It just seems as though there's SO MUCH going on, because, well, there is. It's supposed to be a very busy week at work this week, so that's going to add some stress. I've scaled back on weightlifting so I don't put too much stress on my body. I even took a nap today—that doesn't happen very often. I've resorted to striders, bounding and other form drills on top of my runs this week. I don't know for certain that's the best strategy, but I know that 19:19 came after a session of form drills and a hill run. Oh yeah, I'll probably throw a hill run in there too.

I've spent a lot of this past month sore, so I'm looking forward to moving past that and getting this race out of the way. It's odd: Even after all of this running, I feel tight and sore after virtually every run except, also odd, my fast runs. For whatever reason, running three miles fast doesn't hurt my joints, soft tissue or muscles as much as taking it slow.

Yep, recovery has been the name of the game through this whole process, and it hasn't come easy. I'm pretty sure I went overboard last weekend (run on Friday and weights and stationary bike on Saturday), and the results were a lot of fatigue, some moodiness and sensitivity, a little trouble sleeping and a few seconds more on my time on the three-mile run this week. The biggest takeaway from this entire training block is something I thought I learned a month ago: I can't kick myself when I'm down! Yep, I'm still dealing with that one. I just can't seem to hold myself back from doing too much and suffering the consequences. And with the race on the horizon, recovery is commanding my attention more than ever before.

P.S. We got our first real stuck-to-the-pavement snowfall today. I can't wait for that powder to finish falling so I can get the snowshoes out on the trail!

P.P.S. Here's some fascinating reading for ANY endurance athlete. The line that really intrigued me at first: "Good training and bad training look exactly the same on paper."

I just got in from a run. Nineteen minutes and nineteen seconds (19:19.8) for three miles!!! HECK-FLIPPIN-YEAH!!! I'm in the right territory, and I even felt like I was holding back a little!

Notes:

• Dehydration may not hold your performance back, but it will certainly kill your recovery and increase the chance for injury.

• Less is more: I've been taking it pretty easy on the running lately, and I think that's actually been a benefit.

• Strength training: I know I've mentioned this before, but I really think some high-rep strength work has helped lately.

As I came around the block toward my house after my run yesterday, I felt a familiar pain on outside of my left knee. When I was getting ready for my first pool-swim triathlon (the only kind of triathlon I've ever done), I had that same pain, but it was in my right knee then. It's called iliotibial band syndrome, or ITBS, and it can get pretty uncomfortable. I did the entire run of my first little triathlon (a 5k) with my iliotibial band stinging away.

I think the reason I get it is likely because of the curved shoulders of the roads I'm forced to run on. I tend to have one leg stepping lower than the other, which is a recipe for ITBS. Oddly enough, the first time I had it was in my right knee. Now I have it in my left.

So what do I do from here? I don't really know. I'll probably stretch it out, run on grass, do some hip-strengthening exercises, and hope for the best.

To add to that, however, I have just a few more rules for myself:

• Never run dehydrated—it's a recipe for injury. Make sure you're peeing white before you go out.

• Never kick yourself when you're down. It's okay to do two runs back to back if they're both EASY runs, but it's not okay to do a hard-easy. It's compulsive, and it's another ingredient on that recipe for injury.

My legs felt rotten yesterday. I think it's actually because I ran two days in a row on Friday and Saturday (for us non-runners, the eccentric contractions of running can be pretty difficult to recover from). But my rotten-ness didn't keep me from running. In fact, I did a blind time trial approximating my race distance. I left my watch in my mailbox while I hammered out three miles. The result? 20:09.

You might be thinking, "Not bad; just 10 seconds to shave off." But, unfortunately, it's more like 30 or 40 seconds to shave off. See, the race is 3.1 miles. If I'd tacked on a 160-meter sprint at the end, that would've truly approximated the distance.

On the other side of the coin, though, I'm not bummed about the result either. I didn't have any splits along the way (which I will on race day), and I have four more weeks to really tune my fitness. Also, I think I've learned that I need to adhere more closely to these rules I'm setting for myself and prefer recovery to increased volume. So that's what I'm doing today: nothing. I might do a little core work, but I'm going to give my legs a chance to recover before Wednesday's workout. Also, I'm going to put the weights aside for the next four weeks. I have a few more specific strength drills to perform over the next few weeks—with the intention of even slightly increasing my stride length. We'll see how it goes!

Some inspiration for the meantime:

 

It's really sinking in that I don't have a lot of time remaining before the race. If I don't hit 19:30 at this one, I'm sure there will be another 5k somewhere sometime. I'd just like to really get it out of the way.

Unsurprisingly, I went out for a run today. The surprising part is that I also ran yesterday, so it would appear that I'm breaking my own rules. Well, I actually found a loophole. There's an elementary school about 100 feet from my house, and I realized that if I just go run on the grass, I can pull off running two days in a row. That knowledge should come in handy throughout the next few weeks. I'm hoping to put in a sub-20-minute 3-mile run this week. That's still not fast enough, honestly, but it should be a good precursor to a fast 3.1.

