Archive for category Training Ruminations
One way to start the new year
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Goals, Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on January 31, 2010
January is over, and the stats are in: it was one hell of a month to start the ironman year. Just finished my first build period, well, the hard part of it at least with a recovery week to come. One build period left, then peak, then race time!
Overall, I got in 50 hours of training, ~500 miles on the bike, ~100 miles running, and nearly 6 hours in the pool (yes, slacking here). 4 total hours of pilates, and a lot of foam rolling. It was a great start to what I expect to be an awesome year of training and pushing my body to new levels. A few keys to success after an enduring month:
- Balance, balance, balance – training is a hobby, not a profession. If i miss a workout, so be it. I must remain dedicated, but not at the cost of the true values in life
- Recovery weeks – yes, three weeks in a row is tough, but that fourth week makes it worthwhile. As the saying goes, make the hard workouts hard and the easy ones easy. Must stick to this
- The indoor trainer will be key to improving my cycling skills. Yes, the long base workouts help, but hills and intervals will be my path to success
- Swimming sucks – it’s more enjoyable when you mix up the workouts, but I’d rather be running
- I miss running – 3 days a week and a 100 miles is a lot in a month, but I miss the days of the real long weekend runs and 3-4 days in a row during the week. Next year I guess
- It will be tough to keep up this workload when I start traveling for work. Bring the shoes and get some runs in. Don’t get down on travel as it’s critical to success in a global company
- I think my heart rate monitor is broken – it’s giving me reads of over 200 for an entire workout. I feel lost without it and I must get a new one
In case you’re interested, here are the stats:
Surf City next weekend, Palm Springs Century next…will be an awesome few weeks!
Weekly Summary: End of the Base
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Trail Running, Training Ruminations on January 10, 2010
It was so nice to have a “chill week” after I’ve been “slapping the bass, man” (see video below from I Love You Man) for the past few weeks. The base period has ended, and although I feel like I could of done more to improve that base, I like that I improved my speed, my technique, and even extended my cycling base. I have some concerns regarding my running distance with my new form, but overall, I’m pleased. I mapped out my schedule through mid-April today, and it’s going to be a hard few weeks.
In this recovery week, I did 7:45 of working out, with most of that going to cycling. Here’s the summary:
Four hours on the bike, 2 hours running, and not nearly enough time in the pool (with an hour of pilates). It was definitely a chill week, and one I needed for recovery and as prep for the hard three weeks coming up. The only thing to note in this week despite the ease was the trail race. This was my first experience running trails, and I’m not talking those 5 foot wide trails that are clear of rocks, trees and brush. These trails were single file, layered with ups/downs/rocks/brush/little mud/trees/etc. For the most part, very clean trails. But I have no clue how to run down a steep trail head with slants to the right and left and a small flat space down the middle with room to run foot over foot.
The experience was very difficult. I learned a few things:
- I need to learn to run downhill, in general, and especially on tight trails
- I need to move up in races. I’m getting faster, and I was held up the first 3 miles with slower runners. Not a big deal, but I would of enjoyed it more being upfront.
- Trail runners are SO FRIENDLY! What an awesome atmosphere
- As beautiful as the area was, it’s so hard to take in the views because I was so focused on not eating shit on the trail. Most of my focus was on the rocks two feet ahead. I want to learn to be able to trust my instincts and just run.
- The host, Baz, is hilarious. So chill! I’d love to do his races again.
On that note, my upcoming week is the start of the build period. I plan on working out close to 12 hours a week for each of the next three weeks, which ends with a mellow week (that includes the surf city half marathon). Then I start the build period again, with the Tour De Palm Springs, a 100 mile ride in palm springs. I’m only 10-11 weeks from the Oceanside 70.3, and I can’t believe how that’s creeped up on me!
