December Training Camp

I'm 3 days past the 10 day Athletes Lounge Elite Team Training Camp and I'm starting to feel like I'm bouncing back from the fatigue. Most people would think that a 10 day training camp in Portland, Oregon in December is absurd, but by the time camp had wrapped up we had logged several 4 hour bike rides, a 2 hour run, and multiple swim sessions with 1500 meters of race-speed, plus many other workouts in all 3 disciplines for a total of 35 hours of training.

I learned some things about myself and my team mates as I worked through the biggest triathlon training load I've ever done. There were great times on the computrainers, watching UFC during power intervals, and there's no better way to bond than riding for 2 hours in rainy, 38 degree weather. Most of the bonding actually occurs while complaining about the weather :)
I had a phenomenal camp based on my swim times in the pool, power numbers on the bike, and a completely pain-free week on the run!

..Highlights..

-On the first 4 hour ride, I hit my highest wattage ever in ever single time bracket from 30 seconds to 2 hours!
-I nailed a new computrainer power max at 880 watts (it's harder to put out big numbers on a stationary trainer)
-I swam 500 yards in the pool in 5:08, a three second improvement.

HUGE thanks to Athletes Lounge for putting on the camp, Kreger Chiropractic and Classic Body Restoration for keeping my body functioning, and my Mom for unbelievable dinners at the end of long training days! Couldn't do this training without my awesome support team!

Steam Room Thoughts

My favorite swim workouts end with breakouts. Breakouts to the shower, or better yet, if you have the means, the STEAM ROOM. It takes me back to swim team days when it was 40 degrees and raining at the outdoor pool and coach would announce that we were doing "breakouts". This normally means diving off the blocks and holding max speed for about 10 seconds. We developed our own version of the set.. When we jumped out of the water after the first rep, we would sprint for 10 seconds to the locker room and jump in the hot tub for 5 minutes. Bam! "Breakouts to the hot tub" was born.

Fortunately these days, workouts are no longer in 40 degree weather, but I still love a good hot tub, and now, the glorious steam room. Me and Philippe, one of the members of the Athletes Lounge pro triathlon team, had finished up a great 5000 meter swim workout with Austin Arguello, and Damian Hill (also a member) and were chatting in the steam room. We talked about ideas for how the pro team could be more profitable for the store and just business practices in general. It got me fired up to make a difference in the store and to get involved in the pro team for the same reason. Portland only has ONE triathlon store and I'm proud to be a part of it, but that's a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Anyway, it's fun to brainstorm and dream up cool business plans, we'll see if any of them actually make enough sense to implement :) I just hope that as an employee of Portland's triathlon store and as a lover of the sport, I can people to have the best experience possible with triathlon so that they can come to love it as much as I do.

Come visit at the store or look for the pro team on the road, all of the guys love to talk about triathlon, whether it's how to set up a transition area or what cadence is optimal for maximum sustained power :)

-Eric

Beaver Fever Duathlon Relay

Last weekend I needed to get in a 5k road race as a benchmark time to base my training paces for the winter on. Once I get the time, my coach, Bryant, calculates what my intervals should be run at in order to get me to my in-season goals.

I decided that it would be more fun to do a multisport relay with some friends to get in my 5k rather than just do a community road race, so I talked Dave, my buddy and Alounge bike mechanic into riding and my friend Ilana into being the second runner. Just like that, team "Negative Split" was born! It turned out to be a really fun race, with a 5k road run to start, followed by the 30k bike, and finally a 5k cross country run. There were a lot of fun people at the event and it was a great, low-key, but still competitive environment. As with most triathlons, you can get whatever you want out of it, there's something for everyone, and I personally love the strong community feel of triathlon here in Oregon.

The night before the race Dave and I loaded up his bike, my racing flats, and all of our extra gear so we'd be prepared for any weather condition that the Northwest could throw at us, and we headed down to Philomath, which is a few miles away from Corvallis. We checked into our $50 hotel room and got to sleep after talking some smack about all the people we were going to smash the next day :)

The sun was shining on race morning, and after a quick subway breakfast stop, we got to the venue and met up with Bryant, Illana, and Janet, Bryant's wife. My friend Tahir, who I haven't seen in months showed up to watch and warm up with me, which put the final punctuation on an already great morning!

RACE!... I got off to a good start in the road 5k, but fell off the leader's pace about halfway through (partially due to a poor-warmup, and partially just fitness) I came into T1 about 50 seconds down on the leader, at 17:01, which I'm OK with for a pre-season time, but I think a better warm-up would have gotten me sub-16:45. Dave headed off on his 30k ride and was back several minutes before either of us had suspected, putting down an awesome performance, putting team Negative Split into 3rd place. Illana had the best race I have ever seen her run, and held off the majority of the field, coming across the line in 4th place overall and first team!

I had to get a total of 90 minutes running for the day, so I jogged around the course with Tahir and cheered on the remaining participants, which is one of my favorite parts of community races. It was a great chance to look back on the weekend and appreciate all of my great friends and just enjoy our sport.

