Ultraman Training is Quite the Ride

So I'm now 13 weeks officially into Ultraman training, and I have to say, it's quite the ride.

I remember a few years ago when what scared me the most about ever doing an Ultraman was the run. I am still scared of that! But then something changed and I was more concerned about the swim. Now I am not so concerned about the swim except for being able to complete it and keep going on the bike.

I made my first attempt at a season plan about 3 months ago. When I first saw it all laid out on paper, all I could think was, "How the fuck am I going to do this?" And I also had thoughts as to whether I was breaking things up correctly and scheduling big training events that would prepare me mentally and physically for Ultraman. Since this is all new to me, I have left myself open for all sorts of change, but I am still sticking with my basic outline. I know that just like for an Ironman that the last 12-16 weeks before the race are critical, and that all the weeks before that just prepare me for those last 12-16 weeks.

What's really different about this training is that I didn't take my usual off season. I know there are many people who know me that think I have never taken one ever, but in fact, I typically cut down my training hours for at least 8-10 weeks to around 10-12 per week. This season, not so much. Instead, I ran like a fool, held back on biking and kept up a pretty hefty swimming schedule. All good! As it turns out, the break from biking didn't really cost me very much at all in the way of power, as I kept up 2 high intensity rides per week. Plus it put me in the mindset that 1:30 on a trainer is not very much time at all, so moving that up to 2 hours and more hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.

Serendipitously we have had the nicest fall weather here in...well as long as I have lived here, I think. While it did get cold early in October, it has stayed fairly mild with not much rain or snow, and so I've been running outside most of the time. That is both good and bad--good as in I always run faster outdoors but bad as in I am running on concrete or asphalt, and winter is when my legs typically get a break because I spend more time on a treadmill. But having gotten used to running in colder temps than I have in years past has been a good thing, so as long as it's not icy, I am fine with continued outdoor running, but I am sure it will eventually be crappy enough to relegate me to the treadmill fulltime, which is just fine by me. I am used to doing pace-based runs on the treadmill, and it's actually good training for me.

Now on the swimming, I am ahead of where I thought I'd be on that weekly long swim, which is also to the good. I hit a bit of a snag this past Wednesday when I got to my pool only to find it will be closed for 2-3 weeks because the main pump has failed! But there's another pool not too far away that I can drive to and they always give me a deal on the rate they charge me to swim there, and besides there's a hot tub, so it's not so bad.

On the strength front, I am keeping up with that and then some. It seems all the extra stuff I am subjecting my upper body to is paying off in the pool--not so much in speed, but in durability. I have yet to feel like I have totally trashed my arms while swimming, although on Fridays they seem to be rather useless which is cool since I usually do an easy run later in the day and who needs arms to run?

I had scheduled my usual Thanksgiving weekend (or close to) 1/2 Ironman to be done indoors for yesterday. I think it was maybe 2 weeks ago that I was looking at my training schedule and thought, "Why don't I just do the really long swim as part of it?" And a new idea was born, and so yesterday that's what I did--4 mile swim, 60-mile bike (trainer) and 13.1 mile run (treadmill). The objective was to find out how it feels to hop on a bike after a pretty long swim and use it as a test of taking in serious nutrition while swimming.

Now, I could have done this all today instead of yesterday, but something in my brain said I should do it Friday and then I'd have 2 days off from training. Of course, then I would have no rest before doing it, which was fine by me. Originally I had planned on doing my local Thanksgiving Day 5K race, but I opted out of it since I didn't think that would be a great idea before a pretty long training day.

To spice things up a bit, on Tuesday I had a very long day at work due to a late afternoon crisis. Then on Wednesday morning, I had to work for about an hour very early, and once I convinced myself that things couldn't get any worse while I swam, I left for the pool, only to find mine was closed which added some time as I had to drive further and all. Still, I got in my swim, resolved the work crisis pretty soon after I returned home, and managed to run for an hour mid-day. After I finished working, I got a head start on a side dish for Thanksgiving by peeling and slicing sweet potatoes and a bunch of apples.

