Race Report: First HTFU Half Indoor NothingMan of 2008

Pics are here.

OK, so I didn't announce I was doing this because, well, the way things have gone the past few months, anything could happen. But I was pretty sure it was going to be game on. I figured as long as I was hitting some decent training amounts, I may as well do a HIM. I scheduled it about 4 weeks ago just to give myself something to look forward to. Hard to believe, but I haven't raced since last September's NothingMan!

I knew that my bike fitness was there, and probably also my run fitness. As far as swimming, I still haven't been swimming enough to pick up any appreciable speed yet, but that should start happening in a few weeks. The investment of time for me to noticeably improve at swimming is just not worth the time, although my body certainly appreciates swimming as cross training and recovery.

Why a HIM? Why the hell not? I do need to get ready for Triple T, and it's not like I did a winter marathon or anything, so may as well combine the long bike and run and just get it done.

It was interesting yesterday taking a rest day. I stretched. I worked, but it wasn't a difficult work day. I did a few Dominatrix activities. But mostly I felt pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I did laugh, though, because I had to fix bottles. Today was my first time in 2008 using my custom Infinit mix (with CAFFEINE!) and Ultrafuel prior to racing and deciding what I wanted to use on the run, which turned out to be mostly Coke. I am not yet feeling the need for the old Ultra Violence. Actually, today was the first time in 2008 that I have even used caffeine during a workout, and I must say, I still love the stuff. Especially when you know you are going to bore yourself to death by doing a HIM all indoors, all by your lonesome.

As is usually the case, I felt compelled to really load up at dinner--really mostly post-dinner. I had some mahi-mahi and peas. Then saltines with romano cheese. Then I decided I deserved one of the Fannie Mae creme eggs (available only near Easter). I had bought 2 of them, and after polishing off the first one figured I may as well eat the other one, too. They were both good. Also, whereas the day before I thought maybe no beer the night before the "race," I reconsidered and had 2. So I was plenty carbed up to go.

I slept really well except for a few anticipatory bouts of hotness. My metabolism still senses when it's going to be asked to kick in bigtime, and this is why I think it's sometimes difficult to sleep the night before a race. Although lately at the rate I've been training and well, just living, my metabolism has been pretty high, and I've been careful to keep the house fairly cool at night (67 seems about right for me).

Since I didn't have to travel far to swim, I set the alarm for 5:00AM. No biggie there--on M/W/F when I swim I've been getting up easily at 5:30 lately. I messed around with my training spreadsheet for a bit, drank coffee, ate my usual Power Bar Triple Threat, and around 5:45AM I drank the Ultrafuel. Well, one thing that never changes is the stuff makes me gag. I just chug it all down and wait for the inevitable insulin coma, as my body quickly tries to do something with the giant sugar bomb I have just drunk.

I felt pretty good getting up this morning, and as the sun came up, I saw it was snowing. Fucking excellent! And only about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Couldn't have picked a better day to do this, I say!

When I got on deck at the pool, some guy flagged me as a triathlete--I have no idea how--do I just look like one? Anyway, we chatted a bit, and it turns out he's doing his first HIM at Steelhead this summer. At this point I hadn't told him what I was doing, but eventually I told him I was doing a HIM RIGHT NOW and it was just to "see where the fitness is." Of course then he asked me what other triathlons I've done, and then I said I hadn't raced since last September, and he figured I did IMWI, but I told him no, me and a guy did it unsupported. Now he's probably thinking I'm a little nuts, but I'm used to that. He swims on the Masters team and I know many of them. I ended up sharing a lane with this guy, and he did try and "race" me every now and then, not that I was going very fast--I was just cruising.

Swim time: 41:09 for 2200 yards. Pretty crappy, but not as crappy as I thought I might do. I really wasn't trying at all, and I felt solid the entire time. I mean, 2200 yards, even though I'm not in IM shape yet, is still nothing as far as my endurance goes.

Out of the pool, quick shower, and change into biking clothes. Make some woman who speaks broken English take a photo, and I drive back home to get on the bike.

T1 time: 24:11. Long, I know, but hey, I was in no hurry.