I was reading through some blogs the other day when I came across this list of recommendations on Chuckie V's triathlon blog (I figure that's appropriate since I'm a cyclist trying to figure out how to run again), and read this interesting bulleted list he wrote up. I didn't think it all applied to me, but there were a few points that seemed rather pertinent. I figured I'd share the ones I liked with the vast throngs who continue to check my blog on a minute-by-minute basis (I'm not really having hallucinations, don't worry). So here they are:

• "Train for your worst possible day, not the one you hope to have"

• "Train to want to be done"

• "Train to suffer"

• "Train to gut it out"

• "Train to resist fatigue"

I came to some solid conclusions about training for a running race the other day. Now, granted, these are based on my own physiology and psychology, so consider yourself warned against listening to anything I say. But I think remembering these simple rules should help me get to the race uninjured:

• No Running Downhill Seriously, I can't do it. It just doesn't work for my knees. I've heard and read recommendations for downhill in order to improve stride length, etc., but my soft tissue can't take it. That, of course, presents me with the issue of how to come downhill after running uphill. Well, I'm probably not going to do too much uphill running in the next six weeks since my 5k race takes place on a basically flat section of pavement and concrete. So there: issue obviated.

• No Running Two Days in a Row By now, you're ready to diagnose me, huh? Let me save you the time: Yes, I tend toward soft-tissue injuries when running. If I were to give you my athletic history (which I couldn't fit into a nutshell, so I won't), you'd find that soft-tissue injuries have been a part of my life for as long as athletics have been a part of my life. That's why I usually ride a bike!

• Do Brick Workouts for Distance Days Part of successfully training for a 5k is increasing your cardiorespiratory endurance for that third mile. That means long runs—longer than five kilometers. For a cyclist-turned-runner, those long runs have a lot of potential for injury as well. So, to make up for it, I'll do a bike-run (what triathletes call a "brick") workout. I think there's more to this than just the cardio benefits, though. Doing the bike first will fatigue your bike muscles before you start running. So when you run, you have to rely on a greater amount of muscle recruitment. More muscle recruitment is a good thing, particularly for that third mile when you will have overexerted your primary running muscles. My opinion, I guess.

The real question now is, "Can I turn this into speed?" The paradoxical answer is, "If I can get my endurance up." It's going to take some fast running to really pull this off, and that's what I have planned for today: two fast miles. We'll see if I can keep my legs moving fast for the entire time. I'll like to pull in a sub-13-minute time today, but we'll see how it goes.

Yep, now that I've announced my athletic intentions to the entire world (I'm so sure there are so many people reading this, too), went home last night with a sore knee. So instead of running, I went to bed. This morning, I got up and jumped on the bike trainer for 20 minutes. Guess what: That hurt too. But I still did it.

So yeah, I'm injured. Already. One week in. How? Well, I'm pretty sure it resulted from running up and down this hill in my neighborhood on Tuesday, the day after my little running time trial. I can't seem to run two days in a row without getting hurt. I need to remind myself of that fact from time to time (when I start getting delusions of invincibility).

Then, to top it off, Joe Friel posted this little gem on his blog this morning. Let me give you the cliff notes version: If you've been injured or sick (check and check) in the 12 weeks (check) before your big race, forget about achieving peak performance.

I can't lie; I've been feeling a little frustrated about this today. But, you know, I think it all comes down to my race policy: Do what you can with what you have. Whatever fitness I can accumulate by race day will have to do. Whether that qualifies me for the sub-20 is only partially in my control.

I've said it aloud. In front of my boss's boss's marathon-running boss, no less. And a few other co-workers. Of course, only some of the even know what it means because you kinda have to do it to know.

I want to run the Thanksgiving Day 5k in less than 20 minutes. What the heck, let's say 19:30.

Now, you're probably wondering, "Why in the heck would you want to do a thing like that?" And that's a valid question. I read a comment under a column in the NY Times yesterday that stated, quite succinctly, my general take on marathons: "training for a marathon represents the triumph of ego over good judgment." And maybe that has something to do with my desire to run a fast 5k. But I think it's more that I know I can do it. When I was in high school, I used to run a 2.1 mile route in between sports seasons. I got my time for that run down to 12 minutes. In college, I had to do a 1.5-mile run for two separate fitness tests (once at the start of the semester and once at the end). For the second test, I ran it (sick with a cold—snot dripping from my nostrils) in 9 minutes flat. Also, I've run this same Thanksgiving Day 5k every year for the past three years now, and, if I recall correctly, my times have gone 22:35, 20:35 and 21:30. On the slower years, I started fast and then faded hard. On the year of the near miss, I was passing people in the last mile. I can do it—I'm convinced.

