The Offseason: Bike Training Changes

I'm starting to learn that in the sport of triathlon there really is no offseason. Yes the training volume is slightly reduced compared to what it was in August for example, but in reality when you have to compete in three very different sports on a single day of competition, training is time consuming. Not only from a perspective of the hours spent on day-to-day basis but also in terms of the length of time it takes to build for a race because of all the intricacies that make up the triathlon. Take a half ironman for example, first you need to train to be able to complete a 2km open water swim. Swimming, I find atleast, is an extremely technique-based sport, and one that relies heavily on rhythm. For a person who doesn't come from a swim background, other than going through the swimming lesson levels but no club swimming or anything, it would be difficult for me to take a while off swimming and then just jump back in the water and start ripping off some fast intervals. In fact, I took a complete 4 days off swimming after the race in Miami, and then on Friday swam, and it was probably one of my worst feeling swims of the year. My stroke felt terrible, I felt like I was sinking in the water, and was completely out of rhythm - and that was after only 4 days! So swimming takes a lot of time for anyone since its so technical, and then needing to build the endurance and speed to hold a fast pace for 2km of non-stop swimming, with sighting along the way to even see where you're going. For the bike, you need to train to be able to complete a 90 km bike ride and in this training your needing to train to be able to hold a high power start to finish for a little more than two hours if your going for the top of the podium (for a pretty decent cyclist it will take around 3 hours if not more), in addition to being able to keep your body in the most aerodynamic position possible for that duration of time. For someone who isn't used to being in aerobars on a time trial bike, I would say they may only last a minute before the pain/discomfort in their neck, shoulder, arms, and back become to much to handle. So being able to hold this position is something you need to practice and gradually build up. You also need to train to be able to handle the conditions like getting used to biking in a crosswind with deep section wheels, and the course itself such as training to be able to climb a 10km long hill and not letting up after cresting the top. And then the run. A half-marathon. Most half-marathon builds are anywhere from 12, if your experienced, to 18 weeks. This time however you will be running after 90km on the bike, which means you need to train to be able to handle the heavy, "brick" like feeling in your legs starting the run coming off the bike, and find your rhythm as quickly as possible. Then are the "soft" skills of triathlon such as transitions from swim to bike (getting the wetsuit off and mounting the bike quickly) and then bike to run (dismounted, putting on shoes, race belt, etc), which could make or break your race if your going for the podium - which it did for me this year in Orillia where I finished third despite having a faster bike and run then 2nd place since I was slower in transition. On top of all these skills, your doing all of this in one day from one event to the next, meaning you need to practice your fueling and hydration to be able to even make it to the finish line. Basically what I'm saying is that it takes a lot of time to train to complete a half-ironman and even more if your trying to win it. But like I said at the beginning of the post this time of the year where you are doing marginally less training than mid-season, so it is the time to use the extra moments to reflect on the year, and think about all these factors that make up a race, and what you can improve on.

For me, the first thing I am evaluating (and have been for the last week) is my bike. What can I do to make it better? My bike improved hugely this season, and it turned into one of my bigger weapons in races. My FTP (functional threshold power - the power you can hold for 1 hour) went up hugely at the beginning of the year, and then continued to go up till around half-way through the year, at which point I was pretty content with where my FTP and was now in the thick of racing season, so I stuck to workouts that would allow me essentially to maintain my FTP for the remainder of the year. Because I was racing so regularly I didn't feel I had enough time throughout some weeks between recovering just after a race, then training regularly, and then recovering again before the next race to really push my upper limits deeper into the season. Really I comes down to the fact that I don't think I periodized my racing well enough. In the coming season I would like to organize my race schedule a little better so that I can actually improve from race to race instead of just hitting my fitness level early on in the year and then plateauing. Also, after my FTP test, I never actually spent very much time at my FTP, and seemed to really struggle with workouts with intervals above 120%. Although for half-ironman racing you are obviously not working at your FTP (since that's power you could theoretically only hold for 1 hour), if you improved your threshold power and kept the percentage of that power the same you would improve, or similarly if you were to improve your FTP but keep your target race wattage the same the relative intensity factor (%FTP) would be lower which would mean that you could run off the bike better.

