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:

• Stretch a bit more. NOT!
• 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.

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 Workout Totals 07/10/2006-07/16/2006: Countdown to #53!

This week was interesting. I realized that although I am still training quite a bit, that it just feels different. I figured out that just knowing I have an Ironman race in the pipeline gives me a completely different attitude towards things. Without that "monkey on my back," I have a much more relaxed attitude towards training, and life in general. I'm not worried about whether I miss or shorten a workout or whether I went as hard as I should have during a workout. I also am able to experience just how incredibly fit I am without the added mental stress of a HUGE race looming ahead. Plus, it's summer, and this is the first summer since 1998 that I am NOT training towards some huge milestone. Sure, I want to do well in the 3 1/2 Ironmans that I'm doing, beginning this Sunday, but if I just decide to slack through them and only come out in the MOP or even BOP I won't really much care. I will know that I am Iron-fit, and that I will be able to go into next year with my Iron-base well-preserved.

I rode 100 miles yesterday with 2 women who are almost 15 years younger than me--one was my friend Cindy (who blew into town or should I say my face on Saturday), and someone I "picked up" during the ride named Pattie. I had agreed to have Cindy suck my wheel all day, or at least try to. She is the sort of athlete that can do whatever she wants as long as she decides in her head she's going to do it. She's athletically gifted that way. Not me. I have to work hard for it! But I enjoy her company and know she won't hold me back. I was a little bit ahead of Cindy about 10-15 miles into the ride and I came upon Pattie. She looked to be holding a good pace, and I wasn't sure I could stay with her. I introduced myself, and my first question to her was, "Why are you riding alone when you are so fast?" Usually I don't see too many fast women out by themselves. She said a couple of others had bagged on the ride (probably due to the heat). I asked if she minded if we rode together for a bit. Cindy caught up, we exchanged pleasantries, and forged a group. I was the pacer for much of the way, but whenever I'd have an energy lull, Pattie was right there to pick us back up. I was motivated by these girls stick-to-itiveness. Not only did we ride fast, we were able to chat much of the way! We were all holding one another to a good performance. It was H-O-T--in the 90's, and windy. We saw one rider go down with heat stroke. But we were wise and would load up our tops (and me also my shorts) with ice at each rest stop. Unfortunately for Pattie, she got to witness me peeing on the side of a road while holding onto my bike. She didn't understand how I could do that. I told her it's an art. We had missed the first aid station and we were about 30 miles into leg #2 and I had to go. Luckily, I got my shorts back on just before a huge semi turned the corner onto the road we were on! I ran :25 afterwards on a pure black high school track. It was torturous. I was so hot, and it was still very windy, and while I was supposed to run for :40, I figured :25 in the heat was enough. Hey, I didn't need to ride 100 miles, but what the heck! Not like :15 more of running is going to make a difference in my race this week, right?

Saturday I did a 2-mile open water swim. I was just about to put my wetsuit on when who shows up but Cindy. I was so happy to see her, as always, and we made a big scene of hugging and talking. She was only going to swim 1 mile, and she told me she figured I might be there. Nice surprise! Shock of shocks, I swam faster than in any of my 2.4-mile time trials for Ironman Brazil. I really just enjoyed myself. The distance was short about 500 yards--I knew right away when I got out of the water that either I am a world-class contender or the course was short! But even so, I wasn't "racing" it. I just swam relaxed and totally enjoyed it. Afterwards, I ran 2 hours along the lake (relatively). I did a triple out-and-back so I could have (relatively) cold fluid with me. It was scorching hot, too. And I ran on asphalt and sidewalks. At one point, the song, "Footloose" was on the radio, so of course I had to do some fancy footwork. Man, did I get some strange looks, but I didn't care, and it was good to know I remember how to have this amount of fun even while I am baking in a long run.

This all made me remember why it's better to do my long run on Thursday when I am riding long on the weekend. It just makes for a very tired Monday morning! On the other hand, I overdistanced everything except the run for the 1/2 Ironman, so hopefully, an "only" 1.2-mile swim and "only" 56-mile ride won't feel too bad at all! Bonus if it's only in the 80's I might actually have a decent bike and run.

As you look at the totals for the week, remember, I AM NOT IN TRAINING FOR AN IRONMAN. Maybe I just don't know how to train less :) Hey, it's fun, though!

Weekly Totals 07/10/2006-07/16/2006
Swim: 12500 yards (7.09 miles) in 4.25 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1487 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 152.94 miles in 8.5 hours; 44% of weekly workout time; approx. 3986 calories burned
Run: Approx. 32.09 miles in 4.87 hours; 25% of weekly workout time; approx. 2208 calories burned
Strength: 1.55 hours; 8% of weekly workout time; approx. 388 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 192.12 miles in 19.17 hours; approx. 8069 calories burned
Sleep: 8.36 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.72 hours

Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/16/2006
Swim: 368185 yards (208.96 miles) in 129.65 hours
Bike: Approx. 4054.69 miles in 232.7 hours
Run: Approx. 1235.41 miles in 194.29 hours
Strength: 63.3 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5499.06 miles in 619.94 hours; approx. 275297 calories burned
Stretching: 68.34 hours

Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/16/2006
Swim: 8368 yards (4.75 miles) in 2.95 hours
Bike: Approx. 92.15 miles in 5.29 hours
Run: Approx. 28.08 miles in 4.42 hours
Strength: 1.44 hours
All Sports: Approx. 124.98 miles in 14.09 hours
Sleep: 8.48 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.01 hours avg./week

Goals from Last Week:

• Do whatever my coach tells me to do. DONE (more or less). I did run a bit more than prescribed, because I hate going into a long run not having run the day before. So I ran :30 on Friday, which was another reason why I was OK cutting my Sunday brick run short.
• Work on my knee issue. It's all fixed up. All it needed was some target stretching of my rectus femoris and a little self-trigger point work.
• Do a decent swim at the 2-mile open water swim this coming Saturday. DONE. Surprised myself at just staying relaxed and putting in a good effort even though I hadn't swum much the previous few weeks.

Accomplishments this Week:

• 19 hours. WOW. While not training for an Ironman. It's a little freaky, but I'm having a bunch of fun, so why not?
• Except for Friday and Saturday nights, got plenty of sleep. I had to be up at 4:30AM both weekend days, so that put a crimp in my average weekly hours.
• Did not succumb to heat stroke even though I put in a lot of hours during the hottest parts of the day from Friday through Sunday!

Goals for Next Week:

• Stretch a bit more.
• Get my head in the game for a long race on Sunday. Wow, am I really ready for a 1/2 Ironman? I think my bike and run legs are primed for some speed. We shall see!
• 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.
• Go into race day relaxed and happy. Enjoy the day free from worries. Celebrate my fitness!

Fashion Updates

No particular reason for these; just playing around

Weekly Workout Totals 07/03/2006-07/09/2006: Awesome Week!

I am not sure if this past week was the best week ever, but it was close. We have been having the most beautiful, delightful weather in Chicagoland--70's and low 80's, rain every few days (some now wouldn't hurt), had a day off work and a great ride to show for it, and raced a sprint today, with my dad in attendance!

The race today was 400m/15 mile/5K. I did this race 6 (!) years ago, and back then it was my second triathlon. I was 43 years old, and I came in 3rd in my age group at a time of 1:34.20. Today, it was my 52nd triathlon, I raced 49 years old, came in 2nd in my age group, and my time was 1:21.49. I'd say there has been some experience and improvement! I was hoping for 1st place today, but it was not to be. My run could have been better. Since they didn't quote our actual times when handing out the awards, I don't know by what margin I came in 2nd, but I'll report once I have the numbers.

