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American Triple T

pla·teau/plaˈtō/
Verb: Reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress

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Have I improved?

American Triple T has taught me the answer is no. Four years of doing the same race and I have seen little to no changes in my time. Time to move on. In the past I thought it was a fitness booster. Wrong. Do elite marathoners participate in 50 -100 mile running races, i.e. ultramarathons to get ready for the big 26.2 race? No. I missed the boat on this one: Specificity in Training matters.

The realization really hit me at the start this race weekend. If you can't beat the guys in the first race, you're not going to beat then in next, or the next, or the next. Part of my ongoing problem is finding the correct training stress to overcome my handicaps. The first issue is the side-stitch. Insane S-B-R efforts are the only time I get them, something that happens at my Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. So, at a race like Triple T, that is a major problem. The second issue is continual improvement. Rarely, some of the faster athletes come back to this race and one or two of them go from finishing behind me in years past to beating me. This was the case this year. It was humbling. Finding the formula to being faster has been tough. Between friends' experiences and my own, it seems like nobody has it completely figured out. The results show it. Great duathlete, but DNFs at IM; Great HIM'er, DNFs at IM; Great TTT'er, mediocre at everything else; Sometimes good, rarely great, otherwise miserable. In many ways, I'm all of those things and so are we all.

I was talking it over with my dad. Both he and I are fans of the movie Chariots of Fire and applicable to the stage I'm entering. Athletic pursuits are a young-man's fancy and once you hit your ceiling its time to move on and/or give back to the sport you love(d). Being a competitive triathlete is a selfish endeavor (the twice a day workouts, the five hour bike rides to name a few); to stick with the sport too long is bad for my overall personal development.

Hydration

In the last two years, the drink of my youth--Vernors--has returned to my lips to properly hydrate me after my workouts. Usually what I do is take two scoops of Glutamine and add them to a glass full of cold Vernors. Then I wash it down with another can or two of the stuff.

New Orleans 70.3

Swim: Cancelled due to high winds
Bike: 2:23
Run: 1:26 (6:35 pace)
OA: 68
AG: 11

The swim was cancelled. That did not help my prospects of doing well overall. As an age-grouper, cheating/drafting and/or unintentional drafting is a problem. Given that the format changed to a bike-run as a time-trial start with M30-34 taking off at two-a-time, two seconds apart and behind various other age groups, there was a peloton for the first 45 minutes of the race. I'd say that a lot of the time the road was congested three-wide with bikers. Us faster riders spent plenty of time on the far left dodging road cones passing people. It was my first time at a premier race, such as an Ironman event, that I encountered a cancelled swim and bike congestion. Overall, I thought the racers and race event organizers did the best they could given the situation. By day's end, the event was merely marked by my participation.

The IM 70.3 Championship slot rolled down to me, but passed on it because I anticipate having a work conflict. I already have KONA on the schedule.

Other notables:
- Race venue was inexpensive (hotel, car rental, parking, food)
- Used a powermeter (ave 229 watts)
- I was under-nourished (4 gels on bike, 3 salts bike, coke on run)
- Have the two scoops of First Endurance Pre-Race, but add it to only 8-12 oz of sports drink.
- Great to see Wisconsinites there: Jackie Arendt, Chris Wichert, Paul Eicher, Mark Hering, and Mike Pierson

We had the opportunity to tour the French Quarter. I was as interesting and energetic as it was when we were there in 2003. I took this picture of a door:

2011: Training Update

I've been so busy with work that I haven't had much time to blog let alone train. For the most part, I've kept the workouts to the main sets. In other words, little to no warmup or cooldown. Classic Me!

This year remains a big question mark and I like it that way. I just want to have a good time.

2011: Hard Work

I've been busy trying to balance out my work schedule and my training schedule. So far work has been taken over training hours.

My triathlon results in the last week have been promising despite the lack of training: 10K last week (36:XX) and a decent FTP test (29X watts).

Handing off my training schedule to Scott Bowe was the right thing to do. It has kept me from thinking and stick to doing. Also, his methodology has really challenged me. Zone 5 work is fairly new to me. His emphasis on it has added to my understanding of it.

First race this year is New Orleans 70.3. Hope to see some of you there.

2011: Another Year

The journey into another triathlon season begins. This year, I hope, is a little more fun than years past. I anticipate a heavy race schedule with a variety of distances. The two long races are American Triple T and Ironman Hawaii. The big A race is actually the half-ironmans. I want to be a bit closer to the four hour mark.

One major change for 2011 is the introduction of power-based, interval training. Since the concepts are new to me, I asked Scott Bowe to help me with it. In the past, I've relied on a heart rate monitor. While it worked, powermeters seem to a better work metric.

Also, interval training is new for me. Massive volume with a doses of intensity have been the cornerstone of my training for the last four years. I look back at those years as preparatory work for the next phase: hitting the ceiling. Could I have done it differently, I suppose so but I'm not convinced that it would have benefitted my desire to be competitive at IM. I have noticed that for other athletes who did a more controlled progression over several years from sprints to oly to HIM to IM yielded better improvement. I wasn't patient enough to do that. Bummer.

I look forward to seeing everybody at the races this year.