Workouts for the Week of 3/15 Through 3/21

Monday (3/15) - Bare foot aquajogging/pool running in the warm pool. As usual, I mixed in some swimming. About 40 minutes of jogging in the pool and 5x200 plus a 100 at the end, about 18 minutes. Workout felt ok.

Tuesday (3/16) - 20 minutes on the exercise bike at LA Fitness. Not my favorite place to ride. I don't really care for the exercise bike. They hurt my ass. Once off the bike I did PT and strength work. Did my usual PT exercises, plus 4x10 woodchop on each side with the 6lbs medicine ball, 5x10 squats with 30 sec hold after each, and 3x80 crunches.

Wednesday (3/17) - Here is the Masters swim group workout. Fast with a lot of rest.

200 fr

100 pull

100 nf

4x50 drill

100 kick

12x50 fast 40 sr

200 ez pull

8x50 fast 30 sr

200 ez pull

4x50 fast 20 sr

300 ch cool

Total Yards = 2600 (about 60 minutes)

Thursday (3/18) - 75 minute bike workout. Looked a little something like this

Warmup

6x2 minute in a big gear with 60 sec ez between

6x90 seconds in a bigger gear with 30 sec ez between

6x30 seconds in a even bigger gear with 60 sec ez between

Cool down

Friday (3/19) - Friday's Master's Workout

200 fr

150 dr

4x30 second vertical kick hard while holding onto the wall. After each 30 second do a 50ez

4x50 pull

6x225, after each 225 get out of the pool and jog the two pools. Fun Fun

2x100 kick ez

2x100 pull

50 ez

Total Yards = 2550 (Time about 60 minutes)

Saturday (3/20) - Got up and went to Gear West. Just me and Curt spinning. He put in the video "What it Takes". We watched the "spin" version, which is basically a cut down version of the documentary to music. That was about 50 minutes of constant medium paced spinning. Then did one of the Spinervals, I think it might have been Spinervals 29, it was about 35 minutes long. It consisted mainly of doing two 6x1 minute sets, where you spun 10 seconds as hard as possible and 50 seconds ez. So, did a total of 85 minutes at Gear West. In the afternoon I then did another 90 minutes at a constant medium to medium hard pace with a cool down at the end. On Saturday did a total 175 minutes and it felt pretty good. This is the most time I have put in on the bike on a day in about 16 month

Sunday (3/21) - Did the usual Fartleks around Lake of the Isles with Jackie. We alternated 3 lightposts at a jog and 2 lightposts at walk. I felt ok. It took about 35 minutes.

Swim Yardage for the week: 6150 yards
Swim Time for the week: 2.25 hours
Bike Time for the week: 4.5 hours
Run (jog) Time for the week: 0.58 hours
Aquajog Time for the week: 0.67 hours
PT and Strength Time for the week: 0.42 hours
Total Time of the week: 8.42 hours

Went over 8 hours for the week, and almost 8.5. Put in 4.5 hours on the bike for the week, which has to be the most I have put in very long time.

My only concern this week, I am writing this on Tuesday the 23rd, is that there is some ache in my left leg, which I have had before. The ache is general. Some pain by the ankle and some up around the knee. There is also some occasional pain around the stress fracture area, not associated with anything in particular, just pops up now and then. I am not going to jog until later in the week and only if there is no pain. See what this week brings.

Workouts for the Week of 3/8 through 3/14

Monday (3/8) - Same as last Monday morning, except a little more aquajogging than last week. 41 minutes of aquajogging in the "hot" pool. I would do 200s every 10 minutes or so and a 100 pull at the end for a total of 900 yards in about 18 minutes. Total workout time for the day was 59 minutes.

Tuesday (3/9) - The usual Tuesday workout. Did 27 minutes of PT and strength work. PT exercises focus on core strength and lower body, and improve my mechanics for running. Then did some strength work. Strength work was 4x80 crunches, some planks (also part of PT), Did 4x10 squats with about 20 second hold in squat position between each set. Added some lunges, no weight, just lunging. Before PT and strength, got on the bike for about 37 minutes. Tried to hold pace about 90+rpm and go steady.

