robeakin.com Triathlete

Training Update

It's finally here.

I don't what I'm more excited about, the Olympics themselves or the two week break from school. Either way it's going to be two weeks full of training, interspersed with watching events on TV and even a couple live (thanks Dad).

The original plan for these two weeks was to be in Maui, training in the sun but that fell through so instead I'll be slogging out my own training camp in the less comfortable climes of Vancouver. But before I get there, how about an update on where I'm at right now.

The past four months of training have been solid. Nothing spectacular, just consistently putting in the hours each week and seeing incremental improvements.

In the pool, I have yet to see a big improvement in speed but I know I'm much stronger than I was last year. I'm regularly putting in 15-16 km in the pool (which is more than I ever did in one week before this year) and can still swim strong at the end of our 4 km swims at Dolphins. So with my endurance at a new level, spring time will be the time to bring up the speed.

The bike has been coming along with what I feel like are some big improvements in technique from the spin sessions with Larry. With spin sessions now on Wednesdays with LETC it has become Sunday rides with Barb Zimich's group the past three weeks that are the notorious bonk fests for me (in a good way). The hour or so of moderate intensity followed by filling out the ride with some aerobic threshold riding to hit 3-3.5 hours has done me in. The kind of rides where you just want to get off the bike and walk home by the end. So good.

As for running, I'm going to declare myself back after a solid benchmark run last week. Ran a couple of 1 mile repeats on short rest in 6 minutes. It wasn't so much the time that I ran as much as the comfort with which I ran them. Being my first track workout since the foot injury I decided not to push myself and so to hit 3:45 / km pace so easily was a big confidence boost.

So now the next two weeks will be BIG volume to really solidify the base before I start picking up . After all, Spring Series bike races, a couple of 5ks I've got my eye on and the Delta Sprint are just around the corner. Bring on the racing.

LETC Male Athlete of the Year

I've spent the last couple of days debating whether to post this. In some ways, by doing so, I'm being self-congratulatory. I'm saying "Hey, look at me."

But then in not doing so I feel like I'm not being true to myself. I'm extremely proud of what I've accomplished and the fact that the club chose to recognize what I've done means a ton to me. And yes, I want people to know (even if it is just a club award).

So here it is:

On Wednesday night at the LETC AGM I was awarded Top Male Athlete of the Year and Most Improved High Performance Male Athlete.

It was quite the surprise (this was the first year the club had decided to do this) and made me reflect on how far I had come. When I started out in this club I was completing olympic distance triathlons in just under 2:50 two and a half years ago. I could just barely survive a 1500 m swim, thought 50 km on the bike was the longest anyone ever rode on a bike and knew how to jog (but not run).

Now I regularly complete 4000 m swims, think 50 km on the bike is nice off season jaunt, and know what it means to run. And I'm staring down a sub 2 hour olympic distance triathlon goal for next season.

The only way you get that kind of improvement is staying dedicated over the long haul. And the only way you stay dedicated over the long haul is by having a club like this. So thanks everyone for the support and motivation to keep doing this.

And now I'm motivated to keep my crowns. I really want to defend the Most Improved award next year because if I earn that one again, I think I'll be where I want to be. But I think New Kid On The Block Award winner Rob J might just give me a run for my money the way he's training this winter. Nothing like some good competition to push you.

Running Again!

Ok, so it was only 5 intervals of a minute but it was still running. And it felt good.

So after 3 weeks completely off and then 6 weeks of just playing it by ear, tomorrow I start the real thing. No more sloughing off a workout because I was out late. No more just going through the motions in the gym or at workouts. No more eating or drinking whatever I feel like. It's time to set the wheels in motion for a great 2010.

The main impetus for getting myself focused? Despite missing provincials and the final TriBC elite criteria I may still be able to race elite next year. I've been told to apply in January with my race results and include evidence of my injury and they'll go from there. So tomorrow I'm going to get a copy of my CT scan report and start building my case.

So for now it's about preparing as if I'm going to be racing elite. Step 1: Start running again (check!). Step 2: Get a new indoor trainer so I can ride even though the days are short now.

6 Weeks and Counting…

It's been a while and I don't think I ever wrote this definitively but it was a stress fracture in my left foot that had me hobbling after Kelowna. Turned out that it was bad enough that it probably would have shown up on an x-ray (hence the nasty swelling and bruising after the race). Luckily it was far down in a toe and would heal fairly fast (roughly 6-8 weeks).

It's been 6 weeks today since I've run and other than a tiny bit of swelling still left, I don't notice it at all anymore. I don't want to rush back to running though as too much running is probably what caused it in the first place and there are no big races for a long time.

My school has a treadmill now so I'm going to start doing walks with a solid incline to hopefully get my heart rate up for a couple weeks before I start walk/running. Never been so enthused about walking.

In the meantime I've begun swimming with the Dolphins' swim club at VAC and getting in some bike rides in this great fall weather and in spin classes with Larry.

