The Weather is Here....I Wish You Were Beautiful

I just wanted to use that as a title. The REAL title for this post is:

THE WEATHER IS FINE, MY RUNNING IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!

It's cooled off here in Chicagoland, and I'm biking just a bit less than I had been, so I've amped up/ramped up my running, since I'm doing another marathon in, well pretty much 3 months. I'm back on running 5 times per week or more. Next week, I'm running EVERY DAY, including 3 brick workouts, and I'm pretty pumped for that, and will get in about 40 miles. That will be my run peak prior to MiamiMan, and then I'm sure I'll have another one in mid-December in preparation for Goofy Challenge.

I'm really enjoying running in the cooler weather, and as it gets slightly cooler, I'm running the same routes in less time. But there's something new going on, too. I figure I've bottomed out on my lean-i-tude, but lately when I'm running, I just feel incredibly light on my feet. Lighter than ever before. To the point where even if I'm tired, I'm knocking out a good (for me) pace.

I've figured out a way to be able to run on the roads frequently without getting injured. It's taken a few years to figure this out for myself, but now I've got a system that works. And there's some fairly challenging hills about 2 miles from home, so it makes me strong-like-bull to run them frequently. All good!

Yesterday I only had to run 50', including a stop for 10' of strides. About 3/4 mile from home I spotted a multi-colored, psychedelic-looking soccer ball (I tried to post a pic of it but Blogger is not cooperating--it's a Baden 140) looking all lonesome against the curb. I didn't see anyone looking for it, so I decided to let it keep me company for the way back. I never was a soccer player, but I had so much fun kicking the thing and keeping it straight and catching up to it. It was a good proprioception session, and I know I was smiling or laughing the whole way back. When I reached my street, which has about 1/4 mile downhill, I was wondering if I could keep up with the ball. I didn't kick it so hard, so I did, and some landscape workers got a "kick" out of watching me. I told them I had my own personal soccer game! The ball only slowed me down by maybe 30" for the last mile, but I didn't care, I had so much fun!

Today, I did my long run, since Sunday is supposed to be in the 70's, which will be better for riding. I had 1:50 to do, and I headed to my hilly trail area, Waterfall Glen. Since I've stopped using the HRM, I have to feel my pace, and I guess I was thinking of 9:30 miles today, but when the first (long) mile was 9:30, I thought maybe I can go faster today. So I just tried to keep a nice, relatively aerobic pace, and it looked like I was on about 9:05-9:10 after 6 miles (I made up some time on downhills), so that was that, I had to maintain that speed. About 6 miles in, I encountered another runner that I figured was running 9:30's or 10's, and came up and said the usual hi, nice day, blah, blah, blah. I went ahead, and then he said some more to me and I had to slow down to hear him, so he said he'd catch up. And he did, and then we ran about 3.6 miles (the end of the loop) together. His name is Tom, and it was his THIRD LOOP! The loop here is about 9.6 miles. He'd already run almost 26 miles by the time I saw him. He was worried he was slowing me down, but I was fine, and he was grateful for me picking his pace up for the last part of his run. He's doing the Chicago marathon, and I asked why he was doing 30 miles, and he said, "Because it's such a beautiful day." My kind of guy! I got his last name, and told him to run like the wind at Chicago, and predicted he will go 3:30 (his PR is 3:41, and I know based on how he was doing 30 miles he should have no issue going 3:30 as long as he tapers hard).

I stopped briefly to use the bathroom and then headed out for the last of my run. I felt STUPENDOUS! I basically kept my pace and almost miscalculated how much more I needed to run (I think a 20 miler would have been easy for me to do but stupid considering I need to ride 3.5 hours hard tomorrow). When all was said and done, guess what my average pace was? 9:08. 12.11 miles, not too shabby. I wasn't running hard! While Tom and I ran together, we were chatting like nobody's business, so I know I could have gone faster. My stomach felt off today, but no worries there, I just quit drinking. It's not like I'm going to die of dehydration from running 12 miles, right?

I even managed to swim 1500 yards afterwards to loosen myself up, and did a reasonable amount of stretching. I debated on doing the swim, but I know my legs needed the water massage (the water felt cool to me, thankfully) so I can hit a nasty, nasty bike workout tomorrow (of course followed by a run).

If I make all 7 days of running next week, I will have run 10 days straight. I think I've done that once before without ill effect. I keep thinking I'd like to buy a treadmill so I could run every day, even if it was just 15', but then I think I have enough trouble keeping up with my calorie needs, so maybe I'll wait on it. But as winter looms, I might reconsider, as just driving .6 miles to the Y to use their treadmills adds up.

