Training Update.

I’m at the beginning of my “base” period for this year’s training. The “base” period consists of a dramatic increase in total weekly volume (20-30%/week), with a recovery week every fourth week or so. Most weeks are very high volume, with several weeks of over 20 hours of total training volume! By the way, this is *actual* training volume, not counting driving to the pool, breaks by the side of the road, etc.

Most of the training in this “base” period is low intensity, in heart rates Z1-Z2, with occasional Z3 work. Basically, I’m training my body to be able to complete the longest distances in my race season comfortably. I do occasional “speed skills” workouts, where I practice the motions of swim/bike/run at high speeds, with high mechanical efficiency, in short intervals with long rests. This helps to train my body to maintain it’s form during long races, when the body weakens and starts to lose coherence.

I’m increasing my run mileage 2-3 miles per week. I’m going to hit about 30mpw this week, hopefully by the end of the base period I can be close to 50mpw without any injuries. However, I’m not going to push the running, as running well at Ironman is really all about bike efficiency and less about run speed.

Cycling mileage is going way up. Most of my increases in volume come on the bike. My long rides are currently at 4.5 hours and getting longer each week. I try to do two other medium-length rides per week, and maybe a fourth ride if the weekly volume requires it.

Swimming is in maintenance mode. I had a great swim-focused off-season, where I improved my swim significantly. I’m now swimming 4-5 times per week, for about 12,000-15,000 total yards.

I feel pretty good about my training right now. I hope I can have the motivation to get these high-volume weeks in, as I’ve never done anything with this much volume in training before. I also hope that my other life activities–studying, moving to Florida, etc–are low-stress enough that I can get this training done. I’m sure I’ll make the time, but you never know.

Alright, time for afternoon training–2:20 on the trainer, 1:00 run, 1:00 swim! Mega Tuesday!

I Have a New Home for the Next Six Years.

It’s official–Lana Darlene Muniz is going to attend the University of Florida, in pursuit of a PhD in Physics, starting in August of 2009.  They are paying for 100% of her tuition, and giving her a very nice stipend as well.  Wow.  Lana is super smart and awesome!

We visited the UF campus in Gainesville, Florida this weekend.  We flew in early on Thursday and took a look at places to live.  We saw several different apartment complexes and eventually settled on one called “Brandywine Condominiums,” which offers HUGE 1,200 square foot 2 bdrm/2 bath cat-friendly apartments at a very low price.  They even offer ceramic tile floors in select units, which, according to the two Smartest Ladies in my life (Lana and my Mom) is really the way to go.

The next day Lana went to campus to talk with members of the UF Physics faculty, Physics grad students, and administrative personnel.  She seemed very impressed by the conversations she had, and is very excited about the program!  (During this time, I, who is NOT attending UF’s Physics program, doubled back to Brandywine and got more info on the apartments, and did an 11 mile sightseeing run around the campus.)

Now that we’re back in Bloomington, our attention turns to Plans, Plans, Plans:

1.  First up is the signing and mailing of the acceptance letter!
2. Next is the signing of the lease. This may be a bit tricky, as our schedules are tight around August 1, and we have to sign the lease over fax/snail mail, but we’re gonna make it work. We need to get money together for security deposit, moving expenses, etc.
3. Lana is considering studying at CERN via sponsorship by UF this summer. We need to figure out how to make that work, and if I can come for part or all of it.
4. I need to find a job in Gainesville starting in August. Please hire me?
5. I need to figure out how I’m going to get to Ironman Wisconsin in September. I’ll probably have to fly, which means more money on plane tickets.
6. We both need new clothes! Neither of us have bought clothes in a while, and the warm Florida climate necessitates a rethinking of our wardrobes.
7. Also, I need to graduate from Grad School.

Basically, we have ideas on all these fronts and have all summer to finalize them. Though my future is a bit uncertain right now, what is certain is that I am incredibly happy for all of Lana’s success, and that whatever I end up doing, I will be happy just being with her!

Spring Break and Florida Trip!

I haven’t updated here in a while, because I have pretty much fully embraced the beauty of Twitter, the microblogging service that allows me to update the World on the mundane details and witty witticisms of my life, 140 characters at a time.  Checkout my twittert:  http://twitter.com/martinmccrory

Lana and I did our spring break last week.  We rented a beautiful romantic cabin (at a rediculously awesome price from a company called Sunset Cottages, I have to recommend them if you’re heading to the Smokies) in the outskirts of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest.  Our cabin had a nice view of the Appalachian foothills, and also included a hot tub AND a jacuzzi.  Awesome.  We spent most of our break sampling the “local cuisine,” relaxing, doing a few touristy things and some cycling, though it was a bit hilly for the tandem bike.

Oh yeah, I forgot–right before we went to the Smokies, Lana and I made a stop in Champaign, where I ran a DDR tournament!  We attracted some of the best players in the world, including Kevin Boddy, one of the greatest dancers ever.  Everything ran smoothly, the new format I tried worked reasonably well, and I think that everyone had a great time.  It was good to see my Champaign friends one more time.

