2 great weekend getaways! (This isn't a travel ad)

Well, we have been away for a couple of weekends for weddings, so I've fallen behind again updating this little hobby.  A week and a day ago, we were at our friends Jason and Alexis's wedding in Crested Butte.  The wedding was beautiful and everyone had a good time.  Jaime cut a rug and I had fun watching.  Every time we go to Crested Butte it reaffirms just how much it is my favorite place that I have been.  I somehow need to figure out how to move us there permanantly.  It wasn't all wedding activities that weekend though.  A few of the guests, including the groom, raced in the Fat Tire 40.  Talk about a fun race!  Probably my favorite race that I have done.  Also the toughest.  40 miles of sweet Crested Butte trails, and tons of climbing and technical descending (5,000 ft by my garmin, or 7500 according to the website).  I've never done a mtn bike race that long so I paid for it.  I had some really bad cramping at mile 32 and suffered up the last long climb before finishing on the downhill course, which was just rad.  I ended up 19th in the Wildcat class with a time of 4:27:39  I can't wait to get back there for a training camp to ride some more trails.

Deer Creek Trail - part of the Fat Tire 40 course:  Courtesy of www.singltracks.com, user bonkedagain

This weekend we were at our friends Maija and Adam's wedding.  Another beautiful wedding outside with the splendor of the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop.  We had a great time meeting their family and other friends.  On Sunday we drove over to Beaver Creek to get a pre ride and run in on the Xterra course.  More climbing climbing climbing.  The legs didn't feel great today, which always makes you question if there will be there on race day.  Things will lighten up with some race specific workouts to keep sharp in the next couple of weeks, so I'm not too worried about being ready.  This week should be a quiet week at the office with lots of people taking advantage of the mid-week holiday and taking the rest of the week off.  Hopefully I can get caught up a little be there and maybe get ahead of a few things so the week leading up to Beaver Creek is less stressful.  As it looks now, that week could be a rough one. 

Last year my times at Beaver Creek were:
Swim:  22:51
T1:  1:21
Bike:  1:34:43
T2:  :40
Run:  46:48
Total:  2:46:31

This year my goals are
Swim:  22:30
T1:  1:20
Bike:  1:30:00
T2:  40
Run:  45:30
Total:  2:40:00

On a non-training note, I found a good recipe for an asian coleslaw that looks to be paleo friendly that I can't wait to try with some salmon tomorrow night.  I'll be sure to put the recipes for both up if it turns out good.  That's all for now.

Train smart

Should I be concerned?

So far so good this week.  Nailed the speed swim Monday morning, had a good functional strength session Monday night, had a decent swim Tuesday morning and a nice aerobic run in some serious heat Tuesday night.  Getting lots of stuff done at the office and have been super paleo on my eating the past 4 days.  That's another side effect of the higher work stress....hitting the snack bowls full of junk at the office.  You can really feel a difference when you are very strict and then slip up.

So I got an interesting email today from training peaks.  The subject read:  Threshold notification for Nick Swanson.  The body read:

"After analyzing the data you uploaded into your TrainingPeaks account, we believe your threshold(s) have changed. Below are the threshold(s) we believe to be correct according to our analysis of your data:

Suggested Pace Threshold: 8:25 min/mile
Current Pace Threshold: 6:26 min/mile"

Now, I admit, my threshold pace is not a 6:26 mile, or at least I haven't done anything to prove that it is this year.  However, it surely isn't 8:25/mile either.  Just thought that this was funny.  It would be one thing if a training partner shot me a jab telling me that I was getting slower, but for my training log to tell me that, well, I can't even fire back. 

I guess I've got some work to do!

Happy training

NS

Catching up

It has been awhile since my last post.  Things have been really busy with training and working both in my day job and the side gig, working in the yard, chores, etc.  Race season has quickly come and is actually almost 1/3 over!  To quickly summarize:

Las Vegas:  Great race up until the run.  Unlucky timing on #2 #2 of the day.

Voodoo Fire Mtn Bike race:  flatted out.  Fun trails - just not to race on.

