requires the rider to move out of their normal riding position, slowing down the bike. On a training ride that's not a huge deal, but during a race one has to think twice about when they want to do this and it can ultimately lead to taking in less fluid than one should. With aerobars, however, there are hydration systems (eg Aerodrink) that can mount directly on the cockpit so that the rider can drink without having to move out of position.
Cyclocomputer
I've posted a few times on this topic in the past and have been going back and forth with my choices for a while now, but it's getting to the point where I need to make a decission one way or the other. The tricky thing has been that each of the options has bits that I want, and all of them are missing somewhat critical pieces that another unit has. I had hoped for some new offerings from the vendors over the last year or so that would resolve that, but unfortunately there hasn't been a whole lot on that front.
Polar's CS600X has long been my favorite design amongst the group, however it has one critical flaw that is difficult to overlook. While Garmin's ANT+ protocol has seen wide adoption from third party power meter vendors, Polar's WIND protocol isn't supported outside of their own set of products. The more that I read about power training, the more and more important it seems to be so this is a major consideration on which computer I intend to go with. As ANT+ devices like Garmin and iBike offer a wide range of different choices on this front (Vector, Quarq, Powertap, SRM, etc.) that is a pretty significant edge.
Polar does have their own power meter, and while a novel solution its indirect measurement technique means that accuracy is sensitive to how it is installed. Without any local vendors that have experience installing the product, I'm concerned about how well they'll be able to set it up (and hence the validity of the information that it provides). I've also seen some degree of concern about its reliability, as the wires connecting the main sensor unit to the battery pod appear to come loose periodically.
As such, it's largely down to the Garmin Edge 705 and the newer Edge 500 models at this point in the game. The former has a colour screen and full navigation capabilities which are tempting, but the latter offers all of the core functionality for about half of the price (saving more money for an eventual power meter purchase). The 500 also has the advantage of a more modern design, such as accurate calorie computations (the 705 uses an older algorithm that is horrendously inaccurate) and a better heart rate strap (soft textile vs. hard plastic). It also has longer battery life and comes in a much smaller package. Further, judging by Garmin's behavour in the past it's also more likely to see substansive firmware upgrades in the future.
The iBike Aero is still on my radar, but it is significantly more expensive than the other options and has a bit of a kludgy design (limited UI, short life batteries, offboard wireless radio, etc.). I still love the idea of having air speed data, but I'm not sure that that's enough to offset the disadvantages of the design. iBike is rumored to have a new model coming down the pike in the spring that may resolve these issues, but without specific evidence that it addresses my concerns I've already waited far too long to make this decision.
I'll likely head over to some local shops to check out the two models once the Edge 500 starts coming into stock and make a decision at that point, however after thinking about this for nearly a year I really have to make a move ;) Naturally, if I'm going to get some aerobars mounted it's a good opportunity for them to install the new cyclocomputer and its sensors.
Naturally, I will want to add a power meter to the equation at some point in the future but that doesn't appear to be realistic at this juncture. The Metrigear Vector has the potential to open the door to that, however even at it's expected price it'll still likely take a while to save up the money to add that into the mix. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as it'll give the new product some time for a shake down in the market before I buy into it.
Either way, I'll be looking into more detail on these topics over the coming weeks and figure out which way I want to go but I wanted to get my thoughts in here in case anyone has any suggestions on either front. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist with these things, and that means I waste a lot of time digging for every shred of information I can find on all of my options. That helps to avoid making mistakes, but it also means that it can take me forever to come to a decision ;)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Week 48: Review
Been a pretty busy week so I haven't had a chance to write up a review of the previous week as of yet and figured I should get that done before this one is over ;) I'll have to keep it brief as I'm in a bit of a rush to get this down, but fortunately I got most of my thoughts down in this post. As noted, things mostly went as planned thanks to spectacular weather for this time of the year.
The biggest exception to the plan was that I couldn't get the 100K ride in on Saturday due to scheduling conflicts. The weather forecast for the weekend is looking a bit better so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I don't think it's going to be good enough to give it a go this time around. Due to those constraints I put off Saturday's recovery run to Sunday, and pushed back the long run to Monday.