The beginning of an annual tradition (wow, I actually look tall in this picture)

Now, training: That's the big question mark in my plans. The year of the near miss, I was having my best cycling/time trial season. I'd taken the time to develop a base. I had more aerobic training in my system than I knew what to do with. Oh, and I also had only one child and a lot more spare time. Mind you, I've also achieved 6 min/mile speed (in high school and college) via anaerobic puke-worthy speed training. I used to know how to really make it hurt. That was before I got on the periodization bus. Now, I don't do a lot of "making it hurt."

But I figure that the proper training will really be a mixture of both. I'll have to do some hurting, I think (which will, I hope, lessen the hurting on race day). I'll also have to build up the aerobic capacity. So I'll be throwing in a few bricks, some 2-mile all-out time trials and some strength training. At least, that's my plan.

For all of you readers out there (whoa now, let's not totally overwhelm the MSN servers), I'm curious: Do you know anyone who's run a 5k that fast? What did he or she do? What kind of fitness background did he or she have beforehand? Really, I'm curious.

All right, someone did a blog search for Steve Larsen's "four-hour per week" training schedule as posted on Slowtwitch. It was that particular program that helped Steve clock a new bike course record at the California 70.3 event. If you happen to be the person searching for that program, let me just say that I thus far hadn't posted it. But I can. Aw heck, why not? Here it is (bike only):

"To ride fast, you have to ride fast. Uncomfortably so if you actually want to improve and get faster. Then position. A lot of strong riders give away free speed, but a good position will get you nowhere if you don't learn how to suffer and ride out of your comfort zone once in awhile."
Steve Larsen - dad, triathlete, mtbiker

Mon 2/11/08 Bike: Trainer, 30’, 10.5 miles, med/hard pace, 24 – 25mph, powercranks.

Tue 2/12/08 Bike: 90’, 30 miles, steady 130 -140 HR, w 15’ tempo 155-170 on hills home. Powercranks.

Wed 2/13/08 Bike: 90’, 32 miles, steady less than 140 HR, up to 155 for last 30’. Powercranks.

• Fri 2/15/08 Bike: 30’, 10.5 miles, trainer steady at 1300 -135 HR, powercranks.

Mon 2/18/08 Bike: 30’, 10.25 miles, 137 avg HR. Powercranks. Bike: 30’, with 8’ max sus. Speed test. 3.63 miles (27.22 mph), avg 167, max 184. Powercranks. Will base training intensity off this test.

Tue 2/19/08 Bike: 90’, 31 miles, 6 x 10’ x 3’ @ 24-24.6 mph, 90 -100 rpm, controlled hard 155-157 HR. Trainer. Powercranks.

Wed 2/20/08 Bike: 80’, 28 miles, 5 x 12’ x 3’ @ 24 – 24.5 mph. 155-158 HR. Trainer, Powercranks.

• Fri 2/22/08 Bike: 30’, 9.5 miles, easy with 7 x 10” sprints to 800 + watts.

• Sat 2/23/08 Bike: 120’, 42.5 miles, with 6 x 15’ x 5’ @ 24 – 24.5 mph. Trainer, Powercranks. Bike: 30’ @ 24 – 24.5 mph. Trainer, Powercranks.

• Sun 2/24/08 Bike: 30’, 10 miles, EZ, trainer, Powercranks.

Tues 2/26/08 Bike: 60’, 15 miles, hills, 6 x 5’ x 2’ uphill @ 336 watts avg. (320 -350 w range), HR to 160.

Wed 2/27/08 Bike: 155’, 59 miles, TT Bike, Powercranks, avg 22.1 mph, 137 HR. Steady.

• Sat 3/01/08 Bike: 165’, 42 miles, 9 x 10’ x 1’ @ 24 – 25 mph. trainer, powercranks. Bike: 60’, Hills, 15 miles, 6 x 4:40 uphill, 336 watts avg.

Tue 3/04/08 Bike: 70’, Hills, 5 x 6:00 uphill at 336 watts avg. Controlled pace, seated. Road Bike.

Wed 3/05/08 Bike: 63’, 25 miles, 3 x 20’ x 1’ @ 24 – 25 mph. Tough after morning hill run. Trainer, Powercranks.

• Fri 3/07/08 Bike: 30’, 10 miles, easy. Trainer, powercranks. Tired. Over did it wed.

• Sat 3/08/08 Bike: 30’ 10 miles, easy. Trainer, powercranks.

Mon 3/10/08 Bike: 150’, 50 miles, 142 HR avg.

• Wed 3/12/08 Bike: 145’, 50 miles, 143 avg. Much better than Monday. TT Bike, Powercranks.

Fri 3/14/08 Bike: 40’, 15 miles, 5 x 3’ x 3’ 370 watts avg. 27.5 mph. Trainer, powercranks.

Sat 3/15/08 Bike: 195’, 70 miles, 142 avg., build last 20’ on hills. TT Bike, powercranks.

Sun 3/16/08 Bike: 135’, 50 miles, avg 137 HR.

Mon 3/17/08 Can’t remember.

• Wed 3/19/08 Bike: 90’, 35 miles, 6 x 10’ x 5’ @ 24 -25 mph (330 watts), 155 HR on efforts. Trainer, powercranks.

