After an easy recovery day yesterday it was off to the race course for a little recon and race warm-up. The goal here is to ride the bike course to get a feel for the course conditions as well as put in a few hard efforts to “wake-up” the legs after the previous day’s rest. I find I always race better on slightly tired legs. Fresh legs are too stiff and lack any snap. I need a good ride the day before to get the blood pumping and activate the muscle fibers for the next day’s hard effort.

The course here in AZ is hot, dry, sandy and fast. The whole bike course is on jeep roads. The terrain mixes from rocky stretches, to sandy washes, to super steep and loose climbs. The course basically climbs out of the lake for the first half. Mostly a false-flat big-ring climb bookended with two short steep climbs at the very beginning and very end. Then it rolls along some deep sandy washes before finishing on a fast rocky downhill and the last stretch of rolling pavement leading into T2. I’m expecting a bike split of just a few minutes over an hour.

Views from the top of the first climb towards the final climb in the distance

Views of the lake behind


Eric reaching the top of the final climb

Cary reaching the summit of the final climb

Ed and Cary from the WRC Xterra Team joined me for the ride along with Eric Ronning make the journey down from Lake Tahoe. After the ride we took a dip in the river to freshen up form the hot desert air. After quick and cold dip we grabbed a bite to eat. Pizzas were the pre-race food of choice. Pretty good stuff.

Mmmmm……pizza

It’s off to bed early tonight for an early rise to my first Xterra of my 2008 season. I’m feeling pretty good and anxious to race. We’ll see how my training has paid off and get an idea of what’s to come this year. Wish me luck!

CW

Last week finished up my Race Prep Phase of training. I recovered quickly from the mtn bike races the week before. After a low-key Monday with just an endurance swim session and some light weight training I was ready for my final run session on the track on Tuesday. I seem to have made some noticeable gains this year on my running speed. Many coaches and athletes claim there is little benefit to Xterra racing gained from speed sessions on the track, and claim that it is all about strength on the hills. I disagree. If you can increase your speed (and more importantly your efficiency) on flat ground, it improves all aspects of your running including speed in the hills. Speed work is an important component of Xterra run training, that is once you have the appropriate strength and base developed from several seasons of run training.

Hold on, let me climb down off my soapbox…….there we go……

Wednesday I got in an endurance mtn bike ride before what I hope is the last snow storm of the season for us here in Denver. The 3 hour ride included some good climbs and fast singletrack to further hone my off-road riding skills. After the ride I jumped into my run shoes and got in a 45 minute transition trail run in. I must admit I was little pooped from the ride so I just ran at my endurance pace rather than the faster pace I was originally planning for.

Thursday was another recovery day before hitting my last Vo2 session on the road bike on Friday. Six 3-minute climbs in my Vo2 power zone (370-400 watts) with downhill recoveries. I really love these sessions! They are hard but I always feel so good after getting them in.

Saturday was a solid run hill interval session with Julie and Cary (two of the fast women on our Xterra Elite team). These girls really pushed me (after all I couldn’t let myself be passed by girls, right?) and we all got in a great session. You should have seen all of the other guys out on the trail jaw’s drop when these two ladies ripped up the hills over and over. I can’t remember how many times people would ask “how many times are going up this hill?” or “what are you guys training for?”. Impressive to say the least. An hour and twenty minutes of Vo2 hill intervals and power hill sprints to really get our HR through the roof. Thanks ladies for a great session there.

By Sunday I wasn’t feeling too spry so I called off the bike intervals, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to reach the intended power I was looking for. Instead I just climbed in the hills for 4 hours of endurance riding before transitioning to another 45 minute transition run.

Twenty hours in all last week. I’m satisfied with my progress and now after a few days recovery I will get a chance to test my fitness at the Arizona Xtreme Xterra this weekend. This early season race serves as a great practice run before my A races and let’s me see where my strengths and weaknesses lie after my winter of base training. I’m geting anxious to see what I’m made of this year!

CW

This week was a planned Bike Focus week for me. I have been working all winter on my swim and run training, attempting to improve my weaknesses, while getting by with a minimal 3-4 days per week of riding. Now to be fair, this “minimal” riding has been very structured and focused, but minimal none-the-less. This strategy of training your weaknesses in the off-season is a popular one for many triathletes and coaches. The only thing you need to look out for however is losing strength in your strength.

As the race season approaches the time comes to switch gears a bit and begin to focus on training your strengths. Why not continue focusing on an athletes weaknesses? Because when when you race you need to race to your strengths and make the most out of them so you can finish faster. Train your weaknesses during the off-season, train your strengths during the race-season.

So this last Race Prep Phase of training for me has begun to put more emphasis on the bike. Last week I got in some extra time on the bike while maintaining some pretty intense run sessions that left my legs pretty wiped out. This week it was decided that I take it easy on the running and get in some intense bike training. This worked well (and not by accident) that I had two mountain bike races on the schedule this week. How convienent, right? Well yes, thank you.

I got in my usual swimming workouts in this week which I was happy to be able to meet all my improved time goals for my various sets. I also got in some endurance pace running and a nice long endurance mtn bike/tempo run combo session. Then after an easy swim/recovery day Thursday and a short hard road ride/swim Friday I was off to the races to test out my legs and my new equipment.