Week 48 Totals:
Running: 59.3km (36.8mi)
Walking: 2.9km (1.8mi)
Cycling: 112.6km (70.0mi)
Swimming: 10.1km (6.3mi)
Total: 184.9km (114.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,365.5km (1,469.9mi)
Walking: 219.1km (136.1mi)
Cycling: 3,831.4km (2,380.7mi)
Swimming: 129.8km (80.7mi)
Total: 6,545.8km (4,067.4mi)
My schedule is largely the same as last week, although I've modified the early part of the week to account for what I've already done so it's likely to be more accurate than normal ;) As they're calling for rain and possibly some light snow tomorrow, cycling is definitely out of the picture so I elected to move tonight's run to tomorrow to spread the load around a little. I'm still hoping to get out for a long ride on Saturday, but given the weather forecast I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to pull off ;)
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 14mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Wed 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim
Fri 7mi Recovery w/10x100m
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
The biggest exception to the plan was that I couldn't get the 100K ride in on Saturday due to scheduling conflicts. The weather forecast for the weekend is looking a bit better so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I don't think it's going to be good enough to give it a go this time around. Due to those constraints I put off Saturday's recovery run to Sunday, and pushed back the long run to Monday.
Week 48 Totals:
Running: 59.3km (36.8mi)
Walking: 2.9km (1.8mi)
Cycling: 112.6km (70.0mi)
Swimming: 10.1km (6.3mi)
Total: 184.9km (114.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,365.5km (1,469.9mi)
Walking: 219.1km (136.1mi)
Cycling: 3,831.4km (2,380.7mi)
Swimming: 129.8km (80.7mi)
Total: 6,545.8km (4,067.4mi)
My schedule is largely the same as last week, although I've modified the early part of the week to account for what I've already done so it's likely to be more accurate than normal ;) As they're calling for rain and possibly some light snow tomorrow, cycling is definitely out of the picture so I elected to move tonight's run to tomorrow to spread the load around a little. I'm still hoping to get out for a long ride on Saturday, but given the weather forecast I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to pull off ;)
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 14mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Wed 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim
Fri 7mi Recovery w/10x100m
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Hard to believe it's nearing the end of November...
This time last year my training records show that it was -4.5C and snowing, I'd had my bike inside on the trainer for two weeks (and likely should have brought it in earlier) and I was running with full winter clothing on. This year, it's +10C without any sign of snow and I've yet to do a run or ride with anything thicker than a short sleeve shirt and shorts this season. The last few weeks have been about as close to perfect weather as one can get; cool enough to keep down the sweat, but warm enough not to need bundling up.
Yesterday, I managed to squeeze in the third 75K ride in as many weeks and the only reason I've stuck to that distance is that the sun goes down so early ;) I did the 4 mile recovery run that I missed yesterday this morning, and even squeezed in a short 10K ride with my father (trying to help him get into shape) after lunch. Tomorrow I'll be doing another 16 mile run, and it's looking like the weather should be near ideal for that as well.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and it's looking like the temperatures are going to start dropping to seasonal levels next weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be warm enough to eek in another long ride, however in all likelyhood I'm going to have to start considering bringing the bike in to get it set up for the indoor trainer. Fortunately, if the temperatures they're predicting are accurate (~3C) I'll still be able to comfortably run with shorts - but that's likely not to last much longer either. Still no sign of snow, however that's likely on the horizon as well and when it does come that will be the absolute death kneel for any hope of riding outside :(
Either way, one has to be thankful for getting this far into the season without having to make those sacrifices yet. I'm a little upset that I havn't been able to fully take advantage of this weather by getting in a 100K+ ride in on one of the last few weekends, but between other commitments and the early sundown it hasn't been in the cards. Nonetheless, the 75K rides have been quite enjoyable and beat the crap out of trying to do the same inside ;)