Fri 3/21/08 Bike: 90’, 33 miles, < 145 HR. trainer, powercranks.

Sat 3/22/08 Bike: 315’, 105 miles, avg 140 HR, with about 40 -60’ @ 155-170 HR. TT Bike, felt good.

Sun 3/23/08 Bike: 140’, 52 miles, < 145 HR

• Tue 3/25/08 Bike: 30’, 10 miles, 5 x 1’ x 4’ (370w/200w).

• Wed 3/26/08 Bike: 30’, 10 miles, 6 x 4’ x 1’ (330w/200w)

Fri 3/28/08 Bike: 60’, 20 miles, easy.

Sat 3/29/08 CA 70.3 14th place, fastest bike split. No watch or HR Meter, by feel. Held back on bike and swim, could have gone 3’ faster on bike fairly easily, not sure what it would have done to my run. Felt good for about 8 miles of run, then faded (bonk) pretty badly.

So there it is. I'm actually struggling with a whole ton of congestion from a head cold at the moment, so don't count on anything interesting from me today. Just wish me luck on feeling better, would ya?

Earlier this year, you'll recall, I'd had some pretty good training sessions. I was feeling confident in my form and seeing numbers that rivaled 2007, which was my best cycling year to date. Then, as you may have also read, June came, and rain came with June. And so did a running race I'd agreed to. So I bagged bike riding for running for the month of June. And then I got injured and bagged training of all types for a couple of weeks. And then I randomly won a beginner mountain bike race.

That brings us to today, where, as I'd suspected, I now know my training isn't anywhere near where it ought to be for this point in the season. Whatever base I built up in May is gone now, almost completely.

I went on a ride yesterday with a guy from work who I used to be able to cream on the climbs. It was him, his brother, his brother's best friend and me. I warned him I wasn't in the best shape, but I agreed to ride anyway. He responded that we'd be riding on a set of flat roads, which worried me even more because I've never been strong on flat roads (other than in 2007, the year I focused on time trialling and had my best season of cycling). But, even with my caveats (ahem, excuses) what actually happened was embarrassing.

From the moment we pulled away from my co-worker's brother's house, I found myself gasping for air. And, sure enough, I was the first person to get dropped after taking too hard/long of a pull. In fact, taking a pull at all would prove a bad idea. It's like I was hiking Everest or something. Eventually, they eased off the pace when one of them (who did Seattle to Portland last week) suddenly started having weird pains and numbness in his arm and neck.

When we got to the end of the ride all three of them felt the need to tell me how "good" I'd done. Well, I was a brand-new cyclist FIVE YEARS ago, so I didn't have too hard a time looking through the patronizing speech. I'd spent the whole ride—all of 50 flat or rolling miles—hanging on to someone's wheel by the skin of my teeth. In what scenario would anyone call that "good"? I think a compound modifier would be more accurate: aerobically inefficient.

So you might be wondering (or you might not—I dunno) where I'm going from here. Well, I don't have time to ride 50 miles a day, so that's not what I'm planning. I'm just going to squeeze in an hour here and there doing what I do: climbing. With any luck, I'll show up ready to go at a hillclimb in late August. But yes, I know, that's going to require an insane amount of luck. Will I ride with those guys again? I don't know. I'm thinking it's a little too late to play catch-up, and I'm actually debating doing a mountain bike hillclimb instead of a road hillclimb in August, so that might require that I do a fair amount of off-road riding anyway. Still, I wouldn't mind getting my self respect back sometime.

Tomorrow is the big footrace. I'm not a runner, and I know that. But that's all the more reason for me to get trained up for tomorrow's race. So I ran hills, lots of hills in preparation. I did my first trail run (remind me to do a little report on that sometime—trail running rocks!), I did many many 6 a.m. runs, and then, last week, I did a run that was just a bit too much. How far did I run? I don't know—it lasted perhaps an hour and 15 minutes. And I came back demolished.

When I got back from that run, during which I was a bit dehydrated, everything hurt. Everything. So I figured I'd take some days off running and let my body get back to normal. But when the soreness wore off, my calf was still aching a little. Nonetheless, I went for another run on Saturday.

I made it all of 30 feet.

I felt this stabbing pain in my calf and realized I needed to take a little more time off running. So, all week, I've been icing and resting. No running and no cycling either. I did a short, possibly a mile run yesterday, and I didn't feel the injury. But I did feel a bit slow. Needless to say, I'm a little worried about how flat I'm going to feel tomorrow morning.

My course is 5 miles, 1,200 feet of elevation gained with very little flat along the way. I like to run uphill—much more than running on flat roads anyway. But I'm worried about tomorrow. I've even thought about backing out.

Right now, the plan is to run. How that'll affect the rest of my summer sport season, I'll find out later.

Just two hours ago, I was riding out of the saddle up the steepest climb in this area. I was so weak, I used my granny gear—yes, even out of the saddle. I only rode 40 miles today, and the climbs (the ones I could substantiate, anyway) only rose about 2,200 feet. But ouch, did it hurt by the end.

