Today's Workout (I'm Tired)

This is going to be a short post.

9:30AM Brick, 2 hours on trainer and 30' run on treadmill.

What can I say--after the rest of this week's workouts, I was flippin' tired when I started and tired when I finished. But I got through it, and had a 1.5 hour massage soon after, which set me right.

I had big plans to do more stuff today, but it's snowing again, and I need to lay down. After all, Tomorrow IS another day.

Meow

This is the cat suit I wore in yesterday's swim. These photos were taken the day of the infamous "pool rage" incident of 9/7/2005. I was so tan then (sigh). The day started out well enough! You can purchase this suit at Splish. Just don't be caught wearing it on the same day, in the same pool as me! I have a friend who bought several of the same swimsuits that I own, only she does not look as good in them (I am such a bitch, aren't I?), and while imitation can be a form of flattery, she needs to pick her own suits!

Splish makes a whole bunch of cool patterns, and men's jammers can be ordered in them as well. Actually, I need to order 2 or 3 suits. I wear through them rather quickly, so now I only buy polyester suits. The lycra ones, while colorful and all, just stretch out too quickly.

Tips for swimsuit care (my version):

1. After wearing, rinse suit in clear water.
2. Wring excess water from suit using HANDS ONLY, i.e., do NOT use the "salad shooter" (my term for the suit spinners). Salad shooters destroy elastic and thin straps and will cause the suit unnecessary stretching.
3. When you get the suit home, drape it over a laundry tub or towel hanger to drip dry until you plan to wash it.
4. Wash suit on gentle cycle in a lingerie bag with your other delicates. Don't put the suit in the dryer--hang it over a plastic-coated coat hanger, or in my case, on a tie rack that's nailed to the back of a bathroom door, to air dry. Since I wear 3-5 suits per week, I like having an "organized" area where they can air dry.
5. Don't wear the same suit 2 days in a row unless it's been washed. I.e., don't wear a suit, rinse it and then wear it again before it's been washed. You can't get all the chlorine out just from rinsing, and wearing a suit while it's still chlorinated just invites trouble.

One of my pet peeves is men who wear the SAME EXACT SUIT DAY IN DAY OUT. I swim 3-5 times a week, and there are regulars, and I am just amazed that guys will wear the same suit all the time! I'm pretty sure they aren't washing the suit every 2 days (which would cause it to wear out all the more quickly), and most of these guys look like they could afford 3 suits at a time. Some of them have nearly see-through butts, which if it was a good butt, hey, I wouldn't mind, but they sure aren't on the Olympic team! Many online and brick and mortar swimsuit retailers have what's called "grab bag," where you can get suits cheap, but you don't get to choose the color or print or style; just the size. It's an economical way to support your swimming habit.

Another online e-tailer that makes good suits is EQ Swimwear. The women's suits are lined all the way down through the butt, so you don't get the "see through butt" thing going once the suit begins to stretch out a bit. The suits are a little pricey, but IMHO worth it. I have a blue metallic suit and also the black leather-look suit--I only bring them out for special occasions, like time trials and days when I'm feeling a little more aggro than normal.

I suppose I should state my preferences on Speedos on men. If you've got the goods, please let us see them! I don't care if you're married, single, straight or gay, a nice body should be on display in the pool (elsewhere, too, but that's a completely different discussion). I get a kick out of being in the same lane with a buff swimmer dude. It makes me smile underwater and also swim a little faster. Gotta look like you know what you're doing in there if you're going to impress a hottie, right?

On the other hand, if you're a guy currently nursing a bit of a gut, try and pick a suit that flatters you the best you can. I suppose the same should be said for women and their suit choices. Me--I'm a shameless hussy, and am perfectly OK being stared at by either the young dudes or the geriatric crowd (and believe me, it's men AND women doing the looking), so I tend to pick suits that, um, "stand out" a little. Some of the older guys will even ask me when I'm going to wear the leopard suit (alas, it's been destroyed and I can't find a replacement) next. As soon as people stop looking, I will know it's time to switch to something more conservative.