I slept in a little on Thursday morning, but felt a little tired. I baked a pie, finished my strength routine, did a :45 run (finishing on the track with my fastest mile in months!), and then got on the trainer intending to go for an hour easy, but stopped after :50, which was fine. I finished my side dish for T-day dinner and headed off to my brother's. It was great to just hang with family and relax, and when we sat down to dinner, I ate a lot for me, knowing what I was going to do the next day, but I should have eaten more carbs. I am such a carnivore, and I love turkey, so I went heavy on that, but still managed plenty of sides. And then I had 2 small slices of 2 different pies, and that about put me into an insulin coma!

I had fixed my bottles for yesterday's festival on Thursday morning, too, which was a good thing, because by the time I got home after dinner I was too tired to do much of anything but set the coffee pot and pick out what I would wear to work out in.

When I woke up yesterday, I thought it was going to be interesting, since I had already put in a good deal of training Monday-Thursday (just over 9 hours). I got up at 5AM and immediately chowed down a Power Bar with some coffee and got the Ultrafuel out of the refrigerator, and then I drank that around 5:30. I organized my swim stuff and bike clothes to change into when I was done swimming, and was in the car about 6:10 to drive to the pool.

I decided to stretch about 5 minutes before I got into the pool, and I started swimming at 6:35. The water was nice and cool, and I had a belly full of coffee, Ultrafuel and Power Bar. I knew I wouldn't want to take in any more calories or fluids for quite awhile, and so I ended up swimming 3500 straight before I took a break. I forced myself to take a big slug of a bottle of Infinit to see what it would feel like to keep going with yet more stuff in my stomach. It seemed I was burning off calories at a pretty good clip, and that I was actually thirsty, so the fluid was a good idea.

At some point, some yahoo got into the lane with me and created quite a wave, during which I took in a pretty big gulp of water, but no worries, maybe 1200 yards later I peed it right back into the pool so I wouldn't feel guilty about stealing the pool water. I stopped to drink Infinit again after 2500 yards, and that polished off a full bottle of Infinit (about 20 oz.), and I was pretty happy with that considering that I hadn't been awake very long before pounding down calories.

When I finished swimming, I went and spent 5 minutes in the hot tub to stretch and well, warm up. Truth be told, I was a little chilled from a 7,000 yard swim! But then it was back to business with a quick shower, change clothes and head home to get on the bike.

When I first started pedalling, I was like OMG this is going to suck! But just as if I'd been doing a 1/2 IM, I let myself start off real easily for 15 minutes, and then I started looking at the power meter and deciding what I was going to do. I actually rode kind of easy for about 45 minutes, but then I picked it up. I did the first 30 miles in 1:34 (which included a potty stop), but got the second 30 miles done in 1:27 (which included eating a bunch of potato chips and getting another bottle of Infinit). My average cadence was 99. I have really turned into a spinner this season, and I don't know what that means, but it's fine by me. I was a little surprised at the desire for the potato chips, since my Infinit is loaded with a ton of sodium, but they tasted good so note to self for Ultraman I may want Jay's (NOT Lay's) potato chips on the bike.

After I finished biking, I changed clothes because I was completely disgusting, loaded my small cooler with 2 Cokes, some Gatorade, the remaining Infinit that I had from the swim in case I wanted that, and Endurox R4 to chug as soon as I was finished.

I got to the Y and they gave me some shit about my card and payments and I told them I needed to get going on getting this workout done and could we deal with this when I finished? They agreed, and I headed to the locker room just to drop stuff off and then it was down to the cardio room.

My favorite treadmill--the one at the rightmost end of the row, which is under a ceiling fan and also at the lowest point of the room so it gets some draft from the cool basketball court area--was available, so that's where I parked, with my cooler just on the outside right. I really wondered how running would feel since I've only run off the bike like twice in the last 2.5 months. But I fired up the machine at a nice easy pace (9:50) and headed to it. Usually my ego gets the better of me and I want to run a lot faster than that, but I figured for today it would be fine if I was just under 10mpm. After all, the point of today was to complete a really long workout beginning with a really long swim.

For the first hour of running, all I wanted was Coke. And not defizzed, thank you! That is one of the pleasures of treadmill running--I can drink the Coke straight out of the can with all the fizziness! I love it that way! I know it looks a little strange to people passing by in the gym to see me swilling a can of Coke, but I don't fucking care. At least once each winter someone asks me why I am drinking pop (which is what we call it up here in the North), to which I reply, "Well, it's just sugar like Gatorade only it has CAFFEINE!"