I think part of the reason it ended up being so tough was because of the way it was divided up. It started out, after the first two miles, as a long, slow climb with a gradual gradient rising between 1,500 and 1,700 feet from the valley floor in 9 or 10 miles (this is the climb that is now out my back door). Next came rolling hills into a headwind (natch) near the Wolverine Canyon windmill farm. Then, there was a five-mile crosswind descent dropping 1,500 feet. Then a rolling hill time trial for maybe three miles, followed by two more miles to my house (some in a headwind), where my wife informed me that I could ride a little longer. So what came next was a flat, windy aerobic time trial out in the valley floor for about seven miles out and five miles back in. Then I took a side road to my favorite local climb, which basically amounts to about 600 feet of climbing (on the paved section anyway) in a little more than a mile. That's where I did my out-of-the-saddle work. Then, of course, I followed it up by riding home as fast as I darnwell could.

Maybe it was all that starting and stopping, but I somehow found myself totally bonked (hunger knocked for those of you from the UK) before I even got to that last little climb. I also realized that I do indeed miss flat time trials. My aero bars are on the floor in our basement, but, today anyway, I wished they were on my top bar.

Now, I'm completely exhausted. I have more fatigue in my legs than I remember having for a long time. It feels like I've done an extensive weightlifting routine for my legs, and I didn't even cover the distance I'll have to ride for LOTOJA. Not good. Still, I'm too tired to reproach myself about it now. I'm going to bed.

I watched the Boston Marathon yesterday. I'd never done that before, and, truth be known, I have no interest in ever racing there myself. Marathons don't appeal to me. Nonetheless, the race was fascinating—and heart-rending. I'd watched Kara Goucher race before, so I knew who she was. I'd seen videos of her talking about her disappointment after the Olympics, etc., and I'd caught myself wondering if she really has what it takes. By her comments, I'd imagine she's asked that question too. Still, yesterday, I was a die-hard Goucher fan, and when she crossed the finish line, met her husband and immediately started bawling, I felt a little destroyed with her—as much as you can as an almost indifferent spectator, I suppose.

For 20 miles, or the better part of 90 minutes, she'd held strong with the main group while Colleen de Reuck and others went to the front and hammered. The problem was that at 20 miles there was still a large group of women at the front. Someone needed to string the race out or there would be a bunch sprint at the finish line. Unfortunately, Kara decided she would be that someone. She went to the front and really hacked it out for the next five miles.

Now, I'm no expert, as we've already established. In particular, I'm no expert on running, but I think the rules for attacking are the same in distance running as they are in road cycling. You attack hard and then look behind you to see who, if anyone, is still there. When the men's winner attacked, no one was there. He was out on a flyer alone and basically forced everyone to run solo, which, of course, is pretty tough to do. When Kara went to the front, the lead group began shedding runners left and right. One by one, they dropped off, but two very important runners stayed with her. And when that happens, the rules dictate, you have to share the workload.

Nonetheless, Kara stayed at the front for the next five miles, pushing the pace and splintering the group. For a moment, it even looked as though she'd shed the eventual winner.

But a little after mile 24, the other two girls kicked it up another notch and Kara started to struggle to stay in contact. She lost some ground around a corner and then started running solo. For a little bit, it looked like she'd regain contact with the leaders, but in the finishing kick that became an impossibility. At the post-race press conference, it became clear that Kara Goucher is her own worst critic. She sounded pretty disappointed at her finish.

But, of course, I don't think she should feel so down about it. Why not? She ran those two girls, a Kenyan and an Ethiopian (who'd won the race the year before) into the ground. The girl who won wasn't the one dolling out the punishment—that was Kara Goucher. In fact, she pushed them so hard that the girl who came in second, Dire Tune, collapsed at the finish and got hauled off on a stretcher. Even more important than that, however, she gave the race its most exciting finish for years. I'm not certain, but I'm willing to bet more people paid attention to Boston this year because of Kara Goucher than any year previously. In fact, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an American who knows the name of the winner, but there are probably plenty of Americans who recognize Kara. Furthermore, if she decides to keep marathon training, I think Goucher has a shot at taking that race (and maybe the NY marathon) out in the next couple of years. She's young, and this is far from the end of the road.

Anyway, Flotrack posted Kara's last long workout on their website today, and it's a pretty cool vid. I figured I'd embed it, but it's not jiving with Spaces. So here's the LINK.

I'm going to pretend to be authoritative here for a moment. Now, I know that you know that I know nothing. That's okay with me. Just humor me for a minute.

