One-Third Done and a Looooong Way to Go

I am officially one-third of the way through Ironman training. That's a little scary. These eight weeks have gone by pretty quickly. I feel I've made progress and am in better shape than I was when I started (despite the extra pounds I'm carrying around; they only make me stronger, right?). Most of the time, I am confident that my training will prepare me and I will survive complete enjoy successfully endure Ironman Texas. I no longer feel the need to vomit when I read an article about the race. Progress!

Today I rode 62 miles - it may have been my first metric century (I'm not sure but I think my previous longest was 60). I had planned to ride 50 or so, but I took extra fuel and water because you just never know. Yay for good decisions!

We ended up with a group of 19 people. That was the biggest group I've ever ridden with. We split up after a while, and I was able to stay with the lead group for the most part. I had a solid ride with a good dose of suffering. First, I ovulated. Right around mile 33 or so. On a scale of 1 to 10, that was pain of about a 6 for about half an hour. Nothing I haven't dealt with before, just not usually on a ride (and usually it lasts much longer, so I got off easy). But, it's just pain. Gotta deal with it. HTFU, Jen.

Then, right in the middle of that, I went to take a drink from my aero bottle, and pulled the straw into two pieces. It's easy enough to fix if you're stationary, but I tried to do it while riding, which brought me to Drop #1 of the day. It SUCKED. Some friends came and tried to pull me up to the group, but I didn't have it in me at that point to even keep up with them. I cannot stress enough how much that SUCKED.

Shortly after that, we stopped at a park for some food and bathrooms. I was back with the group, but then the next suffering opportunity presented itself: My damn knee/IT band. It has been doing SO WELL lately, then WHAM! it came back with a vengeance. The last hour of the ride was my most painful yet. I seriously considered stopping on the side of the road and calling JC to come pick me up. On top of that, I experienced Drop #2. MOTHERFUNKER!!!!!! (Read that closely.... I was good...)

So, it wasn't a perfect ride. But that's a good thing. It makes you tougher. And there were a lot of positives about today's ride:

• I took in a good number of calories. And by "a good number," I don't mean "a lot;" I mean "enough calories to sustain me without upsetting my stomach." (about 193/hour)
• My bike rode GREAT. The cleaning I gave her last weekend really made her happy.
• My paces are picking up.
• My saddle was pretty comfy today.
• After a talk with the person who is my mentor but doesn't know it yet, I'm pretty sure my heartrate zones for the bike are wrong.
• I got to pee in a bush.
• I did't get a headache afterward, thanks to good fueling and good hydration.
• I didn't quit.

I did enjoy getting to know some new folks today. There was a guy named Vince whom I've never met. He's short, squat, and older. I'm told he's one of the overlords of cycling in South Carolina. When I introducted myself, all he said was, "Vince." Then when we met up with the other half of our group and made introductions, we all gave our first and last names. Except him. "Vince." He wasn't rude or curt, he was just a man of few words.

While we were riding, Vince just cruised along with the pack. That is, until we came to a hill. The pack would slow down, but Vince would just sail up the hill like it was nothing. Every time. I rode behind him for a while and noticed his beautiful calf muscles. So I pulled up along side him and said, "Vince, you may not say a whole lot, but you have the best calves I have ever seen." Wouldn't you know, that got him talking. He turned out to be a very nice, quite interesting guy who loves riding up mountains. That explains it!

I've decided it's time to start working on this extra weight. First, I will stop gaining fat. Once I do that, I believe the increase in training hours and added muscle will help reduce the extra fat I'm carrying. Every pound lost is a pound I won't have to drag around on the bike or the run. I want to weigh 6 pounds less when the Ironman comes around - that's about a third of a pound each week. Surely I can do that.

Booty of Evidence

I think I've done good work so far this week. Wednesday evening's long run was fantastic - the weather was nice (upper 40s) and my 10 miler felt effortless. My knee and its cohorts gave me no trouble at all.

The surprising part was that my legs felt great the following morning. I walked/ran with Sophie before school, just over half a mile, then hopped on the trainer for an hour recovery spin. I felt peppy and relaxed.

