Muskoka 70.3 specialization plan: week 1

Why am I so startled every week by how little time is left before the race? Yikes. 7 weeks to go.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: FTP test
Wednesday: 10k interval run; 2000m open water swim
Thursday: TR Gibraltar (1:45 tempo); 2000m pool swim
Friday: EZ run, TR Townsend (90 min aerobic)
Saturday: 2000m swim; 16k long run
Sunday: 85k bike

Really, really great week this week, on multiple fronts.

Tuesday night I did the FTP test to set the difficulty of the next 8 weeks of trainer rides.

I believe my exact words were 'oh shit'. I was expecting an increase (the tempo rides in particular were feeling far too easy by the end of the build plan), but I wasn't expecting a 19 watt increase. That left me a little worried about how the Thursday night tempo would go at my new target power, but it was good! It was challenging in exactly the right way.

Running by the bay

Wednesday I ran with Christina at lunch - or rather, chased her for a bit while she did speed work. The good news is my hamstring was cool with some 400m repeats. The bad news is that leaves me no more excuses not to do speedwork. Damn. I will likely do some 1k repeats or something on the easier weeks of the trainer plan (lulz hahahah none of the weeks are really easy, although some could be described as easier...)

Wednesday night we had the first tri club swim of the year at Gullivers! The water was a balmy 16C!

One of my teammates braving the cold

Really, once my feet went numb, it was actually fine. HA. Seriously, though, I actually enjoyed it! No panic, and the wetsuit still fits (whew). Getting it over my cycling thighs was a bit of a production (yay new muscles).

I did two loops of the lake for about 2k, in under 40 minutes - this is really awesome because last year to do two loops in 40 minutes I had to really focus and be trying to swim fast. I wasn't trying for any speed this week, just stayed relaxed and easy. And was faster than last year already. That put me in a fantastic mood! I'm so glad I went, because now I know even if I can't do many open water swims before the races start, I'll be fine. I'm going to keep swimming at the pool at least twice a week to work on technique and such, and likely limit the open water swims to once a week at the most. At this point I think I'll get more overall benefit from the pool, even if open water is a lot more fun!

The other two runs this week were alright. Running at noon is getting a little more uncomfortable but is probably better for me at this time of year to try and get used to it. Ugh. Stupid sun.

The long run didn't feel great. Also I forgot to put on sunscreen like a giant idiot. Getting started on the weird tanlines for the summer.

Great turn out for the pre-ride for the charity ride next weekend!

Sunday a ride with the tri club, which was great. We tackled the 50 road hill, which features a short but steep initial climb, a tiny little break where the the grade levels a bit, and then a longer final climb to top the escarpment. It's a leg and lung buster for sure.

I was both excited and nervous about tackling it - I've climbed lots of hills on Bad Wolf this spring, but I've been avoiding all the really steep ones. I almost chickened out and took the road bike instead, but I'm glad I didn't because:

Hell yeah. 46 seconds faster going up that beast this year, even though it felt a lot harder on the tri bike than it did on the road bike last year.

Group ride not long after climbing 50 road. I'm in the purple. Photo via John.

I didn't have time for a brick run (one of the club members broke 6 spokes early in the ride, so the delay while we waited for the sag wagon to pick him up ate up some time), but I'm overall really, really happy with the week. A little light on the run mileage, but the bike was awesome and swimming was great. I'll take 2 out of three!

Another big week coming up. Holiday Monday here and my husband is traveling for work later in the week, so I'm rearranging my schedule a bit to make sure I can get in three swims. And since I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do a brick this weekend, I'm going to add a short transition run after Tuesday's interval ride.

Monday: swim, easy run
Tuesday: TR Washington -2 (60 min threshold intervals) + 15 minute brick run
Wednesday: interval run; open water swim
Thursday: TR White +2 (90 min tempo/sweetspot); swim
Friday: TR Townsend (90 min aerobic)
Saturday: Sulphur Springs trail run (25k)
Sunday: Brian Smith ride (20k there + 80k ride + 20k home). tempo run later in the day if I have time

My mantra for this training cycle. Need to make a new bracelet, though, this one is getting a little icky.

Trainerroad - 8 Days in California 2015

From the challenge info:

What is 8DC?
8 Days in California (8DC) is an indoor cycling challenge. Participants will have eight days to complete eight successive workouts on TrainerRoad, each within their respective time windows.
When riders finish the entire tour, they’ll receive an 8DC Challenge badge for their career page - bragging rights included.

Not mentioned in that description? That the 8 workouts are tough ones. No easy rides here. Sure, 8 straight days of difficult cycling, that sounds like a fun thing to do! Sign me up! I like badges and bragging rights!

