The Rest of the Birthday Week

This is really long...maybe 2 cups of coffee or 2 beers or whatever you like!


I took Friday off from work. For me, a rest day from training never feels like rest unless I am also not working. I wanted to be really rested for the weekend, and had a massage scheduled for 2PM. I did some organizing and cleaning around the house, including cleaning LGL prior to putting her on the trainer, since I figured that’s where I’d end up riding on the weekend. Turns out I didn’t need to change the rear tire (I put an older, worn out tire on the back for the winter), as the tires were already worn.

My house is only ever clean in the winter when the bikes, helmets and shoes are all put away. For the rest of the year, my kitchen table has one or more helmets, running hats, sunglasses, gels and other stuff on it. I put all that away!

I didn’t feel too bad from having already run 44 miles in 4 days, and thought about doing some core work. I didn’t really need to, but I felt a little restless only having put in about 7.5 hours so far for the week. I ended up doing a :45 session, which included some leg stuff (none of it was more than body weight), and it induced a bit of tiredness. I ate lunch—2 eggs over easy fried in butter and an English muffin toasted with butter. I had a craving for butter, which typically means I need some fat. I don’t eat butter very often—maybe once a month or less, including using it in cooking—so when I want it, I have it! Fried eggs are a comfort food that I’ve loved for years—they go down easy even when I’m sick.

After lunch I fixed my bottles (10) of Infinit, and it was nice that I had some left over from running that would get used. Then I had a massage, came home and showered, went to grocery store for basics, and then contemplated what to eat for dinner. I wasn’t really that hungry, but knew I needed some good calories in me for the weekend. I had wanted sushi, but wanted to save that for when I was more hungry. I had some leftover Hawaiian rice (I’d made a batch of this to eat during the week—brown rice, macadamia nuts, bell and jalapeno peppers, golden raisins, pineapple and garlic) and thought I should eat some more of it, but was sort of sick of it. Still, I couldn’t see wasting it so I had a flash that I should be able to make fried rice. So I located a recipe and made it. Using more eggs! I ate a big plateful of that for dinner and felt like I was set.

I woke up Saturday morning at 4:30 with the alarm and felt pretty good on 8 hours of sleep. I only ate a toasted English muffin with some sugar-free jam for breakfast, since I’d be in the pool soon enough and taking in calories there. Coffee goes without saying!

I’d wanted to be swimming at 5:45, since I needed to be finished by 8AM when Masters swim begins. I ended up starting my swim at 5:50, which made me smile since it has 55 in it! With about 200 yards to go, 2 of the Masters folks showed up and wanted to circle swim in my lane, which was fine. I picked up my pace a little so they didn’t have to swim around me. My total swim time, including rest and feedings, was 1:52. I never felt tired, but I was never sprinting, either. 5500 yards down!

I showered and did my usual post-swim stretches in the sauna, got dressed and headed home to bike and run. I felt bad that I wasn’t doing the Y’s Breast Cancer 5K, but I always feel I am out there setting a good example to others when I’m working out and smiling.

I’d finished the proper amount of Infinit while swimming (1.75 hours worth), and thought I should eat a banana, but didn’t feel particularly hungry. Still, I ate ½ of one, suited up for biking, and got on the trainer.

Well, well, well. I don’t know about anyone else, but swimming for nearly 2 hours tires me out somewhat, so I started out super easy on the bike, maybe going 16mph is all. Then it hit me that this wasn’t a race, that I was going to do the same thing tomorrow, so I figured I’d ride easy for 1.5 hours and then see what I felt like. So I stayed in the small chainring for 1.5 hours. My legs felt fine, but I suppose I was starting to feel the accumulated fatigue from the running I’d already done, and hey, I’m an old lady! I had absolutely no worry that I couldn’t complete the day, though. I have put myself through a lot worse in training. Still, I highly recommend doing really long swims (5500 isn’t really long but it’s long enough for some people) and then biking for at least 2 hours—it is just a different kind of “ugh” you feel.

I was on top of my Infinit consumption and managed to almost finish that banana along the way. After 1.5 hours, I switched to the big chainring and picked up the pace. I did ladders up and down the cassette for full miles, and then ½ and ¼ miles, just to pass the time. I caught some World Cup skiing on Universal Sports, but mostly I was just jamming to tunes. Lindsey Vonn won her first GS, which was cool.

I finished 55 miles in 3:05, which was good enough. I’d hoped to do it in 3 hours flat, but I haven’t really been on top of my bike fitness since August, so it didn’t concern me. While it was fairly nice outside, I opted to run on my treadmill, which would be easier on my legs, completely flat, and then I wouldn’t need to carry any liquids with me. The water fountains on my route have been shut down, and I would definitely need something for 5.5 miles.

I left my bike shorts on, since they provided some compression. Again, I decided there was no reason to push my pace, but after running super easy for about ½ hour, I decided it might feel better to run a bit faster. I ended up doing 5.55 miles in :53, for an easy 9:33 pace. I felt fine the entire time, and was glad to be running instead of biking! Which goes to show you that the more frequently you run, the better it feels. I had almost wanted to run on Friday, but stuck with the original plan of that being a rest day, aside from the core workout.

Stupidly, after I’d showered, I was in bare feet on tile floor and slipped, and my left knee (the one with no ACL) gave way. I didn’t fall down, but it’s never a good feeling to feel your knee twist and buckle like that. I had a slight concern this would impact biking and running on Sunday, but I wouldn’t know until then. It didn’t hurt to walk, though, but I decided to ice it.

I drank some Endurox and decided to stretch before eating, as I didn’t feel all that hungry. It is best for me to stretch right away after a workout, but it doesn’t always happen that way, especially on weekdays or even during the summer when I ride long away from home. But I know I should make time to stretch at least 5 minutes right away after a run, bike or swim, because that is when the muscles are already warmed up and receptive to it. The left knee seemed fine while stretching.

I ate a Lean Cuisine, as I was going out to dinner later and would chow down, yakked with a friend about training and racing for a bit, then went to get my monthly bikini wax. I was told there was a great Halloween display up the road—a giant Satan right across the street from a church! On my way home, I drove past it and laughed hysterically. I do need to get a photo of it, and also this great display I’d seen earlier in the week while running—it’s 2 life size skeletons playing tennis, with Frankenstein as the line referee, a really great looking giant spider on one tree and a raven perched on another dead tree limb. I have to get a picture of this one, too!

Next, I had dinner with my brother Mike, at Clara’s, which is a restaurant that makes all its pasta fresh. We shared a great antipasto, and then I had eggplant lasagna, or I should say half of it, and then spumoni for dessert. Before dinner, I’d calculated I needed another 2,000 more calories to break even for the day, and I think I got close, enjoying a couple of beers with dinner.

We ate dinner early, and I found myself feeling pretty worked over once I got home, so I watched maybe ½ hour of TV, and then headed to bed to read a bit and get to sleep early. I didn’t need to get up until 5:30 on Sunday, since the pool doesn't open until 7.

When the alarm went off, I think I hit the snooze 3 or 4 times, knowing that I had plenty of time to get in my swim with lap time on Sundays going until 11. Still, I didn’t want to dawdle too long, because fact is that I need to eat two meals after the workouts are completed.

I felt a little gnarly when I got out of bed, but not too bad. The left knee seemed fine, so after coffee, and this time, I had my usual hard-boiled egg with the English muffin, since I felt like I might be a bit behind on calories. I am pretty tuned in to my body and can distinguish hunger pangs related to time of day versus lacking calories from the prior day.

I began my swim at 7:21, so a bit late. I got in a lane with this woman that I don’t particularly like swimming next to—she has a wide arm swing on both sides (i.e., NOT high elbows). I keep wanting to tell her to get TYR paddles with a point on top—those will force you into high elbow or else you can’t swim with them. She uses rectangular paddles a lot, and I just don’t know what she’s getting out of them. Anyway, I knew I’d be there longer than her, so no worries. Swimming felt good, and I didn’t really feel tired. Of course, the prior week during my “taper,” I’d done back to back 4500 swims, so no big deal. Plus, while training for Ultraman, I’d typically swim up to 3500 on Thursday morning and then swim 2-3 hours on Friday morning. I know all of this swim talk is nonsense to lifelong swimmers, but I have only been swimming 11 years and do other stuff, too. My swim time for 5500 was 1:50, so a teensy bit faster than Saturday.

Once again, after I showered, I went into the sauna to do some upper body stretches and also just to warm myself back up. Even though the pool temperature both Saturday and Sunday was a bit on the high side for my liking, after I swim for 2+ hours, my core body temperature is lowered a bit, so a few minutes in the sauna is a good thing.

It was warmer outside on Sunday than Saturday, but I’d still need to bundle up quite a bit for outdoor riding, so I deferred again to the trainer. I wasn’t feeling calorie depleted, but had the desire for some actual food, so I opened a 200-calorie pack of cheese filled crackers to get some savory flavor going in my mouth while riding.

When I got on the bike, I noticed my left knee felt just fine, but that once again, I felt a bit whacked from the swim, and I suppose, from the day before! So I started out really easy. I don’t know what time it was, but once Universal Sports was active, I caught men’s World Cup skiing, and my country man Ivica Kostelic was in first place, and I watched Didier Cuche mess up his second run. I really like Cuche (or maybe I just like saying his name), and you know how the smallest stupid thing makes you laugh or smile during a long workout? Well, seeing that I tuned in just when he was coming out of the gates made me giddy. Dumb, I know, huh? Well then Ivica eventually got booted off the podium by Austria and France, and Ted Ligety was up. I like him, too, but he has been a real wild man the last few years. Still, he had been first after the first run, and I really paid attention to his second run. He nearly crashed out, but recovered from almost laying on the ground and went on to win the day! It made me laugh that it was October and I’m watching skiing already but then I thought there is always snow somewhere in the world! Just another one of those thoughts that enters my head while I’m doing long stuff.

Anyway, I stayed in the small chainring for 1:15 and then went into the big chainring. I was able to pick it up somewhat, urged on by the thought that the slower I went, the longer 55 miles would take me! I had hoped to go faster than on Saturday, and after maybe 25 miles I really, really wanted to just quit. It wasn’t that I was that tired, it was the usual why the fuck am I doing this, it doesn’t matter, it’s starting to suck. But I have found that it’s important to allow myself to have these thoughts and just really focus on them because I know that the switch will go off soon enough. And it did, and I kept going, if for no other reason than it was a commitment to myself.

Well, it took me 3:09 to go 55 miles. I almost stopped riding at 3:00 because I just wanted off the bike. Those mental demons trying to get to me again! It was pretty nice outside, and I could have run outside, but once again I didn’t want to carry anything with me so onto the treadmill I got. My left knee didn’t feel 100%, but neither did it feel like running was going to hurt it. I made myself go a bit faster than Saturday just because I wanted to be done with all of this. I ended up doing 5.56 miles (I wanted to end the week at 55.11 for some odd reason) in 51:30, or 9:16 pace. This run felt like ugh from the get go, and I think I must have been behind on calories, but even though I was, I didn’t want to put anything in my stomach, which is an odd feeling, but I’ve been there before. So, I just sipped a little Gatorade every 15 minutes, knowing I wasn’t running for very long and that I’d be able to eat when I finished.