This morning's swim was really, really good. I hit a new low 100 time, and hit it more than once! What's weird is, I still have the old problem of getting slower when I try to swim "fast." I assume this means that I'm breaking form and not using good technique when I speed up a certain amount. It takes me less time (and much less energy) to swim "steady" than it does to swim "fast." This is something that has always happened to me (and some other mediocre swimmers I've talked to). I wonder if it happens to good swimmers too? If you're a good (ie "fast") swimmer and it happens to you, please let me know!

As for biking and running, I can go a little faster in Zones 1 and 2 now. That's evidence that the  base building is working. I'm glad my engine is growing stronger. However, who knew the engine was located in the buttocks? It must be, because my ass is GROWING. What is UP with that?!?! It must be all the extra blood volume I'm creating. Seriously, I wonder if my tri shorts are going to fit when racing season starts. Is it muscle? God, I hope it's muscle.

Clean!

Today was a rest day, I had the day off from work, and the weather was nice. I took the opportunity to clean my bike. It's been about 350 miles since she was cleaned last, including one mildly wet ride. The chain was pretty loud on my ride this weekend. She was crying out for a good cleaning.

It always seems like such a chore to wash my bike and clean/lube the chain, but it's actually very relaxing and kind of fun. It takes me about an hour to do a thorough job.

I don't have a bike stand, so I lean my bike up against a wrought-iron quilt rack and hook the handlebars into the top. Works like a charm.

I washed her top to bottom, scrubbed the chain, cleaned the gunk out of the derailleurs and cassette, then lubed the chain. I also inspected the tires to make sure they're still in good condition. On our test spin afterwards, she was sooooooo smooth and quiet. Ahhhh.... I'm really looking forward to this weekend's ride now! Maybe I'll go extra slow so everyone can see how pretty she is. (Yeah, that's it. That's why I'm slow. Ha ha.)

 

 

 

More Hours, A Near-Bonk & the Longest Post Ever

Week 7 is in the books. I had two doubles this week, and will follow that schedule for the next few weeks before adding a third double and making the Saturday long rides bricks. [Translation: Double means two workouts in one day, separated by at least a few hours. So I might swim and bike on Tuesday - swim in the morning, bike in the evening. A brick is when you do two disciplines back-to-back, usually a bike ride followed immediately by a run.]

The week went well. Wednesday's 8.8 mile run accidentally turned into 9.25 miles because I had my watch on the wrong setting at the beginning. I did really well staying in the right heartrate zone, and my knee/IT band issue is still improving.

Thursday morning's trainer ride will be a recovery spin from here on out (fast cadence, low resistance), which is good because it's only 12 hours after my long run and my legs are a little tired.

Friday's swim included a 1,000 yard time trial. I'll use the results to plan proper training paces for swim workouts. That swim had some short, hard segments as part of the warm-up, and I reached another Swolf score PR: 34 and 35! Again, these were for just 25 yards at a time, but I believe that ANY progress should be celebrated. YEEEEEHAW!!!

I had my bi-weekly ART appointment with Dr Awesome, and he agreed the knee/ITB/adductor/hip flexor gang is coming along nicely.

Yesterday I was supposed to ride 40 miles in Zone 2. For the first time in many weeks, I rode alone. I feel like I need to ride alone every once in a while to mentally prep for the long, lonely bike ride in Texas. I mapped out my route and emailed it to my mom and my sister (JC was out of town) and texted them when I was about to start. This gave me a little peace of mind that if anything were to happen, someone would have an idea where to look for me.

One of the roads I had planned to ride turned out to be a dirt road, so I took a detour and discovered Caney Branch Road. I had never been down there, and it looked nice and curvy with a smooth surface, so of course I had to go explore. I'd come around  a curve and see another one and think, "I'll turn back after I see what's around the next curve." But then after the next curve, I would tell myself the same thing. It was just so alluring! My curiosity added 7 miles to my route, so I ended up with 47 miles.

