BIKE – 112 miles
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
I had remembered my training ride on this course, and how I’d sort of nuked my village on it by going to hard at the beginning. Similarly, every piece of advice I read on biking this course told me to avoid the temptation to fly on the bike early, so I decided to pace it a little.
By this, of course, I mean passing pretty much everyone I saw in the first 22 miles. I didn’t have the wind at my back like I did on the training ride, so I was doing a reasonable 22-24. But the funnest part was passing all these people on $5000 bikes with ease. I didn’t feel like I was pushing it either, like my quads felt fine. I was also encouraged that there wasn’t much of a tailwind, meaning I wouldn’t suffer on the way back like I had a month before. Then I hit the turn at mile 22.
The wind was blowing hard in my face, so much so that after about 5 miles, my back started to kill me. This is what happens to me in wind since it requires me to pedal so hard. Well, I went from cruising at 22 to struggling to get up to 20. I spent a good amount of time going about 14-16, as I knew this course was too long to expend too much energy fighting the wind. It didn’t help matters that my bike is not nearly as aerodynamic as the aforementioned $5000 bikes, and neither am I. I don’t have an aero helmet, and my shoulders are pretty fucking wide. Like a road grader going into the wind. Really not fun.
To make matters worse, all those people I’d passed had decided to form draft packs to combat the wind. Is that illegal in Ironman competition? Of course it is. And I wasn’t about to do It either, since I do have some integrity (I also don’t really know how to draft, but even if I did I wouldn’t. I don’t like cheating). But as struggled to combat the relentless wind, hundreds of people were passing me in scores of mini pelotons. I just kept looking over at them and thinking “You drafting, cheating fucks. How dare you.”
A little before mile 50, which marked the end of the windy section, we got access to our “Special Needs Bags,” which was basically a bag with any shit you might want halfway through the bike that you couldn’t pack. I threw in some Oreos, some gels, a Clif bar, and of course lots of Lipodrene and Advil and Salt tabs. I had been keeping to my one Lipodrene every 25 miles plan, even struggling to open the Ziploc bag while riding. But I took this opportunity to get out of the saddle for a minute and relax my back. It needed it. I was probably there a little over a minute before I pressed on.
About a mile later, we turned back south onto 231. But this time, there was no brutal headwind. Not only that, but it was a lot cooler than it had been a month earlier, and we got water every ten miles. It’s amazing the difference not being dehydrated makes on a ride like this. I was able to drop into aero on this stretch and do a solid 20-22 until the turn onto the real Camp Flowers Road. No dirt for me this time.
While I knew I was biking well, I also knew that the drafting cheating fucks were far enough ahead of me that I probably wasn’t going to catch them. Going back West II had the wind at my back,, and was able to go a solid 21-24 for most of that stretch, until the 7-mile down and back on perhaps the bumpiest road in Bay County. At the end, there was an aid station where I stopped to relieve myself, and again stretch out my back. It came at about mile 75, which seemed like a good time to take a break and another Lipodrene. So I used the bathroom, took my pill and had the rest of my Oreos, and pressed on for the final 38 miles. Just a trip down Hawthorne and back.
I kept expecting to slow down, but I just didn’t. We hit one stretch of about 18 miles from mile 82-100 that was not only closed off, but repaved like the week before. And a tailwind. It was like riding on silk. Just amazing biking, and I don’t think I dropped below 22 the whole time. Though I was happy to get to mile 100, I was sad to see that road go. But as I was on it, I realized that I had it. Like the 5+ hours I’d been on the bike had flown, I’d gone faster than I thought I would, and I was almost 2/3 done with the Ironman. I started to get a little sad, actually. Like this day was what my entire life had been about for the past six months, and it was almost over. I was happy with my performance, but I had under an hour left on the bike, then just a run to suffer through and then what? When I started thinking this, it was the only time I really slowed on that section. Then I told myself I could think about that shit at the finish line.
So I hit the Front Beach road, which is like the last 7 miles, and of course the wind is just brutal. I wasn’t overly concerned as I knew I was gonna average over 19 for the ride, so I just fought it a little and did about 16-18 on the way back. Then, at about mile 108, I got the worst gas pains of my life. Like it felt like a giant bubble was about to explode in my intestines. And it was funny, since Klueber had just asked me about the acceptability of shitting one’s pants during the bike section. I had decided I didn’t want to do that, and just gritted it out, promising myself I could demolish a toilet in transition when I got there. Of course, by the time I rolled up to the dismount line, the gas was gone. My dad and Trevor took some pictures as I got off the bike, I waved at them, and slapped Professor Limon, who works in my department, a high five as I went back into transition. Made the bike in 5:55, again slightly faster than expected. I was pleased.
T2 – Bike to Run – 8:45
Now that I was familiar with the layout of the transition, I found my way much easier. Of course, I was also a little more tired. So this time, I just walked it. Sat down, put on my black shirt. Took my time putting my stuff away. I think the volunteers in there were a bit confused, since this kid started laying out my gear for me. I was like “Thanks, but I got it.” He helped me out anyway, which was nice. I had a Vitamin water, took two more Lipodrene, a couple Advil, a gel and a salt tabs, and headed out for the run. I was right at 7:30 when I got onto the course. Breaking 13 hours was definitely an attainable goal.
Showing posts with label Cliff Bar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cliff Bar. Show all posts
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
T105 - The Miami Beach Half-Marathon - Run
Miami Beach
Run - 13.1 miles
2 Lipodrene
Tony, first of all is about the best pre-race host imaginable. Not only did he give up his bedroom so I'd have a comfortable place to sleep, he also got me a bunch of bottled water, set 4 alarms, and knocked on the door at 5 a.m. to wake me up. He does triathlons too, so he knew the importnace. Anyway, I made it from his house in Flagami to the beach by about 5:30, had 2 bagles on the drive over, parked by Nikki Beach and took the shuttle over to Jungle Island where the race was starting.
This race was pretty fun. With all the people running it in costumes, and the shorter-distance, it just had an atmosphere of the sort of event that was full of people there for a good time. I figured given that you don't get much more serious than an Ironman, this would be a nice, fun final long run before the not-so-fun one in a week. Since I never dress for Halloween, my costume was "Guy in Black Shorts" and I did not bring the iPod. Nor did I bring any gels.
The emails I'd gotten had made it sound like they had gels at the aid stations, but it became pretty obvious by aid station 1 that they would not be providing anything other than water and Powerade at the aid stations. Good thing I brought a Cliff Bar with me, which I ended up eating half of at about mile 8. I started the race apparently running about a 9 minute mile pace, according to the guy running next to me who didn't shut up. Which I thought felt pretty maintainable, until he stopped and walked. "Break time," he said. Throughout the race I would see him pass me, then I'd pass him and his friend (female) and this went on until just before the turnaround on 48th Street.
The run was far and away the most scenic I've done this entire cycle, going across the MacArthur Causeway. through South Pointe Park and up the boardwalk to 48th Street, where you turn around, rtun back on the boardwalk along the beach, then do a loop of South Pointe Park before ending in front of Nikki Beach. And, fontunately, the sun really didn't come out until right at the end. I took a 3rd Lipodrene at mile 8-ish, and hydrated with 2 Powerades and a wter at every other aid station.
The miles seemed to go by quick, although my pace wan't much faster than usual, and I never felt labored or exhausted or worn out the entire time. Dizzy, a few times, but not once like I wanted to stop. The whole thing felt like it went pretty fast, I even felt like I hit the halfway point early. As it was, I finished in about 2:20, which is right where I thought I'd be. Yeah, I run slow. I know. The countless women 15 years my senior who passed me reminded me of this. But I also ran my pace. Meaning that I was in shape enough to run this and not get winded. Could I push myself more? Yeah, probably. But I think my mentality for these things is set towards Ironman. Like don't dog it, but don't push it too much. You got a long way to go.
And so that was how I ran this race. It was a lot of fun, and I ran exactly how I thought I would. Which is neither discouraging nor particularly motivating. It just lets me know that I know what I can do. And contrary to the Rickenbacker Ride of the day before, this actually felt good. So 2 for 3 on Miami workouts this trip (swim and run good, bike bad). A better percentage than ususal.
I will also note that there were a LOT of attractive girls on this run. Usually at triathlons, the girls look weathered and hard, and while their bodies are typically pretty good they look a little windswept. For some reason half-marathons just attract a different crowd. There was a girl standing next to me at the starting line wearing like a giant British Flag dress thing that was easily the best looking girl I'd seen at any endurance event. And the group of girls dressed as lifeguards who came and sat with me at the after party at Nikki Beach weren't bad either. I think when I get back to Miami, I'm gonna have to start going more of these.
Run - 13.1 miles
2 Lipodrene
Tony, first of all is about the best pre-race host imaginable. Not only did he give up his bedroom so I'd have a comfortable place to sleep, he also got me a bunch of bottled water, set 4 alarms, and knocked on the door at 5 a.m. to wake me up. He does triathlons too, so he knew the importnace. Anyway, I made it from his house in Flagami to the beach by about 5:30, had 2 bagles on the drive over, parked by Nikki Beach and took the shuttle over to Jungle Island where the race was starting.
This race was pretty fun. With all the people running it in costumes, and the shorter-distance, it just had an atmosphere of the sort of event that was full of people there for a good time. I figured given that you don't get much more serious than an Ironman, this would be a nice, fun final long run before the not-so-fun one in a week. Since I never dress for Halloween, my costume was "Guy in Black Shorts" and I did not bring the iPod. Nor did I bring any gels.
The emails I'd gotten had made it sound like they had gels at the aid stations, but it became pretty obvious by aid station 1 that they would not be providing anything other than water and Powerade at the aid stations. Good thing I brought a Cliff Bar with me, which I ended up eating half of at about mile 8. I started the race apparently running about a 9 minute mile pace, according to the guy running next to me who didn't shut up. Which I thought felt pretty maintainable, until he stopped and walked. "Break time," he said. Throughout the race I would see him pass me, then I'd pass him and his friend (female) and this went on until just before the turnaround on 48th Street.
The run was far and away the most scenic I've done this entire cycle, going across the MacArthur Causeway. through South Pointe Park and up the boardwalk to 48th Street, where you turn around, rtun back on the boardwalk along the beach, then do a loop of South Pointe Park before ending in front of Nikki Beach. And, fontunately, the sun really didn't come out until right at the end. I took a 3rd Lipodrene at mile 8-ish, and hydrated with 2 Powerades and a wter at every other aid station.
The miles seemed to go by quick, although my pace wan't much faster than usual, and I never felt labored or exhausted or worn out the entire time. Dizzy, a few times, but not once like I wanted to stop. The whole thing felt like it went pretty fast, I even felt like I hit the halfway point early. As it was, I finished in about 2:20, which is right where I thought I'd be. Yeah, I run slow. I know. The countless women 15 years my senior who passed me reminded me of this. But I also ran my pace. Meaning that I was in shape enough to run this and not get winded. Could I push myself more? Yeah, probably. But I think my mentality for these things is set towards Ironman. Like don't dog it, but don't push it too much. You got a long way to go.
And so that was how I ran this race. It was a lot of fun, and I ran exactly how I thought I would. Which is neither discouraging nor particularly motivating. It just lets me know that I know what I can do. And contrary to the Rickenbacker Ride of the day before, this actually felt good. So 2 for 3 on Miami workouts this trip (swim and run good, bike bad). A better percentage than ususal.
I will also note that there were a LOT of attractive girls on this run. Usually at triathlons, the girls look weathered and hard, and while their bodies are typically pretty good they look a little windswept. For some reason half-marathons just attract a different crowd. There was a girl standing next to me at the starting line wearing like a giant British Flag dress thing that was easily the best looking girl I'd seen at any endurance event. And the group of girls dressed as lifeguards who came and sat with me at the after party at Nikki Beach weren't bad either. I think when I get back to Miami, I'm gonna have to start going more of these.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
T87 - The Difference Between 90 and 100 is a lot more than 10 Miles - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
After four days off and a skipped fast on Yom Kippur (figured it wasn't a good idea to not eat the entire day before an important training ride. One year. I think God will understand) I felt ready to rock and roll for my first 100-mile bike ride. Ever. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, but not really hot, and my body felt good. I didn't sleep particularly well but other than that I felt well-prepared. And I needed a good ride to try and reverse the trend of bad workouts.
Bike - 5.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
I started out on this ride like gangbusters. Just flew down 2nd, then down Waldo, and hit the trailhead in under 7 milutes (a record). Then continued my speed down Hawthorne, hitting Nigbridge in 25 flat and getting to the end of the trail in 55:02. Remembering that this was taking me about 1:03 in the beginning, I felt this was a major stride. Just missed breaking 55 minutes, and averaged 19.9 on the first trip. I was a little worried abount nuking the village here, but in my experience you are generally just as tired at the end of a long ride like this whether you go hard the first 20 miles or pace it. So I went hard.
I took another salt tab and headed back up. I realized then that I had had a bit of a tailwind, and that may have accounted for my record trip. But whatever. I made it back up at 1:40, and my average speed was still 18.9, despite the wind. Here I took 2more Advil and another salt tab, and headed back down. I tought I'd have another great trip given the tailwind, but I noticed it had died down, and only made it to the halfway point at 2:40, meaning it was about 12 minutes slower than my first trip. I was losing speed fast.
