Big week of training this week!

• Monday was threshold pace swim, weights.
• Tuesday was endurance swim and endurance run in the AM, followed by 90+ minute trainer workout with ILT’s and tempo climbing.
• Wednesday was suppose to be an endurance bike, but with the cold weather I opted for an endurance snowshoe (see previous post).
• Thursday was vo2 pace swim and endurance run in the AM, followed again by 90+ minute trainer workout with ILT’s and tempo climbing.
• Friday was endurance swim w/ pull sets and weights in the AM, followed by an extra recovery/endurance bike session in the PM.

As if that wasn’t enough training, then came the weekend. Back-to-back breakthrough endurance/strength sessions. The first on the run, then the bike. This weekend we had incredible spring-like weather in Denver. Saturday was 55 degrees and Sunday, not to be outdone, followed with 60 degree temperatures! Well needless to say, I and few training buddies, took advantage of the nice days.

Saturday, teammates Ed Oliver, Rickey Tolliver, and Steve Trujillo tackled a long hilly endurance trail run at Green Mtn/Matthew Winters. Ed, Rickey and I put in 90 minutes with somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 vertical feet of climbing. We ran mostly endurance pace with some efforts at or near LT on some of the steeper climbs. Steve (and Honu, his dog) joined us for 60 minutes of the run. I ended up putting in a little extra time getting to 1:45 total time. This was the longest run of the year thus far and first trail run in some time as well. Stressful indeed.

Steve and EPC mascot, Honu, summiting one of the many hills along the Dakota Ridge Trail.

Ed and Rickey blasting a still somewhat snowy downhill on the Redrocks Trail.

Sunday morning I woke up a little stiff legged and weary. The extra duration and downhill running the previous day definitely lefts it’s mark. Regardless, Ed and I hit the roads Sunday morning for some strength work on the bike. The plan was three ascents of Lookout Mtn (appx 4 miles at 8%) in big gears at low cadences. The first one was to be done seated, the second standing, and the third seated.

Along the way out we jumped into a group ride heading out the same direction and got in some good efforts as we made our way out to the mountain. (Ed front left).

View from near the top of some of the switchbacks up the climb.

The first climb felt good, 288w for 20 minutes. The second climb was a little harder, 302w for 20 minutes. Then the third climb we suffered, 292w for 20 minutes. Ed fell off the pace a bit and we both were glad that it was over.

Ed headed home after 3.5 hours. I decided to take full advantage of the warm day and continued on after recharging my batteries with an iced latte and blueberry muffin. While at the coffee shop, Adam, roommate and occasional training partner, rolled up and was headed out for a few hours. I decided to go with him up to Evergreen and back. All said and done the ride ended up to be 98 miles with 9000 ft of climbing. With the hour of strength intervals in the first half of the ride I managed to reach a new PR of a TSS score over 400!

Toughest ride I’ve done in long time, and at the end of 25 hour training week. Feels good to be this tired. Next week I’m heading into a well planned recovery week. After that I have one more block of base training before the race prep begins. I feel like if I can keep up the solid base training for another month I’ll be in good shape and ready to increase the intensity to race pace and beyond.

CW

I’m back to my old self again! Monday marked the end of my cold and the return of my energy. Last week I got in 18 hours of training, just a few hours off my planned time. I would have made my 21 hour goal, but my Wednesday endurance ride was cut to two hours on the trainer due to temps in the teens that day. I got back in the pool for 4 sessions and found that I hadn’t lost much speed at all. Running has been the most difficult to get back. I feel like I’m a bit behind schedule in that area at the moment.

Last week also marked the second week of my 12-week stationary trainer series. I’ve done a variation of this trainer series for the last 9 years. It has proven year after year as great way to get into very good shape on the bike by spring. The first several weeks focus on building leg strength and aerobic endurance before transitioning into threshold training and finally vo2 max intervals. Good stuff! The last three years I have hosted a group training series where athletes I coach and other invited guests meet twice weekly, every week for 12 weeks to build fitness together. This makes the trainer time much more enjoyable and holds you accountable to show up and get it done.

