Training volume Update--through September

 Here is the summary of my training volume through the first 9 months of 2024:

First up is my monthly Swim volume in yards.  through September I had 237,000 yards, which is about 26k/month.  Relatively light volume given recent years about apparently enough to yield 3 pretty strong open water swim races this year!

My current plan is basically shut down between n ow and the end of the year and start back up in January. I have some thinking to do, but I may designate 2025 as a more swim-focused year....

In terms of the Bike, through the end of September I have put in 7,963 miles or about 885/month.  This is one of the lowest annual totals over the last 10 years or so.  Particularly once I got outside my volume was basically only about 800 miles/month.  None-the-less, I will at least get over 10,000 miles for the year when all is said and done....

My Run/Walk volume has been walk dominated and consistently around 100 miles/month--917 miles through the end of the first 9 months.  While we have a lot of travel, I do expect the last 3 months of the year to be more walk/run focused--perhaps as much as 20-30% more /month.

The major, early story of 2024 was my commitment to PT to rebuild my body post Knee replacement.  I actually started a 7-month program to do so back this time last year.  As you can see below, once most of my training flipped outside (mid-May), I dialed that back and just did a couple of sessions during the summer.  Towards the end of September, I started back-up again and expect Oct-Dec to be similar to Jan-Mar...

This was an unusual year as in past summers, when I train for an Ironman, my summer hours would be the heaviest part of my training but as you can see, I actually backed off a fair bit in my total training time.  Through the end of September I was at 929 hours so I'm still averaging a bit over 100 hours/month.  My objective is to climb back up above that level for the last 3 months of the year....

2024 Swim Results

I did my third and final open water swim race of the year: Time Kerr Charities' 1.2 Mile Point-to-Point Swim.  I finished in a time of 32:06 and I clocked the distance at 2,075 yards for an average pace of 1:33/100 yards.  At the start of the race the tide was actually a bit against us but it flipped and was slack to slightly helping over the back half of the race.

I started about 4-5 minutes into the race in the self-seeded time trial start.  I entered behind a bunch of my friends--I was about 16-17 seconds behind Dan and a lesser amount after Midge, Bonnie and Tanner.  I actually bumped into Dan on the final straight as he swam up on my feet--I must of passed him at some point during the race but I never saw him (or Midge or Bonnie).  I passed Tanner early on in the race.

Anyways, I ended up 41st out of 134 OA and 3rd out of 18 in the 60-69 YO Age Group and 1st out of 8 in the 65-69 YO Age Group.  I managed to finish 4 seconds ahead of Dan as we continue to have very close finishes.  

This race was part of the "Triple Crown Swim Series" and there were 5 guys, relatively close to my age and my times that I tracked against all year.  Here are our collective results and my % delta to each for the these three races and for the Triple Crown as a whole:

So you can see, with a little bit of inspection, that Harbison is faster than I by 6.3% on average and the other 4 are for the most just a bit slower.  Fabrizio (Dan) is consistently the closest to me although I'm also very close with Arasim as well.  I don't know him but learned that he's actually from Wilmington, DE also!

It also looks, at least in comparison to this group of 5, that I was more competitive in the 1.2-Mile swims than I was in the 2.4-Mile swim (the Cedar Island 5k is actually 2.4 miles).  That is not a total shock as I definitely cut back on my longer (2+ mile) swims this year with no Ironman on the horizon.

Another way to compare is to look at the two Age Group cuts and Overall and see how my relative %-tile finish compared across the three races:

This data is consistent with my comparison to the "gang of 5" as I consistently did better in the two shorter races than in the bigger 5k race.  I do know that the 5k race is the "premier" race of the South Jersey Shore swimming race scene so that probably depresses my relative results in that race a bit.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with these results.  I did reasonably well against my Age Group (interestingly the 65-69 Age Group was slightly more competitive than the 60-69 Age Group!)  I thought I definitely raced close to my full potential in each of these races as frankly, I tended to be a lot slower in my training swims.

Looking ahead to 2025, I do plan to race these three again (and hopefully add 1-2 more OWS races).  One of the things I'm thinking about (but am not ready to commit to yet) is taking a shot at catching Harbison next year.  He averaged about 5.2 seconds/100 yards (6.3%) faster than me across these three races.  5 seconds/100 yards doesn't sound like a lot but realistically it really is.  It's possible I could make the jump but it would require a very intense first 6 months of swim training starting in January.  I'm not sure if I want to focus that much on swimming but we will see!

Onwards and Upwards!

Cedar Island 5K Swim

Did this swim race today for the 5th time.  My expectations were modest (just hope to not be more than 3-4 minutes slower than prior years) and I felt tired (bigger training week this week).  However, at around 12:50 I was in the water, which felt perfect (my Garmin had it at average of 70.6 degrees).  There was a fair amount of wind out of the South and blowing right into the longest stretch of what is essentially a big rectangle. This would prove to be a factor.

Turns out there were 251 starters (that finished--I don't know if anyone dropped out).  I started by the dock to the right of the course as we looked out to a white barrel that marked the 1st of 4 left turns.  Familiar swimmers in this race included my three training partners Midge, Dan and Bonnie.  Also in my Age Group was Dave Hirsch, who I've swam against a fair amount and he has beaten me by significant margins each time (in 2022 he was almost 4-minutes faster than me).  But he's had shoulder surgery and is likely not fully recovered as I swam faster than him in the 1.2-Mile Bay Swim earlier this year.

Rowdy Gaines, the three time gold medalist, sent us off.  And a controlled chaos soon ensued.  While I love this race, I do not like the 1st 100-150 yards.  First it's a mass start and I would say at least 2/3rds were there to go fast (whatever that means for each swimmer).  I basically kept my head up and navigated around swimmers and tried to avoid getting pushed into the docks on my right (blind) side.  That said, I experienced no significant drama and soon made the 90-degree left-hander  to the South and into the wind and a fair amount of chop right into us.