I ran nice and easy for 1:05, then I decided it was time to go faster, because I was getting bored. Running a bit faster didn't seem to be a big deal. I switched from Coke to Gatorade for this last bit, even though I was already pretty much salt-covered. I occasionally will lick my shoulder to see how much salt I am throwing off just because, I don't know--I am weird that way. Anyway, the tunes were good, my legs felt fine, and I finished off the run in about 2:04. Not very fast for a 1/2 IM for me, but I was pleased with it.

As soon as I was finished, I could tell I was famished, and so I showered and headed home to begin refueling. As always, though, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I was more plain tired than hungry, so I ended the day with about a 2,000 calorie deficit, which I am gradually making up today. I did notice that my shoulders were predictable a little irksome right when I finished. I can usually tell how dehydrated I am by tapping on my deltoids during an Ironman, but this was a little more intense. Still, fluids and additional stretching fixed that right up.

While I was biking yesterday, I thought that maybe I should turn more of my weekends into a long swim/long ride day, and so I will be doing that over the next few weeks before Goofy and then after that. I figure every other week I can just move my Friday long swim to Saturday and do it before I ride so that I make it an Ultraman-specific training session, eh?

Like I said, every few weeks as I observe my body's response to my training, I come up with some sort of change based on what I've been able to do. So far so good! I am pleased that I am ahead of my original plan on swimming, and now that I know what it feels like to bike after a long swim, I think I can do that more often which is all to the good. And I'm back to a normal IM-level run volume. I've got 3 more weeks of decent mileage run weeks ahead of me before Goofy, and then I start my run taper. As I've said before, if I make it through all this training up to and including Goofy, it will be very telling as far as my ability to absorb all this craziness.

Today I am predictably very tired (and hungry). I don't feel like what I did yesterday was that big of a deal--after all, it wasn't an Ironman, and it wasn't an 8-hour run. But usually I would take a day of rest before doing something like this and this time I didn't. So I expect to just lay around and eat the rest of the day, and if I feel good enough tomorrow, I might just go for a short swim. Or not--tomorrow is completely optional!

Oh and my physique is changing yet again. My upper body (pecs, shoulders and upper back) are definitely larger, to the point of my swimsuits fitting interestingly. I feel like my ribcage is expanding from all the breathing! I am holding my weight at 108-111 (depending on time of day and hydration status), so I suspect I've become just a tad leaner. I feel really solid, and am really looking forward to Goofy to feel just how "easy" it seems compared to the last two times I did it. And then just making it through to the end of the year will be a real hallmark, since it will mean I've survived the first 18 weeks of training. OMG I just checked and there are only 30 weeks after that until Ultraman Canada! I need to stay on top of this!

All in all, I have to say so far that I am just positively delighted with what I have been able to do and how my body is responding to a different mix. I feel so totally stoked that I am able to do this. This weekend is Ultraman Kona. When I read about the people who are doing it and why, I am right there with them. Although if they asked me why I am doing this, I would say, "Because it is such an incredible gift to experience taking my mind and body to this level." In that way, I suppose it is like art--I seem to be doing this for it's own sake--not that it has any redeeming social qualities (nor does it have to if you ask me)--and while there are those around me who feel that I am somehow short-shrifting the rest of my life (for example, I guess I am supposed to be on the hunt for a man, and while I absolutely love men and sex and relationships and all that, I have never, NEVER put any aspect of my life on hold for it), I say NO! You cannot possibly know what it is like to do this unless you do it and do it with joy and passion and then well, whatever you or society thinks about what is a balanced life and all that bullshit, all I can say is that you will never know what you can find out about yourself by putting yourself through this. This isn't for everyone, certainly. If I were cut out for the average life, then I suppose that is what I would be living. But I'm not.

I suppose I should have come up with a name for what I did yesterday other than a 77.1! On my training spreadsheet I was calling it ModerateMan, since moderate is sort of the antonym of ultra. And I did do it at a "moderate" pace. So that's it, I guess. I did a ModerateMan!