Last week was a bit rocky thanks to some mechanical problems with the bike messing up my schedule. Naturally, as I did last week's long run on Monday that meant the first ride was a no go. On Wednesday, I headed out for a windy ride and was doing great until I got to King Rd. They've been doing some construction there for a while, but that day they had realigned the lanes thanks to finishing up with a portion over the bridge.
Unfortunately, there was a segment of the road that was ground down and at the end of it there was a 1.5 inch ridge transitioning back to normal asphalt. Normally I'd slow down and take it carefully, but the lane snaked around and I didn't get a whole lot of warning. With cars riding my tail, I didn't want to brake hard and ended up hitting it relatively hard. I headed around the corner and pulled over to inspect everything, but it seemed that all was fine. Both tires were still firm and there were no marks on either. Unfortunately, once I started back up I got about 600m before the front tire flatted on me. As such, I ended up calling it short at that point and only getting 16.2 of the scheduled 30K in.
The bike has needed a couple of other things looked at for a while (rear wheel needed trueing and the front brake pads were getting pretty worn), so I took the opportunity to bring it into the shop the next morning. I stopped by the next day to pick it up, and everything looked good so I headed out on Saturday morning for a 50K ride to catch up. Unfortunately, I got about 7K before the front tire flatted again. I took off the wheel and went over it with a fine-toothed comb and didn't see anything wrong with the tire, but two flats in that period of time made it pretty obvious something was wrong with it.
As such, I headed back down to the shop and had them take a look at it. After a close inspection, they noted that while there were no cuts or debris in it, there was very little tread left and that was the likely cause of the problem. It made sense as that was the original tire that came with the bike and has a little over 11,000km on it so I had them put a fresh tire on and headed back home. Unfortunately, at that point the day it was too late to head out so my cycling mileage for the week was a pitful 23.5K :(
Running-wise, things went reasonably well until the long run on Monday. The plan was to do 16 miles, but my schedule was pretty hectic so fitting it in was difficult. I pushed lunch up a bit earlier to make room, but unfortunately I only ended up having two hours between eating and heading out for the run. That ended up biting me in the arse, however, as once I got going I started having stomach cramps and had to take frequent breaks to recover. Unfortunately, that meant that I took longer than anticipated and I had to cut it short at just under 13 miles to get back in time for other commitments.
Fortunately, swimming went pretty much perfectly this week so at least it wasn't a total loss ;) Either way, as the season is pretty much over anyway it's not really a big deal to lose a bit of mileage like this. Just hate losing it for such trivial problems :P
Week 42 Totals:
Running: 47.8km (29.7mi)
Walking: 0.6km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 23.5km (14.6mi)
Swimming: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Total: 80.5km (50.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1825.7km (1134.4mi)
Walking: 81.1km (50.4mi)
Cycling: 4161.0km (2585.5mi)
Swimming: 273.3km (169.8mi)
Total: 6341.1km (3940.2mi)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Weeks 40 & 41: Review
Catching up once again, but that was largely because there wasn't a whole lot to report last week. After going out for my 50K ride on that Monday morning, I felt a bit weaker than usual. At the time, I wrote it off as just being tired from the way too fast 18 miler the day before (part of week 39). Unfortunately, later that afternoon it became apparent that I was coming down with a bit of a cold and that was likely the culprit for the lack of energy.
As such, I was pretty much shut down for the remainder of the week. Aside from sucking all of the energy out of me, it was difficult to breathe so I figured that heavy aerobic activity wasn't really a great idea. Fortunately, I was feeling well enough on Friday to get back into it, so I went out for an easy 4 miler. The heart rates were still a bit higher than normal which indicated that it wasn't entirely gone.
The next morning I headed out for a 50K ride to see how well I could handle cycling. Fortunately, between the great weather and the well rested legs the ride couldn't have gone much better. In retrospect I could have easily done a much longer ride, but as I headed out later than usual (played it safe and waited for the temperatures to come up) I didn't have enough time left to extend it once I was out. Regardless, it felt great to be back in the rhythm of things again :D
On Sunday, the family was doing its Canadian Thanksgiving stuff and there wasn't enough time to fit in a long run. It was just as well, however, as not having run much the entire week a long run was likely not the best idea anyway. Fortunately, I did do a good deal of walking at the family gathering so the day wasn't a total loss on the fitness side (didn't bring anything to log it, so I have no idea how much).
As such, last Monday I got back into the normal routine and headed out for my ride. The weather was great, and as the fall colours were pretty much in full force around here I took a slightly longer and hillier route and put in 56.3K. Given the weather I really should have headed out in the morning and made it a proper long ride to make up for the last week, but the family stuff the day before lasted until pretty late so I was lazy and slept in ;)
The rest of the week largely went as planned until Friday. I had intended to go out for a 50K session, but the wind was absolutely brutal and I ended up turning around at the 15K point to head back (clocking in a total of 30.5K). There was a steady 55km/h push, which while hard, I could have dealt with. The problem was that the gusts were getting up in the 70+km/h range and made it difficult to track a safe line. Given the traffic levels on the major roads (which I had no way to avoid for a longer ride), I was concerned about my safety so I elected to head back.
Once I turned around, however, those brutal headwinds turned into some incredible tailwinds. Along the stretch of Jane that I was fighting to hold 20km/h on the way up, I was running in the high-50s and low-60s with minimal effort. I would have loved to push harder, but I was already in my highest gear (50x12T) and spinning at 120rpm so there was little that I could do (will have to consider a 11-23T cassette when it comes time to replace this one). Fortunately, at those speeds a bike is pretty much as steady as a rock so it was easy to track a perfect line down the side of the road.
Saturday's 54K was quite windy as well, but fortunately without any gusts it was just a matter of fighting through it. I ended up having to take a few breaks along the way, and my average speed was somewhat unimpressive, but thanks to the wind it was a good hard session.
This Sunday was again busy, so I deferred my long run until yesterday. Given the lack of running the previous week, I limited myself to a 13.1 mile route although I did select one with a few more hills than normal. I started out easy, but the legs wanted to go fast again and with all of the inspiring results that friends got at the Toronto Marathon the day before I gave in and let them push a bit. I'll focus on slowing down my long runs again next week, but it felt good to do a good long hard run without fighting it the whole time ;)
Week 40 Totals:
Running: 6.4km (1.0mi)
Walking: 0.5km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 102.1km (63.0mi)
Swimming: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Total: 109.1km (67.8mi)
Week 41 Totals:
Running: 47.7km (29.6mi)
Walking: 0.8km (0.5mi)
Cycling: 173.0km (107.5mi)
Swimming: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Total: 230.1km (143.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1777.9km (1104.7mi)
Walking: 80.5km (50.0mi)
Cycling: 4137.5km (2570.9mi)
Swimming: 264.7km (164.5mi)
Total: 6260.6km (3890.2mi)
As such, I was pretty much shut down for the remainder of the week. Aside from sucking all of the energy out of me, it was difficult to breathe so I figured that heavy aerobic activity wasn't really a great idea. Fortunately, I was feeling well enough on Friday to get back into it, so I went out for an easy 4 miler. The heart rates were still a bit higher than normal which indicated that it wasn't entirely gone.
The next morning I headed out for a 50K ride to see how well I could handle cycling. Fortunately, between the great weather and the well rested legs the ride couldn't have gone much better. In retrospect I could have easily done a much longer ride, but as I headed out later than usual (played it safe and waited for the temperatures to come up) I didn't have enough time left to extend it once I was out. Regardless, it felt great to be back in the rhythm of things again :D
On Sunday, the family was doing its Canadian Thanksgiving stuff and there wasn't enough time to fit in a long run. It was just as well, however, as not having run much the entire week a long run was likely not the best idea anyway. Fortunately, I did do a good deal of walking at the family gathering so the day wasn't a total loss on the fitness side (didn't bring anything to log it, so I have no idea how much).
As such, last Monday I got back into the normal routine and headed out for my ride. The weather was great, and as the fall colours were pretty much in full force around here I took a slightly longer and hillier route and put in 56.3K. Given the weather I really should have headed out in the morning and made it a proper long ride to make up for the last week, but the family stuff the day before lasted until pretty late so I was lazy and slept in ;)
The rest of the week largely went as planned until Friday. I had intended to go out for a 50K session, but the wind was absolutely brutal and I ended up turning around at the 15K point to head back (clocking in a total of 30.5K). There was a steady 55km/h push, which while hard, I could have dealt with. The problem was that the gusts were getting up in the 70+km/h range and made it difficult to track a safe line. Given the traffic levels on the major roads (which I had no way to avoid for a longer ride), I was concerned about my safety so I elected to head back.
Once I turned around, however, those brutal headwinds turned into some incredible tailwinds. Along the stretch of Jane that I was fighting to hold 20km/h on the way up, I was running in the high-50s and low-60s with minimal effort. I would have loved to push harder, but I was already in my highest gear (50x12T) and spinning at 120rpm so there was little that I could do (will have to consider a 11-23T cassette when it comes time to replace this one). Fortunately, at those speeds a bike is pretty much as steady as a rock so it was easy to track a perfect line down the side of the road.
Saturday's 54K was quite windy as well, but fortunately without any gusts it was just a matter of fighting through it. I ended up having to take a few breaks along the way, and my average speed was somewhat unimpressive, but thanks to the wind it was a good hard session.
This Sunday was again busy, so I deferred my long run until yesterday. Given the lack of running the previous week, I limited myself to a 13.1 mile route although I did select one with a few more hills than normal. I started out easy, but the legs wanted to go fast again and with all of the inspiring results that friends got at the Toronto Marathon the day before I gave in and let them push a bit. I'll focus on slowing down my long runs again next week, but it felt good to do a good long hard run without fighting it the whole time ;)
Week 40 Totals:
Running: 6.4km (1.0mi)
Walking: 0.5km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 102.1km (63.0mi)
Swimming: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Total: 109.1km (67.8mi)
Week 41 Totals:
Running: 47.7km (29.6mi)
Walking: 0.8km (0.5mi)
Cycling: 173.0km (107.5mi)
Swimming: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Total: 230.1km (143.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1777.9km (1104.7mi)
Walking: 80.5km (50.0mi)
Cycling: 4137.5km (2570.9mi)
Swimming: 264.7km (164.5mi)
Total: 6260.6km (3890.2mi)
Boston Marathon
As most of you have probably heard, the Boston Marathon sold out within eight hours of opening its registration this year. That, in turn, has got a lot of us nervous as the spectre of the qualification times being tightened up has the potential to put it out of reach. Right now I'm looking at a 3:10:59 standard that I have to beat to make it in. That's certainly within the realm of possibilities, but it is near the razors edge of my capacity and pushing that up to 3:05 or even 3:00 would be a real problem.
Part of the allure of this race is that it's qualification standards are hard enough that it requires a major effort to achieve them, but at the same time they are within reach of many runners. Getting to that goal is a significant achievement in and of itself, and is a strong drive for many marathoners to keep running races and reach for that holy grail.
I personally know a couple of dozen people who have qualified and run this race, and their stories do a lot to inspire me to push hard enough to get there myself. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have done so by a close margin, and I don't know of any that were 5 minutes or more beyond that point. Pushing the standards too high would make it harder for people to hear those personal experiences, and take away a lot of the drive to work towards that goal.
With that said, I'd much rather not get in because I wasn't able to run fast enough than because I didn't click my mouse fast enough ;) I can't even imagine what it would be like to work for years to get a BQ time and then miss out because I didn't have access to a computer on the day registration opened. Given the logistical challenges of getting people out to Hopington I don't imagine that adding more spots is realistic, so something has to be done to cut down the number of people registering. There are a few things that could be done to save a few more spaces (eg cutting down the number of slots for non-qualified runners), but given the 8 hour sellout I doubt that would be much of a long term solution.
As much as I'd hate for it to happen, from a fairness point of view tougher standards seem to be the best solution to that. When spaces are finite for a prestigious race like this, it only makes sense that they should go to the strongest runners first. Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they find a more creative solution to the problem. If they don't, then I might have to knock getting a qualifying time off of my list of long term goals as I don't really think that running a 3:05 marathon is in the cards for me regardless of how hard I train :(
Part of the allure of this race is that it's qualification standards are hard enough that it requires a major effort to achieve them, but at the same time they are within reach of many runners. Getting to that goal is a significant achievement in and of itself, and is a strong drive for many marathoners to keep running races and reach for that holy grail.
I personally know a couple of dozen people who have qualified and run this race, and their stories do a lot to inspire me to push hard enough to get there myself. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have done so by a close margin, and I don't know of any that were 5 minutes or more beyond that point. Pushing the standards too high would make it harder for people to hear those personal experiences, and take away a lot of the drive to work towards that goal.
With that said, I'd much rather not get in because I wasn't able to run fast enough than because I didn't click my mouse fast enough ;) I can't even imagine what it would be like to work for years to get a BQ time and then miss out because I didn't have access to a computer on the day registration opened. Given the logistical challenges of getting people out to Hopington I don't imagine that adding more spots is realistic, so something has to be done to cut down the number of people registering. There are a few things that could be done to save a few more spaces (eg cutting down the number of slots for non-qualified runners), but given the 8 hour sellout I doubt that would be much of a long term solution.
As much as I'd hate for it to happen, from a fairness point of view tougher standards seem to be the best solution to that. When spaces are finite for a prestigious race like this, it only makes sense that they should go to the strongest runners first. Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they find a more creative solution to the problem. If they don't, then I might have to knock getting a qualifying time off of my list of long term goals as I don't really think that running a 3:05 marathon is in the cards for me regardless of how hard I train :(
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Weeks 37, 38, 39: Catching Up
The last few weeks have been hectic, and again I've fallen a bit behind on my updates here. Between work, the Church stuff and helping my brother move the non-training schedule was pretty packed which meant a pile of sessions didn't get done. As can be seen below, I even ended up having to skip one of my long runs so the running mileage took the biggest hit. Fortunately, without any formal goal races at this point in the season that's not a huge problem.
This week, thankfully, I managed to squeeze in pretty much all of the targeted runs and swims. Cycling mileage was pretty pathetic as last week's long run nudged out Monday's ride, Friday was lost due to an emergency that required me to be accessible for most of the day and Saturday's weather limited how far I could go. The runs had to be squeezed in around other things, but I only ended up losing a couple of miles (although I did have to do some of them substantially faster than normal to fit them in).
This morning's long run felt great as I was starting to get back into my normal routine. After missing the long run two weeks ago, I limited myself to 13.1 miles last week to work my way back up to the mileage. Today, however, the weather was absolutely perfect so I elected to ramp back up to 18 miles and try to get in at least one 20 miler before winter comes ;) It's so much easier to do these sorts of runs without the heat, and the 10C conditions made it a breeze. The only caveat, however, is that I need to get used to reigning myself in under these conditions again as I averaged a 4:32/km pace which is way higher than it should be (and it likely would have been faster had I not made a concerted effort to slam on the breaks a few times).
