Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the 2014 Annual Training Plan (ATP)

First, let me say I love robots.

Second, the whole sodium thing was just me OD'ing on sodium when I didn't need it.  My weight is down to 113, which while I would prefer it to be about 2 lbs. less, is still going to be just fine for racing.  After 2 days on the mild diuretic and then just watching my other sodium intake, order has been restored!  I'm really not a fatty!  Even my massage therapist, Mike, said he could tell the difference between this week and last week.  I don't feel completely bloated anymore, and my skinsuit felt GOOD when I wore it for another 5K swim yesterday.

Third, I decided early this week that I was getting tired and frustrated with the management of my thyroid, and so I called to schedule an appointment with my doctor.  Only she's out for 2 weeks, so I decided (with help from a friend) that it couldn't hurt to speak with a different doctor at the same practice.  Of course, in preparation, I summarized a bunch of data and wrote up all the questions and concerns I had.

I had seen this doctor before, but he didn't remember much about me, so I led off with, "I am pushing the metabolic boundaries of my body."  He looked at me all puzzled, and I explained that I do marathons, Ironmans, the occasional Ultraman and sometimes ultramarathons.  I could tell by the look on his face that he understood what I was saying.  You don't say all those things in one sentence and not be taken for a serious athlete (or complete lunatic).

We reviewed my up and down thyroid tests, I explained that I was frustrated that we'd been at this for nearly a year and I am still not stabilized, and that I still didn't feel "right."  Now, don't get me wrong--in some ways, I feel fucking fantastic--but I can also tell things just aren't right.  I am hypersensitive to my heart performance, body composition, sleep, bowel movements, all that.  This doctor listened to me, and then he grilled me as to whether I was taking the meds properly (YES) and whether I was messing with the dosing on my own (FUCK NO I WOULD NOT MESS WITH THAT, although I did not actually say FUCK NO, although I thought it).

He paused for a moment and then said that we need to get me off the generic.  THE GENERIC???  I didn't know I was ON a generic and that there was NOT A GENERIC.  He said some people just don't do well on the generic, and the fact that I was forced to be cutting pills meant I wasn't getting a precision dose.  So here's what we are going to do: I started on the non-generic today at 75mcg, and we will see at my next test whether we are achieving the desired result.  He also gave me a referral to an endocrinologist, which I will utilize if I don't start to feel "right" in the next 3 weeks or so, i.e., right before IMCOZ.  Now, I recognize it will be hard for me to tell, because as you know, I have so much HTFU and I get so excited about all this shit and I will be tapering so how could I not feel great?  But I think I will know when all my bodily systems are synchronizing properly again.

The best part of my office visit was at the end, when the doctor looked me in the eye and said, "You look AMAZING for someone your age, and the fact that the only meds you are on is Synthroid speaks volumes about you."  He also said that anyone going through my metabolic ups and downs would be driven mad, let alone someone like me training for an Ironman!  You cannot imagine how great that made me feel.  Because I thought I was pretty damn healthy and that I was (despite the extreme endurance exercise) taking pretty good care of myself.  And that this science experiment has been a clusterfuck.

Oh and the other great part of the visit was that my blood pressure, despite the fact that I felt all jacked up when I walked in, was a beautiful 117/72.

So I am optimistic that perhaps we may have cracked the Crackhead thyroid nut, and if not, well then off to the endo I will go. 

Switching gears, I've been working on my ATP and came up with Version 1 earlier this week.  I know from having done this exercise several times that I always come up with something that's psycho initially.  I've learned more about myself including respecting the fact that I'm older and how much I can tolerate.  I've also learned just how incredibly fit I am despite thinking I did almost nothing earlier this year and most of last year.  I may not be fast, but hey, I can go all day and then some!

So I sat on the first psycho version of my 2014 ATP for a couple of days, then revisited it, because you really have to look at the numbers multiple ways in order to know you've got it right.  So I updated workouts and such yesterday, and this morning I checked my work and found out I'd made a few mistakes (this all comes from my actuarial side--it's called "reasonableness checking") and a few other things still weren't quite right.  Now I'm happy with what I've got, and it it still subject to change as I go along in the plan.  I'm tapering more on the front and back end of races, and there is still some wiggle room in there that I am sure I will need to take advantage of here and there.  But it's still a fucking awesome plan, and it's below.