Summer open sprint tri:  Raced hard.  Ridiculously crappy day to be outside.  Seriously 3 ft swells on Union reservoir.  Bike wasn't so much fun either with the wind.  I wore a jacket because it was cold, so it was like having a parachute attached.  Not a great result.

Xterra 4 corners:  Had a really good race.  2nd in age group, somewhere around top 10 overall.  The race course got vandalized so the run course was kinda hosed up, but most of us ran roughly the same 4.2ish miles.

Winter Park Hill Climb:  Ouch.  First race in expert class.  Finished exactly in the middle of my age group, or 4th out of 7.  Had 2 and 3 held to 20 seconds for first 3 miles, but couldn't hang on.  Ended up needing about 2 mins better, but was happy with 42:49 as my time.

Next up:  Clif Bar Fat Tire 40.  40 miles, 7500 ft of climbing.  Followed by friends Jason and Alexis's wedding all in the mtn bike capital of Crested Butte.  CAN'T WAIT!

Training in general has been very hit or miss with consistency being hard to accomplish.  My boss left our company, so I've had to step up my workload considerably.  Some weeks things go smoothly, other weeks I miss key workouts, such as last week when I missed a key LT bike/run combo then a key swim session on back to back days.  Even when I can make the workouts from a time standpoint it is increasingly difficult to get in the right state of mind mentally.  By the end of the day my brain is fried.  Hopefully some help is coming but in the near term I am trying not to dwell too much on missed workouts and just make the workouts that I get in really count.

The Xterra Mountain Championships are the next key race.  Lots of climbing training sessions on the bike and run are the formula right now.  That race would have the swim go uphill if it could!  I am very much looking forward to it though.  After the race Jaime and I are going to see Brandi Carlisle at Red Rocks with Gregory Alan Isakov opening for her.  I have become a huge fan of Isakov's and I enjoy Brandi's music as well, so it should be an all around fun weekend.

Time for some rest.  Another big week starts tomorrow morning with a speed swim.  Gotta get the arms moving faster!

NS

Why did I wait so long to go here?

Fruita....Wow, what a mountain bikers paradise!  I've lived in Colorado for almost 5 years now and I had never made it out to Fruita until last weekend.  I can't believe how good the mountain biking is, and it is only 4 hours from Denver.

Team Adrenalin/EPC went out for a mountain bike training camp last weekend to hone our skills before the race season starts in Las Vegas next week.  The riding in Fruita is quite a bit different than the Front range.  I would say that there is less climbing to be done in Fruita, although I'm sure you can find it.  There are areas that are like Moab, with rocky, technical ledges, and then there is lots of fun flowing singletrack all over the place that is super fun to session. 

Friday we went out to the western rim trail.  Much of the trail looks out over the Colorado river and runs along the rim, above it, hence the name.  The scenery out here is beautiful.  I have always enjoyed the southwestern landscape, with the red rock and buttes and dramatic cliffs, all dotted by low bush and scrub.  When you add in the greenish Colorado river below, I'm not sure you can ask for much more.

Jaime riding up the ridge

On Saturday we met up with Lee McCormack who is the guru when it comes to teaching people how to really ride a bike.  We dialed in our new skills at the Fruita bike park, had some lunch, then headed out to the trails at 18 road for some seriously fun single track.  We rode up Prime Cut, then rode down Joe's Ridge, then back up the dirt road and did two laps on Kessel Run.  Here's a video of Joe's Ridge to give you an idea of just how much fun it is.

I could have sessioned these trails for many more hours, but we had to get back to town for a cookout, which was a great time.  It was fun to sit around a fire and talk about what we learned and our upcoming race season. 

The next morning we got up, got a quick ride in and headed back home to Denver.  All in all it was a great trip.  Jaime and I both learned a lot of skills.  Jaime had her first real mountain bike crashes, which is good because you've got to learn that falls don't really hurt that bad.  Although she did taco her front wheel pretty good!

I can't wait to get back here to ride some more.  In the meantime it is one more week of race prep training, then a taper week and then the Xterra West Championships!

Happy trails!

