Spring Time

More on the LZR suit

Some more headlines that the suit is generating:

"The NCAA has decided that the competitors will not be allowed to use the suit at this weekend's men's Division I Swimming and Diving Championships because of accessibility issues."

Swim News.com

2 more World Records set today in Australia..

Here are the new World Records since the middle of February. I'm sure many more will continue to fall through the spring and early summer in the lead-up to Beijing. The US Olympic Trials are the first week of July, not sure whether they will allow the suit or not. I'm thinking they will.

16/02/08: 200m backstroke - Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) 2:06.39
17/02/08: 50m freestyle - Eamon Sullivan (AUS) 21.56
17/02/08: 100m backstroke - Natalie Coughlin (USA) 59.21
08/03/08: 50m backstroke - Hayley McGregory (USA) 28.00
18/03/08: 4x100m freestyle - (NED) 3:33.62
(Dekker, 53.77; Kromowidjojo, 53.61; Heemskerk, 53.62, and Veldhuis, 52.62)
21/03/08: 100m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 47.60
22/03/08: 400m medley - Stephanie Rice (AUS) 4:31.46
22/03/08: 50m backstroke - Emily Seebohm (AUS) 27.95
22/03/08: 100m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 47.50.
23/03/08: 50m backstroke - Sophie Edington (AUS) 27.67
23/03/08: 50m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 21.50
24/03/08: 50m freestyle - Marleen Veldhuis (NED) 24.09
24/03/08: 400m freestyle - Federica Pellegrini (ITA) 4:01.53
25/03/08: 200m medley - Stephanie Rice (AUS) 2:08.92
27/03/08: 50m freestyle - Eamon Sullivan (AUS) 21.41
27/03/08: 100m freestyle - Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) (AUS) 52.88

Canadian Trials begin on Monday in Montreal, and no one there will be allowed to wear the LZR, as the supply of the suit is short, so not every competitor will have access to the suit. My old club (Newmarket Stingrays) are sending 8 members to Trials.

Swimming World Records

Some interesting news out of the pool in the last month or so. Speedo has unveiled their new suit (LZR Racer) in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Based on the last 4 weeks (13 World Records), there are going to be a LOT of World Records being broken in Beijing. The suit claims a 5% reduction in drag...which is massive in the pool. I can't wait to see what Michael Phelps will do in this suit!!

The Science of Sport Blog has a couple of interesting posts on the new swim suit.

"For those who've missed the story, in the last 39 days, 14 world records have been set in the pool, and 13 of them have been in the newly designed swimsuit by Speedo. Claims of 5% less drag, water repellant fabric, an "internal core stabilizer" which helps the swimmer maintain form towards the end of the race, and what are called "low-drag" panels where the flow of water is greatest have been made to explain what must be one of the more remarkable periods of record setting in the sport."

Read the whole article here

Last Day in Flag, and the Drive North

Saturday was our last day in Flag and also my 28th birthday. We did the group ride in the morning again, followed by a 30' run off of the bike. Maybe because it was my birthday, I rode my best ride of the camp, hanging into the group and the way back, and feeling strong. Figures on the last day I'd feel that way.

Runnin off the bike

Later that night we went out for dinner at Picazzo's pizzeria, which was a good way to end the camp. From there it was on to the Pay N Take downtown, where we met up with Paul Brinkmann for beers. Paul was nice enough to cover all our beers....Thanks again Paul! Let me tell you, their beer selection there is second to none! Over 100 different beers.

Simon and Paul

The beer fridge at Pay N Take...MMmmm

Sunday morning I hopped in the truck to begin the drive back up to Vic. On the road at 630am, and I made it into Oregon before calling it a night after driving 16 hrs (1750km). I slept like a log that night, and up and back on the road at 5am Monday to try and catch the Port Angeles ferry at 2pm later that day. Ended up I wasn't going to make the ferry, so I continued up through Seattle to the border and decided to take the ferry from Vancouver (every hour departures). Had a 60' wait to get across the border, which wasn't too bad. Got back into Vic at 6:30pm, unloaded the van and then dropped Kyle and Colin off at the airport for Mooloolaba.