My A race for 2014 is 24 Hours of Triathlon, or as Brad and I call it, 24 Hours of Crack!  Brad is in charge of creating the strategy for us to break the record based on our individual strengths.  Right now, Brad is the ace cyclist.  I might have him on overall swim and run endurance, though, but in terms of pacing, early on Brad will have me beat.  But he knows that the longer the event, the less I slow down compared to other people, so this should be interesting.

Red Rock Canyon marathon should be fun.  I should even have a chance at qualifying for Boston there, but if I don't, I won't cry.  I won't be doing straight-up marathon training for it, and will continue to bike and swim moderately throughout that cycle.  But if I rest appropriately after IMCOZ and can nail all the quality runs in training, I should do well.  I did go 4:20 at Goofy Challenge in 2010, and that was the day after a 1/2 marathon, so a 4:05 is a definite possibility, which is all I need to BQ.

Triple T in May will be a "train through" race, but I need to be in Ironman shape for it.  I love that race, and can't wait to see who else I know that I can con into going and sharing the Crackhouse (cabin) with me.  So far, it's just Lori, but I know there will be others.  It's nice to have a cabin full of people you know and love there!

Leadman 250 will be like my 3rd Ironman distance race of the year.  It's 5K/223K/22K, but one needs to build better than Ironman bike fitness (which I have and love maintaining), a bit better than Ironman swim fitness (which I have but it's currently dormant), and you might think you don't need to do Ironman-level run training, but yes you do!  Unless your Ironman marathon is under 3 hours ;)  So doing Triple T and 24CRACK in the leadup will be perfect preparation, and then just a bit more than my normal amount of bike training for part of the time.  Actually, I should close out 2013 with about 334 hours of biking, and the 2014 ATP plus estimate of the remainder through year end will put me at about the same amount.  So actually, in aggregate, I won't be biking more next year than this year--it will just be concentrated into less time, since I will go really light initially.

Oh yeah, there's that Chicago ITU Oly in there in June, but that's a "just for fun" race.  I will do however I do.

All in all, 2014 looks to be a great year if I can execute it.  So now I can just finish up the last few weeks of heavy training for IMCOZ knowing that I have other great things on the horizon no matter how that race goes.  I am grateful for being able to nurture such incredible fitness despite:

• Being on a thyroid rollercoaster for well over a year, including a scary hyperthyroid incident
• Landing in the ER for we still don't know what
• Overcoming a virus that took me completely down for 3 days and that lingered for 4 weeks
• Crashing while running and being beat up a little from that for about 2 weeks
• Self-diagnosing and overcoming a sodium overdose
• Experiencing on and off issues (and experiments) with my right foot and lower back in general

All in all, I will have only formally trained for IMCOZ for 15 weeks.  All of the above happened in that space of time.  Fuck!  That's a lot of shit for 15 weeks, isn't it?  But all of us go through bunches of shit--I am so grateful for the family and friends that stick by me through all of this.  Really, most days I have to pinch myself for all the goodness that is in my life, including right now.

Enjoy the Crackitude below!

The "Device" and Fashion Update

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to get what they term a "holter" (I once dated a Steven Holter is that the same?), which is like a continuous EKG thing.  You wear the electrodes and the little pack that collects the data for whatever period of time your doctor wants.  Last week, my doctor asked me if I wanted to do this because I'd periodically experienced what feel like palpitations.  Since I have now given myself over to all the science experiments on me, and this is just a mechanical test, NOT drug-induced, I said sure, why not?

I did not know what the thing looked lie or how big it was.  I guess I was thinking standard heart rate monitor stuff, so a strap around my ribcage.  I wasn't looking forward to that, since when I fell last week, I strained and/or bruised my left pec major (also the external oblique, but that's just fine now and I'm left with pec strain but it's coming along nicely), and my ribcage is a bit bony as it is, and I dislike heart rate monitor straps.

I went into the room with 2 techs--primary and a guy who is learning.  I figured I'd have to strip off my shirt so they could put the thing on, so I told them I had no self-consciousness about nudity, but the woman just began attaching electrodes to me, and then she showed me the measuring device, which is smaller than many phones, and all the electrodes hook into it.  She asked if I wanted a belt for it, and I said yeah, I will be biking and running with it on.  No hospital nudity was required--she just lifted up my shirt and felt me up a little!