Today's Workouts: May The Force Be With You

I said yesterday that today's workouts would be relatively easy. OK, I lied about the swim workout:

7:54AM (I woke up late, what can I say and then had to shovel the driveway again) Swim 2700 yards 59'. Workout: Warmup: 200s, 2x(50s, 100k, 50s 20"RI) Main Set: 3x(2x200 pull 20"RI, 4x50 pull fast 1'SI, 1' bonus rest); 4x50 paddles best avg. 1'SI cd: 100. For those of you who are abbreviation-challenged, SI means "swim interval," meaning the total time for both swimming and resting. So 50 1'SI means you swim 50 yards and you rest until 1' has elapsed and then you start the next swim.

This is another one of those "force" workouts from "Swim Workouts in a Binder." I didn't have to swim today; but I'm so used to swimming M/W/F and then in season on Saturday as well, that I figured what the heck. Besides, a swim usually helps me get the crap out of my body from the previous day, and yesterday was a tough one. Whenever I'm about to do a force workout, I always think about Obi-wan Kenobi saying to Luke, "Use the Force, Luke." I corrupted that into "May The Force Be With You." It's kind of like a blessing. I say it to myself under my breath right before I get into the water to do one of these workouts.

Anyway, this is not the world's easiest workout, if you give it your all. The warmup was innocuous enough. Did you think I would do the workout EXACTLY AS WRITTEN? Hell no! On the 200 pulls I slapped the band around my ankles to work myself a little harder. I took it off for the 50's, and didn't use it on the last set of 50's with the paddles.

Would you like to know what I was thinking while doing all that pulling? See below:

BOY I'M GLAD I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE THIS WOULD SUCK (first 200)
BOY I'M GLAD I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE THIS WOULD SUCK (second 200)
THIS ISN'T SO BAD WITHOUT THE BAND AROUND MY ANKLES (first 50)
GOOD THING I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE I MIGHT BE TIRED (second 50)
THIS REALLY ISN'T THAT MUCH EASIER WITHOUT THE BAND (third 50)
THIS SUCKS (fourth 50)
THIS TIME IS GOING BY WAY TOO FAST (First 1' rest)

GOOD THING MY SHOULDERS ARE SO STRONG (first 200)
THIS IS STARTING TO FEEL HARD (second 200)
WOW, THIS IS NOT GETTING ANY EASIER (first 50)
UGH, I WONDER IF ANYONE ELSE WOULD LIKE THIS WORKOUT AS MUCH AS ME? (second 50)
PROBABLY NOT (third 50)
THIS PRETTY MUCH SUCKS (fourth 50)
I DON'T NORMALLY LIKE A LOT OF REST BUT IT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD THING TODAY (Second 1' rest)

OK, LAST ROUND THIS ISN'T SO BAD (first 200)
YES IT IS (second 200)
OH SHIT I GET TO USE THE PADDLES IN A LITTLE WHILE (first 50)
IF I PULL ANY HARDER I'M GOING TO HIT THE WALL IN ONE STROKE (second 50)
ALMOST DONE WITH THIS CRAP (third 50)
MAKE IT HURT (fourth 50)
HERE IT COMES UP MY BUTT WITH THE PADDLES ON (Third 1' rest)

OK, I LIKE PADDLES; THIS FEELS AWESOME I'M GOING SO FAST (1st 50)
MY ARMS ARE ABOUT TO FALL OFF (second 50)
HANG IN THERE ONLY ONE TO GO (third 50)
@#@*(%&#)($#_%(#)_%()_#*()* I LOVE THIS WORKOUT (fourth 50)

You should see the pump in my arms even now from all this!

1:57PM Run 60'. Finally, a truly EASY workout! Stayed nice and aerobic--only to the middle of my aerobic zone. No worries.

Tonight's dinner will be sirloin steak with spaghetti with homemade pesto. I have a big day tomorrow!

Today's Workouts (WARNING: ADULT CONTENT)

I got 9 hours of sleep last night, even though I awoke around 3AM again with my mind "scrolling." I checked in with another athlete who's doing the Goofy Challenge, and he said he's experiencing this as well. We're training hard, and our bodies and minds are all jacked up, in a GOOD way, though.

