Drills and hills…

So having set myself up with the target of pool yardage and bike mileage it is only fair that I report on my progress…blogging etc tends to keep you honest that way!

My week shook out pretty well, I was in the pool at 5:00 Tuesday, a mile later I got out. Thursday should have been the same but the fly in the ointment was my wife having a last minute trip to San Francisco which stopped me from hitting the pool in the morning so I dashed over at lunchtime for a quick 1000 yards. 2750 done total so far! Most of my swimming is continuous and with a Pull Buoy I am having issues with heavy legs which I am trying to address but I am doing drills to help my glide and catch and other swimming jargon that, like the water, is going over my head! A friend has offered to watch some video of me and suggested I take some lessons to reset the basics that I know. I have bumped into another swimmer at the pool several times who shares the penchant for the early mornings and they have given me several pointers which have helped as well. So come Saturday I was left with 2250 and that was always going to be a stretch. I managed 2000 yards Saturday morning so I ended the week with 4750; close but no cigar!

Heavy legs sinking down and apparently straight arms is a big no no too!

The bike was a bit easier and I set myself up on the trainer three mornings and one evening riding three Sufferfest rides and also a CycleFilm DVD which are all on sale now! Check them out here! By the time the weekend rolled around I was left with 59 miles to make my goal of 125.  As is the usual modus operandi, this would mean an early start on Sunday morning so a good 4 hour ride would not eat into to too much of the day. I was out the door and in the saddle by 7:00am a little later than planed and it was freezing, layers of Pearl Izumi Thermals barely kept the cold at bay and the only break I got allowed my to remove my long fingered gloves and uncover my ears…that’s it!

Pacific Coast Highway…a favorite for cyclists, can’t think why, the view is terrible!

The plan was to ride through one of the canyons to Pacific Coast Highway head north and then sweep around and back home, this would leave a long hard climb around the 50 mile mark, I have only ridden it once well over a year ago and with a triple!

The ride was uneventful, the way I like them and the climb proved a challenge to say the least but I huffed and puffed up it and was very happy to get to the top with no dabbing…or flipping over backwards!

Totals for the week then:

• 4750 yards in the pool
• 131 miles on the bike
• 10 miles ran…a couple of little jaunts!

One week done…four to go!

Soundbites…

A few things heard this week for anyone to ponder on while out training this weekend…

• Perfect practice makes perfect – not practice make perfect, in other words don’t reinforce bad habits
• Ride lots – Eddie Merckx response when asked how what was his advice to become a great cyclist
• Train your weakness race your strengths – if you only train your strengths you'll only be good at what you are good at!

Be safe and train hard!

Review; The Sufferfest; Hell Hath no Fury!

Like a woman scorned right! So put her on a carbon bike and tell her to go!

From the warped mind that brought Angels, Downward Spiral and A Very Dark Place comes their latest, greatest pain inducing video; Hell Hath no Fury!

Featuring an all women cast including riders from HTC, Garmin-Cervelo Rabobank and many National Teams there is never a dull moment, these ladies lay it down thick and fast!

A classic 2 x 20 workout the ride breaks down like this:

• 3:30 Warm-up
• 5:30 Stage 1: Easy, flat terrain at effort level of 6/10 with a few accelerations
• 20:00 Stage 2: Rolling terrain with a series of attacks as the pack tries to take the lead from you
• 6:00 Recovery
• 20:00 Stage 3: More rolling, attacking racing in which you try to break away to get the lead back
• 4:00 Recovery
• 3:30 Stage 4: Team Time Trial in which you have to crush yourself in order to take the lead
• 6:00 Recovery, featuring Mental Training Reflection

Nice aye…dare you come and play!

This rates as an 8/10 on the Sufferlandian scale of pain…something akin to having shutting your tongue in a door and walking backwards really fast while somebody strums the open bars of the House of the Rising Sun on it!

The 2 x 20 minutes do not fly by, they are not easy and there is no comfort. You are presented with riders who must weigh all of 100lbs soaking wet, who grit their teeth and ride breakaways like they are being chased by a pack of rabid zombies on Japanese crotch rockets, stand and climb hills so it looks like their legs are grape crushing in fast forward and descend like a gravity has been doubled!

It looks like this on the flipside!

In other news, the Minister of Scorn has developed a sense of humor and there is an enjoyable storyline to this video, assuming you can see between the tears. They have also increased their budget as the footage quality and editing skills have also improved...either that or they have gotten a bigger stick to hit the crew with!

Available for the wallet busting price of $11.99 you can pick this up now here, (affiliate link) or otherwise go mad (‘cos you would have to be not to) and pick up a full set of ‘fests for the killer price of $84.99 saving nearly $20 in the process

This product was purchased (yeah sick I know). If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

November’s numbers…

November was all about race days and keeping it all together in between. As you may have read the Santa Clarita Marathon didn’t go quite to plan, that being said I did PR by 15 minutes with a 3:31 but was 16 minutes short of my goal of 3:15. Somebody suggested to me that a reducing it by 30 minutes was a bit much but if your goals are small your achievements are usually the same…either way I am over it and moving on.

Two weeks later I “re-newed” my ultra passport and had a wet, wild and wonderful time running the PCTR SMM 50k, you can read, well look at the pictures as I did not write a long report here. Recovery in between was as expected and was running 4 days after the marathon, albeit gingerly, and I spent the two weeks really just keep the wheels ticking over. I am a huge fan of compression clothing (during and after), chocolate milk and coconut water and I would say that these all contributed to my recovery…much more so than stretching of which I did none! After the 50k race I stayed out of my running shoes and donned fins and cycling shoes through to the end of the month

So as for the numbers, well down as expected.

• 214 total miles (-174 over October)


• 28:11 time, so about 7 hours a week (around a 3 hour per week loss)


• 86 miles running in 15:26 (September 160/21:26)


• 123 miles cycling in 7:52 ( September 219/13:40)


• 8,350 yards (11,200 in October, 5150 in September)


• Remaining time was stretching, foam rolling, P90X Ab Ripper and a bit of yoga! oops!


• Longest ride 51 miles – 3:21 not the fastest ride but a nice hilly one


• Longest run 31.6 – 7:35!


• Starting weight 168lb ending 171.2b (from 187 at end of April)


• Overall with tapers and recoveries I had 10 rest days, so when you consider that the above is only really for 3 weeks it isn’t quite so bad!

So onto December, as mentioned in a prior post this is a focus on the pool and bike I have a goal of 20,000 yards and 500 miles respectively between now and the end of the year. My first Triathlon is in 93 days!