That was pretty wordy so let me put some numbers to that to explain what I mean. Say for example right now my 20 minute FTP test yielded a value of 305W giving me an FTP of 290W (after multiplying 305*0.95). If during Miami I was intending on holding 245W that means my goal power was 0.85 or 85% of my threshold. 0.85 is at about the upper end of where you can run decently well off the bike (given good hydration levels - which I did not have in Miami, hence my run performance). If I were to push harder throughout the year and improved my FTP to say 310W then if I still wanted to hold 245 W since I maybe had good experiences in previous races running off that type of power than 245W would be only 0.79 or 79%, and this would be around the %FTP a beginner triathlete would be able to run very well off the bike. If however, my goal was still to push myself as hard as I could and straddle the line to going overboard and not being able to run as well off the bike (but maybe now have more time in the bank from the bike) I could still push at 85% of my threshold which would now be 264W, and that would mean a significantly faster bike time. According to best bike split with the same IF of 0.85 but FTP of 310 instead of 290W the bike split would be an entire 3 minutes faster on the MiamiMan course. Anyways the point is I will be working hard to bump up my FTP to as high as I can so that I can perform better by either have race pace feel easier since its at a relatively lower intensity and therefore running better off the bike, or the pro choice: pushing a higher power on the bike at the same relative intensity and just getting better at running off the bike by practicing it more.

To accomplish this goal I will be doing more workouts with intervals at or above 120% FTP to improve the FTP. All season I really struggled with VO2 max type intervals around 3 minutes in length and above 120%, which I will work hard to improve since it will lead to improvements in my threshold. I also would like to work hard on trying to improve my 5 minute power. You might say why your five minute power if the bike is over 2 hours in length. Well because there are points in race where you may need to hold a high power for about 5 minutes to surge ahead of a competitor and stay ahead for good. For example, in Miami, I caught the second place guy at around the 13 mile marker, passed him, only to stay ahead for a few minutes before he went ahead of me, and then I had to put in another big effort to get ahead of him again. Point is, I had to two times the work to get ahead of one guy, when if I was able to put a big 5 minute surge in, it would be done with there and then. How I know my 5 minute is lacking is that currently my 20 minute power of 5.71 W/kg puts me into the Domestic Professional Cyclist Category (one category away from International Professional), and my 5 minute power is behind in a Category 1 Cyclist category. Mind you, I've never specifically done a 5 minute test, but there is a huge data pool of my rides to draw a 5 minute max power profile from. Lastly, after all this power talk I would like to improve my positioning on the bike, specifically my head position. I've looked at in the last 2 weeks pictures from world record holders, tour de france winners, and ironman professionals, and I've noticed that for almost all of them their eyes are in line with the belly of the deltoid muscle, and my eyes on the other hand are above the line of my shoulders making my position less aerodynamic. I think I'll just work have to work on general flexibility to achieve this, if needed I'll go for another bike fit to make some adjustments to get me even lower on the bike. However, I do think improved flexibility will be the answer since my bike has already been set up in a very aggressive position.

UPDATE: Just to update this post the last 1.5 weeks I've been riding very hard, and doing many supra threshold (above threshold) type intervals, and as of today improved my 20 minute power from 304W to 320W!!!

Post MiamiMan Half Iron Race Report

As you know this past weekend I competed in my first ever half ironman. I knew going into this race it was going to be the biggest challenge I have ever taken on not only from the distance itself but also with the plethora of injuries I was carrying going into the race including the stress fracture in my right tibia which I had been running on for a couple months now, some widespread inflammatory issue that had been causing incredibly painful widespread stiffness in both my legs from the hips down, and then most recently out of the blue a left hamstring injury which I have been carrying since about Wednesday before the race - go figure. So yes I had a lot going through my head going into the race from a strategy point of view which I discussed in my last post, and many thoughts about what my already bruised and battered legs would feel like after a 90 km bike ride pushing a good amount of power. 