My schedule for the week (3 hours running, 6.5 hours on the bike, 2 hours swimming, 1 hour pilates):
- Mon: 1 Hour Run, 1 Hour Pilates (track work: run, interval, short, high intensity)
- Tues: 1 hour bike (short intervals)
- Wed: 1 hour run, 45 min swim (zone 1 run with an iwillnotbonk finish, evening swim)
- Thurs: 1 hour bike, 30 min swim (longer intervals on bike)
- Fri: REST
- Sat: 4.5 hour bike (endurance ride)
- Sun: 45 min swim, 1 hour run (short interval swim, tempo run)
If you want to check out my schedule in general, here it is:
I love you, man: Slapping the bass!
Training Ruminations: Base 2.3
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Training Ruminations on January 6, 2010
Walking the dog - frequent workout
I want to get back to my weekly ruminations post, and although I’m already into this next week, I wanted to provide a quick wrap up of my activity last week. It was one of the better weeks working out that I’ve had in a while, so I wanted to share the good and the bad. This was the peak of my base period, and I felt it was a good one (12 total hours, 145 miles).
It was my first full week blister free on the run. It felt so good to be on my forefoot without worrying about blisters developing (see pic below, if u want, of what I’ve been fighting). As a result, I was able to run fast at low heart rates. I haven’t pushed the distance past 8 miles in a while, but I got in 5 runs, 4 at about 7 miles and 1 1-miler after a long bike ride. Pace was about 7:15 overall, and my heart rate was at or under 140. I think I need to do some tempo runs maintaining higher heart rates for longer distances, and if I can accomplish this, I think I’ll feel comfortable pushing faster speeds in 10ks and half marathons with higher heart rates (i love that aerobic zone, not so much the anaerobic zone). I did one interval run last week on the track (3 x (4 x .25 miles) with one minute rest in between), and I swear, that stuff is making me so much faster.
I swam for only an hour. It was a good endurance swim (10 x 200 with long drill of warmup, 45 seconds rest in between, and a decent cooldown – learning this is way too much rest) focusing on drills and body rotation, but I wish I swam more. My goal is to do 2 hours in the pool every week. If I can do more, great, but I just don’t enjoy it as much as running or cycling. Investing in some underwater headphones may help, but we’ll see. I am noticing improvements in my stroke with these drills, and my times are coming down. I’m not as worried about endurance for my 70.3 in a few months as I was for my first tri as swimming for an hour isn’t a big deal anymore.
Cycling…oh cycling. If there will be one major area of improvement for my Ironman this year, it will be cycling. That is my focus for 2010 training. I did my longest ride ever last week. A 70.4 mile ride down PCH to the power plant past San Clemente and back. It was a great ride, averaging over 18 mph. I focused a lot on cadence, trying to keep it north of 90 most of the time, but also switching it up with higher gears. My neck and shoulders really started to hurt around mile 55, and I think I just need more time in the saddle on longer rides for that to heal itself! I was sore as hell on Sunday, which really impacted my weekly load since I could only squeeze in an hour run.
I also did some an interval ride on the trainer mid week, and I really attribute my pedaling improvements to these workouts. I sometimes focus on trying to achieve 80-90 cadence in high gears, and other times I try to keep it over 100 cadence in fairly high gears (big ring but lower gear). The other rides were casual recovery rides.
I also got back into pilates (one hour – other). YAY for pilates. It makes my body feel so much better. I’m trying to do the foam roller more frequently, but that thing HURTS!
This week is a recovery week, so no interval or tempo work. I hope to get in about 6-7 hours. I have a 12k trail race on Saturday with Cale that I’m excited about, but other than that, expect low intensity all week with a drop in mileage across the board. I’m also starting the 100 pushup challenge. Excited for that! The build period begins next week, and I’ll be back to intervals, tempo and endurance at that point.
