Posts Tagged cycling
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 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
Vlog: Week 2 Training – Mid Week Ride
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling on November 11, 2009
Quick video before my morning ride today. Nothing special, but check out that sunrise! Some beautiful views this morning, and I’ll try to capture more of them! Absolutely gorgeous and peaceful when you’re out that early!
By the way, cycling style is certainly, ummm, interesting! Especially when you’re wearing glasses
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
Pedaling – yes, even that has science to it
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Ironman Training, Training Tips on November 6, 2009
Physics does fall into the realm of science, right? For those of you who take cycling seriously, I don’t have to convince you that there is a lot you can do with your pedaling to improve your force, and therefore, speed. For those who do not cycle, I think you’d be surprised how much physics there is in pedaling. One of my themes for this winter is to get faster on the bike (along with endure the swim and run on the forefoot), and so I want to study the pieces to the biking puzzle. No better place to start with the simple motion we learned when we were three years old.
I came across this website, and they have this great article on pedaling. I knew there was something to pedaling – something more then getting into a fairly uncomfortable seat, bending in a strange position for several hours, and just pushing DOWN as hard as I can on these tiny little pedals. Well, striking down is exactly where I was doing wrong.
The article’s main point is that the additional leverage you get by striking forward and down (think 45 degree angle) is MUCH more powerful than striking down. It sounds confusing, but check out the diagrams in the article. Read it over a few times because I definitely had to study the diagrams to get a better understanding of what the author meant with additional distance / force from more leverage. You have a longer length to push when you use your pedals this way, which gives you more time to generate power. That’s why longer crank shafts give you more leverage and can generate more power.
The other key takeaway from the article was the pull up in the back half of the pedal (the part where you’re clipped in and the force of the pedal pulls your leg up – yeah, that’s NOT how it’s supposed to work). The article says your leg weighs about 15 pounds, and if you’re not pulling your leg up, then your other leg has to compensate for that on the push forward/down, meaning you have to overcome 15 pounds just to get to the zero power threshold. If you’ve heard of trying to make your leg feel weightless, this is what the article is talking about. You should at a minimum be pulling up your leg so that your other leg doesn’t have to work for that.
In addition, the area from 2 o clock to 7 o clock is a key area of power output. Here, the leg should almost be straight, and the feeling should be like wiping dirt/gum off the bottom of your shoe. Surprisingly, this swipe of the foot will account for about 25% of your power output. Crazy huh?
To summarize, here’s how your power breaks down:
- 65% on the downward push
- 25% on the swipe from the bottom to the beginning of the backswing
- 10% of the pull up (and mostly just to offset the weight of a free leg)
So how do you work on this? This is what I’m going to do
- One legged drills on an indoor trainer – get the feelings/leg positions right. The feeling should be smooth without jerkiness
- One legged drills while riding, but leave the other foot clipped in and just make it feel limp. In this position, don’t get jerky – it’s so easy to do
- Simulate the feeling in 2-3 mile intervals with both feet. In one interval, focus on the downward push with both feet. In another interval, focus on the scraping off gum feeling. In another interval, pull your leg up. The key is putting these all together, which is where the one legged riding comes in
If you know of any other good cycling articles, pass them on! I hope this one helps you get faster on the bike.
Race Report: San Diego Olympic Triathlon 2009
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Reports on October 11, 2009
As sherry main put it in her tweet, I finally put the “tri” in “triadamlete”. Today I finished my first Olympic tri, the San Diego Olympic Tri in Point Loma. It was awesome!
My goal time was 2 hours, 45 minutes. My final time was 2 hours, 22 minutes, 11 seconds. I was stoked. The winning time was 1:51:02 (how would I ever pick up 30 minutes???). They haven’t posted splits yet, but I know I came in about 100th overall and 14th in my age group (30-34, out of 39 people). Out of my goals, I think I accomplished everything I wanted to. I overcame my open water fear and got comfortable with swimming in crowds. Despite my transition mistakes, I learned how to do it quickly. I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were. I learned to eat during the workout. I figured out how to bike in a race (e.g. passing, staying to the right, being vocal). Most importantly, I got hooked on the triathlon and how awesome the tri community is. I had fun!
