Tag Archives: triathlon

Humble Pie

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“Know this now, What is coming is better than what is gone. Trust the Process.” -unknown

3 weeks down and more motivated than ever!

I did however venture outside of the zone 2 base training a little bit this weekend and joined Endure IQ’s squad training session on Zwift. Saturday’s squad session was hosted by Sfuels and was a 175min Strength training ride. I made it through 90 min but will get to that in a bit. The ride consisted of a 75min gradual warmup then 3x 15min at 90% FTP with 7min rest in between followed by a 30 min cool down. Awesome work out with the company of like-minded athletes.

You can join them through the companion app every Saturday morning starting at 8 am. These sessions keep everyone together throughout the ride, regardless of differences in power output between riders. The ride made my 90min ride go by a heck of a lot quicker than riding alone. I 100% recommend this ride to everyone, if you can’t do all of it, do what you can. Just be honest with yourself and where your at in your training when setting your FTP. I was not.

I let my ego get in the way a little bit and instead of doing the workout at my current FTP, I boosted my watts up 25% to close to where I was, instead of where I am now. Needless to say, I barely made it out of the first interval and had to decrease that wattage midway through the first one. I knew going into it I wasn’t going to do the whole 175min, as my training plan called for a 90min ride followed by a 15min run, but that interval could have been a heck of a lot more enjoyable and consistent if I didn’t let my ego get in the way. There’s a lot of work to be done but one week at a time and we’ll get there!

Training Week

Training for the week was a bit low due to the whole household catching a cold. The week’s training load consisted of 1 swim, 2 runs, and 2 rides. For this upcoming week ill be increasing the intensity of my rides a bit with a few run intervals and a big gear workout on the bike which will get me closer to the 80/20 rule I like to follow during the season.

Week 4 starts tomorrow morning in the pool with a Broken 150 set! What are you starting your week with?

Be sure to keep an eye out on the blog this week as I will be posting the article “Should I Train While Sick?”

Like always no matter where you are on your triathlon journey, Come Tri with Me!

Zone 2 Training

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“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins

Week 3 went off without a hitch, and I’m falling back into my routine nicely. This week consisted of 3 rides on the trainer (ZWIFT Name: ComeTriwithMe), 2 runs, 1 walk @ max incline, and a swim. The most significant part of the week was I was able to get in a few runs without feeling like my foot was being electrocuted (Morton’s neuroma is no joke). A huge step for me as I’ve been nursing this foot since November. Speed will come but it was a nice couple of runs on the treadmill without pain. My goal of starting the season with the Turtleman sprint is looking like a strong possibility🤞. 

As I mentioned previously most of my training over the next few weeks will be at the top of my Zone 2 hr or lactate threshold. This week’s training kept with the plan, and I maintained zone 2 in all workouts. I’m having to adjust my speed/watts to accommodate my heart rate drift, so I can maintain the top of my zone 2 and not go into zone 3. The drift will decrease as my aerobic base improves but for now, I will need to keep an eye on it and just adjust the workouts according. 

How do you know your zone 2 heart rate? First, you need to know your maximum hr you can click here to learn how to find yours. Once you’ve figured out your maximum you can calculate your zones accordingly. 

Zone 1 Very light 50–60% 

Zone 2 Light 60–70% 

Zone 3 Moderate 70–80% 

Zone 4 Hard 80–90% 

Zone 5 Maximum 90–100%

To make it easier to track my HR I’ve teamed up with Polar and just ordered a Verity Sense heart rate band. The Verity is an armband HR monitor that will sync to your watch but even better yet can be used with my form swim goggles to get real-time HR while in the pool! I’m truly looking forward to giving it a go! Click here to check out the Polar Verity.

So why I’m I keeping my training all in zone 2 at the moment? Well, there are a few reasons but two the main two are to build a solid aerobic base and to improve my fat oxidation. Building a solid aerobic base or training at the top of your zone 2 helps improve the rate your body can clear blood lactate and allows you to perform for longer periods. 

Blood lactate is directly associated with muscle fatigue and degrades your performance as it builds. This is why it’s so important for us triathletes to train our bodies to clear lactate as quickly as possible. If you watch Lionel Sanders’s youtube channel you will see his wife checking his lactate levels during and after his workouts to ensure he is training efficiently. The same can be achieved by monitoring your heart rate zones. 

Also, training in zone 1 and 2 your body naturally wants to burn fat, so by building an aerobic base we train our bodies to break down and oxidize fat more efficiently. Our bodies have more than enough fat to fuel an entire race whereas your body can become glycogen depleted in as little as 1 hour. 

Think of zone 2 HR training as your foundation the higher you raise this floor, the further and faster you will go as an endurance athlete.

A few other interesting facts zone 2 training provides:

1. Improve your ability to exercise longer

2. Lower risk of overtraining

3. increase in mitochondrial efficiency

4. increase in “metabolic flexibility” (the ability to burn fat for fuel)

5. lower resting heart rate 

6. a decrease in blood pressure 

7. improves insulin resistance

8. improve your ability to deal with increasing load.

