I guess I should change the title of my blog again. Turns out I am not slacking at all--I am just not formally training for an Ironman. But I like knowing that if I wanted to do one in 3 weeks, I could show up and do it! That is a little scary, but I guess why I am generally very calm. I may not be fast, but I know that I am very fit, and I intend to stay that way for at least a few more years.
I have been so sleepy this week, I mean just needing to sleep a lot. I am getting better about recovery time. I don't need but a few days of nothing or almost nothing and then I can pretty much return to the state of training I had been sustaining. I ran on Wednesday, and my legs felt like total crap, but getting a massage that evening must have flushed all the remaining race toxins out of my legs because I felt just fine yesterday morning.
When I started my bike workout yesterday, I was wondering if I could cut it--if I could hit FT watts after a pretty hard effort last Sunday. I lengthened my warmup a bit, which I think was a good idea, and then when it was time to turn it on, oh yeah baby, I had the watts. Empirically, I think my FT is up about 5 watts; at least it's good enough to make me work harder every session. I only did 3x8' (2') at FT, but I really worked it for those 8' intervals--189, 192 and 189 normalized watts (my most recently tested FT value was 177, but these are short intervals, but still I think my number is up). And then follow that by 7X30/30's (30 seconds at VO2Max pace; 30 seconds easy), and then finish up at HIM watts. Can you say calorie burn?
Yet my legs felt pretty good after all that yesterday. Today I swam, and the main set was 40x50 (10"), alternating hard 50 with easy 50. I tell you that is a lung-buster workout. You think you are getting rest on the easy ones, but as you keep adding them up, you have to work harder on the fast ones. What fun!
I was on the fence about doing any weights this week (and I'm undecided to what level I want to keep them up from here on out), but thought that doing some would help get me out of the funk that I'm in, and besides I consider strength training important as I move some muscles in planes that don't normally get used in the triathlon sports. So I did about an hour.
Then I had to run. Today's workout was: WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady. Oh great I get to run a 5K plus today! I was uncertain whether my legs would be up to this workout, but as always, I cranked it out, even though it was about 95.
Tomorrow I "only" have to run 1:30 and then Sunday I'm riding 100 miles and running :30 off the bike. A relatively easy week, but here comes the pain starting next week: I will be biking about 250 miles a week for the next 4-5 weeks. My self-imposed BIG FUCKING BIKING MONTH!
Included in there are a 300K and 200K ride. I suspect my running will take a back seat, but what the heck, I've been doing a lot of running this year. After that, a cheesy HIM and then a build for my last A race of the year--Miami Man, and then a short rest and train for Goofy Challenge.
OK, I said I was going to rant. I read on another blog a rant AGAINST skinny people. I guess I fall into that category now. But I was not always skinny, and I don't consider myself fast, well maybe as a cyclist I am now, but that has been due to extremely hard work. It has taken me years to change my body composition to where it is today, and that has also been hard work. It has involved becoming aware of nutrition and what I am putting in, what I am burning, and how they affect one another. I have made it my business to understand how my body uses energy. Along the way, I learned that if I eat pasta, I will tend to eat too much of it, and so I avoid it now. I have learned to be OK with being hungry, especially while I am training (you can't take in a lot of calories and do a hard workout--it just doesn't mix). I have done strength training consistently for 15 years, and I have trained hard and consistently in triathlon for 6 years running. So if anyone wants to call me naturally skinny and say whatever "speed" I have is because of what I weigh, I have 2 words for you.
Now in terms of my views on fat people doing triathlon (or any sport, for that matter): first, if you are fat, you know it. You don't need me to tell you that. And you don't need me to make you feel bad about it. You are perfectly capable of doing that all by your lonesome. And you also know that every extra pound you carry around is slowing you down. And that if you think that if you just train harder you will get faster, all the while you are shooting yourself in the foot if you are carrying around extra weight. So it is YOUR business to decide how much it means to you and your experience in the sport to make the sacrifices necessary to drop the weight to let your body absorb the training better and get faster, not just because you lost weight, but because all your metabolic processes (of which training is a huge constituent) will improve.
