Posts Tagged base
A brutal three weeks in the bag
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Ironman Training, Running, Swimming on July 9, 2010
Base 2 – DONE! It certainly wasn’t easy, and per my last post, it could even be thought of as hell, but I completed my base 2 and feel like things are getting, wait for it…EASIER!
Ok, easier is relative, but after putting on a lot of miles over the last three weeks, I feel like adding an hour here or there really isn’t too bad. My body is recovering faster, and although I’m suffering from recurring blisters and constant hamstring pain, I’m getting through the workouts. I keep training at this level because I know in an Ironman, I’m not going to feel 100% through the entire race, so training tired is critical.
See below for a weekly recap of what I did the last three weeks. The big workouts were a 6:30 workout on the Saturday of the 6/28 week (5 hour bike, 1:30 running) and a 6 hour workout during the Saturday of the 6/21 week (4 hour bike, 2 hour run). The moment I was most proud of though was getting up the Sunday after the 6:30 workout and doing a 3 hour workout (1:10 swim and 1:50 bike). It shows I can workout tired and still perform. I also ran to work once each week (18 miles round trip) and biked 1-2 times per week.
I’m in a rest week now, which is SO NICE! My body is recovering. It’s strange to workout about 8-9 hours in a week and consider it resting, but when you see the mileage / time above, I think you can understand why. During these down weeks, I try to get in a few tests to see how I’m improving. Last night I did my swim test and lowered my 100 meter swim time by almost 10 seconds. WOO HOO!!!
I do a test that includes a 10 minute warm up, primarily kicking. I then do 3×300 meters with 30 seconds of rest in between. Then I just swim to get in more time. I average the three 300 meters together to get an average 300 meter time, then divide by 3 to get my average 100 meter. The reason for this is to get my general average 100m for pacing when I do my swim training. The key is to not just do these tests on a 100M because it would be much faster and not factor in any endurance. Also, the 300s have to be within 10 seconds of each other or they don’t count. This prevents you from killing yourself on 1 or 2 of them and sacrificing the other. I did this test when I started seriously swim training earlier in the year, and I was at a 1:41 100M. Not fast at all. Last night, I was at 1:32. A noticeable improvement. Something is going right in the pool 
The issue I’m debating now is whether to shorten my run mileage from the 30-40 miles a week I’m doing to about 25 and add another 2-3 hours on the bike. I know my bike is the weakness, and I also know that no matter how much work you put into running, the marathon of your first ironman is going to be hell. Given these things, I’m thinking of trying to get in two long rides a week, one of 5-7 hours and one of 3-5 hours depending on my weekly requirement. I’ve even thought of doing some of this on back to back days, with the 5-7 hours being aerobic and the 3-5 being slightly harder with a few more hills. I’ll try it out this next (and final) base period and see what happens.
For those of you training, I hope it’s going well!
Hell week
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Workouts on June 28, 2010
I begin the peak week of my second base period, and I’m in for a doozy. Assuming all goes to plan, I will have worked out more this week than any other week in my entire life. Crazy when I put it that way (and maybe a tad too dramatic).
