Warm Weather Training Part II

I have 2 more days here in sunny Florida and the training looks tough...I love it! I've accumulated the largest training volume and intensity during these past 2 weeks that I have ever completed. Two more days of "living to train" and I feel like I can't go back to sacrificing any training days for other activities (work, etc)...so how do I do it? How do any pro triathletes do it? Well, coaching is one way. I really love to coach the two athletes that I have right now...it's great for sustaining "life as a pro" as well. My anticipated high finishes at my races this year can be another way to at least "justify" this goal of living to train and race. Hey, if I train like this, I should improve in my racing therby making it a necessity to "live to train" so that I can improve even further!
The first race for me this season is in a little over a month. California 70.3 on March 29th...always a super-stacked race, but a good one to gauge where I am at this point in the season. Next up is Ironman Brazil on May 25th. Here, I am hoping for a spot on the podium as well as a wicked fast time! Next will be an "altitude training camp" in Boulder late June/early July and a race in Rhode Island on July 13th (Providence 70.3). After Brazil I will have a better idea as to where my season will be going...Canada? Wisconsin? Kona? Time will tell...in the meantime, I am getting the best winter training ever!

This week, Mike sent me my schedule "over the phone" as he got hit by a car on his bike last weekend. As a result,typing for him is no fun right now. Luckily he is "OK" (I say that in qoutes because he did sustain a nasty gash to the face and a broken arm and shoulder, bad enough of course, but LUCKILY nothing worse)...the driver screeched away and no one on the group ride had time to get the lisence plate. A real shame. No mercy for Mike though...he had my weekly workouts ready to go. ;-) The schedule this week included some VO2 Max sessions up Sugarloaf Mtn Rd (see pictures) producing the highest wattage ever! Also, some lower wattage (but painful enough) intervals the very next morning as well as a "tempo run". Already I have completed two hard swim sessions prescribed by Rick Ferriola, along with "Don Rourke's Core", of course. Up next: a hard swim with Wolf tomorrow, followed by a hill repeat run workout and then a ride with one sustained interval equivelent to "comfortably hard". Friday is a 100-mile ride (hoping to ramp up the watts throughout the ride, followed by a 40 minute run off the bike and a recovery swim. Saturday I fly home, but it isn't so bad...George and I head to California to watch the Tour of California and do some great riding on Tuesday! Life is good... :-)

Sugarloaf Mtn. Road

Warm Weather Training Part I

So, I headed out to Clermont, Florida last Friday to escape the cold and do a 2 week training block in warmer weather (I must add that this trip is thanks to George who I know doesn't want the credit, but gets it...if it weren't for him, I would be suffering in the cold wet weather of New York right now). As I prepared to come down to Florida I wasn't sure what to expect as I didn't have any "specific plans", but a friend Andre Lapar (and manager of the web-based coaching website http://www.workoutlog.com/ which I use to manage my training programs for my atheltes) offered out his house as a place to stay. I must say that I completely "lucked-out!" Andre's house is awesome! It's located a little over a mile from the National Training Center which has a gorgeous 50 meter outdoor pool and weight room facilites (I don't even have to rent a car) ! Andre's house is also super close to the lake and to the bike path that goes all the way to Orlando and is an ideal spot for an easy spin or for running. As if this weren't enough, super biking is only a couple of miles from his house! North is a great way to get in some serious hills on really quite roads (yes, this is a VERY hilly section of Florida...maybe the ONLY hilly section of Florida?), and south is endless roads in farmland where I can ride for hours without stopping. It is an IDEAL place to train!
The best part was stumbling on some great roommates!! Canadians, Wolfgang and Nicole Guembel, who happen to be husband and wife as well as professional triatletes, are staying at the house as well. They are truly fantastic folks and have been phenomenal company! They recently started their own tri team called "Nuw Theory (two dots on top of the "U" as Wolfgang is German). They also coach, run training camps, and are probably the best resources that I have come across for anything and everything involved in making a career out of racing as a professional triathlete. I've learned a ton from them already and they have become great friends...I hope to visit them this summer at their house in Canada for some great training up near Niagra Falls!

My training thus far has gone fantastically as I am able to completely submerge myself in doing "everything right". I sleep 9+ hours at night, eat well, swim everyday (some days just for recovery...I love swimming outdoors!) rest when I have to, bike hard, run hard, swim hard and do daily stretching and core routines. My coach, Mike has my training so dialed in that he knows just how to push the limits of my training to make huge gains without "wrecking myself". Also, I have zero distractions here and it has paid off as I have completed some of the best training days to date! Tomorrow I have Vo2 workout #2 on the bike (I did a similar workout last week). I'll be doing hard intervals up "Sugar Loaf", which is a huge hill that is located on the bike section of the Great Floridian Ironman DistanceTriathlon. I'll update the blog tomorrow with some pictures of Sugarloaf, but in the meantime, here are some pictures that I have taken so far:

Nic and Wolf in their Altitude tent, the NTC pool and Wolf loading their car which is a traveling billboard...