Week 37 Totals:
Running: 18.1km (11.3mi)
Walking: 0.4km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 167.6km (104.1mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 193.9km (120.5mi)
Week 38 Totals:
Running: 38.8km (24.1mi)
Walking: 0.7km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 102.3km (63.6mi)
Swimming: 4.5km (2.8mi)
Total: 146.3km (90.9mi)
Week 39 Totals:
Running: 54.4km (33.8mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 61.5km (38.2mi)
Swimming: 8.8km (5.4mi)
Total: 125.7km (78.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1723.8km (1071.1mi)
Walking: 79.7km (49.5mi)
Cycling: 3862.4km (2400.0mi)
Swimming: 256.1km (159.1mi)
Total: 5922.0km (3679.8mi)
Fortunately, things are starting to settle down at this point so hopefully the upcoming week will work to plan a bit better. While I was flirting with the idea of running the Toronto Marathon in a couple of weeks, with the intermittent training over the last little while and lack of speedwork this season I'm leaning away from it. The concept was to try and squeeze in a ~3:20 marathon this year on my way to the 3:10 I need for a BQ, but I'm not sure that I'm in the shape for that right now. I don't really want to put the body through a marathon without being confident I can substantially improve on the 3:29 I did a year and a half ago.
What I might do is look for a good 5K and attempt to get under 20 minutes, as I'm in much better shape than my last PB at that distance (20:55) and with a bit of speedwork over the next few weeks I should be able to get there. My schedule has largely shot down all of the other target races for this year, so it would be good to put all of the training I've done to some use ;) The catch is that it's difficult to find shorter races at this time of year, as most of the ones I know are early in the season.
This week, thankfully, I managed to squeeze in pretty much all of the targeted runs and swims. Cycling mileage was pretty pathetic as last week's long run nudged out Monday's ride, Friday was lost due to an emergency that required me to be accessible for most of the day and Saturday's weather limited how far I could go. The runs had to be squeezed in around other things, but I only ended up losing a couple of miles (although I did have to do some of them substantially faster than normal to fit them in).
This morning's long run felt great as I was starting to get back into my normal routine. After missing the long run two weeks ago, I limited myself to 13.1 miles last week to work my way back up to the mileage. Today, however, the weather was absolutely perfect so I elected to ramp back up to 18 miles and try to get in at least one 20 miler before winter comes ;) It's so much easier to do these sorts of runs without the heat, and the 10C conditions made it a breeze. The only caveat, however, is that I need to get used to reigning myself in under these conditions again as I averaged a 4:32/km pace which is way higher than it should be (and it likely would have been faster had I not made a concerted effort to slam on the breaks a few times).
Week 37 Totals:
Running: 18.1km (11.3mi)
Walking: 0.4km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 167.6km (104.1mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 193.9km (120.5mi)
Week 38 Totals:
Running: 38.8km (24.1mi)
Walking: 0.7km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 102.3km (63.6mi)
Swimming: 4.5km (2.8mi)
Total: 146.3km (90.9mi)
Week 39 Totals:
Running: 54.4km (33.8mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 61.5km (38.2mi)
Swimming: 8.8km (5.4mi)
Total: 125.7km (78.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1723.8km (1071.1mi)
Walking: 79.7km (49.5mi)
Cycling: 3862.4km (2400.0mi)
Swimming: 256.1km (159.1mi)
Total: 5922.0km (3679.8mi)
Fortunately, things are starting to settle down at this point so hopefully the upcoming week will work to plan a bit better. While I was flirting with the idea of running the Toronto Marathon in a couple of weeks, with the intermittent training over the last little while and lack of speedwork this season I'm leaning away from it. The concept was to try and squeeze in a ~3:20 marathon this year on my way to the 3:10 I need for a BQ, but I'm not sure that I'm in the shape for that right now. I don't really want to put the body through a marathon without being confident I can substantially improve on the 3:29 I did a year and a half ago.
What I might do is look for a good 5K and attempt to get under 20 minutes, as I'm in much better shape than my last PB at that distance (20:55) and with a bit of speedwork over the next few weeks I should be able to get there. My schedule has largely shot down all of the other target races for this year, so it would be good to put all of the training I've done to some use ;) The catch is that it's difficult to find shorter races at this time of year, as most of the ones I know are early in the season.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Week 36: Review
As has been the case for the last little while, things have been crazy busy this week so getting everything in has been a challenge. On the running front, I had to move things around a bit, but I did manage to squeeze in pretty much all that was planned. I did have to chop a mile off of a couple of mid-week runs, but other than that I managed to get things in at the appropriate pacing. Regardless, I did manage to click over the 1000 mile mark for the year on Sunday :D
Sunday's 18 miler was a bit on the warm side, but fortunately not nearly as bad as it was just a few weeks ago. The cool weather we've been getting lately has spoiled me a bit, as running and biking with the temperatures in the teens is so much nicer than the hot and humid we've been enduring lately. On the upside, I was able to pace myself a little better than last week - averaging a 4:45/km pace rather than 4:33. Looking back at the telemetry, I was pretty much bang on the 5:00/km target until the half-marathon mark when I picked it up a bit. I tend to have a bit of a backwards pacing instinct - the more fatigued my legs become, the faster they seem to want to go :P
Like last week, this long run was done with my Garmin rather than the Polar. After transferring my telemetry from Friday's 5 miler I noticed a (nearly inaudible) hissing noise coming from the unit. To be safe, I've pulled the (new) battery out of the unit and contacted their support department to get guidance on what to do about these symptoms. Searching over their fora, there were a few mentions of similar symptoms but as those were covered under warantee (they all came from the factory this way) there isn't much detail on what was wrong (they sent it in, it came back fixed).
Other than the sound, the unit is working flawlessly so I don't think it's anything major. Looking at the unit I think one of the battery pins isn't quite contacting the side of the battery, and the gap is small enough that it's arcing. I'm not sure if it's a matter of the new battery being a little smaller than it's supposed to be, or if the pin has gotten bent back a bit, but if it is either one of those issues it should be a relatively simple fix. With that said, the way that products are made nowadays even simple things can end up being complex to actually repair.
On the cycling front, myself and a couple of guys from the group managed to get together on labour day for a short 50K. Tried to talk them into something a bit longer, but unfortunately they haven't been out a lot lately so they wanted to start back carefully. Either way, we headed out just before 8am and while it was a bit chilly (11C), once we got moving that was quite comfortable. It ended up being a good thing we kept it short, however, as it started pouring rain for the last couple of minutes ;)
Other commitments meant that Saturday's ride had to be cut down to 55K, and Friday's to 30K. Wednesday's ride didn't happen due to weather, so my net cycling mileage this week is pretty pathetic. Either way, not much that can be done about that as none of those constraints were particularly mutable.
On the upside, the pools have finally switched back over to the fall/winter schedules so I don't need to try and shoehorn two hours work of work into 90 minutes. My normal pool was unfortunately down for maintenance this week, but another close by facility has a nice three hour session available so that helped. While I shortened the sets a bit given the reduced time constraints, I kept them at moderate distances (1.5-2K) in order to squeeze in a bit more distance than normal. I'll see how this holds out, and if it goes well it should help me to continue improving.
Week 36 Totals:
Running: 54.7km (34.0mi)
Walking: 2.4km (1.5mi)
Cycling: 135.2km (84.0mi)
Swimming: 9.0km (5.6mi)
Total: 201.3km (125.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1612.5km (1002.0mi)
Walking: 77.6km (48.2mi)
Cycling: 3531.0km (2194.1mi)
Swimming: 235.1km (146.1mi)
Total: 5456.2km (3390.3mi)
The next couple of weeks are likely to be even busier than it has been, as the dedication for our new church is happening on the 23rd and I'm taking care of photographically documenting the associated events. I've been recording the entire construction process from the start, but the final preparations mean that the changes are coming fast and furious and it's a lot more work. With the workers scrambling to get everything done in time, the schedule is somewhat dynamic and planning around it is a bit more difficult than normal.
The side effect of this is that I'm going to have to skip the Lakeside Olympic triathlon next weekend that I wanted to do. Next weekend is looking pretty packed with preparations, and heading out of town for something like that would be difficult to fit it. As that's the last race of the year around these parts, that pretty much means that I'm not actually going to be able to fit a triathlon in this season. Unfortunate, but I've enjoyed the training either way and made improvements that should form a solid base for next year's more ambitious targets.
Sunday's 18 miler was a bit on the warm side, but fortunately not nearly as bad as it was just a few weeks ago. The cool weather we've been getting lately has spoiled me a bit, as running and biking with the temperatures in the teens is so much nicer than the hot and humid we've been enduring lately. On the upside, I was able to pace myself a little better than last week - averaging a 4:45/km pace rather than 4:33. Looking back at the telemetry, I was pretty much bang on the 5:00/km target until the half-marathon mark when I picked it up a bit. I tend to have a bit of a backwards pacing instinct - the more fatigued my legs become, the faster they seem to want to go :P
Like last week, this long run was done with my Garmin rather than the Polar. After transferring my telemetry from Friday's 5 miler I noticed a (nearly inaudible) hissing noise coming from the unit. To be safe, I've pulled the (new) battery out of the unit and contacted their support department to get guidance on what to do about these symptoms. Searching over their fora, there were a few mentions of similar symptoms but as those were covered under warantee (they all came from the factory this way) there isn't much detail on what was wrong (they sent it in, it came back fixed).
Other than the sound, the unit is working flawlessly so I don't think it's anything major. Looking at the unit I think one of the battery pins isn't quite contacting the side of the battery, and the gap is small enough that it's arcing. I'm not sure if it's a matter of the new battery being a little smaller than it's supposed to be, or if the pin has gotten bent back a bit, but if it is either one of those issues it should be a relatively simple fix. With that said, the way that products are made nowadays even simple things can end up being complex to actually repair.
On the cycling front, myself and a couple of guys from the group managed to get together on labour day for a short 50K. Tried to talk them into something a bit longer, but unfortunately they haven't been out a lot lately so they wanted to start back carefully. Either way, we headed out just before 8am and while it was a bit chilly (11C), once we got moving that was quite comfortable. It ended up being a good thing we kept it short, however, as it started pouring rain for the last couple of minutes ;)
Other commitments meant that Saturday's ride had to be cut down to 55K, and Friday's to 30K. Wednesday's ride didn't happen due to weather, so my net cycling mileage this week is pretty pathetic. Either way, not much that can be done about that as none of those constraints were particularly mutable.
On the upside, the pools have finally switched back over to the fall/winter schedules so I don't need to try and shoehorn two hours work of work into 90 minutes. My normal pool was unfortunately down for maintenance this week, but another close by facility has a nice three hour session available so that helped. While I shortened the sets a bit given the reduced time constraints, I kept them at moderate distances (1.5-2K) in order to squeeze in a bit more distance than normal. I'll see how this holds out, and if it goes well it should help me to continue improving.
Week 36 Totals:
Running: 54.7km (34.0mi)
Walking: 2.4km (1.5mi)
Cycling: 135.2km (84.0mi)
Swimming: 9.0km (5.6mi)
Total: 201.3km (125.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1612.5km (1002.0mi)
Walking: 77.6km (48.2mi)
Cycling: 3531.0km (2194.1mi)
Swimming: 235.1km (146.1mi)
Total: 5456.2km (3390.3mi)
The next couple of weeks are likely to be even busier than it has been, as the dedication for our new church is happening on the 23rd and I'm taking care of photographically documenting the associated events. I've been recording the entire construction process from the start, but the final preparations mean that the changes are coming fast and furious and it's a lot more work. With the workers scrambling to get everything done in time, the schedule is somewhat dynamic and planning around it is a bit more difficult than normal.
The side effect of this is that I'm going to have to skip the Lakeside Olympic triathlon next weekend that I wanted to do. Next weekend is looking pretty packed with preparations, and heading out of town for something like that would be difficult to fit it. As that's the last race of the year around these parts, that pretty much means that I'm not actually going to be able to fit a triathlon in this season. Unfortunate, but I've enjoyed the training either way and made improvements that should form a solid base for next year's more ambitious targets.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Weeks 33, 34 & 35: Catching Up
The last few weeks have been particularly crazy, and as such I've fallen behind on my updates. This post is designed to catch up for the last three weeks, and will only be relatively brief as I still don't have a heck of a lot of time here ;)
Week 33 Totals:
Running: 58.3km (36.2mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 81.2km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 8.1km (5.0mi)
Total: 149.8km (93.1mi)
Week 33 went pretty much as planned and I managed to hit most of my targets. Cycling was the main exception, as the weather over the weekend forced me to miss a couple of my sessions. On the running front, I managed to get in a good 18 miler on the Sunday despite a bit of rain. Additionally, my group run on Wednesday was faster than normal as the fellow that I headed out with was preparing for a race and wanted to do a hard 10K. It felt good to let the legs loose for a change ;)
Week 34 Totals:
Running: 27.4km (17.0mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 71.5km (44.4mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 107.5km (66.8mi)
After the successes of the previous week, week 34 started out quite well with everything hitting targets comfortably. Unfortunately, on Friday my left hamstring started feeling a bit sore so I took a few rest days to let it recover. It wasn't particularly bad and in retrospect I likely could have trained through it, but I didn't want to risk it becoming worse and taking me out for a longer period. As such, my long run and ride were knocked out, as well as one of my moderate rides - all of which took a significant chunk out of my mileage.
Week 35 Totals:
Running: 50.1km (31.1mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 61.0km (37.9mi)
Swimming: 3.7km (2.3mi)
Total: 116.1km (72.1mi)
On Monday morning, the hamstring was pretty much back to normal so I decided to get back into the routine. To play it safe I shortened my ride from 50 to 30K, but fortunately there were no signs of the pain so I could get back into my routine. On Tuesday I was out with family so I did miss my sessions on that day, but fortunately I was able to squeeze in an extra run on Saturday to make up for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make up the swim so that mileage is a bit low for the week.
On Sunday, I was heading out for a 17 miler to ease myself back into it and when I started my Polar the battery in the wrist watch died. I quickly switched over to my Garmin strap and popped my cycling computer (Edge 705) in a pocket on my hydration belt. It's GPS radio had the capacity to measure speed and distance, and with the HRM I'd be able to record most of the information that the Polar does. Unfortunately, as there is no way to mount it to my wrist I couldn't get real-time readings of those values.
While I don't mind running by feel, my tendency is to go too fast when I do, and that isn't a good combination for a long slow distance run like this. Regardless, the weather was near perfect for a run and I felt good throughout. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the display that I realized that I'd averaged a 4:33/km pace (vs the 5:00-5:30 pace that was planned). Fortunately, thanks to the lower temperatures my heart rate stayed in about the right range (~164bpm average vs 155bpm normal for this distance) so it hopefully wasn't too hard on the body.
Either way, it is good to know that I can comfortably maintain that pace for this distance. This is roughly the speed that I need to hold over a marathon to qualify for Boston, and having done 17 miles at the pace is a good sign. Naturally, that's still a far cry from being able to pull off another 10 miles at this speed, but it's a stepping stone in that direction. I don't intend to make a BQ attempt this fall, so the earliest that I'd be trying that is next spring - leaving a good amount of time to work on that last piece of the equation.