I had a nice chat with the techs about my bizarre physiology (a bit manic yet hypothyroid; bradycardic yet a Crackhead), and I think they enjoyed hearing about someone other than a couch potato.  I also told them how I could feel my left pulmonary artery pulsing where I'd injured my pec, so the pec inflammation must be irritating it.  I tell you, I know more about the human body than many medical people!  But it's my business to know about my body in order to do what I'm doing and attempting to stay healthy.

So the deal is to write down when I feel weirdness in my heart and at what time.  I am keeping a small spreadsheet of the main things I did yesterday and this morning, just so when the graph of the EKG comes back I can see what my heart does when I am doing certain things.  I am particularly interested in what happens about 1.5 hours after I take the levothyroxine, because I can usually feel my heart start to get all excited.  I am sure they will tell me this doesn't really happen, but LET'S GO TO THE EKG DATA, WOLF (I'm thinking of Wolf Blitzer here LOL).

Anyway, here I am all electroded up:

There are 5 electrodes on me, and you can see the battery-powered measuring device on my left hip.  It doesn't weigh very much (maybe 4 oz.), and since once upon a time in a land far, far away, I used to wear a Walkman on a belt when running, it didn't really bother me. In fact, I had to remind myself to write stuff down for a few hours there.  To date, I experienced what felt like palpitations to me twice, but I'm expecting them in another hour, as I took the levothyroxine about 40 minutes ago.  2 weeks ago when I felt them, it was more central under my sternum, but now they are by my left pulmonary artery.  I suppose it's possible that because I fell on that pec that I have just inflamed that area.  Whatever, we will see what we see.

I had to do a 2-hour ride yesterday, and it was raining and crappy, and I needed to monitor something at work anyway, so it was hop on the trainer.  My training schedule calls for 11.5 hours of biking this week, and I'm pretty sure it will ALL be on the trainer.  That will be a first to do that much all on the trainer!  But I couldn't give a fuck, it has to be done, I have plenty of HTFU and tunes and movies and Infinit!

Here I am ready to start my ride.  I busted out a vintage Zoot outfit that I hadn't worn in a few years.  I think I look really fat, but the shorts seem to fit just fine.  I got that cool silver skull at Walgreen's yesterday on the way home from the hospital!  I check Walgreen's every October, because I usually find some sort of cool Halloween thing, and I was happy to find this because it reminds me of Terminator:

I really didn't notice the monitor while I was on the bike since I had all the electrode cords channeled so I wouldn't get all tangled up on the bike!  I think it was a good idea I was riding on the trainer, because if I'd gone outside with the device, I might have got it wrapped around the bars and crashed!

I had a great ride of 2 hours.  I lengthened it from 1:30 so that I can ride 1/2 hour less on Sunday, when I'm cooking dinner for 2 girlfriends, Lori and Shelley.  I ran :25 on my treadmill, Hal, at a super easy pace.  Turns out I wasn't supposed to run off the bike, oh well, I guess my coach will punish me for that!  I couldn't take a full shower afterwards, so I got in the tub and hung the device on the shower door handle, washed from the waist down, then did my arms and neck.  At 5:30 I went to get a haircut and asked my girl Clorinda to shave my head.  It's really short again, because with all this riding, I can't stand extra hair, although I let her leave slight bangs.  My final haircut before IMCOZ I will get totally shaved down, cuz that's how I roll.  It was nice to finally get my hair washed after walking around being a disgusting pig after working out.

On Saturday I'm riding 5:30, and me and my girls are going out for sushi (I will try not to pass out on them), and then on Sunday I'm riding 3:30 and running :40 off the bike, will lay down for a bit after that and pass out or not, and then I will complete the prep for our Sunday dinner.  Below are the Elvis Presley pound cakes that I baked on Sunday, and following that is the full dinner menu:

• Cheese and crackers while I'm cooking
• Asparagus bundles with fontina and prosciutto.  These are easy to fix, and will take me no more than 1/2 hour to cook the asparagus, make the bundles, and then ready them for the final baking in the oven.
• Fettucine with bacon/Gorgonzola sauce.  I made the sauce last night except for the addition of the cheese, so that will take all of 5 minutes.
• Roast chicken with garlic, lemon and rosemary.  This will take maybe 15 minutes of prep time and then into the oven for just over 1.5 hours.
• Dessert will be the Elvis Presley pound cake with gelato (I have hazelnut and coconut) drizzed with optional Grand Marnier

Sounds like a good meal, huh? We will drink good French champagne with dinner, as there is much to celebrate!  There will, of course, be leftovers, and I expect to send some home with both my girls.  I do love to cook, especially when I can do a whole meal like this for others.  I don't really have a whole lot of time to cook right now, but with planning, I was able to put this together with my schedule.  This will be a great reward for my big training week, too!

