Great Training Week and Happy Spring!

I had another great training week capped off today with a 3700 yard swim (death by 200's I call it) followed by a 2-hour run, where I ended up running 13.67 miles in 2:01:44, so I guess on a flat-ish course, my running is coming along just fine!

This morning I had to decide where I wanted to run.  I wanted to hit up Waterfall Glen so I could test up my hill strength acquired from last week's 1/2 marathon in Cary.  But I figured it would be muddy and generally wet from the good amount of rain we had on Friday, so I thought, hey run from home, that way I can smell all the nice things in bloom right now.

First I had to swim.  The workout called for 6x100 and then 10x200.  For some reason, I hate 200's.  They are in that grey area between 100's and 300+.  I got through the workout in good shape, and then went home to eat something before I headed out to run.  I decided on a piece of toast with jam and 1/2 can of Coke (not at the same time!).

My run was to be easy out and a little harder on the way back.  It was already nice and warm at noon, so I wore shorts and a singlet, and took my Fuel Belt loaded with Infinit. I am getting better at holding my pace down when I need to, but I'm not quite there yet.  Still, considering I'd trained pretty hard yesterday (3:30 bike and :40 run) and had swum, I felt pretty good.  Once again, I was rewarded with such sweet smells of spring, and so in my head I made up my top 3 flower smells:

1. Plumeria.  The smell of Hawaii!  I get to smell it again in November!
2. Oriental Lilies. I have a bunch of these, and they usually bloom in July, but this year I expect they will be early, like everything else has been.  Their fragrance is so nice, especially on a warm summer evening.  Just a few of the bulbs can perfume an entire yard, but I have like 20 or 25 of them blooming all at once.  They are my absolute favorite flower.
3. Viburnum 'Mohawk.'  I used to have one of these in my front yard, but it got yanked when the sidewalk was put in.  My neighbor planted one in the back, but it originally had too much shade.  I corrected that by removing some shrubs and a tree or two, with the result that while it is on the properly line, the shrub leans toward my yard and I get all the smell!  Lots of people plant these for spring fragrance, and they smell sweet and spicy at the same time.  There were plenty of them along my run route today, and a few of them I had to stop and put my nose right in them!

I ran easy, and practiced good form and easy running uphill on the way out.  It didn't matter how fast I was today, and I really wanted to enjoy it.  When I got to Hinsdale, in the window of the bike shop there I saw a Dutch-type bike that had skulls on it!  I had to stop, so I went in and asked if the skull decals were for sale.  Nope.  Well, they match exactly to the ones on the bed skirt that I made two years ago:

I told the mechanic dude that I had skulls on one of my bikes and he described Skull Kingdom!  He said he'd seen it, and I was puzzled--I never took it into that shop, as that would be like cheating on my bike mechanic, but it made me laugh that some random guy had remembered my bike!  Well, it is quite distinctive.

I soldiered on from there, and ended up running 2' extra after the 1 hour mark, figuring I'd negative split and I allowed for a good negative split.  When I was back with just under 5 miles to go, there was a freight train that I had to wait for.  No big deal.  There was some Crossfit whore who was walking, and she got caught by the train as well.  She was doing all these bending over stretches for the onlookers in cars, and I was laughing my ass off.  While she did have a good bit of muscle on her, she also had plenty of fat that if I had that much, I wouldn't be wearing tiny butt hugger shorts like she was.  Just to be funny, I flexed my biceps and took off my singlet so everyone could see my ripped upper body.  I'm sure all the cars stopped by the trains had a good time!

I had to pick it up on the way back, and the little rest for the train was nice.  Right after that, I climb back up for about 3/4 mile, then I got a nice downhill, and then the big 1-mile hill that's 3 miles from home.  I was feeling the heat by now, and cursed that I should have gone out slower, but oh well, too bad, must press on.

I was pretty happy that on the way out I averaged 9:18 and then 8:57 on the way back in!  So average pace for the entire run was 9:08!  A little better than the 10:13 I did last week in the 1/2 marathon.  I did have a few breaks, but I am still encouraged that my running is coming around.

For the week, I swam 13,400 yards, biked 185 miles and ran 32 miles.  Also 1.1 hours of strength work (I skipped some, but will get it all in this coming week, I'm sure).  And all that was with a rest day on Monday!  Holy shit!  My swimming is coming along--the Masters coach says I'm making fast progress on my stroke, which rocks.  I even took a turn at swimming 2nd in my lane on Thursday and kept up just fine.  I've got many more weeks of it to improve, but now I have better tools to do it, both in and out of the pool.  Biking will be tough to evaluate until I'm riding 100% outdoors, but for the amount I'm already doing, I feel pretty good.

All to the good, and I have 2 more weeks before the big remodeling project begins and the night class on Wednesdays.  I only have to keep my sanity for 8 weeks, and then I get to race at Triple T.  All systems appear to be working, so with that, I need to go eat again!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

First 2 Weeks and a Little Race Report

I survived my first 2 weeks with Joanna!  I shouldn't really say that, because the training is going to keep coming, as I would expect.  It's just that for how much I am already doing, I feel pretty darn great--some level of fatigue is expected, but I am (knock wood) healthy and strong!

Yesterday was the Cary March Madness 1/2 marathon.  I've registered for this before but blown it off, because the weather is typically shitty.  This time, though, with our lack of winter in Chicago, and sudden summer in March, there was no excuse not to show up.  I knew the course had a reputation for hilly, more so than the usual stuff that I consider hilly for this area.

I arrived at the race and wore my light windbreaker to go get my packet and was slightly chilled, but knew that my clothing choice (shorts, bra top and singlet) were perfect, and that it would be warm.  I ran into a few friends--Ino, Juan, Debbie and Val.  Val showed up on his MTB to send me off, but not before chattering away asking me a million questions which annoyed me, so I sent him away.  Still, how can it not feel good when someone you know shows up at a race to see you?

I wasn't so much nervous as wanting to put on a good performance and not disappoint my coach.  See I am already in that mentality that I want to be on top of things all the time.  Well, let's take a look at the course:

Um...hilly, eh?  Someone told me this is rated as the 3rd hardest 1/2 in the country.  I don't know whether that's true or not, but it is the hardest 1/2 mary I've every run except maybe for that one part of Ultraman Canada that was straight up some mountain.

My race plan was to try and go out at 9:30-9:35 for the first 8 miles and then see how I felt and either hold or slow down.  Mile 1 was 9:37, so perfect, just a slight uphill, no worries.  Miles 2 and 3 together were 19:04 (forgot to hit watch at 2), so all good, right?   And then the climbing began.  I tried to keep my cadence up and just watch my RPE (I don't wear an HRM), and fly downhill whenever I could.  Miles 4-7: 10:07, 9:50, 10:34, 10:26.  Well there goes the 9:30's.  But I wanted to run strong, and in my head, I was laughing at myself that the course was much more challenging than I could have imagined, and it's not like I thought I was in shape for a good 1/2 marathon anyway.

Miles 8-13 went 10:23, 9:27 (OMG a downhill!), 11:07, 11:15, 10:38, 10:23 and then :55.  When I finished (2:13.52 total, subtracting the :35 it took to get to the start line--no chip timing), I thought I sucked, but I felt pretty good for having run that course.  My suck ass performance was at 10:13 pace.  This was my first long run on asphalt since last November, only my second long run outdoors this year (first one was a week ago!), first super hilly encounter (last week's long run I thought was hilly, ha ha not compared to this!), and on Saturday, I'd run an easy 3 something miles, biked 2:30 probably a bit too hard, and did about 20' of strength training including lunges and squats!

So when I put all of that together, I probably shouldn't complain too much.  Here I sit writing this, and I have not one single bit of soreness in my legs.  How can that be?  Shit...maybe I am finally strong enough to carry this load in style and maybe even pick up some speed.  But wait, there's more!  I was supposed to swim 3,000 after the race.  On the drive there, I saw a Y about 10 miles from the race venue that I thought I'd try and see if I could get in and swim on my way home.  If I went home first, a) I would see a couch or a bed and bail and b) I would need to wait until 2:30 to go swim.  Again, going all the way home (I had my swim stuff with me) would have resulted in a no swim.

When I got to the Buehler YMCA, they scanned my card and I was in!  It's a huge Y, with 2 pools, so the lap pool has tons of lap swim time available.  When I got to the pool deck, I thought I'd warm up a bit in the warm kid pool, but to my tired eyes I saw a hot tub!  So I went in there first and stretched 5 minutes, then back to the lap pool.  The lap pool was nice and cool, colder than my home pool, and I was shocked that swimming didn't feel bad at all.  Sure, I was tired and a bit slower than normal, but I swam well, all things considered.