About 200 yards into the race I look over and I see Midge!  I can tell she sees me 2 and we start swimming next to each other.  It's a rough swim but we are likely getting a small tidal push (tide into the wind makes it choppier) and the first 500 passes in 7:51.  As we approach the 2nd turn buoy, I pick it up a bit and Midge follows not too far back.  The 2nd 500 is in 7:21(1:28/100).  We're moving!

As we head East, Midge pulls along side me and when we hit 1500 with a 8:19 500, she starts stretching it out.  Also, we were now into a modest tide against us.  I didn't think I should try to match her speed so I ducked in on her feet and was able to cruise along there for a good 500+ yards.  Our 4th 500 was our slowest at 9:02 (tide clearly having an impact).  Around this time, Hirsch came cruising past on someone else's feet and I made the relatively quick (and frankly bold) decision to bridge up and over to Dave's feet.  Thankfully this worked and I dropped in on Dave's feet.  Dave's a very strong swimmer, even with his on-going shoulder recovery, but his kick (while drastically better than mine) is much less pronounced than Midge's kick so it was a bit trickier to follow Dave.  The next two 500s at 8:28 and 7:27 per 100 I was either on Dave's feet or towards the end I was next to him after needing to avoid some other swimmer traffic.  At 2,100 yards (roughly half-way) I was at 34:21--a 68+ minute pace (vs. my 63:31 CR here).

As we headed to the final 4th turn buoy I decided to roll the dice and see if I could put some distance between Dave and I and I upped my swim cadence and I think we also were now getting a tidal push.  In any event, the 7th 500 passed in 7:11.  I did begin to slowly inch ahead of Dave.  At the 4th turn I was about 5-yards or so in front of him.

When I rounded the turn buoy, about 700-yards from the finish (and this is oh so familiar as I have swam this stretch probably 50 times in practice) I see three guys swimming abreast about 7-10 yards in front of me and I decide to try to bridge up to them and maybe break away from Dave.  I go to about 98% for about 15 seconds and I'm able to drop into their wide draft.  I eased back on my effort a little bit with this assist.  I looked back a couple of times for Dave but couldn't see him.  We were flying now and getting a nice push and we hit 4,000 yards with a 6:20 500 (1:16/100).  About 150 yards out I feel a bump to my right (blind) side and look over and see Dave!!!!  5-alarm fire! However, upon further review it wasn't him but a younger guy with the same wetsuit. 

I didn't know it wasn't Dave so I literally went 100% full-tilt. I could feel "Dave" falling behind and I hammered it all the way to the finish, even passing 3 other swimmers.  The last, what turned out to be, 122 yards went by at a 1:20/100 pace and this includes climbing up on a ladder and going about 10 feet to the timing mat.  I put in a pretty significant effort but I seemed to recover pretty quickly--much quicker than back in July with the 1.2-mile swim.  Anyways, here is how 2024 compares to my prior 4 races:

So, I'm very happy with this race.  It was my second fastest time but when adjusted for different course lengths (if you believe my Garmin is that accurate) this year was my fastest pace per 100, just slightly faster than 2022.  My percentiles were lower in 2024 than in 2022 and as I compare to specific people from 2022 to 2024 it does appear that 2024 was a faster course than 2022.  

None-the-less, I'll gladly take it!  I ended up being just a bit faster than Dave and Midge and I was also a few seconds ahead of Fabrizio for the 2nd race this year.  This is amazing to me because I train with Midge and Dan a lot and they are both better swimmers than I.  I think I just got lucky and also clearly had a good day for these two swim races this year.

Here are some other stats from the race:

July Monthly Training Totals

 Continuing in the theme of catching up--here is what July looked like versus the first 6 months of the year--first the Swim:

So, you can see in July I was able to get back on track after having to do a lot of travel in May/June to help my bother and mother after my Brother's car accident.  Went nearly 43,000/yds in July which is basically where I wanted to be at in July.  Unfortunately, missed a bunch of time in August, so this will drop down quite a bit again but at least I was able to climb to this level in July!

For the Bike another relatively low month and frankly, not nearly enough quality miles as well.  For me in mid-summer, I'm quite a ways off in fitness terms from where I have been in past summers--especially when I've been building for a fall Ironman.

As for my run/walk, I continue to plug along in the 25+ miles/week with no more than 8 miles run/week so far this year.  Not that much, but my new knee feels great and I'm thinking about pushing here in the fall and seeing if I can knock my 5k time down a bit more.....

I continue to de-emphasize PT/Weights but am planning to return in the October timeframe:

Finally, my overall training Tim, I've been in the low 90 hours/month since adopting my summer routine.  A lot of this drop off has been due to my PT deemphasis but also the drop in bike mileage has also played a role.   My swim/run time have remained steady to up over the last few months....

I'm certainly not in the best triathlon shape but I feel pretty good, I'm relatively lean and enjoying some modest success with my racing and generally enjoying my training and racing so all-in-all, I'm pretty content with where I'm at so far in 2024!

OK time to catch up a bit--First Update: Swim Race tomorrow!

 Ok, I'm way behind but now have the time to begin catching up!

Firstly, I'll highlight my next race which is the Cedar Island "5k" swim.  It really is more like an Iron distance swim of around 4,200 yards.  Here is a summary of the 4 prior times I've raced this race:

As you can see I have generally been improving relative to the field in this swim through the years.  It is a very competitive race with now 250ish people entered.  While I did not race last year due to a wedding I had a great race (for me) in 2022 swimming around the 70th %-tile overall and 80th in my Age Group.

I'm not in the same swim shape I was in August 22, when I was deep in my Kona prep but I hope to break 70 minutes this year and if I could get close to 65/66, I'd be thrilled.

Here is what the 2022 race looked like:

So it would seem last year was about 90 yards short of an Ironman swim.  This could be a function of buoy placements and my swim path but also due to inaccuracy in my Garmin (and the fact I've used different watches through the years.  In any event, the average distance I've recorded over these 4 swims has been 4,181 yds so pretty close to the 4,200 yards (2.4-miles) that I think of the race being:

MORE TO FOLLOW SHORTLY!