Yesterday, I managed to squeeze in the third 75K ride in as many weeks and the only reason I've stuck to that distance is that the sun goes down so early ;) I did the 4 mile recovery run that I missed yesterday this morning, and even squeezed in a short 10K ride with my father (trying to help him get into shape) after lunch. Tomorrow I'll be doing another 16 mile run, and it's looking like the weather should be near ideal for that as well.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and it's looking like the temperatures are going to start dropping to seasonal levels next weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be warm enough to eek in another long ride, however in all likelyhood I'm going to have to start considering bringing the bike in to get it set up for the indoor trainer. Fortunately, if the temperatures they're predicting are accurate (~3C) I'll still be able to comfortably run with shorts - but that's likely not to last much longer either. Still no sign of snow, however that's likely on the horizon as well and when it does come that will be the absolute death kneel for any hope of riding outside :(
Either way, one has to be thankful for getting this far into the season without having to make those sacrifices yet. I'm a little upset that I havn't been able to fully take advantage of this weather by getting in a 100K+ ride in on one of the last few weekends, but between other commitments and the early sundown it hasn't been in the cards. Nonetheless, the 75K rides have been quite enjoyable and beat the crap out of trying to do the same inside ;)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Week 47: Review
Weather this week was spectacular and made getting out to do my exercise sessions a pleasure. It's not common that we get weather this nice in mid-November, but when it is around one has to take full advantage of it! Temperatures in the low to mid teens are pretty much perfect, as it's warm enough that you don't need restrictive winter clothing but cool enough that you don't come home drenched in sweat ;)
I did have some scheduling issues which made me miss my Wednesday cycling session, but other than that everything pretty much went to plan. As in previous weeks, the Tuesday and Thursday sessions had to be shortened to 7 miles due to timing issues. Since the pool session ends at 1:00, by the time I get home and make lunch it's generally 2:00 already and leaving enough time between eating and running means that I can't get out the door until 5:00 at the earliest. That unfortunately pins me up against fitting dinner in at an appropriate time, and making enough room to get 8 miles in, cool down and stretch doesn't appear to be practical.
The one possible workaround is to head out in the morning, but as I have the tri swimming clinic Monday night and the group run Wednesday night that doesn't leave a lot of time for recovery. Either way, I managed to squeeze in nearly 40 miles this week so that's not a huge deal. As I'm in the base training period right now, the 7 mile runs are likely more than sufficient. It's not worth the risk of injuring myself by leaving insufficient recovery time for a measly 2 miles.
As with last week, I did a 75K ride on the weekend rather than the 100K one that I was hoping to squeeze in. I was unfortunately pretty busy in the morning, and while I got out earlier than last week I didn't want a repeat of my race against the sun so I didn't push my luck and get out too far. If we get another beautiful day this weekend, however, I'm hoping to head out first thing in the morning to try and get a bit of a longer ride in. It's not looking too likely right now, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed ;)
Week 47 Totals:
Running: 63.8km (39.6mi)
Walking: 2.5km (1.6mi)
Cycling: 111.9km (69.5mi)
Swimming: 9.9km (6.2mi)
Total: 188.1km (116.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,306.2km (1,433.0mi)
Walking: 216.2km (134.3mi)
Cycling: 3,718.8km (2,310.8mi)
Swimming: 119.7km (74.4mi)
Total: 6,360.9km (3,952.5mi)
As noted above, I'm shortening down the Tuesday and Thursday sessions to 7 miles this week as the 8 milers just aren't practical at this juncture. Other than that, following basically the same schedule as I've been following over the last few weeks.
We're getting to the point where the bike is going to have to be moved onto the fluid trainer for the winter, but I'm resisting that for as long as I can ;) I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in at least one more long ride before I need to make that particular compromise. Fortunately, mother nature has been agreeable for the time being so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 16mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
I did have some scheduling issues which made me miss my Wednesday cycling session, but other than that everything pretty much went to plan. As in previous weeks, the Tuesday and Thursday sessions had to be shortened to 7 miles due to timing issues. Since the pool session ends at 1:00, by the time I get home and make lunch it's generally 2:00 already and leaving enough time between eating and running means that I can't get out the door until 5:00 at the earliest. That unfortunately pins me up against fitting dinner in at an appropriate time, and making enough room to get 8 miles in, cool down and stretch doesn't appear to be practical.