Year to Date:
Running: 1557.8km (968.0mi)
Walking: 75.2km (46.7mi)
Cycling: 3395.8km (2110.1mi)
Swimming: 226.1km (140.5mi)
Total: 5254.9km (3265.2mi)
Week 33 Totals:
Running: 58.3km (36.2mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 81.2km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 8.1km (5.0mi)
Total: 149.8km (93.1mi)
Week 33 went pretty much as planned and I managed to hit most of my targets. Cycling was the main exception, as the weather over the weekend forced me to miss a couple of my sessions. On the running front, I managed to get in a good 18 miler on the Sunday despite a bit of rain. Additionally, my group run on Wednesday was faster than normal as the fellow that I headed out with was preparing for a race and wanted to do a hard 10K. It felt good to let the legs loose for a change ;)
Week 34 Totals:
Running: 27.4km (17.0mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 71.5km (44.4mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 107.5km (66.8mi)
After the successes of the previous week, week 34 started out quite well with everything hitting targets comfortably. Unfortunately, on Friday my left hamstring started feeling a bit sore so I took a few rest days to let it recover. It wasn't particularly bad and in retrospect I likely could have trained through it, but I didn't want to risk it becoming worse and taking me out for a longer period. As such, my long run and ride were knocked out, as well as one of my moderate rides - all of which took a significant chunk out of my mileage.
Week 35 Totals:
Running: 50.1km (31.1mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 61.0km (37.9mi)
Swimming: 3.7km (2.3mi)
Total: 116.1km (72.1mi)
On Monday morning, the hamstring was pretty much back to normal so I decided to get back into the routine. To play it safe I shortened my ride from 50 to 30K, but fortunately there were no signs of the pain so I could get back into my routine. On Tuesday I was out with family so I did miss my sessions on that day, but fortunately I was able to squeeze in an extra run on Saturday to make up for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make up the swim so that mileage is a bit low for the week.
On Sunday, I was heading out for a 17 miler to ease myself back into it and when I started my Polar the battery in the wrist watch died. I quickly switched over to my Garmin strap and popped my cycling computer (Edge 705) in a pocket on my hydration belt. It's GPS radio had the capacity to measure speed and distance, and with the HRM I'd be able to record most of the information that the Polar does. Unfortunately, as there is no way to mount it to my wrist I couldn't get real-time readings of those values.
While I don't mind running by feel, my tendency is to go too fast when I do, and that isn't a good combination for a long slow distance run like this. Regardless, the weather was near perfect for a run and I felt good throughout. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the display that I realized that I'd averaged a 4:33/km pace (vs the 5:00-5:30 pace that was planned). Fortunately, thanks to the lower temperatures my heart rate stayed in about the right range (~164bpm average vs 155bpm normal for this distance) so it hopefully wasn't too hard on the body.
Either way, it is good to know that I can comfortably maintain that pace for this distance. This is roughly the speed that I need to hold over a marathon to qualify for Boston, and having done 17 miles at the pace is a good sign. Naturally, that's still a far cry from being able to pull off another 10 miles at this speed, but it's a stepping stone in that direction. I don't intend to make a BQ attempt this fall, so the earliest that I'd be trying that is next spring - leaving a good amount of time to work on that last piece of the equation.
Year to Date:
Running: 1557.8km (968.0mi)
Walking: 75.2km (46.7mi)
Cycling: 3395.8km (2110.1mi)
Swimming: 226.1km (140.5mi)
Total: 5254.9km (3265.2mi)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Week 32: Review
After a number of weeks of building up, I elected to take this week as a recovery week and back off a little to let the body repair itself. That worked out quite well, as the week was otherwise pretty busy so it would have been difficult trying to fit in the normal training volumes anyway. In the end, I ended up pulling back a little more than I would have liked, but for a week like this I'll take it.
Most of the sessions this week went relatively well, as the weather was decent and my more relaxed attitude made it a bit easier to enjoy them rather than fighting through. Sunday's long run was the exception to this, as the humidity was absolutely brutal and I had to cut the planned 13 miler down to 10 because of it. I normally go out in the morning, but as it was pouring rain at that time I elected to hold off until the afternoon. Unfortunately, when I did get out there I realized that the rain would have been a blessing.
The ambient temperature was reading as 32C with the humidity at a stifling 85%. Punched into the humidex formula, that works out to the equivalent of 49C (~120F) so it made things a lot more difficult. Adding to this was the fact that about 15 minutes into the run, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out. Needless to say, I went through the litre of Gatorade that I brought along pretty quickly. I wasn't too worried, as there was a community centre along the way that I normally refill my bottles at.
Unfortunately, when I got there the doors were locked so I wasn't able to refill my (now empty) bottles and had to fight through. To be safe, I rerouted along a main street so that I could find somewhere to pull into and get more to drink. I eventually came up to a McDonalds and took advantage of that $1 for any size drink promo they are running over the summer, and quickly gulped down a good portion of it ;) I poured the remainder in my bottles and continued on, but it didn't take long before the bouncing shook the CO2 out of the mixture and the valves on said bottles opened up and coated my back. I quickly drank what remained, and just headed back home.
Either way, I'm just glad that it was a recovery week as this could have gone a lot worse if I'd attempted to do a 19 miler in this weather. Unfortunately, there isn't really a practical way to carry any more hydration than I currently do so I'm pretty much stuck having to rely on stopping periodically to refill. I know when things are open on my normal schedule, but unfortunately when I pushed things back because of the rain I likely should have double checked those hours ;)
Week 32 Totals:
Running: 39.3km (24.4mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 81.3km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 129.5km (80.5mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1422.0km (883.6mi)
Walking: 70.7km (43.9mi)
Cycling: 3182.1km (1977.3mi)
Swimming: 206.7km (128.4mi)
Total: 4881.5km (3033.2mi)
As for racing plans, I elected to pass on Muskoka this year as it just wasn't worth the costs for a first shot at the distance. I'm definitely in for next year, however, and plan to do at least one unofficial half-iron race in the middle of the summer before hitting the sanctioned race in September. I am, however, now looking for an Olympic distance race (or two) in the coming months to take advantage of the training that I intended for the HIM ;)
Most of the sessions this week went relatively well, as the weather was decent and my more relaxed attitude made it a bit easier to enjoy them rather than fighting through. Sunday's long run was the exception to this, as the humidity was absolutely brutal and I had to cut the planned 13 miler down to 10 because of it. I normally go out in the morning, but as it was pouring rain at that time I elected to hold off until the afternoon. Unfortunately, when I did get out there I realized that the rain would have been a blessing.
The ambient temperature was reading as 32C with the humidity at a stifling 85%. Punched into the humidex formula, that works out to the equivalent of 49C (~120F) so it made things a lot more difficult. Adding to this was the fact that about 15 minutes into the run, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out. Needless to say, I went through the litre of Gatorade that I brought along pretty quickly. I wasn't too worried, as there was a community centre along the way that I normally refill my bottles at.
Unfortunately, when I got there the doors were locked so I wasn't able to refill my (now empty) bottles and had to fight through. To be safe, I rerouted along a main street so that I could find somewhere to pull into and get more to drink. I eventually came up to a McDonalds and took advantage of that $1 for any size drink promo they are running over the summer, and quickly gulped down a good portion of it ;) I poured the remainder in my bottles and continued on, but it didn't take long before the bouncing shook the CO2 out of the mixture and the valves on said bottles opened up and coated my back. I quickly drank what remained, and just headed back home.
Either way, I'm just glad that it was a recovery week as this could have gone a lot worse if I'd attempted to do a 19 miler in this weather. Unfortunately, there isn't really a practical way to carry any more hydration than I currently do so I'm pretty much stuck having to rely on stopping periodically to refill. I know when things are open on my normal schedule, but unfortunately when I pushed things back because of the rain I likely should have double checked those hours ;)
Week 32 Totals:
Running: 39.3km (24.4mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 81.3km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 129.5km (80.5mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1422.0km (883.6mi)
Walking: 70.7km (43.9mi)
Cycling: 3182.1km (1977.3mi)
Swimming: 206.7km (128.4mi)
Total: 4881.5km (3033.2mi)
As for racing plans, I elected to pass on Muskoka this year as it just wasn't worth the costs for a first shot at the distance. I'm definitely in for next year, however, and plan to do at least one unofficial half-iron race in the middle of the summer before hitting the sanctioned race in September. I am, however, now looking for an Olympic distance race (or two) in the coming months to take advantage of the training that I intended for the HIM ;)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Weeks 30 & 31: Review
Missed updating last week as things were quite busy, so I'm putting the two weeks together to make things a bit simpler. Fortunately, the weather over these last couple of weeks has been much improved and I was able to get in nearly everything as planned.
With last Monday being a holiday, that also made it a bit easier to fit in my scheduled rides. I had originally planned on doing a 100K ride on Saturday and then a 50K ride on Monday, but about 30K into the former it began drizzling and the skies were pretty black so I turned around and cut it short. Fortunately, Monday was looking good so it was just a matter of switching the two rides around and nothing much was lost.
As such, I headed out early on Monday morning for 100K on the bike. I had originally planned on doing a variation of my normal 80K route, but some friends suggested another path that had a lot of new ground so I elected to follow it instead. The first segment was the same as the group ride we did a few weeks back, but rather than turning south on Humber Station road I continued on north-west to add some distance. At the 60K mark, I came into Caledon East as planned and stopped briefly to refill my water supply and grab some fuel to continue on. Once complete, I continued up some gorgeous country roads.
When I got to the turn on Heart Lake road, there was a big sign in my way saying that the road was closed. The friend that had suggested the route mentioned that there was some construction along the way, but it was possible to walk through it so I rode around the sign and continued on. When I got to the break, however, it was obvious that they'd made some progress since he had been there last. The work was on a bridge, and crews had excavated about 3m around the edges of the structure so there was no way to get across on foot.
To the east there was another bridge on what looked like a park of some sort, but looking at the gates it became obvious that it was a (incredibly well manicured) private residence so I pulled up the map on my Garmin and began plotting an alternate route. As I was pulling away, a local yelled up to me and provided me with a way across the gap which saved me a lot of extra distance ;) Apparently they've had a lot of cyclists come down that way, and unfortunately many of them just jumped the fence and used the aforementioned bridge. Making things worse, however, is that the owner of that bridge had just built it and the stain hadn't set in yet - so when those bikes crossed it, they left marks that required him to redo the work. Either way, I thanked the fellow for his help and apologized for the douchebaggery of some of my peers before heading out.
For reference, if planning a ride down Heart Lake Rd. between The Grange SR and Olde Baseline Rd. plan on alternates for the time being as the bridge is out and there is no (respectable) way to get around it. That stretch of road is also downhill toward the bridge, so turning around and doubling back means a sustained climb with a cold start :(
Either way, I continued on and the rest of the ride went great. I was quite tired by the time I got back, but it was good to get back into triple-digit territory again and this route had a lot of great scenery to make for an enjoyable trip.
The next day I was scheduled to do a swim and run, but I had a dentist appointment in the morning which took up a good amount of time and I didn't end up having time to do either. I rescheduled the run to Friday, but there wasn't much that I could do about the swim. Fortunately, this allowed me to combine that run with my 50K ride to fit in a proper brick session once again.
The upside, however, is that I was finally able to pop into D'Ornella's to pick up a Speedfill for my bike. I haven't gotten around to installing it yet, but I'm hoping that it will help to coax me into drinking a little more regularly (rather than just gulping it down at stops). Looking at the design there are a few things that I'm not crazy about, but the only other choice are aerobar mounted units and I'm not fond of the idea of hanging 2+ pounds of water off of the front end of the bike (the speedfill mounts the reservoir in the main triangle). I'm not 100% certain that it will fit, but I'll try squeezing it in sometime this week and return it if it doesn't.
Either way, on Saturday I managed to get in a good 86K ride in the afternoon. At the start I felt a bit weaker than usual, and had to fight a bit harder than normal on the climbs. I originally figured that it was just fatigue from a relatively heavy week of training, but with about 5K to go in the ride I was taking a rest stop and noticed that the rear brake was rubbing against the rim a bit. I adjusted it and once I got back on the road it was a lot easier ;) It was just barely in contact so it wasn't making any noise or anything, but obviously there was enough friction to add a noticeable amount of extra resistance into the mix. Oh well, good for strength training I guess :P
Finally, yesterday morning I had 18 miles on the books but it was looking pretty dodgy outside so I was debating whether to cut it short. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes of running, it started raining a bit and never let up. Fortunately, it was a relatively light and cold rain which did a great job of offsetting the effects of the relatively high humidity. It switched over to downpours a couple of times, but fortunately they never persisted for very long so it was easy enough to grab some quick cover and wait them out. In the end, I managed to get all of the planned 18 miles in with a lot less effort than I've had in previous week's shorter distances. I was certainly drenched when I got back, but fortunately it never got to the point where my shoes were saturated so it wasn't really that much different than the sweat I usually accumulate ;)
Week 30 Totals:
Running: 53.1km (33.0mi)
Walking: 1.5km (0.9mi)
Cycling: 142.4km (88.5mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 204.5km (127.1mi)
Week 31 Totals:
Running: 56.6km (35.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 268.8km (167.0mi)
Swimming: 4.4km (2.7mi)
Total: 331.1km (205.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1382.7km (859.2mi)
Walking: 69.4km (43.1mi)
Cycling: 3100.8km (1926.7mi)
Swimming: 199.1km (123.7mi)
Total: 4752.0km (2952.8mi)
Either way, I've been climbing in mileage for a few weeks now so this upcoming week will be a recovery cycle. I'll likely chop the long run back to 12 or 13 miles, and take a bit off of the midweek runs as well. I'm likely going to miss my ride today because of the weather, so that should take care of the cycling mileage as well. After that, time to start ratcheting things back up again ;)
With last Monday being a holiday, that also made it a bit easier to fit in my scheduled rides. I had originally planned on doing a 100K ride on Saturday and then a 50K ride on Monday, but about 30K into the former it began drizzling and the skies were pretty black so I turned around and cut it short. Fortunately, Monday was looking good so it was just a matter of switching the two rides around and nothing much was lost.
As such, I headed out early on Monday morning for 100K on the bike. I had originally planned on doing a variation of my normal 80K route, but some friends suggested another path that had a lot of new ground so I elected to follow it instead. The first segment was the same as the group ride we did a few weeks back, but rather than turning south on Humber Station road I continued on north-west to add some distance. At the 60K mark, I came into Caledon East as planned and stopped briefly to refill my water supply and grab some fuel to continue on. Once complete, I continued up some gorgeous country roads.
When I got to the turn on Heart Lake road, there was a big sign in my way saying that the road was closed. The friend that had suggested the route mentioned that there was some construction along the way, but it was possible to walk through it so I rode around the sign and continued on. When I got to the break, however, it was obvious that they'd made some progress since he had been there last. The work was on a bridge, and crews had excavated about 3m around the edges of the structure so there was no way to get across on foot.
To the east there was another bridge on what looked like a park of some sort, but looking at the gates it became obvious that it was a (incredibly well manicured) private residence so I pulled up the map on my Garmin and began plotting an alternate route. As I was pulling away, a local yelled up to me and provided me with a way across the gap which saved me a lot of extra distance ;) Apparently they've had a lot of cyclists come down that way, and unfortunately many of them just jumped the fence and used the aforementioned bridge. Making things worse, however, is that the owner of that bridge had just built it and the stain hadn't set in yet - so when those bikes crossed it, they left marks that required him to redo the work. Either way, I thanked the fellow for his help and apologized for the douchebaggery of some of my peers before heading out.
For reference, if planning a ride down Heart Lake Rd. between The Grange SR and Olde Baseline Rd. plan on alternates for the time being as the bridge is out and there is no (respectable) way to get around it. That stretch of road is also downhill toward the bridge, so turning around and doubling back means a sustained climb with a cold start :(
Either way, I continued on and the rest of the ride went great. I was quite tired by the time I got back, but it was good to get back into triple-digit territory again and this route had a lot of great scenery to make for an enjoyable trip.