Training is going okay.  I took two weeks pretty much completely off before and during spring break, only cycling for about 8 hours total and taking a complete break from swimming and running.  I’ve been a bit under the weather with a cold the past few days, and that combined with the “flatness” that comes from taking two weeks off has resulted in some pretty awful workouts in the last few days.  My blister on my left foot is acting up again, as well.  I hope I can recover completely before the 13.1 race next weekend!  However, I am confident that I will return to full strength by the time my real races come around in May.

Lastly, right now Lana and I are in the Indianapolis Airport, waiting to board a plane to Florida!  Lana has meetings with personnel from the University of Florida physics department all day tomorrow, and I’m tagging along to look at potential places to live down there.  I am cautiously optimistic about the likelihood of us going there–barring any catastrophe, Lana’s offer is so good (full ride, tuition, awesome stipend) that it would be tough for any other school to match it.  Year-long summer, here we come!

An Odd Observation about my Physical Fitness.

Compared to 10 months ago, I’m 15 pounds heavier (157lbs this morning, 142 in May of last year).  However, I’m way faster at all three triathlon disciplines, and I fit in my clothes pretty much the same as I did then.  My shirts are a bit tighter in the chest, but my waistline is the same.

WTF?

Usually, weight gain means a reduction in speed, especially when running, but my running may be my most improved triathlon discipline of all!

When I find myself gaining weight, often I try to rationalize it like “oh I’m just gaining some muscle” or “oh it’s just winter weight” or “oh it’s a stressful period right now” or something like that.  However, this time around, I’m honestly stumped, because if I really gained muscle, I’d probably be running slower, and the last two excuses are bs excuses anyway.

Did I really gain some muscle mass, possibly from the extra swimming I’ve been doing?  Am I getting fat, and just improving my running at a faster rate than I am improving my gluttony?  I have no idea.

But, since all in all I’m getting to be a better triathlete, I’m not gonna worry about it too much.

Race Report: Sprint “Tri”, March 1, 2009.

Weather forecast: 25 degrees, with wind chills in the low teens. Triathlon weather? Sure, why not. That was the plan, at least.

As Lana and I arrived at the race site in Shelbyville, KY, we found out that the roads were too icy for cycling, and that the race had become a 5k/400y run/swim. Honestly, I was okay with that. Though I had the warm clothing to get the ride done, it was just too icy for cycling. The way we triathletes handle our bikes I guarantee that at least one person would have gone down hard on the ice!

After registering, a brief (but necessary) warm-up run in the negative bajillion degree weather, and a pre-race briefing where we were instructed to run, then swim, we gingerly took the starting line.

I knew that choosing the right clothing for this run was going to be important. Overdress, and you’ll retain a bunch of sweat as you run, which is both disgusting and weighs a lot. Underdress, and you’ll spend too much energy trying to retain heat. However, in a short race like a 5k it’s hard to underdress, since your body generates so much heat while running. So, I decided just to wear two baselayer shirts and tri shorts, with some earmuff thingys. Usually, 30 degrees is my cutoff for shorts vs. tights, but I figured that in the 22 minutes of running I was planning on doing, I could make it through with just the shorts.

The “gun” went “off,” and we started running. The course was laid out nicely, mostly through cart paths on a relatively hilly golf course, but the freezing rain and snow the day before meant that we were forced to run *just off* the cart path, on the cambered grass next to the path. This slowed everyone down considerably, due to the soft surface, the uneven camber, some tight turns and some unplanned “rope hurdles” (the mini-fences they use to keep carts on the path at certain times, you know what I’m talking about).

At any rate, after the first three minutes I felt fine with my clothing choices. My legs went a bit numb but they turned over pretty well. I hit the turnaround in about 15-20th place in 11:40, and made it back to the swimming facility in 22:20 (negative split! HahA! It was downhill on the way back though), passing a few people on the way. Not bad for a cold-as-hell, running-on-slightly-frozen-uneven-hilly-grass 5k!

After a quick transition in the makeshift “T1″ (we all just put our stuff in the hallway near the pool), I jumped in for the 400y swim and felt surprisingly good. No cramps, good rhythm, everything was great! The yards I’ve been putting in during the off-season paid off today. I passed three people during the swim (and no one passed me) and finished the swim in 6:14 for a total race time of 29:13.

Ending with the swim was interesting, as I felt like I had more in the tank aerobically, but I just didn’t have it in my muscles to go any more.

So it was a good race. I wish there had been some cycling but I can understand that they had to bag it–it was just too icy. Lana was awesome for enduring the cold weather with me, and taking some sweet pictures and a sweet video of me swimming! (Sorry about the poor quality, not sure how that happened.)

Endnote: I did a 3 hour, 50 mile trainer ride when we got back to Bloomington. 29 minutes of working out is just not enough!!