Now I am Training

Yesterday marked the beginning of my full-on training plan for 2015. I had (still do) some residual fatigue from Triple Dog Dare, but felt good doing some easy workouts--a 1-hour drill session in the pool, :35 of strength work and a :30 easy-peasy run including strides. I'm fortunate to have all the weights in my home office and can sneak in parts of my strength work between/during conference calls or as "smoke breaks."

I did have to nap in the middle of the day, as I worked from 3-5AM, and the swim and weights tired me out! I don't usually go down for 2 hours, but yesterday I did, and it felt absolutely glorious! Running felt just fine, and I stretched out well before having dinner.

I still have about 5 lbs. of leftover water weight (at least I hope it's that!) from TDD. After thinking about this for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that this is because I haven't been regularly exposing myself to 5+ hour workouts including sodium supplementation. I believe that once my body is once again used to regular 4+ hour workouts ("regular" meaning at least once a week then more like twice a week), that I will no longer puff up after them. This is what happened to me the first time I did an Ironman, the first time I rode my bike for over 8 hours, and a few other events like Triple T.

Nevertheless, I need to get my body comp straightened out, and in contrast to what a lot of people do, I'm getting it done between now and 1/1. I just need to watch the snack and beer intake, and go a bit lower on the starchy carbs at dinner.

I like to establish goals for myself, both short- and long-term. I haven't yet done enough measurement to predict race paces for the coming year (except that I want to win my AG at as many of them as I can), but I know that correct body comp is critical to that. I need to do my easy workouts easy so I can do my hard workouts hard. I need to keep my laser focus on the bigger goal, which is Ultraman Hawaii in 2016.

I have a large mirror in my bedroom that used to be mounted on the wall at the foot of my bed, but when I got a new flat screen TV last year, I had it moved to over the head board, just because I like mirrors, and it's a high quality mirror that was in my upstairs bathroom before I had it remodeled in 2008. When the mirror was on the wall where the TV is now, I used to write things on it to motivate me, so this morning I decided it was time to do that again:

So now every time I look up there I will see this. #1 is important, #2 is because I think I should be sleeping more, but that may be self-adjusting as I add in high intensity workouts. #3 is because, well, it is very important, and #4 is a reminder to perform well at everything I do.

Time to see how it goes!

2014 Triple Dog Dare Race Report

What's a Triple Dog Dare (TDD), you say?

This is something I'd done before in 2008:

I did it to prepare for American Triple T. Back then, I was one of the first people to "invent" this thing to train for that race. I talked about it on Slowtwitch forum, and since that time, it's commonplace for people to do some variant of this to get ready for the race. I've also done a sprint/Oly/Oly, which is less stressful than TDD.

In March, 2015, I'll be doing Clermont Challenge, and I'm doing both races--the 1/2 Ironman on Saturday, and the Olympic on Sunday. I will race the 1/2 and just suffer through the Olympic, so doing a TDD now is good prep for a double 4 months out. I will also do an Oly/Oly weekend 3 weeks prior to that race.

The other reason I scheduled a TDD for now is that I wanted to see where my fitness is at, since I begin formal training for 2015 tomorrow. In swim training, I calculate a T-pace (threshold pace), and then most workouts are expressed in relation to that pace. In bike training, I need to approximate my FTP (Functional Threshold Power), and then bike workouts are expressed in relation to that wattage. In run training, I need to determine my VDOT (from Daniels' Running Formula you can find a calculator here), and then my training paces are calculated from that.

The plan was to go hard for the sprint (as if in actual racing conditions), semi-hard (approximately 1/2 Ironman pace) for the Olympic, and steady (approximately Ironman pace) for the 1/2. I've only raced 5 sprints (3 triathlons and 2 duathlons) and one Olympic (that I was in absolutely piss poor shape for) this year and 4 open running races, and have only been training consistently for 5 months. In that time, I only had volume goals, and wasn't following any specific workouts except for swimming. I've been getting one on one swim coaching for all of 3 weeks!

I wasn't at all concerned about my ability to complete TDD, as I have an extremely deep base, and knew I'd been hitting sufficient volume to power me through. I've been swimming 9-10k/week for 15 weeks, running 25+ miles per week for 18 weeks, but only biking around 6 hours per week for last 18 weeks. That is not a whole lot of time to be ready for nearly an Ironman, especially since that's really a pathetic amount of biking, but the whole point of this TDD was to see where I'm at and go from there.

There are pics from TDD 2014 on Facebook here. If you aren't friends with me on Facebook, you loser, you should be! That's where I tend to put up pics now instead of Flickr. Anyway, the purpose of TDD was not only to calibrate training paces, but for me to have a shitload of FUN! I love racing, whether or not I collect a medal and T-shirt in the process, and I'm able to push myself just as hard on my own as I can in a race.

