30 May 2012
Bliss is...
...a training camp cum family holiday in France, in Royan to be precise. My trusted Garmin Edge is leading the way through the vinyards around Cognac and to the hallowed gates of St Emilion. The sun burns, sweat flows, but the legs are good, watts are there, and a dinner with oysters soothes body and soul. Onward to Frankfurt, we are laying the final stones of the building that will hopefully come together on 8th July.
...and bliss is also a week (almost) without internet. More updates when I'm back.
LaGrande
25 May 2012
24 May 2012
Motto for this weekend: "Mommy......"
I know training is getting serious when I'm afraid of the sessions ahead. Well, it's that time again (last time was the 5 hour all out bike challenge). This Saturday holds the first of a series of Ironman simulations:
23 May 2012
Life is an uphill struggle... and sometimes swimming is
Legendary footage from a race in France recently:
22 May 2012
W26 (W-7): Summary
Recovery is dealt with, now off to the final bit of hard work!
| Bibi | La Grande | |
| Swimming | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 1 | 5 |
| Distance | 3.2km | 16.8km |
| Time | 1h | 4h42 |
| Biking | ||
| Sessions | 3 | 3 |
| Distance | 215km | 206km |
| Time | 6h | 6h56 |
| Running | ||
| Sessions | 1 | 3 |
| Distance | 13km | 32.5km |
| Time | 1h05 | 2h32 |
| Strength | ||
| Sessions | - | 2 |
| Time | - | 30min |
| Total | ||
| Sessions | 5 | 13 |
| Time | 8h05 | 14h41 |
| TSS | - | 809 |
| Other |
69 kg
1 acupuncture, 1 massage, 1 osteo | 85-86kg 1 massage |
| Summary | ||
| Goal for the week | Récupération et recharge des batteires pour attaquer la dernière ligne droite | Recover, get ready for the finishing straight |
| The good | Magnifique week-end dans l'oberland bernois à la recherche de la terrasse parfaite pour boire le café avec ma chère et tendre! Que du bonheur! | Good recovery, spirits are high, body is without niggles, feeling strong - awesome! |
| The bad | Quelques douleurs, un peu le rhume | Nothing much to say |
| Thoughts | Tellement bien de se sentir motivé comme au premier jour à attaquer ce dernier bloc et sentir cette course pointer le bout de son nez! I like! | Just six weeks to go? Bit concerned about the coming month, lots of work on the horizon. |
21 May 2012
100 posts and still nonsense
Wow! Today is the 100th post on our bilingual-Ironman-duel-and-stupid-videos blog. Thanks to all of you readers readers and internet bots who got our page count to a mind-boggling 5,288 (and counting!).
Rumor has it that Alain is thinking of taking his writing and video editing full time and I am waiting replies from The Onion, New York Times, and The Economist. I have a friend who knows a guy who's sister is dating the assistant to the Secretary of the night porter so it won't be long 'till its adios Blog and hello journalism. But until then, of course, we will keep providinghigh low quality journalism nonsense on a highly regular random basis.
But this wouldn't be Bibi vs LaGrande if we didn't think up something special for our 100th blog post. After a long and intricate research and development phase that started before a mythical training camp in Riccione, of which only the old folks still speak, we are happy to present to you our motto in triathlon:
Because every race is better with a mustache! Coming to a race near you some time in the future. Maybe.
Rumor has it that Alain is thinking of taking his writing and video editing full time and I am waiting replies from The Onion, New York Times, and The Economist. I have a friend who knows a guy who's sister is dating the assistant to the Secretary of the night porter so it won't be long 'till its adios Blog and hello journalism. But until then, of course, we will keep providing
But this wouldn't be Bibi vs LaGrande if we didn't think up something special for our 100th blog post. After a long and intricate research and development phase that started before a mythical training camp in Riccione, of which only the old folks still speak, we are happy to present to you our motto in triathlon:
Because every race is better with a mustache! Coming to a race near you some time in the future. Maybe.
18 May 2012
My approach
Alain has explained his approach to Ironman training here before, so now it's my turn to explain a little my philosophy and approach to this whole duel thing. I'll give two versions.
