August Assessment

As I head into the Cool Breeze Century this weekend and think about doing the Malibu Olympic and the LA Triathlon over the next 8 weeks, its time to assess where we are 2 months after the knee scoping.

But before I go into that, let me go off on a little rant here...

I apologize in advance to all those athletes and nonathletes who are true asthmatics. It would totally suck to have no power to breath. So, now let me go on a little rant. What is up with Inhalers in competitive sports? Check this out. He won the Half IM race, and I take it he didn't have an attack. I guess I should huff on one of these before a race instead of the model glue. What do you think. I guess this is all the rage in endurance sports and swimming now. At the pool at the Beijing Olympics, the deck was littered with more inhalers than discarded oxygen bottles on Mt. Everest. Come on guys and girls, are you really suffering from Asthma? I think this is b.s. Didn't someone crash badly at the Malibu tri last year while reaching for an inhaler? Maybe you should try something a little less taxing on the cardiovascular system. Huff. Deep Huff. Now I feel better.

Okay, back to the August Assessment.

Swimming - Hasn't been better since I started triathlon in January 2006. Did a little 2.4mile TT swim this week in 51:50 in a long course meter pool. A couple of club members joined me, but we're only doing a 1500m swim in prep for Malibu Olympic. I took it out easy and descended each 950 thus doing a nice negative split. Would like to see what I'd do in a wetsuit. Since I haven't been running (yet), I entered an open water 5k next weekend. I picked up a BlueSeventy Nero swimskin--can't wait to swim in it.

Cycling - been getting in some mileage. Knee is doing great. I rode up to Mt. Wilson last weekend. It's a 20 mile ride up to the towers with 4500 ft of climbing. 1200 at base to 5700 at top. Overall, was only 3 minutes slower than a year earlier when I was riding a lot and running a lot. Here are the numbers from (these include the ride up 1:59:30 last year versus 2:02:30 this year). I know this year I rode up a lot easier and was not fatigued. Also this year was a solo ride where I rode straight with no regrouping.

One Year Ago (ergomo power meter):
Entire workout (149 watts):
Duration: 2:47:55 (3:26:28)
Work: 1506 kJ
TSS: 166.7 (intensity factor 0.772)
Norm Power: 193
VI: 1.29
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 39.253 mi
Elevation Gain: 4606 ft
Elevation Loss: 4931 ft
Grade: -0.2 % (-325 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 313 149 watts
Cadence: 32 101 74 rpm
Speed: 1.2 36.6 14.0 mph
Pace 1:38 50:49 4:17 min/mi
Altitude: 3 4177 2137 ft
Crank Torque: 0 523 174 lb-in

And then from last weekend (using a Powertap):

Entire workout (171 watts):
Duration: 2:55:53 (3:03:40)
Work: 1808 kJ
TSS: 203.5 (intensity factor 0.833)
Norm Power: 208
VI: 1.22
Pw:HR: 22.82%
Pa:HR: -97.62%
Distance: 40.451 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 485 171 watts
Heart Rate: 54 146 118 bpm
Cadence: 30 239 73 rpm
Speed: 2.2 38.2 13.9 mph
Pace 1:34 26:49 4:19 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 877 207 lb-in

20 minute pead was 230 watts a year ago and 231 watts this year. My assessment is that my bike fitness is good. Wouldn't want to power through a 112 and do a long run afterwards, but things are looking good. We'll this weekend at the Cool Breeze Century.