Ultraman Training is Quite the Ride

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keeping it Going

I know it's only Friday, but I've had a great training week so far, as I get close to normal run volume for my Goofy prep and normal bike volume with an eye towards Ultraman (which means I will be doing a tad more biking that I normally would this time of year).

After my struggling through a long run on Sunday, I fixed a great dinner and got a good night's sleep and figured I'd start the week on a good note, which I did. Monday's swim was 2900 yards, and I felt pretty good in the water, after doing my now usual 20' of pushups, chinups, bridges, assorted abs and stuff. A short 45' run in the afternoon was good--I am still getting my hill legs back, so considering I have to run uphill right from home, I started off slow, but as I kept going I picked up speed and felt great.

On Tuesday I had to bike for 1:30, and got on the trainer and felt like I had my biking legs back! And this was great considering I'd lifted early in the morning.

Wednesday was a short but hard swim, and I'm sure my tongue was hanging out at the wall in between fast 100's and 50's, but it felt good. Later in the day I ran on the treadmill because it was raining, but I nailed a tempo run that felt pretty darn good. Oh yeah, I did my 20' of stuff before I swam, too.

Thursday was another 1:30 trainer ride and finish up my strength training for the week. I wasn't as strong on the bike as on Tuesday, but I am adjusting to 1:30 rides and also trying to put up the watts, so I am not concerned.

Today I swam 7,000 yards for the first time ever! I had 6500 on my plan, but I got in the pool by 6AM so figured I had time for 7,000 so why not? I am always working on my stroke mechanics, and today was no exception. 7,000 gives you a lot of time for that! I did it as 1000 free, 2500 pull, 500 kick (to rest my arms a bit), 5x500 fast with 30" rest, then 300 back and 200 kick. I have written workouts for these long swims, but I am also open to just going with the flow, and that's what my flow told me to do today. I only started to feel tired during the last 500 in the 5x500, and that was no big surprise. I did polish off all 20 oz. of Gatorade during the swim, and I need to be on that since I will need to take in calories during the Ultraman swim.

7,000 yards is not a lot for a lifetime swimmer, I know that. And technically, I don't have to be doing this much all at once this early in my Ultraman prep, but the way I'm doing the swim thing is 2 shorter swims on Monday and Wednesday (2500-3500 yards), Friday is the big, long swim, and then Sunday (through March) is 1000-1500 after my long run just for some extra time in the pool and to recover from the run. Ideally, I'd swim 4-5,000 three times a week and then a longer swim, but I just don't have time, and oh, hey, I also need to train for a 52.4 mile run and then there's like, what, 260 miles of biking in Ultraman? So I need to allocate my time carefully, and I think I am getting in enough swimming. As they say on the Ultraman website, there are many ways to train for this beast, and not everyone will need to train the same way. Since I am going in just to finish, I want to be confident in my ability to swim 10K strongly and still have energy left to bike 90 miles the same day. And then bike 170 miles the next day and run 52.4 miles the third day. Lucky for me, I was already swimming a good amount during the summer, and instead of dropping down to some paltry amount like 8,000 yards a week, which is what I would normally do this time of year, I just kept up my yardage and then some. I was already used to 3-mile swims, although I can say those are not that big a deal anymore. So my plan is to stay at about 7,000-7,500 for that long swim between now and March 1, and then, with that base, build up to the 11,000 yard swim. I have also needed to find out how much I can swim on Friday morning and still not be too tired to run later in the day and it looks like that number is 7,000 yards. Although odds are 7,500 won't be too bad, either.

Oh yeah, I keep changing around my training here and there because it's an iterative, learning process. I registered for the Midwest Indoor Triathlon Series again, only there are only 3 races this time. I thought (because I am date dyslexic at times) that the first one was only 2 weeks after Goofy so I wouldn't do it, but then after looking at my spreadsheet like 10 times, I realized that it's actually 3 weeks after Goofy, which means I can do all 3 races! I'm actually glad it's only 3 and not 4, which means I will only totally trash myself 3 times over 6 weeks. Although once I am done with those (and on race days I will do the warmups and race and then finish out a long run afterwards), my training just gets, well, scary, but I am not going to worry about it now!

Also today around 12:30 I went and ran for 50', and it was a beautiful, sunny day and 52! We are just having our best weather ever for November, and I am (as are all other area runners) capitalizing on it. I went out with a lightweight long sleeved shirt on, but took it off after about a mile. I ended up doing one of my fastest runs in a few months! Since I nailed my tempo run on Wednesday and today went so well, it appears I have recovered from my last bout of run focus, and maybe even picked up a teensy bit of speed from it! This is just as I hoped! I'm not expecting to set any PR's at Goofy--I just want to be able to come out of it and recover fast and keep up my training momentum.

And to me, this is the name of the game. Getting my body used to this so that as I go longer and longer, I am still able to recover pretty quickly and move on. I was pretty amazed at how well I performed during ROTPM considering it was just 5 weeks after my best ever IM performance. And then I did some massive run training for North Face, and even though I pulled out at 35 miles (and in retrospect, it was due to guess what? SHOE LACES TOO FUCKING TIGHT!! And putting extra pressure on the tibialis anterior tendon which is all fixed up now), hey, it was still 35 miles, and I've come back pretty well from that. So I will want to be able to do the same after Goofy Challenge. But heck, Goofy will be all about fun and I am not worried about it at all. After all, it's just a marathon!

If I'm able to execute on all my other planned training for the week, I'll end up at about 17 1/4 hours for the week, not bad at all. If you had asked me a year ago whether I'd be training this much now, I would have said NO WAY! Just goes to show you how things change.

As to my ability to eat enough calories to keep with all of this, well let's just say my training is a bit ahead of my appetite right now, since it's just so foreign for me to be putting in this much this time of year. And I have come to really like salads with dinner, big ones, and that leaves little room for the rice or other starchy carbs which it seems I need. But I am paying more careful attention to the amount and timing of food, and when all else fails, I just drink another beer--it is carbs, after all. Let's just say I do not have concerns about eating too much. In fact, I have been munching on leftover Halloween candy for what, 2 or 3 weeks now, and it has no impact on me. Actually, sometimes concentrated calories are just what I need because I can't fit any more bulk into my tummy at night. All good, all part of this unique experience that I am putting myself through.

I have ups and downs mentally, and this is almost worse than Ironman training. It is like most of the day I have food, training, stretching, sleeping or other life organization in the back of my mind even as I am doing my regular job. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, and then I do something like my longest swim ever and I am all stupid happy. I wish I was training with someone else doing the same thing, but I don't know anyone else locally who is as stupid as I am! Sometimes I think I am too old to be doing this, but then I feel so amazingly great I can't believe it and figure I should just continue on. It is a rollercoaster, and I feel like I really need to cut loose, only the big goal is always looming so mostly I don't. I do intend to cut loose next weekend--pretty sad that the only way I can make myself do so is to do a fucking 1/2 Ironman on Saturday so I don't have to do any training on Sunday! But, hey, it works for me, and as long as I keep seeing progress towards the goal, I am basically happy.

Sometimes I don't know why I keep writing all this stuff down, but I guess some people like to read it to know what goes on in the mind of a crazy person who chooses to do this stuff. It would be interesting if someone followed me around with a video camera--I bet they would get some really interesting facial expressions. Like when I lift myself out of the pool after my Friday workout, or when I wake up on Monday morning and think about what I have to get done this week. Ah well...on that note, I must go and stretch now so I can be ready for the weekend's festivities!

Back to our Regularly Scheduled Training

This week I tweaked my Monday/Wednesday pre-swim routine to include standing on one foot a few times, at the suggestion of my bike fitter. So now my routine consists of 30-35 chinups, 60 pushups, 65-70 abs variations, 2 sets of 90" bridges on each side and to center, and standing on one leg. I still want to add jump rope to the mix, but will wait one more week as my legs adjust to running. All this takes about 20', and I've added a few more things to my regular strength routine as well, so somehow I ended up doing almost 2 hours of strength work this week. Oh well, I need it, with all the swimming I'm doing and making myself strong to withstand the amount of training I am throwing at myself.

Running went well this week--on Wednesday, the body decided it was ready for some 5K pace work, even though I was trying to hold back. Oh well! Sometimes you just need to let things happen.

Weather here has been mild for this time of the year, so all my running has been outdoors. Tuesday I biked outdoors on the MTB, since I just couldn't see being inside when it was so nice. Thursday brought some extra stress, so I decided to skip my bike workout, figuring I might make some of it up on Saturday.

Friday morning I did my longest swim workout to date--6200 yards--and it went well. I got in and started swimming and thought it was a good day to swim continuously, which I did for 5,000 yards, and then I kicked 700 and did backstroke for 500 (I'm adding backstroke in here and there just to balance out my over developed pectorals). I'm already ahead of schedule for my Friday long swims, and it got me to thinking about looking at other training I have scheduled for Fridays which is usually a run. Well I'm OK running on the same day as 2-2:15 worth of swimming, but once those swims start taking 2:30 or more, I'm not so sure. So today I once again tweaked the training plan to account for that. I can move those Friday runs to Tuesday or Thursday depending on what else I have going. But I did run on Friday, and it was a good run.