The race started at a 6:35am. Yes I did say 6:35am. This was pretty difficult to cope with from the start since it would mean I would be well out of my routine and even things like having a morning coffee would be difficult since no coffee shops or even room service would be open at 3:30am when I would have to wake up. But my dad did manage to get coffee at a bar that was still open -- and mentioned that he had to go through some pretty shady looking crowd to get it. After arriving at the race in complete darkness I was starting to wonder if the sun would even be up for the start of the race. Because the sun still wasn't up at about 6:20 we were unable to warmup in the water. The actual race course as you already know was two laps where you would have to get out of the water run around an arch with timing mat and run back in for a second lap. The most difficult part of the course though would be the opening 50 meters or so where you ran into the water and would have to make a sharp left turn around a bouy after only about 50 meters. So I lined up to the right, with the plan of taking it wide around the turn figuring I was one of the faster swimmers there, and would essentially be content swimming the extra little bit of distance if it meant I wouldn't get kicked, pulled, grabbed under, dolphin dived on top of, etc. Well it was decent plan but it is so funny how in these races people, who are not great swimmers and will finish ages after you, set off into that water like a grizzly whose spotted a school of salmon. They go ballistic the opening little bit at a torrid pace and fight, grab, kick, and pull anyone in their way. So ya it was a crazy start but within about 2 minutes I was out on my own and starting to get into my rhythm. The biggest problem was that the race was so early in the morning that there was a significant amount of fog (I'd say about 8ft high) above the water and not a word of a lie I couldn't see a thing. I would look up to sight but it really made no difference as I could only see about 50ft in front of me. What I ended up doing is catching up to the race leader and just sticking on their feet. I continued to sight just to see that I wasn't swerving all over the place, but really I was just hoping that the two of us would be able to figure the course out. Another swimmer caught up to us after a few minutes and now we had a good team of sighters. We came into the out for the first lap together and I slipped and fell pretty hard on the way back into the water as the rug/mat they had there had rolled up a little and I tripped on it. But I got up and just dove back in and got back on the leaders feet. There were a few points on the second lap where I thought I could leave this little group but I didn't want to risk leaving the group and having to rely solely on my own judgement/ability to see whether or not I was going the right way. The three of us exited the water together and cruised through the transition onto the bike nice and quickly, in fact it probably was one of my better swim to bike transitions of the year. 

Out onto the bike, I was cruising along at a good pace with a average power of 245 W for the first 25 minutes (bang on what I intended) and past someone who had gone past me in transition, and then there were the two left up ahead in my swim group. I made a big move past the first guy around mile 13 and then my best move of the day past the leader, and needed to sustain a pretty high power to stay clear of him (a 11 minute stretch at 265 W - about 4.7 W/kg). Going back a little, at about 15 minutes into the race I looked down at my arms and noticed a significant amount of moisture on them. At the time I thought this was water left over from the swim but after another 15 minutes when I noticed there was now more droplets on my arms I realized that it was sweat and that I was sweating significantly already. I kept the lead until about 23 miles when the leader from before surged past me. On the second of the two 15 miles laps we were now lapping people starting there first lap and let me tell you there was some crazy blatant drafting going on where there were huge groups literally organized into mini pelotons which was more annoying to me not because they were cheating since they were 15 miles behind me so no way they were catching up, but instead because it made passing them difficult since they were at times 5 wide across the road. My pace decreased significantly trying to get around people, but on one stretch were they were actually sticking to the right I averaged about 45 km/hr for a solid 5 minutes past hundreds of people, and got my pace back on track. At about 30 miles I made another big surge past the leader and was leading again. From about 35-40 miles I was absolutely ripping but the problem was that after only 1:30 into the race I had gone through all of my on-board hydration/nutitrion already, an amount I was intending on lasting until about the 2 hour mark. At the final bottle exchange point at about 43 miles, I grabbed a bottle and ended up missing the turn to the right to go back the 13 miles to the finish of the bike leg thanks to all the commotion at the bottle exchange tables. The wrong turn cost me an entire minute and the leader past me at this point. In my haste to try to catch back up as quickly as possible, I didn't manage to empty the bottle from the exchange zone completely (probably less than half) and ran out of fluid again quickly, and went without anything for approximately the last 10 miles of the bike. My legs began to cramp and the hamstring which was bugging me on Wednesday started to bug me once again, well probably more than just bug me, it was starting to downright hurt. With the lack of hydration and energy my speed and power began to quickly decrease and was passed by another competitor. I fought hard to maintain my second place passing this guy with about five miles to go in the bike but he overtook me again in the last bit. My speed and power continued to fall and was already feeling pretty ragged. I got off the bike in third place after a 2:13:22 90 km bike (40.5 km/hr average) but despite feeling dehydrated and drained from the heat, somehow managed to have the fastest bike to run transition I have ever had. 