The Peace Monument at the border

This week is just some easy recovery workouts until Friday morning, when we'll start back with structured workouts.

Video from Friday's Swim/Bike Workout

More video's from Simon's blog

Hair Cuts

Well, today was hair cut day for most of the guys. Colin and I hadn't shaved since the start of the camp (32 days for me). Enjoy the photos.

Tich sporting the nice mohawk

PK is scared of Colin

Pre Hair Cut

Shave #1

Shave #2

Shave #3 (and final look)

Photos and Today's Training

Another typical Friday workout this morning at the pool. Swim and then onto the bike for some intervals. The swim was 1400 warm-up, and then into the main set.

First round was 2 x 100 fast on 2:00 (1:08's) followed by 4 x 200 on 2:40 threshold (2:25 down to 2:18). The second round we went 5 x 200 on 3:00 (1-5). Descended down from 2:28 to 2:13 by the end. From there it was straight onto the bike for 5' hard, 2' ez, 5' hard, followed by a cool-down.

Later in the day I headed out for an ez 90' spin along Lake Mary Rd.

Here are a few photo's from the track workout yesterday.




Tomorrow is our last day here in Flagstaff. We've got the group ride in the morning, with a run off the bike, and a swim later in the day. I've also gotta pack the van up for the drive back to Vic on Sunday morning. Oh yeah, it's also my birthday, so I may have a beer or three later at the Pay N Take.

It's Madness! (Updated)

It's the best time of the year.....March Madness!!!

Unfortunately, St John's didn't make the tournament again this year....and neither did The Ohio State University. Hopefully SJU gets back soon. I've got UCLA over Kansas in the final. I'll try to figure out a way to post my bracket on here.

Training wise the last few days have gone well. The workload is a bit lighter this week, as Colin, Kyle and Paul are prepping for the first World Cup of the year in Mooloolaba Australia.

Tuesday we swam 5000m in the morning, with a bunch of resistance work for our first set (swimming with an 8 inch parachute behind you = really hard). The 2nd set was 3 x 800 Pull (1-3) where I was able to get down to 9:30 on the last one. We had an hour base run along the Urban Trail, and a 90' spin to finish off the day.

Wednesday we swam 4000m in the morning, and in the afternoon we did some specific prep work for the guys going to Mooloolaba. There is a great hill here that simulates the Mooloolaba course pretty accurately, so we did 5 loops (up and over, and back up and over X 5) to simulate the bike course, followed by a quick transition to 10' hard running back up the hill and 10' easy.
My heart rate was sky high over the tops of the climbs (high 170's) but felt good running off of the bike.




Today we swam 3km easy in the morning, and we've got a track workout in the afternoon. I'm spending the time in between watching some of the Madness. We left the hotel at 12:45 to jog over to the track for our workout. The main set was 15 x 400 on 2:00 as (2 at triathlon race pace, 1 faster). There was a pretty decent wind for the homestretch of each 400. I held 79's for the race pace efforts (3:18 km pace) and hit 71-72's for the fast ones (3:00 pace). I'll take that at altitude. Here's another video from sqwracing. Check it out.

The Weekend of Training

Here's the last 4 days of training...

Friday:
We started out with another swim/bike morning at the pool. Onto the bikes after the main set, for 5' hard, 2' ez, then 10 rounds of 30" hard/30" ez. The bike went well today, however I felt like ass in the water. Couldn't swim at all. The main set was 2 rounds of (2 x 100 on 2:00 FAST, then 8 x 100 on 1:40 best avg) I was struggling to move through the water, barely able to hold onto 1:18's the 2nd round, which is about 8 seconds slower than where I should have been.
We had an ez 90' spin later in the day, which I did on the trainer.

