New Year's Eve

I just watched my LSU Tigers destroy Georgia Tech. For those of us that bleed purple and gold it's been a tough year. Hopefully this win will be a sign of good things to come. Great way to start out 2009. Also, I set a personal record by eating 35 chicken wings during a football game. I'm going to feel those wings when I wake up at 5am to get in my long run for the week.

I guess my way of getting crazy these days is eating chicken wings. Man, I'm getting old :)

Geaux Tigers!!!!

Weekly Review

Took some time off this week to spend some time with the family. We had my wife's family in from Baton Rouge for the week. We all had a good time and a great Christmas. In addition, I watched 4 boys (ages 9 months - 9 years old) for 3 days straight so my wife and sister-in-law could go shopping (your welcome Julie!!!). Jon Coco is not "programmed" to be a stay at home dad. My hat is off to all of the stay at home moms/dads out there.

For the week I ended up with:

• Cycling - 3:30
• Running - 1:50
• Swimming - 1:45
• Weights - 1:15

I did a LTHR test on the bike this past week and the results came back where I thought they would. The protocol I use is a 20 minute warmup, then 40 minute time trial as hard as I can go and then I take the average hr of the 40 minute time trial. The run protocol I use is essentially the same thing.

I was supposed to do a LTHR test today on my run but I re-injured my calf trying to throw down a tomahawk dunk (8 foot goal) on my nephew on Thursday. This calf issue is really becoming annoying. Essentially, anytime I do any type of hard effort (sprint, jump, etc) on the run I tweak my calf and then I can't run for 3-4 days. I'm wondering if I have a slight tear or something along those lines. I'll probably go see a doctor at some point in January if things don't get any better.

I'm going to crank it back up for the next few weeks. I'll probably be in the 13-16 hour range over the next 3 weeks and then I'll back off for a week and recover a bit. This will be the pattern I will follow leading up to New Orleans.

I'm still trying to plan my training schedule for 2009. My two "A" races are New Orleans and Florida but I would like to strategically schedule several smaller sprints and possibly a half ironman leading up to Florida as training events. I only raced in 2 races last year (Arizona & Stonebridge) and that's just not enough. I should have asked for race entry fees for Christmas.

On a lighter note, my training partner, JT, is back from Marathon world and we are working on some strategies to try and talk his wife into letting him do Ironman Florida....

Weekly Review / Holidays

Had a pretty good week workout wise. I'm finally getting back in the groove and getting accustomed to planning my work week so I can fit in all of the workouts. I can also tell I'm "training" again because I can't eat enough right now. I'm constantly hungry. I guess this appetite will settle down in a few weeks.

For the week I hit all of the scheduled workouts although I did cut one of the bike rides short by about 10 minutes.

• Cycling - 6
• Running - 3:35
• Swimming - 2:45
• Weights - 1:15

I'm trying to hit the weights twice a week after swims and try to rebuild some of the muscle I burned off in the fall. I enjoy the weight room and wish I could fit in 3-4 sessions per week but it's just not doable at this time. I typically focus on total body and will super set several exercises due to time constraints. I can tell my strength is slowly coming back... In my younger years I lifted weights quite a bit and at one time I could bench around 315. I was also 45lbs heavier then and could barely run a mile. I now weigh 165 and can probably bench 245 once. Man how times have changed!!! I will say I'm much happier and much more full filled with triathlons then I ever was with weightlifting.

I did a 1000 yard time trial in the pool this morning. My plan here is to establish an initial marker in the pool and then I'll retest every couple of weeks to see if I'm improving. My New Year's resolution is to join a master's group. I'll probably join the Lifetime Master's Group in Garland (close to work). I'm at a stage where I've taught myself all that I can in regards to swimming so it's time for a coach.

Next week I plan on cutting back a little on the time, spending time with family and doing some testing on the bike and the run. I'm going to do a LTHR test on the bike on Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on the weather) and then do the LTHR test on the run on Sunday. I'll use these scores to re-establish heart rate zones for training as I believe they have changed from last year. As you can tell I'm too cheap to pay $150.00 at Lifetime or to local coaches and have this test done. I'll eventually get it done professionally (perhaps before I start training for IM Florida) but right now I've got better things to spend $150.00 on.

We've got family coming in on Tuesday so it's pretty hectic around our house right now, getting things clean, wrapping presents, last minute shopping. I tried to explain to my wife that as a triathlete it's important that I conserve my energy for the next workout and that I get in my proper rest. She didn't see things my way and quickly assigned me to toilet duty..... (Team Seabiscuit Members - I even gave her two choices!!!!) Oh well, that's a battle I wasn't going to win today.

Things are exciting around the house right now. The kids are out of school for two weeks and are counting down the days to Santa's arrival. Their "wish list" changes daily. The latest is a jet pack and a robot that will do their chores for them. Sometimes they drive me crazy but I know that I'll blink one day and they will be grown and have families of their own and Jennifer and I will be begging them to come home or let us come to their house for the holidays :)

Gotta enjoy the moment!!! Merry Christmas.