In my case, the motivation to drop weight was related to my desire to manage hard training and to lessen the impact on my one crappy knee (ACL free for 22 years now!), and then I followed that up with a couple of herniated disks, and the writing was on the wall, my friends--be small, or stop doing this sport, or suffer and accelerate damage to my knees and back! So I have some physical limitations working against me, but I never use those as reasons why my performance is not where I'd like it to be. "Oh, my race was off today because I have a herniated disk." To me it is no different if a person complains that they are not as fast as they could be because they have a few extra pounds. Shut up about it. Nobody wants to hear me complaining about my age-related disk degeneration and I don't want to hear about how you just can't seem to lose weight. Neither of us has the right to use those things as a basis for dissatisfaction in our performances. We are all doing what we can with what we've got. I've chosen to change what I was given in certain areas, and anyone can if they really want to.
I take offense at those with excess weight who feel they are being unduly criticized or punished or whatever. You are the way you are because of how you eat, and that is that. It is under your control to do something about it, and just as I cannot use my own limitations as excuses for my performance, neither should a person use their weight as an excuse for anything. Figure yourself out. Are you depressed? Are you afraid to see what you might do with your body? Are you afraid that if you drop weight and you are still slow then you will have considered your efforts wasted? I would never tell someone to drop weight strictly for vanity or to see how fast they could get. There is only one right reason to lose weight--health. Admittedly, I could weigh more than I do now and still be healthy, and I am happy that I have that "play" which will come in handy down the road, I'm sure. But for now, given the level that I enjoy training at, it is better for me to be on the light side--better to allow me to train at a high level, to recover from it, to put less stress on my digestive tract, and hopefully minimize further cartilage deterioration. And oh yeah, it can help somewhat with speed.
I am at a disadvantage in the pool, though--I have little fat for "natural" flotation, so I have to work extra hard to keep a good body position. And I'm short. Taller/fatter people naturally will swim faster than me. So should I start belittling tall people or ask for a race division for short Croatians? This is why I do not believe in Clyde/Athena race divisions. Hell we could make up a million other handicaps that people have, and one's size should not be considered a handicap PERIOD. Sure there are certain body types that are better suited for certain sports. If you don't like how your body type performs in triathlon, pick another sport. The Olympics don't give special medals to people who are doing sports with a less-than-optimal body type for that sport--I can see it now: "Gold medal in the sport triple jump for people who have no business even trying because they are too short." There are plenty of sports out there to choose from, and some that even favor a heavier physique. I have the photography book, "Athlete," and I find it interesting to see the different body types among the different sports. There are good reasons you don't see skinny people doing powerlifting and beefy people excelling at marathon running.
When I see someone who is overweight working out or in a race, I automatically assume that they are seeking health, and that they are probably trying to lose some of the weight. That is not always true, but I know it's true much of the time. I hope everyone doing sport is on a path to excellent health. But there are a few amongst the heavier set crowd that want special consideration or acceptance for their weight or they claim to have "given up" on their quest to slim down. I don't buy into that. Sometimes I think there can be a fear there that "what if I slim down and I still am not that fast?" Welcome to my world! Do it to be healthy, and if what you have been doing is not working, work harder at it. It will come. Unless you have a true metabolic disorder, well, you are exactly what you eat. Some bodies just handle it differently, and it can take work to find out how to cure a seemingly stubborn metabolism. Been there, done that!
I have to be happy with my triathlon performance given the height I was born with, but I can and will continue to manipulate the variables that I can change--my training, body composition and nutrition. I'm OK with how far I've come, and I will never have an excuse for my performance that is related to my weight, because I have taken that out of the mix.
Now I need to go eat some steak and have a beer!
Friday, July 28, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Do You Ever Have These Thoughts?
Just some ramblings in a recovery period...
- I suck.
- I REALLY suck.
- Why do I keep doing this if I suck so much?
- Well, some people actually suck more than I do. They seem to be OK with it, so why aren't I?
- I wonder how many people who know me are laughing at me behind my back thinking, "she has a big ego for someone who sucks so much."
- Rest feels good. Maybe I'll just stop working out.