Wednesday (3/10) - Master's swim workout, goes a little something like this (like last Wednesday, it was kind of an ass kicker):
200 fr
100 dr
100 k
6x50, build odd, even ch
1500 broken with a jog around both pools after each, time includes jog time.
Broken down like this:
500@10:00 with jog finished about 8:00
400@8:00 with jog about 6:45
300@6:30 with jog about 5:45
200@4:15 with jog about 4:00
100@2:45 with jog about 2:25
200 pull cool
Total yards = 2400 (about 50 minutes)
I was pretty tired after this workout


Thursday (3/11) - 70 minute bike workout. Broken down like this:
warm-up
3x30 sec 42x15 gear @ 30sr
4x20 sec hard 53x15 gear @ 40sr
1 min ez spin
10x1 killer minutes, hard effort (90-100%) in gear of choice. @ 1 min rest
2 min ez spin
10 min steady tempo keep at 100rpm or more
2 min ez spin
6x20 sec sprint with 53x15 gear @ 40sr
cool down

Friday (3/12) - Master's swim:
150fr
150nf
2x25 scull
2x50 build
2x25 tarzan
2x30 second vertical kick
Dan had a square drawn on board with 12 different options, wanted us to pick tic-tac-toe from the workouts. Pick across, down, etc. Basically, build your own workout. The order of mine went like this: 400, 250, 500, 125, 75, 50 25, 175, 100, 225, 150, 25ez. Ends in "0" smooth, if ends in "5" fast
Total Yards = 2600 (Time about 60 minutes)

Saturday (3/13) - Gear West Spin Group. Curt put in Spinervals 33, "Cave of Pain" or "Pain Cave". Did the Spinerval DVD plus a little in the beginning and a little at the end for a total of about 70 minutes. After the spin I went for a short and easy jog in the area of Gear West and that lasted about 23 minutes. After that, when I got back to Jackies, we went for about a 3mi walk around Lake of the Isles. I did not include the walk in my workout. It was just a nice and easy walk around the lake. Beautiful weather.

Sunday (3/14) - Jackie and I did easy Fartleks around Lake of the Isles (about 3 miles), just like last weekend. We did the walk two lamposts and easy jog two lamposts. The last couple we did faster than jog, closer to a run. Total time around the lakes was the same as last week, about 37 minutes. Felt ok. Later in the day I got on the trainer for about 70 minutes. I was on and off the aerobars and I was trying to maintain a constant pace. Felt pretty good. Weather was beautiful on Sunday.

Swim Yardage for the week: 5900 yards
Swim Time for the week: 2.1 hours
Bike Time for the week: 4.1 hours
Run (jog) Time for the week: 1 hour
Aquajog Time for the week: 0.68 hours
PT and Strength Time for the week: 0.45 hours
Total Time of the week: 8.3 hours
I was able to put in over 8 hours for the week. Hooray!

Workouts for the Week of 3/1 through 3/7

Monday (3/1) - Morning Master's with a twist from Kris. 35 minutes of aquajogging in the "hot" pool. There are two pools, the main pool with 8 lanes that is generally cooler than the pool I aquajogged in, which is 6 lanes. The 8 lane pool is the pool everyone swims in. After 35 minutes of straight aquajogging, I did 100 yards of aquajogging and 200 yard build swim. Did it a total of three 200s in that time and did 100 cool down at the the end. So about 15 minutes of swimming, 700 yards, plus 45 minutes of aquajogging.


After swimming went to see my physical therapist. To start out with, as usual, she tested my hip flexibility which was right where it should be. The only time it was poor was my first appointment, after doing the PT work for a couple weeks and coming back, my flexibility has been just fine. She had me walk down the hall and noticed I strike on the left side of my foot. She suggested trying running shoes with heal stability. She gave me a list of shoes and when I go buy new shoes, hopefully soon, I will try a pair. We then went over all the PT exercises I do to make sure I am doing them correctly. Some I need some tweaking of my positioning. All exercises involve engage my core and using more of my butt muscles and hamstrings. She gave me a couple more new exercises and away I went. I count the PT appoint as about 20 minutes of PT and strength work.


Tuesday (3/2) - Did 30 minutes of PT and strength work. PT exercises focus on core strength and lower body, and improve my mechanics for running. Then did some strength work. Strength work was 3x80 crunches, some planks (also part of PT), Did 3x10 squats with about 20 second hold in squat position between each set. Also did low squat holds, using a broom between a doorway to hold position, as part of PT.


After PT and strength work, got on the bike, on trainer for 35 minutes of medium, medium-easy, easy riding. My trainer is so terrible. Cannot wait for a new one.



