Week Ending 2015-05-31

This week I spent a lot of time focusing on my bike posture – I did some reading/searching about bike position, power loss and power sustainability.  The highlight of what I found is summed up pretty well in an article by Steve Hogg.  The synopsis of it is that our brains can only recruit so much muscle when you are riding.  It prioritizes keeping you upright before locomotion – so if your posture is too taxing – you lose power.  Mumbo jumbo?  I don’t know, but  putzing around with my reach is not hard to do – and something I do anyways.

Additionally – I know that my hip flexors are incredibly tight – so much so that I would self diagnosis myself with Janda’s Lower crossed syndrome – again possibly mumbo jumbo – but my hip flexors are tight.  I’m super serial.  So in addition to putzing with my reach I dug out the stuff from when I visited the PT last year – and got to work.

Actual training wise – it was a pretty low key week – I focused on some really high intensity stuff, and an Aquathon.

Monday –

I did a short swim at Hoyt pool – outdoors YEAH.  Inspired by the Matt Hanson AMA IMTX thread, I did 3×100 @ 1:30 – it’s a SCY pool – to see what I could do – 1:01/1:02/1:03.  If Matt Hanson was able to hold 1:01 for a significant number of 100s on 1:30 – i.e. more than 3 – mad props.  I finished Monday off with a run home from the pool – when we went back later as a family.

Tuesday –

A really short ride as I ate up most of my riding time playing with my reach.  I did 15×30″ (30″) @ 400+ watts – along with an easy run at lunch time.

Wednesday –

I again did some hard 100s in the pool – this time SCM – 5×100 @ 2:00, followed by again another easy run.

Thursday –

I did an easy bike ride in the morning on the trainer – and the Aquathon that night.  I swam 13:20 for a “1000”, and ran 19:18 for the 5k.  No complaints about the swim – I’m actually happy to say that despite having a couple fast people there I didn’t get dropped on the swim, which happened both times last year.  I did get schooled on the run – and had mixed emotions about my run – a full minute slower than I ran it last year.  I was pretty rushed putting my wetsuit on and I felt like it really made my stroke feel a bit off, and unless it was an exceptionally long 1000 – it felt really really hard compared to IMTX.

If I take it in the context of having done an Ironman about 10 days before – it’s probably pretty decent.

I finished third and got schooled by James Burke and Chris Wichert, hopefully they both show up for the next one, when my legs are a bit fresher.

Friday –

A swim with a good deal of IM swimming.  I did a 60′ “long” run that afternoon and felt pretty decent except for about a 5 minute stretch in the middle where I needed a walk break to reset and convince myself I wasn’t going to have to walk home.

Saturday –

Just an easy ride, followed by checking out the open house at one of the local coast guard stations

Sunday –

Two hours on the bike with ?x2′ (2′) – do them until I can’t hold 360, but starting off at 400, followed by a easy jog on the treadmill.

This week I keep the focus on doing some really hard bike efforts, and the Bong 30k time trial on Sunday.  I had planned to go to Madison and ride with Thomas Brunhold on Friday, but I realized I am taking Ethan to a class at the Zoo – so that ride it have to wait for a couple weeks.