Murtha's Tri - Minicamp! April 23-26, 2011

Ok, so it definately was not as cool as the title sounded.  There was no destination camp (other than driving to where I was training) and I was the only one participating in said mini-camp.  But I had a blast nonetheless!

Classes ended on April 21st, and do not start up again till May 3rd.  Also I have not had a vacation/staycation/etc since 2009, and I needed to have a few days off.  I don't have the Garmin on me right now, but here's the gist on how it went down.

Friday:  After work I went for a 5 mile run (a couple laps) around Chastain Park.  Good way to start off the weekend, and for some reason the run felt particularly good.  Probably something to do with the fact that I did not have to work for the next four days.

Saturday:  Met up with Mike at the Silver Comet Trail for a 2 hour ride.  This was the first time he had taken his new bike (Trek Speed Concept 7.0) out for a spin.  I'll admit, for a bike that I kinda shunned in choosing my Cervelo, it is a pretty nice ride, and I am jealous of the rear bike box.  That's ok, I am still really happy with my ride :)  The first two miles we were just puttering along to get our legs warmed up.  Because of finals that week, I had not been able to get all of my workouts in.  I really tried to keep it at MAX HR between 150-160, but I kept trying to be a speed demon and had to keep putting myself in check.  I have been focusing more on these Oly-distance races, but here pretty soon I am gonna need to put a lock down on my agression with HRM alerts on my Garmin so that I am not killing it on the bike.  I think we did about 35 miles or so on the bike.  Went home and then went to the Nook for dinner/drinks in Atlanta.  For those of you who are in the ATL area, it is on 14th and Piedmont right across from the park.  Patio is wonderful.  And if you love tater tots (and I think this group does) you are gonna be wonderfully suprised by the various selections of dishes called "Totchos."  Just google them and pull up their menu, you will wanna go ASAP.

Sunday:  Got up and did 1900 M total at LA Fitness, 1500M being my main set comprised of 3x500 with the 2nd 500 using a pull bouy.  Wears my arms out for the last set, but I do it on purpose because at some point in the longer distance events I will be swimming with tired arms.  I finished in under 30 minutes which I am happy with, I just wanna get my time down closer to 25 min for 1500 M.  In the afternoon I headed over to Chastain Park and belted out a few laps around the park totalling a bit over 5 miles.

Monday:  The first big day of two.  I did all three sports on Monday, however, there were no brick workouts.  Hit the pool in the morning and belted out 1800 as my main set, comprised of 3 x 600 with the 2nd set using a pull bouy.  Again, arms are worn out, but they are getting a workout, so I am fine with that.  Run came next early in the afternoon (Atlanta Memorial Park), and then followed it up a few hours later with a Monday night group ride (Atlanta Cycling - Vinings Recovery Ride).

Tuesday:  Last Day!  Woke up a bit late (last night was Monday Funday at my house, lots of drinking and such).  Swim was a straight 1500M swim.  It turned out to be somewhere in the 28min and change range.  I already had the bike on the car and the shoes in the back and headed over to columns drive to do my brick workout.  I was short on time so I only did 15 miles on the bike, and averaged about 20 mph.  There was a nasty headwind headed back to the parking lot on every lap, and it felt like I was working twice as hard just to get 18-19mph average on the way back in each lap.  Fortuantely because of this I belted out 22-23mph average on the way out each lap, with the tailwind on the way out.  After this I quickly racked the bike and put my shoes on and went for a 4 mile run.  After adding in a hypothetical 1:20 for each transition, I can project out around a 2:37-2:40 expected time.  We shall see if that actually happens :)

Post Brick I had a scheduled massage for an hour.  Man, that was just what the doctor ordered.  I think I am gonna need to start scheduling those for post race and post high volume blocks of training.  Was almost late to the massage, but made it nonetheless.  I am convinced if I had not gotten that massage, my legs would had been wrecked for the next few days following.  Instead there was only mild soreness on Wednesday, and no soreness after that!

I feel since then that I have absorbed the training really well, and now I just need to keep up the intensity.  It was really fun to have some time off of work and school, and just focus on triathlon for a change.  I hope I can do it again sometime later this season.

I hope all of your training endavours are going well!  Have a good weekend!

My 2011 Race Season is Finally Here!

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  The weather here in Atlanta was great, and evidenced by the numerous people out and about trying to escape the cabin fever that was this past winter.  I did just over 10 miles on Saturday for my last long run before the Publix Georgia Half Marathon this coming weekend, and then on Sunday I did a bit over 26 miles on the new bike (Silver Comet Trail).  I need to figure out a way to get my RunningAhead Training Log to post to my Facebook page.  Anyone know how to do that?  I am gonna eventually have my training log on one of the static page links at the top of my blog.  Speaking of which.... I guess you guys/gals have seen my new blog static pages that I have started :)  Still slower than I would have liked, but that is also due to grad school (stupid grad school!!!!)

The "About Me" page has the ABC's of me listed, so if you want to jump on that bandwagon just click on the link and read (there is also a Fresh Prince of Bel Air reference at the top of the page).

 

Speaking of the Publix Georgia Half Marathon, Wes giving a lot of smack talk, at least is backing it up by kickin my ass this weekend ;)  Here's to your PR buddy!  Also my friend Tommy will be in the event as well, as he graciously has taken his sister's race number since she will not be able to participate in the event this year.  Kinda want to drive the course again to see where all the elevation changes are.  I might do that on Saturday when the traffic is not bad.  Actually, now that I am looking at the course map online, I might not need to.  I know where all the elevation gains are at. 

