Nothing too exciting on the training front in the last week - which is not a bad thing! Although I have been officially sacked as weather reporter/predictor. For two Sundays I have said "no long ride on the road - rain is coming". And twice it has been fine. There was rain, but it did not really arrive during the ride time! Of course if I had gone out, it would have poured down! I have been caught a couple of times in the rain - and it is very wet rain at the moment!
Winter temperatures have certainly arrived. Going to training in the early mornings is certainly cold now, with 4 degrees the lowest so far. Even had to bring the thermal gloves out for a run! I am OK with the cold - I just don't like the wet and cold! In fact I think I just don't like the wet. Minor aches and pains of training appear to become more than minor with the cold too - which I am not liking!
I have sort of missed a couple of sessions in the last week or so - mainly rides. A couple of school rides ended up being wind trainer sessions instead of road rides - so I get to yell instructions for an hour or so instead of sitting at the back of a bunch riding... It can be a tough life being a coach. Work got in the way of a couple of days as well - giving talks and going to events. Nothing too stressful at all, just time consuming and I get quite tired with lots of standing.
A few weeks ago James (swim coach) asked for a few harder swim sessions from us. I put forward one that was pretty solid, with some trepidation, as I figured it was probably going to pop up in the near future. The guts of the session was that you started at 50m on 1:30 (plenty of rest), and then you add 50m to each subsequent rep and 30 seconds to the send off, and keep doing that until you can't make the send-off time. So you basically have to start swimming quite fast to make the send-off times at some point! The time I got given this session (many years ago), there was then 8x100 fly after you didn't make the send-off time! I was first to start the fly back then! Friday rolls around and I start to receive these abusive text messages! It does not take too much to work out that my little gem of a session popped up on Friday (I was not there - I was doing run intervals). I arrive to swimming on Monday morning and I get greeted with "You Fcuk*#@ pri##! And you didn't even turn up for your own session" and a couple of other less friendly comments! There was no love in the lane - I can assure you of that! Dean Kent (Olympic swimmer) shows up on Wednesday - and we get introduced, and I get "Oh - you are the guy that made that session up on Friday!". It obviously affected people quite severely! James did alter the session slightly - from what I can gather - He started at 100 on 2:15 and I think they all finished on 500m which would have been on 6:15 - which is a solid pace (you have to average better than 1:15 per 100m). But they didn't have to do the fly! They all appear to be over it now...
I have been meaning to write a bit sort of loosely based on the swim squad experience - more along the lines of "Raising the standard". I have been swimming at the Glenfield squad for a few years - off and on, and it ha certainly been through a few changes. But most of the changes have been the people that have passed through. James (the coach) is pretty old school, and his swim programs are pretty standard. If you go on a certain day, you know pretty much what you are going to get. That is a good thing for me - it makes putting the sessions into a plan much easier. The current group in the faster lanes are mostly older athletes that "have been something" is their sporting pasts - at least NZ reps, and a few Olympians in there too. Everyone pretty much gets on, and the sessions get done in some shape or form. Negotiations are often enacted without much coach decision involved, and it all works very well. What has generally happened is that the standards have gone up and become the new expectations - and there is not really any complaints, it is just accepted that "this is the new standard". For example, Wednesday usually has a 1500m swim in it - not a time trial, just a swim. Sometimes people give it a good go, and it is usually a solid pace. I usually swim just under 20 minutes (pull) and get lapped between 2 and 4 times! Last week I was a bit over the idea of doing a 1500m - so I suggested 15x100 instead. Pretty much everyone was happy with that. A few years ago, that would have been 15 on 1:30 (send-off time), perhaps the last 5 on 1:25. But the lane leaders (not me!) quickly decide it is 5 on 1:25, 5 on 1:20 and 5 on 1:15 - and I just quietly gulp at the back of the lane, knowing the last 4-500m will be continuous! We did the same again this week. Many other squad I have swum in, with this sort of set there would be plenty of complaints - it is solid, and a challenge to get through! But there are no complaints (I don't think I said mine out loud anyway...) - and at the end, someone comments in an excited voice, "we should try going on 1:10 next month!!".
That is crazy!!! I have seen numerous times where good athletes have really worked together in training in a very positive manner to help each other become far greater athletes. I also had a similar experience cycling in Dunedin when I lived there. In many cases it is training with one of your greatest competitors - and helping them to become better - possibly to your own detriment at the next race. But if you are looking at the bigger picture and see that on the big stage you have to be far better, then that is certainly a risk worth taking. If you are only interested in being the big fish in your local (and usually quite small) pond - then perhaps it is not worthwhile. I have also witnessed training situations where athletes are competitive in training in a very destructive manner. Rather than try to help each other get better, they try to crush each other and break each other. The end result is very poor results on race day and the only results that count are the first 4 x 100m reps at swim squad on Wednesday (even if the set is 12x100). Not really helping improve the standards at all.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
challenging moments...