 

2024 Race #4/Mid-July Race Week Post #2/Major (for me) Swim Test

Tim Kerr Charities 1.2-mile Bay Swim,  July 13, 2024,  Avalon, NJ

Water Temp: 61 degrees/Surface Water was relatively calm

141 total swimmers.  25 in my 60-69 yo Male Age-Group--the largest of any Age-Group!

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Background

I have to confess.  This race meant more to me.  Not because it was some big prestigious race (although it's important to me).  Not because now I'm trying to be the best open water swimmer (I'm not, nor could I be).  

The reasons why start with my love of open-water swimming, especially with my 7-Mile Island Ladies Swim Team (of which I'm a proud invited member).  Further, I envision a life where I can swim like this (maybe shorter and slower) into my 80s, so races like this give me a chance to see where my swim fitness is at.  I think it's important to apply relevant yardsticks to things that are important to you--keeps you on your toes (or in your wetsuit, in this case).

Leading up to this race, my swim this year has been generally poor, and also more inconsistent than I remember.  My volume hadn't been that much (although I did my biggest week, +30%, the week before this race) and I think the shift of focus to rehabbing my knee and reestablishing a modest ability to run has shifted the focus away from both my swim and bike.  In my first triathlon, I had a 750-meter swim where I was about 20-seconds slower/mile then past races/my expectations.

During the summer, my best gauge of my swim fitness are my 3 or so 2,000-4,200 open-water swims with my team mates each week.  All of this swimming together breeds familiarity and when our abilities are closely matched we really push each other from time to time--not always of-course, but frequently we do!  Through this I have ready, 3X/week feedback on where my swim is at.  Those comparisons were also not good.

So, the consensus feedback was not good.  I hoped that my recent bump in volume and a couple of good days I had in the week prior to the race might indicate that I was capable of a breakout performance, but the betting odds against that would have been large.

The Race

This race is put on by race director Midge Kerr as part of the Kerr Family Charities.  It's a 1.2-mile open-water Bay (inter-coastal) swim in Avalon, NJ.  It is essentially three sides of a rectangle that starts around 21st Street and finishes at the Avalon Yacht Club.  This race is part of a 4 race series of competitive swims over the summer that Midge produces.  They are all great events.

Midge sets the time of the race each year to benefit from the natural tidal currents that predictably flow through the race course.  Of course, you can't predict the exact tidal benefit and in practice it varies quite a bit from year to year. 

This was to be the 6th time for this event, and amazingly, the 6th time in a row, even through CoVid (outside events ok with masks!).  The race is very popular and Midge limits sign-ups such that there has been a de-facto limit of about 150 swimmers.

My objectives for this race were all centered around turning in a performance that comparatively indicated that my swim fitness was solid, where I would expect it to be, and that my triathlon swim earlier this year was something of a fluke, or at least before I got into good swim shape.  Given that, I wanted to look at the following comparisons:

        1. My overall place, relative to the field as a whole

        2. My Age Group place 

        3. How I compared against the top swimmers who swim in the race each year

        4. How I compared to Dan Fabrizio, who is one of my frequent training partners and who, from a historical race performance perspective, is one of my most closest matched competitors.  Dan is a good swimmer.  He was a lifeguard in his earlier years and is 5 years younger than me.

Here is what the race course looks like:

So you can see that its pretty simple with just two left turns to navigate.  The numbers indicate 500-yd segments....

So here is how it came down:

Dan was in front of me 3-4 people as we lined up for the traditional time trial start (vs. a mass start).  I figured I would start 5 or so seconds after him.  However, when he jumped in there was some confusion as someone swam up and wanted to get on the dock.  The net of this was my swim start was delayed (as it turned out I started about 20-21 seconds after Dan, although that fact would seem to elude me during this race.)

When it was my turn I jumped in and was immediately impressed at how cold the water was.  Turned out it averaged 61 degrees, which is a bit of shock after being in 85-degree sunshine with a wetsuit on!  I could see where Dan was (I know his wetsuit) and was surprised to see that he had veered left--out into the channel (above my red line at the start) and I immediately thought this was a tactical error as I hugged the straighter more direct line by the docks.  I also immediately noticed that I felt great and I decided to ramp it up much more quickly than I normally do in a longer open-water swim race.  In the first 10 seconds I concluded that my competitor was making a mistake and that I felt great--I was pumped and really started pushing it.

Very quickly, probably just half-way to the first left turn (200 yards or so) I had pulled even with Dan.  To my further advantage, we are both left-side breathers, so I saw him but he couldn't see me.  Looking ahead I could see that Dan's line was much more crowded from early starters than my line.  What's not to like about this scenario?  I could literally feel the confidence surge through my body.

As we hit the first turn I veered wide around a mass of folks hung up on the turn.  I knew that Dan would have to swim through that.  As I rounded the buoy I really upped my pace and after about 50 yards looked back and could see that I had opened up a nice gap to all behind me.  As I looked ahead, I could see I was 50-100 yards behind the next swimmer s so I was in no-man's land and just decided to focus in and swim as strong, but comfortably as I could.  I hit the first 500 in 7:55, which was a 1:35/100 pace.  As I looked at my Garmin and registered this, it was just another piece of really great news as the first section of the race course has little tidal help so I knew I was back down near 1:30/100, which is what good looks like for me!

After a bit I looked back and I could see one swimmer had separated from the pack and was now chasing me down--yep it was Dan.  He was about 20 yards back but he seemed to be tracking on me.

The next 500 went by in 6:31 (1:18/100) as the tidal push began to kick in.  I could tell Dan was closing on me but I felt very good with what was going on and shortly after the 2nd, and lazy 2nd left turn I hit the 3rd 500 in 6:07 (1:13/100).

It was also about this time that I felt Dan's hands hitting my feet and indeed we would hit each other many times over the last 600 yards or so.  I kept looking back trying to keep Dan behind me but the reality (in my opinion) is that he is a better swimmer than me and finally he was able to go right of me (by the docks) and come up even with me.