So I have to take my girlfriend into the shop (most likely tomorrow) for her new ride tune up.  Of course all wrench heads will tell you after you get that new bike that after you ride it some, the cables will loosen/tighten, etc and you will need to bring it in one more time to make sure that it gets really dialed in to where it needs to be.  Well that happened to me over the weekend.  at 1/2 way through the ride, I could no longer go into the large chain ring.  Not only that, but when I stopped and physically moved it up to the new chain ring, it moved itself back down as to say, "nope, have fun with this one all the way home." As for the rear cassette, I am having shifting issues through the middle of the cassette, which should just be an adjustment issue.  The other problem is about 4 miles from home, I see that the reverse bolt that holds everything together up front (crank arms, bottom bracket, chainrings, etc) is about to come completely out.  Also I screwed it in, but not tight enough because that is the one where you need to use a torque wrench, and I don't have a torque wrench.  No good.  Otherwise the ride was nice :)

The only other thing that I wanted to bring up was a USAT provision that I thought was a rule. Kinda peeved about it.  Here is the skinny!

There was a race I participated in last season (I will have to go back and check my notes) where I was trying to put in some fast times, especially in transition, so I decided that I would go back to the old school clipping your shoes onto your bike and setting that up for a fast T1.  I got there early and got everything set up, and left to use the restroom.  I heard my number getting called over the loudspeaker, and I went to my transition rack with a USAT referee there.  He stated that AG'ers were not allowed to have their shoes clipped in during T1.  I politely told him that I have actually read the rules and I do not remember this being listed anywhere.  He replied that this was the rule and if I did not comply I would be penalized for it.  At this point we have about 20 min till transition closes, and even though there was time, I was kinda pissed.  I have now done this about 6 times and I have never had that problem before.  So I fixed everything and then went on with my race.  For the rest of the season I repeated this process so as not to get in trouble. 

Recently I heard on the IMTalk podcast that john was talking about fast transitions and that a person had emailed in from the states that USAT does not allow AG'ers to put on shoes on their bikes for T1.  This got the blood boiling again, and so I actually went and read the rules yesterday.  Went through every damn page.  Guess what was NOT there!  ANY RULE PREVENTING AG'ers PUTTING SHOES ON THEIR BIKE FOR T1!  So I go onto the Facebook page of USATriathlon yesterday, and ask this question.  Their response...

"Hi Andy: this actually has never been a rule. In USAT-sanctioned events (unless the RD files for an exemption) you are allowed to attach your shoes to your bike if you wish."

I have asked a number of triathletes in the past, and there is an increasing number that say they have encountered this at races.  So either there are a lot more RD's filing exemptions, or the RD's are not wanting the risk of injury to an average AG'er trying to execute a mount and ride with their shoes on their bike.  So they just tell them they are not allowed to do it.  That is my guess.  And please note that I am not knocking the USAT, I just think that if there is OR is not a policy in place, that the officials need to adhere to that policy and if there are exemptions filed, then they need to have make that known in the race packet, pre-race meeting, and/or announcements before the race while people are in transition.  That's all I want, adherence and transparency.

USAT has gotten back to me before I finished this post and told me that the Commissioner of Officials will allow people to inquire about specific races to see if that race has any exemptions filed for it.  I thought that was very helpful to know!  Thanks USAT (more specifically whomever is in charge of their Facebook page)!!!

Have a good week, I will speak to y'all on Friday!

Workouts, and I promise that technology works! (As long as you use it right)...

Ok lets get the down and dirty details out of the way, with the exception that I did not bring my Garmin with me, so I will have to approximate the data.

07/26/2007 (Thursday)
Workout: Bike - Austell to Marietta Loop
Distance: ~ 26 miles
Time: 1:40:00-1:45:00
RPE: 6-9

07/27/2007 (Friday)
Workout: Run - Silver Comet Trail
Distance: 4.01 mi
Time: ~26:30
RPE: 7

The title of my blog now leads me into my short story. I was about 40-45 min into my workout, and sometimes, if a light at an intersection is long enough, I will stop my watch. Well I did that, and then the light was green, and I began my ride again. Let me add, without hitting the start button again. Did not see this until almost two miles down the road when I went to check my time. Now there is a feature on the Garmin where if you slow down (either running or biking) to a certain pace/speed, the watch will stop for you, and not begin again until you are back above that pace/speed. This is to precisely fix this situaiton. Maybe I need to sit down this weekend and set that up. Speaking of which, I need to do a couple of other things with bike(s). First, I need to get fitted for my bike. I never really got fit when I bought it, and I tweaked it until I thought it felt right. Then I got my aerobars. You should see how far forward I am on my seat when I am pounding it. Second, I need to install the Cateye on Jackie's bike. She has been waiting for me to do so, and I have not done it yet.

Working my other job for the next three days, but at least I don't have to close Saturday night. I am working a special wine tasting that we are having, and although we have to bus and clean up that area when we are done, we should be out of there by 10:15p, rather than me getting out at midnight. (Let us not forget that I then have to drive 35min to get home, traffic is lighter that time of night).

I am soo pissed at LA Fitness right now. I know that is my fault that I am slacking on my swimming workouts, but it definately does not help when I get motivated enough to work out, and then the gym closest to me (takes me 3-4 min to get there) is closed for almost a week for renovations. The next closest gym takes me 30-40 min in off-peak traffic to get to, round trip. I wanted to go this morning, but I did not get up early enough to go, swim and then come back to be at work on time.

I think I will get the peeps together and try to get a lake swim in this weekend, possibly Sunday morning again. If I can get a swim in on Sat and Sun this weekend that would be great. I am excitied about doing the West Pointe Olympic Tri with Wes. I am kinda bummed about not doing the last Tri the Parks - High Falls race, but I will get over it. You have to be able to improvise in this sport.

I also got my email notification about general elections for USAT. The person who is in charge of my region, I have seen before, and I think that he is part of the Peacthree City Triathlon team. I would not mind having him on again another year if he is allowed to be.