My Dad came to watch me race today. This is the first time ever he's seen me race. Since the venue wasn't too far from his house, I thought I'd ask him to come and watch if he wanted to. He was a trooper, and got there at 6AM (we started time trial fashion at 6:30), and we had a few minutes to chat. He watched me set up my bike and tried to estimate how long it would take me to be on it once I had finished swimming. He estimated 5'. I told him, "It better not be more than 2'!" He also thought he could lollygag while I was riding, until I told him it shouldn't take me more than 45'.

The race has 2 transition areas that are about 2.3 miles apart. When I went to drop off my run shoes and hat, I just followed other cars with bikes. I saw people leaving running stuff in this parking lot, so that's where I left my stuff. I was laughing because for all I knew it could be some other race! But then I drove back to the start.

The swim is in a 50-meter outdoor pool. The water was unusually warm, which was odd considering it really hasn't been that hot here in weeks. The water temperature felt like about 82. One guy actually wore a wetsuit! Of course, at this race, anything goes. It is the most low-tech race I've ever done. There is no chip timing. They don't give you a swim cap. There are no "triathlon" bike racks. There is no goody bag. They give you a bib number and write your number on your arms and legs. That's it, although we did get a T-shirt at the end. There were plenty of bikes set up in the first transition (and also the second; there's a duathlon that runs concurrently with the triathlon) that were just laying on the ground. Luckily, I got a spot in the ACTUAL BIKE RACKS. Too bad I forgot my lock!

My Dad found me and we had a hug and a kiss. A guy I know from years ago flagged me down. Once, before a super sprint, he commented on how I had had a rotten swim the previous year. I would never comment to someone about a past race mishap right before they were about to start! For this reason, I have always thought the man was an asshole. But he isn't, and I have forgiven. He was doing the duathlon today and hoped to collect hardware by being in a sparse age group (50-54). Turns out he took 4th, and I think I would have beat him in the duathlon. I guess his karma has been restored.

We lined up for the swim and did the usual chatter about "Don't swim over me, please!" I ran into someone else I know, Jason. He was just 2 numbers ahead of me. I commented that he looked really good and had he lost weight? He had. I'm sure he appreciated that comment. I have pretty good "body memory" about people, and am always happy to tell someone that I've noticed improvements. Sometimes I wish it worked the other way, too, and I hope people who know me would do the same. If I ever show up at a race with a fat ass or you can't see my abs (OK, for the next 10 years), PLEASE GIVE ME SHIT!

The girl right behind me (I was #83 and she was #84) passed me after about 150 meters, and I thought good for her. But I didn't think she was swimming that smoothly, so as it turns out I repassed her at about 300 meters. Ah, the benefits of super endurance! I passed several people who were most likely incorrectly seeded, and there were some excellent fades, and my Dad confirmed this later on. He goes, "They take off like a bat out of hell and then they slow down and can't breathe!" Even my 80-year old Dad could teach some of these people a thing or two!

I just did my usual relaxed swim. Since we had to go under the lane ropes every 50 meters, it was a bit of a cluster fuck when 2 or more swimmers would hit the wall at the same time. So my swim time wasn't stellar, but I didn't care. Today was all about the bike!

I climbed out of the pool and ran to my bike, said "Hi" to Dad, put stuff on my head, my number belt and finally my socks and shoes. Mr. Former Asshole had commented to me earlier that he didn't think someone with my experience would wear socks. I told him, "It takes like 2 seconds to put them on is all." Which is about what it took, but I didn't time myself. I was off on my bike in 1:30, under the 2:00 that I had told my Dad.

The bike course has gazillions of turns on it, and I mostly didn't brake. There was some wind, too. I was passed by 1 woman and maybe 2 men was all. I felt like I was riding strong. I could feel a little residual Ironman fatigue, but I was a happy camper on my bike. I had my disk wheel on, and every so often I would sing "Disco Inferno" to myself. That always gets me going! The course was really well-marked, and there were volunteers at every single turn or police officers which made everything go smoothly. Surprisingly, I wasn't in the big chainring the entire time, but I can only remember one time when I let myself coast momentarily to collect myself and take a sip of Gatorade.

When I got to T2, there was my Dad! He says to me, "#83 has returned." I laughed, and said, "In fine form, I think." I'd had a good ride. I had told Dad to not be in the way in the transition area, and he did a great job. I racked my bike and took stuff off and was out of there in 46", so not too bad.

My legs felt fine when I began the run. I didn't want to immediately stop, so that was a good thing. My turnover felt fine. But when I hit Mile 1 my watch said 9:19. I thought I can't be running that slow. And Mile 2 said 10:38, and I was like WTF??? But Mile 3 was cut short, and so I guess all the mile markers were off. Some guy that had finished fast had run back out on the course and let me know when there was 1/4 mile to go. I was so happy, as I didn't really feel like I'd suffered at all on the run. Last mile 6:30. Yeah, right! At any rate, my total 5K time was 26:27. I can go faster than that, but it was fine for today.

My Dad wasn't at the finish, and I thought maybe he didn't know how fast I would be. But I wandered back to T2, and there he was. We spent a few minutes watching what I figured were duathletes riding back in to start their 2nd run. There were bikes everywhere on the ground! I helped a couple of guys with their transitions--again, this is a low-tech race, so that's not a problem (they weren't that fast, so it wasn't like someone else would be losing an award).

I was so proud that my Dad had made it over there. He said I had looked good all day, to which I said, "Imagine doing this for 14 hours." He couldn't fathom it. We went over to the finish area and watched people coming in. Of course, I had to scream for them. It is still always so cool to see people finishing these things in however long it takes them. They are way ahead of everyone who is sitting on their duffs at home!

I wanted to hang out for awards, so I let my Dad go, and thanked him profusely for coming to watch. I don't care if he ever sees me race again, I am happy he did it once. I think spectators should get awards, too. I mean we are out there having tons of fun.

Did I say the weather was gorgeous again? It was maybe 74. It was very humid when I first woke up this morning, but the humidity dissipated by race start, and I couldn't ask for better conditions. While waiting for the triathlon awards to start (they did the duathlon awards first), I got in some stretching, drank more water, and sat in the shade. I was bummed they didn't have all the times for the triathlon, and a tad bummed when I heard my name called for 2nd place. But then I thought, what the hell, it's not like I taper for these things (I ran :35 and biked 1:50 yesterday), and I am the oldest in my age group. Look out 50-54! I believe I'm racing 50-54 in 2 weeks at the Spirit of Racine 1/2 Ironman, and I hope I can have a good showing there, weather permitting.

Now I will retire with a beer and the Sunday newspaper and a little World Cup, and later I'm grilling a bunch of meat. Does a summer day get any better than this? I don't think so.

Here's the week that was. Notice I have added total mileage for all 3 sports. It makes me laugh! I put more total miles on myself in a year than I do on my car!

