Slow Twitch

Yesterday, was our triple brick workout for the IMAZ crew.  I've heard that triple brick is more of an old school IM training event and not too many plans have it in their calendar anymore.  Although it may not be necessary, there is definitely a benefit from the mental toughness, pacing, and patience point of view.  So we asked to put one on the calendar and since this is such a big training day, we coordinated doing our workouts together so we could recruit a bunch of volunteers to help us out (who were absolutely phenomenal).  

Wearing the Ironteam jersey since I knew many
teammates would be joining us for the special occasion.

The route we picked is just under a 30 mile loop that has some long steady inclines, but no pitchy climbs, and a good amount of headwind in the afternoon.  I rode most of the first loop by myself.  I was working harder than I was supposed to, but I attributed that to needing to warm up.  On the downhill coming back, there was a radar speed limit sign on the road that clocked me at 29mph.  I decided I would use that as my barometer for the day.

Since I need to maintain a 17 min mile for walking in Arizona, I practiced my walk for the next hour and managed to maintain a walk speed under that.  

Sedonia rode the second loop with me.  I have found it a real treat to ride with people that aren't training for a specific event because they ride at my pace since they don't need to be worrying about their own training.  My training plan was to ride this loop faster than the first (higher heart rate) and I felt pretty good.  The only problem was I just couldn't hydrate enough.  I did go faster, but the headwinds had picked up so it took me an extra 3 minutes to get back.  This time, the radar sign on the downhill had me at 24mph.  


I was making it a point to really work on my nutrition again and was feeling good.  Starting the second run, I was hungry, which means I didn't take in enough that round, so I took half a PB&J sandwich with me.  

With a mouthful

For the the last loop, I was lucky enough to have Kristie and Dana come ride with me.  

Surprisingly, I felt really good going out on this loop as well.  I still had trouble hydrating.  I had finished all my water at mile 15.  I still had some of my energy drink left, but, in general, I just couldn't get enough liquids in me.  All I kept thinking about on the 3rd loop was the wind I was going to have to deal with.  This time my self-proclaimed barometer had me at 19mph.  I pedaled just as hard all three times in that same stretch, but that wind took 10mph off on a downhill!  This loop took me 20 minutes longer than the first. 


When we rolled back to the park, there was even a guest appearance from Coach Dave and his wife, Norma.  I told him I wanted to run the last leg.  He recommended a run/walk plan that worked out really well.  


The whole day ended up taking 9.5 hours.  I was hot, overheated, dehydrated, had to take an ice bath, and am still feeling the effects of 90 miles in the saddle "down under," but I was positive.  When Tammy asked why I was so cheery during the 3rd run, I said, "because it's almost over."  And, if I had to, I could have gone out and ridden that loop again.  This weekend, was proof that while I finished 30 minutes after the others, my endurance is there.  If my race day is anything like both of my double and triple bricks have been this year, then that's a really good thing -- consistent, steady, and paced.  Slow twitch.  

Reflections on the World Championship

On Saturday, I spent several hours watching the 2011 Ironman World Championship. Both the men's and women's races were exciting.  And, after watching the pros win their titles, I came back awhile later to watch some acquaintances and friends of friends cross the finish line.  My general takeaways from the day:

• Obviously to qualify for the event you have to be really really really good (or get a lottery slot). Over HALF the field was cleared in under 11 hours!  The pros can do what they do because training is their job.  But all these age groupers who came in during the nine to eleven-hour range is just insane.  It's awesome.  But it's insane.  And, I'll admit, a little depressing.
• Most of the pro men are extremely attractive.  Unfortunately, most of the pro women are not.  Last summer I was on a flight with Meredith Kessler, and she was commenting how the pro women all look like men while they are racing.  She said she makes it a point to paint her nails red before every race because she needs something to feel like a woman.  I get that. 
• Since the pros are outside all of the time, they are quite leathery.  My fair skin struggles with the sun every weekend.  No matter how much sunscreen and lip balm I apply and re-apply, my cheeks and nose are red and my lips slightly burned every Saturday and Sunday.  And, the Speedo lines, bike shorts, bike jersey, tri top, and the sock tan I'm sporting is super sexy.
• The people who finished in Kona in what I suspect my time range will be in Arizona were 70+.  I'm planning to find myself a grandma to walk with on that run course.  I tracked Lew Hollander.  He was featured in the 2010 Ironman documentary.  This guy is 81 and swears the baked potato he puts in his special needs bag is what gets him to the finish line.  He says he plans to live to be over 100 and will keep coming back every year until he can't finish.  I looked up his times and we are pretty similar in all the areas.  Nick told me that when things get hard in Arizona, to remind myself that three 80+ year olds crossed the finish line in Kona.  I'll be thinking of Lew.  And wondering if I should have put a potato in my special needs...