I used my road bike, as that's all I've been riding this winter. I had pegged my FTP at 205 (I think it's really closer to 210 now, but let's prove it today, eh?), and decided to hold myself between 80-85% of FTP for HIM pacing. Actually mostly closer to 80%, because I had no idea whether I'd blow up on the run. I have done HIM rides anywhere from 78-88% of FTP. I think I'm good at about 85%, but I'll save that for a "real" race.

I warmed up easy at 70% for 30 minutes and then kicked it in. After about an hour, I noticed my legs were protesting a bit, and I just told them to STFU. This is the first time I've done a HIM simulation ride wholly on the trainer. It ain't easy. At 80% of FTP you are definitely working, but without an opportunity to coast or get a slingshot from passing someone (which is legal), it's tough to just keep pedaling, pedaling, pedaling at the same power output. I changed my gears here and there and stood up a few times, but that's about it. I couldn't tell if the reason my legs hurt a bit was because I effectively didn't taper (and I did 2 fucking hard bike workouts earlier in the week) or because I am just a wuss. Nevertheless, periodically I'd look in the mirror and tell myself to just HARDEN THE FUCK UP because it had to be done. Actually, it was kind of nice to feel the old pain of a good, hard effort. I'll take that any day over work, death, a boring, useless life, or being out of shape. Being in shape requires pain, no?

Since I was on the road bike which has a very different position than my Bitch, I expected my speed to be slower than I would normally do. Below are the bike statistics:

Elapsed Time: 3:05.38
Ride Time: 2:59.52
NP=160, IF=.78 (yay), TSS=202

God damn, I sure hope I can ride faster than that on my tri bike!

T2: 25:29 I fucked around with the camera, dumping the pics on it in case it got full, and then I had to WAIT for a treadmill at the Y.

Luckily, I got the endo-treadmill which is right under a nice ceiling fan, and it's a little cooler there because there's some airflow in from the track/basketball court area. I decided I'd try and do a progressive run, where the speed increases. I started in Z1 and only went up to Z3, which is fine for my first time out at a HIM this year. For the first 20 minutes, my legs felt like shit, and my stomach did, too. I have only done 2 brick runs before this! But I tried to forget that I had been on a bike before this and just think like I was doing my long run, and after that first 20 minutes, my legs felt pretty much OK. I was sweating bullets, which cause many onlookers to look at me funny--I sweat a lot normally during a long run, but as soon as I got on the treadmill today, I already felt like it was really humid in the room, and it wasn't going to get any better.

What can I say? The run was boring. Boring, boring, boring, and then more boring. But I was happy that I didn't feel too bad and that I could run off the bike at all!

Run stats: 13.1 miles in 2:01.45, or 9:18/mile, which is fine by me. I feel like I can bring that down to 9:05 or even 9:00 in a HIM, or at least I should be able to do that.

Total elapsed time: 6:38
Net moving time: 5:50.46

Not too bad for my first HIM in a long time. I'm happiest about how well I ran, since I totally changed up my run training this winter--up until 2 weeks ago, I've only been doing 3 runs per week, but still holding down decent volume. And only having run off the bike twice (for 30 minutes, no less), makes the run even sweeter. The bike I'm not worried about, as it was the road bike, and I think I biked pretty hard earlier in the week and should have rested a bit more. Oh well! As far as the swim goes, well, my endurance is there, and my speed is returning in bits and pieces over the last 2 weeks. So all in all, this was a solid effort for me, all things considered. I have 2 more of these (assuming my body holds up with the training) planned before Triple T. I'd always wanted to do a HIM per month over a summer, but this is as good as it's going to get right now. I can't plan any away time just yet, but I can still get my fix and feel the pain.

After I showered and got some Endurox R4 in me, I headed to the Chicken Basket for my post-race meal. On the way there, man, I wanted every form of food--candy, burgers, fish, you name it. Every restaurant was calling my name. I always figure that I need the 4 basic food groups after a race--salt, fat, beer and meat. Chicken Basket serves it up in spades! I ate 2 biscuits with butter and tons of honey, a cup of chicken dumpling soup, a giant Warsteiner Weiss beer, half of the coleslaw, half of the fries, a leg and a wing. The rest of my meal is waiting for my next hunger attack, which will be any time now.