After I finished swimming, I went back to the hot tub, which felt so good, and stretched some more.  Then I hit the shower, and on the way back to the lockers I spotted the sauna.  Fuck yeah!  I went in and stretched some more in there, then got dressed, and on my way out, asked where the nearest decent place for a burger and a beer was.  There was a lot of traffic on the way back, and I really wanted to get home, so I drank another bottle of water and headed home with a bit of a lead foot--oh well.  When I was nearly home, I remembered the 2 brew pubs like 2 blocks from home and turned to go park.  I settled on Emmett's Ale House, promptly got a beer, and then I ended up eating these 3 mini burgers, all different, and coleslaw.  Man, coleslaw never tasted so good!  I don't eat it very often, so it was a treat.  And the burgers were awesome.

I still was feeling like I'd sucked badly at the race, but then I figured, hey it's March, I swam after a race and while I was tired, I didn't feel all that bad, so I loaded the dishwasher, did laundry, chatted with some friends, and then ate some steak and a salad around 7PM, a little TV and reading, and passed out about 7:30.

I was shocked that I slept all the way through to 4AM today!  I know I will be tired today, but I get a rest day, and I'm getting a massage after work.  I think I will probably get in my strength training for the week today if I can, or at least some of it, otherwise I will go completely crazy.

So in consideration of everything, do I have a 2:05 or less 1/2 marathon in me?  I think so.  On a flatter course, I'm pretty sure I could do it right now.  I have some other things to do as well, like get a whole lot better at swimming.  That is coming along, too, and I am so happy about that.  Turns out my Powertap is working, but I think I need to buy the software (again) that gives better analysis of the power files otherwise I must really suck, but that can't be true as on Saturday I was doing 24-25mph sprints next to freight trains.  We shall see.

Bottom line: I remain highly optimistic that I am headed for some really great performances this year.  Best decision I made a few weeks ago to get a coach, and a really outstanding one! She is kicking my ass, and I am loving it!

Only 9 weeks until Triple T, which is effectively an Ironman, so it's time for me to be Iron Fit!  I am in an Ironman build right now, and I am glad my brain has short-term memory, because I always forget how crazy it can get.  But I'm on it and getting my remodeling project all under control and about to contract to have my yard maintained by someone else for my year of reaching for the stars.  It's all good!

Week 1 of Coached Training in Review: Rise of the Borg Queen

Some of you who read my blog may not have gone far enough back in time to know that I am a dork/geek/nerd and like Star Trek. I have the Borg logo (a gift) from Franklin Mint that was given to me years ago. Some day I will have it made into a pin so I can wear it:

Anyway, I got through my first week of Joanna's workouts.

Saturday was a 3-hour ride with a 20-minute run off the bike.  For the ride, there was about 1 hours worth of intervals where I was to "ride at a pace that you would like to be able to hold for 5 hours."  Initially, I thought 22mph, but that has been feeling easy lately, so I decided to go for 24.5-25mph, and did it!  Now, this was on the trainer, so my actual outside pace won't be there yet, but still--neat mental trick to tell me to do what I think I would *like* to do, and voila!  I got in 67 miles in 3 hours, and I wasn't toasted when I finished.

For the run, the objective was to warm up for 5 minutes building to a pace that I "would like to run in my next race, be it a sprint or whatever."  Well, I thought that since I'd effectively done a 1/2 IM ride, that I should shoot for 1/2 IM pace.  And right now where my run fitness is, that puts me at a 9:30 pace, until I prove otherwise.  So I did that, and while I can't say it felt easy, it did not suck bad at all.  I was shocked, considering how hard I'd ridden the bike.

Key in executing this workout was using my custom Infinit, and the fact that I stopped drinking it on the bike with 20 minutes to go, to let my stomach settle.  A week ago when I did a similar workout, I drank right up to the end of the bike, and I felt like crap when I started to run.  My point here is that it's important for me to always be thinking as if I were racing, whenever I am doing race-similar workouts.  I had a flash while running that gee, I might be able to go faster all around this season, and the thought momentarily frightened me.  Or should I say, I had an emotional moment.  There's a lot to be said for the mental aspect of this and letting yourself believe you can really go faster, and this is one of the main reasons having a coach right now is good for me.  I am just doing what I'm told without reference to what I think I should be able to do.  So no holding back!  It is all just numbers, and I love numbers, but numbers do not have emotions, so why should I be afraid of any particular number in training any more, right?

The workout was also aided by listening to some more of my old party mix cassette tapes (before they are converted to MP3), and hey, when you listen to Crack FM, every fucking song is great!  I was laughing that I should have gone hard every time The Clash, David Bowie or XTC came on, but that was pretty regular.  Here is the full playlist of what I listened to--I have left off artist names except where I cleverly put the same song back to back by 2 different artists.

• Money (Stones)
• Money (Flying Lizards)
• Cars 
• Heart of Glass
• Two Swords
• Down in the Cockpit
• Helicopter
• ME-262
• TVC-15
• Numbers
• Walk Away
• Think it Over
• Trampled Underfoot
• What's the Matter With You?
• Shattered
• Being Boiled
• Psycho Killer
• I Dream of Wires (Gary Numan)
• I Dream of Wires (Robert Palmer)
• Clues
• Dominance and Submission
• Respect
• Satisfaction (Stones)
• Satisfaction (Devo)
• Don't Lose Your Temper
• Red
• I See Red
• Under Pressure
• Hit me With Your Rhythm Stick
• Another One Bites the Dust
• Fashion
• Pocket Calculator
• Through Being Cool
• Too Much Pressure
• Clampdown
• Mob Clash
• White Riot
• Rebel Rebel
• Suffragette City
• Call the Uh-Oh Squad
• Chips on my Shoulder
• Pressure Drop
• Down

The music was so good I never turned on the TV!  I sang along whenever I could, and it was a nice change of pace not to be listening to hip hop, which is my typical trainer music.

So Saturday was awesome.  After I finished, I ate lunch, stretched, got waxed, went to Best Buy to pick up a wireless stick for my Blu Ray player, went to Binny's to get some Barolo and Barbaresco (shit Italian reds are still buco expensive), then I was next to a Home Depot, so I figured, what the hell, go in and look at stuff.  Today I will have my contractor come over with carpet, granite (for the bar top), paint (walls) and stain samples (wood trim and cabinets behind bar), but I thought I'd get a head start on that in the store.  I called Jim while I was there to tell him what I was looking at, and we talked about some other stuff, too.  Bonus, I found mini blinds that are copper colored for the windows, which will set off the bar hood nicely.  My bar hood is going to be covered in this copper:

The walls will be painted Almond Cream (I chose that sample and reviewed with Jim), the wood trim and bar cabinets will be medium walnut stain.  I like the granite called Black Galaxy because it has copper flecks in it, but there are some other colors I looked at online that would work too--just have to check availability and cost, although I am spending a bundle on the bar!  The front and side of the bar will be glass block with blue LED lights inside.  It's going to be way cool!

So I ended my Home Depot expedition because I was so fucking hungry and needed to get home and eat some more.  I pounded what I thought to be an appropriate amount of calories to replace what I'd burned (I probably burned 2,000 or so) and fuel up for Sunday.

Sunday's workouts called for a 4,000 yard interval swim and then a 2-hour run.  Fuck, that swim was hard--I won't write the workout here, let's just say it was a mix of 25's, 50's, 100's and a couple 800's, but I swam well, I thought.  Per the Masters coach, I started focusing on not crossing over, and during my warmup guess what?  Faster.  Huh.  This will take a few weeks at least to fix, but I can already see that fixing that alone is going to be huge, as I noticed that my rotation and kick all seem to work better together.  I tried my best to practice that throughout the 4,000 yards, although I did let myself "just swim" for some of it, otherwise I actually screw up my stroke even more.  The point of this is to "just swim" and have it be good form, right?  I can over think this, so I need to be careful of how many things I'm thinking about while I'm trying to get my swim on.  Masters coach also told me to do a better job of finishing the stroke, but I am putting that on hold until I fix the cross over.  Why?  Because I can tell that if I don't cross over, I am doing a better job of finishing!

Speaking of Masters, the coach agreed to work with me 1:1 on Tuesdays at 6:30, but I will "just swim" with the group on Thursdays.  I can't believe how well this is all working out--it's something I should have done years ago, but the Masters coach understands what I am trying to accomplish this year, and I think he's as excited to work with me as I am with him!

OK so back to the workouts.  I finish the swim, and all I can think is when was the last time I swam hard 4,000 and then ran 2 hours? Um...NEVER.  So this should be interesting.  The weather was awesome yesterday, so I suited up to run outdoors at Waterfall Glen, my hilly trail (crushed limestone) not too far from home.  As expected, the parking lot was full, but I got the pole position at the trail head, as someone had just left.  I haven't done a long run outside in several months, let alone a hilly one, so I had no expectations for it.  Plus I did have some residual fatigue from that swim and maybe a little from Saturday.