- It doesn't even phase me anymore to sign up for an Ironman race. No sense of wonder, no fear, no nothing. Been there, done that. What's up with that?
- Sometimes I think I've learned to dig deeper, and then I think I haven't. Tough to say.
- When I'm on, I feel like I'm on top of the world. When I'm not, I feel like shit.
- I wish I had started these sports when I was much younger. I wonder how good I would be now? Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I didn't know any better. I will say that I totally enjoyed smoking, drinking and partying heavily, and the drugs weren't too bad, either. I think a lot of triathletes (myself included!) would continue in those ways if they didn't think it was wiser to be "responsible."
- I think it was silly to think I could qualify for Kona. I'm not sure I want to try again or that I even have the ability to get there, but then if I don't, what's the point? I think that's what keeps me coming back, is that I'm looking for "the point." It's all about the journey and not the destination, right?
- There's no getting around it. I have to keep working hard if I want to improve.
- I wish I had the time to spend doing a LOT more swim technique work. I swim OK in a pool, and I seem to swim well in "normal" lakes, but very choppy lakes or oceans, I suck.
- I'm a pretty good cyclist. Maybe I should just focus on that.
- Occasionally I think I'm an OK runner, and wonder if there will ever be a point that magically I am able to run a lot faster. I seriously doubt it.
- Oh yeah I guess one of the reasons I do this is for my health. My physical health seems pretty good; my mental health dubious.
- Racing is a crap shoot. Some days you get lucky and it all comes together. Other days not so much.
- Sometimes I wish I trained less, but then I remember how little I need to eat if I'm not working out a lot. Am I doing this for vanity?
- At least I am not injured, KNOCK WOOD! If I've learned one thing in the past 6 years, it's that injury sucks more than anything else. I suppose there's some reward in being able to say I trained a lot, raced a lot, and was not injured (for the last 1.5 years!).
- I really love steak, onions, tomatoes and beer. I could live on just that!
- Sometimes I think I like to burn calories more than I like to take them in. I really don't like having to eat or drink when I'm training or racing. Maybe I am turning into a camel or a vampire.
- String theory--yep, I'm made up of a bunch of vibrating strings. Now if they could just learn to play a decent melody, I'd be all set!
- I miss my mom.
- The only thing that sucks about being my age is being single. Men just do not automatically think that an almost 50-YO woman is worth getting to know. But when I was getting body marked on Sunday, the guy asked my age, and I told him 49. He thought he heard 41, and said, "41?" I said, "Nope, FOR-TY NINE." Some young girl said, "I bet you wish you were 41." To which I said, "Hell no." See, that is what a lot of people think about being this age. That you've somehow turned into a ball of ugly mush. I'm fighting it tooth and nail.
- I love sleeping.
- I love my body, even though it doesn't always perform the way I'd like it to.
- I guess I'll go run now. Maybe something else will come to me.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006 and Spirit of Racine ½ Ironman Race Report
First, the race report.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Get my head in the game for a long race on Sunday. Wow, am I really ready for a 1/2 Ironman? DONE. Well, my bike legs were ready, but apparently not my run legs. Other than today, since I'm catching up on calories from yesterday still, watch the eating as I am doing a little taper for Sunday's race. DONE.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Accomplishments This Week:
- Triathlon #53 is in the books. 2nd fastest ½ Ironman at the age of 49, almost 50. I’ll take it!
- Got a lot of sleep. I think I’ve been training a lot!
Goals for Next Week:
- Stretch more!
- Recover.
- Ride 100 miles on Sunday at a good clip.
- Sleep.
- Have fun.
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006 and Spirit of Racine ½ Ironman Race Report
First, the race report.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Get my head in the game for a long race on Sunday. Wow, am I really ready for a 1/2 Ironman? DONE. Well, my bike legs were ready, but apparently not my run legs. Other than today, since I'm catching up on calories from yesterday still, watch the eating as I am doing a little taper for Sunday's race. DONE.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Accomplishments This Week:
- Triathlon #53 is in the books. 2nd fastest ½ Ironman at the age of 49, almost 50. I’ll take it!
- Got a lot of sleep. I think I’ve been training a lot!
Goals for Next Week:
- Stretch more!