I will workout 16 hours this week. I’m going to do a lot of heart pounding anaerobic (or at least, more than aerobic) working out over the next three days. I’ll then swim in the ocean on Thursday with a co worker, and shortly after jump on the bike for one-legged biking drills. I’ll follow that up with an easy swim on Friday before the Saturday doozy: a 7 hour love affair, 5 hours with the bike and 2 hours negotiating with myself to complete a painful run. Finally, I’ll end with a 2-3 hour workout on Sunday, consisting mostly of a swim, but probably some more riding as well. I’m hoping to get 4-5 bike rides in this week. It’s my weakness, and I need to start treating it as such. So here’s how it breaks down
- Monday: 30 minutes strength, 1 hour muscular endurance on the bike
- Tuesday: Run to work – Fartlek style, Run home – Zone stepping
- Wednesday: More bike pain, in the form of 3, 3, 3s – which are 4 x 3 minute intervals in some hard gears. I’m determined to build this leg strength
- Thursday: Ocean swim at Corona Del Mar followed by 40 minutes of those lovable one legged drills
- Friday: More strength training tied in with an easy swim
- Saturday: I’m taking it home with this one: 5 hours of low heart rate, pure aerobic love on the bike followed by more zone stepping on the run. Hopefully some run goals will make that two hours seem shorter than the 2 this past Saturday
- Sunday: Another lap swim, most likely focusing on upper body strength with an aero position trainer ride to continue to get used to the “lounge chair”
And that’s about 16 hours my friends. In base 3, i get up to 18 hours for the peak week, and in the three build periods, I’ll be hovering around 15-16 hours each week for 3 of 4 weeks of each month. So this is pretty much the norm for the next five months. I promise you that July 5th is gonna feel damn good. a DAY OFF!!! WOOOO
I’ll try to post more workout summaries, and even attach my garmin workouts for those who want to upload them. I find that Garmin is one of the best motivators – nothing like a beep/vibrate to push you along. Have a great week!
Ironman Training has Begun
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training on June 5, 2010
The two months in between my half ironman and the start of my ironman training was incredible. I actually didn’t realize how great it was until I started training again. I had some more time to enjoy my weekends. My body recovered. I could spend time with my girl and family. I even spent an extra weekend in Hong Kong while on business travel to hang with one of my college roommates. Well, that time has come and gone, and the real work has begun.
The past three weeks have really been a struggle. I forgot what it was like to train long hours while working a very busy job. And these training hours are starting to get long. I just finished a 14 hour week (that I completed in 6 days since I’m leaving for Stockholm tomorrow at 4AM and lose my Sunday), and that very long difficult week is going to start being the average or even the low end of what I’ll be doing for the next few months.
I’m in a constant mental battle as to why I’m doing this. With each long workout and as each week’s hours cumulatively build, the workouts become a mental battle of quitting versus pushing. Today, I worked out for 5.5 hours, and from the 10 minute mark, I was wondering how I was going to finish. I just kept pushing on. With workouts like that, I end up doing them slower, but I get the time in and I feel like I am victorious against that part of my mind that tells me I can’t, that tells me my body won’t do it. As these workouts build, I can only imagine that battle getting fiercer, but I’m determined to win it. And with each victory, I really feel accomplishment. Even if it is only a workout, there’s something special about overcoming fear, anxiety, and exhaustion. I realize how much more I can do when my mind says it can’t.
My base is building (when i say base, i mean my base level of endurance – the number of hours I can continue to workout). I’ve decided to take these base periods and build distance, and then take my build periods and work on making those distances faster. I enter a step back week now of about 8 hours of training, and I feel like I got over that big hurdle of getting back into training. I think my body is slowly adjusting, and I’m hoping I’m in slightly less pain in the weeks to come.
One thing that really is keeping me going is my girlfriend Adrienne. After just the first of six main training periods, I’ve realized how lucky I am to be with someone who supports this hobby of mine. If there’s one person who bears the brunt of my complaining and who I’m definitely sacrificing some time with, it’s Adrienne. I’m thankful for her support through this process. Her understanding of my desire to do this is great, and despite the hours of wah wah wahing she’s heard from me in the past few weeks, she just ignores it and provides compassion. Thanks Adrienne! You are awesome!
With that, I’m off to Stockholm. I hope to get back to this blog as my travel schedule dies down. After this trip, I will have flown nearly 60,000 miles since March 6th. Crazy, huh?
On a side note, I love June gloom. It was so cool this week in my AM workouts. I loved it. As the heat of summer rises, I’m interested to see what my body can handle.
Here’s a summary of my mileage/hours for my first three weeks. 37 hours in 20 days – not too bad. Base 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 (in order of 10-12-14 hours approximately)
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
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