Weekly Totals 07/03/2006-07/09/2006
Swim: 8915 yards (5.06 miles) in 3.12 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 1091 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 141.52 miles in 7.53 hours; 43% of weekly workout time; approx. 3579 calories burned
Run: Approx. 34.09 miles in 5.23 hours; 30% of weekly workout time; approx. 2792 calories burned
Strength: 1.57 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 393 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 180.67 miles in 17.45 hours; approx. 7855 calories burned
Sleep: 8.43 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.37 hours

Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/09/2006
Swim: 355685 yards (201.86 miles) in 125.4 hours
Bike: Approx. 3901.75 miles in 224.2 hours
Run: Approx. 1203.32 miles in 189.42 hours
Strength: 61.75 hours
All Sports: Approx. 5306.93 miles in 600.77 hours; approx. 267228 calories burned
Stretching: 66.62 hours

Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/09/2006
Swim: 8272 yards (4.69 miles) in 2.92 hours
Bike: Approx. 90.74 miles in 5.21 hours
Run: Approx. 27.98 miles in 4.41 hours
Strength: 1.44 hours
All Sports: Approx. 123.42 miles in 13.97 hours
Sleep: 8.48 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.02 hours avg./week

Goals from Last Week:

• Get in all key workouts (3-5 hour ride on Tuesday; 1:50 long run Thursday and 1500-yard swim TT on Friday). Everything else is gravy, so that I can perform well at a sprint race on Sunday. DONE.
• Maintain stretching at or over 2 hours for the week. DONE.
• Maintain sleep at or over 8.5 hours average per night. Got close enough. All it took was one pre-race drop in hours to pull my average down.
• Watch and improve carb intake. Maybe even eat some pasta a few nights this week. My planned training hours will take me over 16 again; 15 hours is my threshold below which no pasta on the table for me. DONE. I even bought Cheetos, Fig Newtons and Gummi Bears. Already dug into the Cheetos and Bears; the Newtons will come in soon enough.

Accomplishments This Week:

• Completed a solid week of training with good volume.
• Had a decent showing at the sprint race.

Goals for Next Week:

• Do whatever my coach tells me to do. Yes, I am back on his training. I know I was doing pretty well at it myself, but now that I've laid out the rest of my season, I will defer to his expertise.
• Work on my knee issue. My right knee is hurting intermittently going down stairs, and I know why--from the road running. I need to work diligently on some trigger points to keep this a minor issue and get rid of it totally. I guess 3 marathons in 8 months can do that to an old lady!
• Do a decent swim at the 2-mile open water swim this coming Saturday. It's in a beautiful, clear lake, and if the weather is decent, I should have no excuses for swimming poorly.

Ironman Brazil--The Race Report I Didn't Write

In the course of exchanging some email with a friend who, like me, trained his ass off for his Ironman race, but didn't have the day he expected, I thought back to my race day and the things I didn't include in my race report. So, get out a box of Kleenex and step inside my head that day.

Isn't it funny how a non-training event can totally derail us? Here I thought I was dealing with my mom's death--that I was somehow "above" falling apart. I didn't have time to fall apart. I planned her funeral. I comforted my dad, my brothers and sisters and other family members before, during and after the funeral. I had training to do, dammit, that would save me. I got it all done and then some. Hell, I didn't even want to take much time off from work, because I thought work would help me move along.

I never really felt like I was falling apart, but slowly I came to the realization that this was a very significant event in my life. Hell, I am still grieving. I am fortunate in that I was able to do an Ironman race during this process because it is definitely a venue for you to experience a full range of emotions, and while executing well in an Ironman is more about stuffing those emotions so you can get on with the business of moving forward, I was given a gift to get through my race carrying a full load of them.

On race morning, after I had methodically put my nutrition on my bike and pumped my tires, I was overcome by sadness. Even though I was surrounded by people who cared about me, the one person who wasn't there was my mom. I began walking around transition in a daze, crying my eyes out. Anyone who saw me probably thought it was normal race morning emotions. For a split second I thought I was crying over how sick I felt. But I knew that my physical sickness paled in comparison to the sensation of my heart breaking over and over. I felt completely lost, even though I knew exactly where I was going that day.

I hunted down Danny, who had lost a brother close to a race in the past. He knew exactly what I must be feeling. He held me close, let me cry, and told me that my mom would be with me all day long helping me get through things. Danny knew I was sick, too, but I bet he knew that that would be the least of my concerns.

When I started the swim, I had this sensation of having lost my will to go on. But all I could think was that I was in the water, so I may as well try to swim. I had to force myself to keep going. It was almost a relief from my grief to deal with being jostled and waves and jellyfish stings and being dizzy. When I got to the halfway point where we had to exit the water and run around a balloon on the beach, I wanted desperately to stop. But what would I be stopping? I wasn't going to be able to stop what I was feeling, so I might as well press on. It was shortly after getting back in the water and getting instructions about where to swim next that I got kicked in the face. My sense of physical pain was very moment to moment--the actual kick hurt, but my mind wasn't about physical pain yet. Again, I knew that stopping and swimming back to shore wasn't going to fix a damn thing, so let's just press on.

Somewhere in that second half of the swim, I actually felt like I had some energy, and swimming was almost pleasurable. What's not to like about gliding through water on a beautiful day? Again, I was thankful for a few moments of peace where I was able to just think about my day. But when I exited the water and noticed my contact lens in my goggles, I failed to recognize the event as my next "gift" to give me a few minutes to think only about that, and not the overwhelming grief that was inside me.

Time moved in slow motion in T1. I remember all these other women whizzing by me and all I am doing is trying to get this stupid contact lens out of my goggles. But it was a pleasant respite from all the activity, and since I knew I wasn't going to be going anywhere too quickly today, I focused on the one thing.

I don't even remember mounting my bike that day. I do remember how pleasant the temperature was and the lack of wind once I was out on the course. I forgot about my bruised nose, the jellyfish stings, the bug bites, the contact lens issue, and went into "ride the bike" mode. Here was something I had practiced so much and so well, that it was simply amazing at how I was able to put the revolutions of my legs, the intermittent glancing at the power meter, the regular drinking, all as background activities, except for paying attention to where I was supposed to turn. It all felt like clockwork. So I had plenty of "time" to think about my mom, and think I did. It was a constant struggle to not get choked up to the point where I'd fall off my bike. Thank God I was sick, and my head or face would start to hurt or I'd have to pee, so those little physical sensations kept intruding and taking me away from my grief. I was so totally blown away at how I could keep doing what I was doing. I have never been so fully relaxed while peeing on my bike. I have no idea who saw me and I surely didn't care. If you look closely at the photo, you can tell that I am probably pretty dehydrated. To me it looks like the skin of my face was being stretched like I was having a face lift.

I remember feeling dizzy a lot on the bike. It was like my face hurts, I'm dizzy, I have to pee over and over and over. And then insert oh by the way keep riding the bike, don't fall off, I am so sad. No wonder the next day when everyone was talking about all the things they had "seen" while riding the bike I couldn't recall a single one of them! My legs kept going, though, and I knew mom must have been riding right alongside me because otherwise how could I possibly be upright? She had always told me how she worried about me when I was out training on my bike alone--what with traffic and the possibility of being stranded. I thought about this several times during the race, and would think, "You don't have to worry about me anymore." The day she died and I had some time with her alone, I kept telling her over and over that it was OK to let go, that she didn't need to suffer any more or worry about me.

I remember noticing many athletes struggling with the headwinds. I didn't feel sorry for them or evaluate their strength or weakness. I did think, though, how nice it must be to have nothing more to be concerned with than the wind! I had this sense of separation from my physical body--that "it" was riding the bike, and didn't need my mind to do so (hey, that's what training is for, right?), and that my mind was just along for the ride trying to figure out what to do besides point out various physical sensations, stay on course, not quit, and think about mom. I didn't let myself think this during the race, but looking back I am truly blessed to have had this sort of experience. It wasn't totally "out of body," but it was pretty close. In true Ironman fashion, I didn't think about my swim or look forward to the run. I am grieving, and I just "happen" to be in the middle of an Ironman race.

When I got to T2, again I had some quiet moments in which to be methodical about getting rid of my pee-soaked socks, slip into fresh running shorts, and try and collect myself. What was I collecting? When I went into the porta-potty and sat down to pee (again!), I broke into major sobs. Once again I was being given the gift of fully experiencing my emotions, but during an Ironman race. I had to ask myself whether I could go on. So I took things one at a time, and first got out of the porta-potty. Next, I did a leg check. Yep, they are still there. Oh my God, though, my mom couldn't even walk the last few days of her life! Well, I can walk, I can even run a bit, so on I go. Thank goodness for sunglasses--without them I am sure people would have been grabbing me trying to find out what was wrong.