I started out the run and despite feeling like garbage I managed to hold a pretty quick pace for the first few kilometres around 3:30/km, and by about the 1 mile mark caught the second place guy and passed him easily. The leader was now in my sights and about 50 meters or so ahead, and it would stay like this for the next 5 km or so. My pace stayed quite strong until around the 7-8km mark when the hamstring really started cramping and then my body was beginning to shutdown. I could feel the energy completely gone from my legs and the pace was dropping like a stone. I quickly lost sight of the leader and the mindset turned quickly from I'm going to win and go under 4 hours, since I was on pace for that at that point, to I desperately need to cool down and get as much fluid into me now to survive to the end. I was grabbing as much as I could at the aid stations taking up to 6 cups of fluid and carbohydrate drinks per station and a cup of ice which I poured down my shirt front and back. The heat became unbearable and there was no shade on the course for any relief. I thought about walking so many times but just kept moving, not quickly but just one foot in front of the other. I started the second lap and I was completely out of it, not really thinking anymore about the leader, and my hamstring would seize up whenever I tried to pick up and run a little quicker. I was pretty much running sideways to avoid extending that leg out and stretching the hamstring. Got a lot of encouragement by the volunteers at the aid stations, which I really appreciate, with people saying c'mon Frank you can do it just don't stop, and we're extremely helpful getting the ice and water and drinks to me and giving me gels. I was still in second but it was pretty obvious to the volunteers that I was in a world of hurt. I kept going and I have never been so emotional in the middle of a race. I was pretty much weeping in pain and a lack of energy and knowing how until 8k I was still on pace for 4 hours on the nose, and now I was seeing the clock on my watch get to 3:50 and 3:55 and 4 hours and still had a couple miles to go. The cramped up hamstring stopped me at one of the aid stations down to a shuffle and grabbed so many cups of fluid the volunteers were even impressed I was able to grab so many cups. I continued running along and saw the 1 mile to go. I dug deep to finish this one and rounded to final turn into the finishing chute. The clock read 4:16 I crossed the line and collapsed to the ground in a heap. Was there for a little while and then into the medical tent to get bags of ice out all over my back chest and under my arms. Really to be perfectly honest I wasn't thinking about much at this point. I was just so absolutely exhausted my mind couldn't even think about my time or place or how I felt. It took me a while to think about what I wanted to say about the race because after when I came to my senses I was so dissapointed with my run,1:31 for the half marathon, and the fact that I was on pace for a world class time until the 8 kilometre mark in the run. But now a few days later I know what I want to say about the race. Here it is, I went to the race with the goal of qualifying for the world championships next year in Penticton and I did that finishing first overall in my age group to win the national championships and although I crossed the line 2nd overall a few people from the second wave had a quicker time than me so I finished 6th overall --one person in another wave beat me by a single second although I didn't see them the entire race, and really it doesn't matter how much I was hurting I think I could've eaked out one more second given how much time I was taking at some aid stations. Still 6th overall in a race that included competitors from over 40 states across the US and more than 20 countries is not too bad. Not to mention, of course it was disappointing not getting the four hours that I was on pace for at the 8k mark of the run, but a 4:16 half ironman is still a pretty elite time I think and one that qualifies me to submit my application next year to compete as a professional triathlete. On top of that I learned so much about the distance and what it takes to be successful in the distance with regard to my pacing, my nutrition and even things like what it is like to travel to a race and coping with the different routines than home. All in all, I do believe that this will be like my first marathon when I was only 18 years old where I ran 3:11 and change and to my second a few months later running about 16 minutes faster in 2:56 (and then fourth was 2:34) just because I had experienced what the distance feels like and what to expect. I am proud of myself and how I fought and battled out there, and that I never gave up not once even with every ounce of my body telling me to stop. Nobody can ever question my ability to power through and persevere after this race. 

I will update you In my next post to about my plans going into the winter and a preliminary schedule for next season, but until then it's time to really relax and let my body head to toe heal. I will also just update this post in probably another day and add in the pictures from the race once they come out. 

Miami Preview: Part 2

The gameplan for the race this weekend is pretty simple push as hard as I can from start to finish and see what the time ends up being. For the swim my plan is to hold around 1:20/100m for the 2km swim. That will result in about a 27 minute swim. The swim course itself will be a little different than what I'm used to as it will be a two-lap course and you need to get out of the water and run a tiny bit along the beach to the next lap start. I figure this will add a little bit of time to what I'm projecting but if I can be fast in the transition from the first lap to the second I can hopefully keep this wasted time to a minimum. While swimming I will aim to focus on getting to a good start and getting into a rhythm with my sighting and stroke rate as quickly as possible. I really want to make sure I get to a fast start though since throughout my races this year I have been a little slow off the start but have ended up picking mostly everyone off as we get further along. The reason though I would like to get to a quick start this time though is so that I can get on the feet of a couple fast swimmers and conserve some energy by drafting. During the swim I will focus on keep my upper body relaxed, keeping my stroke long and strong, finishing each and every stroke fully, and keeping my elbow nice and high. Finishing the swim I'll try to have as quick of a transition as possible and start taking in some calories right away to make up for the deficit coming out of the water. 