We had a bunch of family in town the other day, including a sister-in-law who recently trained for and ran a half marathon. She made a comment (to my wife, not to me) that before she embarked on her training she measured herself, top to bottom, so she could compare how fit she was to how fit she'd be after doing the half marathon. She measured her waist, her arms, her thighs, her calves, etc. etc. Then she trained for three months or more with a schedule that went a bit like this: Monday-Wednesday-Friday: Run, with the distance gradually increasing over the months; Tuesday-Thursday: toning-style weightlifting (she expressly stated she doesn't want to "bulk up"). Now, whether she threw in some fartlek (interval) sessions or not, I have no idea. Regardless, when she got to the end of her training block, she measured again, and was surprised to find that only one measurement really changed: her calves got bigger. Everything else was about the same.

Her conclusion: my body will pretty much stay the same shape for the rest of my days.

Oh, did I mention she ran the 13.1 miles in under two hours? It sounded like she was a little discouraged, but then again, I got all this information third-hand. As to her experiment: I think she might be right about the fact that our bodies won't ever completely change shape. You're born with certain physical attributes, and that's just the way it is. But, you know, I grew up weightlifting, so I know you can make changes to your shape—at least in terms of muscle size—but I also learned that patience plays a part. Cardiorespiratory endurance-style exercise, for example, takes years to adapt to, not months, and it tends to leave your body vulnerable to gaining fat back, I think.

But on top of that, I wondered if maybe there was something more she could do to optimize her training schedule. So, with my not-very-authoritative opinion, I'm going to tell you what I plan to do in my preparations for the LOTOJA relay team:

The race takes place in September, so that gives me four or five months to get ready. In those four or five months, I plan to do about 90 minutes of riding three times a week. I may attempt to squeeze in some longer rides on Saturdays, but mostly the 90-minute session should be my routine. I'll start off with 90-minute AeT sessions and then progress to 90-minute interval sessions with the 20-minute interval followed by the 6-minute interval and then maybe a few 2-minute intervals (yes, time trial training).

Why 90 minutes? I figure that's the best amount of time for any weekend warrior to train for an aerobic endurance race. Think about it: Most sprint triathlons last about 90 minutes, most sport-class (cat 2, whatever) mountain bike races last about 90 minutes, and cyclocross, time trials and other events are even shorter. You want to win the Tour de France? Well, you're clearly not a weekend warrior, then, are you?

The other reason for the 90 minutes is that it lessens the impact on your family. If you're gone for three hours most nights of the week, you can bank on your wife "accidentally" backing her car over your bike while you're at work. Ninety minutes is long enough to build some aerobic endurance, but not so long that it will ruin your home life.

By the way, when you get home, you're free to try to squeeze in some time-saving strength routine. If you're doing more than two minutes per set with your weights, you're not doing it right. In between sets, load the dishwasher or do something to abate your wife's understandable frustration with you spending all of your time doing "bike" stuff. If possible, do your strength stuff in the living room—yes, it raises the potential for injuring your children, but it also makes your wife feel that you're "around" a little more. Transition from weights to plyometrics during your base cycle and then try to keep those up during your interval-speed cycle.

Really, I think weekend warrior-style training is more about mitigating stress while squeezing in your workouts. I'd love to ride daily, but I think there's too much possibility for burnout if I try it right now (maybe as things get closer to race day). I also know that I need to keep the stress of work at bay during training and racing. If I get too worked up over my job, or if I get my ego in a knot, I'll be prone to frying myself physically and emotionally (really, they aren't that separate). I also know it's more important for me to work on keeping a regular, good sleep cycle through the night during training. It's not such a big deal if I'm not well rested the day of the race, but if I'm consistently not well rested through training, that could lead to overtraining or burnout. Yuck.

I'm turning 30 tomorrow, and that's a little scary. It means I'm graduating into the fast age groups at races, so I either have to get really fast or forget about good race results. With my family taking highest priority, putting in a bunch more training time simply isn't an option. Nonetheless, I know the wrong physical adaptations will come from sitting on my rear end or overdoing it. Somewhere in the middle, there's a perfect recipe, and, at the moment, I'm hoping it'll fit into my regular 90-minute sessions.

I realized a week or two ago that it's actually my hip that's hurting and not my back. I don't know exactly what's wrong, but I think it's related to my sacroiliac joint. Fortunately, it's now reduced to a small, dull ache that only appears after I've been sitting for long periods of time.

The bummer side is that my hip injury isn't the only thing holding me back. My wife and I picked up some kind of miserable flu-ish bug that pretty much knocked both of us out for this past weekend. Yuck.

Nonetheless, when the weather got nice yesterday, even though I was home from work "sick," I had to get out on the bike. I went out for a ride to work out the kinks in my road position, and then I joined a friend for a "slow ride" later in the afternoon. "Slow ride" is in quotation marks not because he forced me to ride fast, but because it became a slow, suffering ride for both of us.

We paced it far too easy on the way out and then turned into a strong (16 or 17 mph) headwind for the way back. My riding buddy, who's always been a bit slower than me, took the front for a bit and almost looked like he'd drop me. I started thinking, "Man, what did he must've been eating his Wheaties over the off-season." But, alas, it was short-lived. Before long, he was gut-checking off the back.