A few times during the marathon, I would think about the other athletes and know that some of them were probably experiencing stomach troubles, cramps or just general fatigue. I know how hard it is to do an Ironman, no matter who you are or how you've trained. It doesn't get easier. But then I would hope that none of them were going through the deep sadness that I was feeling. THAT was worse than any sort of physical suffering that day that I could think of. In a bizarre way, if I hadn't been sick, I think I would have given up. The physical sensations seemed to bring me back to reality, and that reality was that I was in an Ironman, I was strong--no matter what my body was doing that day--and I should go on because that's why I'm here! My mom was looking down on me and telling me to take care of myself, to do what I was doing. I also knew that no amount of suffering that I was experiencing could come remotely close to what I saw my mom go through in her last two days of life. I could breathe on my own--she could not. I could walk, swim or ride my bike. She could not. I could cry without my lungs filling up with fluid--she could not. I could eat disgusting sports nutrition for 14 hours--she could not.

All I had to deal with that day were minor annoyances. How could I possibly explain to someone else the depth of what I was feeling that day? And to top it all off, my ego decided to get in on the action post-race. What an incredible emotional ride! But I wouldn't trade it for anything. There are so many things that I have yet to learn from that experience, and just from every day that I am here. Thanks, Mom.

Impromptu Half Ironman (HIM) Race Rehearsal Report

There's a 4th of July ride every year in my area that I've done for probably the last 4 years. Typically, I do the 100k plus another loop because I'm training for some stupid Ironman race, but today I figured the 100k would be fine, and I planned to run :40 off the bike. For the riding, I figured on mostly JFR but then it's been awhile since I've ridden with so many tempting targets to motivate me to put in higher effort levels. I wasn't planning on a HIM rehearsal, but as it turns out, I pretty much got one in, which is good timing since I'm doing a HIM on 7/23.

I did a 4-hour ride/:40 run on Saturday, just 3 days ago. My IF for that ride was only .83 (for those of you without power meters, IF=Intensity Factor, which is the % of your Functional Threshold, or FT, watts you held for the ride), because I allowed myself a little extra noodling time although I got in 1 hour at HIM watts and :20 at FT watts, but the run off the bike felt like total crap, even though I was running at a good pace. Oh--I remember why the run felt like total crap--I hadn't run off a "longish" ride since Ironman Brazil. Sunday I ran 1:40 on my hilly trail course at a good clip and swam :30 afterwards. Yesterday I swam 3300 yds., lifted for 1:06 and ran :55 including strides, so I sort of expected to be tired today, but I guess not.

I did not sleep too well last night, as my metabolism felt so jacked up and I was hot no matter where I tried to sleep in my house, even downstairs where it's maybe 70. Nonetheless, I was excited when I woke up because the weather forecast called for low 80's and low humidity. The day started out with like 90% humidity because some crap storms passed through last night, although they failed to rain on my house, but the weather man insisted that the humidity would burn off in the morning.

My stomach was not doing too well. I actually ate some pasta for dinner last night (thanks peanut gallery for admonishing me to do so), and went to bed with a full stomach, and I still felt full when I woke up today! Normally I would shoot extra carbs before a 4-hour workout, but I just didn't feel like I wanted them. But my good sense got the better of me and I drank a can of Ultra Violence on the 23-mile drive to the ride start. 170 calories, just enough to put me at 400 calories in the tank, which I guess is enough what with my hyperefficient metabolism now (I used to down about 700 calories before events such as today, but luckily I can get away with far less now). Bonus, caffeine, which seemed like a good idea since I hadn't slept particularly well.

There were 10-15MPH north/east winds, no big deal, they don't bother me. As I always say from riding in my general area, "We don't have hills so we must have wind." There were 4 sections to the ride. For the first section I just took it out what felt like moderately hard, less than HIM effort. As it turned out, I was pretty much dead on for HIM watts, and they felt EASY! YEAH, BABY! For the 2nd-4th legs I caught up with and rode with roadies. They weren't even all "oh you're a triathlete" or anything (despite how I was dressed: swimsuit top and low-cut DSS bike shorts). I took some good pulls straight into the headwinds for fun. The roadies said I was good. This is the first time I've gone with the roadies (these were pretty good as roadies go) this season, and I just had a blast. I've tried in past years, but couldn't hold their wheels. And there were LEGIONS of roadies out on this ride. It was like it was a race.

Here I have to insert a HUGE PLUG for my coach--his bike training is DA BOMB. Hey, if a 49 (almost 50) year old tiny female triathlete can hang with the roadies, there must be something to it, don't you think? Especially 5 weeks post-Ironman. I'll take it. Maybe today was a fluke, but we'll see in 3 weeks when I do my first 1/2 Ironman of the year. I really enjoy shorter, harder rides. Well actually I just enjoy hard rides. I started out today intending to take it much easier, but I guess I no longer have that in me. That, I know, is part of my coach's objective. Get you used to riding hard so that it's second nature. And then when you need to dial it down in certain race situations (especially Ironman), you are still riding strongly. It's motivating to see the numbers on the SRM telling me how I'm doing, but it's even more motivating testing myself against others and observing them and seeing how hard they must be working. When I was hanging back in the pace line today (and we're going 22-24MPH), I was like "My God, this is EASY." So I would drop back just so I had to work to catch back up. Towards the end of today's ride, the roadies were slacking just a little (or more likely I was getting stronger--since I train every ride building my effort I am used to working progressively harder), so I just went out front and figured OK let's ride at FT or above, so I did, I dropped the roadies for at least 5', passed another huge pack where one guy commented, "Nice work" and after I thought I got in enough FT work, I dialed it down and let the roadies catch back up to me. Fun, fun, fun!

I ended up at NP of 153 for the entire ride which is IF of .86. My coach's HIM chart pegs me at IF of .88 for HIM, and that seems about right--the .86 didn't feel too bad at all (64 miles at 20MPH). Running off the bike didn't feel too bad either, not that I'd want to do a 1/2 mary today, but I felt fine. I was running about 9:00/mile, which is my target 1/2 Ironman pace. The ride started and ended at a high school, and the track was open, so I did my brick run on it. Of course, there were a couple of other triathletes running on the track, I mean, come on we only rode 64 miles!

I had to laugh at the feed bag some peeps were putting on at the rest stops. I am down to existing on 200-250 cal./hour biking or running. I did manage to eat 2 cookies today, though, and they tasted good. On my way home, I was thinking about what did I want to eat, and truthfully, I didn't feel very hungry. I ended up eating my usual Lean Cuisine for lunch, and hope that hunger will come later today and I'll try and eat more pasta. I have a pretty easy training day tomorrow (1 hour swim and :50 run), but I did burn up about 2100 calories today which is like needing to eat another day's worth of food. I did remember that I have Pringles in the house, and I had a few yesterday, but they just weren't that appetizing. I must just be in a food lull, but as long as my training feels good, I'm not going to worry too much about my calorie intake. Besides, a few beers seems to do the trick. I know, I know--empty calories, but they taste so GOOD in the summer time, don't they?

A chic asked me at one rest stop how I got my stomach tan. I looked at her quizzically and said, "Um....I run." I got a most excellent internal chuckle out of that. I suppose I could have said, "I lay out in the sun for hours at a time and just ride a little bit every now and then." Or, "I sit up on the bike as often as possible to let those rays hit my midsection." Or, "I do a lot of backstroke in the outdoor pool." Speaking of sitting up on the bike, it was 100% aero today, and the aero felt good. So what if only the sides of my stomach caught rays.