The short version:
The long version:
In my development as an athlete I come from a different background than Alain. I wasn't very good at sports when I was young and never really competed. Over the years I've dabbled many different things, from snowboarding to kite surfing, rowing, mountain biking, and tennis but always as a keen amateur without thinking I had the capacity to do well in competition. My triathlon passion came about mostly by chance when I decided to sign up for the club to go swimming rather than join a gym. The goals were pretty modest at the time: finish an Olympic distance tri in under 3 hours.
A common theme across the sports, though, is that once I get interested I like to immerse myself in the experience and understand really what's going on. Pair this with a love of technical gimmicks and toys and you can see why I'm all about sports science, articles, power meters, and testing ;-). With that info out of the way something about my approach - finally!
It's not by chance that I ended up with Alan Couzens as my coach: he has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in physiology, coaching, and long distance events. I count myself lucky that he had a slot for me on his roster and I now get coached next to athletes who have done sub 9h Ironman races or came 2nd in the Ultraman world's. I actually learned about him when I asked a question about pacing a half Ironman when I prepared for Rapperswil in 2010.
I honestly don't think that I have a very special talent. But working with Alan has shown me that you don't need that if you want to be at a level to qualify for Kona. The ultimate limiter to progression is how well and consistently you can train for a long period. The body takes a long time to adapt.
This realization has given me comfort and has made me relax about the progress I make. The last two years I worked very hard, trying to get to my goals quickly. That was a mistake in that I was overstretched and often so exhausted I couldn't even sleep anymore. We have now switched the balance to more volume and consistency in the workouts but I train less intensely. As a result I am less exhausted and when I am exhausted I want to sleep, rather than being over-revved.
In practical terms it means that I am going from a training year of about 650 hours to about 800 hours - more than 20% increase, but the decreased intensity makes up for some of the difference. This is a lot of training and the challenge becomes one of logistics - making work, life, and training fit is not easy when you want to hit 20 hours per week often. This approach does not mean that I only do endurance training without quality - but the focus has shifted somewhat to lower intensities. We had seen that my short numbers were stronger than my long numbers, so we are focusing on building that endurance and durability.
Another important change has been the addition of strength training. I am still pretty weak compared to some of the muscle powerhouses, but the slew of squats, lunges, and core stability exercises seems to have helped in preventing injuries.
Before Mallorca I was wondering what this longer and slower training had done to a distance that you can race quite hard. PBs on the swim and bike reconfirmed that improvements are still coming, only the run was a bit slower, but I felt I was limited by the heat.
The last thing I focus on a lot is race execution. I like to have a good plan for how to race, especially on Ironman. It's easy to go out too hard or to mess up your day because you are not feeding yourself well. So before the race I try to have a very good idea of how hard I want to go on the bike (in watts), what food I want to take on when, and how hard I want to run. These are usually upper limits to slow me down if I am tempted to go out too hard because the legs are fresh and I am rested.
As a consultant I need to boil it down to a set of simple bullet points:
LaGrande
The short version:
The long version:
In my development as an athlete I come from a different background than Alain. I wasn't very good at sports when I was young and never really competed. Over the years I've dabbled many different things, from snowboarding to kite surfing, rowing, mountain biking, and tennis but always as a keen amateur without thinking I had the capacity to do well in competition. My triathlon passion came about mostly by chance when I decided to sign up for the club to go swimming rather than join a gym. The goals were pretty modest at the time: finish an Olympic distance tri in under 3 hours.
A common theme across the sports, though, is that once I get interested I like to immerse myself in the experience and understand really what's going on. Pair this with a love of technical gimmicks and toys and you can see why I'm all about sports science, articles, power meters, and testing ;-). With that info out of the way something about my approach - finally!
It's not by chance that I ended up with Alan Couzens as my coach: he has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in physiology, coaching, and long distance events. I count myself lucky that he had a slot for me on his roster and I now get coached next to athletes who have done sub 9h Ironman races or came 2nd in the Ultraman world's. I actually learned about him when I asked a question about pacing a half Ironman when I prepared for Rapperswil in 2010.
I honestly don't think that I have a very special talent. But working with Alan has shown me that you don't need that if you want to be at a level to qualify for Kona. The ultimate limiter to progression is how well and consistently you can train for a long period. The body takes a long time to adapt.
