I’m officially toasted. Last weekend put the finishing touches on a nice string of solid weeks of base training. For the past 15 weeks I have been gradually upping the volume and to a lesser degree the intensity of my training. About eight weeks ago I got sick and was out of commision for about 10 days, but the last seven weeks however have been very solid. I’ve managed to average about 20 hours per week of training for the last seven weeks. This last week was my grand finale base week reaching 26 hours of swim, bike, run. I’m pretty happy with how I’ve been holding up, but I’m for sure ready for some rest this week.

Last weekend looked like this:

Saturday: 2 hour 15 minute trail run w/tempo effort on the climbs . Run Data:

• 16.3 miles
• 3400 ft. elevation gain
• 141 avg HR
• 8:15-ish pace per mile
• 1600-ish kj

Sunday: 6 hour strength and endurance ride w/3×20′ big gear muscle tension intervals at 290 watts average. Ride Data:

• Duration: 6:02:03
  Work: 4490 kJ
  TSS: 368.9 (intensity factor 0.784)
  Norm Power: 243
  Distance: 100.2 miles
  Elevation Gain: 10194 ft
  Elevation Loss: 10046 ft

Needless to say I was pretty crushed today. This week is a light week with recovery workouts and extra rest. Then I will begin my race prep phase of training. I’m falling asleep here as I type, so I’m shutting her down. I’ll write more on my race prep plans in my next post. Good night.

CW

Training has been going very well the last few weeks. Once I get through this weekend I’ll have completed my base training for my 2008 season. The final few weeks of base typically involve adding in small amounts of faster pace/higher intensity work into the mix to prepare the body for the intense training race pace training ahead.

Examples of what I mean:

1. Taking my regular mid-week endurance runs and inserting periods of M-Pace (zone 3) and T-Pace (zone 4) running. I like to start conservatively and build each workouts upon the previous weeks. Three weeks ago I did 3×1 mi T-Pace efforts, last week 4x1mi T-Pace, today 5x1mi T-Pace. This progression allows me to gradually adapt to more and more faster paced running while keeping it relatively light in duration and including plenty of recovery.

2. Adding 15-second surges on the bike every minute for 15 minutes on a simulated climb on the trainer. Adding the 15-second surges gets me to put out power well above LT but the overall stress is no more than LT work so I can recover relatively easily between sessions but still get the benefits of some higher intensity training.

3. On my longer runs and rides of the week I am throwing in some unstructured high intensity efforts on the hills to again prepare for the more specific work ahead. Volume and aerobic endurance is still the main focus, but the small amounta of added stress from the extra efforts will allow me to be ready when the #@*% hits the fan next month.

Overall my base has been pretty good. My endurance is good in all three sports. Big runs and rides each week have become very manageable and relatively low stress compared to a few months ago when an easy paced 6 mile run left me tired and sore.

Tonight I’ll be back on the trainer with my group at WRC. The plan calls for 2 spin-ups to warm-up before we head into our 20 minute tempo climb with 15-second surges every minute for the last 15 minutes that will get me into the LT zone for the last 10 minutes. Then after a few minutes recovery it’s 2×9′ (280w avg) tempo intervals followed by 2×4′ (310w avg) LT intervals. Then a cool down spin for 5′ at 130 rpm.

Tomorrow is lighter day with a tempo swim and final heavy weight session in the gym. The weekend calls for the final long run (2:15 on trails) and final strength ride on the bike (3×20′ big gear climb @ 300+w. I should be nice and exhausted come Sunday afternoon. I’m already teedering on the edge of being completely wasted so it should be fun.

Next week……a recovery week…..yes!

CW

Endurance Performance Coaching and Wheat Ridge Cyclery have teamed up to present the EPC/WRC Elite Xterra Team in 2008!

I’ve been working on this whole team idea since last season and it’s finally going to come together for 2008. I’ve brought together some of Colorado’s finest amatuer and professional Xterra racers to compete under the same colors. EPC will provide the coaching, WRC will provide the equipment and the rest is up to the racers themselves.

We’ll be competing in all four Colorado Xterras this year along with other regional and national events around the country. This is going to be some fun stuff to see these guys and gals dominate the Colorado and national scene.

Check out the EPC Blog (www.epcmultisport.blogspot.com) for more details and the team roster. If you’re an Xterra racer yourself, these are the guys/gals you are going to have to beat to get to the podium. Good luck.

Stay tuned here as well as the EPC blog for more reports from the team.

CW

It’s taken 10 years but it has finally happened…..Cody on ski’s!

I never thought I’d see the day, but with the help of several friends, one to give me his old equipment (thank you Doug B.), one to take me on my maiden voyage and show me the ropes (thank you Cary), and one to kick my ass on my second time out (thank you Richard W.), it has indeed occured. I’ve been a Colorado resident for just over 10 years and never have set foot on snow with my feet straped to two skinny, slick sticks. It’s funny because when I travel and people ask me where I’m from, when I say Denver they always assume I ski, not so, I tell them. I even spent a winter working in a store waxing and tuning skis, and all the while I kept asking myself, what is this silly sport these people are doing? Why does everyone go ga ga over skiing in this state?

I have always heard how great a cross-training activity XC skate skiing was and now having finally given it a go, I can clearly see the aerobic (or should I say anaerobic) benefits of the sport. My first session last week at Devils Thumb Ranch I think I spent just as much time on my butt or in snow drifts as I did on the skis. Cary was a great teacher demonstrating the proper technique of skate skiing. Despite the many tumbles, I had a great time and got in over two hours of solid aerobic work.

Today, I ventured out for session number two. Richard Wheeler took me up to Frisco Nordic Center where we met Doug Bittle. I work with both of these guys at Wheat Ridge Cyclery. Richard showed me some more techniques and off we went for a 2 hour tour. I made big progress only falling 4 times. I need to work on my snowplow technique on the steep downhills. Every steep downhill I ended up on the ground. Regardless we got in some killer climbs and lung and leg buring climbs. Once I began to find a good fluid rhythm I could see how enjoyable and yet strenuos this sport is. Good stuff.

Being the time of the year, with race season approaching, I probably won’t make it out too many more times this year, but you can be sure that I’ll have skate skiing on my early seaosn prep training schedule next year!

Richard, my gracious instructor

There’s me getting ready to headout

Here’s my sweet skis that Doug has let me use

My recovery week went well. Pretty uneventful. Mostly light, short duration training sessions to facilitate recovery during the week. Saturday I got out for a 75 minute trail run. Legs were feeling good. Sunday I headed over to Lookout Mountain for an FTP (functional threshold power) test on the cross-bike. Basically it’s an LT field test to determin my LT power and HR on the bike and test my current fitness on the bike.

The results: 21:48 (cross-bike, mind you), 325 avg power, 167 avg HR. This translates to an FTP of 310 watts.

I’ll take it considering it was quite cold and I’m only finishing up my second of three blocks of base training. This week I’m back into full training mode with increasingly higher volume. Also this week I’ll begin to add in some higher intensity tempo and near LT efforts. Good stuff. Fitness is coming along and I’m as motivated as ever!