I did my stretching around 7AM, and once again it felt good. As you might have read in an earlier post, the stretching is paying off. Actually what I'm doing is a combination of dynamic warmup, some conventional static stretching and yoga. An important thing I've learned is that your body will get used to anything, including a stretching "routine," so you need to mix things up almost yearly to keep inducing the muscles, ligaments and tendons to respond. This year's discovery is that I need to include dynamic stretches. Keep in mind that the 3 triathlon sports, while considered cross training of one another, are repetitive motion exercises, and there are many directions our bodies can move that aren't expressed in the sports. So it's important to try and maintain full ROM (range of motion) by doing things like stretching and strength training.

10:40AM Strength, abs and core only, 33’. I felt just fine doing this workout.

3:22PM Bike 1:30 as WU: 10' warmup, 3 x SpinUps. Then 3 x 2' (1') Zone 3 MS: FT repeats: 10', 12', 15', 20' (2'). In aero bars, normal TT cadence. CD: 5' Easy (MS stands for Main Set)

FU-HUUUUUUUUCK!!! Not only was this workout 15’ longer than Tuesday’s interval workout (which was the same as last week’s Tuesday/Thursday workouts), the additional time was devoted to FT work! I knew this would be hard, and man, it was. I held 158, 160, 160, 160 watts for the 4 FT intervals. I could tell right off the bat that I was going to be able to work hard enough today (unlike Tuesday, where my legs were trashed from the earlier strength workout), but that it was going to require extreme focus.

I did some dry heavin’ when I finished. That’s always a sign that I worked pretty hard in a workout.

So this week so far: Monday was a harder and longer swim than last week. Tuesday was a harder and longer strength workout. Wednesday was a harder and longer swim AND a harder and longer run. Today was a harder and longer bike workout! Thank GOD tomorrow is not any harder or longer than last Friday! I need a LITTLE bit of a rest.

I just finished shoveling snow for 1.25 hours, too. I’m eating everything in sight right about now. Well, so far I've had a good size serving of pasta with my "Sheila's Wild Pasta Sauce" (recipe provided upon request, it's pretty good), and a big hunk of fruitcake, and a beer. I think I'm probably still down at least 500 calories, so there will be some snacking. I was supposed to get a massage today, but we cancelled because of the snowfall (at least 5” already), but luckily, we rescheduled for Saturday, and it will be after my 2 hour ride/30’ run brick, so that will feel really good.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Workouts should feel like a piece of cake, compared to the rest of this week. I am feeling the Goofy Challenge peak beginning to happen!

Stretching is Yielding Results

It's not even been 2 full weeks since I initiated my daily stretching commitment, but I'm so excited, as I can see tremendous results.

Today while getting dressed, I twisted just slightly both directions while standing, and a whole bunch of my vertebrae gently cracked! This hasn't happened in years--it used to be routine with me. It's like being able to adjust yourself without going to a chiropractor (no offense, but I don't go to them anymore).

When I did my lying hamstring stretches this morning, I was able to go beyond 90 degrees on each leg, with no sensation of forcing it.

I am under 2" away from being able to get my palms on the floor doing toe touches.

My calves had no tension in them yesterday while running.

Not bad for maybe 15' a day!

Training and Racing with Power

Andy Coggan pointed this article out on a forum I participate in. If you're considering giving yourself a Power Meter for Christmas or whatever holiday or just because you've heard they are good things, read on.

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/pdf/power_v1.pdf

Then for IM-racing, read this: http://cruciblefitness.com/etips/IMPower.htm

Thoughts on Open Water Swimming

Disclaimer: What do I know I've only been swimming 5 years. In my Ironman TT swims, I can go 1:10, but the fastest I've gone in a race is 1:15.

1. Learn how to tolerate getting banged around, even to the point of banging back.
Some people might not agree with this. I'm learning to "bang back." I'm pretty sure I could do 1:10, maybe a little less, in IM swim if I was willing to get a little more banged up. As it is, I start further back than my ability, and then get caught in the whole MOP of 1:15-1:25 swimmers. It's just as big of a mess in that group as it is further up, maybe even more so, because now you aren't just battling for position, you're trying to get AHEAD of them. If you fess up to the fact that you will get jostled and become OK with it, it's less of a big deal. It's good to practice this at shorter races. I even believe it's OK to hit (bang) back if the same swimmer persists in hitting you, and you've tried moving out of their way.

