Weekend Wrap-Up

Flew in late last night, so I was hoping to sleep in a bit today, but for some reason, I didn't. I had a swim and bike on the schedule to loosen up before the Jack Frost Time Trial tomorrow. Headed to the pool around 2pm. Decent workout. Scott has me doing some fly, back and breast stroke work now. My new stroke works great with fly and breaststroke. Not so much with backstroke. I have no idea if I am doing the fly correctly. It doesn't hurt, so, I should be close. It's fun, but very taxing.

Later that afternoon I spun out on the trainer for 90mins watching a Tour of California stage. Then it was bed.

JACK FROST TT

The first rider went off at 9:45am Sunday morning, my time, was 1:09pm...a bit later. I signed up with OBRA as a category 4/5 still...but when I went to sign-up foe the time trial (TT), I put down Cat 3. I knew I was going to be competitive in that Cat. But, all that was good for was getting a later start time and less rain for the race since I ended up being scored as a 4/5.

There was a gnarly wind all morning plus some rain mixed in. The wind ended up being a tail wind for the out and a headwind for the back. Reports were coming in of a 10mph difference...yikes. I had no computer or HR monitor, still, so it was all on perceived effort (PE). I figured if I listened to my legs and went hard enough to hurt, yet easy enough to get the lactic acid flushed, I should do well.

I went flying out of the gate @1:09pm as the last rider of Cat 3. There was no one chasing me, I had the whole Cat to chase down...each rider started in 30 sec intervals. I caught the first guy in the first couple minutes. The second guy just after the turnaround as the wind (20mph+) was in our faces. It hurt...I clicked down to some easier gears, still in the big ring. I had to keep my cadence a little higher than onthe way out to keep it "easier to maintain some speed."

I crossed the line in 29mins 4 seconds...good for a 4th place tie in Cat 3 (where I wanted to be scored) and 1st place in the 4/5s (where I ended up being scored). I was tied for 22nd (out of 314) in the combined results. My time was also faster than last year by 20 seconds. Overall, a solid effort coming off the training week in AZ.

Here's me coming off the last corner before the finish!

AZ Camp - Day Seven - Last Day

Today is supposed to be a travel day, but since we skipped two swims, we decided to swim at the old folks resort, Sun Lakes, while Jen's mom watched tennis. It was a nice 25m outdoor pool, all to ourselves. Swim was 2*1000 and 6*300 descend (r30sec). 300's went from 4:40 to 4:14 on the last, descended all the way. Good workout.


Since the week is over, we went to lunch at In&Out Burger. That stuff is so good. I think it's because the lettuce is whole and very crisp...the sauce is good too, but the lettuce makes the burger. Oh, also had strawberry milkshake!


Back to the house to pack everything up. I went through 5+ pounds of maltodextrin this week, just on the rides.


Weekly totals:
Swim: 14,000yards
Bike: 360 miles
Run: 30 miles


We bikes more than I planned, but that was due the lack of hills. Swim and Run were down slightly from planned, but whatever!

And "for the record, it is "Tucson", not "Tuscan". Tuscan is a adjective for items form the Italian province and Ecker marriage spot of Toscana(Tuscany). Tucson is the little city in Southern Arizona." Thanks Brian!

AZ Camp - Day Six

Today is the day we climb Mt. Lemmon. It's a 26 mile, 7100' climb to nearly 9000' We got local knowledge and parked at Le Buzz cafe for some coffee and food. But before we got there, Bill and I headed out @ 8am for a run. Ran the Octillo Golf Course loop (5.5), about two minutes faster than the previous time earlier in the week. Made breakfest of chocolate waffles...damn good. We packed the bikes and headed to Tuscan. 90mins later we arrived @ Le Buzz.

It was getting pretty warm already in Tuscan. High 70's for sure. Altitude at the start was just above 2000' and the actual climb started @ 2400' We warmed up with a 5 mile ride to the base. The plans were to work this into a 4 hour ride, but having to climb for 2.5 hours to the top with an average pace of 10mph sounded like we didn't need much more riding. As it worked out, we were over...

Let the climbing begin! The grade averaged between 5-8% to the top. There were about 2 spots that leveled out before we hit 8000' @ mile 20. From there it went down again and back up to 8000' before we turned off to go to Ski Valley, the highest part. I figure we topped out at 8500' There are 7 climate zones we rode through. The best being when we got high enough, 6000' or so, to where the evergreens began to grow. Looked alot like Central Oregon at that point. Just before that, the rock formations were really cool as well.

