Training Week

Last week was a nice training week:

• Solid STRENGTH work all week: over 9 hours for the 3rd week in a row.
• Average TRAINER time for the week: 3 hr 45 min total.
• 22.7 miles of RUNNING which is nice!

Two weeks ago was a big trainer week, but this past week was just average as seen above. I'm shooting for another big week this current week. I feel like if I can get in a good ride today, I'll be on track!

Stop by for some "Friday Funnies" tomorrow!

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What I Learned During My Biggest Running Year Ever (while winning the MDRA Grand Prix)

I'm always up for sharing advice. As a college professor, it's kinda what I do (I've taught 57 college classes in the last 8 years, plus a ton of workshops). I'm not going to preach my random advice - if you're a regular reader, you've heard bits and pieces of my running philosophy. So I'll just share the things I've learned in 2012 by running the most road races I've ever done in a year, while completing and winning the "Minnesota Distance Running Association's" Grand Prix series.

(The MDRA is a 2,400+ member running group, and they hold a Grand Prix series each year of 13-14 races ranging from 1-mile to marathon. I took the lead after the 4th race of the series in 2012 and never looked back [even though I thought I was going to be caught at the last race]. Here's a post from when I had learned I won the series. I'm NOT the fastest runner in Minnesota! Hells no! I never even won any of the individual races in the series. I was just "consistent" and relatively speedy all year.)

Here are my 7 pieces of advice:
(Don't miss number 7 - it's the most important one!!)


#1: Want to get faster? Do more of it!
Want to run faster? Run more. Sign up for a race series. Want to bike faster? Sign up for a Time Trial series. Want to swim faster? Sign up for Masters. Or swim in a few meets.

I've told myself that I'd do some series like this before, but I wanted to be faster first. Don't worry about being REALLY good at something - just sign up to do a lot of that something, and you'll get better at it the more you do it. Don't WAIT until you've gotten better - doing a swim, bike, or run series will MAKE you better.


#2: Race RUNNERS, not a TIME.
I'm usually so "triathlete" minded: "Well, my current Olympic Distance Triathlon PR is 2:15. Being this course is hiller and I'm not in as good of shape right now, maybe I'll shoot for a 2:20." I learned to stop saying stuff like that before all of these running races and just aim for the next person in front of me. The Grand Prix series is based off of points earned based on where you placed among other Grand Prix racers, so catching that next runner can mean more points. (In this post I noted the few seconds that could have lead to a lot more points during the year: through ALL my races this year, I could have been just 100 seconds faster [over 85 MILES of racing] to earn over 150 more points.)

It might be a hot day, so times might be slow. It might be a perfect day, and times might be fast. (I experienced both of those this past year.) I got better at not worrying about a specific time, and I got better at ACTUALLY racing.


#3: Train for what you're racing.
This seems like a giant "DUH," but let me explain. I LOVE doing intervals. In the past, I'd usually try to run 3 times a week: intervals, a long run, and a tempo run. If I were training for a long race (like a half marathon), I'd be bumping up my longer run to get ready. BUT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUMPING UP EVERY RUN.

When I racing the New Prague Half Marathon in May, I was SHOCKED that I was holding 6:10 - 6:15 pace on those hills. (Read my race report where I talk about smiling and practically laughing out loud [I believe the kids say "lol"] during the race because I didn't know where that speed was coming from.) "That speed" came from logging more miles.

Easy runs had been longer than they used to be (8-10 miles instead of 4-6). Intervals (which are great for 5K speed a few years ago) were non-existent in my training. And my long runs were just as long. But because I was going longer on everything else, my body felt comfortable running harder for those 13.1 miles. Being I was doing more distance races than I ever had in the past, I learned that really adding on the miles helped my racing.

Still smiling with just a few miles left during my first 25K this year!

#4: There's no such thing as a "wasted run" or "junk miles."
This ties-in to the point above. As long as you're not over-doing it, log some miles! If I was still sore / tight from a race, I'd go easy, but I'd focus on form and make sure to find time to stretch well afterwards. I stopped running every run hard (like I was doing 3-4 years ago), but every run still had a purpose. Easy runs "flushed" out the legs when they needed it. If I was too sore / tired to run, I just took the day off and didn't worry about it. And I LOVED every mile of my 511 miles with Henry in the stroller!


#5: Stay injury-free by not training hard.
I didn't do NEAR the number of hard tempo runs or track workouts this year. And I logged over 11% more running miles than my best year 2 years ago. (And that's over 27% more than last year!) The reason I could run so much more is that I wasn't killing my tendons and muscles by running SO hard all the time.

Life's about balance. And so is running. I'm still trying to find the right balance of "long" vs "speed" in my running workouts, but I've learned I need to cut out a little more "speed."


#6: Lots more running miles will NOT help you in a triathlon!
I was hoping that my high running miles would make up for my lack of training on the bike. But during my 2 Olympic-distance triathlons this summer, that proved not to be true. The bike wore out my legs, and no amount of run training can make that final run easier once your legs are hashed from the bike. Note to self for next year: bike more if you want to be better at multi-sport races.


And here's the big one.....


#7: Race-pace miles will make you faster AND keep you from becoming injured.
When do you say "this workout will make you faster AND keep you injury-free?" That doesn't happen. Intervals are great for making you faster, but they can take a toll on your body (my sore heel doesn't always like them). Running easier keeps you more injury-free, but that doesn't help your speed. Doing longer runs is great for your endurance, but that might flare up an overuse injury. What I'm trying to say is you NEVER hear "do this to stay healthy AND make you faster" with regards to a run workout! So this tip is magical!!