Wednesday (3/3) - Master's swim workout, goes a little something like this (it as something of an ass kicker):
150 fr
150 nf
2x25 scull
8x50@1:00 (each one in on about 0:42)
4x100@1:45 (each one in on about 1:28)
6x50@0:55 (each on in on about 0:43)
4x100@1:40 (each on in on about 1:29)
4x50@0:50 (each on in on about 0:45)
300 pull cool
Total yards = 2550 (about 50 minutes)
I was pretty tired after this workout


Thursday (3/4) - 60 minute bike workout, medium to medium-hard pace at times. 10-15 minutes in the middle of the workout doing isolated leg training (ILT), alternating left and right leg pedaling to workout deadspots.


Friday (3/5) - Master's swim:
200fr, 100k, 100ch
6x50 build
6x200 at 90% and smooth, after each 200 got out of the pool and jog around both pools. The jog is probably about 100 yards or so. Dan noted I was limping, eventhough I was not in pain. Might have been tight hamstrings, or the fact I am baby and don't like running in barefeet, or something mental to do with my leg.
4x100 pull@1:45, did them on about 1:40
100k
200cool
Total Yards: 2600 (about 60 minutes)
Doing 200s, getting out of the pool and jogging, and alternating like that is always tiring. There is something satisfying about the workout. Call me crazy


Saturday (3/6) - Gear West Spin Group. Coach Kris lead it. I probably will not get the workout totally correct, but this was about it:
Warm-up, then 15 minute tempo alternating 1 minute in aero-position in 53x15/18 gear and a minute in 53x12 gear. After that, get off bike and do planks. I think we did 5 planks. Hold each one for a minute and then rest 1 minute.
Get back on bike, do some easy, and do a 10 minute tempo. This is where I get fuzzy. I think the 10 minute tempo was, the first part was the same, 1 minute in aero-position in 53x15/18, and I think the next minute was 53x12 out of the saddle.
Get off bike after 10 minute tempo and do wall sits. At least I did wall sits, other guys (there was total of 4 of us, including Kris), did some vertical jumps. I stayed away from the jumps to protect the leg. I did 3x30 second wall sits with 30sr between each. Get on bike and go easy for a little.
Then go 5 minute tempo, do not remember breakdown. After 5 minute tempo there was a short easy, and then final set. Final set was 20 seconds super-spin (about 110rpm), 10 second slow down and shift to 53x12, out of saddle sprint for 30 seconds, 60 second easy, and repeat 5 times total. Then cool down.
As usual, spin group kicks my ass, but feels great. This workout was about 70 minutes long.

Sunday (3/7) - Sunday's workout felt surprisingly good. Especially after having a bunch of people over to my place, having a few drinks, going to bed late, and not sleeping in. Jackie and I went around Lake of the Isles (about 3 miles). We would light jog/jog between two lightposts, and then walk the next two light posts. We did this all the way around the lake. It took about 37 minutes. It was a good workout. No leg pain. It is going to take awhile to get back to actually running, once I can. Just jogging feels so strange.

Swim Yardage for the week: 5850 yards
Swim Time for the week: 2.1 hours
Bike Time for the week: 2.6 hours
Run (jog) Time for the week: 0.61 hours
Aquajog Time for the week: 0.75 hours
PT and Strength Time for the week: 0.67 hours
Total Time of the week: 6.7 hours

February Update, Year Update, Update Update

I am kind of stealing this from the Tundra Transition Zone blog, the idea of updating my monthly training stats. I looked at his blog and saw it, liked it, now I am going to use it. Isn't that what blogging is all about? I am also going to try and provide weekly workout updates. See if I can take the time on Sundays to summarize the weeks worth of workouts.

I am going to put data in the blog as an image from Excel. Easier that way for now. Until I learn how to embedded a portion of an Excel spreadsheet in the blog.

Obviously, my run time has gone way down, due to the stress fracture. For not running, my total time for the month is pretty good. This time does not include PT and strength training, which is anywhere from 1-4 hours a month. This is a lot more than previous years. I am doing the PT to get my run mechanics improved, hopefully, and the strength to help the weak leg, improve my core, and substitute for running. Swim volume is way, way, up. Which is expected since I have been swimming morning Masters 3 days a week for almost a year now. Bike could be higher, I was out of town the last 2 weekends in Feb and that is usually when I get a good 1-2 hours each weekend.