A few things to report in! Woody and Tam are now married - very nice. The weather was great before and after, and we made good use of the roaring fire during! A very nice wedding, with no broken bones on the dance floor (apparently!). I also hear Nana Kirk (Reuben to most) made it past midnight at his stag do - most bets were that he would not last after 9! Well done Reub's (and you should be married by now too!)!
I snuck in a bike time trial this past week. It had to be done - just to check where I am at and to actually practice doing the darn things. I pretty much knew where I was at - and I was pretty much right on. But it still needed to be done. It was around a minute slower than my best and around 30watts lower on the power, which I think is OK for current fitness. End result for 25km on the trainer - 30:28 and 337w average.
A few days after the time trial I also have my first real explosion. Wednesday morning at the pool I was absolutely dead! Was a bit tired getting up (well, REALLY tired actually, but this is not that unusual on Wednesday morning), and the warm-up felt pretty average, but I don't usually feel good then anyway. Then we had the standard 1500m swim - which we usually do pull. I went out normal steady, and there was nothing there - not even vapours in the tank. I was lapped at 200m (usually I can hold off to 400m on these), so I stopped and took the pull gear off and thought I would just plod along and try to get a bit of recovery going (make the most of the session since I was there). Well, I was almost stalling in the water and was really just an obstacle in the lane. I could tell pretty quickly it was not going to get better, or even not "not get worse" - so pull the pin and went home and ate! You need to know when to cut your losses - and I am pretty sure staying in the pool would have just dug a deeper hole. Then post explosion there is usually a little bit of soul searching - a bad day is one thing, but when it is this bad, it does make you wonder what the heck went so badly wrong. I am pretty sure it was a combo effort - the bike TT on Sunday night, hard bike on Tuesday and not enough food on Tuesday particularly after the harder ride.
The next bigger happening on the training front this week was the first cross country running race in many years. I think cross country is great for running strength - very hard to equal - however, they are also bloody hard work! You cant hide (eg mass start bike races), there are usually hills, soft and/or uneven footing, and competition - you will no doubt have you own little battles within the race, no matter where in the field you are! After really only one week of consistent run training, it was not going to be pretty - and I was really questioning the point of even doing it on the way there (not helped by the fact it was a 70km drive to get there!). I had convinced myself that even an hour on the windtrainer would be at least as beneficial. I was clutching at straws! I was not going to race in spikes for the first couple of races - so as not to risk injury - no need to blow a calf at this point. Of course a week of rain made it ideal for spikes, and not really that good for the old trainers. A very short warm-up, as every thing was pretty sore and I felt I only had 8km of running in my hamstring, so a 1km warm-up would leave me 500m short of the finish line, plus I did not want to start out fast. the plan was to start out slow, build a bit and then survive, with no hard charging finish if it came to a sprint. The gun goes, and so does everyone else! I think there were still a couple behind me at the first gate, but most were in front, although it was still pretty crowded. Then step in something a bit squishy - oh that's right, you have to look out for cow patties when running cross country - forgot about that. The rest of the race was reasonably predictable - build through the fast starters a bit through the middle, and was quite thankful to pass at least a couple of 60+ vets. On the last lap (of three), the hamstring and calves started to tighten up a little, so eased back a fraction, but still kept a solid pace. Down to the last 500m and a couple of "runners" sprint past, but they can have their glory - this time at least! One down...
Some days you wonder why you got out of bed - or you should have just gone back to bed and forgot about the training. Sundays longer ride was going to be a tricky one - the weather forecast was terrible, and I had the school team time trials on early - so the long ride was scheduled for a bit after that (30min later than usual). Just as I woke up it was pouring down, so at that point I decided there was no long ride on the road option (although it was 5am and the ride would be starting around 8am). Do the team time trial coaching thing (which went VERY well), and the road is very wet but it is calm and blue sky (although there are a few clouds and no doubt there will be a couple of good showers). No gear with me, so I have limited my options to a windtrainer ride at home. Later in the day, hop on the trainer, and after 15min the effort feels quite hard for the speed, check the power - OK that is quite high. Which means the tyre is going flat... Two punctures and two pieces of glass removed from the tyre and we are back going again (should have looked for that second piece the first time!). 20 minutes later and the tyre is going soft again. OK, I think it is time to call it quits! It was just not meant to be!