At a sprint I did this summer, I misread when my wave started, and when I got to the beach, they were counting down from 10. So it was into the fray with I don't know how many people, but there were lots of big guys in there. We were swimming in a small lake (Donut Lake!), so if you wanted to get ahead you had to fight for it. Sure, there was a little hyperventilation involved, and I got hit, but eventually I got to clear water.

2. You may be slightly built, but it's very possible to learn how to swim big in the water and give yourself some space around you.
This is a good part of the strategy of being able to withstand the washing machine. "Swimming big" is something you can practice. It basically involves making a wider reach than normal, and your elbow will remain slightly more bent than during a normal reach. What I've noticed when doing this is:

• you ride a little "higher" in the water. This is really good for open water swimming, navigating waves and such. It makes it less frightening, for example, when you reach and there is no water there! Riding higher can get to be like hydroplaning, in a way. This has a side benefit of helping you to sight easier.
• you automatically pull to the outside of your body. If you have difficulties with arm crossover either above or below your body, this is a good thing to practice.
• you can get some serious power going, because you are using more of your lats, which are much larger muscles than your triceps or deltoids.
• it, for me anyway, encourages my rotation. If you are pulling effectively, you HAVE to rotate in order to begin your arm recovery properly
• you might not completely finish your stroke, meaning your hand, after pulling, will begin exiting the water sooner. This is OK--it's a common technique for open water swimming anyway, according to my coach.

Some people call this "swimming like a gorilla." Whatever you want to think of it. I was told a few years ago to reach wider all the time, and while I don't always go as wide as "gorilla-style," it's helped me improve my technique and power a lot.

Now combine gorilla swimming with pulling strongly and imagining keeping your arms over a barrel, and you've got a powerful swim stroke.

Power to Weight Ratio

Bolder asked me if I knew what my LT watts were when I weighed more, and this spurred an email exchange, part of which is below. The reason I'm posting this is so that you can see what a DRAMATIC impact losing weight can have on your power to weight ratio in biking. In my case, though, over the past 2 years I've both lost weight AND gained power, so that's an even more potent improvement. Check out some math:

I didn't have the SRM when I weighed 128, but I know my power output was less, let's say even 15%, so let's do the math:

85% of 158 is 134.
134/(128/2.2) is 2.303 (power to weight, in kg)

I'm at 3.104 today (158/(112/2.2)), so that's an improvement of 35%????

Holy crap!

Now, let's do some more math. What if all I did was lose weight and yet not become more powerful?

134/(112/2.2) is 2.632, or improvement of 14%.

So, I must have improved my power to weight ratio at least 14%, probably more on the order of 20-25% in 2 years, as a result of getting smaller AND more powerful!

Neat!

I've put a link to the Power to Weight Chart in my Links area so when you get a Power Meter you can see where you fall. I am currently at the bottom of the "good" range. Keep in mind this chart represents values for pure cyclists. I've been told that "good" is VERY GOOD for a triathlete. My goal is to get my LT watts to 170 this season. If I stay at 112 lbs. I would have a power to weight ratio of 3.34, which puts me solidly in the upper "good" range.

Today's Workouts (Subtitle: Does it get any better than this?)

After really "working" myself yesterday, especially my legs, I had no expectations going into today's workouts. I got 10 big hours of sleep, though, and felt pretty refreshed upon waking this morning, and had a generally bright outlook on things.

As you may have read earlier, I got a little happy surprise when stepping on the scale this morning, and I have to say that had some impact on my overall great mood today. I'm not really trying to lose weight (for every lb. of fat I lose I lose basically 1% of my bodyfat, so at this point it's a difficult proposition as I'm already quite lean), but I have been training hard, and I know I haven't been keeping up with my calories. I can fluctuate 2-4 lbs. throughout the year, but I'm hoping to stay around 112 for the duration. We'll see. I'm not going to obsess about it!

