Week 3 – 244 days to Ironman Lake Placid

Posted by Carlos “Sandbagger” Araujo

Another week has passed and I am starting to realize that this is going to be a LONG season… Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy training, but racing is what I live for. The adrenaline rush I experience during a race is quiet unique and hardly found anywhere else. That’s why training for 19 weeks without any races planned whatsoever is going to be a challenge…

I am going to Brazil (visit family and friends) for the Holidays and would love to find any kind of race there, even a 10k or half-marathon, but it is summer time down there and the last thing people want to do is to race during Xmas and New Years. Actually, the most famous running race in Brazil, the Sao Silvestre (20,000 runners boiling under a 35C heat for a 15k run) is always December 31st in Sao Paulo, but I won’t be in Sao Paulo this time, so this one is a no go. I have been thinking about a few races in warmer places in North America in March, just before I start my specific training for Lake Placid, but so far nothing caught my eyes.

Going back to my training, this week was pretty much like the last week (3 runs, 3 bike rides and 2 weight-lifting sessions), with 2 main differences:

- I did my first outdoors run this Saturday and used my “new” pair of Newtons. Boy, do they feel great! I also found out how amazingly faster I run at the track than on the “dreadmill”, at least to start… That’s because after 30 min I found myself in familiar territory and had to really slow-down my pace. At the end of my 1 hour run I was again “flying low” at the astonishing pace of  9 km/h. But two things put a smile on my face. One, was the fact that I was running outdoors. As I mentioned before, for me a bad day outdoors beats any good day in the gym. Two, during the last 5 minutes of my “run”, while a bunch of people I know I am faster than was running by me, my iPod starts playing the theme song for Rocky Balboa. I could not resist and started laughing so hard that I almost had to stop, as my HR was getting higher… Oh, the irony!

- Yesterday I “rode” my bike again since September. It was on the trainer, but it felt great, at first… After 50 min I was hurting really bad and even though my HR was perfectly under control, my legs just gave up. I can still see Fernanda’s face when I showed up in our bedroom after 1 hour of torture… She asked: “Weren’t you suppose to do 2.5 hours bike today?” To which I said: “Yeah, but the football game was so interesting that I had to stop riding and watch it. That and because my legs just can’t do it anymore.”  I could be worried, but I am not. It was late at night and I had a heavy late lunch, so I guess 1 hour was not too, too bad, eh?

Total workout for the week:

- 8 workouts

- 7 hours again

- 4,000 kcal again.

Lesson learned this week: Don’t ever do a late Sunday workout again.

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” - Henry Ford

2nd week of training – 251 days to Ironman Lake Placid

Continuing my “slowly but surely” approach I did 2 runs and 3 bike rides this week, including a 2 hours “long” ride yesterday.

The week started with the usual tempo ride and I feel that my bike splits will be A LOT better, as I have not trained like this before (avg HR above 140 bpm on a trainer). The run is also getting a little time to get used to as well, but at least I have not walked yet. But I figure that it is just  a matter of time once I start doing my long runs and have to keep my HR below 150. I will do like the Johnny Walker commercial: “just keep walking…” 

My “long ride” of  2 hours was actually very interesting, as I found the 2nd hour to be easier (or not as hard) than the 1st hour. My guess is that my body is starting to adapt to this new “HR thingy”.

In total I did 7 hours and burned 4,000+ kcal. Not even close to what I was supposed to do, but then again I rather do this than hurt myself too early into the training season. This coming week I should do about 8 hours and then jump to 11-12 hours the following week when I add the swimming to my weekly routine. 

Main pointers for this week:

- Cardiac drift is a reality when you are doing your workouts indoors, and you should know that, but if you are training under specific HR zone guidelines, it does not matter, as you should stick to the targeted HR no matter what. The same goes to a scenario where I will have to run/bike outdoors and it is a very hot day. Get your body used to burn that fat!

- As always: Before going to training, leave your ego at home.

- Our Team Sandbaggers met this past weekend for our 2nd Annual meeting and we all watched the DVD for the 2009 season. It was really nice to see everybody again and to hear what plans we all have for 2010. Some will go longer, some will go shorter, but we are all looking forward to racing again. I can’t wait enough for Lake Placid.

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right”. - Henry Ford

First week of training – 261 days to IM Lake Placid

This was my first week training for IM Lake Placid 2010. I had been doing a few 40min runs for a couple weeks, but nothing that I could call training.

So this week I officially kicked off my training, and let me tell you… It’s going to be a Looooooooonnnngggggg way until July 25th, 2010 hits my calendar. But hey, it’s not about the destiny, it’s all about the journey, right?

