Targets Within Your Training

Most of you reading this will have a training plan or a coach.  But many of you might not have detailed specifics with some of your workouts prescribed.  What I mean by this is that your training might read something like this:

"Mainset:
300 moderate on 15sec rest
100 easy on 5sec rest
2x300 mod-fast on 30sec rest
100 easy on 5sec rest
3x300 fast on 45sec rest
100 easy on 5sec rest

...or perhaps:

"20minutes easy to start this run."

...or maybe:

"60minutes easy to start this ride."


If this is the case, take it upon yourself to set targets that fit the descriptions.  What is a reasonable pace for moderate effort in the water over a distance of 300m? What paces  and watts fit the "easy effort" description on the bike or run? If you are unsure, ask your coach.

Why?  Because sometimes 220watts on the bike feels easy, while other times 160watts feels like a struggle. If you know your zones/paces and stick to them, it will help keep the easy, easy and go along way when helping you hit your specific interval targets when they might be given to you.  In addition, it will help keep you from racing yourself on a daily basis and going for best average for general pace/effort descriptions.

Budgeting Your Time

A lot of athletes have asked me what my daily routine consists of and how I get balance everything. So I thought I would give a little bit on insight that many of you can take and apply to your lives, as well as a glimpse into my routine.



1) PLAN! This is the number one downfall that I see with most individuals and athletes.  They may be able to tell you everything they need to do, but rarely do they have a REALISTIC plan on how it will get done.

• Set up a plan and hold yourself accountable.  Make a LIST, write down certain times that you will do things and make sure that you budget enough time for the most important tasks that you need to get done.

2) BE PRODUCTIVE! In general, people are more productive in the morning; use this to your advantage.  If you have a task that takes a lot of brainpower, get it done first. If you have to deal with other people, try to do it in the morning.  You will likely find that a task which takes 60min in the morning, will end up taking 2 hours or more in the evening or when you are tired.

• Get the stuff that you DON'T want to get done, FIRST.

• Plan your more complex tasks in the morning and save the "mindless work" for when you are tired.

• Stay focused.  When you are training, focus on training. When you are working, focus on working and when you are a family man/woman, PLEASE DON'T be thinking "how long until I get to ride my bike?" :)

3) HAVE AN OFF SWITCH! This is a tough one for me, but it has made a huge difference in the quality of sleep I get at night.  Set a time where you don't do anything work related. I like something around an hour before I plan to go to sleep.

4) GET AWAY REGULARLY!  For those of you who are type A, it is likely that the number of days within your week where you do nothing, is zero.  Change this!  Try spending a day doing nothing outside of the necessities. If that's not practical, then set a time; an example would be nothing after 10am on these days.  Spend the day with your spouse or family.  You will be AMAZED at how much lower stress the rest of your week will be if you make sure that this is a priority.

5) STICK TO IT! It's great that you make a list, but it's important to stick to it. Hold yourself accountable and if you find that you are not accomplishing what you need, consider reducing the amount you are trying to get done on a daily basis by yourself and see if you can find an alternative way to accomplish some of these tasks.

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MY SCHEDULE

6:00 - 7:00am wake up

• 7:00am - Coffee and breakfast. A challenge that I give myself is, "how much can i get done before the coffee is done brewing?" Dishwasher, laundry, core work, stretching, garbage out, something to fill the time.

7:00am - Answer emails and get most of my writing done in the morning. KEY WORK TIME!

8:30am - Start first training session.  Usually about two hours from door to door.

10:30am - Stretch, eat and answer emails and start on any coaching plans, KEY WORK TIME!

12:15pm - Training session #2, again about 2hrs. Bank or store stop on the way home.

2:45pm - Ice, eat, nap. Never sleep longer than 45min.

3:30pm - Quick look over any urgent emails, before last session of training throughout the day.

4:00pm - Final training session of the day. About 60-90min.

6:00pm - Dinner, start to unwind. Answer the last few emails for the day and shoot for being offline after 7:00pm.

9:00pm - Start thinking about bed.

10:00pm - In bed

* Obviously this doesn't happen every day, but you can get the gist of how I plan my day.

Triathlon is a lifestyle.  It requires that you integrate it into your lives when it works for YOU. Make a plan (perhaps with your spouse) and give it a try!!

   

New Site & Back To Winter

If you haven't checked out our new BBMC website, make sure you take a look (www.blakebecker.com).  The site is now geared toward athletes and will not only give information on services, but also act as a resource for athletes to be educated.  Feel free to post feedback here on what you feel would be beneficial to add onto the site.

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Since arriving back to Madison, mother nature decided to give us all one last taste of winter.  The roads were clear and clean when I returned, but now, not so much.  This was what the greenway looked like from my porch doors; not exactly ideal for training outdoors on anything other than skis.