I will get caught up on all your blogs this weekend. I know that some of you raced in IMUSA, and some of you are tapering for IMLouisville.

Paitently waiting for my next issue of Triathlete Magazine..... for now.


Murtha...

Rain, Rain Go Away (At least for my bike training days)...

So,

Three out of the last four "bike training" days that I have had, it has rained. Now, as bad as Georgia needs the rain, it has all day and night to rain outside the few hours of each workout I have on my bike. Oh well, at least it keeps everything cool. It was probably only 70-75 degrees during and after the rain, and it would have been 85-87 degrees without the rain and humidity. Mallie jinxed me up here in Atlanta, I think ;)

There were only 20-25 people that were there for the ride, I think due to weather (c'mon people, a little rain will not hurt you!). James was out there tonight with me. Start was a bit slower, and this time I sucked his wheel going through the first hill. I stayed up with the group until the golf course, and then I began to lose them. As I was catching up with them through the first series of hills after the golf course, well, you know the "hill effect." And what makes it worse is that I am already a bit more cautious than the best riders there. Henceforth, the DROP.

One of the riders from team Cycleworks was in charge of the "second group," which I was leading. Well the funny part is that everyone behind me in the second (last) group decided they did not want to do the Oglethorpe Univ/Silver Lake area, so I was by myself. Except that the rider from the team decided to stay with me. We chatted for awhile, and I did not get his name ( I will next time). We traded places, and I think that when he got behind my wheel it was to let me set the pace and push me. When we got towards the last 1/4 of the ride though, I began trying to push the hills (not 110%, but more like 95%) and I turned around and he was not there. I got to the light at the top of the first ascent, and then he caught up. I did not say anything, but I was thinking, WTF??? The second ascent before we got to Chastain park (pretty much the final stretch with my dreaded large rollers). he got dropped. You must be kidding me. His chain must have broken or something. There is NO WAY this guy dropped. I finished up and James was waiting on me. As I was packing my bike, the guy pulled in and was talking to his teammates. I overheard, "yeah I have a Velodrome race tomorrow, and I was taking it easy tonight..." Well there you go.


With the rain, and not pushing it 110%, I finished in approximately 1:37:00.00. I am ok with that.

I will hopefully be signed up for a race in August after the weekend is over, and I have it narrowed down to two races. I am kind of excited. I also need to sign up for South Carolina half by the end of the month to get around the price increase. Crap. Yet another month of spending. IT NEVER ENDS.

In other news (on the topic of spending) I need to get new work pants for Wolfgang Puck. Holes are starting to form in the seams (in certain places) and they are just looking nasty, no matter how much I clean them. I also have not bought new "bank" clothes for work in almost 2 years. Why, well, because I am a guy, and because it costs money. But it is needed. I will use some Clark Howard tactics though, and try to shop around and save a few dollars.

I think I am going to skip my Thu night ride to ensure that I get some more running/swimming in this week. I am only working Sunday lunch shift. This means I have ALL day Saturday to train, and then Sunday morning early and Sunday afternoon/evening.

I'll keep you posted. Let's see if it rains on Thursday, since I will be training, but not on my bike.

Murtha...

Weekend Events...

I hope all of you had a good weekend...

Short recap and then on to bigger and better parts of my post.

Saturday: Nothing - and there is nothing you can do about it :-b

Sunday: 50 mile Ride with Wes and his wife on the Silver Comet trail.

I got home from the Bank at about 1:00p on Saturday afternoon, a basketcase. I told myself that there are more important things to do rather than a workout, so I got some stuff done around the house, watched some of the prolouge of the Tour de France, and chilled out. Then it was back to work at Wolfgang Puck Express by 5:30p. This weekend at the restaurant was rough. They were high on labor costs, so they kept cutting people early (and of course it got busy). The HVAC broke on Saturday as well, so we were only running Air Conditioning in half the restaurant. Fun Stuff.

Wes posted to my blog earlier in the week wanting to know about working out at the SCT on Sunday morning (50 miler). It was supposed to be his peak bike workout before his taper (I think) for his Olympic Race in August. Hmmm, let me think.... yes! I must be crazy, because I worked a double with 5 hours of sleep on Friday, then a double with 5 hours of Sleep on Saturday, and then get up at 6am Sunday for this crazy ride. We all went a a training pace for the first 10 miles until Dee Dee turned around and headed back to the car, then it was soooooo on!

I don't know how Wes felt during the entire ride, but I felt like we were pounding it the entire time. It seemed like we were trying to make up for warm up time during the ride. I took in some nutrition during the ride in the way of Gu and Accelerade, and had some Nuun in my "water" bottle. On the way back in my legs seemed to be tiring, but I somehow found that extra bit of "oomph" that we all search for late in our workouts, and most of the time we do find it. We had another small group on the way back in the last 5-6 miles where we took turns pulling. At that point it was which group of us was going to hammer harder.

When we got done I told Wes I would call him later in the day about the swim, and then it was off to take care of cats and work! The kittens are hellions right now, and so you have to have paitence with them (which I had none of last night, I was exhausted). We were short yet again on Sunday, and so by the time I got off work at the Sauana, uh I mean very hot restaurant, it was going to be too late to hook up with Wes and Dee Dee for their evening swim. So I called Jackie to see what was going on. We went and got some dinner and then it was off to my sister's apartment to spend the night with the cats. I will say a definate positive was that it only took me 10-15 min to get to work this morning from her apartment, rather than the usual 45 min or more from Austell.

This week should be good.

There we go, positive mental attitude on a Monday morning, I love it.

Murtha...

Last workout pre-race

T-minus 15hours and 15 minutes (roughly) before Tri the Parks, Indian Springs State Park!!!!