Next week better have a few less hiccups in it!
Here is the cross country. There is a nice hill in there - 3 laps so you got to do it 3 times! I tried to keep the effort mostly even. The HR fell off slightly in the last 10 minutes, as the hamstring tightened up quite a bit and the achillies was protesting on the up hills - but in a good way.
Here is the 25km TT - started off a little conservative, and finished with a little bit in the tank - which is a little unusual - as I usually have little left at the end. So perhaps a little left to give - but not too much. All good!
I snuck in a bike time trial this past week. It had to be done - just to check where I am at and to actually practice doing the darn things. I pretty much knew where I was at - and I was pretty much right on. But it still needed to be done. It was around a minute slower than my best and around 30watts lower on the power, which I think is OK for current fitness. End result for 25km on the trainer - 30:28 and 337w average.
A few days after the time trial I also have my first real explosion. Wednesday morning at the pool I was absolutely dead! Was a bit tired getting up (well, REALLY tired actually, but this is not that unusual on Wednesday morning), and the warm-up felt pretty average, but I don't usually feel good then anyway. Then we had the standard 1500m swim - which we usually do pull. I went out normal steady, and there was nothing there - not even vapours in the tank. I was lapped at 200m (usually I can hold off to 400m on these), so I stopped and took the pull gear off and thought I would just plod along and try to get a bit of recovery going (make the most of the session since I was there). Well, I was almost stalling in the water and was really just an obstacle in the lane. I could tell pretty quickly it was not going to get better, or even not "not get worse" - so pull the pin and went home and ate! You need to know when to cut your losses - and I am pretty sure staying in the pool would have just dug a deeper hole. Then post explosion there is usually a little bit of soul searching - a bad day is one thing, but when it is this bad, it does make you wonder what the heck went so badly wrong. I am pretty sure it was a combo effort - the bike TT on Sunday night, hard bike on Tuesday and not enough food on Tuesday particularly after the harder ride.
The next bigger happening on the training front this week was the first cross country running race in many years. I think cross country is great for running strength - very hard to equal - however, they are also bloody hard work! You cant hide (eg mass start bike races), there are usually hills, soft and/or uneven footing, and competition - you will no doubt have you own little battles within the race, no matter where in the field you are! After really only one week of consistent run training, it was not going to be pretty - and I was really questioning the point of even doing it on the way there (not helped by the fact it was a 70km drive to get there!). I had convinced myself that even an hour on the windtrainer would be at least as beneficial. I was clutching at straws! I was not going to race in spikes for the first couple of races - so as not to risk injury - no need to blow a calf at this point. Of course a week of rain made it ideal for spikes, and not really that good for the old trainers. A very short warm-up, as every thing was pretty sore and I felt I only had 8km of running in my hamstring, so a 1km warm-up would leave me 500m short of the finish line, plus I did not want to start out fast. the plan was to start out slow, build a bit and then survive, with no hard charging finish if it came to a sprint. The gun goes, and so does everyone else! I think there were still a couple behind me at the first gate, but most were in front, although it was still pretty crowded. Then step in something a bit squishy - oh that's right, you have to look out for cow patties when running cross country - forgot about that. The rest of the race was reasonably predictable - build through the fast starters a bit through the middle, and was quite thankful to pass at least a couple of 60+ vets. On the last lap (of three), the hamstring and calves started to tighten up a little, so eased back a fraction, but still kept a solid pace. Down to the last 500m and a couple of "runners" sprint past, but they can have their glory - this time at least! One down...
Some days you wonder why you got out of bed - or you should have just gone back to bed and forgot about the training. Sundays longer ride was going to be a tricky one - the weather forecast was terrible, and I had the school team time trials on early - so the long ride was scheduled for a bit after that (30min later than usual). Just as I woke up it was pouring down, so at that point I decided there was no long ride on the road option (although it was 5am and the ride would be starting around 8am). Do the team time trial coaching thing (which went VERY well), and the road is very wet but it is calm and blue sky (although there are a few clouds and no doubt there will be a couple of good showers). No gear with me, so I have limited my options to a windtrainer ride at home. Later in the day, hop on the trainer, and after 15min the effort feels quite hard for the speed, check the power - OK that is quite high. Which means the tyre is going flat... Two punctures and two pieces of glass removed from the tyre and we are back going again (should have looked for that second piece the first time!). 20 minutes later and the tyre is going soft again. OK, I think it is time to call it quits! It was just not meant to be!