I told him to stick with me, but I still unintentionally dropped him a couple of times. I struggled just to keep my pace in the upper 17 mph range, but when he dropped off the back, I'd have to slow down to 13 or 14 mph to let him catch back up. Neither of us would've been fighting the wind so much, but I had somewhere to be in the next ten minutes, so I needed to get home. The riding buddy told me it was okay if I ditched him, so on the last mile, I figured I'd open the throttle a little and see what was in the tank.

It was pathetic.

I notched up the gears and ramped up my power, and still I had a really tough time staying above 20 mph (for one stinkin' mile!). I saw 22.5 mph at one point, but that didn't last long. I got squashed by that headwind. Never mind that my HR monitor was flashing 175 bpm at me while I was doing it. (That's a smidge higher than my threshold HR, so I probably got in one or two decent threshold intervals yesterday.)

My lack of early-season form is nothing to be perturbed about, I suppose, but I did something else yesterday that gave me some inner emphasis on improving that bike speed soon: I, and four other guys, registered a relay team for LOTOJA—yes, the 206-mile, one-day, three-state yuppie race. So, now that I have people counting on me, I suppose I actually have to get in shape.

This time of year is always interesting for me. I'm riding mostly on the trainer (although that may change in a few weeks), doing a little bit of weightlifting and cross-training (swimming) on the side, and doing my darndest to avoid getting sick again or getting injured. But the truth is that this time of year is always characterized for me by a sense of blackout—I have no idea if what I'm doing is making me faster or slower.

The speedometer on my bike is on the front wheel, and even if it was on the back wheel, who knows what speed I SHOULD be going on the trainer since the resistance on there is really pretty relative. I do have a heart-rate monitor, and so far it doesn't look like my aerobic system is very well developed. But that's probably because I keep spending all this time lifting weights and messing up my aerobic workouts.

This year, though, I have a feeling my blackout is going to seem longer than usual. I removed the aero bars from my bike, which should result in at least a slight loss of speed. I also don't have an early season race really on my schedule (as much as I'd like to think otherwise). Truth is, my bike season might not really start until July, since I have a running race to do in June (which I'm not particularly serious about at this point).

So my fitness—whether good or bad—will be a complete surprise to me when I finally toe the start line. And, you know what, I'm okay with that.

Okay, I'm having a tough time coaxing myself out of bed for early morning trainer sessions. Just so you don't have to ask why I'm doing early morning sessions, I'll tell you up front: I can't think of any other time when I could do it. Instead of giving you the whole schedule rundown, let me just say that I'm a smidge busy after work. And even when I'm not, my wife needs, and I mean needs, some time away from the kids when I get home.

So I'm trying to find a way to make this work. It's just a little tough to get up at 6 a.m. when your kids didn't hit the sack until 11 p.m. and then woke you up at 3 and 5 a.m. I know; excuses, excuses.

In other news, I went to swim practice again last night. Why? I'm not sure. I don't think I'm going to be doing any triathlons this year, so I'm not sure where swimming fits into the equation. I do know, however, that it relaxes me a little when I'm nervous before class. But the workout, as it turns out, is questionable at best. Allow me to explain (it's my blog, after all):

See, when I go, I swim in the slow lane. I think there are two other people in the lane who are as fast as I am, but there are five more people who are slower than all three of us. The result is that instead of spending the bulk of that time swimming, I spend the bulk of that time hanging on the wall waiting for other people to go. I thought this was standard swim practice procedure until I got home and told my wife about it last night. When I told my wife, who's a swim team vet, about there being eight people in one lane, she immediately spouted out, "What?! That's a complete waste of your time. You can't pack eight people into a lane." That, of course, explains why I seem to get a better workout when I'm on my own than when I'm with the team.

So, as much fun as swimming is, I'm hoping I can squeeze in some more riding. I watched a retro Tour de France DVD a couple of days ago, and it reminded me of all the things I love about cycling: the exertion, the climbs, the sprints, the dissonance of it all. I came away from it with a desire to strip the aero bars off my road bike and return the handlebar to its normal position. Perhaps I will.

As much as I enjoyed my little sabbatical from the saddle, I'm really glad to be riding again—even if it's predominately indoors on the trainer. My legs are making the shift pretty quickly this time around—it already feels fun to be on the bike. I'm hoping that'll make it easier to get in some early morning rides before work. I'm hoping to put in a solid 8-week training macrophase to lay the foundation for the rest of the year. That means I'll keep swimming—probably twice a week—through the next two months and, with any luck, squeeze in some substantial time on the trainer.

I know most people look at time on the trainer as a necessary evil, but for me, the necessary evil was the "month off" I just took. Trainer time is more of a privilege now, as wacky as that sounds. It's a chance to get fit, to hone a better pedal stroke, to build some cardiorespiratory endurance, etc. I'll probably include a couple of weight sessions in there too, but my weight sessions are really more like anaerobic fitness sessions because I do so many reps with so little weight. That said, they probably shouldn't be the centerpiece of my activity through the foundation period. I'm debating joining my office gym again so I can add some creatine-phosphate weightlifting to the mix. I just can't do that with my current weights in the basement. I may not do it, but it's something I'm thinking about.