I hopped off the treadmill and didn’t feel like eating right away just like the day before, so I rinsed out my bottles, drank Endurox, then finally showered and stretched a bit, and decided on eggs for lunch again. I suppose all the caffeine irritated my stomach a little bit, but I wanted butter, I wanted eggs! I laughed that I should have made Hollandaise sauce while I was at it! I should have, since I really love Eggs Benedict!

I ate lunch, briefly thought about mowing the lawn, but decided I didn’t need any more exercise, so instead I drove to Walgreens to get a Sunday newspaper and check out the Halloween stuff. I got some neat skulls on sticks that you can put into the ground, but I will put them out in the spring just because!

I put a chicken (stuffed with 2 heads of garlic cloves) into the oven to roast, and before it was done, I finished my eggplant lasagna from the day before. That was good, and then I had some chicken when it was finished but no dessert!

Today I am taking a rest day from training, and will see how I feel tomorrow—I’d like to hit the pool in the AM and then go for a short (1 hour) bike ride later in the day, maybe even outdoors!

Now I’m in the process of deciding whether to do Goofy Challenge again in January—my run fitness is pretty good, and I’d like to extend that streak and pretend I’m training for Ultraman for a bit. But then after Goofy Challenge, I would drop down to “regular” Ironman training to prepare for Ironman Canada.

It was a good 55th birthday week—I ran 55.11 miles, biked 110, swam 12,700 yards and did some core work for a total of 19.85 hours of training. Not bad for “not” training!

55th Birthday Week Workout Extravaganza!

I turn 55 this coming Saturday, October 22. I just did my 4th 11-mile run of the week, and my legs are sore. Let me be more specific—my quads are sore. Calves are fine, hamstrings are fine, quads are on Day 2 of DOMS.

Let me back up a bit. If you have been following me, you’d know that I took a 15-week break from running earlier this year due to a flare up of sciatica, most likely from some herniated disks in my lumbar spine or else just muscle imbalances. I began serious running again the week beginning June 13. Around mid-August, it dawned on me I was turning 55 this year, and it seemed a good excuse to do some training stuff I’ve never done before.

The logical thing would have been to run 55 miles on my birthday. However, I did not think this was a good idea, having only 7 weeks to build from a 31-mile weekly total to being well prepared for 55 straight. It would just hurt too much, and I’d need a good deal of recovery afterward. But I figured I could easily run 55 miles total for the week ending with my birthday.

But just running 55 miles in a week is not that big of a deal, and besides I would want to swim and bike. So to make it interesting, I decided to play around with the number 55 and figure out how to add in some swimming and biking to the week as well. I thought it would be fun on both my birthday and the day after to do a 5500-yard swim, 55-mile bike and 5.5-mile run. Now if I could complete that in 5.5 hours, I’d be golden, but it will take me a little longer. It should be more like 5:55! That is still good—all 5’s, right? Yes, I am a math geek.

So with the weekend workouts planned, the question became how to do the remaining 44 miles of running, and I decided that I would run 11 miles Monday-Thursday, and then take Friday off because I figured my legs might be a little trashed, and it would be good to rest up before the double NothingMan thingies. So that’s what I decided on. And then I laid out a plan to get me from point A to point B. I didn’t really tell too many people what I was planning, because a part of me didn’t know whether I could do it (and I’m not done yet, eh?). I’ve certainly run this much. I’ve done a ½ IM and full IM on back to back days, and I’ve swum over 12,000 yards across 2 consecutive days, and oh yeah there’s that one Ultraman I did. So really, this isn’t such an epic week (besides I hate that overused word), but its purpose is to celebrate that I’m turning 55 and I can do this, and it will help me decide whether I want to go longer than IM distance next year. In a silly way, it sets the stage for my next few birthday weeks, where I will need to add distance to each day :)

I am pretty used to training 2+ hours per day on work days, so going down to just 11-mile runs has been interesting. I am so damn efficient (and small) when I run—I only burn maybe 85 calories per mile. I ran outside on Monday and Tuesday on my usual semi-hilly route from home in the cold, blustery wind. My route was 5.5 miles out and back, and I was into the wind on the way home. I drank my caffeine-laced infinit, which was great, but caused me to not sleep well for 2 nights, so for yesterday and today I switched to just one can of Coke plus Gatorade. I just need to order up a batch of my custom Infinit with no caffeine in it, because I really did like using it for running. My outdoor runs were done as run 9’/walk 1’ and even doing that I averaged 9mpm both days! I figured I’d better do some walking lest I do the first run too fast and pay for it later in the week. I was kinda shocked I could still average 9mpm even with walking! When I had first returned to running back in June, I was doing that and averaging 10mpm, so even with absolutely no sexy run training (no deliberate tempo work or intervals), I’m doing pretty well again on the running front!

Yesterday the weather turned really windy and rainy, and I decided this was a good enough excuse to run on the treadmill. Plus, I run slower on it than when I do outside—I’m just one of those people that always runs faster outdoors than indoors, even though I know people who are just the opposite. I also decided that it didn’t matter if I only ran 10mpm on the treadmill. I mean, who cares? I’m putting in some good mileage.

Yesterday’s run came out to 9:47 pace, and today’s run was 9:34 pace. My quads were pretty sore after yesterday’s run, so I gave myself a good leg massage and did some good stretching. Today, my quads felt beat up after maybe 6 miles, but I knew it wouldn’t get any worse, so it’s all good. After I finished today, though, it was the first time in years where I could feel an ache in the front part of my psoas muscles. That used to happen regularly on long runs back when I wasn’t as fit as I have been the last 5 or 6 years.

I didn’t schedule anything besides the 4 11-milers through today, but this morning I just had to go and swim. Swimming loosens me up. It made me laugh that I was the fastest swimmer in the pool while I was there and I was just going easy. I could tell that not lifting this week gives me a bit more speed in the pool, and I do need to remember that, since I’ve been lifting heavier this year, and it will pay off eventually!

I really enjoyed my short swim—1700 yards—which felt like just a warmup, and I felt super smooth with great form. I can’t see myself just running ever again—swimming just feels really great, and I’ve worked hard to be decent at it, and I don’t want to have an emaciated upper body like some pure runners!

It’s been interesting these last few days in that I really haven’t needed to chow down like I usually do on weekdays when I’m putting in 2+ hours of training. Sucks. Oh well, I will really hit the feed bag Friday-Sunday evenings. My brother is buying me dinner on Saturday night and I’ve warned him I will be eating for two!

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from work, getting a massage, and maybe I will do some abs work, or maybe not. And fix bottles for the weekend.

I realize that in turning 55 that I will need to turn in my cougar card. I am already calling myself an old lady, but hey, I’m a super fit old lady, and happy to be so! I’ll post after I get through the weekend, assuming I get through it in one piece. I expect Sunday to be tough, but if it wasn’t, what would the point be? I will be starting my 56th year of life on a high note with the ability to take on any challenge I fancy!

On Training a Lot, Recovering, Planning, Weight, etc.

So my last post I realize was written from a perspective of having actually been training quite a bit. Lucky for me, I keep detailed records of my training, that includes assorted notations such as getting sick, skipping workouts, shortening workouts, other life activities.

When I went back a ways and looked at things, it was clear that I've actually been training at a pretty high level for many weeks. DOH!

I have officially passed a full 12 months without doing an Ironman or beyond. In 3 weeks, I'll have passed a full 12 months without running a marathon! The tug of long is still there, and I will find ways to experience it without a 4+hour single run or 12+hour single training day for a few months yet. I, like many people I know, have a warped sense of what constitutes "a lot."

This week I am unloading from 5 weeks straight of pretty good training. I am in good enough shape for an Ironman--not a best effort, but maybe like 14-15 hours. I've had to let biking take a back seat to running, which is fine, and will also set me up for the winter months of Ironman prep training with shorter, more high intensity biking, and the same for running. I'm feeling pretty good about my running right now--on Saturday I ran 14 in the flats of Greene Valley and capped it off with 2 repeats up and down the big hill there, and it didn't even suck! Well the part where I was bonking after 14 miles sucked, but some more Coke perked me up and I absolutely loved the hill repeats!

I was reading on an old forum I used to frequent about racing "weight." While I may sometimes appear to be weight focused, it is really body fat. I will say it's become a tad more challenging to stay lean having gone through menopause a few years ago, but it still boils down to quality of diet and calories burned training. I eat less starch now than I did 2 years ago, having replaced it with more vegetables and fruit. I still enjoy a beer every day as long as I am doing quality training of at least 12 hours a week. I am lifting heavier than I used to but with less repetitions, and that seems to be good for my muscle mass and energy level. I know when I'm at an optimal body composition based on how I feel running up a steep hill and climbing on my bike up a steep hill. Time was when I'd do that and be thinking, "I wish I was lighter." Right now I feel just great in both situations. It's really subtle, but the sense of carrying my body uphill while running feels less like dragging and more like floating. If it doesn't feel that way, then either I am woefully out of shape or just plain too fat. Since my weekday running route features some good hills, I get many opportunities to test myself!

Periodically, I still weigh myself and take and record measurements just to see where I'm at and observe where my body wants to store its fat. The sad reality is that post-menopause my body wants to store more fat in my lower abdomen. Sucks, but it's true. So I will just need to continue vigilance in the name of vanity and competition! I don't want to have to go out and buy a whole new "I'm an old lady" workout wardrobe because I can't bear to bare my midsection any longer! Well maybe I do already look disgusting, but based on the looks I get while out running, I'm still way ahead of the game for my age.

While earlier this year I had trouble mentally coping with a period of injury and then a general decision to not race much at all, I feel pretty good about it now. I just read this article, and it really spoke to me. Over the last 2 years, I have added in more recovery weeks and days than I used to include in my training plans, and I could use even more. But underlying all my training has always been good nutrition, adequate sleep, regular massage and other ways to keep it real. I have no regrets about the past 10 years of high volume training, but I think maybe, just maybe I might have another good 10 years in me, so this recuperative period is welcome. Plus, in about a month I am going to have a serious sit-down with myself in terms of thinking about the "R" word (retirement), or at least moving on to something different. I'm not unhappy where I am--I don't really think too much about happiness as a general state of being--I am more interested in enjoying the current moment. And right this minute I am typing and haven't worked out yet today, but my body craves movement, so off to a short run I will go and enjoy the fact that it's still shorts weather here!

Am I Losing My Toughness/HTFU?

It's been odd for me to have taken almost a year off from serious racing, but I know it was necessary. One of the things it made me realize is that all the planning and travel associated with racing adds a lot of stress. It feels easy to me to be in a groove of just training--the eating to train, eating to recover, stretching, sleeping, fixing bottles, equipment care, etc. But then as soon as you are close to an "A" race, you are tapering, but much of that time subtracted from training is now being spent on packing, setting things up at work to go away, confirming and sometimes changing travel plans. I guess I'm really a homebody at heart--I really don't enjoy driving like some people do, and I am so accustomed to my serious quiet in the evenings.

