I Got Rolled, then I Got Watts, BABY!!!

Evil coach made me do an FTP test on the bike today. I guess it's the last hurrah before Ironman Brazil to see just where we should calibrate my IM ride. And then I get to test it out this weekend.

Recall that I was pretty wasted beginning Sunday's little indoor riding festival. Luckily, Monday was a rest day (I still did some weights), and yesterday I only had to swim 2650 yards, which was not bad, but after which I still felt like someone had run over me repeatedly with one of those roller things they use to level blacktop (see above), especially my quads. I could feel each part of my quadriceps muscle vibrating while I was kicking in the pool yesterday.

I smartly garbaged up on sleep while I had the opportunity. 9.5 hours Sunday night (pure exhaustion). 9.5 hours Monday night (more exhaustion). 9.5 hours last night, and man I did not want to get out of bed this morning. Sometimes when I drop my training down, I go into this "hey, this lethargic thing ain't so bad, maybe I don't really want to train any more" thing. I guess I have rewired my brain so that when I have the opportunity for real rest, I interpret it instead as "I am done training FOREVER!"

Today was no different. I was in no hurry to get my bike prepared to ride. I just didn't feel very motivated. Paralysis was setting in. How about I just continue not doing much and sleeping a ton? I could really get used to not training. Thanks, though, I really enjoyed that last training cycle. Busted my ass. But I guess I will get on my bike and see what I can do, even though I don't feel like I have much energy at all.

So I procrastinate, and finally at 11:30AM I figure that I had better get the bike ready and be out the door by 11:45 since I have to be back for a 2:00PM meeting. I am supposed to ride 1:15 and run :30. I know the ride will go longer, because when I ride outdoors I am almost never dead on. And then there are stoplights, stop signs, and other things. Today, of all things, there was a funeral procession pulling into the road right after my warmup. Any other day, and I would be pissed off. Not today. A little respect for the dead. I was amazed that I didn't even cry over it. I think it was the universe testing me. Seriously! I did sneak by when there was a gap, though, because I just didn't have that much time to wait. Priorities, you know.

I got to my circle TT loop area. It's about 3.1 miles around with minimal stopping. It's mostly flat, but there are some rises and a few small rollers that make it interesting. But it's the best option I have to do my interval work on, and it's pretty safe, so that's where I go. However, I have no control over wind. But I LOVE wind when doing intervals. Makes it more fun. I got my wish on the wind again today. SSW, 8-10, gusting to 25MPH. Excellent!

I got nice temps, too. About 71. Perfect. So I didn't have to wear much clothing. And for a short ride, no aerobottle either. I played Natasha Badmann and did the upside-down drinking thing from one of the XLAB cages behind my butt.

Ah, the joys of riding on a nice day with a power meter! Interesting thing about the SRM--when you stop an interval, the average watts it shows you may be slightly lower than what you get once you download the information, and then in Cycling Peaks, when you get to see Normalized Power (NP), the NP value is typically higher when riding outdoors (because of variation in terrain, wind, etc.). So on my first FT interval (my test protocol is 20' at FT, 2' easy, 20' at FT, and then get NP for the entire 42' range), what I saw was 168 watts, which was fine, since I knew my NP would be higher given the wind (head and tail) and hills (up and down, and I tried to minimize coasting). I figured close enough. On the 2' easy part, at first I just wanted to puke or at least not pedal, but I picked it up to keep my legs in motion to get ready for the second FT interval. On this one I just decided this was so much fun that I would push even harder, or at least try to. Why not? I was under strict orders from Coach to make each of my remaining interval rides (um....which ones AREN'T????) count. When I'd look at my average watts, they weren't looking too great about 10' in, so I pushed harder. At one point, I asked myself, "Does this hurt?" And the answer was, "Nope." It's not pain; it's just effort. What the hell, it's only 20' (and believe me, the 20' goes by MUCH more quickly outdoors than on the trainer).

