Sérgio Marques Blog

aaaah, how i missed the heavy rain waiking me up in the morning…

im now 2:30 into a loooong trainer session, its stll raining an trees are being blown away by the wind, perfect conditions for riding… inside. i may very well stay home all day, aah no. i need to go get my cell phone charger that i left at the store yesterday, DAMN.

speaking of chargers, i have an annoying  fetish of forgeting to charge my electronic devices. the ergomo is first in the line, in usually loose some good data, cell phone is next and the labtop doesnt have batery because its dead

 back the trainer issue (i have 2:45 now), the menu for the day is playing with my laptop, interbike photo search is the priority. on the tv the road cycling world champs is live in eurosport, and im watching it from the start, they are finishing the 3rd lap, 11 to go. they are having sunny conditions over there, crap

I Am indeed feeling very sad, is it the weather, or just something else, dont know. Must be from the music I have been playing on my PC (Zero 7- Somersault)….oh Zero 7- Distractions right now

 I haven’t been feeling very strong while training, i’m accomplishing all scheduled workouts but feeling a bit off form right now, not that I need to be but the “yeaaaaah I have done better” is clear. Nothing to worry about I guess, its a tough week anyway.

What worries me is what is coming tomorrow, a 6h ride with rain, cold and gusting winds expected. Oh Boy oh Boy I hope I don’t need to go to the trainer :(. It would be a lot simpler if I was tapering for Hawaii in las cruces of course

It will be good to go to Ibiza next week, I will have company from my good friend Mariana (racing too), I hope to have some fun added to a good race over there, a 4km/120km/30km race that I have done back in 2003. (zero 7 – this World) A great Venue back then, it changed location last year, but i guess it will be a good fun race.

 I really need to change my play list to Chemical Brothers

LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuYVV3-00Qw

Yep, 27. It has been a very depressing day otherwise. And to show my happyness about my birthday ill post my Ergomo File from last sunday zombie ride

Entire ride (260w):

Duration: 2:01:10

Work: 1889 kJ

TSS: 143.5 (intensity factor 0.843)

Norm Power: 277

Distance: 74.982 km

I had my little smack down with Pedro Gomes (AKA Krepe) yesterday in Mirandela. Double Olympic again just like Guadalajara the weekend before, but this was pretty much the opposite from a week earlier, ouch.

I arrived to Mirandela on Thursday with Pedro, plenty of time to see what was going on over there. A small Triathlete Get together is always fun and meeting all the guys from the 15th of august “training Triathlon” was very cool.

The race was kind of weird, loops and loops all the way, e new approach that is fun too

The swim was in a small “lake” in downtown, very nice spot actually, three laps with an exit/run each lap. I was expecting to loose some time to Pedro, after a couple of meters i was already a bit behind, a little too much. after about 300 meters I was already alone and alone till the end, no much story, wasn’t feeling strong and lap by lap, the gap to the leaders (Pedro) was growing. Left the water with about 4 min, way too much for my initial thoughts.

Onto the bike, first thought was, “lets go get Krepe”…sure, it took just a bit to start feeling too uncomfortable, I was feeling heavy and the legs didn’t want to spin, I was trying to push decent watts but the need to get out of the saddle to do so was always there. The course was tough, 5 out and back laps!!! With plenty of small steep climbs, 3 each lap for a total of around 73km. Despite all my efforts I was still loosing time to Pedro, not much but not in the right side of the clock. Lap after lap I was pushing smaller and smaller “numbers” despite going as hard as I could. my NP for the ride was around 275W, comparing with an week earlier that was about 9-10W below, but although that difference may not be extreme the Perceived effort to achieve 275W was immensely superior than in Guadalajara, ill post the ergomo file later on.

I arrived to T2 with about 6 min gap, a bit too much unless Pedro was really tired too. Run was 6 laps!!! And it was a tough 19.3km course, cobble stone, and some really tough climbs. Again after a few meters I was already with the heavy no energy feeling, even running!!! crap, this is not happening. The “oh boy, im toasted” feeling came right next and after that, i started thinking on what was coming behind, my good friend Sergio dias, I was getting splits to the lead and to Sergio and it was not good, I was dragging my dead body through the course and im glad that the run was 700 meters shorter or i would have some serious problems holding Sergio Dias, who would have predicted that, that final downhill to the finish line was helpful too as Sergio had me in sight already :P.

Pedro won the race without any fight (congrats to him) and my smack down with him changed for a Sergio-Sergio Smack down, im glad Sergio didn’t passed me!!