I kept in touch with my mom via text during my ride so she had a pretty good idea of where I was, even when my route changed. With just a few miles left, I saw her drive by me on Hwy. 1 - she just came out to find me and make sure I was okay. How sweet is that? Thanks for loving me and caring about me, Mom. <3 <3 <3

Lots of the houses on this route have loose dogs (this is out in the country) but I think the dogs are used to seeing cyclists, so they don't give chase. However, I rode a part of Lewie Road (between Windmill and Hwy. 378) that I hadn't been on before, and there were two very large dogs who were NOT happy to see me whiz by. They barked menacingly and took off after me. I grabbed my water bottle and was ready to squirt if they got too close. Fortunately, that was at the top of a hill, and I dropped them on the downhill. They were fast but couldn't run very far. Here's hoping they don't start training to increase their endurance! I won't be riding past that house again.

Overall, I felt really good on the ride. I found the "sweet spot" on the saddle and had minimal discomfort. My hip flexors felt stronger - I think the drills on the trainer are helping. I tried to stay in Zone 2, but I failed miserably as far as my heartrate monitor was concerned. My RPE on the bike (Rate of Perceived Exertion) often doesn't match what my heartrate monitor is telling. I decided to take that into account and let my heartrate creep up. Overall, the average for the ride was at the borderline of Zone 2/Zone 3, but my RPE was low most of the ride. And my heartrate was much lower than many previous long rides since starting IM training. I also did a good job of staying in the small ring and keeping my cadence up and effort down when climbing hills. My average pace has picked up about .3mph at Zone 2 effort. Yay!

Another thing I like about riding alone is that stopping is reduced to a minimum. I believe that part of endurance training is getting used to going for a loooooong time without stopping. I'm not going to stop and chat at every intersection during a race, am I? So I need to have some rides where I don't stop, or minimize the amount of time stopped, at least. Unfortunately, this means I miss a lot of great photo ops. I passed so many beautiful sights - lazy cows, weathered chimneys standing alone in the woods, hawks circling above me, charming farmhouses atop rolling hills... But I won't let myself stop for every single thing that tickles my fancy. (Too bad, because I would love to put these pictures in this blog! Maybe I need a photographer to accompany me.)

What I failed at yesterday was nutrition on the bike. I brought plenty of fuel and liquid, but I didn't eat enough calories while I rode. I remember thinking to myself around mile 38 (right around when the dogs chased me), "I haven't eaten enough. But I feel really good." Famous last words, right? A mile later, I stopped at an intersection, and I felt a little woozy. It was the beginning of a bonk. I quickly downed some gel from my flask and prayed I could make it back to my car without having to call my mom to come pick me up from the side of the road. All the way up Pineville, I kept my head down and pedaled in the small ring and channeled my inner Swim Bike Mom and told myself to Just. Keep. Moving. I thought about the race and what I will do if/when I bonk. Better to learn now than in Texas. (Yup, another learning experience.) I made it back and looked at all the fuel I still had left. Shame on me! I brought it with me and didn't eat it. Dumb. I think I took in only about 125 calories per hour. Not enough.

Today I had a 40 minute recovery run. It was Zone 1, and I wanted to see if I could do it without even touching Zone 2. I drove to the dam and started very slowly, and my heartrate was solid Zone 1. Then all of a sudden it jumped to Zone 3. WTF? Mark Allen says that early in your base phase "you have very little ability to burn fat as a source of fuel for exercise and your heart rate will jump up very high at a relatively slow pace in an attempt to kick your metabolism into carbohydrate burning." I wondered if this was what was happening. Just to be sure, I took my heartrate manually. It was 20 beats lower per minute than my monitor was telling me! So something was interfering with my monitor/watch connection: power lines, static electricity from my shirt rubbing the monitor, who knows. But this gives me a little more confidence that I need to trust my body's signals and RPE, and not be a complete slave to the heartrate monitor.

So, Week 7 is in the books. I didn't experience much fatigue with the increase in hours, but I understand it's only been one week, and compared to the number of training hours coming up in the next couple of months, this is a drop in the bucket. I did take a mini-nap after supper Thursday, though. Appetite has increased slightly.

Speaking of food, I had made a New Year's Resolution to increase the number of home-cooked lunches and decrease the number of Lean Cuisine lunches I eat at work each week. I normally eat a frozen meal for lunch every day (or, depending on the training load, two lunches in one day). For the past three weeks, I've had home-cooked leftovers for lunch one day a week. Baby steps! I'll give it a few more weeks at this level before I commit to switching out a second day. I don't think I'll ever quit the Lean Cuisines entirely, but limiting the processed food will certainly be a good thing.