I need more Watts!

Long time since my last post.. I've got to get better

What a crazy time to be training for triathlon here in Portland, Oregon! The weather seems to be completely bipolar: 1 day of sun, 1 day of rain. It makes for an interesting guessing game when it comes to cycling clothing. Thank goodness for arm and knee warmers :)

I've been doing hill repeats up Idleman road in Clackamas for the past couple of Wednesdays, and it's really taking everything I have to keep the bike moving forward at a reasonable pace. Bryant wants me to keep my cadence at 85-95 Rpm, but I can't hold a high enough wattage for 3 minutes on the 15-20% grade to get in the range. Bryant : "Get the cadence up!!" Me: "I need more watts!" Hopefully with enough of this punishment, I'll be able to put out some serious power come next triathlon season and find my way into "Uber-biker-ness". It's good to have dreams, right?

Some cool news: I've met a new friend and fellow aspiring-pro, Austin Arguello, who is also from the Portland area and is already super strong on the bike, having come to triathlon from a cycling background. We'll be training together a bit, and if all goes well, he'll help me get stronger on the bike, and I can lend a hand with my swim and run abilities. Best of all, Austin is 19, so he's one of the few triathletes in the area that is my age!

Training is going awesome right now and I feel super blessed to have so many people supporting me as I pursue my goals in triathlon right now. I had an ice bath, an amazing massage from CBR, and a quick adjustment from Kreger Chiro today. How could I possibly go wrong with such a great team :)

Till next time.. (which won't be so long again, I promise)

Bee sting

The last few days have been pretty eventful for me, Tuesday had me running a mile for time on the track. I ran to the track on my lunch break, and as I was doing my last strider before the effort, a bee stung me right between my nose and left eye. OW. I shrugged it off and ran my mile, which didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it was test to see where my fitness is at, so now I have a clear idea of what I need to do. It's Thursday now and the swelling is finally going down, but all of yesterday I had a difficult time even seeing out of the eye!

Yesterday morning I had an aerobic swim workout that wrapped up with a 100 yards for time. I swam 53.8 seconds from a push and I didn't even feel good during the aerobic part of the workout! Bryant said he wishes I "didn't feel good" more often. haha It's a blast to have my swim times coming down close to my best practice times from my swim team days on a fraction of the mileage.

I'm starting to transition into a bit more of a run focus in anticipation of cross country season, so I'm looking forward to my running times coming down as well, and cross country has to be my favorite sport next to triathlon, so bring on the mud!

Living the dream!

Looking to the future

The tri season is pretty much over for me for 2010, barring a possible local race for fun. I've starting focusing my thoughts towards the Fall months, in which I hope to make some gains in my run, while ultimately recovering from the triathlon race season. This means I'll be switching my emphasis from the bike to the run and competing in 4-5 Cross Country races and a couple of Cyclocross races for fun.

I'm also planning to spend some of my time this winter attending some classes at PSU. I think it'll be good for me to keep my brain as active as possible, and the winter months are a great time to make some gains in the classroom, especially when the warm weather disappears and the Oregon rain sets in

Race Recap

My race in Colorado went really well on Saturday morning, I got 16th place out of 40 elite-level men and some pro athletes. While this didn't qualify me for my professional certification, I got some super valuable experience in draft-legal racing, and I know the next race I do will be awesome :)

I was in the lead group on the swim, despite feeling loopy from the elevation and exertion, so I know that I can hang with most anyone out there. My first problem was putting my shoes on while riding my bike, which cuts down on transition time. I had difficulty getting my right foot in, and got dropped from the lead pack of 4 riders. I rode hard for about 3 miles by myself, trying to catch that group, which burned up a lot of my energy stores. I wasn't able to catch them, and eventually started working with three other athletes that were close behind me.
Halfway through the second of four loops on the bike ride, one of the athletes I was working with crashed right in front of me and I narrowly avoided running into him. At that point, me and one of the other guys from the group pressed on, while the fourth athlete fell back into a chase pack. Eventually, that pack brought me and my companion back and we all came into the second transition together.

The run was pretty tough after doing a lot of extra work on the bike course(since I wasn't in a large group), and of the three sports, the elevation really hit me the most on the run. It was crazy to be breathing hard, feeling on the limit of my cardiovascular capacity, and at the same time running pretty slow.

Overall, I felt like I had a good race and I've got several key things I can work on this winter. I'm pumped to continue with draft-legal, especially after having such a great oportunity to race the format somewhat-close to home. Thanks again to everyone who helped get me to the race! Give me a call, email me, text me if you want to hear more about the race or just to chat :)

-Eric

Colorado Springs Elite Development Race

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Colorado Springs for the final race in this summer's Elite Development Series. The series was designed to give domestic racers the chance to race draft-legal bike format and for a select few to qualify for their professional license. A professional license marks an athlete as a "Pro triathlete" and gives them the right to enter professional races.

