Wednesday, March 22, 2017

May is Dua month


I hope to race two duathlons this May:

May 14 - Pilipinas Duathlon Series Leg 2 (Clark)
May 28 - SBR.ph Duaman (Nuvali)
The races are short compared to the standard 10-40-5 distance so it shouldn't be an issue recovery wise (for Duaman).

Training has been going well as I have managed to reach the sub60 CTL levels of TrainingPeaks again ---without getting sick. I am able to listen to my body on when to back off after a hard training day as this 40-ish year old needs a lot of rest and recovery.

Weight though is still a big issue. I'm still eating a lot (damn it!) so not much gains on pace and power if I'm still dragging a lot of excess fat on my runs and rides. Tsk tsk, I REALLY need to get this part fixed A-SAP!

Monday, March 6, 2017

Recalibrate



As I want to make 2017 a more serious racing season compared to the last 2 years (with special mention of 2016 being my worst season to date, ugh!), I have been doing a lot of research (reading, podcasts, workout analysis, "trying" to diet, etc.) on my own to try to find out how to make myself better.

One aspect of it is calibrating my workout paces/zones on TrainingPeaks.com. I have made a humble improvement as of last week on my run and bike, as below:

Run Threshold HR value: from 153 to 159
Run Threshold Pace value: from 6:11/km to 6:08/km
Bike Power Threshold: from 140watts to 147watts

The Run improvement was achieved during my SMDC 10k run while the Bike was from doing an FTP test using the Sufferfest Rubber Glove workout with my indoor trainer.

It is good to have my run and bike thresholds tested every now and then to monitor my improvement (or non-improvement). It also helps me to train at the right paces/zones so that I don't under/over train my workouts.

It's still a challenge though on following to the letter the workouts that I have planned for the week. It could be due to family or work priorities that force me to make adjustments so I try to compensate by working out on my lunch hour at the nearby gym.

I already signed up for the SBR Duaman on end May so it's still a long time before I log in my first duathlon for the year. I may have to scout for another run race (or two) between now and Duaman to maintain/improve my race pace on the run. For the bike, I will have to swallow more Sufferfest workouts to keep the intensity and the wattage up.

Back to training....