This realization has given me comfort and has made me relax about the progress I make. The last two years I worked very hard, trying to get to my goals quickly. That was a mistake in that I was overstretched and often so exhausted I couldn't even sleep anymore. We have now switched the balance to more volume and consistency in the workouts but I train less intensely. As a result I am less exhausted and when I am exhausted I want to sleep, rather than being over-revved.
In practical terms it means that I am going from a training year of about 650 hours to about 800 hours - more than 20% increase, but the decreased intensity makes up for some of the difference. This is a lot of training and the challenge becomes one of logistics - making work, life, and training fit is not easy when you want to hit 20 hours per week often. This approach does not mean that I only do endurance training without quality - but the focus has shifted somewhat to lower intensities. We had seen that my short numbers were stronger than my long numbers, so we are focusing on building that endurance and durability.
Another important change has been the addition of strength training. I am still pretty weak compared to some of the muscle powerhouses, but the slew of squats, lunges, and core stability exercises seems to have helped in preventing injuries.
Before Mallorca I was wondering what this longer and slower training had done to a distance that you can race quite hard. PBs on the swim and bike reconfirmed that improvements are still coming, only the run was a bit slower, but I felt I was limited by the heat.
The last thing I focus on a lot is race execution. I like to have a good plan for how to race, especially on Ironman. It's easy to go out too hard or to mess up your day because you are not feeding yourself well. So before the race I try to have a very good idea of how hard I want to go on the bike (in watts), what food I want to take on when, and how hard I want to run. These are usually upper limits to slow me down if I am tempted to go out too hard because the legs are fresh and I am rested.
As a consultant I need to boil it down to a set of simple bullet points:
- Train consistently - do training you can absorb and keep at it
- Be patient - take pride in the work, the results will come
- Easy on the intensity - it breaks me down, so dose it well
- Execute your race - have a strategy, but stay flexible
LaGrande
16 May 2012
Anatomy of a (pre-)duel
The race this weekend was great fun for all of us, and both Alain and I are clearly on a good way for Frankfurt! But since it's a duel, let's delve a little into how the story unfolded:
1. The Swim
Clearly Alain's forte and the objective for me was clearly to limit the losses. I had the honor of starting 10 minutes before Alain, so unfortunately we didn't get to race each other directly.
It turned out that the swim course was pretty long: the fastest pro was out of the water in 24:35, which is about 2 minutes slower than last year, and quite slow for the distance. Alain showed good form in the swim although he had to swim up front and had a ripped wetsuit: 27:42, second fastest in his age group and 32nd fastest time overall. I swam very well for my abilities, 30:20, 18th in my age group and 89th fastest overall:
Lead: Alain by 2:38
2. The first transition
The way from the water exit to the bike park was quite long, plus we had more than 500m to cover in the bike park. This made for pretty long transitions. Alain made sure he was all pretty and wearing socks - took 5:09. I saved a bit of time and was off in 4:39
Lead: Alain by 2:08
3. The bike
The bike course in Mallorca is gorgeous. The first 15km are pretty flat. Then you slowly get into a climb that takes you up to about 600m at km 35. A short, technical descent is followed by fast rolling terrain back to Alcudia. The combatants' splits were:
Very very close! Funnily I got my big frame up the mountain quicker, and "girly descender" Alain was quicker down the mountain. And since I get to write this post I'll just claim I worked waaaaay harder since I was alone on the flats whilst Alain found a brother in arms.
We both got very close to 37kph average and posted front of pack bike times: 47th overall (and 7th in his age group) for Alain, and 34th overall for me (6th in my age group).
Lead: Alain by 0:51
4. Second transition
Nothing much between us there - 2:52 for Alain, 2:53 for me.
Lead: Alain by 0:52
5. The run
Bike for show and run for dough - that's what they say. The run was hard for both of us, the heat getting to us and to add insult to injury the course was slightly long. I ran a bit slower than I had hoped (1:29:07, 10th in age group, 53rd overall). Alain knew he would struggle, given his injury problems in the past and ran 1:35:31 for the 18th time in his age group or 140th overall. It was enough though to overtake Alain on the sly...