We tried to eat at the lodge, but they were bitches and were closed to feed a film crew up there. We went down the the Cookie Cabin instead and got a HUGE cookie, Coke and pizza. It was a bit cold so we sat around the fire that was outside, nice.

Once fueled, we started back down. Coming up there was a head wind around almost every bend. So, coming down was a bit dodgy at times flying around a corner at 40mp+ (sometimes 50mph) and into a cross/head wind. It was still fun all the same. The snow banks on the side of the road made for cold wind while coming up and going down! Bill and I stopped a few more times on the way down to get photos and shoot some video. I'll post up to Youtube and get a link soon.

In the end, it was a 4 hour 20 minute day, 62 miles with 8000' of climbing (7100' in a row). We averaged 11 mph up, 40mph+ down. Jumped in the car, back to Phoenix and some Deep Dish Old Chicago pizza and some Belgian beers! Tomorrow is the last day...sad.

AZ Camp - Day Five

Chandler, AZ - 75 degrees and Sunny

Oh the humanity! The pool situation here is less than desirable, so since the Kiwana's pool was disgustingly hot, we went to an outdoor 25m pool that only has lap swims from 5:30-7:30 in the morning. Today is a 7 hour ride followed by a 30min run with the swim...damn!

The swim was awesome. A heated pool @ 6:15 in the dark desert morning is kick ass! It was like swimming through fog with the steam rising off the lanes. The sun was rising in the distance, pretty cool. Got the 4000yards in and done by 7:30.

The bike was equally cool. The route I planned took us to Fountain Hills, up 9 mile hill (3% max) and into Cave Creek/Carefree and back through Scottsdale to Chandler (home). The first bit to Fountain Hills was part of IMAZ bike course. That "hill" with a head wind wasn't fun. Even without it, doing three loops of that very gradual hill for an IM, would be hard. After that we spun through Fountain Hills. Pretty cool little place. Think Santa Barbara in the desert. There was one section that included a 18% downhill for about a quarter mile. 50mph+ We should have turned around and climbed it, but we didn't. It was going to be a 130 mile day, no need to hurt just yet.














After Fountain Hills, we headed out to 9 mile hill. Bill had done this in a IMAZ training camp last year. There were some nice rollers getting there. This lead us the backside of Scottsdale. Rode by a ranch with the title of "El Rancho Costa Plenty." You think I'm kidding, nope I'm not! Once into Carefree (Sincuidados) and Cave Creek we were hungry and stopped for lunch at Bad Donkey. Super nice people and great meatball sandwhich.

My Gmap mileage was off a bit, so we decided to cut the route short and head straight down Scottsdale Rd. to Pinnacle Peak and then pick up the route after that. Good idea since we ended with 130, the short way. We found our wall on Pima, Bell, Frank Lloyd Wright and Shea Blvd back to the south side of Fountain Hills, where we turned off of Beeline getting out to FH. The last climb was to FH, nice climb, fast cars and minimal shoulder. Once back into town, we took Alma School road home. Stop light sprint fest.

We arrived just about dusk and quickly put the running shoes on for a 30 minute run. Felt good for about 5 minutes then all hell broke loose. I felt like shit, couldn't get a good breath, kept tasting the meatball sub, etc...i cut it short by a few minutes. Bill, on the other hand, had a great run. Good to see his nutrition is working now.

Dinner was marinated chicken, jasmine rice, broccoli, bread, milk, beer, water, fruit and more water.

AZ Camp Day Four - Feb 21st

Chandler, AZ - 66 degrees

Here's where was chill and relax...we chillax! The pool is super cold and great to soak the legs in after a ride. In the right corner is the hot tub! It's rough.

So, since yesterday's ride was a bust we made it a point to ride today no matter what. Luckily it was nice enough. I mapped a 70+ ride out and around South Mountain. I figured about 3:30 would be long enough. We have a 7 hour ride planned for tomorrow, we went easy...it was plenty flat enough.

We took off just after 9am. Partly cloudy skies and a bit chilly. Vest, gloves and arms were in order again. I kept most of it on until just about entering the South Mountain Park 2 hours into it. It was a 6 mile road with about 4 miles up hill. Check out the shit load of towers on the top!


Here's the view from another vantage piont of downtown Phoenix in the background.

And at the bottom, my ride...against the cactus. There is a sign above my bike basically saying, please be careful with the vegatation, it's your responsibility to protect it!















The rest of the ride was good. Went through the the quiant little town of Guadalupe...dirty and run down...