I started doing race-pace miles with Coach Jen Harrison 2 years ago in my quest for a sub-60 TC 10 Mile. And I really learned a lot about them since then just by doing them so much. This past year, I did 3 half-marathons and a 25K (15.5 miles), and I used workouts with race-pace miles leading up to all of those races (and I use them frequently on my stroller runs with my son). Speaking of my son...

Henry digging for raisins during his first 10K with me!
(We passed most of those people in front of us to finish 4th out of 300+.)

Let's say I want to run 13 miles - I'd maybe break it down like this: warm-up for 3 miles, up the pace for mile 4, and then run 6 miles around race pace (maybe all near a certain pace or maybe all descending a bit [like 6:30, 6:25, 6:15, 6:10, and then whatever I can for the last 2]), and finally I'd cool down for the last 3 miles.

They helped me get faster by teaching my body how to run at a certain pace. It's like I'm saying "Hey body - THIS is what you need to get used to doing. THIS PACE RIGHT HERE. Got it?" But being it's not super fast for the entire run, you'll save some stress on your body. And I've been more prone to "overdoing it" as I put the years on this body of mine...

They helped me stay injury-free because they "mixed-up" my long runs. I'm prone to overuse injuries, so if I just ran a 13 mile training run at 1 pace, I could easily get injured. But by mixing up the tempo, it really helps my body deal with that distance. I've often felt aches start to show up as I'm starting to build my speed, but being I'm only running at that pace for a bit, the aches go away when the speed changes. This might not help everyone, but it's really helped me. Henry and I do this on nearly every run together of 6 miles or more.

Oh, and I should note 2 more things with regards to "race-pace miles." First, it's EASIER to run LONGER doing this. How awesome is that! Look at my example above of "3 mile WU, build for a mile, 6 miles faster, CD for 3 miles." That doesn't sound too bad; you're only just thinking about the next few miles in the workout. But once you do that, you've covered 13 (potentially boring) miles! Second, this only works well (for me) for longer races, like 10 miles or up. Maybe even 10Ks too. Race-pace miles wouldn't have quite the same benefit for me if I tried doing a 6 mile run with the middle 2 at 5K pace. Use these in your longer-distance race training.

UPDATE:
I felt the need to add an "amendment" to this entry the day after posting it. With regards to "race-pace miles," I don't run them "all out." I run them like I'm running the middle of a race. So if I'm doing 6 miles at race-pace, I'm not sprinting to the finish - THAT would get me injured. I save that sort of speed for tempo runs or shorter intervals. Instead, I'm "keeping it strong" throughout as if I were maybe running miles 3-8 of a half marathon. I finish the race-pace miles feeling well worked, but not dead.

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Night Biking Tips (and asking for advice!)

So about 10 days ago, I went for a nice 18 mile ride at 5 am. I had a tweet after the ride about the best way to ride in the dark. Check out our twitter conversation:

That sums up a lot of what I'm about to say in a few "140 characters or less" tweets.

So my big points are:

1. GET A HEADLIGHT. All I used was a "camping" headlight from REI. You can get lights like that from Target or Wal-Mart or wherever. Mine takes 3 AAA batteries and has 3 LED lights (and is pretty bright when the batteries are fresh). I don't have a "bike light." I just strap the the headlight to my aero bars.

2. GET A BLINKING BACK LIGHT. We have 2 (one that came with some bright gloves, and one that we got free in a race packet), but both were dead when I went to ride last week. Dang. If one had been working, I would have just clipped it to my back of my jersey.

3. WEAR A REFLECTIVE VEST. We have a running vest that is pretty much only made of reflective material. It's super light-weight, so it can be worn over anything. I nearly ran into an older (70ish year old) women on her cruiser who wasn't wearing any lights or reflective material. We were going the same direction, but I didn't see her until I was practically up her butt.

4. STAY OFF THE ROADS (whenever possible). Find a bike trail if possible. I was on side-streets for 2 blocks, a road with a dedicated bike lane for about a half mile, and then I was on off-street bike paths.

UPDATE: My good friend Jamey left a good comment with lots of tips about a long as this post. He reminded people to NOT ride on the sidewalks, which is very dangerous at intersections. That wasn't my meaning about "stay off the road" - I meant to find a bike trail if possible. But check out all of Jamey's comments on this post because he's got some good stuff in there!

5. CHOOSE WELL-LIT TRAILS. I found that unless you have a REALLY bright light, you should stick to well-lit trails. I headed along the River Road Trail (NOT well-lit) to the start of the Greenway Trail in Minneapolis. The Greenway is pretty straight, open, and was REALLY well lit until just after the lakes. I had to turn around shortly after the lakes (around the little "swerve" in the trail when you go over RR tracks) because it got too dark and I couldn't see as much as I would have liked.

6. CARRY A PHONE / ID. You may need to call someone if something happens. And if something should happen to you, you want to make sure people know who you are and how to contact your family. Have your license, a RoadID, or a 1BandID on you in an obvious place.

Here's what the start of the Greenway looks like just after Hiawatha:

Pretty well lit for 5 am in late Oct in MN.


A few blocks farther down the trail, looking through the long, straight section.