I forgot to mention I drank Infinit again during the swim, and that's what I loaded into my Fuel Belt for the run.  With the amount of training I'm now doing, anything 2+ hours requires it.  Plus I needed the caffeine ;)

I was shocked at how "not bad" I felt when I began running.  I did walk the hills at miles 1, 2 and 6, because who was I kidding I had not run hills in a long time.  But I did do a few hill intervals on Friday, and (Coach is probably laughing at me) I could tell that the hills just didn't feel that bad.  Also I could tell that my weight is probably perfect, and that I feel super strong.  It's been awhile since I felt fat running uphill, which means time to drop some pounds, but I felt pretty darn light yesterday.  Maybe I was just depleted, LOL!

Anyway, I ran 12.7 miles in 1:57, which is 9:15 pace, even though I walked and kept trying to slow myself down, and felt like I was running through sludge at some points from the cumulative fatigue.  But when I was like 1/4 mile from finishing (I ran one loop which is 9.65 miles, counter-clockwise, then continued on out for 1.something miles and back), I was just so happy to be finishing that I pumped a fist in the air and shouted FUCK YEAH and sprinted it in.

I was on a schedule again yesterday, so no time to stretch and exult in my good run, so I drove home, unloaded my swim and run crap, put LGL and more bike crap into the car, showered, drank a bunch of water, and headed to meet a friend for sushi.  He is such a nice guy that he drove from way up north (Barrington) to meet me for lunch, and he got there ahead of me and the table was laid with sushi goodness when I arrived!  On the way there, I called him to say I'd be maybe 10 minutes late, and when he told me the table was already covered with sushi, I got so excited that I turned left on a red light!  Whoops! See this is why I typically don't talk on the phone while I'm driving.

So we pounded sushi (I did, at least), had a few beers, many laughs and great conversation, then we parted ways and I went to the bike shop to pick up Skull Kingdom and a new aero helmet:

Will that look sweet or what?  But wait...there's more.  I decided I want skulls on it, so I'm ordering these decals, one for each side:

They are reflective.  I printed a pic of it and cut it out and put it on the helmet so I could see what it will look like.

While I was on my way to the bike shop, I realized I could have eaten more, but oh well, when I drove home from the shop, I was starving and all I could think was what do I do first when I get home--take out my contact lenses, put the chicken in the oven, shovel calories?  I opted for guzzling more water, taking out contact lenses, prepping the chicken and putting it in the oven, then I cracked a beer and stretched my brains out, ate some dried apricots and almonds and cheese.  By the time I was done stretching, the giblets were cooked, so I ate those, then made a salad and ate that, and when the chicken was done I had a thigh and drumstick.

You would think I had enough food for the day, but you would be wrong.  I woke up at 1:15 this morning hungry, so I got up, had a piece of string cheese and a 225-calorie Powerbar, went back to sleep, woke up at 4:30 hungry and ate breakfast.

On my online training log for Joanna, I wrote, "I'm tired" on yesterday's run workout notes.  She emailed me back, "Your friends will be pleased."  My response was, "Yes they will be.  But I am like the Borg and adapt quickly and get stronger."  One of my friends used to say I reminded him of Seven of Nine, but I think the Borg Queen is more like it:

I feel pretty good this morning.  All I have to do today is run for an hour and lift maybe :45.  All good.  As long as I keep up with my calories, I'm all good.  Here's a sampling of what I bought at the grocery store on Saturday (I shopped before I hopped on the bike):

Oh, and I'm SO glad we switched to DST.  Now I wake up at 4:30 instead of 3:30, which is great!  I knew that the time change would start to get me back on track, AND I slept 9 hours last night, so since I'm almost done designing for the remodel job, I won't be waking up thinking about 10 million things I have to do!

First Week of Coached Training and Food Channel

I've made it through 4.5 days worth of coach's workouts.  They have gone well.  I have another 1:20 bike to do today yet, but without that I'm up to almost 11 hours for the week.  I should reach around 19:00 by the end of the week.

Needless to say, at this level, I need to eat often and ensure I am replacing all my glycogen stores every day.  I think I must have been behind yesterday, because here's what I ended up eating for dinner and beyond last night:

• 2 beers
• about 5-6 oz. spaghetti with blue cheese/bacon/red pepper sauce and liberal grated Romano on top
• A medium size salad of butter lettuce, grape tomatoes, copious olive oil, creme of balsamic, and a sprinkle of grated Romano cheese
• 2 Stoned Wheat Thins crackers spread with light braunschweiger (yes, I like that)
• 2 raspberry Fig Newtons

My workouts yesterday were a 3400 Masters swim and a 1:45 ride that included about 20' of VO2 Max intervals.  Before dinner, I went through the following:

• 32 oz. Gatorade
• 1 can Coke (for first hour of ride)
• 1 serving Endurox R4
• Breakfast muffin plus hardboiled egg for breakfast
• Some sugar-containing cream in my coffee
• 2 pieces of String Cheese
• A 300-calorie Lean Cuisine (Indian chicken somehow) for lunch
• 2 bananas
• A handful of roasted almonds
• Probably some other stuff I don't remember.  All I remember is eating constantly.

Sometime after 7PM, I passed out in front of the TV, and then woke up around 8PM.  I felt like I needed some more calories, so I ate a Powerbar Triple Threat and went back to sleep.

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't starving, but within 30 minutes and a cup of coffee, I had breakfast, and the eating cycle began all over again.  I looked in my freezer wistfully, knowing that all the good things in there are going to be consumed faster than normal.  I am trying to avoid buying candy for snacks, but I'm thinking I probably should just go ahead since my calories needs are going to rise in the next few weeks.  On the white board in my kitchen where I note needed supplies, I just wrote CARBS.

Anyone who wants to buy me a meal better watch out!

Metamorphosis

I thought I should write something quick about how my physique has changed through the years of doing all this nonsense.  I began triathlon (2000) in a sort of pudgy state--not fat by normal standards, but carrying a decent amount of weight that wouldn't do me any good biking or running.  I erroneously thought I could eat whatever I wanted, and we all know that just isn't true no matter how much training you do.

Fattie! Crackhead's first Ironman--Lake Placid, 2001.


I naturally began dropping some fat off as I continued to train, mostly due to becoming stronger and working at a higher intensity (note to people trying to lose weight by staying in their "fat burning" zone--that's a crock of shit--work hard!).  By 2004, I'd become fairly lean, and had gotten my eating habits back under control--mostly by monitoring quality of intake, but again, I was also upping the intensity.

Here I am at Ironman Canada 2004.  Who would have predicted I'd be swimming the full length of that lake 6 years later in Ultraman Canada?

Here I am finishing IMLP 2009, pretty much as lean as I've ever been, but there was some seriously muscle going on there, too. FYI, that is the time to beat at Ironman Canada this year, and hopefully by 20+ minutes!

I maintained through about 2008, perhaps leaning out just a tad more, but nothing too noticeable.  In 2009, I stepped up my training again, and as expected, it was reflected in my body comp.

Next, I began the Ultraman training cycle--lots more swimming, more strength work, and I decided no good would come from me obsessing about how much fat I was carrying--I might even need it for the race!   The one thing that did change, though, is my upper body became bigger from all the swimming.

My hips remained boyish, my ass remained huge, but I got me some shoulders, and put on a bit o' fat.  All good.

Since then, I've watched my diet more carefully to keep the fat off and improve my health, and it showed in recent blood work I had done.  Great cholesterol readings, fasting glucose, liver/kidney function.  All of it.  Doctor pronounced me pretty damn healthy for 55 years old.

During 2011, I only raced twice, and somewhere along the way, I decided I should up the weights.  It was time to revamp the strength training anyway.  The net result is interesting.  Yesterday, I dropped off Skull Kingdom for her annual tuneup and had my guy, Rich, look at me on her.  I haven't ridden Skull Kingdom since last September.  Between then and now, I kept up my heavier weights and did a boatload of swimming.  The result?  The only way I could describe it was that I felt "pinchy" in my chest/lat area.  Lo and behold, and I've known this for a few months, my pecs and lats are bigger than ever, and especially the lat development has necessitated a few changes in my bike fit!  I asked Rich what he did, and he moved my saddle back 5mm and my bars down maybe 2.  I told him that I am pretty sure that after I ride it for a few weeks that I will want the bars dropped some more.  I was really happy I had him check me out again, and I'll be back in probably a month for a re-check.  I don't have a picture to show for this, but will get one in a week when I pick up Skull Kingdom.