So now that I am beginning to plan a year of training AND racing, and with all the experience I have behind me as to what works and what doesn't work (I learned a helluva lot from my first Ultraman training experience), I find myself in the midst of a training block and wondering if I can accomplish what I have set forth on paper. And I wonder if I am about to push myself too far given that I have only been back to somewhat serious training (even though it was without specific goals other than I felt I had the time and motivation to work out that much) for 3 months. I wonder if I really rested my body enough and whether I will still be able to do what I did a year or two ago. When I was in my 40's, somehow mentally I still had a picture of youth in my head. Now perilously close to 55, I'm not so sure how youthful I still am. Of course, I fantasize that I can still go head to head with people much younger than I am, but I won't really know until I formally test myself again, will I? Well, not that I need a formal test--as I said, I have one coming up in a few weeks that will tell me a lot.

About a month ago, I ran into someone at my Y that I hadn't seen in a while, and he asked what I'd been up to, and I told him that my body conspired to have me take some down time but that I was back at it just not so intensely. And he told me that last year while I was training for Ultraman that I had been "wacky." I didn't agree with him or react in any way, because I knew that his opinion was coming from his frame of reference. I would fully expect many people to view the process of preparing for an Ultraman as wacky, crazy, all-consuming. I can look back on it myself and know how utterly focused I was, day in and day out. I didn't want anything to get in my way or affect my plans. Nothing except myself. So yeah, when my custom bike wasn't ready when I'd expected, I freaked out. When my foot went south on me I freaked out. Who the hell wouldn't? Sure my mission was not life and death, but sometimes these things need to feel that way to you in order to give them your full attention.

Training hard and with focus to me is no different than someone mastering a musical instrument or a game like golf. I'm pretty used to people calling me crazy because the thing I'm trying to master has nothing to do with how I make a living but it has EVERYTHING to do with how I live! The notion that effort has to be associated with money is just stupid. And this is, I feel, why it's easy to become lazy and complacent about one's health, allowing it to deteriorate to the point where drugs and/or a serious intervention are required. But I digress.

So in having experienced a break and now being "in training" again (there, I admitted it), I wonder if when I feel tired or sore if I am just being a pussy or I just forgot what it feels like or maybe I am just old. Last Saturday, I ran just over 13.5 miles for the second time (the first time was a week before at IMWI) since January 31. I knew I'd made a training error going from about 10-11 miles to 16 or 17 at IMWI, but I didn't expect 13 or so to feel so hard. But for whatever reason, Saturday's run felt hard and after about 7 miles my legs were rather stiff and sore, but I kept going. I was running a decent pace for that distance (9:05) for me, and I guess there is some sort of muscle memory there because I just couldn't go slower, and I didn't want to, because that would just prolong the time I spent out there. Still, when I finished, I looked forward to a nice recovery swim, and ended up swimming 2200 yards--a bit more than I needed to do, but it felt good. I wondered if I was pushing it too much too soon or if I just needed to HTFU.

Sunday morning I felt sluggish and sore still, but I needed to ride. It was raining when I woke up, and I thought it might quit later on, so I laid out clothes for outdoors (no need to be miserable most of the time is how I roll) and decided to start indoors at the Y. I haven't set up a bike trainer yet, and I'm OK riding on the Life Fitness bikes there occasionally. Still, I took enough fluid and calories for a 4-hour ride, and once I got going, I decided I didn't want to change venues even if it stopped raining (it didn't). I eased into the riding, and at least my legs didn't feel stiff anymore, and I seemed to have decent power. Still, after 2 hours, I started asking myself if I really needed to do more. So I mentally went over this alleged training plan for the next few weeks and concluded I should keep going, so I did and finished 4 hours, stretched, and when I got home I figured out where I was on my calorie needs for the day.

And then it hit me. Whenever I take a slight break from my normal hard training routine, such as beginning a new year's training cycle, it takes me a while to get back into the whole eating to train thing. I think a lot of the prior week's tiredness was a combination of lack of sleep while in Wisconsin plus insufficient calorie intake. So I made a point on Sunday to keep eating a couple hundred calories every couple of hours.

Yesterday I felt pretty good when I woke up, good enough to put in a decent swim workout, and I did--3200 yards. I was slow as molasses, but that is because my swim training has been lacking for a few months. Still, it felt good. When I got home, I felt like I needed a bunch more calories, meaning I must have still been behind from the weekend or even the prior week. So I ate some more with an eye towards easily digestible since I planned on running around noon, and I prefer running on a nearly empty stomach. I ran 7 miles and noted my right quad being very tight, so I worked on it later in the day, and this is all probably from all the downhill running I did at IMWI and then also on Saturday that I was just not accustomed to. I had a great dinner of sushi with my brother Mike, and today I feel pretty good and woke up and banged out a :50 strength session.

Still, I wonder if I am tough enough to do some of the things I am planning on doing. I now know so many really talented athletes that make me look like I'm doing remedial level stuff, and it's hard not to compare myself to them. In the same way that when I think I am suffering from life issues (real or manufactured in my head), I do not like to make too big a deal out of it since I know that there are many people with far worse issues. After all, I am relatively healthy, have a good job, a roof over my head and don't lack for anything material. So I suppose I sometimes apply the same thought process to my physical self.

I might just be in an adaption phase or perhaps I am in an altered mental state where my perception of my self has changed. At least I am very aware that I don't need to do the level of training I was at a year ago--at least not for health. And that I can probably go about it in a slightly less frantic way. Yet the more of it I do, the better I seem to feel, even if it comes with other squirreliness that is associated with the racing and planning stress, not the training. It goes back to that observation that the hours upon hours of endurance training provide a form of meditation to me. I don't question that any more--I've accepted it. If by spending the time to train as much as I think makes me feel "normal," then why should I question it? I have cleverly avoided elaborating to anyone just how much I've been doing the last 12 weeks lest they think I'm nuts. Let's just say that my tolerance for a lot of training is higher than most. 12 hours to some people feels like a lot, but to me that feels like nothing. Of course, if that was 12 hours of running, I'd be toast ;)

In summary, then, I guess I'm in yet another transitional period, and you'd think I'd have learned by now that much of what I'm feeling is normal (for me at least), but this is the thing I love about the human brain--it selectively forgets some things so everything can feel all new again. Isn't that wonderful? It would be awful if it always felt the same every time I started up a new training cycle. Even though I've been putting in good hours lately, without the stress of a race coming up soon, many times when I'm out there the word sublime comes to mind. I think I've become better able to enjoy the experience of just having the luxury to go ride or run or swim for hours on end and appreciate that my body can do it, that my mind loves it, and I don't really care what anyone else thinks about it.

Maybe I am just asking myself the wrong question--maybe it's not about whether I'm still tough maybe it's the old question am I comfortable where I am and the answer is yes. Part of my drive comes from knowing that one day I won't be able to do all this, but that day is not today.

Ironman Wisconsin Spectating Report and Updates

Two weeks ago I began becoming concerned over my lack of any motivation to make plans for next year. Mostly I was worried (if you can call it that) that I would end up standing in line yesterday to register for IMWI after being there all weekend. However, I was reading in the Slowtwitch forum that registration for IMCA was still open--the poster was also waffling as to whether to pull the plug and sign up. I like IMCA--I liked it in 2004, I enjoyed riding the course again last year during Ultraman Canada, and I could see myself going back. So after I was finished working on 8/31, I went to the website to check whether registration was still open, and it was. I clicked on the link to active.com. I filled stuff out. I went to get my credit card. I was actually a bit nervous! Not because I have any qualms about being able to do an Ironman--it was just that as soon as I click that SUBMIT button, it means I've made a commitment to train. So I did it. And just like that I went from no plans to sketching out in my head how I was going to train for it. And thinking that maybe I will also do Ultraman Hawaii. Who knows? After I finished registration, I checked the IMCA participants list and found a bunch of people I know who are going, one who raced IMWI this weekend--Melinda. It will be her 6th Ironman and my 16th (unless I decide to sneak one in beforehand).

In thinking about how to train for this next season, I can now draw on so much experience, having already gone through a UM cycle, so I will do things differently. Through May, I will be doing my "normal" IM training, except that my Friday swims will be at least 5,000 yards (but no more than 6,000). Then, beginning in June, I will begin doing longer swims and changing to my UM weekly training pattern (it's a secret!). I want to do American Triple T, 24 Hours of Triathlon, IMCA, then a "broken" IMWI (full swim Friday; full bike Saturday and marathon Sunday), then buckle down and get ready for UMH. I don't see myself doing any 50-mile run races, but that could change. If I do, it would need to be in January-February timeframe.

And now back to IMWI...

I had a great time up there. This was my first trip this year, unbelievably! Usually I'm up there 4-5 times. I had my car all tuned up and a free place to stay with friends Brad and Morgan (who are getting married next month), and Melinda (Morgan's mom). I pulled up to this house Friday afternoon (after a PR drive--I guess I did some "light" speeding) and was immediately accosted by 2 labs. I figured they were friendly, but not completely sure, so pulled out of the driveway and called Brad, since I didn't want dogs all over me while trying to unload my car. Turns out there were 3 labs in the house (one is old and injured), all friendly, all wanting tons of attention. Melinda was already there, and Morgan was arriving later in the evening.

I'd made a plan for us to have dinner at Heiney's, but first we were going to drive the course with my narration. A bike course never feels as hard in a car as on the bike, but there were a few times when on the steeper climbs we could feel and hear the car shift gears down. While we were driving around, we kept checking for Morgan trying to get to Madison from Orlando (Brad drove from Dallas and Melinda flew in from California). Meanwhile, another friend, Adam, was already in town, and he opted not to drive around with us but would meet later for dinner.

Morgan almost missed the connecting flight from Detroit to Madison, but somehow she got on, so that was good so everyone was accounted for. Brad, Melinda and I finished driving one loop of the course and then maybe 1/2 more and then we headed to Heiney's, where Adam arrived maybe 2 minutes after we did. Good food, good beer, lots of great conversation and laughs! I noted that the collective training/racing mileage at our table was quite high! I think I ate the most food of anyone at the table, which is odd, since I'm the smallest, but I'd been training all week and well, I hadn't been to Heiney's in a few years so I indulged myself.

Brad dropped Melinda and I off at the house and went to retrieve Morgan from the airport--the airport was maybe 3 miles from the house. Chatted with her a bit and we all got some sleep.

Saturday my plan was to ride the stick (what lots of people call the out-and-back portion of the IMWI bike course) plus 1 loop. Brad and Melinda needed to get their bags and such together. We all slept in, so I didn't get in my car until maybe 9:30, and as soon as I got on the road, I was in gridlock, and figured out why when I saw all the people with red shirts on--the Badgers were playing. After barely moving for about 15 minutes, I turned somewhere and got on a different route, but all told it took me almost an hour to get to where I could park and start riding. I parked at Olin-Turville Park (free!) and it was a beautiful day and I was happy to ride.

