Getting Back On Track

So today was Monday and after another weekend where my job stole precious time I could have used for training or recovery or various other things I "could" have been doing, my buddy Celeste sent me an email at 8 this morning and asked if I wanted to go for a run.

Of course I said, "Yeah!"

She was doing a 9:30 AM yoga class and I typically do a class at the same studio at noon so, we decided to meet at 11. This could have been the perfect compromise except we ran out a little further than normal and thus had to really turn on the jets to make it back in time for my class. But here's the thing. After running leisurely for about 40 min, I was able to crank out an 18:30ish 5k in order to get to class before the door was locked. And while this wasn't a what I would consider a hilly route, it certainly wasn't flat either. Especially not the last 1000m or so, which was all up hill.

While I am lightyears from where I want to be fitness wise, I am starting to see things fall into place. All of my "Ironman-itis'" appear to have resolved themselves. The groin pull is almost nonexistent, the stuff with my feet from all of last year is completely gone, and the strength in both of my legs is balanced. What I felt today while I was running to make the yoga class was a strength in my legs I was sure belonged solely to my younger, 35 year old self. I was barely breathing and my legs had no intention of stopping until I was ready. Jeez that felt good.

The rest of the day after yoga was an easy 30 min spin on the trainer and some upper body functional strength work. Tomorrow will be more running, a longer ride and some easy swimming. Feels great to be back!

Triathlete Day Two - Wednesday

So, I finally got the urge to run again. Not just mess around in the gym in the VFF's. No I actually went running yesterday and today. I think I'm on a roll here. I really didn't feel like running at all after Arizona. I went for a walk a couple of times down at Town Lake and hadn't the slightest hint of competitiveness or envy as folks ran past me.

The thing for me is if I start dreaming about something, then its time to do it. In fact that's how I got into Tri's in the first place. I started dreaming about swimming. In this case when the dreams didn't fully peak my interest, I started noticing runners while driving. When that didn't work someone sent me an email with a comped entry into the 3M Half marathon. Finally, my true running sidekick sent me a text, "Start running or else!"

She's the person who got me to start running last year. If she says run, I run because running with her when I'm in shape is pleasant. When I'm not it can be a disaster. For me. Plus she could always find someone else to run with... Who else could I call in a moment's notice to go do a 10 or 15 miler? Uh, not many folks.

So yesterday I ran for a bit over an hour. Today was 30 min. We'll see how I feel about running tomorrow. But I've been swimming and cycling in small increments. Mostly up to now I've been focusing on restoring my body to some semblance of balance. I think everything's back to normal for the most part. I'm starting to feel a bit of fire in my psyche to get back into the fray. We'll see.

Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

The picture to the left probably defined my day at the Austin Longhorn 70.3 race this last Sunday. The right cleat broke right outside T1.

I took a couple of days to think about my experience during the race before writing about it in detail. Long story short I wanted a time about 1:00 to 1:15 (one hour to one hour 15 min) faster than the one I finished with. But in retrospect, I suppose the moral of this race is sometimes we get what we want, and sometimes we get what we need. I needed to feel comfortable swimming in a wetsuit. I needed to test using all liquid nutrition versus a combination of both. And what I really needed was a very long workout.

And, partially because of the cleats I got all of these things. I found out I was actually pretty comfortable swimming in a wetsuit for the first time. I found I'm not suited for using all liquid nutrition and so will go with a combination of solid and liquid nutrition from now on. And I got a very long workout under race-like conditions. Honestly, this was what I'd been telling myself and some friends in the weeks leading up to the race. I just wanted to work on my pacing for my first Ironman.

But, hey I'm human. And I possess that same "curiosity" most athletes have about testing limits and seeing how fast they can go - especially on race day. So when I woke up all thoughts of pacing and long workouts faded. And that's why some prayers are answered and others aren't.

So as I rode to the swim start on the bus, an errant bike pump hit me in my right knee. Within the few minutes it took to go from the parking lot to the swim start my knee was swollen and sore. Needless to say, I had serious reservations about running or cycling at that point. But I knew I could still swim so, I put on my wetsuit and thought perhaps the cold water would bring a bit of the swelling down. It didn't, but it got me in the water.

My swim plan was to take it easy and get used to the wetsuit out to the first turn, then if I felt good I'd open it up a bit. The first turn seemed to take forever to reach, but I was comfortable and my stroke felt good. After the turn I put in a bit more effort and wound up catching some of the folks that had passed me. I would swim with this pack until we all got back to shore.

Out of the water, my knee was still stiff and a bit painful but I decided to see how it felt on the bike before bagging the race. Once on the bike I found I had the added challenge of a broken cleat (hence the picture at the start of this blog) also on the right leg. At this point my first thought was, "Hey I had a great swim, I'm cool with stopping right here." But as I looked at my cleat a very wise and thoughtful race volunteer said, "Hey man, you can ride with one leg." So off I went on a 56 mile bike ride with a swollen knee and a busted cleat - only able to clip in to the pedals with my left leg. While it seemed like a doable thing at the time, I cannot tell you what a real pain in the ass that decision turned out to be - literally. Needless to say low back and piriformis pain would be my constant companions for the next 56 agonizing miles. Things got a little better when I decided to ride less from efficiency and a high cadence and more into strength with larger gearing. This was the only way to keep the right foot from slipping off the platform so often.

The ride is also where I determined I would not be using all liquid nutrition for the Ironman. No matter how much fuel I consumed, I was still hungry. I don't ride well when I'm distracted by a growling stomach. I had about 800 calories on the bike which should have been sufficient, but looking at what was in my solid nutrition versus the liquid nutrition I tried for this event, the difference was pretty clear. It isn't just calories, but what those calories are made up of that matters. Lesson learned.