On the way back on trip 2, I found myself gettng tired. Not my legs, or even my back so much, but just general fatigue. My back had been hurting from about the 1:15 mark, and despite flooding my body with Advil, I found myself having to take brief, 30-second breaks about every half hour if I was not stopping already. I'm not sure how this is going to work raceday, but it's one of those things that I get mentally fatigued and start going like 15 for a while. Then I'll stop and be able to hit 20 again. Anyway, this last trip I kept slowing down, and having to tell myself "You're better than this" repeatedly to get my speed back up. At the 3:30 mark I took a short break, and felt like taking a nap. It was then I realized I had 2 more hours left. Well, nobody said this was gonna be easy.
Turned around to make my third trip, taking my last 2 Advil and another Lipodrene. I now didn't feel like I needed to take a nap, but getting over 19 was tough. It didn't help that like an idiot I cruised right by the only water fountain for about 20 miles, leaving me with about a bottles worth for that entire stretch. So I think dehyydration my have played a part here too.
I had nothing left on any sort of incline, and was only able to hit 20-22 on declines. I think I averaged about 17 on this last trip, which isn't terrible, but is slower than I want to do. And it was one of those rides where I reeally felt done about an hour and 15 minutes before it was over. But, you perservere. I think that's what the Ironman is about, just keeping it moving when you feel like you're done. And I realized today how hard that is really going to be.
The 90 mile rides had been challenging, but not exhausting. This one had me wanting to stop 2 hours before it was over, which is a big mental obstacle. I talked to Trevor via IM about it last night, and he said I probably need to do at least 2 more to be ready for the big race. I am going to Panama City next Tuesday to do the course, then I think there's a Gainesville Century ride the next weekend. Much as I'm dreading it, I know it's something I have to do to have a good Ironman. Such is life.
I ended up back home at 5:29, having done 98.9 miles. So no, not quite a century, and yes, another mile wouldn't have killed me. But there's plenty of time for that. If you do the math, I averaged just under 18, which had been my goal. So I came just short of my goals today, but had some bright spots. Not a bad first century (almost) ride, but I'm definitely looking to improve on the next ones.
The ride also left my perennium incredibly sore, to the point I couldn't really sit down. Later in the evening I looked at it in the mirror and found I had gotten my first ever hemhorroid. Thanks Ironman! I don't see this hindering training much, but it does make me feel old. But really, after that much time on a bike, I figure it's more like a battle scar. I'm sure that's what fat-ass bus drivers say too. Anyway, hopefully it doesn't hinder training, but I'll keep you posted. The forearm, however, is fine now. Full aero a lot of the ride.
Run - 20 minutes (treadmill)
I got home and had my last gel (I'd done gels every 45 on the bike, with Cliff Bars at 2:15 and 3:50 or so. Still felt fatigued, so I may need to bring more food on my next century ride). Went upstairs, had a Powerade, answered a couple of texts, and went down to the gym at Jefferson. I put the treadmill on 6.2, faster than I usually do for post-ride runs, and it actually felt pretty good. I mean, I kept looking at the time, but the speed felt comfortable. Now, am I going to be able to keep that up for 26 miles? Hell the fuck no, I won't. But the fact that this wasn't completely laborious gave me a little glimmer of pride after an otherwise-difficult workout. That's it for Week 6. 5 weeks of training to go in 39 days. I'm staying in Gainesville until the Miami Beach Half Marathon to just train hard and get myself ready. Home stretch, and it will pay off.
After four days off and a skipped fast on Yom Kippur (figured it wasn't a good idea to not eat the entire day before an important training ride. One year. I think God will understand) I felt ready to rock and roll for my first 100-mile bike ride. Ever. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, but not really hot, and my body felt good. I didn't sleep particularly well but other than that I felt well-prepared. And I needed a good ride to try and reverse the trend of bad workouts.
Bike - 5.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
I started out on this ride like gangbusters. Just flew down 2nd, then down Waldo, and hit the trailhead in under 7 milutes (a record). Then continued my speed down Hawthorne, hitting Nigbridge in 25 flat and getting to the end of the trail in 55:02. Remembering that this was taking me about 1:03 in the beginning, I felt this was a major stride. Just missed breaking 55 minutes, and averaged 19.9 on the first trip. I was a little worried abount nuking the village here, but in my experience you are generally just as tired at the end of a long ride like this whether you go hard the first 20 miles or pace it. So I went hard.
I took another salt tab and headed back up. I realized then that I had had a bit of a tailwind, and that may have accounted for my record trip. But whatever. I made it back up at 1:40, and my average speed was still 18.9, despite the wind. Here I took 2more Advil and another salt tab, and headed back down. I tought I'd have another great trip given the tailwind, but I noticed it had died down, and only made it to the halfway point at 2:40, meaning it was about 12 minutes slower than my first trip. I was losing speed fast.
On the way back on trip 2, I found myself gettng tired. Not my legs, or even my back so much, but just general fatigue. My back had been hurting from about the 1:15 mark, and despite flooding my body with Advil, I found myself having to take brief, 30-second breaks about every half hour if I was not stopping already. I'm not sure how this is going to work raceday, but it's one of those things that I get mentally fatigued and start going like 15 for a while. Then I'll stop and be able to hit 20 again. Anyway, this last trip I kept slowing down, and having to tell myself "You're better than this" repeatedly to get my speed back up. At the 3:30 mark I took a short break, and felt like taking a nap. It was then I realized I had 2 more hours left. Well, nobody said this was gonna be easy.
Turned around to make my third trip, taking my last 2 Advil and another Lipodrene. I now didn't feel like I needed to take a nap, but getting over 19 was tough. It didn't help that like an idiot I cruised right by the only water fountain for about 20 miles, leaving me with about a bottles worth for that entire stretch. So I think dehyydration my have played a part here too.
I had nothing left on any sort of incline, and was only able to hit 20-22 on declines. I think I averaged about 17 on this last trip, which isn't terrible, but is slower than I want to do. And it was one of those rides where I reeally felt done about an hour and 15 minutes before it was over. But, you perservere. I think that's what the Ironman is about, just keeping it moving when you feel like you're done. And I realized today how hard that is really going to be.
The 90 mile rides had been challenging, but not exhausting. This one had me wanting to stop 2 hours before it was over, which is a big mental obstacle. I talked to Trevor via IM about it last night, and he said I probably need to do at least 2 more to be ready for the big race. I am going to Panama City next Tuesday to do the course, then I think there's a Gainesville Century ride the next weekend. Much as I'm dreading it, I know it's something I have to do to have a good Ironman. Such is life.
I ended up back home at 5:29, having done 98.9 miles. So no, not quite a century, and yes, another mile wouldn't have killed me. But there's plenty of time for that. If you do the math, I averaged just under 18, which had been my goal. So I came just short of my goals today, but had some bright spots. Not a bad first century (almost) ride, but I'm definitely looking to improve on the next ones.
The ride also left my perennium incredibly sore, to the point I couldn't really sit down. Later in the evening I looked at it in the mirror and found I had gotten my first ever hemhorroid. Thanks Ironman! I don't see this hindering training much, but it does make me feel old. But really, after that much time on a bike, I figure it's more like a battle scar. I'm sure that's what fat-ass bus drivers say too. Anyway, hopefully it doesn't hinder training, but I'll keep you posted. The forearm, however, is fine now. Full aero a lot of the ride.
Run - 20 minutes (treadmill)
I got home and had my last gel (I'd done gels every 45 on the bike, with Cliff Bars at 2:15 and 3:50 or so. Still felt fatigued, so I may need to bring more food on my next century ride). Went upstairs, had a Powerade, answered a couple of texts, and went down to the gym at Jefferson. I put the treadmill on 6.2, faster than I usually do for post-ride runs, and it actually felt pretty good. I mean, I kept looking at the time, but the speed felt comfortable. Now, am I going to be able to keep that up for 26 miles? Hell the fuck no, I won't. But the fact that this wasn't completely laborious gave me a little glimmer of pride after an otherwise-difficult workout. That's it for Week 6. 5 weeks of training to go in 39 days. I'm staying in Gainesville until the Miami Beach Half Marathon to just train hard and get myself ready. Home stretch, and it will pay off.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
T81 - CRASH - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
I'm not liking these shorter days. I woke up at about noon on Tuesday and realized that in order to get in this 5 hour bike ride before it got dark, I had to leave by 2. Which was cool. Gave me a chance to watch Maury before I left. But still, I would have liked another hour or so to get mentally prepared.
Bike - 5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
Today was to be a ride that went almost 3 times down Hawthorne and back. I am very encouraged by the fact that every time I do this trail, I am setting a new record in the time it takes me to get to the end. Today it was 56:10 for the first trip down, averaging almost 19. And I wasn't even that tired. I was low on gels, so I took a gel at 45 minutes and 90 minutes, then a bar at 2:15, which I think worked well. I seem to lose about .2 of a mile per hour off my average each trip, which I'm not thrilled about but I figure it's better to go hard that first 2 hours, because I think I'd end up doing 18 or so either way by the last trip down. Point is, I had a record first trip today and that was good. Took a salt tab at the turn around, then another 2 Advil at the end of trip 1.
Trip 2 also went nicely. Made it down in under an hour still, would have been 58 if you factored in the extra time from my house to the trailhead. Took a 3rd Lipodrene at the 2:30 mark, figuring that was about all the booster I'd need for the remainder of the ride. Finished the second trip at about 3:40, which I felt was a pretty solid time for 71 miles. Turned around for trip 3 and popped my last 2 Advil and a salt tab. Gels were working well. Body was feeling ok. my low back went in and out of pain, which I'll chalk up to Advil wearing off and kicking in. My shoulders also started to feel a little sore from all the time in Aero.
Anyway, I turned it around at the 4:17 mark, and wouldn't you know it it started to rain. Which I'm usually ok with, save for the filth it adds to my bike. Well I was trying to push the fast spots so I could end up averaging over 18 (my goal was 18 average, 90 miles for the ride)and this may not have been the best idea. I hit the final big curve (marked by a sign that reads "Big Curve") at about 22-23, and began to apply my brakes where I usually do. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten that brakes do not work as well in the rain as they do when it's dry. Next thing I know I'm skidding around the curve at about 18, slamming my right side into the ground, and watching my bike fly over my head. I just said there thinking "Fuck, this hurts," and looking at my various new body parts that lacked skin. My right forearm got the worst of it, pretty much skinning the entire thing from my elbow half way down.
I did make a point to keep my head up to avoid another concussion. So I got up pretty quickly, dusted myself off, and re-did the chain to get ready to move. Then I noticed my handlebars were pretty much at a 45 degree angle to the frame. Yeah, definitely fucked my shit up. I bent them back to about a 10 degree angle, and biked the final 4 miles home like that. Which put a lot of stress on my left shoulder, which was already sore since it never leaves the handlebars. Sadly, I was not able to get into aero for any of the last part of the ride, and ended up averaging 18 and doing 91 miles in just over 5 hours. Would have been 18.1 or 18.2, but the last 4 miles were a lot slower than I would have liked. A lopsided, fucked up bike doesn't help. I got home covered in filth and blood, leaving a nice blood stain on my door, and necessitating a shower before I hit the treadmill.
Run - 30 minutes (treadmill)
I showered off, had my last gel, and hit the treadmill. The exposed flesh burned like a motherfucker in the shower, and I knew the sweat wasn't going to be any better. So I put a wristband over as much of my raw right forearm as I could, and hit the Jefferson 2nd Treadmill (thought some of the sorority girls down there might have been a little grossed out by a giant bleeding arm running next to them too). After the 91 mile ride, I felt a speed of 6 would suffice for today. And it was hard. Not brutally hard, but it was definitely a strain to keep that speed up for the whole half hour. I did it. Didn't like it, but I did it. I seriously hope I can at least start at this speed for a while during the Ironman. I know I'm not setting any records in my marathon, but I'd like to finish in a respectable time.
I'm relatively certain I'm not injured from the crash, and it wouldn't be a training cycle without at least one accident. Hopefully this is the only one, but you never know. Maybe the fatigue had something to do with it. but for now, I'm going to blame it on the rain.
I'm not liking these shorter days. I woke up at about noon on Tuesday and realized that in order to get in this 5 hour bike ride before it got dark, I had to leave by 2. Which was cool. Gave me a chance to watch Maury before I left. But still, I would have liked another hour or so to get mentally prepared.
Bike - 5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
Today was to be a ride that went almost 3 times down Hawthorne and back. I am very encouraged by the fact that every time I do this trail, I am setting a new record in the time it takes me to get to the end. Today it was 56:10 for the first trip down, averaging almost 19. And I wasn't even that tired. I was low on gels, so I took a gel at 45 minutes and 90 minutes, then a bar at 2:15, which I think worked well. I seem to lose about .2 of a mile per hour off my average each trip, which I'm not thrilled about but I figure it's better to go hard that first 2 hours, because I think I'd end up doing 18 or so either way by the last trip down. Point is, I had a record first trip today and that was good. Took a salt tab at the turn around, then another 2 Advil at the end of trip 1.
Trip 2 also went nicely. Made it down in under an hour still, would have been 58 if you factored in the extra time from my house to the trailhead. Took a 3rd Lipodrene at the 2:30 mark, figuring that was about all the booster I'd need for the remainder of the ride. Finished the second trip at about 3:40, which I felt was a pretty solid time for 71 miles. Turned around for trip 3 and popped my last 2 Advil and a salt tab. Gels were working well. Body was feeling ok. my low back went in and out of pain, which I'll chalk up to Advil wearing off and kicking in. My shoulders also started to feel a little sore from all the time in Aero.
