After taking three weeks completely off of training, it was time to re-focus and start building my base for the 2011 season. My coach Doug Maclean [whom I trust all my training to, and for good reason] approaches training in 4-week blocks: 3 weeks on with slightly increasing volume, then 1 "recovery" week with decreased volume and very little to no intensity. All of this first cycle has been concentrated on endurance work, or lower intensity running and biking, along with some solid time in the weight room. This shouldn't be confused for "easy" training, if anything, it has been quite the opposite! A big focus for me is building durability, or in other words, overall toughness and grit. This equates to fairly heavy [again, it's all relative, but heavy for me at least] early season volume, and also involves getting my body used to being efficient on tired legs, since that is what success in any type of endurance run/bike race boils down to. For example, I'm doing weekly sessions of lower body power lifting in the morning followed by relatively long bike rides later that night. As a quick aside, I've actually come to enjoy the Michigan winter-forced indoor "trainer-rides," even the longer ones. This is in large part due to my set-up. I'm confident I now listen to as much music as my friends that are in bands [I've got to be one of Pandora's top 10 fans], and watch almost as much television as the average American [that's actually not true at all, I still fall well-short of the 20 hours per week benchmark, according to BLS survey data]. Nothing like the Colorado Springs Olympic training facility, but more than serviceable.
I've also taken a leap of faith in my running workouts by not worrying about pace at all, and instead, trying to find tougher terrain (e.g., hilly and snowy) to run on. I'm learning that at this point in the season, running 8+ minute miles up steep snow-covered hills will do more good for me come spring than sub-7 minute miles on the treadmill. The Arb is a favorite spot of mine: 
So, no grueling or heroic workouts to report from this first training block. Just lots of long, steady rides and runs. Not the most exciting stuff, but I'm continuing to build and grow the aerobic engine, and I know there will be plenty of intensity just a few months from now. Even in the lower intensity zones, I'm still running [when it's not up a hill] pretty fast and riding strong, so this is very encouraging for so early in the season. Oh, and yeah, that pretty serious weight lifting has been really fun - takes me back to my high school football days!!
Another focus of this first training block has been on nutrition. This is an area that, after 2 years of training pretty seriously, I think I am finally starting to figure out. It's taken a lot of trial and error, including a few costly mistakes. As far as general nutrition, I think I'm there, and it's pretty simple. When I don't eat enough good foods I feel crappy and put myself at a huge increased risk for injury. This is bad, and whether my stress fracture a year ago resulted from a rock in my shoe [maybe] or poor daily nutrition [maybe] or some combination of the two [likely], it makes you realize that you can't mess around with giving your body what it needs, when it needs it. Like I said, pretty simple; eat too much crap or don't eat enough, and athletic performance suffers and overall health does too. So, although it's taken me a bit of time to get there, I've started fully listening to my body. This is the best I've ever felt, and I'm recovering from workouts really easily. Note; for the nutrition nerds out there, I have been increasing my protein intake over the past few weeks, as I'm working on building up some muscle mass in my legs [re-enter weight room time from above], which will be an asset for generating power on the bike.
More complicated is "in-workout" fueling, or what I eat while training. Long story short here is I have a pretty weak running-stomach, meaning it's always been hard for me to digest calories while running. That said, thanks to the recommendation of a few friends and some samples from an old boss at McKinsey, I've had a much easier time with Hammer Nutrition products. Hammer products use a unique carbohydrate that isn't sugar (sugar = harder to digest and stomach problems) but Hammer products still have a really high glycemic index (meaning energy is released for the muscles to use fast). Knock on wood, but so far, I've had no problem stomaching the 200/calories per hour I aim for; 1 sport-bottle full of Heed and 1 gel per hour has been a good answer so far!
So, this marks the end of my first blog post, and also, the end of my first 3 "on" training weeks in this initial/base phase of training. It was really nice being able to end the build by doing my longest trainer ride with my good friend [and better triathlete] Chad Mahakian. Time certainly goes by faster that way! At the end of next [recovery] week, I'll do a run-fitness test, which will give me a good idea of how my legs can turnover when they are fresh. Look for a quick update then, and a more thorough update about a month from now when I reflect on and share my next training block. 