Tackling Del Valle

Cold mornings are back.  Even though the water is still warm, it's time to start training with the wetsuit again.  Yesterday, we met at Lake Del Valle for a swim, a ride, and a short run.  I really like Lake Del Valle and even though it's relatively close, I still feel like it's WAY out there.

Four of us met up for the swim.  Nate and Nick are the fasties so they swam off together.  Phil and I generally keep up with each other until I get caught in the weeds and reeds and start yelling profanities of the sort while random fisherman shake their heads at the crazy girl in the water.  Other than the weeds and a lovely wetsuit hickey right where you'd expect to find one planted on a teenager loitering around Arizona Mills Mall, I had a really good swim.  

Sun coming up over Lake Del Valle

After the swim, we headed out for the bike ride.  Del Valle Road is one bigass climb straight out of the gate.  Seriously, every time we ride out of Del Valle, I am in my little ring while still in the parking lot!  My goal was to get to the summit without stopping.  Finally!  I rode by myself the whole ride and just enjoyed my day.  We rode out to Sunol and turned around at the little store we have coined "the Coca Cola water stop" (where we had to stop and get Coke after our miserable ride to Tracy).  

Luckily, nobody needed any Coke on this ride.  I replenished my water and headed back. The downside to this route, is that it is that it is uphill the entire way back.  And then you have to face that climb again.  

One of the things I was working on yesterday was taking in more calories than usual.  Recognizing I don't take in enough, I am hoping I nailed down my nutrition yesterday with how much I need per hour and really made a concentrated effort to take in calories every 10 minutes, which I think worked.  

Start of Del Valle Rd

I was trying hard so hard to make it to the top of Del Valle Rd again without stopping on the way back, but my sunscreen won out.  When I pretty much had both my eyes closed from the stinging of the sunscreen running into my eyes, I had to stop to wipe them.  During my climb up at whopping 3.7mph I got to enjoy a group of four skateboarders hauling ass down the road in their V formation.  A car would follow closely behind them and take them back up to to the top.  I got to watch them descend Del Valle Rd three times while I climbed up.  When I got to the top they said, "You made it!  We cheat.  We have a car that drives us back up!"

Once I pulled back into the park, I did a very short brick run and I don't think my legs ever felt so jello-y before.  After just finishing a climb like that only five minutes prior, my glutes and hamstrings were trashed.  But when it was all over, I ran into the lake.  I'm sure the kids were wondering about what the strange girl in all her clothes was doing in the water, but it felt wonderful!  And, I kept repeating Ice Cube in my head, "Today was a good day"

So inviting....

FW: Thoughts for the week

This is a forward of an email I received from my manager yesterday:

I love this kind of stuff as gentle reminders/nudges/pushes, etc. to reiterate things I already know, but lose sight of from time to time.  It's applicable to the obstacles I am currently challenged with at work right now.  But, of course, it's extremely applicable to my training and moving closer and closer to the left.  I wanted to share because I'm sure most people would agree that it's applicable to almost everything in each and every one of our lives.  

San Diego-Go-Go

Last week we flew to San Diego for a mini vacation.  One of my friends was getting married in Del Mar and we decided to play tourist for a few days.  I joked that we got a lot of exercise in last week, but not much training so to speak.  We took Thursday as our "recovery" day and spent six hours walking up and down the hills of the San Diego Zoo.  We were supposed to go out that night with the bride and groom, but I was exhausted and my foot wasn't feeling so great so we stayed in.

I probably spent the most time watching the gorillas interact.
This was a little toddler who was definitely not shy!

On Friday, we had a bike ride planned.  I tried to find a proper bike shop to rent bikes from, but the only places I could find to rent from were more like recreational bike and kayak type shops.  So we reserved bikes online.  I am in between a 44 and a 48 and the smallest they had was a 49, but I figured that would be ok with some adjustments.  Not the case.  I was hurting in places a girl should not hurt.  And, this was not normal saddle pain.  After only one hour, we turned around.  When we returned the bikes, some guy came up to us and told me how he got the bikes ready for us and wanted to see if they were ok.  I commented that it was very uncomfortable and then he told me I was riding a 52!  Well no wonder why that ride sucked.  And, where was he when we were trying to get someone's attention earlier????  Anyway, it was water under the bridge and I told Nick that we basically just did an hour workout instead of getting in a good ride.  As my coach reminded me last night, "it was maintenance."


The shortened bike ride, opened up our day.  After a delicious unplanned lunch at my favorite SD restaurant, we decided to spend the afternoon at Sea World, with my lifetime friend and her two daughters.  I was a giddy school girl around the seals and sea lions.  