My view for most of the ride. That's my headlight strapped between my aero bars shining
on my front tyre. You can see the aero bar shadow on the ground to the left.

And here are 2 photos from previous posts that show the reflective running vest:

Pharmie working her way down a hill 2 years ago just after we found out she was pregnant!


From a post last year as we were out on an evening run with Henry.

So, I don't ride at night much, but these are the things I've learned. What am I missing? What are some other good tips? Please share your advice! Thanks!

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Tip of the Week: Do Fartleks. Don't Giggle.

Friday night, I headed out on a Fartlek workout. Yep, it's a funny word. My well-educated Pharmacist wife always says "Ewwww... you LICKED your FARTS!" And then she giggles. Classy. (But that's why I love her!)

It's sort of like intervals, but you mix up the "interval" used. I basically did hard efforts of 3, 2, 4, 1, and 5 minutes. And the rest was running easy for 50% of the time of the previous interval.

I warmed up for an easy mile, picked up the pace for another half mile, and then really got to work. I did did 3:00 hard, 1:30 easy, 2 h, 1 e, 4 h, 2 e, 1 hard, 0:30 easy, 5 h, 2:30 easy. Then I repeated the whole set again, but skipped the final 5:00 hard because I was already under a mile from home, so I just used the rest of that as a cool-down. (I'm used to running around 1-mile intervals, but it was the shorter, faster running I'm not used to. So I figured skipping a longer fartlek interval would be the way to go.)

So, here's my "Tip of the Week:" Mix up your pace. Don't run all easy runs at one pace, all long runs at another, and all tempo runs at another. Try a fartlek workout of different distances / paces within the same workout to confuse your body a bit.

AND it's a great chance to leave your Garmin at home and run them all "by feel." You don't need all the numbers for this workout; just run hard when you're supposed to be running hard, and ease up between the hard parts. I feel like I just read something in Runners World Magazine about the importance of having trained at different paces so on race day your body won't "freak out" if it's not exactly the pace you trained for.

Go. Try it. Mix up the lengths. Say "fartlek." Don't giggle.

Oh, and I ran this workout as just my 2nd run in a new pair of running shoes. (My first run was Henry's long run with me 8 days ago, but I brought my older running shoes in the stroller in case my feet didn't like the new shoes.) My feet got a little beat up from the fartlek:

Photo taken 2 days after the fartlek workout.

That's a blood blister right over the area where I had gotten a regular blister from the City of Lakes 25K about 3 weeks ago. Notice my toes and the bottom of my feet still look a little beat-up from that race.

Gross.

But seriously... try a fartlek workout.

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How to Have Your Best Race by Trying THIS

I was thinking about my recent BONK last weekend at the Rochester Half Marathon. I thought I'd plot out my mile splits to see how they looked. Being I'm a nerd, I jumped into Adobe Illustrator:

And THAT, my friends, is what a "bonk" looks like...
or at least what "going out too hard" looks like. (1:25:44)

Then I thought I'd plot out all 3 half marathons that I raced this year. Maybe that would tell me something. So here were my splits from the Securian Run Half Marathon back in January:

Took it easy, and then threw the hammer down at the half-way point. (1:25:22)

And here's my splits from my AMAZING run at the New Prague Half Marathon back in May:

Read my race report to see this great race unfold. (1:20:54, PR)

And finally, I overlaid them on top of one another, and I added in a dotted line for each which represented my average pace for each race:

The graph made this very clear: the more consistent splits that I post, the better my race will be!

OK, there are plenty of variables that make this far from a perfect system. The Securian Run was in January, and winter races in MN are always slow. (Training on slick surfaces and in lots of extra clothing.) The New Prague Half was constant hills, but it was the perfect temperature. And Rochester was just horrible - it was a little warm and I went out too hard.

You should try this and see if you can figure something out about what works best for you! Do you need to go out hard? Do you need to start off slow? Do you need to ease up in the middle for a while to have enough to nail it hard at the end? How did you feel during each race?

On a quick related note, I did this about 10 months ago (seen in this post) comparing my 3 runnings of the "TC 10 Mile." Here's an image I posted back then:

In 2009 (1:02:43), I went out too easy, but felt great all race.

In 2010 (59:05), I went out a bit too easy, but I got back on top of it ASAP. I suffered a lot later in that race, but I hit my goal of sub-60!

In 2011 (1:01:20), I really took it too easy in miles 6 and 7, and my time suffered because of it.

That's the big thing I had learned back then when I plotted out that graph: at the TC 10 Mile, I have the urge to really ease up too much near the middle (miles 5, 6, and 7). I don't know if it's the hills on THAT course, or if it's just a "mental issue," and that's where it gets tough for me in a 10 mile race. So I learned the faster I could keep those miles, the faster overall finish time I'd post. (Duh.)

So if you haven't tried graphing out your splits of the same race over a few years, or the same distance at different races, give it a shot and see if you learn anything. You might be surprised....

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2 Great 'Pace Calculators'

So I'm gearing up for my indoor 5000 meters on Sunday. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for 25 laps on a 200 meter track. The first (and only) time I did an indoor 5000, the monotony of 25 laps actually did NOT get to me - I was surprised I didn't get bored / depressed / sad during the race. But I think I really "psyched myself up" for having to do 25 laps and then while I was doing it, it didn't seem so bad.

Here are 3 quick photos from last year's indoor 5000:

Starting just under the starter's armpit.
(You can see smoke from his gun!)