Yesterday I was thinking I'd do 1-1:30 on the bike indoors and then head outside and make up a little for my missed Thursday workout. Instead, I started out by raking leaves for about 1:45, and while I was out there, for some reason I thought I'd see if I could fire up my old Trek road bike which hasn't been ridden since 2006, which is when I got LGL. So I took that bike down from the hooks in the garage, pumped the tires and lo and behold they held air, waited a few minutes, wiped down the frame, lubed it up and got ready to ride.

I thought I'd ride for 2:30-3:00, but ended up around 3:20, maybe 56 miles, but who knows since I had no computer. And I bonked nicely, recalling I hadn't really eaten enough carbs on Friday night. I am still getting used to fueling myself for these really long swims--I know to eat well the night before, but need to get used to eating more the day of, too. Finished up the ride and was plenty tired and bonky, but slammed down some leftover Halloween candy (Juicy Fruits) and guzzled some Gatorade and took off for 1/2 hour run. Oh boy, I felt like I was running through mud, but really didn't do all that bad and did my :30.

Needless to say, I ate a lot yesterday, or so I thought, but in retrospect should have had more. When I woke up this morning, it felt like I had a hangover, but I couldn't have (2 beers), so figured it was just the shock of 4 hours of working out (more like 6 if you count raking leaves). Still, I wanted to go for a 1:30 run today, so luckily I had defizzed a can of Coke for the run, and decided I better slam one down before I started, too.

I went to Waterfall Glen and felt like I was really struggling. So much so that I thought of just bagging the run, but then I thought, hey what if I feel like this in Ultraman am I going to suck it up or what? So I kept going, and was even managing a decent pace, although I stopped every 1/2 mile or so just to stop and stretch and continued on. I managed to get in 10 miles, and I had packed a swim bag, but on the way home I was thinking food seemed like a better idea than a recovery swim. But I went to the Y anyway, and even though I took my sweet time on deck, once I got in and started swimming, it felt great, so I got in 1200 yards, showered and hit the sauna, and went home to have lunch.

I spent the rest of the day just relaxing, and now I've got dinner going (roast chicken w/garlic, lemon and rosemary, cranberry sauce which is done, and steamed asparagus once the chicken is just about ready), and have things ready to go for tomorrow's AM core workout and swim.

The Midwest Indoor Triathlon Series has been announced with official dates. There are only 3 races next year, and the first one is 2 weeks after Goofy Challenge, so unfortunately, I won't be doing that one, but I'll do the other two. It's sad that there are only 3 races, but for me, I guess it's a good thing because on the week of those things I just about thrash myself training, and next year's schedule is worse than ever.

At least once a week, I get to thinking about what I am trying to do in training for Ultraman, and I have this huge sense of fear. Which, I think, is healthy. I look at my training plan and wonder how I will get it all done, but then I put myself back in the moment of today, of now, and enjoy the fact that I still have some time on my hands on the weekend where I can enjoy cooking, reading and spending time with family and friends. When I am training, I have a smile on my face, and I know it because I get a lot of people smiling back at me. As long as that keeps up, I will maintain my motivation!

Game On!

I went back to the ortho on Wednesday to hear the verdict. Truthfully, I was thinking not a stress fracture, as I had zero pain doing a fairly hard bike workout and just standing on the right leg was causing no pain. However, I continued to feel some pain around the ankle which I think is the tibialis anterior's tendon that is inflamed. Swimming--no problems. Biking, no problems. Elliptical--no problems, but I hadn't tried running.

Ortho walks into the exam room with the bone scan reading (I had brought along the pictures), and he shakes my hand and says, "You don't have a stress fracture." Much as I wanted to jump up and down, I just smiled, and said, "So, full weight-bearing OK?" He said yes, do some extra anterior leg strengthening for a few weeks (I actually plan to add a few exercises to my weekly strength training for this anyway), of course be cautious about ramping up too quickly (duh), and he noted that there is some degeneration in my left foot that I should probably have checked out. I did not know this! My guess is it's a hold over from when I originally tore my ACL way back in 1985. I have never felt like I was having issues with that foot, but it is probably prudent to get it checked out, and besides, I could use new orthotics.

As good as that verdict sounded, for me, nothing will matter until I can return to normal running. But on Thursday, I did the leg portion of my strength workout and had no problems doing it along with another hard bike workout. On Friday morning, I had scheduled 5500 yards for myself, but I was at the pool early enough that I had time for 6000 and was feeling great, so I went ahead and got a big swim done.

Mid-day Friday I went back to the Y to get on the elliptical. I thought I'd give my legs a break for at least this week which wouldn't hurt in the big scheme of things. I did 30' on the thing, and then thought, why don't I try some strides on the track? I did, and it felt weird because of how elliptical is way more hamstring dominant, but my quads felt fine, no shin pain whatsoever, but just a tad of right ankle. Oh well, no harm done as long as there is no increase in pain afterwards.

Which there wasn't. Yesterday it turned into a glorious day, and I was hoping I could ride outdoors since the times I can do that between now and March are going to be few and far between. I didn't know how my ankle would fare under real road conditions, though. Since I was adding a (relatively) lot of biking to the week, I decided to ride the MTB which would guarantee that I didn't push myself too hard. As soon as I headed out, I could sense I was going to be just fine. I ended up riding for 2 hours, enjoyed the hell out of it, and even stood up a few times with no ill effects!

On my plan, I had a 30' run scheduled for yesterday as well. But since I had plenty of other things to get done yesterday, I figured I had better get on it right away. The last time I ran after biking was...ROTPM! I decided I'd try actual running, and if it didn't feel good or right, I'd just call it a day.

Although my legs felt like cement because of not being used to biking before, and I had biked 2 hours which was my longest ride in 7 weeks, and because I have to run up hill from my house, it was entertaining. But my ankle did not hurt! I was just so happy to be able to run that I know I was smiling like crazy, even though I felt like I was hardly moving. But it was November, I was wearing shorts and a bra top and sunglasses, so what was there not to like? I decided I didn't need to run for 30' and that 25' would be just fine, and even though I felt SO slow on the way out, I ran pretty well on the way back home. I was just so happy that I could run and hoped I could go longer on Sunday.

Today we got the beautiful weather again, and I decided I'd drive to Greene Valley so I could run on the crushed limestone flatness. While I was sweeping up some pine needles in my driveway, my ankle didn't feel perfect, but it may have been because I was on asphalt, who knows? At any rate, the plan was to go to Greene Valley, plan on running for 1:10 if I could make it that long (and if not finish on elliptical), and then head to the Y to swim 1000 just for recovery purposes.

I started running and felt absolutely nothing in the shin or ankle right off the bat, and after about a mile, I was pretty confident I could do an entire loop (6.9 miles), and maybe even a little more. I got the whole loop done and headed out for a bit more to get in the full 1:10 of running, and ended up just over 8 miles total!

I guess I'm done with elliptical trainer now (truth is I can't stand it--worse than a treadmill), but I will continue to be conservative in ramping up the running between now and Goofy Challenge. I was thinking earlier this week that I might just do the half marathon, but unless something changes for the worse, I will be doing the marathon as well. Whereas I was doing a run 5'/walk 1' thing for North Face, fuck that, I plan on just running at Goofy so no more planned walking. Besides, I get plenty of breaks running at intersections. The Goofy courses are flat, flat, flat, and so there is no need for me to do all the hill running I'd done for North Face, which gives my legs a break, plus I will be doing plenty of treadmill running between now and then (unless we get very little snow which would be fine by me in which case I'll be running outdoors). Silly me for looking forward to another marathon, huh? But in the plan for Ultraman, I need to keep exposing myself to as much running (and swimming and biking) as I can handle without breaking down.

My ortho gave me a scrip for extra-strength Naproxen (Naprosyn, it's called), and I am taking it, and it seems to be doing something for me. I generally don't like taking NSAID's because they can mask pain that I should feel, but in this case, I am good with the 30-day regimen. I have been doing many things to test myself out to see just how recovered I am, and I'm coming along quite fine. I can do my ankle rotations now without any hitches or pain whatsoever. There is zero pain upon waking, and as I sit here post-run/swim, I feel fine, except for being a little tired, but I am happy for that feeling! I think that as long as I run on soft stuff (treadmill or my version of trail which is like carpeting compared to what I ran on 2 weeks ago) as often as possible, I will be good to go. My longest run pre-Goofy will only be 2.5 hours (maybe 2.75--we'll see), so I won't exactly be taxing my legs all that much compared to what I just came off of.