Since I woke up late, I got to the pool kind of late, and my workout this week was longer than last week's Wednesday workout:

7:55AM Swim 2950 yards, 1:04. WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 kick, 4 x 50 (10") Swim Golf MS: 8 x 150 (15") as 100 Hard, 50 Easy. 100 easy swim. 3 x 200 (15") pull, Steady with excellent stroke. 6 x 25 (15") as 25 Hard, 25 Easy CD: 100 easy swim

The pool was a little warm again, but I didn't care. For some reason, I felt really good in the pool today! Which surprised me after my increased strength workout yesterday. Oh well, I'll take it! I swam the 150's faster than last week, did 2 more of them than last week, I pulled well, it was all good. Went home and began my work day at 9:00AM, and had a few good conference calls; overall much less stress than yesterday.

11:55AM Lift 3x12, bis, delts and a few lat exercises; 14'. This was to finish up yesterday's workout. This was no big deal. I was going to go right into my run, but I putzed around; however, I did drink a can of Ultra Violence and eat a few Swedish Fish Aqua Life to get some calories in before running.

2:05PM Run 1:05 as WU: 15' Easy, 15' Steady MS: 25' Mod-Hard/z4 CD: 10' Steady.

All I can say is WOW. Did I ever feel GREAT doing this today! The main reason was that since I've been consistently stretching, my calves had absolutely ZERO strain in them, which translated into "floaty" pushoff on each stride, thus giving the rest of my legs nice cushioning. And bonus, I COULD HAVE run faster during the Mod-Hard segment (based on my heart rate), but I thought, nah, let's see if I can do that on Sunday during my long run when I get to do tempo work again.

So, so far this week's workouts are HARDER and LONGER than last week, and I'm feeling GREAT!!!!!! I'll take it. You never know when you'll have a "bad" day, but I think at least 50% of it is mental attitude, and I am feeling like I've made huge progress on that in the last few months. Make a few small changes like regular stretching and a little more sleep, and look what can happen!

Tonight I am going to eat good food. Even PASTA! FYI, one of my weight control secrets is that even though I train pretty high (ha ha) volume, I don't eat pasta very often. I do like it, but it can be heavy and I tend to eat too much of it (!). I eat brown rice almost daily, though, and my lunch always has some rice in it. I just don't eat huge volumes of it. But sometimes I can just tell when I need to kick up my calories and tonight is one of those. Since I'm feeling so good and training harder and longer this week, I'm going to put in some quality tonight to ensure I can nail my 2nd bike interval workout tomorrow.

Crackhead Snacks

I LOVE these. I need to go run soon, and I won't be able to eat lunch before I do, so it's a few of these and a can of Ultra Violence.

If you haven't tried these, they are great! My favorite is the yellow starfish. Some bags don't have any starfish; some bags you get the bounty. 3 starfish in the bag I just opened. I ate them all!

Yesterday's Workouts

I didn't post until this morning because I slept TEN BIG ONES after yesterday's festivities, I was so tired.

10:15AM (well really space out between then and 12PM, work allowing) Lift 1:04. This week I added a set, so I'm doing 3x12. I didn't finish the workout--I've got to finish up bis, delts and lats later this morning. No change in weights, which I dropped last week as part of my periodization and to prepare for adding another set this week. Absolutely no problems, energy-wise, adding the second set. Except a little bit in my legs, surprise, surprise! I guess that little track workout Monday night had a few after effects.

After the workout settled in a bit, I could tell this was a significant workout, as I felt that typical "uggghhhhh" that you get from a solid strength workout. Because of this, I felt it prudent to delay my bike interval workout until later in the day, or else I might risk injury or a sub-par performance. As it is, doing these two workouts on the same day is really not a good idea, but I can't always fit in a swim, run AND strength on Mondays, so the strength rolls into Tuesdays. It's all good. The way I look at it is that I'm building bullet-proof legs.

4:25PM Bike 1:15, 2x20'(2') FT intervals. Can you say lack of power? I did not use any Ultra Violence--too late in the day; the caffeine would keep me awake all night. Even looking at my power during warmup, I could tell this would be tough. But I stuck it out, not being able to hit the same watts as last week, but I still hit 150 and 154, average for the 2 intervals. Not bad given my legs were already toasted from the strength workout!