Anyway, I turned it around at the 4:17 mark, and wouldn't you know it it started to rain. Which I'm usually ok with, save for the filth it adds to my bike. Well I was trying to push the fast spots so I could end up averaging over 18 (my goal was 18 average, 90 miles for the ride)and this may not have been the best idea. I hit the final big curve (marked by a sign that reads "Big Curve") at about 22-23, and began to apply my brakes where I usually do. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten that brakes do not work as well in the rain as they do when it's dry. Next thing I know I'm skidding around the curve at about 18, slamming my right side into the ground, and watching my bike fly over my head. I just said there thinking "Fuck, this hurts," and looking at my various new body parts that lacked skin. My right forearm got the worst of it, pretty much skinning the entire thing from my elbow half way down.
I did make a point to keep my head up to avoid another concussion. So I got up pretty quickly, dusted myself off, and re-did the chain to get ready to move. Then I noticed my handlebars were pretty much at a 45 degree angle to the frame. Yeah, definitely fucked my shit up. I bent them back to about a 10 degree angle, and biked the final 4 miles home like that. Which put a lot of stress on my left shoulder, which was already sore since it never leaves the handlebars. Sadly, I was not able to get into aero for any of the last part of the ride, and ended up averaging 18 and doing 91 miles in just over 5 hours. Would have been 18.1 or 18.2, but the last 4 miles were a lot slower than I would have liked. A lopsided, fucked up bike doesn't help. I got home covered in filth and blood, leaving a nice blood stain on my door, and necessitating a shower before I hit the treadmill.
Run - 30 minutes (treadmill)
I showered off, had my last gel, and hit the treadmill. The exposed flesh burned like a motherfucker in the shower, and I knew the sweat wasn't going to be any better. So I put a wristband over as much of my raw right forearm as I could, and hit the Jefferson 2nd Treadmill (thought some of the sorority girls down there might have been a little grossed out by a giant bleeding arm running next to them too). After the 91 mile ride, I felt a speed of 6 would suffice for today. And it was hard. Not brutally hard, but it was definitely a strain to keep that speed up for the whole half hour. I did it. Didn't like it, but I did it. I seriously hope I can at least start at this speed for a while during the Ironman. I know I'm not setting any records in my marathon, but I'd like to finish in a respectable time.
I'm relatively certain I'm not injured from the crash, and it wouldn't be a training cycle without at least one accident. Hopefully this is the only one, but you never know. Maybe the fatigue had something to do with it. but for now, I'm going to blame it on the rain.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
T77 - Wind is Like Privilege - Swim/Bike Brick, Run
Gainesville
Strange title, I know, but I'll get to it. Today was a run-bike session together which mandated that the run be done several hours later. So as it was I called Justin to see if he wanted to train, since I can do a swim/bike brick from Campus Lodge and he only wants to do short workouts in preparation for his Sprint Tri this weekend. So I met him a little after 5 and we got started.
Swim - 30 minutes, 1500 meters
2 Lipodrene
They have a nice outdoor pool at Campus Lodge, and today it happened to have some music going for the after-work tanning crowd. Justin was doing some sprints, but I kept a solid pace and got in the full 30 laps I'd aimed to do in the allotted half hour. Or so Justin told me. He also told me that I was bringing my right arm out way too far on my strokes, something I am consciously doing. So I'm going to have to try and modify this a little during my short swim in New York. Maybe bringing the arm forward and bending the elbow as I come back to eliminate the drafting effect while still keeping the arm in.
Bike - 1 Hour
Did a nice transition at my car and headed down Williston on the bike. I hadn't done this road in a while and I remember why, it's just all trucks and a very narrow bike lane. Not exactly prime biking conditions. I also have some bad, bad associations with terrible rides on that road as well. But after I crossed I-75 I settled into Aero and was doing a solid 22-25, even after yesterday's grueling bike effort. I mean, I know I have to show off a little when I train with Justin, since he destroys me in the run and is a slightly better swimmer too, but I was just straight flying. He kept up, but I was thinking "Damn, I"m just crushing this today." I looked at the plants for any sign of wind and saw none, thus assuming I was just that good.
Then I turned around. Justin had bailed at the 20 minute mark as he'd wanted to do a shorter ride, but at 30 minutes I turned around, having averaged about 22 on the way down. Crushing a short ride, I thought. Well, notsomuch. Despite my thinking there wasn't much wind, I couldn't manage to muster much over 18 at the beginning of the way back. I even slowed to around 16 before I said "Fuck this, I'm averaging 20 on this bitch" and pushed it all the way to the end. Made it just over 20 miles in just over 1 hour, averaging exactly 20. The gel I took at the 15 minute mark helped, but during the ride I sarted to think, ya know, wind is a lot like societal privilege. Could be racial, gender, socioeconomic, whatever. But here's my thoughts...
Like wind, when you have privilege working for you, you don't even notice. You breeze through not realizing that you have a great force working behind you. You usually just think you're doing awesome all on your own. Or, for some, you realize you have it and decide to take full advantage, pushing as hard as you can to get the best possible result. But really, you never notice it until it is working against you. When wind, or privilege, is not in your favor everything becomes twice as hard as it usually is. You spend a lot of time saying "This isn't fucking fair. This looks so easy but for some reason I just can't do as well as I want to." Then you either decide to let the force against you win and perform poorly (as I did most of last cycle), or say fuck it, work a lot harder, and get the result you want. Like I did on my ride today. Last cycle I was a nigger sitting in jail. This cycle I'm Barack Obama. You see what I mean?
Deeper than usual? Sure. But it can't all be gels and Cliff Bars.
Run - 45 minutes (treadmill)
In continuing with my theme of improving my speed with treadmill work, I opted to do today's short run on the treadmill at 6.4. Which was too fast to maintain, so I dropped it to 6.2 and did ok. My stomach started feeling a little weird, which I found odd since I hadn't had any more Lipodrene and had only a Cliff bar and PB&J. I felt a little strained going at that speed for 45 minutes, which some might call sad, but I think its an improvement that needs to be made. Yeah, this run was kinda pathetic, but I need to keep doing treadmill work on shorter runs until my speed improves. I did get to watch the end of the Mets-Marlins game. But for some reason the bullpen only seems to like to close out games quickly when I'm tryingto watch them during a workout.
Strange title, I know, but I'll get to it. Today was a run-bike session together which mandated that the run be done several hours later. So as it was I called Justin to see if he wanted to train, since I can do a swim/bike brick from Campus Lodge and he only wants to do short workouts in preparation for his Sprint Tri this weekend. So I met him a little after 5 and we got started.
Swim - 30 minutes, 1500 meters
2 Lipodrene
They have a nice outdoor pool at Campus Lodge, and today it happened to have some music going for the after-work tanning crowd. Justin was doing some sprints, but I kept a solid pace and got in the full 30 laps I'd aimed to do in the allotted half hour. Or so Justin told me. He also told me that I was bringing my right arm out way too far on my strokes, something I am consciously doing. So I'm going to have to try and modify this a little during my short swim in New York. Maybe bringing the arm forward and bending the elbow as I come back to eliminate the drafting effect while still keeping the arm in.
Bike - 1 Hour
Did a nice transition at my car and headed down Williston on the bike. I hadn't done this road in a while and I remember why, it's just all trucks and a very narrow bike lane. Not exactly prime biking conditions. I also have some bad, bad associations with terrible rides on that road as well. But after I crossed I-75 I settled into Aero and was doing a solid 22-25, even after yesterday's grueling bike effort. I mean, I know I have to show off a little when I train with Justin, since he destroys me in the run and is a slightly better swimmer too, but I was just straight flying. He kept up, but I was thinking "Damn, I"m just crushing this today." I looked at the plants for any sign of wind and saw none, thus assuming I was just that good.
Then I turned around. Justin had bailed at the 20 minute mark as he'd wanted to do a shorter ride, but at 30 minutes I turned around, having averaged about 22 on the way down. Crushing a short ride, I thought. Well, notsomuch. Despite my thinking there wasn't much wind, I couldn't manage to muster much over 18 at the beginning of the way back. I even slowed to around 16 before I said "Fuck this, I'm averaging 20 on this bitch" and pushed it all the way to the end. Made it just over 20 miles in just over 1 hour, averaging exactly 20. The gel I took at the 15 minute mark helped, but during the ride I sarted to think, ya know, wind is a lot like societal privilege. Could be racial, gender, socioeconomic, whatever. But here's my thoughts...
Like wind, when you have privilege working for you, you don't even notice. You breeze through not realizing that you have a great force working behind you. You usually just think you're doing awesome all on your own. Or, for some, you realize you have it and decide to take full advantage, pushing as hard as you can to get the best possible result. But really, you never notice it until it is working against you. When wind, or privilege, is not in your favor everything becomes twice as hard as it usually is. You spend a lot of time saying "This isn't fucking fair. This looks so easy but for some reason I just can't do as well as I want to." Then you either decide to let the force against you win and perform poorly (as I did most of last cycle), or say fuck it, work a lot harder, and get the result you want. Like I did on my ride today. Last cycle I was a nigger sitting in jail. This cycle I'm Barack Obama. You see what I mean?
Deeper than usual? Sure. But it can't all be gels and Cliff Bars.
Run - 45 minutes (treadmill)
In continuing with my theme of improving my speed with treadmill work, I opted to do today's short run on the treadmill at 6.4. Which was too fast to maintain, so I dropped it to 6.2 and did ok. My stomach started feeling a little weird, which I found odd since I hadn't had any more Lipodrene and had only a Cliff bar and PB&J. I felt a little strained going at that speed for 45 minutes, which some might call sad, but I think its an improvement that needs to be made. Yeah, this run was kinda pathetic, but I need to keep doing treadmill work on shorter runs until my speed improves. I did get to watch the end of the Mets-Marlins game. But for some reason the bullpen only seems to like to close out games quickly when I'm tryingto watch them during a workout.
Monday, September 7, 2009
T76 - Putting the "Labor" in "Labor Day"- Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
It was Labor Day. And I figured what better way to spend Labor Day than working out for 5+ hours. But today wasn't so much a workout as a true training day. Like everything I did today was direct preparation for the Ironman. And it felt good.
Bike - 4.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
I went into the longest bike ride I'd ever done not dreading it, but wanting to do well. The goal was to average 18, which I'd struggled to do on shorter rides early in training, but figured was a reasonable goal for today. And lacking any originality when it comes to bike rides, I opted for 2+ laps of Hawthorne as my course.
The first trip down and back went well, making it to the end in 57:10 (a new record, I think) and back to the trailhead at 1:47. Meaning I took about as long to get back as I did to get down since the trailhead is 7 minutes from my house. My low back was starting to hurt at 1:30, even with having taken the Advil, which I do not find encouraging. But knowing I only had 3 more Advil for 3 more hours, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hold off. I thought it might, but that did not stop me from taking the last three at this turnaround.
It took about half an hour to work, but it made me feel a lot better. Though on the second trip I found it difficult to keep my speed at 21 or so as I had the first time, I was still encouraged that I was hitting 21 to 23 in a lot of spots on the way back. I made it to the end of the train for the second time at 2:44., still under and hour, but considerably slower. I took my next two Lipodrene at this point and another salt tab. Filled my bottles as well, but I went through them both before I even got all the way back, and had to fill up agian right before the final incline. I ended up going up the final big hill in the hammock at sub-10, as I knew my legs were shot.
I've kind of decided to play to my strengths on these long bikes. I know I can fly through straightaways, and I am going to use them to make up times I am going to lose on inclines. For some reason I feel like if I fight through the inclines, my legs are going to be shot and my flat times will suffer. Plus, I don't want to shoot my legs out when I have to go 112 miles then run a marathon. It was this philosophy that led me to ride down to the Alachua Lake Lookout on my third trip down instead of going to the hammock. I hadn't been to the lookout since like my 3rd or 4th ride ever when I lacked the coordination to make the turn onto the long trail. At any rate, I did that, went up the less-steep half of the hill, turned around at the top and headed back. I ended up getting back to Jefferson at about 4:20, having gone just under 80 miles. I had wanted to do a full 80, so I biked up to 12th and turned around in the roundabout, making it home at just over 81 miles in 4:25. Yes, I cheated myself out of 5 minutes, but I did end up averaging about 18.3. So I felt good.
I also felt like, ok, if you put a gun to my head and said "Do Hawthorne and Back one more time" I could have. that distance would have been just over the Ironman course. Not so sure about running a marathon after, but in 2 months I'll be there.
I do think I kind of underestimated myself today, though, and that's why I got back early. I didn't think I'd go as fast at the start, and also figured my last trip down would be much worse. So I'll try and set my goals a little higher next time, as at the very worst it will lead to my not cutting myself short.
Nutrition wise, I took a gel every 45, as prescribed, and opted for the Cliff Bar at 2:10. A little early, but I was fucking starving by that point. I think 1 cliff bar was enough for a ride like this, and by the beginning of the last lap my stomach felt like shit. I seriously wanted to vomit about an hour after taking Lipodrene 3 and 4. But, you know, a lot of things are going to hurt on race day. I'll just add my stomach to the list.
Run - 30 Minutes (Treadmill)
I had some Powerade and headed down to the treadmills here at the gym at Jefferson 2nd. I have decided that for my brick runs for the next few weeks, I am going to start utilizing the treadmill to give myself a faster muscle memory when it comes to strides. I know had I run on the road I would have just chopped it out for 30 minutes because I was so sore, but the hope here is to train my legs to go at 6 mph after a long ride so I can go at that pace at the Ironman. At least to start out. My last 3 bricked runs have all sucked, so I needed to figure out how to make those better.