One summer when I was doing some swimming at an outdoor pool, I remember someone at work commenting on how could my armpits possibly be tan? And I told that woman it was from swimming in an outdoor pool. She didn't believe me. So I had to go all physics on her. Water. Light colored bottom. Full sunlight. Swimming front crawl with armpits towards bottom of pool. Sun reflects off bottom of pool onto armpits, tanning them. Or maybe I should have said, "I lay out in the sun with my arms over my head."

I get really tan in the summer due to my Croatian heritage. I also get women at the Y commenting on my beautiful tan. They ask where did I go to get it? I always reply, "Outside." They ask again, "No, I mean where did you go on vacation?" Again, I say, "Outside. Here. Illinois. On my bike and running." Like the sun is different in other places! Well, there is a different color of tan you end up with in other places--I can distinguish a Hawaiian tan from a southern California tan from a Midwest (aka "dirty") tan.

Tonight I expect to sleep sporadically while listening to the various fireworks (I may just walk on down to watch my town's) and other people blowing up various things in their yards.

As always, I've had a wonderful 4th of July. Hope everyone else in the U.S. did, too!

Ch ch ch changes

It's official! I'm out of Ironman Florida (whoever made bets I'd still do it, sorry you lose) and in for Miami Man 1/2 Ironman:

Registration Date: 07/03/06 05:38:01 PM
Payment made by:
You are registered as:
Your racing category is: Female 50-54
You are registered for: Individual Registration for Miami Man 1/2 Iron

A friend I made in Brazil (Peter) lives in Miami and will provide me with a place to stay and no doubt a great time in Miami. I've never been there except to pass through the airport, so it should be fun!

Miami Man will substitute for my annual (last two years anyway) Indoor 1/2 Ironman which I usually do in November, and will close out my 2005-2006 triathlon season. A short break and then it's Goofy Challenge training for 1.5 months and then the ramp-up to Triple T begins.

I must say that as much as I enjoy biking, around 6 hours a week is plenty of time to have fun at it. When I'm doing Ironman volume riding, well, it tires me out as much as the running. Right now I'm running almost as much as in my Ironman builds, but I'm not riding every spare moment, and I feel good and powerful. The swim volume is down a little bit, but no worries there. It's not like I'm going to get much faster without some serious pool time.

Speaking of feeling good, today I noticed a change. I noticed this during my third workout of the day (I swam 3300 yards and lifted a little over an hour in the morning and then ran :55 this evening). I think I've finally caught back up to my pre-Brazil fitness, and it feels good. And my mind feels like it's in a good place. A little less training, a little less structure, a lot more time in the sun and a little more time to absorb my mom's death (I am close to being able to smile more often than cry when I think about her) have been good for me. If I race well on Sunday, that will just be icing on the cake! But it's not like I have this silly grin or anything going on. It is just this inner peace. Things feel right. I feel good about where I am right now. Is it happiness? If you read me often enough, you know I don't really "believe" in that--it's far too fleeting. It's a comfort level with my own emotions, a sense of balance (yes, even 15-16 hours a week of training enables balance in my life!) and a feeling that I belong in my own skin and that there is nothing else that I should be doing right now.

It was funny yesterday after I finished a 1:40 run in extreme humidity, I was talking with these two women. One was a fairly new runner (and a bit out of shape, but working on it), and the other was a 3-year breast cancer survivor who started training for her first marathon a week after her chemo ended, and is now training for her first 50-miler this fall (I tried to get her to remember my blog URL so that she could find Julie's). I told them I primarily trained for Ironman and I think I must have been babbling about what I think about when I'm running or swimming and that my favorite part of the Ironman is the marathon, because if you've set things up right, it is the most serene place your mind can be while your body runs on autopilot. The newer runner commented that I sounded just like her friend (the cancer survivor), and I told this lady we endurance people are all alike in that regard. We have all tapped into something that we are able to connect with simply by going out and running or riding our bike or swimming. But we need to do those things A LOT or else the magic slips away. I have never heard someone who runs 3 times a week for :30 speak of the same mental processes. It's not like we are these enlightened monks who live perpetually in that state; yet we (IMHO) are much further along than most of the population. Isn't that the greatest gift? Other people manage to achieve the same state by pursuing something with a passion. It could be art or community service or some other sport, but clearly endurance training unlocks the gate pretty easily.

Now, I finished reading Way of the Peaceful Warrior a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I didn't think it was that great of a book. Why? Maybe because I've read so many books now about people and their paths to serenity/enlightenment that I am now more inclined to just DO IT rather than read about it. Besides, the protagonist was really, really messed up since he couldn't find a way to just "be" with his sport and grow from it.

If all you ever do is want to generate results, then sadly but certainly you will be disappointed in whatever you pursue with your alleged passion. Passion isn't about results--it's about process, it's about knowing that you have to suffer to bust through mental and physical performance plateaus, and it's about sticking with the process but having the good sense to put it aside every now and then, much like hitting the refresh button in your browser. You don't grow spiritually when you are holding all the chips--you grow when the chips are gone, when you're not sure what your next move should be--but you continue to have faith in the process. You use adversity as a tool to manage the process as much as you use success as a tool to evaluate the process. Adversity is real-time; success is hindsight. As endurance athletes, we need to embrace adversity in every workout or race situation that requires our full attention in order to execute to the best of our abilities. When there is no adversity, but yet we succeed, all we can do is look back and say, "my process was good." Not that that's a bad thing! But when there is adversity, not only can we look back and say, "thank God that my process was good enough to deal with this," but we can also transmute it into future success. Perfection and success are no guarantees of anything. Adversity guarantees that you will look at success in a different way. And that is where the rubber meets the road when you are talking about passion.

I feel different today. Maybe I thought I feel like I did before Brazil, but now that I think about it a little more, I must have lied. I feel better. I have learned the lesson. I am preparing for the next one.

Weekly Workout Totals 06/26/2006-07/02/2006: Still Slacking

I had a great training week. I was saddened by the doping scandal related to the Tour de France. I was gladdened by signing up for another crazy event for next year (Triple T). I was surprised that I didn't bounce right back after the sprint race last Sunday, but really happy that things came together towards the end of the week. Unfortunately, you will need to read through the gory details of the workout totals to find out more...

Weekly Totals 06/26/2006-07/02/2006
Swim: 9075 yards in 3.18 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1115 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 126.3 miles in 7.22 hours; 44% of weekly workout time; approx. 3481 calories burned
Run: Approx. 30.65 miles in 4.65 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 2392 calories burned
Strength: 1.48 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 370 calories burned
All Sports: 16.53 hours; approx. 7358 calories burned
Sleep: 8.86 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.62 hours

Season Totals 09/12/2005-07/02/2006
Swim: 346770 yards in 122.28 hours
Bike: Approx. 3760.23 miles in 216.67 hours
Run: Approx. 1169.23 miles in 184.19 hours
Strength: 60.18 hours
All Sports: 583.32 hours; approx. 259373 calories burned
Stretching: 64.25 hours

Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-07/02/2006
Swim: 8256 yards in 2.91 hours
Bike: Approx. 89.53 miles in 5.16 hours
Run: Approx. 27.84 miles in 4.39 hours
Strength: 1.43 hours
All Sports: 13.89 hours
Sleep: 8.48 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.01 hours avg./week

Goals from Last Week:

• Move up the stretching a little more, especially since I seem to be keeping up fairly high-intensity workouts. DONE, and it is highly appreciated by my body, since I am almost doing Ironman-volume training (except for biking).
• Evaluate my plans for the buildup to Racine 1/2 Ironman and consult my coach if I think it's necessary. DONE. I think I have a good plan for Racine, and have told my coach that I want him to fire up a plan for me after that.
• Begin thinking about the dreaded Ironman training, since if I decide to do Ironman Florida, the time I need to begin training will come quickly! DONE. It's looking like no Ironman Florida. Instead, I want to do a 1/2 Ironman in September and another in November. Training for these events will enable me to retain pretty solid fitness (I can still run a lot and bike HARD AND FAST), and hey, I just want to race, and this way I can do my big cycling month in August. Also, by doing a 1/2 Ironman rather than an Ironman in November, I will be better recovered for Goofy Challenge in January, 2007. I can still run my ass off in December, and plan to do so.
• Keep enjoying the summer, training outdoors, loving life! DONE. I enjoyed every single outdoor workout I did this week, even when I felt fatigued. I ran different routes, I improvised a little here and there, and hey, I have a great tan!