- Recover.
- Ride 100 miles on Sunday at a good clip.
- Sleep.
- Have fun.
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006 and Spirit of Racine ½ Ironman Race Report
First, the race report.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Get my head in the game for a long race on Sunday. Wow, am I really ready for a 1/2 Ironman? DONE. Well, my bike legs were ready, but apparently not my run legs. Other than today, since I'm catching up on calories from yesterday still, watch the eating as I am doing a little taper for Sunday's race. DONE.
Did I taper? No.
Did I suffer? Not really. My definition of suffering has changed dramatically since Brazil.
Am I happy with how I raced? I’m OK with it, considering lack of taper.
I had a glimpse that my biking legs were back on Thursday. My watts were up, and it felt easy to generate them. So I figured on a decent bike split in the race. How about my run legs? I have been nailing some rather difficult workouts, but again, I’m not sure what I did Wednesday was appropriate for a taper workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 6 x Strides, 5' Steady with excellent form MS: 4', 6', 10', 6', 4' @ 5k pace with 1' Steady between each. CD; 10' Steady
Do that workout sometime. It will kick your ass and take names!
What about my swimming? I suck. Well, I suck in certain open water venues. In normal lakes I am fine.
So how did the race play out?
The weather was absolutely beautiful. Mid-70’s, perhaps low 80’s, it was hard to tell. Lake Michigan looked fairly calm, but as I am learning, looks can be deceiving. Swimming straight out against the waves, I just couldn’t get it together, so I did a lot of breaststroke. But once we turned to swim parallel to shore, I was fine, and passed a bunch of people. So I probably lost 5’ due to my inability to swim through the first set of waves. But the water temperature was perfect, about 68. I did swallow a little bit of it, but mostly I think I got a pretty good nose enema. I took my wetsuit off in the water, and took too long doing it. Oh well, this wasn’t an “A” race for me.
There’s a long run through the sand back to transition, and you really feel it in your calves. Part of you says, “RUN RUN RUN” because you are in a race, and other part says, “But I just can’t go that fast.” I’m pretty good at transition runs, and I don’t know where they started and stopped the timing, but I just kept going and got to my bike, got my stuff on and away I went.
I committed to my coach’s ½ Ironman wattage guidance for this ride, which meant for the first ½ hour I was to ride easy. As it turns out, I didn’t ride easy enough, but still I held back big time. Which really sucked as we sort of had a tailwind out of town and it was nice and cool. Oh, well, there will be plenty of time to ride fast. I didn’t drink anything until I was 10’ into the ride, either, which is always a good plan to let your stomach settle as you get back to using your legs.
After 30’, I was able to dial up the watts. There were plenty of riders around, so it was very motivating to keep up a good pace. There were numerous draft packs of men. Every time one would go by, I couldn’t help it but I would curse a blue streak at them. F’ing cheaters! I am sure none of these guys was going to win the entire race today, so I really don’t understand why they blatantly cheat. But there was one point where 2 guys went by me, and it was clear they were working together, and a draft marshall came up right behind them and I saw that numbers were being written down. So some justice was served! As the course was quite congested, I knew it was impossible to catch all the drafters, but at least a few of them hopefully learned a lesson.
I definitely felt like I was working on the bike, even with the good conditions. We did have some wind, but I’m not sure how much there was. I just pushed and pushed and periodically looked at the power meter to be sure I was in the right range. It looked good. When I got to transition, I saw the final number, 2:46. Not bad. THAT was a PR for a ½ Ironman, but then again, everyone was riding fast. Turns out my bike split was #2 in my age group.
And now, the run. I didn’t feel bad when I left T2, and felt like I had a decent pace going, but my legs felt heavy. Not “I rode the bike too fast” heavy, but “maybe I’ve been training a lot and my run legs really aren’t recovered from Ironman Brazil heavy.” Considering I had just witnessed the return of my bike legs on Thursday, it seemed reasonable to me that my running legs weren’t quite back. That’s OK. I didn’t walk except a little at aid stations, and I just kept continuously looping some song in my head and kept going. I didn’t really feel bad (except for the rock in my left shoe, but no way I was going to stop and take it out), I wasn’t suffering, I just didn’t have much “oomph” to my legs. There were a number of racers who recognized me and would call out my name before I saw them. I must have a distinctive physique. I joked to one guy I ran with for a few miles that they must recognize my butt! For the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire run.