All good, I am just so happy that I am almost back to my usual self! After Goofy, I will be doing the indoor triathlon series again, which will be my only real racing next year before Ultraman. I decided not to sign up for IMFL 2010, as my cash flow is taking a serious hit already. I might do Silverman, I might not, I am just not going to think that far ahead. Besides, it would be enough for me to just do Ultraman next year. Cool thing is I found out and confirmed that my very first triathlon coach is also doing Ultraman! I still remember him telling me 9 years ago that I had no business doing an Ironman so soon (this coming from someone whose first triathlon was an Ironman), and at the time he was right, but I did grow into it, didn't I? And I guess now I am growing out of it in a way. I just don't know what I will want after Ultraman. Maybe a rest. Maybe an actual vacation without an all-day event in it. I have a big enough thing to worry about for now, and I guess I will just have to live vicariously through all the people I know who are racing.

For today, I am just happy I can run. And oh...


GAME ON!!!

A Week Later...

Last Tuesday, I got on my bike to try and go for a spin. I wasn't really in pain doing it, but decided 30' was enough, and when I got off, my right ankle was really killing me. So I decided I should go to the doctor to get checked out, knowing it would be primary care, refer to ortho and see where we go from there.

I didn't tell my PCP exactly what I was doing when I experienced the acute onset shin splints/ankle pain/whatever it was, just that I was running. Describing my symptoms in detail (acute pain, unable to walk without limp, redness over tibia) where I stressed I might have a tibia stress fracture, it was easy enough to get the ortho refer.

I went to the ortho on Wednesday, had the obligatory x-ray, which showed nothing, and got an order for a bone scan. The ortho I saw is really good--he pegged me right away for a competitive type, said he figured that if I'd never had a stress fracture up until now that my bones were probably in pretty good shape, but he recommended supplemental calcium/Vitamin D, which I am now taking. He told me to take this not because he thinks my bones are troublesome, but because he knows I want to stay competitive for many years. I told him I'd already tried swimming and it caused no pain, so he sent me off saying "if it doesn't hurt, it's OK to do." He said he guessed I probably have a stress fracture.

Note that on Monday when I tried to swim, it hurt to push off the wall because my quads were still so messed up that THEY hurt, not my shin/ankle. But on Wednesday I swam pretty much business as usual and it felt good, and I had no issues extending my foot, kicking was fine, pushing off the wall was fine. I scheduled my bone scan for Thursday afternoon.

I decided not to try biking again for awhile just because my legs are probably beat up from the 35 mile run anyway, and my legs could use a full week of rest. I did lift on Tuesday, but nothing to do with my legs. Upper body feels great, actually.

The bone scan was kind of fun, because I could see my bones on the screen as the gamma camera was taking the pictures. The picture above is me! I'm glad they did a full scan, because any issues with my bones will show up. The front of my ankle hurt that day, but I wasn't sure if it was because of driving and the position of my right foot, or all the walking to/from my car at the hospital (I went once at 3PM for the radioactive injection then back at 5:30 for the pictures). I won't know the final results until I see the ortho again on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I went ahead and researched aquajogging, in case I am relegated to that for a number of weeks. I found a pretty good program that would keep me run fit, although it would be boring as all hell. But if I have to do it, I will.

Since I am very familiar with minor aches and pains occurring over my musculature and trying to diagnose the cause, or at least the causal muscle, so I can do whatever body work and stretching to fix myself, on Friday I began in earnest to see if I could hunt down what is going on. A tibial stress fracture has the same symptoms as shin splits (or as it's now called medial tibial stress syndrome), and there are other lower leg muscles that can generate pain where I was experiencing it. Other than in the actual race, I am not having pain over the tibia itself anymore, but it seems to be lateral on the lower shin and then right across the top of the ankle, which is where a number of lower leg muscle tendons come in to control the foot.

My suspect muscles are tibialis anterior and the peroneals. Whether or not I have a stress fracture, these guys are pretty pissed off right now, so I've been doing trigger point work on them and also icing my upper shin, because no matter what happens, they need to be restored back to health. Oh, and I worked on my quads all week and while they aren't 100%, I am good up and down stairs and normal quad stretches. So that's good!

Yesterday morning I decided I try and go for a really short walk (.5 mile) to see how walking feels. I was fine for about 1/4 mile and then the ankle was not very happy. Good to know! I then raked my back yard again, which in retrospect may not have been a good idea to be on my feet like that, but at least it was soft ground, and at least I could use my right leg to tamp down the leaves in the yard bags! I get so excited for little things that I am able to do!

I headed to the Y for a short swim, but thought just for the hell of it, I'd try out the elliptical. Good news! I was able to use it with zero pain! I only stayed on it for 10', though, because I just don't want to push things this week. Still, I was happy, and optimistic that at least I could do this rather than aquajogging, and even if I don't have a stress fracture, 2 weeks of elliptical will be good for me to ease back into running.

I ended up swimming 2,000 yards yesterday, and I must be getting into swimming, because if lap time hadn't run out I would have swum more. When I got home, I made my (should be) world famous tuna salad that should last me a week's worth of lunches, prepped a roast chicken and answered the doorbell for what turned out to be far less trick-or-treaters than I'd expected. Which means I have a bunch of leftover candy, and I am just as weak as anyone, so I will put it out of sight where it will come in handy once I'm able to ramp up my training hours again.

Today I thought I'd try and extend the elliptical a little more, so I did 20', and was absolutely fine. I swam 1500 just because I am not doing anything else. And yet I'm a little tired. I think that I am probably more tired than I think and needed some rest this week anyway.

So what's my plan? Normal swimming, substitute elliptical for running this week, try biking again on Tuesday (fingers crossed!), see the ortho on Wednesday and go from there. Even if I do have a stress fracture, if I can get back on the bike, then effectively I will not need to adjust my training all that much except maybe weight bearing strength exercises. But I will ask about those as well, because there are so many different things that I do that for someone to say "off your legs" would be ridiculous. I will, however, honor my body, and its need for rest, and am prepared for this coming week to be a little lighter than normal. If biking doesn't pan out, I'll do a little extra swimming. Hey, why not, right?

Why Does Everyone Think I'm Bummed Out?

It is really interesting to me that some people are treating me like I failed and assume that I feel really bad that I only went 35.3 miles on Saturday. That is not the case. In retrospect, jumping from marathon to 50 miles on trails might not have been the wisest thing that I have done (8 weeks after a double Ironman and 13 weeks after another Ironman), but hey, I signed up, and I went for it. Sometimes you have to push your limits to find out where they are, so that the next time you can go farther.

When I finally got around to calculating my splits up until the point I began walking, as it turns out I was averaging 13mpm. Considering the terrain we were running in and that I felt like I was walking half the time, I am very happy. VERY happy! I kept up that pace for 33 miles! When my shin started really bothering me, I didn't feel like I was out of gas in the least. Even though my quads hurt like mofos, I wanted to run. And it wasn't because I thought I was going to feel bad for stopping at 35 (actually 35.3 according to the race) miles, it was because I was enjoying running! Now you may question enjoying yourself when your legs feel like someone's been beating on them with hammers, but I was in beautiful woods, and the sun had come out, my feet were wet and muddy, but I was enjoying it!

For Ultraman, I will need to average 13:44mpm in order to make the 12-hour cutoff, and while the terrain will not be as bad, this will be after 2 days of beating the crap out of myself, so it will be no easy task. My legs will be very tired beginning the run, but in a different way. I hope my quads are still available, too!

Another positive thing is that my knees did not bother me. I took it in the quads, baby! So while I can always want stronger quads, I give them extreme credit for keeping my knees stable while running on such uneven surfaces.

My back never hurt, either. Not that I expected it to--I've been really hitting the abs/core stuff since ROTPM because I knew it would be an important component of my overall strength--but while I was out there, every now and then I would think, hey, other than the fact that my quads hurt, I feel pretty damn great! My upper body felt wonderful the entire time--I never felt fatigue there.

I had another opportunity to test out fueling for a really long run. It was cool, so I wasn't drinking as much as I would on a warmer day, but Coke did the trick, and I also had maybe 1/2 of a PB&J sandwich and a couple of cups of chicken broth.

I didn't get any blisters!

So, in summary, while I technically DNF'ed, hey, it was an awesome, awesome training day, and 35.3 miles is nothing to shake a stick at!

Now, about my shin--it isn't bruised. It was just red and inflamed, but the redness is already gone. I think my peroneal and possibly my anterior tib muscles just took it for the team. I am being very watchful, though, and this week is very flexible in terms of when I begin biking (or swimming, for that matter, although I will probably go mid-day today just to get away from work).

I ended up raking my entire back yard yesterday, which was an interesting task without quads. Normally, once I fill one of the leaf bags up, I stick a foot in to compress them, but no way I could do that, although when I almost instinctively did it, it made me laugh! So I had to use my hands. And then dragging the huge, heavy (the leaves were pretty wet from all the rain on Friday) bags (5 of them) to my front stoop was entertaining, but I was very careful and went slowly. I didn't feel tired at all doing the actual raking and bagging (about 3 hours of work), and then went to the grocery store.