The next day I was scheduled to do a swim and run, but I had a dentist appointment in the morning which took up a good amount of time and I didn't end up having time to do either. I rescheduled the run to Friday, but there wasn't much that I could do about the swim. Fortunately, this allowed me to combine that run with my 50K ride to fit in a proper brick session once again.
The upside, however, is that I was finally able to pop into D'Ornella's to pick up a Speedfill for my bike. I haven't gotten around to installing it yet, but I'm hoping that it will help to coax me into drinking a little more regularly (rather than just gulping it down at stops). Looking at the design there are a few things that I'm not crazy about, but the only other choice are aerobar mounted units and I'm not fond of the idea of hanging 2+ pounds of water off of the front end of the bike (the speedfill mounts the reservoir in the main triangle). I'm not 100% certain that it will fit, but I'll try squeezing it in sometime this week and return it if it doesn't.
Either way, on Saturday I managed to get in a good 86K ride in the afternoon. At the start I felt a bit weaker than usual, and had to fight a bit harder than normal on the climbs. I originally figured that it was just fatigue from a relatively heavy week of training, but with about 5K to go in the ride I was taking a rest stop and noticed that the rear brake was rubbing against the rim a bit. I adjusted it and once I got back on the road it was a lot easier ;) It was just barely in contact so it wasn't making any noise or anything, but obviously there was enough friction to add a noticeable amount of extra resistance into the mix. Oh well, good for strength training I guess :P
Finally, yesterday morning I had 18 miles on the books but it was looking pretty dodgy outside so I was debating whether to cut it short. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes of running, it started raining a bit and never let up. Fortunately, it was a relatively light and cold rain which did a great job of offsetting the effects of the relatively high humidity. It switched over to downpours a couple of times, but fortunately they never persisted for very long so it was easy enough to grab some quick cover and wait them out. In the end, I managed to get all of the planned 18 miles in with a lot less effort than I've had in previous week's shorter distances. I was certainly drenched when I got back, but fortunately it never got to the point where my shoes were saturated so it wasn't really that much different than the sweat I usually accumulate ;)
Week 30 Totals:
Running: 53.1km (33.0mi)
Walking: 1.5km (0.9mi)
Cycling: 142.4km (88.5mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 204.5km (127.1mi)
Week 31 Totals:
Running: 56.6km (35.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 268.8km (167.0mi)
Swimming: 4.4km (2.7mi)
Total: 331.1km (205.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1382.7km (859.2mi)
Walking: 69.4km (43.1mi)
Cycling: 3100.8km (1926.7mi)
Swimming: 199.1km (123.7mi)
Total: 4752.0km (2952.8mi)
Either way, I've been climbing in mileage for a few weeks now so this upcoming week will be a recovery cycle. I'll likely chop the long run back to 12 or 13 miles, and take a bit off of the midweek runs as well. I'm likely going to miss my ride today because of the weather, so that should take care of the cycling mileage as well. After that, time to start ratcheting things back up again ;)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Week 29: Review
Things have thankfully cooled down a lot this week, and aside from a bit of unsettled weather it's made workouts a good deal easier. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I lost a spoke on Wednesday so my cycling mileage was pretty miserable this week. The bike should be finished on Tuesday, meaning that I'll likely loose a bit of mileage in the upcoming week as well - which is a shame as the weather tomorrow is looking like it will be great :( Fortunately, both running and swimming went as planned so my overall mileage wasn't dented too much.
This morning the weather outside was great, and made for the first long run in a while that was actually comfortable. It was still pretty warm (27C/60%), but that's a lot better than it has been and thanks to acclimatization it felt quite good. The first half of the run was under overcast skies, which helped a lot as well. The sun did come out for the remainder of the run, but fortunately the respite for the first portion meant that I was in better shape to deal with the extra heat at that point.
I hit the planned 17 mile point, and just as I was slowing down a couple of friends pulled up on their bikes so I accelerated a bit to keep up and chat for a bit. In the end, I put down a total of 17.5 miles with the last half mile or so at a 5K pace, which felt quite good. That's a big contrast to my attempt to hit 17 miles last week, where I had to cut it short due to hydration issues. Either way, it feels good to start getting back into serious distance runs again - now just have to start reintroducing the speedwork ;)
Cycling wise, the first half of the week went pretty good - hitting planned mileage targets at relatively decent speeds despite some brutal winds. I put down a strong 50K ride on Monday, with a great tailwind assisted 50+km/h stretch down Jane street. Wednesday's 30K ride was much the same before the spoke snapped on me. Fortunately, I was already heading back at the time and only about 300m from home so it was easy enough to walk it back.
Not entirely sure what triggered it, as I hadn't hit any big bumps and was simply decelerating when it went (slow moving bus was ahead of me), but I'll ask the guys at the shop when I pick it up to see if there is anything I can do to avoid this in the future. The Shimano R500 wheels that the bike came with aren't the greatest, so perhaps it's time to start thinking about getting a proper set for it.
Week 29 Totals:
Running: 59.3km (36.9mi)
Walking: 1.5km (0.9mi)
Cycling: 79.5km (49.4mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 148.1km (92.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1273.0km (791.0mi)
Walking: 66.6km (41.4mi)
Cycling: 2689.6km (1671.2mi)
Swimming: 187.2km (116.3mi)
Total: 4216.4km (2619.9mi)
This morning the weather outside was great, and made for the first long run in a while that was actually comfortable. It was still pretty warm (27C/60%), but that's a lot better than it has been and thanks to acclimatization it felt quite good. The first half of the run was under overcast skies, which helped a lot as well. The sun did come out for the remainder of the run, but fortunately the respite for the first portion meant that I was in better shape to deal with the extra heat at that point.
I hit the planned 17 mile point, and just as I was slowing down a couple of friends pulled up on their bikes so I accelerated a bit to keep up and chat for a bit. In the end, I put down a total of 17.5 miles with the last half mile or so at a 5K pace, which felt quite good. That's a big contrast to my attempt to hit 17 miles last week, where I had to cut it short due to hydration issues. Either way, it feels good to start getting back into serious distance runs again - now just have to start reintroducing the speedwork ;)
Cycling wise, the first half of the week went pretty good - hitting planned mileage targets at relatively decent speeds despite some brutal winds. I put down a strong 50K ride on Monday, with a great tailwind assisted 50+km/h stretch down Jane street. Wednesday's 30K ride was much the same before the spoke snapped on me. Fortunately, I was already heading back at the time and only about 300m from home so it was easy enough to walk it back.
Not entirely sure what triggered it, as I hadn't hit any big bumps and was simply decelerating when it went (slow moving bus was ahead of me), but I'll ask the guys at the shop when I pick it up to see if there is anything I can do to avoid this in the future. The Shimano R500 wheels that the bike came with aren't the greatest, so perhaps it's time to start thinking about getting a proper set for it.
Week 29 Totals:
Running: 59.3km (36.9mi)
Walking: 1.5km (0.9mi)
Cycling: 79.5km (49.4mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 148.1km (92.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1273.0km (791.0mi)
Walking: 66.6km (41.4mi)
Cycling: 2689.6km (1671.2mi)
Swimming: 187.2km (116.3mi)
Total: 4216.4km (2619.9mi)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Making Plans
The last few months have been pretty crazy, and as a result I've dragged my feet on figuring out a racing strategy for the season. I've (kind of) got the big A races figured out, and have been training sufficiently for them - but the B and C races have to be fitted in there as well to build experience and test progress. The result is that we're now a good ways into the season and I've yet to get any Triathlons in so far. With a couple of months left, there isn't a whole lot of opportunities remaining so it's gotten to the point where I need to start figuring out what I'd like to do ;)
On Wednesday one of the spokes on my rear wheel snapped, and as Ironman Lake Placid is this weekend the bike shop was pretty much slammed meaning that I'm not getting it back until Tuesday. Cervelo pretty much dominates the triathlon market, so given that they only have a couple of dealers in town, things get pretty hairy whenever an Ironman is anywhere remotely close. With Lake Placid being pretty much the only full iron race within practical driving range, it's especially popular around these parts. As such, I couldn't head out for my Friday or Saturday rides which gave me a little extra free time and I figured I should use that to do a little homework ;)
I ended up missing my chance to do the Muskoka long course triathlon this weekend, which is probably just as well given the spoke issue ;) The Subaru series appears to now just have sprint distance events left before Ironman Muskoka, whereas the HSBC series has a few Olympic distance races. I definitely want to squeeze in at least one Olympic distance race in, although it would likely be a good idea to do another Sprint distance race ahead of that to get a bit more practice.
Tentatively, I'm thinking of starting out with the Niagara sprint tri followed by the Cobourg Olympic distance race. That will give me a couple of weeks between the races, and both are relatively close by so they should work out well. Cobourg is near the end of August, so it should leave a good amount of time for Muskoka if I do choose to go down that route. If not, I might add Lakeside's Olympic distance race into the mix as well.
As for Ironman Muskoka, as noted above I'm still going back and forth on that one. While I feel relatively comfortable with the distances, I'm not confident that I'd be able to put down an all-out effort at this juncture. Given the extremely high cost of that race, I'm not sure that I want to spend that kind of money for a 'just finish' race. At this point I'm leaning in the direction of just doing a few Olympic races (with one all-out) to build up my strength and experience and then focus full bore on the half ironman distance next year.
The HSBC series has an unofficial half iron race (Welland) in June which costs a lot less than the sanctioned race in Muskoka. This year it wasn't an option as I hadn't gotten my mileage up high enough that early in the season, but if I do a few intermediate distance races this year I should be able to ramp up faster next year. If I can do the Welland race as a just finish race, then I'd hopefully be able to gear up and try to do the 2011 Muskoka race at a hard enough effort to justify the costs involved. Further, the money I'd save from not doing the race this year would almost be enough to buy my own wetsuit, which would make it a lot easier to get some open water practice in.
The downside, of course, is that I don't get to cross off that half ironman goal this year. Further, as much of my training this year has been focused on those goal distances, a lot of that will have been for naught. It's still going to be a few years before I'll be ready for the full ironman, so neither plan will likely have much effect on that. Doing the half this year would certainly have it's benefits, but so would squeezing in a larger number of shorter races.
Either way, the priority at this point is to figure out the intermediate races and I can make the bigger decision a bit later. One of the benefits to the Niagara race is that it's a few days before Muskoka's registration cut-off, so I can get at least one race in the books before I figure out which way to go. Making the call based on real-world race performance is likely the best guidance that I can work within ;)
On Wednesday one of the spokes on my rear wheel snapped, and as Ironman Lake Placid is this weekend the bike shop was pretty much slammed meaning that I'm not getting it back until Tuesday. Cervelo pretty much dominates the triathlon market, so given that they only have a couple of dealers in town, things get pretty hairy whenever an Ironman is anywhere remotely close. With Lake Placid being pretty much the only full iron race within practical driving range, it's especially popular around these parts. As such, I couldn't head out for my Friday or Saturday rides which gave me a little extra free time and I figured I should use that to do a little homework ;)
I ended up missing my chance to do the Muskoka long course triathlon this weekend, which is probably just as well given the spoke issue ;) The Subaru series appears to now just have sprint distance events left before Ironman Muskoka, whereas the HSBC series has a few Olympic distance races. I definitely want to squeeze in at least one Olympic distance race in, although it would likely be a good idea to do another Sprint distance race ahead of that to get a bit more practice.
Tentatively, I'm thinking of starting out with the Niagara sprint tri followed by the Cobourg Olympic distance race. That will give me a couple of weeks between the races, and both are relatively close by so they should work out well. Cobourg is near the end of August, so it should leave a good amount of time for Muskoka if I do choose to go down that route. If not, I might add Lakeside's Olympic distance race into the mix as well.
As for Ironman Muskoka, as noted above I'm still going back and forth on that one. While I feel relatively comfortable with the distances, I'm not confident that I'd be able to put down an all-out effort at this juncture. Given the extremely high cost of that race, I'm not sure that I want to spend that kind of money for a 'just finish' race. At this point I'm leaning in the direction of just doing a few Olympic races (with one all-out) to build up my strength and experience and then focus full bore on the half ironman distance next year.
The HSBC series has an unofficial half iron race (Welland) in June which costs a lot less than the sanctioned race in Muskoka. This year it wasn't an option as I hadn't gotten my mileage up high enough that early in the season, but if I do a few intermediate distance races this year I should be able to ramp up faster next year. If I can do the Welland race as a just finish race, then I'd hopefully be able to gear up and try to do the 2011 Muskoka race at a hard enough effort to justify the costs involved. Further, the money I'd save from not doing the race this year would almost be enough to buy my own wetsuit, which would make it a lot easier to get some open water practice in.
The downside, of course, is that I don't get to cross off that half ironman goal this year. Further, as much of my training this year has been focused on those goal distances, a lot of that will have been for naught. It's still going to be a few years before I'll be ready for the full ironman, so neither plan will likely have much effect on that. Doing the half this year would certainly have it's benefits, but so would squeezing in a larger number of shorter races.
Either way, the priority at this point is to figure out the intermediate races and I can make the bigger decision a bit later. One of the benefits to the Niagara race is that it's a few days before Muskoka's registration cut-off, so I can get at least one race in the books before I figure out which way to go. Making the call based on real-world race performance is likely the best guidance that I can work within ;)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Week 28: Review
Weather this week was a lot more unpredictable than it has been in a while, and that ended up screwing with my cycling a bit. We didn't end up getting much in the way of rain, but with the weather reports calling for Thunderstorms I was a bit overcautious and ended up missing my Monday and Saturday rides. That works out to about 130-150K off of the schedule, which took a pretty big chunk out of my weekly mileage.
Either way, I'm not quite so timid with my running so I didn't miss too much on that front. With that said, while the heat and humidity was better than last week it was still quite challenging at times. I did end up chopping a mile off of today's run due to hydration issues, and Friday's brick run was a little short due to the accumulated heat of the combined sessions. Either way, as I didn't end up getting out on the bike Saturday I worked in an extra 4 miler to make up for some of the losses.
On the swimming front, things went pretty much as planned. I'm still working out how to operate within the reduced time windows, and have largely moved to doing longer continuous sets at higher speeds so as to maintain the same mileage. I'm also focusing one of the sessions on endurance and the other on drills, as fitting the latter in is difficult given the time constraints. Eventually I'm planning on checking out a few more pools to see if I can get back to the old two hour routines, but for the time being this works reasonably well.
There is a pool in Thornhill that has a proper routine, but that's a considerable drive to make twice a week. The other option would be the Olympium as it's about the same distance away, but is better configured for length swimming (it's an Olympic pool so the water temperatures are much lower than the recreational pools we have up here). I've also been flirting with giving UofT's pool a shot, as it's the only 50m pool I'm aware of that actually has scheduled long course sessions (the Olympium is a 50m pool as well, but they only remove the bulkhead for swim meets). It's too much of a PITA to get down there for regular sessions, but it wouldn't be too much trouble once and a while.
Week 28 Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 90.8km (56.4mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 157.1km (97.6mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1213.7km (754.2mi)
Walking: 65.1km (40.5mi)
Cycling: 2610.1km (1621.8mi)
Swimming: 179.4km (111.5mi)
Total: 4068.3km (2527.9mi)
I still haven't gotten around to figuring out a racing schedule for this year, and I've missed a good portion of the season because of that. Things have been pretty crazy lately, so pinning myself down to specific dates has been difficult. Regardless, with the time left I really need to force myself to figure out what I'm doing as the training has reached a point where I need to start adding more complex plans tailored to specific peaking intervals. I've got the base mileage up reasonably high, so I should be able to adapt to most things, but I need to start getting some more technical sessions (speedwork, transition practice, etc.) into the routine as well.