I did 2 bike rides, 2 runs, 2 weight lifting workouts and 1 swimming. I “missed” 2 swims, 1 “long” bike ride (2:30hs) and 1 “long” run (0:55min). But I did that because by Friday night I felt really tired and my body was not taken the training load as I expected, so I decided to take the weekend off and relax. It was a good wake-up call and probably saved me of future injuries, as I will take slowly and surely instead of all out of the gate.

3 things that deserve mention are:

- For the first time EVER I did a bike workout with my avg/HR higher than my moderate run avg/HR. I managed to keep a 148 bpm HR for the bike workout and only 142 bpm HR for the run… Truth be told, I was almost walking during my run, as the ultimate goal is to keep my HR below 145 bpm during these runs and below 150 bpm on my “tempo” runs…  This change is by far the biggest change in my training this season, as it looks like I was NOT pushing hard enough during my bike workouts and pushing too hard during my runs. So far it looks promising.

- I can’t still believe how can somebody keep their running cadence at 90/min or higher. It is really hard, and during my training I have to focus in keeping my HR low and my cadence at 90/min+. The result? A lighting fast 5.2 mph pace to finish my runs!!! LOL … I start and keep it around 6,1-6.3 mph for the first 20min, but after that my HR starts to increase and I have to slow-down. As I was told by a few friends who tried (with successes) this low HR run method: “Before you go out for you runs you HAVE to leave your ego at home…” It’s like learning to walk all over again.

- My new pair os Newtons is just great! I’ve been following the general recommendation and have been doing 20min max for each run. Next week I will do 25min and the following week 30min, and so on until I can go the full 3 hours during my long runs. They are a lot lighter than my NB 769 and their design really helps me to change from heel stride to mid-foot stride… My calves can confirm that!

I good old friend of mine, former swimmer as me, is now one of the best known nutritionist in Brazil and she offered to do my nutrition plan for IM Lake Placid (training and racing). I sent her all the information today and I am looking forward to hearing back from her. I had forgotten that in a “busy” week I can burn up to 15,000 kcals and without a good nutrition plan, all this training is good for nothing.

This coming week I am planning to complete most of the training planned, but I will continue to listen to my body and if needed I will cut a few workouts out… Remember: “Must leave my ego at home…”

Cheers!

Carlos

My first Podcast

This past Wednesday I was invited to be part of a Podcast. A Twitter friend, @Quadraton, hosts a runners round-table and had a few amateur triathletes and  ultra distance runners. The subject was: Going Long.

Check it out: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=34812&cmd=tc

Who would ever imagine that I would be:

1 – In a Podcast! I thought that was really cool

2 – Talking about my triathlon experience and “surrounded” by a bunch of ultra distance runners. Running was never my favorite sport, but more and more I catch myself looking forward to my next run.

It was a lot of fun and I had the chance to “meet” and interact with some really nice people. In my humble opinion, ultra runners must have something missing somewhere… lol. A Marathon for them is just a warm-up! Most of them have done 100 mile runs/races, taking them more than 24 hours non-stop! How crazy is that? If you think an Ironman is challenging, well, think again.

But one thing we all agreed we have in common was not a surprise for me. We are doing long distance/endurance sports because we fell in love for it and we all could not imagine doing that a while ago, but once we put our minds into it, it became a reality. Pretty cheesy, but hey, it is what it is. As I have in my e-mail signature: “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right. - Henry Ford”

Next week I will start training for 2010, I will be doing about 12 weeks more of training than I did for 2009, Let’s hope it pays off.

Wow! Talking about out of shape…

Now that the 2009 season is behind me, I’m staring to look forward for the 2010 Season. I took 6 weeks off and I’ll be starting to train again in November, following the MAO (Mark Allen Online) Maintenance Training Program. In the meantime, I haven’t done much. In 6 weeks I went once to the gym, ran twice and biked once. Today I put my Heart Monitor on and went for quick run… Oh boy!! I knew I lost some fitness, but I had no idea how bad it was until today. Check these stats:

• Distance: 5.25 km
• Duration: 31:46
• Pace: 9.9 km/h
• HR: 159 bpm (???)
• Cadence: 82 rpm

Now, seriously, 159 bpm at 9.9 km/h? What was that? I don’t remember running this bad in the last 3 years. Granted, I was trying to increase my cadence, which didn’t really work either, I’m usually at 79 to 80 rpm and I averaged 82 today. My goal during the Maintenance program is to keep my HR in the correct zones and increase my cadence. However, when I concentrate on my cadence, my heart rate goes through the roof! Well, I guess it is combination of things, 5 weeks off and cadence… I don’t know, but to follow Mark Allen’s prescribed HR zones, I’ll be waking, a LOT.

Time will tell. I’ll stick to the program. Hopefully next year I’ll see some improvements. The good side is that it can only go up from here!

How bad am I?