When I hit the interval button, I thought I saw 170 for the second FT interval for average watts. All I know is there was a 1 followed by a 7. So good enough. I eased off the effort, dropped back into the small chainring, and headed for home. When I was almost there, for some reason I rode through downtown Downers Grove, and a guy on a motorcycle pulls up ahead of me and says, "I prefer a little more power on my ride." To which I replied, "I had plenty of power today!" with a huge smile on my face. He gave me a thumbs up.

I happily rode home and thought, "I wonder how well I'll run today?" It had been 4 days ago that I last ran, and it was a brick run, and so I just got ready as quickly as I could. About 4' later, I'm out and running.

I decided to head west into the wind so I could have a little push on the way back in. Problem is, going west is mostly uphill for about 1.5 miles. Too fucking bad. Just run. I had a new pair of running shoes that I knew would feel good--all cushy and all clean with day-glo orange EZ laces and hot pink squeeze toggles. I didn't feel bad as I headed up the hill right outside my house. Why should I expect to have trouble running? I only rode like 1:20. That is nothing. So what if it effectively included a 40' time trial. I am so used to this it is not even funny. I will say my legs did not feel quite normal, but they didn't feel bad at all. It was more like, "Fucking hill, another fucking hill" until I got 15' out so I could turn around. I was wearing a pair of low-rider DSS bike shorts, with just a skimpy bra top, since I get pretty hot running, so I'd removed the tank thingie after biking (when it gets to be full summer, I will ride with just the nothing bra top during the week, who cares, may as well get a decent tan). Because of this, I was getting the expected incredulous stares from people seeing all my freakish abs staring them down, daring them not to look. One guy in his car on a cell phone just about crashed his car. I just laugh at this stuff thinking, "Hey, I'm 49 and look like this it just doesn't get any better!" There were a few times when I smiled thinking about my mom, how she would probably say something like "ohhhhhh Sheila" (name that tune) if she saw me dressed this way. Before she passed away, I gave my mom a good look at my abs so that she would know that I wasn't really skinny, and that I had all this muscle on me. She even touched them!

The run was fine, and I guess I was motivated by needing to get back home for my business meeting call. Well, when all was said and done, I negative split the run by 1.30. How about that? And I think I was running 8:00/mile? WTF??? It just goes to show you that sometimes when you feel totally lethargic and such that you can have a great workout. I guess I sort of had a little taperoni there. Whatever, I'll take it!

Now for the good part: my NP for the 42' interval, aka the FTP test was....177!!!!! So I have become stronger, even doing it outdoors! Phew. Coach had said he wanted me to hit 175 before Ironman Brazil (remember that?), and I guess I have done it. Only problem is that means I get to ride harder, but I think I have been riding pretty hard the last few weekends, which is a sign that my FTP has gone up.

My FTP watts/kg is now 3.47. WOO-FUCKING-HOO!! My weight hasn't changed, but I know I've lost additional bodyfat because my hips and butt measurements each went down 1/2". My quads ain't any smaller, though. See previous Bike Porn (Fat-Free) post.

I'm a happy camper! Data is below:
FTP Test:
Duration: 42:40
Work: 435 kJ
TSS: 75.8 (intensity factor 1.032)
Norm Power: 177
Distance: 13.608 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 331 170 watts
Heart Rate: 0 254 106 bpm
Cadence: 30 130 69 rpm
Speed: 3.8 28.6 19.1 mph
Torque: 0 488 218 lb-in

Bike Porn

Weekly Workout Totals 04/24/2006-04/30/2006

When you look at the numbers below, you might be inclined to think that this past week was not as hard as the week where I spent time in South Carolina. You would be wrong. Hard to me is not dependent only on volume; it depends on intensity. And this was, by far, the most intense swimming and cycling I've ever done. EVER! Running didn't need to enter into the picture that much, since I've built a solid run base since, well, last September.

