Week 24 Recap / MoM RR

Going into the long weekend I knew I'd max out on bike mileage while on the trip. So I kept the week's activities to three swims and one run.

When Saturday arrived I felt great and was ready for the easy 38-mile Wilderness Road Ride that would precede the big event. I spent the untimed ride relaxing with my triclub and eating everything in sight at the rest stops. After the ride I went for a beautiful open water swim across Claytor Lake in Radford, VA.

On Sunday morning the crazy Coastal Racers (myself included) started the century ride dubbed Mountains of Misery. I would soon learn the ride would live up to it's name. For most of the morning Joel Bell and I stuck together with a small pack of guys. Joel, being a tremendous triathlete, would occasionally drop us but we'd meet up shortly at the next rest stop. By Mile 50 we had averaged around 20mph, which was decent considering the course. When the ascent up the first serious mountain began at Mile 60 it became clear I should have bought another gearing setup. My standard 25 forced me to do a ton of mashing. Halfway up the mountain I told Joel I'd have to catch him later. Once on the top I rested a minute before the descent. I though perhaps I'd catch Joel since we'd been stopping for five or so minutes at every scheduled break. Around Mile 70 I was all alone in aero cruising the flats and enjoying the day. I felt great and was ready to climb the last mountain and finish the ride in 6:30 or so.

I caught up to two guys and decided to take a rest and draft off them. After another group went by, our group picked up speed (22ish) to try and add to their line. At the same time, two cars passed us but not the other guys. Our lead guy got spooked when the last car hit his brakes. This caused the guy I was behind to jam his and quickly move left cutting me off. The next thing I know I was flying over my handlebars and tumbling down the street. I landed on my back on the side of the road. The guy who wrecked me came back and blotted my chin while his buddy called 911 on his cell. All the one guy could say was, "Sorry man. I did you so wrong." Shortly afterward a member of my club showed up and convinced me I should take the ambulance to the hospital. I'm glad I did.

As far as my injuries go, besides my pride, I have a fractured thumb, six stitches in my chin, a sprained shoulder, and two very swollen, road-rashed knees. At this point the thumb will not require a screw (depends on if it rotates any further over the next two weeks). If my shoulder doesn't improve I'll be heading back for an MRI. Basically this means no training for 4-6 weeks. That mean's I'll miss the Yorktown and Bath County sprints.

Here's a look at my thumb x-ray:

Week 23 Recap

Last week's minor shin injury put a slight damper on my training. With the Memorial Day weekend trip looming I figured it would be best to keep myself healthy at all costs. And with that, I reduced my running for the week to the whenever I feel like it plan, which wasn't much. Although the injury felt good by Wednesday I kept off of it till Friday just in case.

Training volumes for the week came in around 7 1/2 hours with 5660 yards swimming, 99 miles biking, and 5 miles running. I had planned for 10 hours but skipping the long run on Sunday for much neglected lawn care was nice. I even got around to planting a tree.

I'm pleased with my biking progress over the last six weeks. Lately I've been able to expand my volume by roughly 10% as planned (72,90,99). I'll reach my ultimate goal of 130 by mid-June. My rides have been a mix of quality but mostly quantity without care for pace. I figure the hills I've faced have been all the strength training I've needed during this build phase. When biking flats and rollers I've concentrated on keeping my cadence around 100. I find this keeps my legs feeling energetic when I ride more than 40 miles. In the past this was where I typically dropped in speed on race day.

Week 22 Recap

With the Mountains of Misery trip being roughly two weeks away from the date of this post I knew this past weekend would be the last chance to test the legs. I headed back to Charlottesville, VA for another climb near Crabtree Falls. This time I decided to bike the course in the opposite direction of Week 20's 44-miler. By doing so, I didn't have to attack the steepest part of the entire ride right out of the gates. Instead I had to face a short yet challenging climb six minutes into the ride (800 feet of elevation). From there I rode a mix of rollers and flats until I climbed for a solid 53 minutes up the valley (2000 feet of elevation) to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here's an idea of how I taxed my body during the long climb (note one rest stop for a snack at 1:27, and anaerobic @ HR > 170):

I knew the magic number on my Garmin was 39 miles, Reeds Gap. From here I held on tight and dropped 1700 feet of elevation over five miles in nine minutes. Whew!

Even though I've been feeling some deep fatigue lately and had a big ride on Saturday I felt decent enough to try a 13-mile romp around the Yorktown Battlefields on Sunday. I took a little extra time to make sure I was stretched before setting out. Nine miles into the run I felt something give below my right shin. It appears to be a ligament I overused between the two days. It was so painful the front of my leg cramped up while I jogged back to the car. I don't think it’s serious but I'll be taking it easy this week just in case.

The injury is disheartening considering I was on a training roll. Week 22 featured some tough workouts and had great results. I put in just over 10 hours of training with 5100 yards swimming, 90 miles biking, and 26 miles running.

Week 21 Recap

Call it a post-mountain ride hangover or possible overtraining but I lacked the motivation to accomplish my training goals for the week. I'm specifically talking about my lack of swimming, largely in part to the constant discomfort I'm feeling in my shoulders. Usually after I finish my speed/tempo runs I head to the pool for 2500-3000 yards. Lately I've been slack because by 6PM I'm overwhelmed with visions of an ice pack, couch, and dinner. I live an exciting night life as you can see. This week I'll focus on getting in swimming. But for now I'll have to stare at the fat zero in the swimming column of my training plan. I still worked a bit over 8 hours this week with 79 miles biking and 28 miles running.

I've developed an urge to eat 24/7 with my recent increases in mileage. While this makes perfect sense I still dropped close to 5 lbs this week. This puts me officially at the 140 mark, which is 5 lbs off what I weighed when I started college more than 10 years ago. This is 30 lbs off what I started with last year.