On the bike the gameplan is to hold around 95 rpm throughout and push 245W which is around 4.5 W/kg with and IF (intensity factor) of around 0.85 or 85%. During the bike my goal is also to keep the power as steady as possible since surging is what uses up a lot of glycogen (energy). This should be pretty doable since the course is very flat and to judge my success with this I would like to keep my Variability Index (standard deviation) under 1.03 or 3% +\- of my average power. Throughout the bike I will focus on keeping a "horizontal" pedal stroke that I have developed with all the pedalling drills that I do on the bike with the help of TrainerRoad. This means I will really focus on the kick (10-2 o'clock) and pull (4-8 o'clock) of the pedal; in doing so I will help keep my quads relatively fresh and conserve the glycogen in them since they are muscles which do hold huge amounts of glycogen. I will also focus on keeping my shoulders and whole upper body relaxed as I stay as aero as possible--which will be absolutely critical on this flat course. Throughout the bike I will make sure to stick to my nutrition plan of having 70 grams of carbohydrates per hour which will be in the form of the two bottles of Infinit on my bike and one bottle grabbed at the third aid station. The critical component of this race will be that when I'm on the bike I am thinking about absolutely nothing else except being strong on the bike, and not letting any thoughts about the run to follow creep into my head. 

Once I finish the bike and my feet touch land once again, after likely being already about 2:40 minutes into the race, that is when my focus will turn to the run. Like I've mentioned numerous times in previous posts this is kind of the wild card for the day despite coming from a running background. It will only be the fourth time I've ever run off the bike and the last few months I have not only been running on a stress fracture in my right tibia, but I have also been battling through extreme widespread stiffness and pain in my legs for the first 20-30 minutes of every run. So I'm praying that when I hit the ground I am so pumped up on adrenaline from being in the race and from having had a good bike split that my legs don't feel too much pain. Even if I am feeling a lot of pain I will try to not panic and just tell myself that it will pass, and that I just need to battle through for a few kilometers and it will get better. Once out on the run I am going to try to keep my upper body as relaxed as possible and legs staying light and almost floating along. I have been consciously working on trying to lengthen out my stride with my right leg and shortening my stride slightly on the left after watching some videos of me running and seeing a major difference between my long stride on the left and short stride on the right. I will make sure I keep my mind focused on each kilometre and not letting it drift to thinking about how many kilometres are left or how much longer I have to run. I will also make sure that I take at least 60 g of carbohydrates out on the run course and water at every single aid station along the way. In terms of pace I'm going to leave this one pretty open since I'm not entirely sure how my legs will feel post bike. Ideally I would like to run around 1:15 for the half which would be around 3:33-35 per kilometre, but I emphasize ideally - it may end up being 1:18, 1:20, 1:24 who knows.

All in all, I hope to have a solid race and leave everything I have out there on the course. Of course this year/build has not been ideal with all the injuries I've sustained but having said that I am by no means going into this race unprepared. I have trained like a fiend as you saw in my last post and have really transformed my body into a strong triathlon machine. To give that some perspective if you consider that my waist circumference has stayed the same since my days at the 2013 Scotiabank Marathon and yet I have gained about 10 pounds in the last year of pure muscle mostly in my swimming built upper body and cycling wattage churning quads. My ending thought to this post since it will be so critical to this race especially when I'm on the bike is to stay in the moment. Don't think about what is next, how much time or however many kilometers to go, think about what your doing right now. On the bike for example think about your feet smoothly going through each pedal revolution, lowering your body and head to cut the smallest possible hole through the air/wind, or the beautiful horizon in the distance. When you're running think about your breathing, your posture, if there is any tension is any part of your body and releasing it. Whatever you're doing, do that, and don't worry about what needs to be done after that. This concept can be applied to so many different things it's funny, it's the reason why I absolutely hate stores putting Christmas stuff out now or summer stuff in the middle of March. Time goes by fast enough, we really don't need to make it go by any faster by rushing away months at a time to be prepared for the next season. Applied to racing, there is no need to stress yourself out while on the swim about the bike up next, or on the bike about the run coming next. Stay relaxed, stay calm, stay in the moment, and be the best you can be in that moment. Until next time, happy training, racing, or off-seasoning. 