Weekly Review

This is my first official week of IM training for New Orleans. Okay week. I missed a swim and had to cut this morning ride short because of the White Rock Marathon. For the week I ended up with:

• Cycling - 4.5 hours


• Running - 3.5 hours


• Swimming - 2 hours


• Weights - 45 minutes

Motivation is pretty good right now and I'm ready to put in the work. I spent too much time on the trainer this past week. Trainer has it's purpose but nothing compares to being on the road. I've had a hard time getting out the door on the bike when it's cold but it's time to man up and just do it and quit complaining.

My wife did the White Rock Marathon this morning (her first ever marathon) and all I can say is my wife ROCKS!!!! For those of you that don't know my wife had our 3rd child just 9 short months ago. She looks great and I'm very proud of her. The conditions at the marathon were absolutely terrible. Consistent 20-30 mph winds and it was somewhat warm. We followed her around the course and saw her at miles 5, 15 and 21. We tried to get to the finish line in time to see her cross but unfortunately we didn't make it in time. She's a little beat up right now but I know this has been a very fulfilling accomplishment for her and me and the boys are very proud of her.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate JT, Chris, Gerald, Rick and Ben on their finishes in the Half & Full Marathons. I can honestly say I'm really GLAD I wasn't out there with you today. Great job in some tough conditions.

Good Trainer Workout

I was supposed to wake up this morning @ 4:45am to start my bike ride at 5am but I overslept by 45 minutes. This presented a challenge because I typically won't "start" a ride M-F any later then 5am because traffic really picks up around 5:45-6am south bound out of McKinney which of course is the direction I head for the start of my route. Anyway, with the outside ride canned because of my laziness I decided to try a new trainer workout that I picked up off of Chuckie V's website:

http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/

The details of the workout are:

Ride (1:30) … Indoor ride focusing on "big gear" work, along with a set of Tabata Sprints, like this...

a) Begin with a 15-minute warm-up, steadily elevating your heart rate (HR) to 80% of max HR levels or thereabouts.

b) Continued warm-up: do 12 x 1-minute efforts alternating standing in a bigger gear at 65RPM; seated in your aero-bars in a bigger gear at 60RPM; seated spinning at 100RPM, all at a maintainable, submaximal (90% of LT) heart rate. No rest between or after each minute.

c) Now for the fun, the Tabata Sprints. After spinning lightly for a minute or two, sprint ALL-OUT for 20-seconds, recording your maximal power (if you have a power meter…and you should!). This is followed by 10-seconds recovery and ONLY 10-seconds recovery. Repeat this 8 times. Wipe puke from chin.

d) After spinning lightly for a few minutes, start with the strength focus. This is entirely dependent upon your current bike fitness but in general you'll want to start out VERY conservatively. I suggest beginning with 3 sets of 6-minutes as 2 minutes of standing in a big gear at 60RPM; 2-minutes seated "grinding" in a big gear (in your aero-bars) at 60RPM; and 2-minutes seated aero-bar spinning at 110+RPM, all done at a Zone 3 type of HR (or 90% of your lactate threshold HR). Each 6-minute "set" is then followed by 4 minutes of easy upright-seated spinning at a low HR. Increase this each week if your knees allow for it. Eventually you'll want to aim for close to an hour's worth of strength-related efforts. Again, these are sub-maximal and not all-out. Think of it as weight-lifting on the bike with a easily-maintainable weight

.e) Ride the remainder of this 90-minute workout at a high Zone 2-low Zone 3 HR (or 85-90% of LTHR) and record power in relationship to that HR, spinning at 90+RPM in your aero-bars.

f) Finally, be sure to do at least a 3-4 minute cool-down in an easy gear at a moderate cadence (80-85) with a low HR.


I personally hate the trainer and typically do everything I can to avoid it but I can honestly say that this was a really tough workout that I enjoyed. ChuckieV is also offering a free offseason triathlon plan that can be found at:

http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-triathlon-training-program.html

Weekly Review - IM New Orleans

I got through a very busy week at work. As I mentioned in my previous post this was User Conference week and it was pretty crazy. The conference went great but I was physically and mentally exhausted on Friday.


I ended up with a light workout week but I was happy with what I got in considering work.

• Cycling - 2 hours
• Running - 2 hours
• Swimming - 40 minutes
• Weights - 1.5 hours

My training for IM New Orleans officially starts tomorrow. I'm going to use a base half ironman plan from http://www.endurancenation.us/ and then modify the plan slightly to incorporate more running. The endurance nation plans are typically pretty heavy on the bike (which I like) but I feel like I need to run more this year to have a solid race at IM Florida. New Orleans is a very important race to me as several of my family members are going to the race and this will be the first time for them to see me in a triathlon so I have to put on a good show :).

On a side note, Jennifer's marathon is on Dec 14th and she is ready. I'm looking forward to going to the race and supporting her. She's done a great job hauling the kids to all of my races over the years so now it's her turn and me and the boys are up for the challenge. We are going to do our best to follow her around the course and keep her motivated.

Let the countdown to New Orleans begin......