Going out WAY to hard: I ran my first 1600 in 5:20!


Swinging wide on the final lap, about to hit the line and my watch.
Totally Hashed.

Well, I'm NOT in PR shape, but I still want to be ready to push myself, so I went online to my "go to" pace calculator to figure out what my splits MIGHT be. HERE'S A LINK to a good pace calculator. It looks like this:

You enter 2 of the 3 variables, and it gives you the missing piece. For example, I entered 17:30 for the time, and 5 Kilometers for the distance, and clicked "Calculate Splits" so it would give me my mile pace. It came back with this:

So to do a 17:30 5K, I'd need to run 5:37.96 miles.

As another example, if you wanted to run a 10K at 6:00 / mile, you could enter those, and it would then tell you your total finishing time (37:16).

My one problem with this calculator is that I'm running on a track. I can easily take my 1600 meter splits, but that's a little short of a mile. That brings me to a second calculator called the "Race Planner." HERE'S A LINK TO THE RACE PLANNER. At the Race Planner, I enter my variables, and it gives me my desired splits:

Overall splits for a 17:30 5K.

But, here's where this calculator ROCKS. I can choose something other than "mile splits." I can type in "1600 meter splits" to get a more accurate race plan for my 5K on the track. That looks like this:

Notice there's not a big difference, but 4800 meters vs 3 miles is the difference of 6 seconds. If I were running for a PR, those 6 seconds would make or break my race!

At the Race Planner, I could even type in "800 meters" for my splits. That gives me a race plan of this:

And (this is getting a little excessive) if I WERE shooting for a PR, I could print out my 200 meter lap splits:

So here's my "Tip of the Week:" Use this Pace Calculator to help determine your desired pace for a race, and use this Race Planner to get your desired splits throughout your race.

And FYI: last time I ran my 5000 in 17:17.3. This time, if I'd LOVE to be able to do a 17:30 (as I've been using in my examples here). As seen here, that would be a 5:38 / mile pace, or a 5:36 / 1600 pace. I'm shooting to keep my 1600s in the 5:30s, so I'd run something between 17:15 (5:31 / 1600 - yeah right) and 17:45 (5:41 / 1600) for my 5000. We'll see what I can do! I'm just hoping to really make myself suffer, especially from about mile 1.5 - 2.5 where I tend to ease up too much.

Check back for a race report on Monday!!

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SPEED vs ENDURANCE

Let me make my point with my "racing timeline" along with my thoughts during that given year. (If you'd like more info on any race that I mention, check out the sidebar under the given year.)


2007:

It was my second year of triathlon, and I was ONLY working on endurance. I did my first Half Ironman and my first (and so far only) Ironman. My finishing times weren't anything fantastic (5:49 half and 13:53 full), but I was in it to "get through it," and that's how I approached my training.

Pharmie and I after doing IM WI 2007 (her second IM)

About 6 weeks after that IM, I wanted to see if I could break 21:00 in a 5K. It was around Halloween, so I dressed up:

The Monster Dash 5K, 2007

I shocked myself by running a 19:28 5K, and I felt like I could go faster.

The next weekend, I WON my first race by posting a 19:11 finishing time at the Tesfa 5K. I worked on running some shorter runs HARD, and by Thanksgiving, I ran a 18:48 5K PR.

Giving Thanks 5K, 2007

2008:

I started marathon training in early March. That marathon training plan had me running intervals on the track every week. I'd never done so much speed work before. I was starting to FEEL fast. Near the end of March, I ran a 17:26 5K at the Joe Plant Memorial Run - a personal best that would hold up for 2 more years!

Hitting the line and looking for my time!
(Also, the debut of the "bowl full of sunshine" shorts!)

I swore then and there that doing regular speed work was the key to running fast. But, all that regular speed work also tends to make chronically injured runners more injured. My heel started acting up.

That fall, I ran the Tesfa 5K again, and I lowered my time on the same course from the year before by 30 seconds per mile and finished with my second fastest 5K time ever: 17:48.

Jon and I after the 2008 Tesfa 5K

2009:

Nothing really stands out in 2009. I did a Half IM at the start of the year, and then some shorter races throughout the year. I still was trying to hit the track to keep up my speed - I still swore by "the speed of the track."


2010:

I was building my mileage slowly, but I was still hitting the track pretty regularly. That combo lead to my current 5K PR on a certified course:

Flying to the finish of a 17:11 5K

I set my current 13.1 PR about a month after that 5K with a 1:22 performance in WI. I started realizing that having a lot of endurance was helping my shorter distance speed. I had some 10+ mile runs under my belt before that 5K (as part of my training for the half mary), and that endurance helped carry me through that last mile of the 5K while working hard and hurting (my closing mile was 5:19).

A few months later, I set my Oly Tri PR of 2:15:37, and I got my first Age Group win in a Tri:

Liberty Olympic Triathlon

Finally, that fall I worked with Coach Jen, and she had me put in some of my biggest mileage weeks to get me to my big goal for the year: a sub-60:00 10 mile at the TC 10 Mile. She only had me hit the track ONCE in 8 weeks, but she worked in a lot of race pace miles as I posted about last week. I remember telling her that I was nervous NOT running on the track for such a length of time. She built my endurance up, and "played" with my speed now-and-then.

