IMC 102

A few semi-random (?) pix from yesterday's epic 102 miler. As you may know the game plan called for a recon preview of the course that we will be riding on August 26th, in, and around Penticton, BC, Canada. I have done it before. Several times. But for Bob and Chris it was their first. And what a first! Beautiful day, blue skies, nary a drop of rain and altogether perfect conditions. We cut the flat start along Main St. (hence the ten short miles) and even subjected ourselves to the notoriously demoralizing Cawston out 'n back. It was a terrific ride, with light traffic and wind only on the last leg past Yellow Lake. Campsite was cool (free showers), drive out a breeze and the trip another great and mirthy success. Thanks and congratulations  to Bob and Chris for their teamwork, company and support. I think we brought back several valuable race lessons, and for me, another important confidence builder. We are very close to ready. 

Pix:m T2B

Campsite at Burberry Green, west Lake Skaha.

Chris and Bob on Hwy 97. Remember the Geronimo!

View from the start of Richer Pass looking East. 

Long stretch just before Sumac.

I took some editorial liberties with this shot of Chris on the seven sisters road. 

Bob at the summit of Yellow Lake, mile 90

Post ride training table. 

112

Tomorrow's assignment: 112 miles of the Ironman Canada course. Bob, Chris, myself and probably a hundred others will set sail early for the adventure. Saturday we run. But today we drive. Cheers!

DO THIS

We are out tomorrow for a trip to one of my favorite places on this beautiful planet of ours. Not that I have seen everything or been everywhere, mind you, but of the places I have had the good fortune to visit, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada is at the very top of the list. Right up there with Venice, Kauai, The Canary Islands, Cabo. The idea is to ride the IM course on Friday and then do half of the run course Saturday morning before heading back to Seattle Saturday night. Bob and Chris are Dads and expected to be present for Sunday's Fathers Day festivities at home. Plan is to take it out via North Cascades Highway and back I-90. I have yet to decide if I will ride Phoenix Red (tri bike) or Little Miss Mirthy (road). Trixie (fixed) will have to stay home this trip, much to her chagrin. 

In homework planning for this journey and the next, Ironman 70.3 Mt. Tremblant, I have come across some interesting side notes. For your entertainment and motivational consideration, here are links to some way cool stuff about some very fast and successful triathletes.

Hillary Biscay, Tri-Queen

TJ Tollakson, Tri-Beast

Jenny Fletcher, Tri-Model

Migali Tisseyre, Tri-Pixie

Matt Sheeks, Tri-Apostle

Angela Naeth, Tri-Star

Because I have two tons of video work to do, packing and three more workout sessions left prior to departure, I must leave you with this little gem I found on Angela's site:

One day I will no longer be able to do this. 

TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

Pix: (Top) I am a science experiment from Angela. (Center) Mighty Magali. (Bottom) Jenny the Tri-Model. Bravo!

Caution:

From Popular Science to the The Montreal Gazette we travel today in search of relevant training news you can use. 

First stop is this data in regard to longevity of cyclists who competed in the Tour de France. A little back story will quickly show that just to get to this lofty stage required some awfully serious training. For the sake of an average lets put the miles rode per week value at 500. At a 20mph average, this works out to be 25 hours, or almost 4 per day for a week. I know I have never done that type of volume in training. If one is a more pedestrian cyclist averaging a mortal 15 per hour it jumps to 33 hours of weekly training, adding 3/4 of an hour to the daily total. We are talking about the ability to manage suffering and adapt to psychological and physical demand. There has been noise lately about too much training (exercise) actually being harmful. As far as I know, the scientific community has yet to put a number of any type to that ridiculous blanket statement. Here is the RCVman disclaimer: When you have cranked out a 500 mile week, gimme a call and we'll talk. Until then, more is better. Just ask the families of the participants in the study who added 11% in average years to their lives as a result of this 'overtraining'. 

But what about the heart attacks we hear about from marathons? Good reporting from Canada on that one. Keep running is the key take-away. 