Excited is the word I would use right now, not nervous. Ready to get this thing the hell on. Do I think I am going to best my fastest sprint time? I am not sure, but I am going to have a good time doing it.



Last night was my last workout this week before my race. Actually I really slacked this week, but it will turn out ok. Bike + Transition Practice (yes I will get more to this later) on Thursday, full tri on Saturday (so it picks up 3 workouts) and then an open water swim on Sunday. So my week will be lopsided, but that is ok.



So last night, James was to help me out with my transition times. My fastest times in a Sprint race have been a total of about 2:20-2:30. So last night we practiced in his cul-de-sac, and although the distance was shorter than my average run through transitions, we compensated for this by adding 10 seconds to T1 and 10 seconds to T2. I think the point I want to hammer home to everyone (and I am sure that I am preaching to the choir, save the people that have never actually practiced their transitions), IS TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A (SOME) SYSTEM IN PLACE, MEMORIZE THAT SYSTEM, AND THEN EXECUTE THAT SYSTEM!!! Other than that, you can skin the proverbial cat anyway you want (**Note** - no cats were injured in the creation of this post ;-)



Here is my break down: Total times for both T1 and T2 in practice (including the added 20 seconds) 1min 20 seconds!!!! An improvement of 1min 10sec-1min 20sec!!! Cutting my time in half! Here is what I did to achieve this



1) NO SOCKS!!! I have been told any race shorter than an Oly you do not need to wear socks, but take the appropriate precautions by a) training without socks and b) athletic tape, band-aids etc... or better yet band-aids and then tape over them so they do not fall off during the race.



2) Rack bike (within race regulations) so that your bike is facing the most efficient way towards the exit of transition. If you have the option of putting your bike wherever you want, put it close to the bike exit (this gets complicated when the bike and run exit are on the opposite sides, but getting there early can help you determine location).



3) Set up your system as efficiently as possible, and anything that is mandatory goes where I have to move something (i.e. sunglasses and helmet on aerobars, race number goes on top of running shoes). I also have my running shoes equipped with the slip on shoe laces (where you fix the elastic laces to how tight you want your shoes to your foot) and my bike shoes are already opened up as much as possible.



4) Do not clip/strap down shoes until you are on the bike (from t1)!!! What you say??? Won't they fly off! I thought so too, and then I went through three practice runs. The trick is to run and take smaller steps so that you are not flexing your foot as much with the possibility of it flying out. I have noticed people during races not locking down there shoes until they are a mile down a road once they have started.



5) Practice unstrapping your shoes before you get off and leave them on there (run barefoot to your spot in T2). My shoes scraped against the ground a few times, and once my rear wheel popped up because my right cleat got caught on the ground, but I just kept running with my bike. If you have a downhill, you can unstrap them earlier (1/4 mile left to go). If it is an uphill or turns you will have to wait later.

6) Do not be afraid to just throw the stuff you don't need anymore anywhere in your space.

7) Make sure you "run" through transition!!! This is an ok time to max out your heartrate. The shorter the race the more T1 and T2 count.

8) When you are coming into T1 or T2, then you need to be visualizing what you are going to be doing in transition.

After my transition practice, we went on an 18.5 mile bike ride through roswell on some fast flats and steep hills. He kicked my butt, but got me averaging 24mph on the flats (maxed out on 28.5 on flats) and then had to granny gear it on the hills, I could not handle it.


I'm ready...

Aaannnnnnnnnd There Off!!! (And I really mean I am off and going!)

HI!!!


So, I came up with this brilliant plan a couple of weeks ago, and announced it to you recently...


So far, so good! I put the Stats so far this week at the bottom, so that if you do not want to bore yourself with my data, I don't have you scrolling through everything.



I hate to say it, but after the back to back weekend workout (and lets just say I have not exactly been consistently working out), I actually felt great on Monday, and could have done a workout. However, I am having electrical problems at the house, and I also just did not want to go (I had more important things to do). This morning I got up and ran (you can see the breakdown above) and it was great. Not quite light yet, I got to use my Valentine's Day gift for the first time (other than fumbling around in my dark bedroom this morning). And LED head lamp!!! It was great, since it was cool, and there were no people out there to run into.



The other night was Tuesday night ride with the Sandy Springs Cycleworks group. I was not able to get my hill repeats in before the bike ride, since I was trying to get my cadence/speed sensor to work. This was my endurance ride for the week, so I would not have been worried if I had destroyed my legs before I went on the ride. Instead of killing the first hill like I usually do trying to keep up with the pack, I held back, and I was able to hang until I got up and around the golf course into our next set of elevation changes. There were two other people that I rode with in the back (one of which was on team Cycleworks, must have had an off day if they were riding with me). I also saw one of my Fraternity brothers, Kevin, with one of his GA Tech team cycling buddies. They got a flat in the first 4 miles, and they passed me again around mile 11-12. Kevin said that his teammate was pulling him at around 21 mph both UP and DOWN hills to try and catch up with the front group. They got lost at one point and put in a couple of extra miles, so they never actually caught up with the group.


I don't know why, but I got blisters from my Tuesday morning run. I hate blisters. They always put a cramp in my training. I had Wednesday off, since I was working a double, and then Thursday I was down and out with the flu. I could not keep down breakfast or lunch, and then I finally made it through dinner. It made Friday even worse, since we had a potluck to wish someone off on their last day at the bank. Tons of food, I was directed to the chicken noodle soup, ham sandwhich, and a couple of chicken fingers with no sauce for saftey. Worked both jobs on Friday.

Wes, you are the man! I am going to try and get in with you for Memorial Day morning swim, and then after that we can play it by ear...