I also just got some more swimsuits (I know I don't NEED them!), and I've thought my existing ones were fitting me differently.  Well it's a fact.  I ordered up a size thinking it was my huge ass making them tighter, but it's not.  It's my upper body again!  The new suits are still pretty snug in my upper body, and I wish they were tighter in the ass area, but oh well.  I may still order my next ones down back to my normal size and just suffer with them being skin-tight. 

Aaaaaaaaaanyway...I find it fascinating how my body has metamorphosed throughout the years.  As of today, I can say with confidence that I will be shedding much fat--it is already difficult for me to shovel in enough calories, and I'm putting in some good intensity, too.  It will be interesting to see how I look just 8 weeks from now.  I've changed up my strength training again (as per coach), and I am still retaining solid pecs/lats work but now adding lots of lunges, so maybe my legs will look decent!  I know I shouldn't care what I look like but rather how I perform, but I can't help it--it makes me feel good to look good.  I've never thought I was particularly "face" attractive, so all I've got is this stinky old body to work with.  It has served me well, and I'm not forcing it into any particular shape--it will be whatever is the result of what I am doing now.  I promise to feed it well first for performance, but no worries I am getting plenty of flavor and enjoyment out of my food!

Here We Go

A few people have asked me why I decided to work with a coach again.  Here's why:

• To take my training to the next level.  More of the same would not have worked for me this year.  It was time for a big change.
• To perhaps take my results to the next level.  I have some serious goals for the year (PR at Ironman Canada; perform strongly at Ultraman Hawaii), and I couldn't afford to mess around in training in order to achieve those goals.
• To learn a bunch more training techniques.  I've learned about and adopted certain styles that have worked well for me in the past, but again, time for some changes.
• To take some pressure off myself.  Now all I have to do is show up and do the workouts!
• To have an objective third party looking in on me.  Lord knows I can lose perspective in terms of how much I'm doing (too much; not enough), how well or how poorly I'm doing (I am a tough critic of myself).  Coach does have access to my full history in black and white, and numbers don't lie.  She gets to interpret them, though, and set a course for improvement.

I couldn't have picked just any old coach, either.  I know many wonderful coaches, both locally and across the U.S., and there were several I considered, but it was really important for there to be a good personality/style match.  I'm not sure Joanna gets all of me, yet (I've been asked whether she reads my blog and my response is GOOD GOD I HOPE NOT--just kidding), but I think we are both the type of people who can size up others pretty quickly.

Last week was my last week of self-coaching for awhile.  I had a great week--partly because I came off those hard sprint races, and partly because this is exactly where I expected to be at this time!  I'm typically in this shape in mid-January, but that would be for a July Ironman, and this year's isn't until August, so I am more or less right on schedule.  I knocked out a 3-hour ride on Sunday where I hit all my power numbers and then some (hit the 56.1 mile mark at 2:33 in--at that point I'd done 30' easy, 1 hour at 80% FTP, and 2x(18' @ 85-90%, 6' @ FTP, 1' @ 105%, 5' easy), and then yesterday I had a solid 2:05 run with building pace, and got in 13.3 miles.

I am always surprised because it seems like all of a sudden I feel really fit, but it's all very much planned, and I shouldn't be surprised, but I think my brain enjoys the feeling of SURPRISE!  So I'm not going to question it.

I got my first 2 weeks of training from JZ and let's just say it's going to be awesome!  Good thing I'd been training like a Crackhead for the last few years, because if I wasn't, NO WAY would I be able to tolerate what's coming up.  So maybe it's a test to see if I can handle it--we will see.  All I know is I need to be religious about going EASY when that is what I am supposed to do, because there is plenty of HARD stuff where I will need to HTFU to get it done.  It's been a few years since I've been challenged in this way, and it's exactly what I need--not that I didn't challenge myself in training for my first Ultraman--that was a huge challenge and stretch, but now I've had another year for my body to really absorb all that and kick it up a notch.

On that note, I must go and get some training done.  This ain't no party, and this sure ain't no fucking disco!

Another Journey Begins

This past Sunday, I made a big decision to enlist the help of a triathlon coach. Joanna Zeiger (Shenk).  I'd been thinking about this for a few months (can't find the prior blog post where I said I was considering it), and I think it was because I believe I've licked the whole low back/hip/foot issue thing and feel healthy that I figured I was in position to actually EXECUTE on the training I had planned for myself, that I thought, hey, I might be aligned for a really stellar year.  But I also thought this might be the perfect time to seek outside help from someone who I believe would be able to understand the peculiar combination of my athletic history, past training style, results, lifestyle, goals for this year, blah, blah, blah, and maybe take me to another level.

It is odd to be 55 years old and thinking about an Ironman PR and another Ultraman.  I don't know too many other women like me.  After last year's time off (which despite how much I needed it caused me intense mental pain), I really wasn't sure I wanted to "keep this up," as is how some other people put it.  But I figured what the hell, I don't really suck that much, let's see what I can do, and I know I'm at a stage where I do need to employ some different training protocols to improve.

I can see the impact of aging year by year, mostly externally (skin, hair, where fat likes to go), but in terms of SBR, I haven't slowed down all that much.  It was time for a change on the training front, and I really don't have time to do a whole bunch of research and figure it out.  I have been training like a 40-something Crackhead, but now it's time to train like a 50-something Crackhead, and the outside view will be really helpful to me.  Now, I'm not your average 50-something Crackhead--I can still kick it and fully intend to do so this year, but I want to do it on the knife's edge with someone's guidance.

I wasn't even sure Joanna had bandwidth to coach me, whether she'd laugh at me and my goals, or as has been the case for some coaches in the past, not even bother to respond.  So I was so happy to get an email from her and then we talked on the phone Sunday, and we are going to start things up this week.

As per my sidebar, my "big" events are still Triple T, Ironman Canada and Ultraman Hawaii.  Those, in and of themselves, comprise a fairly big schedule, no?  Although I won't be so much racing Triple T, as testing my Ironman fitness (that statement was not coach approved!).  There are a few other things I've registered for that I hope are still good with her.  As performance/results oriented as I am, I still love, love, love training and need a dose of a few other non-race events to keep me mentally balanced (if there is such a thing!).  Those would include Horribly Hilly 200k followed by another 200k the next weekend, a silly half marathon in 2 weeks, and maybe a trail marathon in October.

The challenge here still remains how do I train for a PR at Ironman Canada while being prepared to train for Ultraman Hawaii.  Even though now I'm technically "just" training for an Ironman, the looming Ultraman cannot be ignored.  At least that's how I see it.  I've shared the ATP I made for myself with Joanna, and I hope we have some fun discussions about Ultraman training, because as I've already told her (and I am sure she was aware anyway), there is NO SUCH THING as a template for Ultraman training, at least not for a working stiff like me.  Sure, if you don't work full time and can train 25-30 hours a week, there are some best practices there (crap I need to find that Endurance Corner article), but the way I see it (if you aren't trying to go in and WIN Ultraman), you need to capitalize on your strengths (although biking can NOT be shorted) and just have a superior endurance capacity coupled with outstanding nutrition/pacing knowledge to get through it.  How one assembles a training plan to accomplish that is an art.  I learned a ton from doing it to myself 2 years ago, and will learn more this year.  I still get a chuckle at looking at what I initially THOUGHT I could do in training in 2010.  It was psycho.  I would have needed to quit my job and be 20 years younger to do it!  But I settled on something that ended up working, probably in large part to my overall endurance base and will to push myself for many hours.

There is still a bit of fear in turning over the reins to Joanna.  I would be lying if I didn't admit to that.  But what balances that out for me is that I suddenly feel like one element of self-induced stress has been removed--that of me being simultaneously the coach and athlete for once, especially with such high expectations.  Could I do this year without a coach?  Yes.  Might I do even better WITH a coach?  Definitely.  We get to see how things work as I ramp up for Triple T.  I am sure it will be OK.  I did my homework on Joanna--obviously she has a world-class athletic resume, but what settled me on her was when I started reading her blog, but then the clincher was actually talking to her.  She will be good for me.  I might hate her at times, but I've hated my former coach a lot more at times!

Oh and while I am embarking upon a coaching relationship, I am designing what I am doing with my family room.  Mostly the bar.  It is going to be awesome.  The hood is going to be covered with this, the bar top is going to be granite (haven't picked out that yet--probably copper-ish with flecks of gold and blue), and the front and side will be glass blocks.  There will be some LED lighting involved.  I think it's going to kick ass.  The storage behind it will be reconfigured, and I have already gone through all my bike and run stuff and organized it so it will be nicely put away when this is all finished.  I had my new 42" TV mounted on the wall yesterday, although it will be taken down when construction begins, my old TV is upstairs in my bedroom now, and next step is to find the replacement furnace, humidifier and water heater--those go in in a few weeks, and remodeling commences mid-April.

