June « 2008 « Sérgio Marques Blog

Monday, June 30, 2008

rest days suck, i guess..

It may be something i am learning with years of training. Easy days on a high volume training plan can kill me.
Yesterday i had a local race, a so called half ironman distance that had 1.9/81/17 (!!!). I got a couple easy days after a very good block of training where i felt good or thereabout for the whole way.

The race it self wasnt good, i felt dead all the way until the last lap of the run (5laps), then i felt some energy, not much but enough to finish 4th 20 min out of the winner, my good friend pedro gomes to witch i was hoping to give some leg pain. Sergio Dias was second and the small man is competitive, if only he could shave 4 min of the swim and he would kick some serious butt :D.

My best explanation for feeling so bad is how my body reacts to “a couple of easy days”, i dont think its rocket science but i would bet that i could do a LOT better if i had done the race without those easy days. i just felt my body shutting down during friday and saturday, something i experience also when i start to taper for a big race.

speaking of big race and taper, although this week isnt a piece of cake i will start reducing the volume leading to IMLP. and i can freakin wait for that!!!!

Posted by WCathlete at 08:47:31 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Monday, June 23, 2008

in the HTFU zone

Getting close to IM USA and at this time im already in the HTFU Zone.

My motivation is getting higher and higher and workouts and tough weeks are going by smothly, with a bad day here and there but very good overall. this is a bit of a repeat but here is my overview of my normal week (last week).

monday

swim 5800
bike 3h00m

Tuesday
swim 5600
bike 5h00m
run 50m

wednesday
swim 5600
bike 2h00m
run 2h30m

Thursday
swim 5400
bike 5h00m
Run 45m

Friday
swim 5600
run 1h40m

Saturday
swim 5600
bike 2h00m
run 60m

Sunday
bike 6h00m
Run 40 off the bike

as you can see i have been busy lately, its not a lot diferent as my other Ironman including IMAZ “fiasco”. I will have a smother end of the week as i am racing an 1/2 IM distance tri here in portugal after that i will still workout quite a bit :D

last week (the one you see) as i said went very well, except friday where i felt very tired.
Swimming speed is good in the pool, having good workouts on the bike and sunday i had a very decent ride/run, i ran really fast off the bike and that is a good motivator for me…

speaking of motivation i still lack my motivation (and this is a private joke)

Posted by WCathlete at 21:48:24 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Monday, June 16, 2008

critique the color choice

i need more orange somewhere

maybe….shoes

Posted by WCathlete at 21:23:41 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday, June 13, 2008

no gas? comute on a chopper

this is all about stile, there is no car that gives more stile than this. and i have to pedal on top of that

take that Jonny!!!

Posted by WCathlete at 21:41:26 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

I had the honor to train with this guy :D

Ambition - Striving for excellence

Early in my career I have often focused my energy into a specific result goal – like becoming world champion. And even though such a commitment is a tremendous motivator and mental exercise, I have often felt frustrated by focusing on a certain result, since triathlon is so much more than that. A result at a race will always be a measure of your competition rather than yourself. You can win with a poor performance over a bad field or come 5^th with the performance of your life in strong field.

Instead I am focusing my energy in to all those details that constitutes the perfect performance, turning every stone to maximise the effect of training, nutrition, rest, equipment and mental strength. This is more meaningful in order to maximise my potential as well as winning races.

With in the single disciplines of swimming, biking or running you can see athletes with excellent performances, that transcend the boundaries of sport and almost becomes moving art or a powerful visual expression. Seeing Wilson Kipketer running the 800m or Jan Ulrich riding a TT is a study in pure elegance and efficiency.

As triathletes we can never reach such perfection in a single discipline. To us, the excellent must be defined by the complete combination of swim-bike-run, with no weak spots where everything melts into a whole and the three become one.

In the middledistances of our sports I have come close on a few occasions and my victory in the 2005 Ironman 70.3 California stands out as the one where I made the excellent performance for me. I swam, biked and ran world class and felt a weird satisfaction and fullness after the race, since I could not see anything I could to do better.

I am yet to make a similar performance on the Ironman distance and it is my dream to achieve this in the coming years:

“I feel I have a race in me with a lead pack swim, a record setting bike and a sub 2.50 run. If possible I hope to be pushed to the line and win in a sprint finish, because only then….. I know I have given everything and made the perfect performance”

”

from sindballe website

Posted by WCathlete at 10:02:05 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

My first aquathlon ever :P

I got to full training mode again, focus is of course IM lake placid AKA IM USA.

im not feeling particular “fit” lately, but i will be at the end of july (please dont make jokes about my fitness at IMAZ)

Today i got an invitation from Alexandre to be part of a school aquathlon for some demonstration. I went there with Pedro Gomes (krepe). It was kinda fun to see all those kids doing the “race” and it was actually pretty wel organized, congrats Alexandre.

here are some pics.