Miami Preview: Part One

Okay so my last post was a little bit more of a season review and what the overall feeling was heading into Miami, now for what the training specifically has looked like the last month and a bit. I will try to give some details but I won't include what my swim workouts have looked like since that my coach's intellectual property.

Oct 3-9: I did 32 hours of training this week which tied my season high. The week included 23 km of swimming over 6 days (one was a technique session with my coach so not huge volume); 540 km of biking highlighted by an over-under threshold session on the bike, 4x15' at race wattage, and capped the week off with a 172 km ride from Thornhill to Trenton on Thanksgiving. That bike ride was done immediately after a 21.1 km long run which progressed gradually to close to race pace, and with about 40 km left in the bike I felt it big time. I wasn't able to stop at a gas station to get a refill on my bottles, and had to go a couple hours without anything. I ended up bonking very hard and was swerving around the road until my Mom came and got my some fluids to fill my bottles with the Infinit Mix. I ended up finished the ride quite strong which was surprising given how out of it I became at one point during the bonk. I was literally so weak feeling that I couldn't physically manipulate my hand to change the gear on the bike. Running this week was pretty good with 100km of mileage including the long run, and then two workouts on the Tues and Thurs which included some long tempo/threshold intervals and strength work on hills.

Oct 10-16: This week was a much higher intensity type of week but still 25 hours of training. It included 18 km of swimming over 5 days but a lot of high end speed work; 300 km of biking highlighted by a VO2 max interval session on the bike with 400+ W intervals (8 W/kg), some threshold workouts, and then a massive session on Sunday which was 2 hours on the trainer with 4X20 minutes at close to FTP (90%). This workout went incredibly well and my fueling with the help of my custom Infinit formula was perfect, no cramps, no bonky feeling, no GI issues. Ran another 100km or so this week including 2 fast workouts: one was 2k/1.5km repeats at 3:04-3:10/km, the next was a tempo run on a trail right into 800s (the last one ended up doing 1km and split 3:02/km). The week ended with a solid win at the Burlington 10km where I was basically using the race as a workout and tried to stay as relaxed as possible throughout. I ended up running 33 and the effort level was perfect - comfortably hard.

Oct 17-23: This week was probably my best week of training of my build. 27 hours of training which included 20 km of swimming over 6 days (one technique session with coach); 310 km of cycling over 6 days including a threshold session, that same VO2 max session of 400+W intervals, a big over-under high end threshold session alternated by 95-105% FTP, and then a big long brick workout on Sunday which was 2 hours straight of around race wattage, right into a 10km uptempo run. This week's running (about 100km total) was highlighted by a 25 km long run, a 2x20 minute tempo run, and then the best workout of the build so far 10X1km where I averaged around 3:10/km, and the final kilometer repeat was 2:58 after already about 15km of running - suffice to say I was pumped.

Oct 24-30: This was a smaller volume week especially on the bike due to a incredibly painful infection I got in a sensitive area which I won't go into the details about, but the week ended up being less than 20 hours of training including about 20km of swimming over 5 days, only 136 km on the bike because of the infection however one of those was 60x30 seconds all out/30 second recovery which made the normalized power and work level extremely high - around 300W NP for 60 minutes of work. Running was also impacted by the infection but managed to put in a tempo workout on Wednesday, and then Thursday got through 5x1 mile where I averaged 5:20 per mile (about 3:18/km), and ran the Niagara Half Marathon on Sunday which still gave me about 100km on the week. The race went okay. My mindset going into the race was to treat it as a workout with Miami only 2 weeks after, so I was intending on running about 1:13:50 (3:30/km) and ran 1:13:47 so pretty much bang on what I planned. My only problem was that I wanted this to feel pretty comfortable, and while it did feel very comfortable for the first 15 kilometers or so, the last 6km was an absolute sufferfest. Two thing went against me: 1) I wore shoes that are intended for 5km racing, and because of it by 15km my calves were absolutely shredded. I was running in a group with two other runners and we were trying our best to help each other out by switching the lead every 1km since we ran into a stiff headwind start to finish which on its own made the effort level higher than I was intending, but then the added calf issue meant I had to back off the pace and drop back off these two at 16km which was a little demoralizing. My right calf in particular was so sore I thought I was going to tear something so I really backed off the pace these last 5 km. The second issue was I was depending on the on-course nutrition because I didn't have something to carry my infinit along with me, and the on-course hydration was some 0 calorie nuun stuff which I think is great for staying hydrated during the daytime, but now during a race I want some carbohydrates, not to mention at one of the aid stations the volunteer pulled the cup back from me as I reached for it for some reason meaning I got nothing for pretty much the entire second half of the race. Anyways, with this I was suffering the last few kilometers from a lack of sugar and hydration and the quads, hips, and everything was starting to feel wonky. So basically I hit the time I wanted, but not how I wanted to do it, not to mention my calves were pretty much incapacitated for two days following the race. Luckily in Miami I am wearing a Skechers shoe with more cushion, and that I am more used to racing in -- plus it's bright Miami Orange!

