`

Things Don't Always Go As Planned ... Pt 3

2011-12-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

Part 3 ....

The only thing left to do was pack up the car with my gear, my sister, and the TTE Kangaroo! I finally realized that I was going to make it to the start line but not, unfortunately, without other set backs. My "wing man" Mike had actually been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his foot and now it was just me on the start line. Though I didn't realize it at the time, Mike not starting actually sucked some "mojo" out of me. Because we had trained our toughest sessions together, it quite honestly didn't feel right that he wasn't going to be out there. On top of that I had developed a foot "problem" (while cycling) in a small, but powerful muscle, on the bottom of my foot. (flexor digiti mini brevis) It had bothered me in the last 3 weeks BUT I wasn't really worried about it since I had been treating it, and figured race day would take care of the pain ;-)
So hit the road we did! Amazingly it was an uneventful drive and door to door (including stops) was 12:15 without any warp speed driving. My two favorite sights on the way were of: 1) A couple "Airstream Campers" that being transported somewhere for "rehab" (The one above looks more like the ultimate aero helmet) 2) A guy, on I5, tethered to and pulling a shopping cart with his luggage in it! Wish we had the camera out for that one!
Arrival in Tempe was made complete when my wife (the other half of the bad girls above) dropped in to town on Friday. Having my family, and then friend/athlete Kyle, around really made the time more enjoyable. We were a small but powerful group! Because of them I was pretty calm and optimistic!

Calm until the day before the race - DOH. Honesty the nerves and anxiousness made me feel alive, challenged, and assured that there was no taking anything for certain! The 24 hours before the race seems pretty routine ... eat, a little training, eat, pack up race gear, eat, work on my race day science project (above), eat and HOPEFULLY sleep!
Race morning is always a gut wrenching experience for me and eating is difficult. I stick to liquid "foods", take comfort in the family/friends around me and try to stay warm. As nervous and anxious as I was i felt a bit more at ease because getting to the start line had been so much of a challenge. With that overcome I simply had no idea how this one was gonna play out!

The swim was an absolute chaotic, slow-swim mess like I have never seen before in 20 years around and in the sport. (it was my slowest wetsuit Ironman swim since my first in 1994) I'm not sure what it was BUT I was quite certain, (and I stated this to the crew as I ran by post swim) that whomever set the swim course in the morning was quite possible going at it hard with the Captain Morgans!

I moved on to the bike quite frankly it seemed to go by pretty quick. Because I wasn't sure how the foot would hold up and I KNEW that my back end run fitness was poor I kept things really smart on the bike and finished the last 18 miles feeling VERY good ...

3 Loop Run Time ... the multiple loop course is easy to break down into mini goals with pacing strategies, opportunities to see your "peeps" often BUT you end up with a lot of sharp turns and corners ... OUCH. The first 12 miles went by pretty quick (even though I was running super conservative / mellow) but the foot was starting to become more of an issue than I planned. After having a little pity party for myself at one point, I realized that by power walking for 60-90sec, every 3-4 minutes I could "re-set" the foot and still manage some running. I kept that rolling the best I could but got off my nutrition schedule and then realized I was hungry ... HUNGRY? I never get hungry in a race ... OOPS. I kept it moving and got er' done somewhere around 10:27 on the race clock

When things don't go as planned go to Dunkin Donuts the next day! Across from me was John Dahlz, the guy that led the pro race out of the water. John had a tough day too, tougher than me, as he had lost all his race nutrition from his bike early in the ride and things went south from there. John came in a bit after me and obviously his race day didn't go as planned either ... classy move by finishing by a great athlete that could have easily packed it in!

When things don't go as planned, take a long drive home 24 hours later and hope the sun comes up! (it did) Reality is, that drive allowed my to do alot of thinking, planning, eating, dreaming, and wondering. Though it was long, it might have been the best thing for my brain. (Definitely not my body though) ... Many thanks to my sister for driving 90% of the route home. The freaking Kangaroo was deflated and bloody worthless by then!

It took some time, days in fact, to tune the big picture in. As I looked at all the details I realized a few things:

* It took 8 weeks from when I was sick to get back to where I was 10 days before the Big Kahuna Race ... not optimal long distance racing fitness!

* I pulled off what I could on about 4.5 weeks of solid training and 10 days of freshening

* I've got a big support group that was pulling for me. Without them, and their energy, it may have been over sooner!

Thanks to EVERYONE for their support on Twitter and Facebook (too many too mention) but especially TTE NATION and the ENTIRE crew from Endurance Corner (especially Gordo and the Tucson peeps).

When things don't go as planned take a step back, and if at all possible do one of the things my dad taught me in his living days ... improvise, adapt, overcome!

Have a GREAT Holiday Season ... DL

NOTE: I may post a traditional race plan that I wrote a couple weeks ago ... I'll go back and read to see if it's worth the "boring-ness"

A Pictorial - Things Don't Always Go As Planned ... Pt 2

2011-12-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

With a relative clear mind I set off in to the training block with my eyes and mind set forward and trying not to think of behind OR the "what if's".

Just ten days into the training block I decided to take a trip I had planned (Tucson's Mt Lemmon above) to train and learn from other coaches and athletes at Endurance Corner. I was very fortunate to catch up with Chuckie-V as he graciously allowed me to stay with him and Angela Naeth. So not only did i get a chance to "sponge it up" in a variety of ways during the five days, amusement was never far away. All I had to do was ask Chuck a question and the result often provided knowledge, entertainment and discussion far more comforting than my bed roll! ;-) I left Tucson happy that I made the trip (that I almost cancelled), BUT I was still questioning my fitness.

When you decide to sign up for a late season race there is no guarantee that you'll have buddies to train with. Fortunately I had a few key sessions that my wing man Mike was along for, plus we'd get a few other fitness craving members of "TTE Nation" for parts of the sessions as well. Reality is though, if you are going long and doing it late, then you better be prepared to find comfort in your shadow as a training partner. I did ... he was loyal, he never dropped me, and try as I may, I never dropped him

There were so many days where I just wondered when the fitness would come around again like it was in early September. Waiting, waiting, waiting ..... c'mon already! Having people around (like my wife) who "get it" helps when that extra push is needed to get out the door. These are the days when you need to just "get 'er done" and keep having faith that the "increased fitness switch" will get flipped on. Then, no matter what, good session or bad our "Luca Dog" simply didn't give a crap how my session went. He was just happy for me to be home and that someone would fill his dinner bowl OR at least be his "wing man" for awhile.

Then it finally happened ... on a lonely, cold, November morning 14 days away from the race. (it really was the morning I took this photo ... there was just something about the pool, steam, and sun that was inviting) The swim plan was set for 4500 meters, the sun barely rising and the procrastination lingering like it always does before you jump in the pool early in the morning. I ended up having one of those sessions that makes you believe again. One of those sessions, when for some magical reason all the work you've been doing makes sense and seems to have formed itself in to "fitness". The days to follow would see more of the same and I finally believed I had a chance ...

Part III follows to wrap this thing up ... (sorry Chris)

A Pictorial - Things Don't Always Go As Planned ... Pt 1

2011-11-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

Alot can change in 12 months ... wait, I mean 10 weeks

Though I still have a hard time accepting the sign up for events 12 months in advance it's an evil necessity at times these days. A number of us had signed up for Ironman Arizona and quite frankly I was the least likely to be at the start line in November of 2011 (I was coming off a knee surgery in Nov 2010 and didn't start easy running until January) I wasn't going to risk my health in the lead up to November so all my training was based on the longevity on my knee!

Fast forward to September 2011 and I had a very healthy build over the year that included shorter races and a July "freshening" period. When we hit September's Big Kahuna Tri our group of "IMAZ" athletes had dwindled to just two (me and TTE Nation's Mike Starkey) but we were both confident of the possibilities for November!

Above is a photo of the me in the last 200 meters of the BK race ... I had a really solid race there and was confident when the dust (sand) settled about how to approach the build up to IMAZ. Little did I now what was brewing in my body! The reality was I had picked up a virus and two days later I was sick with what seemed like a head cold. I was in a very easy recovery period/week anyway and figured I'd clear it quick .... HA! A never ending fever, turned to walking pneumonia, which of course meant there was no training for at least 2.5 weeks. The advice I got from the "experts" around me? "This type of virus should NOT be messed with ... RECOVER"

Things were about to get a little prickly and unclear about whether starting the race in November was even possible! At the time I felt bad about leaving my wing man, Mike, to solo training!

At this point I had no choice, the remainder of September was "for the dogs" ... lots of sleeping and simply waiting for the things to clear! I started back with a variety of very short session and in early October I realistically had a week to get things moving to see if I could pull this off. On Saturday October 8th I set out on a 4:30 swim-bike-run combo session to simply give it a test and see what the body could tolerate. It started horribly and the outlook wasn't good, but by the end of the bike ride the tide had turned! Uh Oh ... decision time !!!

Over the course of the year a number of things kept me motivated. One of them was my wife and how she pulled off two Ironman distance PR's in the span of 5 weeks. I decided to use that as part of my inspiration to move on. I figured if I am clear of the virus then let's give this thing a go! It may not be what I originally planned, BUT I'm gonna get a good 4-5 week block of training in, give it a whirl, and see what I can learn from this.

I'm gonna leave you there, Part II to follow ...

Tulsa Tuff

2011-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

..... A nice video put together by Sean Steven's crew about their race in Canada. If you know Sean there is some good stuff in here! ... I was going to write about Seans PR day (a VERY challenging & hot day @ the 2011 IMC), BUT I can't do better than the video. First class people, first class effort and I'm proud to have been a piece of this and happy to continue to be a part of the "Tulsa Division" of TTE Nation ... I'll do my best to write a short follow up piece to this since there is more to the story! ;-)

"Back it Up"

2011-08-15T12:36:00.001-07:00

Now that the race season is flying along, many athletes have already charged through their #1 priority race for the year and should be very fit. While some folks may be “done” with key races some may be shooting for another late season peak. Hitting the second peak or improving on the current fitness from a peak is possible, but one needs to really understand their body and how it works to capitalize on the gains already made.

At the end of June we had a large TTE contingent of athletes racing at Ironman Couer D’ Alene. The results were a little bit of a mixed bag: PR’s, mechanicals that led to missing PR’s, learning curve opportunities for coach & athletes, and some first timers who were fabulous in their debut. Of the group two in particular wanted to turn around and back up their performances at our home town Iron Distance Race, Vineman, just five weeks later. Though I don’t know that this is a great idea for everyone, however for some, if you treat the turnaround time appropriately it can be done (well).
These are some of the ways we approached and looked at the 5 week gap, plus other items to consider when trying to “back it up” (these could go for any race distance). First off I should clarify that both athletes are not new to the sport or distance, 1 male / 1 female, both healthy physically going in to AND coming out of race #1. When we discussed the 5 week turn around the key items were:

1) “Let’s do this for the right reasons … because you WANT to”. Not to redeem yourself for something of years past OR even days past. The key here is mentally being engaged to the task at hand.

2) Focus first on recovery, not training, the training is almost completely done. Don’t Get Greedy! There are plenty of ways to focus on recovery from nutrition, active recovery, massage / self massage, and the list goes on.

3) Be prepared and open minded for the possibilities on race day … good, great or bad race / good, great or bad weather. Just be positive and aware there is risk involved. (isn’t there always?) OH, and realize there is no way it’s going to be easy, so you better WANT IT!

4) IMPROVE on the things we didn’t do as well as we wanted to in Race #1 and re-emphasize the items we executed well.

5) Once we felt recovery had moved along well, (I have specific markers that I look for including anything from mental , sleep patterns, food cravings, pace/power/hr/muscle soreness etc.) only then could we shoot for some key workouts. Then the key workouts were sandwiched around a bunch of maintenance and active recovery sessions. NOTE: mentally most people don’t want to get their swim cranking again in this time frame … sorry, it’s the one thing that SHOULD be ramped back up.

6) Having faith that the major training was done long ago, and that the last really big session was done 5 weeks before this new race day. With those items in mind the game plan was straight forward, (on paper anyway) the only thing left to do was execute.

As the clocked ticked down and the suffering finally came to an end the results were fabulous, two personal bests on a not so easy course (though we had very good weather) and two athletes ready for a REAL break. Though they both arrived at their results in slightly different ways, the reality is it is just arriving that counts. Oh yes, did I say there was suffering and hard work involved?

Best of luck in your efforts to “back it up” ... DL

Releasing Expectations

2011-06-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

As we start to hit the meat of triathlon racing season many athletes are fast approaching their key event(s). In the months and weeks leading in to those events we plan to execute training based on expectations of how we would like to race on the “big day”.

I believe it’s healthy to have expectations as it drives motivation and allows us to stay, “on task”, in our training. Though expectations are healthy, they can be a bit of a moving target at times. When life (injury, work obligations, travel, etc.) alters how you are able to prepare it would be wise if we consider adjusting our expectations. When we get to a point where our training is in the bank and we start building energy and emotion for race day, it’s a great time to (re)establish the final race day expectations. The KEY here is making sure; expectations meet reality. What do I mean? It means that our expectations are honest and based off of the training and races we have done in the lead up. Expectations should not be based on how things were 6 months ago or how good (or bad) we were eight years ago. (and I say that last part about eight years ago for my own brain) Over 15 years ago Mark Allen said one of the biggest reasons he couldn’t break through to win the Ironman World Championship because, “expectation did not meet reality” … those words sit deep and permanent in my memory.

If your expectations are set in place with honesty, you have a solid race and nutrition plan, and you feel confident you can adapt to inconsistencies race day throws at you then it’s time to release those expectations. Yes, release the expectations and simply “execute”. Execute your race day based on everything you know and everything you have done in preparation. Six weeks ago I had an athlete have a great race day and commented; “releasing expectations can be good”. Yes, releasing expectations IS good, it is powerful and it is calming.

Release yourself …

Early Races: Evaluation & Adaptation

2011-05-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Recently the majority of the athletes in the TTE team had their first races of the season. Though most of the squad did some single sport races in the winter, these were the first races being used as a launching pad for later season “key” races. It’s often said the “proof Is in the pudding”, or in this case it’s the chance to go out and race hard, learn some “stuff” and gain valuable fitness for the rest of the season. In the days leading into those races I made a comment that read; “Don’t be afraid to learn!” Considering the first race of the year exposes us all (coach and athlete) to a variety of items that need to be addressed, the athletes took that statement to heart.

After the dust had settled from the weekend, I asked the team a series of pointed questions to help them evaluate their own hard day of racing. Not only did I ask them to answer some questions, but I’ve asked them to keep the email thread so it can used for reference before their next event. When I started getting replies it was a pleasure to see how many of them had really taken the time to review their days and make thoughtful comments. The best part of this process is, it allows us to make adaptations and solve “problems” together!

Even though there were many good performances we had a wide variety of realizations and adaptations that need to be made between now and next time we toe the line. The following is a sample of what I saw, maybe some of these will hit home with you:

+ Execute my swim workouts better (don’t underestimate the swim)

+ Be more organized during the transitions

+ Smarter self seeding for the swim

+ More pre race fuel

+ Adapt bike position

+ Stick to the bike pacing plan 100%

+ Run the first ¼ of the run easier

+ “Too easy a pace on the bike yielded a far superior run” (I'd like to call this 'running to ability')

+ “ I was able to pace and fuel the bike well even though my watch stopped working”

+ “I need to be more self sufficient during the race”

As you can see there are a wide variety of areas to be addressed and corrected for the future, and these don’t even take into consideration the training changes that I need to make as a coach.

My advice? Do some HONEST self evaluation … write it down … share it with someone … put a plan in place to correct what needs correcting … then, review your list periodically. The fact that early season races expose us is not a bad thing at all, in fact, it’s good. It’s how you react to it that matters.

Have a great 2011 ... DL

It's Going Around ... Plantar Fasciitis

2011-03-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Whether it's going around more or I'm just sensitive to it after having a horrible case for five months in 2010, I am seeing and hearing of more and more athletes who have "come down with it" OR have been "dealing with it". Since it's not my place to get in to the medical side of Plantar Fasciitis, I can describe it in this way; almost all people experiencing it have a very sharp pain in the heel of the foot. That pain is almost always prominent when waking (and walking) in the morning and in worse cases it persists through the the day. Below is what finally helped me and what I have been able to advise to athletes based on experience. In every case so far, the athletes that have stuck to the routine have come back to running / training / working successfully.

My experience and ideas are not all unique, yet came through a variety of suggestions from a few others, and I thank them for that! The unique part for me was finding the treatment routine that worked, THEN sticking with it!

Step 1: Can you identify the source of the PF? Identify the source the best you can or all the rehab in the world isn't going make it go away permanently (that's the goal). Possible Sources:

* Running Shoes: (new, old, or different) ... take a look at when the pain started and if you made any changes in your running shoes.

* Cycling Shoe-Pedal-Cleat Interface ... be sure that you are on a stable system (I prefer Look) AND that your cleats do not rock side to side or are not worn out ... also be sure the pedals are not worn where cleats contact pedals.

* Training volume, intensity, and terrain ... was there a big change in any of these at the time pain started?

For me it was a "perfect storm" of items one and two. By the time I figured it out I was toast! I find for most people it's a combination of item and one and three

Once you have PF, then what?

1) Wear the Boot!: there are many varieties but the following link shows what I finally began wearing after way too long of not getting optimal results out of the Strausberg Sock.

- http://www.footsmart.com/p-healwell-night-splint-10130.aspx -- I wore this every night until I knew for sure I was in the clear

2) TP Massage Foot & Lower Leg Kit: I started out using the products and doing their simple 15 min. routine 2-3 x per day and I'm still using it today (though I should use it more): http://store.tptherapy.com/TP_Performance_Foot_and_Lower_Leg_Kit_p/tpt-pfkr.htm

** Problems with PF typically don't arise from a foot problem, for most, it starts above it in the lower leg. Therefore, for most, treating simply the foot is only a temporary fix!

***NOTE: for local athletes the TP Massage product is available at Echelon Cycle & Multisport

3) Wear arch support ALL the time and NEVER go barefoot, even the first step out of bed.

4) After rising from bed go straight to the bath tub and rinse your foot and lower leg in very warm water for a few minutes.

5) Hot / Cold contrast ... I usually did this later in the evening with a moist hot pack & a bucket of ice water. I alternated 2min hot / 2min cold 3-5 times before going to bed at night and wearing the splint. (this came from Shawn @ Avia ... Thanks Shawn!)

6) Strength ... finally, strengthening your lower leg / calves is often a great supplement to all the other items.

Yes, I know this looks like alot of effort, but once you get in to the routine it's well worth the time and small dollar investment to be sure you can train the way you want to.

Can you continue to run / train? For most people, yes! You'll have to lighten the training load (volume, intensity, terrain) but quite often you can continue to train assuming the pain is lessening and the protocol above is improving the condition of the PF. If you aren't improving then consider 5-7 days of no cycling or running to help accelerate the level of improvement. Then try to start back at a lower level of activity.

DISCLAIMER: OH, it's important to know I'm not a medical professional and all of this is from personal experience ... plus I stayed at A Holiday Inn Express at some point too ;-)

Good Luck ... DL

Things we Like ... OOMPH!

2011-01-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Somthing new and simple I'll plan on adding to the blog here is a series of ... Things We Like ... periodically I'll drop in items / products here that we (TTE Nation ... or just me) have run through the ringer and feel strongly about.

First up, cool stuff from the folks at OOMPH! http://www.oomphsports.com/

Oomph is small tri apparel brand out of the Pacific Northwest. Scott & Julie have been rolling this stuff out in small batches for years, they have been very supportive of TTE, and the product has been very popular with the squad. I think our most favorite piece we is any short with their distance pad. (plus the Vigor compression short) Above is a the Lava Compression Short & Classic Singlet that Scott kindly put together for me last minute in August. Of course it worked great .... ;-) A lot of our squad will wear the Lava for long and short training rides and it pairs up VERY well with an Adamo saddle. I actually find the singlet works well as a base layer piece too!

OOMPH in Action!

Workout of The Day

2011-01-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

I figured I would drop some workouts here on the blog for those that might need a little variety or as a window into some of the sessions the TTE Athletes are doing.

The following swim session's Main Set was one I did as part of a group workout on Monday. I liked it so much I adapted and used it for my squad at swim practice today.

How I swam it:

Warm Up (long)

300ez / 4x75 as 25 scull-50free / 6x50 alt 1 build- 1 ez / 400 as 25 kick (stroke order) - 25 free / 100 EZ

Main Set: (Courtesy of Nicole Carter)

4 x (200-100-4x25) ... continuous on rest given below

* 200 moderate pace (send off to get you 20sec rest)

* 100 IM (use a send off the gets you about 5sec rest)

* 4 x 25 Fast / Max Sustainable on 1min

THEN Main Set Part 2

* 400 paddles / band on ankles / buoy (focus on long stroke) ... rest 20sec

* 8 x 50 paddles (alt 1 strong / 1 easy ("""""") @ 10sec rest

WARM DOWN

8 x 25 easy mixed stroke

++++

If time/endurance is an issue build your own session around the main set of 1600 meters so that warm up / main set / warm down gets you in the 3000 range. That 1600 meter main ste is a sneaky one ;-0 ... ENJOY

2010-12-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

I have a few spots left open in my indoor cycling series ... general details are below. Please email me: dave (at) traintoendure.com if you have any questions or are interested.

WHEN: Thursday evenings starting January 6th. Training sessions will begin promptly at 6pm and last 75-80 minutes.

WHERE: Aria Velo - 512 Wilson St. - Santa Rosa, Ca. – www.ariavelo.com

WHY: Because winter limits the daylight hours we have to train and the indoor trainer is one of the most productive ways to gain cycling specific strength, efficiency, and power. Plus it’s always more motivating to train in a group!

THE WORKUTS: Because consistency is a key to athletic improvement. The training sessions will be a progressive series of workouts, built upon one another, to help the cyclist build better power and efficiency at “functional threshold”. Valuable for any type of cyclist, “Functional Threshold” is the AVG HR or power, in WATTS, that an athlete can sustain for approximately 1 hour or a 40 kilometer time trial at best effort.

2010-11-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Patience, Courage, Trust, Loyalty ….

I typically don’t single out athletes with big stories about race success unless it is truly exceptional, and when I say exceptional it’s not always about placing or time … it’s about individual performance against themselves and the clock. I’m going to take this opportunity to single someone out for not so much an exceptional performance in race time, but more for the road and the story traveled to get there.

I’ve been working with Chuck Sloan for a number of years through great short course racing results at the international level and currently through the transition to long distance racing. So many folks just assumed that because someone can go very fast at the short distance they instantly go “fast” over the longer distances. While Chuck has had success at the longer distance up to this point it hasn’t always been pretty. Speed doesn’t = endurance AND things don’t always “go your way”.

PART 1 --After racing the Ironman World Championship in 2009 we were humbled and the “Irishman” (he’s originally from Montana actually) had no intention of going back for 2010 … that was until his wife re-qualified at Ironman Florida and they decided they needed to honeymoon in Hawaii. Then I got the phone call … “Hey Dave, let’s do it!” I tell him I’m on board but the question he asked was “How do we qualify … most of all the Ironman qualifying races that make sense are full”. The end of the conversation came down to a decision to race Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3. In that decision we both realized … winning the age group is the only way to be sure of the spot!

Fast forward to June of 2010 and the buildup has been pretty good including nice early season race results, but also some race “issues” to sort through and conquer. Coming into the BSLT 70.3 Chuck ended up with an acute hamstring injury and he did virtually no running (his racing strength) for 3 weeks going into the race. We took a risk in the race strategy and thought he might need to win this thing on the swim-bike combo and not the run. When the dust settled it was a front pack swim, an exit from the bike with the leaders, and a “steady” run that notched him an unorthodox (for him) but confidence building win and the slot to the World Championship in October.

