The City of the Crosses

It’s already been eight days since my arrival in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This is the first of many training camps for coach Paulo Sousa’s Training Squad. It may be early in the season, but like many athletes, we have started getting into shape early. Without going into too much detail, here is a glimpse into our first week of training.

Swim – We are lucky enough to get some pool time (I mean A LOT of pool time) at the New Mexico State University pool. I believe we totaled around 31,000 – 32,000 yards this first week. That is roughly 18 miles in the water. Most of the workouts have been between 5k and 6k with one longer swim set over 6k. Some of the most notable sets, for me at least, were 12 x 200 hard, 30 x 100 (every 3^rd hard) on 1:25, and 8 x 100 best average.

Bike – Since IM Cozumel, my bike mileage has been pretty low. This has been the first week back to some longer intervals and longer days in the saddle. This first week has brought just under 15 hours of ride time. Besides the more traditional 3-4 “long” rides, we have been doing a fair amount of threshold and V02 max intervals. Some of the key workouts this week have been 4 x 10min @ threshold, 5 x 4min uphill @ V02 Max. Last season during my peak training, my threshold was just over 300w, allowing me to push 4.3 watts per kilogram. Right now, I am pushing around 280w at a slightly lower weight, allowing me to push about 4.1 watts per kilogram. Although this number is slightly lower, it is very acceptable my first week back to solid bike training.

Run – This has been my priority ever since breaking my heel back in April of 2010. After 2 years of disappointing run training, I am very eager to make this discipline my strength again. My running this season has been VERY steady and I am starting to feel fit again. I have officially run 42 times in 42 days. Since arriving in New Mexico eight days ago, we have run around 70 miles with 99% percent of running on soft dirt trails. The key to our run training this week has been a few 90min progression runs where the last 5 to 6 miles are done slightly faster than marathon pace. For this time of year, that pace has been between 5:50 – 6:10 per mile. Another good session this week was 20 x 30sec hill repeats. 30 seconds doesn’t seem long but the last 5 repeats left us all pretty broken.

Overall, this first 30 hour training week has been very challenging but will eventually be rewarding. The whole crew has worked together very well, and I can honestly say that everyone here is working incredibly hard. I can’t wait to see some of the results that this squad will produce by the end of the year.

For those who aren’t familiar with the training squad check out http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Triathlon-Squad/183206021698840

Here is a list of athletes -

AJ Baucco, 24, Tucson AZ
Amanda Felder, 28, Cupertino CA
Andrew Yoder, 21, Lancaster PA
Chris Coble, 28, Fremont CA
Greg Billington, 21, Winston Salem NC
Heather Wurtele, 31, Kelowna BC
Ian Mikelson, 30, Torrance CA
Janelle Morrison, 33, Penticton BC
Jennifer Spieldenner, 24, Findlay Ohio
Kate Ross, 20, Doylestown PA
Pedro Gomes, 28, Lisbon Portugal
Kelsey Withrow, 28, Park City UT
Trevor Wurtele, 31, Kelowna BC