Winter Events

For the past month, training has been going very well.  Volume is up 60% in swimming, 50% in biking and 40% in running from this time last year.  One might see those numbers and scream, STOP, cliff incoming! But I am very aware of the possibility of overtraining and the importance of recovery so that doesn't happen.  In fact, I feel better maintaining this greater training load now than I did a year ago.  I haven't sacrificed training intensity for higher volume either.  Of course there are day to day fluctuations, but the downs aren't as low, and the best workouts this year are better than my best of last winter.

What I have been doing to handle the higher training loads-
-Nutrition is much better, not perfect but it is improving.
-I'm getting ~9hrs of sleep a night.  This is up ~2.5 from last year
-I have the time after workouts to make sure I get in calories immediately, and post workout stretching and using my foam roller are now the norm, not the exception.  It's nice not running immediately from one thing to the next all the time.
-Overall stress levels are just lower.

This has only been my new schedule for about a month and a half, so I am excited that I can feel some differences already, however I am much more excited for what is to come with consistency in training over a period of months.  I am absolutely more fit than I have ever been, I have no question about that and have shown it multiple times already with my ability to put in strong efforts back to back with little recovery (Not a one shot athlete this year!).  Fitness is different than speed, though.  Speed is slower to improve but it is coming along nicely.

Here's a quick recap of this winter's events so far:

Winter cycling time trial series-  I use this as a weekly threshold workout, but each week I've been doing a 35-45 minute time trial on the computrainers on varying courses.  The cool part about it is there are 8 centers; 4 in the US and 4 in Canada; that group all the weekly data together and spit out an overall spreadsheet, complete with GC (General Classification) series standings, sprint points (no hope for me there) and KoM points (more competitive here).  There's been about 100 riders for each stage, and it has been nice to see my place steadily move through the ranks from ~30 in early January to ~10th the last couple weeks.  My w/kg has climbed from ~3.4 to 3.9 over this time.

Indoor Triathlon- Pinnacle hosts these each month through the winter and they consist of a 10min pool swim, a 20min spin bike ride, and a 10min treadmill run.  Not the most realistic triathlon, especially because you can't shift on the bikes (think 130+ rpm) but they're laid back, fun events.  In the past I've done the full series but so far I've done just one this year, in early Feb.  I was running late from out of town for this one and unfortunately was also really hungry and the only food access I had before the event was Arbys 30min before the start... it was that or nothing.  Spoiler alert: might've been better off w/nothing.  I managed to keep my unbeaten streak alive at the indoor tris, but came close to losing my dinner on the treadmill.

24-hr Indoor Cycling Relay-  This was a self inflicted torture fest.  The event was set up as a fundraiser for charity, and 11 teams put together groups to come out and ride for 24hrs.  Someone from each team had to be riding at all times.  I did 3 1hr time trials... Midnight, 3am and 11am the next morning.  Since I couldn't fall asleep after the 3am trial, the 11am was absolutely miserable.  I was cold, hungry and nauseous all at the same time.  But this is where my fitness showed and I was able to actually ride pretty well, whereas last year I would've completely fallen apart.  After lunch, a 5hr nap, dinner and another 10hrs of sleep, I woke up and went BACK to SBR for the winter time trial series ride that week.  Incredibly I put down my best ride of the weekend, however once it was over I was a wreck for a few days.

UW Triathlon Team Time Trials-  Today's annual trials occurred one week after the 24 hr relay, and as of Wed I wasn't too optimistic I'd be fully recovered.  I felt like a couple times I was on the verge of getting sick but I kept it at bay.  My legs started to come around on Thurs during the recovery week and felt pretty good going into today's event actually.  The swim was ok, not quite my best at the 800yd distance but was within the realm of normal day to day fluctuations.  The important thing was that I was easily within reach of the leaders after the swim.

Even though I'm not a student, and therefore not eligible for Nationals (this is their selection race), as a workout leader for the team I can race and like to, for the fun and competition, which is always high.  Specifically, I knew that Alex Dean would be racing, and he always pushes me when I get the chance to go head to head.  I will say that my entire race strategy was built around beating him specifically (nothing personal Dean, I just figured I have to beat you in order to win overall).  Here are the facts: Alex and I have raced 5 or 6 times head to head.  I've beaten him only once (our first race, and he had a mechanical with 400m left on the bike), and every single time he has out-run and out-swam me. So... of course my strategy was to try keep the distance manageable on the swim, take the bike, and then depending on what cushion I had, run as hard as I had to in order to hang on for the overall.  At least that was best case scenario.

With only a 5 second deficit after the swim, it was looking good.  On the bike I went out too hard, but I knew it.  I expected to slow down, I just didn't expect to slow down so badly.  Alex pushed me too hard for too long, and I cracked.  It was ugly, and all I could do was put my head down and try to limit the time lost.  After a 10min (mandatory) transition, it was onto the run where I had to form a new strategy, my only chance left.  Go hard from the gun and hope you have the legs. My strong fitness showed again and it actually worked, and I out-ran Alex for the first time in my life.  I couldn't get enough time back from what I lost on the bike to win, but I really surprised myself with a strong, sub 18min run on a hard course to finish less than a minute overall out of first.

I'm not upset about my strategy... given the same pre-race knowledge I'd do it again but hindsight is always 20/20.  Turns out I should've sat in on the bike and gone for it on the run.  Oh well.  My singular focus on one athlete and self destruction on the bike opened the door for someone else, a newer triathlete Alex Kraft, to slip by for 2nd with a really strong overall performance.  The UW Tri team looked very strong this weekend and I am excited to support them on their way to Nationals this spring!

Next week is my first XC Ski race ever, the Kortelopet... basically a half marathon on skis.  That should be interesting...