Nearing the finish of a 59:05 10 mile

2011:

My 2 good running performances in 2011 don't really add much to this conversation right now, but I can still point them out. Early this year, I ran my first indoor 5000 Meters, and I finished in 17:17:

25 laps is hella-fun

And then a few weeks later, I ran a 1 mile at the Meet of the Miles in a personal best of 4:49:

Post race

Looking back, here's what I realized:

- When I started doing intervals, I started getting fast. But WHEN did I start doing intervals? It was during my training for my first marathon. Looking back NOW, I don't know how much speed was from the INTERVALS and how much was from the LONG RUNS. I assumed it was from the interval workouts that I was able to run a 17:26 5K PR back in 2008, but I was also running 15 mile long runs at that point.

- I didn't point much out in 2009, but I did note that 2009 started with a Half IM in April (in New Orleans). That built up my endurance very quickly, and I could sort of "ride" on that endurance for a few months as I then worked on my speed. I didn't realize that then, but I can see that now.

- Last fall, Coach Jen proved to me that it was NOT all about speed work. I needed to build my endurance. Pure and simple. I had the short-distance speed, but I couldn't sustain anything near that for races much longer. Her longer runs got me there.


So, here's my "Tip of the Week:"

With regards to SPEED and ENDURANCE, work on your weakest of the 2! If you can run forever, but you aren't very fast, try some intervals or fartleks (hee hee) now and then. (Sorry, I can't say "fartlek" without giggling.) If you can run shorter races pretty fast, but you don't have that speed (or similar speed) in longer races, work in more longer runs. If you work on your weaker area, you WILL become a better runner!

I kind of think of it this way: if you go out fast in a race (but at a pace you think you SHOULD be able to sustain) but get winded right away, WORK ON SPEED with intervals. If you can maintain a solid pace throughout a race but end up really dying at the end, WORK ON ENDURANCE with more long runs. That's not a perfect rock-solid theory, but that's how I'm simplifying it.

Happy training everyone! We'll see how my slight lack of endurance this year will treat me at the TC 10 Mile THIS WEEKEND!!

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A Running "Tip of the Week"

I've been trying to re-do some of the workouts that Coach Jen gave me last year for the TC 10 Mile. They really have me thinking about what the POINT of the runs were when Coach Jen gave them to me a year ago. Last year, I just did the runs like coach said - like a soldier receiving orders. "Yes Ma'am." Don't think I'm complaining... she got the job done! This year, I really started looking at WHY I was given certain runs. There's one thing that really stood out in the workouts I was given.

RACE.
PACE.
RUNS.

And lots of 'em.

My issue in the past was that I was OVER-TRAINED. I would run most every training run HARD. I knew that when I worked with Coach Jen last year that she'd "slow me down" a bit to keep me from over-training and burning out my legs. But as I look back over my training from last year, I saw something familiar in every run: there were at least 2 miles in about 80% of my runs that were at race pace.

- If it was an easy, easy, easy day, I wasn't doing race-pace running, but that was only about once every-other week.

- If it was an easyish day, it might have been 6 miles with miles 4 and 5 at 6:00 pace (my goal pace last year for the TC 10 Mile).

- If it was a tempo day, the run contained 4 or so miles FASTER than race pace.

- If it was a long run day, I'd maybe run a total of 10-12 miles, but 5 or so would be around race pace.

There was always an easy warm-up, and always an easy cool-down, but most runs contained some FAST running. And all of this did NOT lead to over-training, and I nailed my sub-60 goal with a 59:05 finish:

Half way into the 2010 TC 10 Mile

So, here's my "Tip of the Week:" add in some race-pace running to a number of your weekly runs. Don't go nuts and go "all out" all the time. But pick up the pace for a few miles on a long run to get your legs moving the speed you WANT them to go during your next race. They need to LEARN to move at that pace. (I think this idea would only work for about a 5 mile - 10K race or longer... anything shorter and you probably shouldn't be running THAT fast all the time.)

Back with more on my TC 10 Mile training shortly. I've been doing many of the same workouts as last year, but with different results....

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Swimming Tips From Robby B

If you're like me, you're really hairy. But nevermind that.

If you're like me, you love getting swim / bike / run advice, and it means a LOT when it comes from someone who is MUCH faster than you. My online / triathlon buddy Robby B is one of those fast people. Specifically in the water.

Robby has done many triathlons, but only 1 Ironman (like me). But UNLIKE me, Robby came out of the water 41st overall. Out of over 2,000!! There were 31 male PROs and 18 female PROs who did Ironman WI in 2005 with Robby, and he was out of the water before 15 of the guys and 11 of the women!! (And Robby's not a PRO....)

When I asked Robby for his "swim credentials," here's what he (begrudgingly) told me:

I've done nearly 20 aquathons (1K swim/5K run), ten sprints, one Olympic, five halves, and one full distance. And I'm pretty sure that in all the races of done, I've never been out of the water worse than fourth in my age group, which came at IMWI in 2005, where I was 41st out of the water overall, including PROs. I'm usually in the top 3 overall in small to medium races.

I swam competitively since age 10 through high school, and coached age group in college.

Why am I giving you Robby's swimming resume? Well, back in September, I filmed Robby giving his EvoTri teammate Rural Girl some swimming advice. Rural Girl was already Kona-bound, and she was looking to improve her swim. We were all hanging out after they had all just finished Rev3 Cedar Point, and we were getting ready to head out to ride the rides!