PART 2 – The next piece of the puzzle included recovery, light training, a wedding and then starting the build for the second half of the season. Once we got going again the training started to move along OK. Then in early August the next hurdle runs out in front of Chuck in the form of dog while he was travelling 30moh on the bike. The result? A broken wrist and ensuing surgery, a beat up ankle that limited running (especially long running) well into September and other smaller issues. The biggest problems with the wrist surgery were: no swimming for a few weeks, no outdoor riding until mid September and the one thing that do-able, the run, was severely limited because of the crash. Toward the end of August we were days away from pulling the plug when we decided to give it a chance.

We were able to get into a training routine but didn’t have much time for a proper build so a detour was taken. The decision was made to keep training load high up until 7-10 days out from the race since we hadn’t built up enough fatigue to do a normal “freshening period” or “taper”. The other decision was going to be a very conservative race plan to allow for an even output race effort. Essentially we did the best we could with the time we had and rolled the dice. OH, the other thing … Chuck wasn’t cleared to ride outside until less than 3 weeks before race day. Therefore, before travelling to the race he only did three rides outdoors because of his wrist. For those of you that ride indoor trainers you know that it can be mentally and physically challenging to do even a 90 minute session … try doing all your sessions including 4-5 hour ones on the trainer!

TO THE RACE – Pre-Race Chuck had a certain calm confidence around him that we strive for and I was sure he would execute his race with the tools available to him on that day. It’s not an easy task to pace to current fitness (as opposed to what we thought was possible in early August) when you have a motivated brain, and a body full of adrenalin and emotion … but I felt calm about how he would handle things. Reality is, just getting to the start line in that condition was a victory in itself. To simply be at that point took a lot of patience, courage, determination and trust … and the gun hasn’t even fired yet! On to the race itself …

-A year of smarter and more swimming paid off … almost four minutes better than the year previous, PROGRESS!

-On to the bike and we had laid out a plan that was solid, albeit a little conservative, to make sure that we stayed within the levels of current fitness and set up what we hoped would be a steady run. Early on the bike we started getting some really slow splits from the course and figured Chuck had a mechanical. (oh no) Slow splits turned to no splits at 60 miles (OH SHIT) and we were almost resigned to thinking that the day was over when his splits showed up at mile 60 and mile 88. Things were back to looking OK except for a REALLY slow stretch between mile 5 and 28 … normally the fastest section of the course.

-Chuck hit the run course looking relaxed and let me know he had a “mechanical” … but was doing OK. He managed to pace an incredibly smart run and finished the day running 3:03 which was very special considering the lead up to the race. On the inside we know there was more to it than just a well paced run … ;-) When the dust settled Chuck had an Ironman PB of over 11 minutes created through periods of adversity.

Loyalty …. The biggest story that comes from the day was when I heard of his “mechanical”. Around the 8 mile mark of the bike he started thinking that he hadn’t secured the rear skewer on his wife’s bike at check in the day before. Since he couldn’t get rid of that thought, and in his words; “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her and I knew exactly what I was sacrificing” he decided to stop and wait for her at the side of the road! When it was all said and done we figured (by looking at his power meter after) that he lost up to 10 minutes waiting for Jennifer! Jens coach and I joked that he was lucky she was swimming and riding well ;-) You can do the math of how that might have changed his race time, or what was sacrificed in the process, but when the ENTIRE "trip" was done and dusted we could be sure of one thing. When you talk about Mr. Sloan it is synonymous with: Patience, Courage, Trust, AND Loyalty

The day after the race, at the awards dinner, we talked for a little while and theorized a bit about the race and his future with it. We agreed on some things that worked (or didn’t) and then my words to him were simple … “we still have more work to do”. He looked at me and didn’t say a word, he just gave me the look … if you are friends with Chuck you may know the look, the look of the motivated Irishman. Beware the motivated Irishman ;-)

IMC Re-Visited ...

2010-10-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

OK ... better late than never right? I wasn't even going to bother posting since it's so late but it was written weeks ago so figured I might as well. It's been a crazy 7 weeks with multiple bouts of travel, busy days, and seemingly endless recovery from the year. Here goes ... it's a bit long but thats the way it is. If anyone wants detailed data from the bike course just let me know. The TTE crew had great race plans and they were very effective ...

IMPORTANT Items in Pre-Lude to IMC
- I did ZERO running JAN-MAY with Plantar Fasciitis (poor equipment choices) … had a decent final 8 weeks leading into the race with about 4 weeks of “IM specific running”
- My Mom passed away in late June which made training far down the priority list and a little challenging mentally at times
- Schedule … I had big conflicts (no training & high energy demand) at weekends 6 & 4 weeks out from the race but we managed a couple solid days mid week in replacement of training volume that week.
- I took some stress off my own planning and sought out advice from Gordo Byrn and his EC crew this time around. It helped to have others ideas help in my prep and valuable as a coach to see other “methodologies”.

THE RACE:

Pre Race … confident, very calm, and a solid race script in my head

SWIM … I started front row, half way across. It was a little chaotic to start as a bunch of folks to my left wanted to swim across me to the bouys … it settled and strangely enough I swam most of the way to the first turn in clear water (not ideal, but calming) with lots of 3 and 4 stroke breathing. I managed to link with a group coming in to the first turn but lost that group around the turn when I went wide. From there I swam “steady as she goes” and was surprised to be swimming up behind athletes and simply swimming around them until I arrived at point about 200 meters out where I swam solo into the shallows. I decided to stand, walk, finish taking a pee and opted to pull the wetsuit off there to skip the strippers and help get HR settled ASAP

Time 1:01 @ the timing mat after taking suit off in the water … content with that.

BIKE

T1 to Richter Pass (40miles) … Because of the comfortable swim it was nice to have the HR settled as soon as I got on the bike. It was amazing but it felt like everyone rode by me between Okanagan Falls (mile 15) and the base of Richter Pass. Hard to mentally swallow a couple of the big groups, and marshals not doing much about it, but noticed that they were riding very erratically and definitely not their own efforts. Wind was calm until we hit a little head wind the closer we got to Osoyoos.I was super comfortable to the “Husky Station” hitting mile 40 … stomach was good, moving well, confident in my own world!

- NOTE: I had to pee a lot early (this continued all day) and I did it coasting on the bike. I coasted at every opportunity when the speed was up. (continued this trend the rest of the day)

Richter Pass (7 miles) … I just relaxed and started cruising up Richter but began to get a little alarmed that EVRYONE was riding past me. Confident in my own plan I just kept it even and did my thing. As we got to the second piece of Richter we began to face some headwind that slowed the downhill sections. I just stayed on some nutrition and kept moving. All systems still go, stomach good, brain good … nice easy first 50 miles!

All the Rollers and to the out and back (21 miles) … interestingly enough It was here that I started to move up on a few folks and kept doing so through the entire 21 mile section. Strangely enough most of it was on the down hills while coasting, but also on the flats. Stayed aero, chin down, and relaxed as often as possible. It was a bummer to get rolled up by another group at the end of this section, but I still felt great going into the out and back, Still lots of reserve … needed to keep calming my desire to crank it up! Brain, body … all systems go!

---(picture above is not of me but the conditions on the Yellow Lake Climb)---

Out & Back to Yellow Lake and False Flats Above Twin Lakes (29 miles) … the tailwind on the out section made for easy speed and quick trip to special needs. We headed back off the ridge with a stiff headwind that would continue until we hit the trough below the final climb at Yellow Lake. The confidence continued to grow as I was consistently passing folks, even though I felt like I was going so slow because of the wind and gradually uphill terrain. Yellow Lake climb felt simple considering I had good legs / energy, and I even felt like I could press the pace a bit here (not common for me this late in the ride). The big issue was that the building wind we were dealing that brought in dark clouds and the light rain before the Yellow lake climb turned into a torrential downpour and rapidly dropping temperatures on the climb. Even with the changes, I was still feeling really good in mind and body.

The Descent & Trip Back to T2 … things got pretty scary / dangerous on the initial descent as the wind was swirling and harsh, it started to get cold, and cones were strewn across the road. Even though I am confident descending I unfortunately had to sit up, slow down and get on the brakes to keep me safe and upright. This continued all the way to the HWY 97 turn where things were a bit warmer and not quite as windy … problem is I was VERY cold and stiff! Good news is I actually felt pretty aware and was still moving through folks at this point. In hindsight, two things struck me as I moved through the outskirts of town: 1) I had to pry my hands from the aero bars and straighten my fingers (I had claws) 2) I had some fuzzy vision and a little lack of senses, even though I was very aware. At first I thought I was bonking but it simply wasn’t the case considering the calories I’d ingested. Both of these were simply the effects of being much colder than I initially realized. Rolled by more guys on the way into town … feeling good mentally (but obviously still cold)

- OVERALL Ride Time: 5:36

-NOTES … I actually moved up about 50 places overall during the bike largely because of the last 45 miles … this is new for me as I usually give up places. OH, and I have NEVER pissed so much during a bike ride before! ;-)

T2 … I realized, again in hindsight, that I was a bit dis-oriented from the cold on the bike. It was hard to get socks and shoes on properly (I had to adjust them all at mile 2 of the run once I warmed up) PLUS I dropped my Garmin 3 times on the way out and could never work the function buttons

RUN
-Pacing plan (based on my very short run build up) was to simply run conservatively to mile 16, taking 20-30sec walk breaks at the back end of all aid stations, then try to lift if the ability was there.

- Nutrition: alternate carbo pro from a flask and cola at every aid station adding water and sodium as needed

Miles 0 – 10 … I simply pushed the easy button and coasted along comfortably knowing I could sit on that effort the entire 26.2 … pace was just below 8min and felt ridiculous. All felt good, stomach was good, and mentally the big challenge was being patient

Miles 10-16 … I wanted to just get through this hilly section and drop down to mile 16’ish with hope of increasing the speed. I got to the turn holding just at 8min miles (that was the conservative goal) and headed back up the first steep hill. Coming down to the turn my quads started to really load up but I didn’t think much of it until they did the same on the steep pitch out of OK Falls. At that point I didn’t have much real estate left to the top and to “get out of Dodge” where I figured it would be all good. I really just cooled it going up the long grade trying to get to the top un-scathed. When I got to the top the quads were very sore but I still had good mental/physical energy and figured I’d just get to the flats and hang on. I started down the last long grade where my quads just seized and I was simply too sore to run. For the first time all day doubt crept in my head, so I did a bit of walk/jog management to the flats. Once I got down to the flat section I could barely run … the bottom just dropped out.

Miles 16-Finish … I simply just did what I could the last 10-11 miles to keep moving forward. I’ve never really thought that Ironman races were “painful”, just A LOT of discomfort at times. This was actually painful and I found a walk / jog scenario that kept me moving toward the finish. I can see now how people punch out mentally and just walk it in … I simply couldn’t stomach that. It was very difficult mentally to handle the quick change of direction my body took since energy was quite good and my stomach was cooperating.

First 13.1 Miles = 1:44:??
Final 13.1 Miles = 2:13:??
Overall = 10:43:??

RUN NOTE … an amazing stat to me was that considering how horribly I ran I didn’t give up any places over the run course. I finished in the same place I started the run … hmmmm

FINAL NOTES:
-I can’t recall ever feeling so good on the swim and bike combo during an IM race before (faster yes) … and matter of fact it felt “easy” (relative term) for most of the day. I simply had a good combo of fitness, pacing, nutrition, and mental game rolling and felt very much in control heading to T2. Maybe my first warning sign of what was to come was the odd sensation riding back to town.

-I told those close to me before the race (back in early July?) I’d be very happy to even get to the start healthy and mentally intact with all the complications of the build up. In the end I was very happy to have done the prep for the race and to have fought the good fight. We had a nice crew of athletes that made the process even more enjoyable. The biggest challenge I’ve had is feeling like my race ended abruptly and I wasn’t able to finish it off … even though I physically finished. I also realize now that because of my lay off from running and schedule this was the only time I raced all year and was missing some very valuable “race fitness”. I’m feeling a bit hollow and sore, BUT actually motivated for more in the future. We'll see what happens next ... for now it's taking care of the body and TTE Nation!

Athlete Updates & IMC

2010-09-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

The Beginning of the month is always a good time for some athlete updates ....

- Congratulations:

- John Lander (above) for defending his overall series title at Rancho Seco and winning it again in 2010 ... it's never easy to repeat so well done John!

- Dan Taylor for completing his first half marathon on Aug 29th!

- Marie Muchow taking a 5k PB on Aug 29th!

- Amanda Erwin 14th Amateur Overall at the Chicago Triathlon

Then there is the Ironman Canada crew (pictured above on race morning) that I had the pleasure of racing with on Aug 29th. I'm going to drop a long winded write up of my build up (a very challenging one) and race day (equally as difficlut) early next week ... but these four athletes deserve some credit for what they accomplished and how they accomplished it!

-Pat Krueger ... in his 2nd go at the distance, Pat's execution carried him to a 1hr+ PB (on a much more difficult course) and a negative split marathon. Masterful training an incredibly smart race day was well rewarded at the finish!

Jen Latourette ... the wifey endured the biggest blister I've ever seen and proved her true grit as she kept pressing all the way to the line and still even split the marathon .... not far from a PB!

Leslie Shaw ... in her first time at the distance, Leslie capped off an up & down season (on the up side) by taking 8th in her AG and winning an Ironman World Championship spot! (though she turned it down for all the right reasons) She keeps on improving!!!

Phil Johnson ... also racing for the first time at the distance Phil executed his race plan to perfection, and like Pat, negative split the marathon to cap off a great day. Crazy solid for a first time!!!

A VERY BIG THANKS goes out to Ron Shaw, Julie Krueger, and Amy Latourette for all their support of the TTE Nation across the border in Canada.

I'll be back in a couple days to drop my report from IMC on the blog. (it's already written) The build up and the race were very different than any other race I've ever done!

Good luck to everyone at the Ukiah Tri "World Championship" on Sunday ... I'll be on the microphone instead of racing!

More Later ... DL

Vineman and ....

2010-08-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah ... been awhile but when it gets busy with TTE Nation the blog is ALWAYS the first thing to go! So, for now I'll provide a snapshot of what has been going on since the last post!

Vineman 70.3 ... congrats to everyone racing, GREAT races by the crew

- Mike Starkey -- huge PB

- Ron Shaw - PB

- Pat Krueger - PB

- Troy Tuscher through a battery of events still managed to keep going AND not sell his bike! We'll get it right Troy!

- John Lander - Terrific race for the ageless wonder @ 69 years old!

- Chris Coppinger - PB and continues to improve with not an ideal prep period!

TTE CAMPERS ... a big shout out to our TTE Summer Camp attendees Mari Coppinger, Jeff Ottoboni, Steve Behler, and Freddie Diaz for there awesome races as well ... great work gang!

Ranco Seco Sprint/Olympic ... congrats to Liana Meffert (age group win), John Lander (age group podium), Dan Taylor (first OD race)

San Francisco Marathon and Half Marathon ... kudos to Marie Muchow, Jen Ratcliffe and Odessa Schexnaydre for competing on a tough, tough course! Well done ladies ...

Full Vineman ... nice contingent of TTE Nation racing events at the Full Vineman

- Tracy Schneider - her first Iron Distance completion and she's is motivated to go again, NICE Tracy!

- Jamie Lau - he keeps learning and improving, WELL DONE JAMIE! He'll be going for Vineman part III next year!

- Brian Pitterle - like Tracy it was his first Iron Distance race and he did it balanced around a very busy schedule! Great stuff Brian.

* Special congratulations to 2 x TTE Camper and now 2 x Full Vineman finisher Clay Popko who battled through mechanicals and other bodily drama to get it done!

** Shout out to Leslie Shaw, Phil Johnson, Pat Krueger, Jen Latourette, Mike Starkey, Troy Tuscher, Scott Wing, and Dan Taylor who were all using the Full and Half Aquabike events as tune ups for late season events or some self exploration!

Route 66 Quarter Marathon ... well done Amanda Erwin winning the overall as part of her preps for the Toyota Cup series and USAT Nationals.

Rancho Seco August ...

- John Lander defends his Series Championship again and takes the 2010 Title!
- Ron Shaw takes an age group 2nd and 8th overall at the sprint race!

Next up is the Ironman Canada crew on August 29th!

See yaaaa

Group Training & Compromise Part III

2010-07-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

First thing: check out some TTE athlete updates here: http://traintoendure.dreamhosters.com/new/team-news/

In Part III we look at Group Run Training ... AND my apologies for the long time between the series! A combo of running our training camp and and sorting through some family priorities the blog was the first thing to go ;-)

When we look at most Group Run workouts they tend to be comprised predominantly of the following:
* Long runs done at the effort / pace of the fastest guys & gals
* Track Workout intervals of very short duration and typically high intensity (threshold or Vo2 efforts)
* Pure Runners … this isn’t bad, it’s just that their event/training demands are different from yours. Been there and done that!

As triathletes our running needs tend to be the following:
* Run 4-6 x per week ... 2-3 of those runs after bike rides
* Race distances (non-stop) ranging from 3 miles to 26miles AFTER bike rides
* Steady State pacing with the ability to lift effort on the back end of the run segment regardless of race intensity is the key component of how we need to pace our runs at the end of swim/bike. When I say steady state pacing I am referring to, for the most part, effort NOT speed. We need to be strong!

**NOTE: Its not that more intensive sessions aren't effective, it's simply that we need to insert them at crucial times in lead ups to races. We always need to think about the demands of our races AND the demands of our ability to recover and train effectively tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on.

Therefore, how / when do we fit in Group Run training to our triathlon training ?
* Pick a running group that fits your "needs" or accommodates your needs
* Use a group session (even the track) that allows you a variety of ability/pace levels to run at. It might even be best to "run down" a pacing group from where you would run if you didn't have swimming & cycling load in your system
* Put together your own group as mentioned in the parts 1 & 2. Have a clear plan of routes, pacing ... out and back routes work great when running for time with groups.
* You may need to use group sessions sparingly during specific prep periods and more generously at other times.

Thanks for reading ...

Group Training & Compromise -- Part II

2010-06-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

In Part II we look at Group Cycling Training ...

When we look at most Group Bike workouts they tend to be comprised predominantly of the following:
* Harder segments of riding followed by stopping / re-grouping / eating
* Hard, non race specific climbing efforts with re-groups at the top of hills OR complete recovery / stopping / coasting
* Drafting
* Cyclists … this isn’t bad, it’s just that their event demands are different from yours. I'm one of them so I know ;-)

As triathletes our cycling needs and trends tend to be the following:
* Cycle 3 x per week
* Race distances (non-stop) ranging from 13 miles to 112 miles
* Steady State pacing regardless of intensity is the key component of how we need to pace our race segments. When I say steady state pacing I am referring to, for the most part, effort NOT speed.

** If those are the demands of our key events then typical group riding doesn’t often address that need.

Therefore, how / when do we fit in Group Cycling to our training ?
* Pick a cycling group that fits your "needs" or accommodates your needs
* Use a group session that allows for steady state riding at effort levels that support the demands of your event(s)
* Put together your own group as mentioned above. Have a clear plan of routes, pacing, and occasional re-grouping spots to fill bottles, AND most importantly ride your OWN pace and even practice riding at “legal distance” back from the person in front of you
* You may need to use group sessions sparingly during specific prep periods and more generously at other times.

One of my favorite group cycling sessions includes the following:
- A 30-100 mile ride with specific, personal pacing goals relative to upcoming event(s)
- A group of varied abilities … (good climbers, flat land speed demons, all rounder’s, those faster, etc.) … that have similar goals in mind.
- Fixed points for re-groups, and bottle fill ups etc.
- Everyone has their own pacing goals, workouts, main sets etc.

My personal goal for this session revolves around sticking to MY pacing no matter how I feel OR how anyone else feels or reacts in the group. One of the biggest challenges comes when you get passed or dropped and you may have to let your training partners go up the road. It happens to almost everyone in a race! Having to deal with reacting or not reacting in training will help prepare you for the inevitable on race day.

Give it some thought. Next time … running!

Group Training & Compromise

2010-06-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

People for the most part are inherently social ... OK not all people. Because of that nature, as endurance athletes (triathletes specifically), it's not uncommon for us to stay in our social mode and gravitate toward group training. (masters swims, group rides & runs etc.) I often say to my athletes, when it comes to group training, you are going to have to compromise. Now this isn't always a bad thing, it's just a fact ... and in that fact it can be a good thing if you "use" the group correctly ;-) When I say compromise, it's a reference to simply not doing the exact training YOU need to optimize performance. So what do most people compromise?

* The workout being too long or too short
* The workout being too intense ... very rarely does anyone end up in a group and have it be too easy ;-)
* Time frame ... meaning, group sessions ALWAYS take longer than doing it solo. When I say longer it's usually longer because of group dynamics, not because of moving speed!
* Terrain ... group training can take you off the specific terrain YOU need to be training on for your key event(s)

So ... how can you "use" the groups to get your social connectivity and get proper training? Lets start with generalities ...

* Use groups for extra motivation ... whether it's just getting to a certain place to meet the group or that extar push on a scheduled hard day.
* Use the energy of the group / group session as a challenge for you to do the right thing in YOUR training (more on this as we get into swim, bike or run specifically)
* Create your own training group of people who are "on the same page" or are training for the same event(s)

Lets start specifically with Group Swim Training ... more often referred to as "Masters".

As we look at most Masters Programs they tend to be comprised predominantly of the following:
* Hard / Fast Swimming on tight or long rest intervals
* Work intervals tend to be short ... 25's to 100's
* At least a couple days a week with lots of non freestyle swimming
* Swimmers
.
As triathletes our needs / trends tend to be the following
* Swim 3 x per week (I hope at least that much)
* Race distances (non-stop I'll add) ranging from 1500 meters to 3800 meters
* Because of cycling and running volume, the need is for specific muscular load and patterns NOT cardiovascular system improvement (we get plenty of that from bike and run)

With just those simple points, where / how do we fit in Group or "Masters"?
* Pick a program or group that fits your "needs"
* Use the group sessions 1-2 x per week if your race demands include itensive swim effort
* Swim up or down in a lane OR in different lanes to manage the intensity you need on a given day
* Again, put together your own group as mentioned above

I'll leave you with three swim session "Main Sets" that are specific to different distances. See if any of these are similar to what "your group" does OR even what you are doing:

OLYMPIC DISTANCE MAIN SET - 1500m continuous on rest intervals:
-5x50 fast @ :10 rest --> 250 strong @ :20 rest
-5x100 strong @ :10 rest
-500 mod / strong

HALF IRONMAN MAIN SET - 2000m continuous on rest intervals:
-400,300,200,100 moderate all @ :10-:15 rest
-400, 300, 200, 100 slightly faster than the set above @ same rest interval

IRONMAN MAIN SET (no warm up) - 3500m continuous on rest intervals
-500,400,300,200,100 moderate @ :15 rest
-2 x (250,200,150,100,50) @ :10 rest
-5 x100 moderate @ :05 rest
.
NOTE: can you maintain "moderate pace" over the entire set? What does moderate feel like in the last 5x100 compared to first 500?

From my view? By picking the wrong swim groups/squads/coaches for their needs, I'm seeing alot of triathletes justgetting tired as opposed to be coming better swimmers and understanding their pacing needs.

Think it over ... back with more next week on cycling groups!

Athletes & Back On My Feet!

2010-05-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody ... I haven't been here much on the blog as I have been linking updates to facebook thru my Twitter, but figured it's time a some shout out to the racing crew for superb efforts early in the season! I also thought it would be good to shoot an update about whats going on with my foot and running progress or lack there of ;) ... I open at the top with a picture from Blue Lakes Lodge in the middle of nowhere California (actually it's west of Lakeport ;-). I just returned form a three day, point to point ride in very remote terrain. Maybe I'll get around to doing a post on the details. It ended with almost 5:00 in the rain last Monday. I don't use the word epic very often, but that ride was EPIC. For those that know the area ... we couldn't see more than 50 feet in front of us descending Myers Grade and I doubt if many could feel their hands!