Next week better have a few less hiccups in it!
Here is the cross country. There is a nice hill in there - 3 laps so you got to do it 3 times! I tried to keep the effort mostly even. The HR fell off slightly in the last 10 minutes, as the hamstring tightened up quite a bit and the achillies was protesting on the up hills - but in a good way.
Here is the 25km TT - started off a little conservative, and finished with a little bit in the tank - which is a little unusual - as I usually have little left at the end. So perhaps a little left to give - but not too much. All good!
Monday, May 4, 2009
phase two...
Had the New Zealand secondary school triathlon champs last weekend. I was there officially as the Dio team coach, but also had a couple of other athletes competing that I coached. I really find these events quite scary - from the aspect of there being SO much talent in young athletes - but that hardly even seems to kick on. My guess is the boys find beer and the girls find boys. But I digress... The school racing is quite varied and the younger generation have to cope with a variety of racing styles, courses and pressures - particularly if they are good. They have drafting races, non-drafting, and team events and no doubt many are roped in to other sports too. To add to that - this season had the athletes required to be in peak shape in November, February and at the end of April for the "big races". Not really feasible, and quite poor planning if there was any planning going into the race calendar.
watch out here comes Bex - that is all the start you are getting!!
It was a pretty good weekend. The water was a bit "crisp" I have to say - and my recommended early morning "check the course out" swim did not feel like a great idea in the cold drizzling rain at 7:30am. In hind sight I think it was a good idea (when in the van with the heaters on full!). Some great racing, and I think even a good time was had by some. From my end, young Alex did well, but was probably not quite the race course for him. He probably wanted a better result than what he got - but he raced the best he could, and I don't think he could have done anything better. Horses for courses and all that. Bex had a great race - also for fourth - from a runner who could survive the swim and get through a bike to start running - to carving up the bike and pulling through strong on the run! The Dio Team also did fantastic - 2 wins and a 5th for the senior girls (few to many injured athletes!).
This week sees a new phase in the training for me. I have moved from school triathlon coach to school cycling coach. So two mornings per week on the bike for the next two terms. I have had the first week of training - which was a little better than expected after the training camp. I got a little lucky and ended up taking the better group of the senior riders. They know pretty much what they are doing and you just let them go to it and sort them selves out (at the moment anyway). There is also some healthy competition to get into the A team - so I think that will help motivation. I did end up being tail end charlie on the way home on the first ride, which was a little less fun - I am not sure how they manage to go so slow and not fall off their bikes! Add to that early morning Auckland commuter traffic and the last 2km takes about 15 minutes with a few sets of lights to negotiate...
The training implications are now that I have more cycling automatically added to the program, and less opportunity for swimming. This month (May), I need to move from recovery and introductory training (all pretty easy) into some more serious training. So the training is going to hopefully turn into something along these lines:
Swimming: Monday and Wednesday morning squads, and I need at least one other swim, preferably two, even if they are just an easy 2km plod. That is one of my challenges to sort out this month. Swimming is definitely going down with the very erratic and low amount of sessions being done. What I do get done is good - it is just not enough!
Cycling: I have two spin classes to take - so that is a hard ride and a reasonably easy one. Two early morning rides (most weeks) with the school girls. These will no doubt involve some solid efforts now and then (well - they better do!), but will be easy-ish overall. Long rides are sort of back underway for Sundays but these too are under threat from a few sources. There are a few early morning school team time trials to contend with on Sunday mornings - but I think I will just ride a little later. There is winter weather to cope with too. A little further down the track I also want to do a few long runs in the waitak's on a Sunday morning instead of long rides. I probably need to add in a steady/strength ride at least every second week at some stage for "my training", which might be tricky to fit in. That will also mean probably more cycling in a week than I have done in a very long time. I am sort of interested in what will happen in this regard!
Running: I have been doing stuff all! Friday morning run intervals and one or two other very short easy sessions. That was sort of the plan - get the strength training going and then slowly get into the running. Well the strength training has been sort of there (not perfect, but getting done), and now I think it is time to start running a little more. This year I do want to get some running form back. I have signed up for the cross country running season - which starts next weeks (eek!). I am sure the first few races will be very sorry affairs, but hopefully will build some form a little down the track! I think the first step is to get in at least 3 hours of running in a week and build that up to 4.5 to 5 hours in the next 4-5 weeks. The long run needs to get up to 1hr30min pretty quickly too. Then hopefully I can survive a Waitak's run or two.