Final Splits, 45:17/2:02.35/1:20.20 Total 4:08.11

A pretty poor race, i felt like a zombie, totally the opposite from Guadalajara where i was really in good shape. Not to worry. it has been a good “relaxing” 7 days, with more racing (actual race finishes) than all season together :P.

Its back to work now…

i was downloading my Ergomo to the computer and am posting the sunday ride.

a really odd looking graph, at least for me, the reason is simple, i was actually racing with the athletes around me and just like you can ready in the last post, the pace went from hard to very easy, it is noticeable the part where Garcia caught us and tried to drop me (and the others), there was actually 5 climbs not 4 like i mentioned. also severall 0 readings followed with big numbers at the end of the file, that was when i had no air in the back tire

ride summary follows, the total distance is a bit of since the magnet in the wheel moved from some impact, i had several parts where the speed was half of the real. maybe around 82-83km i think. one good number is the AVG cadence, that is way higher than the normal, something that i have been trying to change

 Entire ride (266w):
 Duration: 2:17:42
 Work: 2195 kJ
 TSS: 170.2 (intensity factor 0.861)
 Norm Power: 284
 Distance: 80.361 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 0 626 266 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 52 117 80 rpm
 Speed: 7.2 74.1 35 kph
 Torque: 0 105.3 32.5 N-m
 Altitude: 54 372 193 m

Peak 5s (516w):
 Duration: 0:06
 Work: 3 kJ
 TSS: n/a
 Norm Power: n/a
 Distance: 28 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 427 626 516 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 80 82 81 rpm
 Speed: 12.4 25.2 16.7 kph
 Torque: 50.9 72.9 60.7 N-m
 Altitude: 119 119 119 m

Peak 10s (476w):
 Duration: 0:10
 Work: 5 kJ
 TSS: n/a
 Norm Power: n/a
 Distance: 55 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 430 523 476 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 75 80 79 rpm
 Speed: 12.5 25.2 19.8 kph
 Torque: 52.6 66.6 57.8 N-m
 Altitude: 236 239 238 m

Peak 20s (420w):
 Duration: 0:20
 Work: 8 kJ
 TSS: n/a
 Norm Power: n/a
 Distance: 120 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 313 523 420 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 72 80 77 rpm
 Speed: 12.5 25.2 21.6 kph
 Torque: 41.5 66.6 51.8 N-m
 Altitude: 236 242 239 m

Peak 30s (400w):
 Duration: 0:30
 Work: 12 kJ
 TSS: 1.2 (intensity factor 1.213)
 Norm Power: 400
 Distance: 212 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 318 548 400 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 69 92 79 rpm
 Speed: 12.6 33 25.4 kph
 Torque: 34.4 63.8 48.9 N-m
 Altitude: 196 206 200 m

Peak 1min (380w):
 Duration: 1:00
 Work: 23 kJ
 TSS: 2.1 (intensity factor 1.109)
 Norm Power: 366
 Distance: 421 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 318 531 380 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 60 81 70 rpm
 Speed: 10.7 36.9 25.3 kph
 Torque: 38.1 72.4 52.6 N-m
 Altitude: 107 128 117 m

Peak 2min (354w):
 Duration: 2:00
 Work: 42 kJ
 TSS: 4 (intensity factor 1.097)
 Norm Power: 362
 Distance: 890 m
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 264 531 354 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 60 96 71 rpm
 Speed: 10.2 44.4 26.7 kph
 Torque: 29.8 72.4 48.4 N-m
 Altitude: 106 140 123 m

Peak 5min (343w):
 Duration: 5:00
 Work: 103 kJ
 TSS: 9 (intensity factor 1.037)
 Norm Power: 342
 Distance: 1.619 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 191 523 343 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 63 80 71 rpm
 Speed: 9.6 35.9 19.4 kph
 Torque: 24 67.5 46.4 N-m
 Altitude: 140 242 192 m

Peak 10min (329w):
 Duration: 10:00
 Work: 197 kJ
 TSS: 16.8 (intensity factor 1.003)
 Norm Power: 331
 Distance: 3.893 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 191 626 329 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 63 92 74 rpm
 Speed: 9.3 50 23.4 kph
 Torque: 22.5 72.9 43 N-m
 Altitude: 119 280 185 m