The one possible workaround is to head out in the morning, but as I have the tri swimming clinic Monday night and the group run Wednesday night that doesn't leave a lot of time for recovery. Either way, I managed to squeeze in nearly 40 miles this week so that's not a huge deal. As I'm in the base training period right now, the 7 mile runs are likely more than sufficient. It's not worth the risk of injuring myself by leaving insufficient recovery time for a measly 2 miles.
As with last week, I did a 75K ride on the weekend rather than the 100K one that I was hoping to squeeze in. I was unfortunately pretty busy in the morning, and while I got out earlier than last week I didn't want a repeat of my race against the sun so I didn't push my luck and get out too far. If we get another beautiful day this weekend, however, I'm hoping to head out first thing in the morning to try and get a bit of a longer ride in. It's not looking too likely right now, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed ;)
Week 47 Totals:
Running: 63.8km (39.6mi)
Walking: 2.5km (1.6mi)
Cycling: 111.9km (69.5mi)
Swimming: 9.9km (6.2mi)
Total: 188.1km (116.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,306.2km (1,433.0mi)
Walking: 216.2km (134.3mi)
Cycling: 3,718.8km (2,310.8mi)
Swimming: 119.7km (74.4mi)
Total: 6,360.9km (3,952.5mi)
As noted above, I'm shortening down the Tuesday and Thursday sessions to 7 miles this week as the 8 milers just aren't practical at this juncture. Other than that, following basically the same schedule as I've been following over the last few weeks.
We're getting to the point where the bike is going to have to be moved onto the fluid trainer for the winter, but I'm resisting that for as long as I can ;) I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in at least one more long ride before I need to make that particular compromise. Fortunately, mother nature has been agreeable for the time being so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 16mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Week 46: Review
My schedule this week was pretty unpredictable, so unfortunately I didn't manage to get in all of the miles that I would have liked. Fortunately, the weather over the last couple of days was about as close to perfect as one can get for exercise so that did allow me to somewhat catch up a bit. Either way, not a huge problem as this is my base training period here so falling back a bit isn't a huge problem - just have to call it a recovery week ;)
Things started getting mixed up on Tuesday, as when I was leaving the pool I noticed that the H1N1 vaccination clinic they have there was pretty much empty (a big suprise given the 6 hour wait they had the Friday before). I'm not in the high-risk group so that doesn't help me directly, however my mother has asthma so I grabbed a ticket and called her so that she could get her vaccination. Combined with other commitments I had for the day, by the time I got home there simply wasn't enough time to get out and do the 8 mile run I had planned.
On Wednesday I was out for the evening so I had to do the run in the morning rather than with my group in the afternoon. I did a 7 miler to partially make up for the lost distance on Tuesday, but the timing meant that I wasn't able to fit the bike ride I normally do mid-week. Thursday largely went as planned, doing a 4K swim in the morning and a 7 mile run in the afternoon (had to cut it a mile short due to time constraints). My schedule was packed pretty solid on Friday, and combined with the weather that meant that it wasn't possible to get out on the bike. I had an out of town funeral on Saturday, which meant that I had to leave early in the morning and didn't get back until late. As such, despite incredible weather I wasn't able to get my long ride nor my 4 mile recovery run in.
Fortunately, come Sunday things started to turn around a bit. The weather was pretty much picture perfect for biking (18C, little to no humidity, light breeze from the south) so I elected to push back my long run to Monday and head out on the bike. When I got to the turnaround point for my normal 50K route, things were going so well I elected to keep going and take a longer route to take advantage of this rare weather. As I was approaching my normal apex (Highway 9 and Bathurst), I was still feeling great so I elected to pop up to Newmarket and visit a friend that moved from my local Running Room to the Newmarket store.
After dropping in and quickly catching up, I realized that the sun was setting a bit faster than I was expecting (lousy time change). As such, I hopped back on the bike and started heading back at an accelerated pace. Unfortunately, the sun was winning the battle so I avoided taking any breaks and just powered my way back. Fortunately, the traffic lights were pretty much in my favour for most of the route so I didn't have too many unplanned delays.