I am excited about SO many things right now, and I think that has been part of my issue with sleeping.  But it seems that settling on a coach has been one of the pieces of the puzzle, and I am beginning to sleep a bit more already.  All to the good.  2012 looks to be one helluva year for me!

It's a Sweep!

I did the 3rd and lst indoor tri today, and even though I haven't seen final results, I'm sure I won my AG which means I swept the series!  This is the 4th time in 8 years that I have won my AG for the series--2004, 2009 and 2010.  There were a few years in there where I didn't race at all or was still grieving for my parents and could not perform well.

Today's race had me with my highest ever score, due to the bike.  In talking to other athletes, some are able to spin at 140+rpm, which seems to give an advantage on the bikes we used, but it is physiologically impossible for me to spin that high.  I comfortable run at 100-105 during my typical warmups at home, and during the race I was mostly between 115 and 120.  I also saw some major heart rate!  But I do have this ability to push myself pretty hard on a bike, and was happy for how I did.

My swim was fine--1:54/100 pace, and I wasn't pushing it at all--I was just swimming steady, and I can swim several thousand yards at that pace.  My run was no better than 2 weeks ago, but this was a conscious decision.  I knew I'd left it all out there on the bike, so I decided to just run steady, and that was fine for today.  Considering I biked faster than 2 weeks ago and did not slow down on the run, I'm happy with it.  I think I just need to get back used to brick workouts, a la this article.

I had the most awesome massage, lomi lomi style (2 people working on me at once!), and was told I have very nice scapulae, but of course I already knew that.  Nah, we were just joking around, but my upper back is easy for someone to work on as it's pretty cut up and you can just grab any particular muscle.

After that, a great breakfast (or was it dessert???) at Moondance Diner with Kevin and Marla, and all is well.

My lower abs/psoas feel just fine, thanks, even though I biked 2:20 yesterday and almost an hour today.  The massage peeps commented on how great my muscles felt considering I'd just raced.  I've been giving them lots of loving care this week as is necessary while I pick up training volume and intensity.

Wow--I remember before the first of these races having trepidation that maybe I suck and this will be a horrible year, but I guess that is not how things will go!  12 weeks until American Triple T, which although a race, I am using mostly as big ole fun training weekend!  Still, I need to be in Ironman shape to get through it well, so here comes some big training!

It IS All About the Bike

I have been struggling with what I perceived to be running issues since late 2009.  Curiously enough, that is the time when I got fitted for Skull Kingdom, and the fitter changed the configuration of my bike shoes--inserts, insoles, etc.  I began my bike training with the revised shoe configuration in October, 2009.

I first had an issue in May 2010 that manifested itself in sharp pain on the underside of my right foot while running, and it seemed that taking time off from running plus new orthotics corrected it.  I got the new bike (with shorter cranks than my other 2 good bikes) in late June (way later than I expected), and I got through Ultraman Canada with a degree of paranoia.

Fall 2010 I was not feeling good running.  It was subtle, but I just couldn't pinpoint it.  Of course, I continued to think that running was the root cause.

Early 2011 I still wasn't feeling right running and my feet didn't feel right biking, and I blamed running and took serious time off from running and biking.  After that, I reintroduced biking, mostly on Skull Kingdom, and seemed fine.

Last fall, I decided I was good to go, had a good 55-mile run week in October and then 60+ just 7 weeks ago!  In late October, I had my left bike shoe re-shimmed, after being evaluated by my bike shop and looking at an old pair of shoes.  One of the things they did to me back in fall 2009 was remove the shims from my left shoe.  Turns out I needed it--my left leg has no ACL, and it causes me to hike my left hip severely on the bike without the shim.  So I began riding with this configuration and felt better on the bike.

Last early December, I began noticing an unusual amount of tightness in the lower abs/groin area, bilaterally.  I wasn't doing any more abs work than normal.  I attributed the tightness to the amount of running I'd been doing, including a bout of faster than normal running at the Ride 'n Tie race in mid-November.  This tightness persisted, but either I got used to it or it may have abated somewhat.

4 weeks ago I did my first indoor tri, and my run sucked donkey balls, but I had a decent swim and great bike.  The lower abs tightness reared its ugly head again, and I grew concerned about it, but my bike workouts were going great, and I was running OK.  I started doing track workouts, and I could bang them out, but the tightness seemed to worsen a bit.

Last weekend, I did a 2-hour run on Saturday--1 hour on the treadmill and then the rest outside.  My right foot was bugging me, on top in the same area as where I had the issue in 2010, and I was not feeling good about that.  Later that day, I found this awesome site for low back issues.  It includes a psoas stretch that I immediately tried (best psoas stretch I have ever found--DO THIS ONE!).  Well, FUCK ME doing it I could tell both psoas muscles were tight as drums--more so on my right side.  I thought maybe it wasn't my lower abs after all, and hoped that the foot pain was low back nerve related.  Now why would I think this?  Because I could feel the extreme stretch in the rectus femoris (also a hip flexor) as well as the psoas, and the opposite leg's hamstring. AKA low back is fucked up because psoas attaches to lumbar spine as does QL as does bunch o' erector spinae, and Mr. Sciatic Nerve comes out of there and will get pissed as hell if any of those muscles are out of whack, and then it will precipitate to piriformis and lower leg pain, blah, blah, fucking blah.  So I thought I'd found the solution.

But the next day, I got on my bike for 2:30, and then Monday when I ran, I still felt the lower abs area tightness.  Fuck.  On Tuesday when I got on the bike, it occurred to me that I still didn't feel "quite right" in my bike shoes and spun some thoughts.  I pulled out my box of insoles/pads (I have quite the collection since early 2010), and dredged up the original arch supports I used to use in my bike shoes.  I put them into my bike shoes and first off, I noticed I had more room in the shoes.  Hmmm.... this feels better.  But then I got on the bike and could tell it was if I'd shortened the cranks by just a hair.  I measured that fucking hair later--it is maybe 1.5 millimeters.  While I was on the bike, I could tell I didn't feel as closed up, and what do you fucking know, when I got off, no more tight lower abs!  I was cautiously optimistic.

On Wednesday, I had a long run (1:40) planned.  I started at 5AM, and felt just great running.  No weird foot pains, abs felt fine, stride felt fine.  I swam afterwards.  Feeling good.  Thursday get on bike again.  Although I was tired (because I've been having trouble getting enough sleep which is another topic), I got my bike workout in, and once again I noticed how "normal" I felt on the bike--nothing going on in my feet, hips squared, all good.  Oh I forgot--the other reason I was tired for my ride was because I ran again in the AM, and even did some track repeats!  Those went really well, and I felt just great.

OK, this is looking good now.  Yesterday morning I ran again (this is now 8 days in a row of running), and did a couple 1/4 mile repeats at the end, and it felt great--nothing going on in my feet or abs.  As I type this post, my lower abs are just great.

So so far, so good.  I'm not saying I have the full solution, but I think I'm close.  My next challenge will be to see how all this goes when I get on Skull Kingdom.  I am just so happy that I can ride LGL feeling great again.  I have a feeling that the same adjustments will carry over to Skull Kingdom, while even though she has shorter cranks than LGL, my feet have never felt quite right, so the 1.5mm adjustment may be just what the doctor ordered! 

So, stay tuned...the point of this discussion is that bike fit can have a HUGE impact on your low back health and consequently, ability to run injury free.  If you are having running issues, consider whether your bike fit is spot on, and perhaps experiment with very small adjustments in saddle height, etc.

I sure as hell hope I've got this solved.  Thing is, I had everything working just perfectly in 2009, when I had a banner year of PR's all around and no injuries.  Got a new bike, fucked with bike shoes, and all hell broke loose.  I am not blaming the fit of Skull Kingdom--the frame, etc., is perfect--but just remember that if something doesn't feel right after someone tells you to change something, maybe your system was just fine.  If it wasn't broke, don't fix it!

The Official Guide to Rating Your Workouts and Races

Some of you who read my blog may be perplexed when I say things like, "I suck," or "my workout was pathetic."  Late last week I was thinking about how I rate myself, and what the full scale would look like so that I could just show it to others.  At first, I came up with this:

I posted it to Facebook, and got some comments, mostly from a guy named Sean, and we came up with some more refinements, and this is what we ended up with:

 

I really like this scale, because 0 corresponds to PATHETIC, and 10 corresponds to MASSIVE PR.  So now you know that when I say my performance was pathetic, that I can't really imagine doing any worse.  If I just sucked, well, it wasn't even OK, but it could have been even worse!