First, some shout outs to the crew:

Texas 70.3: Chuck Sloan took the age group race and finished 11th Overall with the pro men. Good way to start the season ...

Napa Half and Sprint Crew: Nice results for Pat Krueger (podium), Dad to be Scott Wing, Jamie Lau (PR), and "crazy kudos"to my wife Jen and Kyle Hughes for "doubling up". The course out there is a true, honest test ... like Wildflower there is nowhere to hide!

Wildflower Half / MTB / OD: More nice results further down south for Leslie Shaw (podium), Chris Coppinger, Mike Starkey, Ron Shaw, Caitlin Scheider-Bieschin (2nd place OA MTB Sprint), Tim Noonan.

Also: Amanda Erwin made her triumphant return to racing 1 year after a horrific bike vs. car accident by taking 5th at the OKC half marathon - welcome back Amanda! Paul Stimson has 2 notches in his belt for the California Double Century Stage Race ... one more to go and looking for a top ten! Kevin Williams for his transformation to Ultra running ... he has improved along the way with nice performances at Cool, Lake Sonoma, & Miwock ... good work Kevin!

On my feet ... back on that trail above ;-)

- It has been a long, slow, haul to get the PF to the point where I felt confident I wasn't setting myself back. It took alot of patience and a ton of persistence with a few key items. The following were the "modalities" that made a difference

- Rest, of course ;-) ... "Dave don't do anything stupid when it starts to feel good" (thanks BDC)

- Hot / Cold Contrast (thanks Shawn)

- VERY warm water first thing in the morning (thanks BDC and to Jen)

- Night Splint

- Trigger Point Self Therapy ... let me tell you I bombed myself with the TP therapy using their lower leg processand some of my own injection. I believe this really started moving stuff in the right direction and I'll continue to use it even when I get in the clear.
-

Considering I had to take four months of ZERO running, and lots of searching, I'm currently trying to "run", OK jog, 30-40 minutes, 3-4 x per week. I'll first try to raise the frequency before I pop in any volume. I'll also begin to "back end" some runs with shallow water running to try and extend my long run endurance. As far as the rest of the season? Well, right now I am going to stick to the plan of IMC and see how the next couple months progresses. If I pull it off it won't be one of the best, but I won't start unless I know I can come through without injury ... it's just not worth. I really enjoy the process of getting ready for the event, and this is sure going to be a different way of getting er' done!

My Best ... DL

April 13th Short V-Blog

2010-04-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

A short V-Blog from my Tuesday / Thursday swim squad! Loooong warm up, VERY Short VERY HARD main set today! ;)

TTE Camp - Done and Dusted - VBlog

2010-03-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's done already? Our three day training camp is already in the books and I have to say it may have been our best "Winter Camp" yet. With the level of attending athlete higher than ever it created a dynamic that forced everyone to rise to the challenge to simply just finish the minimums for camp volume. BIG thanks go out to my wife, Coach Jen, and sister Amy for their support and work with the camp. Of course congratulations to the athletes (picture above) for their efforts and our sponsors (TYR, Fuel Belt, AlCis, Aria Velo, Camelbak, and CLIF) for all their support and GREAT product!

Below is a little V-Blog from Day 2 of the camp. I'll add more thoughts, and pictures from the camp as they become available.

Going Camping!!

2010-03-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well, 2 days until we start our TTE training camp and the weather still appears to be free of rain (knocking on wood) ... unlike last year when it rained non-stop! We'll kick things off with a welcome gathering and then straight to the pool Friday morning. If getting through the camp isn't enough of a challenge, we do have some categorized competitions up for grabs with support from our GREAT sponsors! Aria Velo & Rand Libberon are hosting the camp so big THANKS to Rand!!

- Overall Points Winner presented by: Echelon Cycle & Multisport

- TrainToEndure.com Most Impressive Athlete
- TYR Swim

- Clif Bar "KOM"
- AlCis Toughest Athlete
- Fuel Belt "CampVirgin "

So, until we get you more camp updates. A little something I wrote a couple years ago that ties in with the camp!

Build Your Own Training Camp

One of the more popular activities in endurance sports lately are training camps. At first glance they seem glamorous, attractive and fun. The reality is they can be all of those things, but some of the packaged and organized camps can get very pricey. When looking for a camp you may need to decide: are you looking for a high profile “camp with the stars”, an education camp with lots of technical teaching, or a camp where you can go push yourself physically to prepare for a particular race or bolster your fitness for an upcoming race season.

If you decide you don’t want to dish out the big dollars for a packaged training camp I’d like to share with you an option for building your own “training camp”. Therefore, the focus here will be on building a camp that is specific to stretching yourself physically and mentally to help build raw fitness. I will discuss this in broad terms so that athletes across all distances might be able to apply some of these details to their own camp.

Here are the first things to consider if you decide to build your own training camp.

1) Whatever the duration of your camp, it’s best to eliminate distractions and anything that does not relate to training and recovering. For example; consider traveling away from home, staying in a place that has a full kitchen, and ideally have someone come that may do a portion of the training but will help prepare meals and organize the logistics! (Or stay near an all you can eat buffet!)

2) Bring at least one training buddy along. Better yet, bring more than one buddy along in case you get sick of one another! I think having a trusted training partner to push you and motivate you a little is a key factor to the getting the most from your camp. There are only a small handful of people that can do an effective training camp solo.

3) Prepare your equipment, food, and supplements in advance. Have your schedule and details prepared before you head off to the camp. Bottom line, do your homework before leaving home or before starting your camp.

EXAMPLE: 3 Day “Volume Camp” – This is a great option when you have a long weekend or three days in a row off from work to focus on training. I especially like this option as it seems quite reasonable for working folks and can provide a nice training stimulus without an overly long recovery period. This is more applicable to long course athletes and experienced short course athletes.

Day 1: Run :45 aerobic, Ride 3:00 - 4:00 Aerobic. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the morning run.
Day 2: Swim 1:00 aerobic, Ride 3:00-4:00. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the morning swim
Day 3: (usually a tough mental day for many people) Ride 3:00–4:00 aerobic / Run :45 aerobic. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the ride.

NOTE: As a guide for setting up the volume of the 3 day camp, use the total of your average training week for starters. For example; if your average training week is 14 hours, your total hours for the camp could be about 14 hours. Of those 14 hours in 3 days you should shoot for 75% of the volume to be on the bike. That is generally how the example above is structured. The more experience an athlete has in the sport the more aerobic volume they could add on to the overall volume.

Finally, give yourself at least 4 VERY easy days for recovery after a camp like this.

Until Next Time ...

Something NEW

2010-03-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

As we move in to 2010 I am looking at shake the blog up with some "video blogging" and also add some video updates to the site. Just another way to show folks whats going on in the TrainToEndure World!

... the video below is a little "Test Clip" taken at my Tuesday / Thursday swim squad at Montecito Heights AC. It's a diverse squad and has grown dynamically over the 6 years that I have been coaching. It started in the old "Flamingo Pool" on the other side of the property where we usually didn't have more than 3-4 lanes going at a time and 12 people was a big group! Now we are in this pool (built about 4 years ago?) and we use every little inch of the five lanes and six lanes would be ideal! A pretty average size group is what we had today some days less and "in season' we often have more.

Enjoy a little a taste of what my groups looks like! More to come ...

Waiting, Making Lemonade, & My "Team"

2010-01-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

I just looked at the calendar and realized that it's almost the end of JANUARY already? Wow!!! That only means one thing ... I have been busy!

Above is a picture of the trailhead at one of my favorite (and convenient) places to do run workouts. Instead, today was a brisk walk with the dog and a reminder of how much I enjoy the green winter colors and my running ... more on this later! For now just stick with me as I ramble some ...

I haven't been running for the last two weeks because of some plantar fasciitis. This is new for me and I haven't had any running issues for a couple years. This one snuck up on me and bit quick, and HARD! The reality is, it may not have been a running issue so much as an issue caused on the bike that exposed it's ugly head after running, or being active on my feet for long periods of time.

Considering I haven't been running I decided to attempt at making a little lemonade from the lemons I have. That means a little extra swimming and small amounts of cycling ... a busy week (last week) and horrible weather the last 10-12 days has seen me only on the trainer. With a little extra swimming last week I'd wanted to share a little main set with you that I stumbled on in the process:

>Warm Up:

*Anywhere from 500-1000 and add a little pace change and/or non free

>Main Set: (we did this 5 x thru and you can adapt however needed)

* 5 x (4x25, 100, 50) -- 25's strong @ 5sec rest / 100's same effort @ 10sec / 50 EZ -- rest between sets is 15-30sec. Try to swim the 25's & 100's consistent thru the entire set. I like the main set because you can play with paces and strokes and adjust to your needs and goal efforts / paces!

> Warm Down / OR add another main set

Now ... back to the injury and the process. The hardest part for me is wrapping my head around the initial "oh crap", AND yanking my head out of my own ass and realizing there is only one thing to do ... move forward. Wrapping my head around it meant dealing with not only the effect BUT investigating the cause of the injury. Addressing the effect and getting it calm down is one thing:

>> ice, rest, stretch, corrective strength, and seeking out professionals who "get it" / can help (not easy).

Finding the cause is another beast in itself!!! The obvious for me was to address the running and see what I could come up with.

> Training protocol ... doubtful

> Shoes ... possible, maybe they accelerated the issue, likely not the cause (gave me a chance to get rid of some old shoes though ;)

> Timing of extra activities and ones on hard surfaces while wearing un-supportive shoes ... likely not the cause but it didn't help.

With the effect treatment in motion and running evaluated I had to move on and cover more bases. Next? Well, I better look at my cycling / position / fit / bio-mechanics / shoes-insoles

* After an evaluation with Rand (http://www.ariavelo.com/) we made a switch, moving my cleats BACK on the shoe to take some stress off the calf and plantar fascia. Thing is, I was already so inflamed that this helped but It should have been addressed months before.

* Position / bio mechanics / insoles were all good after being "Retul'ed"

.... after more time, and inspection the only place left to look was closely at equipment. More specifically shoe/pedal/cleat interface. Checking the interface on my road and TT bike it seemed all was solid and with no instability (this is different than float) on my Shimano pedals. Last stop was my "trainer bike". Verdict ... excessive amounts of instability from horribly used and worn out pedals. The reality of horrible weather, the season, and being busy I have spent more time on that bike then I normally would. Previously it was about 15% of my cycling time and lately it's been more like 50-100% of my cycling. That's a big up-turn on time and a bio-mechanically poor, repetitive motion. Was it THE culprit? Note sure ... but I KNOW it didn't help. Since then I have done one workout on new Look Keo Max pedals and it was a marked difference.

Add all the culprits up and we have a perfect storm. Now I just have to figure out how to get the storm to blow away!

Take home messages?

- Treat not only the cause but get on the trail to finding the cause of your "issues"

- Look beyond the obvious and have a team of support folks to reach out to ... I have to thank "My Team" (Paul J, My Wife, Doc I, Rand, Amy, G, AC, DR J, Chuck S, KP, JJ) for helping me move forward on this work in progress. I hope to be back rolling soon!!!

My Best ... DL

The Merge ...

2010-01-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Before we get to the real topic, I thought I'd share a picture from the 2009 Beer Mile held just before Christmas. A picture says a thousand words, right? That's me and Ron Shaw trying to "hang on" to our pride after a tight finish .... Happy New Year!!

Speaking of the New Year .... here at TrainToEnudre we'll have more of the same BUT no doubt lots of different in 2010!! The biggest news first:

1) Though it may be overdue, we have decided to merge my wife's coaching programs, especially her Women's Team, under the TrainToEndure umbrella ... YEAH! So, what does that mean? Pretty simple ... Jen will continue to offer all her great women's and other individual programs, just under the TrainToEndure name and logo. Of course she will update and adapt her programs for the new year but that's about all that will change ... see below for the new website in progress. You can also see her new blog link over on the right sidebar ...

2) Though she has taken a role in the past, often in the shadows, my sister Amy will officially be part of the TrainToEndure Team. She plays a huge roll in support for both mine and Jen's clinics, for our athletes, and when we travel to events. PLUS, she has been my camp "administrator" the last three years and will continue in a larger capacity this year at our camps and events. When it comes down to it, she is our Team Director & Administrator!! A Damn Good One too ;)

3) New Website ... we are in the process of a new website, http://www.traintoendure.com/ , please be patient as we update and merge new information! It's not quite as "flash" as the old one, but it allows us to update it ourselves in a quicker fashion.

That's it for now ... the merge is under way!!

Best ... DL

Give Me the Power!

2009-12-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks (especially power users, coaches or those considering purchasing a power meter) ... I'm doing a talk at Echelon Cycle & Multisport this Thursday, details below from Kevin B @ Echelon...

Interested in learning about training with a power meter?

Using a wattage based power meter has become the best way to train on the bike for cyclists AND triathletes. If you have a power meter and feel like you're not using it to its potential, or if you're curious as to how these devices can help you train; this would be a great opportunity to learn more about them. Power meters will help you achieve your cycling goals by making your training smarter and more efficiently.

Coach Dave Latourette will help us solve some of the questions you have by talking about the benefits of using a power meter and what it can do for you. Dave is a professional endurance sports coach based out of the Aria Velo Performance Center (www.ariavelo.com) in Santa Rosa. He works with triathletes, runners and cyclists of all abilities to help reach physical goals. Dave is a seventeen year veteran of coaching and racing endurance event. You can find more information about Dave at www.traintoendure.com and www.davelatourette.blogspot.com

Who can benefit from attending? What are the benefits?

* Triathletes and Cyclists
* Athletes and Coaches
* Those that currently have a power meter or may be interested in one
* Simplify training and racing with a powermeter
* Testing and monitoring progress with power
* Optimizing your time spent on the bike by training smart
* Make the most out of your investment

Coach Dave's lecture:

Thursday, Dec. 3rd, 6:00 p.m.
Echelon Cycle & Multisport
1005 Cleveland Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

To RSVP, shoot us an email - echelon@echeloncycle.com

BONUS!! All attendees will receive $50 off a CycleOps Powertap wheel from Echelon Cycle & Multisport!!

It's that time of Year AND Athlete Updates!

2009-11-17T16:15:00.000-08:00

First things first ... a shout out to some TTE athletes racing recently:

* Marie Muchow ... for her efforts at the Run for Hunger 10k ... a nice prep as she rolls into the final stages of CIM training!

* Mike Starkey ... a new TTE member, Mike kicked of his partnership with us by executing a great first event at the Santa Barbara Half Marathon. Great to have you Mike!!!

* Leslie Shaw ... for her terrific execution at the Ironman 70.3 WC's in Clearater and top 20 finish in her age group. John & Phil

* John Lander ... the ageless wonder chalks up another gutsy finish in Clearwater at the Ironman 70.3 WC's

* Phil Johnson ... finally wrapped a long season with a fast finish at the Ironman 70.3 WC's as well!!

As these folks are finishing up their season it leads me into the following piece ...

Transitioning Back to Training

Below is an article that I like to re-visit on a yearly basis as we hit a period of recovery or a transitional time of the year where we move back to structured training. These periods are often October or November depending on the athlete, sport or length of season. Currently some athletes are just finishing their 2009 season while others are beginning their 2010 campaign Take a read through the following, it may help you gather some ideas when you think about your 2010 season.

As athletes come off a break and move back to structured training, it’s what I like to refer to as a transitional phase of your endurance sports season. Some of us have started to prepare for next year, some of you are running a December marathon, and some of you are taking this month as a period of recuperation but as some point we all go through this phase. The first thing I should note before addressing my “rules” of the transitional phase is this. It is crucial you have had some recuperation from your season and a break from structured training before you begin this phase. This recuperation period can range from 3-8 weeks of un-structured exercise at low intensity with frequent days off. This period is especially important for those who have had any injuries so that they may be addressed properly. The last thing you want to do is start a new training period dealing with injuries from the last season. Take care of those first before moving on! Of course I'd structure this time differently for each athlete depending on the past year(s) of training and racing. Things you should consider? How much training you did, how much you raced, the type of training and racing you did (long vs. short course distance) are you truly motivated to start back to structured training, and do you still have any existing “injuries” or major deficiencies?

DL's 10 Rules as Applied to a "Transitional Period"

1) Start this period physically and psychologically 100% "ready to roll". If you have to force any part of your training at this point you need to spend more time recuperating.

2) Do NO sustained training above heart rate Level 2 to low Level 3. (relative to my HR Scale) This means very aerobic! NOTE: this does not mean you can’t do some shorter efforts to train “speed”, “power”, accelerations or strength. If you are structurally sound this is a time you can include short hill repeats (full recovery), short strides, accelerations especially into your running.

3) Do strength train. Pay special attention to weaknesses and injury prevention, especially since I am talking about us “older” athletes!

4) Work on being consistent with your training. I'd prefer to see athlete's complete short, frequent training sessions, not big sessions infrequently.

5) Train with more frequency in your weakest discipline. This means short, frequent, high quality, technical sessions.

6) Work on technique often, in all disciplines. Starting with your weakest discipline, make sure you do some technique focus for all activities. Start working on your economy NOW and you'll be better for it in the middle of 2008.

7) At no time should you feel "nuked" from your training. Days off / easy days should be scheduled into our programs or as a result of "life issues", NOT because of fatigue.

8) Better Nutrition! Almost all of us can benefit from this and there is no reason you can't start NOW! Think about changing a key factor that may be detrimental to your daily training, recovery and general lifestyle.

9) Be Patient. This is simple, keep putting money in the "fitness bank" without withdrawing any. You'll need to spend this money later in the season. Any questions see Rule #7.

10) Finish this phase physically and psychologically 100% "ready to roll".

OF NOTE: How long does this period last you ask? For some it’s as short as 3-4 weeks, for others they get a lot of benefit and improvement by rolling it for at least 8 weeks!

Until Next Time ... DL

Kona Shakedown .... uhhh MELTdown

2009-10-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

Another year, another Ironman World Championship in the books. It was a tough one, but not because the wind got out of control ... it was bloody hot and oppressively humid. Hawaii is already hot and humid enough but this reminded me of 2002 when you cold cut it with a knife ... though a chainsaw would have worked better. (I'll add some pictures as I get them ... and not ones of me)

Big congratulations go out to Chuck Sloan and Dana Chance who put together really well executed and gutsy races. Special shout out to Eduardo Sturla (who I was able to help in a small way) for constantly moving up thru the day in the pro field when it would have been easy to shut it down. It was a day for those who were willing to fight the demons and the elements ... especially over the last 10 miles of the run. These three did just that, fight!

Dana ... a second go around in Kona and she bested her previous effort from 2006 (an easier weather day) This year was a huge load of races on Dana and she performed admirably EVERY single step of the way in the big ones ... St Croix (3rd), Austria (2nd), Canada 5th, Kona 14th ... WOW! It's been a great year for Dana and I have enjoyed finding ways to not only challenge her but make positive changes in her racing. Three years of patient progression went into those results.

Chuck ... his first shot at Kona and only his second Ironman he actually managed a PB for the distance. Pretty impressive when most of folks went the other direction. Chuck did mention that the race broke him a little bit ... but it lit a fire underneath him, you see Chuck likes a good challenge. For someone who was born and fueled on going fast, the patience and strength of Ironman has challenged him (us) to flatten the learning curve and come back smarter and stronger.

Eduardo Sturla ... a classy, quiet pro from Argentina Eduardo showed true courage when it may have been easier to back off or shut it down on the day. Over an 8+ hour day you wonder why 90 seconds might matter so much? At that level the swim doesn't win the race, but it sure can put you out the back door much too early. Eduardo managed to ride hard and up into the top 30 by T2. He then kept pushing the run and fought his way up to finish 19th ... not bad for a big guy who doesn't look like a runner :) I look forward to supporting Eduardo in the future.

Final Takes On Racing in Kona?

- Why is it, for the most part, that the poeple who execute / race well here are the people you never (or rarely) see around town? It's not that they are or need to be hermits, they are simply better about managing their energy. (managing energy pre-race is another topic in itself)

- At Kona everybody looks "fit". Considering most athletes on the island have done an Ironman within the calendar year, great fitness is never that far away for these folks. I believe alot of the athletes feel like they need to do more and different training in their preparation just because it's Kona. Should the training be different? yes! ... More? for most, no. It's not a race you want to go in to a bit little crispy ;)

- At this race, in this place, you are going to get exposed and significantly challenged at some point. It's important to train for the worst possible and humbling scenario you can think of so you are prepared race day. The reality is the race starts to put a chink in the armour right out of the gate with a non wetsuit, ocean swim, full of talented folks. These little attacks at your outer shell keep coming, and if you aren't prepared mentally and physically, it's about 9-10 mile mark into the run (or maybe even sooner) when the bottom starts to fall out.

- On the run course there are a lot of things that change for the athlete about the 9-10 mile range. 1) You get a true indication of how well you paced, or didn't pace, the first hour of the run. Massive emotional control is needed to keep the pace sane AND to keep your core temperature down. 2) It's about the time frame most need to realize how hot it is, if one hadn't figured it out already 3) Finally, there is about a mile stretch of road here that has an upward trend moving away from the ocean that includes Alii'Dr , Hualalai, and the Kuakini Hwy. THEN this stretch ends with the biggest hill on the course up Palani Rd! Not only does the uphill trend take the bounce out of your step, any sea breeze that exists is now at your back ... yuck. The amount of walking, and those who gave in, up Palani hill this year was astonishing. It was a true indication of how the race can deal it's joker card if not careful

- The last item I wanted to touch on is the heat. No matter what it's hot in Kona, this year was EXCEPTIONALLY hot and humid. If you are racing here it is imperative to plan on how to deal with the heat. This plan should include: pace control, fluid consumption AND absorption, electrolyte consumption, proper clothing choices, and proper placement of ice as needed ;)

OH, and finally ... whether you want to qualify to race there OR you are shooting for a lottery spot, be VERY careful what you wish for! It's not a race to do as a holiday, it simply tends to be way too hard a day and 2009 was a perfect example.

Until next time ... DL

2009-09-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

As I sit in the Olympic Training Center here in Colorado Springs I figured it fitting to drop an update since I don't have to walk the dog or do laundry ;) I'm here for a what I hope to be a great program and a wonderful opportunity. The next three days I'll do my best to be a sponge as I spend time with the USA Triathlon staff, coaches, and resident elite athletes here at what seems like 14,000 feet altitude. I'll share some notes and highlights here on the blog when the dust settles and I can organzie my thoughts ... or maybe I'll just keep all the information to myself ;) . I expect it to be great environment as we cover everything from coaching juniors & elites, identifying talent, physiological testing, and more stuff ... enough of that, more later ;-)

Now time for September Athlete Updates!

We had some great results at the Ukiah Triathlon this month for the TTE Coached Athletes and Team Members ...

Leslie Shaw ... 1st Female and 9th OVERALL!!

Phil Johnson ... Age Group 2nd (45-49) and 6th Overall

John Lander ... Age Group 2nd (65-69)

Scott Wing (team member) ... Age Group 2nd

Ron Shaw (team member) ... Age Group 4th

Layne Scoggins (team member) ... Age Group 5th

Congratulations to all!

Until next time ... DL

RACING, Racing, racing ...

2009-09-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks has seen lots of racing across the USA AND North America ... and more to come this weekend! Athlete updates, here we go ...

John Lander: - The man is back and rolling this year! Most recently John was able to win the TBF Olympic Distance Race Series by running his way to the victory over his rival. Great to see John back and having better luck this year to go along with the hard work he puts in. The victory was well deserved!

Lori O'Lin:
- 3rd in her category and top 15 overall at River Cities Tri (Louisiana) as a lead in to Ironman Canada
- Doing her first Ironman at Canada last week Lori finished in style going under 12hrs. Considering her "limited" training ,and demanding work schedule, that number is much more impressive than it appears!