So you can see why I fell into a blissful, deep sleep last night. I initially awoke at 5:30AM, and thought, heck I can sleep another 30 minutes, but NOOOOOO, I dropped for another hour. I feel very refreshed now, and am heading to the pool shortly.

Bonus: For some reason I weighed myself this morning. I don't weigh myself too much, as I can tell about where I am by how cut I look in the mirror. I maybe weight myself every 2-3 weeks, if I remember or feel like it. But today, I don't know, I was getting dressed, and figured before I put clothes on, may as well head over to the scale. 112!!!! That's my "fighting weight," and I've always thought I'd be even better at 110, but it's tough for me to get there. Assuming I haven't lost any muscle (which I don't see how I could with all the strength, not only weights, but on the bike that I've been doing), I'm estimating that puts me at about 11% bodyfat, the lowest I've ever been, which is where I suspected I had been heading. I may add more weight once I drop my running back in January, but it's sure nice to be heading into a new year lean and mean!

In celebration of having gotten through yesterday's tough workouts (and today is no picnic either--I need to finish up strength, swim 2950 and run 1:05 including tempo work), I'm going to be in a fantastic mood, wear some *pink* things and maybe go to the fabric store to get stuff to make my tutu to wear at Disney.

Have a fantastic day!

Weekly Workout Pattern

Brett asked whether I do 2 workouts a day. Most days, yes.

Part of becoming a good athlete is consistency. Meaning you do the work, day in and day out.

It also helps if you are able (and this comes from my coach, amongst others) to keep to a consistent schedule, week in, week out. Meaning you have a pattern of workouts that you follow Monday through Sunday. What's good about this is that you can plan other stuff (life!) around knowing which days you need to be in the pool, etc., and your body can get used to a regular schedule, much like being used to working Monday-Friday, for example. It also makes it easier on a coach to write a training plan if he/she can count on you doing specific workouts on specific days.

Right now I have a weekly pattern that is a little off from my standard one, due to the fact that I'm training for a marathon that is going to be on a Sunday, and I'll be doing a 1/2 marathon the day before (yikes!), and also it's winter so I'm doing 2 quality bike interval workouts per week in an effort to raise my power.

Here's my current pattern:
Monday: AM Swim, PM Run Strides
Tuesday: AM Lift, PM Bike FT intervals
Wednesday: AM Swim, PM Run Tempo
Thursday: AM Lift, PM Bike FT intervals
Friday: AM Swim, PM Run Easy
Saturday: Bike Long, short Brick run
Sunday: Run Long, Recovery Swim

My normal pattern, which will commence in January or February, looks like this:
Monday: AM Swim, PM Run Strides
Tuesday: AM Lift, PM Bike FT intervals, possibly short brick run
Wednesday: AM Swim, PM Run Tempo or slightly easier
Thursday: AM Run Long, Recovery Swim if time, PM lift
Friday: AM Swim Long (meaning "most yards" or perhaps a 1.2 or 2.4 mile TT), PM Run Easy,
Saturday: Bike Long (2-4 hours) including quality work, Recovery Swim
Sunday: Bike Long (3-6 hours) endurance oriented, Transition Run up to 40'

My schedule is what would be considered "advanced," given I've done 7 Ironman races and train at a relatively high volume (700-800 hours per year).

When do I take days off? I can always take one whenever I think I need it, but by sticking to a consistent schedule and (for the most part!) doing only the intensity that I need to do (i.e., if I'm supposed to go easy, I GO EASY, ha ha not yesterday), getting plenty of sleep, eating nutritionally and getting a massage once a week, I recover pretty well. My coach only schedules rest days for me right before or right after a race or epic training weekend. If I feel I need a rest day or I become sick, I try and rearrange things the best I can so that I get in my long run, long swim (if I'm doing them) and a long ride.