Final: Nico by 6:04
Final thoughts: The duel is close and will stay close. On the long race in Frankfurt Alain's endurance qualities are going to come out for sure and for me it will be tough to keep fueled over 9 to 10 hours. But can Alain pace himself and how will he fare on the second half of the run? These are all things we don't know...
Stay posted,
La Grande
1. The Swim
Clearly Alain's forte and the objective for me was clearly to limit the losses. I had the honor of starting 10 minutes before Alain, so unfortunately we didn't get to race each other directly.
It turned out that the swim course was pretty long: the fastest pro was out of the water in 24:35, which is about 2 minutes slower than last year, and quite slow for the distance. Alain showed good form in the swim although he had to swim up front and had a ripped wetsuit: 27:42, second fastest in his age group and 32nd fastest time overall. I swam very well for my abilities, 30:20, 18th in my age group and 89th fastest overall:
Lead: Alain by 2:38
2. The first transition
The way from the water exit to the bike park was quite long, plus we had more than 500m to cover in the bike park. This made for pretty long transitions. Alain made sure he was all pretty and wearing socks - took 5:09. I saved a bit of time and was off in 4:39
Lead: Alain by 2:08
3. The bike
The bike course in Mallorca is gorgeous. The first 15km are pretty flat. Then you slowly get into a climb that takes you up to about 600m at km 35. A short, technical descent is followed by fast rolling terrain back to Alcudia. The combatants' splits were:
Split
|
Alain
|
Nico
|
Difference
|
15.5km
|
23:03
|
22:51
|
Nico by 0:14
|
35.2km
|
47:26
|
46:06
|
Nico by 1:20
|
51km
|
20:53
|
21:19
|
Alain by 0:26
|
90km
|
57:32
|
56:51
|
Nico by 0:41
|
Total
|
2:28:54
|
2:27:07
|
Nico by 1:47
|
Very very close! Funnily I got my big frame up the mountain quicker, and "girly descender" Alain was quicker down the mountain. And since I get to write this post I'll just claim I worked waaaaay harder since I was alone on the flats whilst Alain found a brother in arms.
We both got very close to 37kph average and posted front of pack bike times: 47th overall (and 7th in his age group) for Alain, and 34th overall for me (6th in my age group).
Lead: Alain by 0:51
4. Second transition
Nothing much between us there - 2:52 for Alain, 2:53 for me.
Lead: Alain by 0:52
5. The run
Bike for show and run for dough - that's what they say. The run was hard for both of us, the heat getting to us and to add insult to injury the course was slightly long. I ran a bit slower than I had hoped (1:29:07, 10th in age group, 53rd overall). Alain knew he would struggle, given his injury problems in the past and ran 1:35:31 for the 18th time in his age group or 140th overall. It was enough though to overtake Alain on the sly...
Final: Nico by 6:04
Final thoughts: The duel is close and will stay close. On the long race in Frankfurt Alain's endurance qualities are going to come out for sure and for me it will be tough to keep fueled over 9 to 10 hours. But can Alain pace himself and how will he fare on the second half of the run? These are all things we don't know...
Stay posted,
La Grande
15 May 2012
W25 (W-8): Summary
Quelle semaine magnifique ponctuée par le premier duel. Réagissez, quelles indications pour LE Duel du 8 juillet? Qui à le plus gros mojo? De telles moustaches ne peuvent pas laisser indifférent...