Phil Johnson: - After a freshening up period post vineman, Phil went to take on the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3 ... happy to say mission accomplished with an A.G. 9th and a 70.3 Championship qualifying spot. Well done Phil!!!

Troy Tuscher: - Troy also headed up to Lake Stevens with Phil and rolled through a smoother day than the tough one he had at Vineman!

Dana Chance: - With a Kona spot in pocket from Austria earlier in the year, Dana headed to Ironman Canada (for about the 100th time) with less weight on her shoulders and an open mind. Well, Dana went more than 10 minutes faster than she ever has up at IMC and landed herself a spot on the awards podium (5th) ... next up KONA, gotta keep it rolling!

Marie Muchow:
- Marie had a nice smooth day at the Santa Rosa Half Marathon as she prepares for the San Jose Rock & Roll and the Cal International Marathon! She's got her mojo back ;)

Rob Henley:
- Rob wrapped up his tri-revival season with a solid day at the Pigman Half (Iowa) in very difficult racing conditions. Next up for Rob is the chicago Marathon!

I think that covers it for now ... DL

Ironman Canada

2009-09-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a couple athletes racing at Ironman Canada. This coming week I'll drop a few updates that inlcude that race plus great performances at Rancho Seco, River Cities and the Santa Rosa Half Marathon ... until then, thought you might enjoy a little video from Ironman Canada, courtesy of YouTube.

Cheers ... DL

UPDATED Vineman & Marin DC - Athlete Updates

2009-08-18T15:31:00.001-07:00

I'm just back from another announcing gig up at the Hulaman outside of Portland this weekend and realized I hadn't given credit where it was due for the folks at the Full Vineman and other events a couple weeks ago. Here goes ...

Jon Traynham ... TTE athlete and Summer Camp attendee Jon had a super steady day at Vineman and set a new PB!

Joe Smith ... all the way from Kansas City Joe exceeded his personal goals and is already looking forward to the next one! Time to put some run miles in for Joe ;)

Cecily Majerus ... no longer able to run Cecily took on the challenge of the Full Aqua-Bike and won her age group with a perfectly executed race! NICE

Chris Smith ... tackling his first Ironman distance race Chris over came some bike mechanical issues and still posted a great time finishing in the top 30 overall. Chris has a great work ethic and we'll see more nice results from him in the future.

Kyle Hughes ... TTE Team member and attendee of both TTE camps this year, Kyle conquered his first Ironman Distance race. Well done big fella ;)

Clay Popko ... one of our TTE Summer Camp attendees Clay executed a great race in his firts Ironman Distance event to finish strong. Great work Clay!

Nuvit Foster ... TTE Team Member and TTE Summer Camp Attendee, Nuvit had a super steady day and looked great as she crossed the line at the 20th Anniversary Vineman ... greta to see Nuvit put it all together!

Debbie DeCarlie ... TTE Summer Camp Attendee and Nuvit's partner in crime, Debbie overcame alot of fears to win her age group in her first go around with the Ironman Distance!

Sue Montgomery ... overcoming her self doubt Sue had a fabulous day finishing her first Half Ironman distance race! She is already excited for the Honu 70.3 race next year ;)

Pat Krueger & Paul Stimson ... unknowingly finished the Marin Double Century within one minute of each other, both rolling in to to top 15. Very nice results for both these guys.

I'll follow up next week with more results from Lake Stevens 70.3, River Cities Tri, Junior Racing and TBF OD Race!

Until Next Time ... DL

BIG Athlete Update!

2009-08-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks has been all about Vineman 70.3, Full Vineman and Barb's race for almost all the crew. We had a couple people out doing other events too but my life has been dominated by Vineman ... helping athletes prepare and also being part of the race doing alot of the announcing for a majority of all the events.

Now that the 20th Anniversary Vineman event is up I figured it was a good time to drop a little update on how everyone did. Lets start with the 70.3 race ...

The 70.3 race was highlighted by hotter than normal weather for Sonoma County and unfortunately it took it's ferocity out on some folks, especially those who had late start times. That being said others found a way to thrive in it and have stellar races.

Rob Henley ... even though he wasn't racing the Vineman 70.3 we have to give Rob a shout out as he was racing the Spirit of Racing Half on the same day! Rob had his best race of the season and is well on his way back to to great racing form! Keep it rolling rob ....

Leslie Shaw ... in her second 70.3 distance race Leslie had a big PR (even though she had a late start in the heat) Bolstered by a 2:36 bike ride she paced and executed a wonderful race to finish 6th in the W35-39 against a ridiculously strong field AND qualify for the 70.3 World Championship.

John Lander ... (picture above) a long time athlete of mine it was great to see John get back on track. Last year he had some difficulties with his long distance races but he redeemed himself with an AG 4th and a qualifying spot to the 70.3 Worlds. Welcome back John!!!!

Troy Tuscher & Phil Johnson ... I lump these two guys together as their races seemed to mirror one another. Great fitness entering the race they both faced physical problems that weren't so much heat related but soldiered on to finish none the less. Even though they didn't have the races we wanted, it did force us to sit down, evaluate and be honest with one another about what happened. It's made us all better for it!! They are off to Lake Stevens 70.3 in two weeks with great fitness!

Scott Wing ... (picture above)when Scott races we always know it's going to be hot! ;) (inside joke) Scott came into the race with life best fitness and had a solid race. Late in the run he had to back down to the heat and just manage himself the best he could. Well done Scott ... Scott turned around two weeks later showing his fitness by riding a great 112 mile bike leg of the Full Vineman Relay!!

Layne Scoggins ... a TTE Team member Layne was moving along nicely but the heat caught up with him (like some others) near the half way point of the run. Good on ya Layne for gutting it out!

Adam Black ... one of our summer campers Adam shined through with his determination to take care of business. He is already looking forward to next year and bettering himself! A class guy we look forward to having him around.

David Smith ... doing only his second triathlon, and motivated by his daughter, David had a good day and now has caught the bug! He's already looking at next year ;) Watch out!!!!!

The Divas! ... I have to give a shout out to a group of my wife's Tri Divas Team that attended our summer camp and then raced the 70.3. Congrats to Lauren Rignel, Marie Crawford, Doreen Pinelli, and Annette Niewald (she attended winter camp as well). They all performed admirably and executed so nicely on a very tough day. There were even a couple 70.3 qualifiers in there ;)

9Lauren, Jen, Annette, Doreen above at camp)

I'll add on PART II later this week ... FULL VINEMAN & BARBS

Athlete Updates

2009-07-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

A quick shout out to a couple athletes with nice results last weekend.

Marie Muchow ... had a great race at the, very TOUGH, Kenwood 10k! Not one of her favorite races ;) we used it as a confidence builder for the rest of the year ... mission accomplished!!!

Dana Chance ... (pictured above) raced at Ironman Austria and pulled off a new personal best race (10:29:--) and most impressively finished with a negative split AND personal best Ironman run leg! Dana has a great write up at th elink below ... it's a VERY good read!http://robchancesworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/butterfly-landed-on-me.html

BTW ... Dana accepted her qualifying spot to the Hawaii Ironman World Championship!

Best of luck to everyone at the Vineman Ironman 70.3 this weekend.

Cheers ... DL

Technology Part II & Athlete Updates

2009-07-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

First off some "Kudos" to athletes out racing ...

Chuck Sloan ... secures his first Ironman World Championship spot, in his first Ironman (Couer D' Alene), by executing the perfect race plan and running 2:57 off the bike for a 9:34. Chucks time put him in the top 25 overall and had the 5th fastest (overall) run of the day. All done on less than ideal preps! Chuck now gets to be part of that mess in the picture above :)

Eileen Rice ... congratulations to Eileen for conquering her first Ironman at Couer D' Alene on a weather day in Idaho!

Paul Stimson ... for improving his "Terrible Two" time by two and half hours ... WOW, well done Paul!

More racing this weekend at Ironman Austria!

TECHNOLOGY PART II - Garmin & Running

Last installment (see the May 29th write up) my over-riding message when it comes to using technology in training was simple: "use the data from your technological devices, in line with the messages your body is sending you, to get the most out of your investment!"

Over time I have had a pretty good "tachometer" when it came to running. I seemed to be able to, from experience, correlate HR / perceived exertion / pace pretty well and have never considered getting a Garmin device. Well, my wife purchased one late last summer before the preparation period for Ironman Arizona and it gave me a little more exposure to the device. For her, the goal was helping dial in the pace / HR equation and gave us realistic expectation on what to expect come race day. In the end it was a very good tool to be able to download and then look at sections of long runs we used as pace / HR "simulation" runs.

Even with that experience I still didn't have a desire to buy a Garmin for myself and held off. BUT, back in April it was my birthday and wedding anniversary and my wife splurged in the form of a new Garmin 405 for Coach D .... sweeet! Since then I have been able to use it, play with with, try different things and just generally see what the best applications might be with the device.

EXAMPLE of an applications. When people come to me with time expectations of what they are going to do in a race, my first question tends to be: "Well, what have you done in training (or races) that proves you can acheive that?". If we don't have relative race data, having something like the Garmin allows us to evaluate time/distance/pace/HR from training quite accurately ... once we download the data ;)

Good & Bad of the Garmin?

The Bad:

1) You don't always get reliable pace accuracy. Tree cover, especially, gets in the way of the instant feedback. Though, when it "re-aligns" itself and gives accuaret data at the end of the run when you download or look at the run details.

2) I see so many people are very pre-occupied with what the pace they are running or trying to hit specific paces out of the gate on a run they forget the relevance of HR and perceived exertion. My training prescriptions are most often based on exertion level, therefore pace is a product of the specific effort. When athletes tend to be "pace focused" I tend to see their pace fade over a session OR have to work so hard to maintain pace at the end of a session they effectively altered the goal of that training session.

3) It is technology you know :) (batteries die, HR strap battery is dead, screen freezes up, you get erratic high HR readings etc.)

The Good:
1) Un-Biased pace / distance / HR data at the end of the run.

2) Great tool for early in the race pacing ... a time when we often get over excited and can't control emotions.

3) A great way to keep a data base of pace / hr / distance correlation over extended periods of time. (performance tracking)

4) Easy to download and store data (see #3)

My Suggestions For Best Using the Garmin w/ Running?
1) Wear the Garmin for as many of your runs as you can.

2) Don't be hyper focused on the data every minute of every run! Stick to your plan and don't deviate because of technology ... listen to your body & brain first!

3) Save the data from your runs (downloaded is best) and do brief analysis of the session. Don't get into the "paralysis from analysis" trend by studying the data.

4) Unless you have a specific 'interval session" consider setting your Garmin to auto split every mile. When you see the data at the end of the day look for trends ... does your pace fade in the closing miles? does your pace increase? does your pace stay even? ... how does the pace look relative to HR? Be honest with yourself!

5) Finally ... get a VERY good feel for you perceived exertion relative to HR and pace. I've seen athletes become completely lost in events because their technological devices fail or are not working correctly. Be prepared

Listen to the body, listen to the brain and use your Garmin appropriately!

I'm Just Sayin' ... DL

Vineman 70.3 Swims - Weeks 9 & 10

2009-06-21T19:30:00.001-07:00

Swim #1

-WU:
300 swim, 300 w/drills, 6 x 50 build
-Main Set:
6 x 50 strong @ :15 rest THEN 200 cruise @ :10 rest
400, 300, 200, 100 ALL pull @ :20 rest
-WD: 6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2

-WU: 300 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
-Main Set:
4 x 100 strong @ :10 rest
4 x 200 steady @ :20 rest
400 steady
-WD: 300 easy choice

Swim #3
-WU: 300 EZ, 8x50 build
-Main Set:
1 x 1000 steady @ :30 rest
10 x 100 steady-strong @ :10-15 rest
-WD: 6 x 50 EZ

Summer Training Camp is ON

2009-06-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of our first annual Summer Training Camp ... 20 hearty athletes here for great training in preps for the Vineman Races!

Friday was a long bike warm up and then swim then a swim / bike /run prologue. Today was a longer individual pacing ride in windy conditions and 4-6 miles off the bike.

Enjoy a few pics ...

The Crew ...

ALWAYS great support from CLIF ...
Tri Divas in the house ...
Wrappin up the prologue ...
Prologue Carnage ;)

Great tops from OOMPH!

Saturday Windy Ride ;) ....

More Later! DL

Athlete Updates

2009-06-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, lots of racing around the country the last couple weeks PLUS we are two nights away from our first annual TTE Summer Training Camp!

Camp starts Friday night with a full house of 20 athletes getting prepared for the Vineman events. (plus we'll have two staff that will have their hands full) We'll do our best to get some photos and updates from camp up here as soon as technology allows us ... or we choose to ;)

Some folks have been asking about when I'm going to race this year. Well, I have been racing, it just hasn't been swim-bike-run. I've been doing my best to help my two wheeled teammates get some results ... as seen from the photo above ;)

Some quick athlete updates

Leslie Davis ... had another podium appearance with a great race at the Rancho Seco Olympic Distance event ... 3rd Place Overall!

Jen L ... my wife pulls off an A.G. podium finish at Rancho Seco Sprint on limited training!

Joe Smith ... improves by 40 MINUTES at Ironman Kansas 70.3 in the middle of his preps for the Full Vineman. Well done Joe!!

Rob Henley ... executed a nice race at Kansas 70.3. His reward? Hanging out with Chrissie Wellington at the finish (see picture)

Phil Johnson ... continues to impress and improve every year! At Boise Ironman 70.3 Phil overcame a long swim and tough, rainy conditions on the bike to come within a few minutes of his 70.3 PB. He ends up with an AG top ten.

Hope I didn't forget someone ;) Be back after camp to follow up with the technology part II post!

Until Then ... DL

Vineman 70.3 Swims

2009-06-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

Vineman 70.3 Swims - Weeks 5 & 6

Swim #1

WU:
300 swim, 300 w/drills, 6 x 50 build
Main Set:
6 x 50 fast @ :15 rest THEN 2 x 100 cruise @ :10 rest
500 pull
5 x 100 strong @ :15 rest
WD:
6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2
WU:
200 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
4 x 100 strong @ :10 rest
4 x 200 steady @ :20 rest
400 steady
WD:
300 easy choice

Swim #3
WU:
200 EZ, 8x50 build
Main Set:
2 x 500 steady @ :30 rest
2 x 400 steady @ :30
WD:
4 x 50 EZ

Athlete Updates & Technology

2009-05-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Time for a quick "shout out" to a few of the crew for some nice results over the last couple weeks.

Leslie Shaw finished 4th overall women at the Human Race earlier in May while winning here age group.

Amanda Erwin finished 3rd overall at Memphis In May with a performance that has been years in the making :0) ... she immediately qualifies for her pro card with that result!

Marie Muchow threw down a 5k PR this past weekend! Well done Marie ;)

Pat "The King" Krueger gets kudos for conquering his third jewel of the California Triple Crown! I'm glad he wants to sit on a bike that long because I don't ... PLUS he was top 20!

Racing and event season hits hit full swing starting this weekend and moving forward ... Route 66 Tri, Auburn Tri's, Rancho Seco Races, Summer Training Camp, Ironman 70.3 Kansas, Ironman CDA, Ironman Austria and the list goes on!

TECHNOLOGY

I have been meaning to write some pieces on the training and racing technology that folks are using these days such as HR Monitors, Garmins, Power Measuring Devices and even software that "predicts" when you should be going good or not so good! These devices are all great used in the right context and I hope to provide a little insight on how best to use any one of these devices or using them together.

I'm going to start with the one thing that goes along with using any one of these devices and then downloading it. The picture above is a graph from the performance management chart using the WKO software. (there are others like it) Essentially the chart is suppose to "tell you" when you might have a good day or the potential for a bad day or when it may be better to rest. Brief, and hopefully simple, explanation ...

* Blue Line ... your "chronic training load" which is your volume & intensity load over time
* Pink Line ... your "acute training load" or your training you have done most recently
* Yellow Line ... your training stress balance. This is a combination of overall training load and your acute load of training.

The raw, simplicity of this says the closer your yellow line is to the blue line OR or if it is over the blue line the chances of having a good race or training day are high. Even better, if the pink line is below and the yellow line is above you should be going really good, right? In theory ...

Problem is these predictors don't take into accordance how much sleep you got (or didn't get), how much non training stress you have (name it, there are many), how dehydrated you are and the list goes on. Overall too many athletes take numbers, HR's, watts, and charts and make them black and white. There is a reason why there are more colors than that.!

EXAMPLE ... about 2/3 of the way across that chart you see some prime real estate for having a great day or two or three of training and racing. This section emulates a similar period of mine (sorry this isn't my chart ... i couldn't get mine on here) when Jen and I had been preparing to move and while moving into the new house. During this time I got very minimal training and exercise in, to the point where I should have been VERY fresh and going good. The reality, I was miserably tired (lack of sleep) and my legs and back were stiff from going up and down ladders and lifting boxes and a bike ride felt good mentally but it was horribly slow! The chart never toldme that. I have to admit the chart makes alot of sense and is in-line for the most part. BUT, I can always predict what the chart is going to show before I ever look at it ;)

My message in this installment, a soon to be repeated theme, is ... take the data and the numbers with a grain of salt. Listen to your body (it's smarter than you and your devices are) and coordinate them with the technical feedback you get to make the best decisions you can!

I'm just sayin' ... DL

Vineman 70.3 Swims

2009-05-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

Weeks 3 & 4

Swim #1
WU
300 swim, 300 w/drills, 6 x 50 build
Main Set
2 x 50 fast THEN 400 cruise
4 x 50 fast THEN 300 cruise
500 Pull
WD
6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2
WU:
200 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
6 x 50 Fast @ :10 rest
400, 300,200, 100 cruise
200 cruise
WD:
300 easy choice

Swim #3
WU:
200 EZ, 8x50 build
Main Set:
6 x 300 steady @ :30 min rest
WD:
4 x 50 EZ

Vineman 70.3 Swims

2009-05-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Weeks 3 & 4

Swim #1
WU
300 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 75 build
Main Set
6 x 50 THEN 300 steady
3 x 100 THEN 300 steady
4 x 75 THEN 300 steady
WD
6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2
WU:
200 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
10 x 50 Fast @ :10 rest
200 EZ
4 x 100 Fast @ :10 rest
100 EZ
WD:
300 easy choice

Swim #3
WU:
200 EZ, 8x50 build
Main Set:
4 x 400 @ :30-1min rest
WD:
4 x 50 EZ

Athlete News & Race Report

2009-05-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

A little update from St Croix 70.3:

Dana Chance finished on the W40-44 podium (3rd place) at the Ironman 70.3 St Croix. In Dana's second trip to the island (2007 was her first) she led her age group out of the water, was third onto the bike and to the finish line AND besting her overall and run time from 2007. You are thinking that's a pretty good result right ... WRONG. It was an AMA ZING result, especially considering the only two women who finished in front of her were the defending 1st & 2nd place finishers from the Ironman World Championship in 2008. Unfotunately, because of the talent in front she missed her Kona slot by one position. Great performance Dana AND continuing to get better!

ALSO:

This weekend Pat Krueger is headed off to put the final jewel in his California Double Century Triple Crown quest. Below is Pat's long report from two weeks ago at the Devil Mountain Double.

It started at 5am on a beautiful morning, 48 degrees. There were two start times, 5am which I started at and, 6am for the f--- crazy fast people. My guess is that 95% of the folks started at 5am, 202 folks started the day.

It was a nice pace leading up to Mt. Diablo and I was in the front pack which was about 20 atrong. Diablo has a nice grade to it, i t's about a 10 mile climb and everything felt great. I just took it easy, once at the top got some water and headed back down. I was about 2 miles into the decent when I heard a loud pop!! It was the guy in front of me, his front tire blew in the middle of a right hand turn at around 30mph he flew off his bike and slid on his stomach for about 20 yards.. OUCH!! I stopped to see if he was ok. He said nothing was broken but the guy had some serious road rash. I stayed with him for about 5 minutes then headed back down. When I got to the bottom there were 5 of us so we decided to work together till the next climb, Morgan Territory Rd. It was about a 13mile climb nothing out of the ordinary. Then it was off to the Altamont pass. Had a real good head wind hence all the windmills!! Near the end, the road started to kick up to about 13-15%. I'm still feeling good but, I know the hardest is still to come.(Mines Rd, Mtn Hamilton, Sierra Rd). So off to Mines Rd/Mt Hamilton. It's about a 40 mile climb between the two. The 5 of us are still together so off we go to Mines Rd. Mines rd just seemed to go for ever, it climbs a lot then descends a little then repeat. About 15 miles into the climb my feet feel like they are on fire and started to cramp a little and 25 miles into Mines Rd was the lunch stop, thank god.

We are 115 miles into the ride, it's 12:30 and getting hotter. Julie was working the lunch stop so it was nice to see her there. I could feel the last 115 miles in my legs so I breakout the "Alcis" and rub it onto my quads, one word, MONEY. I go back to see Julie and hang out with her for about 15-20 minutes, and take off my shoes OH what a relief that was!!! I had a hamburger, chips and 2 cokes for lunch.

By the time I got ready to head back out I noticed the other 4 guys left already oh well. So off I go back to Mines Rd and more climbing. I pass a guy and he tucks in behind me for about 20 minutes. I start to hit Mt. Hamilton at mile 125. For those of you who have never climbed Hamilton IT SUCKS!! It's about a 15mile climb with a 9-15% grade and the sun beats on you the whole way..Again my feet are on fire and cramping it hurts like hell to stand and pedal but I have no choice with a 15% grade. of course I could have just stopped and taken my shoes off for 5 minutes but noooooo I have to keep moving forward.. Dumb ass!!! I ran out of water with about 3 miles to the summit but, thank god they added an extra water stop 1mile before the summit. It was a quick stop get water and go. Finally the summit and now a 16 mile descent Awesome!!! Not a soul around me so off to Sierra road ugh!!! It's 6 miles from the bottom Hamilton so I just take it easy, eat and drink and try to let my legs to recover from Mines Rd/Mt. Hamilton.

So I hit Sierra Rd at mile 156!!! You turn off of Piedmont Rd onto Sierra and there it is 15-20% grade from the get go. Sierra rd is only a 3.7 mile climb. Before I got their I thought no big deal it's only a 3.7 mile climb, but boy was I wrong. My top speed was about 5mph. On the steep parts, which was most of it, I was going 3.3 mph and I thought I was going to fall over. I could have walked faster than that!!!. I'd stand for a couple of strokes then sit for a couple and tell myself there's is no fuc---- way I'm stopping, just keep going ... and kept telling myself "pain is temporary and success is forever". Something I told myself a lot throughout the day!! By the time I got to the top it took me about :50 minutes to do 3.7 miles!!! Are you kidding me!! I head down and hope the legs can recover as it's about 20 miles before the next climb and and drop into an aid station. My stomach is not feeling that great so I just take a banana and a clif bar and head out.. Only two climbs left!!!! I hit the second to the last climb at mile 185 and I'm still by myself. It's about a 6 mile climb, nothing special, except I have 185 miles and about 18,000 feet of climbing in my legs!! Can you say ouch! So I take it slow and easy up and over. I try to eat a cliff block at the start of the climb and I thought I was going to throw up so I spit it out. I guess it's water the rest of the way and hope I won't bonk. Finally the last climb at mile 200!! Norris Canyon Rd It's a 3 mile climb I make it to the top and let out a loud "fucking A" I made it!!! Now it's only 3 miles to the end and flat so I dig deep and hammer the last 3 miles.. I pull in the the hotel and stop my speedometer I look down and I see 13:52 SWEET!!! I run down and check in and ask the guy how many other folks have checked in, he said about 2 dozens.... But I didn't know how many 6am folks might come in over the next hour..

So all in all it was a great day and it went by pretty quick as quick as 14 hours can go by!! A couple of things that kept me going all day was one: my type "A" personality and my mantra I use in all my races: pain is temporary and success is forever.

A couple of BIG thanks go out to Julie for letting me train all day on the weekends and the other is to my coach Dave for getting me ready. Thank You so much!