Saturday:
The Flagstaff group ride again. A fairly large group today, despite the nasty weather that greeted us. A storm was starting to blow through, so we had some strong sustained winds during our ride (40-50km/hr). This made for a lot of fun on the ride!! I had a couple of solid efforts on the way out to the lake, but on the way home my legs were fried from the week, and I just ended up cruising home with Paul from Pay N Take. We ran 30' nice and ez off the bike once we got back to the hotel.

Getting some food in

Sunday:
We headed over to the gym in the morning for the treadmills as it was COLD outside due to the storm. We ended up getting a couple of inches of snow over the day into Monday.
We warmed up for 20' and then had our main set which was 4 rounds of 3-2-1 with 2' ez in between each. The speeds got quicker as the intervals got shorter. We shot another video of the training which Colin edited and posted on his blog. The video is pretty cool, check it out.



We finished off the day with 5000m in the pool. A 2000m set focusing on strength swimming with the paddles on, followed by a pull set to finish off.

As you can see, we were in a rush to get in the pool

Monday:
A nice recovery day. 3000m ez in the morning at NAU, and that was it for the day. A legs off day, which I think I needed!

For more photo's check out Joel's Flickr Page

Horton Hears A Who

I can't wait to see this movie...my parents used to read me Dr Seuss books all the time when I was young!

Catching Up on the Week That Was....

It's been a busy week thus far...the hours are certainly adding up, and it should be a good solid week of training.

Monday was a recovery day from the weekend. We swam early in the morning; jumping in at 7:30 to swim 4000m (I can't remember what we did though). We ran through some core work afterwards, then headed over to do a hot/cold session. The rest of the day was spent doing some laundry, and squeezing in a 90' easy spin.

Tuesday morning I headed over to the gym to get in a 50' easy run before swimming. We swam later on in the morning (11:15am) as the Japanese teams had the pool booked beforehand. Swimming later in the morning like that is a bit different, as it makes the rest of the day seem rushed a bit, as we don't return from the pool until 1pm or so. This morning was 4000m again (which was a nice surprise) with 1000m warm-up and then 30 x 100 aerobic on 1:35 just rolling through.

Later in the afternoon we headed out for a 2hr base ride. Colin, Kyle and Paul headed out to climb up Snowbowl, while Jordan and I opted for a flatter route along Lake Mary (62km). We followed up the base ride with a 30' easy run off of the bike. We headed out along the Urban Trail, as it's now run-able the whole way (the spots in the shade are melting now).

The highlight of the day was dinner at Olive Garden. Colin, Kirsten and I headed over for some good food (and unlimited bread and salad :) ). It was a great meal, and once the bill came, Colin said that his mom was picking up the tab, which was awesome! Thanks again Mrs Jenkins!

Wednesday was our long run day for the week. I hit up the treadmill for 90'. The first 45' were easy, building into a steady pace for the final 45'. I threw in 4 x 5' with an increased elevation (4.5% as apposed to 1%) over the final 45' to simulate some hills. Total distance 11 miles.

We headed over to the pool for an endurance themed workout....500 warm-up, 3 x 500 Pull (1-3) 5 x 300 (1-5) on 4:30, 15 x 100 on 1:30. I finished off the day with a 90' ride along Lake Mary road (47km). It was pretty windy for the ride, with a nice headwind coming back into town.

And it finally brings us to Thursday's workouts. Another morning at the treadmill, this time 50' easy again on the treadmill (10km). The swim workout today was a 800m warm-up, followed by some strength based sets. 8 x 50 w. paddles or using resistance, followed by 100 fast, 400 ez. We rolled through that 3 times. An aerobic 1000m pull set finished off the workout.

It was a quick turn-around today, as we had 45 min to eat and get ready for riding once we got back to the hotel. Today's ride was hill reps, with a new hill off of Lake Mary Rd. Once up easy to get a feel for the road, and then 4 times at effort. Afterwards, we met up with Joel to collect our run stuff as we headed out for 50' run right off the bike, with 40' of fartlek and 10' of easy running. We ran along the Sinclair Wash, a lil bit of mud and a few streams to run through made for a fun run!!