As I was entering the store, one of my quads misfired, and I let out a little "ouch," and a woman behind me asked if I was OK. I said yes, that my legs just hurt from running 35 miles the day before. And this woman tells me hers hurt from running 3! I don't know if she misheard me or what, but it was funny to me. Sure, even a 5K hurts, but nothing like this! I was grateful for being able to hold onto the cart, which helped me walk better. When I went to grab some Lean Cuisines (I have one for lunch most days), a bunch more fell out of the refrigerated compartment, and it was like a complete tragedy! I looked at them on the floor for a few seconds, thinking about how I was going to pick them up, but I just took my time with my Frankenstein legs and got it done.

Raking and shopping and then going up and down the stairs in my house (which can't be avoided) is helping my legs to come around. I can already go upstairs without holding onto the railings, but down is still touchy. My feet are puffy, but I'll spend some quality time with them elevated today (just as I did yesterday), and I'll ice my right shin just to keep down the inflammation. I even stretched my quads a little bit this morning, and will do so intermittently today.

So my little experiment to train for a 50-miler has been pretty successful. I am glad I did this, I put a bunch of miles in the bank of my Ultraman legs, and now it's time to recover and begin my next training block, which thankfully, will include a lot of biking and really only modest running, culminating in Goofy Challenge in just 11 weeks. Now that will be easy, as this is my third time, and it's just 39.3 miles over TWO days! In the back of my mind, I think that if the stars aligned, I might be able to qualify for Boston, but the main point of the adventure is to have fun with friends and get in another good run training weekend.

Oh yeah, and when all is said and done, I will probably pick up a little run speed from this last 8 weeks of training. There were 4 high mileage weeks in there (and yes, my right shin is thanking me!), and all I need to do is recover from them and I'll be back in business.

On to Phase II of training for Ultraman!

North Face 50...er...35-miler

That's right. I only made it through 35 miles.

And now for the gory details.

I got up to Delafield around 3PM on Friday (eating a nice lunch before I left of a bunch of Swedish pancakes and 2 fried eggs, YUM), went to packet pickup, and on the way back to the hotel, stopped at the Waterstreet Brewery for dinner. Polished off some French onion soup (didn't eat the cheese, though), one beer, and maybe half of my main course of salmon over spinach linguine with a bunch of vegetables. Had one more beer back at the hotel and organized my stuff for Saturday.

It had rained all day Friday, but was calling for partly cloudy on Saturday. Still, when I woke up (after sleeping maybe all of 3 hours although I stayed in bed for about 7.5), it was misting pretty well. So the only change I made was to cut out holes for my head and arms in a large garbage bag, figuring the rain would stop soon enough.

Even without sleep, I felt just fine since I've been sleeping a lot. My legs felt good, having done a peppy 20 minute run on Friday morning. Stomach was good, too, everything felt good. I lubed my feet liberally with Vaseline, suited up and left for the race just before 5AM. Since I can't read up close with my contact lenses in, I couldn't really read the map, and turned off the first road too soon, but figured I had time and that the road I was on would surely run into the main road to get to the park.

I got to the race site around 5:15 and it continued to mist. I was happy I had my garbage bag on, although I could have gone without it, but I just do not retain heat well when it's cold. I think it was mid-30's at the start.

GO and we are off, and I just sort of stayed with a big group of people, hoping they wouldn't be going too fast, and as soon as we hit the first hill, everyone walked it, so I figured I'd be OK. Hit the first aid station faster than goal pace (14mpm was my goal), but didn't feel like I was pushing it in the least, which I can tell by my breathing. I didn't really need to get anything at the first stop, but I looked around and just went on my way. I kept the bag on because it wasn't making me uncomfortable or anything.

I kept drinking Coke and just running easy and walking up the hills. I had to be careful on some of the steeper downhills because everything was wet from all the rain plus there were lots of leaves, rocks and assorted twigs and sticks. Now even though I run on what I call a trail near home, it is perfectly groomed and there are no rocks or really much of anything to dodge, and this is where I think my training failed me.

About 10 miles in I could already feel my quads going what the hell? But it was just pain, and I was OK with that and knew that I could put up with a whole lot more to get through 50 miles. 16 miles in I finally ditched the garbage bag and discovered that I was in fact, pretty drenched with sweat, but it was ok, at least some of it would dry off. I was ahead of pace at this point, and except for my quads and a little pain in my right shin, I felt fine. I took some chicken broth with a quarter of a PB&J sandwich and that hit the spot.

The next aid station came fast after about 5 miles, and I was thinking, huh, this is the farthest I'd run since ROTPM, and even though my quads felt like hamburger, I felt good, except that thing on my right shin was starting to hurt more. The next leg was 7 miles, and I enjoyed it, because once I got there it would be my longest run ever.

Did I mention we ran through plenty of water? I didn't worry about blisters as my feet were well-lubed, and the cool water actually felt nice in a way. Oh and there was plenty of mud, too.

Approaching 28 miles, I could feel my right shin hurting a lot, especially on an uphill or downhill, but it seemed I could manage on flats. We had to run 7 more miles back to the prior aid station, and there was plenty of up and down in that, and about 3.5 miles out, my right shin was really, really hurting. I stopped and pressed on it, and it felt really bruised right over the tibia. I didn't really think I had a stress fracture, but it hurt so bad that I took some Tylenol and tried to soldier on.

That didn't last but another .5 miles when it hurt to even walk and I even limped when doing that. It was right then and there I decided I would just make it back to the aid station and pull out. It sucked to walk, but I could do it in a way that hurt less than running, but it still hurt. One guy ran by me and asked if I wanted him to send someone out to get me, and my pride got the better of me and I said I'd just walk it in.

I made it to 35 miles under the cutoff, and for a flash thought I'd try and go to 40, but I realized that I might be setting myself up for something really bad, so I withdrew, hanging out to wait for a ride back to the start with 2 more runners who had the same fate with different issues (one guy missed the cutoff and the other had been in pain far longer than I was).

As soon as I got back to base, I went to medical to get ice for my shin. Boy did that feel good! I ran into some friends and chatted. It kinda sucked that I went farther than 50K but did not even get a 50K medal, but hey, that's fine by me. I ate some awesome food, and then picked up my drop bags and hobbled to my car, and I mean hobbled! Getting in the car was no fun, but I only had a short drive back to the hotel.

When I stripped off my tights, I could see what looked like the beginnings of a big bruise over my right shin about 1.5" above the ankle. I got showered and then organized my crap, put a lot of stuff into my car and then came back up (I was able to take the stairs up) and got more ice and iced myself for about 1/2 hour. After this, I was able to walk semi-normally, except for the lack of quads.

I was pretty tired and didn't really feel like getting in the car to drive for another meal, so I ate a Clif Bar and had some beers (I got a growler at the brewery of their Oktoberfest, tasty!) and watched some movies and then drifted off to sleep.

I woke up around 5:30AM for a nature call and couldn't fall back asleep, so I got packed up and left town about 6:30AM. It was funny while I was driving that in order to use my left leg to brake (yes, I drive with both feet), I had to lift my leg with my left hand!

Now for the good stuff...what did I learn?

My training was spot on, distance-wise. I definitely had the endurance to complete 50 miles, just not on a trail. I maybe should have done a 3-week taper, but who knows? Still, I ran 35 miles just 8 weeks after double IM, and so I've gotten in 3 marathons + in just 13 weeks. I feel like I've acquired a new level of toughness in my legs. I might not be cut out for trail running, but that is fine by me. UMC is not trail running! I got to experience my legs being in a whole lot more pain than in an Ironman (in fact, once I pulled out, my first comment was that I'd rather be doing an Ironman!), and I am sure that will come in handy in about 9 months. I felt mentally OK with the time and distance and even enjoyed myself for most of the time.

Someone asked me at the finish area whether I was planning to go for another 50-miler before UMC. The answer is NO. I am still putting plenty of distance into my legs, and feel confident that by race day I will be ready, or as ready as I can be. Besides, I have Goofy Challenge in 11 weeks, and the recovery from a 50-miler doesn't really fit into that plan or even next year, but I will get in a few 20+ mile runs between January and July next year.

On the plus side, assuming this shin thing is just temporary shin splints, I should recover from this 50-miler attempt as for a marathon, and I won't run for a week. I will go for a swim tomorrow and see how biking feels on Tuesday, and then it's back on the wagon.

I may try and rake some leaves today if I feel a surge of energy. Or not. At least it doesn't involve stairs!

Ready for my Big Day

I am ready to go for the North Face 50-miler. All I need to do is get some more sleep tonight, then tomorrow morning a short 20 minute run, pack and drive up to Wisconsin.

I am feeling really rested for this, much like I did before IMLP. My body feels great, well except for my upper body which is getting used to all the hard swimming I've been doing.

Speaking of swimming, in just 6 weeks of focused work, I am getting faster! Now, I am just approaching what I was able to do in 2004-2005, but that is encouraging since it means I should be able to gain even more speed. Next week I begin doing pace test swims, and testing is what keeps me honest, so I'm looking forward to it. So far so good on those long swims, although I am only back up to 5,000 yards, but that will grow quickly in a few weeks. As much as I would like to swim more than 3x per week (frequency being a component of improvement), it is just not going to fit into my schedule most of the time, although between now and Goofy Challenge I should have time on Sundays to get in a nice 30-min. cool down swim after my long run. Mostly I need to build muscular endurance, and my 3 swims per week all work towards that, and my aim is to not slow down as I continue to add distance to my Friday swims.