Accomplishments This Week:

• I got more sleep. As much as I enjoy staying up later while it's light so late, I put myself to bed anyway so I'd feel better.
• I worked a little harder at eating more carbs. Believe it or not, when I saw the photos of myself from the sprint race, it finally sunk in that I am on the pointy edge of body composition, that apparently it's easy for me (now--it's been a ton of hard work getting to this point) to be very lean, and that I need to stay even more on top of my nutrition, since apparently my tendency is to not eat so much lately, and I have banished the Cheetos and candy from the house again, and I'm not eating any pasta. I still like a beer every day, but as you can tell, it is not causing me to put on any weight. Maybe I need to buy some Cheetos this week!
• I did a solid 4-hour ride on Saturday, and even though when I rode on Friday I felt sluggish and tired and couldn't bang out any FT intervals, I rode solidly ABOVE my HIM watts for an hour, and 20' where I exceeded my alleged current FTP. Maybe my FT will go up some more while I'm not doing 4 and 5 hour rides back to back on weekends. Ya think??? Now, the run afterwards felt horrible. But even as bad as it felt, I wasn't really running any slower than I usually do during brick runs. Maybe I can put in a solid effort at my next 1/2 Ironman!

Goals for Next Week:

• Get in all key workouts (3-5 hour ride on Tuesday; 1:50 long run Thursday and 1500-yard swim TT on Friday). Everything else is gravy, so that I can perform well at a sprint race on Sunday.
• Maintain stretching at or over 2 hours for the week.
• Maintain sleep at or over 8.5 hours average per night.
• Watch and improve carb intake. Maybe even eat some pasta a few nights this week. My planned training hours will take me over 16 again; 15 hours is my threshold below which no pasta on the table for me.

Sprint Pics

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=11253&BIB=1313

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=&EVENTID=11253&PWD=&ID=24837406&FROM=browser&START=97&SHOW=48&CAT=0&SUB=28765

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=&EVENTID=11253&PWD=&ID=24837407&FROM=browser&START=97&SHOW=48&CAT=0&SUB=28765

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=&EVENTID=11253&PWD=&ID=24839962&FROM=browser&START=2305&SHOW=48&CAT=0&SUB=28765

As always, I'm all smiles at the finish line, even though it wasn't my best performance.

They say the camera adds 10 lbs., but in my case, I think NOT. I'm gonna make that body of mine work harder at the 7/9 sprint. My dad will be watching! But I'm afraid he is going to tell me I'm skinny (he already has and hasn't even seen me in a bikini in YEARS). To which I will reply, "Occupational hazard of being a Crackhead."

2007--I said I wouldn't plan, but here goes....

January: Goofy Challenge, Disney World--1/2 marathon Saturday, full marathon Sunday

May (end): DeSoto Triple T. Team Crackheads (me and my friend Cindy) are competing in the Masters category--where your total age needs to be 80+. Cindy is only 36, yet she is brave enough to team up with me, who will be 50! Friday night is a sprint tri, Saturday we do an Oly in the morning and again in the afternoon (but sports are in a different order), and Sunday is a 1/2 Ironman. Each of us does each race solo, but scoring is based on fastest and we get to draft one another in the 2nd Oly race. I spoke with one of the race directors this evening, and he tells me from other competitors who have done Ironman races that this is harder. BRING IT ON!!! I was looking for a new challenge, and the opening of race registration announcement arrived in my email box this morning, and I just knew I had to do it for once, so I called Cindy to check if she'd be in, and well we are. I really don't care if our team is DFL--just completing this bad boy is a badge of honor. Anyone else who is interested, head to http://hfpregistration.com/ to register now since it's a small race and fills quickly.

July (end): Ironman Lake Placid, The Vengeance. This was my first Ironman race. Cindy's, too. She was faster than me. Who's faster now??? We shall see. It might rain, it might snow, it might be hot, but I know there aren't jellyfish in Mirror Lake, and I doubt it will be 110F.

Rest of year: As tolerated. Maybe I will hang up my bike and run shoes at this point. Who can say?

This is a challenging schedule. If I can get to Disney healthy and not catch any airplane crap, I am good to go, as I will for sure be driving to Ohio for the Triple T and maybe caravaning with Cindy to Lake Placid.

I think this will be more fun than doing 2 Ironman races in a year. I also think I will be kicking myself this winter again thinking "I will NEVER do an early Ironman race." Well, Triple T isn't really an Ironman--it will just feel that way after it's all over. Talk about your long training weekend! I am guessing there will be several double long run weekends between January and May.

Time for sleep, I am so excited though :)

The Bitch is Baaaaaaaack

BITCH=Babe In Total Control of Herself. A woman on the tri-drs list found that acronym, and guess who she thought of first? ME.

I'm feelin' it again. Not the desire to train 18 hours a week (yet!), but enjoying it being hard. Sure I had my little misstep this weekend where I didn't race as well as I should have because I toasted myself, but hey, I think I've recovered. Besides the workouts leading up to and then including the race were awesome. I really enjoy gutting it out day after day. I know, I am sick. But that's what teaches you to keep going in long races--if you've put the hurt to yourself in training, it is like a trained response to do it in a race--the so-called "digging deep." Only you are not really digging that deep if you do it regularly.

Yesterday was my usual Monday of 3 workouts--an easy swim (drills mostly), about 1 hour of strength (I have lost no strength since Brazil), and then an easy :50 run including :10 strides.

The swim went really well--I am going to keep up the drill workouts for awhile--I had my stroke count way down. I think I am just one of those people who needs regular, focused drill work. The strength session was no problem, although I made an executive decision that rather than do 1 set of 20 reps that I would give myself a break and drop the weight just a bit and do 1 set of 25 reps. That worked out well. My muscles still felt pretty abused from the previous 4 days. When I got to the run and started it, I was like fuuuuuuck.....my legs are MIA. For the first time in a long time I was running close to 9 min./mile. But I am so used to things being hard and effort and all, and hey, I'M NOT SICK, so I can do this. I got the job done.

I slept 10.5 hours last night. YA THINK???? Man did I need that! I also tried harder to gag down more carbs yesterday. When I woke up today I felt like I could have slept another 2 hours, so initially I wasn't too optimistic about doing a hard bike ride. But I did my good nutrition, a good early morning stretching session, and figured I would play it by ear.

When I first got on the bike I was like WTF gear is this thing in? It was like I had no power. And I couldn't tell if it was windy or not. Those are sure-fire signs of tired legs, even though the good old SRM was telling me that I DID have power. I extended my warmup a bit, and headed to my interval stomping grounds. There is something psychologically motivating about going to a place where you know you are going to put the hurt to yourself. It is almost like a Pavlovian response: "I am HERE therefore I must CRUSH MYSELF." That is always the objective. And today there was hardly any traffic to stop me in my tracks.

