Critical Power and Walking

Day 27 - June 20, 2009 - Week 3
What an outstanding day. Waited til mid day to get the hottest conditions possible. Believe it or not I had the dehumidifier and heater going with the garage door closed. Peak temp achieved was 92 degrees.

I only had 1 hr and 20 min left in my 10 hr week and I was determined to make the most of it:

Critical Power (CP 20) Test (20 min)
- approached this test w/ a bent mindset; create oppressive conditions and see what the legs could throw
- worked from 270 to 310 watts on the CompuTrainer Ergo mode (warm up not captured in graph below) w/ the PowerTap on board











Threshold Run on Treadmill
5 x 400 w/ 30 sec recovery
...descending speed from 9.1 to 10.1...
400 splits: 1:30, 1:37, 1:34, 1:31, 1:27

Lower Body Intensive Strength Session
30 walking lunges w/ 10 lb vest and 15 lb dumbbells
12 deep squats w/ 10 lb vest and 15 dumbbells
12 plyo jump w/ 10 lb weighted vest
10 push ups w/ row (1o lb weights)
30 slides on slide board
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30 walking lunges w/ 10 lb vest and 20 lb dumbbells
12 deep squats w/ 10 lb vest and 20 lb dumbbells
12 plyo jumps w/ 10 lb weighted vest
10 push ups w/ row (1o lb weights)
30 slides on slide board
...15 min of testing done in the sun...

Key Point:
I can't stress enough how important walking is in IM racing. After the CP20 I went almost immediately into the run on the Tmill. As we all know, we will all go directly to the run post the 112 miles. Here is my point. I attempted to run 'out of T2' too quickly Saturday and my gut and legs simply said 'NO'. The legs were note there and my gut felt queezy per the the throw down on the CP 20. Take home point: by power walking through the aid stations at IM events one can bring the HR down dramatically, which can then allow fluids/calories to enter your blood stream. I power walked for about 10 min to gather my thoughts and ingest a Hammer Gel. It was only after this 'active recovery' that I was then able to execute threshold paced 400s. Please embrace such an approach at IM events. It can turn the event around for you if the body is fighting you...as it likely will.