By the time I reached T2, I was hungry, sore, more fatigued than normal for a 50ish mile ride, and still sporting a swollen knee. The cramps in my left leg started right before mile 1. I surmised this was happening because the leg did most of the work on the bike. But I could have been imagining it. So the run became "run only as far and as fast as you can without cramping". By about mile 7 or so things seemed to have stabilized and I wound up running more and only walking when I went through aid stations.

I must say, I've never done a race quite like that either in distance, format, or in the number of minor challenges I experienced. But I can say, I did have a good time even with all of the stuff that was going on. I was never in any physical distress that was unbearable. And I found really like triathlons no matter what place on the course I find myself in. I got the long day I needed and now know a pace I can sustain for quite a while even on a bum leg or with a broken bike cleat. I'd say that's information worth having, especially if you can enjoy yourself while you gather it. Train well.

Perfect Paces Make Perfect Races...

I only want to say, "Let it be known that I do on rare occasions actually race triathlons, versus simply writing about training and taking pictures."

So going into the first race of the season for me, I was thinking about the phrase "Perfect paces make perfect races" a lot. I decided I wanted this race to simply be a dress rehearsal for the pace I would like to hold for the 70.3 race I'm signed up to do in October. As such even though my first race of the season was a sprint which would normally be a license to push as hard as I possibly could, I decided I would work on a little self discipline and maintain more moderate intensity levels. I set some heart rate goals and wore a monitor to insure I stayed within my preset limits for each event. I also would not use the big ring on the bike unless my cadence got above 110 RPM. So basically no big ring, no mashing of gears, and no heart rate above 157. This heart rate is about 10 beats below aerobic threshold so I would be able to sing while racing if asked. Fortunately for all concerned, I wasn't asked.

What did happen however was that as I was stretching prior to my swim start one of the race volunteers saw me do a Deep Prayer Squat, which is basically squatting down between your knees, with the feet remaining flat on the ground and your bottom as close to the ground as it can go without falling over. You can bring your hands to a prayer position and use your elbows for some leverage against the shins to really open things up. So anyway, the volunteer came up to me and asked me about the stretch so, I explained its benefits of opening the hips, loosening the shins and ankles as well as being a nice stretch of the piriformis muscle. At which point, he proceeds to tell me, and I'm not kidding you, the stretch reminds him of a jingle on a kids TV show in the 50s that went something like, "Plunk your magic 'twanger' Froggy!"

Now I don't know about you, but that was probably the last sentence I expected to hear come out of his mouth. Now understanding the context of this reference, I can honestly say I find it a little bit funny. But I have to admit before learning of the phrase's meaning, I thought it was some sort of secret agent code signifying a shared agenda. You know like, "Don't eat the red strawberries." And then you respond, "Of course, everyone knows they taste better when they are blue."

And if that first meeting wasn't funny enough, this eager volunteer proceeded to greet me with said secret phrase each time I entered or left the transition area as well as at random spots on the race course if I happened to go by. I do have to admit it did help to break the single minded focus that can be a two edged sword on some multi loop courses.



So at any rate overall I think my race went pretty well. I maintained a very even effort from start to finish that felt "quick" though not fast, and gave me a sense of the type of pace I want to have in my first 70.3 attempt. The swim went really well for about the first 75 meters or so to the first turn. In fact I felt so good I actually sprinted out to the first buoy and backstroked around it in a flash. It was so quick and I saw so much open water in front of me I sort of freaked for a second. Then I settled into my stroke but for some reason I was having a really hard time sighting the buoys to the next turn so I had to breast stroke to get my bearing a lot more than I would have liked. (To be honest I would have liked to have not breast stroked at all). But it was what it was and after the awesome start I was a little disappointed with my swim time -- it was off by about a minute and a half of what I'd predicted. I pretty much assumed I was well behind everyone else in my age group at this point. But given my meager swimming this year, I was happy to be swimming at all.



My transition was uneventful, except for the volunteer screaming about "Froggy." I opted not to attach my shoes to my pedals so I didn't really have any issues mounting and riding. The ride was pretty flat but it was a little windy. I kept my cadence at about 100 and my heart rate as averaging 155. About a third of the way into the ride I started noticing I was riding my way up into the age group ahead of me. By the turn I had ridden well into the next age group also. I was feeling pretty good on the bike and it was cool passing all these folks even though I was also remaining deeply aerobic.

I came into the transition area with two guys in the age group just before mine. The bigger of the two took off like a rocket, while the other opened up a 30 meter gap which would hold to the turn around. Off the bike my legs felt OK but my turnover was a little slower than I would have expected. But I just kept telling myself that I wasn't running distressed and that soon that idea should creep into my legs. Just before the turn around it did. At this point the challenge became not speeding up but slowing down to keep my heart rate goal. I caught the first guy I left the transition with and then started passing anyone in sight at will. I came across the line with a lot left in the tank and feeling pretty good.



I have never done a race at completely aerobic pacing so the feeling of not being spent at the end of a race was new though not unwelcome. I must say it was really hard to let some folks go and stay focused on my larger goals. But I learned a lot from it and I do feel like the workout/race made me a stronger triathlete in a couple of ways. The biggest is the sense that I race for me and my own reasons. Not to prove anything, or beat someone. I can race just for me and that too is satisfying. And I did learn there is some truth in the whole "Perfect paces makes for perfect races" thing.

Reasons (Read Excuses) Why I Did Not Train Yesterday

1. Because my cat, Spot, is wearing my only clean cycling jersey, there can be no riding outside.



2. Because my other cat, Slash, is sleeping on both the Tacx and my cycling shoes.



3. Because Barton Springs is closed for the week for cleaning.

Blogged with the Flock Browser