Today's Workouts (I am Psycho)

6:30AM Swim 3000 yards. WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 kick, 4 x 50 (10") Swim Golf MS: 12 x 100 (20"), Descend 1-3, 4-6, 6-9, 10-12 100 easy swim. 4 x 200 (20"), Neg split. CD: 100 easy swim. The pool was unusually warm for a Monday morning. Usually Monday is the coolest water. I guess I was a little sluggish from yesterday's long run, and I didn't sleep enough last night (only 7 hours--couldn't fall asleep, I was just hot and my metabolism was racing--sometimes that happens after really long rides, and sometimes runs, too). At any rate, it's hard for me to get going in warm water (anything over 83 degrees--it felt like 85 today), so as always, I concentrated on my form. When I got to the 200's, I finally felt warmed up and limber and produced some decent times. Oh well, I'm slow in the pool from all the strength work, too, and I'm STILL not worried about it! 6 months until my first 2006 Ironman, no worries!

I had to go into downtown Chicago into the actual office today, which is in Sears Tower. I call it the Tower of Power. I like making mundane things festive. There's an exit off one of the interstates about 15 miles from my house that's called Army Trail Road, but I call it the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When I combine a bunch of errands to save time (and gasoline), I call it an odyssey. Years ago I even made up a little song about going on an odyssey. It's to the tune of some show tune, but for the life of me I don't know the name of it!

Anyway, on those days when I go to the Tower of Power, I have to drive to a parking garage, and then walk to the train station (about 1.5 blocks) from there. And I pack my gym stuff for my second workout. I would join the club in the TOP, but it's way too expensive to justify for me using it maybe twice a month. And then I would have to drag my workout stuff PLUS my laptop bag and other crap onto the train. So I do my second workout after work on those days.

It only got up to about 10 degrees here in Chicago today, so when I opened my gym back for my post-work run, everything in it was cold. I was happy the Gatorade was cold, but my HRM not so much. I was emitting screams every time I put something cold to my body!

5:46PM Run about 50'. My second workout was supposed to be an easy 50' run, including 10' of strides. Strides are where you practice good running form, but more importantly, good CADENCE, which is about 85-95 foot strikes per minute. If I'm counting, I just count my right foot strikes for 30" and double it. Funny how 85-95 is the same as good cadence on the bike. If your run cadence is about the same as your bike cadence, it makes running off the bike easier, DUH. At any rate, I've been doing stride work once a week for 2 years, so I no longer count my foot strikes regularly, I just always run at about 95-98 per minute. I usually do strides on Monday, to give me an "easy" day, regardless of what kind of swim workout I have.

When I got to the row of about 20 treadmills, they were all occupied. Too many of them with walkers, if you ask me. Reading their books. BARELY sweating. I wanted to just scream, "GET OFF I NEED TO DO AN ACTUAL WORKOUT" but that wouldn't have made me look too good. I only needed to run 25-30' on the treadmill and then I would finish up on the indoor track.

But nobody was getting off. So I thought, OK, I'll do the entire workout on the track. The thing is, no matter how tired I am, put me on a track and I will naturally want to run fast. I held myself back for the first mile, but I was still way ahead of the speed I should have been running at. And then I picked it up for the next mile, and even faster for the third mile. Oh well, we've degenerated this into a track workout. After 3 miles, I did 15' of stride work, and then ran another 1.5 miles (at the fastest pace yet) and called it a workout. I couldn't believe I had that in me after yesterday's long run and swim, a decent workout this morning, full day of work and all.

It just goes to show you, you never know what you have in you until you give it a whirl. Will I pay for what I did today tomorrow? Maybe. If so, I'll just dial down my bike workout. But something tells me I won't need to. I feel strangely really great right now. Legs feel fine, I'm not overly tired. And this was 4 straight days of quality running! What is wrong with me? Guess I'm getting a little excited about the Goofy madness in 4 weeks.

I better go stretch now just to make sure my legs stay supple.

Shelley McKee is Awesomely Awesome

I didn't participate in the Secret Santa thing on the tri-drs LISTSERV, but Shelley Santa'ed me anyway, with a sketch she did from a race photograph of me. If you want to see a smaller version, it's on her blog, http://ironm4n.blogspot.com/.

I just returned home from the gym after working out much harder than I was supposed to, after having swam early in the morning and gone downtown to work at the "Tower of Power" (Sears Tower) today. Hectic day, with the usual customers and sales guys in my face. So I was ready to come home, have a recovery drink (still haven't had it), get some dinner, stretch, and relax. I've done none of that yet!

