The Day after Christmas

Christmas is gone already and all went very well. I'll post more about that later but today, after all this food, I had many extra calories to burn so went for a 4 hour ride in the Santa Monica mountains. The weather is still perfect around here.

In the "Hidden Valley"

Top of "Yerba Buena" Road.

Great ride!

Fantastic ride along the Pacific Coast Saturday morning (4 hours and 15 minutes for approximately 120 km). The light was beautiful and the visiblity so good that the Channel Islands seemed very close!



Brian (here on the left) and I spiced the ride by climbing Deer Creek road again. It is a tough climb! The first two miles are just relentless and well above 10%. The views were great though and the ocean's blue was just perfect.

Below, view of the PCH from Deer Creek Road and in the back the Channel Islands.

On Deer Creek Road

That is a sharp corner!!

Brian downhill

This morning (Sunday) two hour ride with 50 minutes in Zone 3. Great feeling after the first 30 minutes.

Back on track

After few days of sickness and business travels (Houston and Phoenix) I am happy to report that I am back! Back home and back to training. I did a 50 minute run yesterday followed by the usual 8 strides. Same run session this morning before going to work followed by a 1 hour bike trainer session at lunch time. I still feel a bit tired from the cold/flu but happy to be back on track.

Good news, bad news...

First the good news, I must have been a very good boy this year as Santa came few days earlier just for me. In his bag was a brand new SRM power meter. I'll be able to train like a pro now and track my power output on the bike. Being able to know exactly generated watts is the best way to optimize your training. Well that is if I am able to mount the new cranks on the bike... That should keep me busy for few hours!

Bad news though, I am sick and could not do my two hour ride this morning. Yesterday I hesitated a while before leaving home for my four ride as I did not feel really well but decided to go for it anyway. It ended up being a beautiful ride with perfect weather and a beautiful new climb: Deer Creek canyon.

The start of Deer Creek Canyon Road from the Pacific Coast Highway

The first miles are very steep

Today no hesitation though I am definitely sick and I do not feel like riding at all!

Old Punk

Let's start by a special note to Simon and Lisa, my nephew and niece in France: NO I AM NOT TOO OLD TO BLOG! I AM 40 BUT STILL ROCK!







OK, now back to my training. Yesterday my 70 minute morning run (out at 5.45am as usual) was tough, the legs were stiff and it took me a while to warm them up. But I was rewarded by a beautiful sunrise on the bay of Los Angeles. After that the rest of the run was much easier! Run again at lunch time, 50 minutes this time (Zone 2 again). I felt much better even if the scenery was much less exciting: approximately 90 laps of my YMCA short indoor track.

Get a Brain!

After four weeks under Paulo’s regimen here are few comments about some early noticeable benefits of being coached. As a reminder, after few years in the sport this "coach thing" is totally new to me. It is obviously too early to comment on the training itself and the impact on performances but already some changes are very obvious.

The main one is the fact that you pay your coach to think for you and that is very comfortable! You outsource your brain (okay just the “triathlon lobe” of it) for a more effective one. The idea of course is to get better results because the brain you use is (hopefully) better at coaching than yours. But you also get a short term side benefit: you save a lot of energy and time not thinking about your training, not second-guessing your program and each workout. Should I run this morning? Or swim? Fast, slow? Oh I think I should have ridden! This recovery ride feels too easy should I do some intervals at the end? Should I try these 237.5 repeat sessions this anonymous guy mentioned on Slowtwitch last night? And what about squats?

The energy you save not asking all these questions to yourself is huge. Each workout is done in a much more efficient manner because you know it is what you are supposed to do. The ability to solely focus on doing the work is increased a lot. Just do the work stupid! When it hurts, well it is supposed to hurt; so enjoy the pain fully. When it‘s easy, don’t feel guilty.

Also in between workouts you can stop thinking about your training. Somebody did that for you, so you can take care of the rest of your life. Obviously, all that works if you trust your coach, understand and accept his “philosophy” and don’t question his program all the time. This trust has to be strong because I am sure there’re times when the body (and mind) feels like doing something very different than what is “recommended” by the coach.

"You are always capable of doing more"

Good New York Times article about how the brain can affect our performances and how to trick it to go harder. Good point also about “negative” thoughts and their effects on training and racing. I guess that happened to everybody during a long and cold run: “You know that coffee shop on the corner. That’s where you really should be”. And suddenly you feel tired…


Check the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/health/nutrition/06Best.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=ca0897ba66f87fcf&ex=1197176400&oref=slogin

Fire

The week-ends are all about the bike... Two hours yesterday and four hours today. For my long ride this morning I decided to climb up Latigo Canyon to check the damages done by the recent fire. It was sobering, everything was black and burnt in the lower part of the canyon. Because of the very strong winds it ended up being a pretty bad idea, the dust flying everywhere was very annoying.

The firefighter efforts to save houses were obvious and many inhabited areas have been successfully protected. Not this one below, with its burnt palmtrees.

The upper part of the canyon was not touched by the fire and the views on the ocean were great this morning.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to my big sister who finished 10th woman overall at the marathon of Palermo in 3h46. It was only her second marathon!! Bravo.

Perspective

I know, triathlon is very important and I'll get back to that... But this second post has nothing to do with it. Well almost nothing.


Few weeks ago my parents spent two weeks in Laos and did a trek there. On a Sunday afternoon they were joined in their daily hike (about 5 hours) by a dozen of young children. The kids were leaving their small and isolated village to spend the week in a slightly more important one where was their school. They would sleep together in a small "cabin" and cook their own food. They even had a small garden to grow few vegetables. On Fridays afternoons they would walk back to their village to spend the week-end with their families...

Photo by Georges Laborie

I found this story very touching, of course the life of these kids is extremely far away from and harder than my own childhood or my kids' one. But in a way it is also uplifting and somewhat positive, as these kids go through all that... to go to school.

You said HTFU?...

New Year resolutions... in December

The new year is a month away, I know, but it is already time to plan the new triathlon season and put my goals "out there". This blog will be a way to tell whoever listens about the journey but also a way to keep me honest, accountable and hopefully motivated when the going get tough.

Dream big...

My ultimate goal for next year is to have the privilege to wear a green swimcap and float in the Kona bay on October 11th at 7am... Qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona has been a dream for several years but never a clear goal. I want to try seriously this time. Will see what happens...


The races I will participate in will be:

- Half Ironman California in March because it is close to home and a good way to get a slot for a full Ironman race (hopefully Coeur d'Alene).

- Ironman Idaho in Coeur d'Alene in June (I competed there in 2003) with the hope of qualifying for Hawaii in my 40-45 age-group.

In fact the 2008 season officially started three weeks ago for me: full training mode under the guidance of a coach: Paulo Sousa. It is the first time I am going to train with the help of a "specialist" and I feel very lucky that Paulo accepted me in his group of athletes. I guess new goals deserved new means.


To be continued...