Treadmills are easy, as was this run. I just trotted along watching the Cincinnati-Rutgers game, and enjoying the AC and bevvy of ethnic looking girls who came in after I started. Ended up going 3 miles in 30 minutes, a pace I hope I can keep on race day.
All in all, a tough training day to be sure. But I have at least 3 more like this, plus the race. The feeling of exhaustion is good, but I may actually be able to get to bed early tonight.
It was Labor Day. And I figured what better way to spend Labor Day than working out for 5+ hours. But today wasn't so much a workout as a true training day. Like everything I did today was direct preparation for the Ironman. And it felt good.
Bike - 4.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
I went into the longest bike ride I'd ever done not dreading it, but wanting to do well. The goal was to average 18, which I'd struggled to do on shorter rides early in training, but figured was a reasonable goal for today. And lacking any originality when it comes to bike rides, I opted for 2+ laps of Hawthorne as my course.
The first trip down and back went well, making it to the end in 57:10 (a new record, I think) and back to the trailhead at 1:47. Meaning I took about as long to get back as I did to get down since the trailhead is 7 minutes from my house. My low back was starting to hurt at 1:30, even with having taken the Advil, which I do not find encouraging. But knowing I only had 3 more Advil for 3 more hours, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hold off. I thought it might, but that did not stop me from taking the last three at this turnaround.
It took about half an hour to work, but it made me feel a lot better. Though on the second trip I found it difficult to keep my speed at 21 or so as I had the first time, I was still encouraged that I was hitting 21 to 23 in a lot of spots on the way back. I made it to the end of the train for the second time at 2:44., still under and hour, but considerably slower. I took my next two Lipodrene at this point and another salt tab. Filled my bottles as well, but I went through them both before I even got all the way back, and had to fill up agian right before the final incline. I ended up going up the final big hill in the hammock at sub-10, as I knew my legs were shot.
I've kind of decided to play to my strengths on these long bikes. I know I can fly through straightaways, and I am going to use them to make up times I am going to lose on inclines. For some reason I feel like if I fight through the inclines, my legs are going to be shot and my flat times will suffer. Plus, I don't want to shoot my legs out when I have to go 112 miles then run a marathon. It was this philosophy that led me to ride down to the Alachua Lake Lookout on my third trip down instead of going to the hammock. I hadn't been to the lookout since like my 3rd or 4th ride ever when I lacked the coordination to make the turn onto the long trail. At any rate, I did that, went up the less-steep half of the hill, turned around at the top and headed back. I ended up getting back to Jefferson at about 4:20, having gone just under 80 miles. I had wanted to do a full 80, so I biked up to 12th and turned around in the roundabout, making it home at just over 81 miles in 4:25. Yes, I cheated myself out of 5 minutes, but I did end up averaging about 18.3. So I felt good.
I also felt like, ok, if you put a gun to my head and said "Do Hawthorne and Back one more time" I could have. that distance would have been just over the Ironman course. Not so sure about running a marathon after, but in 2 months I'll be there.
I do think I kind of underestimated myself today, though, and that's why I got back early. I didn't think I'd go as fast at the start, and also figured my last trip down would be much worse. So I'll try and set my goals a little higher next time, as at the very worst it will lead to my not cutting myself short.
Nutrition wise, I took a gel every 45, as prescribed, and opted for the Cliff Bar at 2:10. A little early, but I was fucking starving by that point. I think 1 cliff bar was enough for a ride like this, and by the beginning of the last lap my stomach felt like shit. I seriously wanted to vomit about an hour after taking Lipodrene 3 and 4. But, you know, a lot of things are going to hurt on race day. I'll just add my stomach to the list.
Run - 30 Minutes (Treadmill)
I had some Powerade and headed down to the treadmills here at the gym at Jefferson 2nd. I have decided that for my brick runs for the next few weeks, I am going to start utilizing the treadmill to give myself a faster muscle memory when it comes to strides. I know had I run on the road I would have just chopped it out for 30 minutes because I was so sore, but the hope here is to train my legs to go at 6 mph after a long ride so I can go at that pace at the Ironman. At least to start out. My last 3 bricked runs have all sucked, so I needed to figure out how to make those better.
Treadmills are easy, as was this run. I just trotted along watching the Cincinnati-Rutgers game, and enjoying the AC and bevvy of ethnic looking girls who came in after I started. Ended up going 3 miles in 30 minutes, a pace I hope I can keep on race day.
All in all, a tough training day to be sure. But I have at least 3 more like this, plus the race. The feeling of exhaustion is good, but I may actually be able to get to bed early tonight.
Friday, September 4, 2009
T73 - Conflicting Confidences - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
Again, my decision making process perhaps not the best. I opted to do a Power Hour Wednesday night, which led to another power 35 minutes after a quick beer run, leading to me waking up at 8 a.m with some extremely sore legs (potassium shortage) and massive dehydration. But after taking and extra rest day Wednesday (due mostly to the rain and my not wanting to ride in it) there was no way I could puss out on this workout. So, despite gray skies and impending precipitation, I got on the bike and convinced myself I had to go hard.
Bike - 2 Hours
2 Lipodrene
I like that my bike rides now are becoming consistently higher-speed. Like today's ride was a solid pace, making it to nigbridge in 25 and 50 and hitting the end of Hawthorne at 57:50. And it didn't even feel like extra effort. As a matter of fact, on the way back I realized I must have had a slight headwind on the way down as I was tearing up the trail at about 25.5 for the first 10-15 minutes. This ride felt good, but not like I was pushing it al that much, and I still averaged 19, which is a record for a full-trail ride. Made it back in under 2 hours, but the way I see it if I can make it back faster, good for me.
That's under 2 hours of riding time. For some reason at about the 1:30 mark I all of a sudden got really worn out and demotivated and found myself going about 13 up a small incline. So I just stopped, had a gel, and hung out for a minute beofe continuing on. I then proceeded to tear up the rest of the train, going 20 up the final incline. Which is usually a major bitch.
On the bike, I have a definite confidence that on flat ground I can just destroy the course if I want to. I lost it for a minute during this workout. But the race last weekend and my subsequent rides have given me a definite feeling of superiority on the bike, like I can hang with anyone who isn't an elite cyclist (amateur elite, but you know what I mean). But for some reason, this does not hold true on the run.
Run - 1 Hour
I had a Cliff bar when I got back to the apartment because I was just starving, and the 2 gels I had on the bike just weren't cutting it. I had planned to run from Jefferson down to 34th and back, a run I had done with Justin in about 55 minutes a couple months ago. I strided out to just before the stadium before I just started getting slow. I mean, I just started telingmyself "You do not run well, and this run is goingto be a bitch." And a I strided downhill past the Gator Football practice (on a good day I woulda been tempted to yell "Tebow, You're a FRAUD!" I just didn't want to run anymore. I made it to about 20 yards before my 45 minute turnaround and just started walking.
Though I was determined not to abort the run here, I sat for a while at the stop light and stretched out. I walked the same 20 years back then started running again and made it back to Jefferson in about 55 minutes. A sorry run, but a completed run nonetheless.
I'm not sure if I Nuked My Village on the bike and that's why my run sucked, but I think I need to start training to that because I feel like I'm gonna bike hard on the Ironman. I know that's the only place I'll put up an above-average time, so I plan to make the most of it. But I think training with tired legs is probably good. After my previous trail record on Hawthorne, I stopped halfway through my run, so I guess this is an improvement since I was able to continue. But still shitty nonetheless. I just wish I could take some of that bike confidence and apply it to my run. Because some of these runs are starting to become self-fulfilling prophecies.
One bright spot was me being able to have a great bike ride despite the hangover. Not that I'm planning on drinking that much regularly, but it was good to see that I was able to make my body recover enough to really get in a good workout.
Again, my decision making process perhaps not the best. I opted to do a Power Hour Wednesday night, which led to another power 35 minutes after a quick beer run, leading to me waking up at 8 a.m with some extremely sore legs (potassium shortage) and massive dehydration. But after taking and extra rest day Wednesday (due mostly to the rain and my not wanting to ride in it) there was no way I could puss out on this workout. So, despite gray skies and impending precipitation, I got on the bike and convinced myself I had to go hard.
Bike - 2 Hours
2 Lipodrene
I like that my bike rides now are becoming consistently higher-speed. Like today's ride was a solid pace, making it to nigbridge in 25 and 50 and hitting the end of Hawthorne at 57:50. And it didn't even feel like extra effort. As a matter of fact, on the way back I realized I must have had a slight headwind on the way down as I was tearing up the trail at about 25.5 for the first 10-15 minutes. This ride felt good, but not like I was pushing it al that much, and I still averaged 19, which is a record for a full-trail ride. Made it back in under 2 hours, but the way I see it if I can make it back faster, good for me.
That's under 2 hours of riding time. For some reason at about the 1:30 mark I all of a sudden got really worn out and demotivated and found myself going about 13 up a small incline. So I just stopped, had a gel, and hung out for a minute beofe continuing on. I then proceeded to tear up the rest of the train, going 20 up the final incline. Which is usually a major bitch.
On the bike, I have a definite confidence that on flat ground I can just destroy the course if I want to. I lost it for a minute during this workout. But the race last weekend and my subsequent rides have given me a definite feeling of superiority on the bike, like I can hang with anyone who isn't an elite cyclist (amateur elite, but you know what I mean). But for some reason, this does not hold true on the run.
Run - 1 Hour
I had a Cliff bar when I got back to the apartment because I was just starving, and the 2 gels I had on the bike just weren't cutting it. I had planned to run from Jefferson down to 34th and back, a run I had done with Justin in about 55 minutes a couple months ago. I strided out to just before the stadium before I just started getting slow. I mean, I just started telingmyself "You do not run well, and this run is goingto be a bitch." And a I strided downhill past the Gator Football practice (on a good day I woulda been tempted to yell "Tebow, You're a FRAUD!" I just didn't want to run anymore. I made it to about 20 yards before my 45 minute turnaround and just started walking.
Though I was determined not to abort the run here, I sat for a while at the stop light and stretched out. I walked the same 20 years back then started running again and made it back to Jefferson in about 55 minutes. A sorry run, but a completed run nonetheless.
I'm not sure if I Nuked My Village on the bike and that's why my run sucked, but I think I need to start training to that because I feel like I'm gonna bike hard on the Ironman. I know that's the only place I'll put up an above-average time, so I plan to make the most of it. But I think training with tired legs is probably good. After my previous trail record on Hawthorne, I stopped halfway through my run, so I guess this is an improvement since I was able to continue. But still shitty nonetheless. I just wish I could take some of that bike confidence and apply it to my run. Because some of these runs are starting to become self-fulfilling prophecies.
One bright spot was me being able to have a great bike ride despite the hangover. Not that I'm planning on drinking that much regularly, but it was good to see that I was able to make my body recover enough to really get in a good workout.
Monday, August 24, 2009
T65 - The Unrelenting Hills Of Kona - Bike
Kona
There used to be this Gatorade commercial with this guy who passed out 500 yards from the finish line at Kona, and they showed that to demonstrate how proper hydration can prevent such things. It featured venerable College Football commentator Keith Jackson saying that “the unrelenting hills of Kona” were too much for this world-class athlete, who later went on to win some other Ironman in Idaho because he drank Gatorade. But as I biked about 70 miles of the Kona course, Keith Jackson’s voice kept running through my head, telling me about the “unrelenting hills of Kona.’ Keith Jackson does not lie.
Bike – 4 Hours
2 Lipodrene, 3 Advil
I would have liked to have gone 2 hours down the Ironman course, and then ridden back. This way I could see over half the course, and get a good feel for the race. Sort of. But the thing about the unrelenting hills of Kona is that the miles upon miles of lave fields are not exactly conducive to any commerce. As in there’s no place to buy water between the Kona airport and a resort 25 miles away. Which was a solid few miles off the course anyway. Point being, I decided it would be wiser to bike up about 19 miles, go back 15 to a coffee shop on the side of the road, refill, and head back out onto the course leaving enough time to get back in 4 hours. Again, I had no computer, so I had to just be on the bike 4 hours, essentially meaning I probably only got in about 3:45. Whatever, it’s Kona.
I left from the old airport park where I’d run 2 days ago, where I parked the rental jeep and headed out to the course. It was 6:45 a.m., and the road was considerably less crowded. And since I knew the course, I felt a lot better on this ride. I’m not sure how fast I was going, and couldn’t really pay too much attention to it since I was just focusing on the beautiful ocean view and the lava fields. I imagined how this race must be, especially hitting the airport hill with a fierce headwind at mile 104. Seriously, that would suck.
But as I did the ride, I realized that Kona, while unrelenting, is not as impossible as the Gatorade commercial made it look. I managed to get the only sun of my Kona trip on this ride, meaning that not only were the hills unrelenting, but so was the wind and the heat. I got to the top of several hills and tried to freewheel and couldn’t because the wind was pushing so hard. But it didn’t feel deadly. Maybe I was going on Kona adrenaline, maybe I just wasn’t going hard enough, or maybe I just am a better cyclist than people who had told me how awful the course was. But any way you cut it, the ride felt strangely good. I even let this Irish guy draft behind me for a while (he asked), maybe the island mentality was rubbing off. And when I stopped for water these people from Colorado asked me if I was training for the Ironman. “In Florida,” I told them. “We’ll see how that goes then maybe I’ll come back.”