Over one 6.2K stretch of Dufferin, I somehow managed an average speed of 47.9km/h against a slight headwind and only a slight downhill near the end of the segment. Unfortunately, after that point I started getting back into traffic and rolling hills which slowed me down. I was largely maintaining a crusing speed of about 36km/h, but between traffic, stops and uphills my average speed ran in the low 30s.
In the final few kilometers, I was getting pretty tired maintaining that aggressive pace but the sun had fallen behind the horizon so I knew that I had very little time before the light disappeared on me. Riding on rural roads with no artificial lighting, that would be a significant problem so I pushed a bit harder and fought my way up the final hill. At this point I was back on well lit suburban roads, so I took it a little easier and allowed myself to cool down for the last few hundred meters. I pulled into the driveway, and by the time I was stretched and had the bike put away it was pretty much pitch black so I'm glad I pushed as hard as I did :oP All said and done, I covered a little under 75km in 2:20:54 with an average speed of 31.8km/h.
Unfortunately, I paid for that push this morning when I headed out for my long run. While I was fine on the flats, whenever I hit a significant incline/decline I got tired pretty quickly so it's obvious that those hard efforts on the bike took their toll on my quads. As I have the Tri swimming clinic tonight, I didn't have much option other than doing it first thing in the morning, but that meant that I didn't have a whole lot of recovery time from yesterday's hard effort.
Compounding the problem was the fact that my legs seemed to have gotten used to the speed from yesterday and didn't want to slow down. As such, despite my efforts to relax my pace a bit to offset the fatigue, I wasn't able to control my pace as well as I would have liked. As I'm in base training at this point, I elected to simply cut the run short and stopped at about 12.6 miles rather than the planned 16. I wasn't going to hit my mileage target either way, so I figured there wasn't much point in fighting through it ;)
Week 46 Totals:
Running: 42.9km (26.7mi)
Walking: 0.4km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 125.9km (78.2mi)
Swimming: 9.5km (5.9mi)
Total: 178.7km (111.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,242.4km (1,393.4mi)
Walking: 213.7km (132.7mi)
Cycling: 3,606.9km (2,241.2mi)
Swimming: 109.8km (68.2mi)
Total: 6,172.8km (3,835.6mi)
As I havn't managed to hit my planned schedule for the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to tentatively schedule the same thing this time around (third time's a charm). The weather is looking pretty decent this week, and my schedule isn't quite as full so far, so hopefully I'll be able to actually execute it!
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 12.5mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
Things started getting mixed up on Tuesday, as when I was leaving the pool I noticed that the H1N1 vaccination clinic they have there was pretty much empty (a big suprise given the 6 hour wait they had the Friday before). I'm not in the high-risk group so that doesn't help me directly, however my mother has asthma so I grabbed a ticket and called her so that she could get her vaccination. Combined with other commitments I had for the day, by the time I got home there simply wasn't enough time to get out and do the 8 mile run I had planned.
On Wednesday I was out for the evening so I had to do the run in the morning rather than with my group in the afternoon. I did a 7 miler to partially make up for the lost distance on Tuesday, but the timing meant that I wasn't able to fit the bike ride I normally do mid-week. Thursday largely went as planned, doing a 4K swim in the morning and a 7 mile run in the afternoon (had to cut it a mile short due to time constraints). My schedule was packed pretty solid on Friday, and combined with the weather that meant that it wasn't possible to get out on the bike. I had an out of town funeral on Saturday, which meant that I had to leave early in the morning and didn't get back until late. As such, despite incredible weather I wasn't able to get my long ride nor my 4 mile recovery run in.
Fortunately, come Sunday things started to turn around a bit. The weather was pretty much picture perfect for biking (18C, little to no humidity, light breeze from the south) so I elected to push back my long run to Monday and head out on the bike. When I got to the turnaround point for my normal 50K route, things were going so well I elected to keep going and take a longer route to take advantage of this rare weather. As I was approaching my normal apex (Highway 9 and Bathurst), I was still feeling great so I elected to pop up to Newmarket and visit a friend that moved from my local Running Room to the Newmarket store.