Oh...and my bike strength remains solid so far. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Something tells me I'll just be thrilled that it's warm and summon up all sorts of watts!

If I can run this well next week, I will be very happy. I'm now tracking my average pace by the week and in aggregate for the season so I can look at how I'm doing on that front and have better data to support my pace work.

2006-2007 Triathlon and Overall Health Objectives and Goals

Looking back, I achieved a number of things during my 2005-2006 training season that have set me up for more highly focused training goals. For many folks, these things can be major limiters to their triathlon performance, beyond the usual fitness parameters. With these things in place, I feel well prepared to go to the next level of training:

• My body composition and weight are as good as they need to be. In fact, I achieved a level I never thought possible through consistent, small changes.
• I have developed a stretching and strengthening protocol that prevents injury, enables me to train intensely in all three triathlon sports and maintains my lean muscle mass.
• While I know I could do better with my diet, it is for the most part very clean. I do have trouble when I’m training more than 15 hours a week, though, avoiding snacks like Cheetos, Pringles and gummi bears—but those treats are on top of about 2,500 calories per day of clean food, so I shouldn’t sweat it. Also, if I wanted to be a purist, I would avoid alcohol altogether, but I do enjoy a beer (sometimes 2) daily. I was on an Ultra Violence kick there for awhile, but my consumption has decreased significantly, and it’s rare that I drink it nowadays.
• I have honed my race nutrition to be quite effective for me. I know how many calories per hour I need to sustain myself, and I am fine with most race-provided substitutes when I don’t bring my own. I am very in tune with my bodily sensations telling me when I need more or less calories.
• I have a detailed history of my training so that I can review things like different taper strategies and patterns that lead to improved fitness and racing. The history also helps me to know what kinds of crazy things I can schedule and fit in with an overall racing season.
  I have a very solid, multi-year training base and detailed training knowledge, enabling me to fudge my training (usually on the higher end) without serious detriment.
  
  

If I can figure out how to get others on the same path, I think I’ll make a great coach!

All this being said, I am nearly 50 years old, and the big question is, can I continue to get faster? Based on this summer, I would say yes. Since Ironman Brazil, my run and bike fitness and speed have improved. Swimming—well, I just haven’t worked enough at it to see improvements this year, and it’s suffered (I’m told by some very good swimmers) due to my very low body fat. I’m OK with that, but I am making a commitment to improve my swim technique, as I know I have many years to work on it!

So here goes. Below is a list, in no particular order, of things I will be (or already am) doing and some quantifiable goals. Feel free to punch holes in any of my statements and to ask me along the way whether I'm performing up to snuff. After all, part of the reason for posting this to my blog is to hold me accountable!

General Physical Fitness Objectives and Goals

• Stay healthy and injury-free
• Get blood work done to check cholesterol and blood sugar readings and any other markers to ensure optimal health.
• Get OB-gyne exam (already scheduled).
  Get annual mammogram (will schedule after OB-gyne exam)
• Get an eye exam. I think my vision actually hasn't changed since a year ago, but I've got the insurance, so why not?
• I suppose I will need to get a colonoscopy, since I'm turning 50
• Retain or increase lean body mass
• Do not gain any fat mass
• Continue stretching at least 1.5 hours per week
• Continue good sleep habits
• Continue getting massage weekly
• Continue good eating habits
• Figure out the vertically oriented tightness in right glute when twisting. This is something I've had for a few years now, and while I've worked most of it out, there's a little that still persists, and I would like to eliminate it altogether.

Strength Objectives and Goals

• Add 1 lb. to each ankle weight. I use ankle weights for my VMO strengthening exercises and I also do some leg lifts while on my stomach. Currently I've got 3 lbs. in each ankle weight, so I'll move back up to 4 lbs.
• Do an additional shoulder/back workout each week through March. The purpose of this is to increase my upper body strength. I could care less about my biceps, and my triceps are very strong. I need to focus on delts, lats and traps (the swimming muscles!). Plus, it wouldn't hurt for me to add a little bit more mass to my delts (OK, so I am vain).
• Mix up the core workout a bit. I just need to try some different stuff. The current routine is a bit boring now.
• Increase from 10 lb. to 12 lb. medicine ball for my abs/core workouts. I've been using 10 lbs. for a year now and it's time to increase the resistance. Perhaps by increasing the resistance the existing workout will no longer be boring!