Oct 31- Nov 6: No running monday or Tuesday thanks to the calves, but two big bikes outside those days (ya I said outside) just to get the feel of the road once again. The first was just long and steady and the second was 9x3minutes at threshold wattage (the last one was 3 minutes at 312W). Overall biked 300 km on the week, swam just under 24 km over 6 days, and ran just under 75 km for 25 more hours of training. My big run workouts were on Wednesday which was 12x2 minutes, then on Thursday did a 12 km progression down to race pace (each split gets faster and faster), and Sunday did a 24 minutes of intervals (2,2,3,2,4,2,3,2,2,2) with short 30 sec recoveries between each on an extremely hilly trail which made the overall RPE very high. There was also a brick workout on Saturday.

Nov 7-Race Day: This week I'm tapering so just a couple hours per day of training.

My Gameplan for Race Day to come in part 2, stay tuned. I hope this gave a decent look into what my training looks like, and some perspective on day to day workouts. Like I said at the start I'm obviously not going to go into crazy detail on every workout since I don't won't to devulge too too much to competitors.

My biggest challenge Yet

So far this year has been full of so many surprises, unexpected and incredibly low lows and brilliant highs. It really has been impossible to predict what will happen next. I started the year building my body for a string of running road races in the spring time. After I seemed to find something in the fall of 2015 training and racing consistently with the cross country team at McMaster and at the same time building towards the Houston Marathon in January, it was all for nothing as my hip, low back, and tibia was in shambles after a race at Queens in late October. In November, I was back to putting in big mileage training for the upcoming Houston Marathon capped off with some runs in the high 30s (38.5 km was the longest), some big long workouts and tempo runs, but by December 6 I had to call it quits after the pain (stress fracture) in my tibia was too much to run on. Again I took a few weeks off and by December 21st I was back running - like an idiot I ran 100km in my first week back, and 120 km the next week. Problem was really that I was off school those two weeks so had a lot of time on my hands. Anyways, throughout the fall I continued cycling and doing indoor trainer workouts, and then when I was injured in early December my bike volume really shot up. After doing alot of swimming in the summer of 2015 when cross country season started in September I had stopped, and didn't get back in the water until January where I would only swim 2x/week on the weekends. In January, although Houston was off the schedule, I was building nicely once again, this time I was following along with the Jack Daniels Running Formula for some direction. Although I didn't know it at the time, my self-coached program that I developed over the years was actually very similar to his that he describes in his books, we just used different terms. For instance he would describe workouts as I (interval) pace where I used to call them 5km pace, or T pace I would call half-marathon pace, or M pace I would call uptempo. Anyways so I started strictly following his program with his terminology and January was a fantastic month of training. I ran a very consistent mileage at around 135, 136, 137, 139 kilometers, was biking 5 days per week, and swimming like I previously mentioned on the weekend. On the weekends I would do a double run on the Saturday where I would swim then run 10 miles back home from the pool, and then jump straight into the car to run another 10 or 11 miles on the AlterG treadmill at about 83% of my body weight to reduce the impact. After those 4 weeks I picked up a knee injury that forced me to take a week off running, and again my bike mileage amped up. After a week I was back and running strong, stronger than ever actually and was destroying my workouts. I continued to bike regularly now following the trainerRoad plan I've discussed in previous posts, and swim on weekends but the thing is is that at this time I was still really only biking and swimming as a mode of cross training - A way of building my cardiovascular fitness without the impact of running. I still 100% identified myself as a runner and nothing else. I had a great race at the Achilles 5km where I ran 15:27 in crazy windy conditions, and then a great race at the Race Roster 8km with a 7th overall finish and 25:55 on a very hilly course with frigid cold and windy conditions. I figured it was equivalent to about a 24 high or low 25 which would by a breakthrough run. After the race though on my long run the next day half way through I felt something very strange in my left knee, and my regular blog readers will know that it went downhill in a hurry from hear. I had described the pain like a barb wire wrapping super tight around my entire knee and the back of my leg. I couldn't run period. Biking did not hurt it though, and now my swimming