In my day to day training, my intent when executing a workout is to hit at least WELL.  WELL means I feel rested, not too much accumulated fatigue, and I can execute to specs for my current fitness level.  WELL is a 6 on the scale, and even though it's in the middle of the scale, it doesn't mean it's "average."  It's just that I have high standards, and do not adhere to scales where the middle is average.  To me, middle/average would be just OK.  Like I was able to do the workout, maybe I was tired going in, maybe I knew I was underfueled--typically an OK workout/race for me is one where I go in knowing it won't be a spectacular performance, I will get it done, I won't experience a setback by doing it, and I will be all right with my performance.

By comparison, I COULD DO BETTER, would mean that I felt better than on a day where I might just be able to do OK, was expecting to do NOT BAD or even WELL, but I just couldn't cut it.  Maybe I just didn't have my mental mojo dialed in.

Funny thing is that since I came up with this scale, I've been incorporating it into my workout notes.  I think this could serve as a subjective rating scale for Training Peaks!

This scale is pretty much how I think when I'm asked to do a self evaluation at work, and it always perplexes my manager, because to me, doing what I'm capable of doing and doing it well qualifies as WELL, and so on the scale of 1-5, I call that "3."  But I have learned that I should consider where I think I stand compared to others, and I am typically told I'm a 4 or a 5.  That's nice for work, but if every day in training I think I'm at the top of my scale, then what would motivate me to improve?  Nothing.  So I will stick with my 0-10 scale, where 6 is "meeting expectations," more than 6 is fucking fantastic, and less than 6 is not my best work!

Second Indoor Tri--Another Win, but I Still Suck

Yesterday was the second of the 3 indoor tri series races, in Glen Ellyn.  For the 3 days prior, I wasn't feeling right.  Not just my sleep being off kilter (which it still is, but getting better), but I was feeling quite fatigued.  Some of you reading are thinking, "Well, that's what you get for training like a Crackhead" (oh and speaking of crackheads, a famous one just passed away), and that's a true statement, but this is the time of year when I typically catch my annual virus.

I learned another lesson in scheduling my training this past week and that it's tough to cram 11.5 hours of SBR (heavy on the B and R) plus heavy duty strength training into 5 weekdays.  I figured I might pay for it, and on Friday, I curled up in bed with my laptop, as sitting up was just too much effort, even though I swam and ran first thing in the day.

I took my temperature, and it was a normal 97.1, so no fever.  Also no cough, no post-nasal drip, just more than the usual fatigue, and I did feel a little short on breath and that my heart rate just did not want to go anyplace.  No muscle aches, so probably not the flu, no swollen lymph nodes in my throat or neck, so I concluded just some virus plus stupid training tricks.

Side note: there have been a few times when I've felt like this that I've gone to the doctor, and they just about laugh at me.  "Oh--so you're a little tired?"  I've even had them check my lungs, and had her tell me they are just fine, all clear, but I can tell when I'm the least bit "off."

Anyway, on Saturday, I still felt a bit dizzy, but couldn't tell whether it was real or if it was just because I'd lazed around all day Friday and gotten a good night's sleep.  I wasn't sure about getting in my 2:15 ride, but I had to get at it because I'd planned on going TV shopping (I haven't bought a new one in I hate to say it over 20 years, but the old one still works fine and will get moved upstairs now) in the afternoon with my brother Mike.  I decided that I should not try and push it on the bike, but I truly hate so-called "spinning."  It is better for me to just skip a ride than deal with the mental anguish of just ambling.  Seriously!  I can do that for maybe 30 minutes tops.

So I got on the bike, and ambled in the SCR for 30 minutes, and it felt fine, I had good RPM's (in the 100's) and speed (18.5mph), so I switched into the BCR, worked my average mph up to 19, then I went over 20 the next 30 minutes and ended up at 21.2mph for 2:20, not bad for feeling maybe sickly.  I hurried up and showered so I could get to Mike's so we could get to eating lunch!

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, and I had a big Leine's, and that was good, but it hit me like I hadn't had a drink in years.  Still, it took the edge off, which helps when I go brick and mortar shopping, because I really don't like doing it.  I'd measured and done some research on TV's for what I needed, and Mike showed me all the ones in his house, which was helpful, and we headed to Sam's to buy.

Despite the fact that I've worked in high tech for like forever, I am typically behind on acquiring technology for myself.  I still don't use a smartphone, I was slow to adopt CD's way back when, and well, the TV thing.  So it was fun to get this done (I got a 42" LCD to be mounted on the wall downstairs where my treadmill and bike trainer are), and now I just need to get my guy to come over and mount the thing.

After I stopped briefly at Mike's to drop him off, I realized I was pretty tired, and went home with the intent to get my grocery shopping done, but truly I was too tired to do it.  So I layed on the couch and read, maybe I napped a bit, and got to sleep early.

Yesterday I woke up after a solid 8 hours of sleep, and felt better than the day before, so I figured it was a go to race.  I even had some adrenaline going, and was excited to see what I was going to be able to do.  But I had a sneaking suspicion that running was not going to be fun.  It's no big deal for me to go hard on a bike with a virus, and even swimming wasn't that bad on Friday, but running not so much.  Still, I warmed up 15' on the treadmill and then 20' on the bike at home, packed up and headed to the race site.

I ran another 5' on the track and biked 10', but only had time for 200 yds. swim warmup and then we were off.  The pool wasn't cold enough for my liking, but I didn't want to push it too much since I knew I was battling something.  I swam 500 yds. in 10 minutes.  Crappy, but no worse than last week, so whatever.

Onto the bike.  My goal was 7.25 miles in 20', and I made 7.2, so that was good.  That was my best ever in these races.  As usual, when I finished, I laid on the floor for about 30 seconds to catch my breath.  I felt pretty wasted, and knew the run was going to suck.

I didn't bother looking at my watch while running, because I didn't want to get depressed.  I managed 8:47 pace, a bit faster than 2 weeks ago, but nowhere near what I am capable of (8:15 would be more like it).  Still, I shouldn't complain, right?  I worked harder on the bike than 2 weeks ago, still ran a bit faster than 2 weeks ago, still handily won my AG and placed decently overall, it was my best score EVER in these races over the last 5 years, so what the fuck am I pissed off for?  Because I need to get on my running.  This is what 2 years of not running fast did to me.  But I think I can get it back in the next few months.  Maybe it's just my top-end speed that is off, though, as I've had some good long runs and ran decent paces for my 55th birthday week festival, so maybe there's hope for me!

But hope is not going to make me faster, so it's nose to the grindstone this week.  While I feel like I've purged the virus from my system (but it's replaced today by a hangover achieved by just 3 beers after I puked my guts out right after I finished racing yesterday!), I will need to train cautiously today and maybe not do 3 hours!  We will see what I can manage on Wednesday when I do my first formal track session.

Weekly Recap, and IT BEGINS!

I had a pretty good week, but I knew the weekend would be critical, in terms of posting up a solid long run and ride, since this week I need to shuffle things around in order to race on Sunday.

I had 2 solid weekday bike workouts, and this is what they were (it's been awhile since I wrote actual workouts here, but what the hell, right?):

Warmup: 15' easy, 3' spinups, 3x(2' 85-90%, 1'CD)
Main Set: 4x(6' @FT, 2' @105-110%, 3' easy), 10x30/30

Pool time was good, more work with the paddles and pull buoy.  One of the guards, who gives me tips occasionally, asked me about my paddles!  For the record, they are TYR Catalyst, and mine are like 8 years old and I still love them. Mine are black, but now they are made in different colors for different sizes.

I had that good track workout on Wednesday, and running was feeling great.  On Friday morning, I headed to the Y where I first did chinups and dips, then I ran for 25', then I swam 3,000.  My interval times were a bit slow from the additional weight I'd unloaded from the assisted chin/dip machine, but at least I knew that's why I was swimming a bit slower.

A few hours later at home, it was time to finish up my strength training for the week and do squats and calf raises. I am a firm believer that calf raises have something to do with me never experiencing calf cramps in racing or training (except if I run or bike right before), so I continue doing them.

For squats, I supersetted air squats (4x15), barbell squats (2x15) and dumbbell squats (2x8).  I added a few small plates to my barbell, and in retrospect, I shouldn't have done so many reps with the new weight!  Oh well, it's not like I was racing this week, so no matter.  I've decided I am going to buy a squat rack for downstairs once I get the remodeling done.  No sense getting it now, since it will just be something else to relocate while construction proceeds.

After the squats and calf raises, I did my knee stability exercises on the floor with the ankle weights on.  I do some basically isometric things for my VMO and adductors that seem to help keep my knees happy, but they felt a little tough after all the squats.

I got a massage after work, and it was much needed!  I hadn't had deep tissue in 3 weeks, and when I wait that long, it can sometimes result in some soreness the next day.  Indeed, when I woke up Saturday morning, I had some slight all over soreness, but my adductors were screaming!  But that was from the squats, not the massage.  I was pleased, though, that my glutes were just fine.  Oh--my massage therapist commented on how my glutes are developing!  I now have a big ass!  That's what a full year of more squats will do to you!