Except that I have barely biked on any hills this year. So in the back of my mind was how much it would suck, so I figured I'd just ride nice and easy. I wore my full pirate kit, so at least in my head I looked spectacular on LGL! I had so much fun riding--I saw maybe 4 other cyclists out, as I'd started late and the bulk of them were racing and sequestered, and there was very little car traffic due to the Badgers game. It was the most peaceful ride I've ever had on that course, and I delighted in the fact that I still know the turns without a map and could flash back to the 2 times I'd raced there and the countless training rides I'd done. I rode all the big climbs seated, and only stood to stretch and on the 2 sharp rights up tiny, steep climbs (on to Sugar River Road and from G onto 92). I averaged 16mph, which felt nice and easy to me. How about that?

When I got back to the house, I showered and then we headed to get groceries for dinner--your basic pasta with meat/marinara sauce, garlic bread and we had cookies and ice cream for dessert. I don't think any of us ate dessert, but I really chowed down as I did not eat lunch after my ride. Adam joined us for dinner, and I talked him through as much as I could about the bike course. We showed him around the weirdly laid out house, where you could easily sleep maybe 20 people on various couches! I knew it would be a late night and then early wakeup, so I did my best to make sure I had my own stuff ready for race day, as I planned on running one loop of the run course and then going out for spectating.

Luckily, these folks "slept in" until 4:30AM--I would have been up at 3AM, but hey, I wasn't racing! The dogs had a barking fit at some point during the night, so I have no idea how much sleep I had, but didn't care--I wasn't racing!

Brad had scoped out a parking garage 1 block from transition on Pinckney Street, and we got there and got a spot for $4! I drove my own car since I had more crap in there and Brad's was full of bags, 1 bike and 3 people. Morgan and I got to hang out with Brad and Melinda until about 6:30. Then Morgan and I went to find a spot on top of Monona Terrace to watch the swim, which was fun (my pics from the race are posted to Facebook). I think there were about 2800 starters, and the swim start was crowded, but it appeared from our vantage point that things spread out nicely. After ensuring that Brad and Melinda and Adam (and the other 20 or so athletes I knew were racing) were finished and on their way, Morgan and I walked back to the cars, where she would nap and read, and I suited up to go for a nice run.

There were arrows on the roads for the marathon course, but not much else, and there are a million turns, so I messed up slightly but got 13 or so done in about 2 hours running time plus more to stop and get fluids. I ended up running through Camp Randall stadium twice, which made up for some wrong turns and course cutting at the beginning of the loop since I couldn't exactly get onto the actual course start. It was hot for me to be running, so I knew the heat would get to the racers at some point. Just as it had been fun and peaceful to ride on Saturday, it was awesome to run on the race course without much other runners until I was along Lake Mendota. I was happy I got to run through Camp Randall! It didn't seem as big (around the perimeter of the field I mean) as I remembered from when I'd raced before. Several people along the way thought I was maybe in the race, and I'd laugh and shout, "I'm WINNING!" That was a ton of fun. Anyway, that run course isn't exactly easy, but I don't think it's as hard as Lake Placid's run course. But I was only running half of it and hadn't biked 112 miles before so what do I know? When I was almost back, I saw two college students walking with a huge pizza someplace for their lunch. I told them they better go faster otherwise I would steal their pizza (I'd run 13 on maybe 200 calories). They offered me a slice, but I declined since I had to keep going about another mile. But wasn't that nice of them?

I got back to my car and cleaned up as best I could and changed tops--I left my run shorts on because I expected I might end up running some more. Morgan and I headed to go get some lunch and saw the first pros head out to run, and we began checking for updates on others' race progress. Some looked good, some not so good. We got sammies at Subway and camped out to eat in a bus stop stand, and then we began the job of run spectating. As always it was great, except that we got concerned about Brad and Melinda (and I got concerned about another friend, Denise) not seeing bike splits and then getting close to the bike cutoff. Meanwhile, a lot of people I know came through, and I got choked up a few times watching them do their thing. I was reminded again of just how hard this is no matter how long it takes you, and that people who say ANYONE can do an Ironman are fucking crazy.

Finally Brad came through and I jogged alongside him for a bit to understand what happened. He'd had bike mechanicals and a mental meltdown (I won't tell his story--it's his to tell). I'm sure I told him to suck it up and just get going. Not too long after, Melinda came through and asked me to run with her, which I did for just over a mile. She'd also had bike mechanical issues, but no mental meltdown. She'd be fine. After I was certain she was OK (she was justifiably upset), I turned around and ran back to town. Of course, people thought I was in the race even though I wasn't wearing any numbers. It was fun to be cheered for, even though!

We never saw Adam come through--somehow we'd missed him--but he ended up with an Ironman PR on the day, which I attribute to the fact that I lent him one of my race belts. My gear is lucky! Seriously, though, Adam raced smart and well, he's pretty fit after doing TWO Ultraman races last year.

I got worried about Denise until I finally saw her coming back from her first run loop, and then I was so happy to see her and actually run with her for a bit. She was running great (running is her thing), and I knew she'd finish strong.

Morgan and I tracked Brad and Melinda and figured out they were keeping each other company out there on the run course. I don't know the entirety of what went on out there, but at least we knew they'd finish, so around 9:15 Morgan and I headed toward the finish line, got some more Subway and settled in to watch people finishing. It was great even though I was pretty tired, having run 17 or 18 miles and standing around jumping up and down and screaming for hours, but hey, I wasn't racing! We saw some girls with so much flashing light glasses and decorations on themselves that I really liked--I ended up calling them "spectating machines." I need to find stuff like they had, because, well, I should really dress up more for spectating!

I got to see Denise run down the chute and was so happy for her to finish, after having a broken back and recovering from it. I caught up with my former coach, Rich, and got to chat with him briefly--he'd returned to do the race after a 3-year hiatus from racing triathlons, and had a great 10:20 something time. Then it was time to bring in Melinda and Brad. We figured Brad was hurting because we saw Melinda by herself and she waited at the final turn into the chute. Then they both came in, and Morgan and I were so happy for them! I've done enough of these things and had several horrible races, so I know how it feels to have had problems and not meet your goals, but the reality is that ANY Ironman finish is a good one.

Congratulations to all the Ironman Wisconsin finishers: Ebe, Dawn, Katie, Carl, Dino, Brad, AJ, Adam, Hayes, Denise, Russ, MJ, Rich, Jodi, Melinda, Joel, Blaine, Spencer (Kona slot), Vicki. If I forgot anyone, I'm sorry!

Morgan and I had already retrieved their bags and taken Melinda's bike back to Tri Bike Transport, so the last thing to do was to get Brad's bike. Morgan and I did that while we left the 2 racers by the parking garage so they didn't have to do any more exercise. We walked to the cars, Brad put his bike up top his car and drove back to the house, talked through the usual post-race stuff, agreed on a wake up time, and tried to sleep. Of course the dogs had to have another barking fit which seemed to go on forever, but maybe it was 10 minutes.

We all got up just after 6. I was just going to pack up and drive home, and the rest of them went to the finisher's gear store and then would begin their respective travels. I PR'ed my drive home, unpacked, downloaded/uploaded photos, then went for a 1:45 bike ride on the MTB. I was very tired, but it was a beautiful day, and those are going to be few and far between soon enough, so I just enjoyed the sunshine.

I got some good sleep last night, but still am not caught up, but that will happen this evening. Now I can get to planning my season for next year!

What to do, what to do

Rode the Bike Psychos 200k yesterday, in my fastest time ever (126 miles in 6:53). It helped that it was an absolutely gorgeous day (upper 70's / low 80's but 60's at the start), and I had rabbits for the first 70 miles. I tried to keep up with Jeff at the start, but knew I couldn't hold his pace without seriously blowing up. This was only my 2nd 100+ mile ride this year! Jeff led us out at an aggressive pace, and I was also a bit cold, so it was fun to be cold (but it felt nice) and feel my heart just about jumping out of my chest.

I forgot how this ride isn't really all that flat, and that makes it fun. I especially forgot that on some of the nice downhills, you can't see what's ahead because of the curves, and then I got stuck in the big chainring climbing up at the end. But at least I was prepared for the Vermillion River climb on the 200K loop. Since I really haven't ridden any hills this year, I was pleased that my climbing skills weren't totally in the dumpster.

Whereas last Sunday when I rode about 93 miles and my quads were feeling wasted about 90 miles in, yesterday I felt just great the entire time. Jeff introduced me to some other CMF's (Crazy Mother Fuckers) who are doing the Virginia Triple Iron in early October (Kamil and Chuck), and they were having trouble hanging with Jeff, too, but we rode together for the 200k loop, and they invited me to do another loop since they were shooting for 150 miles total. While I could have done it (and now I think I'm stupid for not doing it), I decided not to in the interest of maybe having a busy day at work today and having pushed my own recent envelope a bit.

So after 70 miles were done, I just focused on collecting "targets" (riders ahead of me) as best I could. Gotta stay motivated somehow! We did have some wind on the way back, and while I wanted to push less into the wind, I didn't want to spend any more time out there than necessary.

At the second to last aid station, the volunteers were drinking Corona's, and I remarked how cruel that was, but on the other hand, I had cold ones waiting for me at home, so the sooner I finished, the sooner I'd get my reward (WILL RIDE FOR BEER!). I did stop at the last aid station just to get water, and wanted to ride the remainder with others, but couldn't find anyone who could keep my pace, so I let some go and then caught and passed them. Then I was looking at my watch thinking I might beat my best time if I kept pushing. So even when I was only a mile from the end, I was going as fast as I could at that point, kept passing people, and I succeeded in beating my time at this course by a few minutes. I was also motivated by the promise of ice cream sandwiches at the end, but they were out, so I settled for a popsicle, that turned out to be a nice treat anyway.

I've had a lot of fun "not training" a lot for the last 11 weeks, and in a way I feel guilty that I'm not doing something "big" anytime soon. Meeting some CMF's who are more "C" than me only intensified that feeling. I could ramp up for an Ironman in 8 weeks or maybe even do the Double Iron in October, but I still seem to be good with where I'm at right now. I am starting to think about my original 2012 plan which was Ironman Lanzarote and then Furnace Creek 508 (and maybe also Ultraman Hawaii). I can see gearing up for Ironman distance over the winter (less biking but more swimming and running), then bumping up the bike mileage (as I always do over the summer anyway).

All I know is that I've really enjoyed this summer with no pressure on me to do anything, and I'd like to continue that through October. Maybe a few running races just to convince me I can start running more, and then settle in with the treadmill for the winter and the trainer, although the prospect of that is totally depressing right now. But, for me, training a lot in the winter makes it feel not so bad, plus I can sleep in a lot more on weekends.