| Bibi | La Grande | |
| Swimming | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 4 | 4 |
| Distance | 11km | 14.2km |
| Time | 3h20 | 3h40 |
| Biking | ||
| Sessions | 3 | 4 |
| Distance | 170km | 260km |
| Time | 5h10 | 7h47 |
| Running | ||
| Sessions | 3 | 4 |
| Distance | 39km | 50.6km |
| Time | 2h55 | 3h42 |
| Strength | ||
| Sessions | - | - |
| Time | - | - |
| Total | ||
| Sessions | 10 | 12 |
| Time | 11h25 | 15h10 |
| TSS | - | 976 |
| Other |
69 kg
1 acupuncture | 85-86kg |
| Summary | ||
| Goal for the week | Retrouver le plaisir et m'éclater pendant mon premier triathlon de l'année. | Race the shit out it, have fun. |
| The good | Quel pied! Quel week-end! J'adore courir avec Nico! Merci mec et entraine-toi fort si tu veux rester devant... Bibi revient fort! | Awesome weekend, so much fun with the lads! Great race - swam great, biked hard, ran pretty well - placed higher overall than last year in Rapperswil, same AG place. |
| The bad | J'ai un gros ruuubbbe depuis dimanche... | Suffered in the heat and would have loved to run a touch quicker. |
| Thoughts | No comment! So much fun: Thanks guys!! | Just 8 weeks to go? 5 more weeks of hard work coming up, then it's time to execute. |
12 May 2012
6 minutes, and no one gives a shit
What a weekend! Today marked part one of the official "duel", the half Ironman in Mallorca. Yes there is an official result, there were 6 minutes between us when we crossed the line, and I will make sure to tease Alain about it, but: no one gives a shit :-).
We are all super happy with the race and the weekend: hanging out reminded us how much fun we have at races together, how much more awesome we look with a great mustache, and that it's all about the journey.
Now I can't wait to premier our new finish line celebration together with Alain in Frankfurt!
Banzaii!
08 May 2012
A la recherche du plaisir: demi-marathon de Genève
Quelle expérience de vie! Planifier, réfléchir, construire et appliquer un plan d’entrainement incluant toutes les contraintes sociales, émotionnelles et professionnelles; tenir bon, avancer puis craquer…. le coup de pompe énorme.
Boum ! C’est ce qui m’est arrivé la semaine passée.
J’en ai parlé avec mes proches et cela m’a permis de relativiser,
de réaliser une fois de plus que le moteur de tout ce projet est le plaisir ! En
élève trop appliqué, j’avais oublié.
Puis dimanche, je me suis aligné sur le semi-marathon de Genève avec comme ambition de retrouver le sourire. Ma course a croisé celle de Julien avec qui j'ai pris un plaisir immense à courir sur ce parcours magnifique.
Résultat: que du bonheur!
Merci à tous ceux qui ont contribués à mon retour à l'essence de ce beau projet. Mon enthousiasme me pousse parfois trop près des sièrenes de la performance.
Puis dimanche, je me suis aligné sur le semi-marathon de Genève avec comme ambition de retrouver le sourire. Ma course a croisé celle de Julien avec qui j'ai pris un plaisir immense à courir sur ce parcours magnifique.
Résultat: que du bonheur!
Merci à tous ceux qui ont contribués à mon retour à l'essence de ce beau projet. Mon enthousiasme me pousse parfois trop près des sièrenes de la performance.
07 May 2012
Week 24 (W-9): Summary
La semaine avant le premier duel:
| Bibi | La Grande | |
| Swimming | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | 1 | 5 |
| Distance | 2.6km | 18.6km |
| Time | 1h15 | 5h13 |
| Biking | ||
| Sessions | 2 | 4 (1x home trainer) |
| Distance | 200km | 230km |
| Time | 6h40 | 8h45 |
| Running | ||
| Sessions | 6 | 4 |
| Distance | 69km | 43.8km |
| Time | 5h10 | 3h17 |
| Strength | ||
| Sessions | - | - |
| Time | - | - |
| Total | ||
| Sessions | 9 | 13 |
| Time | 12h05 | 17h15 |
| TSS | - | 973 |
| Other | 69 kg 1 massage | 85-86kg |
| Summary | ||
| Goal for the week | Travail plus rythmé en vu du 70.3 de Majorque. Courir chaque jour d'entrainement. | Intense week to peak, do plenty of tests |
| The good | Couru tous les jours d'entrainement sans plus de douleur au tendon d'Achille |
New PB swimming 400m (5:35), great simulation workout on Saturday (110km bike with run afterwards) |
| The bad | Enorme coup de pompe!! | Tired during some sessions. Some allergy problems. Small problem with left leg due to saddle height issue. |
| Thoughts | Difficile de concilier toutes ses envies, de remettre le triathlon à la place qui doit être la sienne et de se concentrer sur le plaisir en oubliant ses ambitions finalement secondaires. Me réjouis de courir avec le sourire à Majorque. | Can't wait to race Mallorca! |
02 May 2012
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