I fixed 9 bottles of Infinit (for days 2 and 3 figuring I'd be around 3 hours for the Oly and 6 for the 1/2), 2 bottles of Ultrafuel (for days 2 and 3--don't need it for a sprint), and already had bottles of Endurox R4 for days 1 and 2 (1/2 strength) in my fridge, but mixed up a full strength bottle for day 3.

I planned to do the entire sprint at my Y to avoid excessive transition times, and then I could run on the indoor track instead of a treadmill. For the Oly and 1/2, the plan was to swim at the Y and then head home and ride on the trainer and run on my treadmill.

I continue to be on a weirdo sleep schedule where I pass out around 7:30 and am up at 2-2:30. What do I do from 2:30 until the time I begin working? Well sometimes I do some work, and I get a lot of personal things done, like cleaning, cooking, sewing, organizing my training data, and general life planning. On M/W/F, I am at the pool 6AM, so there's really not that much time from when I wake up until I swim. I am sure this schedule will eventually adjust, but it happens to work great for when I'm racing! I like to have all my pre-race calories in me 2.5-3 hours before I start.

Wednesday I had to work, so I needed to get my sprint on before work. 2008 TDD Sprint was actually a supersprint, same as Triple T--500 swim/5 mile bike/1 mile run. This year's model I decided to do a "full" sprint of 500 swim/13 mile bike (about 20k)/5k run. This would be a better measure of my short course speed.

Here is what I posted to Facebook for my Day 1 Summary:
Turns out I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought 500 yd. swim in 9:00 flat (OK I'm still a slow swimmer but that's faster than I've swum in at least 2 years--the coaching is WORKING!), 13 mile bike in 44:35 (on a Cybex which is geared for crap, so I'm ok with that), and a 3.269 mile run (because of indoor track with 12 laps to the mile, so ran 3 plus 2 laps) in 26:45. Run pace I'm only off by 1 VDOT number from where I was in 2009, and I haven't done a lick of speed work (except for a few races) this year, so FUCK YEAH 2015 is waiting for me! 

Needless to say, I was pleased as fuck! I forgot to mention that I did not taper for this shit AT ALL. Last weekend, I did a 2:05 run and a 2:45 trainer ride. I'd wanted to ride 3 hours, but I had company over and felt that 2:45 was enough. Although I did skip my 1:30 Thursday ride because I worked 13 hours that day. The weekend before that I did a 25k "race" that I didn't race because it was fairly technical trails and it was cold and slippery and I crashed at one point (but was fine) and it was the hilliest run I'd done since Northface Endurance Challenge in 2009. So on no taper, no speedwork (except for those few races where I sucked), here was a decent swim and 5k run! The indoor bike just doesn't really translate to anything, plus I didn't expect much from my biking based on my pathetic bike training.

One thing I've learned after doing numerous multiple day training events and races is that you need to be on top of your nutrition ALL THE TIME during it--pre-race loading, during race calories, post-race calorie replacement and loading for the next day. I didn't write down everything I took in on Wednesday, but I know I drank 6 oz. of flat Coke right before I raced, then went through about 32 oz. of Gatorade during. I drank 1/2 strength Endurox R4 right away after I finished, and for dinner that night I ate about 1/2 lb. of spaghetti with homemade pesto and about 6 oz. of grilled salmon. And I believe I had 1 maybe 2 beers.

When I woke up on Thursday morning (not working that day), I felt pretty good. Actually great! I did, however, feel like I'd raced the prior day. Which means I went sufficiently hard in the sprint, which was perfect. I started at 6:10, as I wanted to be done well before lunch, as I was heading to my brother Mike's for Thanksgiving dinner, and needed to make some side dishes to take with me. I'd already made almond biscotti on Monday, and I could have eaten all of them they were SO GOOD, but I digress.

Day 2 Facebook Summary Post:
Triple Dog Dare Day 2 Olympic Summary: FUCKIN A! I performed way better than expected! 1500 yd. swim 28:21 = 1:53 (not thrilled with that, but I'll take it); 25 mile bike (on MY bike with POWER!) in 1:14:51 = 20mph (rode first :30 at about 18mph then picked it up ha ha); 10k run in 59:31 (9:36/mile). All this day after running my best 5K in...5 years? Tomorrow might suck, but that's OK, all I have to do is Ironman pace. 