Having said that, I'm ordering pizza right now!

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Swolf?

I wasn't going to blog today, but Words With Friends isn't working, so, what the hell.

I had two great workouts today! This morning I swam. The drill of the day was the side kicking drill, which helps me with rotation and extension as well as body position. I may try to incorporate that one more often.

The exciting news is that I set a new Swolf PR! Swolf, you ask? Yes, it is a swimming wolf. He chases you in the pool and makes you swim faster. Oh, wait, that's not right - that was my dream last night. Okay, Swolf is a combination of the terms "swimming" and "golf." You get your Swolf score by adding the seconds it takes you to swim one length of the pool to the number of strokes you take. The lower your score is, the better (just like in golf). Fewer strokes equals better efficiency (as long as you're not getting slower); and less time equals, well, less time!

When I started using C-3P0 6 weeks ago, my Swolf score was very, very high. I've been working on swim technique a lot and I'm getting faster, and my Swolf score is dropping too. Today is the first time I've had a score below 40. (I can hear you swimmers laughing at me. I'm damn proud of getting to this point!) I could only reach 36/37/38 for one length at a time, but it's a start. I did it five times this morning. I'm pretty stoked.

Right after work, I hopped on the trainer for an hour in zone 2 including some ILT and some spin-ups. It was a really good ride; my legs felt good, I worked up a nice sweat, and I stayed in the right zones the ENTIRE TIME. Progress!

While I rode the trainer, Sophie brought me her homework to look over, and we practiced her spelling words together. It was an altogether enjoyable hour.

25% There

I'm officially one-quarter of the way through Ironman training! Holla!

Yesterday was beautiful. I did an easy 25-mile ride with a nice group of people out to Shull Island. The weather was just gorgeous - 70 degrees and sunny. I would complain about this warm snap cutting into my precious jeans-and-a-sweater weather, but really, it was just a fantastic day.

Ken, Me, Jenn (my twin), Don, and Todd (also training for IMTX)
Marlena was taking the picture, but you can see her awesome bike, Belle Chere, in Jenn's hands

It was also the best job I've done of staying in the right heartrate zone. It's still very hard to go slow, but I've been re-reading a lot about base training to remind myself of the physiological benefits of going slowly, and that's making it easier to do the right thing. I will continue to be patient and have faith that the results will be worth it.

Last night was the NW YMCA Tri Club's annual banquet. Our club members are really good people, and they are always helpful with advice and encouragement. We are so fortunate to have this community of athletes.

Tomorrow is my first two-a-day in a really, really long time. I'm looking forward to it! I mentioned it to Sophie, and she asked me, "Is it a brick?" That's my girl.

LTHR Test

I had a crappy run this morning. It was the worst workout of my entire training cycle thus far. It was the heartrate zone test for the run (to determine my lactate threshhold heartrate, or LTHR; this number is used to determine training zones for workouts). I only had to run for an hour, but the middle 30 minutes were to be at a steady, hard pace, as if I were racing.

I slept until 9:30, which meant I ended up running at noon. The temp was up in the 70s already. I didn't mentally prepare for that.

Another problem with running at noon is that you're not supposed to have caffeine before the heartrate zone test, so it was 1pm before I had my first caffeine of the day. Cue headache...

I did a decent warm-up with some pick-ups. I was feeling sluggish physically, and mentally I was not on my game today. I kept telling myself to just do it anyway. At least it would be good mental practice for the low moments of the Ironman.

When I started the first hard interval, I noticed my heartrate dropping. Five beats, ten beats, thirty beats... SHIT. I stopped to adjust my heartrate strap and re-wet the electrodes. No luck. I tried again - still nothing. My heartrate was reading 92 while running at an effort level of 7. C-3P0, you really let me down today. (I think it was the Body Glide I had slathered on, interfering with the electrodes; unfortunately, the glide didn't even keep me from chafing. Double fail.)

Time for plan B. I decided to take my pulse manually at the end of each 10 minute interval. This got the job done, but I can't help but feel it's not as accurate as with the monitor. The numbers I came up with were consistent during the test, but I really wanted to see them in black and white to believe them. Oh well.