This was both a negative and a positive.  As I mentioned, we both breathe on the left so now he could see me and I couldn't see him--a real negative.  However, the course subtly turns to the left so I knew I could try to keep forcing him right and maybe he would have to relent to avoid swimming into the docks.  This meant that we bumped into each other many (30+) times.  I have to confess there were a few f-bombs dropped during this.

Finally, about where it says "Cornell Harbor" on the above map I decided to cede the lead to him and jumped on his feet.  I was absolutely 100% critical at this point--I could not go any faster and I gambled that I could stay on his feet to the end and then get up the ladder after him and cross the timing mat within the 5 seconds that I thought I needed to stay within (really 20 but I didn't know that). I went through the 4th 500 in 5:46 (1:09/100).

The last 100 yards were pure agony but then we reached the dock and I slammed right up behind Dan as he climbed out and I followed quickly behind him and passed the timing mat probably 2-3 seconds behind him. Here I am on the dock, absolutely gasping for air:

So I ended up beating Dan by about 18 seconds and further I managed to finish 2nd out of the 25 guys in the 60-69 YO age-group:

Here is a summary of my 6 races in this event through the years including how I've compared vs. Dan (won 3 of 5 years) and Sotire (another one of my training partners):

So you can see (if you study the chart for a few seconds) that this was a really strong race for me.  Further, I was about 8% faster than last year and the top swimmers in both years averaged more like 6% faster, so I even gained relative to the tip of the spear...

I'm elated with this race.  So fun.  Epic battle. And despite all my focus on rebuilding my legs post knee replacement, I can still swim!

Onwards and upwards!

PS--isn't crazy there were so many old guys in this race!  Largest Age Group!

MId-July Duo Race Week Post #1

Ok, this first blog post on last week is to just summarize my training volume.  Post 2 will be on the 1.2-mile open water swim race and Post 3 on the Sprint Triathlon I did this past weekend.  Without getting into any details, I had a great racing weekend--at least in my opinion---check back over the next couple of days for my breakdown of those two events.

Back on the training front, with a Saturday LC open-water swim and a Sunday Sprint Triathlon, I elected to back off just a bit Thursday-Sunday, training -wise.  Specifically,  I didn't swim on Th/F and really dialed back my bike on F/S as well as just did easy, short walks on F/S.  Here is how the week's training volume shook out as a result:

Swim: 7,300 yards.  While I missed one swim and a second (Sprint Triathlon) was really short, I still hit a pretty solid swim volume number.  Today is 7/15, and I already have more swim volume in July then I did in May/June.  July will likely be my biggest swim training month in 2024.....

Bike: 186.4 miles.  This is about 50 miles too low given where I'm at fitness wise but reflects the mini-taper I did above.  I plan to heavy up on my bike volume this week....

Run/walk: 26.6 miles.  Pretty solid week distance-wise although with the triathlon on Sunday, I elected to do no running prior to the race this week, so with the exception of the 5k I raced yesterday, this was all walking.

PT/Other: 25 minutes.  Just did a short stretching session--continuing to deemphasize this aspect of my training and will continue to do so until October/November.

Total Training Time: 20:57.  I actually trained a bit more Mon-Wed but backed off as I outlined above in the back half of the week.  I may (40%) do a swim-race this Saturday but even if I do, I plan to bump my training time up into the mid 20s this week.

Anyways, super-pumped with how things are going this year.  I've raced 5 times this year at this point (2 Tris, 2 Runs, 1 Swim) and all of them have been really strong given what I was trying to achieve!  Details on race 4, a 1.2-mile open water swim race up next!

Last week and its time to race!

 Last week was my largest swim week as I registered 12,920 yards (prior largest was 10,000 yards), so that was a big jump.  Felt good throughout and am seeing some signs of progress in terms of my swim fitness.

My bike was low as this was 4th of July week and I was focused on spending time with the family--173 miles this week.  My run came it at 25 miles and my total training time in right on 21 hours--pretty modest week but given the holidays, a good place-holding week on the run/bike, with some good progress on the swim.

Tomorrow (Sat 7/13) is my first swim race of the year--a 1.2-mile open water swim and then on Sunday I'm toeing the line on my 2nd triathlon of the year--the Stone Harbor Triathlon...I'll be posting reports on these early next week! 

2024: Half-way Training Volume Update and Grades

With July making its debut, we are about half-way through 2024 (49.7% if you are measuring with days vs. months).  Here is a summary of my training volume to date as well as a general grade I've given my self for each of the activities so far in 2024:

SWIM         Grade: C-

My general volume goal was to get where I'm easily hitting 10k/week by July.  While, I don't feel that's a problem for me to do now, the reality is that my actual monthly volume has been quite a bit below that.  I was on track through April but with a lot of travel/life obligations (and cold water) my volume fell off quite a bit in May and only marginally recovered in June.

Beyond that, I'm quite a bit slower this year than I expected to be.  I've only had one triathlon and no swim races so my actual race data is limited but that race in May was about 20 sec/100yds slower than I've typically been at this point in the season.  I can also see that in my group swims (which are finally starting to ramp up) that I am relatively slower than my training partners so I know that one race was likely not a fluke--It's clear I'm slow so far this year.

I believe the causes are 1. lack of volume; 2. lack of intensity; 3. age; 4. mechanics(?).  I'm trying to address the first two (swam 3200 yds yesterday) and hope to see some improvement over the next couple of months, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this as a problem for the balance of 2024.  If it continues to be slow, I'll plan to put a focus on swimming in early 2025.

In the meantime, I give myself a C- grade on my swim.  Not very good at all but still good enough to get the job done in my only triathlon to date....

BIKE            Grade: B-

I'm generally targeting about 1,000 miles/month but have fallen short over the last two months.  The weeklong trip to Minnesota to help my mom and brother really impacted May.  June bounced back a bit but not nearly as much as I'd like.