I ended up 5th in my age group out of 18, at 5:48. There were some really fast ladies on the day! So no podium slot. That’s OK. It was a good workout, my 3rd triathlon in 6 weeks (or should I say 4th in 8 weeks?) on top of some serious training, so I really can’t complain. I see some younger athletes doing this sort of stuff and they are able to bang out good performances while racing frequently, but it’s just not in these old bones. Still, I am very fortunate to be healthy and able enough to do this stuff. I like knowing that I can show up at a ½ Ironman on no taper and put in my 2nd fastest time at the age of 49. I am not sure whether I can get faster at this point or how long I will keep this up. I grumble at every race, “Why do I keep doing this????”
My legs were quite sore when I finished the race and the entire way driving home (about 1.5 hours). I was rolling around in my head what I wanted to eat, and I was going to go home first and make the disaster area in my house after unloading my car, but I was going to pass up a restaurant I like very much on the way home, and I figured I had better go eat before going home. After the race, they had run out of the (probably bad) pasta and all that was left was potato chips, bananas and pretzels. I had a handful of chips, drank my Endurox R4 and hit the road rather than wait for bad food to show up.
I stopped at Country House with my blood sugar just about to plummet. My waitress could tell I was hungry probably from the wild eyes I had. She was smart and asked if I was ready to order right away, and I was. A big, tall Weiss beer, an ostrich burger medium rare with Cheddar cheese, and onion rings. The beer arrived pretty quickly, and that got some carbs down me (after I drank a full glass of water, of course). When the food arrived, I lovingly salted the hell out of the onion rings, made a nice pool of ketchup on the plate for them, put some ketchup and tomatoes on the burger, topped it off and cut if in half. That first bite of burger was nirvana! I absolutely love tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes and ketchup is like heaven to me! I took my time eating, as despite my appetite, I have a rather small stomach. In fact, a table next to me arrived after me, got their order and finished it before I was done eating! I removed the breading from most of the onion rings and just dipped them into the ketchup. I also LOVE onions. Not raw—but sautéed or grilled I can eat piles of them. Since I figured I wasn’t going to want to cook later on or eat another entire meal, I got 2 slices of lemon merinque pie to go for later. I polished them off about 2 hours after I got home. Not your best pie, but it hit the spot anyway.
I slept fitfully, as my core temperature remained high from the race, and my legs were sore. Today I feel like I am coming around and may go for a swim later just to loosen up my legs a bit.
Oh, and I just registered for Ironman Lake Placid 2007. For my occupation, I listed, “Idiot.”
Here’s what happened last week:
Weekly Totals 07/17/2006-07/23/2006
Swim: 11600 yards (6.58 miles) in 4.02 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1455 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 112 miles in 5.9 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 3025 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.63 miles in 4.8 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2626 calories burned
Strength: 0.47 hours; 3% of weekly workout time; approx. 118 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 149.21 miles in 15.19 hours; approx. 7224 calories burned
Sleep: 9.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.57 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 379785 yards (215.54 miles) in 133.67 hours
Bike: Approx. 4166.69 miles in 238.6 hours
Run: Approx. 1266.04 miles in 199.09 hours
Strength: 63.77 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5648.27 miles in 635.13 hours; approx. 282521 calories burned
Stretching: 69.91 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/23/2006
Swim: 8440 yards (4.79 miles) in 2.97 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.59 miles in 5.3 hours
Run: Approx. 28.13 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.42 hours
All Sports: Approx. 125.52 miles in 14.11 hours
Sleep: 8.49 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
Accomplishments This Week:
- Triathlon #53 is in the books. 2nd fastest ½ Ironman at the age of 49, almost 50. I’ll take it!
- Got a lot of sleep. I think I’ve been training a lot!
Goals for Next Week:
- Stretch more!
- Recover.
- Ride 100 miles on Sunday at a good clip.
- Sleep.
- Have fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