Season 2010 – Hans

Author : Hans
URL    : http://hanswinter.wordpress.com

2009 was a lot of fun! I was VERY happy for finishing my first Ironman, not so happy about my time. For my surprise I spent quite some time with Caca during the race. I thought we would swim away and I would only see him at the run again, but we saw each other almost all the way. Talking with a buddy during such an event is definitely motivating! IM France wouldn’t have been the same if I was there by myself and next year…
2010? Well, I’m also doing LP with Caca… hopefully a bit faster this time around. I’m just coming out of my 5 weeks of doing nothing, and I’ll be starting my Maintenance schedule in a week. It was very hard to take time off, but after 5 weeks, you kind of get used to the laziness! It will be hard to start again… But, I need to get back to it; otherwise Caca is going to beat the crap out of me in LP!!!
Actually, talking about next year, if I don’t get my game straight, Rogerio is going to beat the crap out of me too! The guy was VERY pumped up after Muskoka. I hope he is back to normal now!
I’m really looking forward for getting the gang together on our long bike rides on Saturdays, but that seems to be quite far away now… well, this is Canada! Computrainer it is for the next little while!

Season 2010 – Fernando

Author : Fernando Pinho

I am looking for more than just Sprints next year. I am planning to do my first long course and maybe the Muskoka 70.3 depending on how my season goes. I am also want to dedicate more time to my family (my wife and my son Lucas) so I will have plan in advance my training workload… Last season I trained 5 hours per week on average and next season I am planning to train 8 hours per week so let’s see how it goes.  As Caca said, the important is to have FUN and don’t make this as a pain.

Season 2010 starts today

My 2009 season was just amazing. Completed my first Ironman (France) and had PBs/PRs in all races I did. What else could I’ve asked for? And that’s why the heat is on for 2010. In order to keep (or make it actually) this trend, I will start 3 months earlier than last season and will have a few changes (or lots).

Today I started my training for the 2010 season. I will be doing a very easy and simple off-season training for a couple of weeks just to get back on track, then Nov 3rd it starts for real. Lots of new stuff for this new season:

- New coach (I didn’t have one until now): Steve Bentley. I chose Steve because he seemed to be a great guy and a great coach, but if he has to choose, he will be a great coach first. He already wrote me that if I think that he is a nice guy after a while, I am NOT doing the training how it is supposed to be done.

- New A race: IM Lake Placid 2010. This will be my second IM, and I am looking for more than just finish this time. I am also planning to do a few Sprints (Ontario Subaru Series), Muskoka Chase e maybe Ironman Muskoka 70.3. The last one will depend on how my season goes and if my coach believes I can recover from IMLP and still be prepared for Muskoka with just 7 weeks between them.

 - New goals: It’s all about the goals. My overall time goal for IMLP is  under 12:30. Breaking down to 1:00 swim, 6:20 bike and 4:30 run + 0:15 for T1+T2.  Anything close to these splits and I will consider it a complete success. And most important of all: HAVE FUN and still make time to my family (my wife).

Our Team Sandbaggers also became an “Almost Official” triathlon team  (this blog still is supposed to be for the whole team) and we now even have our team uniform. In every single race I had somebody commenting and laughing because of our name, even during IM France. Some even said that our name is the best triathlon team name EVER… LOL.  Our team did quite well in 2009, we all had PBs in most of our races and 6 of us finished IM Muskoka 70.3 last September. And we had so much fun! We also had a lot or positive surprises and in 2010 I suspect we will have even more… 

So, as they say: “Let the games begin!”

Carlos

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are probably right. - Henry Ford

TSN will be airing their Muskoka Ironman 70.3 coverage

TSN will be airing their Ironman coverage over the next couple weeks.  

Muskoka Ironman 70.3:

Sat. Oct. 31 – 12:00-1:00pm

Sun. Nov. 1 – 11:30pm-12:30am
Thur. Nov. 5 – 1:00-2:00 pm

Canadian Masters Swimming Championship

saturday, may 16, 2009

Today was somewhat special for me…

17 years ago I swam my last swim meet… I was then 19 years old.

Today, at the young age of 35, I was back in the pool competing against the clock and others from my group age. I felt good… It felt right… It felt like I’ve never left… Isn’t that strange? Somehow, swimming has always been with me, and now I know that it will always be. I do triathlons today, and I LOVE IT, but the water and I have a pretty long relationship… That’s SO Cheesy, eh? hehehhehehehehehehehhehehe…

I swam 100m IM (Individual Medley) and did 1:08:49. My seed time was 1:10:00. I was pretty happy with it. I finished 9th on my age group. Not bad for Nationals, right?

Tomorrow is going to be a lot harder, since I will swim 100m Free (I will try to break the 1 min), 50 Backstroke and 6 relays (!). Now I am glad that Monday is a Holiday here in Canada.

Posted by Sandbagger at 7:12 PM 0 comments