The race consisted of a 6-mile TT on Saturday and a 20-mile XC on Sunday in the rocky deserts of Fruita, Colorado. The TT was rough. First truly hard, all-out effort of the year. I reached two beats below my max HR of 185 on the finishing stretch. I hadn’t seen those kinds of numbers on the bike for a long time! I finished top-ten Semi-Pro, about 30-seconds down on the winner, despite breaking the BOA closure system on my left shoe on mile two (last year’s shoe, still waiting for my new shoes to arrive). Imagine riding with a clipless flip-flop. That is what I had to work with for most of the 17-minute effort. The hard effort left me coughing and wheezing for some time after the race. I think I knocked loose some residual phlegm from way down in my lungs. Fun stuff! Anyway, after the race I headed out to ride the XC course to get a preview of the race the next day as well as get in another 90 minutes on the bike since I was really out there for training.

Sunday I woke up feeling suprisingly good after the tough day before. The race started fast on a long gradual up-hill sandy dirt road. I started at the back and quickly made my way to the front of the 40+ rider semi-pro field. Once I got to the front I kept on pushing and blew the field apart. I then eased back and let a few of the stronger riders pass before the singletrack. This was my plan to save energy, and I hate leading in the single-track. The 6-rider strong lead group I was in spread out slightly over the long technical single-track section. Then on the next up-hill dirt road section I closed the gap to the leaders, caught my breath briefly, and then attacked on the next hill. When I reached the top and looked back, there was no one in sight! Ok, I thought, now it’s time to put it all out there and see where my fitness is at. Long story short, I drilled it all the way home on the remaining roads and single-track and won the race with no one in sight. Yeah baby!

I was pleased to say the least. First race of the season, first win. I’m confident of this being a sign of good things to come this year. I just can’t wait to see what I can do once I put a little more effort into my bike training. Bring it on!

CW

Waving to my adoring fans atop the podium

After taking Thursday as an impromptu recovery day, I had a great bike interval session on Friday. Six 3-minute Vo2 max intervals followed by six descending maximal intervals of 60-50-40-30-20-10 seconds each respectively. Tough session for sure. The above-race-pace intervals are intended to get my body accustom to race-day efforts and make me more efficient at race-pace. I was able to do the six 3-minutes intervals with average power between 371 and 385 watts. That is a big jump in power over last year when I was doing similar efforts at 320-340 watts. So much so, I’m a bit skeptical of the accuracy of the measurements to be honest. Perhaps some maintenance is required on my power-meter?

Week one of my second Race Prep Phase and I’m already feeling it. Tuesday included a hard track session that had me running under 5 minute mile pace for several intervals. This is the fastest I’ve ever run in my life. I made it through the workout and met my time goals on nearly every interval. After the run I felt expectantly tired and worn out. Then Wednesday morning upon waking up I really felt the stress of the workout from the previous day.

I was slow to get out of bed and head out the door for my endurance mountain bike ride/transition run session. Once on the bike I could really feel the stiff, sore and heavy legs. I felt like I was riding with the brakes on the entire time. As the ride rolled on, my legs gradually loosened up over the 3+ hours of riding. Then on to my transition run, my legs were again feeling tight, but I fell into a nice rhythm after the first few minutes. The plan was to run the first 20 minutes just below race pace and the final 20 minutes at a comfortable endurance pace. I surprised myself by running comfortably at 6 minute mile pace and felt very strong.

Today I woke up once again struggling to get out of bed. The plan was to swim and follow it up with an interval session on the road bike. I knew heading to the pool that I was going to have a hard time completing the interval session on the bike. Ultimately, I decided to get my swim in and then call it a day. There was no way I could get in the high intensity session that was planned. Rather than attempting to get it in and fall short on the effort, not achieving the intended stress, I would use today as a recovery day and get the interval session in tomorrow when I will have a better chance of reaching my goals.

The take home message here…..

You must listen to your body when in the Race Prep Phase. If you need more recovery then take it. If I tried my intended interval workout today I would not have been able to get the quality I was looking for and not made the intended gains. I would not have been able to go hard enough to get the training stress I was looking for and I would been going too hard to help my recovery. It would have been a waste of time and energy.

By taking my rest day one day earlier than planned, I hope to be fresher tomorrow and be able to get my intended workout in and goals met. If you can remain flexible with your training plans you will reduce your mental stress levels and better your chances of getting your goals accomplished.

I’m off to bed, I’ve got bike intervals tomorrow!

CW

I’m heading into my second Race Prep Phase (Friel Build) this week. This means I’m 7 weeks out from my first A-priority race of 2008 in Temecula, CA. Seven weeks sounds far enough away, nearly two more months, but in reality it equates to only three weeks of training, one recovery week, and three final weeks to peak for my event. Put it that way and it’s clear that I’ll need to make the most out of the next three weeks.

There are several big changes/additions to my training planned for this important phase. Here are some key points of training in the next three weeks:

• Intenstiy continues to go up, while volume continues to come down. Intensity translates to once weekly per sport speedwork (short intervals on the running track, Vo2 intervals on the road bike, and continued work on my swim).
• Increased duration of race day intensities. This equates to LT work in all three sports. Hill work on the bike and run.
• Addition of 1-2x per week mountain bike rides. Mostly endurance/skill based riding with some harder efforts thrown in.
• Inclusion of low-priority races to the schedule. I am big believer in racing is the best training. The effort put forth in races is always going to be higher than what you can do in training. Adding in some racing can help you reach a higher level of fitness. Just be careful not to over do it, as racing requires more recovery and too much racing can lead to too little training.

That’s the general idea. I’ll fill you in on some of my specific training sessions in the next day or two.