At the 2 hour mark I took another Lipodrene and 3 more Advil, and had 3 gels (every 45) and a Cliff Bar at the 2:15 mark. The last hour I started to fade, as HPD had put up one of those “Here is your speed” signs on the highway, and I was going a solid 16 down a hill. I was getting insanely thirsty by then as the lone water break wasn’t enough for the lava-field, sun and hill combination. The thirst probably slowed me down. My back felt ok, and my legs got sore. But I’m sure the Advil minimized those effects. The views on this ride were amazing, and I even stopped a couple of times for a few seconds just to take them in. once you get out of town, the ride really is pretty amazing.
But the ride made me realize that I can have another goal after November. If this one doesn’t kill me, I want to do Kona. I would have to train in Kona, though, staying at my uncle’s house and basically doing nothing but preparing. But it’s a dream that I could probably make happen. And being on this course made me realize Kona is no more impossible to me now than an Ironman in Florida was to me 2 years ago. Kona 2011? Definitely a possibility.
There used to be this Gatorade commercial with this guy who passed out 500 yards from the finish line at Kona, and they showed that to demonstrate how proper hydration can prevent such things. It featured venerable College Football commentator Keith Jackson saying that “the unrelenting hills of Kona” were too much for this world-class athlete, who later went on to win some other Ironman in Idaho because he drank Gatorade. But as I biked about 70 miles of the Kona course, Keith Jackson’s voice kept running through my head, telling me about the “unrelenting hills of Kona.’ Keith Jackson does not lie.
Bike – 4 Hours
2 Lipodrene, 3 Advil
I would have liked to have gone 2 hours down the Ironman course, and then ridden back. This way I could see over half the course, and get a good feel for the race. Sort of. But the thing about the unrelenting hills of Kona is that the miles upon miles of lave fields are not exactly conducive to any commerce. As in there’s no place to buy water between the Kona airport and a resort 25 miles away. Which was a solid few miles off the course anyway. Point being, I decided it would be wiser to bike up about 19 miles, go back 15 to a coffee shop on the side of the road, refill, and head back out onto the course leaving enough time to get back in 4 hours. Again, I had no computer, so I had to just be on the bike 4 hours, essentially meaning I probably only got in about 3:45. Whatever, it’s Kona.
I left from the old airport park where I’d run 2 days ago, where I parked the rental jeep and headed out to the course. It was 6:45 a.m., and the road was considerably less crowded. And since I knew the course, I felt a lot better on this ride. I’m not sure how fast I was going, and couldn’t really pay too much attention to it since I was just focusing on the beautiful ocean view and the lava fields. I imagined how this race must be, especially hitting the airport hill with a fierce headwind at mile 104. Seriously, that would suck.
But as I did the ride, I realized that Kona, while unrelenting, is not as impossible as the Gatorade commercial made it look. I managed to get the only sun of my Kona trip on this ride, meaning that not only were the hills unrelenting, but so was the wind and the heat. I got to the top of several hills and tried to freewheel and couldn’t because the wind was pushing so hard. But it didn’t feel deadly. Maybe I was going on Kona adrenaline, maybe I just wasn’t going hard enough, or maybe I just am a better cyclist than people who had told me how awful the course was. But any way you cut it, the ride felt strangely good. I even let this Irish guy draft behind me for a while (he asked), maybe the island mentality was rubbing off. And when I stopped for water these people from Colorado asked me if I was training for the Ironman. “In Florida,” I told them. “We’ll see how that goes then maybe I’ll come back.”
At the 2 hour mark I took another Lipodrene and 3 more Advil, and had 3 gels (every 45) and a Cliff Bar at the 2:15 mark. The last hour I started to fade, as HPD had put up one of those “Here is your speed” signs on the highway, and I was going a solid 16 down a hill. I was getting insanely thirsty by then as the lone water break wasn’t enough for the lava-field, sun and hill combination. The thirst probably slowed me down. My back felt ok, and my legs got sore. But I’m sure the Advil minimized those effects. The views on this ride were amazing, and I even stopped a couple of times for a few seconds just to take them in. once you get out of town, the ride really is pretty amazing.
But the ride made me realize that I can have another goal after November. If this one doesn’t kill me, I want to do Kona. I would have to train in Kona, though, staying at my uncle’s house and basically doing nothing but preparing. But it’s a dream that I could probably make happen. And being on this course made me realize Kona is no more impossible to me now than an Ironman in Florida was to me 2 years ago. Kona 2011? Definitely a possibility.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
T41 - Bran+Coffee+2 Cliff Bars+3 Gels=A Real Fun Afternoon - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
I seriously thought about taking today off. Week 14 has no rest days, and I had a rough night, and I thought, yeah, today might be nice to not do anything. But it's funny, I looked at the day and realized I had absolutely nothing else to do all day. And I wasn't hungover, nor was I sore, tired or anything else that would give me even a pussy excuse for taking the day off. So why the fuck not? 3 hour bike, no big deal. Had myself some coffee and raisin bran, had a Cliff bar an hour later, and hit the road.
B: 3 hours long bike. If your breakfast routine last week worked, repeat it
again here, if not, experiment with something new.
2 Lipodrene
I'm starting to think I can tell if a bike ride is going to be good or bad in the first five minutes. Literally, if I'm able to coast down the first hill past 101 at over 20, the ride will be good. If I'm struggling to get to 19, then it's gonna suck. Flew down it at 22 today, and I knew it was gonna be a real good ride. Though it took me the usual 8 minutes to hit the Hawthorne trail head, I got to nigbridge in just over 27, and kept pushing all the way through those areas that I'm now convinced are inclines I just never noticed. Actually made it to the end of Hawthorne in 59:10, which is a record for a solo ride for me. I took 3 Advil down there and refilled my bottles.
What was awesome was that I actually went FASTER the way back up the trail, as my average speed went from 18.4 to 18.7 by the time I got back up to Waldo. I had had another gel and a Cliff bar at this point, and turned it around again. I was maintaining speeds over 20 on most of the flat straightaways, which is my goal for most rides at this point. At some point it'll have to be to maintain that though the whole ride, but baby steps, ya know? This is the kind of long ride I needed to have. The Advil kept the low back pain at bay, and it was 2:41 before I really had to stand up in the saddle to relive the pressure on my back. Like I was able to maintain those speeds up until the 2:41 mark, where I definitely started to slow. I had a second gel at 2:15, along with another Lipodrene. Remind me never to by the orange flavor Gu again. It was disgusting.
All in all, this was definitely 180 degrees from my last long ride on Monday. I ended up averaging 18.5, which, again, for me is pretty good for a ride this long. I'm getting to a point that I know how far I can push my body and still make it through the workout well, and I really feel more in tune with that aspect of myself than I ever have. Like I wake up and say, "Ok, body. Here's what we're doing today, and here's how I want you to do it." And I know what to expect from it, and it rarely disappoints. Really, it's pretty cool. I was very happy with today's ride, and hope it sets a base for how the rest of training is going to go.
Run: 30 minutes
I got home and had a 3rd gel (this officially made this a $5.50 workout) and Trevor asked me if I was about to run. I told him I was and he decided to come along, even with my advising him I had just biked 55 miles and probably would be taking it easy. But I thought I would try and keep pace for a little while as a sort of challenge. After all, it was only a 30 minute run, I could hack that.
Usually, when I do long runs with Trevor I can keep up for maybe a mile before I have to fall back. Today, I made it about 50 feet. Literally, I don't even know that we'd reached the corner of 2nd and 6th before he pulled ahead. But I wasn't too concerned. It was overcast and I kept my stride the whole time. I felt surprisingly good having just biked as far as I had, and I definitely could have run a lot more if need be. Again, I was very happy with how the run went, as well as the entire workout.
I included that little bit about a breakfast routine in there for a couple of reasons. The first being that I find it amusing that Scott Herrick thinks everyone does these workouts first thing in the "morning," having only eaten one meal. I'm rarely if ever on the bike before 2 p.m. Also, that raisin bran and coffee combined with 2 Cliff Bars and 3 gels? Yeah, guy. Not the best thing for your digestive system, especially when washed down with the farm runoff that the City of Gainesville likes to call tap water. I was not feeling so hot even after my muscle milk shake, and El Gran Combinacion at Las Margaritas pretty much finished off my insides for the night. Not sure how to avoid this gastric distress in the future, but man, that did not feel good. I may have to forgo the bran flakes and coffee next time I have a long workout. Bagels do just fine.
I seriously thought about taking today off. Week 14 has no rest days, and I had a rough night, and I thought, yeah, today might be nice to not do anything. But it's funny, I looked at the day and realized I had absolutely nothing else to do all day. And I wasn't hungover, nor was I sore, tired or anything else that would give me even a pussy excuse for taking the day off. So why the fuck not? 3 hour bike, no big deal. Had myself some coffee and raisin bran, had a Cliff bar an hour later, and hit the road.
B: 3 hours long bike. If your breakfast routine last week worked, repeat it
again here, if not, experiment with something new.
2 Lipodrene
I'm starting to think I can tell if a bike ride is going to be good or bad in the first five minutes. Literally, if I'm able to coast down the first hill past 101 at over 20, the ride will be good. If I'm struggling to get to 19, then it's gonna suck. Flew down it at 22 today, and I knew it was gonna be a real good ride. Though it took me the usual 8 minutes to hit the Hawthorne trail head, I got to nigbridge in just over 27, and kept pushing all the way through those areas that I'm now convinced are inclines I just never noticed. Actually made it to the end of Hawthorne in 59:10, which is a record for a solo ride for me. I took 3 Advil down there and refilled my bottles.
What was awesome was that I actually went FASTER the way back up the trail, as my average speed went from 18.4 to 18.7 by the time I got back up to Waldo. I had had another gel and a Cliff bar at this point, and turned it around again. I was maintaining speeds over 20 on most of the flat straightaways, which is my goal for most rides at this point. At some point it'll have to be to maintain that though the whole ride, but baby steps, ya know? This is the kind of long ride I needed to have. The Advil kept the low back pain at bay, and it was 2:41 before I really had to stand up in the saddle to relive the pressure on my back. Like I was able to maintain those speeds up until the 2:41 mark, where I definitely started to slow. I had a second gel at 2:15, along with another Lipodrene. Remind me never to by the orange flavor Gu again. It was disgusting.
All in all, this was definitely 180 degrees from my last long ride on Monday. I ended up averaging 18.5, which, again, for me is pretty good for a ride this long. I'm getting to a point that I know how far I can push my body and still make it through the workout well, and I really feel more in tune with that aspect of myself than I ever have. Like I wake up and say, "Ok, body. Here's what we're doing today, and here's how I want you to do it." And I know what to expect from it, and it rarely disappoints. Really, it's pretty cool. I was very happy with today's ride, and hope it sets a base for how the rest of training is going to go.
Run: 30 minutes
I got home and had a 3rd gel (this officially made this a $5.50 workout) and Trevor asked me if I was about to run. I told him I was and he decided to come along, even with my advising him I had just biked 55 miles and probably would be taking it easy. But I thought I would try and keep pace for a little while as a sort of challenge. After all, it was only a 30 minute run, I could hack that.
Usually, when I do long runs with Trevor I can keep up for maybe a mile before I have to fall back. Today, I made it about 50 feet. Literally, I don't even know that we'd reached the corner of 2nd and 6th before he pulled ahead. But I wasn't too concerned. It was overcast and I kept my stride the whole time. I felt surprisingly good having just biked as far as I had, and I definitely could have run a lot more if need be. Again, I was very happy with how the run went, as well as the entire workout.
I included that little bit about a breakfast routine in there for a couple of reasons. The first being that I find it amusing that Scott Herrick thinks everyone does these workouts first thing in the "morning," having only eaten one meal. I'm rarely if ever on the bike before 2 p.m. Also, that raisin bran and coffee combined with 2 Cliff Bars and 3 gels? Yeah, guy. Not the best thing for your digestive system, especially when washed down with the farm runoff that the City of Gainesville likes to call tap water. I was not feeling so hot even after my muscle milk shake, and El Gran Combinacion at Las Margaritas pretty much finished off my insides for the night. Not sure how to avoid this gastric distress in the future, but man, that did not feel good. I may have to forgo the bran flakes and coffee next time I have a long workout. Bagels do just fine.
Friday, July 17, 2009
T39 - Aaron Klueber is a Dead Man - Run/Swim
Gainesville
So I was supposed to go to Daytona tonight and meet up with Klueber and his sister up in Flagler Beach. Of course, anything involving Aaron Klueber is a 50/50 proposition at BEST, but I figured his 2 AM text telling me I didn't even like Volusia County Lockup meant he was good to go. So I set my alarm for 7 a.m. to get this run in before it got hot, so I could do the swim in the afternoon then drive over and meet him. Well, given my sleep schedule I drank 3 beers to put myself to sleep around 12:30, when Klueber's text woke me up at 2, and I didn't get back to sleep till 5. Alarm went off at 7, meaning I got a whopping 3 and a half hours of sleep before having myself a Cliff bar for breakfast, STRETCHING and warming up on the elliptical for the longest run of the training cycle.
Run: 120 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
After the elliptical warmup I took 2-32. oz. bottles of Gatorade and a water bottle to my car to set it up as my de feacto aid station. Started out on the campus look, using the iPod (a long run in the heat without music? Wasn't sure how that was gonna go. But this was its first use in a while)and felt pretty strong until I got to the long hill on 2nd Ave. Running up hill with no shade, even at 9:45 a.m. is tough in Florida in July. I was chopping steps probably the last half, not real happy with my performance there. I even stopped for a second in front of the stadium because my run was getting so choppy. I looked like an old man running, really. But once I hit the flatland out by midtown I kept my stride pretty well. That back part of campus has some decent shade too, and I switched the music up for the last 2 trips from Jefferson to Stadium and back (I don't do 2 loops)which I think helped break the monotony. Also was rigorous about gel intake, which I could tell mad a difference when I started getting hungry.