NS

Corrective Actions Taken

Last week was a tough one…  Last week was the second week in a tough 3 week block that is a key block in getting ready for Las Vegas.  The first week of the block was executed perfectly – or so I thought.  Little did I know that during this whole week the train was going off the track little by little.  I nailed all of my key workouts, culminating with the biggest day of the year so far on Saturday March 3.  Cody, Chris and I started the day with masters swim at 6:30, joined by Jaime and Kathy.  Then the three of us rode down to do the hour of power rides at 9 and 10 with some other EPC’ers.  These are fast group rides with quite a lot of race efforts in them.   After about 3.5 hours in the saddle fighting the wind, we ran for an hour through Bear Creek Park with some hard 6 minute efforts.  I made it through the day, but it took its toll.

I felt fine on Sunday, getting a 4km swim in and then on Monday I nailed my hard hill run.  Tuesday is when the wheels sort of came off.  I just had no energy, so I skipped my AM swim and barely made it through the trainer class Tuesday night.   I didn’t sleep will Sunday or Monday night, so that didn’t help.  The bigger problem, I think, was a macronutrient deficiency.  The great thing about the Paleo diet is that you are eating food that your body has evolved to eat.  That naturally means it is higher in protein and healthy fats due to a caveman’s tendency to hunt and kill animals as opposed to grow crops.  It also means that it is naturally lower in carbohydrates than the typical American diet.  This generally is a healthier approach.  However for an endurance athlete it means you have to make a concerted effort to get, natural, minimally processed carbohydrates into your diet.

When I went back and analyzed my diet, I had been getting about 0.6 gram/kg of protein, 1 gram/kg of fat and about 3-3.5 grams/kg of carbohydrate.  At a minimum I should be getting 5-7 grams/kg of carbohydrates every day and 10-12 grams/kg on big days like Saturday. 

The net result of all of this is that I had to take Wednesday completely off, only do an easy spin on Thursday, and an easy strength session and stretch cords on Friday.  I was back to my normal energy levels on Saturday and was able to hit the masters swim and hour of power ride again.  On Sunday I had a really good race simulating run of 4.3 miles averaging 6:40/mile. 

Lots of fruits, both fresh and dried (apricots, dates and raisins are best since they usually don’t have sugar added, which would make them definitely not Paleo) are being added back to my diet.  I also started taking First Endurance Optygen which helps with energy among other things.  I have already noticed a difference and I’m going to make sure to monitor things much more closely in terms of my macronutrient balance in addition to the overall caloric intake. 

Paleo diet carbo loading!  Yum!

I’m really looking forward to hard work this week before a recovery week next week.  I always hate missing workouts, but had I pushed through last week there is a good chance I would have ended up in a hole that would have been really difficult to dig out of and may have missed more than 2 key days.  Sometimes you have to listen to your body rather than fight it.

Jaime was also feeling run down, so we are adjusting her program down a bit since she really needs to build her aerobic base more than add intensity.  Broad bases make for higher peaks!  She also needed to be getting more carbs, hence the massive amounts of bananas and other fruits.

Best song this week...well it happened to be on the radio on my way to the first 6:30 masters class.  Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes came on, which reminded me of Hawaii, which is why I"m working so hard - to make it to the Xterra World Championships in Maui.

The first crack at qualifying is just over 1 month away at the West Championships in Las Vegas.  Jaime is going to race the sprint race for her first tri in 2+ years!  Can't wait to make the trip!  Also on tap is a weekend in Fruita at the end of the month.  I'm very ready to get in some riding on dirt!

Train smart

NS

Phew, we made it through this block

What a solid week!!  Jaime and I just wrapped up our 2nd three week block of training today.  I think we are both very ready for a recovery week to recharge our bodies.  We both had a really solid week, capped off by a nice, relatively speaking, weekend.  In addition to good training sessions, we went to a comedy club in Westminster on Friday night which was a really good time.  Good to get some laughs!

This weekend had a nice long run on Saturday around Bear Creek Lake park, then a long swim at Wheat Ridge Rec Center.  Today we had a nice long ride from Morrison to Golden, 3 trips up lookout mountain, and back to Morrison.  The ride was very well attended by the Adrenalin powered by EPC team with a good combination of various paces.  It was so nice to finally get back outside.  I think I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my face today!  Not positive, but I think I set a PR up lookout on the first trip up.  I'll have to go back through my training logs to find out.