So...if I peg Day 2 as me going at 1/2 Ironman pace, um...that's pretty fucking outstanding for me! And I'm not even trained up yet! And I typically run faster outdoors than on a treadmill! To say I was feeling pretty good about all this would be the understatement of the century!  Also that day, I received an email from USA Triathlon telling me I'd qualified for AG Nationals! What the fuck, right? I qualified at Naperville Sprint, where I only managed 2nd in my AG on no training. I'm going to do the Olympic at AG Nats, as it's an honor, and 2015 is the year where I race my fucking head off.

So what a day I had on TDD Day 2. I did keep track of everything I ate and drank that day: 

Breakfast and pre-race loading:

·        Carrot/raisin homemade muffin and hardboiled egg

·        200 calories Ultrafuel

During race:

·        2.5 bottles Infinit

Lunch/Recovery:

·        200 calories Endurox R4

·        Lean Cuisine Tortilla crusted fish

·        2 beers (1 Beck’s and 1 Harp Lager)

Thanksgiving Dinner with my Brother and his Family:

·        ½ bottle of Ste. Michelle Riesling  (shared with Mike)

·        3 dinner rolls

·        6 oz. turkey breast

·        ¼ stick butter (went on rolls and carrots)

·        Carrots sautéed in Marsala (I made these after my race)

·        Cranberry sauce

·        Salad (cucumber, radishes, orange, mint, lemon juice/olive oil dressing) that I made after my race

·        3 of my almond/lemon biscotti

·        2 thick slices sweet potato

Dinner #2 (I was still hungry!) about 7PM:

·        Entire package Uncle Ben’s amazing rice jasmine with romano cheese and crème of balsamic

·        1 carton Fage 0% yogurt

·        1 fun size package Twizzlers

 
I didn't add up all the calories above, and who the fuck cares, anyway? I needed them. I really enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife and son. After we ate, Mike let me choose what to watch on TV (since I don't have cable), and guess what was on? Iron Man 2! I've seen it a couple of times, but will watch it whenever I can. What a great day! 


I felt expectedly tired Thursday night, slept well, but was rarin' to go on Friday for my 1/2 Ironman. I managed to start at 6:05. Here's my Day 3 Facebook Summary Post:
Triple Dog Dare Day 3: I'M DONE! It went well today, and as predicted, I felt like I was in an Ironman (but not until I got on the bike). Swim 2100 yds. in 36:47 (with fins I was lazy, but still went easy) = 1:45/100, Bike 56 miles in 3:00.50 (18.56mph yeah it felt like IM pace for sure), Run 13.1 miles on treadmill in 2:16.58 = 10:27/mile. Lots of mental toughness today, for sure. I've never done a TDD all indoors (I've done 1/2 IM indoors many times), so yay for that this is a first! Did not want to kill myself until about 7 miles into the run, but once I'm halfway, I know I'm good.

So if that was representative of my potential Ironman pace, I'm doing great! But, the course was completely flat, there was no wind, and no untoward weather to contend with! But still, I felt really good about my performance. 

Once again, I kept track of everything that went into my mouth that day:

Breakfast and pre-race loading:

·        Carrot/raisin homemade muffin and hardboiled egg

·        300 calories Ultrafuel

During race:

·        5.5 bottles Infinit

·        1 piece cheddar string cheese on bike

·        1 Gu on bike (Peanut Butter)

Post-race recovery and lunch

·        270 calories Endurox R4

·        3 beers (well 1 right away other 2 were probably between lunch and dinner)

·        6 oz. grilled salmon

·        Tartar sauce: about 4 tbsp. light mayo plus 1.5 tbsp. pickle relish

·        About ¾ cup leftover carrots sautéed in Marsala, but with 1 tsp. butter on top

Dinner:

·        1 roasted chicken leg

·        The chicken liver from whole roasted chicken plus the neck meat (yeah I love that stuff)

·        1.5 cups of broccoli Stufati (broccoli, cured black olives, anchovies, onions, romano cheese cooked in red wine)

·        1 carrot/raisin pumpkin muffin (needed something sweet)

Evening snack (this was around 11PM when I woke up hungry):

·        1 fun size Twizzlers

·        ½ turkey sandwich: whole wheat bread, buttered, with about 2 oz. turkey leftover from Thursday.

 
I will leave you with 3 pics from my "event" that capture how happy I was doing this:

Now, I know that many people would hate doing all this indoors and think, "why would someone do this when there is no medal or t-shirt or spectators?" Because I can. Because I believe I've been given a gift to be able to be this fit and need to express my passion for it by doing things like this in addition to "normal" races, and to show others how much joy I get from it, and then I write about it here on my blog so people see that it's possible and also a valid way to train. 

Do what you can with passion so you can spread the joy of possibility!