I'm riding pretty well despite this lack of volume and I had a solid bike split in my only triathlon of the year to date.  I need to work harder on my bike, perhaps a bit more emphasis on intensity vs volume so the above volumes are not necessarily that bad.

Work to do and improvements to make.  I give myself a grade of B- for the year to date.

RUN/WALK            Grade: A

The most encouraging development of 2024 has been the progress of my run.  I'm now 18+ months out from my TKR and feel like my knee has settled into the "new normal".  My original goals for the year were to try to get to the point where I could run 2-3 times/week 2-3 miles at a time and have that be a very doable, enjoyable experience and then from a competition pov I wanted to break 30 minutes again for 5k.

I've been sub 29-minutes in my two open 5ks and I did a sub 31 for a 5k in my only triathlon of the season. More importantly, I'm now running a couple of times a weekend the last few times these have been 4-4.25 miles, which I cruise relatively easily at a low 10 minutes/mile pace.  I feel really good when I run and I have zero leg/knee issues--glorious!!!!

It may seem illogical that I'm giving myself an A grade for the element of the triathlon that I'm least competitive in but relative to my expectations at the beginning of the year, I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be.  The hard work I did in PT from October '23 through April this year is really paying off!  In fact, I still seem to be improving week to week, which at the age of 67, is not something I expected to experience again!

Note:  most of my run/walk mileage continues to be walking/trekking as my biggest run week so far is just 8 miles.  I've had in the back of my head a soft ceiling of 10 miles running a week, which seems like the right course for me to take now. 

PT/WEIGHTS                Grade: A

I'm also giving myself an A for my PT/weight work that really extends back to October.  Basically for about 7 months I've averaged about 20 hours/month devoted to this and it has really paid dividends!  My range of motion and flexibility for my new left knee is every bit as good as my original one on the right.

At this point, the rehab phase of my recovery is now officially over.  You can see the big fall-off in time I'm devoting to this training, especially in June.  Going forward, at least for the summer, I'd expect this metric to settle in around 5 hours/month.

TOTAL TRAINING TIME:              Grade: A-

I'm giving myself an A- for my training time investment.  The softness in swim and bike volume is the reason it's not an outright A.  Frankly, I was probably training too much through April as 120+ hours/month is probably too much for a 67-year old.  I remember thinking in April that I was at risk for developing serious over-training symptoms.

However, with training in the low-mid 90 hours the last two months, my body feels like it can readily absorb this load and that its high enough to keep me in the kind of fitness I want to maintain at this stage of my life.  I'd also note, that a big part of the fall-off in May/June is the roll back of my PT time.

I'm expecting a little more swim/bike time going forward and will continue too aim for 110-120 miles of run/walk per month and my guess is my training time the next couple of months will come in around 100 hours/month.

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All in all, I'm very pleased with how the season is unfolding.  After no racing in June, July will bring 3-4 races with 2 triathlons and 1 swim race already teed up.  Onwards and upwards!

Catching Up Post #3 of 3: Stone Harbor 5k

 Last catch up post for the day.  On Sunday, May 26th I jumped into the local "Turtle Trot" 5k, which is a pretty competitive, quite large 5k held in Stone Harbor every Memorial Day.  Last year I did my first run of my post knee replacement life where I was able to run the whole 5k, albeit in a very slow 34:19, which over the 3.16 miles I clocked the race at worked out to a 10:54/mile pace.

While I was happy enough to just be able to run 5k with no pain last year, this year I expected to go quite a bit faster.  Specifically, I wanted to beat my PKRPR (post knee replacement PR) of 28:53, which I did at the Ivy 5k four weeks earlier.

I tried to open the run more conservatively then I did at the Ivy 5k and ended up clocking 9:13 with an average HR of just 135bpm (which is a solid Z2 effort--certainly conservative!)

My 2nd mile was in 9:18 and my HR stayed steady at 136bpm.  Mile 3 I picked up a bit and ran 9:08 at an average HR of 137bpm.

I crossed the finish line in 28:45, which works out to about 9:12/mile for the 3.13 miles I clocked it at this year (would be about 9:15/mile if this was the correct distance).

So, I took another 8 seconds off my PKRPR.  I averaged just 136bpm vs. 153bpm at the Ivy race and my max HR was just 141bpm vs. 163 at Ivy.  So not a lot faster but at a much easier effort (obviously, I have the capacity to go faster!).. I was also 5:34 faster than last year--it's been a long time since I've been doing something I have a lot of experience at and finding myself getting faster!  Fun!

Anyways I finished 5th out of 19 in the 60-69 YO Age Group (79th %-tile).  I was 191st out of 425 vs. 325th out of 397 last year.  So I went from 18th %-tile last year to 55th %-tile this year.  For this nearly 67 year old learning how to live with a new knee this is what progress looks like.  I’ll take it.  I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish, PT wise, over the last 5-8 months.  Lots of hard work, but it seems to be working, at least a little bit.

Onwards and upwards!

Catching Up Post # 2 of 3: Delaware Sprint Triathlon State Championship

 Bear Sprint Triathlon/USAT Delaware State Championships: Race Report

 

Date:                                                  5/19/24

Location:                                           Lum’s Pond State Park;  Bear, DE

Format:                                             Sprint: 800 yds/10 miles/3 miles

2024 Triathlon Race #:                  1

Career Triathlon Race #:               170

 

Conditions:  Good. 60s/70s, moderate humidity, low wind, 65-degree water, muddy/slippery on a portion of the run.

 

Background

 

First triathlon of the 2024 season, a season in which I hope to race 4-5 triathlons as well as a number of 5k running races and a few open-water swim races.

 

This also represents the 2^nd triathlon of my post knee-replacement athletic life.  I had been training consistently, especially since January and while I was lacking in much intensity in my training, my average daily volume was quite high at 4+ hours.

 

This is a small sprint race held early in the season in Lum’s Pond State Park in Delaware.  I’ve probably raced there 6-7 times through the years including a couple of half-ironman distance races.  I also raced this race in 2022 as one of the first post-CoVid races.