(Technically it doesn't have to be 8 straight days - each stage is available for 50 hours, so you can work a rest day in and still finish on time. Going in that was my plan - take advantage of the timing to get a rest day between days 6 and 7)

Stage 1, Sat May 9th - Sprint Stage (1 hour, 15 minutes)

Overall good. FTP felt like it was set about right, with the sub threshold work through the first hour being pretty easy to hold.

Except there was that lovely 10 minutes or so of psychotic sprinting at the end - 5 seconds all out, 10 seconds 'rest' except the rest was close to threshold so not really rest at all, 10 seconds all out, 10 seconds 'rest', 5 seconds all out, 5 seconds 'rest', etc, etc, etc. Brutal. I set new power PBs for every time up to 10 minutes largely based on that lovely little bit of torture.

This was my face just after I finished the final sprint:

OMG what have I gotten myself into???

Oh yeah, this is going to be a fun week.

Stage 2, Sun May 10th: Sprint stage (1 hour, 20 minutes)

A lot more close to threshold time in this one! For the non cyclists, you can see in the graph there's a thicker horizontal line - that represents my Functional Threshold Power (FTP)- the power/effort I could theoretically hold for a 1 hour max effort. Any time you are riding right around that level (like in this ride), it's going to hurt. Toss in the sprints and you have a recipe for fun. Painful fun. I nailed the power targets in this one, which was super satisfying.

QOM polka dot jersey!

I do most of my indoor rides 'on' Watopia, the current location of the virtual Zwift course. It really helps to have the virtual ride to distract me from the pain - and give me targets to chase during the hard bits! On this ride I held the Queen of the Mountain jersey for almost the whole ride, and it was legit because I know there were other women riding this time, not like the first couple of times I got the QOM by default.

Delirious from exercise endorphins.

And because I'm a glutton for punishment, as soon I finished the ride, I changed into my running shoes and did a 2k brick run. I have lost my damn mind with this triathlon stuff, is what.

Stage 3, Mon May 11th - Climbing stage (1 hour, 30 minutes)

This one was a little trickier, what with that 'work' thing I have to do during the week. And those children we have running around that need supervision in the evenings. In order to fit in a 90 minute ride, I had to plan a fast & easy dinner and get on the bike by 6:15 so that I could be wrapped up in time to get the kids to bed.

I pulled it off! This one felt in some ways easier than stage 2, because there were some decently long breaks in between the three main hard efforts. But oh boy did the fatigue build up by the end! The final 10 second sprint was a total fail (missed the power target by 50 watts because my legs just said OH HELL NO), but I got the rest of it nailed pretty well.

Dead sexy sweat covered forehead. That's with THREE FANS blowing on me, too. You don't even want to know what my hair band felt and smelled like after that ride. 

I like the 'shape' of these rides. Trainerroad workouts are usually more regimented (12 minutes on, 5 minutes off, later rinse repeat, and so forth), and these are a little more unpredictable. Makes it feel a little more like riding outside. Nice change of pace.

Stage 4, Tuesday May 12 - Sprint stage (1 hour, 14 minutes)

Halfway! Another fast dinner, get on the bike early sort of evening.

This one looked easier going in - not as much high level sprinting. Of course, then I actually rode it...

Yeah, not so easy. Combination of feeling the fatigue in my legs and the lack of much in the way of rest breaks during the workout. Plus that long threshold bit in the middle was tiring! But I hit the power targets, so success.

Making use of one of my Mother's Day gifts - shaker cup for the post ride protein shake. Although you can tell by the screen behind that I took this shot after day 3, not day 4. BLOG FAKER.

Stage 4 also featured a key component of the challenge - LAUNDRY. I don't own enough bike shorts to get through an 8 day challenge. I should probably go shopping.

Stage 5, Wednesday May 13 - Climbing stage (1 hour, 20 minutes)

For the first time during the challenge my legs were feeling a touch tired when I woke up in the morning. Nothing major but enough to make me think that stage 5 would not be a walk in the park. So very very spiky looking. Eeep.

But, this one turned out to be relatively easy. Relatively. The first 30 minutes or so every time it went above threshold I wasn't sure I'd make it, but then during the final sprint I realized there was pretty minimal hard stuff left and I cruised through the finish.

The amount of technology needed for these rides is getting a bit out of control.

Stage 6, Wednesday May 14 - Individual time trial (50 minutes)

Short one! But the shape of it looked suspiciously like an FTP test, so I was a bit worried this was going to be super painful. That's a long time to spend over threshold on tired legs!

However, no problem. Even had energy to spare at the end of the threshold work (although I resisted the urge to burn it all off completely). I think I'm going to have to retest my FTP once I've recovered. This indoor training really works if you put in the time and effort - I'm now easily holding power numbers for 20 minutes that I couldn't touch for longer than a minute or two back in January!