Either way, I'm not quite so timid with my running so I didn't miss too much on that front. With that said, while the heat and humidity was better than last week it was still quite challenging at times. I did end up chopping a mile off of today's run due to hydration issues, and Friday's brick run was a little short due to the accumulated heat of the combined sessions. Either way, as I didn't end up getting out on the bike Saturday I worked in an extra 4 miler to make up for some of the losses.
On the swimming front, things went pretty much as planned. I'm still working out how to operate within the reduced time windows, and have largely moved to doing longer continuous sets at higher speeds so as to maintain the same mileage. I'm also focusing one of the sessions on endurance and the other on drills, as fitting the latter in is difficult given the time constraints. Eventually I'm planning on checking out a few more pools to see if I can get back to the old two hour routines, but for the time being this works reasonably well.
There is a pool in Thornhill that has a proper routine, but that's a considerable drive to make twice a week. The other option would be the Olympium as it's about the same distance away, but is better configured for length swimming (it's an Olympic pool so the water temperatures are much lower than the recreational pools we have up here). I've also been flirting with giving UofT's pool a shot, as it's the only 50m pool I'm aware of that actually has scheduled long course sessions (the Olympium is a 50m pool as well, but they only remove the bulkhead for swim meets). It's too much of a PITA to get down there for regular sessions, but it wouldn't be too much trouble once and a while.
Week 28 Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 90.8km (56.4mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 157.1km (97.6mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1213.7km (754.2mi)
Walking: 65.1km (40.5mi)
Cycling: 2610.1km (1621.8mi)
Swimming: 179.4km (111.5mi)
Total: 4068.3km (2527.9mi)
I still haven't gotten around to figuring out a racing schedule for this year, and I've missed a good portion of the season because of that. Things have been pretty crazy lately, so pinning myself down to specific dates has been difficult. Regardless, with the time left I really need to force myself to figure out what I'm doing as the training has reached a point where I need to start adding more complex plans tailored to specific peaking intervals. I've got the base mileage up reasonably high, so I should be able to adapt to most things, but I need to start getting some more technical sessions (speedwork, transition practice, etc.) into the routine as well.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Week 27: Review
It's been a scorcher of a week (mid-40s with humidex factored in), with unrelenting heat and humidity making any type of outdoor activity difficult. As such, that means pouring through gallons of Gatorade and water to get the miles in. It also means that everyone and their brother goes to the pool, which also adds complexity to the one sport that isn't directly affected by the weather. Fortunately, I managed to soldier through the unpleasantness and get most of my scheduled mileage in.
I started off the week by heading out for Monday's 50K ride in the morning to try and cut down on the heat. Unfortunately there are limits to how early I like to get out for rides, as rush hour traffic in the morning can be pretty aggressive so I settled on heading out at 9am. While it was much better than it would have been in the afternoon, it was still pretty bad at this point and I had to take in a lot of fluids. Thankfully there was a bit of a wind blowing in from the west, so that helped to cool things down a bit. Either way, I didn't push quite as hard as normal and let myself take periodic breaks when I happened upon some shade along the side of the road.
On Tuesday, I was scheduled for a swim in the morning and then a 6 mile run in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the pool switched over to their summer schedule this week so when I got there at the normal time it wasn't open yet. The other annoyance is that they've decreased the session length from two hours to 90 minutes, which meant that I had to modify my program to fit in the shorter time frame. Either way, I headed back an hour later to find the change room packed, so I elected to just do a continuous set as that was the only way to get the required mileage in.
I managed to work in 4,250m in the 1h24m that I had to work with (lost some time at the beginning as the lifeguards didn't have the lane markers in yet). As such, I did get more than sufficient distance in, however a continuous set meant that I didn't have much in the way of a warmup and wasn't able to get any drill work in. Didn't have a whole lot of choice, however, as aside from the time limitations the lanes were packed so trying to do those things would have been difficult either way.
In the afternoon, I took a look at the weather reports and saw that Friday was scheduled to be cooler. They were also calling for rain, so it was unlikely I'd be able to get the scheduled ride in on that day and I elected to move the 6 miler back. With the heat out there any attempt to run would be very unpleasant and likely not particularly productive, so I figured this was my safest bet.
The next morning, I again headed out early on the bike for my scheduled 30K ride. It wasn't quite as bad as the day before, but it was still pretty brutal so I again took it easy. Aside from pulling back on the pace, I also took a slightly different route than normal that avoided a substantial hill. Thankfully, it was only a short distance ride so I managed to get it all in without burning myself out too much.
In the evening, I headed out for my normal group run at the local Running Room shop. Thanks to the heat, it was a pretty light showing so our normal group got together with one of the clinic groups. As such, we ended up doing only 7K at a significantly slower pace than normal, but with the conditions no one really complained. The temperatures did get to a few people, however, so the group got strung out a bit and I did get a few bursts of speed as bridged the gaps between the sub-groups to marshal them back to the slower runners. Either way, I was glad to do what I could to help people fight through it - these are the sorts of days that can be hard when you're just starting out, so I'm happy to lend whatever moral support that I can.
Thursday I headed back out to the pool, but as I had a bit of extra distance on the books I elected to make sure and fit some drills into the session. The pool was again quite busy, so I ended up doing a continuous 3,000m set first and then a quick 500m drill session to finish. Thankfully things thinned out a bit near the end, so I was able to get those in without too much trouble. Ended up doing two underwater lengths to finish it off, as the lifeguards were removing the lane markers and doing anything on the surface would have been pretty messy ;)
In the afternoon I headed out for the planned 6 mile run. It was a fight for the whole distance, but I didn't have anywhere left to move the miles so I had to trudge through. I did debate whether I should cut back the mileage a bit, but decided against it as I had already lost enough on Wednesday. I limited my pace to keep heart rate under control and drank plenty of water so it wasn't too bad. Either way, it felt great when I eventually headed into the air conditioned environment inside ;)
Thankfully, the heat dropped back a bit on Friday so the 6 miler I moved from Tuesday went pretty well. Naturally, it was still quite hot out there, but it was nowhere near as bad as the last few days so it felt quite good. While the body wanted to go faster, I did what I could to reign it in as I figured that it needed some time to recover from the stress of the earlier sessions. As expected, I ended up missing the cycling session due to intermittent rain - it didn't end up adding up to much, but it threatened for the whole day so I didn't head out.
Saturday was looking great as well, so the group that I periodically ride with met up at 8:00am and headed out for a planned 70K route. This was a little shorter than I had planned to do, and the pace of these group rides was a bit slower, but it's worth it to have some great company on these multi-hour rides. When we get into the 100+km range, I'm not fond of heading out solo simply because of safety reasons (if something happens and I'm 50K out, help is at least an hour away). Either way, the weather ended up being absolutely perfect and we got in a great ride before the temperatures started climbing.
I was considering doing a short ~20-30K extra after the ride, but one of the guys offered to have everyone over to watch a stage of the TDF so I figured that was the better course of action. While we do get to chat a bit on the bike, there are long stretches of road where that isn't possible (lots of traffic so we have to stick to a paceline, big hills that string the group out a bit, etc.) and it's nice to have a chance to just sit back and enjoy the company.
This morning the temperatures started climbing back up, which was not exactly welcome for the 17 miler that I had planned. It wasn't nearly as bad as it was last week, but with a much longer distance on the schedule keeping hydrated was going to be more difficult. As I headed out, I elected to pull it back to 16 miles and stick with the route I did a couple of weeks ago to be safe.
It also didn't help that my legs wanted to go fast today, and every time I stopped actively paying attention to my pace it started drifting into tempo territory. I was actually feeling pretty good for the duration (likely why the body wanted to accelerate), but my heart rate was running higher than I would have liked (more due to the higher pace than the heat) and I was quite thirsty so I was going through my bottles faster than planned. Either way, I kept a closer eye on my watch to control pace (making a nice sine wave on my pace plot) and did what I could to ration the fluids.
At the 13 mile mark, I was down to one 8oz bottle of Gatorade so I pulled into a 7-11 along the route to resupply. After grabbing a bottle from the freezer, I noticed that they were giving away free 7.11oz slurpies so I picked up one of those as well before heading to the counter. That ended up working quite well, as aside from quenching my thirst a bit the ice helped to bring down my core temperature a bit and make the next few miles more comfortable (plus, when you're really thirsty they taste so much better than normal) ;)
After a few more miles I picked up a bit of extra water from a community centre, then finished off the final stretch. Aside from drinking so much, the run actually went quite well. I was relatively comfortable throughout despite the high temperatures and faster than planned 4:50/km pace. Probably could have squeezed in that extra mile, but didn't want to risk it as I was running low on fluids when I hit the 16 mile mark.
While my mileage was a bit shorter than scheduled, considering the conditions this week I'm satisfied with what I did manage to squeeze in. It's looking like this summer is going to be pretty hot, so I'm going to have to do more to acclimatize myself to this sort of weather. From prior experience it does get easier with time, but the process of getting to that point is unfortunately not terribly pleasant.
Week 27 Totals:
Running: 52.1km (32.4mi)
Walking: 3.8km (2.4mi)
Cycling: 148.6km (92.3mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 212.3km (131.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1157.0km (718.9mi)
Walking: 63.0km (39.1mi)
Cycling: 2519.3km (1565.4mi)
Swimming: 171.9km (106.8mi)
Total: 3911.2km (2430.3mi)
I started off the week by heading out for Monday's 50K ride in the morning to try and cut down on the heat. Unfortunately there are limits to how early I like to get out for rides, as rush hour traffic in the morning can be pretty aggressive so I settled on heading out at 9am. While it was much better than it would have been in the afternoon, it was still pretty bad at this point and I had to take in a lot of fluids. Thankfully there was a bit of a wind blowing in from the west, so that helped to cool things down a bit. Either way, I didn't push quite as hard as normal and let myself take periodic breaks when I happened upon some shade along the side of the road.
On Tuesday, I was scheduled for a swim in the morning and then a 6 mile run in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the pool switched over to their summer schedule this week so when I got there at the normal time it wasn't open yet. The other annoyance is that they've decreased the session length from two hours to 90 minutes, which meant that I had to modify my program to fit in the shorter time frame. Either way, I headed back an hour later to find the change room packed, so I elected to just do a continuous set as that was the only way to get the required mileage in.
I managed to work in 4,250m in the 1h24m that I had to work with (lost some time at the beginning as the lifeguards didn't have the lane markers in yet). As such, I did get more than sufficient distance in, however a continuous set meant that I didn't have much in the way of a warmup and wasn't able to get any drill work in. Didn't have a whole lot of choice, however, as aside from the time limitations the lanes were packed so trying to do those things would have been difficult either way.
In the afternoon, I took a look at the weather reports and saw that Friday was scheduled to be cooler. They were also calling for rain, so it was unlikely I'd be able to get the scheduled ride in on that day and I elected to move the 6 miler back. With the heat out there any attempt to run would be very unpleasant and likely not particularly productive, so I figured this was my safest bet.
The next morning, I again headed out early on the bike for my scheduled 30K ride. It wasn't quite as bad as the day before, but it was still pretty brutal so I again took it easy. Aside from pulling back on the pace, I also took a slightly different route than normal that avoided a substantial hill. Thankfully, it was only a short distance ride so I managed to get it all in without burning myself out too much.
In the evening, I headed out for my normal group run at the local Running Room shop. Thanks to the heat, it was a pretty light showing so our normal group got together with one of the clinic groups. As such, we ended up doing only 7K at a significantly slower pace than normal, but with the conditions no one really complained. The temperatures did get to a few people, however, so the group got strung out a bit and I did get a few bursts of speed as bridged the gaps between the sub-groups to marshal them back to the slower runners. Either way, I was glad to do what I could to help people fight through it - these are the sorts of days that can be hard when you're just starting out, so I'm happy to lend whatever moral support that I can.
Thursday I headed back out to the pool, but as I had a bit of extra distance on the books I elected to make sure and fit some drills into the session. The pool was again quite busy, so I ended up doing a continuous 3,000m set first and then a quick 500m drill session to finish. Thankfully things thinned out a bit near the end, so I was able to get those in without too much trouble. Ended up doing two underwater lengths to finish it off, as the lifeguards were removing the lane markers and doing anything on the surface would have been pretty messy ;)
In the afternoon I headed out for the planned 6 mile run. It was a fight for the whole distance, but I didn't have anywhere left to move the miles so I had to trudge through. I did debate whether I should cut back the mileage a bit, but decided against it as I had already lost enough on Wednesday. I limited my pace to keep heart rate under control and drank plenty of water so it wasn't too bad. Either way, it felt great when I eventually headed into the air conditioned environment inside ;)
Thankfully, the heat dropped back a bit on Friday so the 6 miler I moved from Tuesday went pretty well. Naturally, it was still quite hot out there, but it was nowhere near as bad as the last few days so it felt quite good. While the body wanted to go faster, I did what I could to reign it in as I figured that it needed some time to recover from the stress of the earlier sessions. As expected, I ended up missing the cycling session due to intermittent rain - it didn't end up adding up to much, but it threatened for the whole day so I didn't head out.
Saturday was looking great as well, so the group that I periodically ride with met up at 8:00am and headed out for a planned 70K route. This was a little shorter than I had planned to do, and the pace of these group rides was a bit slower, but it's worth it to have some great company on these multi-hour rides. When we get into the 100+km range, I'm not fond of heading out solo simply because of safety reasons (if something happens and I'm 50K out, help is at least an hour away). Either way, the weather ended up being absolutely perfect and we got in a great ride before the temperatures started climbing.
I was considering doing a short ~20-30K extra after the ride, but one of the guys offered to have everyone over to watch a stage of the TDF so I figured that was the better course of action. While we do get to chat a bit on the bike, there are long stretches of road where that isn't possible (lots of traffic so we have to stick to a paceline, big hills that string the group out a bit, etc.) and it's nice to have a chance to just sit back and enjoy the company.
This morning the temperatures started climbing back up, which was not exactly welcome for the 17 miler that I had planned. It wasn't nearly as bad as it was last week, but with a much longer distance on the schedule keeping hydrated was going to be more difficult. As I headed out, I elected to pull it back to 16 miles and stick with the route I did a couple of weeks ago to be safe.
It also didn't help that my legs wanted to go fast today, and every time I stopped actively paying attention to my pace it started drifting into tempo territory. I was actually feeling pretty good for the duration (likely why the body wanted to accelerate), but my heart rate was running higher than I would have liked (more due to the higher pace than the heat) and I was quite thirsty so I was going through my bottles faster than planned. Either way, I kept a closer eye on my watch to control pace (making a nice sine wave on my pace plot) and did what I could to ration the fluids.
At the 13 mile mark, I was down to one 8oz bottle of Gatorade so I pulled into a 7-11 along the route to resupply. After grabbing a bottle from the freezer, I noticed that they were giving away free 7.11oz slurpies so I picked up one of those as well before heading to the counter. That ended up working quite well, as aside from quenching my thirst a bit the ice helped to bring down my core temperature a bit and make the next few miles more comfortable (plus, when you're really thirsty they taste so much better than normal) ;)
After a few more miles I picked up a bit of extra water from a community centre, then finished off the final stretch. Aside from drinking so much, the run actually went quite well. I was relatively comfortable throughout despite the high temperatures and faster than planned 4:50/km pace. Probably could have squeezed in that extra mile, but didn't want to risk it as I was running low on fluids when I hit the 16 mile mark.
