So moving into this cycle I pledged to myself that I will focus more on the cycling leg. I felt that I really needed to put in some miles and get my biking up to par with my running and swimming. However I feel that I'm detracting from my goals in the other two disciplines.
Ever since doing a 7:09 pace on a 5-miler a few weeks ago, I've been dying to get in some extra running to make sure I can manage a sub 7 min/mile pace on a middle distance (6.2 miles) triathlon run leg- by the end of the year.
In addition to that, it has always been a goal of mine to swim sub 1:30 pace for the 1500 m.
Obviously, there's not enough time in the week to FOCUS on all three legs. As a result, I've come up with a compromise. Sort of.
1) I will bike a lot more. That much is a given, I can't disregard my weakest leg in attempt to meet a milestone in my stronger legs.
2) Running will remain consistent. I won't up the effort level since my first cycle was extremely successful. If I went any harder, this additional intensity plus the increased bike volume will definitely put me in injury territory.
3) I will be totally deconstructing my swim technique. That's right, it's taking way too long for me to reach 1:30 cruising pace. I must be doing something wrong, and that something is focusing mostly on fitness and not enough on technique. Over the next month or so, I will not be doing any hard workouts but will be meticulously fine tuning my stroke. I've read a lot of literature and talked to some pretty knowledgeable swimmers and I think this is probably the right step to take.
So thats that.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Dawn of a new Cycle!
So now I'm solidly into my second cycle!
After my 8k race I took a full three days off. No workouts, no nothing. It felt great and by the 4th day I was brimming with energy and ready to go.
To make things even better, I finally got the balls to ride outside. Yup, after 1158 INDOOR miles I manned up, got myself a bike helmet and headed out to the wild outdoors. My first ride was extremely shaky. I felt like I was always a second from veering violently out of control and thrown to the ground. For an hour I hung on to the bull horns for dear life. It definitely was not a pleasant experience.
However, that ride just made me even more determined to get comfortable on the bike. The very next morning I got up at 5:30am to make sure I could ride without the distraction of traffic and joggers.... and my god was it different. Somehow, overnight, I become much more competent on the bike. I wrote something about this phenomenon in an earlier post. Now I'm definitely a firm believer of 'sleeping on it'.
As of that second outdoors ride, bike training has overtaken swimming as my favorite discipline... not my strongest (by far), but definitely the most enjoyable. Riding alone at the brink of dawn is one of the greatest feelings ever. Catching the sunrise over the horizon, feeling the wind in your hair, seeing the ground past by you in a blur, feeling the surge of endorphins in your veins as you take a descent at 25 mph... these are sensations that mere words cannot do justice.
Sometimes I lie awake at night, my heart beating hard in anticipation of the next morning's ride.
After my 8k race I took a full three days off. No workouts, no nothing. It felt great and by the 4th day I was brimming with energy and ready to go.
To make things even better, I finally got the balls to ride outside. Yup, after 1158 INDOOR miles I manned up, got myself a bike helmet and headed out to the wild outdoors. My first ride was extremely shaky. I felt like I was always a second from veering violently out of control and thrown to the ground. For an hour I hung on to the bull horns for dear life. It definitely was not a pleasant experience.
However, that ride just made me even more determined to get comfortable on the bike. The very next morning I got up at 5:30am to make sure I could ride without the distraction of traffic and joggers.... and my god was it different. Somehow, overnight, I become much more competent on the bike. I wrote something about this phenomenon in an earlier post. Now I'm definitely a firm believer of 'sleeping on it'.
As of that second outdoors ride, bike training has overtaken swimming as my favorite discipline... not my strongest (by far), but definitely the most enjoyable. Riding alone at the brink of dawn is one of the greatest feelings ever. Catching the sunrise over the horizon, feeling the wind in your hair, seeing the ground past by you in a blur, feeling the surge of endorphins in your veins as you take a descent at 25 mph... these are sensations that mere words cannot do justice.
Sometimes I lie awake at night, my heart beating hard in anticipation of the next morning's ride.
Monday, March 31, 2008
PR demolished!!
Yesterday I ran for a sub-7:10 min/mile pace for 5 miles demolishing my old record of 7:58 min/mile (for the same distance)! What made it even more surprising is that I did it on less than 3 hours of sleep. I attended a wedding the night before and had to wake up at 3am for a flight to get into the city by 7am and make it to the starting line by 9:15am.
For the duration of the race I focused on my form and it seemed that I never pushed myself beyond my limits, ending the race with the seemingly perfect amount left in the tank. I have to say that I’ve never paced a race this well before.
Afterwards, I grabbed some grub with a bunch of friends who had joined me for the race. After lunch I went home and started doing chores around the house. I didn’t really feel tired at all, so I moved from one errand to the next. At 5pm I decided to take a quick nap before dinner.
When I came to it was 10pm. I was totally knocked out of the past 5 hours!! I realized for the period after the race I must have been operating purely on adrenaline. I quickly whipped up some dinner and promptly went back to sleep- knocking myself out again, this time from midnight till 6.30am - for a grand total of 11.5 hours of sleep for the evening.
Thus concludes a highly successfully triathlon periodization cycle. My first ever, and if this is any indication, a start of many fruitful cycles to come. I will be taking a day off, and will slowly transition into the next cycle which will peak again in late August.
Oh JOY!
For the duration of the race I focused on my form and it seemed that I never pushed myself beyond my limits, ending the race with the seemingly perfect amount left in the tank. I have to say that I’ve never paced a race this well before.
Afterwards, I grabbed some grub with a bunch of friends who had joined me for the race. After lunch I went home and started doing chores around the house. I didn’t really feel tired at all, so I moved from one errand to the next. At 5pm I decided to take a quick nap before dinner.