Nothing in Feb 2007 because I did not start training in 2007 until March. 2006 I kept no training log, it was my first year.

I traveled for work in January so I missed some swimming, otherwise my YTD 2010 swim would be about 25%-30% higher. The grand totals start in March of 2007 and are updated through Feb. This month, March, I am aquajogging on Monday mornings, per Coach Kris's March training plan, with a little swim mixed in. I don't count the aquajogging as running in my log. So my swim yards and time will go down, but I am getting the time in.

So, that is how things total up at the moment. I feel pretty good, in general. Still wish I could run, run. My run now is more of a jog/walk, but that is all I allowed to do, so that is all I do.

My Triathlon Coach is the 2010 Team USA Triathlon Coach!

I am going into my 3rd year of coaching with Kris Swarthout who is the co-owner of SCS Multisport (www.scsmultisport.com). He is done a great job coaching me. As one might assume since I am starting my 3rd year with him.
Kris has been selected by USAT to be the Team USA coach at the ITU World Championships in Budapest, Hungary (9/8 - 9/10)

USAT TRIATHLON PRESS RELEASE:
Kris Swarthout Named USA Triathlon’s 2010 Team USA Coach
Minnesota coach to assist U.S. contingent at Budapest World Championships.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – After guiding a number of his athletes to last year's Age Group National Championship, Minnesota-based triathlon coach Kris Swarthout has been selected to serve as USA Triathlon's Team USA coach at this year's ITU World Championship in Budapest, Hungary in September (9/8-10/2010).

Swarthout won the right to serve as Team USA coach due to his athlete’s showing at the 2009 Age Group National Championship. In order to become the Team USA coach, interested certified USAT coaches submitted the names of their athletes who were competing at the Age Group National Championship. The coach with the most athletes at the starting line of the Age Group National Championship won the honor of being the Team USA coach.
“I was blessed with the opportunity to represent the United States in 2005 as an athlete, and to be able to come back in 2010 as a coach is even more of an honor,” said Swarthout, who is the co-owner of SCS Multisport LLC in Eden Prairie, Minn. “I have found a greater sense of accomplishment helping people achieve their dreams than I ever felt living my own.”

“One of the things I look forward to the most will be handing out the American flags to the athletes as they come into the finish line. Thank you USAT for this great honor. I will not let you down.”

2010 Chicago Autoshow

Occasionally I don't write about triathlon related topics. This is one of those times. I would say that I have gone to the Chicago Autoshow 6 or 8 times over the last 10 years. I go with my dad, who has gone about 34 times in the last 36 years. That is impressive. He talks about how things have changed at the show over the last 30+ years. This year he mentioned that during the 70's each manufacturer would put on a show at thier display. A show with music, some times live music, dancing girls, very scantily clad women, etc. He said it was much different. He told me about how in the 80's, probably the lowest point for American quality, the cars at the show had bad build quality. Show cars with poor panel fit and orange peel paint.
In the decade that I have been going to the Chicago Autoshow I have seen some real changes. They still have beautiful women standing by the cars, not as scantily clad, but they do wear tight fitting clothes. They also have male models at the cars. Thankfully, not scantily clad. The quality of the cars is always good. What I have seen is the effect of the economy on all car companies.
The first few times I went, both sides of the convention hall were filled, packed, with cars. Now, not so much. There is more space between cars , within displays, and the entire hall is not packed with cars. This year there was no Pontiac, Saab, Hummer (good riddens to bad rubish), and Saturn. No Porsche last year. This year there was only a Porsche dealer with three cars. The car companies that are there put much fewer cars on display. BMW or Audi might have put out 20 cars for each, now only a dozen or less. Ford had probably the biggest display, in terms of cars and area, but still seemed like less than in years past.
A number of years back there were flashy displays. Jeep had a waterfall that would spell phrases out. Jeep setup an off-road like driving area. The off-road simulation driving area is still there, but smaller and with no scenery, just some ramps, etc. Dodge had a little indoor driving area, that is now gone. A lot of the flash is gone. It is understandable, with how much the industry has suffered. Mostly by thier own hand. After Dodge and GM get gov't money, and then go out and put on big flashy displays, we the public might wonder what the hell is going on. Even without them putting on big flashy displays we still wonder what the hell is going on.
Hopefully, someday, the autoshow goes back to more cars and a little more flash. It would be nice to see the auto industry turn around and have something to celebrate. As long as there is a Chicago Autoshow, I will continue to go every year. Even if there are less cars and less flash, it is still a day I get to spend with my dad and talk about cars, and that is the best part of the whole thing.
I put five pictures of my favorite cars. As always the Porsche 911 (Carrera 4S Cabriolet). 2010 Mustang GT500, BMW M3, Nissan GT-R, and the Lexus LFA.
Porsche 911- the car I have always wanted since I first saw one when I was in elementary school. The car is a piece of engineering art work and you can drive it everyday. (right around 125,000, for the 4S Cabrio)
Mustang GT500 - Ford does it right. The Mustang looks sweet and it is 100% America horsepower. Also, for what you get it is inexpensive (under 50,000)
BMW M3 - Not even sure what to say. Beautiful car, amazing engine, amazing everything (under 60,000)
Nissan GT-R - Japan finally sends a supercar to the US at reasonable price (under 90,000).
Lexus LFA - A true Japanese supercar, only 500 are going to be built. V-10, all carbon fiber, and each one optioned to the owners request. Price somewhere in the 100s of thousands of dollars. Amazing piece of technology.
Yes, I know they are all expensive, but you got to have dreams