Peak 20min (300w):
 Duration: 20:00
 Work: 360 kJ
 TSS: 29.2 (intensity factor 0.935)
 Norm Power: 309
 Distance: 9.882 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 0 548 300 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 60 110 78 rpm
 Speed: 9.4 67.7 29.6 kph
 Torque: 0 72.4 37.9 N-m
 Altitude: 54 264 140 m

Peak 30min (299w):
 Duration: 30:00
 Work: 538 kJ
 TSS: 42.2 (intensity factor 0.919)
 Norm Power: 303
 Distance: 13.457 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 0 548 299 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 61 112 77 rpm
 Speed: 8.5 69.5 26.9 kph
 Torque: 0 63.8 37.8 N-m
 Altitude: 54 372 215 m

Peak 60min (280w):
 Duration: 1:00:00
 Work: 1009 kJ
 TSS: 77.7 (intensity factor 0.882)
 Norm Power: 291
 Distance: 34.246 km
  Min Max Avg
 Power: 0 626 280 watts
 Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
 Cadence: 56 113 79 rpm
 Speed: 8 68.3 34.2 kph
 Torque: 0 72.9 34.3 N-m
 Altitude: 80 300 153 m

Yesterday I won a triathlon Yupiiii!!!

The XXII international Guadalajara triathlon is one of the oldest triathlon in Europe and maybe the oldest in Spain .

I have been there twice and this year i wanted to go there again (2003 and 2005 where the other two occasions)

Its a 5+ hours drive to the Madrid Area, i arrived with my friend Joao Santos Saturday mid afternoon. Pretty much no problem at all. normal routine I would say.

The course normally changes from year to year, but in essence its a flat swim, a HUGE climb to T1, a tough ride with 4 major climbs (one more than previous years) and a not so tough run but with plenty of entertaining smooth climbs.

I started knowing that i could win it, the Swim was by far the easiest swim I ever had, I felt great and totally effortless, leaving the water happened in a blink. And since I was with whom I wanted I felt happy for such an effortless swim.

Climbing out of the water is really tough, it seems that it never ends and it makes great photos (check my gallery from 2005, link below. And onto the bike I had some problems with my sunglasses, they fell of my bike, nothing special and it was kind of fun to try to replace the lenses, fun and dangerous, but soon enough I was concentrated in my race again. The tactic now was to try to hang out with whoever passed me, this is an 80km ride not an IM… for the 90% of the ride I rode with 3 guys, including Santamaria that i knew was the man to watch. The pace went from very easy to hard during the majority of the ride, climbing was of course the hard part of it. with about 10-15 km to go we had Garcia, a great duathlete catch us and immediately tried to drop everyone, good i hanged with santamaria with him and the other 2 dropped so it was kind of cool he showed up, the last climb was definitely the hardest in effort to keep with him. I really wanted to come to T2 in the lead, but a flat in the last downhill was not welcome, never is but this time it was in the best place, just before T2 and changing was obviously not an option. I lost some time in the city area before entering T2, not much but enough to loose touch with Santamaria and Garcia.

The beginning of the run was the part of the race where I thought I wouldn’t have a chance to fight for the win. This was because The 2 Spanish doodes started the run like it was a freaking sprint triathlon, i was loosing ground clearly and was only hoping that they would slow down a bit :P. There are A LOT of turn around in the course so seeing the competition is easy. Eventually they did slow down, the feeling of starting to gain time on the lead was very good. I got to their feet with around 5-6km and noticed that they where totally gasping for air, I really didn’t wanted to have any sprinting games with those two fine duathletes especially Garcia, so i immediately pushed the pace a bit more in one of the turnaround, garcia held up a bit, Santamaria dropped, then a few meters ahead garcia dropped, then I thought about the “out of sight out of mind” (another Peter Reid quote if im not mistaken) and tried to gain a big gap, I did it, when I passed 10km mark in around 33:45 I already had almost 2 minute lead (at least my math during the race gave that result :P) I knew that I would need to blow really hard to let this one go and that wasn’t going to happen, i was feeling great running at that pace, ok “great” may be a bit to extreme, I had plenty of reserve. Lap 3 was all about managing my effort till the end, I actually increased the lead even more and finished with an impressive (for me) 1:09.30 20km run and of course the win

Always refreshing of course, especially when things haven’t been working out as I wanted a confidence boost in my preparation for Ironman Florida .

My next race is just next weekend (yes) and its another double Olympic race here in Portugal .

Ill try to make a gallery from the race when I have photos, but you can always check the 2005 race gallery

here