But as I was running in the heat, my shoes soaked with sweat by the end of the first hour, I thought "Klueber flakes on this one, I'm gonna kill him. This is a run that could have easily been done 1t 5 p.m. when its about 10 degrees cooler and I have shade. But whatever, Daytona will be fun.
So I get home, check my phone, and no word from Klueber. Then, about 20 minutes later, I get a text from him and I knew what it was before I even opened it. Claiming his sister flaked this time. There's no point in ever calling Aaron Klueber out on a BS excuse for flaking because once in a while they're actually true, and even when they're not calling him out won't change anything, so why waste one's energy? So that was that. I made myself some ground beef and white rice and settled into a nice big lunch before the afternoon swim.
I had a lady visitor come over for a couple of hours after lunch, and let me tell you fucking after a 13-mile run and before a long swim may not be the best idea. But, as I realized when I was able to have sex right after the Orlando Half, I always have energy for sex. Its like always having room for Jell-O. And of course, this girl likes it real rough and aggressive, so I couldn't even half-ass it. This was one of the few times that as soon as I was done, both times, I really couldn't move. Like I just laid there drenched in sweat, my arms borderline cramping up, like, shit, I'm done. I did make sure to drink a lot of water, though, as I knew I had the long swim coming up. but, really, with this girl it was almost a third workout for the day. No wonder I was so fucking hungry all night.
Turns out though, sex not as detrimental to working out as once thought...
S: speed day
wu: 350 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 10 x 200 EBEH (each 200 = 50Easy, 50Build, 50Easy, 50 Hard)
2 Lipodrene
So after my visitor left, I went to the mall and bought some protein powder and new socks. Combined with the Lipodrene I bought online and the race I registered for in August, I spent about $300 Friday on Triathlon-related stuff. I hit the pool about 4:40 with a throbbing headache. Despite the water and Gatorade I had drank, the morning and day's activities had pretty badly dehydrated me. And these 200 meter EBEH were a little daunting.
I donned my new goggles (see, only took me a week to get them) and immediately realized they were too small. Or maybe my old ones were just too loose, who knows. But tight goggles when you have a throbbing headache, not good. I realized I'd have to take these at an easier pace than the 100 EBEHs, so I tried to go easy, but not leg-dragging easy, then a slight build, then a solid effort on the hard but not an all-out sprint. While I won't say this swim was crushed by any stretch, it was a solid effort. Especially given the workouts I'd had before it. And my headache went away by set 6 or 7, which I found interesting. And it was gone pretty much the rest of the day. I'm definitely going to need to ramp up the effort on furute workouts like this, but then again I don't know that I'll have many swims like this aftr a 12-13 mile run.
Went out and drank pretty heavily afterward. We'll see how this affects the Saturday workout.
So I was supposed to go to Daytona tonight and meet up with Klueber and his sister up in Flagler Beach. Of course, anything involving Aaron Klueber is a 50/50 proposition at BEST, but I figured his 2 AM text telling me I didn't even like Volusia County Lockup meant he was good to go. So I set my alarm for 7 a.m. to get this run in before it got hot, so I could do the swim in the afternoon then drive over and meet him. Well, given my sleep schedule I drank 3 beers to put myself to sleep around 12:30, when Klueber's text woke me up at 2, and I didn't get back to sleep till 5. Alarm went off at 7, meaning I got a whopping 3 and a half hours of sleep before having myself a Cliff bar for breakfast, STRETCHING and warming up on the elliptical for the longest run of the training cycle.
Run: 120 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
After the elliptical warmup I took 2-32. oz. bottles of Gatorade and a water bottle to my car to set it up as my de feacto aid station. Started out on the campus look, using the iPod (a long run in the heat without music? Wasn't sure how that was gonna go. But this was its first use in a while)and felt pretty strong until I got to the long hill on 2nd Ave. Running up hill with no shade, even at 9:45 a.m. is tough in Florida in July. I was chopping steps probably the last half, not real happy with my performance there. I even stopped for a second in front of the stadium because my run was getting so choppy. I looked like an old man running, really. But once I hit the flatland out by midtown I kept my stride pretty well. That back part of campus has some decent shade too, and I switched the music up for the last 2 trips from Jefferson to Stadium and back (I don't do 2 loops)which I think helped break the monotony. Also was rigorous about gel intake, which I could tell mad a difference when I started getting hungry.
But as I was running in the heat, my shoes soaked with sweat by the end of the first hour, I thought "Klueber flakes on this one, I'm gonna kill him. This is a run that could have easily been done 1t 5 p.m. when its about 10 degrees cooler and I have shade. But whatever, Daytona will be fun.
So I get home, check my phone, and no word from Klueber. Then, about 20 minutes later, I get a text from him and I knew what it was before I even opened it. Claiming his sister flaked this time. There's no point in ever calling Aaron Klueber out on a BS excuse for flaking because once in a while they're actually true, and even when they're not calling him out won't change anything, so why waste one's energy? So that was that. I made myself some ground beef and white rice and settled into a nice big lunch before the afternoon swim.
I had a lady visitor come over for a couple of hours after lunch, and let me tell you fucking after a 13-mile run and before a long swim may not be the best idea. But, as I realized when I was able to have sex right after the Orlando Half, I always have energy for sex. Its like always having room for Jell-O. And of course, this girl likes it real rough and aggressive, so I couldn't even half-ass it. This was one of the few times that as soon as I was done, both times, I really couldn't move. Like I just laid there drenched in sweat, my arms borderline cramping up, like, shit, I'm done. I did make sure to drink a lot of water, though, as I knew I had the long swim coming up. but, really, with this girl it was almost a third workout for the day. No wonder I was so fucking hungry all night.
Turns out though, sex not as detrimental to working out as once thought...
S: speed day
wu: 350 continuous. last 50 in each 100 is kick
main: 10 x 200 EBEH (each 200 = 50Easy, 50Build, 50Easy, 50 Hard)
2 Lipodrene
So after my visitor left, I went to the mall and bought some protein powder and new socks. Combined with the Lipodrene I bought online and the race I registered for in August, I spent about $300 Friday on Triathlon-related stuff. I hit the pool about 4:40 with a throbbing headache. Despite the water and Gatorade I had drank, the morning and day's activities had pretty badly dehydrated me. And these 200 meter EBEH were a little daunting.
I donned my new goggles (see, only took me a week to get them) and immediately realized they were too small. Or maybe my old ones were just too loose, who knows. But tight goggles when you have a throbbing headache, not good. I realized I'd have to take these at an easier pace than the 100 EBEHs, so I tried to go easy, but not leg-dragging easy, then a slight build, then a solid effort on the hard but not an all-out sprint. While I won't say this swim was crushed by any stretch, it was a solid effort. Especially given the workouts I'd had before it. And my headache went away by set 6 or 7, which I found interesting. And it was gone pretty much the rest of the day. I'm definitely going to need to ramp up the effort on furute workouts like this, but then again I don't know that I'll have many swims like this aftr a 12-13 mile run.
Went out and drank pretty heavily afterward. We'll see how this affects the Saturday workout.
Monday, July 13, 2009
T35 - Uphill, Both Ways - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
I made the mistake of not eating much more than a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bagel with peanut butter last night after the long swim. I've realized that when I know I have a long workout like this one the next day, I really need to make a point of eating something substantial. Even if I'm too lazy to cook, go get some pasta or a pizza or something. Taking in 1000 calories after a 3000 meter swim and before a 50 mile bike isn't gonna cut it.
Bike: 3 Hours
2 Lipodrene
This was my longest bike since the awful, awful Orlando half, and only my 4th ride this long of 2009. This is more indicative of how bad that last training cycle was than anything else, but the point is that this was my longest ride of the Ironman Training Program to date. I took along 2 gels and a Cliff bar, and was militant with myself about taking them all at 45 minute intervals. I did that one nicely.
What I did not do nicely is ride fast. Like I hit Hawthorne and couldn't really get up much past 19. I thought I'd just use this as a ride to get used to being out on the road for long periods of time, and thought I'd just cruise and get used to it. but 19 became 18 became 17, and a lot of times I found myself biking like I was on an incline when the terrain looked pretty flat. Like I'd be rolling along at 18 or 19, then all of a sudden I couldn't go past 15. Putting forth the same effort, but just couldn't go any faster. It literally felt like I was constantly going uphill. I'm starting to think maybe the trail has some optical illusions like that, where there's a grade but it looks flat. What else explains it?
It was hot, so I think that was part of why my legs weren't as powerful as they sometimes are. I also was, as I said before, not going on a ton of food. The ride just went slow today, and I'm not sure why. I stopped at about the 1:50 mark for a couple of minutes just to get my motivation back, and the 3 advil I took at the 1 hour mark kept the back pain at bay from about 1:30 to 2:40. So that's going to be a key ingredient on a lot of future long bikes. And there are a lot in the future.
The only bright spot here is that this ride reminded me of a lot of shorter rides I'd has last cycle. Like no power, hard to get going fast, and lost motivation. The difference here is that this was a long, long ride and it was hot out. then it was temperate and the rides were short. I credit a clearer mind this time around, I really do, and it only goes to underscore my points about minimizing life distractions when you're training for an event like this.
Run: 30 Minutes
The Lipodrene had more or less worn off, but I saw no point in taking another one when I'd be done as soon as it kicked in. I had one more gel and had a nice shuffle down to the stadium and back. All I could think was "Fuck. I gotta do this like 8 more times after a bike ride that's twice as long? Good thing I have 14 more weeks." The run actually wasn't too painful and I could definitely have gone longer. But looking at a 90 minute swim tomorrow, I saw no need for that.
I made the mistake of not eating much more than a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bagel with peanut butter last night after the long swim. I've realized that when I know I have a long workout like this one the next day, I really need to make a point of eating something substantial. Even if I'm too lazy to cook, go get some pasta or a pizza or something. Taking in 1000 calories after a 3000 meter swim and before a 50 mile bike isn't gonna cut it.
Bike: 3 Hours
2 Lipodrene
This was my longest bike since the awful, awful Orlando half, and only my 4th ride this long of 2009. This is more indicative of how bad that last training cycle was than anything else, but the point is that this was my longest ride of the Ironman Training Program to date. I took along 2 gels and a Cliff bar, and was militant with myself about taking them all at 45 minute intervals. I did that one nicely.
What I did not do nicely is ride fast. Like I hit Hawthorne and couldn't really get up much past 19. I thought I'd just use this as a ride to get used to being out on the road for long periods of time, and thought I'd just cruise and get used to it. but 19 became 18 became 17, and a lot of times I found myself biking like I was on an incline when the terrain looked pretty flat. Like I'd be rolling along at 18 or 19, then all of a sudden I couldn't go past 15. Putting forth the same effort, but just couldn't go any faster. It literally felt like I was constantly going uphill. I'm starting to think maybe the trail has some optical illusions like that, where there's a grade but it looks flat. What else explains it?
It was hot, so I think that was part of why my legs weren't as powerful as they sometimes are. I also was, as I said before, not going on a ton of food. The ride just went slow today, and I'm not sure why. I stopped at about the 1:50 mark for a couple of minutes just to get my motivation back, and the 3 advil I took at the 1 hour mark kept the back pain at bay from about 1:30 to 2:40. So that's going to be a key ingredient on a lot of future long bikes. And there are a lot in the future.
The only bright spot here is that this ride reminded me of a lot of shorter rides I'd has last cycle. Like no power, hard to get going fast, and lost motivation. The difference here is that this was a long, long ride and it was hot out. then it was temperate and the rides were short. I credit a clearer mind this time around, I really do, and it only goes to underscore my points about minimizing life distractions when you're training for an event like this.
Run: 30 Minutes
The Lipodrene had more or less worn off, but I saw no point in taking another one when I'd be done as soon as it kicked in. I had one more gel and had a nice shuffle down to the stadium and back. All I could think was "Fuck. I gotta do this like 8 more times after a bike ride that's twice as long? Good thing I have 14 more weeks." The run actually wasn't too painful and I could definitely have gone longer. But looking at a 90 minute swim tomorrow, I saw no need for that.
Friday, July 3, 2009
T27 - Jetlag Pays Off - Bike/Run Brick
Sacramento
Despite barely sleeping Tuesday night, I only logged 10 hours after going to bed at 10:30 Wednesday night and was up at 8:30. Fucking time change, I couldn't get back to sleep. So I figured I'd get my training day in before I headed up to Reno. Had myself a Cliff bar on the ride to the trail and felt that was enough to keep me going.
Bike: 90 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
I basically did the same path as the day before, but obviously cut it a little shorter. I like biking here, the change of scenery and biking by the river are both welcomed differences. Plus the breeze is good and there's more than one water fountain (that THAT Hawthorne) so the fact that my dad only has one bottle holder isn't a big deal. The ride was nice, and the hills were a lot easier this time. Still harder than on my bike, but I'm going to go ahead and chalk that up to training on little sleep. Although I seemed to do that better here than in Gainesville, too.