While my mileage was a bit shorter than scheduled, considering the conditions this week I'm satisfied with what I did manage to squeeze in. It's looking like this summer is going to be pretty hot, so I'm going to have to do more to acclimatize myself to this sort of weather. From prior experience it does get easier with time, but the process of getting to that point is unfortunately not terribly pleasant.
Week 27 Totals:
Running: 52.1km (32.4mi)
Walking: 3.8km (2.4mi)
Cycling: 148.6km (92.3mi)
Swimming: 7.8km (4.8mi)
Total: 212.3km (131.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1157.0km (718.9mi)
Walking: 63.0km (39.1mi)
Cycling: 2519.3km (1565.4mi)
Swimming: 171.9km (106.8mi)
Total: 3911.2km (2430.3mi)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Week 26: Review
My mileage has been steadily climbing for more than a month now, so as noted in my previous review I elected to make this week a recovery week. With Canada Day on Thursday, a fishing trip on Friday and a few other commitments in the week I knew that it would be a busy one so that worked out well, as it afforded me a little more flexibility in moving things around. In the end I dropped a couple of runs (6mi & 4mi) as well as one of my swims (~3K) and one ride (~50k), and I also cut back the mileage for today's long run.
The only downside to this approach was that the weather was absolutely perfect this week, so I hated wasting good days. With that said, these recovery weeks are critical to avoid injury so it was something that had to be done. If this TRIMP algorithm is accurate, it appears to have paid off as my CTL (fitness level) and ATL (fatigue level) are lined up again which indicates that the recovery went well (have to research these synthetic metrics a bit more, as they appear to be quite useful).
I had hoped to get some open water swimming in on Friday while I was out on the lake, but we never got a chance to get to a beach so that didn't work out. With that said, I'm not sure that it would have been possible to do much as most of the beaches on lake Erie are swarming with boats so getting out deep enough to swim would likely be pretty risky. Either way, it was a great day out with family and helped to work out a bit of stress from the system ;)
Unfortunately, we're now back to the brutal heat and humidity so the next week is going to be a fight as I ramp things up again. This morning's run was extremely difficult, as the humidex was up to 44C (111F) when I headed out and it really hit me hard. I had planned to do 13 miles, but ended up cuting it short at 11 miles as my heart rate was climbing higher than I was comfortable with. Compounding the issue was that my legs were feeling great, so my body kept accelerating on me and it was difficult to keep things slow. Either way, I'm glad that this was a recovery week as if I'd tried to do a 16 or 17 miler, it would have been quite the fight.
Week 26 Totals:
Running: 38.7km (24.0mi)
Walking: 1.7km (1.1mi)
Cycling: 174.9km (108.7mi)
Swimming: 4.0km (2.5mi)
Total: 219.3km (136.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1104.9km (686.6mi)
Walking: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Cycling: 2370.7km (1473.1mi)
Swimming: 164.1km (102.0mi)
Total: 3698.9km (2298.4mi)
The plan for the upcoming week will be to begin ramping things up again, although the forecast is calling for more of today's brutal heat so that's going to be difficult. We got spoiled by the great temperatures last week, so going back to the sticky weather isn't going to be fun :oP
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 90k Ride
Sun 17mi (27.4K) LSD
The only downside to this approach was that the weather was absolutely perfect this week, so I hated wasting good days. With that said, these recovery weeks are critical to avoid injury so it was something that had to be done. If this TRIMP algorithm is accurate, it appears to have paid off as my CTL (fitness level) and ATL (fatigue level) are lined up again which indicates that the recovery went well (have to research these synthetic metrics a bit more, as they appear to be quite useful).
I had hoped to get some open water swimming in on Friday while I was out on the lake, but we never got a chance to get to a beach so that didn't work out. With that said, I'm not sure that it would have been possible to do much as most of the beaches on lake Erie are swarming with boats so getting out deep enough to swim would likely be pretty risky. Either way, it was a great day out with family and helped to work out a bit of stress from the system ;)
Unfortunately, we're now back to the brutal heat and humidity so the next week is going to be a fight as I ramp things up again. This morning's run was extremely difficult, as the humidex was up to 44C (111F) when I headed out and it really hit me hard. I had planned to do 13 miles, but ended up cuting it short at 11 miles as my heart rate was climbing higher than I was comfortable with. Compounding the issue was that my legs were feeling great, so my body kept accelerating on me and it was difficult to keep things slow. Either way, I'm glad that this was a recovery week as if I'd tried to do a 16 or 17 miler, it would have been quite the fight.
Week 26 Totals:
Running: 38.7km (24.0mi)
Walking: 1.7km (1.1mi)
Cycling: 174.9km (108.7mi)
Swimming: 4.0km (2.5mi)
Total: 219.3km (136.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1104.9km (686.6mi)
Walking: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Cycling: 2370.7km (1473.1mi)
Swimming: 164.1km (102.0mi)
Total: 3698.9km (2298.4mi)
The plan for the upcoming week will be to begin ramping things up again, although the forecast is calling for more of today's brutal heat so that's going to be difficult. We got spoiled by the great temperatures last week, so going back to the sticky weather isn't going to be fun :oP
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 90k Ride
Sun 17mi (27.4K) LSD
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Week 25: Review
Another good week for training, the only real exception was the rain yesterday taking a chunk out of my cycling mileage. Thankfully Friday's weather was good, so I was able to switch around the long ride for one of the medium distance ones in order to limit the damage. With that said, the heat and humidity have been lingering for most of the week so while I did get pretty close to my mileage targets the paces were a bit slower than I'd like.
On the swimming front, the pools are starting to get busier as the summer begins to come around. Tuesday's session, for instance, was packed and I basically had to choose between fighting through extremely slow swimmers (~3:00+/100m) in the medium lane or pushing it to try and keep up with the guys in the fast lane. I decided to bite the bullet and stick with the stronger group, and while it wore me out pretty good (trying to do 1500m sets while keeping up with guys doing 100m sets added to the complexity) I was able to get my mileage in :D
As for running, I was debating whether I should do another 16 miler like I did last week or back off a bit and call it a recovery week. With Canada Day coming this week, however, I figured it would be better to tough it out this morning and allow myself to take a few liberties next week as the schedule will likely be a bit tighter. Fortunately it was overcast this morning so I didn't have to deal with the sun like last week, but the humidity was pretty brutal and it was hard to breath in that thick air. Either way, I managed to fight through it and log another 16 miles at a reasonable pace.
Week 25 Totals:
Running: 59.7km (37.1mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 166.5km (103.4mi)
Swimming: 7.3km (4.5mi)
Total: 235.6km (146.4mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1066.2km (662.5mi)
Walking: 57.5km (35.7mi)
Cycling: 2195.8km (1364.4mi)
Swimming: 160.1km (99.5mi)
Total: 3479.6km (2162.1mi)
I still haven't gotten around to settling in on a race plan for the year, and as such my training is still operating on an ad-hoc basis. Normally I'd be worried about not being in a structured plan at this point, however fortunately I've managed to maintain pretty high base mileage in all three sports so it shouldn't be too hard to work spool myself into a program when I do lock things down.
While there are tonnes of pre-planned running programs to work with, most Triathlon books I've read so far just give you the principles and leave it to the reader to build up their own plan. It makes sense as it would likely be difficult to pin down a fixed plan given all the variables inherent in multi-sport events. How much time one should devote to each of the three sports is going to depend on their strengths and weaknesses so some personalization is required. I'd love to sign up for a proper coaching service (where a skilled professional could design a dedicated plan for me), but at this juncture that's just not realistic. As such, I've got to find some time to sit down, consolidate the theory that I've read up on so far and put together something.
In other news, I've looked through my options of the hydration front and have pretty much settled on picking up a Speedfil for the bike. I still need to hunt down a retailer that actually has these things so I can check it out in person, but it seems to be the most logical choice for my requirements. While I do generally get enough to drink on training rides, I only tend to drink when I come to a stop. This means that I gulp water down rather than slowly sip during a ride, and in a race scenario where there are no stops I'm worried about not getting enough in. Having that straw in my face seems like a good way to address both of those issues, and I think that's worth the cost of a bit more aerodynamic drag.
On the swimming front, the pools are starting to get busier as the summer begins to come around. Tuesday's session, for instance, was packed and I basically had to choose between fighting through extremely slow swimmers (~3:00+/100m) in the medium lane or pushing it to try and keep up with the guys in the fast lane. I decided to bite the bullet and stick with the stronger group, and while it wore me out pretty good (trying to do 1500m sets while keeping up with guys doing 100m sets added to the complexity) I was able to get my mileage in :D
As for running, I was debating whether I should do another 16 miler like I did last week or back off a bit and call it a recovery week. With Canada Day coming this week, however, I figured it would be better to tough it out this morning and allow myself to take a few liberties next week as the schedule will likely be a bit tighter. Fortunately it was overcast this morning so I didn't have to deal with the sun like last week, but the humidity was pretty brutal and it was hard to breath in that thick air. Either way, I managed to fight through it and log another 16 miles at a reasonable pace.
Week 25 Totals:
Running: 59.7km (37.1mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 166.5km (103.4mi)
Swimming: 7.3km (4.5mi)
Total: 235.6km (146.4mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1066.2km (662.5mi)
Walking: 57.5km (35.7mi)
Cycling: 2195.8km (1364.4mi)
Swimming: 160.1km (99.5mi)
Total: 3479.6km (2162.1mi)
I still haven't gotten around to settling in on a race plan for the year, and as such my training is still operating on an ad-hoc basis. Normally I'd be worried about not being in a structured plan at this point, however fortunately I've managed to maintain pretty high base mileage in all three sports so it shouldn't be too hard to work spool myself into a program when I do lock things down.
While there are tonnes of pre-planned running programs to work with, most Triathlon books I've read so far just give you the principles and leave it to the reader to build up their own plan. It makes sense as it would likely be difficult to pin down a fixed plan given all the variables inherent in multi-sport events. How much time one should devote to each of the three sports is going to depend on their strengths and weaknesses so some personalization is required. I'd love to sign up for a proper coaching service (where a skilled professional could design a dedicated plan for me), but at this juncture that's just not realistic. As such, I've got to find some time to sit down, consolidate the theory that I've read up on so far and put together something.
In other news, I've looked through my options of the hydration front and have pretty much settled on picking up a Speedfil for the bike. I still need to hunt down a retailer that actually has these things so I can check it out in person, but it seems to be the most logical choice for my requirements. While I do generally get enough to drink on training rides, I only tend to drink when I come to a stop. This means that I gulp water down rather than slowly sip during a ride, and in a race scenario where there are no stops I'm worried about not getting enough in. Having that straw in my face seems like a good way to address both of those issues, and I think that's worth the cost of a bit more aerodynamic drag.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Catching Up: Weeks 22-24
Have been pretty busy the last few weeks and unfortunately have been falling behind on adding my weekly reviews. As such, I'm bunching together the last three weeks into one post to get back on track and will have to make sure to find some more time in the upcoming weeks ;)
For the most part, the last little while has worked out relatively well. My running and swimming targets haven't been too much trouble, but my cycling is a bit behind thanks to a string of crappy weather on Saturday mornings (when I normally do my long rides). I've compensated by moving rides around a bit, but it's difficult to find the necessary amount of time on weekdays to complete significant distances. I'll have to try harder as I want to start ratcheting up my mileage and get some 100 mile rides in this summer, but that's going to be partially dependent on what mother nature throws my way ;)
Either way, my totals are as follows:
Week 22 Totals:
Running: 51.5km (32.0mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 140.9km (87.6mi)
Swimming: 7.1km (4.4mi)
Total: 200.8km (124.8mi)
Week 23 Totals:
Running: 56.6km (35.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 134.8km (83.8mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 200.2km (124.4mi)
Week 24 Totals:
Running: 59.6km (37.0mi)
Walking: 2.9km (1.8mi)
Cycling: 137.1km (85.2mi)
Swimming: 7.0km (4.3mi)
Total: 206.6km (128.4mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1006.5km (625.4mi)
Walking: 55.4km (34.4mi)
Cycling: 2029.3km (1260.9mi)
Swimming: 152.8km (94.9mi)
Total: 3244.0km (2015.7mi)
Longer term, I still need to figure out a racing schedule for this year. Things have been crazy recently so the two early season races I was eying have come and gone. As I've mentioned before, I'd really like to fit in Ironman Muskoka in September, but before I commit I want to get some intermediate distances in to make sure I'm ready. I'm probably looking at somewhere between five and six hours to finish such a race, which looks pretty intimidating considering my marathon only took 3.5 and I was pretty wiped by the end.
Additionally, it's also quite an expensive race ($270 for registration, plus a hotel for at least one night, pre-race meals, wetsuit rental, etc...) so part of me is thinking that it might be smarter to do a few other races and use the left over funds to buy my own wetsuit by the end of the year. It's not so much that I mind paying that kind of money for a race, but if I'm going to do that I'd like to be a bit more confident that I'm going to do well in it before I do.
Ideally I could do some of the unofficial half-iron races first (with the objective to simply finish) and then the real thing in September (with a proper time objective), but unfortunately those races are in the next couple of weeks and there was no way I could get up to speed this year. If I limit myself to a long course triathlon (2K/55K/15K) this year, I'd likely be able to ramp up fast enough to pull that plan off in the following year.
Either way, will have to think about it a bit more but I do have to come to a decision soon as a formal training plan is getting more and more critical :oP
For the most part, the last little while has worked out relatively well. My running and swimming targets haven't been too much trouble, but my cycling is a bit behind thanks to a string of crappy weather on Saturday mornings (when I normally do my long rides). I've compensated by moving rides around a bit, but it's difficult to find the necessary amount of time on weekdays to complete significant distances. I'll have to try harder as I want to start ratcheting up my mileage and get some 100 mile rides in this summer, but that's going to be partially dependent on what mother nature throws my way ;)
Either way, my totals are as follows:
Week 22 Totals:
Running: 51.5km (32.0mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 140.9km (87.6mi)
Swimming: 7.1km (4.4mi)
Total: 200.8km (124.8mi)
Week 23 Totals:
Running: 56.6km (35.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 134.8km (83.8mi)
Swimming: 7.5km (4.7mi)
Total: 200.2km (124.4mi)
Week 24 Totals:
Running: 59.6km (37.0mi)
Walking: 2.9km (1.8mi)
Cycling: 137.1km (85.2mi)
Swimming: 7.0km (4.3mi)
Total: 206.6km (128.4mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1006.5km (625.4mi)
Walking: 55.4km (34.4mi)
Cycling: 2029.3km (1260.9mi)
Swimming: 152.8km (94.9mi)
Total: 3244.0km (2015.7mi)
Longer term, I still need to figure out a racing schedule for this year. Things have been crazy recently so the two early season races I was eying have come and gone. As I've mentioned before, I'd really like to fit in Ironman Muskoka in September, but before I commit I want to get some intermediate distances in to make sure I'm ready. I'm probably looking at somewhere between five and six hours to finish such a race, which looks pretty intimidating considering my marathon only took 3.5 and I was pretty wiped by the end.