went from 2x/week to 7x/week. I was now training for a cycling time trial and then would be doing some Aquabike (Swim/Bike) races after that. I was unable to run for pretty much 2 months straight, and then built it back very slowly as I competed quite regularly and was winning Aquabike events all over Ontario. I had some incredible performances in Milton, Guelph where I won on back to back days in the Olympic and then the Sprint event the next day, and then a huge win in Welland over the Long Course distance. After my race in Milton, I contacted a swim coach Sheryl Ross who really has helped me more than words can describe. She completely turned me swimming around from where early in the year I would never have even imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be able to swim as fast as I am now. I mean just last week we did a set of 100s leaving on 1:20 coming in at 1:15. Early in the year I couldn't swim a 1:20 let alone a single 1:25 period. Early in the year if I was swimming 1:30s it was a good day. Under her direction my swimming continued to improve, and my biking was incredibly strong. July I had a massive training month added 2 more wins at Niagara, and in Kingston. Slowly but surely my mindset was starting to change. I was started to think more and more about going after triathlon full-time, instead of merely just doing these events/disciplines in times where I'm injured from running. In August my running was still very slowly coming back. I was up to about 80-100km per week, but the knee injury from April was still lingering and my biggest issue seemed to be overwhelming stifftness in my legs at the beginning of runs. In Orillia, where I would run off the bike for the first time of the season, the stiffness was almost overwhelming enough for me to pull out of the race. I got off the bike and what I had feared happened in that when my legs hit the ground I felt like it took every ounce of my strength to pick them up and keep on running. I told my Dad I'm done only a couple hundred meters in because I literally felt like the tin man. But I kept going and finished with the fastest run split of the day by two minutes, and only finished third and not in second because of horrible transitions. The stiffness/pain plagued my running throughout August, and then the week before my next race at Guelph my other knee started acting up. I had been needing to take boat loads of Advil to get through runs and I think early in the week before the race my stomach had enough. I couldn't stop throwing up, got a fever, and ended up needing to go to the hospital. After a late night, and a rough couple of days afterwards, I went to Guelph on the weekend with the intention of switching in the swim/bike, but I decided to do the full Triathlon, and really had what I consider the best win of my career given the circumstances going into and throughout the race. I then went to the Provincial Championships in Welland, and won the Aquabike event with a great performance, and then my focus was entirely on Miami. I did a 10k in Burlington the second week of October and won easily with a decent run, and then this past weekend did the Niagara Falls Half Marathon where I placed 9th. I was not trying to go to the well in this race, and ran pretty conservatively using it more as a big training workout for the Half-Ironman National Championship race in Miami November 13. After the race, my calves and legs in general were absolutely shredded due to a poor choice in footwear on my part (I picked one of the Skechers models that is more geared to 5km/10km unless your Meb Keflezighi when I should've used the other Skechers racing flats that I'm more used to). The last couple days have been a little rough for running, having to battle unbelievable stiffness in my legs (stiffness probably isn't the right word, more full on pain), but I'm keeping going. I have been running on a stress fracture in my right tibia for the last month and a half, but at this point nothing will stop me from competing in Miami. In fact, based on my performance in Miami I may apply for my Professional Card to compete as a Professional Triathlete next year. I really would never have thought early in the year, that I would even be considering this, crazy how circumstances change. Miami will be the longest race I've ever competed in, and probably the toughest, but still despite all the challenges my body has thrown at me this season I am so excited to push myself like I never have before. This year has been a struggle I'm not going to lie, and yes there have been many many times throughout the season where I've balled my eyes out and said I'm done, I can't take constantly being in pain when I'm trying to do what I love most, and yet even with all that I will go to Miami and give it my all not to prove anything to anyone, but instead because persevering through countless challenges is what makes me who I am, and there is nothing that give more pleasure then pushing my body well outside of its comfort zone and reaching new heights.