Run: 60 miuntes
I took a gel between the two and headed out to run the same path I just biked. The AR trail has mile markers on it, so I didn't even need to map it out, I just ran to the trailhead (about a half mile) then ran to the 2.5 mile marker, and ran back. My speed, that's about an hour. I used the iPod, and this was just one of those runs where the music hits at the right time and your adreneline gets going and you just look out at a perfectly sunny day and a river and go "Man, life is good." I just started thinking about all the great things going on in my life, and how sometimes decisions you make that may seem hard at the time ultimately lead to much greater success. It's like being on ecstasy for about 20 minutes, excpet you don't get horny. Really, one of my favorite runs so far. That Best of Trance 2004 CD probably didn't hurt either. I can't even tell you much about the run, because it was just that positive of an experience.
I also think training in the daytime humidity has really paid off. It was probably 80during this run and not humid, and it seemed really easy. So I plan to continue daytime runs when I get back to Florida. Maybe I can do a few here on some 100-plus days. Friday's run will have to be later, though.
Despite barely sleeping Tuesday night, I only logged 10 hours after going to bed at 10:30 Wednesday night and was up at 8:30. Fucking time change, I couldn't get back to sleep. So I figured I'd get my training day in before I headed up to Reno. Had myself a Cliff bar on the ride to the trail and felt that was enough to keep me going.
Bike: 90 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
I basically did the same path as the day before, but obviously cut it a little shorter. I like biking here, the change of scenery and biking by the river are both welcomed differences. Plus the breeze is good and there's more than one water fountain (that THAT Hawthorne) so the fact that my dad only has one bottle holder isn't a big deal. The ride was nice, and the hills were a lot easier this time. Still harder than on my bike, but I'm going to go ahead and chalk that up to training on little sleep. Although I seemed to do that better here than in Gainesville, too.
Run: 60 miuntes
I took a gel between the two and headed out to run the same path I just biked. The AR trail has mile markers on it, so I didn't even need to map it out, I just ran to the trailhead (about a half mile) then ran to the 2.5 mile marker, and ran back. My speed, that's about an hour. I used the iPod, and this was just one of those runs where the music hits at the right time and your adreneline gets going and you just look out at a perfectly sunny day and a river and go "Man, life is good." I just started thinking about all the great things going on in my life, and how sometimes decisions you make that may seem hard at the time ultimately lead to much greater success. It's like being on ecstasy for about 20 minutes, excpet you don't get horny. Really, one of my favorite runs so far. That Best of Trance 2004 CD probably didn't hurt either. I can't even tell you much about the run, because it was just that positive of an experience.
I also think training in the daytime humidity has really paid off. It was probably 80during this run and not humid, and it seemed really easy. So I plan to continue daytime runs when I get back to Florida. Maybe I can do a few here on some 100-plus days. Friday's run will have to be later, though.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
T11 - I Don't Do Sprints - Swim/Bike (Trainer)
Gainesville
Swim: speed day
wu: 300 continuous. concentrate on form weaknesses.
main: 10 x 100 descend 1-5 and 5-10
2 Lipodrene
The guy who designed this program likes to call this "speed day," but unfortunately, speed has never been something I do (aside that one chick in Dana Point who offered it to me right after sex and I was like, sure, why not. But otherwise me and speed, of any type, do not get along). The idea here is to swim 100s at a declining pace, but the sad thing is that by the third turnaround on a 100, going that hard, I'm out of gas. So what it usually turns into is a 50 or a 75 and then 25-50 yards of dogging it. I thought maybe this one would be different, but after the first 100, when I about stopped on the last 25, I decided that 100s are just not my thing.
I did 10 100 yard swims consecutively with 10 second breaks in between. It went pretty well, but I think on my next day of 100s I'll just do Easy, Build, Easy, Hard to get some sort of training value in here. That is if that first hundred feels like this one did. I still think my lung capacity sucks for someone my size, which makes sprinting underwater tough to do. But this swim was essentially just keeping the muscles loose and burning some calories. And what's the value in that?
Bike: 55 minutes, on the trainer if possible:
wu: 10:00 at RPE 2-3
main: 4 x ( 8:00 at RPE 4-5 fast spinning,
2:00 at RPE 2)
Had a cliff bar, and another Lipodrene before setting up the trainer. I also got my new headphones in the mail this afternoon, so I was pumped to use them out on the trainer. What I failed to remember is that A) Doing a long trainer session the day after a long bike ride is hard and B) I don't do sprints. Seriously.
The little warm up thing felt fine, went about 17 mph (which is a little slow for the trainer, but it was a warm up, so whatever. I did the warm-up in the second easiest gear in the large ring, then shifted down 2 gears for the first 8-minute hard stretch. It went ok, averaging about 18, but the next one I averaged about 17, then 16, then on the 4th 8 minutes I just went down one gear as I was feeling about dead. Seriously, this is slow for the trainer, and while I certainly didn't feel like I was slacking on it, I didn't feel like I crushed it either.
Perhaps it was because it was so fucking hot out and I was sweating like a pig, or maybe my legs weren't fully recovered from the long ride the day before, but this trainer session was definitely sub-par. These quick-sprint things are not my style. I'll keep trying to do them here, but I like the prolonged efforts a little better.
Trevor also gave me some tips for keeping my back from getting sore. Leaning back at the desk is one, and I took this idea with me to a bar last night, where I sat back in my bar stool instead of hunching over the bar. Also, I may try stretching before my next ride. Something new, I know. We'll see how it goes.
Swim: speed day
wu: 300 continuous. concentrate on form weaknesses.
main: 10 x 100 descend 1-5 and 5-10
2 Lipodrene
The guy who designed this program likes to call this "speed day," but unfortunately, speed has never been something I do (aside that one chick in Dana Point who offered it to me right after sex and I was like, sure, why not. But otherwise me and speed, of any type, do not get along). The idea here is to swim 100s at a declining pace, but the sad thing is that by the third turnaround on a 100, going that hard, I'm out of gas. So what it usually turns into is a 50 or a 75 and then 25-50 yards of dogging it. I thought maybe this one would be different, but after the first 100, when I about stopped on the last 25, I decided that 100s are just not my thing.
I did 10 100 yard swims consecutively with 10 second breaks in between. It went pretty well, but I think on my next day of 100s I'll just do Easy, Build, Easy, Hard to get some sort of training value in here. That is if that first hundred feels like this one did. I still think my lung capacity sucks for someone my size, which makes sprinting underwater tough to do. But this swim was essentially just keeping the muscles loose and burning some calories. And what's the value in that?
Bike: 55 minutes, on the trainer if possible:
wu: 10:00 at RPE 2-3
main: 4 x ( 8:00 at RPE 4-5 fast spinning,
2:00 at RPE 2)
Had a cliff bar, and another Lipodrene before setting up the trainer. I also got my new headphones in the mail this afternoon, so I was pumped to use them out on the trainer. What I failed to remember is that A) Doing a long trainer session the day after a long bike ride is hard and B) I don't do sprints. Seriously.
The little warm up thing felt fine, went about 17 mph (which is a little slow for the trainer, but it was a warm up, so whatever. I did the warm-up in the second easiest gear in the large ring, then shifted down 2 gears for the first 8-minute hard stretch. It went ok, averaging about 18, but the next one I averaged about 17, then 16, then on the 4th 8 minutes I just went down one gear as I was feeling about dead. Seriously, this is slow for the trainer, and while I certainly didn't feel like I was slacking on it, I didn't feel like I crushed it either.
Perhaps it was because it was so fucking hot out and I was sweating like a pig, or maybe my legs weren't fully recovered from the long ride the day before, but this trainer session was definitely sub-par. These quick-sprint things are not my style. I'll keep trying to do them here, but I like the prolonged efforts a little better.
Trevor also gave me some tips for keeping my back from getting sore. Leaning back at the desk is one, and I took this idea with me to a bar last night, where I sat back in my bar stool instead of hunching over the bar. Also, I may try stretching before my next ride. Something new, I know. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, June 12, 2009
T10 - Nonsex not nearly draining as sex-sex - Bike
Gainesville
I'm gonna channel White Dade here for a minute.....there's a reason I don't mess with Latin girls. Seriosuly. I'm up around 1:15 Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I get a text from that girl who'd stayed over a couple weeks ago, asking if she could come over. I figure, shit, it's 1:15, she's obviously been out all night, and she's asking me to come over. This can only mean one thing. But, you know, I'm trying to consider training here, so before responding I had to think how this would work.
She'll get here around 1:45. Figure 15 minutes of small talk and maybe a drink, then we'll start hooking up by 2. Fucking by 2:30. Asleep by 3. That leaves a solid 8 hours of sleep before I had to get up to interview this guy for my final project. No problem. So I tell her to come on over.
Well, the girl gets here and in the course of the 15 minutes of conversation, it comes out that she's Cuban. Ok, I figure, she's fairly Americanized so I can tolerate it. Although this time I did notice her noticeably-Cuban ass and stomach. But whatever, she was cute and nice enough. So we get to hooking up and this girl doesn't even want to take her top off. Apparently she takes sex a little more seriously than I do, and for the second time wouldn't go much past second base. And spent the night. Well, not having gotten off, and having gotten my adrenaline going during the middle-school makeout session, I didn't fall asleep until about 4:30. The whole time I was thinking "I could be getting valuable rest right now. thank you for wasting my time."
I woke up again at 8. She left at 9, once again making out, and once again stopping before pants came off. Seriously, I don't think ANYONE has ever stayed over twice without fucking. Not even my last girlfriend, where I can only remember one time that happened. And few with any girlfriends before that. This is what I get for messing with a Latin chick. Catholic guilt and overprotective fathers and whatnot. No more, I knew my "Whites Only" policy was there for a reason. And I doubt I'll be hearing from her again.
The good news, though, is that I learned nonsex, despite the lost sleep, is not nearly as bad for your workouts as regular sex.
Bike - 2 hours
2 Lipodrene
This was definitely the best bike I've had so far this training cycle. Hit 20 on most of the straightaways, stayed in aero as much as I could, and ended up averaging 17.9. Which, while not blazing or even up to my standards of past cycles, is the best I've had in a while on a solo training ride. Especially with the hills and streets and whatnot involved in the Hawthorne ride. So I guess losing some sleep isn't so bad, and nonsex is not so exerting. The girl still wasted my time, but at least she did me the favor of letting me conserve energy.
My low back still was ready to stop at the 1 hour mark, which is not good. I stopped at the halfway point for about 30 seconds to turn around, have a gel, and refill water (went a little longer than 2 hours to get to the end of Hawthorne where there's water fountains), but had to take a break again at about 1:23. Felt good after that, and was mulling another stop at Waldo when I got a flat at about 1:52. And despite my almost being out of water, and it being uncomfortably humid while I changed the tire, I felt a lot better after that 10 minute break and went hard the whole way home. The Cliff bar I had while changing the tire didn't hurt either.
All in all, the main issue with the bike is getting my low back to a point where I can bike for more than an hour without wanting to stop. I can maintain a fairly good speed, but pedaling hard drains my back, and I'm not sure how to condiiton it better. Improved posture is not an option.
Also, my knee continues to be extremely sore all the time, and even felt tight on the ride. Like it was swollen or something. Training is definitely going a lot better this time around, but I need to get this knee healed up or this Ironman is not going to go well.
I'm gonna channel White Dade here for a minute.....there's a reason I don't mess with Latin girls. Seriosuly. I'm up around 1:15 Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I get a text from that girl who'd stayed over a couple weeks ago, asking if she could come over. I figure, shit, it's 1:15, she's obviously been out all night, and she's asking me to come over. This can only mean one thing. But, you know, I'm trying to consider training here, so before responding I had to think how this would work.
She'll get here around 1:45. Figure 15 minutes of small talk and maybe a drink, then we'll start hooking up by 2. Fucking by 2:30. Asleep by 3. That leaves a solid 8 hours of sleep before I had to get up to interview this guy for my final project. No problem. So I tell her to come on over.
Well, the girl gets here and in the course of the 15 minutes of conversation, it comes out that she's Cuban. Ok, I figure, she's fairly Americanized so I can tolerate it. Although this time I did notice her noticeably-Cuban ass and stomach. But whatever, she was cute and nice enough. So we get to hooking up and this girl doesn't even want to take her top off. Apparently she takes sex a little more seriously than I do, and for the second time wouldn't go much past second base. And spent the night. Well, not having gotten off, and having gotten my adrenaline going during the middle-school makeout session, I didn't fall asleep until about 4:30. The whole time I was thinking "I could be getting valuable rest right now. thank you for wasting my time."
I woke up again at 8. She left at 9, once again making out, and once again stopping before pants came off. Seriously, I don't think ANYONE has ever stayed over twice without fucking. Not even my last girlfriend, where I can only remember one time that happened. And few with any girlfriends before that. This is what I get for messing with a Latin chick. Catholic guilt and overprotective fathers and whatnot. No more, I knew my "Whites Only" policy was there for a reason. And I doubt I'll be hearing from her again.
The good news, though, is that I learned nonsex, despite the lost sleep, is not nearly as bad for your workouts as regular sex.
Bike - 2 hours
2 Lipodrene
This was definitely the best bike I've had so far this training cycle. Hit 20 on most of the straightaways, stayed in aero as much as I could, and ended up averaging 17.9. Which, while not blazing or even up to my standards of past cycles, is the best I've had in a while on a solo training ride. Especially with the hills and streets and whatnot involved in the Hawthorne ride. So I guess losing some sleep isn't so bad, and nonsex is not so exerting. The girl still wasted my time, but at least she did me the favor of letting me conserve energy.