 

Turns out this race is the USAT Delaware State Championship with slots awarded to the National Sprint Championship in Atlantic City later this year.  I didn’t know a lot about my competition, but I decided that it would be a worthy objective to shoot for the State Championship!  Turns out there were 169 competitors overall and 5 in my 65-69 YO Age Group—the oldest age group in the race.

 

Swim

 

The swim was in the murky and 65-degree water of Lum’s Pond—not my favorite place to swim for sure.  They changed the shape of the course this year, which was something I thought they had needed to do.  The Sprint race is supposed to be 750 meters (820 yards).  In 2022, this had turned out to be 1,216 yards but on this 2024 morning I ended clocking it at 815-yards...pretty much spot on.

 

The young guys went first with the 45+ year-old dudes 2 minutes behind them.  I had a drama-free start and kept my starting pace under control to keep my HR from spiking.  I didn’t feel great, but I didn’t think I was swimming particularly poorly.  About 1/3^rd of the way through the race I started to feel a bit pukey so I backed-off quite a bit to try to get it back on an even keel.  This seemed to work and as I reflect back on the race, I suspect it may have been more nerves than anything.

 

Anyways I plugged along through a pretty uneventful swim and hit dry land to discover I had swum a very, very poor swim.  My Garmin had me at 17:16 over 815 yards which is a ridiculously slow 2:07/100 yards.  In 2022, at this venue I had averaged 1:53/100 yards and based on my training this year, the really should not have been a problem for me this year.  That means my swim was about 2-minutes (114 seconds) too slow.  

 

I’m at a lost to explain why.  I would have thought a poor swim would have been something like 1:56-1:57/100.  I never swim this slow in practice and I never would have thought this was a possible result.  I did have a brand-new wetsuit and was swimming in the open water for the first time in 8 months, but still, this was really bad.  A quick look at my key swim metrics sheds some light:

 

Stroke Cadence: 2024: 33 strokes/min         2022: 32 strokes/min

Stroke Length:    2024: 1.40 yards/stroke     2022: 1.62 yards/stroke

 

So, there it is.  My stroke length was pathetically short—14% shorter than 2022.  And 2022’s race was not that good.  I’ve had quite a few races where I manage 1.9-2.0 yards/stroke.  I know what I need to work on—I just need to find some time in the open water.

 

As bad as my swim was, it not surprising that it really cost me from an overall race competitiveness perspective.  In 2022 I was 49^th out of 178 on the swim—73.0  %-tile.  This year I was 77^th out of 169—55.0 %-tile.  No other way to cut this—really poor swim!

 

Meanwhile, in the dinosaur division I was as it turns out the second fastest swimmer as I was down 1:26 to the leader after the swim:

 

1.  Nachman                        --------

2.  RC                                     + 1:26

3.  Littles                               + 2:08

4.  Jarman                             + 3:25

5.  McGrath                          + 9:13

 

Transition One

 

The swim to bike transition involved a longish run through the woods near the pond on a muddy and slippery trail.  After entering the transition area, I soon got to my bike and discovered Nachman sitting directly in front of my transition area looking like he was having a yard-sale.  He muttered something about hating transitions and I had to grab my stuff and pull it a couple of yards away to get at my T1 business.

 

As I was getting into my bike gear up ran Littles, who was the competitor I had judged to be the most serious threat to title hopes.  I had an OK transition I guess and was able to leave T1 in first.  My T1 was 2^nd to Littles by 16 seconds.  In 2022 I was 24^th/178 (87.1 %-tile).  This year I slipped to 34^th/169 (80.5 %-tile).  Here is where we stood after T1:

 

1.  RC                                     --------

2.  Littles                               + 0:26

3.  Nachman                        + 2:03

4.  Jarman                             + 3:26

5.  McGrath                          +10:42

 

The Bike

 

As I headed out on the bike, I had seen enough in T1 to tell me that it was likely down to a two-man race at this point.  Even with the poor swim, I knew I had a bit of a lead on Littles.  I guessed 30-45 seconds, so I had a good sense of where I stood tactically.  I figured I needed to put about 3 minutes or so on Littles on the bike to give me a big enough cushion for my run.

 

I ended up riding what I measured to be 9.91-miles in 27:18, for an average speed of 21.8mph.  I averaged 193 watts, my average HR was 158bpm, and my average cadence was 81rpm. 

 

This feels like a relatively slow ride.  I knew I lacked the intensity in my training to ride, say,  23.0mph but frankly I would have expected my power to be around 210 wats and my speed closer to 22.5mph.  although in 2022 I rode 22.0 mph on the same course.  I was 20^th in 2022 (89.4 %-tile) and this year  I was 15^th (91.7 %-tile).  I’m not quite sure what to make of this data but overall, I’m reasonably happy with the bike.  One encouraging outcome was that my L/R power balance for the ride was 48%/52%. vs 40/60 or worse before the knee surgery.  With any luck and some good hard outdoor miles, I should be able to add 1-2mph this year.

 

In my AG I was able to put 3:42 on Littles and more on the rest of the field.  I entered T2 in very good shape, competition-wise:

 

1.  RC                                     --------

2.  Littles                               + 4:08

3.  Nachman                        + 7:10

4.  Jarman                             +10:31

5.  McGrath                          +25:23

 

Transition Two

 

I ran into T2 feeling like I had likely done enough on the ride to be able to hole Littles off on the run—especially given the encouraging early season results with the limited running I’ve done on my new knee.  I quickly executed my  transition work and ended up posting the 2^ndfastest T2 in my AG (Littles was 40 seconds faster, which is not good—something I should probably work on and way too much time to give up in T2!):

 

1.  RC                                     --------

2.  Littles                               + 3:28

3.  Nachman                        + 7:57

4.  Jarman                             +11:17

5.  McGrath                          +26:33

 

The Run

 

It took a little while after T2 to get my HR and breathing under control.  I wanted to take it easy over the first little bit and be prepared to negative split the run if I saw that I needed to half-way, as this was an out an back run course.  Also, the early (and last part) of the run course was very muddy/uneven/slippery and that definitely slowed down my 1^st and 3^rd mile.