Oh and when I got home, guess what had been delivered? My custom Splish Crackhead suit, which I'll wear at my next "race." Any of you ladies out there are welcome to order my design to show a little solidarity. The design is here.

Time to put my legs up and wait for my stomach to command me to eat again, but for now, it's time for another beer!

Happy Hump Day!

The pics are of my "torture chamber" at home. I've had the machine for over 15 years; one of my best investments ever. I think it needs a HTFU sticker!

Shelley asked about glute exercises. There's a link in my sidebar that is an awesome directory of all things muscular and strength and stretching exercises, but here it is as well.

So for starters, click on it and then look under Gluteus, and pick your poison: maximus (the biggest part of the booty and generates the most power for things like kicking as in kick-boxing, not kicking as in flutter kick--flutter kick relies more on ankle flexibility and hip flexor strength), medius and minimus (abduction/internal rotation), to see what exercises are recommended there. I do most of them, but I don't do the "good mornings," which are shown in the Hip Extension area. I have low pulleys on my weight machine, and I do abduction (working leg away from machine; kick to outside), adduction (working leg next to machine; kick across and in front of other leg) and also kick backs (face the machine; kick working leg behind you straight-legged).

I think everyone knows squats work your glutes, too, and I do them with dumbbells. I feel that using dumbbells you work your glutes more than if you use the bar.

The last exercise that I do for glutes is with ankle weights (3-5 lbs. each ankle). Lay on your stomach. Keeping your pelvis flat and stabilized, lift one leg up slowly--you only need to go to about 45 degrees--and lower. Repeat 15 times and do 2 sets for each leg twice a week.

So the butt-specific portion of my strength routine is:

1. Cable abduction
2. Cable adduction
3. Cable kick backs
4. Lying leg raises
5. Dumbbell squats

I also do unweighted wall squats using a stability ball (squeezing Spiderman between my legs) and then Dirty 30's (you can read how to do Dirty 30's by clicking on the abs/core routine link in my sidebar), and I am doing those more for hip flexor strength and knee stabilization, but bonus is glutes get a workout, too.

FYI, sitting on your ass is not at all good for your glutes. In fact, it's sitting a lot that causes a lot of hip and back issues. Even though there's no proof that strength training reduces injury or contributes to successful swimming, biking, and running, I do it to have strength for everyday activities like lifting stuff, shoveling snow, etc., and hey, having a decent backside can't hurt!

Great workout, Opera, Day Off, More great workouts

I'm always surprised to see how fit I can get in a relatively short amount of time. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm there (OK swimming not so much but biking and running for sure).

After Sunday's little brick festival, I wondered if I could pull off a decent ride on Monday afternoon. I sure did--TSS of 107 in 1:15, so my FT is definitely on the rise.

Last night I went to see The Barber of Seville with one of my best friends, and we had a blast, mostly before and after, getting some quality time to spend talking and (gasp!) drinking. We had wine with dinner and then champagne before and at intermission of the opera, which was pretty good the first half and a bit slow the second half. But I got a kick out of the set design which was Rene Magritte-esque, featuring sky blue with puffy clouds, sometimes suspended red chairs. Since the performance went well beyond my normal bedtime, I drank a cup of coffee right after dinner, knowing I wouldn't be able to fall asleep later. I'm not exactly sure how much "sleep" I got last night, but I didn't care because I took today off.

So now that I've written myself a training schedule, I see I'm supposed to do this track workout, which I've done before, but as has been commonplace the last few months, it scared me a bit:

WU: 10' Easy, 8 x Strides, 3 x 1' (30") @ 5k pace
MS: 3 x (6' @ 10k pace, 2' @ 5k pace, 2' walking recovery)
CD: 10' Easy

I've been doing some respectable tempo work for about 3 weeks now, but I had no clue whether I could pull this off, especially with a hangover. But hey, I ran the main set repeats faster than I ever did them a year ago, how about that? In trying to understand why this might be, I think it's a number of things--this is the first winter in 3 years that I haven't beaten myself up with fall and winter racing, and so I think my body has been able to really, REALLY absorb all the work I've been putting in. Oh, I guess that means I'm doing a "normal" training season? Perhaps...but my work ethic hasn't disappeared, and I kinda enjoyed the track workout--even when some dude who works at the Y was clearly watching me run around the track. I just didn't care. Afterwards, since I was in no rush, I spent some quality time stretching in the cardio studio (or whatever it's called) that is a big, fully mirrored room. I messed around with some of the Body Bars and checked out the spin bikes (you won't see me on them), and enjoyed the solitude of having such a big room (with mirrors!) all to myself.

