Loren had a race Saturday morning, and Gret was in Seattle for a wedding, which meant that I got to take care of the little ones. Piper started off the morning with the biggest poop I’ve ever witnessed (her diaper weighed the same as she does). After I recovered from the trauma (I recruited my friend Christine to help me, so the “trauma” was just me watching her change the diaper…) I took the girls out for a run around the neighborhood so that we could all have an early nap time. By the time Loren got home I was completely beat. I really don’t understand how people like Loren and Greta manage being parents full time. “Uncle Ben” is the closest I’ll get for a LONG time.

I’m rounding off my third week in Tiburon. Sunday I ran the loop around town, which was a lot of fun. I used my Garmin to monitor my pace, and stay consistent which is really helpful on the easy runs because I tend to go too fast. Not this time, I stayed at4:40/km roughly, with a couple faster sections. Here’s the workout overview from Motionbased (if you click on the image it will take you to the motionbased website where you can check out all the charting features and maps):

I’ve been swimming with Bob Placak, who is a masters swimmer I met one night at the local pool in Tiburon. When I say “masters swimmer” I should elaborate that he is a former UCLA swimmer, nearly made the ’84 Olympic team in the 100 fly, then moved on to open water swimming where he kicked butt for a number of years. He currently holds the record for the SF around Alcatraz swim (1:05, but he swears it was all about the conditions that day). Also, he’s never worn a wetsuit (BRRR!!!). Last week we did a set that Bob didn’t make:

500 @ 5:50, 400 @ 4:20, 300 @ 3:30, 200 @ 2:10, 100 @ 1:10,
100 @ 1:05, 200 @ 2:20, 300 @ 3:15, 400 @ 4:40, 500 @ 5:25

We’ll do the set again this week, only we’re both going to make it.

In other big news, I got a new road bike from Beyond Fabrications. It’s really fun to ride (stiff, light weight…), and now I actually have a bike to use at my first ITU pro race in Poland (1 month away!!). I’ll post pictures of the bike soon.

For now, I’ll leave you with this:

I have a training buddy that I need to give some credit to. My Garmin Forerunner has been the sweetest toy I’ve had to play with this year. I picked it up in May, and I’ve hardly done a run or ride without it since.

Here’s a graph from one of my long rides last weekend. (click on it for a more readable image)

You can do all sorts of plots with cadence, heart rate, speed, pace, elevation, you name it. There’s even a weather report for the ride, so you can brag to your friends about 20-30 mph winds on your ride across the Golden Gate.

But unlike other heart rate monitors, it also tells you where you were, can correct elevation errors, and gives run pace while more accurately than any foot pod. Check out a map from that same ride:

Ok, so that’s cool, right? Now check out what I did before Nationals when I was at the course in May (click on the image to see a bigger version, then check out the last 5k. That’s the out and back run course!):

According to the stats from that ride, the 20k loop had over 1000 ft of elevation gain!

Now I can upload that course into a Computrainer, or if I want to revisit the same ride/run next week, I can set it to have me race my virtual self. That way every week I can try to be faster.

I love my Garmin. I’m going to start posting more workout stuff on here, so you can see the whole suite of things that are possible. I’m still finding new stuff to play with on the watch.

I’m back in Tiburon this week. It’s been two months since my last visit, and a few things have changed around here.

For one, The Legend, Loren Pokorny, no longer looks like a flounder when he swims. We went swimming in the Tiburon Lagoon again. With 77 degree water I went sans wetsuit, and Loren did a decent job of staying close with his wetsuit and Zoomers on. Only problem is he’s still very stiff, and looks a lot like a robot as he “thinks” his way through the water. The Lagoon did not improve, however. The clear shallow water is now a color somewhere between Forest Green and Bile, and it tastes of algae bloom that reminds me of the way urine would smell after eating 300 spears of asparagus.

That aside, I’ve had some fun open water swims here. (go hard to the front of the pack, turn around and go back, repeat).

Because Katie Mactier is no longer here I was upgraded to pool house, which boasts a very comfortable bed and a private bathroom. It was wonderful. I’m using past tense, however, because when Greta found out that the Nanny would not be able to come this week she invited grandma down for a last minute trip. Needless to say, Grandma gets the pool house, and I’m back in Piper’s room (see this post). So far Piper hasn’t had any words for me in the middle of the night, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Greta now has a day job, which she loves, but I’m again left wondering how anybody can manage to do so much (work, kids, train, maintain a house). I guess the answer is “Invite Grandma”, but I swear people with work, training and family must never sleep.