Weights: have been doing them, and I am getting stronger, and I am still getting sore muscles after - darn it! I have missed a couple of sessions here and there and I think that is what is making the muscle soreness worse.
No mucking around - go big or go home (oh my poor legs...)...
I do enjoy getting into a routine and ticking off the training and seeing the results that that usually gives. It can be easy for obsessive personalities to let training become the single focus in life - to the detriment of other things in their lives, and usually then their training too. Life often throws a few curve balls just to test you, and also opportunities pop up that may never pop up again. I have a few which can probably fall into the latter, coming up - as weddings. Young Woody is off up the Isle this weekend, and my dear friend Pete from Germany has just invited me over in June for his wedding.
watch out here comes Bex - that is all the start you are getting!!
It was a pretty good weekend. The water was a bit "crisp" I have to say - and my recommended early morning "check the course out" swim did not feel like a great idea in the cold drizzling rain at 7:30am. In hind sight I think it was a good idea (when in the van with the heaters on full!). Some great racing, and I think even a good time was had by some. From my end, young Alex did well, but was probably not quite the race course for him. He probably wanted a better result than what he got - but he raced the best he could, and I don't think he could have done anything better. Horses for courses and all that. Bex had a great race - also for fourth - from a runner who could survive the swim and get through a bike to start running - to carving up the bike and pulling through strong on the run! The Dio Team also did fantastic - 2 wins and a 5th for the senior girls (few to many injured athletes!).
This week sees a new phase in the training for me. I have moved from school triathlon coach to school cycling coach. So two mornings per week on the bike for the next two terms. I have had the first week of training - which was a little better than expected after the training camp. I got a little lucky and ended up taking the better group of the senior riders. They know pretty much what they are doing and you just let them go to it and sort them selves out (at the moment anyway). There is also some healthy competition to get into the A team - so I think that will help motivation. I did end up being tail end charlie on the way home on the first ride, which was a little less fun - I am not sure how they manage to go so slow and not fall off their bikes! Add to that early morning Auckland commuter traffic and the last 2km takes about 15 minutes with a few sets of lights to negotiate...
The training implications are now that I have more cycling automatically added to the program, and less opportunity for swimming. This month (May), I need to move from recovery and introductory training (all pretty easy) into some more serious training. So the training is going to hopefully turn into something along these lines:
Swimming: Monday and Wednesday morning squads, and I need at least one other swim, preferably two, even if they are just an easy 2km plod. That is one of my challenges to sort out this month. Swimming is definitely going down with the very erratic and low amount of sessions being done. What I do get done is good - it is just not enough!
Cycling: I have two spin classes to take - so that is a hard ride and a reasonably easy one. Two early morning rides (most weeks) with the school girls. These will no doubt involve some solid efforts now and then (well - they better do!), but will be easy-ish overall. Long rides are sort of back underway for Sundays but these too are under threat from a few sources. There are a few early morning school team time trials to contend with on Sunday mornings - but I think I will just ride a little later. There is winter weather to cope with too. A little further down the track I also want to do a few long runs in the waitak's on a Sunday morning instead of long rides. I probably need to add in a steady/strength ride at least every second week at some stage for "my training", which might be tricky to fit in. That will also mean probably more cycling in a week than I have done in a very long time. I am sort of interested in what will happen in this regard!
Running: I have been doing stuff all! Friday morning run intervals and one or two other very short easy sessions. That was sort of the plan - get the strength training going and then slowly get into the running. Well the strength training has been sort of there (not perfect, but getting done), and now I think it is time to start running a little more. This year I do want to get some running form back. I have signed up for the cross country running season - which starts next weeks (eek!). I am sure the first few races will be very sorry affairs, but hopefully will build some form a little down the track! I think the first step is to get in at least 3 hours of running in a week and build that up to 4.5 to 5 hours in the next 4-5 weeks. The long run needs to get up to 1hr30min pretty quickly too. Then hopefully I can survive a Waitak's run or two.
Weights: have been doing them, and I am getting stronger, and I am still getting sore muscles after - darn it! I have missed a couple of sessions here and there and I think that is what is making the muscle soreness worse.
No mucking around - go big or go home (oh my poor legs...)...
I do enjoy getting into a routine and ticking off the training and seeing the results that that usually gives. It can be easy for obsessive personalities to let training become the single focus in life - to the detriment of other things in their lives, and usually then their training too. Life often throws a few curve balls just to test you, and also opportunities pop up that may never pop up again. I have a few which can probably fall into the latter, coming up - as weddings. Young Woody is off up the Isle this weekend, and my dear friend Pete from Germany has just invited me over in June for his wedding.
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