This week I only did 2 swims and no riding at all, so my entire body gets to rest up for Saturday, and I haven't rested this hard since the last time I did Goofy Challenge in January, 2007. Well, I have rested AFTER big events, but I'm talking about tapering.

In looking at what I've accomplished since Revenge of the PirateMan, it's encouraging to me. Last year, for the first 6 weeks of my season, I got in about 58 hours of training. This year, for the 6 weeks after ROTPM, I've put in 85 hours, and if you add in the 11 hours of walking I also did, it comes to 96 hours of training. That is a lot for this early in the season, but based on how I feel, I must be doing the little things right in order to do that much.

My weight has hung out right at the 108 lb. mark, but I think I've leaned out just a little bit more, at least according to my massage therapist. If that's true, it means I've added a little muscle, and based on the curvature of my butt, I would have to agree. That's what running lots and lots of hills will do. But I have also been doing extra chinups and pushups twice a week before I swim, and I think my upper back and chest reflect that. It's amazing how little things add up, isn't it? I laugh at people on Facebook who tell me I should try P90X or some supplement stuff. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and have honed my body so much that I think I'm a pretty good judge of what it needs. In a few weeks, I will change up my strength routine a bit, incorporating some movements that were suggested to me during my bike fitting session. I didn't want to start on them before North Face because I wanted to not change too many things all at once. Even though I know my body pretty well, I know that change is an important part of the training stimulus. If I did the same thing every year, well, I wouldn't be improving too much.

So here I am at the end of my first training block for Ultraman. No matter how I do on Saturday, I will consider this block very successful. I have mentally and physically become reaccustomed to hard swim workouts, I have shown that my body can withstand some decent run mileage, and I have not become injured, all after having done an Ironman 13 weeks ago, and double Ironman only 8 weeks ago! If I pull off this 50-miler, it means I've done 3 marathons (4 if you want to count the 50-miler as two) in the space of 13 weeks, holy shit! That is something I never would have considered either fun or even possible just a few years ago.

Huh, well, all that's left now is to finish 50 miles on Saturday. I know I will have fun doing it, maybe not 100% of the time that I am out there, but if I didn't enjoy doing this stuff, I wouldn't do it. I received a book as a gift called "The Runner's Rule Book," and I love it because the first 2 rules are 1.1 Have Fun and 1.2 Expand Your Definition of Fun. While this book is only about running, in my case it applies to swimming and biking as well, and I don't know--I think I am just one of those people who really enjoys this stuff. I see too many people out training that aren't smiling and it makes me wonder why. Sure, there are times when I'm pushing hard and that ear-to-ear grin may be absent from my face, but most of the time I'm just happy that I can do this, and I thank my body, mind and soul for the experience, and it shows on my face.

Well, I won't be checking back in before Sunday, and hopefully I will be able to say I've run 50 miles all in a day!

Taper Kicking in Nicely

After last week's pile of running (after already having decided I would only do a two-week taper, since I only had 8 weeks between ROTPM and North Face), I made sure I checked an actual training program for a 50-miler to make sure I did an adequate taper.

Originally, I had myself doing a 2-hour long run this week, but instead that got chopped into (2) 1-hour runs, which was fine by me.

On Monday, I was predictably fatigued, and opted to let myself sleep in, and then I swam around noon, and it felt good to do it. On both Saturday and Sunday prior, I had wanted to do recovery swims, but was more interested in food, stretching and resting than another workout, so the Monday swim was nice.

I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to run on Monday, and it was funny when I went back and looked at some ultra training plans that called for not running the day before and day after these long runs, but of course, I am used to that, but in this case, I knew my legs could use the rest. I have run the day before and the day after every other long run I've done for this segment of my training.

But even though I wasn't going to run Monday, I felt like getting in some strength training, so I did that and it felt good, too, especially since I tapered it down to one set of 15 reps, which is pretty damn easy.

Tuesday called for a :30 run and 1:30 bike, so I decided to get the run done in the morning, and my legs felt pretty peppy, although sidewalk and asphalt feels like crap after the nice, soft trail runs over the weekend. When I got on the bike, I felt like going hard, and so I did.

Wednesday morning was another swim, and then around noon it was time to go run for an hour. Even before I got started, I could tell my legs weren't too interested in running, and I ended up having one of the crappiest runs I've had in a really long time. Part of it was because I think the hard ride on Tuesday wasn't exactly good for recovering from the previous week, but also on Tuesday night I had dinner with my niece and some of her friends (they call me "Auntie" which I think is so cute), indulged in things I wouldn't normally eat, and my stomach was just a mess while I was running on Wednesday. Oh well, one crappy run does not a race make or break, and I knew I wouldn't start feeling tapered until maybe Saturday, so on with the show.

On Thursday I was going to do another 1:30 ride, but I could tell my legs weren't feeling like doing it. Still, I got on the trainer, and 1 minute later, I decided that nope, this ride was not happening, it wasn't necessary, and in the big scheme of things, might even hurt me. So I rested the legs and felt better for doing so.

Friday morning I had a 5,000 yard swim planned, and when I woke up, I felt good and rested for it, and ended up swimming 5300 yards just so I could make it an even 3 miles! Afterwards, I felt no more tired than I used to feel after maybe 3,000 yards, so I have declared 5,000 yards to be the new 3,000 yards! Which is a good thing, because between now and Ultraman Canada, I will only have 5 more Friday long swims which are shorter than that!

All I had to do Friday afternoon was another :30 run, and although I took the first mile out easy, I picked things up and ran around 5K pace for the remainder, and man that was fun! I found it entertaining right after I finished that I had swam and ran about the same distance, and I thought ahead to coming Fridays when the swim and run will be the same distance. It feels somehow Zen to me...

Yesterday I let myself sleep in since I only needed to run for an hour, but I did need to run with a hydration belt as I will do in the race. I bought a new one at REI, but decided I'd go with the double bottle Fuel Belt that I already had. I filled both bottles even though I didn't need hardly any of the fluid at all for just an hour just to get used to the weight on me.

Boy am I glad I am a few pounds lighter than last year! When I first started running (at Waterfall Glen), I was like, ick, it sucks to weigh this much, but then I got used to it and was fine. Thing is, my waist is so small that I have the straps tightened as much as possible and I still have the Velcro part overlapping way more than it's supposed to, but at least it stays on. I did my run 5'/walk 1' thing, and didn't feel particularly peppy yesterday, but I still enjoyed the hell out of a 1 hour run that went by so quickly.

Just as I was about to leave, I spotted someone getting out of their car, and I recognized a friend, Chad, from behind, called out his name, and chatted with him and his wife for a few minutes. I told them about what I'd been doing and my training, and they both assured me that what I've done plus my background I should be fine for 50 miles. But still, this is something I've never done before and I am sure it will be new territory for me. But hearing a few ultra distance athletes that I highly respect telling me I'm good to go felt good.

Even though I only ran an hour, I felt suitably tired, which is pretty normal for a taper for me. Still, it was nice to have pretty much most of the day to get some chores done, and then I needed to get to sleep early so I could run this morning in the dark.

Why? Because I had to try running with the headlamp on (North Face 50 starts at 6AM in the dark and you are required to use a headlamp). I bought the thing weeks ago but hadn't used it, so today was the day. It was about 30 degrees this morning, but no wind, so actually quite pleasant. I woke up before the alarm went off just before 5AM, drank 2 cups of coffee and ate a Powerbar, loaded up the Fuel Belt bottles again so I'd have all the weight on me, strapped on the lamp, and got going just after 6AM.

Right away I noticed how interesting my breath looked in the cold air under the light of the headlamp, but other than that, it wasn't a big deal. Although with all the light pollution where I live, it wasn't exactly pitch black. Still, I had to watch where I was going, using the light coming from my head. The weight of the thing didn't bother me, but once again I thought thank God I am so light because of all the extra weight I have strapped to my body!

I didn't feel like run/walk this morning, so I just ran nice and easy, but negative split and enjoyed the run, and now I feel like the taper is really kicking in. I never did drink anything I had carried with me, and as soon as I got home I fixed myself another cup of coffee. Hot coffee after a cold run is the best!

Tomorrow I will only swim 3000 yards as my long swim (ha ha like 3000 is long), a short run, nothing on Tuesday, a shorter swim and run Wednesday, and that's all she wrote. I am just hoping it doesn't rain on race day, but if it's in the 30's when we start, no problem.

Fill in the blank: The thing that helps me recover the most is _______________.




The correct answer is SLEEP! I have been sleeping like a champ since June, and my training and racing has reflected it. In registering for Ultraman, I know that it is critical that I get as much sleep as I possibly can, even if that means I have less of "a life" than I did before. So this coming week I will continue to get 8.5-10 hours a night, knowing that the night before North Face I may not sleep too much, but that's OK.

I am oddly calm about all of this, but I remember feeling the same way before IMLP this year. I think that's a good thing.