9. Improve your Zone 4,5 function/performance

Be sure to check out Sfuel’s line of sugar-free endurance drinks and race gels that promote further fat oxidation. To get 5% off your order use code Pauls5 at checkout.

Like always no matter where you are on your triathlon journey Come Tri with Me!

Polar Vantage M2

Training and Race Recap

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Week 1 went well, I was able to get in some quality training sessions with 3 rides, 1 swim, and an hour on the treadmill at max incline (while I’m still not cleared to run the incline helps get my heart rate up at a walk.) to put things into perspective on where I’m at my rides this week we’re done about 30 watts lower than I was last year maintaining zone 2 hr. Long way to go but looking forward to the journey.

Polar Vantage M2

Overall the week went well and felt great to get in some quality training. Nutrition was pretty much spot on and I was able to maintain an avg of 45 total carbs a day. I have to say meal prepping for the entire week helped tremendously and kept me on track. We’ve been out of town this weekend (more on that soon 😀) ,so I was able to bring some of the pre made meals with me which has helped. When the pre made meals were not an option I was able to find a low carb option at the places we went. Usually it’s as easy as just substituting the starch for extra veggies.

As of Friday morning I was down 2.5 lbs, I’ll take it! In next weeks blog I’ll dive more into my daily macros how it aligns with that day’s training session. Let me know if that’s something you want to see.

All workouts this week were completed fasted with just a bottle of @sfuels Train. Train is formulated for endurance athletes seeking the benefits of sugar-free fueling for training efficient fat oxidation and hydration in supporting lower-intensity long endurance training sessions.

More information low carb fueling can be found by Clicking here.

Polar Vantage M2

The reason we’re on the road this weekend is to support the real triathlete of the family my 7 year old daughter! Yesterday she completed The Tampa Bay Kids Triathlon, and absolutely crushed it!! I am so proud of her and what she accomplished it’s beyond words.

The Tampa Bay Kids Triathlon is in its 8th year and is very well organized. It’s held within Adventure island (a water park)and consist of 200 meter swim down the lazy river, 1.5mi bike, and a .5mi run all on site.

The swim she said was her favorite and did it all freestyle. The bike she meet a friend and I was told they talked the entire time, so she didn’t have time to drink anything 😂. She got separated from her new BFF in transition and started the run by herself. Her run she said was ok, but for me it was everything triathlon is about.

She was doing great on the run and actually was running faster than expected when she ran up on another triathlete who was crying and had a bad cramp-in her side. My little pumpkin stopped and walked a portion of the run to help her. She told her to take deep belly breathes like I had told her a few weeks before and then after a few minutes they tried to run it out. My little one stayed with her for a little bit longer and then finished her race. BEYOND PROUD.

Her first words to me after crossing the finish line were “when’s the next one”, so we’re already looking into St. Anthony’s next month. 😁. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!!

Please subscribe and comment below and if your new to triathlon or just starting getting back into training. Come Tri with Me

Starting from Scratch

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Starting from scratch.

It’s my 3rd year of triathlon and about my 10th in endurance sports, but this year feels like I’m starting all over again. The past year was a difficult one due to switching jobs and dealing with multiple injuries. Every time I would start training I would make the mistake of starting from where I left off instead of easing back into it which led to injury after injury. This is my journey back to racing!

Today is day 1 of starting from scratch!

So if you’ve been on the fence on starting your triathlon journey or getting back into it, Come Tri with me!

Over the next 4 weeks I will be easing myself back into training with a focus on low intensity rides and diet to increase my fat oxidation rate. The low intensity workouts will be dedicated by heart rate and keeping within Zone 2 (60-70% max Heart). I’ll also be mixing in a few swims, strength, and a “run” or two each week. Running for now will be more of a walk/jog at incline on the treadmill, as I’m still nursing a Morton’s neuroma ( hoping this is the last month of cortisone shots🤞).

On the diet side I’ll be going keto over the next 4 weeks and keeping my carb intake to around 50g a day (typically I’m at about 100g a day). This is for two reasons: one-to get my diet in check and two to increase my fat oxidation rate. Over the past year I’ve maintained a low carb diet, but the injuries, switching jobs, and with lack of consistent training the stress eating took its toll. Currently I’m about 25 lbs over where I’ve been racing at 😳, so let’s see how quick I can get back to race weight.

As for fuel my low intensity workouts will be done fasted with only Sfuels Train as my fuel which helps to promote fat oxidation. For recovery after my workouts I’ll be using my go to smoothie using Sfuels Rival and mixing in a few other goodies 😀. I will dive more into Sfuels in future blogs and the benefits of each product.

Sfuels GO LONGER

In the next few blogs I’ll add my workouts and daily macros to the weekly blog 😀. Let’s see where it goes!

If your starting over or just starting in triathlon hit me up and let’s do this together!

Come Tri with Me!

On a side note: While I’m starting from scratch the real triathlete of the family, my daughter (7) will be starting her last week of training! She will be doing her first race April 9th (proud dad). Her race consists of a 200 meter swim, 1.5mi bike, and .5 mi run. The next blog I’ll let you know how it goes! Btw you can go to the shop section and see some of her swimwear designs 😃.