Scott McMillan : Endurance Junky

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.

Another good week of training… that makes 4 in a row. I still think I am about 6-8 weeks away from being back to normal…

Highlights of this week included me doing my first real “brick” workout. I said previously I did this already 3 days/week normally but this was my first hard one. On Saturday Cody and I did a fairly hilly ride up to the first Cypress lookout and then out along Marine Drive in West Van total riding time 2:20, afterwards we did a short 20 minute run which was an interesting experience. Normally I do the bike run after an easy 45-60 minute ride so it is fairly easy but this was entirely different my legs were a little fatigued so it felt awkward to run but after 5 minutes you get into running mode and it feels fine.

Thursday was a brutally hard interval workout it was the hilly 3k x 2k x 2k loops which left me beyond thrashed. I went into the workout feeling a little dehydrated and towards the end I was just cooked. I moved up another pace group but still have many more to go before I am back running with Joel and the gang. My times where 11:41, 7:08, 7:03.

Interesting article on Yahoo! News describing the benefits of weight training and the slowing of the aging process. Time to hit the gym! Start taking some HGH along with the weight training and 100 will be the new 40.

Researchers have found that seniors who participated in weight training not only improved muscle strength and endurance - they actually reversed some of the effects of aging in certain muscle tissue at the cellular level.

In a study published online Wednesday in PLoS One - a journal of the Public Library of Science - the researchers found that energy-producing “mitochondria” in skeletal muscle cells can be revitalized with weight-training exercise, returning them to a state closer to those found in younger people.

This was another decent week of training. I did the normal 5 days of bike commuting with the extended rides on M,W,F. Tuesday a did a hilly 1:02 run with Cody which was a good session. I also attended my 3rd week of interval training with VFAC which showed another week of improvement I have moved from 3:50 in the first week down to 3:30 km/pace my coach John said I was back but in reality I am over 20 seconds away. The last time I did the beaver lake 1k,2k,2k,1k interval session (well over a year ago) I averaged (3:15,6:40,6:44,3:04) this session was 5×1k with descending rest which I averaged 3:33, 3:30, 3:33, 3:35, 3:33 which is a long way from that. I am still excited to goto intervals next week to see if I improve again.

The most exciting thing this week though was the opening the Grouse Grind which I love. I find the Grind to be the ultimate workout it’s easy on the joints and you can push the HR through the roof if you want(when I go for a PB I will post the heart rate data chart). I generally see a jump in my interval times after a couple grouse grinds, I think this is due to the boost in strength a grind session gives. I headed up on Saturday and did a 20 minute warm-up run then hiked up (no running) I ended up doing a 40 minute grind, on Monday I returned doing another warm up run and hiking up again(no running) and managed a 38:20 which felt easy. I also used my La Sportiva Slingshots on the Monday grind session and man do they rock they are as light as racing flats and extremely grippy because they use an approach shoe like tread which does not slip on wet rock. I highly recommend these shoes to any mountain runner and grinder out there.