After dropping in and quickly catching up, I realized that the sun was setting a bit faster than I was expecting (lousy time change). As such, I hopped back on the bike and started heading back at an accelerated pace. Unfortunately, the sun was winning the battle so I avoided taking any breaks and just powered my way back. Fortunately, the traffic lights were pretty much in my favour for most of the route so I didn't have too many unplanned delays.
Over one 6.2K stretch of Dufferin, I somehow managed an average speed of 47.9km/h against a slight headwind and only a slight downhill near the end of the segment. Unfortunately, after that point I started getting back into traffic and rolling hills which slowed me down. I was largely maintaining a crusing speed of about 36km/h, but between traffic, stops and uphills my average speed ran in the low 30s.
In the final few kilometers, I was getting pretty tired maintaining that aggressive pace but the sun had fallen behind the horizon so I knew that I had very little time before the light disappeared on me. Riding on rural roads with no artificial lighting, that would be a significant problem so I pushed a bit harder and fought my way up the final hill. At this point I was back on well lit suburban roads, so I took it a little easier and allowed myself to cool down for the last few hundred meters. I pulled into the driveway, and by the time I was stretched and had the bike put away it was pretty much pitch black so I'm glad I pushed as hard as I did :oP All said and done, I covered a little under 75km in 2:20:54 with an average speed of 31.8km/h.
Unfortunately, I paid for that push this morning when I headed out for my long run. While I was fine on the flats, whenever I hit a significant incline/decline I got tired pretty quickly so it's obvious that those hard efforts on the bike took their toll on my quads. As I have the Tri swimming clinic tonight, I didn't have much option other than doing it first thing in the morning, but that meant that I didn't have a whole lot of recovery time from yesterday's hard effort.
Compounding the problem was the fact that my legs seemed to have gotten used to the speed from yesterday and didn't want to slow down. As such, despite my efforts to relax my pace a bit to offset the fatigue, I wasn't able to control my pace as well as I would have liked. As I'm in base training at this point, I elected to simply cut the run short and stopped at about 12.6 miles rather than the planned 16. I wasn't going to hit my mileage target either way, so I figured there wasn't much point in fighting through it ;)
Week 46 Totals:
Running: 42.9km (26.7mi)
Walking: 0.4km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 125.9km (78.2mi)
Swimming: 9.5km (5.9mi)
Total: 178.7km (111.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,242.4km (1,393.4mi)
Walking: 213.7km (132.7mi)
Cycling: 3,606.9km (2,241.2mi)
Swimming: 109.8km (68.2mi)
Total: 6,172.8km (3,835.6mi)
As I havn't managed to hit my planned schedule for the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to tentatively schedule the same thing this time around (third time's a charm). The weather is looking pretty decent this week, and my schedule isn't quite as full so far, so hopefully I'll be able to actually execute it!
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 12.5mi LSD*, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Week 45: Review
As is normal for this time of year, the weather has again been somewhat disruptive to my plans this week and I didn't manage to successfully get any cycling mileage in. It's getting to the point where I'm going to have to consider moving the bike in and onto the trainer, but as I'm not really fond of working out indoors I'm resisting that shift as long as practical. Naturally, once it starts snowing then I won't have any issues, but I'll take cold fingers and toes over staring at a wall for hours on end ;) The caveat at this stage has mostly been rain and wind, however, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a stable few days to get a few more long rides in.
Further complicating the schedule was the fact that I couldn't get out to the pool on Tuesday as the power company came to switch the old meter for one of those new smart meters. Unfortunately, when they pulled the old meter out the mount that it attaches to broke (likely due to a lightning strike we had more than 10 years ago) so I hung around until they could get a lineman out to switch off the power at the street and replace the box. That process took a few hours, unfortunately, so I missed the pool session and was lucky to get my run in in the afternoon. I have to give them credit though, they stuck around for the entire time and made sure that it got fixed ASAP.
Tuesday was unfortunately one of the near perfect days this week weather-wise, however, so it took away an opportunity to squeeze in a cycling session. Wednesday and Friday were both rainy, and while I could have gone out on Thursday other commitments made that difficult so I didn't get a chance. I was hoping to get out on Saturday, but extremely heavy winds (50+km/h with gusts up to 90km/h) made me decide against it for safety reasons.