As for everything else, I have my eyes on the horizon for the Tri the Parks towards the End of June (Indian Springs???). I have not signed up for it yet, but after the next paycheck, depending on training, it is looking pretty promising.


Hopefully soon I will be able to get back on my computer at home. We have had a change of email policy at work, plus some other stuff going on in my extracircular life, and so I really need to play catch-up and sift through all the emails I just forwarded to my gmail account.



Now to my workouts this week. I need to work on a spreadsheet and some weekly totals, I think I will "borrow" some of your blogger ideas.


05/19/2007 (Saturday)
Workout - Endurance Run
Time: 52:29.00
Distance: 5.50 mi
Pace: 9:32.54/mi
Tot Cal: 727 calories
Avg Hr: 171 bpm
Max Hr: 186 bpm

05/20/2007 (Sunday)
Workout - Brick (Bike Run)
Total Time: 1:25:14.00
Bike Time: 57:00.81
Bike Distance: 17.08 mi
Avg Speed: 18.0 mph
Max Speed: 26.6 mph
Avg Hr: 136 bpm
Max Hr: 169 bpm
RPE: 5
Run Time: 28:14.00
Run Distance: 3.02 mi
Run Pace (AVG): 9:21.00/mi
Avg Hr: 169 bpm
Max Hr: 179 bpm
RPE: 7


05/21/2007 (Monday)
NONE - Rest Day

05/22/2007 (Tuesday)
Workout - Light Run
Time: 30:58.00
Distance: 3.13 mi
Pace (AVG): 9:53.00 /mi
Avg Hr: 163 bpm
Max Hr: 174 bpm
Cal: 446 cal
RPE: 6-7

05/23/2007 (Wednesday)
None - Both Jobs

05/24/2007 (Thursday)
None - Sick - Flu

05/25/2007 (Friday)
None - Both Jobs

Workout (05/22/2007) - Endurance Ride (Sandy Springs Tue Cycleworks)
Time: 1:35:27.80
Distance: 24.93 mi
Avg Speed: 15.7 mph
Max Speed: 39.3 mph
Avg Hr: 147 bpm
Max Hr: 175 bpm
Cal: --- (not accurate on bike, calculates based on speed as well)
RPE: 5-8


Murtha...

The Jumpstart (Mondays!!!)

Well,

I would say my friend who I train with, but I should actually call him my pseudo coach (for kicking my butt!!!), James, was nice enough to go out with me on my run last night. We went over to Chastain park and took the Garmin so that we could finally get the exact mileage for the loop.


05/14/2005
Workout: Endurance Run
Breakdown
Distance: 5.12 miles
Time: 50:59.00
Avg Pace: 9:58 min/mi
Tot Cal: 707
Avg Hr: 177 bpm
Max Hr: 192 bpm

Basically I blew my wad in the first mile and a half, and then struggled the rest of the first loop (which has the majority of the elevation). By that time I had decided to let him go and get his workout (as nice as he was to stay back with me, I did not want to feel as if I was holding him back). He went and did two more laps, and I completed one more. I had to stop twice for about 45 seconds or so to get my heart rate back down to below 160 before I got started again. For some reason, no matter how slow I was running/jogging, I could not keep my heart rate below 180 bpm.

2nd lap was just miserable. I can tell you why though

1. Treadmill in temperature controlled gym.
2. Silver Comet Trail (technically flat)

Yesterday's run. 85 degrees and humid, and hills. What a difference a course makes!

After we both finished we sat down a talked for awhile, mostly about base mile training and staying under a certain heart rate max %. I think that makes a lot of sense, considering that I usually do not jog at an easy pace, even when it is a fun run.

I got caught up on my blog reading over the weekend, and it is nice to see that everyone seems to be finding themselves in races and other tri events.

I am considering volunteering for the first time soon. There is a free Sunday (I think) that I will have coming up soon, and I would like to see if there is any way I can get in there and volunteer.

I don't know if I previously mentioned, but I signed up for the Tri-PTC (peachtree city GA) on Sept 8th. I do not know how many years that they have been hosting this event, but it has been selling out now, and it has quickly jumped to a not selling out 300-400 people to a sell out of just over 700 people in 3 years.

I think next week I am going to sign up for one of the next Tri the Parks series races in June/August. There is Indian Springs on June 23rd, and then there is High Falls on Saturday August 18th. There is an event in July, but It would take me about two hours to get there, and I really do not want to get up any earlier/obtain a hotel room, for a race I want to be considered a "local event." Yes, I know that will decrease the number of events that are available to me, but we all know that this is an expensive and time consuming sport. Anywhere you can cut costs and save time/santity can be well worth it.

Next week begins week 1 of my 20 week HIM training schedule. I am kind of excited. I was not able to get to the pool this morning. I have to go and get a Bike pump after work since I left mine in NJ (present for uncle Les). tonight is speed work/hills on the bike. Depending on what time I get home, I might be able to get the swimming in as well. Otherwise I can move the swim to tomorrow morning.

(Quads screaming, Hammies screaming, we all scream for ice cream!)

On some of the other blogs, people (the Kahuna) have been posting about future potential races. I am all about me some Nevada triathlons, especially when they are near my family, I mean Las Vegas...
;-)


Murtha...

What is interval swimming again...

Got to my second job tonight. Very few nights do I have an attitude (not negative) that says, I really am not in the mood to be here today. We have been very slow for the last two weeks, and I elected that if anyone go home early, it be me. 7:00p came, and the Manager on Duty, said "get outta here!!!" Don't have to tell me twice!

Wait that means I have time to actually workout! Yeah!! (And the peasents rejoiced)

Here is the workout...

