My training volume chart for 2011: Chart

2011 Review
Swim: 53km
Yikes! Not enough distance. In my peak weak in 2010, I swam close to 10km… Not surprisingly, my swimming has stagnated resulting in my 1500m and 2000m times being 2-3minutes slower than my peak condition from last year.

Bike: 1,808km
Most of this was done on an exercise bike/spinner. Considering the lack of outdoor rides, I was surprised to have managed a PB at the 40km and 90km distance (though one was with a huge tailwind and the other was my first time doing exactly 90km).

Run: 2,571km
It’s been a breakthrough year of running with huge PBs in all distances:

Mile -> 5:32 (2010 -> 5:50)
5km -> 18:29 (2010 -> 19:52)
10km -> 39:29 (2010 -> 41:00)
Half Marathon -> 1:30:29 (2010 -> 1:36)
Marathon -> 3:29:29 (2009 -> 3:58)

2012 Preview
(subject to change if I decide to get a triathlon coach)
Swim
The 50m pool in Sendagaya will close in April and I doubt I’ll get much swimming until mid April. For the first time, I’m thinking of joining a proper swimming school in Tokyo. Hopefully, Ill be able to fix years of bad swimming techniques before IM Western Australia in December. If I can start swimming every weekday early morning for a solid 4-5months, I think I’ll be in pretty good shape by December.

Bike
I’ll upgrade a few things with my current road bike but I’m NOT going to bike a proper triathlon bike in 2012. After Ultra Trail Mt. Fuji (UTMF) in May, I’ll start concentrating on cycling. The plan is to do a lot of hill climbing mixed in with some good tempo rides at Oi Futo.

Run I’m 100% lazer focused on running until Tokyo Marathon on Feb. 26th. The target will hopefully be around 3:10. The plan will be to run the first half in around 1:32:30 (4:23min/km pace) and then at the 30km mark, I’ll make a decision based on my aerobic capacity and how I feel that day:

(A) 100% all out which will hopefully put me under 3:04:59 which is good enough to qualify under the new Boston Marathon qualifying times in 2013
(B) continue on pace and try to run comfortably hard to finish under 3:09:59
(C) blow up and employ a walk/run strategy while trying to finish under 3:14:59

In any case, I’ll be satisfied with any of these outcomes..=P

After Tokyo, Ill continue running high mileage while preparing for UTMF in May. The idea here is to develop my endurance and build that aerobic capacity. I dont have any specific goals in mine but I’d like to enjoy the event and finish in the middle of the rankings.

Finally, after UTMF, I reduce running to maybe 2-3 runs a week with a focus on speed work/running in the heat/brick runs.

Pre-race:
It’s been a year dominated by running. Aside from a 3 week period in June and August to train for an oly. distance tri, I’ve done very little swimming and almost zero outdoor rides. After my marathon in Montreal, my legs were destroyed so leaving running aside, I had about a month to concentrate on nothing but swimming and biking. Training went well and by the end of it, I felt I was almost back to last year’s fitness. Although I wish I was able to get more than one 10km+ run and a few more brick runs. Anyways, It was a public holiday in Japan on the Thursday before the race but it took nearly the whole day to get to Kenting, the southern tip of Taiwan. 90min train to Narita, 30+mins to check in my bike along with at least 20+ Japanese triathletes, 3hr flight to Taoyuan, 90min high speed train to Zuoying, 2hr bus to Yoho beach resort. The resort was the official accommodations of the event and a lovely resort to stay at. After a nice buffet dinner, I quickly went back to my room and fell asleep. The included breakfast buffet the next day was pretty good and I happened to see a certain 2xIM world champ there. Ran into Macca on the way back to my room and said hi. The rest of that day was fairly uneventful: met up with other triathletes I knew, checked in the bike, carbo-loaded lunch, race briefing, early dinner, early bedtime at 9pm followed by cursing at the loud music coming from the kids disco room..

Race:
The race started at 6:45 at a beach about 15km from the resort. This meant waking up at 3:30, breakfast at 4:00, shuttle bus to the start area at 5:00. Breakfast consisted of one cliff bar, hi-5 energy bar, 3 bananas, 2 cups of coffee.

Swim (target: 35-37mins, actual: 0:39:20)
The swim was two laps from the beach which meant a beach start as well as getting out of the water after the first lap. Water was quite warm and though I didnt need to wear a wet suit, I wore one anyways to converse energy. The water was very nice and I felt I was going at a fairly easy pace. I think I could have pushed the pace a bit more on the first lap but overall, was satisfied with being only a minute or so off my target time. Actually, after talking to other people and hearing about their times, the swim might have been a bit long.

T1 (4:52 + 0:50 + 1:13)
Took off my wetsuit before going up the long stairs. When I finally made it to the transition area, I ate a cliff bar and took my time getting ready for the bike. But shortly after I got on my bike, I realized I didnt have my race number. CRAP!! Can I be disqualified for that?? Not wanting to take any chances, I ran back to the transition area (this messed up my chip time!) to look for my race belt. Doh, it wasn’t there. I gave up after half a minute and went back to my bike to find it was on my aero bars all along! Whoops. Oh well, lost about 2minutes there.

Bike (target: 2:45-3:00, actual: ~2:52:30)
The bike course was a 2 lap course consisted of two short moderate hills. The road conditions were decent in most places but some parts of the roads had potholes, unpredictable stray dogs on the side of the road and even one short unpaved section of the road. Luckily I had no flats and no misfortunes. My strategy was to keep it at a fairly high cadence and to hopefully average around 31-33kph throughout. The uphill wasnt as bad as I imagined and on the 500m caution zone going downhill, the organizers had told everyone to keep the speeds below 30kph and to not pass anyone. I dont think anyone followed that rule and I ended up following a few people that were going at 55kph+. I had brought 3 gels and one cliff bar and consumed one of them every 40mins or so. There was an aid station every 15km and I stopped at 3 of them to quickly refill my bottles. I have got to learn how to catch water bottles on the fly! The other mistake I made was wearing my aero helmet. It was simply not worth it. It was a very hot day and my head was just boiling inside the tight fit. Other than that, I was fairly satisfied with the bike portion.