It's been very informal without much structure lately. A couple of morning swims, a tough bike session Mondays, a long easy ride Saturday, a medium ride during the week, and a couple times in the gym each week. 

The toughest part has been staying motivated. Without the clear focus of set goals and plan to get there, the battle to be swimming at 5:30 am is a tough one for me.

So soon enough I'll put together a concrete plan for next season but before that I need to set my goals for the season. With some spare time today I'm thinking I'll start that process. Until then, I just have to enjoy the "break".

Podium Mixup and Focus

Sometimes things just don't go as you would expect. With two days and two races this weekend I though I knew what to expect. Saturday morning was the Kits Challenge, a 1.5 km open water swim. Sunday morning was the Deva Warp Speed Time Trial, a 20 km bike time trial. I would finish 2nd in one and just off the podium in the other.

Saturday morning's race was not exactly a priority for me. Even handing over the money to register that morning I was trying to figure out why was I doing the race.

Unfortunately that attitude continued in the race and made no effort to really push myself. To make matters worse I wasn't even focused enough to stay on course (to be fair there was a strong current pushing away from the beach) and spent much of the race zig zagging between buoys.

I ended up finishing in a time of 26:10 which is horrible but with the current and choppy water, everyone's time was about 2 minutes slow (which makes it just a bad rather than horrible time).

I stuck around for awards and ended up finding out that I had somehow finished 2nd male (I say 2nd male because there were a number of women who beat me). So I sheepishly went up, recieved my ribbon, and had my picture taken with someone who beat me 5 minutes. As Steph said after, I didn't need them to announce that time.

Sunday though was meant to be my day. I was much more motivated and I knew time trials were my strength on the bike (in spite of not having all the aero gear most have). Plus, I would get a rare chance to race against only cat 5 racers which would provide me with a good chance to finally earn some upgrade points. But things don't always go as expected.

Ready to roll at the start I was told by the starter that I had 20 seconds till my start. In an involuntary nervous reaction I started pedalling backwards. Bad idea. As soon as I did, my chain fell off.

Oh crap I thought. I unclipped and tried pedalling to see if it would pop back on. Nothing. 3, 2, 1 the starter counted. Your time has started he said. Still no chain. I dismounted completely. I scrambled madly to get the chain back on. 40 seconds to start the starter announced to the next rider. Finally, I got the chain back on. On to the bike and riding 30 seconds late withRachel (who was starting behind me) yelling to go, go, go.

It's funny how much can change in a day. With no excuses on Saturday I gave little effort. On Sunday, with a big screw up, there was absolutely no give up. As Rachel would remind me after the race, I did great job of refocusing after a mishap that many would have used as an excuse to just give in.

To be honest, I never really considered anything other than I was just going to have to work harder to make up that time. It's strange because I know from past race experiences that something like that is enough to take me off my game. But Sunday, I was just completely focused and even a mishap wasn't going to get in the way. It's a bit of a mystery to me right now what was so different from Saturday to Sunday but hopefully I can figure out how to have more days like Sunday rather than Saturday.

So I simply put my head down and pushed hard. I managed to still catch 3 riders in front of me (with 1 minute gaps) and came up about 5 seconds short of catching a 4th. And most importantly, didn't let Rachel catch me from behind. I ended up finishing in a time of 28:54 (roughly 41 km/h), 4th in cat 5, and 18th overall. Without the mishap I would have been 2nd in cat 5 and pretty close to a top 10 overall. It's not often I walk away satisfied with my effort in a race (I can be tough on myself) but I can say I did everything I could given the "circumstances".

So I finish on the podium in the race I never deserved to be and missed the podium in the race I deserved to be. Funny how that can go.

Today is a day off from training (heading down to Seattle with the family to watch the Jays take on the Mariners) and then another week of tough training before a 10 km run race on Sunday. Hopefully I have my Sunday and not my Saturday focus.

Lesson Learned

Sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. You can read and be told things but sometimes it only really sinks in when you experience it first hand.

The lesson: improper micro structures (weekly schedules) can be killer. With travelling to Kamloops tomorrow and then a race Sunday before driving all the way back, I knew I wasn't going to get much training in this weekend. So in my zeal to ensure that I stayed on track with my weekly training volume, I packed a bunch of workouts in early in the week.

That meant almost 10 hours of training packed into Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after racing on the bike Saturday and Sunday. So needless to say by the time Wednesday rolled around I was pretty fried. If only I had actually stopped to think about it beforehand.

Being exhausted on its own wasn't a big deal but Wednesday tends to intensity day with a track run in the morning and tough club bike ride in the afternoon. So being flat on Wednesday meant intensity workouts without much intensity. A waste of a couple of workouts really.

So I need to do a better job of making sure that I'm varying my daily load a bit better, making sure to ease off volume as well as intensity on certain days to make sure that I can be ready for quality workouts at the track and whatnot. Lesson learned (for now...).

For tonight it's watching the first world championship series race from Korea. And then after a quick swim tomorrow morning, it's off to Kamloops with Martina for a sprint race.