End of the year

As the season starts to wind down for some of us, and if over for others, its time to look ahead to the off season and winter training, or for others a much needed break.

After a long racing season (started training at new years, and ended this past weekend with 16 triathlons, 1 duathlon, two cycling races and a 10k), i am getting in some much needed rest and recovery time. while it is often tough to let yourself go and lose the fitness gains that you worked so hard for over the past months, this is a very good time to let your body bounce back from all the work you did and let it sink in, to heal from all the little nagging injuries and simply recharge your mind.

At the end of my season, i like to take a week to 10 days and simply not work out at all. if i get involved in something at work (i coach a highschool rowing team), i'll jump in and run with the team or something, but no scheduled workouts, and i try to stay away from swim/bike/running stuff for that time. the first day or so are a bit weird, i feel like i should be training, that i am getting out of shape as the hours tick by. but a day or so later, for whatever reason, the season seems to catch up with me, i sleep more than i have all year, and just feel tired. by the end of that time period i am actually looking forward to workout out some.

This is where i see a lot of athletes ruin there upcoming season. they start training again in solid amounts. depending on your summer/season load, this may not be an issue, and for others it never will be simply because their bodies work that way. however, i do need a break like most of the population out there. instead of dropping back into a normal training routine i use this part of the year (from now through new years) for two things. I'll focus on the part of the sport that needs the most work (in my case right now running), and use it to get into the shape i want to start my winter training over the span of three months.

By this i mean i will very slowly start training again, in small amounts. right now i am focusing on getting in consistent daily runs. nothing hard, or long right now, just 2-5 miles a day very easy. if i miss a workout, oh well, nothing is at stake right now. nothing need be forced or hard. i simply want to build a base for me to work with when new years rolls around.

The off season however holds an even bigger draw than light easy training. I get to put some time back into the things i have been missing all year! In my case, this fall and winter means a chance to get serious with paintball again. I've never been much into the inflaitable speedball type, but woods and scenario paintball have always been a blast for me, and this fall i am getting involved with some semi-pro teams and have been having a blast so far!

My advice to all of you out there would be to keep working out as long as you want to, but remember, for most of us, aside from a few last fall races, most of the races are over till next spring. its time to recover, rest, and recharge!

an update

Its been a while, so I thought it only fitting (and mike keeps bugging me to put up some new stuff, thanks buddy).

After rockman, which ended horribly, i took a step back and started working with a new coach, pro triathlete Zach Ruble. I have thrown down some awesome training weeks, and picked up a new frame in the past two months or so. The bike is rockin (a blue T16, along with the new wheels, thanks Blackwell!).

I've raced a few times between june and now, and placed first overall in two sprints, and 4th in a third race due to a mishap with the lead vehicle. I was behind him after coming out of the water in 2nd behind a relay team, and was adding time to my lead. somewhere near the turn around the car made a wrong turn and bypassed the turn, so i ended up riding an extra 5.7 miles (this should have been a 12 mile ride). By the end of the bike i had made it back into 8th, and ran my way back to 4th, only 1:37 off of first. needless to say i was not pleased, but that showed the training had been going well, and i was ready for my race the following week where i was 1st OA by almost two minutes.

I have the Toyota challenge half ironman coming up next weekend, which i feel good about. i am not a long course racer by any means but am using this as a tune up for my ironman in november. i am not expecting great things from that but would rather enjoy the day and have a good time and see what ironman is all about.

Stuff

I've had a nagging knee injury that has put off a good deal of run/bike training for the past two weeks (too much pounding at TTT i think). finally starting to get better now though.

I raced rockman half iron this past weekend but had a fairly bad day. I ended up drinking about half of olson lake during the swim and started throwing up at the start of the bike. this would continue until mile 8 of the run where i called it quits and caught a ride home. I think total during the race i was able to keep down maybe at best 250 calories. lesson learned, keep your mouth shut during the swim.

On an upside my swimming has seen a lot of work over the past two weeks and seems to be finally improving.

Updates

Its been a while and time for an update.

I raced Tri for joe two weeks ago, placed 4th elite, not a wildly strong showing, bike split was only slightly better than last year at 25.3 this year, and the run/swim were only a touch faster as well, not a good day all around for me.

TTT was last weekend. Long weekend, but i made it through it this year. I again was not ready for the grind of the weekend, friday and saturday both went well, but sunday's half was a long race.

My knee has been acting up a bit since this and i am really praying its nothing bad and just over use as rockman half is next weekend. i guess we'll see how things go this week and make the call closer to race day

Two More Races

Over the past two weekends i have raced in a sprint duathlon and placed 4th overall, and today in the OSU sprint triathlon and placed 4th overall again.

This next weekend i finally have a break from racing and will get to put in some good miles before the taper into tri for joe and then TTT the weekend after. Hopefully that will serve as a strong training weekend for the midsummer races.

From there i get a solid recovery week and then taper into Rockman Half IM.

MUSF triathlon

I had a great race this past weekend, and despite only getting 20 min of sleep the night before i managed to pull off 2nd overall. I've been off running for a long time due to a stress fracture, so this race, and being able to run well, was a huge confidence boost for me and a great way to kick off the season.

I'll see if i can get a full report posted soon, but the swim went ok, the bike was amazing (made up 47 spots on the ride), and the run was rock solid.

thanks to HFP, and the MUSF for putting on a great race.

Dave, the disk is awesome!

Disk is here

After working with Dave from blackwell (who was amazingly helpful and fast to work with!), my disk got here a few days ago, and i got my first tubular glued today. After a little question asking and talking to a friend, i got it glued up without too much trouble and sitting on in line the best i can tell. I'll get some photos of the bike and wheel up tomorrow.

Back on the bike

I finally got the part I needed to get my tri bike back in working order. Now just waiting on the race wheels.

New Wheels

I am still working out the details but I will be racing on Blackwell Research wheels this year and I am very excited about this. Have not nailed down the front yet (shooting for the 100, but we'll see), and a rear disk should work out nicely.

This will be my first set of tubular wheels, so that will be interesting to say the least. Will post photos as soon as I have the wheels.

On a side note the running is coming along well and I have had no issues with the stress fracture. I got in a good hour trail run today with two friends that involved a lot of mud, water, and slipping, all in all good times.

Long Day

I got my first long training day in today. Woke up this morning and met up with a friend, and we headed out for a 25 mile race pace ride. It felt good to get out early and push into the headwinds for a bit.

After lunch we headed back out for another ride, this time a solid 55 miles of hills followed by a tempo run on the trails in the bio.

All in all a solid day.

More to come later as I get everything on here set up.

Happy training.