Here's a photo of Pharmie and Rural Girl pre-race:

Here's an EPIC photo of Robby eating one of my Krispy Kreme's just minutes before starting the race:

And here's a photo from later in the day (post-race) showing Robby and Pharmie moving quickly from ride-to-ride at Cedar Point Amusement Part:

Anyway, here's my little video of advice from Robby to Rural Girl:
(turn up the volume to hear all the background chat...)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0m_O2fmJJg

Notes:
- Yes, that's the LOTRs on in the background.
- My lovely Pharmie makes a cameo at the 2:10 mark.
- The first half of the video is "fluffier," but the second half has more specific info.
- Robby gives 3 drills to Rural Girl that he thinks she can use. Here's some of what he's saying (paraphrased):

Tilt your head up A BIT to be able to use more proper muscles.

Drill: Trojan crawl. Swim with your chin up (at the water line).

Drill: Fingertip drag to work on high elbows.

Drill: 6 kicks on either side, then breath and switch.

Good question from Rural Girl: Should we be looking at videos of super fast sprint swimmers because they're not endurance focused? Robby's answer: Yes, we can learn from their stroke.

When you want faster turn-over to build speed, work on NOT sacrificing stroke length!

So use this advice if you can! Robby's got a great swimming background, so he's not just "blowing smoke out of his ass." Big thanks to Rural Girl and Robby B for "letting" me film them! ;) Can't wait to see you 2 (and the rest of Team EvoTri) when you all come to town for the Minneapolis Triathlon this summer! Should be fun!

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Bike Strength Workout on the Trainer

... well, and OFF the trainer too.

Being I'm currently trying to giveaway a sweet, new CycleOps trainer, I figured now would be a good time to talk about this workout. The January 2011 issue of Triathlete Mag mentioned an interesting sounding workout. It was called the "Bike Trainer / Weight Combo" workout, and was supposed to last 60 minutes.

The workout had some technical warm-ups and then consisted of three 10 minute intervals where some of the time was spent off the bike doing body-weight exercises, and the rest of the 10 minutes was spent on the bike spinning hard.

Here's the gist of the workout: (This isn't directly quoting the magazine [which wrote an article about this and the summarized it up on the next page], but it's the idea of what they were saying)

20 MINUTE WARM-UP: 20 minutes of gradual building: 5 minutes EASY, 5 minutes building, and then 10 minutes of drills. They recommended some fast spinning 1-legged drills for 30 second intervals.

FIRST 10 MINUTE INTERVAL: Off the bike, do the following (25-30 reps) with as little rest as possible:

- Walking lunge
- Hamstring curl with heels on a balance ball
- Jumping squat
- Eccentric calf raises (meaning focus on long, slow downward motion: 3 secs down, 1 sec up)

Then finish out the 10 minute interval (meaning if the exercises took 4 minutes, you'll have 6 minutes to go) on the bike with HR in low Zone 2, and a cadence of 85-95.

SECOND 10 MINUTE INTERVAL: Same strength exercises off the bike, then finish out the 10 minutes with HR in high Zone 2 and a lower cadence: 75-80.

THIRD 10 MINUTE INTERVAL: Same strength exercises off the bike, then finish out the 10 minutes with HR in Zone 3 with a cadence of 80-85.

10 MINUTE COOL-DOWN: Easy spinning.

I did something like that, but here's what I did differently:

- I did body-weight squats instead of jump squats for 2 reasons. #1: My injured achilles wouldn't take too kindly to lots of jumping. And #2: My trainer is in the basement, and "jump squats" would have made parts of me end up through the kitchen floor, if you know what I mean. (If you don't know what I mean, I'm saying the ceiling is low.)

- I didn't do the calf raises because of my injury. I didn't substitute anything for those, I just tired to do a few more of the other 3 exercises so I could skip the calf raises.

- And because I was short on time when I tried this, I didn't do a 20 minute warm-up. I did some easy spinning, a little building, and then 6 minutes of 30 second 1-legged drills (for a total of about 12 minutes of WU). That was plenty for me.

I hit my watch, and I was off my bike all ready to start my first 10 minute interval. Here are some photos that Pharmie took of me trying this workout (during the first interval). They are some UNFLATTERING images. Sheesh.

One-legged drills. Note my foot to the left is
unclipped and resting on the trainer.


Building during the WU.


The PERFECT episode of "King of the Hill" was on TV.
It was the one where Bill starts working out too much.


Walking lunges done throughout the basement.
Why do I have FRONT love-handles? WTF?


Kermit looking for some attention during my walking lunges.

By the way, as sweat drips down my back on the trainer, it's itchy. So you can barely make out 2 scratch marks on my upper back in that photo above. It's from me wiping / scratching at sweat. I always look like I have an aggressive lover after trainer workouts.

Balance ball hammy "curls." Kermit was all up in my business.


Kermit's not sure what's going on....


Kermit pooped out before I did and went upstairs to crash with her sister.

So I did some body-weight squats too. I did all those exercises (lunges, BB curls, and squats) back-to-back-to-back as quickly as possible. That took me about 4:30. Then I hopped back on the bike for a hard 5:30 of biking. I didn't want to worry myself with what cadence to be at or how hard to be going, so I just did 3 hard-ish intervals.

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS WORKOUT is that it did NOT feel like I just spent 50 minutes on my trainer! (Well, I actually didn't spend 50 minutes on my trainer - I only spent like 35 minutes on my trainer once you take out the "exercise" time. But still.... It didn't feel like a boring hour-long trainer workout.)