I had to do a 2:30 ride on Saturday, and was really wondering how I'd fare in terms of power output with the sore legs.  But I've surprised myself many times, so I just hopped on at about 8:30 (I got my grocery shopping done first).  Warmup was fine (30'), then popped into the big chainring to go at 80% for 30', and that felt fine.  The last 90' was done as 3x(17' 85-90%, 6' FT, 2x30/30, 5' easy) and the first interval went well, hit watts just fine, although I was on the low end of my FT for the 6' part.  For the second 30' stretch, I went a little harder, and the third 30' interval was the best of all!

I got off the bike and put on my running shoes.  I was not looking forward to running off the ride I'd just done.  It's been ages since I did this, what with Ultraman training where there was no need for me to do brick workouts, and then basically a year off racing.  So I let myself run super slow, just to remember how it feels.  My legs were fine, actually, but that old familiar sensation in my stomach of wanting to puke was front and center!  I really enjoy all the different sensations I get to experience in training and racing--things that if you've never done triathlon training, you would never get to experience.  I know that sounds weird, like why would you want to feel like you are going to puke, but it has meaning!  The meaning it has is that I rode hard (53.5 miles for 2.5 hours, not bad with an easy warmup!), and that made it all worthwhile.

I only ran for 20', since that's all I needed to do, and predictably, even though I knew I needed a ton of calories (I'd worked out on only Gatorade plus some peanut butter/cheese crackers), I wasn't hungry right away.  But I drank a big glass of water, quickly showered, grabbed a bottle of Endurox R4 out of the fridge, and headed to Subway.  I decided to get Subway so I had a pre-made sandwich ready for Sunday that I could take to the Y to eat right after my workouts, since I was going to do a presentation for a triathlon class immediately after my workouts.

Sometimes it can be difficult, in a way that is funny to me, to hide my feelings of hunger when I am waiting for food to be delivered to me.  I would like to see video of myself trying to be patient while a very nice young man is patiently making my sandwiches! When he finished, as is the usual, he asked if I wanted cookies or chips, and I said no, paid, and drove home quickly, and laid into 6" of beefy goodness plus 1/4 of the foot long turkey breast. Then I had a beer while I stretched, ran some more errands in a haze, including stopping in at a nearby triathlon shop just to see what they had (even though I don't need A SINGLE THING right now), then went home and got my shit organized for Sunday, ate dinner around 5:30 and was asleep by 8:00 (don't ask--my sleep schedule is way off kilter, but it will right itself once we go back on DST, I'm sure).

I slept really soundly Saturday night, and when I woke up, I noticed my adductors were still a bit sore, but now also my quads!  Fuck yeah!  But I was still way better off than 2 weeks ago after my stair climbing festival.  I got my swim and run stuff ready, loaded a small cooler with one can of Coke, 48 oz. of Gatorade, a bottle of Endurox R4 and my sandwich, packed up my laptop and headed to the Y.

I swam first, although I prefer to do my short weekend swim AFTER I run, because the triathlon class would be occupying the pool from 10-11.  A woman I know was in the water, and I've given her some swim tips, and since I had about 10 minutes before I absolutely had to be swimming, I spent some time with her, showing her one drill and how to do planks on deck.  Then I swam 1500, and it sure felt nice to swim with my legs being a bit crunchy.  I stretched my upper body for about 5' in the sauna, then suited up to run.

On tap was a 1:45 run, and while I thought I would try and put some tempo work in there, it was just not to be, as my legs were not up for it.  Still, I got in 11.5 miles, including about 5' of track work where I was able to knock out 2 1/3 mile repeats at sub-5K pace after already running for 1:30, so that was good!  After I finished, I stretched for 10', headed to the locker room to shower and get dressed, then I took all my crap to the conference room where I'd be giving a presentation.

I started pounding down the Endurox R4 and setting up my laptop when Jessica (the class instructor) came in all breathless telling me they had about 10' more of biking to do and then they would be up in the conference room and that she brought chocolate chip cookies in case I was hungry and it was fun for me to listen to her talking really fast and all excited which must be just how I sound when I am in that state!

Luckily I had my cooler with me, as I used it to prop the projector up so my slides would be large enough for easy viewing from the back of the room.  There were about 15 people who attended my presentation called "Triathlon Nutrition 101."  I had a blast giving it, as I am very comfortable delivering presentations, and have given some for 500+ people in my professional life.  I know my content, which frees me from constantly looking at the slides and I can inject my usual energy and animation into the show, and yesterday was no exception.  While I've read numerous books on nutrition and have, of course, experimented on myself to find what works best for me and observed other athletes and their successes and mistakes in the nutrition department, my presentation was about boiling it down to "best practices," to use a business cliche.  The students are training for a super sprint triathlon, and I am sure many of them will move on to bigger and better races, and while I am pretty geeked out about many things to do with triathlon, when it comes to nutrition, I try and keep it simple, and this is what I wanted to convey to these people.  I didn't have time to get into details about meal timing and which carbs are better at what times, etc., but I covered the basics of hydration and nutrient intake.

I got one interesting statement from a young man afterward that long distance triathlon is not healthy.  I wanted to hear his point of view, and I just smiled and said that I believe some people are just wired to pursue this stuff, and that it is still healthier than sitting on a couch and becoming fat!  It was interesting to hear this from a person who says he is swimming 2 hours a day, though!

When I got home after all that, I ate the remaining 6" of Subway, as I was starving.  I did not partake of the cookies during the presentation as I didn't really want one at that point, plus I knew I was going to be baking my own later on.

I baked a dozen muffins for my breakfast, about 5 dozen awesome oatmeal/coconut cookies, all but 3 of which will be winging their way to Afghanistan today, then chopped onion and minced garlic for my dinner stir fry.  I got most of the dishes washed as I was baking, and all of this by 4:45PM.  Some days I don't know how I squeeze all these things in.

Next up I loaded the rice cooker with jasmine rice (I know--it's white, but it's SO good), and turned on the Super Bowl, but since kickoff wasn't going to be until 5:30, I went ahead and cooked up my stir fry of thinly sliced flank steak (that had been marinated in sherry overnight), chopped onion, lots of garlic, tons of snow peas, some baby corn, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, all in a light sauce of chicken broth and sambal oelek (I can't get enough of that stuff!) thickened with cornstarch.  The rice finished cooking just ahead of the stir fry, and then I piled a plate with about 1.25 cups of rice, and scooped a bunch of the stir fry on top, and then settled in for a little Sunday newspaper reading and Super Bowl watching.

The food was awesome, and once I finished, it was lay on the couch with legs propped up, and hang out until Madonna was on for the half time show, which I really enjoyed, and then off to bed for a little reading (I am rereading "Born to Run"), and then to sleep.

This morning my legs feel pretty good, which is good since I have to fit in 2 1:30 hard bike rides, a 1:40 run, 3 swims, 3 more runs, and about 1:30 of strength training between today and the end of Friday!  Then I have another little race on Sunday.

So I have to say that this week it begins--it is this sort of training that begins to test my ability to string together a bunch of serious workouts that are designed to whip me into some semblance of speedy shape because I only have about 2 months of this before I start piling on the volume again to get ready for Triple T and Ironman Canada.

Have I ever said how much I love this stuff?

Cautiously Amped

I think it's taken a few weeks to come down from my high volume mid-December to early January training, and I feel settled, rested, and fucking awesome.

Yesterday I did my first official track workout--5K and 10K pace intervals.  I was bummed after my dismal, pathetic run in the indoor tri last Sunday, but I felt ready for this.  My schedule (stupid coach!) didn't have me doing track work until 2 weeks later.  I've been barely training for the last 3 weeks (about 12, 14 and 13.5 hours), which was most definitely called for, but come on, I can only go low for so long. 




Ludacris: How Low (Official Video) from DTP TV on Vimeo.

I was hitting sub-8's on the 5K intervals, and right around 8's for 10K, which is the fastest I've gone in a few years.  And they didn't feel that bad (although I was grimacing and cussing on my last laps of each repeat), so fingers crossed, I will go faster.  We will see on Sunday when I slam some serious tempo work into my long run.  While I felt predictably beat up yesterday (I did a hard 2200 swim right after the run), I feel absolutely awesome today.

My swim experiment with daily (whenever I'm swimming, that is) paddles and pull buoy seems to be working.  I am able to swim really fast (for me) with them, and it is showing in my non-toy swimming speed during warmups, and while I still swam my usual pace on Sunday, it was solid, really not much effort.  The experiment is teaching me to be OK with a higher heart rate while swimming, which is tough for me being so bradycardic.