I don't think there's anyone else really reading out there anymore, but if there is someone, leave a comment and let me know how your spring training is going? Are you fit? What are your goals this season, and what are you going to do to prepare for them?

Best of luck.

So I haven't written in a while. The obvious reason is that I haven't ridden much lately either. While I still find some time to hop on my bike and remember how it feels, I haven't turned the pedals over more than a hundred times in the past month—a.k.a. not much at all.

Instead of riding, I've been swimming (which I heard Chris Carmichael did when he had a broken leg), doing high-rep squats, pulling the occasional back extension, thinking/reading/talking about riding, watching the occasional sports vid, and doing my utmost to enjoy my time off the bike. And yes, I realize some of those sound contradictory.

Swimming, incidentally, has been kinda fun. Now, bear in mind that I'm far from GOOD at swimming. I just sorta ... do it. To my comfort, I went to the local aquatic center a few weeks ago and swam in a lane next to a pair of triathletes (one of them had a Rexburg Rush swimcap), and I, shockingly, outswam the two of them. Heck, at one triathlon in '07, I even passed someone in the pool. But those are my only two success stories. The rest are all suck-cess stories.

I must be a glutton for punishment, because I've been putting some effort into adding to my suck-cess stories recently. I started attending the last half hour of a university intramural competitive swim team practice before my weekly English class (the one I'm teaching as an adjunct). I always go to the slow lane, and it's become pretty obvious that I belong there. It's surprising to me how little time these swimmers spend actually swimming. Most of their time, they're doing drills that are supposed to improve efficiency. I can't say whether the drills work, but they're sure a pain in the butt. Of course, when I show up, I just want to work on my cardiorespiratory endurance—i.e. through actually swimming. So, needless to say, it's been pretty pointless for me.

Anyhow, this past practice, at the end of a very short session in which no one did any actual swimming, I was informed we were going to compete against each other in—get this—a dog paddle relay. I asked a few people around me for reminders of how the dog paddle works, to which I saw some pretty funny demonstrations. Naturally, I volunteered to go first in my relay team, reasoning that if I put us really far behind, someone could make up for it later.

Well, I was the only one on the team who didn't use the dive block, and I surfaced faster than everyone else, and I was really far behind before we even got to the opposite wall. Then I was REALLY far behind when I got back to the start. Oh, and I was exhausted.

Then I got out of the water, and my teammate informed me that the other teams had cheated by not actually doing the dog paddle, which made perfect sense because the dog paddle is an entirely useless stroke. (That also explained a few things to me about triathletes, who also have a propensity for cheating. Don't believe me? read this. Very strange.) I'm starting to wonder why anyone, anywhere would ever do the dog paddle, but, of course, the answer is that they don't know how to do the other strokes. Oh yeah, that was me just a few years ago.

So, yes, I'm officially responsible for losing my first competitive swim relay—small price to pay for a little suck-cess.

I was just deleting emails off my work email, and I came across this little article I wrote for our company fitness website. It's directed to beginners, so don't expect it to help you go pro or anything. Nonetheless, I thought it might make for interesting info for this blog:

Cycling Tips

1. Fit: You need to make your bike fit your body--not the other way around. You can usually go to a bike shop for a quick bike fit. They'll check your seat height, your seat fore\aft position, and your handlebar height. If your bike doesn't fit you properly, you'll end up with knee, hip and/or lower back pain--so it's important to get your bike fit before you start putting in the miles.

2. Fitness: If you're just cycling for fitness (weight loss, cardiovascular health, etc.), then cycling is pretty straightforward. For the most part, you just need to use your bicycle often. Ride your bike instead of driving your car to the store or to a neighbor's house. Try to ride more than 20 minutes non-stop at least three or four times per week. Avoid high traffic roads and always wear a helmet.

3. Cardiovascular Health: If you're a competitive cyclist hoping to improve your performance, the number one thing you can do is to improve your cardiorespiratory endurance. You do this by keeping your heart rate within your aerobic fitness zone (65-85% of your maximum heart rate) most of the time. Your body will become more efficient at pumping blood, you'll have more red blood cells, you'll burn more fat, and even your cells will become more efficient at processing energy (because you'll have more mitochondria). If you prefer, you can purchase a heart rate monitor to allow you to better watch your heart rate while you ride.

4. Performance: If you feel your cardiorespiratory system is developed enough, you can start throwing in some "intervals" (in running they call these fartlek sessions). These are short bouts of higher intensity riding. Just pedal faster for a period lasting between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, then repeat the interval after a short rest. You can vary your intervals by doing some intervals on hills or by using harder gears. Intervals can build leg strength, improve your anaerobic speed, increase your top speed, and even slightly improve your cardiorespiratory health.

I believe I wrote that up in about 10 minutes, so don't be shocked if you find an editing error in there.