Training was geared toward recovery for the first 4 days back.  I completed about 54hrs of training over the 2 weeks I was in AZ and needed to absorb that work.  I ALWAYS feel terrible during recovery blocks and this one was no exception.  30min runs are daunting and I seem to forget how to pedal a bike.  

From experience I know that I come out of this after about 5 days and sure enough, Friday I was back on top in the pool.  Not swimming my fastest, but I was consistent throughout the session.  In addition to swimming, cycling and running, I am also addressing a few muscle imbalances that I have neglected for a long time.  None of them are causing issues, but I am looking to get that extra 1% out of my body this year and need to make sure I am firing on all cylinders.

So now I have about 7 days of solid training to go before our first race block of the year.  I am fit, not in tip-top form, but fit enough to race well and I am looking forward to the next 4 weeks. I will race in both Puerto Rico and Texas, they are branded 70.3 events with competitive fields; especially Texas, which is receiving buzz from Lance Armstrong coming and the fact that it will act as the US Pro Championship over the 70.3 distance.

That's all for now, enjoy your last taste of winter and I will check in before San Juan!

BB

Wrapping It Up in Tucson

Today is my last big day or training in Tucson and the weather looks perfect.  80* and sun (though windy).

The two weeks started off a bit rocky because of some residual fatigue, but I came around and ended strong. The days after Lemmon have been about recovery and now two solid days to end my 15 days in AZ.  Lots of training, lots of good times and a few more friends made.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the camp, I have a feeling that Cliff's crew is going to do great things this year.

Now just 3 weeks until the first race of the year.  More to come soon!

BB

Day 10 -Attack on Mt. Lemmon

Mt. Lemmon is probably the most well known of all the climbs in the Tucson area.  It's LONG (at 25miles) and takes you up just over 8000 ft in elevation (see pic).  It's a very scenic ride, though today I don't think many of the guys were noticing.

Justin and I rolled out at 8am from the westside of town and met the group about 30min from the base of the climb.  I actually preferred this because it gave me an extra 45+ min of warm-up. Once over there we fueled up and were off.

I knew the climb up to mile 20.5, which is where most turn around...I then heard that there was a descent of about 2.5miles before climbing and descending again into town.  If you have been following my blog, you know that I am NOT a good descender and I figured at the 20.5 mile mark I would need about 2minutes on anyone who I was going to stay away from to the end.

So my plan?  ATTACK at the bottom.  I wrapped my head around the length of the effort and lifted the pace just enough to slide off the front, then lifted again at the mile 1 marker.  With 24miles to go, the group was happy to let me go. I thought that I could probably manage 300w on the day, taking into consideration the altitude and other training in the legs. So I started out at about 310-20, knowing it would settle.

So how did it turn out?  TJ caught me at mile 9, but I managed to keep him at about 10-20sec for almost the next 10 miles.  I thought this would give me enough of a cushion over the rest of the guys, knowing TJ would eventually pull away.  At mile 18 heard the bad news that JD and Damon were only 90sec back...and the light headedness started to break my concentration.  I knew that I would not hold them off on the descent...so I crested mile 20.5 at about 1:35 with a normalized power right at 300w, which i was pleased with.  I descended cautiously per normal and then started the last few miles into town when i finally relinquished my 2nd place on the road.  We rolled in and I think TJ finished in 1:44/45, JD and Damon at 1:47 and myself at 1:48.  Not bad for a solo effort with lots of running in the legs. Happy with the day, our awesome coach bought us pizza and cookies (below) before we turned around and headed home.  All in all a very fun and long day with almost 100mi in the bank and just over 5hrs 30min in the saddle.

For the record I have coke, coffee, water, pizza and cookies in the above picture.

I am now off for a short swim with JD, followed by more coaching work before bed.  We have a big, but fun swim scheduled for the morning. For the first time I think I am actually getting stronger as training camp is going on.  This is a great sign with the first race of the year, Puerto Rico 70.3, only 3 weeks from Sunday.

TGIF!

Day 9 - Definitely Moving Faster Today

Well today was not very long in duration, but it sure didn't take away from the pain of the sessions.

Morning swim was a cracker (as Chris would say) of a session. 5.5k with a main set of 4x (4x100 on 1:15, 400 on on 5:15). This went well for the most part except I needed about 2 gels that I didn't have in the last 2 rounds of the above.

We then got a good rest, which was good.  I opted for my normal oatmeal, fruit and cottage cheese, but then opted to add a few more carb cals and went for an entire box of sweet potato bisque soup from Trader Joe's. Amazing stuff and easy to digest before a hard afternoon run session.