So what a nice thing to come home to in my mailbox! It's from my bike photo from IMWI 2005, and it's going to be framed and hung in my family room so I can see it while I'm on the trainer.

I'm hoping to be able to show up at IMCDA next year to cheer for Shelley (anyone out there have a couch/bed/floor I can sleep on for 3 days???--oh and space for my bike which will come with so I can get some riding in), and we are both going to whoop it up at IMFL (check the participants list under both our names and you can see a piece of the antics we are already up to).

How do you thank someone for giving you the gift of time? Try to give it back. So, Shelley, in this "public" thank you, trust me, I'll find a way. Maybe it will be kicking your ass (well, mine, too) on some killer epic training weekend this winter or spring--you never know.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Today's Workout and Weekly Totals

10:26AM Run 1:40, some easy, some steady, some upper steady, finishing with 20' mod-hard (tempo). It took me about 30' to warm up thoroughly. I guess I was a little tired from the rest of the week, yesterday's little bout of yardwork, and I shovelled my driveway (75 feet long) right before I left to run. But after the initial "oh crap, I'm on the treadmill AGAIN" thoughts, I settled in and it wasn't so bad. I was going to throw on my Fuel Belt today to finally test it out (I've had the darn thing for 3 years and never used it), since I want to fill the bottles with Ultra Violence for the Disney madness, but thought I can wait another week. I know how big of a dork I'll look like running on the treadmill wearing a Fuel Belt! Not that I don't already look like a dork half the time anyway. One thing I noticed as I got to the last 40' was that I felt super ultra amazingly strong in my core. See, strong abs pay off! Also strong psoas (aka hip flexor) muscles.

I ordered 6 pairs of running shoes this morning. I usually order 5 or 6 of the same kind at a time. I wear New Balance 833. They are a very lightweight trainer. I used to wear a heavier shoe, but since dropping weight, I found I needed lighter shoes. Only problem is I wear through them in maybe 250 miles max. So I go through a lot of them!

12:30PM Swim 1500 yards, 30'. I just swam with the pull buoy. This was a recovery workout. I hadn't done one of these in awhile, but I have to tell you it feels SO good to swim for 20-30' after a long run. The coolness of the water is good for your muscles, and well, swimming is like free massage!

Speaking of massage, I get one once a week. I used to only get 1 hour massages until I was in the last 12 weeks of Ironman training, and then I would start getting 1.5 hours, but I've been running a lot this fall, and well, I just like 1.5 hour massages, so I've been sticking with that. It's another big expense, but I believe that anyone training for Ironman will benefit from regular sports massage. My masseuses work pretty deeply on me, because I've been doing this for several years and they know I can take it. Besides just feeling good and flushing the crap out of your muscles, good sports massage will help you identify trouble spots in your body before they become bigger problems. I typically will go in and tell the masseusse what I think needs extra work, and most of the time I'm right, but sometimes I'm not. I'm spoiled, since I work with masseuses who know the musculoskeletal system really well--I can't go back to anyone now who doesn't. I know all the superficial muscles pretty well, and I have an anatomical chart of the muscular system on the door in my office/weight room at home, and when I feel something awry, I consult the muscle man so I can point the masseusse in the right direction.

Weekly Totals
Swim: 9,350 yards in 3.3 hours
Bike: 4.53 hours
Run: 4.92 hours
Strength: 1.53 hours (see, I really don't spend that much time at this!)
Total Hours: 14.28
Average Daily Calorie Need: 3,404
Stretching: 1.85 hours (I hope to get over 2 hours in next week)
Average Sleep per Night: 8.86 hours

On Swimming

I'm not the fastest swimmer, but I am very efficient in the water. My average heart rate for an Ironman swim is typically about 110. Since I only started swimming in 2000, I will never be that fast unless I swim maybe 6 times a week, and that won't be happening as long as I am still working full time. My training time investment is better spent on biking!

I post from time to time on the trifuel.com forum as kona_expat. I stay away from most of the social threads and very basic beginner threads. I am generally looking for people who appear to be genuinely interested in something specific, rather than the typical, "I want to get faster" discussion.

Anyway, here's a thread where I made a few posts that you non-lifetime swimmers might get something out of: http://www.trifuel.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=4126