To give you an idea of my running base, since September I've completed 20 runs of 1:30-2:00, 10 runs of 2:00+, and 2 full marathons. That's over 36 weeks, so 32 out of 36 weeks I've run 1:30+. That's what's known as consistency. One of the measures of Ironman training success is the ability (and I'm quoting my coach here) to do at least a 1:30 run every week, from now until forever. That distance of run will prepare most folks for a half or full Ironman.

So this past week we did not need to worry about my running, as I needed to polish off some very serious cycling.

Since I'm just an average swimmer, and swimming tends to be a good recovery vehicle (for strong swimmers; and I may not be fast but I am strong), we also did some overdistance swimming this week. I already knew my endurance was there; but this week we did long, muscular endurance sets. ME sets are characterized by short rest intervals. They force you to swim at a pace that is close to your "continuous" pace. For example, 3x500 with 15" RI. 15" of rest ain't much; so you can't swim the 500's too much faster than you would if you were swimming 1500 straight.

The week would have been hard enough just based on the above; but life decided to make it more difficult for me with the passing of my mother. If you think I didn't think about that during every single workout, you would be wrong. I did. Just as it's important during an Ironman to hold your emotions at bay until the end (trust me, there's plenty of time at the finish line to get all choked up and such, so why ruin your actual race by wasting that energy on the race course?), I needed to practice this week. And by that I mean just not crying during my workouts! I feel very intensely and deeply; but it's mostly just that--feeling. I have learned over the past 8 months to simply be with my thoughts and emotions, and not judge them or go into the past or future over them. This is the same technique that I apply to managing my ability to push during workouts. If you can just be with the sensation of discomfort or effort (I prefer to think of it as effort) instead of getting emotional about it or comparing it to your past efforts or worrying about your future efforts, you will be able to achieve what you set out to do.

I did 2 "epic" swim workouts this week, and even better, I did them back to back on Wednesday and Thursday, because I needed Friday clear for the funeral. Sure, I could have skipped one of the workouts or shortened one, but I made a commitment to myself, to my training, and to my parents to not bag my goals. Wednesday was 4,600 yards, and Thursday was 3,900 yards. And then on Thursday mid-day I went and ran 2 hours. Part of my pea brain was saying that I should be running abysmally, since Wednesday I did a big swim and a 1-hour tempo run, and then I did the big swim on Thursday morning. The other part of my pea brain reminded me that I am incredibly strong, and while I shouldn't dismiss the effort as "no big deal," that I would be able to get through it. I did do my hilly trail run that day, and I nearly PR'ed my half marathon that day. By "nearly," I mean that I ran very strongly for 9 miles, then I had to climb out of the hole (it's about 1 mile up at a decent pitch), which temporarily demoralized me, then I remembered I needed to do 20' of tempo work, so I just willed myself to run very close to my 10K pace somehow, and then I realized I was, indeed tired, and cruised the last mile in.

Friday was a full day off. In the back of my mind I really wanted to fit in my second abs/core workout, but if ever I felt completely exhausted, it was at the end of that day, so the thought quickly passed. And I needed to be rested and ready to go for the weekend of pure hell. Well, not quite hell, but very challenging, focused riding. The stuff that is way harder than the Ironman ride. The stuff that tests your commitment to the training and your desire to be good at this Ironman thing; to not just finish the race, but to have raced it.