Here is a pic of the blister(s) I’ve been fighting. That’s the good looking foot 
Week 4: Hours are building
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Training Ruminations on November 29, 2009
Week 4 is over, and I’m exhausted. I was supposed to do 14.5 hours, and I got in 13.5. I wish I could do that extra hour, but my body was just too tired. It’s tough going from working out about 6-8 hours a week to a big jump up. My running mileage is down a bit, but I’m way up on bike mileage and swimming time. Here’s my weekly summary:
This is how I got there
Running: This week was a good running week except when you consider the calf/knee pain I feel from my blisters. I’ve never had blisters before, and I’ve had five that I had to pop this week. Although they felt fine after popping, I think I was sub consciously altering my stride and running more on the outside of my foot (blisters on big toe and inside part of forefoot). On my 12 mile run this weekend, I could barely walk when finished and the pain really comes when i angle my foot in (think duck feet). I’m hoping to stay off my feet for a bit. My shorter runs were ok, and I did a 5k turkey trot at my girlfriend’s pace in my vibrams. That was a lot of fun! She did awesome in the race too – hopefully I can get her to do more
Swimming: Two long swim workouts and starting to get the body rotation down. I really focused on clearing the hips as my hand pulled water away, and I also focused on angling my arm pulling the water back (more right angle) than straight arm. It was much easier to balance this way. I did a great drill – a variation of the catch up drill. I’d do this with and without swim paddles – as you pull your hand back, rotate the body completely out of the way and stay on your side for an extra second. Then stroke your hand forward to catch up to your other hand. Make sure you regain balance here and your hips don’t sink. Repeat with either the same hand (for one handed drills) or the other hand. Great for integrating drills into a real stroke. Another variation via @sandiegopj is instead of leaving your dead arm at front, leave it at your side. I didn’t try this but will do it this week.
Cycling: I’m over the 100 mile barrier. In a week that is. I’m still struggling to get my mileage up, but my endurance for 50 miles is pretty good, even on tired legs. When people pass me, I’m able to keep up and even outlast them, which is a good feeling and a big step up from a few months ago where I stood no chance. Although I have a vacation coming up, I hope to start getting these weekend rides to 60-75 miles and get 150-200 miles on the week. My biking legs are getting better and my pedaling more efficient, but I have a long way to go. I used my trainer for the first time this week and the one legged isolation drills really helped. I’m jerky on those, so I know I can get more out of my pedaling. I also need to continue to work on my balance.
Other: Another week of Pilates with Leah Stewart (that’s the other listed above). Great work and my biggest weakness in flexibility is my calf. I would of never guessed. And my upper calf. So I’ll be working on stretching and strengthening those over the next few months. I also continued to do some running drills, which I wrote about here this week.
That’s it for Week 4. This week I’m going to take it easy and do about 10 hours. I’m scheduled for 16 and I think I’m going to do some re-arranging. My body needs some rest and I’m going to focus on that instead of pushing myself and risking injury. I may even take the next few days off from running given the pain in my calf.
Here are my ruminations this week:
- One thing I’ve learned riding – probably 10% of people stop at stop signs. Everyone rolling stops. What the hell? STOP BEHIND THE LINE! Guess what’s in front of that line 80% of the time – that’s right, a BIKE LANE!
- I’m getting a new puppy in two weeks. YAY! A running partner. Here she is – she’s a beautiful Shiba Inu named Kaila (pronounced kI-La)
- My calf hurts, bad.
- Blisters really suck, but I must admit, I love popping them and watching the fluid drain.
- Since we have so many clothes for biking, why not make clothes for biking on a trainer that are so cool we don’t sweat EVERYWHERE.
- Why does some italian food not settle well and others do? This morning was painful before my ride, but other times, no issues and lots of energy. Maybe home made is better?
- I’m learning to ride/run without an ipod. I must admit, it is peaceful and I enjoy the time getting to know my own body.
- Isn’t it easier riding when you’re chasing someone? When someone is ahead, it’s so much easier to pace and push yourself.
- Should people ask for permission to draft off you if you’re riding solo? I kinda hate it when people get right up on me
- I think my cats are starting to like each other, well like each other 50% of the time. I wonder how Kaila will screw this up
- I want to be a coach – that would be awesome!