No new photos this week...I haven't had my camera out for workouts...

The Weekend of Training

A typical weekend here in Flagstaff.

Saturday started out with the local group ride again. We rode out towards Morman Lake, which is the usual route. A good ride, I tried to throw a couple of accelerations in before the large group sprints, and we stopped at the general store roughly halfway through for nourishment. The ride back I ended up in a group of 4, and had a chance to get some solid riding in for a stretch of 20-25km or so. A bunch of pulls on the front into the wind kept the legs burning, though it would have been better to try to hang on to the front group. Still a good solid stretch of riding for myself. A total ride of 100km or so, in roughly 3hrs.

We finished off the day with a tip over to the gym for a 60' easy run on the treadmill. The legs were a bit stiff for the first 30', but they came around in the back half of the run.

Sunday morning we headed over to the gym to run, as it was a bit chilly outside at 8am.
After a 10' warm-up, we ran a building hour long set, starting at 8.0 mph, building every 10 minutes to 9.5 mph. I was glad when that hour was over, my HR was at 185 for the last couple minutes at 9.5 mph. A total of 10.5 miles today on the tready.

We've got a swim later today at NAU, most likely a pull set.

20 Questions with Dano

This is stolen from Simon's blog....the interview was earlier this week

Wed, Thurs & Fri

A busy three days, but a solid three days of training.

Wednesday a bit of a cold front moved through, with the high for the day 4 C, but there were some decent winds making it a bit cooler. We started out in the morning with an aerobic workout in the pool. The main set consisted of 9 x 400 (1-3). #1-6 were pull, and the last 3 were swim. Later in the day, we headed over to the Lowell Observatory to do some hill reps. 45' of warm-up and one journey up to the observatory to see what we were climbing and then it was time to start the main part of the workout - 5 reps up and down the hill. It was approx. a 1km climb to the parking lot at the top, with the steepest sections right at the beginning.

The legs didn't seem to want to co-operate today, and I struggled up the climb 5 times. After the hill reps, we met up with Joel to get our run stuff for a 40' building run. This run was tough....as Joel decided we'd run up and down a hill for the 30' of effort, and then we had 10' easy at the end of the flats, before bundling up again to ride home. We headed out for dinner afterwards, but first we had to endure a cold shower, as the hotel's hot water wasn't working!!

Thursday was a bit of an easy day...save for a tough run workout on the track.
We started out the day with a 40' easy run on the treadmill....and then headed over to the pool for a recovery swim. 3000m with some pull and fun with some toys.

Next up for the day was the Tim Don special. 32 x 200 on the track - 3 on 60" 1 on 90". It turned out to be a good workout, I didn't fall apart as in previous attempts, and held 36-38's depending on the wind. I'll take holding a 3:08-3:10 km at altitude right now.

Today's workouts are almost over. We had early pool time this morning (7:30 instead of our usual 9:30 here in Flag). We brought our bikes to the pool, as we were doing 2 x 10' hard effort right off the end of the main set in the pool. 3 rounds of (3 x 100 on 1:40 hard, 3 x 300 on 4:30 threshold). I was finally able to put together a good full set this morning, and felt pretty good on the bike as well. Afterwards, we headed over to get some hot/cold in again. All that's left for today is a 90' easy spin.

Joel has posted some photo's from the hill reps and the Tim Don special.....I just can't figure out how to add them to my blog today...it's not working.

GO HERE TO SEE THEM.

Catching Up....

Sunday was Colin's birthday....so after the day of training, we headed out to the Outback for some Steak!!

We started out the morning with a 80' base run at the gym on the treadmill. 11 miles on the treadmill, at an avg HR of 154. It was then back to have some food, and get ready for Colin's Birthday swim later on in the day.