I’m here until Thursday, and I’ve already had some great workouts. Saturday I rode up Mt. Tamalais (a.k.a. Tiny Tim), which was a part of the tour of California back in March. It was an awesome hill climb, and that consists of 12 or so miles uphill, averaging about 6-8% grade, through everything from redwood forest to barren grasslands. I would post a elevation plot from my Garmin, but I’ve once again proven my intelligence by pausing it to wait for Loren half way up, and forgetting to restart until the descent.

Sunday I ran the 11 mile loop around Tiburon, which aside from the risky corners in places, is a really beautiful road. It boasts views of the Richmond Bridge, the Golden Gate, Angel Island, and a Sausilto across Richardson Bay. I really should carry a camera.

This week I had the pleasure of having lactate and VO2 testing done at the new Endurance PTC center in San Francisco. The center is only a week old, but already their spin classes are filling up. It’s easy to see why; the facility is equipped with Computrainers for all, so you can train to your own wattage. Furthermore, they do testing on all their members, including a consultation afterwards, so that you can figure out exactly where you need to train in order to attain your goals.

Loren Pokorny showed me into the new Endurance labs. I was set up on a Velotron and allowed to warm-up for the first test. A lactate test is pretty simple, they have you ride at a specific wattage for 6 minutes, then they prick your ear to measure the amount of lactic acid in your blood, raise the wattage and continue until your lactate levels go off the charts.

I also did a VO2 max test that was a little harder, but not as long. It’s hard to ride a bike all out with a tube in your mouth. After my testing I met with Matt, who helped me interpret my results.

I finished around lunch time, and asked Lara Brown, a 70.3 pro who races for Endurance, if I could tag along for lunch. We went to Togo with another guy that introduced himself as Max and had an Italian accent. He seemed extremely knowledgeable and was easy to talk to. It was a full ten minutes later when Lara asked Max how his athletes were doing in the Tour, that I realized I was having lunch with Dr. Massimo Testa, sports medicine doctor of Lance Armstrong, Chris Lieto, and a bundle of other great athletes. This was the first of many star struck moments for me. Chris Lieto came to give a talk at Endurance to prepare the athletes for Vineman this weekend. He also did a lactate test, but he allowed people to watch his testing. I won’t give details, but I will say that boy can ride. Inside Triathlon has an article this month about Chris’s bike racing as a training technique. It must work.

The second day I did the same lactate test, only this time I was running. My curve came out very different, which was interesting. Afterwards I was able to talk to Max about the results, and he was very helpful. I think it’s going to take a few days to absorb all the information that I’ve been presented with, and I’m glad they wrote it down for me.

After the testing I was able to go for a drink with the entire Endurance staff. Every one of them is an amazing athlete, and I’m really happy to have met them. If you’re even in San Francisco, or if you’re lucky enough to live in the area, Endurance PTC is a must visit. There’s no doubt in my mind that Matt Dixon and the rest of the Endurance crew can improve anyone’s performance dramatically.

This week is my psuedo week-off. I’m back into training, but still really low key.

It’s 98 degrees in Seattle right now, which is the hottest it will get this year. I’ve never seen it top 100, and hopefully it never will (screw you global warming, you can have Florida, but don’t mess with the Pacific Northwest!). I’m going to go sailing for the second time this week (I suddenly found friends with sailboats). I may decide the boats too hot and swim home (I’m just ballast anyway).

This Sunday I’ll kick things back up with the Seafair Triathlon. It’s a local sprint race sponsored by the Benaroya Research Institute. It has a horrible schedule conflict with the Fat Salmon (3.5 mile open water swim), and the STP (Seattle to Portland bike ride, 206 miles), which are two of the biggest athletic events in the city (I’ve done both, they’re fun), but Seafair still brings in about 1500 participant. Not too bad for the PNW.

The course will start in a beautiful park in South Seattle called Seward. The swim is in Lake Washington, the bike goes along the shore, crosses one of Seattle two floating bridges, then returns to Seward Park for a 5k run around the park. It’s mostly flat but there are a couple steep hills on both the bike and the run (the floating bridge is flat, but both ends come off the water enough that large boats can go underneath.) My buddy Brian (See “A Triathlon Is Born”) will be doing this as his second race. Again on my road bike, but this time he has tri shoes, and is actually registered for the event. I’ll be rooting for him on my way back from the bike turnaround (hear that Brian?). Chris Tremonte will also be there, which will be our first time racing head to head since Seafair 2005 (he was 3rd, ahead of me by 2 minutes and one place). With Brian and Chris, I’m expecting the swim times to be real fast.

Next week: back to Tiburon to stay with Loren, and get some physiological testing at Endurance PTC. Seafair marks the beginning of my 7 week training cycle for the World Championships is Hamburg. It is going to be some fun, hard training. How else would I want to spend my summer break?