03/26/2007
Workout: Interval Swim
Breakdown;
100M Warmup
2x100M Paddles (no legs)
100M Freestyle

Intervals;
10 x 50M Freestyle
01: 00:55.6
02: 00:53.5
03: 00:53.0
04: 00:55.5
05: 00:53.1
06: 00:52.6
07: 00:52.7
08: 00:51.5
09: 00:52.2
10: 00:50.5

100M Arms Only
100M Cool Down

RPE: 4-8


Definately did not leave everything on the table, but as many workouts I am dropping due to jobs and other obligations, the last thing I need to do is pull something. Oh and I lightly sprained my ankle this weekend in the dark going across a street that was two different levels due to paving.

More to come later....

Non-posted workout logs...

Hey Again,

Some workouts that I completed but had not posted. I was on vacation from Feb 18th - Feb 22nd. Other than that I have been a complete slackass. With two jobs it has been really hard to fit in workouts, my life, and sleep. Oh wait, do not forget about eating! I love to do that.

I am kind of worried about my races, so I have decided to change my goals for my first few races of the year so that I am just compelting them, and not trying to break any world records, and break my body instead.

02/13/2007
Workout - Run
Distance: 2.75 miles
Time: 30 minutes
Pace: 10min 54 sec/mile
RPE: 3-4

This was base run just to get some miles under my belt for the day. Nothing too serious, and I did not want to strain anything.


02/15/2007
Workout - Swim
Distance: 1050M
Time: ???
Pace: ???
RPE: 6

This was base swimming for distance purposes. I felt really good when I completed this distance, although my legs just felt a bit wobbly.

02/18/2007
Workout - Run
Distance: ~3 miles
Time: 23:21.60
Pace: 7min 47sec/mile
RPE: 6-7

Running in the hills of Henderson, NV is just great!!! especially on a Sunday morning when no one is up yet, it is very quiet.

03/04/2007 (Sunday)
Workout - Bike
Distance: ~22 miles
Time: ~1hr 30min
Avg Speed: 14.67mph
Max Speed: ???
RPE: 5 with low to mid gears.

Easy Day, was fairly cold and really windy. Took it easy considering the situation. C'mon! The faster I pedaled, the colder it got, how miserable is that. I also forgot to take my bike computer with me, I felt naked without it. Hmmm naked and cold, how miserable?!?!

03/11/2007 (Sunday)
Workout - Bike
Distance: 33.88 miles
Time: 1:56:21.00
Speed: 17.4mph (Average)
SpeedMax: 28.5mph (Max speed, and this was on flat road!!!)
RPE: 6-9

I got pulled one time and pulled two separate people one time each. I think the average of each pull was somewhere around 24mph, and the 2nd pull that I did was somewhere between 22-24mph. How about that Max Speed on the flats!!! I looked down at my computer and was like, "OMG!!!"

I felt really good on this ride and made one important change. I was aero almost the whole time AND I was in the big ring almost the whole ride. I cannot believe how much big of a difference it makes when you are in the big ring for long periods of time. In my defense I will have to say that for the longest time I went on rides that had large hills, so I needed to gear down every time I went up one of these hills. My average speed was low due to the fact it took me a while to get going (I had a long week and it was the Sunday morning of the time change), but when I got going I was easily averaging over 20mph on the way back.

03/12/2007 (Monday)
Workout - Swim Drills
Total Time: 13:43.80
1 x 50M Warmup
2 x 100M Arms (W/ hand paddles)
1 x 400M freestyle: 9:15.40
2 x 100M freestyle: 2:16.00
2:12.40
1 x 50M Cooldown

Nothing really to say here other than I was not at the top of my game that night.

03/13/2007 (Tuesday)
Workout - Run/Bike
Run (WARMUP)
Time: 12:27.10
Distance: 1.??? miles

Bike (Spin Class)
Time: 58:29.40
RPE: 4-8

Class was great. Instructor felt really bad and thought that she was not interesting, but I told her I welcomed the change of riding in a straight line over and over again.

03/19/2007 (Monday)
Workout: Run
Time: 1:00:00.00
Distance: 6.1 mi
RPE: 5-7
(Indoor - Treadmill)

Stretched 5 min prior
Stretched 5 min post workout

03/24/2007 (Saturday)
Workout: Bike - Part of 3 Gap, Dahlonega, GA
Distance: 11.15 mi
Time: 47:58.00
Max Spd: 39.3 mph
Avg Spd: 13.9 mph
RPE: 6-10

3 Gap is 50 miles total, and half of the full 6 Gap which also follows some of the same course. Elevation change of 3 Gap if you finish all of it is almost a mile. Let's just put it this way

Round 1: 3 Gap - 1, Andy - 0

I have honestly not done any serious hills in quiet some time, and while riding on the Silver Comet has helped increase my overall average speed, it has not at all helped my endurance with real world courses (exempting of course Ironman FL in Panama City Beach, that is really flat).

I want to definately try again, but I need to do some hill drills before then.


That is all I have for now.


Murtha out...

Saturday Workout...

Good Morning...


Yesterday morning my plans got cancelled. While that totally freed up my day to do "whatever" I wanted to do, I have to reschedule it yet again. Now that I am working two jobs (oh yeah, I am also now working at Wolfgang Puck Express cicra Christmas week for some extra money), it is really hard when you have something to do, finally get it scheduled in to your life, and then it gets cancelled.

In lieu of all this, I decided to go for a run. Chattahooche river run in Marietta. It was about 37 degrees out there, so it took most of the run before my hands finally warmed up

01/27/2007
Workout - Run
Distance: 2.25 miles (5K total)
Time: ~19 minutes (+ the other 15 minutes from walking, explained below)
Pace: 8min 26sec/mile
RPE: 4-5

Jackie and one of her friends said that they would be there walking about 6 miles or so. I got there much later, so I ran until I saw them on the backside of the 5K loop, and then I walked with them (it was a pretty good pace walk) until we got back to the cars.