My splits are below. I was pretty stoked with my numbers, but I do think the run was a little less than 10k distance. I actually didn’t think these times were possible heading into the race, but given my heart rate and how comfortable I was on the run, I think I could do much better. I could probably improve transitions a minute, and I know there is a lot more I can do on the bike.
Here’s a quick synopsis of my race and some of the things I’ve learned about triathlons:
- Pre-Race
- I was nervous: 5 bathroom trips before the race – beat my previous best of four before my second San Francisco marathon
- Transition was on grass, and I used a balloon to mark my place. I was the only one with a balloon. Several athletes around me thanked me for helping them locate their bike J very surprised with how few people do this. Business opportunity at expos?
- I need to drink more water before I race, especially with that many bathroom trips
- Swim (00:24:04)
- No pauses on the swim. Had a little trouble sighting, but I followed the bubbles (thanks Rod).
- Shoulders were very tired and I need to work on my endurance.
- Heart rate of 175 by the time I got on my bike. Kinda crazy
- T1 (00:02:13)
- Wetsuit half off on the way to bike – slipped right off when I got there. Thanks Rod for the Pam suggestion (spray legs before putting on wetsuit)
- Quick drink of water, grabbed my bike, and I was gone
- Improvement: run faster to bike, don’t take time for water, improve flexibility J
- Bike (1:16:08)
- Slipped feet into clipped in shoes, buckled in during first mile
- Drank a lot on the first leg, especially during the first 2 miles to makeup for my lack of drinking during the swim
- Took a few miles to catch my breath, but I eventually lowered my heart rate and felt comfortable
- .75 miles at about 8% grade – BRUTAL, especially on the second loop
- BEAUTIFUL views through the naval base on top of the cliffs. Downtown San Diego on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right. Advantage of having no headphones: I definitely took in the views more. There was a military graveyard next to the road at the top of one cliff, and it was a bone chilling feeling to ride by that in the overcast weather.
- After the cliff, there were several miles downhill – going about 35 mph in aero. Fun but a little nerve racking
- Ate GU for the first time in a race. No stomach issues
- Making turn near dismount, pulled feet out of shoes to get ready for dismount. Then told that
wasn’t dismount area and had another 3 miles, so I had to put my feet back in. Definitely wasted some time here. I could really feel the loss of power without the clip-ins (riding on top of the shoes) - About 200 feet from dismount, pulled feed out and rode on top of my shoes
- T2 (00:01:06)
- Dismounted barefoot and ran bike to my position (easily discovered by balloon)
- Flipped on running shoes, took off
- Got out of transition and down the straight away and realized my helmet was still on
- Sprinted back and dropped off helmet. Probably lost 30 seconds here. I think this got lumped in with my run time though since I passed the T1 chip reader
- Took off running
- Run (00:38:40 – 5.55 miles, 6:58/mile)
- Average 6:14 miles for 10k – I believe the run was about .3 miles to short, but nice after the marathons I run that are 26.7 miles
- They miscalculated the distance – notified in a follow up email; race distance was 5.55 miles
- Legs felt heavy for first half mile, but great after that
- I’ve been working on my running cadence, taking shorter strides but more of them. It really helped in this race as my legs never really hurt after the first half-mile.
- Didn’t push it all during race except to keep a steady heart rate (155-163) and steady pace. Heart rate was much higher than I expected, but my heart rate on the bike was the highest it has ever been (150-170), so it was tough to bring it down on the run. Plus, I felt good and went with it
- Did not sprint finish to save legs for marathon in a few weeks
That is my first triathlon. I had awesome support from my girlfriend Adrienne and my parents, Mike and Mary (you can see them in my Flickr pictures). It was such a great feeling to complete this race, have fun, and feel good after the race. I’m happy with my level of fitness and training. I realized that the science of sport that I’ve been studying has a lot of value, and I’ll continue to research and work hard at it. Based on my
Me with the pit crew
performance and splits, here are the things I need to work on:
- Swimming endurance
- Bike force
- Bike muscular endurance
- Running cadence
- Expand my triathlon community – everyone I’ve met in this sport is awesome
If you have any tips or questions, please post a comment. I’ll get back to my regular posts this week, especially when it comes to putting together a training schedule and some more on workout impacts and workout variation (volume, intensity and frequency).