I'm totally going to pull this off! YES!

Friday - rest day

Kind of goes against the spirit of the challenge, but it's within the rules and since I had a 5k race Saturday morning where I was going to try for a PB, rest was the best option.

"Ride me....c'mon you know you want to...."

I was a little surprised, though, at how freaking GOOD I felt on Friday. Full of energy. No tiredness in my legs at all. What??? Six days of challenging workouts and I’m feeling amazing??? Not exactly what I was expecting, but I’ll take it!

Stage 7, Saturday May 16 - Climbing stage (Queen stage) (1 hour, 40 minutes)

The big one. Compounded by having run the aforementioned 5k race in the morning (race report coming shortly on that).

1 hour 15 minutes is the moment I cracked. Just couldn't hold the power targets after that. To be honest I'm surprised I got that far - my heart rate was way high during the initial threshold work and I was half expecting to crack a lot earlier! Without the 5k race in the morning I think I could have made it through the whole thing on target. Or maybe even if I'd had more than 2 1/2 hours in between the race and getting on the bike.

Had one of the kids grab my camera and take a picture right after the final sprint to the finish. I was a little gassed...

Stage 8, Sunday May 17 - Sprint Stage (1 hour, 5 minutes)

This one looked awful. One aim of this challenge is to explore your weaknesses, and quick sprints are probably my biggest one. And this one looked to have approximately infinity of those.

SO MUCH SPRINTING. Coach Chad (who designs all the trainerroad workouts) is really mean. They just went on forever. This was painful, but I made it through.

VICTORY! Kinda hard to do that properly with that bit of important basement structure in the way.  Close enough.

So was it worth it? Absolutely. I won't know for sure until I retest my FTP next week (after I've recovered!), but I sure feel like I made some gains over this week. The 'time trial' in stage 6 in particular was illuminating, in terms of me being able to hold a high for me power number for a long time without feeling like it was super difficult.

Would I do it again? Yes. No question. If it fits into my schedule next year I would absolutely do it again. Just the kind of challenge I like - the time commitment isn't unreasonable, it's totally scaled to your personal ability level, and it's surprisingly fun! I haven't really commented on the storyline, but there's a whole story included, where you are a rider who is trying to win the 8DC stage race, and I quite enjoyed following the story along with the workout.

And I got a virtual trophy, and if I've learned anything from being on Strava, it's that I loves me some virtual trophies.

And now a bit of a rest week before official training for my A race starts. And food. So much food.

Training update Monday

Warning: This one is braggy.

(Yes a running triathlon* blog is sort of inherently braggy, but I had one hell of a training week last week, so this one is even more insufferably naval-gazing and self satisfied than usual).

*since I am in fact doing a triathlon on Saturday I guess I should get used to being more a triathlete than a runner now...

Run: 48k in 4 hours, 38 minutes
Bike: 4 hours on the trainer; brand new FTP
Swim: 2 swims, ~2800m

Total time: 9 hours, 52 minutes

Monday: Resty Mcresterson.

It was also Family Day. I did not win Scrabble Jr.

Tuesday: Usually I swim at lunch on Tuesdays, but I skipped it because I wanted to be totally rested and ready to go for my FTP test in the evening. The cyclists are nodding along. For the non-cyclists, an FTP test involves a long warm up and then riding as hard as you can maintain for a set period of time. Your results then set the difficulty of the future workouts. It's leg-burning, heart pounding, I-might-just-lose-my-dinner fun.

And how did it end?

It was an hour before my legs stopped trembling.

BOOM. 19 point increase. Thank you Trainerroad.

Wednesday: I was on a huge mental high from the successful FTP test and practically floated through a 10k run at lunch, with 8k at Around the Bay pace. Then a 30 minute very easy recovery ride on the bike after dinner, before heading out to my coached swim and doing 1400m there. Three sports in one day, why the hell not?

I didn't take many pictures this week. But I did win a free tea, so it was pretty much an awesome day all around.

Thursday: Swam at lunch, first real workout of the new bike training plan in the evening. Riding at the new FTP is certainly harder! Plus now I'm getting into VO2 max and threshold work and all sorts of other super fun stuff. I'm going to need bigger fans in the #paincave.

Friday: Interval time for the run. 2x1600m and 2x800m. It was stupidly cold so I bargained with myself to get through them (just do the first one. OK just do the second one and then we'll quit. Well might as well do the third...and now there's just one left, let's just do it). I made the target paces slightly easier than prescribed which was hugely helpful, mentally (plus did I mention it was cold and I was wearing all the clothes?). I consider those a big win.

