08/02/07: The Start of Base 2

This week is the start of a new training block: Base 2.

Time to add a bit of force and muscular endurance training to the endurance and form work I've already been doing; in english...bridge repeats and some extended time in zone 3.

I added a bit of extra nutrition to make sure I'm getting in enough calories throughout the day. I started using hammer nutrition's recoverite after my longer workouts to help get some glycogen, protein and electrolytes back into my system ASAP and to hopefully recover more quickly, especially after brutal workout's like Sundays.

I also started drinking Boost Plus a couple of times during the day, to spread out my energy intake during the day...From a common sense standpoint, I really like the idea of eating 6 smaller BALANCED meals throughout the day as espoused by Bill Phillips in his Body for Life program. Taking in fuel constantly and consistently during the day seems like a much better idea than having a few huge meals spread out by several hours.

Not to get off on a complete tangent, but what is up with the fad diets that are so completely out of balance: no carbs, or no protein, or whatever other ridiculous concepts some flakes seem to come up with; even worse, why in the hell do people buy into such complete nonsense...Sorry, I'm back now.....

Over the weekend Sean, Susan and Rich from Velocity Multisport coaching had a Tanita Ironman scale setup over at the Trek store where they were doing power testing and body composition testing. Although I skipped the power testing, I did the body composition testing, finding out I have 14.8% bodyfat and a metabolic age of 21...not bad considering I'm about to be 39....Shhhh...nobody tell my body that....

Since they seem to think the scales are reasonably accurate and are only around $100, time to get one for myself to see if my new nutrition additions keep me headed in the right direction. By the time IM rolls around, I'd like to have lowered my bodyfat % to the 12-14% range and dropped about 10-15 lbs to give myself a higher power to weight ratio.....

The week started off with the Tuesday's usual run and swim. The run was 30 minutes in zone 2, which ended up being 3.51 miles, with an avg hr of 151 and an average pace of 8.33 / mi. Nothing too interesting. No lingering ill effects from Sunday's workout thank god.

Tuesday night's swim was 2900 yds:

wu: 300 swim, 200 kick (zoomer fins are a HUGE help - they make kick sets doable)

4x50 10 ri; 2x100 15 ri; 200 20 ri; 2x100 15 ri; 4x50 10 ri

5x100 swim w/ fins (a bit tiring on the legs, although it's nice to swim a bit faster and they seem to be helping with ankle flexibility and kicking form)

2 x im (substituted freestyle for butterfly)

300 pull

cd: 200 swim

Yesterday morning I put in 45 minutes on the bike trainer. Once again, the usual: gearing pyramid (17-13), 3x3 ilt; reverse gearing pyramid. Nothing too interesting here, other than I get my new bike this weekend. YEA! This means my old bike is about to be a permanent fixture on the trainer. No sense in stressing a perfectly good carbon fiber frame on the trainer. Also, my next toy (aside from the new scale) is a set of rollers so I can work on balance.

Last night was the monthly Hammerhead meeting, where we got to hear Will Pearce, our local 19 year old triathlon superstar, give us some great tips on getting faster in the run. Will is FAST...REALLY FAST. We found out that a slow run for him is 7 minute miles....everything's relative.....his fast pace is 5:30.....we're not even going to talk about his swim time - it's too early in the morning to get that depressed.

I started this morning out with a resting hr of 49 and my favorite run of all: sunrise at the beach. I did a barefoot zone 2 run with 6x20 second strides. The run was one of my best yet, totalling 5.35 miles, with an average hr of 150 and an average pace of 8:24 / mile.

Running at low tide rocks. The only downside was that the bottom of my big toes started hurting around half way through the run - no big deal, just the sand acting like sandpaper on the bottom of my feet, right?

Imagine my surprise when I got home and noticed blisters the size of 1/2 dollars on the bottom of both big toes....oops.......Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.....

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure.....