This event has been the focal point of all of my training both this year and for the whole of my participation in the sport of triathlon. As I prepare mentally this week, I've been thinking back on all of the people who have played key roles in my development and those who have helped my get my life on track for this lofty goal. I wanted to take this blog post to pay them respect, because without these key players, there is absolutely no way I would be where I am today.

Julie O'Toole
Bart Walsh
Grant Salada
Matt Berg
Bryant Howard
Mom & Dad
Katie Finn
Tom Weltcheck
Jonathan Christ

There are many many more people who have contributed that I did not list here. The list is so long, I would miss my plane tomorrow morning if I tried to type it all out :) Thank you all for believing in me and taking the time to put your time and effort into my life, I will race this weekend with all my heart to make that time count.

-Eric

Hagg Lake Tri

Made it through the Hagg Lake Sprint tri here in Oregon, tuning up my racing for the Elite Development race in Colorado Springs on July 31st. The race was a bit rocky, but overall a good experience because it has shown me some things I can do to improve for my peak event.

-Aggro

OBRA State TT

I traveled down to Peoria, OR on sunday to race the OBRA time trial champs 40k. It's a 40 kilometer solo race against the clock. Something went wrong with the race organizer's records and they had me 1:30 seconds slower than I clocked myself at, but they also thought I was from "Hammer Velo" so who knows. haha According to my watch, I rode 58:30, a 4 minute improvement over two years ago, the last time I rode the same course! I'm pumped about this because I haven't done much intensity or significant volume on the bike yet this season, so I know the end of the summer is looking good. Quote of the day from coach Bryant Howard, "4 minute PR..THE TRAINING IS WORKING." Agreed!

I used a Scott Plasma2 LTD that Chris Boudreaux, my boss at Athlete's Lounge, is lending me for the summer. Couldn't imagine a better bike, and it has me in a super aerodynamic position, which makes all the difference in time trials. I also got to use the Zipp 808 demo wheels from the shop, which were awesome, what a fast wheelset!

I'm finalizing my summer race schedule and it's looking like a lot of fun, just a little later start than usual. With the way training has gone so far though, I'll be just coming in to my peak at the end of the summer, and I can end the summer season on a high note.

Later!
-Aggro

Treatment

Just finished up a fun filled morning of blood draw, Athlete's Lounge staff meeting , chiropractic work and ultrasound at Kreger Chiropractic, and a massage at Classic Body Restoration http://cbrpdx.com/ (AWESOME!). So I feel like I'm walking on clouds right now and the achilles pain I've had is currently gone! It's crazy to me how my days off from work and training turn out to be my busiest days of all. It's a good way to be busy though.. getting treatment from amazing people, without which I honestly couldn't maintain a high level of performance! So thank you Dr. Kreger and Stephanie Massey (CBR), you guys are the best!

Long ride tomorrow and long run sunday, can't wait :)

Still on the Mend

Returned from Seattle Performance Medicine Tuesday with less than awesome news. Some of my blood markers have dropped, while others have held steady. That means I'll have to re-evaluate my training load and nutrition plan to get back on the right track. It's such a slow process coming back from such a complete physiological depletion. On a positive note, workouts are going great and my heart rate is rapidly dropping and I'm maximizing my efficiency in swim, bike, and run.

I'm reading through "It's not about the bike" and I thought that I hadn't read it yet, but every couple of chapters I get a very distinct feeling that I've read that part before, but I still can't think of when I would have.. Weird, but loving the book and I'm able to relate to parts of it and it's helping keep me patient through my own healing process.

I'm loving the new bike that I bought from work (Athlete's Lounge-- Portland, Or). It's a Cervelo S2 and it's got to be the most fun I've had on two wheels. Incredibly stiff, responsive, and quite the head turner ;) Off to ride now!

until next time...

Fun in the sun in February!

Got a great ride in today and it was sunny and dry! Gotta love it. Feeling pretty fresh and got to put the hammer down with Bryant, flying along the highway at at almost 50kph. The power is there, just waiting on the aerobic capacity to return.

I was talking to Dave (mechanic at A-Lounge) and he says that compression makes all the difference with recovery, so I think once my bank account has stopped reeling from the new bike purchase, I'll look into some 2xu compression tights. I don't want to cut any corners when it comes to my health right? haha

Need More Iron

A couple months back I was diagnosed with anemia after my Hematocrit blood test came back low and my Ferritin level was at 12. I've been taking prescription iron ever since and had another blood test done a couple days ago. It's been an extreme exercise in patience having to take workouts easy so as not to tax my system too much. Hopefully these new tests will show improvement and I'll be able to start building into my full schedule. I figure as long as I keep on the iron pills and get all the red meat I can for the time being, I'll be on the up and up.

This morning's workout was a little less than I had hoped for, but considering I was so sick yesterday I just wanted to lie down on the floor at work, I'm not going to complain much :) It was a pretty quick brick alternating between time on the trainer and treadmill, increasing intensity and decreasing interval length. So actually pretty fun.