I will just keep mulling over my options and look forward to going up to IMWI in 2 weeks to cheer on many friends. Whatever I decide to do will come to me. It feels good to be pretty fit and have options!

"Partial" Weekend

I had planned on riding with my brother, Mike, on Saturday on the MTB, but when I woke up I just didn't feel right. And my legs (quads, in particular) hurt really badly. The quads thing may have been from doing too many squats on Friday, but part of the pain felt like I was also super dehydrated, which I didn't think I really was. I ended up spending most of the day in bed feeling like complete and total crap. It felt like maybe I ate something bad the day before (could have been some juice I drank from a can that was expired--I tossed it all out), although I never did vomit.

Sunday's plan was to ride 100 miles at the Rotary Ride. Although they didn't offer a 100-mile option this year, I could combine the 80-something with something else or just repeat part of the course. When I woke up, my legs weren't aching, but my stomach felt a bit off still. I dawdled in getting ready and finally left just after 7AM. I drank most of a Coke, and the fizziness felt good in the tummy. I'd made a 5-hour bottle of Infinit. The weather was peachy perfect with a high predicted in the upper 70's and mild winds.

I started riding at 7:55AM. I didn't feel particularly energetic, and convinced myself that due to yesterday's failure to do anything, I should be OK only doing 85 miles, but that might make it tough to do 200k next Sunday at Bike Psychos. Even though I started late, I began passing people right away. One guy I passed then decided he must be faster than me even though I caught him, and he repassed me about a 1/2 mile after I'd passed him. I thought fine, maybe he was just chillin'. But his pass didn't last long at all and I caught him and passed him again for the win. I always laugh when a guy does that--if you are going to pass me, then BE FASTER THAN ME!

I caught a group of girls that I think were training with their coach--5 or 6 of them. Initially I thought I'd hang with them, but they weren't going very fast, so ahead I went. Later in the ride, I took a wrong turn and added about 8 extra miles, but then I caught up to the same group of girls maybe 15 miles later. They left an aid station about 5 minutes before me, and I caught back up to them at a dangerous intersection. I'd already sensed that some of these women weren't expert riders, and I was right on the money when one of them pulled a stupid turning maneuver. At that point, I decided I needed to ride away from them, so I hit the gas and passed them all and didn't see them again for awhile until the coach went off the front and passed me--I knew she was really fast but just pacing the group. I told her she had the patience of a saint, and she said something like, "Well it's worth it to ride with others." I guess that might have been meant as a diss to me since I was riding alone, but hey, to each their own. I would not have felt safe riding with that group--well maybe the coach, but not the rest of them. I like to ride with others, too, but I'm OK riding alone.

There was a guy who I introduced myself to when finished that I rode up on a few times, and he was riding nice and steady. I complimented him on his riding, and turns out he's doing his first Ironman in Wisconsin soon. I bet he will do well, as he wasn't out there trying to be super speedy macho dude, which is how you ride successfully in an IM.

I forgot to mention that when I was about 60 miles in, my quads were burning like hell. I guess that's because the week before I didn't ride much because I did that race, and then the week before my longest ride was only 68 miles! I was momentarily worried that I would need to be sagged off course, but thought I should just ride easy for a bit and would be fine. I rode easy for maybe 5 miles and then started catching people again and sped back up and forgot that my legs were sore. So I guess it was sort of an HTFU-ish ride. Oreo cookies and Infinit seemed to give me plenty of energy to finish strong. So I got in about 93 miles which was close enough to 100.

I'm still a bit wary about doing 200k on Sunday, but it's not like I'm running lots so I should be fine. I'm predictably tired today, though, and my stomach is still a tiny bit unsettled, but I will be fine. Another gorgeous day today, going for a super easy run!

OK, I guess I can still call myself a triathlete

This is a little race report and a little random rambling.

I did the Bangs Lake Olympic yesterday. I knew I wasn't optimally prepared, probably worked too hard during my taper last week (3 hard brick workouts when I hadn't done any since January?), but my goal was to just do the race, enjoy it and see what kind of time I could do. On paper my goal was 2:57:14, but I actually did a bit better, 2:56:18. Still not a great time, but hey, it's an official Olympic PR for me (last time I did one was in 2000?).

I think the worst part was waking up at 3AM so I could drive an hour to get to the race venue to pick up my packet and set up. I haven't woken up that early in a year. Even with copious amounts of caffeine, I did not feel great. Oh well, everyone else woke up early to race, too.

I found some friends at the swim start (Kevin, Marla and Katie--only Kevin was racing), and so it was nice to do a bit of catching up. I walked over to the lake and stepped in--it felt quite comfortable and I was almost surprised it was cool enough for wetsuits. As I stood there in the water, I thought to myself, and said out loud to another athlete that my last open water swim was 10k. They asked me about that, and I told them just a little about Ultraman. It made me quite calm to think that I only needed to swim 1500 meters.

The swim start was uneventful--I was in the next to last wave (old ladies). The water seemed a bit warm, so it makes me wonder where they took the temperature, but I digress. The air temperature was awesome--maybe low 60's. The day's weather called for cool (high maybe 72), cloudy and some north winds.

The water was a bit choppy, nothing serious, and it was hard to sight due to swimming right into the sun, and there weren't many course buoys, and there was a current pushing me off course, so I probably lost some time doing that, but for the most part I just swam and tried to stay on course. The water was pretty murky, so a little over halfway through, I swam up on some guy who promptly kicked me in the face. I have a nice little shiner on my left eye. He apologized, and I probably lost a minute or two readjusting my goggles and getting my bearings, but it wasn't as bad of a kick to the face as the one I got at Ironman Brazil in 2006, so all good.

When I got out of the water, a girl from a few waves before me said, "You had a great swim!" I said, "No I didn't, I kinda sucked." I guess in relation to hers it was good, but I was a few minutes behind schedule. Oh well, time to get on the bike, my favorite part.

I took a little too long in transition because, well I wasn't winning any awards. But there was a long run to transition, too, so I just wanted to be methodical about transition. I didn't feel too cold, but was glad I'd worn a sleeveless bike jersey (from Ultraman) over my bra top. We headed northwest into some wind, but it wasn't bad at all. Maybe 10MPH is all? I cautioned myself to warm my legs up, and even going what I thought was easy (still no computer on the bike), I started passing people. This continued the whole time. As is typical of shorter, local races (but I've experienced in Ironman, too), there were a lot of riders who were oblivious to rules or pure common sense. The course wasn't closed, and while there were a few sections of road where the asphalt wasn't in good condition so you wanted to ride more towards the middle of the lane, there were plenty of places where the roads were just fine and people were riding far left. Near the end of the bike course, one guy was practically on top of a double yellow line, and I warned him to move right so I could pass. He started screaming that I should pass on the right, and I yelled back that this wasn't a closed course, but then I just kept riding. I thought that if he had any balls he'd pick up the pace and pass me, but that never happened. There were also a few times when I had to shake guys drafting off of me. I guess they forget it's illegal and figure that if there aren't draft marshals (there were none as far as I could tell), then draft away.

When I had finished my first lap I thought I was riding too fast to run decently and tried to settle down a bit on the second lap (45 seconds slower on second lap), but didn't really, I guess. I really enjoyed the bike course--plenty of gentle rollers (I wouldn't call it hilly) where you could keep speed going if you know how to ride. I only got passed by a few guys with disk wheels from the last wave. I should have gone with the disk, but I've been too lazy to mess with it. Oh well, I was quite happy riding about 21MPH for the bike leg.

I had an OK T2 and started running and didn't feel too bad but really wanted to start out holding back. Well, we started climbing soon enough, and I would characterize the run course as hilly! I sucked on the run, knowing I'd paid for my fun ride and just overall lack of run fitness. I knew I was running 10mpm (my goal was 9:41) and that was just that. At one point, someone behind me had read my jersey and asked, "Is that all one race?" That made me smile, and I said, yeah, Ultraman is one race over 3 days.

As it turns out, I was last in my age group. 2nd out of 2! Isn't that funny? It really hit home that I am old seeing only 2 in my age group. Wow. Maybe next year I can win it ;) I am pretty sure I can find 10 minutes if I'm trained up, which would be fine for me.

Did doing this race make me want to go longer? Maybe a 1/2 IM. I did enjoy being back in a race situation, and was happy to note that my swim fitness hasn't tanked that badly (I need to swim at least 10K/week to be strong), and my bike fitness is pretty good (especially for an old lady!). But my running is still off, but that's OK. As is typical, on the drive home I had visions of races dancing in my head, but given that I don't have any planned yet am thinking about riding 100 miles on Sunday, it made me wonder why I am going to do that and then a 200k the next week? Oh yeah, because I really like biking!

On the way to the pool this morning (a nice, cool morning for a walk), I began thinking why am I bothering to swim if I'm not training for anything? I had to remind myself that I do enjoy swimming, especially in the summer, and it seems to be good for me--otherwise I might just bike myself into the ground! I have to decide how much swimming I want to keep up. I really should get back up to about 10k/week, but even 9k would be good. My pool is going to close for 2 weeks starting this Sunday, and I have to decide whether I am going to (gasp!) drive to another pool to swim or not. I probably will, because the one I will go to (even though the daily fee is a rip-off) is a nice pool and has an awesome hot tub which will be a nice change of pace. So I will try and think of it as a "vacation" from my regular Y, and then when the Y opens (I told them to call me if they will let me in to swim once they have refilled the pool and it's ice cold before opening to general public), I can go back to enjoying my morning walks there (while missing the hot tub!).

So Saturday I got stung by something while out riding in my left forearm. The reaction seems to have increased today, not sure why. It reminded me I should start carrying my Epi Pen when riding. Typically my sting reaction gets worse each time I'm hit. Then yesterday I got kicked in the face in the swim, so this morning while swimming, I'm wondering what will be the third thing? And then it happened--some clueless woman swam right into me! Luckily it wasn't a bad collision--she just tapped me on the head while doing imitation backstroke. She said she didn't know the rules. I tried valiantly not to blow my stack too badly, and I think I succeeded in not throwing out any expletives other than "What the hell are you doing?" The rest of my swim I wanted to stop and tell her I hoped she doesn't have a driver's license. But I'm over it. So I got my 3 hits in a row. I hope I'm good for awhile!

I am really fortunate to have other triathlon friends who are younger than me because, well, there aren't many women my age doing this! I am enjoying my "recovery year" and am OK with having no plans at this time. I do know I need a real vacation, and that will be in the offing.

Tips for a Successful Open Water Triathlon Swim

There have been a few deaths recently during triathlon swims. This post in no way purports to prevent such deaths, makes no assumptions about the fitness level of the deceased, and is not in any way a criticism of race directors in terms of safety measures. This post is more a reaction to having seen a video of people floating down the Hudson with swim noodles in the recent NYC triathlon and thinking maybe some of those people really weren't prepared.

If you do a lot of triathlons, many or most of these things become routine and you don't even think about them, but I've never seen all of this information in one place, and since I think I know a little about triathlon, I figured I'd just write it down for the benefit of others. As always, feel free to pass this along to anyone you think it might benefit.