T2 (~3:00)
Coming off the bike, my legs felt relatively strong. I think the mercury hit 31-32 degrees and at the transition area, ate a cliff bar, consumed a few salt tablets, poured the rest of my water bottle on myself, took a quick leak behind a tree before finally setting off. No mistakes this time..=P

Run (target: 1:45-1:50, actual: ~2:12:35)
The run course was a 17km hilly course back to Yoho resort and then a 4km in/out section to the finish. My legs felt fine and I felt fairly hydrated but I simply could not run fast. Up to then it was partially cloudy but it start to clear up. The heat was bothering me. There were aid stations at every 2km and even after stuffing myself with sponges, my body was not able to cool down. I walked at every aid station and up every hill. The last 4km was probably the worse as it seemed to drag on forever. It was the worse run Ive had in a long time but it was a fairly steady pace throughout.

Post-race:
Overall, I finished with a time of 5:54:20. Was targeting 5:30 or less but given the tough run, I suppose Im partially satisfied. For next time, if there’s one thing I really need to work on is mental toughness during the run. If I can learn to switch off my mind and go into auto-pilot, I’ll be flying. Anyways, after the race, I relaxed and chilled out with other triathlete friends. It sucked that we had to go back to the transition area to collect all our stuff (bike, wetsuit, etc..) but luckily, there were taxis and shuttle buses available. Later that day, there was a nice after-party. It was fun race and I can definitely see myself doing this race again. I havent quite made up my mind what my target races are next year but this will definitely be taken into considerations.

Reference

I definitely feel I’ve been improving as I finally managed to complete a goal that has eluded me for a while.

Splits
Umegaishi checkpoint (1:08:15/11.4km)
5th station checkpoint (2:08:25/16km)
8th station (3:45:20/19.8km)
Summit (4:18:43/21km)

I’m hoping I don’t stop improving as I look ahead to two more target races this year:
Montreal Marathon (9/23/2011)
Taiwan Half Ironman (11/5/2011)

The focus will be on smashing my previous marathon time (3:5x) set back in 2009. In my previous ill-fated attempt, I was aiming for something around 3:20-3:30. I’ll still be happy if I can manage that time but hopefully with a LOT of training in the heat & humidity over the next 40 days, I’ll be in great shape.

Triathlon training is on a bit of a hold but I’ll aim to do one bike ride and swim per week.

Photoset

… the damage done to this tiny town is horrific. With about half the population (~10,000 people) wiped out by the tsunami, it has become a ghost town.

I was only up there for a short time with some fellow bank employees and it’s something I won’t forget. Clearing and separating rubble for disposal was just one task but the task that really touched me the most was cleaning up photographs and photo albums found through the town. Photographs of family vacations, silly moments with friends, childhood and other precious moments captured through still-frame shots each with its own story to tell.

Weekly total: 110km/7runs/~9:15/~@5:03

Tuesday (Holiday)
[1] 22km/1:55/@5:13
Progressive: 11km/1:00/@5:27, 11km/0:55/@5:00

Wednesday (Holiday)
[2] 22km/1:50/@5:00
Progressive: 11km/0:57/@5:11, 11km/0:53@4:49

[3] 5km/0:22/@4:20
Intervals (barefoot) on track: 1200m x 3, 800m, 400m, 400m

Thursday (Holiday)
[4] 26km/2:23/@5:30 
Recovery/LSD: even splits

Friday
[5] 5km/0:23/@4:40
Mile repeats (barefoot) on track: 1600m x 3, 200m

Saturday
[6] 10km/0:43/@4:18
Tell Charity Run: even splits

Sunday
[7] 20km/1:38/@4:55
Steady: even splits

Events (in order of focus):
1. Lake Toya, Hokkaido (Full Marathon) - May 22
2. Yokohama (Olympic Distance Triathlon) - May 15

Summary (April 11-17):
s - 2.5km
b - 70km
r - 90km

Training Log:
Tues - 5km + 12km (avg. 4:57/km)
Wed - 6km + 11km (avg. 5:02/km)
Thurs - 12km (avg. 4:55/km)
Fri - 10km (avg. 4:44/km)
Sat - 70km (bike), 2.5km (swim)
Sun - 30km (avg. 4:43/km), 4km (avg. 6:30/km)

Data Breakdown:
2:21:46 - Garmin
5km - 0:23:37
10km - 0:23:03
15km - 0:23:14
20km - 0:23:32 (1:33:26)
25km - 0:24:01
30km - 0:24:06

Notes/Plans:

• Assuming I’m not injured, I will break my previous PB and go sub 3:50
• If the conditions are similar than Arakawa river on 4/17, I should be able to make 3:30
• Hopefully with proper tapering, I’d like to target 20km/1:30, 30km/2:15, 42km/3:15-3:20
• My HR was very erratic for the first 30mins but settled down to a nice 160bpm
• Carboshotz gel at the 15km and 25km mark. May need to carry one or two more for the full
• Weight currently at about 61kg. Optimal probably around 58-60kg
• Until Golden Week, continue doing one bike ride/swim a week. Four days off during GW means four biking/swimming sessions
• Assuming legs are feeling ok, weekly milage will now be 100km+ peaking on 5/9