Gone Private Here for a Bit & Tapering

Sorry about that. I have my reasons to keep things on the DL for a little bit.

Anyway, I am officially tapering for North Face 50-miler. I am scared shitless about it, never having run more than 27 miles at once. I really hope I can finish it under the 12-hour cutoff, but one never knows, right? It is good for me to be humble.

I did as much preparation for this as I could considering that just 6 weeks ago I did a double IM over 4 days. The week after that I did zero running, so effectively I have had 5 weeks (I'm only doing a 2-week taper whereas most would do 3 weeks but I figured I needed the extra week of mileage) to get in as much running as possible.

Including yesterday's 3.5 mile run, I got in 210 miles of running in 5 weeks. This week I will only put in about 25-28, and then it's game on. I won't know the weather until the day before effectively, but at least all I have to pack for is one sport!

I had a few people who said they would pace me, but that has fallen through. I still wish I had someone to run the last 15-20 miles with me, but then again, I am pretty used to being alone with myself inside my head and this is going to be something completely different!

Even though I'm tapering the run this week, I am not tapering on swimming or biking until next week. I won't really feel like I'm tapering until Saturday when I only have to run maybe 6 miles instead of, oh, 17-20! I am trying to get lots and lots of sleep and will be clamping down on my nutrition in a few days.

A nice side effect of all this running is that I have been enjoying running outdoors in the cooler weather. For the last 5 years or so, as soon as my triathlon season was over in August or early September, I would immediately switch to the treadmill. Now, I am not looking forward to it so much, and will try and run outdoors this winter as long as I feel the footing is safe. The last 2 winters here we've had so much snow and ice that I just haven't felt safe running outdoors much at all, and even if the roads are clear, that's not great either because cars are trying to run you off. But we shall see. I really should buy a treadmill for home, and I may start scouting out used ones. That would mean only driving to the Y to swim three times a week.

I should stop thinking so much about the future right now and just focus on what I need to get done next week. This is a huge step for me, and if I'm able to complete the damn thing, will go a long way towards my confidence for Ultraman.

Reverse Goofy Challenge Weekend

Goofy Challenge has the half marathon Saturday and full marathon on Sunday. This weekend, I ran just over 19 miles on Saturday and 13.75 miles today. Not a lot for an ultrarunner, but plenty for someone like me who is a triathlete first.

My run training has been going pretty well, and I've been getting the hours in that I had hoped for. This week, I wanted to shoot for 8 hours of running, including back to back long runs of 3 and 2 hours. I've never done that before, even in the past when training for Goofy Challenge, but I figured what the hell, all I can do is try.

Part of me thought I should do the shorter run Saturday because I know for sure I could run the day after a 2-hour run--I do that all the time in training. But running 3 hours the next day? I though it was more important that I got the 3 hour run in for sure, and then if I needed to cut back the 2 hour run, so be it.

On Friday morning, something in my furnace went kaput. It sounded like a motor about to die, so I had to shut off the heat until I could get a repair man in on Saturday. I went to the Y and swam 5,000 yards (including 2800 yards of hard intervals) in the morning, bundled up a little extra, worked, got in a 1-hour run on the treadmill mid-day, got a massage, worked some more, took a really hot shower and got to bed early, thinking I may as well get running as early as possible since my house would be cold.

Saturday morning I awoke to about 32 degrees outside and about 60 inside, but who cares, I am just going outside to run in colder temperatures! I'd slept in, but managed to get on the trail at Waterfall Glen just after 8:30. My goal was to get in 18 miles, but 17 would have been fine. I would do the run 5'/walk 1' plan as I'd done during last week's 18-miler. I had defizzed Coke with me in some bottles I'd received as a gift from a friend in Wisconsin that is in the Headhunters triathlon club. I needed to try running with a bigger bottle like I will do in the 50-miler.

I wore my good fleece-lined Pearl Izumi tights, a regular bra top, one of my long-sleeved technical Goofy shirts, my IMLP 2007 finisher windbreaker, my PI sushi hat and a pair of light gloves. Initially, I thought I'd run 9 miles, refuel and then head out for another 9 miles, but about 3 miles in I though I could go 12 miles on what I had with me, and then I'd only need to do 6 more which would be easier mentally.

I saw a lot of runners in there, and many of them were wearing shorts. All I could think is either I am a wimp or they are running short and fast. I was quite comfortable in all my outerwear, and never felt overheated. I kept to my run/walk plan except that if I was headed downhill and it was time to walk, fuck that, I just ran. No sense EVER in walking downhill!

When I was about 3 1/4 miles from finishing my first loop, a guy ran by me and waved, and I looked at his running stride and recognized him from the Y and called out his name! I thought it was so funny that I knew who he was by his stride, even though he was just as bundled up as me (which made me think we were the smart ones). Mike and I ran a few steps together, but then I told him to go on ahead since I needed to take my walking break and really wanted to stick to it. I am sure I will see him a lot this winter at the Y. He's really fast, has BQ'ed a few times, and is a really nice man, and it seems that whenever we talk, we are all smiles and laughs. It was nice to run into him!

Either I was tired from my accumulated training load or because of the cold or whatever, but I did the first 12+ miles at just over 9:35/mile, but I was happy because I was still well under 10mpm pace. I stretched a little bit, grabbed another bottle of Coke and headed out.

Mentally, I always want to slow down when I go out for another loop. I was OK with that plan yesterday, since I knew I had to run today as well. Since I'd gone about 12.6 miles on the first loop, now I had it in my head to get in 19 miles--may as well go for a nice, round number! When I got to mile 3, I was running even 10's, so I just ran 2 more minutes out which would give me 6.4 miles, so I should get my 19 in.

Even though I'd slowed down a bit on the second loop, I actually felt pretty strong and I am pretty sure I was smiling a lot. I was thinking about the training I was doing, that this has been the most concentrated running I've ever done, and that I'm feeling pretty good doing it! I was amazed that the run didn't suck at all, and that I really wasn't running that slowly for this distance for me. I was even starting to think I might be able to finish the 50-miler, but I had to recover from this run and get out on Sunday.

When I got home, there was a snafu with the furnace repair guy. My doorbell wasn't working since I'd killed the circuit breaker for the furnace that also controls the doorbell. But the guy didn't knock, either, and my car was in the driveway! So I had to call the place and let them know I was here, and the guy got here about 2 hours later than planned and had everything fixed pretty quickly. It was the blower motor which had died. I should get a whole new furnace, but at least now I have some time to think about it (and find the money!).

I stretched, and was pretty much glued to the computer watching Ironman Hawaii the rest of the day, but I could only managed to stay awake to watch Crowie win it. I was exhausted, and ended up sleeping almost 11 hours. I guess almost a marathon will do that to me!

When I got up today, I felt really well rested, and about the only sore thing was my calves for a few minutes. After I was awake for about an hour, though, I started to feel like I'd done something major the day before. But I didn't feel bad, and figured what else am I going to do except run? And I only needed to do 2 hours, so I figured I could get in 12 miles.

It was cold again this morning, even colder than yesterday, and I took my time, reading part of the newspaper, and doing some housecleaning. I figured today I would drink Coke before I started and then just use Gatorade, which will enable me to sleep well tonight.

Today I wore my other pair of thermal tights, a bra top, another Goofy technical shirt, a pink Nike running jacket, a Lake Placid beanie and gloves. I decided I'd head to Greene Valle and run the flat loop which is about 7 miles, and then run up and down the hill 2 or 3 times, depending on how I felt.

The flat part went well, and I held a 9:26 pace doing the run/walk thing, and I felt just fine, not cold, not hot. Once again, I saw a few runners in shorts and thought no way I'd be doing that.

Next, I drank some more Gatorade and headed out for my first hill repeat. I really wondered how this would feel, and surprised myself making it up the first time in 10:06. I was sort of shocked, especially since I'd let myself walk about a minute and change somewhere in there, but I figured, hey, all good, and then ran down in 8:08. Great! I assessed myself, took another swig of Gatorade and headed up the second time. I made it up in 9:55 and down in 7:57, so faster than the first time! I was enjoying the hell out of this, I don't know why--probably just because I was feeling so good considering I'd run 19 yesterday. The third time, I made it up in 9:54 and down in 7:52, and I know I was smiling the entire way down because it felt so good. I finished today feeling like I could have run more, but that's good, right?

So I ran about 33 miles this weekend (6 shy of Goofy, oh well), and did the longer run first, and ran well the second day, so that makes me feel really good. I got in 53 miles of running this week, and now I get to taper for a few weeks. I need to check around for some training plans to see what I should really do next weekend. I was going to just do a 2-hour run, but now I think I should do a 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. We will see! Whichever I choose, I know it will feel easy!

I actually feel pretty good right now, and the proof will be whether I can run tomorrow. Well, I'm pretty sure I can, but I might push it off until Tuesday. I do look forward to swimming in the morning since it will help flush some of this out of my legs.

