Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Ride

Just knocking the dust off my new Gary Fisher Superfly in the backyard. With about 3 hours of ride time, I can't find anything negative to say about the bike. The XL frame fits like a glove. The 29" wheels roll through rough terrain much more smoothly than any of my past 26" wheeled bikes ever did. At just over 24lbs, it's also 3 pounds lighter than my last dual suspension 26" wheeled bike. The engine is the only thing left to improve...

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Sweat Rate

Sweat Rate As a mid distance swimmer in college, my average races lasted less than two minutes. With races this short, things like sweat rate and nutrition were not nearly as important as they are in endurance sports. I quickly found that out last season competing in triathlons. In the pinnacle race of my season, the Xterra World Championship, I was crippled by a series of cramps during the run. In an effort to make sure this doesn’t become an issue again, I am doing some hydration and nutrition experimenting in training. One of the easiest tests that you can do as a start to diagnosing cramping issues in endurance events (anything over an hour), is a sweat rate test. This basically involves weighing yourself before and after a one hour race effort without hydrating. I completed one for the first time today on a treadmill at the JCC and here are my results: Before weight: 179.5 lbs After weight: 173.5 lbs Avg HR: 162 bpm Treadmill Speed: 9.5mph (no fan) Temp: approx 70 degrees With a pound of sweat being equivalent to 15.4 ounces, this works out to 92.4 ounces of fluid loss! As I suspected, this is extremely high. According to articles from Runner’s World and active.com, the average person loses between 27.4 and 47.3 ounces/hr. The highest on record was 125 ounces/hr by former Olympic distance runner Alberto Salazar. Most doctors recommend not losing more than 2% of your body weight over the course of an endurance event. In my particular case, I would need to consume approximately 15 ounces/15 min while running. Since sweat rate changes with different sports, temperatures, humidities, and altitudes, this is only the first of a series that I plan to complete this year. However, I think this is great baseline information for making sure I maximize my potential in the future.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Website

Unfortunately, some critical files were lost and my website will have to be rebuilt. Stay tuned for updates in the comming weeks.

The Swim

If you look at most elite triathletes, they usually have a strong background in one of the 3 sports. With a finite amount of time to train, this allows extra focus to go towards the weaker sports, while staying very competitive. Luckily for me, I have years of swimming under my belt. This is reflected in the fact that swimming only takes up about 25% of my training. However, this does not mean I don’t have room for improvement. There are two main issues in the swim that I will try and address this year: sighting and start positioning. Unlike in a pool with lines to follow, open water swimming requires you to constantly pick your head up to sight the course buoy’s, and ensure swimming in a straight line. In my first season, this turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. As a result, I plan to spend a little more time doing some head up swimming drills, where you pick a point on the pool deck to focus on while swimming freestyle. One of the exciting things about Xterra triathlons is the mass start. However, after getting caught in swim traffic at a few races last year, I will need to make sure I find a better position to start in. Some of the variables that effect the best position at the start include course set up, tide activity (for ocean races), and number of competitors. After meeting a lot of the pros and learning who the stronger swimmers are, I plan to address this issue by increasing my aggressiveness at the start line to secure a spot next to the stronger swimmers with course experience. After taking almost 5 years off from my college swimming days before starting back last year, my speed and endurance in the water should continue to improve this year.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Snake Creek Gap Weekend 1

Well, it’s 5 months away from my first planned triathlon for the year (Xterra Pelham). This means that it’s time to start getting more serious and consistent with my training. My main goals for this year include a top 10 overall finish at Xterra Pelham and a top 3 age group finish at Xterra Nationals. In order to accomplish this, I will need to make improvements in all three triathlon disciplines. To start out, my training will consist of building a strong aerobic base. Compared to later in the season, this basically translates into slower pace and longer sessions, with an additional emphasis on core conditioning. Over the last month, I have been doing the BBL Saturday morning training rides. These weekly rides are generally around 70 miles in length with approximately 4 hours of saddle time. They provide cycling base training that will be crucial for a successful race season. This weekend, I decided to substitute the BBL road ride with the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial mountain bike race. This is a three race series that I plan to use as a strength builder and fitness indicator. After yesterday’s race event, I realize that I still have a lot of work to do to get where I need to be. I treated the race as more of a hard training ride than an actual race. This means that I took a couple short rest breaks (less than 5 min) and tried not to spend much time in the red zone (more than 80% max heart rate). With almost 10,000 feet of climbing on the 34 mile mountain bike course, muscle fatigue proved to be a far greater concern than heart rate zones. These are the type of events that put things in perspective and give you that mental and physical edge in Xterra triathlons.