So, in no particular order, here are my tips, some of which I was reminded of today when I donned my wetsuit for the first time in many, many months, since I have a race on Sunday:

1. Know that you can cover the race distance comfortably. You will know this because you've practiced it and timed it at least once (preferably 2-3 times) during training. The cutoff for an Ironman swim is 2 hours 20 minutes, which comes out to 3:19/100 yards. Using that standard against some shorter race distances, at that pace it would take you 54:13 to complete an Olympic distance swim (1.5k), 58:26 for 1 mile, and 1:10:06 for a 1/2 Ironman. You can extrapolate to a sprint. If you can't complete a training swim equal to race distance at slightly faster than that pace within 2-3 weeks of your race (without wetsuit--because if you are counting on the wetsuit alone bringing you in under the cutoff then you are delusional), then you have no business doing the race. Period. Go get some swim lessons, swim more, keep timing yourself, repeat. If you are chasing the swim cutoff in any race, you are setting yourself up for problems on the bike and run since you will come out of the water pretty wiped. Why some triathlon coaches aren't up front with their athletes on this, I have no clue. Now, this does not mean every time you swim you should do a long continuous swim. Just the opposite. You should be doing intervals most of the time. I won't get into swim training--that is best left to a swim coach, which I am not! But suffice it to say, that doing at least one continuous swim of race distance or greater goes a long way towards instilling confidence that you will be fine on race day. You will build superior endurance if you complete a cycle of about 8 weeks where once a week you do a swim with total yardage greater than race distance, especially for Ironman. If I can swim 5,000 yards, for example, it makes 4,200 not too bad. I won't get into what this means for races longer than Ironman!
2. If you are going to race in a wetsuit, then you must wear it for at least one practice swim of equal or greater distance than your race. Why? It will feel different swimming in it, you want to make sure the darn thing fits (especially if you borrowed or rented one), you want to work out the kinks of lubrication and positioning, and you want to check for and repair any tears and practice taking it off quickly. I have known people to not wear their suit for months only to put it on race day and have it rip nearly to shreds! Finally, if you have the opportunity to wear it several times, note what the water temperature was and how cool/warm you felt. Different people feel different at different water temperatures. For example, I am just fine in a wetsuit in 83 degree water. Some people will overheat so badly that it's just not worth the buoyancy advantage to wear the wetsuit at that temperature. Please note that the lubrication isn't to get the suit ON--it's to help get it OFF quickly and to prevent chafing. I do a stripe of Bodyglide on outside and inside of forearm, upper arm, upper leg and lower leg, and I lube my neck (starting right at the hairline) and under armpits/straps liberally.
   
3. One or two days before your race, cut and/or file your fingernails and toenails. Women might want to also put a coat of clear nail polish on them. This lessens the chance of tearing your wetsuit, and is also a nice thing to do so that if you contact another athlete during the swim that you don't scratch them. I dislike it when I get scratched by another athlete during the swim, and I wish everyone tidied up their nails pre-race!
   
4. Be aware of the race's water temperature cutoff for the use of a wetsuit. This can vary from race to race, so know what it is and be prepared accordingly. This is another reason to ensure that your practice swims can be completed a few minutes faster than cutoffs without wetsuit.
   
5. Your wetsuit must get wet 1-2 days before your race. Either you wear it for a swim and let it hang dry, or you soak it in a sink/tub for a few hours and then let it hang dry. Why? A wetsuit is meant to be wet, and the neoprene expands and becomes more pliable when wet. This is why it is difficult to put on a dry wetsuit. It is just not pliant. When the wet wetsuit dries, it retains some water like a sponge, only it won't feel wet.
6. You will do one of your practice swims in whatever clothes you plan to wear on race day. Your clothing selection may differ depending on whether you will be wearing a wetsuit or not, so plan for either. A tri top with pockets or a bike jersey, for example, is not good to swim in if you aren't wearing a wetsuit. Those pockets will fill up with water. Same thing with anything loose. You want to be sure you are comfortable with all the pressure points of sleeves, straps, zippers, ties, etc. If you are going to wear arm warmers under your wetsuit, it's a good idea to make sure that the suit doesn't become overly tight by the addition of a few millimeters of fabric. If you plan on wearing your number belt under your wetsuit (I wouldn't wear it during the swim if not using a wetsuit!), you might want to test that out, too.
7. You will try and do one or more practice swims in open water. This isn't possible for everyone, but if you can do it, do it. Obviously, best case scenario is you do it in the body of water you will be racing in. Become one with the weeds and fishies! Even better swim with a bunch of friends and kick and smack one another as you go! Like this.
   
8. You will practice wearing a race-type swim cap and whatever goggles you plan on racing in, both placed on your head as if it were race day. Preferably you do this when you complete your race distance plus time trial. If you are used to removing your goggles after your 500 yard warmup, then again another 1,000 yards later, and so on, it is good to get used to what those same goggles feel like when they are plastered on your face for a solid hour. If you are going to put your goggle strap under your cap on race day, try that out in training. This is a recommended race day strategy since if your goggles get dislodged due to contact, they won't come off all the way.
9. If you wear contact lenses most of the time but don't usually wear them in the pool, again, you need to wear them for a few practice swims since you are going to wear them on race day, right? I wear contacts, and my experience is that I cannot tolerate chlorinated water getting into my goggles, but if I am in fresh water and a bit gets in, it won't irritate my eyes. I wear my contacts every time I swim. I am blind without them!
   
10. Swim with your watch/Garmin/timing device and chest strap, if you use one. If you are going to wear it on race day, swim with the damn thing on. I don't wear my watch in the pool any more, and I didn't wear it in the Ultraman swim, so I'm covered. Decide whether your wetsuit is going to go over the watch or not. You might want to loosen the strap slightly. Or not. The heart rate monitor's chest strap will feel different under a wetsuit, too.
    
11. If you will be wearing a timing chip on an ankle strap, it's best if it can go under the wetsuit leg so nobody can grab it and pull it off you. If your wetsuit legs need to go higher than would allow this, then when you put the chip strap on, have the end be on the medial side of your leg, again to prevent it being ripped off your leg. I'm guessing some folks duct tape over the strap which pretty much prevents the thing from coming off!
12. Know where the sun will be during your race to guide you in your choice of goggles.
13. Know the layout of the swim course, including where (on your left or right) and how frequent the buoys will be placed and where you will position yourself at the start. In a mass start, really fast swimmers start at the front. In an Ironman swim if you are back of MOP or BOP, you might want to let the front pack go for a minute or more, but definitely ask about positioning from others who have done the race.
14. Practice your race day nutrition in training. Which means that, yes, at least once you are going to get up at O-dark-thirty to eat and drink prior to your swim. Why? So you have some clue of how your stomach is going to feel when you load it up and then stuff yourself into a wetsuit. Or even if you aren't wearing a wetsuit, you jump into a cold pool and take off at your race pace with whatever you had for breakfast in you. My rules of thumb for intake prior to races: Sprint: 300 calories 2+ hours before race start. Sip Gatorade or water until race begins. Olympic: 400 calories. 1/2 Ironman: 600 calories. Ironman: 700-800 calories. For Olympic plus, I try and get the calories in 3+ hours prior to race start. You might want to go so far as to practice your day before nutrition as well. I highly recommend this, as, for example, tacos with hot sauce and beers the night before a race might not sit too well the next day during the swim. I steer clear of fiber for dinner the night before and always the morning of a race. This also goes for your caffeine consumption. I don't taper off caffeine, so I don't do anything different on race day than any other day, but if you are going to supplement with caffeine on race day, practice it in training for sure. I also will eat 2 salt tablets (Lava Salts or Succeed! caps) right after dinner the night before a 1/2 or full Ironman. If you are going to do this on race day, and you haven't raced as much as I have, try it out in training.
    
15. Learn how to breathe on either side. Even if one side feels "better" than the other (which is true for most of us), there may come a time when you have to use the "worse" side, for example, if you are getting smacked by waves on the one side. Even if your race is in calm water and you intend to breathe on your good side the entire time, it helps to breathe bilaterally in training to develop a balanced stroke.
16. Know how the swim exit works. If you will be forced to run over sharp rocks or gravel, you should be prepared to have a pair of flip flops at the swim exit.
17. Do at least one swim-bike workout. You can combine this with one of your race distance plus practice swims. Why? So you know how hard you can go on the swim and not feel like ass on the bike, particularly since you should be dropping right into aero position right away. I would do at least 1/3 of the race bike distance in this workout. This helps you learn how to transition from swimming to biking as well. Rule of thumb is no intake on the bike for 15 minutes for anything shorter than 1/2 Ironman, and then I wait 30 minutes for Ironman.
    
18. Know how to sight and swim in a straight line. There are many ways to practice this in a pool, so do it! If you don't practice sighting and get to a race and find yourself lifting your head a lot, it will stress you out and tire you out.
19. Do a warmup swim on race morning if at all possible. Even 100 yards can be helpful. A warmup can prepare your body for the water temperature (good or bad) and help work off some of the unnecessary pre-race adrenaline. If you absolutely can't get in the water to warm up, do some kind of warmup--running, biking, jumping jacks, some pushups (pushups are actually good because they will warm up your lats a bit) to help get rid of jitters and, well, warm up. Just like you are supposed to warm up in every training workout that you do. If there is no room for a swim warmup, it still helps to get into the water and get used to it. If you are wearing a wetsuit, let some water in through the neck. If the water is cold, this will help the suit do what it's intended to, which is to keep you warm by letting your body heat up that little bit of water that's inside the suit. If the water is really cold (under 65F), I find this is crucial.
20. Get comfortable peeing while wearing the wetsuit. Sounds silly, right? Well, most of us do pee in the suit before we start, but for longer than a sprint, it helps to be able to pee while you swim, too. It's relaxing, will warm you up if the water is cold, and then you avoid having to take a porta-potty stop in transition or during the bike leg. Yes, you can pee in it while standing around waiting for the race to start. It will just come out the leg.
    

Wow, the list is longer than I thought it would be! Feel free to comment with any additional tips you might have. Considering the swim is the first event of a triathlon, making it successful can set you up for a great day!

Happy to be Alive

I am tapering for my "big" race this Sunday--an Olympic distance that I have no goals for other than to work as hard as I can. I have been "not training" quite a lot--8 straight weeks of 17+ hours. But it's all been fun. Still, I know I need some rest when I sleep almost 11 hours as I did last night!

I tend to forget all the close calls I've had with cars while out biking and running. Yes, running! A few years ago, I switched from running mostly on the roads near home to running on the sidewalks, after I read that the hardness of asphalt and concrete are much closer than I once believed. Plus, I figured sidewalks are safer. Well that has not always proven to be true, and yesterday was another example.