Some of my bloopers:
Out of my shoes too soon
Running out of transition with my helmet
Realized it fortunately here, not a mile into the run
Had to run back
What elements impact our workouts?
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Goals, Ironman Training, Running, Triathlon on September 30, 2009
I had a great conversation with a friend today. He’s very analytical, but primarily focused on business. He read my blog and mentioned that he enjoyed my scientific approach to training. He made some suggestions that I should monitor and study how they impact my workouts.
My workout today, a very fast paced zone 1 (barely to zone 1) workout that was as fast as my zone 2 portion of my workout on Saturday, got me thinking about the details of a run and what impacts heart rate, and therefore, pace. My guess is the hot, humid weather impacted my heart rate on Saturday versus the cool morning today. But who knows. It could of been diet, sleep, etc..
I kind of want to know. I thought about all the things that can impact a workout. I instantly thought about multiple regression models that could predict the workout time for a given heart rate based on all of these factors. Yup, I’m a nerd.
But first step would be, what factors influence a run and/or bike workout, and maybe even a swim workout. All things that could impact the workout even a little should be considered, and we can let the multiple regression model workout which ones are actually significant. Even without a regression model, I’m sure we can identify trends. Here’s what I’ve got so far, and I believe there are multiple ways some of these can be filled in, so it will take a little more though (please comment if you have other influencers):
- Day before diet
- Day of diet
- Diet during workout
- Hydration
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Wind
- Weather conditions (rain, hail, snow)
- Pollen count (friend thinks this affects people more than we believe it does)
- Equipment (e.g. clothes, bike, hydration packs, shoes)
- Company (e.g. friends, training clubs)
- Sleep quantity (number of hours)
- Sleep quality (restful / not restful)
- Stress (maybe high stress is good for workouts)
- Hills
- Bowel movements (yup, all athletes know this can make/break a workout)
- Time awake before workout (similar to time of day)
- Stretching before
- Pains (e.g. nagging pains, injuries, soreness, tightness, etc..)
- Motivation (e.g. excited, not excited, bored)
- Workout stops (my guess is stopping at lights makes shorter runs easier since the heart rate has a chance to recover)
A fairly exhaustive list. What am i missing?
Cycling vs. Running Heart Rate – why the difference?
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Cycling, Heart Rate Monitoring, Running on September 29, 2009
I don’t know how many of you 1) use a heart rate monitor, 2) train in three sports, 3) notice a big difference in your heart rates cycling versus running, 4) give a shit. Well I fall into 5) all of the above, so I decided to do a little research online for you. This is what I found
This article suggests that if we cannot maintain our biking pace for as long as our running pace at a comparable heart rate, then we do not have the strength necessary on the bike. His example is great in that cyclists could get comparable heart rates running while runners had a harder time getting comparable heart rates cycling. Solution: increase leg strength. Much easier for a cyclist to turn triathlete then it is for runner turn triathlete given the complexity of the cycling muscles (even if muscles are similar to running).
This blog post gives a good summary of heart rate training and examples of what his/her zones are. The standard rule of thumb, from what I read and helpful comments to my blog posts from @ncjack (see post and comment here), is that biking heart rates are anywhere from 5 to 10 bpm lower than your running heart rates. His biking heart rates are much lower on the bike for his lactate threshold. I assume he was tested, but assumptions make asses of u and me, right?
As @ncjack pointed out though, the heart is working harder on the bike then on the run. I looked this up on google and found very little details on what truly works your heart more. I found this forum makes a claim but doesn’t have supporting articles. He/she suggests that since we are bent over on the bike versus running vertically, the blood has less area to travel and hence works less (lower HR bpm). I don’t know if i buy that. If you have any references here, I would be very appreciative.
I found a book on heart rate training, but it’s from 1998. I’m amazed there aren’t more resources out there, or if there are, they’re not easier to find. I also came across this journal that appears to have tons of articles on the subject albeit at a price.
So I apologize for not being more conclusive, but I’ll continue to monitor my heart rate in both running and cycling and let you know what I find. Today, my heart rate on my bike got up to 152 in doing some cadence drills on the way to work. I thought that was good and the exertion felt like I was in high end Zone 2 if I compare the feeling to my running. That would make it about 10 bpm off. I’ll keep at it and let you know!
My Life...