Saturday's plan called for a 5-hour ride followed by a :30 run as follows: WU: 120' @ 65-70%, MS: 2 x (40' @ 88-90%, 10' Easy), 20' Easy, then 1 x 20' @ FT. Remainder (90') is 80-85%, as you feel. The weather was windy (thank you!), but this day it was also on the cool side (around 50), and rain was expected in the afternoon. I wore lightweight running tights over my bike shorts and put on the arm warmers, and I was still slightly chilled. I got out the door at 8:15. I started out tired, and during the 2-hour warmup, it felt like I was struggling. I thought I was close to hitting the required watts, but it didn't feel easy. It made me wonder how I would get through the remaining even more difficult stuff. I rode into Fermilab again, and found the lab where one of my cousins works (I had forgotten about that until mom's funeral, and then he (Ed) and I had a nice discussion about circling around where he works), and at about 2 hours in, the first raindrops began falling. All I could think was how dreadful it would be to finish a 5-hour ride on the trainer (and while I might be inclined to use the algorithm that 1.5 x trainer time = outdoor time, I wasn't going to shorten ANYTHING this week), so would I rather put up with rain, or would I rather put up with being on the trainer? It's amazing how long such a small thought can entertain you while you are riding solo doing focused work, and my legs were kicking in just fine on the first HIM interval, and the rain wasn't hard, so I just kept going. I looked at the sky periodically and figured it wasn't going to rain too hard. It was mostly just sprinkles, but when you are kicking out watts, it seems you are being pelted. So I just kept circling in Fermilab. The watts were coming, but at some point I made a deal with myself: finish all the really hard stuff, and then finish up the last bit on the trainer. It was a good decision. When I was about 8 miles from home (which was enough time to do the FT interval and then some), it began raining harder. This was all the encouragement I needed to push really, really hard. I hit normalized watts of 176 for the interval. Pretty good into a headwind and now driving rain. Motivation to get home fast. When I was almost home, since I knew I would need to run on the treadmill and my bike was a mess, I made an executive decision to just head to the Y and finish up :45 on the Precor bike. Did I really need to bike more? No. But to me it was a matter of principle for the week. No wimping out, no stiffing my workouts for any reason. So I get to the Y and some man gets on the Precor next to me and wants to have a conversation. It was the usual bullshit about how he wants to have a better physique (while eyeballing mine up and down despite the fact that I stunk to high heaven). I wasn't really in the mood for this, so I told him this: You have to really want it, or else don't waste your time. He had all the usual excuses: my wife buys cookies (I told him to just not eat them); I want to emulate someone else's diet exactly (I told him that won't work--he is not that person). It was one of those days where I was so happy to need to run! Despite the several costume changes and equipment changes, the run felt good. Of course, I ran an extra 5', as part of this week's commitment. When all was said and done, my total riding time was 5:14. I actually averaged higher watts than required during much of the ride, and overall (thanks, Rich, for pointing this out to me), I average close to what my FTP had been last fall! There's real progress!

Yesterday, I knew I'd be on the trainer for the full time, since the forecast called for rain all day, and the forecast did not disappoint. My workout was 4 hours like this: WU: 60' @ 65-70% MS: 1 x (40' @ 88-90%, 10' Easy), 20' Easy, then 1 x 20' @ FT. Remainder (100') is 80-85%, as you feel. Ugh. Did I really want to spend 4 hours on the trainer? Hell no. Would I? Yep. Did I? Yep. It was hard. When I woke up, I felt pretty darn trashed. A combination of having already put in 17 hours of training, a hard ride the day before, and I'm pretty sure I didn't make up all 3,000 calories I had burned on Saturday. So there were 2 pots of coffee before I started, which helped a little. I always allow myself one out in a workout: if it ain't happening, just do the best you can. But I managed to do what I needed to, and got the job done.

Here are the happy totals.

Weekly Totals 04/24/2006-04/30/2006
Swim: 11550 yards in 4.07 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1423 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 191.33 miles in 10.93 hours; 52% of weekly workout time; approx. 4747 calories burned
Run: Approx. 32 miles in 4.88 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 2686 calories burned
Strength: 1.12 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 280 calories burned
All Sports: 21 hours; approx. 9136 calories burned (Blackjack!)
Sleep: 8.42 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours

