Viva Las Vegas

My buddy, Ed, says that my blog entries are too complicated for him to read when he's in a big training cycle. So here's one just for Ed!

If you don't understand the triathlon shorthand then don't worry, I'll probably come up with some philosophy for next time. Here's one idea that I remembered after my last piece -- the most important person for me to say "no" to is myself.

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We're in Vegas for a couple of weeks of training and I love the place. We're staying in the southern part of town about half way between Lake Mead and Red Rocks. Yesterday I ran at Red Rocks in the morning and ended my day with a ride beside Lake Mead -- even squeezed in a masters session with Frank (the RD for Silverman).

Vegas has a lot of "characters" and the people watching is always interesting. We're on the fringes of the action and we'll probably keep it that way.

I did another aerobic run test this morning -- still the same speed! I ended up averaging 150bpm instead of 148bpm -- 6:28 per mile (6:15/6:30/6:33). So I'll keep it rolling for another three weeks. I'm in an intensity cycle right now to see if I can move through the plateau.

Here's a sample of the sorts of workouts that I've done and will be doing...

I haven't done this one myself but Simon's been leading it weekly at the Boulder Res and it is a great run workout for early season...

***Number off the runners
***Each runner takes a turn doing an interval
***Interval is 15 seconds to 2:30 long // runner's choice
***No one can pass the leader of the interval
***Leader can go as fast, or as slow, for the duration
***After each interval, everyone jogs very easy back to the last runner in the group
***Repeat for 15-30 minutes

Pretty good session and you can include runners of a range of abilities.

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Here are a few that I've done...

Fast Run -- designed to get the HR way, way up // 6x3 min fast on 90s RI // I've done flat as well as slight up/down (Marshall Road at the Res if you know it). I had thought that 180 bpm might be possible but at altitude all I hit was 175bpm and that had me seeing spots and sucking BIG air.

Hard Tempo Run -- aiming for an ending HR that is about 10 bpm under the Fast Run -- I managed to hit 173bpm on this (8bpm over my 1 hour max at Snowman Stampede). Terrain alternates dead flat with hills. Hills are FT+ effort up and FAST on the way down -- aim for decent form and solid "impact" on the descents. Main set is like 3x8 min on 4 min RI. RI for my running is always walking.

Long Run -- keep it aerobic -- mixed terrain, hills before flats. Still doing a 12 minute cycle of run:walk. Sprained my anke running in the snow but am back in action after a fast recovery -- used a machine called GameReady that really took the swelling out of my ankle.

Double Run -- insert on a few Tempo and Long run days. Have only done once so far -- the evening after the Snowman Stampede.

Long Ride -- main intensity is done at the end of a long ride -- aim for 20 minutes of work over functional threshold // when I tried to go 3x8 min fast (4 min RI) at the 2.5 hour mark of a four hour ride last week I had MAJOR fade but still hit 170 bpm, so a decent effort. Anyhow, new plan for this week...

ITU SBR Session -- This week I will do a solid swim (main set as... 5x400 lcm leaving on 6 min with effort as fast, mod-hard, steady, mod-hard, fast) then straight into a trainer session with 4x6 min fast on 3 min RI. After the trainer session, run immediately 5 miles steady. This is an ITU-type workout that the lads would do in NZ -- I'm going to recover by riding easy, they would alt between steady/mod-hard/fast -- I'm not quite at that part of my season, yet. The ITU lads would back that up with functional & core strength/run speed in the evening but I'll take the rest of the day off!

Swim -- I've been doing one quality overdistance workout each week; a solid IM swim day and a continuous swim. This past week was decent in terms of volume (22.5K meters equivalent). My continuous swim today was 4000 scm as 2000 relaxed then alt by 100 faster, 100 easier -- probably had a differential of 10s per 100 between the faster and the easier.

I've also been inserting long periods (60-120 mins) of higher cadence riding into the early parts of some long rides. Bobby wants me to get my run cadence up and this seems to be helping.

Boulder riding has been mainly in the flats and lower volume. Vegas riding will have more hills and remain lower volume as I am in an intensity cycle.

Heart rates remain very responsive -- the 175 bpm during my 6x3 min fast last Wednesday was the highest HR I've generated in Colorado.

Take care,
gordo