Group of older male runners (prob 50's) drinking beer in the parking lot post run. Must be for that carb recovery....... Oh wait Andy, didn't you just say that you were running in a state park? Isn't drinking there illegal? Why yes it is! But did I care, heck no! I would have asked him for one acutally....

Going to get out there and do something here in a little while. I have not ridden my bike since I have put the aerobars on it (Yes I know! I still owe you guys pictures!! If I can set up a pic account online today, then I will post them). I know it is only 40 degrees out there or something, but I think I can handle putting some "base miles" in (i.e. meaning slow ones so I do not feel any colder).

Went to all3sports yesterday and picked up some more nutrition! For all of you raceAthlete members out there, I hope you will be happy, I am going to try some NuuN!!! I got the citrus flavor.

I also have a little announcement to make, but I will do so in another post. I feel it deserves one.


Murtha...

Wednedsay Workout...

Hello,

They let me go from work early on Wednesday night, so I hurried home, for me that is about 30 minutes, and went to the gym. Did a run on the treadmill and a bit of stretching before the gym closed.

01/24/2007
Workout - Run
Time: 32.29 (5K only)
Distance: 5K then 2min cooldown
Avg Pace: ~10min 28 sec
Avg Speed:5.7 on treadmill (started at 5, moved up to 7.5 by the end of workout.)

RPE: ranged from 4 at the beginning of the workout to 7-7.5 at the end.

Basically the last half mile or so I increased my speed every 15 seconds.


At my new gym location you can see the pool from the cardio area upstairs, and i saw that they had fixed the lane bouy already from the other night. If I see those two kids, I am definately turning them in.

I have some prior obligations to attend to Saturday during the day, so no outside workouts for me, I will have to get to the gym before it closes at eight. I will most likely swim, and then ride during the day on Sunday.

That is about all for now.


Murtha...

Isn't there supposed to be a lane bouy there?....Wait! Hey you f'ing kids!!!

Late night (or early morning depending on what type of person you are)...

Had trouble sleeping tonight.

Anyways,

First my workout. Nothing special other than swimming.

01/23/2007
Total Time: Aboout 30 minutes (off and on)
Workout: 100 and 200 M intervals. Mostly freestyle, and tried working on my technique
a bit. Mostly trying to hit the "10 and 2" spots on my entry, and my pull
(which still is not that great, but better than the old windmill moves).


Now onto my post title. So I get to the gym around 8:20p and change. I get out to the pool area and there are two hispanics just hanging out in the first lane, and there are two kids who look to be putting the lane bouy back in place to separate the 2nd and 3rd lane. I then noticed that the pieces that fit on the line to keep the thing bouyant were all over the pool. One of the kids (there were two) was trying to put it back together, and the other kid was sitting on the steps in the first lane trying to get the other guy to leave. Oh, and there was someone in the spa (which is important).

They get out and leave and I start bitching about how people break stuff. I have everything on in the pool and about to take off (thank god for lane lines), when the person from the spa comes over to inform me that the two teenagers that were in the pool attempting to fix the lane bouy (is that what they call it?) were the ones that broke it!!! Supposedly they had been horsing around in the pool, cannonballs, etc... and one of them laid on or landed on the line and broke it at the connection. I later found out from mgmt that it was going to cost $400 to fix. The wire line snapped at the connection. Nice to know that my monthly gym fee is going towards something.

Mgmt did say though that they water aerobics class would love it since that is one less lane bouy that they would have to take out and put back in the pool.

Great! Thanks a whole bunch spa guy..... Don't go tell any of the mgmt or sales team about it, don't yell at them for doing something wrong, just wait and tell me after they leave the building and I get in the pool so none of us can do anything about it.

I told the management about it after I left for the evening, and I told them I would be on the lookout for them if I saw either of them again. By the way this is a well renowned adult gym (LA Fitness), not some fly by night outfit for immature teens to play at. I am sure that their parents are paying for the membership, and will never find out about this (unless I catch them, and I will).

I will have some pictures for you posted tomorrow of my new gear (aerobars and some cool bike socks I could not be without!!!). If anyone has any suggestions on one of these free picture sites, please let me know so that i can get one going.

I have seen flickr as well as the blogger pic site. I also want to do a big overhaul of my blog, to catch up with all the big fish (i.e. banner, pics, opinion polls, etc) to make it more appealing. I think it is just the natural evolution of things. You get started with something and then feel accomplished, and after awhile just doing it is not good enough, you want to do better. Hmmm, that quote might work well in triathlon as well as in life in general.........



Murtha...

Last Weekend of Summer (During Winter!!!)

Hey!!!


Andy got his groove back!!! This is my first official week into the 2007 season (although about 10 weeks late). I don't consider this a big deal though, since as amateur triathletes, we can make our own race schedule. I don't think it is really going to affect my race schedule that much, but we shall see.

Yesterday was beautiful here in Georgia. Flowers are in bloom, it was almost 70 degrees, you would think it was spring time with the Masters around the corner in Augusta. Nope. It was January 13th. I'll take it. I hate riding in cold weather so much, that I acutally do not do it. I then go inside to spinning classes.

Here are my stats for yesterday

Location: SCTrail, Georiga
Time: 1 hr, 17 min 6 sec
Distance: 22.6 miles
Avg Speed: 17.5 mph
Max Speed: 25.4 mph

I had one section where I was pulling about 22mph for at least two miles. It was a very slight downhill, kind of a false flat but going down rather than up. Completely rocked some guy with a carbon Quintanna Roo with Zipp 404's yesterday, but to give him credit, he was probably on a light training ride whilst I was busting my butt.