Also thanks to all of you guys who came out and road with me on weekends..

Now on to the next double!! Central Coast in 3 weeks..

PK

Vineman Ironman 70.3 Swims - Weeks 1 & 2

2009-04-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Swim #1
-WU = 400 swim, 400 w/drills, 4 x 25 build
-Main Set:
3 x 200 steady @ :15 rest
2 x 250 steady @ :20 rest
4 x 100 steady @ :15 rest
-WD = 6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2
-WU = 300 swim, 300 w/drills, 4 x 50 build to fast
-Main Set:
500 steady
2 x (250 build x 50’s)
500 steady
-WD = 200 ez choice

Swim #3
WU = 8 x 50 drill & swim
Main Set:
15 x100 - Steady Pace @ :10 rest
WD = 6 x 50 drill or EZ

A Quickie ...

2009-04-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

... an update that is! It is spring, and things have sprung!

Well, at least I have been thinking about updating this thing and I everyone at least this. The post that I have floating around in my head surrounds endurance sports and technology. The technology being HR monitors, power meters, garmins AND check these out ... the brain, the force, intuition and all things surrounding perceived exertion! Of course I don't have time for that right now since we are in the process of moving. So it's quickie time ... brief athlete updates!

Early April or California 70.3 (whichever comes first) seems to light the new triathlon race season. Over the last two weeks we have a had a few of the crew kicking things off and blowing the cobwebs out.

Amanda Erwin ... started her triathlon season at the sticky, hot, and windy New Orleans 70.3. Though she came up a little sticky on the run she was able to hold on to 9th place overall in a very strong field!

Chuck Sloan ... after a winter of unfortunate illness and incident we didn't know how Chuck was going to open up the season. Well, most people would be thrilled with an AG 7th place (15th overall), and fastest age group run split at a race like Oceanside ... but all it did for Chuck is light his fire for later in the year. It gave us a great marker for the season as we press on.

Phil Johnson ... fresh off another PB half marathon in march Phil follows up with an age group 2nd place and 19th overall out of 600 at the Vineman Showdown. Giddy Up!

Layne Scoggins ... kicked off his season on the podium at the Vineman Showdown as well. Third place and 37th overall!

Amanda, Chuck and Phil all raced with a variety of technology ( powertaps, garmin, the force) and we can chat more about that next time! ;)

Good kick off to the season.

Until next time ... DL

Camper Kudos

2009-03-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

Now that we are three weeks removed from camp, athlete kudos are long overdue! Though it's

hard to single out folks when everyone performed admirably and added positive energy to the

group dynamics there are always folks we present special awards to. We know now that the camp was marred by heavy rain and wind but it certainly provided a different dynamic and tested everyone.s patience. Though we didn't get in the normal cycling some folks achieved personal bests in other sports because of that. Lets get started ...

Cemented on the first days riding, Pat Krueger took the KOM competition in his first camp. Not too mention the KOM, Pat (along with me) took honors for most yards swum during the camp. (That's a picture of Pat and I above) During the camp we developed a silent alliance that helped us both achieve a little bit more than we would have individually. One thing Pat realized after the camp (while kicking himself) is that if he had run the minimum on Day 1 he would have taken the overall. Next year Pat comes in as the marked man ... for those that are "playing the game" ;)

In a competition that came down to the last day, Phil Johnson took the overall points title by marking Danny Walters yard for yard in the last days swim. Phil won out at the end because he received 2 extra "veteran bonus points" for his two camps previously finished. Along with Pat, it looks like we have another guy to watch next year!

We had a new award, maybe just a new name, but this one went to two female rookies ... the Diva Award. Two of my wife's team members / team mates Annette Niewald and Twyla Robert performed admirably and were consistent over the entire weekend. Not bad from two ladies who had no idea what to expect.

One of our other rookies quietly drew out the best in everyone. On the opening night of the camp Danny Walters outwardly stated that his main goal was to achieve all the maximum training limits set for the camp. DOH!! Personally, (and i think Phil and Troy may agree) because Danny was going for the max bike, run and swim volumes, we would have to match his efforts to stay in the hunt for the overall. Danny achieved his goals AND lifted the level of the camp by expecting a little more out of himself. Thanks Danny! The photo above is Danny cresting a hill on Day 1 in the pouring rain.

Final applause go to my sister Amy for providing incredible support before and during the camp. Also to Loni Behler who unselfishly supported Amy, and the rest of us, by donating her time ... I think we may see Loni participating camp next year ;). Finally, thanks to my wife Jen (who took overall points amongst ladies at the camp) for supporting me during the stressful period before camp with all the adaptations that needed to be made and helping clean up post camp as well! Plus she made me a mean grilled turkey and cheese plus a bowl of tomato soup the day my bike was stolen ... NICE!

Overall it was a great group of folks to work and train with. Each year the history of the camp gets richer and it brings out more personalities and more stories. I am looking forward to some mini training camps this summer and of course the 4th Annual Winter Training camp next year!

Cheers ... DL

2009-03-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

Below is a nice write up from Pat Krueger on his first notch in the California Triple Crown!

My first double century of the year started out at 6:15am. It was about 50 degrees. The 6:15 group has all the folks that are racing to finish with the best overall time. There were about 60-75 folks that start at 6:15. Right out of the gate the pace is at 25+mph I'm hanging in with the top 20 and not working to hard. My HR was only about 125-130.It was flat for the first 10 miles then the rolling hills started. That's when we started to dropped everybody except for 15-20 of us and, my HR started to climb and climb fast trying to keeping up the the top guys. The first hill I was hitting 150 HR. The second one I hit 162 HR. I knew if I kept this up that I was going to blow and never finish the ride. So what do?? I keep hanging with the top guys for two more long rollers. The whole time telling myself to back off you idiot. back off...It's a 200 mile ride!!! So finally at mile 25 we hit another hard roller I finally convinced myself to let them go and, back off the pace so I can actually finish the ride.

The next 15-20 miles were uneventful. That's when a couple of tri guys (not on the ride) blew by us, so the guys I was with hammered it and caught them and, for the next 10+ miles it was a hammer fest again.. Again I kept telling myself you're going to blow dumb ass. When I dropout of the draft I realized I blew by the check point by a mile, so I had to go back to get my card signed. Missing the check point ended up paying off big! More on that later.

The next 10 miles was mellow just trying to get my legs back. Right before we had to get on I5, yes meaning I5 the freeway, southbound a tandem joined us as we get on the I5. The tandem took the lead and with that the hammer fest was on again for the next 7 miles. We were going 30-33mph on the freeway, it was awesome!!! My legs were on FIRE! When we got off I5 i rolled up to them and gave them a big thanks for pulling us. At this point there were only two other people with us. So, off we go for the next 30+ miles, we dropped all the other riders, so know it's just me and the tandem. The two folks on the tandem were Rob and Karla. Rob is 57 yrs old and Karla is 50. They were both from the area and knew the course like the back of their hand. Between them they had done about 70 doubles!!! Holy shit 70!!! On all the climbs I would pull ahead of Rob and Karla and wait for them at the top and then FLY down the hills.

At 110 miles my legs are feeling ok but, can feel the efforts from the hammer fests earlier. At mile 140 Rob yells back, hey pat do you want to stop a Carl's Jr for a burger? I say, Uh yeah!!!! I'm game. So at mile 145 we stop and go in and what do I order? A charbroiled chicken sandwich and a Coke. One word MONEY!!!!! After that we were off again. We had an hour of day light left and 3+ hours of riding to go. When the sunset I turned on my light and it's a pile of shit. It looked like I had a mini flashlight taped on my handle bars. Thank god for Rob and Karla, they had a light that was like a car light. It lit up the whole road.

More climbing and then on the decent from the last climb and only 10 miles to go I get a flat. Just my luck!!! Rob and Karla were nice enough to stop with me and shine some light on the matter. We finally roll into the finish, thank god!!! All in all it was a great day. I learned some new things about doubles

1. Don't try to keep up with the top guys. (ok I already knew that!!)
2. Have a better light system for the bike and a helmet light so you can see what you're doing if you need to fix a flat.
3. More storage on the bike so you can pack extra clothes and food
4. Develop a better system for reading the directions so you don't have to pull them out every 5 min to see where you're going..

Rob and Karla were great folks and a lot of fun to chat with and made the ride a lot more enjoyable. Not only because I sucked their wheel, but they also knew all the turns so I never had to worry about it. Thank god because there were about 120 L or R hand turns..

Totals for the day
198 miles
11:50 ride time
8400' of climbing
18.1 avg speed

One down two to go!!!

pk

Camp 2009, PT1 - Good News / Bad News!

2009-02-26T15:26:00.000-08:00

The bad news is, over the past few months Sonoma County and Northern California have been waaay below rain total averages for the season ... the good news is it started raining crazy hard about two weeks ago ... the bad news is, that was exactly the time we kicked off the annual TTE Winter Training Camp!

The week of the camp is always busy enough trying to line up all the food, gear, and logistics for everyone. Add in a HUGE pending, multiple day weather front and my busy level turned to stress level. (ask my wife Jen) It took until the middle of Day 1 of the camp to realize that I would just have to trust my judgement and adapt as we went along.

As usual we had a great group of sponsors and peoplke lined up for the camp. Some of the campers were return victims while we added 5 rookies into the mix. Before I go any farther I need to thank those supporters and sponsors who have been reliable and loyal with their support.

- ALWAYS Clif Bar / Clif Shot ... great people, great product great company PERIOD! Thank you Peter!

- Blue Seventy provided everyone new goggles for the camp ... great stuff!

- TYR ... BIG thanks to Ryan Dolan for taking care of everybody's backpack needs ... first class Ryan, THANK YOU

- ALCiS for the large quantity of pain relief cream ... always welcome for training camp! ;)

- Of course a shout out to Camelback (bottles), Oomph!, and Fuelbelt

- NEW for 2009 was support from ECHELON Cycle and Multi-sport who providing daily prizes for the "Echelon Ride of The Day" and Green Layer Apparel for end of camp awards for our outstanding performances.

Our goal for the training camp is get everyone through the minimum training if possible. The other thing we like for the newcomers to realize is the "power of the group". The newcomers (and veterans too) always find they are capable of and do things they simply just couldn't or wouldn't do on their own. This, for me, is the glue that makes a camp like this or small group training work so effectively. Beyond that structure we set up options so folks can do a little more, or in some cases if the volume isn't challenging enough, they can take advantage of opportunities to go harder ;) To do that we set up a points system fr thos that want to "play".

Cycling = 1 point for every mile ridden (we don’t allow extra riding)

Running = 2 points for every 5 minutes of running. 30 minutes is the minimum to accumulate points, 1 hour is the maximum allowed.

Swimming = 3 points for every 250 meters swum with a minimum of 2000 meters to get you any points. Everyone was playing from the same workout structure and extra points were awarded for those collecting points over 300 yard sessions.

The other wrinkle we started last year, for those that needed a further challenge, is a little climbing competition (“KOM”) on the bike. We awarded bonus points to everyone over the designated climbs, of course first over gets the most points. Having that "competition element" forces everyone to strategically think about how they want to use their energy over the three days! We have had folks come completely un-glued at some point on day 3 because of choices they made on day 1. Teaches great lessons about what the body and mind are OR are not capable of.

OK, enough for now ... i'll drop by in a couple of days and cover a few of the highlights from the camp! Fun people and fun times.

Cheers ... DL

Athlete Updates & Camping!

2009-02-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy busy last month with lots of change, talks to give (Running, Running Economy, Heart Rate Training ... Training With Power is next), getting ready for camp, camp itself and a few other surprises thrown in, like a stolen bike. Grrrrrrrr

Anyway, I missed a few athlete updates as we were getting prepped for training camp so here is the short version ;)

Dana Chance had a good run down in Austin Texas at the half marathon in January. We were both expecting a PB run based on her training but it wasn't to be. The course surprised us a little so it keeps us honest going forward. Dana is fit, taking on a big training block in Tucson right now, and then we'll move forward and take on the challenge of the bigger events on her schedule!

Chuck Sloan & Amanda Erwin both took their season openers at the St Johns Indoor Tri in Tulsa. Not a long race but I have done it and it's a full gas sufferfest ;)

Odessa Schexnaydre took on a 10k at the Davis Stampede and rolled out to a nice 51 second PR. Davis is a prep race for her Half Marathon later in March in Moab.

Phil Johnson headed to Davis as well to perform a controlled training run and wasn't far off a PB! Great things on the horizon for Phil this year!

Members of Team TTE rolled out PB's at the Davis Half Marathon (Scott Wing) and 10k (Layne Scoggins) ... well done guys!

Training Camp - this past weekend we had our 3rd annual TTE Winter Training Camp. We had the worst weather we have had all winter and in the history of the camp. We had to make some changes and didn't get to ride as much as we wanted ... but we still found a way to challenge everyone physically and psychologically!

More write ups and pics from the camp in the next few days ... BUT the pictures on this page give you an idea of the weather we all faced!

Until Then ... DL

Starting Over ... Again - Part III

2009-01-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the gap since Part II but I had to get through a bout of the Sonoma County head cold and sinus infection and a busy couple weeks!

Now the run ...

Tackling the run was going to be a whole new test of patience and hope. Considering I hadn't run in 3+ years it was hard to plan out the running like I might have been able to do with the cycling and swimming. I simply didn't know how the body or knee would hold up after such a long lay off.

I started "running" again in OCT of 2007 and it was pitiful from what the old Dave could handle ... BUT, I was running. I hit my first road bump in December when I started having some hip flexor issues that stopped me from running until mid January. The problems came from strength im-balances that I was able to address and start thinking long term. For the long term I planned to run 3-4 days per week and simply, slowly increase the volume, mostly within the long run. Structure was pretty simple from winter all the way thru early September:

Tuesday - Easy to steady aerobic run - finish with some accelerations

Wednesday - Occasionally run off the bike for 30 minutes easy to steady

Friday - Steady aerobic run

Sunday - Gradually building a long run, hopefully to 2:00 in July

* When I hit mid-June, and training time was limited so I attempted to be consistent at running four days a week (backe doff the cycling) with hopes of toughening up the legs. This started to well until I hit road bump #2 ... this time it was some calf problems that stuck with me until after Big Kahuna in early September. I managed to successfully address the calf problems through functional strengthening and it was now 10 weeks to IM Arizona.

In mid September the run training needed to take a different shape if I expected any tangible change. Going forward I started to add some structured, faster running for the first time within my training ... as opposed to "just running". It looked something like this:

- Tuesday - Steady run with ... 1k repeats OR a series of 1min fast fartlek style OR a high end aerobic tempo segment
-Wednesday - Steady off the bike
-Friday - Steady Aerobic often with a hill component
-Saturday - Variety of runs off the bike
-Sunday - Long Run that built to 22 miles (in slightly under 3:00)

The best part about the progression is, other than normal fatigue, my running economy increased and I felt really balanced and strong ... not fast, strong AND strong is what I think anyone needs in an Ironman to run a steady 26.2

Some Details:

-AVG Run hrs per week JAN 1 - Race Day = 2.9

-AVG Run hrs per week last 10 weeks Inc. Race day = 4.7

-Biggest Run Week = 6hr's (week ending 4 weeks to race day)
- Longest Run = 22 miles

... rolling out of the tent i was surprised that my legs felt pretty supple and I felt light ... phew, a good sign! Things changed quick when I took a little water at the first aid station!

When I wrapped up Part II I referenced potential problems with not taking enough clear water with my bike nutrition. It was in that first aid station I realized I was backed up and my body needed to absorb what was in the belly and small intestines before i could add anything to the tank. Experience tells me I have two choices:

1) Walk a bunch OR "stand down" to drop the HR and help with absorption

2) Hope that I can "get rid of" all the stuff in my belly so that I can re-start the fueling while the stuff in my intestines absorbs.

I went with option 2! To do this I spent the entire first lap of the run taking just enough water to trigger myself to promote getting rid of the excess fluid in my belly. (OK, throwing up) Plus I also slowed way down from what my legs were ready to run by backing off the pace slightly AND walking 30-60sec at the backside of every aid station. BUT, the big problem was going to be how low on fuel I was from not taking ANY for that first lap. A risk I chose to take!

At about the 8 mile mark I could feel something change as my upper intestines were less tight and my stomach stopped revolting. The next step was adjusting the nutrition strategy a bit. The original plan was Carbo Pro 1200 / water / coke / and salt for the run, but I had gotten to the point where I needed sugar ... FAST! ;) Therefore the remainder of the race was Coke, water, ice and a little bit of the 1200. It seemed that Coke was the most tolerable as my stomach was still slightly upset.

I finally settled into the routine about mile 9 and felt like I was back on my original plan. Steady running between aid stations, grab fluids thru the station and consume them while walking for 20 seconds AFTER the aid station. I practiced the walk breaks during training and they really allowed me to stay steady with no pace fade. Although it was mentally hard to do on race day it made the most sense, especially with my run background going in to the race.

Lap 2 felt really steady and was faster than lap 1, but I periodically ran into some energy fades from the lack of fuel in the system. As I rolled in to lap 3 I started to feel the effects of the race, the lack of fuel, all the cement surfaces and the years without running. At mile 18 I really had to lock on mentally and just stay the course. I tell ya, no matter what, it's somewhere between 18-20 that you make your choices! Slow down and just finish, or keep pressing on thru the dis-comfort, blisters and soreness all in the name of, (in this go around for me) pride! I had one more real rough patch coming up to the 23 mile mark but blew myself home from there. My last lap was my fastest, definitely built on the last 5k's! Satisfying way to finish ;)

The overall process AND result at the end of the day made for the most satisfying (not the fastest) Ironman I have done to date.

When the dust settled I took some pride in running through so many folks on the run, not being passed by anyone (except by a couple male pros) and simply holding it together for 26.2 when I had no idea if I could. BUT, I would be hiding something if I didn't say there is a part me that wonders what it would have been like If I didn't make the mistake of not taking enough clear water on the bike! I realized after the race that my legs had a nice spring starting the run and honestly were good enough for 10+ minutes better on the day. Not like the days of running 3:11 but it gives me belief. Belief I can't explore until next time :) YUP, next time ... I just don't know when that will be yet.

A Few Lessons - Things Seen?

1) Running is still raw and pure. You have to do the training, you can't hide AND your weaknesses show up here!

2) The run game hasn't changed. Running isn't about technology ... it's about doing the training, knowing your body, pacing and racing correctly for 5.5+ hours before you ever start the run, and having the ability to tolerate discomfort at some point.

3) Have a game plan, be present where you are AND where your body is at, be flexible, trust that you can turn things around by making smart choices!

It was nice to be in the game again, I missed the competition, I missed the process!

My Best ... DL

Starting Over Part II

2008-12-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Times They Are a Changin - Bob Dylan

Of course Part II here focuses on the cycling component of Starting Over ..

In six years it amazing the amount that has changed in the sport and the cycling equipment world but the reality is the things that mattered then still matter today ... fitness, position, nutrition, pacing and racing ethics! Wait, sorry, ethics just doesn't mean as much as it use to on the course. I'm not going into details in this post but Jay Prasuhn spent a couple paragraphs discussing it on his blog here and you can read my comments to the that section of his post here . I feel bad for the guys and gals that rode legal and barely missed out on spots.

Moving on ;)

As I rolled thru late fall and early December the training was very much in the mind set of getting the body prepared to train again. The cycling was ahead of everything else so I was able to ride a little more during this time. That being said it was important, from a health stand point, to be conservative and use HR caps the majority of the time. This was hard because I was back in the garage with the cycling team and it's not easy to put the governer on in a group setting, especially when you are motivated! I did begin to add a little climbing in to the mix thru December to help improve my general strength and muscualr endurance.

As the new year hit and the health seemingly in the clear it was time to take the HR caps off the cycling and see what happens. Essentially the first 6 months of 2008 were based around riding with my cycling team when I could, feel good completing our three day TrainTo Endure Winter Training Camp and getting a little bit of bike racing in as well. The period would end with a three day, 100 miles a day ride with the cycling team before taking a little break from the hard riding. The weeks were pretty simple as far as structure:

> Tuesday - Team Ride -- Interval session on the trainer, on the road, or 1:00 of crit racing once May came around.

> Thursday - Hill repeats, hilly ride, or steady state on the TT bike

> Saturday and/or Sunday - Longer ride, hard group ride or the occasional race.
NOTE - On occasion I was also able to do a short or medium distance aerobic ride on Wednesdays with Tom & Phil.

The goal with this routine was simply to be consistent and get stronger through riding and racing with the team!

The second part of the "season" started in early August and I decided to race the Big Kahuna Half to see where "things" were at. Things were not where I hoped they might be and changes needed to be made. The changes needed? Simply riding the TT the majority of the time and doing some steady state intervals. The foundation of the final weeks was based on a weekend steady state / long ride and a Thursday 75 minute interval session on the compu-trainer at the Aria Velo Lab. Other than that I had an ez recovery ride on TUES and a steady aerobic ride on WED.

Some details:

- AVG Cycling Per Week from JAN 1 thru Race Day = 7.5 hrs

- Biggest Cycling Week = 18.5 hrs (June - Tuesday thru a Monday that included a three day camp)

- Longest Ride = 112 miles x 3

- AVG Cycling per week in the last 10 weeks pre race = 8 hrs

RACE DAY:

Similar to the swim I was a little unsure of what i was going to ride but based on two simulation rides on the Silverado Trail I thought 5:30-5:35 could be done comfortably, even if there was some wind blowing around. Goal? Ride as fast as I could with lowest power output possible!

I knew I had done some stuff correctly in the first hour of the race because I settled into the bike real quick with a low heart rate. The first hour for me is all about emotion control because it all feels so easy! ;) The course rolls out of town and essentially three out and back "loops". The outward loop was gradually uphill to rolling uphill for 18+ miles into a headwind while the return is just the opposite. Because of the courses nature I thought the outward bound leg section would be closer to 75-80% of FTP (as opposed to 70-75% that is typically advisable) with the downhill/tailwind return section likely being closer to 65%.

It played out that I rode all three loops pretty equal from an even power stand point but the return legs yielded way lower percentage of FTP than I imagined. (even riding at an AVG of 25mph) It just didn't make sense to push any harder on the down or tailwind sections. For me it seemed better to get the calories in/absorbed and put some reserve in the bank for what might be an unpredictable run! ;) My lap splits taken off my PT were: 1:48 / 1:50 / 1:48 with laps 2 & 3 having 2min of pee stop each (and man did I need that ;)

As the ride came to a close I knew I rode pretty conservatively. The other thing I realized is that I felt a little stopped up in my intestines (?) plus a little extra solute sitting in the belly. For nutrition I used two concentrated bottles (one per lap) for nutrition (one Carbo Pro 1200 / one Infinit) and followed sips of that with clear water. What I ended up with is not taking enough clear water so I tried to push a little extra H2O over the last 10 miles of the bike and ride easier with hopes for absorption. You'll find out later it didn't work optimally!

I got off the bike in under 5:30 ride time (my PT had 5:25) and thought to myself ... "hey I'm going OK, BUT don't get too excited because there is a big, looming chunk of running to come! I took another pee in T2, went about changing into a completely new set of gear, strapped on the Fuel Belt, some stealth, homemade granny compression sleeves, the Saucony runners and rolled off into an unknown world!

Lessons Learned - Lesson Confirmed?

1) Don't neglect riding the TT / Tri bike frequently in your race lead ups. I made the mistake before Big Kahuna ... leasson learned before IM AZ ;)

2) If you are not sure of what you might be capable of on race day do a couple HONEST 110-115 mile simulation rides on course similar to what you will be racing on. Take that opportunity to hammer home the nutrition plan AND run immediately off the bike

3) Like I said ... tha game has changed a bit. Courses like IMAZ have too many people on them and many athletes race ethics have changed. I thought that might be the case .... 10-4, roger that!

4) If you have limited training time on the bike during the week perform at least one session that address muscular endurance and strength. If you can tolertae it, the indoor trainer is valuable!