It did NOT leave me "oh-my-god-I-can't-walk" sore, but it DID work my legs nicely. The second and the third intervals started with some WOBBLY lunges!!

So give this workout a try! Now is a good time for this - in a few weeks, I won't feel like I should be hopping off and on my trainer being it will be getting pretty close to race season. But right now, it's a great break from the "regular" routine. I might do this workout again in about a week or 2.

Oh, and speaking of being on the trainer, make sure to check out Tuesday's blog post where I'm giving away a CycleOps trainer!! You can enter through Monday! Scroll to the bottom of Tuesday's post and leave a comment to be entered!

Happy weekend!

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A Cross-Training Fool

That's what I've become!! (Well, mostly weights and core, but whatever.)

I'm doing pretty well NOT running. I'm not too bummed about it. I'm mostly bummed that I'm injured - not too bummed that I can't run. (If that makes any sense at all.) It's been nearly 4 weeks since my last run!

My heel's getting a LITTLE better. I'm still wearing that dang "night splint" when I sleep. It's still achy, but not down low at the base of my heel - it's achy mid-achilles. I'm doing what Dr. Folske says for these 5-6 weeks, but I hope I'm not being dumb by not getting a second opinion (including a scan of some sort to make sure everything is OK in there....).

Here's my training from the last 2 weeks:

Those symbols on the 15th, 17th, and 20th are from some trainer workouts. I did an hour of the "Have Mercy" Spinerval DVD on the 15th, then the next 36 minutes of the same DVD on the 17th, and then 100 minutes of easier spinning while watching a movie with Pharmie on the 20th (as I posted about here). To have 3 hours and 15 minutes of trainer time in one week is GREAT for me!

And I've put in my 2 biggest weeks of strength training ever. Usually, an average week is about 1:30 - 2:10 of strength time, with my biggest week (since I've been logging workouts with BT in Sept of 2009) being 2:48 - but that week included 90 minutes of moving rock that I called "strength work." (My biggest "normal" week besides that was 2:30.) These past 2 weeks, I've done 2:56 and 2:55. (And I normally work pretty "fast" in the gym. For example, the 38 minute strength workout on the 17th contained 4x chest, 3x core [machine], 3x bi, 3x tri, 3x lats, 2x back, 2x lower back, 2x shoulders, and then about 10 minutes of core in the studio.)

I never work the same muscle group 2 days in a row. So back-to-back days might be legs and core on one day, and then everything else the next. And I've been doing a lot to "shake up" my workouts. In fact, we'll call that my "Tip of the Week"....

So here's my "Tip of the Week:" Make sure to "mix it up" now and then. With my strength work, I find it's easy to fall into that "same old routine" that each of us have, and we NEED to give our muscles a different challenge now and then. Now's the time of year to be switching things up. So when I go to the gym to lift weights, I'll always have a different routine in mind. Here are the kinds of things I usually choose from:

• Lower weight than usual, but higher reps. I don't do enough of this.

• Higher weight than usual, but lower reps. For the burn. ;)

• All "body weight" exercises. (Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, leg-lifters, body-weight squats, etc.).

• Core: all machines (or anything in the "gym," like leg-lifters, etc.).

• Core: no machines (all in the studio).

• The "old routine." (Yes, I try to not do this all the time, but if I have 30-40 minutes, my old routine is an easy no-brainer.)

None of these routines would be good to do all the time. (Well, maybe lower weights and higher reps.) But because I'm always mixing it up, I end up getting a great, varied workout throughout the entire week. I think so, at least...

Oh, and those 2 short swims last week was me "mixing things up" in the pool. On the 23rd, I had a swim lesson. And on the 25th, I did a LOT of kicking drills - over 1000 yards of JUST KICKING! I need to hit the pool a little more, and I need to do some water running, too. Yuck.

To wrap up this random post, here's an up-to-date photo of my lovely Pharmie's growing bump as she got back from a run yesterday afternoon:

Back with a new giveaway shortly. Stop back soon!

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Postal Swim!

[If the term "postal swim" is new to you, let me quickly explain. A postal swim is usually a race against people from anywhere, but everyone swims in their own pool. They swim for a set amount of time (commonly it's an hour), they share their results, and then they determine the "winner."]

I just wanted to do an all-out hour-long swim as a "check-in" to see where I was at with my swimming (and for a little kick in the ass). Beth Shutt had just noted that she had done her own postal swim (and covered nearly 4,500 yards, that beast!), so I thought I'd ask her for any words of wisdom. I'm ALWAYS open for advice, and it means a TON coming from someone who is much faster than me!

Side note: If you remember, Beth took FIRST PLACE at the Rev3 Cedar Half IM in Sept, and I was there to snap this photo:

Here are the 3 bits of advice that Beth gave me: (and I'm going to call these my "Tips of the Week!")

1) Definitely start at a very sustainable effort and build into it. Both years I've done it, I've negative split by quite a bit and I think that helps a lot. Going out really hard and holding on for an hour doesn't seem like too much fun. :)

2) Have your timer/official put a kickboard in the water to indicate every 500 or 1000 yards/meters. That really helps break it up a lot and keeps you on track as to where you are. I find that I lose track really quickly of where I'm at so to know "okay, it's been 2000 or 3000 yds, only xxx amount to go helps me to keep pushing hard. Also, it gives you an idea of how much TIME is left.