Additionally, it's also quite an expensive race ($270 for registration, plus a hotel for at least one night, pre-race meals, wetsuit rental, etc...) so part of me is thinking that it might be smarter to do a few other races and use the left over funds to buy my own wetsuit by the end of the year. It's not so much that I mind paying that kind of money for a race, but if I'm going to do that I'd like to be a bit more confident that I'm going to do well in it before I do.
Ideally I could do some of the unofficial half-iron races first (with the objective to simply finish) and then the real thing in September (with a proper time objective), but unfortunately those races are in the next couple of weeks and there was no way I could get up to speed this year. If I limit myself to a long course triathlon (2K/55K/15K) this year, I'd likely be able to ramp up fast enough to pull that plan off in the following year.
Either way, will have to think about it a bit more but I do have to come to a decision soon as a formal training plan is getting more and more critical :oP
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Working on Climbing
For my first year and a half of riding, I used a simple Cateye computer that gave mean real time readings but didn't record that data. I used my Polar running computer to record some basic information (time, heart rate and elevation), but without speed/distance/cadence plots to go along with it that data had limitations to it's usefulness. I finally got around to getting a proper cyclocomputer (Garmin Edge 705) earlier this year, which has allowed me to better examine what I am doing on the bike.
One of the aspects that I've been trying to work on has been climbing on the bike. Looking over my ride data, it appears that it's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. Even during the biggest climbs, my heart rate while ascending is almost always significantly lower than it is on long flat stretches (where I'm pushing to get the speed up). Further, my cadence is generally up around 110rpm which indicates that I'm shifting down too early and the fatigue is likely more from spinning like a madman than pushing too hard.
Part of this is simply a matter of being over conservative when it comes to budgeting available strength. On the flat segments I can go all out as when/if I get tired it's easy enough to slow down and/or stop for a rest. On a climb, however, you need a good amount of power to simply keep moving forward so tiring out is a big problem. Stopping is also not really an option, as trying to cold start up a hill is very difficult and walking it up is pretty much impossible with cycling shoes. Rationally, however, most of those flats last a lot longer than any hill around here so I need to learn to cut into some of those margins when heading up a heavy grade.
Naturally, the physical aspect follows the psychological one. By falling back to an easy gear too early, I'm not developing the force necessary to keep turning a large gear at lower cadences. That in turn reinforces the behavior, as it becomes progressively easier to rely on high leg speeds rather than high force when climbing as that's what the body is adapting to. As such, the only way to break this habit is to explicitly focus on correcting it.
As such, I've been trying to go out of my way to select hilly routes over the last few weeks to work on this. This morning the weather was a lot cooler than it's been lately, so I elected to give it an extra push when I got to the uphill bits. Whenever I hit a steep uphill segment, I left it in the big ring (bottoming out at 50x19, but typically at around 50x17) and forced myself to push through it. Fortunately, I was able to get up all of them without any trouble (although I had to break down and stand to make it up the last bit of the final hill), and while I felt like crap on the way up I recovered reasonably quickly afterward.
This is certainly not the optimum strategy for normal riding as it makes for a slow final stretch when the legs are fighting off exhaustion. Regardless, I figure that the exaggerated quantities of force required are a good way to train myself (both mentally and physically) to be a little more aggressive with gear selection on my ascents. It's naturally going to take a lot more of this to build my climbing strength up, but with enough work I'm hoping to get a lot better at this aspect of my riding.
Situations like this are where power meters come in very handy as they provide objective guidance on what can be sustained. If one can hold X wattage down a flat stretch of road for Y minutes, then the same can be done on a hill. The speeds and gearing will be radically different, but if you're holding the same power level then all of that is irrelevant. Unfortunately resources don't allow me to get that particular tool at this point, but it's definitely high on the list ;)
One of the aspects that I've been trying to work on has been climbing on the bike. Looking over my ride data, it appears that it's more of a psychological issue than a physical one. Even during the biggest climbs, my heart rate while ascending is almost always significantly lower than it is on long flat stretches (where I'm pushing to get the speed up). Further, my cadence is generally up around 110rpm which indicates that I'm shifting down too early and the fatigue is likely more from spinning like a madman than pushing too hard.
Part of this is simply a matter of being over conservative when it comes to budgeting available strength. On the flat segments I can go all out as when/if I get tired it's easy enough to slow down and/or stop for a rest. On a climb, however, you need a good amount of power to simply keep moving forward so tiring out is a big problem. Stopping is also not really an option, as trying to cold start up a hill is very difficult and walking it up is pretty much impossible with cycling shoes. Rationally, however, most of those flats last a lot longer than any hill around here so I need to learn to cut into some of those margins when heading up a heavy grade.
Naturally, the physical aspect follows the psychological one. By falling back to an easy gear too early, I'm not developing the force necessary to keep turning a large gear at lower cadences. That in turn reinforces the behavior, as it becomes progressively easier to rely on high leg speeds rather than high force when climbing as that's what the body is adapting to. As such, the only way to break this habit is to explicitly focus on correcting it.
As such, I've been trying to go out of my way to select hilly routes over the last few weeks to work on this. This morning the weather was a lot cooler than it's been lately, so I elected to give it an extra push when I got to the uphill bits. Whenever I hit a steep uphill segment, I left it in the big ring (bottoming out at 50x19, but typically at around 50x17) and forced myself to push through it. Fortunately, I was able to get up all of them without any trouble (although I had to break down and stand to make it up the last bit of the final hill), and while I felt like crap on the way up I recovered reasonably quickly afterward.
This is certainly not the optimum strategy for normal riding as it makes for a slow final stretch when the legs are fighting off exhaustion. Regardless, I figure that the exaggerated quantities of force required are a good way to train myself (both mentally and physically) to be a little more aggressive with gear selection on my ascents. It's naturally going to take a lot more of this to build my climbing strength up, but with enough work I'm hoping to get a lot better at this aspect of my riding.
Situations like this are where power meters come in very handy as they provide objective guidance on what can be sustained. If one can hold X wattage down a flat stretch of road for Y minutes, then the same can be done on a hill. The speeds and gearing will be radically different, but if you're holding the same power level then all of that is irrelevant. Unfortunately resources don't allow me to get that particular tool at this point, but it's definitely high on the list ;)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Week 21: Review
While the scorching heat this week made things a bit challenging, the weather was more or less stable so it was easy to fit everything in as planned. I did scale back some of the running mileage as the heat is still getting to me, but on the bike I managed to squeeze in my best week in a long time - logging a little over 150 miles. That included a lot of time in 40C+ weather as well as two individual rides longer than 50 miles (Monday and Saturday).
Yesterday's ride turned out great, as the heat and humidity abated for the day so I could enjoy the session a lot more than the previous rides this week. The winds were a bit strong, but they were relatively steady so it was just a matter of pushing a bit harder on the northbound segments of the route. I also picked a bit of a hillier route than normal, as that is one aspect of my riding that I still have to work on.
The stretch along St. John's Sideroad between Yonge and Dufferin offers a couple of long stretches of unrelenting climbs that do a good job of getting the legs burning. A small downhill segment in the middle looks promising, but unfortunately the traffic lights at its base mean that it doesn't really help much (just means you have to re-climb that lost altitude). Either way, it's difficult to find a good sustained climb like that in this area so I'm hoping to give it a few more shots this summer.
Regardless, thanks to all of that this week reaches a number of milestones with my YTD running total popping its head over 500mi and cycling over 1000mi. My cycling mileage this month is also the highest that I've recorded, with a little under 380mi/611km. I would have liked to add to that total tomorrow, but unfortunately it doesn't look like the weather is going to make that feasible (will have to see - may be able to head out in the morning).
This morning the temperature and humidity decided to climb back up, so it made my planned 14 miler a bit more challenging. Fortunately, it didn't hit me quite as hard as it did last week so I was able to manage a decent pace for the distance. The temperature was a bit higher, but the humidity was much lower so it wasn't quite as bad. With that said, after a week of training in these conditions I think the body is starting to get used to it a bit. Naturally, running with humidex readings in the high 30s is never fun, but once the body acclimates to it it does get a lot easier.
Week 21 Totals:
Running: 46.9km (29.1mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 249.0km (154.7mi)
Swimming: 6.5km (4.0mi)
Total: 303.4km (188.5mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 838.8km (521.2mi)
Walking: 43.9km (27.3mi)
Cycling: 1616.5km (1004.4mi)
Swimming: 131.2km (81.5mi)
Total: 2630.4km (1634.5mi)
The upcoming week is going to be a bit more unsettled, although fortunately it looks like the temperatures will be falling quite a bit. It will make scheduling a bit more complicated, but I could really use a bit of a break from getting back home soaked every time I go out ;) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Saturday will clear up a bit, as we weren't able to get a group ride in this week due to scheduling issues (lots of races this weekend) and I'd like to get back into that this week if at all possible.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 32.3K Ride (if I can squeeze it in, this will get me to 400mi for the month)
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 80k Ride
Sun 15mi (24.1K) LSD
Yesterday's ride turned out great, as the heat and humidity abated for the day so I could enjoy the session a lot more than the previous rides this week. The winds were a bit strong, but they were relatively steady so it was just a matter of pushing a bit harder on the northbound segments of the route. I also picked a bit of a hillier route than normal, as that is one aspect of my riding that I still have to work on.
The stretch along St. John's Sideroad between Yonge and Dufferin offers a couple of long stretches of unrelenting climbs that do a good job of getting the legs burning. A small downhill segment in the middle looks promising, but unfortunately the traffic lights at its base mean that it doesn't really help much (just means you have to re-climb that lost altitude). Either way, it's difficult to find a good sustained climb like that in this area so I'm hoping to give it a few more shots this summer.
Regardless, thanks to all of that this week reaches a number of milestones with my YTD running total popping its head over 500mi and cycling over 1000mi. My cycling mileage this month is also the highest that I've recorded, with a little under 380mi/611km. I would have liked to add to that total tomorrow, but unfortunately it doesn't look like the weather is going to make that feasible (will have to see - may be able to head out in the morning).
This morning the temperature and humidity decided to climb back up, so it made my planned 14 miler a bit more challenging. Fortunately, it didn't hit me quite as hard as it did last week so I was able to manage a decent pace for the distance. The temperature was a bit higher, but the humidity was much lower so it wasn't quite as bad. With that said, after a week of training in these conditions I think the body is starting to get used to it a bit. Naturally, running with humidex readings in the high 30s is never fun, but once the body acclimates to it it does get a lot easier.
Week 21 Totals:
Running: 46.9km (29.1mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 249.0km (154.7mi)
Swimming: 6.5km (4.0mi)
Total: 303.4km (188.5mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 838.8km (521.2mi)
Walking: 43.9km (27.3mi)
Cycling: 1616.5km (1004.4mi)
Swimming: 131.2km (81.5mi)
Total: 2630.4km (1634.5mi)
The upcoming week is going to be a bit more unsettled, although fortunately it looks like the temperatures will be falling quite a bit. It will make scheduling a bit more complicated, but I could really use a bit of a break from getting back home soaked every time I go out ;) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Saturday will clear up a bit, as we weren't able to get a group ride in this week due to scheduling issues (lots of races this weekend) and I'd like to get back into that this week if at all possible.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 32.3K Ride (if I can squeeze it in, this will get me to 400mi for the month)
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 80k Ride
Sun 15mi (24.1K) LSD
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Extreme Heat Advisory
The last few days have been brutally hot, with ambient temperatures in the low 30s and humidity in the 50-70% range. That works out to the equivalent of about 40C (~104F) and combined with the clear skies and limited wind, it gets quite uncomfortable trying to get a decent workout done. Given that we're still used to the cold temperatures, that makes it even more difficult to get used to these kind of conditions.
Fortunately, I managed to squeeze out a decent long ride on Monday before it got really hot. I brought along four 500mL bottles of water (two on the frame, two behind the saddle), and had to stop on the way back to buy some more. While I was refilling my bottles, I ran into a few other cyclists who were also going dry, including one fellow who was making his way down from Collingwood (he had traveled 115km before we met up in Kettleby). Given that we were both heading in the same direction we elected to stick together to make the trip back down a bit easier. As such, we traded pulls every 4-5K before splitting off into different directions at Kirby Sideroad.
By the time I got back home I was pretty much wiped, as even with proper hydration the heat takes a significant toll. It was still a great ride, but the conditions drained my energy near the end so I'll have to retry this route on a more comfortable day. Either way, these are the types of conditions that we'll likely be seeing more of in the coming months, so it's good to try and get the body used to it.
Yesterday I had a 6 mile run scheduled, but the temperatures and humidity had gone up significantly since Monday so I chopped it down to 5 miles and slowed down the pace. Even with those efforts, however, the heat was getting to me and I ended up taking a few breaks to let myself cool down. I brought along about 500mL of Gatorade which worked out to be about right, however some water would have been handy to wash the sweat out of my eyes near the end of the run ;)
This morning, I headed out for a short and easy recovery ride. Given yesterday's heat and the fact that the weather reports were calling for warmer weather today, I took it really easy from the start. I allowed myself to simply coast downhill and immediately downshifted to an easy gear for any climbs. I allowed myself to speed up a bit on the flats to generate a bit of a wind to better evaporate the sweat, but I kept the effort in check so as not to get too hot.
About 5K in, a City of Vaughan works truck slowed down alongside me and offered me a bottle of water. I declined as I hadn't even started on either of my bottles, but was quite appreciative of the simple offer. I continued on, and about 3K later another truck offered me water again - I thanked them and politely declined again. I made my way onto Weston Rd and started heading north and into King City. After clearing the large hill along this route, I made my way over to Jane and started heading back. When I turned onto Teston Rd and started heading back home, a third truck drove by and offered me water once again. I was still doing well with my own supply, so thanked them and continued on.
While I wasn't able to really take advantage of it, I do appreciate the city crews going out of their way to help. We're under an extreme heat advisory right now, which means that municipalities take extra effort to help people cope with the weather - but I didn't expect them to go to these lengths, and am very appreciative of the offers. Having their trucks acting as rolling aide stations on days like this is something that's relatively easy to do, but can make a significant difference for a cyclist who didn't bring along enough to drink. Had they been around on Monday, I most definitely would have taken them up on their offer ;)
Either way, we've got a group run scheduled for tonight that should be interesting and the weather is expected to stay in this range for the next couple of days. Fortunately, it looks like it will be cooling down a bit over the weekend so hopefully I won't have to fight through too much more of this. Unfortunately, it's just May at this point and summer hasn't even started so I'm a bit nervous about what the next few months are going to bring...
Fortunately, I managed to squeeze out a decent long ride on Monday before it got really hot. I brought along four 500mL bottles of water (two on the frame, two behind the saddle), and had to stop on the way back to buy some more. While I was refilling my bottles, I ran into a few other cyclists who were also going dry, including one fellow who was making his way down from Collingwood (he had traveled 115km before we met up in Kettleby). Given that we were both heading in the same direction we elected to stick together to make the trip back down a bit easier. As such, we traded pulls every 4-5K before splitting off into different directions at Kirby Sideroad.
By the time I got back home I was pretty much wiped, as even with proper hydration the heat takes a significant toll. It was still a great ride, but the conditions drained my energy near the end so I'll have to retry this route on a more comfortable day. Either way, these are the types of conditions that we'll likely be seeing more of in the coming months, so it's good to try and get the body used to it.