Swimming Objectives and Goals

• Add a 1000-1500 yard drill session on Sundays through March (cool-down swim after long run). I was doing these swims last winter, but I was just slapping on the pull buoy. It will be more effective to use this session for technique work. So maybe 400 yds. warmup, 800 yds. of drills and 300 yds. of actual swimming.
• During warmups, instead of 200 straight kick, do 50 kick, 1' vertical kick (to improve ankle flexibility and knee bend) . This is at the recommendation of my coach.
  Work with swim coach fall/winter. I've got 1 or 2 really awesome swimmers in the wings that I just need to set up some time with.
• Remember focus points from coach: head position (look down), left-hand catch, rotate more. If I can put these things together, I'll be doing well.
• Reread the freestyle stuff in the Maglischo book. Every year, more aspects of swim technique "makes sense" to me (this being my 7th year of swimming). I am sure some things will finally stick in my pea brain and hopefully translate to improved mechanics in the water.
• Complete a 1:10 IM swim. I have done 1:16, so this seems doable. However, with the increase in bodies at IM nowadays, this might not happen in a race situation, but I will still strive to achieve it in a pool TT.

Biking Objectives and Goals

• Improve FTP from 186 to 200 watts by 3/1/2007. Power to weight (kg) would be 3.93, This is a 7.5% improvement. If you assume this translates into equivalent speed (which is not always true, but whatever), it means I theoretically could go 21.9MPH in a 1/2 IM, which is a time of 2:34??? Hell, I'd be happy with 2:40. Hmmm.....maybe this is harder than it looks! If I meet this goal by March, then I will amend and seek to increase my FTP even more by DATTT. What the heck! 7.5% is doable, given I improved by over 15% last season.

Running Objectives and Goals

• Complete Disney marathon in 4:15 or less. Last year was 4:27 and I was basically cruising, and also wearing a costume which I stopped to adjust numerous times. This time, costume is reserved for the 1/2 mary the day before, and the marathon will be for PERFORMANCE. I've done 4:10 in a solo marathon (September, 2005), so 4:15 seems reasonable. My "out there" goal is to run 4:05 and qualify for Boston. The next 3 months of training will tell me whether I'm on track or not.
• Complete IMLP marathon in 4:45 or less. I've done 5:15 at IMC and IMH and my running is a lot better since then, only I've not been able to execute it in an IM (DNF in 2005, sick in 2006). I base this time on the fact that I ran Disney marathon in 4:27 the day after a not-too-slow 1/2 mary the day before. My "out there" goal for IM mary time is 4:30. I no longer think I lack bike muscular endurance, so I should be able to run an IM mary close to my open time.
• Complete an open half marathon in 2:00 or less. Have done this in training; guess I should prove it in a race? 2:00 is 9:10 pace; on 9/24 I ran 11.3 miles at 8:53 pace (and it wasn't a race), so on a good day, I think I can do 1:55 in a race. Well, assuming I'm tapered. So I'll stick with the 2:00 "some day" even if I'm not tapered for it. I've done 2:05 in a HIM.
• Start treadmill runs at 6.1 or 6.2MPH for "easy" running. Every fall, I have just made myself go faster on the treadmill by doing this. If you want to run faster, you need to (duh) RUN FASTER! I always run slower on the treadmill than I do outdoors, but it's a good thing for me in the winter, because I control my speed much better on the treadmill. In addition to adjusting my starting speeds, I will be upping my tempo speeds, since I've become faster over the summer.
• Stop wearing HRM through December. I have already stopped wearing it because it needs a new battery. I don't need it for biking (the SRM tells me my calorie burn and I don't care about my HR there anyway just watts), and it has just been "interesting" information for running. I can tell already in just a week that even though I *thought* I wasn't adjusting my pace based on the HR number, I probably was. I am at the point where I can run by pace and feel, and I think this will be another banner year for my running. I did buy a new *pink* Timex IM watch, so I will still time myself, but time is time and I don't care about HR now.

Racing Objectives and Goals

• Complete IMLP in under 13 hours. I think this is entirely doable. Let's assume: 1:15 swim (adjusting for the crowd factor), 6:30 bike and 4:45 run. That's 12:30, add :20 for transitions and there you go. Each sport objective is doable with hard work. But it's an IM, so you never know what's going to happen, but on paper I will be testing my fitness along the way to achieve these objectives.
• Survive DATTT and don't be DFL! I don't have particular time or placement goals for this challenge; I just don't want to be last individually or last as a team. This means I have to hold up my end of the deal, and I guess it puts some pressure on Cindy, too. REALLY good athletes tend to show up at this festival. I'm not expecting any PR's; just get through the thing in one piece and have fun at it.
  