Next time we talk running :) ... DL

2008-12-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

As I finish up Part II of "Starting Over" I thought I would share Tom Andersons race report that he passed on from the Ironman 70.3 Championships in Clearwater Florida ... ENJOY!

Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through
I can’t complain but sometimes I still do
Life’s been good to me so far…

Joe Walsh -- Life’s been good

I had good fortune and a fast enough race at Vineman this year to qualify for a spot at Clearwater and gladly accepted the offer.

Three months later.

We arrived in Clearwater, Florida on the evening of November 5th two full days before the race. The Hilton was the epicenter - it was filled with other athletes and electric with excitement. I was exhilarated to be there and couldn’t wait to see the course and beach.

Next morning was swim practice. The swim course was already laid out and many of the competitors were practicing their technique for running into the water, swimming and giving interviews. I met up with our friend and 2007 pro home stay, Canadian Cynthia Wilson. It’s amazing to be among so many incredible athletes. For the first time I realized these people are some of the best in the world, and I get to play with them! More of the hype included cycling the area with other competitors, a welcome dinner, a brief run and finally the transition setup on Friday.

The transition setup wasn’t the standard “find your spot and lay out your stuff “. There was a very pleasant and informative volunteer to help us through the maze of bike and bag placements (blue bag for bike and red for run). There was also a changing tent, with chairs (us older guys appreciate that) we all had to run through during each transition.

The next morning Cris and I were ready at the start area as the Color Guard played the anthem, TV helicopters flew overhead and nervous pros swung their arms and bounced anxiously at the start line.

Within 15 minutes I’d finished my swinging and bouncing too, was in the water and found a great spot near the front on the inside near the course buoys. While swimming I remembered one of the athletes was 78 year-old Sister Madonna Buder in the wave in front of me. Was it bad juju to pass the nun? In 32 minutes I was out of the water, into the change tent then on the bike.

One of the pre-race descriptors was the 12% grade on Memorial Bridge leading out of Clearwater. It really didn’t look anywhere near that steep and I was able to climb it in my big ring (I know I’m a masher but… it was a great deal like climbing Roblar Road). Another legend about Clearwater is the notorious drafting that goes on among competitors. Some of that is certainly true. I was passed by groups of 10 or more riders several times but I also saw 10 or more people in the penalty tent.

To minimize the amount of time the race would affect the good citizens of Clearwater the waves were arranged (with the exception of the pros) from oldest to youngest or perhaps more importantly, from slowest to fastest.

I have never been passed so many times in my entire life as faster riders caught and passed us. I was somewhat demoralized by it all and resorted to mental distractions to keep myself sane. I began to wonder what the good Sister’s bike might look like. Would she have all the high-tech gear we had or might the church limit some of her accessories because of gender associations? Would she have to ride a girl’s bike for example? I remember the church being a stickler in that area. And, might she have a plastic Jesus on her handlebars? This train of thought went on for 50 plus miles - with the exception of a few position exchanges involving other 60 year-olds and the 45 plus women that started before us and requiring my full attention. If she used holy water in her bottle would that be considered outside influence? Aaaah… finally the bike was over. The split was good for me (2:44) and I thought I was on track for my goal of 5:20 something.

The run’s a double out and back that includes the ever-steeper (it was at least 12% now) Memorial Bridge in both directions before returning to the start finish. My run paradigm was to start slow and build using the last bridge downhill as momentum for a strong finish. The second lap was harder than expected so I changed plans; I ditched my signature water bottle and used the aid stations for water, Gatorade and sponges. It wasn’t terribly hot (80’s) but the humidity was greater than I was accustomed to so I felt overheated and pouring water on my head and using sponges helped keep me cooler.

During the end of the second lap I found myself catching a fellow that could be in my age group (gray hair and shuffle). With about a mile to go and 100 yards back I thought the best strategy was to time my pass toward the end of the run and eliminate the chance of him passing me back in the shoot. This fellow had some left for the finish and kept increasing his speed too. As the finish line approached he still had a 5-yard lead and I realized it was now or never if I was going to catch him.

The finish announcer recognized our bib number sequence and began shouting our names declaring the 60 year olds as the new 40s as we both sprinted for the finish. The truth be known, I have no fast-twitch muscles so in spite of expending every bit of energy I couldn’t close the gap. I finished in 5:25, the time I had expected and in 8th place, all I had hoped for.

Another Clearwater plus was post-race pizza (my favorite food group). I remember heeding the words of Miss Piggy “Never eat more than you can lift”, but the food was so good and at the time would have given it 5 stars.

Day dreaming again as I walked to our hotel: I thought of the first time I met Madonna Buder. We were running the Avenue of the Giants Marathon in Weott, California in the 80s. Back then she was known as the Flying Nun – in her mid 50s she was beating men and women half her age. I remember running alongside her for a few miles and being so impressed with her charm and ability.

It’s wonderful and inspiring to see people like her and others like Team Hoyt – the father and son combo (Rick has cerebral palsy and is pushed throughout events by his father Dick) having completed nearly 1000 races of various distances (including this one in Clearwater) still participating and enjoying themselves. Dick said they had two flats but still had a good time.

The professionals that receive much of the spotlight and glory are certainly magnificent to watch and inspirational in their form and ability but individuals like Madonna Buder and Dick and Rick Hoyt are in a class all by themselves, they are the ones we all look up to. Hats off to them!

Special thanks to the TTE group for some great training rides and support, Phil for his companionship and honesty, Dave for his guidance and patience and Cris for her understanding and confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to.

The experience will last a lifetime - providing I buy the video as a memory refresher.

Ocho -- aka "Tom Tom"

Starting Over ... Again - Part I

2008-12-08T11:14:00.001-08:00

"Don't call it a comeback I've been here for years" ... LL Cool J

This was a song on a play list my sister gave me before the race (a tradition) and what my buddy Bob wrote in an email to me after the race at Arizona. I have been around for years but just in a dormant state ;)

****The photo above is from IM Hawaii in 2002 ... my last Ironman.

I have never been a fan of writing race reports but the requests have come and I figured the only way I wanted to do this is if I can make it educational for those few out there that read this. I am going to take it in manageable chunks, so here goes ....

A brief, pointed history (details not needed) on the time frame from April 2004 (last time i did any consistent, healthy, training) until the fall of 2007 ... the last Ironman I did was in Kona 2002!

* 2 Knee surgeries

* No running

* Limited and often unmotivated cycling and swimming

* Zero Training from FEB 2007 to September 2007 (mono)

* 1 Broken Arm

* Passing of my dad

* Gained 20 pounds

Considering the long lay off and the sickness, the plan was to take three months of very, slow, progressive, low heart rate (safe) training and then evaluate in December what I might want to do. The plan at this time was to get the body prepared to be able to "train" again! ;) It was at the end of this three month period that a number of my athletes and wife decided to sign up for IM AZ. At the time there was no way I could imagine training for let alone competing at IM AZ. Figuring i was going to make the trip I signed up knowing I had 10 months to see if I could do the training before I had to send in my request for withdrawal. It also gave me good incentive to just stay healthy and consistent :0)

When I hit the DEC 1 mark I made an overall plan that seemed simple as well. Do some bike racing with my cycling team and pick 3-4 triathlon events to see where my brain and body were at with very little specific prep to any of these events.

Breaking it down ... shall we start with the swim?

- Again, this was pretty simple stuff as well ... try to swim three times per week (some group stuff but lots of solo), not worry about volume (initially), and then see where things were at come August/September. Although there are some schools of thought out there that don't advocate swimming year round I happen to like it (most of the time), plus if I spend time away it takes forever to ramp it back up! So if you have the time and energy ... STAY IN THE POOL!

When I hit mid August, Jen and I put together a group that swam a long open water session every Wednesday evening. Most often we were swimming at least 2miles+ and I wish we could have kept this rolling until NOV because it was very valuable ... but unfortunately it wasn't the cards logistically ;( After that the long swim went to the pool! So some details in general:

-- AVG swimming per week from Jan 1 to Race day = 9500 meters
-- Longest Swim = 5400m on Jan 1

-- Biggest Swim Week = 14,500m week of AUG 25

-- AVG per week for the last 10 weeks pre-race = 9500 meters

RACE DAY:

I was a little unsure of what I was going to swim but thought 1:00 was a long shot and 1:05 would be acceptable. In the "old days", historically all my wetsuit swims were between 58 - 59 minutes. For this day I didn't have enough harder or longer swims in the bank for that to happen at a comfortable effort. As we jumped in to the chilly 63 degree water I decided to start a little to the right and back about 5 people. I learned quick this was a mistake! After the swim and looking at photos, my best spot would have been closer to the front and more left or inside. It seems everyone wanted to start to the right ;)

The swim was uneventful except for getting buffered way too far left by a large, slow swimming group. I then had to to move out of and around that group before I just decided to swim most of the time in my own water off the buoy line. From there it was just about keeping my patience and the stroke long until I made a final wide turn around the last buoy and headed for the stairs. I took the chance in that last 150+ meters to really back off, take a pee (yes while swimming) and just keep as low a heart rate as I could when I hit the bike.

Getting out in 1:01:?? I was at the back of the large group that swims :57-1:00 but well ahead of that next big group that is closer to 1:05. I recognized that fact when I was in the water and could see that group a little too far ahead and realized THAT was the group I should have been with! Being in that group a minute ahead would have made the swim that much easier because of the draft and energy conservation ... not to mention the slightly quicker swim.

Simple and relaxed T1, albeit a little slow, but not the thing that was going to hurt me on the day!

Lessons learned? (some of these are personal to me but also across all athlete ranges)

* Swim consistency makes a difference as opposed to big swim blocks to ramp things up.

* A consistent long swim every week for at least the 10 weeks leading in to the race is still the crucial building block of being able to swim relaxed and not get out of the water over exerted.

* People have adjusted where they start their swims and I need to do the same if i go back. Seems more people want the outside now. I'll save the new strategies for my athletes! ;)

* Swim specific strength matters. When I couldn't swim or needed a time efficient way of holding on to swim strength I hit the stretch cords. My wife Jen benefitted greatly from this!

Bottom line? There is no magic potion to swimming fitness for this race. You have to do it and you have to do it technically correct. The less you do it and the less you do it technically correct the more it shows up later on race day. Some say the swim is just the beginning of the fuel tank emptying. BUT, you can decide how you want the fuel to drip or pour out! It all depends on the type of training and pacing you decide to execute;) ... your choice!

Chew on that and I'll come back with Part II AND ... feel free to shoot questions across to me or post them in the comments ... DL

Ironman Arizona Athlete Updates

2008-12-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a little over a week since we finished Ironman Arizona and it's time to give credit where it's due and kudos to the TTE crew that thrived! From PR's to first timers to an "old man come back" it was good times all around. Below you'll find the short stories, but there are always bigger stories behind the people ;)

I'm not big on writing personal race reports but I have had a lot of questions about coming back to an Ironman after a long lay off from racing and training. So, after this set of athlete updates I'm going to piece together a report, or series of reports, that hopefully contain information that is beneficial and educational to others about not only the race but more importantly the training that led into it.

Patrick Krueger ... starting with one of our Iron Virgins (no longer), Pat had a real smooth day after a bumpy 2-3 weeks leading in to the race. Pat hit all kinds of road bumps in those two weeks including ... a broken fork, a broken frame, a cold, and then a flat tire the day before the race! Talk about getting it all out of the way ahead of time ;) WELL done Pat and welcome to the club! Odessa Schexnaydre ... Iron Virgin number two didn't have the road bumps that Pat had but Odessa is happy mother of two (her own road bumps) with a supportive husband. Odessa had one of the largest support crews along with her and used the infectious energy to have a real evenly paced day and was so strong all the way to the finish. To be honest I wasn't sure if Odessa would want to come back and do another IM but she has already used the words "next time" Good on Ya Odessa!

Layne Scoggins ... heading in to Ironman # 4 we all knew Layne wasn't going to PR, heck we didn't even know if he was going to finish! Layne had two successful medial meniscus surgeries this year the longest run he had down was about 10 miles. Well, needless to say Layne's wheels came off at about mile 10 but he persisted to the finished. Heck, I called him crazy for starting the race but he managed himself intelligently and finished what he started. Well done Layne!

Cecelia Rondou ... though she was starting Ironman #3 she hadn't done one since 1994. Since then she has competed very well at all distance from sprint to half ironman and just getting to the start line of the race has been monumental. Cecelia fractured her hip in a bike crash earlier in the year, which of course hampered how much she would be able to run in her lead up to the race. We all know Cecelia is not only talented but TOUGH, and she managed a 6th place in her age group in the process. Her face in the picture above sums it up ;) ... it was my pleasure to see you at the finish line Cecelia!

Jennifer Latourette ... on the start line for Ironman #5 Jen had done some different (compared to other Ironman build ups), and successful training leading into the race so she was ready to roll on race day. She started off with her best Ironman swim to set up the day but unfortunately had an athlete crash her about 15-16 miles into the bike ride. Being tough and stubborn (we all know that), she took some time to dust herself and focus back on the task. Keeping things as steady as she could Jen kept it rolling (ugly road rash included) and came across the line with a 10 minute PR! 5 Ironman races and PR's every time she has stepped to the plate! Well done "wifey" ;)
Special mention goes to our buddy Kevin Bucholz for gutting it and getting to the line. Kevin was rolling pretty good but just couldn't put together the run that his training should have provided! Glad you decided to keep pressing on K-Buch

Finally ... in all the glory we unfortunately had one disappointment. Our super senior John Lander was in great shape heading in to the race but unfortunately mechanical difficulties on the bike forced him to retire on loop #1. It's hard to ever know what good will come out of it but at some point we'll figure it out! Next time John!!!!

SPECIAL THANKS goes out to my sister Amy Latourette the ultimate Sherpa when it comes to races, training camps or special training days with the crew. She was there for not only Jen and I but everyone else during race day and the days leading up to the race. THANKS sister Amy! ;)

Stay tuned for my race report(s) ... DL

The Lab & Aria Velo

2008-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

As I prepare a group to head off to Ironman Arizona I am also preparing for an "Open House" in a new part of my life at Aria Velo. A long time client and friend asked me to team up with him in a new business venture giving me a new "home base" and an option to do add some new features to my coaching services.

Please visit http://www.ariavelo.com/ for details on the initial bike fitting services Rand is providing. Some of which include RETUL 3D Motion Capture and custom bikes from Parlee & Guru. Above is a view from across Wilson St.

Above is the view as you walk in the front door. This is all of Rand's fitting "stuff" and you'll see the "lounge" in the background. We'll host an Ironman watch party on December 13th and have Cyclism Sundays when the classics hit!

Here you see the view by walking back into the depths of the facility. That's my desk (HA, not always that clean!) and Grahams work station. Thru the window you see the "Lab" or A.K.A. "The Hurt Box" where I will be able to do performance testing and evaluation via the Computrainer. The area will also be open to "rent" for those that want to pre-ride courses and so on.

Let me know if you have any more questions on the possibilities. I'll be adding a second Computrainer at some point and / or a treadmill!

My Best ... DL

Athlete Updates

2008-10-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

With the recent retirment of triathlon great Simon Lessing, I thought we would honor him with a picture on the blog for this installment. I have been fortunate enough to meet Simon, watch him race with great tenacity and laugh at his sense of humor over the past few years ... a sense of humor some just don't get. Best of luck Simon!

Now, I wanted to take a moment to recognize some terrific performances over the last few weeks as we round out 2008.

Dana Chance ... capped off the season with a great race at the Longhorn Ironman 70.3. Her main goal was to go under 5:00 on a tough course and she did just that! It also netted here an age group third place. Rest up Dana!

Chuck Sloan ... back at USAT Age Group Nationals Chuck didn't have the race we wanted but he still managed the fastest run split and qualified for the 2009 ITU World Championships in Australia. Chuck passed on the slot as he chooses to tackle some longer distances races in 2009.

Amanda Erwin ... over the last couple weeks Amanda has had two first class performances. Earlier in the month she finished 6th overall (Elite Age Group) at the Toyota US Open in Dallas , Tx. While recently she finished 5th overall at the Best of The US Championship in Tempe, AZ. A race that brings state champions from around the USA together for an end of the year "smack down"

More next week on "The Lab" ;) ... DL

Execution!

2008-10-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the dropping some thoughts (that I said I would discuss a month ago) on execution, I wanted to send my best wishes out to those from the crew that will be racing this weekend at the Toyota US Open, Longhorn Ironman 70.3 and San Jose Rock & Roll Marathon.

EXECUTION - "Execute You Must"

Over the course of the year we had a lot of athletes from the group have terrific races, produce a number of PB's that of course resulting in some impressive podium places and age group wins. Not only do these performances come from hard, smart training but from execution in training AND importantly execution on race day! To have these great performances there are a number of different levels of execution that take place ...

1) The Training Plan ... not only does this mean perform the sessions you have planned but it also means knowing (by intuition or technology) when NOT to do a particular session!

2) The Recovery ... this means session to session and day to day on a continuous basis so that you can execute the training plan

3) SPECIFIC Training Sessions ... these are sessions that involve "race pace" work, specific sessions that may include some some continuous swim-bike-run sessions or runs off the bike and importantly training on the race course (if possible) OR doing sessions on terrain that mimics the course you will be racing on.

4) Pre Race ... the last 10 days before a key race is when you should put yourself in the position to really freshen up. Be sure to do enough training to stay sharpen, but get extra rest, massage, and take any extra down time you have to go through your race mentally. As race day gets close those are the days you should do your best to relax and have a calm mind.

5) Race Day ... First off, be sure you have a realistic race plan that is derived not only from races in years past, but especially from the specific / simulation training done in the lead up. One of the hardest things to do once the guns goes is keeping emotions, adrenalin, and the extra caffeine ;) in check. Whether you race by perceived exertion, heart rate, power, or a combination of all three, be absolutely sure you stick to whats best for you AND be flexible on race day so that you can adapt and race as needed.

Hopefully after the weekend we can talk about more great execution and terrific performances!

Therefore, next up we'll have race updates from the weekend and I'll try to get some thoughts on honest post race evaluation.

Until then ... DL

Athlete Updates

2008-09-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

I promised an update by weeks end so I wanted to get a quick one up from races this past weekend! Above is a picture of Tom Anderson from last year at Big Kahuna ... when i saw Tom when he was at about mile 4 Sunday he wasn't so cheery ;)

Tom Anderson ... well, he does at again ta Big Kahuna winning his age group by about 30 MINUTES! Tom is in great shape and will now be taking a short break before beginning his preps for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship!

Phil Johnson ... finished off the season with a nice result finishing 7th in his age group at Big Kahuna. Phil has had a nice season with podium finishes, and PB's at the half marathon and half Ironman distances!

Jen Latourette ... Jen finished up her dose of shorter course racing with a nice result and a great effort at Folsom International. I believe Jen was 12th in the always competitive and large 30-39 AG

John Lander ... our elder statesman a 66 years old finished 4th in the 60-69 age group in his last short course race before he hits his prep from Ironman Arizona.

Personally, I "raced" down at Big Kahunatoo and quite frankly got a wake up call and a reality check! A reality check of what 3+ years of no running and 6 years of inconsistent training will NOT do for you! More on that later as it deserves it's own post ;) The scary thing is I'm still beat up from last Sunday!

My Best ... DL

Phil & John

2008-09-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

... on the podium at Rancho Seco earlier in August!

Athlete Ups and Downs

2008-08-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last week we had more of the team out getting it done ... with style! Above is a picture of Dana Chance last year at Ironman Canada. (she race there again last weekend) Dana has become a fixture at the "pointy" end of the women's race there ... and it looks like it will continue that way!

Amanda Erwin ... Amanda has been slowly piecing together a great season of racing after battling through some early season illness and a bike crash. Last weekend Amanda won her age group at the Accenture Chicago Triathlon and was 3rd overall just a couple minutes back from the overall win. The rest of her season includes the Toyota US Open, Best of the US Championship Race, and Ironman 70.3 Worlds.

Dana Chance ... Ironman Canada was on the agenda for Dana this year. When I talk to Dana we always want the race to be hot and hard because of her training grounds in Tulsa. We haven't gotten those conditions the last two years but this year presented maybe a tougher challenge. After leading her age group on to the bike Dana rode incredibly smart and hit the run in 6th place. In 6th she was in definite striking distance of 2nd place and a guaranteed Kona qualifier. About 8 miles of running is when things got tough. For the first time Dana started having GI issues and began spending time (as she called it) in the "little blue penalty huts". With her traditional mental toughness Dana "gutted" :) it out, stayed in 6th and ended up just a couple minutes back of her qualifier. Going forward Dana has a presented us with a new challenge ... 2009 sees Ironman Austria and Ironman Canada 6 weeks apart, and she's motivated! Looks like I need to be up to the challenge as well ;)

Dana's Race Report Here: http://robchancesworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/perspective-and-race-report.html

Jen Latourette ... Jen took her Tri Diva group down to the competitive and ever popular Santa Barbara Triathlon last week. In a competitive field and on a tough course Jen put together a great race. For someone who has been committed to a new job and working with her women's triathlon team she stills manages to put out great performances ... congrats Jen!

I have a piece to drop on here about race execution that I'll hope to put up next week!

Until then ... DL

Coming Back ...

2008-08-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just back from another trip (to Portland for race announcing) and now I should be settled in for awhile. Been a busy couple months! Phew ;)

Above is a picutre of Scott Wing. Scott set out the year to conquer the "California Triple Crown" which is three double centuries complete from a list of select opportunities. Scott had a hiccup at the Terrible Two that postponed his crowning. Two weeks ago Scott wrapped up his quest for glory by rolling through the Marin Double to lock in number three in the crown! As they would say Down Under? Good On YA Scotty!

Over the past couple weeks we have had a few more nice results for the crew.

Phil Johnson ... AG 3rd place at the Rancho Seco OD Race

John Lander ... AG 3rd Place at the Rancho Seco OD Race

Chuck Sloan ... 1st Place OA at the Lake Degray OD Race

More racing this weekend with athletes at Ironman Canada, Santa Barbara Long Course, and the Accenture Chicago Triathlon!

More thoughts to come ... DL

Vineman Results!

2008-07-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Not only have I not posted anything with substance in over a month I don't know if I have even looked here or not ;( I get to a tipping point late in June when some things just take a back seat until August ... of course one of those is the blog. Maybe next time I should just post an "out of order" sign!

I did want to briefly put up some feel good athlete updates from Vineman 70.3 and a couple other events from the "out of order" period. Here goes ...

Chuck Sloan ... 4th Overall and Age Group first at Vineman (his first 70.3 distance race) PLUS Chuck won the Tulsa Triathlon back in June.

Odessa Schexnaydre ... Personal best result at Vineman IM 70.3!!!

Phil Johnson ... Personal best result at Vineman IM 70.3!

Tom Anderson ... AG 4th and qualified for Ironman 70.3 Worlds at Vineman

Jamie Lau ... personal best for Jamie at the Vineman IM 70.3

Tom Ellefson ... Personal best at the Vineman IM 70.3

Marcus Hartley ... Personal Best at the Vineman 70.3

Amanda Erwin ... 9th Overall and AG 1st at Vineman IM 70.3 ... qualified for Ironman 70.3 World's. Amanda also won her Oklahoma State Champioship back in June to auify for the "Best of the US" competition slated for later this yera in Tempe AZ.

Jen Latourette (my wife of course:) ... top 5 result at the Rancho Seco Sprint race where all of her Tri Diva Team (and her) stepped on to the podium!

Thats all for now. When things clear I have some thoughts on race execution that I will post here. Everyone's great results at Vineman were not only from the process of good training but incredibly good race execution. Well done all!!!!!

OH ... if one of my crew would write a race report and send a picture I'd be happy to post you up here ;) ... i need good content to hold me over for another 10 days!