I commented to someone on Facebook that I was starting to think I might be getting the hang of this ultra thing. I sort of wish I had another 4 or 5 weeks of mostly run focus, but this period I am sure will serve to toughen me up for the coming months. And oh, by the way, Goofy Challenge will seem fairly easy! How fun to go into an event having done most or all of the full distance in training! But I guess that is sort of my MO, huh? Although I've only done close to Ultraman over 4 days instead of 3. But it's stuff like this that convinces your brain that you can do it. And I know that once my head is on board, my body usually obliges.

So to Lee and some others who tell me periodically to do something I've never done before, well, I am doing that all over the place! Some days, like today, I really wonder just what all I can do. And that is a wonderful feeling!

Mostly Running

It's been awhile since I've posted here. I have been running a lot and sleeping a lot! It's been 10 years since I've primarily run trained, and I remember sleeping a lot back then, too. Of course, I am still swimming and doing a little bit of biking.

Last week I managed 47 miles running, 15 miles walking, 9900 yards swimming and only 31 miles biking. Training time was 13.7 hours; walking time was 3.7 hours. Should I be tired as if I'd trained 17 hours? Who knows.

Last Wednesday I needed to do one of my 2 long runs since I was traveling all day Saturday. I figured I could get in about 10 miles in the middle of the day (I swam in the morning). I ended up running around the block 6 times and then ran to a park and around a couple of times. I ended up doing some strength work after work as well.

Thursday I was trashed probably because I'd crammed in about 60 miles total running/walking, some biking, swimming over 5 days. I know, I know--that is nothing compared to what I'd done back in August, but this has been fast running, fast biking and fast swimming, plus 3 of those days I was working.

Anyway, I was smart enough to basically take Thursday off from training. I was scheduled to bike, but I figured I'd do a little on Saturday during my bike fit session and besides, right now is all about running.

Friday I felt fine (as I expected), and banged out a good 4500 yard swim and ran for an hour. Saturday I was up at 5AM so I could hop a plane to Philadelphia for my bike fit session. The flight was uneventful, and David's (Mr. Greenfield, the owner of Elite Bicycles) SO, Chryssa (not sure of the spelling) picked me up at the airport and drove me to the shop.

We started working around 11:30AM, but it wasn't having me sit on a bike and pedal. David is not your typical bike fitter. He observes you at rest, in motion, tests your various muscles for flexibility and strength, talks to you about your full medical history, how you train, what you do for a living. All of these things have a huge impact on how you should be positioned on a bike, and then of course, what type of racing you will be doing. I consider myself pretty flexible, and yet I was rated fair or good on a number of measurements, which David assured me wasn't bad at all. I think that on his scale, fair must actually be pretty good!

Anyway, after all this and some measurements, I finally got on a bike around 2:45PM, and we played around with saddles for awhile. David had already moved the cleats on my bike shoes (for both LGL and Bitch), and when I started pedaling, it felt pretty natural to me. We played around with bar position (the seat tube angle had already been adjusted for me), and we finished around 4:15. So I really wasn't on a bike for too long, but I went away with a prescription for some new or modified stretches, strength work, swim tips, running tips--what I got was a holistic look at myself and what I am trying to accomplish. I am so glad that I took the step to work with David, and am confident that I will have the best fitting bike I could have ever dreamed of!

Now that things have been measured, it will take some months before the bike is ready--in large part due to my pirate paint job! But that's fine as I typically only ride the road bike on the trainer during the winter, and don't get on the tri bike until May--although that may need to change next year. So now I just get to wait for probably 4 months, and then I'll go back to Philly so they can fine tune me on the bike and I'll bring her home. I don't have a name and won't confer one until I see it built! She is going to be one sweet machine!

When I was on the way back to my car in the airport Saturday night, I just had this feeling that I was due for my annual flat tire due to rim corrosion. When I got to my car, I was right! Funny thing was I didn't get mad or upset, I just got to changing the flat, and luckily the lug nuts came off pretty easily and I got the thing changed fairly fast, drove home and tucked into a few snacks and then bedtime.

Sunday my goal was to run 17 miles and walk 5. I let myself sleep in, and watching the weather forecast which called for maybe rain, I got my sorry ass to Waterfall Glen around 10AM. The objective for the day was to do run 5'/walk 1' which is what my general plan is for the 50-miler. I wanted to see what sort of pace I would be doing with that scenario.

I'd chugged a can of Coke just before I left, so I carried 12 oz. of Coke with me, which I figured would last me for one full loop (9.65 miles). I wore very lightweight zebra-striped tights with run shorts over them, a shimmel and a lightweight long sleeve technical top from one of my Goofy races. It was low to mid-50's, good running weather. Now, right when I woke up and as I began running I could feel my legs sore in all sorts of places and also my mid-back. This was all left over from David's poking and prodding plus sitting on an airplane for 4+ hours on Saturday.

Still, no matter how I felt I needed to HTFU and get this run done. There is nothing more motivating to me than knowing I am training to conquer something that I've never done before, as it puts the fear of God into me to make sure I am as prepared as I can possibly be.

I just hit my watch splits every 12' since otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep track of what I was supposed to be doing. I held myself to running when I was supposed to for the most part except when on a big downhill, where it would be stupid to walk. I was ahead of a 10mpm pace, which was just fine by me. Actually, that's the pace I should do my long runs at, but I usually run faster than that and it doesn't seem to harm me.

I got a lot of smiles at seeing my zebra legs, and even though my legs hurt here and there, I ran well and finished the loop in about 1:30. I stopped to grab another 12 oz. of Coke and stretch a little bit, because man my legs were achy! But this was good stuff, right? Because I bet they will feel like this for much of the 50-miler, and I will need to will myself to keep running.

Somewhere along the way, I'd decided I wanted to get in 18 miles instead of 17, so on heading back out, I decided I'd run to mile 4 and then another about .2 so I'd total 18. I slowed down just a tiny bit, which was fine (I could have started out slower, too), but I kept an even pace for the 8.8 mile leg. I was proud of myself for finishing 18 miles at a good clip for me, even though nowadays I always begin thinking about my ultrarunner friends and I think I am such a lame wuss since I am not running much at all compared to them.

Anyway, now it was time to do some walking. I'd brought a change of shirts, which was good, since my upper body was quite sweaty, I changed hats, chugged a bunch of Gatorade and grabbed another bottle of it for my next foray. As I began walking, my legs were really talking to me, but how bad could it be? I ended up getting in 5.3 miles walking (with a tiny bit of downhill running thrown in), so my total mileage for the day was 23.3 miles. Not bad!

Needless to say, when I was finished, I was pretty famished, and took care of that when I got home, thought about mowing the lawn and decided it could wait (I was too tired), stretched for 45', and got to sleep early. I ended up averaging 9:34/mile for the 18 mile run, which is faster than I thought I'd go.

Yesterday morning, my legs felt better than when I started running on Sunday. I kept thinking while I was running on Sunday that my legs didn't feel "running a lot" sore, they felt "somebody made me use parts of them I don't normally engage" sore. So I was happy that when I woke up yesterday morning that I didn't feel completely trashed. But I did feel fatigued. Still, I did a nice 2750 yard swim plus some jump rope, pushups, chinups and abs work before I began my work day.

I figured my legs would be "running a lot" tired from all the miles I'd gotten in the prior week, and they were, and yet I managed to run almost 7 miles mid-day, and it really didn't feel that bad. I was a bit slower than normal for the first couple of miles, but then I picked it up and was pretty much fine. It was during the run that I noticed just how hungry I was, and it's funny because I have no idea how many calories I am actually burning with all the running and walking that I'm doing, but it must be a lot.

I stretched really well last night, ate a good dinner and got to sleep early, and here I am feeling pretty good. Today is just a bike ride and some strength work. This weekend I'm shooting for a 2.5 hour and 3-hour run, but I have no idea whether or not I can pull that off. We shall see! This is my last big week before the race, and then I taper down and see what happens. The only things left for me to do preparation wise are to go running with the headlamp on, and this weekend I will try eating some PB&J sandwiches part way through each run and see how that works. Other than that, there's not much else I can do.

Good thing Ironman Hawaii is on this Saturday so when I get back from another 18-miler I can just lay around and watch that, and then Sunday is the Chicago marathon, which will also be broadcast, but I will probably be out running while it's on. Good luck to anyone racing either of those!

I Have a Plan

In the midst of trying to run (and walk) as much as possible so I feel ready for my 50-miler, I have been poring over my training plan. This has been going on for weeks now. I had a plan through the end of the year done about 4 weeks ago and had sketched beyond that, but was struggling with a few things like did I have a good enough swim program, could I actually run as much as I'm planning and how did this compare to years past in terms of a safe volume increase.

Almost every day I would look at the plan and think of additional things. I am finally settled on something that looks like I can actually do it. Well, on paper! Everyone I've talked to so far has said you don't need to train that much more than for an Ironman. Well, I guess it depends how you define "that much more!"