Mental Objectives and Goals

• Don't sweat the small stuff.
• It's mostly small stuff.
• Tap into my meditative powers more.
• Continue to care about others, but don't care what they think about me.
• Push through higher effort (pain) barriers. I think this will happen naturally. In training, I am already at the point where when I get faster, the effort is not really harder--I am just faster. I do need to improve, though, on race situations where I know my body is physically capable of a pace that in a racing effort WILL feel quite hard. You know how Zone 3 feels easy in training but not so much in a race? That is my next effort nut to crack.
• Continue to seek improvement yet retain humility in my accomplishments to date. I am not a professional athlete—this is just a hobby!
• Always remember that in whatever I do or say that I am trying to represent the very best aspects of living a healthy and active life.
• Continue to ensure that my triathlon lifestyle fits into and enhances my overall life; i.e., that I don’t neglect relationships and other non-triathlon aspects of my life.
  

GIRLFRIEND!!! (said like Matt Damon on "Will and Grace" when he pretended to be gay)

Welcome to Cindy. She's my Main Triathlete Girlfriend Squeeze (MTGS). And she reminds me of how regular life can also be a lot of fun. One of these days we will get drunk together. Maybe after DATT.

It's time for me to update this blog. There have been changes to my life. I've finished my 2005-2006 season. I'm about to turn the big FIVE-OH (wish it was as in Hawaii 5-0, but sorry, no such luck), meaning I will get to subject myself to all sorts of nasty medical tests (I can't wait), and it's probably a good time to take stock in where I am and where I am going.

As I learned from last year, it is very healthy to go through a few weeks every year where I let the recent past mull about in my brain and consider what's working for me and what's not working. And not just in terms of triathlon, although for me, my life still tends to revolve around training. I still like to ride my bike, and a new thing is that I like to run!

Yesterday I was pretty tired because I had trouble falling asleep the night before (hormones, I think--oh yeah that too--menopause is either here or right around the corner). I debated whether to do any training, but figured a swim at lunch might feel good. I dragged my ass to the pool and got in, and surprisingly, it felt good to swim. Probably because since I was so tired I wasn't thinking so much (in my continued quest to improve my swim technique I have a tendency to overthink what I'm doing at times), and didn't care how fast (er...slow) I was going. I did a drill workout and got through the whole 2800 yards.

I was supposed to run yesterday, too, but I began bargaining with myself after the swim. I could skip the run altogether, or I could do just 20' or 30' and do more today. Any of those options would be fine. I ran pretty well on Sunday (11.3 miles in 1:40 or 8:53/mile--how's THAT for my long run pace????) and thought my legs might be toasted. I ended up heading out at about 5:30 (and it sucked because it was getting DARK), and I was totally surprised at how GOOD I felt. I could tell there was lack of sleep fatigue, but my run legs were sure there. So guess what, I ended up doing the full 50' which is what I had planned for myself. Which goes to show you that you never know how a workout that you are thinking about skipping is going to feel until you start doing it. Which is why, I guess, I rarely miss planned workouts unless I'm actually sick.

Back to my mulling...turning 50 I suppose is making me think about a lot of things. Am I doing what I want to be doing? Job? Relationships? Health? Decade milestones tend to have that effect. In terms of do I feel old, yes and no. Yes--my skin is for crap, and I am not one to invest money or time in a lot of "products," since, hey, it's just age, I need to accept it. But still I don't look bad for my age in terms of my face. And certainly not my body. So I've got that going for me. In terms of my ability to train, let's just say that it's as good thing I seriously took up stretching last year, or else I think I'd be in rough shape. And let's also say that keeping my weight down is a fantastic thing--it is almost a total joy for me to run now--I rarely have a sense of wishing I weighed less when climbing hills.

But you know I think about stupid things--like most of the time I don't care that I look "fashionable." I work at home, so no need to dress up (or even get out of pajamas) there. I have my "going to the gym" clothes that in the winter make me frankly look like a bag lady, and I don't care (during the summer I wear as little as possible which looks pretty good on me so no worries there). I am more concerned with what I wear to work out in than regular clothes!

I'm trying to become a kinder, gentler version of myself. How so? Just be nice. Not syrupy nice (I HATE that)--just mostly keep my mouth shut and smile. There's still this hypercritical side of me that may or may not be connected to competitiveness (but is certainly connected to ego) that is constantly passing judgment on others. Lately, I have just been letting it be and observing the thoughts coming and going. I also think it's a sign that I am critical of myself, because I tend to project onto others. Oh, and to an extent I am a perfectionist (SURPRISE!). But how can I claim to be a perfectionist when I dress like a bag lady? Today's conundrum.

Anyway, look for more ramblings as I make my way through my fall thought process. I have put together my triathlon goals, and I'm almost ready to publish them here. The right time will come to me.

Meanwhile, it's going to be a gorgeous day here in Chicagoland, so I am definitely getting out on my bike for 1.5 hours.

Enjoy your day!