 

I hit the first mile in 10:45 and decided I need to get a move on.  After rounding the half-way marker, I soon saw Littles and determined I was about 2:45 or so ahead of him, which struck me as enough to get the job done.  It was.  Mile 2 went by in 9:40 and Mile 3 in 9:56 as I cruised home.  I clocked the run at 3.06 miles and ended up doing a 30:57, which was 56 seconds slower than Littles 30:01, but good enough to get me the State title. It was also 1:33 faster than 2022!  My average HR this year was 153bpm vs. 165bpm last year so yet another good sign about where I’m in. 

 

Here are the final standings:

 

1.  RC                                     ---------

2.  Littles                               + 2:31

3.  Nachman                        + 9:03

4.  Jarman                             +23:02

5.  McGrath                          +46:41

 

Not a bad way to start the year!  Nice to be State Champ—even if it’s little ole Delaware.  Obviously, I have a bunch of stuff to work on, which I’m motivated to get after but we’ll have to see how the navigation of the things I need to address in Minnesota goes.  Onwards and Upwards!

Catching Up Post #1 of 3: Training Load

 Let's roll the tape back to the last week of April, which is Week 17 of 2024.  Here is how my training volume has unfolded and I'll provide some background as to what's going on:

Week   Swim   Bike   Run  PT  Time

 17     10,000    260    24  5:50 31:31

 18       6,500    217    27  4:45 33:04

 19       6,500    223    23  3:50 26:13

 20       5,600    110    15  3:55 16:15

 21          0        120    28  0:00 15:13

So week 17, on Sunday 4/28 was my first 5k of the season.  Obviously, too high a training load, both generally and certainly in the week of my first race (albeit, a 5k).  None-the-less, I had a good race (for me), running 28:53 and hitting one of my post knee replacement objectives (sub 30-min 5k).

Week 18 was not intended to be a big week but it ended up the biggest of the year so far and also, its been a long time (if ever) since I last did back-to-back 30+ hour weeks! Week 18 also included a couple of days hiking in Shenandoah, which inflated the time vs the miles....

It finally occurred to me that I needed to cut back and give my body a break after 18 weeks of averaging 4+ hours of training a day.  I honestly tried to do this in week 19 but still piled up 26+ hours of training.

With a Triathlon at the end of week 20 I finally gave myself a stern lecture and dialed way back.  I report on the Race in the next post.

Week 21 saw a relocation to the shore and a lot of house work there.  This, plus sub-60 degree water, led challenges getting into the water.  Further on Wednesday we were thrown a curve-ball when my brother Dave swerved to miss a squirrel and lost control of his car leading to many serious fractures and an uncertain recovery.  So after navigating a number of balls that we had up in the air, I'm now on my way to Minnesota for what will likely be a week or so.  Not-sure what that means swim-wise as its still pretty cold up that far north.  Training will continue to be a bit hit or miss as Dave is in a hospital about 2 hours from the cabin  and I'll also need to help my mom.

Lastly, I ran a second 5k on Sunday 5/26, which I'll also update on in a subsequent post.             

Catch up on training status

 Quick catch up:

Week 18 has my biggest volume week (time-wise) and was my second consecutive week above 30 hours, which I would guess, I've never done before....

Swim: 6,500 yards

Bike: 217.4 miles

Run/Walk: 26.6 miles

PT: 4:45

Time: 33:04

Looking at this, it might seem strange that this amount of distance would equate to this much time, but I had two days down in Shenandoah climbing with a friend and that shows up in the Run/Walk, but with a lot more hours.  Of the 33 hours this week, 10 were in SNP (resulting in about 15 of the 26.6 run/walk miles).

Here is the summary by month and my observations:

Swim

Jan: 17,500.  Feb: 21,100.  Mar: 32,050. April: 31,500

My focus so far has been on just getting myself to the point where I can comfortably handle 10k+/week open water swimming by Memorial Day.  Mission accomplished.  Not to say I'm fast and in great racing shape--I'm not.  But I can easily handle this level of volume at this point.  Can't wait to jump back into open water swimming!

Bike

Jan: 1,046.  Feb: 944.  Mar: 1,002. Apr: 1,026

My base is solid.  I've begun to ride outside more and have begun some higher intensity sessions.  My attitude is my bike is my strength and while I'm not in great bike racing shape, I'm ready to move outside and start getting after it!  I havre a Tri this weekend and my expectation is to do OK by getting along with my natural strength here, as opposed to any real bike racing fitness--which I haven't really begun to build yet.

Run/Walk

Jan: 82.6.  Feb: 100.2.  Mar: 111.3.  Apr: 100.3

As you've noted in my prior posts my basic focus has been to transition mostly walk/hike/climb to include running, especially higher intensity running.  I'm very pleased with my progress and have run 2X/week at 3ish miles per session (half of which were intervals/racing) for 3 straight weeks now.  I'm heading towards 3X/week running/10+ miles/week running and with my recent success racing and in my intervals continue to be hungry and excited about where my run might lead (in the context of being a 67-yo dude with an artificial knee).

PT (weights/flexibility)

Jan: 20:30.  Feb: 17:40.  Mar: 16:55.  Apr: 21:20

As noted in prior posts, I feel really, really good about my post surgery rehab and the progress I've made.  Frankly I expected April to be down from March, but my schedule worked out in a way that I continued to make heavy time investments in this.  As I transition to my summer schedule, this will fall off dramatically...essentially shifting to a maintenance mode for the summer--maybe 7-10 hours/month going forward.  I'm very happy with my post surgery recovery--what a positive, life-changing thing for me!

Total Training Time

Jan: 114:44.  Feb: 111:46.  Mar: 125:24.  Apr: 123:27

Welcome to my pro level training investment (lol).  Yes I know, this is an excessive amount of training over the first 18 weeks of the year--basically 4 hours/day for the first 130 days of the year.  but to be honest with you, no problem for me and I'm frankly motivated to do more.