Biking is also coming along in a huge way.  Racing on Sunday again reminded me of just how hard I can go, and that is showing up in my workouts this week.  I did laugh during the race on Sunday, since I could see my heart rate on the bike, and it was good 'n high for me (high 130's), but my sense of it was "it's just a number."  That's why I no longer use a heart rate monitor--at some point, I would become concerned over seeing the high numbers.  Fuck that noise.

Now comes the really fun part. Last year, while I was "resting," (and I do mean that figuratively, since WTF 780 hours is not exactly slacking), I decided I needed to move heavier weight in my strength sessions.  I had experience with the heavy stuff, but it can be dicey mixing high volume triathlon training with heavy lifting sessions.  So last year was perfect for going a little bigger. While I did my really long stuff in December/early January, I had to back off the weights, because that is just what you do if you are going to pile on the endurance training.  But now, I am back on them, and this week I am noticing that I might be able to dump on even more weight very soon!

I suppose my evolution as a triathlete, which has occurred over only 11 years, at an advanced age, is probably right on schedule, in terms of being able to truly handle the high volume, and now, possibly also much heavier weights.  Plus a good dose of high intensity work! Is that cool or what?

Hence the title of this post. Whenever I feel like this, I have a bit of a sense of foreboding that things may come crashing down on me at any minute.  But I am being very watchful of how my muscles feel, and they seem fine.  My only concern is the inability to sleep for more than 7-8 hours a night.  This may be due to the lessened volume, underestimating my metabolism (which, of course, was seriously jacked up a month ago), my recurring winter darkness confusion (this has happened to me before I began training so much), my age or hormonal factors (but come on, I am done with that shit I thought) or some other factor.  I do sleep quite well for the first 7 hours, and if I can't fall back asleep, I force myself to stay in bed for at least another hour.  I am not yet at a point where I feel like I should see my physician, although I did ask her to write me another scrip for sleeping pills, and she asked whether I was OK, extra stressed, etc., and I said NO. So unless something else rears its ugly head, I have to just roll with it.  If any of my three blog readers have ideas about this, please pass them along.

First official triathlon of 2012

I've done the MITCS series 5 or 6 times, and have won the series of 3 or 4 races (there were 4 up until a few years ago; now there are only 3 races spaced 2 weeks apart) 4 times, the last time being in 2010. I didn't have expectations going in here yesterday, seeing as how I've not been doing much of any speed training for running, only a few weeks on the bike, and really only a few weeks on the swim.  I just hoped to not suck too much!

I warmed up at home first on the treadmill, then on my bike, drank a Coke on the way to the venue, and when I was exiting I355 and waiting at a stoplight to turn onto Roosevelt Road, I saw a pair of coyotes on the hill supporting the tollway.  They looked to be in good health, with a nice, bushy winter coat.  I watched one then the other capture and eat some sort of small rodent, using the pouncing method.  I was so glad I got to see that!  It makes me sad that many people think ill of coyotes, but I applaud the fact that they have become at home in the suburban ecosystem, and I can only guess that they are doing a good job in keeping the mouse/vole/miscellaneous rodent population under control.  Some people are concerned about their dogs and cats, but cats should be indoors (to limit impact on songbird population), and as to small dogs, well we are only renting our land from the wild animals, who have every right to seek out their prey. The more wild animals I encounter near where I live, the happier I am! With the exception of deer--not a big fan of them coming into my yard and eating my flowers, but there aren't too many near me.  Still, if I lived in an area with a lot of deer, I would just have to accept it.

When I got to the race venue, I had just enough time to do a quick warmup--5' on the track, then 10' on the stationary bike.  This year they have Life Fitness bikes, and I've used them a few times at my Y and they seem to be geared more or less like a real bike.  I say that based on the fact that I can hit the same speed on it as I do on my real bikes with about the same effort.  I made a note of the saddle height, back to the locker room to put on my swim stuff, and got to the pool deck with just enough time to get in a 250 warmup.

The pool was nice and cold, and a few people commented it was TOO cold.  Not for me!  My Y's pool is usually 84-85, so this one seemed around 81, which was fine by me.  Unfortunately, I got the gutter lane, but it wasn't too bad.

It was funny to me that even though I'd warmed up everything, that I still had some race jitters in me!  Ah, my old friend! When the horn went off, I took off in my usual long distance pace, and felt pretty good.  The woman sharing my lane was a decent swimmer, and we were neck and neck for maybe 150, and then I pulled ahead of her.

Even though I've started doing a lot of hard intervals in the pool (starting 1/1), I still am not a fast swimmer or sprinter.  I managed 525 yards in 10', but know I can get to 550 or maybe 575.  On a good note, at least I have not slowed down in 5 years!

Onto the bike, where I thought, based on my 10' test, that I'd do pretty well. I was in a wave with a bunch of old farts like myself, but hoped someone would challenge me, not that you can actually challenge someone on a stationary bike!  I went relatively easy for the first mile, then changed to intervals of .5 mile hard/.25 mile easier.  I managed 6.93 miles in 20', and my goal for the next race is 7.25, which I think is very doable.  I expected to see high bike totals for everyone based on how the bikes are geared, so even though this was the best I've ever biked in terms of distance, it is almost apples and oranges, but still I know I worked really hard, and as is typical for me, when the bike was over, I dropped down to lay on the floor for a few seconds.

My hamstrings hurt a little from the god awful saddles on those bikes, but I walked it off and got ready to run. Everyone in the wave ushered me to the head of the line, even though I don't consider myself a good runner at all.  We took off, and there was one girl much younger than me that seemed to be running a good pace, so I stayed just off her shoulder for much of the time.  Looking back, I held back too much, and the pace was TOO comfortable, although I ran the most distance in the wave, but my pace was a craptastic, pathetic 8:50.  I will fix that, though, and would expect to get down to 8:15 or even 8:00.

Still, as crappy as I ran, there was only one other woman in my old lady age group, and I crushed her.  But when I was looking at the posted results, I would have placed 2nd or first in many of the lower age groups. Biking IS my strength!

Now the good thing about all of this is that I worked out for 3.5 hours on Saturday, so it's not like I was rested up or anything.  But I'm looking at my training schedule, and it appears it's time for Wednesdays to become track workouts.  I was going to wait 2 more weeks to begin that, but fuck it, I'm all recovered from all the November-December volume festival, and know I'm ready for serious track work, as I've been doing a little of it here and there.  Again, I was shocked at how slowly I'd run, but only because I wussed out and hung with someone else instead of pushing myself.

After the race, they had both acupuncture AND massage, and I was in heaven!  I got a little massage first, and then got some basic acupuncture, and I have to say, I feel pretty good this morning!  I hung out to cheer on some friends, made a new one, and then they brought out the sandwiches (I was finished at 9:30 but was hungry go figure!), so I had a couple of those.  I needed to kill some time anyway waiting for my bike shop to open so I could get my other shoes shimmed up.

So I went to The Bike Shop and hung out and chatted, and it turns out they are getting a shipment of the new shoes I really want--the Sidi T2, pictured above.  I don't really NEED new bike shoes, but I've learned now to periodically check Sidi and Castelli for cool new designs, and I really like the silver shoes (they're sparkly!), and I don't really need any other gear this year, so what the hell.  I will pick them up in 2 weeks after I've done my second indoor sprint that I better go faster at and win my AG again!

By the way, I wore my magic running shoes (shown above), and I definitely had the best looking shoes!  I did see a girl with the new Asics Gel Noosa Tri shoes, but the New Balance rainbows are cooler looking.  Sadly, I can't find them anymore, and don't think NB is making this color any longer.  I hope they do something similar next year.  These are the best shoes ever!

On another note, I am not sleeping enough.  I may just be in "confused winter mode," which has happened to me before with all the darkness, and my sleep schedule gets way off kilter.  I am going to ask my doctor for a refill on sleeping pills, because OTC just isn't doing it. Last time I did that, pretty much as soon as I got the prescription, I began sleeping well again.

I was just so happy to race again yesterday!  The adrenaline coursing through my veins, holding off the urge to hyperventilate during the swim, pouring it on during the bike, the sensation of wanting to puke while running, thanking all the volunteers, reconnecting with tri peeps.  I think I was smiling ear to ear the entire time except when I felt like puking.  Ah, racing---whenever I talk to someone who works out a lot (swim, bike and/or run) but doesn't race, I just don't get it.  I don't do it so I can beat other people (well most of the time anyway), but just so I can see how I perform under pressure and enjoy doing it with others.  The word compete comes from the Latin verb competere, which means to seek together.  Even us introverts can enjoy doing a solo sport in the presence of others!

And so, it's officially ON!  I feel healthy, strong, and ready to work my ass off (and on, as I've been doing lots of squats) and see just what I can accomplish this year!