Scott McMillan : Endurance Junky

I have been back for a week, but we left again for a wedding. The Europe trip was the best trip of my life. Tara and I did a quick rip around France and a little detour into Girona, Spain. My favorite part of the trip was probably the Alps (also because I asked Tara to marry me, she said yes I hope it wasn’t because she was drunk from the altitude) and the French Riviera. I definitely want to make it back to the Chamonix maybe to do the Tour du Mont-Blanc ultra trail race. I did very little training on the trip besides a few hard hikes while in the Alps (and they were hard those are high mountains!) so I am fat and out of shape now (gained 5 pounds).

This links to my Europe trip Flickr set.

2 weeks of solid training. I managed 4 “high quality” workouts and feel great for once.
Last Saturday I managed to do a brick session with Cody which included a 3:00 hour ride followed buy a 30 minute run. During the run it felt very easy we were running slow mind you at 4:20/km pace but still I felt like I could run forever. I only took in one gel shot over 3.5 hours and felt no fatigue which was cool (very easy pace was the reason I guess).

The last 2 weeks I also managed a couple of short tempo runs of 25 and 35 minutes within a 50 minute run this was my first tempo workouts in at least 6 months. It’s weird how tempos (for me anyways) boost my fitness faster than any other workout.

But now I am off to Europe for 16 days I am bringing my running shoes and plan on running most days. I also plan on seeing a stage of the Tour so I am very excited about this trip.

Non eventful week of training. My legs were quite sore for almost a week after that hike! I really must have pounded them on the downhill. I did make a small amount of progress in my interval workout though. We did 5×1k with descending rest I managed 3:33, 3:28, 3:31, 3:34, 3:25 which is about a 5 second increase over the last workout but still along way from the 3:04-3:10 I would hit before my string of injuries a year ago. It will come though I am confident of that.

Last week was a much deserved recovery week after 5 weeks of solid training. My legs felt great on Sunday’s run so good I had to hold myself back, my knee seemed to bother me riding to work though I cannot tell if it is a bike issue because it does not bother me when running… I will “ride it out” a few more times to see if it goes away.

Tara is officially on summer vacation she is a teacher so her 2 months of leisure has started (she still has to give the exams but more or less she is done). This makes me want to become a teacher I wonder if they teach web development or environmental science in HS? It would be great to have 2 months to train, sleep in, read, travel, do some web dev every summer… that would be the life.

Of note my running club VFAC has been on a role recently cleaning up in the local road and mountain running race scene… I can’t wait to get back in race shape to compete with them.

Back in the day (a year ago) friends used to call me “The Greyhound” when I was a svelte 150… those days are long gone now(well until I go on a diet cut back on drinking and actually train properly).

Here is a cool Greyhound photo from Crestock.com:

Well last week was a mediocre training week with no great times at Thursdays interval workout 2 x 1 7/8 mile (it was hot and I think it slowed me down). My sister was in town on the weekend so I didn’t get any runs in but we did manage to do a hard 4 hour hike in Squamish in the heat and man did my legs get thrashed. It was my first hike this year with a large amount of down hill so I was not used to that level of eccentric muscle contractions. I am so sore I think I will skip intervals this week which is probably for the best I just did 5 weeks of intervals probably time for a week off.

Great article on the Denver Post highlighting Ned Overend and Matt Carpentar’s continual domination over the younger competition. Very inspirational and the reason why I love endurance sports it’s just not for the young guns and you can continue to improve with age.

Ned Overend and Matt Carpenter proved that by leading their three-man team to victory in the Teva Mountain Games’ ultimate mountain challenge.

Durango cycling legend Overend won the Games’ illustrious hill climb Sunday, besting his first-place time of last year by 30 seconds and racing up the 9.7-mile, 1,500-vertical foot climb up Vail Pass in a blistering 27 minutes, 29 seconds.

That’s an average pace of more than 21 mph on a nothing- but-uphill ride.

“When you are over 50, it’s always good to go faster than the year before,” said Overend, who turns 52 in August.

Carpenter, a 42-year-old ultra runner from Manitou Springs who rarely loses, skated through the Games’ 10K trail running championship in 45:23, finishing almost three minutes ahead of his closest competitor.

“There is a certain satisfaction there when you have more gray hairs than black,” said Carpenter, who won the Games’ 10K trail race last year. “It shows it still comes down to a lot of training and that experience pays off, especially on these kinds of courses.”

Link.

Stumpled upon this great article on Pezcyclingnews.com according to the study mentioned in this article experienced riders have shown increases of this magnitide by training with PowerCranks. Check out the article interesting stuff. Who needs EPO if you can improve like that legally…

Here is the most significant results of the three tests.

1. Pre PC test February 2006
VO2 Max 4962 ml/min
VO2 Max rel 71,19 ml/min/kg
Max Power 405 Watts at 178 bpm
FTP (1 hour): 284 Watts at 169 bpm at 79% of VO2 Max
Long term sustainable power - 223 watts at 155 bpm

2. Testing results for October 2006:
VO2 Max 5609 ml/min
VO2 Max rel 82,7 ml/min/kg
Max Power 425 Watts at 181 bpm
FTP (1 hour): 358 Watts at 170 bpm at 89% of VO2 Max
Long term sustainable power - 262 watts at 150 bpm

These changes were so large that my doctor performing this test, Doctor Durantez of the Spanish cycling federation, didn’t believe them at first so repeated the test.

[Ed note: This represents a 13% increase in VO2 max, a 16% increase in VO2 max/_kg, only a 5% increase in max power, but a whopping 26% increase in his FTP (1 hour) power and a 17% increase in long term sustainable power.

3. Testing results for April 2007
VO2 Max. 5794 ml/min
VO2 Max rel. 85,46 ml/min/kg
Max Power 451 Watts at 181 bpm_
FTP (1 hour): 394 Watts at 169 bpm at 87% of VO2 Max
Long term sustainable power - 275 watts at 146 bpm

I guess because I always bike to work this is no big deal, but to all the lazy drivers who read this blog get off your lazy ass and ride your bike to work this week at the very least… It’s good for the environment, good for your wallet and good training.
http://biketowork.ca/

Well If I ever do a triathalon this is what I will do… combines my 2 favorite sports trail running and XC mountain biking.

This is a cool video of Xterra Triathlon Champ Conrad Stoltz.