My Saturday long run ended up being on the snow. It slows the pace a bit, but is still good aerobic training and adds a bit of a challenge in foot-eye coordination and agility. By the next day the snow had melted and I slapped on the fenders and I got in a good 5 hour road ride in the hills. On the ride I did 3 twenty minute strength climbs. Feeling good on the bike. Power numbers are up already over this time last year. Good sign, I hope.

This week I intend on getting back on track with my full 20+hours of base training. The week after calls for a recovery week. I may end up getting in a few extra days however to make up for some lost time while I was sick. This kind of “make-up” training is something I’m usually against doing. My coach always used to say “You cannot make up lost training. You have to let it go and pick up where you left off.” I’ll see how I feel when I get through this week.

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately. When I was in AZ a few weeks ago my camera apparently got a little wet during some rain we rode through. It hasn’t worked since. I tried replacing the batteries, shaking it, knocking it on the table and many other common fix-it strategies to no avail. Today I purchased a new camera on eBay. Waterproof, drop-proof, crush-proof, dust-proof, freeze-proof. That should do the trick. We’ll see.

Thanks for reading.

CW

I’m finally starting to get over this cold. The last 12 days have not been the most productive. I got the cold when I was in Arizona nearly two weeks ago. The plan was to get in some high volume training down there and aside from two long rides, I ended up not getting nearly as much as planned. My running and swimming were both nearly nonexistent.

Last week, upon returning home, I was entering the first week of my second phase of base training. Still being sick I couldn’t get much quality work done. Overall I felt very weak and even the shortest runs left me sore and tired. I got what I could in and tried to get as much sleep as possible during the week.

Today I finally feel the end of the cold nearing. My energy was a bit higher and I could swim without coughing. The plan this week is to resume my base training. I’ll keep you posted.

I headed down to Arizona on New Year’s Day. The idea was to get in a week of warm weather high volume training before my more focused training begins. Well, once I got down here I started coming down with a bit of a cold. My throat is a little tender and I have some light coughing. Two nights ago I tried to do my scheduled track workout. I was expecting some fast low altitude times, but rudely found my energy low and speed even lower. After the disappointment I accepted the fact that I was getting sick and had to shut off the intensity for a while. The good news is I still have enough energy to get out for low-intensity base miles. Such is life. I must roll with the punches and do what I can.

Yesterday I got in a great ride in the AZ desert. I grew up here and learned how to ride and race as a junior here in Cave Creek, north of Scottsdale and Phoenix. My dad still lives here so it’s always fun to come down for a visit and ride the roads I grew up on. One of my favorite rides is way out north where the paved roads turn to dirt and a relatively unknown climb up Humboldt Mountain exists.

The paved road turns to dirt as you head out towards Seven Springs north east of Cave Creek.

About 3 miles out on the dirt road, there is a turn off that heads up Humboldt Mountain. At the top of this 5000 ft mountain there is a large white ball for weather monitoring (you can barely see it in the picture above) and a National Forest Service fire watch station. The roughly paved road up this climb is one lane wide and very old. Very cool!

Above is one of the steeper sections as I near the summit.

From the summit I can see the road I came up winding through the desert landscape like a diamondback rattlesnake.

Here is a shot of my power-meter as I reach the summit. 29 minutes, 274 average power, 69 rpm, 154 HR, and 342 current power (not bad while slowing to take pictures!)

After reaching the summit I took a quick stop to scarf down a Powerbar, snap a photo and put my jacket on for the descent.

After returning to civilization on my return trip to my dad’s house, I road through parts of Carefree and North Scottsdale.

I road through some neighborhoods I trained on when I was in high school. Some of the houses in these neighborhoods are incredible. This one below is on Stagecoach Drive, a nice short steep climb I used to do intervals on. Pretty cool architecture built into the rocky hillside.

You know you are in the land of excess when you see signs like the one below.

Great ride despite being a little sick. I logged 85 miles, 6500 feet of climbing in 5 hours. Today I slept in before heading out for an 8 mile endurance pace run. I had a tempo run planned, but being under the weather, I kept the intensity low and opted for a lighter pace run. On tap for tomorrow is another long ride on the bike. Should be fun. It is with a big group that I used to ride with. They usually like to crank up the pace so I’ll see how long I can hang.

CW