Yesterday I had a 6 mile run scheduled, but the temperatures and humidity had gone up significantly since Monday so I chopped it down to 5 miles and slowed down the pace. Even with those efforts, however, the heat was getting to me and I ended up taking a few breaks to let myself cool down. I brought along about 500mL of Gatorade which worked out to be about right, however some water would have been handy to wash the sweat out of my eyes near the end of the run ;)
This morning, I headed out for a short and easy recovery ride. Given yesterday's heat and the fact that the weather reports were calling for warmer weather today, I took it really easy from the start. I allowed myself to simply coast downhill and immediately downshifted to an easy gear for any climbs. I allowed myself to speed up a bit on the flats to generate a bit of a wind to better evaporate the sweat, but I kept the effort in check so as not to get too hot.
About 5K in, a City of Vaughan works truck slowed down alongside me and offered me a bottle of water. I declined as I hadn't even started on either of my bottles, but was quite appreciative of the simple offer. I continued on, and about 3K later another truck offered me water again - I thanked them and politely declined again. I made my way onto Weston Rd and started heading north and into King City. After clearing the large hill along this route, I made my way over to Jane and started heading back. When I turned onto Teston Rd and started heading back home, a third truck drove by and offered me water once again. I was still doing well with my own supply, so thanked them and continued on.
While I wasn't able to really take advantage of it, I do appreciate the city crews going out of their way to help. We're under an extreme heat advisory right now, which means that municipalities take extra effort to help people cope with the weather - but I didn't expect them to go to these lengths, and am very appreciative of the offers. Having their trucks acting as rolling aide stations on days like this is something that's relatively easy to do, but can make a significant difference for a cyclist who didn't bring along enough to drink. Had they been around on Monday, I most definitely would have taken them up on their offer ;)
Either way, we've got a group run scheduled for tonight that should be interesting and the weather is expected to stay in this range for the next couple of days. Fortunately, it looks like it will be cooling down a bit over the weekend so hopefully I won't have to fight through too much more of this. Unfortunately, it's just May at this point and summer hasn't even started so I'm a bit nervous about what the next few months are going to bring...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Week 20: Review
It was a pretty good week overall. The heat and humidity are beginning to climb again, which made the sessions a bit more difficult, but thankfully there wasn't much rain so it was easier to get everything in. Yesterday was the only real exception to that, and while it looked like it was going to pour all day long it didn't really amount to much. To be safe, I skipped my ride yesterday (didn't want to get stuck in a downpour) after doing a longer than planned ride on Friday.
I did end up missing one of my planned 6 milers this week due to scheduling. I had a meeting in the afternoon on Thursday, so I elected to move the run back to Friday and treat it as a brick. Unfortunately I didn't account for the extra time the ride would take due to traffic (Friday before a long weekend and all), and when I did end up getting home I didn't have time to squeeze it in.
Other than that, this week pretty much went exactly to plan. This morning's 14 miler was punishing thanks to the heat and humidity, but I managed to get it all in without any problems. I was pretty much drenched by the time I got home and my shoes got saturated with about 5 miles to go, so I was sloshing around in them for the last little bit ;) Fortunately, I brought along all four bottles of Gatorade in my hydration belt, so I had plenty of fluids to take care of me for this distance (only ended up using three of them during the run, although I polished off the fourth while I stretched).
Week 20 Totals:
Running: 47.9km (29.8mi)
Walking: 0.6km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 150.7km (93.6mi)
Swimming: 7.2km (4.5mi)
Total: 206.4km (128.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 791.9km (492.1mi)
Walking: 42.9km (26.7mi)
Cycling: 1367.5km (849.7mi)
Swimming: 124.7km (77.5mi)
Total: 2327.0km (1445.9mi)
The upcoming week is looking like it's going to be a scorcher, however it also looks clear of any precipitation so it will likely be good for getting everything in. Tomorrow is a holiday in these parts, so I'm hoping to squeeze in a nice long ride to take full advantage of it ;) I will have to be careful to take in lots of fluids over this week, however, as my body is still getting used to dealing with the heat and humidity again.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 80K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 80k Ride
Sun 14mi (22.5K) LSD
I did end up missing one of my planned 6 milers this week due to scheduling. I had a meeting in the afternoon on Thursday, so I elected to move the run back to Friday and treat it as a brick. Unfortunately I didn't account for the extra time the ride would take due to traffic (Friday before a long weekend and all), and when I did end up getting home I didn't have time to squeeze it in.
Other than that, this week pretty much went exactly to plan. This morning's 14 miler was punishing thanks to the heat and humidity, but I managed to get it all in without any problems. I was pretty much drenched by the time I got home and my shoes got saturated with about 5 miles to go, so I was sloshing around in them for the last little bit ;) Fortunately, I brought along all four bottles of Gatorade in my hydration belt, so I had plenty of fluids to take care of me for this distance (only ended up using three of them during the run, although I polished off the fourth while I stretched).
Week 20 Totals:
Running: 47.9km (29.8mi)
Walking: 0.6km (0.4mi)
Cycling: 150.7km (93.6mi)
Swimming: 7.2km (4.5mi)
Total: 206.4km (128.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 791.9km (492.1mi)
Walking: 42.9km (26.7mi)
Cycling: 1367.5km (849.7mi)
Swimming: 124.7km (77.5mi)
Total: 2327.0km (1445.9mi)
The upcoming week is looking like it's going to be a scorcher, however it also looks clear of any precipitation so it will likely be good for getting everything in. Tomorrow is a holiday in these parts, so I'm hoping to squeeze in a nice long ride to take full advantage of it ;) I will have to be careful to take in lots of fluids over this week, however, as my body is still getting used to dealing with the heat and humidity again.
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 80K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 80k Ride
Sun 14mi (22.5K) LSD
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Cycling Hydration
Over the last few days we've been starting to get the hot and humid weather that summer around these parts often brings. It's certainly nowhere near as hot as it will get in the coming months, but with the body still used to the colder weather it's still a bit of a rough adjustment. The biggest adjustment to all of this is taking in enough fluids. I've done enough running in this weather to have a good feel for what works and what doesn't, however on the cycling front I'm still trying to work that out.
One of the caveats is that I find myself needing a lot more fluid on the bike than I do on the run. Thanks to the higher speeds, the continuous stream of airflow means that the sweat evaporates much quicker so it's easy to go through a good amount of water. For instance, on yesterday's 70K ride I brought along four full bottles (two on the frame, two behind the saddle) and ended up drinking pretty much all of it (~2L) before I got back. Usually I just stick with two bottles and buy more along the way if necessary, but if at all possible I'd prefer to avoid doing that.
Part of the issue is that I'm still not crazy about reaching down while I'm riding to grab a bottle and take a sip. Aside from the aerodynamic penalties of this process, when riding at speed I'm not particularly fond of taking my hands off of the controls (and attention away from the road). On a training ride this isn't a huge liability as there are enough stops (traffic lights, crossing busy streets, etc.) for me to get what I need when I'm not moving. In a race, however, there aren't any stops so taking in water/sports drinks on the move is critical. In a Triathlon this is especially important, as on the bike I have to drink enough to make up for the fluids lost during the swim stage as well.
As such, ever since I added the aerobars I've been looking at various alternative options that effectively put a straw right in the cockpit to make it easier to drink during the ride. As I wouldn't have to reach down to grab the bottle, I'd likely end up drinking a lot more often (ie taking regular sips over the whole ride rather than periodic gulps to catch up). Further, it would allow me to stick in the aero position for longer as I wouldn't have to stand up whenever I needed something to drink.
The most popular product appears to be the Profile Design Aerodrink, which mounts the reservoir directly onto the aerobars. This makes for a simple and clean installation, and is by far the easiest to fill up while on the move (as the quick fill cap is right in front of you). The downside, however, is that it adds a good deal of weight (~2.6lbs when full) to the front of the bike and is apparently prone to splashing (although it's hard to tell if this is still the case with the new plastic top, or just with the yellow sponge they used to use). It's also not a sealed container, so if the bike is knocked over (eg a careless neighbour in the transition area) you end up losing the majority of your liquids.
Bontrager appears to have a similar product called an Aero Race Pack. It holds less water (600mL vs. 1L) so it's actually a closer competitor to Profile's Aqualite, but it does have the advantage of a better designed mounting apparatus and a pocket to store gels. Either way, as it shares the same basic design as the Aerodrink, it also has the same fundamental pros and cons so there isn't a lot of point in rehashing all of that.
Inviscid Design's Speedfil system is another interesting option. Rather than mounting on the aerobars themselves, it places the reservoir inside of the front triangle and runs a straw up to the cockpit. This provides the benefit of moving the weight to a much better position (low and central) and allows for a slightly larger capacity. Normally I'd be concerned about the effort required to draw the fluids up such a long straw, but fortunately they've incorporated a bite valve so once you prime the system it shouldn't be too difficult.
The downside to this design is that refilling it on the fly would be more difficult (as the cap is by the knee rather than right in front). I'll have to do some measurements to figure out where that inlet would line up, but I'm guessing that it would be difficult to continue pedaling while the bottle is emptying in this position. Further, it's dry weight is nearly double that of the Aerodrink (and 3X that of the Aqualite) so it means more mass to drag along. I don't think these are huge liabilities, however as this product is difficult to find in normal retail channels it's hard to evaluate these parameters.
As for the splashing aspect, I'm not sure how well this will do compared to the other products. I haven't seen much in the way of complaints on that front, but I also haven't found any real reviews on this unit as of yet so it's difficult to compare. From what I can tell, it looks to be an unsealed unit like the Aerodrink (both the straw and cap appear to be open) so if it was tipped over it would likely have the same problem as well. With that said, having never seen one in person it's difficult to tell.
The NeverReach system takes a similar approach, but places the reservoir behind the saddle rather than in the frame. This puts the weight further from the ground, but further back on the frame (likely a good thing, given how front-heavy the aero position is). It has a much larger capacity than the other systems (2L vs 1-1.2L), although whether or not I'd want to drag that much along is a question (the water alone would weigh 4.4lbs). The caveat is that it would appear to be much more difficult to refill on the fly (grabbing a bottle from behind your saddle is hard enough, never mind trying to squirt water into a cap). As with the Speedfil, I've yet to find a retailer that carries this product so it's difficult to make any evaluations on this front.
Finally, I could take the simpler course of action and simply get a bottle cage mounted between the aerobars. This naturally means I still need to manipulate the bottle to get a drink, but it saves me from having to reach down and grab it. As bottles are sealed, I wouldn't have to worry about spilling it, and when empty I could simply swap it out for another. It also makes it easier to fill up and keep clean, as there are no complex piping systems to flush out ;)
Either way, will keep digging for the time being and see what I can find on the topic. Naturally, I'm open to any input that people have on this front as it's very difficult to find any independent information on these products.
One of the caveats is that I find myself needing a lot more fluid on the bike than I do on the run. Thanks to the higher speeds, the continuous stream of airflow means that the sweat evaporates much quicker so it's easy to go through a good amount of water. For instance, on yesterday's 70K ride I brought along four full bottles (two on the frame, two behind the saddle) and ended up drinking pretty much all of it (~2L) before I got back. Usually I just stick with two bottles and buy more along the way if necessary, but if at all possible I'd prefer to avoid doing that.
Part of the issue is that I'm still not crazy about reaching down while I'm riding to grab a bottle and take a sip. Aside from the aerodynamic penalties of this process, when riding at speed I'm not particularly fond of taking my hands off of the controls (and attention away from the road). On a training ride this isn't a huge liability as there are enough stops (traffic lights, crossing busy streets, etc.) for me to get what I need when I'm not moving. In a race, however, there aren't any stops so taking in water/sports drinks on the move is critical. In a Triathlon this is especially important, as on the bike I have to drink enough to make up for the fluids lost during the swim stage as well.
As such, ever since I added the aerobars I've been looking at various alternative options that effectively put a straw right in the cockpit to make it easier to drink during the ride. As I wouldn't have to reach down to grab the bottle, I'd likely end up drinking a lot more often (ie taking regular sips over the whole ride rather than periodic gulps to catch up). Further, it would allow me to stick in the aero position for longer as I wouldn't have to stand up whenever I needed something to drink.
The most popular product appears to be the Profile Design Aerodrink, which mounts the reservoir directly onto the aerobars. This makes for a simple and clean installation, and is by far the easiest to fill up while on the move (as the quick fill cap is right in front of you). The downside, however, is that it adds a good deal of weight (~2.6lbs when full) to the front of the bike and is apparently prone to splashing (although it's hard to tell if this is still the case with the new plastic top, or just with the yellow sponge they used to use). It's also not a sealed container, so if the bike is knocked over (eg a careless neighbour in the transition area) you end up losing the majority of your liquids.
Bontrager appears to have a similar product called an Aero Race Pack. It holds less water (600mL vs. 1L) so it's actually a closer competitor to Profile's Aqualite, but it does have the advantage of a better designed mounting apparatus and a pocket to store gels. Either way, as it shares the same basic design as the Aerodrink, it also has the same fundamental pros and cons so there isn't a lot of point in rehashing all of that.
Inviscid Design's Speedfil system is another interesting option. Rather than mounting on the aerobars themselves, it places the reservoir inside of the front triangle and runs a straw up to the cockpit. This provides the benefit of moving the weight to a much better position (low and central) and allows for a slightly larger capacity. Normally I'd be concerned about the effort required to draw the fluids up such a long straw, but fortunately they've incorporated a bite valve so once you prime the system it shouldn't be too difficult.
The downside to this design is that refilling it on the fly would be more difficult (as the cap is by the knee rather than right in front). I'll have to do some measurements to figure out where that inlet would line up, but I'm guessing that it would be difficult to continue pedaling while the bottle is emptying in this position. Further, it's dry weight is nearly double that of the Aerodrink (and 3X that of the Aqualite) so it means more mass to drag along. I don't think these are huge liabilities, however as this product is difficult to find in normal retail channels it's hard to evaluate these parameters.
As for the splashing aspect, I'm not sure how well this will do compared to the other products. I haven't seen much in the way of complaints on that front, but I also haven't found any real reviews on this unit as of yet so it's difficult to compare. From what I can tell, it looks to be an unsealed unit like the Aerodrink (both the straw and cap appear to be open) so if it was tipped over it would likely have the same problem as well. With that said, having never seen one in person it's difficult to tell.
The NeverReach system takes a similar approach, but places the reservoir behind the saddle rather than in the frame. This puts the weight further from the ground, but further back on the frame (likely a good thing, given how front-heavy the aero position is). It has a much larger capacity than the other systems (2L vs 1-1.2L), although whether or not I'd want to drag that much along is a question (the water alone would weigh 4.4lbs). The caveat is that it would appear to be much more difficult to refill on the fly (grabbing a bottle from behind your saddle is hard enough, never mind trying to squirt water into a cap). As with the Speedfil, I've yet to find a retailer that carries this product so it's difficult to make any evaluations on this front.
Finally, I could take the simpler course of action and simply get a bottle cage mounted between the aerobars. This naturally means I still need to manipulate the bottle to get a drink, but it saves me from having to reach down and grab it. As bottles are sealed, I wouldn't have to worry about spilling it, and when empty I could simply swap it out for another. It also makes it easier to fill up and keep clean, as there are no complex piping systems to flush out ;)
Either way, will keep digging for the time being and see what I can find on the topic. Naturally, I'm open to any input that people have on this front as it's very difficult to find any independent information on these products.
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