Aint too proud to beg

But these two were just as giddy as I was!

On Saturday, we went trail running.  On the way to the park, we noticed the Road Runner's corporate headquarters off the freeway and stopped there on the way home.  I was fitted for shoes biomechanically about 2 years ago, but since I have such foot problems these days, I wanted to get fitted again.  The store had about 14 treadmills in the middle of the store with video cameras on each device and special machines and balance stations to create custom orthotics.  They recommended three different shoes for me (one of which included my current shoe thank goodness).  In the end, I did get some custom orthotics and went with a different shoe that is slightly more narrow than my current running shoe.  


I am slightly hopeful that a different fit and the custom orthortics will be helpful.  But, last night I met with my coach and we discussed the need to really learn how to start walking.  He said it is time to get my head and my body (arm swing, cadence, etc.) prepared for walking most of it.  He really has scaled back my running workouts because he does not want me to injure myself.  I am feeling extremely inadequate with the low mileage I am getting in, but that's why he's a Level II certified coach and I am not.  He wants to protect the potential we have in my left foot rather than blowing it on training.  So I am slowly letting go of what I *think* I should be doing and subsequently feeling guilty about what I'm not doing, and instead accepting that these baby workouts will eventually pay off in only 49 days!  *gulp*

Spin spin spin

I really enjoy my spin workouts these days.  The Ironteam spins were very endurance oriented and well....boring.  But, for the past few months, I've switched to a lot of interval training and high intensity workouts and I find them much more enjoyable.  At my house, I train on my old bike in front of the TV.  It's where I catch up on my DVR.  And, I'd like to think that my house is aesthetically pleasing.  However, when I am at Nick's house I set up in the garage.  After I was done with a workout the other day, I looked at my little station and thought, "Wow, that's pretty ugly."   But, I don't even notice the lack of aesthetics.  I have my iPhone to tell me what my workout is, my iPod to listen to my favorite songs, loud speakers, and a fan.  The set up is perfect.

Thankfully, a Win

Training for two events this year means I had the "pleasure" of completing two double brick workouts - ride and run (repeat).  All this traveling for work every week is killing me so I was pretty insistent on riding near my house this weekend.  Fortunately, the former TNT'ers training for IMAZ in the South Bay also had a Double Brick on their calendar for this weekend, too, so we joined up with them.  


First off, it was awesome to arrive and have so much support.  Since the South Bay coach is also training for IMAZ, he had routes, maps, water, ice, food, etc. and volunteered to sit out the first loop to watch our stuff.  There were at least a dozen people riding the first loop and six of us for the second.  Sedonia came down from Napa and rode the first loop and volunteered to watch our transition area for the second loop.  It's amazing what a difference volunteers make in the long workouts.  

The least we can do is provide chairs for our volunteers.
She finished 3 Sudokus and a crossword while waiting for us.

Our first loop took us through Woodside and up King's Mountain Road, which was gorgeous.  My climbing skills are not great, but the descent gave me a boost of confidence at how far I went up.  After the climb, I rode with Sedonia, which was another luxury (to ride with someone).


The first run was ok.  My foot is still hurting a lot.  It's pretty evident that the pain is not going to go away unless I have surgery, which isn't going to happen any time soon.  Because of that, I need to get a plan in place for what I am going to do in November.  


The second ride was much harder.  We went north toward Belmont and since it was later in the afternoon, the wind had picked up considerably.  Canada Reservoir had white caps in it, if that is any indication of how windy it was. I just kept telling myself it was good practice, right?  This ride had a lot more pitchy short climbs rather than a long sustained climb.  I thought my heart was going to jump out of my mouth when we were crossing over the 280.  

Phil had a big day because this is the first double brick he's done without barfing!

When I was in high school, we used to drive over to Half Moon Bay almost every weekend to see my now-stepdad.  I used to always see those cyclists out by Canada Reservoir and Crystal Springs and think, "How do they do that?"  Oh the irony.  


For the second run, I decided to purposefully walk fast.  I walk because I hurt and because I hurt I walk slower than I should.  My resignation at doing a fast walk meant that I didn't hurt and I really kept my heart rate at almost the same rate as when I run.  I didn't have my Garmin to see my distance, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty comparable.  So sad, but if I can maintain a 17 minute mile walking (and I meet my other goals), I can still cross the finish line before midnight.  And, that is all that matters come November 20.  

6.5 hours later -- We are jello, but still smiling!  

Thankfully, a training win, finally.  Did I mention that the Sun Devils beat USC this weekend for the first time since 1999???  Oh, and the Sun Devils are playing Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium the day before Ironman Arizona.  Can I make it work????  Highly doubtful.  But the wheels are in motion....