To challenge Fox News in the fair & balanced division, I offer this from Mark Sisson,  it is the best overview of the overtraining phenomena I have found to date and isolates a number of the variables in a coherent and structured manner. As long as my resting heart rate stays within acceptable perimeters (+/- 5bpm) I will keep on keeping on. 

But, you might rightfully inquire, isn't there a law of diminishing returns in effect with all of this? Sure there is. If you get hurt, get sick, lose fitness or see your performance decrease, SOMETHING is going on and not for the best. That is why we cross train, fuel right, rest and recover properly, hydrate, test, test and test some more. Because YOU are unique. YOU are one-of-a-kind. Because YOU are special (contrary to several commencement messages), but you need to find out where those return begin to diminish. Are they at 50 miles? 75? 100? That is the specialness of you. You gotta want the answers. There are a lot of folks that simply don't care. 

Andy Potts is one of our most celebrated athletes. He is an Olympian, World Champion and the poster boy for indoor training. He spends more time on his CompuTrainer that I do. Check out this fascinating article about training with power, science and all the data you care to crunch.

Dede Griesbauer is another CompuTrainer user who has seen great success as a result. Here is a short video of her training in Southern California.

Power racing analysis is becoming routine. For your comparison, review and consideration here are some power numbers by two professional Triathletes, see how hay match up to your power numbers (or read 'em and weep):

Mark Twelsiek @ Ironman St. George: 5:10, 275 avg watts @ 76 ave rpm.

TJ Tollakson @ 70.3 Eagleman, MD: 2:02, 320 avg watts @ 97 avg rpm.

Looking in the rear view mirror of my power profile I see the fine print, "Caution, power numbers are further away than they appear."

Lastly today is this from Dr. Ferrari about some of the stats posted by a former National Junior Champion Triathlete by the name of Lance. Some very interesting reading. 

Power On

Here is the buzz: Those sting a little. Like a swarm of angry bees. Ten second blasts of explosive power on the tens, once every ten minutes for an hour. Sweet as tupelo honey. 

We witnessed the effects that fatigue plays in this scenario as our power diminished with every blast. This is a good thing as it is the way that we improve, adapt and sweeten the pot.

I wish there was a faster and less stressful way to do this, but in searching for almost 40 years, I have yet to find it. You don't have to tell me that they induce suffering. It isn't necessary to mention the elevated heart rate and demand on muscular-skeleton system. And you would certainly be preaching to the choir by citing the effort necessary to obtain max after three or four. Yet therein lies the value. They are hard because that is what it takes to get better. In this case one might even say the harder the better. 

We talked about the difference between having six hours to train or only 90 minutes. If I had six per day to train it would be an entirely different structure. But I don't. Today, I am again swamped with media chores, I am three vids behind and people are getting anxious. Restless natives. The 'is the video done yet?' question is to video editing what the 'are we almost there?' question is to driving. These things take time. 

I think that today I will apply our morning protocol to my work. One hour, a few punchy climbs and then ten seconds of explosive video artistry. Or, as they are designed to play out on the road, three steady state hours of groove zone sweet spot high intensity application of speed, movement, color and sound. 

All of this rewarded with a 10K recovery run at dusk as completed capolavoro is in final render. 

This is going to be a big week. In a series of big weeks. There is lots to do and precious little time to get it all done. We had better adapt to the need for explosive power. And endurance. And focus. And power. 

Those ten seconds are the color of money, honey. Power on. 

Pic: Up the Bonny Doon KOM at the Tour of California. Take a close look at the faces. Power on. 

The scope of things

Nice little article from the Seattle Times today on what we do, sorta. Perhaps in a kaleidoscopic way.

Sure we exercise. We get all that. We know of the bennies. We play cat and mouse with the aging process. We accept these physical truths to be self evident. We know about high intensity, core strength, endurance. We are the choir. For most of us it was a choice we made many years ago, today being the healthy manifestation of that singular, all encompassing decision. To be fit. To get there and to stay there. 

And then a funny thing happened. No longer muddled in the mediocre, we wondered how good we could get. What level we could obtain and if this fitness quest might lead us down the path of glory. Some type of victory, a win or two. The thrill of championship. The stuff we used to watch on TV.