- VACATION in one week – WOOOO
Week 3: Entering my base training
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 22, 2009
I’ve now entered the base period of training. I’ve divided my base period into three separate periods of four weeks in length (each). Each base period will ramp the hours through the four week period. For example, base 1 training looks like this:
Week 1: 12 hours
Week 2: 14.5 hours
Week 3: 16 hours
Week 4: 8.5 hours
The goal of the base period is to build on endurance and work on technique. The build period, which follows the base (who thought of “slappin the bass” from I Love You, Man there) is to start improving speed and endure more race simulation to prepare for your event.
So this week was the ramp up. As I mentioned last week, I haven’t done more than 9.5 hours of training ever. EVER! I did 7.5 and 8.5 the last two weeks when I was supposed to do 10. Just think about 10 hours – it’s a LOT! One hour everyday during the week and 2.5 hours each day on the weekend. I always thought I worked out that much, but when I actually tracked it, I quickly realized how little I do. So to get up to 12 hours took a toll on my body, but I did get nearly there. 11 hours, 48 minutes. Here’s a summary:
This is how I got there
Running: I finally hit the road to do some serious forefoot running. I’ve been doing a lot of barefoot runs in my vibrams, and this week, I started to add the mileage. My proprioceptive cues were: lean forward, imagine a wall 2 inches in front of my face that my knees can’t hit, and slam my foot into the pavement. I felt like I had a very successful week doing this, and I got in 29 miles in 3:43. Pretty good pacing. I do feel a lot of calf pain still, but it’s getting better.
Swimming: I did one long swim workout. That’s it. I had a lot of trouble talking myself into doing early morning swims because it’s so COLD! But I made the most of my one workout. I’m very focused on balance in the water and I’m doing a number of drills to improve my kick and prevent my hips from sinking, known as dragging in swimming lingo. My drills this week were: 200M open, 200M kick with kickboard, 2 x 200M kicking with belly button facing wall – each side, 200M turning in the water, 2 x 200M on side with catch up stroke – 3 count,2 x 200 with paddles (including one handed), underwater freestyle, cooldown 200M. PS Ignore the mileage up there. When the Garmin 310xt is underwater, it sucks. That watch really is the same as the 305 with a few minor modifications and a re-design
Cycling: I’m finally ramping up the cycling miles. I did three rides this week (with the ride to/from work counting as 2 above). I can feel my force increasing. I’ve been doing a lot of hills, and i’m focusing on pushing the pedal not down but forward and down (think 45 degree angle) going up the hills, as well as picking up my heels at the bottom of the stroke on straight aways. I’m finding that I’m generating more power (feeling, not measuring this). I’m still having some issues getting into aero position, and I’m going to spend some time on the trainer to do this.
Other: This week I started Pilates with Leah Stewart (that’s the other listed above). I’m really excited to do this work. My goal is to improve my flexibility, reduce hip movement and transfer more movement to my core, and improve my mediation ability. I plan on doing this once a week, and this week was a good intro to working on my movement. I also did a little bit of strength training, but I’m going to stop doing this and focus more on strength drills and flexibility. I’ll be posting more about the routines I plan to follow each week!
That’s it for Week 3. This week is going to have a lot of biking, a 5k turkey trot, hopefully a little bit more swimming, a pilates class, and a whole lotta turkey. YUMMM!
Here are my ruminations this week:
- I wonder if I use my toilet paper now that I’m a triathlete
- Why don’t bikers wear reflective gear at night. I think they’re trying to get hit. So stupid. Do they realize that people walking and bike riding can’t see them either
- Cars – so you know, when we’re biking on the road, we also have “car classification”. I can’t believe how many people get annoyed when we’re cornering the right side taking up 10% of a lane. I had two people go around and quickly swerve to the right this weekend as if to show me who’s boss. Hello idiots. If you hit me, I will get really injured. I don’t have a giant metal box protecting me.
- I stepped on a rock on Saturday and hurt my calf. I couldn’t help but think that a stupid rock could potentially knock off time in my training schedule. Damn you rock! I’ll find you. I will find you
- Imagine if training was a job. And helping others improve their training was part of it. How cool would that be? Too bad this sport is ridiculously expensive so income matters. Supplemental income?