Full stop.  The pattern breaks here.  I'm ramping up my intensity and I'm looking at my first Triathlon of the season this weekend (plus a Board meeting this week) and so I'm taking a real easy/"taper" week this week to get ready for the Delaware State Championships this weekend....I'll post my views on that before the race on Sunday, but I'm super pumped for the race, know I'm not in the best race shape (by design), but thinking I need to bring home the (Age Group) crown (lol)....

onwards and upwards!

Big Week 17/First Race of 2024/Two Season Goals Done!

 OK gang--several items to get to for this week's recap!

First off, yet another big week of training, in fact my biggest of the year.  At least in terms of swimming yards, bike miles, and total training time.  Also, my PT/Strength/Flexibility time in the gym this week was the 2nd biggest of the first 17 weeks of this year:

Swim: 10,000 yards

Bike: 260 miles

Walk/Run: 23.9 miles

PT/Strength/Flexibility: 5:50

Total Training Time: 31:31

Probably not what I should be doing when the last day of the week is my first race of the season but, what can I say, I just went with what felt right!

Today I entered the Ivy 5k here in Wilmington, which is a very low key 5k run.  77 runners in it (I was the oldest guy in the race) and I finished 5th OA and 1st (out of 4) in the 60-69 YO Age Group.  Perhaps more importantly, I was able to run 28:53 (9:16/mile) so I'd say that my season goals of building back better (post knee replacement) and breaking 30 minutes in a 5k have been achieved!  In fact, as I previously posted, I actually broke 30 minutes at 5k 2X this week, as my temp run on Monday was also sub-30 (the last time I broke 30min in an open 5k race was back in 2011).  Certainly my best performance in the "steel knee era"!  Further, this is the first time I ran twice in one week this year and my 6.2 miles of running this week, is a high point in terms of actual running distance in a week so far in 2024.

I had a lot of fun but really didn't run a very smart race.  I looked around at the start and thought, well, you never know, I might have a shot here so when the gun went I decided to run with the leaders for a while and see what happened.  What happened is I went out out a 6:45/mile pace and about 30-45 seconds into the race could clearly see that at least 3 people were decidedly stronger than I, so I dialed it back to my pre-race opening mile plan of about 9:20 (29 minute 5k pace).

Unfortunately, I jacked my HR up to the mid 150s by about 90 seconds into the race (which is Z4ish for me) and I spent the whole rest of the race living on the edge and just trying to hold it together--not the most pleasant way to run a 5K!  After the turnaround on this out and back, I had 4-5 episodes of almost puking and tried to just keep the intensity down enough to not let that happen.  My splits were: 

Mile 1: 9:12; Mile 2: 9:15; Mile 3: 9:25...last 0.2 miles @ 8:45/mile.  My HR averaged 153 for the whole shebang....

So, super encouraged by this!  Feeling like I'm at a place, fitness-wise, where I can handle lots of low-intensity training and as I now begin to convert to higher intensity/lower volume (I also did 2 interval Zwift sessions this week so starting to begin the ramp on my bike). I could get relatively (compared to pre-surgery) fast, So that's an old, but now new thing and kinda fun.  I know I can continue to go faster run-wise and definitely think it may be possible to go sub 9-minutes/mile on a 5k at some point this year.

Next up is most likely the DE Sprint Triathlon State Championship on 5/19.  I might try to sneak another low-key 5k race in before but if not, today was a very good day adventure-wise and is a big boost of confidence in front of the first Triathlon of the season!

Onwards and upwards!!!

Weeks 14-16

 This post is to get you caught up with the last three weeks of training (and some tempo run time trials).  Sorry for not posting the last 20 days or so as we had a major family trip out to Indy to see the Eclipse (involved driving to Cleveland and then Indy and back) and up to Boston to help Jen find a new place to live for her coming Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital.

Swim: W14--7,000 yds.  W15: 4,500 yds.  W16: 6,500 yds.

Bike: W14: 243 miles. W15: 224 miles.  W16: 235 miles.

Walk/Run: W14: 20.3 miles. W15: 22.7 miles.  W15: 25.5 miles

PT/Weights: W14: 4:50.  W15: 4:15.  W16: 4:40.

Total Training Time (hh:mm): W14: 27:48.  W15: 26:19.  W16: 28:30

As for my tempo runs, as you might recall in March I started to do some Z2/low Z3 intervals (1/2-3/4 mile repeats).  On April 7th, in Indy, the day before the eclipse (and our 40th wedding anniversary) I ran with Marshall and Anders for my first 3-mile "tempo" run of the year, where I did 29:44 (9:54/mile) at an average HR of 142 (the top of my Z2 is around 144/145.  This was quite a breakthrough for me as both of my 5ks last year were over 34 minutes (still in recovery mode from the knee replacement) and my goal this year is to break 30 minutes for a 5k (in both a running race and a triathlon).

On 4/13 I ran 29:30 for 3 miles (9:49/mile) but my HR spiked to an average of 153.  For my 3rd tempo run  I slowed down to 30:45 (10:13/mile) at an average HR of 136.

Today, I ran 5k in 29:30 (9:31/mile) at an average HR of 139bpm!  This is already well beyond what I thought was possible when I began this year.  While the 1st run with Marshall and Anders was driven by the vastly improved running biomechanics that I have as a result of the knee replacement and the extensive PT work I've done, with this latest run I'm beginning to see both the impact of actual run faster training as well as my improvement potential as I begin to ramp up my running.

Today's run was 23 sec/mile faster at a lower HR than just 2 weeks ago.  Also, as you can see above, I'm coming off a 28+ hour training week and today had a heavy leg weight workout and a 2,000 yd swim and a 2-hour bike BEFORE the run.....

I've decided to race  a run 5k this Sunday and to hit my goal in an official race (however, I must admit I'm thinking I need to push for 28 something).....onwards and upwards!!!!