Drivers have become worse and worse over the years, believing that they can focus on driving a 2-ton piece of metal while also yelling and grabbing at their kids, putting on makeup, gesturing wildly while talking on their cell phones, etc. Me? I still use my turn signals and rarely if ever talk on the phone. I am very conscious of pedestrians, runners and cyclists because I am one myself. At intersections, I look left and right. I try and drive very defensively and mindfully.

You would think running on sidewalks is not so dangerous, right? You would be wrong. I can't tell you how many times I have been cut off by cars when I have the right away even when there is a stop sign or stop light. Cars rolling through stop signs or barely stopping. People parking their cars so they block the sidewalk making it impossible to tell if someone is backing out of the other side of the driveway. I know most urban areas conspire against locomoting without a car and this is a factor in the soaring obesity rates. But I digress.

Yesterday I was about 1.5 miles from home when I was cut off by a minivan turning right into a driveway into a daycare center at a park. I was on the sidewalk, the driver was on the cellphone with a child in the back seat standing up not wearing a seat belt. The kid was waving his arms wildly and the driver was oblivious as to why someone would be on the sidewalk doing anything, I guess. I was running downhill, and I saw the minivan, so I hit the brakes. The minivan was clearly exceeding the speed limit and not paying attention. I was a bit miffed, and wanted to give the driver a piece of my mind. The driver was now parked in front of the day care center and I began walking that way. I decided not to confront, just to use the water fountain and give a look like, "Did you even fucking NOTICE me?" The driver was texting, I think. Really trying to ignore me.

There had been a lawn service truck with trailer behind the minivan, and he had pulled into the parking lot. The driver smiled at me, and so I asked if he saw what happened, and he had. He said, "She cut you off." He said he'd seen me running at least 1/4 mile back and knowing that he was turning into a park where (huge surprise) lots of children hang out and play that he should slow down before turning in.

Once again, I was just happy to be alive. About15 minutes later, after I'd done some strides in the park and run a bit more, I got to an intersection with a stop light and noticed that something was still there that I'd encountered on a few previous runs. It's one of these. The first time I saw it, I didn't know what it was and since I have a collection of small toys I've found while out running and biking, I was curious to see what it was. So I unscrewed it and figured out it was bubbles, so I made a bunch and was laughing. I mean, how can you not smile and laugh while making bubbles? I did get some odd looks from drivers probably wondering why someone who is clearly out for a run was making bubbles at a busy intersection. That day (I think it was over a week ago), I decided some kid probably was missing his/her toy, so I put the wand down and left it there. I must have run by it twice more last week and either forgot about it or didn't want to take time to play with it. But yesterday I saw it was still there. There wasn't much soap left in it (meaning others had stopped to play with it, too!), but I worked to get whatever I could out of it, having forgotten I had almost been killed just a short time before. This time, I noticed a few drivers who actually smiled at seeing me acting all childlike, but there were also some glum faces. When I was convinced I was out of soap, I put the wand back down under the stop light and ran home.

Why were those bubbles there? Maybe someone was secretly filming at the intersection to see who would play with them. I may have to go and buy some more bubble solution and refill the wand and check and see that it gets used. At any rate, I forgot all about the minivan, and certainly about being angry that it had happened.

During this break from serious training, I've noticed many people smiling at me while I'm running. Sometimes I think they wonder why that old lady is running half naked (I still get glares from plenty of women). Sometimes I get looks while I'm riding Skull Kingdom that I'm some sort of heathen (why else would I have skulls all over my bike?). But the smiles are great. It makes me wonder whether I hadn't noticed them before or whether I look happier and that is why they are smiling at me. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

What was the point of this post? A few things: pay attention while driving, be grateful and don't forget to stop and play with random toys!

I'm Baaaaack...

Wow, it's been since April that I have posted here. Things are much improved, and while I am not currently planning any marathons, 1/2 Ironmans or longer for the rest of the year, I am back to "working out vigorously." I caution against calling it training, since the only race I have planned is an Olympic distance in 3 weeks that I serendipitously got an email about a few weeks ago. I was so shocked that there was a triathlon that I could still sign up for close by, that I immediately went to the website, read about it, filled out the registration information, and then I was afraid to hit the SUBMIT button! How's that for irony? I may suck terrifically, or not, but I intend to enjoy the experience and find out whether I still have a hankering for competition.

I have been back to running for 6 weeks now, and last week was the first week where all the running I did was running, i.e., there was no walking. My first 2 weeks back it was a 1'run/1'walk thing, then 1'run/1.5'walk, and then I just went for it. It didn't help that I began running again in the hottest part of the year, and we really have had some major heat. But that was probably a good thing, because I had to reaccustom my legs to the pounding while heat acclimating and working on raising my threshold. I didn't do any speed building workouts until this past Saturday when I went and ran on the indoor track and got a taste for running near my old 5k pace. OUCH! But there is no rush for me to get fast.

The reason I started running again when I did was because I had a dream the prior week that I was running. When I woke up from that dream, I decided, fuck it, I am going to give running a go next week. And I did. And of course it did suck, and I thought maybe I felt something afterward, but the next time I ran again, I was fine, and declared that I was back. I thought I should do some formal program for "return to running," but I sort of just winged it. Since I hadn't been doing anything hard for weeks on end, I knew my heart would hold me back more than anything, so I just let my heart be my guide. But I will tell you that the feeling of running again brought me so much joy! I really had gone through a grieving period there, which is common when athletes are injured, and knowing that I could run again was just the best!

I had also not been outside on a road bike while I was down from running, and I was dying to ride Skull Kingdom since I'd had the new aerobars put on last fall and never used them. That bike fits me like a glove, and it felt good to ride, and the next day I rode 55 miles on my MTB so I figured I was good to go for a 60-mile road ride, which I did. Everything felt good.

So now, knowing that I could run and bike normally again, I had to decide how much "training" I wanted to do on a weekly basis while not killing myself. I decided in 4.5 hours of running, 6.5 hours biking, 3 hours swimming and 1.5 hours of strength training. Add it up, it's 15.5 hours a week! That's still a hefty amount, but I threw it out there as a sort of maximum amount, subject to how I feel.

So a few weeks into being able to work out normally, and I hadn't been swimming much, I registered for the triathlon in Bangs Lake. Then I figured I needed to swim a bit more seriously, as I'd been on 2 a week swims just noodling around. And I would need to ride harder, so I did a 60-mile ride on 7/4 and managed about 18.5mph. A week ago I rode 82 at 19mph. So I guess my bike fitness is nearly back. Swimming will come back enough to make it through 1500 meters without much effort (and probably slowly). On the running side, I just need to stay consistent with my running, and not stop. I am not taking formal walk breaks anymore, but if I feel like I need to rest I just stop. It is tough to say how much of that in the last 2 weeks has been due to the extreme heat and humidity or to me just sucking. I'd say a little of both!

So after all that, I wrote up what I learned from this layoff, and here it is for your reading enjoyment:

• I needed the break. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I wouldn’t slow down or take a break until forced to. Now having taken a long break from running, and from high amounts of swimming and biking, I realize just how much I was beating the crap out of myself and how fatigued I was. ALL THE TIME. But I have no regrets. Should I choose to ramp up for another Ironman or longer, I will do my best to incorporate more rest, and a long layoff (4+ weeks) at the end of the cycle.
• 3 marathons plus a double marathon in one year is probably too much running for me.
• The more I exercise, the easier it is for me to eat cleanly. I seem to crave better food when I’m exercising more.
• Keeping good workout records is a good thing. Even though I didn’t recognize the signs indicating I needed a huge break early enough, now I can look back on my own records and see that seemingly small things I was noticing were truly significant.
• Sitting (as has now been shown in scientific studies) is REALLY bad. Since I’ve been putting in a good amount of overtime since I switched positions last September, I was sitting more. I have made a conscientious effort to stand whenever possible while working, and have given up sitting in an actual chair. Sitting on the stability ball seems to be a good thing for me.
• I need to exercise, and some of it has to be hard. It seems to help with my mental demons. It is true that when I don’t work out so much I get depressed. I was. Exercise has always been a form of meditation for me. When I don’t do it, or it isn’t as vigorous as I’d like, I am prone to distorted thinking, which is the hallmark of depression.
• Nothing feels like running except RUNNING. Even though running rarely feels easy to me, especially having started back up in the heat of summer, it’s the effort of moving my body through space and experiencing the reality of gravity that, even though it often makes me grimace, somehow makes me feel better for having done it.
• Walking can be good exercise, but you need to do a lot of it to equal the benefit from 25-30 miles per week of running. And unless you live in a highly scenic area, it gets boring. But I’m glad I walked a lot. I have gotten in the habit of walking to and from the Y to swim, haircuts, wherever. When used for transportation, it’s a good thing. Saves money, too! I am learning that walking can be great for recovery as well.
• The way I experienced sciatica is different than the norm. I didn’t have the shooting pain down the backs of my legs—it hurt to sit for longer than 15 minutes and my feet hurt in different places at different times. Rest combined with some different exercises and stretches, and sometimes less stretching, must have corrected the muscle imbalances causing a disk to be out of place and put pressure on the sciatic nerves.
• I never thought I’d drink Gatorade G2. Now I figure that unless I am training over about 13 hours a week that I should stick with G2. Over 13 hours, I will go with full strength Gatorade or maybe continue using G2 for swims, as long as said swims are less than 1.5 hours.
• Strength training is still awesome. I think everyone should do it. Why? Because when you can’t run or bike, you will still maintain some semblance of muscle, and there are some movements I do during strength training that provide a test of key areas. In my case, I could elicit hamstring pain (sciatic) while doing standing leg curls. I never went beyond the point of extreme pain, but once I could do them with no pain at all, I knew I was close to being able to run again.
• It’s fun to be incognito. By that I mean, not telling new people I meet about what I have done in the past and instead focusing on them. Corollary: Let my legs do the talking!
• I’ve had the pleasure of biking (MTB) with my brother Mike a few times now, and I hope we do it like once a week in the fall. I ride to his house (about 11.5 miles), we ride together, and then I keep going and ride home.
• It would be easy for me to slip back into my old ways of mega-training. In the 5 weeks that I have been running, I have built back up about 30 miles of running and 160 miles of biking per week. I am still slacking at swimming, but no need to put in big yards unless I’m going for IM+ distance. I am amazed at how quickly my fitness is returning. I do want to do one or two century rides and a 200k ride, and I am doing an Olympic distance triathlon (at which I will suck) in 3 weeks, but I have no burning desire for a ½ or full IM. Not even a marathon! What that means for next year and beyond, I have no clue. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, though! I do enjoy being fit, and biking is still my favorite thing.
• It has been nice to have the time (and energy) to spend some quality time in my flower beds, even though I still have a ways to go. I did not plant anything new this year—I have just been thinning things out and trying to stay ahead of weeds.
• I developed a bad habit of watching more TV than I used to. I need to get back to reading, but I need to decide if I want to stay with paper books or get some sort of electronic reader. Despite working in high tech, I am notoriously slow in adopting new gadgetry. I still like knowing that at the end of a day, I can tuck into bed with a good book and when I’m ready to go to sleep, I can just throw it on the floor and not worry about breaking something! Plus, the physical presence of various books all over the house reminds me of things in a way that no single piece of equipment ever could. Like cookbooks stacked on top of my microwave reminding me of something I haven’t cooked in awhile, or art books on coffee tables reminding me of beauty or my bookshelf full of sports-related books.
• That first Coke after a long layoff sure tasted good! Since I only drink it right before a workout or on long runs, the flavor signifies go fast or go hard! The same is true of my custom Infinit mix. Not that it tastes great, but I am usually able to ride pretty hard when drinking it.
• I sweat A LOT. I just don’t notice it as long as it’s evaporating. In the high humidity we had here last week, though, I looked like I had been in a pool while out running after maybe 15 minutes. Yesterday I biked indoors at the Y with no fan blowing on me and I was making puddles. I would wipe the sweat off my face and arms, and it would be back in under 10 minutes. I already knew I sweated concentrated in terms of salt, but it was a good reminder to visually see just how much as a reminder to stay on top of hydration.