Ride time of 4:15, 75 miles...little much before tomorrow 7 hours. Easy swim tonight of 2ooo yards.

Dinner of steak, potatoes and broccoli - my favorite!!!

AZ Camp - Day Three - Feb 20th

Chandler, AZ - 60 degrees and a bit rainy...

We drove up to Phoenix, the Arizona Biltmore Golf Course. Parked at this mall with a coffee shop, for afterwards. Started the run by running across the 13th fairway to get to the Biltmore road leading to the canal. Ran by a home for sale, $20M, and also Charles Barkley's place. Once on the dirt road next the canal, we had a nice head wind. I had two hours to do, and Bill only 90mins. He turned around @ 45 as I continued on. Made it to Scottsdale about 7.5 and turned around. I was planning on a sweet tailwind, but it decided to be a headwind some more! Bastards! After a few miles it quit and turned back around to tailwind. Sprinkled a bit and then started raining pretty hard as I reached the coffee shop.

Afternoon plan was a 3 hour bike ride...but the rain had other ideas. We got ready looking for it to quit and dry out. It dries fast, but never stopped with the very quick, scattered showers/downpours...Bastards! Gametime decision was made to go to pilates and lift to make use of the day and Red Bull. Jen and Bill had lots of fun at pilates, they've never done it before. They liked it, but also realized they need core work!

Grilled chicken, cous cous, salad and bread for dinner.

AZ Camp - Day Two - February 19th, 2007

Chandler, AZ - 77 degrees...

Woke up 7am for a 8am ride departure. Temperature check was a bit chilly, it's the desert afterall. Arm warmers and wind vest were in order, or so I thought. About 20 minutes later I stripped the vest and arms. While very overcast, the few some spots that exisited, made it very warm, very quick, VERY nice.

The ride scheduled was 5 hours. We picked a ride that went north towards Salt River over Usery Pass and back to town. It was a stop light fest on the way and back...not used to that. We dont have to go through that much in Portland. It's pretty easy to get out fo town and fast. Not here, not without driving. Oh the Pass, what pass? We didn't even climb a 1000'!!! Terrible. Well, after 3 hours and all the climbing done, the knee began to tweak. I made the decision to head back and not do more than necessary today. An hour later we were home and 70 under the belt.

I messed around with position on the TT bike today after my knee bagan hurting. I figured out earlier that my position is forward, like its supposed to be and my other bikes aren't. Tomorrow before the ride, I will adjust my seatpost back a bit. That should help.

I bonked a bit today too. Not sure if the heat was the issue or not. Or just the travel, or the lack of sleep, or the head cold I"m getting over or what? Can you say basket case?

After the ride we ran 47 mins for about 5.5 miles running around Octillo Golf Course. There are some large Spanish Villa houses in there. The first half of the run SUCKED! We didn't go right away after the ride or a lot later, kinda half assed Trun. I had smoothie before and lots of water.

Dinner was at Jen's sisters house. Bill made spaghetti sauce, which was good. Played some Wii and had a beer, cupcake and ice cream too! Off to bed on the blow up mattress!

I hope to get some photos of the place and rides for the rest of the week.

AZ Camp - Day One

Chandler, AZ - 80 degrees

It's Saturday February 17th, just landed in sunny, 80 degree, Phoenix, AZ! So nice! After getting a ride from Jen's sister to her parents house in Chandler, we put the bikes together for a spin. I don't think i need to tell anyone how nice it is to put on just bibs and a jersey to ride! We spun south towards some mountians, didn't get there, but it was nice once out of the concrete jungle. Several degrees cooler once you got in the fields.

25 miles, 1:45 and ZERO climbing, unless you count the freeway overpassess!

Then went shopping after getting some food. We stopped at our local strip mall for groceries, good times. Watched a little AllStar Weekend stuff on TV, then crashed. Still too late, need to get to bed earlier.

Week of February 5, 2007

Monday:
Easy 6 mile run at lunch.
Easy 20 mile spin home through LO. Nice and warm out today, sure beats the cold shit for the past couple weeks.

Tuesday:
Easy spin (20miles) to work this morning. Took a bit longer than usual on the fixie. I hope to have some company next time. I'm posting "Take Garren to Work" rides on my bike teams forum.
3200 yard swim at lunch. 20 x 100 test set; averaged 1:18s (1:15-1:20) for the 100s. Not bad, but I hadn't been in the pool since Thursday last week.
Moderate run with Grant, Brodie and Chris. 6 mile out back along Terwilliger from Duniway track. Did some drills to warmup - fast/high knees, butt kicks, high knee skips and fast feet.