And then another funny thing happened. We started to take the requisite baby steps in the direction of the answer to that question. Do I have what it takes? Will I make the myriad sacrifices necessary to obtain and achieve? Can I schedule the time, create the format and structure the work load as not to lose friends, family, social standing and career? Will this quest be all consuming as I have seen it be with others? 

One by one those questions were answered. All in the affirmative. All life changing. All empowering and all the time.

This is now what we do. It defines us. The synergy is complete. The big three dots are effectively connected and operating in a harmonious, dynamic, perpetual, efficiently powerful and joyous cycle. It is no longer work, it is play. It is no longer pain, it is pleasure. It is no longer something we dread but something we look forward to.

As we have been witnessing, along with all this transformation, the fact remains that as we adapt, the load increases with augmented challenge. We are asked to do more, lift more, go faster, go longer and maintain a razor sharp degree of success. A byproduct of all this adaptation is the need for progressive increase. The challenge of today prepares us for a bigger challenge tomorrow. It will NEVER get easier. We merely acknowledge, accept and execute.

I understand, this is not for everybody. I was also shocked at the figure cited in the article in regard to the percentage of people who were wired to prove their actual exercise, "In surveys, a consistent 30 to 35 percent of people report moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity. But in the past few years, researchers have begun to outfit study participants with devices that record movement, and the truth has come out: Fewer than 5 percent of adults are doing the recommended level of activity."

Five percent? That's it? OMG, we, the preachers, need to seriously add voices to the choir, folks. 

And I have an idea. Three parts:

PART ONE: Keep on keeping on, doing what we do. Leading by example.

PART TWO: Spread the love. Tell somebody else, drag them in. Bring a pal.

PART THREE: Inspire, educate, motivate, support, entertain and even bribe when absolutely necessary. 

All for today, off for a ride. 

Pic: Last year on the Queen K in Kona. Kaleidoscope effect added for emphasis. 

Common cement

A lot of kids are graduating this weekend. I have always been fond of the animal known as the commencement address. There are good ones, not-so-good ones, mediocre ones and great ones. 

Because so much these days is brought to us as spin. The media, politics and big business all having floats in the slime parade. When life, truth or reality hands you a clue (or diploma) you had best accept, and with as much humility and gratitude as you can muster, because if you don't, that same clue (or curriculum) will be offered to you again (and again), until you see that what you have been conditioned to accept as fact, is everything but. Two stand out for their overall quality and commitment to the reality of life:

Wear sunscreen. Mary Schmich.

You are not special. David McCullough.

Both these address' are radically motivating. They each talk about success found from within rather than from the outward image that society projects back upon us. 

Here are some other good address; from:

Michael S. Dell

Will Ferrell

Steven Colbert

Ellen Degeneres

Steve Jobs

Let's take a closer look, shall we? What society would like us to do as perpetuated and replayed ad naseum by those that have mastered the model:

Go to school, graduate, get a degree, go to work, get married, stay upwardly mobile, procreate, invest, retire, watch TV, have a nice funeral. 

What we really need are people with the courage to break this mold. And someone to shoot that mold maker. Folks, there are almost 7 billion of us walking around these days. We don't need more of the same. We have plenty of bureaucrats, government workers, assistant managers and file clerks. There are enough white collar junior executives and more service industry gophers than we can inventory. The middle class has flunked out. They passed the 'be normal and don't make waves' test, but failed in everything else. Magna cum laude dull. 

We need crazy. We need outlandish. We need off-the-wall-over-the-top-off-the-charts wackos with fire in the belly marching to the indi drummer that fills their souls with passion. We need the graduates of today to get busy with this because my generation has failed miserably. Here is the gift society gives you to work with today: Debt. Our mess is yours to clean up. We partied like it has been 1999 for twenty years. The place is a mess and we're broke. 

So please wear sunscreen, find your unique attributes and embrace them, believe in yourself, laugh at yourself, work hard, take risks, stay hungry, stay foolish and love all you can. It's common cement.

Good luck. 

Pics: A party for Mirthiness is a good start. The common cement (see Ellen video for reference). Add some love.