What I ended up with gives me almost 100 hours more training than my typical season, but a lot of that is crammed between ROTPM and Goofy Challenge, which is when I will be doing a LOT of running and more swimming than I would normally do that time of year. So basically, September-December are super heavy on the running, then I add back more biking and keep up the swimming, then a lot more biking basically. It will not be easy, especially the last about 16 weeks. But I didn't sign up for UMC with the idea that it would be easy. I want to be prepared!

So here it is in all its nutso glory...if anyone has comments or questions on it, fire away!




























Here is how everything adds up (ROTPM is not included in the totals) and how this compares to last year and my all time highs in each sport:











In case anyone looks at this and thinks "she will have no life," somehow I think I will manage ;)

Really Great Training Week and Planning Continues

I have been kind of quiet about my training lately as I have been trying to run a lot and not get injured. The amount and type of running I'm doing is different than before, because I'm trying to do back-to-back long runs on Saturday and Sunday (and leaving out, sadly, long rides). While I ran 52+ miles in a week just 4 weeks ago, since that was all done as part of a double Ironman training thing, I wasn't sure how quickly I could ramp up my running.

I knew going in that I couldn't train for a 50-miler the way one should, i.e., putting in 60-100 miles per week, because I just didn't have enough time between ROTPM and the race (8 weeks!) to increase my run mileage. I hoped that with my copious Ironman experience and general overall training volume that I could get away with less running than that.

I did read some stuff about how to train for a 50-miler and talk to some people, a few of which assured me that with my background I should have no trouble finishing. And that is what I am going in to do--not be fast--just finish. My body needs to understand what it's like to run 50 miles all at once, or at least I think it does. Some people who train for an Ironman have never run a marathon, and that's OK, but that's just not how I roll.

As the weeks since ROTPM have been marching on, I've been working on my training plan through UMC. I had put 3 key training weekends into it during the last 12 weeks before that will entail a very long swim followed by a 2.5-3 hour ride, a 100+ mile ride the following day and a long run the third day, so it's like the Ultraman format. But the question remained how to prepare for these events and how to recover from them. Hopefully, by the time those weekends come around, it won't be as big of a deal to recover from! At least, based on my experience, I recover (at least to the point of being able to put in the volume) pretty rapidly. I am already surprised at how good I feel post-ROTPM, and if you've been reading here for any length of time, you know that the week following IMUSA I logged 180 miles of riding and then went over 200 for the next 3 weeks, so I think that says a lot about my ability to recover.

But I have been being careful with this running thing, as it is the thing that will get me injured. It's been 10 years since I've just run trained, and even though I'm biking about 3 hours a week still and also swimming a decent amount, what I'm doing right now is mostly running. But 10 years ago I wasn't as dedicated to stretching, massage, icing and sleeping as I am now. Those things make a HUGE difference in my ability to maintain high volume.

Anyway, based on last week's running and how I felt during the past week (pretty good, albeit really tired Monday and Tuesday mostly from a wedding hangover ;), I thought I'd try and ramp up my 2 weekend long runs.

Yesterday called for rain beginning around 10AM, so I thought I had better sacrifice going to the farmer's market for fresh local tomatoes to the running gods. I went to Waterfall Glen with the intent to run 12 miles and then fast walk/hike 5 more. I hadn't run in Waterfall Glen since ROTPM, so I thought it might be interesting to see if my hill running had improved since I'd been running up and down the hill at Greene Valley.

I thought I could go 6 miles out counter-clockwise and then back on a 12-oz. bottle of Coke since I'd chugged another 12 oz. of Coke right before I started. It was a nice cool morning, and I tried to ease into things, and based on my first mile, I thought I'd chosen a good pace for 12 miles (about 9mpm). When I got about 5.5 miles in, I ran into a friend, Bill, and we chatted for a few minutes. He's doing a 50-miler on a relay team the same day I'm running 50 all by myself. I got him caught up on what I'd been up to (yes, I am SO narcissistic, but it seems people love hearing about my training/racing exploits, what can I say?), and then he continued on his way and I kept going.

The 6-mile marker came faster than I thought it would, and then I turned around to head back. Up until this point, I'd only walked the hills on miles 1 and 2, but vowed that on the way back, I would run everything. It's harder going clockwise, especially the mile between the 5 and 4 markers, since on the way in, it's a good downhill. When I got to the Mile 5 marker, I told myself this isn't any worse than climbing the big hill at Greene Valley. I thought back to when the last time I had run up this thing, and I think it's been well over 5 years! I headed up, and it was hard, but I just kept going, and it ended up taking me 9:20 to go up which is about the fastest (9:15) I've run up Greene Valley so far.

That made me feel really good, especially since there were hoards of high school cross country runners in there, and I didn't want to look too sluggish to them! As I got past the nasty part, I picked up some speed and even managed to negative split the 12 miles! I was so happy that I quickly went to my car and grabbed some more fluids so I could get going on my 5-mile walk.

About .7 miles in, another friend of mine, Mike, runs up on me, and it was funny because he is on the same relay team as Bill. So I commented how I'd run into Bill. I told Mike I was walking, but he said he'd slow down for me, so I guess I figured I might as well just run slowly, and we ended up running about a mile together, at which point, I told him I had better stick to my walking plan, and I let him go.

But in continuing my walk, I decided I could run anything mostly flat or downhill, and so I actually did more running than walking! I ended up at almost 17.5 miles total, and I was very pleased with how I felt. When I got home, I iced my upper hammies and quads, got in a good stretch, ate well, and got a great night's sleep (10 hours).

This morning when I woke up I felt just fine. I didn't feel like I'd put in 17 miles yesterday, which was awesome. The day called for sunshine, and I wanted yet more hills, so I decided I'd head to Greene Valley. My plan was to run 10 miles and walk 5, by running about 7 on the flats, and then doing the rest up and down the big hill.

I covered the first 7 miles in about the same time as last week. Wow, I am actually running pretty well still for the week! I took a short break to drink some water and have a gel back at the car, and then it was time to run up the hill. Here I let myself slow down a little bit, as my legs already had plenty o' hill in them for the week! But it didn't feel bad to run up the hill, and then I just let it fly running back down. I ran back up a second time, and was starting to feel a little tired, so I let myself walk maybe 30 seconds. That was supposed to be the end of running, but I just couldn't deal with walking down, so I ran, and it felt good, my quads were fine. I went back one more time and walked up the hill, but then ran back down.

Then, I ran into Ian, another friend, who I had expected to see earlier, but it was nice to see him. I told him I'd already been up and down 3 times, and he said he needed to do 2 repeats, so we got to share one together of mostly walking both up and down. It was nice to talk with him, since he's done and crewed for many ultras, and I still feel like I have no clue what I'm doing and he assured me I will be fine for the 50.

So for the week I got in 52 miles of combined running and walking, although most of the walking was running, too ;) Assuming I don't feel too trashed tomorrow, my goal for the coming week is going to be 60+ miles total. My 2 long runs will not be back-to-back, though, since I have to go to Philadelphia on Saturday for my custom bike fitting!!! Still, I am going to be walking as much as possible during the week and shooting for 15+ miles running on Sunday followed by 6 miles of walking. The following weekend I will try and get close to 50 miles total on the weekend so that I've covered the distance over 2 days, and then I taper down.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my training plan for UMC. I've got my swim training down, and I'm pretty set on the biking and running. When I add it all up, it's very high volume, but when I look at swim, bike and run individually and look back over the years at what I've done before, I've come close to each sport individually at one time or another, and (fingers crossed) so I think that putting all the highest together is something I can accomplish. Besides, the biggest jumps are for swimming and running, and the swimming isn't as punishing, and a lot of the run volume will be done between now and December, and so my base will be established and I will actually run less next year.

Anyway, it is all starting to look very doable on paper, and whether I still choose to engage a coach or not, I think I know what it takes for me to feel ready for Ultraman. As I said to Ian today, I do not want to think I am near just making cutoffs for any of the 3 days. I know the 3rd day (double marathon) will be tough no matter what, but I want to know going in that my legs know what that feels like several times before race day. And with my mega-weekends planned (well, we'll have to see if I can get through them!), I think I will have done everything I possibly could have done to be prepared. There are only 2 28-hour weeks in there, 11 20-27 hour weeks (about what I do for Ironman prep except the maximum weekly volume usually only goes to 22 hours). It is still more than I have ever done in a season, but I am already trying to make myself strong.

My massage therapist told me this week that my muscles are all getting thicker. My legs it's probably due to the hill running, my abs is due to extra abs/core work and probably also hill running (which works the lower abs nicely), and my guns are coming back from extra pushups and chinups!

Half the time I think I am nuts for doing all of this and the other half of the time I am enjoying the hell out of it. I think that if most people thought they could do this and see how wonderful it can feel that they would do it because there is something truly special in taking one's body to the place I am going. Please understand I don't feel like I'm anything special, and I am surely not fast, and I know there are many others who do far more than I do, but in a small way, I am starting to feel like one of those rare, odd people that you run into occasionally and wonder, "How do they do all that?" I wonder about myself, I am tickled to death when I meet ultrarunners and ultratriathletes and I still don't think I'm one of them, but I think my mind is already there. Now it's just time for me to bring my body along for the ride!