And for those who wonder if I eat enough... Here's what I had this weekend:

Friday
Two packets of oatmeal w/ground flax seed
One green tea
Half a medium peperoni pizza
Outback 9oz sirloin
House salad
Broccoli side
Mashed garlic potatoes side
1-1/2 Loaf of Outback's bread

Saturday
Bowl of Total
Two Powerbars
12oz Can of Coke
16oz Bottle of Accelerade
Footlong Subway sandwich (turkey/ham)
Two hand fulls of Wheat Thins
Entire large portion of chicken and broccoli w/ white rice (it was probably meant for two people)
Five Oreo cookies
8oz Skim milk

Sunday
Bowl of Total
One Powerbar
16oz Bottle of Accelerade
McDonalds Quarterpounder w/ cheese
Med fries (was craving the salt)
Med Coke
Spinach salad w/ cucumbers and carrots
Macintosh apple
1/2 Cup of wild rice
8oz of Baked cod
8oz of Cranberry juice
Two hand fulls of Wheat Thins

Week 20 Recap / Charlottesville, VA

With the recovery week at hand I tried to keep my level of effort low and volume of training about half. I noticed a possible trend in my training log that indicated I get sick and/or injured every five weeks so I wasn't taking a chance. Everything was going well until Saturday arrived and I headed up to Charlottesville, VA to have my first experience cycling in the mountains.

Thanks to the Charlottesville Bicycle Club I printed out a ride map ahead of time. Not being one to wuss out on a ride I selected Crabtree Falls - Devils Knob. This route offers an option of 44/53 miles with 115/120 feet of elevation per mile respectively. Here's a look from Google Earth and a profile I made using my Garmin:

I started from Beech Grove as recommended but rode the route in reverse because I wanted to challenge myself early while I was most fit. In hindsight this was not a great idea. I later found out my first test was Reeds Gap (elev. 2637). About five miles and one hour later, and 1700+ feet higher than I began, I was standing at the top contemplating what would be a very quick decent to the car. But I thought, who goes to the mountains just to ride 10 miles? I also thought about how my heart almost exploded during the climb. Against my better judgement at the time I proceeded but skipped the extra 9 mile leg that had promised killer climbing.

I easily cruised the picturesque Blue Ridge Highway for 10 miles until I reached Big Spy Mountain Overlook (elev. 3200). I snapped off a few pictures to give readers an idea of the beauty I enjoyed along the way.

About Mile 20 I learned riding in the mountains can be spectacular as well as extremely dangerous. Decending from 3200 feet is a frightful ordeal when the slope is steep and the roads are curvy. What makes it worse is when you're trying to keep it under 40mph and then realize your brakes are too hot to be effective. To say the least I was happy to make it down without incident. I even managed to stop near Crabtree Falls for a picture of the river.

After it was all said and done I took a dip in the frigid water.

When I added the trip to the workout log I ended up with a total of 6 hours. That put me at 2200 yards swimming, 62 miles biking, and 10 miles running for the week. It was a good recovery most of the week and concluded with a solid test of my legs on the bike. I proved I'm ready for serious hill training in preparation for MoM.

Swim Stroke Analysis

One of the perks to joining the Coastal Racing Team is having access to training seminars provided by Joel Bell of SISU MultiSport & Endurance. Last March Joel was kind enough to video and analyze my swim stroke for free at the local dive shop. Here's what I learned...

From above the water the important things to note are head position, a high elbow, relaxed recovery, and where the hand enters the water. I have all of the above except my hand enters too close to my head. I've indicated where it probably should first touch the water.


When observing your stoke from below the crucial thing to look for is body position. To swim streamlined you need to be level. As you can see, my body is parallel to the water surface. To do so I continually remind myself to "lay on my lungs" thanks to Terry Laughlin and his Total Immersion DVD. This helps keep my body well balanced. Also, you may notice my leg kick is a bit wide. I was told it should not exceed the "hole" in the water my body passed through.


Apparently my largest stroke deficiencies are in the catch and pull. In the picture you can see I keep a relatively straight arm. Proper arm position (shown in green) keeps the arm bent in an almost 90 degree bend. This allows you to catch more water while utilizing your stronger lat muscles. To correct this issue I need to concentrate on hinging at my elbow and then keeping that elbow higher during the pull.


Shortly after the analysis I purchased swim paddles to help strengthen my lats. They also help technique by forcing your arms to follow the correct path. Without the wrist strap the paddle will fall off your hand unless you use the good form. So far I enjoy the paddles but I haven't noticed any gains in my swim times.

Week 19 Recap

Week 19 was, like the past two weeks, excellent. I've been able to achieve the volumes I'm targeting in preparation for the looming Memorial Day weekend ride at MoM. I rounded out the week with a shade under 9 hours of training. That's 4500 yards swimming, 69 miles biking, and 27 miles running. The amazing part so far is the fact I don't have any serious injuries. It's a nice change from last year's constant battle with my hamstrings. My IT Band has been annoying but constant icing and anti-inflammatory medicines have done a good job keeping me moving.

I had hoped to break 10 hours this week but the weekend didn't go as planned. Mother nature decided to drown me a mile into my 15-mile run. Since the weather report said the temperature would be 58 with light rain I had opted to wear pants. When it was all said and done I only finished 13 miles. When I got home I discovered my outfit weighed 10 pounds soaking wet. At that point I had enough of rain, and water in general, so I didn't get my third swim of the week in. My mental toughness had been tested enough by sticking out the downpour for almost two hours. It must have been a sight to see.

Next week should be a nice recovery although I think I could have taxed myself awhile longer. But I'll play it safe and stick to the plan.