I only have about :45 left to wear the monitor, then I will strip off the electrodes, take off the strap, and go for a swim. After that, I will drive to hospital to drop off the device.  It will take them about 2 weeks to look through the recorded data.  Should be interesting.  I do know that I have a mitral valve prolapse that is nothing to worry about (I had an echocardiogram some years back to confirm), but it will be interesting to me to see what my heart is doing while I exercise now, since it's been so long since I've worn a heart monitor.

Meanwhile, we've upped my levothyroxine so I take 75mcg twice a week (I'm doing it on Monday and Friday), and then we will retest me during my taper.  Man, I really would like to be dialed in for race day, but who the fuck knows what is happening with my body yet?  The fucking science experiment continues...

But despite all this hassle, I continue to be grateful that I am able to keep training and living life to the fullest possible for the moment. Aspects of my life are a royal pain in the ass right about now, but things could be much, much worse.  At some point, we will get my thryoid function dialed in, and then I will get to see how/who I really am!  Can you imagine what my body might be able to do with all my mitochondria working at 100%?  The prospect of that is what keeps me from freaking out about all this.  I mean look what I've been able to do with sub-optimal thyroid function for years.  I think it will feel something like this when I am finally fixed up:

Cautiously Optimistic

So I established my training metrics (VDOT for running and FT for the bike; haven't done a swim test yet) based on how I did in the 1/2 NothingMan a week ago (is it really just a week ago?).  So this past week I had an opportunity to begin dialing in the run and bike zones to see how they feel and figure out if I'm calibrated properly (I am also inflicting this on Brad the Mongoose). Every single training session now, with the exception of a workout described as easy or as you feel (note there aren't too many of those!) is an opportunity to test whether I'm on track, falling back or getting faster.

Up until 7/29, I'd been putting in the training volume, but not doing structured workouts.  Those days are gone, and now I'm back to what I was doing in 2010 and earlier, which I know to be extremely speed, endurance and HTFU-producing, although typically by this point in an Ironman training cycle, I would have done a bunch of speed stuff for 3 or 4 months in the lead-up, but I digress.

I spent from July, 2012 to July, 2013 just fucking running (JFR), just fucking riding (also JFR), and swimming 2-3x/week (random swim workouts). I wasn't training for anything, and I wasn't feeling right, so I did a lot of really slow sessions on the bike and run.  No particular workouts, just the amount of time I felt appropriate. "Not training" for me meant I was averaging around 12 hours of working out per week.  That might not sound like much, but you do that every week in a year and it comes to 600+ training hours!  But for me, having been averaging 15-16 hours per week for 4 years straight, 12 hours was actually a light load.

A few people have said to me that perhaps the reason I'm feeling so good right now is that I got some "rest."  Well, yes, I did need rest, and I suppose it took catastrophic mind/body meltdown to get me to do it.  I'd been saying I was going to take a break, I was going to step away from Ironman (and further), I was going to ease back, but I never did from 2001-2012.  So yes, the rest was needed and may be playing a huge part in how I feel right now.

And how is that?  Based on just 2 weeks worth of metrics, it would appear that I am at least as fast as I was in 2009, and I may even have a shot at being faster!  I am cautiously optimistic, since 2 weeks worth of data does not an Ironman prediction make, but so far, so good.

On Saturday I did my first tempo run in ages.  My Zone 4 (threshold) training pace was to be 8:44, but when I did the workout and the first 10' of Z4 I came in at 8:19, and it felt FUCKING FANTASTIC! I ran easy for 5' and was at another mile marker to begin another 10' of Z4.  I actually thought I was dialing it back, as this included running up most of a 1-mile hill that is pretty hefty in elevation. Well, I came in at 8:19 again. I was like maybe this is a fluke and I will be trashed after this, because that pace is actually what my 5K pace should be right now. 