The next problem was that I was mentally weak today. I walked a handful of times (which sheds much doubt on the validity of the test results). I don't have any problem with the idea of walk breaks in general, but if I haven't planned to walk, then I shouldn't walk. I haven't taken an unplanned walk break during a run in ages. This was a huge mental blow.

And that brings me to my biggest problem with today's run: I have gotten SLOW. I worked so hard last year to get faster, and was very happy with my progress. But I have lost all that speed and then some. Yes, I understand that I'm training for an endurance event, and that speed is not the priority right now. I'm just worried that when the Ironman is over and I go back to short races, I won't be able to get back to where I was before by the end of the season. I can't worry about that now; I'm committed to training properly for Texas. But let it be known that I am NOT happy about my speed situation.

The good news is, my LTHR seems to be about what I predicted it would be. I have a fairly good idea of my max, so I had done some calculations based on my max, my resting rate, and the rates I've observed at various effort levels. Compared to today's test results, I was off by only about 3 bpm. (I also did the heartrate zone test on the bike this week, and that number was close to my prediction as well.) Now, I just have to use these numbers and force myself to stay in the proper zones. I'll be repeating these tests in about 5 weeks.

Repeat after me: I will follow the plan and I will do the work and I will be patient and the results will come.

Drills, Baby, Drills

This morning's swim included a pyramid in the main set (100 - 200 - 300 - 300 - 200 - 100, in yards). My training plan has included this same workout every two weeks; today was the third time doing it.

To say I'm excited about my progress is an understatement. As I completed each interval, I knew my times had improved, but I didn't know by how much until I got to the computer this afternoon.

Dec. 11th paces: Pitifully, dreadfully slow. So slow, in, fact, that I'm not going to type them.

Dec. 24th paces: Only slightly embarrassingly slow (an average of 8 seconds faster per 100 than Dec. 11th).

Jan. 8th paces: Much less slow than four weeks ago! Practically mediocre! An average of 8 seconds faster than Dec. 24th.

Which means - I've taken off over 16 seconds per 100. YES. I'm now swimming at the same pace I was swimming at my peak for Augusta Half Ironman - and I'm only 6 weeks into training. (And my Swolf score is slowly falling, which means I'm getting more efficient.)

Several people have asked me what I've done to improve my swim. Here are the top three things that have helped me:

DRILLS:
 
My training plan includes drills. Lots and lots of drills. Every workout, I do drills. Each workout has one drill included (with a helpful video clip), so my mental focus for the entire workout is on whatever aspect of swimming technique was addressed in the drill that day. Zipper drill, catch-up drill, long-arm doggie paddle, fingertip drag, double entry drill, one arm drill, Tarzan drill, and side kicking drill. If there is one thing that has improved my form the most, it's drills.
 
This brings us to Controversial Topic #1: There are some who say that doing drills only makes you better at doing drills, not at actual swimming. I call bullshit. That's like telling a violinist that practicing scales will only make you better at playing scales, not at playing music. Now, if drills are all you do in the water, yes, you're screwed. But I firmly believe they're an integral part of learning and maintaining proper form.
 
HEAD POSITION:
 
I have always kept my head very low in the water. One advantage of this is more power, but it creates terrible drag and makes it more difficult to breathe; I had to lift my head for each breath in addition to turning it (or rotating myself) to the side.
 
I experimented with different head positions and have found that keeping the neck neutral, which raises the head slightly, greatly reduces drag, and puts my head/mouth in the perfect position for breathing.
 
I think a lot of newer swimmers keep their head too high, which is why I focused on pressing my head low into the water, but I must have been overcompensating. I'd recommend playing with your head position and finding what works best for you.
 
BODY POSITION:
 
Well, this one is obvious: proper body position is imperative for gliding through the water. But specifically what I concentrate on is keeping the head, hips and feet in line at the top of the water. I learned to arch my back slightly, which helps the hips stay up, and I always - ALWAYS - kick. (Enter Controversial Topic #2.)
 
Some say you shouldn't kick in tris, that you should save the legs for the bike/run.  However, if you don't kick, your back end will fall and create immense drag, forcing you to work harder and using up precious energy. The kick will keep your lower body elevated, and help your rotation (also important for gliding). In my opinion, you should only use your kick for propulsion in short races; in longer events, the kick is used to assist with body position.