- In the morning, its cold.
- We pay $500 to do 140.6 miles in 8-17 hours. Are we stupid? Why don’t we start a business asking people to do incredibly mental and physically challenging things, and then ask them to pay a lot to do it. Genius
- I have an idea for a website. Why not have a product review site for triathletes that compiles blog info of all the people doing product reviews as well as the comments to those reviews. But it product reviews would have to be standardized. Then you would have your preferences, so you can tell whether someone reviewing a product likes similar things. In addition, there is an option to sell used equipment on there, or potentially barter. I know i know, there’s craigs list, trifuel, etc.. But remember, it’s all about design!
- I want a dog. And I want him to run with me. If he’s fast enough, I want him to run by my bike too.
- Umm, pilates is hard.
- My hips make pilates hard
- My activities make my hips inflexible
- Hmmm – if I stop doing all activites, will pilates be easier?
- I hate Ladell Betts – he screwed in fantasy this week. I hope Clinton Portis comes back soon so I’m not tempted to start him when I forget about his pathetic performance today
Training: Week 2
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 15, 2009
My second week of training has passed, and although I’m only in Week 2, I’m moving out of my prep period into my first 4 week base period. I wasn’t able to get in my full 10 hours this week. I totaled a little less than 9 hours. I missed out on my long weekend.
My workout summary for the week is below (plus two hours of weights, which I don’t keep track of in my profile). I ran 4 times, three barefoot in my Vibrams and the last one in the hills of Oakland. As you can see, the elevation gain was crazy. That was just one run. I have video of this below. My calves still hurt, but they hurt less. I was able to get through over an hour of running in the hills without wincing in calf pain, so I figure that’s a good thing. I’m feeling better about my running, but changing my stride (from overstriding) is definitely two steps back to take three steps forward. I just hope its the right move.
I did one long bike ride, and I’m disappointed that’s the only ride I got in. I setup my trainer this evening though, so I hope I can do rides in the comfort of my balcony or living room in the evenings/mornings. Even if I ride for 45 minutes to an hour, I can work on settling into aero position for longer duration and on my pedaling/force skills.
For swimming, I didn’t get in as much pool time as I would of liked. About 1:10 minutes. This was entirely kicking drills, and I’m now at the point where I feel comfortable staying balanced on my sides, stomach and back. I just have to start actually swimming. I almost instantly sink on one side when I bring my arms up. This is definitely a work in process, but I’m making progress.
Here are my ruminations for the week – not as many as my mind wandered a lot less. Things have been getting busy at work
- How does flexibility in my shoulders impact my swim? Because I’m not flexible, and my shoulders hurt after I swim
- When you look at the views below for an entire run, it’s so easy to forget you’re actually working out
- I trained for about 8 hours each of the last two weeks. This is my PREP period, meaning easy. I checked my running logs for this year, and the most I worked out in a week was 9.5 hours, which was peak week for marathon. This season is going to be gnarly. The next three weeks go 12 hours, 14.5 hours, 16 hours. That is some serious training!!
- I finished Brain Training for Runners this week – awesome read. I recommend it to everyone. Learned quite a few things, including that sitting for 8 hours a day is resulting in tight hip flexors and that slows me down. I need to supplement my running with core strength, flexibility, running drills, and power exercises. Proprioceptive cues ROCK – everyone should use these. Running injuries will occur more frequently if I overstride
- Now I’m moving on to Born to Run. Finally more of a story!
- I’ve decided to focus on five things: family/friends, Adrienne, work, training, video games. If I try to do more, I’ll go crazy! All my crazy desires to learn more things have to be set aside if I want to really be serious about those 4 things, with video games being my distraction.
- Others are running marathons this weekend. I wish them luck, and I’m so happy I’m not!
- I can see why people need time off at the end of the season! Training wears you down
That’s it for this week. Hope you’re training is going well!
