Annual Training Plan

With the help of The Triathlete's Training Bible and Training Peaks I have created my annual training plan, which can be found in the navigation bar at the top of the page, or here.

The annual training plan divides your year into cycles, or periods, with each period having a different focus or purpose, such as developing base fitness and endurance or building on top of that to improve speed.

The annual training plan creates these periods, identifies the focus for each, and determines the number of training hours for each week. The next step will be to create a specific workout plan for each week. I'll probably create my workout plans monthly and then fine tune them at the beginning of each week.

While technically this week is the first week of my plan, I don't have a weekly schedule made yet. I hope to have that accomplished in the next couple of days, but in the meantime I'm going to continue with an ad hoc schedule for this week, with just an aim to get swimming, biking, running, and strength training in, and meet the 8.5 hours of training target.

Gear review: Waterfi waterproof iPod shuffle

I tested out my new waterproof iPod shuffle at the pool today. Going in circles in the pool gets a little boring, so I though a little music would help. Enter Waterfi, a company specializing in waterproofing iPod shuffles.

Waterfi takes standard Apple iPod shuffles and fills all the empty spaces with waterproof and corrosion proof substances. The shuffle looks just like any other shuffle, but it can join you in the pool and still work. I got the bundle with the H2O Audio Flex waterproof headphones and velcro strips for mounting the headphones and shuffle onto goggles for a complete pool solution.

Today was the first day I took it to the pool with me and it worked perfectly. It was amazing listening to music in the pool while doing my drills. The buttons on the shuffle are slightly stiff from the waterproofing, but still functional. When it first came there was excess goopy stuff around some of the lines and holes in the casing, but that rubbed off quickly and it really does look like any other shuffle. I went with the red color, which is beautiful, and very visible in the bottom of my gym bag.

The headphones weren't completely comfortable, but I have more ear bud sizes to try. If those don't work, I might look into bone conduction headphones.

Check it out at www.waterfi.com.

And back to training!

I know, I know, I've been gone a while.. But I have really good reason. My life was pretty well taken over with EMT class through about mid-December. But I passed, and I am now certified with the National Registry and Virginia!

Now that I'm not in EMT class two nights and one weekend day a week, I have time to get back to training. During class, I pretty much just snuck in a run once in a while, but just didn't have time for much more than that.

You'll see a few more posts from me in the next couple days as I create my annual training plan!

Gear review: Mizuno Breath Thermo

The running store near me (aptly named The Running Store) had a Mizuno event today demoing the breath thermo running clothes that generate heat while wicking moisture.

Dave, from Mizuno, had little packets of lint-looking material. He explained that the material is the breath thermo material they weave into the clothing. The theory behind the material is that not only do you get cold because of the air temperature, but then when you sweat, you get more cold. He then put the material in my hand and squeeze some water on top of it. The material immediate soaked up the water and seemed to expand slightly. Most surprisingly, it was warm! (And no, the water itself was not warm.) Dave explained that the material reacts to water (sweat) and actually generates heat, in the neighborhood of one to two degrees.

Dave then showed me some products. I chose the Breath Thermo Layered Tights and the Breath Thermo Stretch Crew. I also got a hat, headband, and gloves. The gave me a free gift with purchase of a lovely bright orange vest with reflective striping.

This evening I went for a run with my new gear. I wore the tights, the crew shirt, and the headband, along with the bright orange goober vest (which still some ningcumpoop in an SUV decided not to see). The vest has a nylon solid, but thin, front and mesh back. The air temperature was in the low 40s. Yesterday in similar temperature, I wore Under Armor tights, short sleeve base layer, long sleeve half-zip, and a cheap jacket and was just a tad bit too warm.

Tonight, I was actually very comfortable. The first five minutes (walking) was a little chilly, but a quickly started warming up once I started running, and I stayed warm for the rest of my run. I think I would be warm in just the pants and shirt down to the high 30s.

The clothing is soft and comfortable, although I will probably remove the tag in the pants because it started itching. The sizes do seem to run small. I generally wear a small or medium in tops and medium or large in pants. I got the medium top and large pants, but they are probably still a bit too small. They are snug when on, but I though ok from the inactive dressing room try on. Once I was running the pants rode down a bit and the top rode up a bit. That meant the one part of my body that was cold was my midriff area.

Overall, I am very happy with the Mizuno breath thermo clothing. Hopefully losing a few pounds will solve the issue with the pants riding down and the shirt up.

Graduation time

Tonight was my last night of adult intermediate swim class at the gym and rather than suggesting I sign up for the next session of classes, the instructor directed me to talk to the masters class coach.

So, Thursday night I will try the training session with the Sunfish Masters Club and see if I like it. I am very skeptical that I will be able to finish the whole thing, but the coach says that's ok.

Today I passed a road block!

Between being sick and my EMT class I haven't been quite on top of the training and I hit a bit of a road block with week 4 of the Zen Labs 10k training app. This is the first week with more running than walking (even including the warm up and cool down). It has a total of 16 minutes of jogging and increased the longest jogging segments to 5 minutes.

After about 2 weeks and 5 attempts at it, tonight I finally finished the whole thing without any unplanned walking breaks! I did pull my speed back just a bit, so next time I'll try to push the speed back up a bit.

Gear review: UR Sportswear

A friend recommended UR Sportswear running shorts, so I picked up a couple through a daily deal website.

I started running with them this week and love them! They stay in place really well and are so comfortable. Instead of pulling at my shorts the whole run, I actually just forgot about them.

When I first pulled them out, they looked really really short, but when on, they are a reasonable length. I ordered two pair in different colors, in eggplant and jade. The colors are bright and attractive.

Based on the size charts, I ordered a size large. This is the only thing I'm not perfectly happy with. I probably could have gone with a medium, but the larges aren't way too big, so they'll work. Check them out at UR Sportswear.