I did the spinups (3' worth) with a smile on my face, then I geared up for some Z3 work. The last few times I've done my interval workouts I think I have gone too hard for the Z3 stuff, but I am just so accustomed to crushing it whenever I can that basic instincts take over. But I did hold back a little more today, because I wanted to see what I could do on the FT intervals.

When I began the first interval (I did 3x8' with 4' rest again), all I could think was this feels harder than normal. I was putting out the watts, and smiling the entire time (another PICTURE PERFECT June day here in Chicagoland), yet I had some concern that I wasn't recovered from the weekend and that maybe I would be hurting myself by kicking it today. But you don't know until you try, right? I didn't even take notice of my average watts for the first interval.

When I began the second interval, I could tell I felt a lot better. There definitely was some wind, and once again I was LOVING it. Wind just makes me work harder, and I don't care (hey, Brazil was windy and I didn't care even though I was freaking sick as a dog). I even had an opportunity to race a car going up a hill, which I totally dug on, and then I screamed down the backside laughing hysterically while trying to catch my breath. I did notice my average watts for this interval and they seemed really good (a little TOO good, actually).

So I wondered what the third one would bring. The effort felt fine, and I pushed and pushed, and it was good and I rode HARD. I was smiling from ear to ear--this is hard, and when I would see people in their cars I kept thinking DON'T YOU WANNA KNOW HOW HARD THIS IS AND WHY I AM SMILING WHILE I AM DOING IT AND OH YEAH I LOOK REALLY GOOD, TOO, BY THE WAY, I CAN SEE YOU STARING AT ME AND YES IT HURTS BUT IT HURTS SO GOOD THERE'S NOTHING ELSE I WOULD RATHER BE DOING RIGHT NOW.

My normalized watts for the 3 intervals were 176, 186 and 184. About what I was hitting the week before Ironman Brazil. She's back!

Then I got to finish up by doing 4x90" best effort with 3' rest. Those are real fun, too. While they are a little squirrelly because of the undulating route, I still push as best I can. I hit 209, 221, 199, 206 watts normalized. I think I can go higher next time.

I may up the interval times to 10' this Friday if my legs feel up to it. It's time to up the ante a bit. Maybe I can even gain a few points on my FT watts? At any rate, it's feeling good to go hard again. My evil coach has trained me to want this stuff, or maybe he just picked up on me having the mentality to do it and LIKE it. Whatever. As long as I am healthy enough to do it, do it I will.

Ciao!

Weekly Workout Totals 06/19/2006-06/25/2006, Great Training Week and Triathlon #51

I had a great training week last week. I got some intensity back in biking and running, well actually quite a bit of intensity, which as it turns out, sabotaged my race yesterday (among other stupid things I did). But I'm OK with how the race turned out--I had so much fun training last week especially after a fairly hard come-back training week the week before. I will post the numbers at the end of this post, since my guess is they are not all that interesting.

I met Lora on Saturday at the registration for the race we did yesterday. I also met her wonderful Mom. We did some dishing, some sand-bagging and had a great time. I told Lora that she would do just fine on Sunday, and that we would have fun. We both got great race numbers--hers was 1001, and mine was 1313.

Sunday morning driving to the race, I could see the clouds out west where I was headed. I had checked the radar (I *LOVE* Doppler Radar) before I left home and didn't think the rain would be significant. It looked like it might just be cloudy all day.

I got to transition and met up with Lora and her mom. It was cool, and we weren't about to get out of transition until we absolutely had to. At some point it started to rain, but not too badly. We hoped it would let up and dry out before the race started, but that didn't happen, either. I put my bike stuff and run stuff in plastic bags so that at least I could put on dry shoes to race in. Both Lora and I downed some of the good old Ultra Violence to get us psyched to race.

I was put into the 50-54 wave just ahead of Lora's 45-49 wave. She told me she was happy that I had been bumped up so she didn't have to compete against me! It didn't matter. I felt ready, but not "race ready."

I just couldn't get it together in the swim. It's in this thing that is man-made, but not really like a pool. The water sloshes in a strange way, and we zig-zagged through "lanes" which at the end were so shallow you got up and walked. Oh well, I thought I'd be fine once out on the bike.

Nope. My legs were dead. D-E-A-D. Sure, I passed a bunch of ladies, but I wasn't going very fast at all. My front brake may have been rubbing somewhat, but I could just tell my legs were not going to cooperate with me today. In retrospect, I know why. Look at what I did the 3 days before:

Thursday: AM swim 2950, PM run 10.4 miles at 8:53 pace (which is some sort of PR for me--don't ask me why I thought I as racing--I was supposed to END the run at tempo, but oh, what the hell, may as well run the whole thing peppy).

Friday: Bike 1:35, including 3x8'(4') at FT and 4x90"(3') "best effort." I really kicked it in this workout, as my legs felt surprisingly good, and all indications are that my FT power hasn't suffered too much since Brazil. And then I ran :30 off the bike at a pretty good clip. I was wearing my low-rider DSS shorts and got plenty of stares. They really are obscene, but I always say the day I look bad in that stuff I will stop wearing it! One man even said something to me while driving by me and waggling his finger at me. I couldn't hear him because I was listening to music, so I just kept on smiling and running.

Saturday: Bike 2:30, including 2x20' at HIM watts and 3x8'(4') at FT watts. I felt sluggish at first, but then I picked it up and had a great ride. About 1 hour after I finished, I met Lora at the race registration, and then when I got home, I met another friend and we walked downtown to the local festival and walked around for almost 3 hours.

I think I may have been fine yesterday had I not walked around in the sun for 3 hours on Saturday afternoon! That is a sure-fire way to sap your energy the day before a race. To top it off, since returning from Brazil, I am just not so much in the mood for carbs, and have been laying down some serious protein consumption. It shows in my physique, but I guess trying to stack 4 consecutive days of rather intense training with an Atkins-like diet isn't the best thing in the world!

Anyway, I still had fun riding my bike in the rain yesterday, and then when I started the run, I was like oh fuck are my legs toasted. But I gotta run. I was even smiling at how bad my legs felt, because you know what? I really didn't care. I don't think I have EVER tapered for a sprint race, and really, it was a buzz to see just how thrashed I could be and still finish this bitch. Which of course I did. I ended up coming in 16th out of 92 in my age group, which is a sucky finish for me (I should have been top 5), but I didn't care, because I got to wait for Lora to come in, and I wanted to run her in at the end.

I went back out on the last .2 miles of the run course and chatted with some people I know and some I didn't know. I just love finish areas of these races--to me the best part is cheering in others AS an athlete. I yelled at all the ladies to pick it up since the remainder was mainly downhill. Luckily, I spotted Lora coming in and then I just left my new-found friends to bring her home.

I was yelling and cheering and leading a pack of girls down the home stretch. I told Lora to grab the imaginary rope that was tied to my waist to make herself go faster. I told her she could puke at the finish line, but not now. She was a real trooper and probably hated that I did that to her. There is no point in being nice to someone at the end of a race--that is when you dig your deepest and go somewhere you may not have been, and I wanted Lora to experience that! The final 25 yards is on grass, at which point I veered off to let Lora do her thing and get her finishing photo taken.

Afterwards, we hung out waiting for transition to open. Lora's mom, who is such an angel, bought Lora AND me a bunch of daisies as congratulations! We found a tent to huddle under, as the rain kept picking up. Lora and I were freezing, and Lora's mom grabbed what we thought was a sheet out of a container and wrapped it around us, which helped. When the "owners" came to the tent, they were a little angry--they said the "sheet" was a table cloth! Oh well, it would wash up just fine.