Best ... DL

Vineman Ironman 70.3 Swim Workouts - Weeks 11 & 12

2008-06-08T18:16:00.001-07:00

Warm Up:

300 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 75 build
Main Set:
500 steady pace @ :20 rest
10 x 50 strong @ :10 rest
500 cruise

NOTE: in week 12 main set is only 500 steady / 5 x 50

WD:

6 x25 drill ez

Warm Up:

200 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
5x100strong
250 - steady
500 cruise

250 strong

NOTE: In Week 12 Main Set is 5 x 100 Strong

Warm Down:

300 easy choice

#3 (for week 11 only)

8 x 50 drill & swim
Main Set:
2x1000 @ :30 rest OR Open Water

6 x 50 drill

The Davis Double

2008-06-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Below is Jen's Report form the Davis Double. I told them it might be more fun to go to UVAS and race for 90min to 120min instead ;)

First - Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes...we really appreciated it. It turned out to be a very tough day but I'm happy to report that Scotty and I made it rolling in together at the finish. YAY! We have definitely learned quite a bit about how to train & compete in the heat during this wholeprocess. It was extremly hot all weekend (this seems to follow Scotty & I around for some reason...)Anyway it was in the high 80's when we rolled out at 4:30 in the morning and topped out at 110 degrees on top of Cobb Mountain...supposedly one of the hottest DD in recent memory as reported by locals and ride regulars. It never really felt like it cooled down - much like Hawaii minus the humidity. Even at 10pmit was still in the 90's.

So the lesson of training in the heat? Well - what I can say is this - you have got to be very careful with pace & take good care of yourself when faced with exercising in hot weather. We saw so many people implode and get sagged back in yesterday - strong fit riders from well known teams. It was amazing to watch the poor decisions people made. So - long story short..train & race smart. This was one of THE BEST supportedevents I've EVER been too (aside from Vineman of course). The course & aide stations were extremly wellsupported and stocked with everything from V-8 to sunscreen, ice socks, and every food you could imagine.This tells me that many folks just didn't know how to take care of themselves properly...so thanks to experience& Dave's great input Scotty and I rode strong most of the day.

FYI - Davis is not as flat a course as we thought...they've changed the route in the last few years and there was quite a bit of climbing! Unfortuntaly it was during the hottest part of the day and around the 100mile mark. But in true TTE fashion we "represented" the squad quite well and managed to ride smart and take good care of ourselves.

So - Scotty and I are a little tired...but he has gotten his credit for his 2nd Double Century in his Triple Crown Quest and we left that evening with many folks saying what cool jerseys we had, how strong we rode, and what is "Train to Endure"? Its us baby! WooHoo

Thanks for the support ... Jen ;0)

Athlete Updates ... a little late

2008-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

It must be "busy time" because my updates have become less frequent. I apologize for not getting "props"out to those that deserved it sooner!

Any of my racing has been limited to experimenting with more criterium racing. Above is a picture in the "hurt box" from last week ;) Eventually I placed myself in a little 3 man break that we almost made "stick" ... we ran out of steam with just over a corner to go. Now that i think about it, what is "almost" worth? Hey, had to give it a shot!

Brief Updates

Amanda Erwin - Age group third place at Memphis in May Triathlon and First overall (State Champion) at the Route 66 Triathlon this past weekend. Amanda had a rocky and late start to her training season but things are starting to come around!

Chuck Sloan - Chuck has made a late start to the season as well but was able to take the Overall Win at the CapTex Tri Sprint race in Austin Texas. It's good to have Chuck back on board and rolling again.

Tom Ellefson - Tom raced for the first time this year at the CLASSIC Uvas/Southbay Triathlon in Morgan Hill. Tom continues to improve and is excited about the future. Good on-ya Tom!

Dana Chance - Though it wasn't personal best time, Dana had a personal best performance at Ironman Brazil last weekend. To top off her great race effort she was able to run a personal best in an Ironman. Read about her race over at Rob's blog, Dana really did have an amazing performance! http://robchancesworld.blogspot.com/2008/05/race-report-kinda-long.html

Phil Johnson - In his comeback from a slight knee injury that slowed him, Phil was able to muster up a top ten performance in his AG at the UVAS/Southbay Triathlon. Phil's next target is the Vineman Ironman 70.3

Scott Wing & Jennifer Latourette - These two decided it was a great idea to tackle the Davis Double Century in record setting heat a couple weeks ago. So this update doesn't get overly long, I'll post Jen's report from Davis in a couple days!

Thats all for now ... DL

Vineman Ironman 70.3 Swims Weeks 5 & 6

2008-05-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

SWIM #1

300 swim, 300 w/drills, 4 x 25 build
Main Set
1 x 400 EZ / moderate
2 x 200 steady @ :20 rest
4 x 100 steady / strong @ :15 rest
WD
6 x25 drill ez

SWIM #2

200 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
500 steady
250 build x 50’s
5x100 steady @ 10sec rest

200 easy choice

SWIM #3

5 x 100 drill & swim

Main Set:
3 x 600 @ 1min rest

4-8 x 25 drill

Thoughts & Updates!

2008-05-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend saw more fine performances from the TTE crew and I wrapped up my short, spring "triathlon season" with a race down at the ever popular UVAS / Southbay triathlon. After finishing the race (and the one three weeks ago) it brought me back to how simplistic (in some ways) triathlon training really is. That being said ...

You Get Out What You Put In!

I go to thinking on Sundays drive home from Morgan Hill about a brief conversation I had with a friend who has been in the sport for a long time. It was apparent to him that his fitness wasn't up to shape, but he thought, just maybe, there would be some magic trick on the day that would reveal this. Truth be said, after the race he admitted that there was no rabbit up the sleeve or in the hat and he got out of the race what he put in to it.

This conversation made me feel even better about my race (and my April race) as I realized i got out EXACTLY what I put into it and not an ounce more ... and I'm OK with that! ;) So a little detail about what went in and what I got out of it.

NOTE: pictures below are from the Sacramento Triathlon

SWIM

IN -- in the past few months my swimming has been consistent, with moderate structure, what i consider low volume and at best only a little high intensity efforts that might be needed in short distance racing.

OUT -- the ability to swim steady, make some small pace changes to move to some good drafting feet, but definitely no top end to start fast and get away to the back end of some better swimmers. More than anything the result is not being as fresh getting out of the water as I'd like.

T1 - HA ... simply said, if you don't practice or even more importantly, pay attention to the details then you get dinged. I'm not afraid to say I lost at least 4 places in the overall because of inadequate transitions!

BIKE
IN -- If there has been anything I have done the most consistently it's been on the bike. I have done some harder, slightly structured training and even done some bike racing over the last couple months so the "hard" stuff on the bike is the most tolerable.

OUT -- It was steady on the bike and in fact I needed to keep things in check because of my lack of running. I felt real good about the bike ride in both races and it actually helped me that UVAS is a pretty twisty, rolly type course. I have been racing with the Power Tap but other than the first couple miles of the bike I tend not to look at it for anything other than a reality check. The good things is the downloads after the race show pretty well paced rides. Great for personal reference and even better knowledge for me to help my clients who "race with power".

T2 - See T1 above ;)

RUN

IN -- Essentially three runs per week, with most runs in the 40-45 min range and a sprinkling of longer runs. Other than 1 tempo run and one race I have done zero structured, "fast" running. I tend to do some accelerations on a regular basis, but that's it.

OUT -- On the one tempo run that i did (after a 15 mile bike TT) I averaged about 6:30's, and the last race I ran 6:20's for four miles. So anything under 6:30 will be good ..... I ran 6:20'ish per mile. WhenI seethat number I realize I am "capable" of running faster, problem is I'm just not currently capable of it. I would need to put in a little more run training for that ;)

MY result ended being no different than what I put into the event. The more I thought about it the more I wish athletes could see the big picture like this. After events like Sunday I hear a lot of "could of", "should of", "would of", "expected to" kind of talk. I would venture to guess that the majority of those people that thought they should have been faster, never did anything in training to warrant jusify their feelings.

It was great for me to put it all in perspective and I hope it does the same for you ;)

I will drop in the athlete updates in the next couple of days so the crew can have their own spotlight here!

Cheers ... DL

Vineman Ironman 70.3 Swims - Weeks 3 & 4

2008-05-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

Swim #1

WU: 300 swim, 300 w/drills, 2 x 75 build
Main Set
6 x 50 THEN 300 steady
3 x 100 THEN 300 steady
4 x 75
WD: 6 x25 drill ez

Swim #2

WU: 300 swim, 300 w/drills, 4 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
500 steady
2 x (200 build x 50’s)
300 ez

200 steady
100 strong

WD: 200 easy choice

Swim #3

WU: 8 x 50 drill & swim
Main Set:
20-25min straight swim

WD: 6 x 50 drill

Lots O' Racing

2008-05-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

OK ... i have been a little slow getting this sucker up here but it's getting to be that time of year and I need to be content that updates will be a little less frequent or maybe just short ;)

The photo above is four out of the five of us that raced a couple weeks ago in Sacramento. Yes, that is me in the new black team kit, yes I did race and yes the first race in four years hurt when i got out on the run. I do have to say it was great to be back out mixing it up again ... but if I have a looong way to go to get back to what feels 'normal'. Oh yeah, and a shout out to Phil Johnson who was missing form the photo above. Sorry, but I felt bad for knocking him off the podium ;)

So, a little update on all the TTE folks out racing!

Nuvit Foster ... congrats on a nice run out at the Boston Marathon. Nuvit is now in her preps for Ironman Couer D' Alene

Marie Muchow ... racing in the new TTE kit Marie re-found some mojo at the Eugene, Or. Half Marathon. Marie's key races come late this year in San Jose and CIM in Sacramento.

Jamie Lau ... had a GREAT race at the Napa Spring Tri pulling off a PB. Jamie's patient winter & spring training have set him up for a season of PB's.

Odessa Shexnaydre ... opened up her season with a nice performance at the Sacramento Tri. If she had stayed a little more on course she likely would have won her AG ;) ... Sorry O. Odessa turned around a week later and knocked off a very well executed race at the Napa Half Ironman taking 2nd in her age group!

Phil Johnson ... battling a bit of a troublesome knee Phil was pain free at the Sacramento Triathlon taking a fourth in his age group in an epic battle with Layne Scoggins. Like I said before i feel bad for knocking Phill off the "podium" at the race ... sorry buddy ;)

Layne Scoggins ... opening up the season Layne knocked the cobwebs off and did battle with Phil over at the Sacramento Tri. Those two ended up fifteen seconds apart with Phil getting the edge on the run!

John Lander ... the ageless one got his obiligatory first "so-so" race out of the way but still grabbed a podium spot at the Sacramento Triathlon.

Rob Chance ... changing focus this year form the longer distance racing back over to short course Rob opened up with a big race on the national calendar, St Anthony's in Florida. Rob had an interesting start to his trip (a little costly) and has a nice write up about it on his BLOG Rob had a VERY good age group third at one of the toughest age group races in the country. Next up for Rob is Escape From Alcatraz!

Also a shout out to Scott Wing and Jen Latourette (man that is weird typing that last name for her ;) who did the Wine Counrt 200k (actually 210k's) last weekend in their preps for the Davis Double Century ... the Davis Double is the 2nd ring of the triple crown of double centuries for Scott Wing.

Oh yeah, I did some bike racing this past week as well. Above is a picture of me doing some "duty" for the team as we had 3 guys out in the break. We got a first and a thrid place!

I'm sure I forgot something but that's all I have time for!

Until next time ... DL

Vineman Ironman 70.3 Swim Workouts

2008-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

In the weeks leading up the Vineman 70. I'll be posting a set of three new, progressive swim workouts every two weeks. Below is the first installment ... ENJOY!

SWIM #1

Warm Up:

300 swim, 300 w/drills, 4 x 25 build
Main Set:
4 x 200 steady @ :15 rest
6 x 100 steady @ :15 restWD= 6 x25 drill ez

WD: 6 x25 drill ez

SWIM #2

WU: 300 swim, 300 w/drills, 4 x 50 build to fast
Main Set:
500 steady
250 build x 50’s
500 steady
WD: 4x50 easy choice

SWIM #3

WU: 8 x 50 drill & swim

Main Set:
15 x 100 @ Perceived HIM Effort @ :10-:15 rest
WD: 6 x 50 drill or EZ

WU = Warm up

WD = Warm Down

What are You Training For?

2008-04-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's official ... I am now a married man! Jen and I had one of the best days of our lives with wonderful weather and terrific people! I'll let you use your imagination on the photo above ;)

I'm getting back into the swing of things so I have a few thoughts and an athlete update below.

Lately I have had a couple people ask me "Dave, what are you training for?" Funny thing is I can't answer the question precisely. I guess I am training to get fit again and see what the body and brain can handle. I do have some events on the calendar (cycling and a little triathlon) to keep me chasing the carrot and to keep me moving along on days where i might lose my focus. The reality is I have a pretty simple weekly training schedule that I can manage most of the time. Periodically I have thrown in a race simulation (time trial etc.) or a local race to bump the fitness, and for now it seems to be working ... slowly ;) So, right now I have enough structure (l like structure) to keep me improving but not so much that it kills my enjoyment. At some point I may want to train a little more precisely but for now the simplicity works. The bummer part is, as of tonight, I have had my second race of the year cancelled. We were suppose to race in a team time trial tonight but weather has stomped that out .... grrrrrrrr. THEREFORE, back to simple structure and my usual Tuesday night session!

ATHLETE UPDATE

I'd like ot intorduce you to a Powerman ... Todd Hink! Todd lives in Conway, Arkansas, is a TTE client and was someone who always made me swim, ride and run a little faster when we raced the same events a number of years ago. Todd has done the United States' premier duathlon, Powerman Alabama, seemingly every year that I have known him, or maybe known who he is (10 years +) This year at age 38 Todd went 12 minutes faster than he has EVER gone, was 12th overall (including pros), and was the 7th amateur overall. For those of you that think getting older means getting slower, have a chat with Todd. Todds next big challenge is Ironman St. Croix 70.3

Coming up this weekend is a crew of folks at the West Sacramento Triathlon ... as long as it doesn't get cancelled ;)

Keep it simple ... DL

Racing!

2008-04-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang ... I'll apologize in advance as things may be thin here for the next couple weeks with the wedding on the horizon. Until then I'd like to leave you with some athlete updates from the last couple weekends.

Above is a picture of Tom Anderson at California Ironman 70.3 this past weekend. Tom finished 4th in his Age Group and sorry to say missed out on any of his desired World Championship slots available. The hard part is Tom can compete with the best athletes in the country in his age group and this time he had to do it under the weather. Tom caught the dreaded Nor Cal Cold that has been running around these parts and it left him short on power (bike) and finishing ability. He still gave it quite a go but fell a tad short. Please read Tom's race report below. Good on ya Tom!

Some Athlete & Team TTE updates:

Jen Surprise (soon to be Latourette) - Jen Had a great half marathon (Shamrock) to cap off her winter season before transitioning to the wedding season ;). She had a PB over the distance and has now run injury for free for 18 months after a long battle with re-occurring lower extemity problems. Both impressive results!

Phil Johnson - Phil has learned the benefits of doing some consistent training through the winter this year and the result in a PB Half Marathon. Big thing form Phil this year ;)

Marie Muchow & Layne Scoggins - Admittedly both not on their best days but I'll give credit where it's due and give them Kudos for just getting it done. We often learn alot from our days that are not 100%. Well done you two!
Dana Chance - Dana is in the red in the picture above with race winner Kelly Lear-Kaul. After opening the season with a PB half marathon Dana kicked off the triathlon season with a magical performance. Good training, good solid race pacing and execution net Dana a season opening age group win and 2nd OVERALL at the Lone Star half in Texas. A great way to start her next block of training in preparation for Ironman Brazil.

down and two go for The Wing Man as he starts his quest for the California Triple Crown of double centuries. Scott started things off in Solvang this past weekend and exceeded his expectations!

Hopefully I can get a quick post up her later this week. I have some thoughts in my brain about race simulations sessions and being creative to achieve what you need ;) ... more on that later!

Tom's Race Report ... enjoy!

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel a deep burning pain in my side…
Marty Robbins
El Paso

The Oceanside event was very well presented and I would be hard pressed to find fault with any phase of the race or any of the ancillary activities, (e.g. registration, organization, venue, post-race food, awards).

The swim might have been the most enjoyable ever during a race. We swam in the Oceanside harbor that has a jetty and breakwater to protect the boats (and in this case swimmers) from the ocean turbulence. This made for calm water and recent weather brought the water temp to a balmy 60 0. I got out with the front group and had little traffic except for passing through slower swimmers from earlier waves. I remember one fellow back-stroking at a right angle in front of me at one point. There were plenty of volunteers to help us up the boat ramp at the end of the swim and when I reached back to unzip my suit I realized it was already done for me. (I think I would know if I’d swum the course that way) I lucked out on my assigned transition spot; right in the first row with plenty of room.

The bike leg takes you through Camp Pendleton Marine Corp Base which is both good and bad. The good was at least one lane of traffic was available to us throughout the entire race and automobile control was managed and enforced by Marines with guns. I never saw anyone challenge their authority. On that subject, the Marines also donated hundreds of individuals to the race as volunteers and all did a wonderful job keeping things organized and running smoothly. The course was also picturesque with rolling hills and rolling hills and rolling hills and steep hills! The pavement was good and divots, manhole covers and the like were clearly marked for identification and avoidance. The bad, at least for me, was the lack of accessible preview to the course and not having competed at Oceanside before left me with some surprises and unknowns. It was also kind-of boring. I suppose we’re spoiled by living and riding where we do but I can’t help judging rides by comparing them to what I’m familiar with. It’s hard to beat Sonoma County for beauty and diversity. If only they’d close the roads to traffic. The bike leg was hard for me because of the affects of a recent and current cold. My heart rate ran high with any surge and felt managing it into acceptable levels was most important to the ultimate outcome. So the bike ran long, probably 20 minutes longer than I think I could do but that’s the way it is. I couldn't wait for the run.

The run course is a double out and back along Oceanside’s Beach Boardwalk and parallel streets. Whenever I leave the transition area for the run I never know fully how my legs are going to feel until I try running on them. This time they felt great and found an 8:20 pace to my liking. There was an abundance of crowd support throughout, well staffed aid-stations and plenty of cold water. The air temp was in the 60’s and in spite of a brilliant sun the run was quite comfortable. The second lap was more difficult than the first (of course) and began to feel some of the cold’s affects with coughing fits etc. All was manageable until mile 12 when I realized I was leaning forward much more than I should. It may have been the fact I had to raise my eyes to see the tips of my shoes that gave it away but no amount of straightening myself could bring me back the correct posture. It was as though the back muscles had shut down and could no longer do their job. So I finished nearly vertically, under 6 hours and within 30 minutes was well on my way to eating my weight in pizza.

With the Oceanside race behind me I find myself analyzing my pluses and minuses and what I would have done differently if I could. I suppose it’s only natural to do that, particularly when the results aren’t as good as expected and you want to second guess yourself or assign culpability to too much of this and not enough of that. So the bottom line was 5:52, and if your goal was to be under 6 hours then I suppose that’s fine. But I really saw myself as being at least 30 minutes faster. I finished 4th which earned me a neat placard and a spot on stage for the award ceremony. I also got to meet triathlete Paula Newby-Frazer a long time idle and really wonderful person.

What would I have done differently, it’s hard to say. Illness can’t be predicted or prevented and northern California winters certainly have their restrictions for available riding conditions. Do more strength training, but at the expense of what else? The Oceanside race was certainly hard and I knew that going into it, I suppose its challenge of new adventure that makes all this tri-stuff so fun.

Tom

Thanks Tom ... DL

The Good, The Bad, AND The Ugly

2008-03-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the "Grasshopper #2"!

There is a local series of "grassroots", "bandit", or whatever you want to call them, cycling events that take around Sonoma County. There are no categories, the courses (road, dirt, or combo) are not easy and there certainly is no mercy. While I mean this to be a bit of an update on my progress and an opportunity to share some lessons I have to give a little information on the 2nd race in the Grasshopper Adventure Series.

Round 2 is one of the more popular events in the series. This year we started (according to the GAS) 160 folks ... yup that's 160 mass start. Like I said previously there are no categories. That means I (and everyone else) lined up with Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Scott Nydom (BMC) and crap load of other Northern California talent. The terrain is relentless and you can see the 70 miles with 6500 feet of climbing in the course profile above. To add to the fun, the wind was blowing rather briskly.

Typically the peloton rolls out pretty smoothly and somewhat neutral until things hit the first two climbs. At that point "selections" are made and then groups join as you hit the "flatter" sections along HWY 1. I was able to get over the first two climbs (though I wasn't really intending to do it) with some key players. Mainly because of good position and the fact that I climbed better than I thought I would. Sitting in a large group that included a lot of teammates was good ... but which teammates, and other riders, that were there made me realize the horse power surrounding me. We had the daunting climb up the "Marshal Wall" (first big climb on the profile above) just ahead and I realized with my current fitness, relative lack of miles in training, and distance to go, I wasn't going to stay around this group for long.

What happened when we hit the base of the climb I didn't quite expect ... me legs absolutely rejected me and I felt really empty. No other way to say it, I felt like ASS! It's hard to explain the rest of the day from there. My legs NEVER cam back and I was in a raw mood (low blood sugar maybe?:) No sag cars, no easy way back, no short way back and a crazy head wind to deal with solo. What's a guy to do? Sack up and ride it in. For the longest time it felt like I was out there by myself, but I knew there were a good 100 riders behind me still. I was hoping I could pull myself together and jump in with a nice group that I really belonged in. I had 3-4 groups that came by me and I just couldn't respond for very long, PLUS I had no will to grab a wheel. Normally I would have been good in any one of these groups ... just not today. The only thing left to do was limp home, slowly.

SO ...

The Good - I positioned myself well to start, climbed OK (early), dragged myself to the finish, and my mind was committed to racing. One of the reason I have jumped back into the periodic race is to see where me brain is.

The Bad - I simply don't have the miles in my legs to make hard efforts early in a long ride and recover.

The Ugly - Likely the worst two hours I have ever had on a bike as I limped in. It was really humbling and frustratiing how I finished the event. BUT some Mexican food and a beer with the boys helped start to set my brain straight!

Lessons Learned as the Dust Cleared and in my progress back to the game?

> I was way more tired going into the event than I realized. I took a few very ez days M-W of this week and I'm starting to bounce back. I 'll leave out any intensive efforts until next week.

> As mentioned previously, I don't have the miles in my legs this year, HECK over the last four years, as most of those guys I was riding around in the early part of the race.

> I need to keep remembering that this is going to be a long process and realize all the positive that has happened in the last 6-7 months. Just the fact that I have lost almost 20 pounds is good in itself ;)

> Nutrition, Recovery, and Training? Gotta keep tweaking those things to make sure I get the most out of myself. There is definitely room for improvement.

Other than the few days of fatigue, which I seemingly am bouncing back from pretty quick, my body is doing well. As long as I keep listening with a keen ear and making smart decisions my fitness will keep coming back. To what level? Who knows ... but that's part of the fun I guess. I tell you, it's really difficuly mentally not go out and ride hard with team all the time ;)

More races to come in April and beyond!

Until next time ... DL

This Hit Too Close to Home

2008-03-14T16:10:00.001-07:00

Above is a picture of Kristy Gough from the 2007 Vineman Ironman 70.3 race. Kristy, and a teammate, were killed in a tragic car accident this past weekend in the South Bay while on a training ride. Kristy raced the Vineman Ironman 70.3 in the pro field this past year and she won the age group race in 2004. Kristy had been making a switch over over to some road cycling this spring and has literally won every race single bike race she entered, quickly moving her way up the ranks.

To say she was a great athlete is an understatement, and it's sad that she may have only been scratching the surface of her young athletic talents. More than her abilities, Kristy was always gracious and appreciative. I saw her and said a quick hello as she was prepping for a bike race in Napa back in February. Our "community" will miss her.