I can't say how often I will post here, but it should be more than during the last 4 months!

Long Time no Post

The 3 people who read my blog have asked what's going on, and the 3 people who regularly communicate with me on Facebook, so here goes...

I'm on injured reserve. Some sort of muscle imbalances plus some amount of training a lot for 10 years I guess. Sciatica, which is just a symptom, not a root cause, is the order of the day. I waited too long to do the needful--once I was experiencing symptoms bilaterally, I knew it was time to do something.

Did the doctor and a bit of physical therapy. I don't have the $ to go to a pro sports physician, and I know more about myself than most PT's can tell me, so I excused myself from that 2 weeks ago.

I haven't run in about 4 weeks and just started biking last week. I have kept swimming, but stopped the super long swims on Fridays. No sense in doing them when I'm not officially training! I am not registering for Ultraman Hawaii.

I guess this is the rest I've needed for a long time. Right now I'm just happy that I can bike some, although it's not all on the road bike yet. I've been doing some walking, but it bores the heck out of me. If I lived in the mountains, I'd be hiking a ton, but I don't live in the mountains, sadly, and last time I checked, you can't rent a mountain in Illinois.

Since I figure I have had some sciatic symptoms for about 9 months, it could take awhile to undo this. One thing the PT did tell me was that I have weak abs. Well, I don't think they are truly weak--maybe my back is just a lot stronger. So I have been doing extra abs work, which can never hurt. I have also needed to change up my stretching, because some stretches just weren't working any longer.

At one time I had a few hypotheses about how I got to this point but I really can't put my finger on anything. Not like I can't use the break, though, right?

Yes, it's made me depressed. Not so much taking a break, but not knowing when I will be 100% again. I'm not debilitated--it just hurts if I sit too long (which I try to avoid), and running seems to aggravate it. I'm not in lots of pain--it's just annoying. I want to wake up, get out of bed and not feel ANYTHING in my glutes/hamstrings--then I will know I'm truly good to go.

I recognize that I need to be careful because I could easily overdo something else and make things worse. Someone asked me about water running, and I have no desire to do it. I have lost my drive, and soon I will be OK with it, because I am not fatigued all the time and can do other things. Mostly I just want to be able to go on some long rides!

I think my mega training days are behind me now, and that's OK. But I still want to stay in the triathlon game, and am itching to get back to it, but I am going to take my time with this so I heal up right. Like I said, one of these days I will wake up and nothing will hurt and I will sit down and nothing will hurt and then I will begin thinking about competition again. Until then, I'll keep swimming, lifting, biking as much as tolerated and stay generally active. I will say that going from what I was used to down to 11-12 hours a week makes me feel truly lazy. Plus I need to be more careful about my diet. I don't think I've gained any weight, but I can see how easy it is to overeat if you're not working out much at all. No more constant snacking or eating until I'm completely full at dinner time. Sucks!

I will learn from this as I always do--how to recognize and be even more tuned into things going on in my body. Last year was just so crazy that I can see how I misinterpreted some things. Add to that a built up tolerance to pain and discomfort and there you go.

Well this too shall pass I just hope it's before summer!

Last Day of January and a Little Race Report

Thought I should check in here for all 3 readers of my blog ;)

So I had my "day I thought I might be sick and took a complete day of rest instead" on 21-JAN, then I trained well over the weekend. On Monday, I felt suitably worked over, but still managed to swim. My legs felt a bit sore (not just fatigued), so instead of running, I just walked on the treadmill, doing a hill workout. Didn't feel tired doing it, but as soon as I got off, I felt super tired. This is not uncommon for a Monday. Being at work is just "that much more" stress that it can put me over the top, fatigue-wise.

Tuesday morning when I woke up (after having slept 11 hours), my legs were SORE. I am pretty good at distinguishing fatigue from sore related to a particular workout, but this was much worse. It was my body telling me to rest my legs totally or things would just get worse. So I did. I had a run and bike scheduled, and I just skipped them, hoping the one day of rest would be all that I needed.

Wednesday morning I swam again and when it was time for my tempo run, my legs were feeling pretty good, and I had a really good run, so good call on taking Tuesday off. I ran again Thursday morning, and did a hard ride later on which went well.

I wasn't looking forward to Friday's long swim. I know I technically don't need to do all these long swims right now, and I know I have the fitness to build up to 10k whenever I want, but the reality is that doing a 2+ hour swim before work is a different animal, and if I get out of the groove for just a week, they seem to tax me more than I'd done one the prior week. Which was the case. I only swam 6700 (should have gotten in 7000 but I jabbered too much before starting), and even with all the right nutrition and such, I was pretty whacked the rest of the day. I had a small desire to make up for my lost Tuesday run, but instead I finished lifting for the week. I do find that I feel better after the long swims if I do about 1/2 hour of SOMETHING. I am so used to a morning and then mid-day workout during the week that it has become almost necessary.

Saturday I only had to do a 2:15 trainer ride because I would be racing on Sunday. The mental ease of this "short" of a ride compared to 3 hours was awesome. Initially I hadn't planned on running afterward, but I thought what the hell, 20 minutes shouldn't hurt, so I did, and it didn't feel too bad. When I finished, I watched World Cup Skiing (alpine) for a couple of hours. I have become addicted to it, especially since Ivica Kostelic is in the overall lead. He's Croatian, like me, so I am rooting for him. Whenever I'm on the trainer, I've been watching Universal Sports, and I've caught a lot of skiing and just started following it.

Sunday morning I felt a little worked from Saturday's workout. I think I've been biking pretty hard, but the Ergomo on LGL is shot so I have just been basing my intervals on speed. I may be riding harder than I think or vice versa. I know my heart rate is in the dumpster, as I just never feel like I'm taxing my heart anymore (more on that later). I had written a warmup for the race of 15' on the treadmill and 15' on the bike (and whatever swim I could get in at the race venue).

My legs actually felt pretty good running, so I guessed that I actually had a bit of race day adrenaline going! What a nice change of pace! When I got on the bike, same thing. I had a slight concern I might be warming up too hard, but who can say?

I got to the club where the race was being held with not much time to spare. I did check out what kind of bikes they were using this year--some alien things I'd never seen before, and neither had anyone else. They put you in the most god awful position like you are going to fall into the display unit, and the saddles are designed for a 10 year old's butt. Oh well, everyone has the same issue.

I got into the pool and it was pretty cold for me. I had a gutter lane and was next to a big guy that I pegged as not the greatest swimmer. I was so concerned about gunning it on the swim or hyperventilating that I just took it super easy--TOO easy. I did feel like I was getting slammed into the wall with waves much of the time. When I got out, I wasn't the least bit winded, so yeah, I can swim faster than that. My volunteer lap counter remarked at how fit I am. It wasn't because of my swim speed, though!

When I got on the evil bike, I had no clue what strategy I should use. A friend said that the resistance was more than you might suspect, so I stuck with what I had used all the other years on the Precor bikes. It seemed to work for me, and I got in more mileage than I thought I would, which seemed to confirm that my bike training has been spot on. But I think I can do better in the race 2 weeks from now.

I did have to lay on the floor for about a minute after I got off the bike, so I think I gave it a good go. Now onto the run. I have not felt good about my run speed for a few months. It seems to be coming back to me, but I have felt like I've been struggling. Still, I just wanted to just run evenly and not slow down. I left my watch with my bottle of Infinit on the sideline.

I just took off and let the rabbits go. I kept telling myself "it's just 15 minutes" and tried to keep a steady pace. I did not look at the race clock because I didn't want to know how much I was sucking. I did get lapped once by a few people, but I also lapped 4 or 5 people in my wave. If I had taken off my headphones, I would have known that I stopped a bit early, and I could have banged out another 1/32 of a mile maybe. I did go and look at the results board and see that I got 2nd in my AG. I was a bit surprised, because I figured I sucked enough for 3rd, but I was good with 2nd. The woman in 1st aged up this year, and she's a much better swimmer than me, but I was surprised she didn't pass me on the run. So maybe there's hope for me in the next race...

I never felt that "heart jumping out of my chest" sensation while running. I think my heart rate just doesn't go too high anymore. I can wear an HRM on the treadmill and bike, but I hate the way the chest strap feels, but I might give it a go just to see where it is.

I got a massage and then headed back to the treadmills to run 1:15 (which sucked), caught the end of a friend's race, got another massage, watched the elite wave and then headed home. Even though I'd gotten about :35 of massage, I felt compelled to stretch some more at home. I got lucky that Universal Sports was just beginning to show more World Cup Skiing, and I got to see my main man Ivica win the Super Combined.

Today I managed to swim 3,000 yards in the morning and actually ran for :20 at lunchtime. I am still pretty tired, and will need a good night of rest to recover some more tonight. I am being watchful of my fatigue status because I have a "real" race in 4 weeks--Gasparilla--and I need to be 100% healthy for it. I have been training A LOT, but I also need to keep my eyes on the prize--my "A" race isn't until November. Still, I expect high performance out of myself all the time, so it's a delicate balancing act I have to follow.

In other news, I'm really enjoying baking stuff for my breakfast. Muffins are so damn easy to make, and you can fudge the ingredient composition a bit unlike for say, a cake. Last Friday night I made some carrot/raisin muffins, and I punched up the protein content with some wheat germ. They are really tasty! On Sunday I made a walnut cake (OH NO!) because I had some walnuts hanging around that needed using. I calculated the calories in the entire cake and decided that 12 pieces were in order, and I can have a slice whenever I want! I have also been cooking up a storm this winter and have to be careful lest I have no room in my freezer.

Now I will just wait for this alleged blizzard to show up. Other than making it inconvenient to get to the pool (I can walk if I have to), I'm all set. I have plenty of food, Gatorade, beer. I'm not looking forward to moving a bunch of snow, but it will need to be done. I may swim tomorrow morning just because Wednesday is supposed to be hellacious, and then I don't have to go anywhere until Friday, so by then the roads should be passable.

Hope everyone has a great week!