When I got up this morning, I noticed my left glutes were sore. WTF??? Maybe, MAYBE at long last my left side is waking up. Lots of triathletes have difficulty getting all parts of their glutes to fire, and I'm no exception, especially with the biomechanical issues that I have. Anyway, it felt good for once to have a sore ass, and maybe all the biking I'm doing has contributed, too, and maybe because I've been literally hanging off a high bar a couple of times a week to let my spine stretch out, some former slacker muscles are activating.

So it was interesting to start the track workout with sore glutes, but the workout didn't make anything worse, and now I just finished my strength workout, yip-fucking-ee, because why? Because I'm done with my maximum strength phase, and I think that's been helping me be strong for my biking and running (and swimming--some of my "speed" is returning).

Everything could come crashing down on me at any moment, but for right now, things are pretty good. I enjoyed my day off and avoided loading it up with lots of crap. Now I just need a good night's sleep so I can hit it hard tomorrow.

Weekly Workout Totals 2/25/2008-3/2/2008 and BEST WATER EVER!

Swam this AM, and the water was ALMOST COLD! Last Wednesday when I swam it was pretty nice, but this morning it was even better. I'd say the temperature was maybe 81--it could have been 80. All I know is that below 80 I am freezing (sans wetsuit), and this morning I didn't rest very much because I'd get chilled. Also, I had goosebumps when I got out. NICE! I almost stuck around just so I could hear the water aerobics ladies complain about how cold it is. I hope the water is just as cold on Wednesday.

I guess that counting last week, I've now had 4 good training weeks in a row. There was a time not too long ago that I couldn't see that happening, but it is happening, and I'm happy for it. Yesterday I hit TSS 207 in a 2:30 trainer ride. Yes, that probably means my FT is on the rise, and I am pushing the watts whenever I can right now. By way of example, in the Miami Man 1/2 IM in 2006, my TSS was 173 for a 2:41 ride, so no matter how you cut it, that was a pretty hard ride I did yesterday. And then I ran :30--I was all ready to run outdoors, but it was raining, so I just hurried up and drove to the Y and ran on the treadmill, wearing running tights and a bra top. When I was about done, some woman gets on the TFM next to me and asks me if I know how to use it. Well, not really, I just hit start and manipulate the speed according to what I think I need to do, so I know how to do that, but these new TFM's are all touch screen and pretty easy to figure out. At first I told her to go get a trainer to show her (I guess she figured I looked like one of them?), but then I was almost done, and I figured out what she wanted to do. And then she starts walking, but she's holding on to the TFM, so I figured that since I had helped her and since she probably figured me for some sort of "exercise buff" (!), I told her that it didn't count if you held on, that you weren't getting a good workout, and I told her to slow down the speed to the point where she could just walk without holding on. I have no idea whether she took my advice or not, but I could tell other "walkers" heard me say those heinous words. Actually, I couldn't believe that woman was brave enough to get on the TFM next to me because after already having spend 2:30 on the trainer, I did not smell very nice at all.

Here's to another good week for me and for everyone reading!

Weekly Workout Totals	02/25/2008-03/02/2008
Swim:	8400 yards (4.77 miles) in 2.93 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1027 calories burned
Bike:	Approx. 109.39 miles in 6.25 hours; 40% of weekly workout time; approx. 2814 calories burned; Total TSS=516
Run:	Approx. 32.61 miles in 5.01 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2276 calories burned
Strength:	1.62 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 405 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 146.77 miles in 15.81 hours; approx. 6522 calories burned
Sleep:	8.39 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.38 hours. Massage: 0 hours