Wednesday:
Upper body strength session at lunch (lat pulldown, dumbbell bench, seated row, standind delt raise, ext shoulder rotate and low/abs to fatigue). 1 hour
Bike trainer class (90mins). We did intervals at varying cadence keeping the HR below Threshold. Great class today. Drove home and did Trun from there - 20ish minutes. I sent back my Polar 725x today. Buttons are falling off as well as the metal bits underneath. Hopefull it get back to me by next Friday.

Thursday:
I had to bunch everything after work today. Don't remeber why, something having to do with work, stupid work! I also took my car in to get an alignment. I ran first, to get my car and warm-up for the sweet treadmil workout at Bally. I did 10x3min intervals at 6:30-6:40 pace. HR started about 165, drifted down then up finishing at almost 170 for the last one. I had a standing 1min rest inbetween. Cooled down and drove to work, got bike, and drove to 24 hour LO. Swam, barely. Kinda shitty swim, didn't finish it all. Then got on the bike and rode home (15miles). New white wind vest, white arm warmers and black booties all tested well. It was also kinda warm.

Friday:
Barely got out of bed to ride into work today! 20 miles, 80mins, 1000'+
Tonight was Kariyln Pipes swim clinic @ the MAC. Instruction was good, but too many people to get good practice or one-on-one instruction. The video anaylsis was less than desired as well. I did find i cross over pretty bad and enter the water with my thumb first...I was albe to fix the entery and right hand crossover, the left is a work in progress. The stroke she teaches is first quadrant power, not last. When I started tris, I came from surfing, which minics this stroke. Imagine you are paddling on the surfboard, now remove the board and keeping swimming. Same idea. However, I spent the better part of last year changing that stroke, now I get to go back to it. De-emphazing the tricep power and incporating the lats from the start! Good times! 4 hour clinic, may have swam ~ 2000meters. Nice pool there.

Saturday:
4 hour (60miles) group ride with IH (Ironheads), ~4000' climbing in the West Hills. We rode some dirt/gravel roads that will make for epic cross rides this fall. Can't wait. On flat and a fender shook loose on the dirt. Swam later in the day, not a good idea. Swam about 2500 yards, very tired and low energy. Between the clinic yesterday and riding prior, just sucked! Then I ran after swimming, had a sweet stomach ache for most of the run. Got 40 minutes, but about 5-8 of it I walked on the treadmill.

Sunday:
Morning long run of 1:50 (13ish miles) out Leif and back. Good run, easy pace, and I was able to talk most of the time. I went to a 2 hour yoga/streching clinic for cyclists. Very good and harder than I hoped. I was beat! And then very relaxed afterwards, but I still had some lifting and a 30min run to do. Went to Whole Paycheck, I mean Whole Foods and got some food first before lifting. Headed to 24 in the Pearl. Great low body session of squats, leg press, leg extensions, calf raises and hamstring curls + abs. I haven't felt that strong ever, let alone after a a long run earlier that day! Excellent! I was still full from eating, but went to run anyway. Not bad, stomach full, legs worked well - done and done!

I can't wait (6 days) until I leave for AZ! Warm and sunny weather for training. The plan so far is to bike 300+ miles, run ~30 miles, swim ~ 12,000 yards, and some yoga too. The killer is Mt Lemmon in Tuscan - 27 miles, 7100' ascent!

Actual Time 22:34
Planned Time 20:15
Swim Distance 10,000 yd
Bike Distance 155 mi
Run Distance 44.6 mi

I think this is my biggest week so far.

Worst Week Ever - Week of January 29th

This week was not my best week ever… I started into trouble Tuesday night and never recovered. We had our 20th Anniversary party for InFocus…food and drinks. My car was out of service all week, so I was bumming rides to work and working from home. I made an attempt to get back missed hours during the days I was working from home, but to no avail.

Saturday’s ride was the only solid workout I got in. Climbed up Mt. Scott to start the ride. Then from there we rode 55 miles, some 5000’ of climbing and cold wet weather for most of it. By the end I was just wanting to climb, no more downhill. It was too cold.

In other news…I’ve offered any of the Ironheads their choice of 22oz beers if they place higher than I in the Beaver Freezer Sprint Tri April 7th. Several people have the speed to beat me, but I’m faster than I was last year, they are not. We’ll see, if anything, I have made the race that much more fun!

Actual Time 14:50
Planned Time 20:25
Swim Distance 6600 yd
Bike Distance 135 mi
Run Distance 17.1 mi