Here are my videos from the weekend
This was surprisingly only about 3/4 up the hill
This was at the peak of the hills I climbed
Training Ruminations: Week 1
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 8, 2009
I have a lot of thoughts that go through my head while I’m training and while I’m at work thinking about training. I figured instead of blogging about each of these, I’ll gather them in a weekly ruminations post where I can summarize my thoughts, what worked, what didn’t, and what I did.
This was my first week of training for my half ironman in March. My focus for this training season is to improve the limiters, and I’ve listed those at the end of this post. In order to this, I plan on setting up my races so I can spend much more time biking than running, and my training this week was a good example of this. I broke out my training into the typical joe friel training programs – preparation, base, build, peak, race, transition. I didn’t get much transition time after this past marathon because I want to get some good weight lifting in the prep/base period. This week was prep week. Next week is also prep before I enter Base 1.
This week, my stats were:
This leaves out the two hours or so I spent working in the weight room and on my core. I’m finding it tough to balance my time with the class I’m auditing at UCI, a busier work schedule, and normal life. And this is just the prep period…
Overall, a pretty good week, although I want to spend more time in the pool. It was hard getting back into training this week. My legs were still tired from the marathon, biking was really difficult since I had three weeks off from it. Swimming was ok , but shoulders felt even more inflexible. Running was more of a technique week, hence the speed. I did a lot of walking/slow jogging to get used to barefoot running (but i cheat and wear Vibrams). But as the week wore on, I started to feel stronger, and I guess that’s why this is the prep period.
Here are my ruminations for the week:
- Amazed at how sport/form specific fitness is. I’m working on my form for running, trying to switch from a heel strike to a midfoot/forefoot strike, and my heart rate is higher, my body is sore, and it’s just harder to run. I ran a marathon two weeks ago and 8 miles felt like hell yesterday.
- Three weeks off from biking and it’s like I never rode a bike. Three rides later, it’s like I’ve been riding for a year. Fitness can leave you quickly, but it can come back just as quick
- Breathing from my left side swimming is easy. My form is pretty solid, and I can move pretty quick.
- Breathing from my right side is like I am 5 years old and was thrown in the pool and told to figure it out. Seriously? It’s the same body right?
- Balance on my bike is pretty pathetic. I can’t ride without hands. I even have trouble riding with my right hand on, left off (no problem with left on, right off). Yeah, how did that happen?
- Proprioceptive cues RULE! That’s the technical term for mental thoughts that you use to work on your technique. This week, I ran light – I didn’t want to hear my feet, and I pedaled trying to scrape mud off my foot and drive my foot down and forward. I even tried lifting my feet on the back stroke, and I plan to do more of these on the bike. If you read brain training for runners, you’ll find 12 cues that he trains his runners with. I’ll use 2 per week, alternating miles with each thought. I’ll blog about it as I go.
- I’m not flexible
- Foam rollers freakin HURT! I never knew a ball of foam could make me cry.
- I got a kinetic road machine – I set it up, now I just need to use it
- Debating getting an iBike power meter
- Rode without an iPod and ran without an iPod for a majority of my miles this week. Surprised at how peaceful it was to simply listen to my body!
This week, my training will be cut short by a weekend trip to San Francisco. I hope to get one long run in there and maybe some weights, but I’ll miss out on my long ride. I may try to do it on Wednesday early AM before work and just work later that evening. We’ll see what the week brings. I’m also starting a weekly pilates routine with Leah Stewart (friend of Adrienne’s) – private sessions with Adrienne. I’m really looking forward to this as she’s a great instructor and very knowledgeable.
If you have any comments/feedback, I’d love to hear from you. Happy training everyone! I hope the offseason is treating you well!
Goal recap (reminder so I remain focused – will post each week):
- Generate more force on the bike
- Maintain force for longer periods of time on the bike
- Improve balance in the water – “get more slippery”
- Run on the midfoot-forefoot so I can avoid leg pain in late miles of a marathon
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