I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I had one of my athletes talk me into competing in the Puerto Rico 70.3 coming up in March. Actually I can’t blame him.  I volunteered. We were at the pool and he started getting all nervous about the swim. "If I did the race and train for it with you, would you relax?"  Oh well.

I have never competed in a tri so early in the year.  In fact, the race is March 19th so technically it will still be winter! Living in New Jersey, our triathlon season, for the most part is from May until September.  Triathletes who live in colder areas use the winter for base and build preparation for the higher intensity training that will follow.  I am no exception. 

Even though I have been at this for a while, I still get derailed in my planning and preparation.  After coming down with a case of shingles  (a mutation of the Chicken Pox virus) in August and was out of commission for almost two month, I was forced to rethink my philosophy on endurance training.

While recovering I began studying how some of the great triathletes from the 80’s and early 90’s trained and one name that came up numerous times was a gentalman named Dr. Philp Maffetone.  He trained and coached some of the greats including Mark Allen, Mike Pigg and ultra runner Stu Mittleman.  His rational behind endurance training intrigued me.  Please read The 180 MAF Formula.

I vowed 2011 would be my best year ever and have written down all of my "A" and "B" races I will be competing in.  My training plan for 2011 has also been written down and planned out on an excel spread sheet which gives me a tremendous amount of comfort.  Now I just have to follow the plan :-)

So far, so good.  Since recovering for my shingles outbreak in early October I am following the 180 MAF Formula religiously.  The MAF is a very gentle way to train and practice.My MAF maximum heart rate is 142 (180-age and then plus or minus 5 or keep it the same based on conditions).  When I started, I couldn’t run more than a few minute before my Garmin heart rate monitor would alert me my heart rate was too high and was forced to walk.  I averaged 11:45 min / mile for the first week.  Last Sunday, before the TI Workshop, was a 1 hour running time trial where I averaged 9:04 min / mile and was a continual run with no walking.   I would like to be down to about 8:30 min / mile by January. 

My strength & conditioning sessions have also seen an improvement, especially with my kettlebell lifting while lifting with my heart rate monitor and keeping it no higher than 142.  I will continue to use this heart rate formula until I do a lactate threshold test in January to calculate my upper training zones.

 Keep you posted next week.