My low back still was ready to stop at the 1 hour mark, which is not good. I stopped at the halfway point for about 30 seconds to turn around, have a gel, and refill water (went a little longer than 2 hours to get to the end of Hawthorne where there's water fountains), but had to take a break again at about 1:23. Felt good after that, and was mulling another stop at Waldo when I got a flat at about 1:52. And despite my almost being out of water, and it being uncomfortably humid while I changed the tire, I felt a lot better after that 10 minute break and went hard the whole way home. The Cliff bar I had while changing the tire didn't hurt either.
All in all, the main issue with the bike is getting my low back to a point where I can bike for more than an hour without wanting to stop. I can maintain a fairly good speed, but pedaling hard drains my back, and I'm not sure how to condiiton it better. Improved posture is not an option.
Also, my knee continues to be extremely sore all the time, and even felt tight on the ride. Like it was swollen or something. Training is definitely going a lot better this time around, but I need to get this knee healed up or this Ironman is not going to go well.
Friday, June 5, 2009
T5 - All Lit Up Again - Swim/Bike (trainer)
Gainesville
Today, I attempted my first early morning workout since what was, quite possibly, the worst workout I've ever had. That workout was pretty emblematic of the entrie last training cycle actually, and it was essentially the same workout as today. So the comparison was interesting. Last time, I went early because, well, I wasn't sleeping. My girlfriend at the time was on a roadtrip with her ex-boyfriend ("he's really skinny and almost completely bald. Really you have nothing to worry about."), and despite the fact that I couldn't do anything about it, it didn't help me sleep at night. And it didn't help my workout either. Not only did I have a very mediocre swim, but when I tried to go out on the bike I was so distracted practicing the arguments I was going to have with her, I swore I had a flat tire I was going so slow. Of course, I did not have a flat. I was just biking like shit, and the cold wind didn't help either.
Moral of the story: If you are the kind of person like me, who gets stressed out about women, do not attempt a feat like an Ironman unless you are A) In a rock-solid relationship (married, engaged, long-term girlfriend, etc.) or B) blissfully single. I am opting for the latter this time around. Seriously, sex is fine, but nothing past that until I cross the finish line in Panama City.
That being said, today's workout was the polar opposite of that one. Really, the best one I've had in a long time. The warmer weather didn't hurt, nor did the ephedra for breakfast. Honestly, though, I don't know how some triathletes do this every day, getting up at 6 AM to workout. Like it was cool as a sort of novelty today, but for chrissakes, my body just doesn't react as well if I'm sweating before noon. Or does it?
Swim:
wu: 400 continuous.
main: 8 x 100 EBEH (each 100 = 25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25 Hard)
2 Lipodrene on empty stomach, then a gel before start
Well, not being one who ever gets up before 11, I forgot that, much like traffic, the gym has a morning rush hour. At GHFC, this is apparently between 6:30 and 8:00 AM. I got there and all 6 lanes had two swimmers. Given my abhorring of circle swimming, I opted to wait until half a lane opened up. 10 mintues, nothing is open, and finally this Patricia-Heaton-at-60-look-alike asks me if I'd like to jump in and Circle swim. Well, I had to be in Miami by 3 and still had a whole workout to go, so, for the second day in a row, I circle swam.
I will say, the circle swimming gets me swimming a lot faster, only because I want to get the fuck out as soon as possible. So maybe this is a good idea, who knows? At any rate, I did the 400 meter warmup faster than I usually do a regular workout, and did the 8 EBEH with little problems. Didn't hurt I had my own lane by the third set either. I love EBEH, because you never swim more than 100 yards at once, and you never have to do more than 25 of them fast. I like swimming, but I don't do sprints.
Bike: 45 minutes on trainer
1 additional Lipodrene, Cliff Bar to settle stomach
The workout today called for 45 minutes of continuous spinning, so I thought what better time to break out the trainer for the first time this cycle than now? Last cycle, I did the trainer a little more than I should have, mostly because it was cold last cycle and I"m not a fan of biking when it's below 75 degrees. The trainer, though, is like a fucking sweatbox on a morning like this when you can feel the air beating you down. It's all the exertion of a bike ride without the cooling breeze. I was Meltzering everywhere within 10 minutes.
I also allowed myself to use the iPod for the first time this cycle. 45 minutes on the trainer with no music is actually a technique they occasionally use at Guantanamo Bay to get information, so I figured this was an acceptable music use. The new headphones are hands down the best speakers I've ever owned (sad, I know) and the music deifinitely helped. I do love my Paramore, and any time I hear "Lit Up" I work about twice as hard.
After the 15 minute warmup in the small ring, I switched over to the big ring and slowed for a minute. Then I said to myself, "You know what? They don't call it the trainer so you can fucking dog it for half an hour. Fucking push it!" And so I did, putting it in the next-to-highest gear for the duration of the workout. And I felt great. Yeah, the 75 mg of ephedra probably didn't hurt, but it was good to feel like I crushed a workout for the first time in a long time.
Maybe it's the drugs, maybe it's the music, or maybe it's not having any girls to worry about, but if I can keep going with workouts like the one I had today, I guarantee a much better result than what happened in Orlando.
Today, I attempted my first early morning workout since what was, quite possibly, the worst workout I've ever had. That workout was pretty emblematic of the entrie last training cycle actually, and it was essentially the same workout as today. So the comparison was interesting. Last time, I went early because, well, I wasn't sleeping. My girlfriend at the time was on a roadtrip with her ex-boyfriend ("he's really skinny and almost completely bald. Really you have nothing to worry about."), and despite the fact that I couldn't do anything about it, it didn't help me sleep at night. And it didn't help my workout either. Not only did I have a very mediocre swim, but when I tried to go out on the bike I was so distracted practicing the arguments I was going to have with her, I swore I had a flat tire I was going so slow. Of course, I did not have a flat. I was just biking like shit, and the cold wind didn't help either.
Moral of the story: If you are the kind of person like me, who gets stressed out about women, do not attempt a feat like an Ironman unless you are A) In a rock-solid relationship (married, engaged, long-term girlfriend, etc.) or B) blissfully single. I am opting for the latter this time around. Seriously, sex is fine, but nothing past that until I cross the finish line in Panama City.
That being said, today's workout was the polar opposite of that one. Really, the best one I've had in a long time. The warmer weather didn't hurt, nor did the ephedra for breakfast. Honestly, though, I don't know how some triathletes do this every day, getting up at 6 AM to workout. Like it was cool as a sort of novelty today, but for chrissakes, my body just doesn't react as well if I'm sweating before noon. Or does it?
Swim:
wu: 400 continuous.
main: 8 x 100 EBEH (each 100 = 25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25 Hard)
2 Lipodrene on empty stomach, then a gel before start
Well, not being one who ever gets up before 11, I forgot that, much like traffic, the gym has a morning rush hour. At GHFC, this is apparently between 6:30 and 8:00 AM. I got there and all 6 lanes had two swimmers. Given my abhorring of circle swimming, I opted to wait until half a lane opened up. 10 mintues, nothing is open, and finally this Patricia-Heaton-at-60-look-alike asks me if I'd like to jump in and Circle swim. Well, I had to be in Miami by 3 and still had a whole workout to go, so, for the second day in a row, I circle swam.
I will say, the circle swimming gets me swimming a lot faster, only because I want to get the fuck out as soon as possible. So maybe this is a good idea, who knows? At any rate, I did the 400 meter warmup faster than I usually do a regular workout, and did the 8 EBEH with little problems. Didn't hurt I had my own lane by the third set either. I love EBEH, because you never swim more than 100 yards at once, and you never have to do more than 25 of them fast. I like swimming, but I don't do sprints.
Bike: 45 minutes on trainer
1 additional Lipodrene, Cliff Bar to settle stomach
The workout today called for 45 minutes of continuous spinning, so I thought what better time to break out the trainer for the first time this cycle than now? Last cycle, I did the trainer a little more than I should have, mostly because it was cold last cycle and I"m not a fan of biking when it's below 75 degrees. The trainer, though, is like a fucking sweatbox on a morning like this when you can feel the air beating you down. It's all the exertion of a bike ride without the cooling breeze. I was Meltzering everywhere within 10 minutes.
I also allowed myself to use the iPod for the first time this cycle. 45 minutes on the trainer with no music is actually a technique they occasionally use at Guantanamo Bay to get information, so I figured this was an acceptable music use. The new headphones are hands down the best speakers I've ever owned (sad, I know) and the music deifinitely helped. I do love my Paramore, and any time I hear "Lit Up" I work about twice as hard.
After the 15 minute warmup in the small ring, I switched over to the big ring and slowed for a minute. Then I said to myself, "You know what? They don't call it the trainer so you can fucking dog it for half an hour. Fucking push it!" And so I did, putting it in the next-to-highest gear for the duration of the workout. And I felt great. Yeah, the 75 mg of ephedra probably didn't hurt, but it was good to feel like I crushed a workout for the first time in a long time.
Maybe it's the drugs, maybe it's the music, or maybe it's not having any girls to worry about, but if I can keep going with workouts like the one I had today, I guarantee a much better result than what happened in Orlando.
Monday, June 1, 2009
T1 - The Road Begins - Run/Swim Brick
Well, not really begins, since I've been training for over a year now, but this is Training Day 1 of the actual Ironmman Training Program which, I'm guessing, may be a little tougher than what I've done previously. Of course, that's why they call it an Ironman, right? Anyway, this is going to be more of a training log for myself. Short posts, talking about what I did and how i felt about it, what nutrition I used and other such exciting things as that. I may also occasionally use this for training-related musings, or musings stemming from what I might have thought about during 6 hours on a bike. We shall see.
I'm using the program from beginnertriathlete.com, which can be found at http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=441.
We shall see how effective it is. At any rate, here is what happened Day 1
T1 - Gainesville
Run : 45minutes very easy run, RPE 3.
Took 2 Lipodrene and drove down to Gainesville Health and Fitness, ran from there up NW 8th Ave. about 2.4 miles, to the top of the hill that turns around at NW 22nd St. That hill is a serious bitch, so much so that I stopped at the top until the light turned green. Maybe a solid minute or so. The first half felt good, and my knee, which went out again when I was trying to play basketball on Thursday, only bothered me at the beginning. Not sure how much of that was it healing and how much was the left over Percocet from last summer.
Let me tell you that straightaway by the planet walk thing has no shade and was hot as fuck. But I feel like training in hot as fuck weather is probably a good idea, since Panama City will likely not be 87 degrees on race day. Anyway, this 45 minute run probably took me closer to 50-55 minutes, but I didn't note my start time and had no watch on, since speed is not my main concern here. Downed a water bottle and a half afterward before getting in the pool. No ipod was used today. I'm trying to minimize that even though I did go out and blow like $35 on headphones today.
S: long day
wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1 x 1500, RPE 4
Did the swim right after the run, maybe 10 minutes in between (transitions at the gym, not so efficient). The beginning felt real sore, since my upper body muscles weren't fully recovered from lifting this week. Not sure why I thought that would be a good idea, although probably not as dumb as playing basketball. The warm up went very very slowly, even though the swim was the one event I felt like I did ok in Orlando. By about lap 20 today, I started feeling like I was in my groove, although I lost count of laps a few times. Did 1500m in about 35 minutes, which is right on my average. I think the swim is going to be the least miserable of all the events, but again, we shall see.
Overall today felt really good, just to get back at it. Had a Cliff bar after the workout and bought some Muscle Milk for post-workout. This is to help me avoid post workout meals such as the ever-nutritious Whattaburger of the highly-satisfying Orville Reddenbachers Fat Free Microwave Popcorn. Today was easy since I didn't have much else to do and no real travel was involved.
I'm using the program from beginnertriathlete.com, which can be found at http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=441.
We shall see how effective it is. At any rate, here is what happened Day 1
T1 - Gainesville
Run : 45minutes very easy run, RPE 3.
Took 2 Lipodrene and drove down to Gainesville Health and Fitness, ran from there up NW 8th Ave. about 2.4 miles, to the top of the hill that turns around at NW 22nd St. That hill is a serious bitch, so much so that I stopped at the top until the light turned green. Maybe a solid minute or so. The first half felt good, and my knee, which went out again when I was trying to play basketball on Thursday, only bothered me at the beginning. Not sure how much of that was it healing and how much was the left over Percocet from last summer.
Let me tell you that straightaway by the planet walk thing has no shade and was hot as fuck. But I feel like training in hot as fuck weather is probably a good idea, since Panama City will likely not be 87 degrees on race day. Anyway, this 45 minute run probably took me closer to 50-55 minutes, but I didn't note my start time and had no watch on, since speed is not my main concern here. Downed a water bottle and a half afterward before getting in the pool. No ipod was used today. I'm trying to minimize that even though I did go out and blow like $35 on headphones today.
S: long day
wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1 x 1500, RPE 4
Did the swim right after the run, maybe 10 minutes in between (transitions at the gym, not so efficient). The beginning felt real sore, since my upper body muscles weren't fully recovered from lifting this week. Not sure why I thought that would be a good idea, although probably not as dumb as playing basketball. The warm up went very very slowly, even though the swim was the one event I felt like I did ok in Orlando. By about lap 20 today, I started feeling like I was in my groove, although I lost count of laps a few times. Did 1500m in about 35 minutes, which is right on my average. I think the swim is going to be the least miserable of all the events, but again, we shall see.
Overall today felt really good, just to get back at it. Had a Cliff bar after the workout and bought some Muscle Milk for post-workout. This is to help me avoid post workout meals such as the ever-nutritious Whattaburger of the highly-satisfying Orville Reddenbachers Fat Free Microwave Popcorn. Today was easy since I didn't have much else to do and no real travel was involved.
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