Nick Brown

Instead of reliving every workout I did this week, I’m just going to post the text straight out of my log on training.slowtwitch.com.  If you feel like looking for me there, my id is “riffraff”

Monday, Jan 19, 2009

I don’t know why I’m so fixated on a 20 hour week, but I am.  I know my body can handle it, and I know I can fit it into my busy schedule.  I want to get as many of them under my belt as I can before the Navy decides to give me a more unforgiving schedule that can’t handle it.  I missed it by a mere 30 minutes this week.  30 minutes!

Regardless, I still put up some pretty impressive numbers (for me) this week.  50 miles of running and 175 on the bike isn’t shabby.  I finally feel like I’m training again.  I’m eating more, sleeping great and losing weight.  I love this stuff!

If you read above you’ll notice that I missed workouts on Thursday due to a fire at work.  I do construction and facility management for the navy right now, and I had two buildings burn to the ground.  Bad day!  I can’t stand it when uncontrollable stuff keeps me from training.

Next week I’m going to work on be more disciplined about making the first ferry to work to give me more time to get most of my daily training done in the AM.  Hopefully I’ll do three swims instead of two, and I want to start adding bricks after my evening commute like I did on Friday.

A well placed recovery week!

I was a little concerned at first when Felipe had me in a recovery week my second solid week back from the holidays.  However, it all worked out well.  I caught some crud running around the office and with the nagging illness I doubt I could have put in a 20 hour effort this week.

Monday and Wednesday I had my typical commute to work, but the runs were limited.  Tuesday at spin I took it easy.  Friday was scheduled to be off but instead I skipped my swim and a track workout on Thursday and only swam on Friday (the days I felt the worst).

Saturdays long ride was awesome!  I was feeling better and I’m so glad I made it.  We broke the usual trend of riding the Elfin Forest loop and instead rode out Miramar to try something new.  I can’t recount the roads we were on but I can vividly recall the lack of traffic stops, the cows, the llamas (or alpacas?), an ostrich farm?, lemon and orange groves and at least 4 notable climbs one of which was VERY SUSTAINED.  The weather was perfect and scenery awesome.  We rode through lush greenery, climbed up a rural canyon and dropped off rocky mountainsides.  Just under 70 miles, but the climbing made it feel more like 80 or 90.

Sunday was a unique brick w/ Breakaway.  We started with a run.  20 minutes from the JCC pool to the UCSD Track.  Once at the track, we ran straight into a 3 mile workout.  The game was to run a fast lap-ez lap with the ez lap 10 seconds slower then the previous fast lap.  No stopping.  I ended up setting the pace, not really intentionally but somehow I ended up in the front. I caught some grief from the guys because I struggled to stay consistent.  (Nailing the pace was harder then I thought!).  After the three miles we ran easy back to the JCC for a moderate hour session in the pool.  Solid day.

Track Splits:

EZ - 1:57 (Not my fault!)

Fast - 1:40

EZ - 1:58 (Maybe my fault…)

Fast - 1:41

EZ - 1:44 (Figuring it out…)

Fast - 1:28 (A bit quick)

EZ - 1:42 (good)

Fast - 1:30

EZ - 1:41

Fast - 1:30

EZ - 1:43

Fast - 1:33 (Felipe took over pace work)

My legs feel strong tonight and I can almost breath through my nose again.  Next week I hope to break 20 hours for the first of many times this winter.

My first real week of training since Arizona.  I had some good sessions in December, but nothing focused or planned.  I think I was able to hang on to my fitness but I still put on some weight (I stopped getting on a scale after I passed 170lb)  In the blog below this one I claim to be taking a focus on millage over speed.  I did a marginal job of it this week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I commuted to work on my road bike.  The 17.2 mile trip takes an hour of cycling each way, interrupted by a ferry ride across the bay.  As I’ve stated before, my reasons for riding to work are as much fitness related as they are financial related as they are tree huger related.  The cold has made the trips a bit of a willpower test this week.  Each day I ran after getting to work in the morning.  Friday I went long, 90 minutes. Tuesday and Thursday I worked out with breakaway in the evening (spin and track) and swam in the mornings.  These evening workouts should be my only “speed” or intensity in my week right now.  Saturday I went long and got carried away, chasing uber bikers chris and daniel when I should have stayed aerobic.  I paid for it on the following brick.  Sunday was steady hill work on torrey pines and another tough brick.

All told I hit 19+ hours.  190 miles on the bike, 5500m in the pool and 36 miles of running.  I survived a solid first week pain free and hope to build from here.  Since it was a big first jump, I’m going to recover next week before building again for a few consecutive weeks.  It only took one week of sustained effort to notice my holliday weight start dropping!.  Weight loss will probably be as much as a focus as aerobic milage this year.  Good thing they go hand in hand.

I really want to go to Kona now.  I performed better than I could have ever hopped for at AZ and though Kona wasn’t my original goal, I believe I raced well enough to prove that it is within my grasp.  It is going to be the focus of my 2009 season.

I may not qualify in 2009, but I want to lay a foundation that will make qualifying a sure thing…eventually.  How to do this?  I am no expert, but I read everything I can get my hands on (I’ve grown particularly found of this guys mindset).  I don’t buy into the mindset of “quality over quantity” but instead believe in and wish to experience the adaptations that come from “miles of trials” and “trials of miles”.  I want to lay on the milage, probably over several seasons of build and taper.  I think there is already to much speed in my weekly routine.  I want to safely increase the frequency and duration of sustained aerobic efforts and make sure the speedwork that I do partake in is controlled, planned and well thought out.

One other thing, I have recieved many comments (not all of which are posted) from folks who think that I wish I had cancer or some other terrible medical condition.  This is not the case, though aparently my race report below makes it look so.  I merely have great respect for those who race for worthy causes, many of whom represent foundations based on diesese research.  These are the motivational stories that often overshadow the drama at the professional level in this great sport, and rightly so.