At 2:30 we headed to the track for a 90min session.  We had a longer warm-up followed by 6x400 as 200fast/200easy on 2:15.  Then completed a main set of 2x (1600,1200,800,400).  Basically descended from 5:25 to 5:00 on the first set and 5:15 to 4:50 on the second.  It's amazing how long it can take the legs to warm-up.  Hats off to Justin D and Chris B for leading most of the workout. They had the leg speed today. Also great job to all the other campers and Cliff for sprinting back and forth to give us splits...Im not sure which one was harder, running the set or coaching the set.

Tonight is recovery night for a big day on Mt. Lemmon tomorrow!

Day 8 - Rolling Along

Day 8 was the first of 3 solid days of training.  We started at 8am with a fun 5km swim that included 6x100 band only and 1600 pulling steadily.  I am surprised that my strength/speed is back nicely after I've had to be a bit careful since my NYD fall on the bike.

I then took a little time to myself before heading out early on the bike before the group.  I wanted to get a few extra miles in to really take advantage of the weather.  We then met as a group before rolling out to do some 'fun' intervals.  The mainset ended up being 4x (10minutes at 70.3 watts, 5min easy, 5min at threshold, 5min easy) ... this is a challenging set to pace correctly.  Everything felt good and I ended up finishing with just about 90 miles on the day.

Dinner included a trip to Sweet Tomatoes with JD and Marilyn.  If you haven't been, it's definitely worth the $12.99 all you can eat.  Though we reassured ourselves that the amount of food we ate was reasonable, I still question it after the looks we got from other restaurant goers. Needless to say this was our excitement for the day and we didn't celebrate Fat Tuesday.

Today is day 9 and there is pretty tough pool set that awaits.  After that I have a feeling I will find myself at the track and then eventually...wait for it....on the BIKE! But first, a 30min jog to wake the legs up.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!!

Day 7 - "Coming To Play"

"Coming To Play" were Cliff's words on deck this morning.  Needless to say that I am feeling rested and back into a groove.  The 8 days before I left for camp seemed to really take a toll on my body, one that took almost a week to come out of...take away for everyone is to listen to your body and be patient.  It doesn't forget to do what you have taught it, it just needs to be listened to in order to bring it out again.

Today's swim was a good one with some generous rest from Cliff.  I was back where I am most comfortable, leading the lane.

5350 yards today:

WU:
800 easy choice
400 as 25drill/75swim

TS:
3x200 as 50build/50easy/25sprint/75 easy on 2:45
100 easy

MS:
3x
400 on 5:20 (in 4:45 +/-)
300 on 4:00 (in 3:30-35)
200 on 2:40 (in 2:15-20)
100 on 1:20 (in 1:05-07)
50 easy + :20

CD:
300 Easy

This afternoon calls for some coaching and strength work, an easy spin with JD, perhaps some time spent next to the pool and a nap.  6 BIG days to come...

Happy Monday everyone.

Day 6 - The Legs Arrived

Well I knew they would make it eventually and today seemed to be the day.

This morning I headed out with Chris and Justin for about 15 miles.  Nothing too over the top, as I have been rolling about 16-18 for the last month. We started at Trader Joe's and then ran along the river (dried up) for our pace work.  Mainset was 30min, 20min, 10min descending on 5minutes recovery.  We cruised the first set at 6:15ish and then finished up with a quick 10 at about 545/mi.  All in all a good run and the body is finally starting to feel normal again.

After a nap out by our pool (see below) I am headed out for a few short hours on the bike and then hitting up sushi with my friend Erin, who lives here in Tucson.

Tomorrow we are back at it in the water and I have a feeling week 2 may be a bit bigger than week one!

Day 4 & 5 - Sleep

I haven't forgotten about blogging, I have just been sleeping more than usual over the last two days.  I usually don't do naps and I have had two of then for a combined total of almost 4 hours, I have also banked 19hrs of sleep over the last two nights...this is a huge jump for me.

Friday was a big day in the pool with a main set of 11x200 on a descending interval of 2:40, 2:30, 2:20 with and easy recovery 200 between the sets of 3. The rest of the day was off besides an easy run before dinner with the McDonald's and JD.

Today was a solid day of training with just under 4hrs of riding over to Mt Lemmon.  We had a fairly large group of riders who rolled over together.  Good times.  I ended up doing about 8 miles at a mod-hard effort with Chris and JD, then dropped back down and did a few more efforts before rolling home.  I came back, napped and then headed to probably the most awesome pool in Tucson - Oro Valley. 

Tomorrow is another solid day before heading into week two.  I'll write a bit more when we get to Monday. More to come!!!