Product Review 15 and 16 - CycleOps Pro Series SuperMagneto Trainer and Kurt Kinetic Trainer

I have been using the same trainer for the last 8+ years and it is pretty junky. So, I welcomed the opportunity to try out a new trainer, especially the opportunity to try two trainers. There is one picture of the Kurt Kinetic trainer, from the Kurt Kinetic website, and three pictures of the CycleOps Pro Series SuperMagneto trainer with my bike on it.

As one might guess from the name of the CycleOps Pro Series SuperMagneto it utilizes magnets for the resistance. The magnets move outward a certain distance from the center of the flywheel depending upon one of four settings. Resistance increases the further out the magnets move. The trainer has four different settings, easy, road, interval, and mountain. As one might assume, each of the settings increases the resistance. The Kurt Kinetic trainer is a basic fluid resistance flywheel trainer. One nice thing about the CycleOps is that the magnets start at the center no matter what resistance setting you choose. So, when you start from stop it is easy to get going and resistance builds with speed. Basically, the Kurt Kinetic trainer has a constant resistance so it requires an initial hard effort to get the flywheel moving. Both trainers are fairly easy to setup. A quick look at the instructions for the CycleOps trainer and I figured it out. The bike locks securely and easily into both trainers. The CycleOps mechanism for locking the bike in at the rear is a little nicer that the Kurt Kinetic. One advantage of the CycleOps trainer is quick release on the roller. When taking the bike off the CycleOps and returning it to the trainer it does not require the user to screw the roller into position and determine the correct position of the roller each time. On the Kurt Kinetic the user needs to screw and unscrew the roller into position each time the bike is removed.

When riding the bike there was never any instability issues with either trainer. They are both very solid and sturdy. I have hardwood floors in my apartment and the floors are old and uneven. There were no issues with either trainer wobbling or slipping. I rode the trainers anywhere from about half an hour to an hour and a half at a time and there were no issues.

I tried all four settings on the CycleOps trainer. I used easy and road the most, interval and mountain the least. There is a difference between each setting. Easy is easy, barely any resistance, and road has a nice amount of resistance for just about any workout. Probably the only thing I don't like about the CycleOps trainer is that you have to stop and get off the bike to change the settings. It would be nice to be able to change the settings while still on the bike, even if you need to stop the motion of the trainer. I assume adding this capability would add quite a few dollars to the price tag.

The CycleOps trainer came with a DVD. I would not call it instructional or a workout DVD. I did not watch the entire DVD, I watched the first two parts and the final part. The first part is a "warm-up", the second part is a ride through of the course during a race, the third part is a race, and the fourth part is a cool-down.

There is a 60-80 dollar price difference between the two trainers, depending upon where you look up prices. I think the Kurt Kinetic trainer runs about $320 and the CycleOps about $400. I am going to purchase the CycleOps trainer. The biggest reason I am purchasing the CycleOps trainer is the adjustable resistance feature. I think this is a great feature and it works. I have an old Tacx with adjustable resistance and it never worked right. I also think the usability of the CycleOps, the ability to get the bike in and out of the trainer and the quick release on the roller, are added features that are not critical, but nice to have