3) Get a really good song stuck in your head early so you aren't cursed with a bad song for a full 60 minutes. :)

Thanks for the tips, Beth!!

Here was my take on those 3 points from Beth:

1. YES. I WILL start easy. I won't negative split the swim (I RARELY negative split swims, and I WON'T in a swim over an hour), but I do NOT want to feel like jelly and have still 30 minutes left.

2. I wasn't doing an "official" postal swim, so I had no one to count for me. I planned on taking splits on my watch every 2 laps (100 yards) to help me keep track of my distance - I do that for most of my swims. BUT, what I took away from this point of Beth's was to break it up into 500s. And that helped A LOT.

3. Always a good point about getting a good song stuck in your head! For some reason, I always get some old catchy Beyonce song in my head when I'm swimming for a long time by myself. D'oh.

On to the swim!....

Here are my 100 splits broken up into 500s, followed by my current thoughts / state of mind:

1:34, 1:41, 1:44, 1:45, 1:45 = 8:31

"Good. Easy. But sweet Jesus... you've got a long way to go!"

1:44, 1:44, 1:44, 1:45, 1:44 = 8:45 (17:16 total)

"Still feeling OK. Decent average. Can you hold on to that?" I had a woman in my lane going the EXACT same pace as me, and she helped me to stay strong. Thanks anonymous woman!

1:46, 1:43, 1:45, 1:43, 1:45 = 8:43 (25:59 total)

"This SUCKS!" This was the most depressing part of the swim. I'd done 1500 yards, but I still wasn't at the half-way point. Major low-point in the swim. But I knew that feeling was coming. I worked on being "smooth" through the water - thinking back to my T.I. drills.

1:45, 1:47, 1:46, 1:45, 1:49 = 8:54 (34:53 total)

"OK, this is do-able." I was doing the math in my head, and it went something like this: "OK, you'll do another 500, then another 500, and I don't think you'll quite get in a 3rd 500. Can you? Stay strong!" Morale was lifting...

1:47, 1:46, 1:44, 1:46, 1:46 = 8:51 (43:44 total)

Still doing fine. Body was getting tired, but feeling OK. Worked toward the end (which was totally in sight!). Also I had the pool to myself over the middle 1,000 - 1,500 or so, but a man joined me around the 50 minute mark, and that helped me push to the end.

1:45, 1:45, 1:44, 1:43, 1:43 = 8:44 (52:28 total)

"Nope - not going to get in another FULL 500, but keep it as fast as you can here!"

1:45, 1:44, 1:41, 1:41, 1:44 = 8:37 (1:01:05 total)

I looked at my watch when I was starting my last lap. It read 1:00:10 at the 3,450 point, so I'm calling it 3,440 in 1 hour. But I still did that last lap to make it an even 3,500 yards.


POSTAL SWIM RESULTS:

3,500 yards in 1:01:05
3,440 yards in 1 hour
1:44.73 average / 100 yards

That's nothing too impressive, but I'll take it! My goal was to be under 1:45 / 100, and I BARELY squeaked that out!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On to a quick depressing topic. In my last post, I said how I've been told I can't run for a while, and I have a "night splint" to sleep in to help my heel heal. I get injured often, but this one feels different, and it bums me out.

In all of my years of running (in H.S. and then over the last 5 years), I usually flare up an old injury after doing something stupid. Like in H.S. when I went for a 12-miler with my previous long run being around 7 miles. Or more recently, going too long too soon after too hard of a workout.

But this time, I felt like I've been doing things RIGHT. If I'm going out for a 6 mile tempo run, that now means a 2 mile WU, 6 hard miles, and a 1-2 mile CD. In the past, it would have just been a super fast / hard run from the moment I left my front steps that ended the moment I got back; no WU or CD.

I ran the half marathon 2 weeks ago and felt GREAT. I took 5 days COMPLETELY off from running after the race to let things heal (even though I felt fine), and just did some light cross-training. Then, 5 days after the race, I did 3 moderate 1 mile repeats after warming up and stretching, and I even cooled-down and stretched more afterward. The next day, I went for a short, easy run with my pregnant wife. After that, my heel was screaming. Where's the stupid mistake? I don't know this time. And that's what hurts the most. I CAN'T find a spot to place the blame of my boo-boo.

For the next few weeks, here's my view as I crawl into bed:

I'm getting more used to sleeping with it. I had to adjust it Saturday night because I woke up with the top of my foot going numb. So I walked to the bathroom to fix it so the Velcro noises wouldn't wake up Pharmie. And somehow, she DIDN'T wake up as I was sneaking out of the room:

"... tip-toe.... THUMP... tip-toe.... THUMP... tip-toe.... THUMP..."

Anyway, lots of swimming and hitting the trainer over the next few weeks. No use doing something even more stupid in February.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One final good note to end on: I had a nice swim with "the gang" yesterday! It had been my first swim with some familiar faces in a while. Here we are once I called it quits (after about 3,000), but before these 3 wrapped up another 1,500 or so:

Kathryn, Julia, Freak-a-zoid, and Steve H.

Thanks for the swim, Julia!

I'll be back with the winner of the Ryders Eyewear giveaway tomorrow! If you didn't enter and missed the giveaway post, click here to go to that post and see the sweetest animated GIF that I've ever made! ;)

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