Next week will be a much needed recovery week for Jaime and I.  I'm really looking forward to doing the next round of swim and run fitness tests after some days of light activity and recovery to see where my fitness is at.

It is looking like the plan to qualify for the World Champs at the race in Alabama has had a wrench thrown in.  The Alabama race is now the ITU world championships, so I will now attempt to qualify at the West Championship race in Las Vegas in less than 2 months (yikes!).  Press release here:  http://www.xterraplanet.com/news/press_article.cfm?id=3200 
This is relatively suboptimal, since I'm really just building back the fitness from last year and most of the athletes in the southwestern part of the country are in the middle part of their season.  I will go and do my best and if things work out, great, otherwise, I'm not going to get too worked up over it.

There were 2 great paleo meals that we made this week.  On Saturday night Jaime went out to dinner for a girls night, so I made a grilled flank steak with my favorite rub and sauteed onions, peppers and garlic, with roasted Yam chips.  The key to this steak is the rub.  It is a mixture of cocoa powder, ancho chili powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, salt and pepper.  You can play around with the proportions, but generally speaking I like to go in declining % of the total as ancho, then cocoa, then garlic, cinnamon, salt, pepper.  Rub the steak down, brush with extra virgin olive oil and grill to medium rare.  I prefer to cook the food while listening to my Wilco station on pandora on the TV, but that is your call.  Top the steak with the onions and peppers, serve with the chips on the side.  Delicious!

 The other good paleo meal was sauteed salmon with roasted butternut squash, crispy kale chips, all dressed with a maple sherry vinaigrette.  Kale chips may be my new favorite food.

My favorite workout this week was probably today's ride.  We had a solid group out there today and pushed each other.  Best workout song was Moth by Audioslave, which came on during Wednesday's AeT run (which happened to be one of my best runs of the year).

Keep training hard and don't forget to rest when you body says to.

NS

New stuff is fun!

Last week was a big week for me.  I took the plunge and bought my first new bike since Jaime and I got married 3+ years ago.  It certainly doesn't seem like I've been riding my Specialized S-Works Epic for that long, but it's true.  I went with the Cannondale Flash Carbon 29er 1.  That was definitely the highlight of the week for me, even though the time spent at the shop cost me a run.


The week started off pretty bad training wise, with some stomach problems from some evil non-paleo superbowl food, then we had some visitors, then the night at the shop.  Things got on track Thursday and I pushed it pretty hard through the weekend.  I netted 2 swims, 3 runs and 2 rides, plus one day of weights/core.  Not bad considering I missed 3 days.  Extra recovery isn't necessarily a bad thing though.  Better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained, or so some very smart people have said.

It was another pretty rough weather weekend.  A small, hardy group of 5 joined in on the Saturday run.  We cut it to about 1:15:00 since it was about 7 degrees out when we started.  Snow and cold temps kept the riding inside again, so I had another 3 hour cruise in the living room.  Here's how that went:
 
Description, Time, Watts


Warm up, 10
Spin up 90-120 rpm, 3
easy, 1
Spin up 90-150, rpm 3
easy, 1
Big gear ILT, 7
easy, 1
Easy gear ILT, 6
easy, 2
Standing Climb 50-60 RPM, 15, 210-220
easy, 2
Seated Climb 50-60 RPM, 15, 210-220
easy, 2
Standing Climb 50-60 RPM, 15, 210-220
easy, 2
Seated Climb 50-60 RPM, 15, 210-220
easy, 5
Endurance, 5, 170
Tempo, 10, 200
Sweet Spot, 5, 215
easy, 5
Endurance, 5, 170
Tempo, 10, 200
Sweet Spot, 5, 215
easy, 5
Endurance, 5, 170
Tempo, 10, 200
Sweet Spot, 5, 215
Spin out at 110-120 rpm, 3
Easy, 2

Hopefully I won't have to do that again, but the odds are not in my favor.

Song of the week:  Running up that hill by Placebo.