I'll dedicate this space to Kristy for the week.

Cheers ... DL

Thank You & Athlete Updates

2008-03-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

It took me awhile but I'm finally getting back to an update here. It seemed that when camp finished up other things when straight to the top of the priority list and the blog went down the list ;)

PART I

The first thing I wanted to do was take the time to say thank you to some folks for their support at the training camp.

First off, the sponsors who were so well received and appreciated!

Fuel Belt - www.fuelbelt.com Scott & Vinu helped take care of the crew with welcome gifts for everybody and plenty of items to spread around the camp ... thanks guys!

www.Xtri.com - Thanks to Betsy Delcour for encouraging me to keep writing and getting all the content up over at the site.

Oomph! - http://www.oomphsports.com/ for providing give aways and the great leaders jersey's! Be sure to keep an eye out for their 2008 line up when it unveils later this spring.

Blue Seventy - www.bluesventy.com For those of you that don't know. On top of great speed suits and wetsuits, Blue Seventy makes great goggles! Thanks for the support fellas!

Infinit Nutrition - For providing great sports nutrition support with all of the drinks in the support vehicle to recovery drinks after each session. Click on the Infinit link on the sidebar to get started with your custom blended drink .. NOW ;)

ALCiS Pain Relief - this stuff was an absolute hit for many of the folks in camp! Stories spread about waking up in the middle of the night just to rub some of the stuff on aching joints and muscles! I saw more than a few people use it during the middle of a ride.

Last but not least is my sister Amy and Scott Wing! Amy was brilliant in the support vehicle and logistics. She kept things rolling, always had what anyone could want AND took all the photos! Also, Scott Wing who did all the cycling during camp and did a tremendous job of taking care of anyone who fell off the back of the group or needed extra assistance. Scott, A Camelback employee also provided everyone in camp some of their Elixer electrolyte product and one of their just released water bottles ... you gotta try them both! MANY thanks to both of you!

I am going to save some thoughts, and an article, for later on so we can move on from the camp. I'll post up the entire "Build Your Own Training Camp" article later on as we start thinking about a mid summer weekend camp and another three day camp in the fall!

PART II - Athlete Update

In the midst of all the other happenings at camp we had three of our teammates roll out more early season results!

Todd Hink - At the Little Rock Half Marathon Todd won the 35-39 Age Group and finished 11th overall (2200 finishers) running 1:20. Good start to the year for Todd who will follow up with Powerman Alabama and St Croix Ironman 70.3

Amanda Erwin - Amanda won her age group at the AT&T Austin Half Marathon and finished 11th female overall on the hilly course! Another great result to prep for the 2008 season.

Dana Chance - At the same At&T Austin Half Marathon AND in the same age group Dana pulled off a 4th place and set a new personal best on a challenging course. A great way to to start things off for Dana as she preps for the Lone Star Half Ironman and Ironman Brazil (May)

Thanks for reading, and until next time ... DL

2008-02-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure
2008 Winter Training Camp
presented by:

Well, the 2008 TTE Winter Training Camp is in the books and everybody not only survived but, I believe. most people thrived! I did remark to everyone how impressed I was with how they handled themselves and made smart decisions during the three days. The one thing we accomplished was getting EVERYONE through all the minimum training, something we didn’t do last year. That was MY highlight from the camp!

Day three was an interesting start with more clouds and fog in the sky with a lot of mellow moods all around. Part of the quiet mood was not only the fatigue but the climb of Coleman Valley Road that was lurking after some tough riding. I did tell everyone before the camp that the day three ride would be the most difficult and it proved true. The first part of the ride took us through Sebastopol, to a reality check over Bloomfield Rd. (a long gradual climb) and into the “town” of Bloomfield. You’ll see in the photos above the group is ‘compacto” heading into Bloomfield. I found out that Stormy’s serves as the town’s meeting place, town hall, or anything else you can think of. Sort of one stop shopping! Interestingly there was still a lot of silence in the group as we made a quick stop in Valley Ford before taking a “slightly” longer route off of and back to HWY 1. We then started our ride into Bodega Bay, Coleman Valley Rd and continuing on the same route as the Tour of California used all the way into Santa Rosa.

The section of Highway 1 we were on has great pavement but the terrain is lumpy and the weather can typically be windy as you move closer to the shoreline. As we rolled along I thought I was being set up for an attack on Coleman Valley Rd. but later found out that most everyone was trying to hang on to mine and Rand’s wheels (Rand was awarded the Oomph! Leaders Jersey for the camp) as we moved into and out of Bodega Bay. As we cruised out of Bodega Bay there was a sign that read “KOM 5k”, meaning we had 5k’s to go before the top of Coleman Valley AND our last KOM. Coleman Valley Rd is a ‘Category 3” climb and doesn’t prove to be tough in it’s length but in it’s steep pitch over the early parts. You can see from the following link the stage profile. http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2008/stage1-profile.pdf

I really wanted to hang on to the OOMPH! KOM Jersey but knew Layne was lurking back there somewhere. You see, Layne is a skinny dude and sneaks around like a snake, you never know what he is up to. I managed to get a gap at the bottom of the climb and keep it all the way to the top. One of my goals before the camp was to push myself on all the climbs and try to get the KOM jersey … of course I didn’t tell anyone this! Mission accomplished. Everyone climbed really well and they were pleased to get to the top … as you can see from the picture above! The hard part was we still had another two hours of riding (total) and some climbing left until we hit the downhill and flats with 20 miles remaining. Even though we finally lost a couple people off the back of the main bunch on the final two climbs, we had a great run in to Santa Rosa with a few of us keeping the pace surprisingly high!

We finished off the training day by hitting the Santa Rosa Creek trail for our runs. From there we re-grouped and were able to catch the end of the ToC stage one finish here in town. A fun way to end the training!

I’ll leave you with that for now. Later in the week I’ll do a wrap up on the camp and training camps in general on my blog.

Until then … DL

2008-02-17T17:39:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure

2008 Winter Training Camp
presented by:

Wow, another five hour day in the books! Today we started by giving everyone a chance to show their swim skills. Following a scripted workout, the goal was to swim as many yards (we were not in our normal meters pool today) as they could in one hour. There were three points on offer for every 250 yards that went into books with every athlete having the choice to do the workout in which ever lane they chose AND with the help of anybody they wanted to team up with. Tom Anderson and I were able to take out maximum points for the swim, with 3500 yards, while a slew of others were impressive in cruising through up to 3250 yards. Many folks learned to day that by keeping their paces steady and their rest short they could put up “a lot” of yards in one hour or less. No more excuses in training for those folks!

After the swim we rolled out for a ride that was only going to take us in the neighborhood of 3:30 but with a tough climb stuck in the middle of it. To add a twist to the climb (of course we had the KOM competition to shoot for) there were bonus points on offer, just like we do for the KOM, at the bottom of the descent. This made for some tactical decisions about what points mattered more ;) Though technically it is a descent there are some tough little up pitches on the way down from the climb. For me the climb was 40 minutes up and 20 minutes down with the descent being more of a challenge than expected. There were some carrots out there to chase! For those “power junkies” out there 9Rob) my NP for the climb AND descent was 250 watts … that’s about what my hour of power or FT is! Heading back we unfortunately were treated to a sticky headwind that was just not possible to escape. Tough ride! BTW, Troy Tuscher rode quite strongly today and will be awarded with “rider of the day” tomorrow morning when we meet.

Nothing exciting to tell about the run except Jen Surprise (soon to be Latourette) snuck out ahead of us and took an extra couple points on the run ... she added on an extra 10 minutes over the rest of us! Sneaky little turd ;)

For the points classifications I am passing on the Oomph! Leader’s Jersey and opting into the Oomph! KOM Leaders Jersey for tomorrow. Rand Libberton, rightfully, is now wearing the leader’s jersey with Tom Anderson (who actually leads the “geezer” and girls division) in third. Layne Scoggins is a close second in the KOM competition. We will post final points at the end of the camp.

Need rest, so until tomorrow … DL

2008-02-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure
2008 Winter Training Camp
presented by:

A chilly foggy morning turned to bright sunshine and temperatures in the 60’s as the first day of camp rolled through Sonoma and Marin County. Day 1 saw the group on the bike for over four hours and everyone ended up with the same amount of run points … only because some rules were broken by a few folks doing excessive running. Sorry, it’s too long of a story too tell!

The day was highlighted by three early KOM Competition chances and a first look to see who was willing to take some risks OR to see who has more fitness. Come day two we’ll begin to see who has the fitness and also the result of those risks. I was fortunate (or maybe not) to be in the top three for all the KOM competitions. Honestly speaking, it felt like a little bit of a “gang up” on me as various people tried to take out others. Phil Johnson proved his strength and caginess by hanging around during all the KOM’s and managed to take the third with a real hard finish into the town of Occidental. Phil almost took the second KOM from me in a sneak attack from behind and we battled hard for third one along with “The Instigator”, Layne Scoggins. The photo above shows Layne taking the first KOM.

All in all it was a great first day with the group already starting to work nicely together. Nancy Russell, our eldest women in the group, has proven to be quite strong but it’s something you would expect from a Death Ride finisher. By virtue of the “excessive runners” I ended up in the leader’s position but have justly relinquished that to Phil Johnson (trailing by one point) in lieu of leading in the KOM. We will both be wearing Oomph! Leaders Jerseys tomorrow for our respective “divisions”.

Tomorrow is a full swim, bike, run day with a tough forty minute climb looming in the middle of our ride. The weather looks to be shaping up nicely for day two. Again I’ll do my best to get an update to you tomorrow evening.

Until then … DL

2008-02-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure

2008 Winter Training Camp

presented by:

By the time this gets posted over at http://www.xtri.com/ we may likely be into our first day of training. Everything is ready to roll and we kick things off with a get together for all the “campers” as we provide a briefing about the flow of the camp. We’ll share some beer, wine, stories and I know some folks will share their anxiety about doing more than their typical summer weekly training in only these three days!

Regarding the training we’ll be attempting accomplishing, and similar to my notes on “3 Day Training Camps”, everyone will have the option to train at least five hours per day. Actually, if people complete all the sessions in full on Sunday it will be more like five and a half hours. Again, most of the training will be done on the bike with optional swims and / or runs available on a daily basis. One of our goals for everyone is to have them complete the minimum sessions if it is within reason and healthy. We’ll keep track of every athlete’s progress via a series of points based on the length of each workout done.

Cycling = 1 point for every mile ridden (we don’t allow extra riding)
Running = 2 points for every 5 minutes of running. 30 minutes is the minimum to accumulate points, 1 hour is the maximum allowed.
Swimming = 3 points for every 250 meters swum with a minimum of 2000 meters to get you any points. We’ll have about 1:00 to 1:10 in the pool to accumulate points and everyone will be playing from the same workout. How much rest they choose and how hard they swim is up to them!

Along with the daily sessions the other wrinkle we have thrown into the mix, for those that may need a further challenge, is a little climbing competition (“KOM”). We’ll be awarding bonus points to everyone over the designated climbs. Of course first over gets the most points. We’ll also have some other “competitions” and “challenges” within the camp that will force people to think strategically about how they want to use their energy! Or, as you might hear in the cycling world, how they want to “burn their matches”!

We’ll roll out Saturday by heading south and into West Sonoma County where we will take in the open green fields that head toward the coast before rolling a little more inland to the Redwoods and wine country terrain! By the time we hit the half way point in Occidental we will have already had three chances for KOM points. Strategy and conservation (or lack there of) will be played out early on day 1.

We’ll do our best to collect a couple photos from the first day and get an update done for you late tomorrow.

Until then … DL

Camp Chapter II

2008-02-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure
2008 Winter Training Camp
presented by:

We are now two days out from camp and it seems everything is lined up, including the weather! It looks like, right now anyway, that we will have warmer than normal weather and mostly sunny too. The Tour of California rolls through “NorCal” starting this weekend and they have been so lucky to have great weather for what looks to be three years straight now. Considering what winter can look like here, we’ll jump on their band wagon and take it with no complaints! Bring on the sunscreen ;)

Also lined up are gear bags that each athlete receives. (you can see them in the photo above) We are blessed with great supporters / sponsors for the event and all the athletes reap the benefits. Supporting us again in 2008 is our presenting sponsor Fuel Belt along with our loyal sponsors Oomph! and Blue Seventy and support from Clif. On board this year for the first time are ALCiS Pain Relief (there will be a lot of this stuff being used over the three days) and Infinit Nutrition who will provide all of our fluid replacement and recovery drink needs. I really can’t thank them enough for their support because it really adds a nice touch to the experience.

The other thing that amazes me is how much food and drink we go through, just on the road, during the three days of training! You can see how much food is crammed into the boxes for the sag vehicle. That reminds me, the only thing missing is the ever popular bags of trail mix!

Sorry for the short update, we have a few items left to finish (like making the trail mix) before we are ready to roll! Tomorrow I‘ll drop a note regarding some of our training routes, goals, and little competitions within the camp to challenge those who need more than the volume or hills!

Check in Tomorrow ... DL

2008-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Train To Endure

2008 Winter Training Camp

presented by:

Here we go again! Preparations are in full swing for the Train To Endure Winter Training Camp, this year presented by the great folks at Fuel Belt! The title photo is one of my favorites from last years camp. It shows what Northern California can look like in the middle of February, but not always, and it looks like we will be blessed with good weather again this year.

Our camp here in Sonoma County, California contains about fifteen athletes with almost all of them being triathletes. (past and present) Here are the stats:

* 4 women

* 2 athletes over 60 ... and they will be two of THE STRONGEST in the camp. These guys are Ironman World Championship type! Our eldest, John "Last Out of The Water" Lander, finished the Ironman World Championship 12th in his age group in 2007 and his bike does not shift into the small chain ring ;) There will be some guys and gals that will be happy just to hang with these studs ... no kidding!

* Only 2 in the group under 35 years of age.

* One athlete training for the 'California Triple Crown" ... a series of three Double Centuries here in NorCal.

* A couple will be doing their first Ironman race this year, a couple others are looking to get an edge to qualify for the Ironman World Championships, and a few others searching for ways to just be faster across all distances.

Make no mistake this is no "epic camp", but the three days will significantly challenge EVERYBODY and each person will walk away from it with new physical and psychological limits reached. For those that are more advanced there are opportunities every day to stretch oneself if so desired. What we have are bunch of regular people with an extraordinary desire to go train, learn, and enjoy stretching their bodies and mind a little.

We'll do our best with updates daily over the next 6 days to show you a little about what goes on during and behind the scenes here at our "little" training camp. We hope you enjoy the updates!

Before wrapping up I'd like to leave you with an excerpt from an article on my belief of how athletes with real lives, jobs, families and limited time can use these three day training camps to their advantage. Next week I'll post the entire article that illustrates some other training camp options.

Build Your Own Training Camp

by Dave Latourette

3 Day “Volume Camp” – This is a great option when you have a long weekend or three days in a row off from work to focus on training. I especially like this option as it seems quite reasonable for working folks and can provide a nice training stimulus without an overly long recovery period. This is more applicable to long course athletes and experienced short course athletes.

Day 1: Run :45 aerobic, Ride 3:00 - 4:00 Aerobic. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the morning run.
Day 2: Swim 1:00 aerobic, Ride 3:00-4:00. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the morning swim
Day 3: (usually a tough mental day for many people) Ride 3:00–4:00 aerobic / Run :45 aerobic. Be sure to re-fuel and relax after the ride.

NOTE: As a guide for setting up the volume of the 3 day camp, use the total of your average training week for starters. For example; if your average training week is 14 hours, your total hours for the camp could be about 14 hours. Of those 14 hours in 3 days you should shoot for 75% of the volume to be on the bike. That is generally how the example above is structured.

Until Next Time ...

Let The Racing Begin!

2008-02-13T08:48:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that we are into February of 2008, the TTE Winter Training Camp is around the corner AND the races have begun! I'd like to take this chance to recognize some of the team for their efforts going back to 2007 and results in the last few weeks! So briefly ...

Inside Triathlon All Americans - this is a very exclusive club, more so than USA Triathlon All Americans as only 10 are named per age group. I'm sure we'll add more All Americans when the USAT Magazine comes out! Anyway ...

Chuck Sloan - Not Only was Chuck a 30-34 AG All American but he was named TOP 30-34 Ag'er in the country for 2008 by Inside Triathlon.

Rob Chance - This is the first time Rob has been named to this team and it is a kind reward for his excellance last year, especially in all the high profile races!

Tulsa Indoor Triathlon
Amanda Erwin - First Overall (and first overall team with Dana Chance)
Dana Chance - First Place Womens Team, Fastest Run Split
* Dana and Amanda will both be running half marathons this wekend in Austin Tx.

Davis Stampeded Races & San Francisco Half Marathon
Tom Anderson - Age Group 1st - Davis Half Marathon
John Lander - Age Group 2nd - Davis Half Marathon
Nuvit Foster - Age Group 2nd - Davis Half Marathon
Scott Wing - Running a little under the weather pressed through to a strong finish!
Jennifer Surprise -Age Group 5th - Davis 10k
Layne Scoggins - Age Group 9th - Davis 10k
Marcus Hartley - Dusting off the cobwebs ;) ... good on'ya Marcus!
Jamie Lau - New personal best at the SF Half Marathon

The picture at the top is of your's truely (me hinding behind the big guy in green;) doing his first race in over 2 years! It stung a little as I saw HR's I haven't seen for longer than two years, but it was great to clean out the engine ;) Nothing spectacular but happy with a finish in the main bunch!

For the next 10 days or so all the updates here will be about the Annual Winter Training Camp!

Cheers ... DL

Davis Stampede 2008 ... from Tom Andersons Eyes

2008-02-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

Cold, windy, driving rain and gnashing teeth greeted us at Davis Saturday afternoon the day before the 2008 Stampede half marathon. “I hope it’s not like this tomorrow”, was the mantra repeated endlessly by TTE group during dinner. Hearty we were - the consensus was unless there were severe conditions tomorrow we would run regardless and hope for the best. I fell asleep that night to the sound of rain on the window.

Sunday was one of those beautiful post storm mornings where the air was fresh and the rising sun brilliant against the morning sky. What a great day to run!

Several of us met near the start line 15 minutes before the race to talk weather and wish each other luck. Scott, Jen, John, Layne, Cris and I stretched and pranced nervously while coach Dave, Amy and Phil (he’s still convalescing from the flu), provided the moral support and encouragement.

My plan was to break 1:40 – not a terribly lofty goal since last year’s time was 1:41 but what the heck, it’s better to achieve attainable goals that set them too high and fail. The gun went off and the chips started chirping (what a wonderful device they are) as runners dashed and jockeyed for positions and pace. 1 hour 40 minutes translates to 7:40 miles so hitting mile 1 at 7:15 did cause some concern but not panic, I was feeling very relaxed and well within myself. I also acknowledged this could translate to banked time and as all of us know it’s easier to slow down and recover than to try and chase the clock later in the race.

Davis is a very flat course – the freeway over-crossing being the only real elevation change throughout the race – but it does include a number of turns and two open sections that provide the discerning runner an opportunity for bonus points. Bonus points are occasions where being alert can pay off big dividends in terms of total time or energy savings. The corners beg to be cut and tangents taken advantage of. I’ve never understood why runners will follow an outside line through a corner when yards can be saved by running the tangent. Also, there was a significant headwind from the southwest that a runner could avoid by tucking in behind an available wide-body then waiting out the headwind. So I did those things. A young lady and I echeloned this good natured fellow for over a mile while the course headed west along interstate 80. I literally watched this guy crumble from effort pulling us into the wind before he stepped aside for a break. We thanked him for his effort but didn’t see him again until the finish.

All the while my pace had slowed some and settled at 7:30 per mile - still okay for my goal of sub 1:40. Mile 10 was 1:15 straight up making the math pretty easy - all I had to do was maintain that pace for another 3 miles for 1:38.

The 12 mile sign was a welcome sight and the beginning of “the sprint” (which was really a dramatic increase in respiration and heart rate with a mild increase in speed). But it felt good to know I was almost there and doing my best to quicken the time. I also realized my goal pace was reached (and then some) and that I had completed the race without embarrassing myself by falling or crashing into a traffic bollard or soiling my pants (I am 60 years old) or getting lost or forgetting which race I was in or…the list goes on…

So success was mine, first in the age group, a better than goal pace and didn’t lose any of the belongings I’d come with.

Anatomy of an Attempted Comeback - Part IV

2008-02-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot about this part like a lot of you forget about your swimming ;)

Though swimming was likely the best thing for me as I started back after a long lay off it was the most atrociously, awful feeling project to set out on! Part of the project, since I was at ground zero, was to really start from the bottom of the swimming ladder and re-vamp the swim stoke.

The first couple weeks was miserable just getting past 1500 meters of swimming. Lots of concentration on re-vamping things and getting a feel for the water was all that really mattered. From th middle of September through the middle of December i probably swim 3 x per week (every week) for 2000 meters EVERY time. Talk about a pitiful rut. Aaaargh

A trip to Connecticut at Christmas changed this, for whatever reason ... maybe it was because I was frustrated that my running had halted and there was nothing better to do in the sleepy, coastal town of Old Lyme. I think did 3 swims when i was there but it was more like 2500 - 3000 yards when I did swim ... and i found a little rhythm!

I was always tell folks that swimming just takes time and to be patient. Crap if i would opractice what I preach! Well it took forever but I made some progress. After consistently getting in the pool and sticking with the strength work things just started to click. Since the end of December, 95% of my swims have been 3000-3500 meters, nothing real speedy just consistent. Problem now? I'm in a stinkin rut again! Ooops, what would I tell clients now ;)

What did a week look like starting over?
Well, from September through December it was simplistic ... but it worked!

Swim - Monday / Wednesday / Friday

Bike - Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday

Run - Tuesday / Friday / Sunday

Strength - Sunday / Tuesday /Thursday OR Thursday / Sunday

Now?

Well it varies alot as I have gotten busier, but something like this:

Swim - Monday / Wednesday / Friday (occasional Sunday)

Bike - Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Saturday OR Sunday

Run (or alternative) - Tuesday Elliptical Trainer / Thursday - water run / Friday - Elliptical

Strength - Stiil shooting for Thursday & Sunday

The one thing I do now is take advantage when I have gaps of time, good weather or good energy ... mainly adding an extra ride. Then when things get busier or I can't get the bonus session in I fall back to my "basic schedule". It's comforting to know I can always get that done and make progress!

Well there you have it. We'll see how things progress. OH, I'm currently planning to jump back in to my first bike race this weekend ... time for another reality check ;)

Over the next couple weeks this space will have an update on some races that opened up the season. THEN, for couple weeks it will be previews, updates and reviews of the Train To Endure Winter Training Camp, this year presented by FUEL BELT!

Until Next Time ... DL

ADDENDUM - Anatomy of an Attempted Comeback Part III

2008-01-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Couple of questions to answer regarding the last post.

What is the longest ride you are up to?
> I did the longest ride I have done in over 3 years this past weekend ... 4:25 with some climbing ("wilson hill", "marshal wall" and some shorter 4-5 minute climbs) ... these are not the biggest climbs around her like Spring MT, Trinity, Cavedale, Pine Flat but it proved a worthy challenge in my process. Speed was not fast, but it was steay and i pulled most of the ride. (happy to do so AND recovered well)

What Type of Workouts are you doing with your cycling team?
> This is a tough one as they are variable (and a little secretive ;) but here is a sample of a simplistic but challenging one
- Long Warm of 30+ minutes
- 10 minutes straight, variable gears ... effort is FT (power or building FT HR)
- 2 minuets EZ
- 5 x 2minutes @ 30sec recovery ... FT power / HR
- 2 minutes recovery
- 10 x 1min @ 30sec recovery ... FT+ power / FT HR
- 4 x 30sec hard / 30sec EZ ... hard for me ws FT + 75 watts
- Warm Down

Hope that answers your questions and some of the vagueness ;)

DL