Well I wasn't trashed after that and went and did a 1-hour pretty hard ride, and THAT went well and I was able to hit the %'s of FT pretty much dead on.  And then I swam 1200 yards super easy (at that point I was tired!), so effectively I got in a reverse sprint-ish NothingMan on Saturday.

Now the real test would come yesterday.  I was going to do the Rotary Ride, which is an organized metric century, so 62 miles.  My plan was to get in 100+ miles of riding, and when I arrived at the start, I looked at the map and figured the best thing would be to do the full 62 and then repeat the 41-mile option. I stuck to my intended workout plan, which was 1 hour Z1, 30' Z3, 40' Z4, 10' Z1, 20' FT (Z5), 20' Z3, and then the rest Z1/Z2 as I felt.  I ended up riding 111 miles in 6:08, and my normalized power for the entire ride was smack in the middle of Z2, which is Ironman pace!  The ride had about 3500 ft. of climbing, so this was a fairly good indicator ride, and I feel great this morning, so it feels like I have my FT about right for now, but it may have some room for improvement!

This coming Sunday I'm riding the Bike Psychos 200k, and I would feel good if I can do that at average 18mph, which is the fastest I've ever done it.  It's a beautiful ride that passes through several of the Illinois State Parks that are along the Illinois River, so there are plenty of hills and usually a good dose of wind and heat.  One year I did the ride, it ended up being 131 miles, which normally I LOVE the extra miles, cuz you know, I paid to do the ride, so I'm getting my money's worth, right?  But that year, I don't think many of us were too happy with the extra miles, but we did them anyway.  I mean WTF are you supposed to do when you have 16 miles to get back to your car?

This week I also begin progressive long runs that start out easy and end with Z4 stuff, and the day before is a tempo run.  So here comes the REAL training now, and I'm actually excited about it!  Honestly, if I am even as fast as I was in 2009, that would be cool with me, and if I end up faster, gravy!  Hell, I'm 56, and most days I am amazed that I can even do this shit, you know?  There aren't many women that make it to their 50's and keep doing Ironman--menopause does a number on us, and then I guess many ladies would rather do other things, which is cool.  But I only started this shit when I was the ripe age of 44 (began running at 42), so in triathlon years, I am actually somewhat of a baby.  The other gals in my age group that I know are brutally strong, too, because you don't get here without being that way. 

I've been pinching myself and brought myself to tears a few times in the last few weeks over how great I feel, and I have such gratitude for RIGHT NOW.  All of this might come crashing down, but for now, life is pretty great, and I'm going to ride the high tide as long as I can!

You know for the period of time I was not writing to this blog, I'd been thinking that I wasn't going to ever bring it back.  You know why?  Because I thought that I didn't want anyone new that I met to go and read it and think I was some sort of whacked out psycho chic.  But you know what?  Maybe that is part of what I am and maybe now I'm OK with it. Only I sincerely hope that people are able to recognize the other parts of me that are actually subdued and mellow.  I've always had that; it's just that unless people are willing to look under the hood and engage me in things outside of triathlon, they would never know. 

While I was riding yesterday, I spotted a bald eagle in a pine tree about 1/2 mile from the road I was on (Ashley).  I don't think anyone else on the ride yesterday saw it--I told one of the SAG drivers, and when I saw him later, he said he missed the eagle.  I rode by a couple of goats, and I bleated to them and they answered my call. I once again had the song "Bernadette" by the Four Tops playing in my head when I saw the sign for Bernadette Road off of High Point.  I let other people touch Skull Kingdom, and one of the volunteers even picked her up (with appropriate care) to let some novices feel how lightweight she is.  I'm mentoring one athlete (Maz) and coaching another (Brad). I'm enjoying my flower gardens now more than I think I ever have, I'm making time regularly for friends near (and far via phone) and trying to schedule some amount of "regular life" (i.e., movies, walks, a bit of entertaining). It feels good now--while I was training for Ultraman Canada, it was a huge grind, and I don't know if I want to do that kind of training again--but Ironman training?  Well, I guess I've figured out how to do it and have some sort of life outside it, even though I know that in a few weeks, extracurricular activities will be squeezed out.  But you know what?  I've even told some friends about it, and they are happy to see me at it again, even though they know it will cut into their time with me.  I think they've figured out just how much I love doing this.

I'm going to try and stay balanced, but for now, I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the good times with more to come!