So, there you have it. Follow my advice, and you could soon be a mediocre swimmer, too!

Quote of the Day

It was an overcast January afternoon, 48 degrees and drizzling...

Just the sound of that makes me want to curl up on the sofa under the Gamecock snuggie and catch up on my reading and eating. Instead, I joined some really great peeps for a 35 miler on the bike. The rain stopped after a while, and the temp hovered in the low 50s; perfect riding weather!

We rode from Dutch Fork Middle School out to Peak and back. We took a slightly different route than I'm used to on the way back, so I met some new hills. I also met some new people, all of which were very nice. I heard stories of races and mishaps that are funny now but surely soiled some shorts when they actually happened.

Since I don't ride in groups a whole lot, I'm not always sure I'm following proper group ride etiquette. So I was stoked and surprised when one of the guys told me I kept a nice wheel. "You ride a good line, and you handled that hill well." Music to my ears! I'm always watching and listening and trying to learn (always with the damn learning... sigh). It's nice to know that I was doing something right. I told him I hope he tells me when I'm doing something wrong, because that's how I'll learn.

With today's ride, I've completed week 5 of 24. Tomorrow is a rest day, then I have a cut-back week (reduced hours of training to let the body rest, heal and adapt to the training thus far). I also have bike and run heart-rate zone tests (Yay! Speed! Yay!). Then, the fun begins: two-a-days, how I've missed you.

Ultra Awesome

If you're ever having a bad day, go observe people doing something very difficult. Today I had the pleasure of watching strangers and friends complete an ultra marathon. This one was 50k (31 miles) on the trails at Harbison State Forest. Every person out there had to set their mind to the task and keep moving no matter what. When the competitors crossed that finish line, you could read strength, joy, pride, pain, and a bit of surprise on their faces. The scene was moving.

My sweet, sweet husband, JC, completed the race today. It was his first ultra, and he finished in 5:55 - 5 minutes under his goal time. (Pretty amazing, considering he didn't wear a watch.) I'm disappointed I didn't arrive in time to see him finish, but he's been gracious about it. He also forgave me for stepping on his foot shortly after he put on his recovery slides. Oops.

I have a nice picture of JC with his medal. I want to insert it here, but the photo uploader is not working and I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. So just imagine a great looking guy, slightly sweaty and tired-looking, with a cool medal around his neck.

Various activities fouled up my schedule today, so I ended up doing my 4 mile run on the treadmill at 9pm. I think this was my first late-night workout since starting this training plan. It was a good reminder to make sure I get my workouts done earlier in the day. Also, Chinese food is not the best choice for supper if you have to run afterwards.

Laziness and Miracles

Yesterday I learned that if I don't charge up C-3P0 every once in a while, he'll go dead. So last night's run was sans Garmin. I enjoy running by feel, and it was at Riverfront Park where the mileage is marked, so it wasn't a big deal. I knocked out just over 9 miles.

Some friends in our totally awesome running group were doing 10 miles, so they were out there finishing their runs as I finished mine. Even though we didn't run together, just seeing them out there and exchanging smiles gave me boost. Thanks, friends!

My knee/ITB felt great. No pain. But the last couple of miles, some of my muscles started to ache. This never happens to me. I'm not sure if my failure to consume enough calories during the run had anything to do with it, but that's what I'm going to go with. One pack of Gu Chomps (90 calories) and two Endurolytes pills are not enough for 9+ miles. I had other fuel with me, I was just too lazy to eat it. Yeah, that's pretty lazy.

I did bring a recovery drink with me, and I got that in quickly after the run. Then I ate and drank a lot when I got home. I think that was a large part of this morning's miracle: A great trainer ride! My Thursday rides have really sucked the past two weeks, so I'm glad to have broken that cycle. I hope I've cracked the code for good, because I have 18 more post-long-run Thursday rides before IMTX and I don't want them to suck.

Thursday trainer rides are an hour long and contain my only "speedwork" during the base phase. For the past 4 weeks, I have been allowed to do 6 x 30-second spin-ups once a week. Today I got to do 8! Those 30-second segments are just glorious. I really, really miss speedwork. But I will be patient and I will do the work as prescribed and the results will come.