Sado Triathlon - Too much training too late?

Challenge yourself to the hardest rase. You'll have the longest day of your life. but you'll meet great Volunteers who will support you in the rase.
- Sado Triathlon Inspirational Motto


So with the Sado half-ironman looming on September 3rd I feel compelled to suddenly start training. After weeks of not riding at all, since August 1st I have ridden close to 600 kilometers. During each of the past two weeks I have put in 15-hours of combined bike, run and swim training.

It is not at all clear that this burst of training will help my performance at Sado. For that matter it may cause me to be more tired at the event. The literature on triathlon training generally recommends a series of hard weeks and rest weeks over the course of several months, and then a 3-4 week taper.

But my training has long been a function of how much time I find that I have to train, and what I simply feel would be most enjoyable to do on that particular day. In the past few weeks a whole community of cyclists have emerged to ride with at Oi-futo -- Mary, Chuck, Motozo, Chris, Keren, Joe -- and I have been inspired to ride again. Instead of a lonely mind-numbingly boring ride around and around a bleak, industrial wasteland, the Sunday morning ride is now a festive party. The Wednesday night track workout has always been a festive party, and lately even more so with over 30-40 people enjoying the intervals together.

Of course with 10 days to go to Sado I could start tapering now, but this weekend is the most festive party of the late summer -- the all-important Fuji-Yoshida Fire Festival 10k

Coffee Blog - All coffee, all the time

Greater Perrinville's worldwide audience continue to report that they are sick and tired of my whining about cycling in hot weather and my running injuries, and that they want to hear more about the thing that obviously matters most and appears to have the greatest impact on my triathlon performance -- drinking coffee.


Today's NY Times reports even more benefits from drinking coffee -- a review of studies by American Medical Association found strong evidence that habitual coffee drinking reduced risk of serious ailments including heart disease, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis by releasing antioxidants which help control cell damage. I had been trying to consume more grape juice and blueberries for these healthy antioxidants, but the latest studies show that coffee is actually a better source of antioxidants. This report comes on top of the earlier research I discussed which showed that coffee helps performance in endurance events.


Needless to say I was delighted to read this, and immediately began increasing my coffee consumption. Before I finished reading the article this morning, I began brewing a jumbo, American-sized pot of Peet's Las Hermanas blend coffee

The coffee tastes excellent and I was able to help to empower the women of Nicaragua in building an environmentally sustainable community as well as improve my long-term health situation

As I write this I am drinking an enormous Segafredo latte. No research as of yet on whether the chocolate cream cookies that I am eating with the latte is actually good for me, but I am figuring it is just a matter of time until scientists report that cookie consumption is correlated with longevity, so I am going to eat the whole package..

Yasso 800

Last night at Oda Field the group ran the Yasso 800 workout

The idea of the Yasso 800 is that the average time of ten 800-meter intervals in minutes and seconds will predict one's marathon time (in hours and minutes). 

So last night I ran an average 800-meter time of 2:38, implying I am capable of a 2 hour and 38 minute marathon. 

The key point here is that this projection only suggests a theoretical capability.  Since I could barely run 14-kilometers on the weekend, it is highly questionable whether I could run a marathon at all right now, let alone complete one in a time of 2:38

Nonetheless it was an encouraging workout, and certainly among the most grueling I have done in months.   I ran with Omar and Taro, and when Omar took us through the first 800 in 2:35, I knew it was going to be a struggle.   An added challenge comes from needing to complete a 400-meter jog between the intervals in the same time interval that we run the 800s, so 2:38 in my case.   My the end of the 12-kilometer I was drenched in sweat and struggled to  find energy to shower and make it to the post-run dinner.

Back on the bike

It begins to dawn on me that I only have a bit over a month to prepare for the Sado Island Astroman Triathlon on September 3rd and that based on my current training I am absolutely doomed.  Cycling was my weakness at Japan Ironman, so what do I do to prepare for the next event?  I stop cycling completely (except for a few spin sessions).  Not only do I risk an even more embarrassingly slow cycling time - I risk being so exhausted after the ride that I lack leg strength on the run.

My most recent excuse for not riding, on top of risk of vehicular collision, rainy weather, hot weather, lack of 4-hour time blocks, lack of medical insurance.. (it is really remarkable how many excuses I dream up for not riding) is that my headset has been damaged - the ball bearings were crushed and the ring worn out.   Naturally I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my bike (I can barely figure out when I have a flat tire), but the surprising thing in this case is that the bicycle shop couldn't seem to figure it out either.   The bike shop had my bike for weeks and told me it was repaired when in fact it was not.  Naturally they were very apologetic when they finally fixed it last week and they did not charge me for any labor costs.   I was pretty relaxed about the whole matter - lets face it, I was lazy about riding anyway.

So finally this week, despite all my moaning in earlier blogs about my aversion to hot weather, and my concern that triathlon training is bad for my health, I push outside my comfort zone and get on my bike and ride 80 kilometers around Tokyo's 9-kilometer Oi-futo loop.  For awhile I felt pretty good - maintaining a speed over 30k per hour and keeping up with some of the packs of hardcore cyclists.  This  lasts for a couple hours before I begin to fade badly, and the ride home is misery.  Worse yet is how I feel on my long run later in the day.  My "long run" is about 14-kilometers.  I am aware that some people might not consider 14-kilometers to be a long run.  But for me right now 14-kilometres is much farther than most of my runs, and after the bike ride, the 14-kilometers seem to last forever.