Saturday: 90 minutes on the trainer doing threshold intervals. Set new PBs for sweatiness. Spent the rest breaks texting with Nicole to set up a run for Sunday ("OK if I survive the next 10 minutes we'll meet at 7am, ok?") and send her super classy pictures like this:

"I think Trainerroad is trying to kill me"

Sunday: Met up with Nicole, who joined me for 22k. I planned the route so that even though we started at Lasalle Park, we avoided all the Northshore hills, which kind of feels like cheating, but whatevs. Go to her blog and check out her awesome frost lashes - my hair frost game was WEAK compared to hers.

I swear, there's frost on my hair! Really! Oh nevermind. Just go admire Nicole's.

Hamilton obliged with a reasonably clear waterfront trail from Princess Point over to Bayshore. And it sure beat dodging cars on Plains and York. Even with the kind of shitty footing we kept the pace up pretty well, though, so that's a confidence boost.

I tacked on an additional 8k loop after leaving Nicole back at the cars for my first 30k run in I don't even know. Since the marathon, I guess! And I felt pretty good. Tired by the end (obviously), but feeling pretty strong.

And very happy with the week overall! Really couldn't have gone any better.

Next up, my first 'race' of the year, an indoor triathlon on Saturday. Although I'm not truly racing it, doing it more as a fun thing (I'm not tapering or resting at all for it, so I'm not going to be setting any records, that's for sure). Still, I'm looking forward to stringing the three sports together for the first time.

The Paincave

A few weeks ago Paul asked about my paincave set up, and I never got around to replying, so to make up for that here's way more information about the whole thing than anyone really needs.

Ready for a ride. Usually there's a second, larger fan, but it had walked off and since this was going to be an easy one I didn't bother to go find it.

Step one is the bike trainer, which I got at the annual Toronto bike clearance sale back in October. It's a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, which I chose largely because that's what Zindine told me to get for my needs and budget and he hasn't steered me wrong yet (one of these days he's going to start charging for all this free coaching!). It's very solid fluid trainer, reasonably quiet, and it's easy to get the bike on and off of it. I also really like that the difficulty of the ride is changed simply by changing gears on the bike, making it a realistic feeling experience.

Probably should have cropped the laundry out of the picture. It's a paincave/laundry sorting room, though, so it's more honest this way.

Now just sitting on the trainer pedaling is...not very exciting. I'm sure there are people out there who can do that, but I am definitely not one of them. I need a defined workout and someone or something to tell me what to do.

Enter Trainerroad.

The speed/cadence sensors on my bike communicate to my laptop via ANT+ (as does my heartrate monitor), and Trainerroad takes that data, along with my weight and the type of trainer I'm using, and translates it into virtual power numbers. I choose a workout from their huge library, and it tells me what to do and how hard to do it and for how long. It's really very cool. I'm just about finished the Sweet Spot base I plan and I'm looking forward to testing my progress before I repeat the plan again. I've done some really killer workouts using Trainerroad that I would never in a million years be able to do on my own. For $10 a month, it's totally worth it.

Garmin speed and cadence sensors at the top; ant+ stick in my laptop to receive the data at the bottom.

I like to connect my laptop to our big TV via HDMI so the workout is up there larger than life. Easy to see right in front of me that way.

I do also like to watch TV/movies or listen to music while I'm on the trainer. While TR does have a way to show, say, Netflix on the screen at the same time as your workout, I personally prefer to have my entertainment set up on my ipad. Just a personal preference thing, plus that way it's easier for me to listen via headphones, rather than having to crank the TV up really loud to be heard over the fans/bike/trainer noise. And with headphones I can watch stuff that maybe I don't want my kids watching/hearing. Put a show up on the regular TV and they are right there wanting to watch it with me, which limits my options.

TR on the bottom, Dr. Who on the top. It works, but I've decided it's not my preferred setup. Also, #nerd.

Typically I watch TV shows via Netflix for the first 2/3 of the workout, then switch to music. Having the ipad close at hand makes that a bit easier.

My usual setup - workout on the big screen, ipad on the barstool with headphones. The towel over the handlebars is 100% necessary. Trainer rides are disgustingly sweaty.

I use a random spare barstool to hold the ipad (and extra water on longer rides), and a measuring cup from the dollar store hooked over my handlebars for snacks, my phone, and any other random crap I think I might need during a ride.

Measuring cup hooked over my handlebars. Holding headphones, those random candy chew things all the races were giving out this year, and a couple of granola bars.

All in all, I've done almost 20 hours on the trainer since November, and I'm looking forward to many more. I can't wait to see how this all translates to the road in the spring!

Thumbs up to the #paincave