Season Totals 09/12/2005-04/30/2006
Swim: 278550 yards in 98.58 hours
Bike: Approx. 2749.92 miles in 158.42 hours
Run: Approx. 963.48 miles in 151.39 hours
Strength: 50.11 hours
All Sports: 458.5 hours; approx. 204090 calories burned
Stretching: 49.79 hours

Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-04/30/2006
Swim: 8441 yards in 2.99 hours
Bike: Approx. 83.33 miles in 4.8 hours
Run: Approx. 29.2 miles in 4.59 hours
Strength: 1.52 hours
All Sports: 13.89 hours
Sleep: 8.47 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.16 hours avg./week

Goals from Last Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night. DONE.
• Get in at least 2 hours of stretching for the week. DONE.
• Keep up the mental focus. This is the hardest week of all. DONE.
• Stay mentally strong for my family and myself. DONE.
• Stay on top of my nutrition. Close, but no cigar. It was tough to keep up my normal eat-every-2 hours schedule through Thursday. I did the best I could.
• Keep my head in the game during every key workout. DONE.

Accomplishments This Week:

• Completed every workout per instructions, even adding time to almost all of them.
• Kept myself together.

Goals for Next Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night.
• Stretch over 2 hours for the week.
• Begin race visualization. Race Rehearsal weekend this weekend!
• Watch nutrition, as my training hours begin to decrease

Mom's Funeral

It was Friday. Springtime in Chicagoland comes with dicey weather, but it was a picture-perfect spring day! The sky was clear, there were minimal clouds and minimal wind. It was in the mid-60's, so we were able to be outdoors in the bright sunshine without our coats on.

It was wonderful to have my brothers (Mike and Tom) and sisters (Carla and Lisa) there, as well as two of my uncles, several first cousins and some of their spouses, and a few friends of my mom's and dad's.

I wore a black crepe dress that was my mom's. She gave me 3 dresses that she wore in her early 20's. Everyone remarked that they couldn't believe she ever fit into the one I wore! I reminded them that mom had quite the figure back then, although truth be told, I would never fill out the top part of a dress the way I think that she did. I also wore her pearls. She gave them to me right before I got married in 1986. They survived the marriage, the divorce, and all the other things that have happened to me since then.

We had a simple funeral all taking place at the gravesite (this was all my doing; my dad nominated me as the planner). The pall bearers walked with the casket from the hearse to the grave. In a moment of comedy, the casket needed to be spun around 180 degrees so that my mom's head would be in the correct position (I guess for a viewing the head is supposed to be opposite the headstone). I later asked my brother in law if he felt like laughing at that moment; he said not then, but then we decided this should be a new family tradition, to spin the casket one time before laying the person to rest.

The casket was opened and everyone paid their respects. I thought it would be hard for me to look upon my mom's face again, having seen it taking her last breaths of life. But it was OK, and again I was happy knowing that her suffering was over.

The priest spoke the commital prayers, some of which we prayed along with. After so many years of not attending church regularly, I still remembered them all.

The casket was closed, and most of us passed by it one last time. Then we all assembled at a restaurant for lunch, or whatever it was at that time of day. I was so hungry--just being depleted from the week of duties and travel and then there was my training--I was up to 11 hours by Friday, and I didn't even do anything on Friday! I knew I was behind on my calories, but I ate slowly and savored the presence of the others, and we shared quite a few good stories about mom.

When all was said and done, and Mike and I had dropped off my dad, I was home a little after 5PM. All I could think was that I needed rest. But it was still a beautiful day, so I took off my rings and bracelets, and headed out into my front flower bed. I left the dress on--I thought it would be fitting. I was smiling to myself thinking how tired I was, yet how good it felt to pull some weeds and get my fingers dirty. I had a beer with me. There was a nice breeze, and I felt good that the day had been so nice for my mom's honor. I then realized that I had a lot of work to do the next few days, so I went back indoors to get some more food, prepare my bike and bottles for Saturday's riding, and get some sleep.

Speaking of work, I had better get on my bike again. I'll recap the training week later today.