Thursday, April 19, 2012

Full Steam Ahead

HERE YOU ARE MOM :)

Update from the wonderful world of the Boulder bubble. Such an amazing place, with some ADD weather to boot. The last few days it has threatened to rain, but always seems to roll right around and leave it dry. Not too bad in my eyes for training, as it has been full training mode. But I am hearing from everyone that the fire risk is going to be so great this summer, so if it rains every night I won't complain in order to reduce that risk.

5 weeks out from the Kansas City 5150 race. Training is going awesome, and put in the biggest week of the season last week. Finished it off with a good Saturday and Sunday of training, a group ride Saturday and my longest run to date on Sunday.

Highlights include:

1. First Thursday long swim with the RACE team. Short story short, LONG SWIMS and LITTLE REST = extremely tired.
2. First track(Brick) workout: Set up bike on trainer at track, suffer on that, then run fast on the track.
3. First long run where I made it over 13.1miles (half-Ironman). Was awesome, felt great, and had that ADD weather. One minute it was 80 degrees and sun, the next probably 50 and was getting sleeted on, then some rain, then sunny and hot again!

Weekly total include:

20.5 hours, 1115TSS, 14,000kj's

Swim: 9.83 (16,200yds)
Bike: 145miles
Run: 29.5

Work has really been picking up, with coaching, but most of all, with the motopacing. I am now Boulder's finest motopacer :) It has been great, many members of the Optum Pro Cycling Team have been in town for a training camp and have often called upon FasCat for some fast paced thrash fests behind the scooter. Awesome to get to meet and chat with the guys racing in the big races!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

News From the 303

Hey everyone, been quite busy and haven't been able to do much blogging lately.

Busy = awesome news to hear in the coaching/physiology industry! Many clients are placing their cycling abilities and performances in the hands of FasCat this spring, and it seems to be paying off well! Many of the FasCat athletes are having good success with their early races, especially the CU Collegiate Men and Woman's teams! With many athletes having their physiological parameters set for the early part of the season, the exercise physiology lab has been a bit quite as of late. Time is made up for by continuing to work and provide the best customer service to my athletes! Some other cool things may be stirring out of the company, but I won't touch on those yet! Hope to have some cool scientific news in a few weeks!

But enough for work right? Play time update!!!

Still training quite a bit, actually more than I ever could while in school. Last week I touched on 20hours!!! It was awesome, and I can feel the fitness coming as I am about 6 weeks out from my first race of the year in Kansas City May 19th. Been getting similar sensations in the water that I had when swimming at Luther, so that is a good thing. The stroke and power are coming around and starting to see some good splits in the pool. Had the biggest week of the year on the bike last week, and capped it off with my first experience up to Peak to Peak Highway. This highway runs North/South from Estes Park to BlackHawk, and is considered one of the best picture spots on the front range. Sitting around 9000ft, it is very close to the tree-line and you can see snow-capped mountains all around. Go figure, I forgot to take pictures as I was struggling to keep with pros Allen Gardner and Kyle Leto that day. Running is one thing I never thought would feel good, but it is starting to feel easier and easier every day!!! Put in some good speed work at the track this past week and also a great long run this morning.

Actually tried my luck at racing road bikes here in Colorado yesterday at the famous Boulder Rouabix. It is 50/5o dirt and paved roads. But the dirt roads out here are packed pretty much as hard as any highway. I was feeling great, but go figure, I flatted during the first lap and was done. Went home, swapped wheels and did some climbing instead!

Weekly totals for the past 2 weeks!!!

3/27 - 4/2 4/3-4/9
Hours: 20.5 18.75
Swim: 12.54 (20,700yds) 11.62(19,177yards)
Bike: 150 172.97
Run: 22.07 22.62

Until next time!