The birthday swim turned out to be 25 x 200 (as Colin turned 25).

Outback was very tasty....Ceasar Salad, an 11 oz piece of sirloin, and some yam fries. Oh yeah, it was washed down with a tasty Australian beer! A quick stop to Coldstone's for some ice cream on the way home made for a fitting end to the day.

Monday was a recovery day. 3500 in the pool, with a bunch of mixed activities, followed by some contrast bathing in the NAU training room. Contrast bathing involves getting in a cold tub (usually around 50 F or cooler) then jumping into a hot tub (90F or so). It's great for flushing the legs out. An hour easy spin ended the day.

Here are a couple photo's of the four of us that went to do some Hot / Cold. We're in the cold tub for the photos.

Tuesday was a monster day of training. Just over 5hrs of training, but a lot of high intensity in there. We started out the day with an ez 40' run on the treadmill (8km). It was home for breakfast, then off to the pool for what turned out to be 6000m. the main set was as follows:

8x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
7x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
6x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
5x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
4x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
3x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
2x100 on 1:30, 200 ez

We've done this set before, but I don't believe we've done it at altitude. The altitude was a killer after about 4 100's as you started really sucking for air! Everyone swam well today though!

Later in the afternoon, we headed out for a 2hr 30' ride on Lake Mary Rd. There was a bit of a cross wind today, which made things interesting. The first hour was ez, followed by 30' of Steady state effort, 5' ez, 20' TT, 5' ez, and a final 10' TT. We spun the rest of the way back to the hotel (85km) and finished the day off with an easy easy 30' shuffle around the university.

The rest of the week looks like some solid training sessions.....should be fun!

Fri and Sat training....can I have some humble pie?

We've been enjoying some awesome weather here in Flagstaff...the snow that is here is melting with these days of warmth and sunshine we've been having.

Friday we brought our bikes to the pool for a swim to bike workout. We went through our normal swim workout, and immediately after the main set hopped out and jumped straight on the bikes for 4 x 5' threshold with 2' ez in between.

The main set in the pool was 3 rounds of (4 x 50 on 50", 100 on 1:25, 200 on 2:50, 400 on 5:40) with 2oo ez in between rounds. Round one was really painful, and forced me to take the drag suit off for round two. We also pulled round two as most of us were suffering in the pool. Round three was back to swim, and then straight onto the bikes for 20 hard minutes of suffering. That was the first transition work of the year, and I could certainly notice.




We finished off the day with a 90' ez spin up towards the snowbowl (44km).

Saturday was a tough one. We rode downtown to join up for the Saturday morning group ride from the Pay N Take. Usually the ride goes out around Mormon Lake, but today we rode north out of town and towards the Wupatki National Monument.

It was 30km to reach the entrance to the park, and then a 35km descent to the bottom, with about a 2500 ft or so elevation change. The pace was high on the way out, mainly due to the fact that we had a 40km/hr tailwind behind us. After refueling at the bottom at the visitor center, it was time to start climbing back to the top. There was a fierce headwind as we started climbing, and the group slowly started to splinter. I hung in to the 30' mark of the climb, where I had to drop back. My HR was at 175, and the legs were screaming. It was at this point where the fun began. I had another hour of climbing left into the headwind, followed by another 70' ride back to the hotel room. After reaching the highway and starting the 30km trek back to the hotel, I was forced to stop for a big Pepsi, otherwise I don't think I would've made it home. The wind definitely kicked my ass today.

Total ride time for me today was 4:26, covering 129km.
Avg HR for the 90' of climbing out of the Park was 153

Hanging into the group would have been much easier, though they got a little feisty towards the end of the climb, as Colin and another local rider broke away with 10km to go or so to the top. They made it back to the hotel about 25 min before I did..

We finished off the day with a 40' trot on the treadmills over at Summit Health Center where we have memberships for the month.

I'd like to end the blog here Sunday morning with a 20 Questions video of the birthday boy Colin Jenkins