When I came to it was 10pm. I was totally knocked out of the past 5 hours!! I realized for the period after the race I must have been operating purely on adrenaline. I quickly whipped up some dinner and promptly went back to sleep- knocking myself out again, this time from midnight till 6.30am - for a grand total of 11.5 hours of sleep for the evening.
Thus concludes a highly successfully triathlon periodization cycle. My first ever, and if this is any indication, a start of many fruitful cycles to come. I will be taking a day off, and will slowly transition into the next cycle which will peak again in late August.
Oh JOY!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
No rest for the wicked
The countdown has begun.
4 days till the race. Ideally, I should be tapering fulltime now, however I can't resist pushing it a bit. All this time off is getting in my head... I feel like I'm brimming with nervous energy, all of which is seeking release.
I was supposed to go for an easy run today and I ended up doing a 22 minute tempo run. The moment I stepped outdoors my legs tore off its shackles and sprinted, literally, for freedom.
The good news is that it felt great. A year ago, the pace I'm was hitting today would have left me a lot more out of breath that I was. In retrospect, even though physiologically running hard today was probably not a good idea, the confidence boost it gave me probably more than made up for it.
Ok. Back to the serious business of resting!
4 days till the race. Ideally, I should be tapering fulltime now, however I can't resist pushing it a bit. All this time off is getting in my head... I feel like I'm brimming with nervous energy, all of which is seeking release.
I was supposed to go for an easy run today and I ended up doing a 22 minute tempo run. The moment I stepped outdoors my legs tore off its shackles and sprinted, literally, for freedom.
The good news is that it felt great. A year ago, the pace I'm was hitting today would have left me a lot more out of breath that I was. In retrospect, even though physiologically running hard today was probably not a good idea, the confidence boost it gave me probably more than made up for it.
Ok. Back to the serious business of resting!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
One more peak!
So this first "peak" of the season is aimed at two events- 1) The bike FTP test I took last week. 2) The 5 miler I have at the end of this week. Even though there is no swimming involved in this peak, I really feel that the results of these two events will really reflect upon my training for the past 4 months. They aren't triathlons, nor are they really big 'A' type races by any stretch of the imagination, but I truly need to do well to give me the confidence to push my training to the next level.
The results of my first test went above and beyond my expectations. My FTP jumped a solid 16% in 10 weeks from 202 to 234. I couldn't be happier with those results.
Now I have a week till the second test and I'm starting to feel the pressure again. My PR for the 5 miler is a 39:52 (about 7:58 min/mile pace) set last year around the same time. I'm really hoping to break 38 minutes (~7:45 min/mile pace) next week. In my hearts of heart, I know, just KNOW I can do it.
Considering the results of my bike test, it seems that the principles I've been applying to my training *should* be working. The hard work has been done, now I just need to calm my nerves and go out there and reap the rewards.
The results of my first test went above and beyond my expectations. My FTP jumped a solid 16% in 10 weeks from 202 to 234. I couldn't be happier with those results.
Now I have a week till the second test and I'm starting to feel the pressure again. My PR for the 5 miler is a 39:52 (about 7:58 min/mile pace) set last year around the same time. I'm really hoping to break 38 minutes (~7:45 min/mile pace) next week. In my hearts of heart, I know, just KNOW I can do it.
Considering the results of my bike test, it seems that the principles I've been applying to my training *should* be working. The hard work has been done, now I just need to calm my nerves and go out there and reap the rewards.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Another Loss
Arthur C.Clarke, arguably the greatest science fiction writer of all time has passed away. The world has lost yet another great mind.
I remember devouring his Space Odyssey series…powering through 2001 to 2010 to 2061. The ideas he wrote about blew my mind wide open. I was taken on a pretty wild journey, made more real by the fact that everything he wrote was based on true scientific principles. I distinctly remembered being even more thirsty for his writing, following up Space Odyssey with the Rama series. And boy, did it not disappoint. Without spoiling the plot, the series opened my eyes up to a whole new perspective on stellar systems in general and ours in particular (a highly recommended read!)
At the time I made a mental note to read the rest of his novels (which thankfully are many, he was quite a prolific author). Until now I’ve been putting it off, but now I’m set on purchasing his latest book, slated to be released later this year- Last Theorem. Which is probably something about Fermat’s Last Theorem.
I will have to credit him and Carl Sagan for fostering my (and probably millions of other’s) curiosity towards the cosmos.
RIP.
I remember devouring his Space Odyssey series…powering through 2001 to 2010 to 2061. The ideas he wrote about blew my mind wide open. I was taken on a pretty wild journey, made more real by the fact that everything he wrote was based on true scientific principles. I distinctly remembered being even more thirsty for his writing, following up Space Odyssey with the Rama series. And boy, did it not disappoint. Without spoiling the plot, the series opened my eyes up to a whole new perspective on stellar systems in general and ours in particular (a highly recommended read!)
At the time I made a mental note to read the rest of his novels (which thankfully are many, he was quite a prolific author). Until now I’ve been putting it off, but now I’m set on purchasing his latest book, slated to be released later this year- Last Theorem. Which is probably something about Fermat’s Last Theorem.
I will have to credit him and Carl Sagan for fostering my (and probably millions of other’s) curiosity towards the cosmos.
RIP.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
234!!
That's right. 234 is my new FTP!
That's a 16% jump in 10 weeks! I couldn't be happier with the results. At this rate, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to hit 280 by the end of this year.
If anything this test has given me the extra motivation to push myself harder through training. How bad can pain and suffering be when it can bring this much joy? (albeit slightly delayed)
That's a 16% jump in 10 weeks! I couldn't be happier with the results. At this rate, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to hit 280 by the end of this year.
If anything this test has given me the extra motivation to push myself harder through training. How bad can pain and suffering be when it can bring this much joy? (albeit slightly delayed)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