I don't know if I will be out today or not, since I have plans with my best friend and his wife for the afternoon. I have tomorrow off for MLK Day (I love bank holidays), and I will get out there in the morning, it should be fairly quiet since some people still work on the Holiday.

It's great to finally be back, now I just need to see what all the rest of you are up to. It seems now I look at so many blogs/podcasts, that I am burning at least 10 hours a week looking at them. It is well worth it!


Murtha...

NO!!!!! NOT THE BIKE!!!!! OH THE AGONY!!!!

Hello All,

Well Wednesday night I went for another swim, and saw a few of the guys I had met on Monday night there. I kind of kept track this time. I know you guys (and girls) are saying I need a set training schedule, but I really need to get back on the ball before I can "do any tricks." I basically did a warmup, and then a 400M free main set, and then a 8 X 50M free sprint set. I finished up by sitting in the hot tub.

Friday I was going to work out, but I had some community service to complete. Don't ask. Long story. The weather has been nice here in Atlanta, and my community service for the day was to rake leaves at one of the cemetaries in downtown Atlanta. I raked leaves all day long, and I swear I raked at least an acre by myself. It actually got warm enough yesterday that I could have work shorts there (but it was cold in the morning). I burned so many calories doing that, when I finally got home and took a shower I did not want to do anything else. So Friday's workout was 8 hours of raking and bagging leaves. There is your CROSS TRAINING for you!

I am thinking about hitting the pool again today here in a little while. Jackie and I are going to ride the Silver Comet trail tomorrow for some base riding. Oh, and her sister totally hit her bike with the car when coming in from downtown late last night, and I will have to plug CYCLEWORKS big time for this one. Jackie was devastated when she saw what happened, since she was going to ride today. So she took the bike to Cycleworks where she bought it and they fixed the whole thing for FREE! And it was not even the store's fault. They kick ass.

Well I hope everyone is having a productive workout weekend, as the weather here in the SE United States kicks butt this weekend.

Murtha...

Slowly but Steady...

Hi Folks,

I am getting there, I promise you. I really want to update my blog for next year as well, so we will see if I can create some kind of banner and maybe some other cool stuff. If you have any idea how to create all that cool stuff you see on these other blogs, or you went to some website and paid to have it done, just let me know how you did it. Thank you.

I eluded to Saturday's run in my last post. By the way, even though the post says December 2nd, I finally finished it on December 9th. Here is how it panned out.

Distance: ~3 miles (do not have a pedometer or Garmin, and where I live I have not measured it out by car yet)
Time: ~31 minutes
Pace: 10:20/mi

I was really taking it easy, seeing as how the last time I ran was when??? Oh yeah, long time ago.

Monday night I went swimming for the first time since October 8th. Ok, yes you can scold me now. I spent about 30 minutes in the pool, although I was not swimming the enitre time. I am going to the gym in about 15 minutes and I am going to run on the treadmill for a little warmup, and then I am going to spend a bit more time in the pool tonight.

I am going to have a bit of free time, oh wait, no I am not. Well I will FIND some time this weekend to get a full schedule going, with weight training.

If you have not seen my post on raceAthlete.com about weight training, check it out here.

Speaking of raceAthlete.com, I just have been trying to get caught up on everyone's blogs, and I saw the new cycling Jersey for 2007 for team raceAthlete. I definately want to get one.

Oh well, it is off to the gym for me, and hopefully this will finally be the start of my 2007 season!!!

Here we go.......


Murtha...

Here I am!!!

Hi All,

Yes, I am alive. If you look at my last post below, I will have to say I did not get better (finally) until about the 26th-27th. Since this thing was viral, my body had to fight it, and it had a real problem getting rid of this sinus cold or whatever the hell I had. I did OJ, Odwalla Citrus C Monster, Chicken Soup, Sleep, Rest, Not going out, basically everything you are supposed to do. I was able to get out last weekend (two days in a row!) and ride on the Silver Comet Trail. Here are the stats;

11/18/2006
Distance: 20 miles
Time ??? (I really did not care, Jackie and I were taking it easy that day)
Avg Speed ???

11/19/2006
Distance: 36 miles
Time: ~2 hours
Avg Speed: ~18mph

11/26/2006
Distance: 33.29 miles
Time: 1:55:50
Avg Speed: 17.2 mph
Max Speed: 25.8 mph
(There was a hell of a lot of wind this day. Real big pain in the ass. Made have a bit more appreciation for people who have been on the Queen K.)


So I am about four weeks behind (I am finishing this post on 12/09/2006) in my "2007 Triathlon Season." I am not too worried, since I was getting started extra early. I was trying to get "ahead of the game" so I would not have to worry about sickness, proper taper before first race, etc. Well I blew my wad with the sickness deal. I did get a few emails from a couple of you wondering where in the heck I was. I appreciate it.

I am also trying to get a second job to pay down some debt and get some money saved in the bank. I have had a stacked schedule like this in college at one time, but I was not training for triathlons. So I will have to see how this whole thing is going to work out. I think I am going to have to do fewer, but more quality workouts each week. I know from experience that the minute you try to do too much, your body is going to break down and you are going to have problems (i.e. pneumonia, acute sinusitus, etc... basically stuff I have gotten from overdoing it).

I went out running today for about three miles I think (I will have to measure it when I take my bike out next time). It was at the Silver Comet Trail. The temperature was about 49 degrees. I was a bit bundled up, but I ended up leaving most of it in the car, and I was just fine. It is that first few minutes of stretching and getting ready to run that kills me in the cold.

I hope all of you have had a great past 3-4 weeks with the holidays and your off season training. I am going to try and get caught up on some of your older posts, so don't be suprised if you see me commenting on something that you don't remember writing about the previous day.

Going to cut down my Christmas tree tomorrow. Have a great weekend!


Murtha...