Fortunately, I did manage to get all of my runs in, although due to scheduling issues I ended up shortening the 8 milers to 6 and the 16 miler to 14.3. In addition, the guys from the running group are back to fighting shape so we did a good hard run on Wednesday rather than the recovery pace that I expected. We started out pretty slow, but by the end we were approaching 4:00/km pace for the last 1000m or so - felt good to stretch the legs out in a sustained manner like that for a change!
In the pool, I saw some significant improvements this week. During the clinic our instructor gave us some suggestions on improving our drive stroke, and it appears to be paying off directly in speed improvements. It was difficult to judge during the clinic itself as we were wearing flippers for most of the session, but when I got out on Wednesday and Friday my 750 and 1,000m meter sets were significantly faster (~15sec/100m) with little additional effort.
Week 45 Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 2.3km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Swimming: 8.9km (5.5mi)
Total: 67.9km (42.2mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,199.5km (1,366.7mi)
Walking: 213.3km (132.5mi)
Cycling: 3,481.0km (2,163.0mi)
Swimming: 100.3km (62.3mi)
Total: 5,994.1km (3,724.6mi)
Fortunately, the weather today looks pretty good so I'll be heading out for a 50K ride right after lunch (which should comfortably take me over 6,000km for the year). If the forecast holds, Friday and Saturday are likely to be pretty good as well so hopefully I'll be able to work in another 50K and hopefully a 100K on the weekend. Wednesday is likely to be a write-off, so I didn't bother scheduling a bike session on that day anyway. Running and swimming will likely be as normal, as neither is really that dependent on weather.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
Further complicating the schedule was the fact that I couldn't get out to the pool on Tuesday as the power company came to switch the old meter for one of those new smart meters. Unfortunately, when they pulled the old meter out the mount that it attaches to broke (likely due to a lightning strike we had more than 10 years ago) so I hung around until they could get a lineman out to switch off the power at the street and replace the box. That process took a few hours, unfortunately, so I missed the pool session and was lucky to get my run in in the afternoon. I have to give them credit though, they stuck around for the entire time and made sure that it got fixed ASAP.
Tuesday was unfortunately one of the near perfect days this week weather-wise, however, so it took away an opportunity to squeeze in a cycling session. Wednesday and Friday were both rainy, and while I could have gone out on Thursday other commitments made that difficult so I didn't get a chance. I was hoping to get out on Saturday, but extremely heavy winds (50+km/h with gusts up to 90km/h) made me decide against it for safety reasons.
Fortunately, I did manage to get all of my runs in, although due to scheduling issues I ended up shortening the 8 milers to 6 and the 16 miler to 14.3. In addition, the guys from the running group are back to fighting shape so we did a good hard run on Wednesday rather than the recovery pace that I expected. We started out pretty slow, but by the end we were approaching 4:00/km pace for the last 1000m or so - felt good to stretch the legs out in a sustained manner like that for a change!
In the pool, I saw some significant improvements this week. During the clinic our instructor gave us some suggestions on improving our drive stroke, and it appears to be paying off directly in speed improvements. It was difficult to judge during the clinic itself as we were wearing flippers for most of the session, but when I got out on Wednesday and Friday my 750 and 1,000m meter sets were significantly faster (~15sec/100m) with little additional effort.
Week 45 Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 2.3km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Swimming: 8.9km (5.5mi)
Total: 67.9km (42.2mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 2,199.5km (1,366.7mi)
Walking: 213.3km (132.5mi)
Cycling: 3,481.0km (2,163.0mi)
Swimming: 100.3km (62.3mi)
Total: 5,994.1km (3,724.6mi)
Fortunately, the weather today looks pretty good so I'll be heading out for a 50K ride right after lunch (which should comfortably take me over 6,000km for the year). If the forecast holds, Friday and Saturday are likely to be pretty good as well so hopefully I'll be able to work in another 50K and hopefully a 100K on the weekend. Wednesday is likely to be a write-off, so I didn't bother scheduling a bike session on that day anyway. Running and swimming will likely be as normal, as neither is really that dependent on weather.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride, Tri Swim Clinic
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery w/10x100m
Wed 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 8mi Recovery
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 100k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
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