A 30-ish woman came up to me and complimented me on my physique. She told me I had the best one there out of everyone! And then, of course, she asked me my age. I told her, and she was incredulous. She's a chiropractor, and she said it was so cool that she could see every muscle on me! We chatted a little about diet, exercise and self-care. Too bad she's way too far from me, because she does some interesting things many chiropractors don't do, and since she's an athlete, I'm sure she is very in tune with what we need.

So even though I didn't race up to my potential, I had a great training week (and the race WAS great training), made a new *REAL* friend in Lora, and bonus, was voted "best looking" by several competitors (while waiting in line for the swim a few women made comments to me as well). You know I always say it's better to look good than to feel good, but hey, I like both, and I feel great today, even though I'm a little tired. I get to put it on the line again in 2 weeks, and this time I won't do stupid things that I would tell another athlete not to do right before a race.

Here are the happy slacker totals for last week:

Weekly Totals 06/19/2006-06/25/2006
Swim: 9667 yards in 3.45 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1208 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 117.59 miles in 6.72 hours; 42% of weekly workout time; approx. 3123 calories burned
Run: Approx. 28.8 miles in 4.32 hours; 27% of weekly workout time; approx. 2501 calories burned
Strength: 1.38 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 345 calories burned
All Sports: 15.87 hours; approx. 7177 calories burned
Sleep: 8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.77 hours

Season Totals 09/12/2005-06/25/2006
Swim: 337695 yards in 119.1 hours
Bike: Approx. 3633.93 miles in 209.45 hours
Run: Approx. 1138.58 miles in 179.54 hours
Strength: 58.7 hours
All Sports: 566.79 hours; approx. 252015 calories burned
Stretching: 61.63 hours

Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-06/25/2006
Swim: 8236 yards in 2.9 hours
Bike: Approx. 88.63 miles in 5.11 hours
Run: Approx. 27.77 miles in 4.38 hours
Strength: 1.43 hours
All Sports: 13.82 hours
Sleep: 8.47 hours avg./night
Stretching: 1.99 hours avg./week

Goals from Last Week:

• I gotta sleep more. I did a little better last week, but I guess this is just what happens during the summer. It's nice outside, it's light late, and I want to stay up. I can deal.
• I need to get my stretching back to 2 hours weekly. I got closer, so at least I'm moving in the right direction.
• I want to do really well in the sprint triathlon. FAILED. Due to my own stupidity. But I have no regrets, it was just a sprint, it was great training and I had a fun day!

Accomplishments This Week:

• My legs continued their recovery from Ironman Brazil, as evidenced by achieving my former FTP in bike workouts and doing some solid running.
• Got in a solid slacker training week, including triathlon #51!

Goals for Next Week:

• Move up the stretching a little more, especially since I seem to be keeping up fairly high-intensity workouts.
• Evaluate my plans for the buildup to Racine 1/2 Ironman and consult my coach if I think it's necessary.
• Begin thinking about the dreaded Ironman training, since if I decide to do Ironman Florida, the time I need to begin training will come quickly!
• Keep enjoying the summer, training outdoors, loving life!

The Drive

You have this routine--when to eat, when to train, when to sleep, and it is ALL you are doing (you fit in the rest of life in there somewhere), you get used to it, and even though you are tired and things hurt from time to time, you come to accept that this is the way it is, and it makes your life feel simple and under control, and you don't even have time to make stupid decisions like do I really want that piece of cake because there is no question the answer is NO I AM IN TRAINING and you are going full speed and people think you are nuts and call you Crackhead or want to know why would you do this you're not going to win the race are you and they say they never see you except wet or wearing skimpy clothing and you are going by in a blur but then you go run with one of them and they can't keep up and then they know that what you do has made a difference RIGHT NOW and you feel good about it and remember back to when that person was someone you thought was so much faster than you and they have been running for many more years than you and you don't even think you're fast but you are and people tell you either you look good or you look skinny and some even recognize that it's just that you are lean and you smile at them no matter what and you keep up the routine it feels good in an odd sort of way and you realize that you haven't even tapped into your body's POTENTIAL if only you didn't have a damn job but then again it's all so sweet because the focus of training carries over into the job and people wonder why you are like a laser beam no matter what you do and for all the hyperactivity you have learned to become so CALM and understand the value of patience and it's easy to stand in line every now and then because good things come to those who wait and you are used to the inconvenience of your body hurting or needing to be fed and you have reframed "inconvenience" as "opportunity for growth" (which it is!) and you hope you can figure out a way to reap all these rewards someday without engaging in THE ROUTINE but you aren't certain it's possible so you read and read and find out that many other endurance athletes are EXACTLY LIKE YOU and have this constant struggle with the TRAINING WORLD vs. the REAL WORLD and doesn't the real world suck while the training world is all pure and nice and INSIDE YOUR HEAD even though it's your BODY doing the work and then you get to the point where you aren't sure you can separate the two and you think you've made the BREAKTHROUGH which is not the ability to go faster but the ability for your MIND to keep up with your BODY isn't that funny you thought it would be exactly opposite but see we are crazy people and have discovered our bodies are much less limited because we know how to train them whereas training our minds seems counterproductive (at least according to some books we are just supposed to let it happen without too much invervention) so you keep going and sometimes you wonder if you are depressed or whether that mind of yours is leaking into your TRAINING consciousness and whether that is a bad thing or not so you entertain the thought and you just let it go which really is what MEDITATION is about so you can feel good that you aren't really shutting out thoughts by keeping up the THE ROUTINE you are learning how to have thoughts and let go of them and oh wasn't the point of the TRAINING to RACE but then you do the race and it's BANG GAME OVER and only then do you realize that the point was NOT THE RACE it was the journey and you try and shift into a lower gear and you have fits and starts with your body and your mind because your body likes THE ROUTINE as much as your mind does but you hold back and you notice subtle differences like I am not sleeping normally and I don't have a good sense of when, what or how much to eat and you forget to mix your bottles and your schedule is all thrown off and you think you feel like crap and are getting slower but it's just your body adjusting to REAL LIFE and doesn't it suck if that's what REAL LIFE is I don't really want it but everyone tells me I should try and so I keep trying and I find myself falling back into THE ROUTINE just maybe a little less of it and then things feel better but why do these things that aren't important keep cropping up and making me think about them it's just not fair but at least I am fortunate in that I KNOW what THE ROUTINE is and I can always go back to it whenever I want even though my body gets older because it REMEMBERS and when anyone asks me how I can keep up THE ROUTINE but then they see me smile like the Cheshire cat they know and then they say they are so amazed to see what a person can do and that I seem so happy when I'm doing THE ROUTINE and somewhere along the line I must have figured out how to turn THE ROUTINE into my REAL LIFE so I guess the secret is to always have the THE ROUTINE but maybe not so much of it all the time, yeah, that's the ticket, and it still takes some adjusting to but we can handle it, but right now, all of a sudden, your mind is free to wander and think (some would say too much), you have TIME to make those ridiculous decisions like should I eat this or should I accept this invitation and you start to second guess yourself and you get out of THE ROUTINE and life is no longer simple and there are too many possibilities and you have no immediate goals so you tell people "I'm just out to have fun" when deep inside you know that the pursuit of "fun" is as silly as the pursuit of "happiness" because fun and happiness are fleeting sensations that exist momentarily but you don't learn anything from them--what you learn from is when you are hurting, when things are going down the toilet, when you are putting yourself on the line not to have fun but to have consequences and to have to make HUGE decisions like can I keep putting one foot in front of the other until the finish line and how am I going to get through this muck when I am frightened and then you realize you can't call it by any other name except THE DRIVE.