Gainesville
Bike: 60 minutes at RPE 4-5
2 Lipodrene
Still not feeling well. But given my lackluster bike performance on my previous couple of rides on 441, I thought this would be a good opportunity for a little confindence builder on Hawthorne. The goal was to make it to the 30 minute turnaround from that first strong ride I did with Trevor, and I figured I had enough in me to do that and the long run. Didn't quite happen.
I won't say this ride was bad, but when it took me over 8 minutes to make it to the trailhead I knew I wasn't setting any records Thursday. Again, I was able to get into aero and I didn't feel particularly bad, but places where I had been doing about 21-22 a few weeks ago I was now doing about 20. Every spot was about a solid 1.5 mph slower than I'd been doing. Didn't even make it to nigbridge in 28 (I had been doing sub-25 my last rides) and fell well short of the turnaround when I turned around.
I thought maybe this was a case of having some sort of headwind, or maybe one of those times I just needed a warmup. And while I did make in it back 30 seconds faster than I'd made it down (pretty good considering the return incline on Hawthorne) my average speed somehow went down. Yeah, my computer is once again jacked up. So I will be taking it in. But despite that, this ride was better than the last couple, but still disappointing to basically have regressed back to where I was in June.
Run - 2 Hours
1 Lipodrene
I read in the Ironman athlete's guide that they will be providing chocolate chip cookies at the aid stations on the run. I believe they did this at the Half in Orlando too, but I was always skeptical to take them for fear of getting a sideache. But this, friends, is why we train. So I bought a box of the CVS Decadence cookies and put them in the Saturn Aid Station for the run. I even had one right before I started and felt fine. I think the motivation chocolate chip cookies may play a major role in my making my way through the marathon.
Run started out feeling good, but by about the 3 mile mark I again was feeling light headed and dizzy. I thought I was slowing down, but actually found myself ahead in the music on the iPod (and I've started to freeze the buttons on it in the hopes of keeping it from freezing up, so I don't skip any songs), so I guess I wasn't going any slower than before. But I just felt soooo lethargic and tired. And dizzy. And a few times just wanting to take a nap.
I got through the run fine, and did it in abut my usual time. Or so I could tell. I had cookies both times I stopped at the Saturn Aid Station, and they were delicious. And didn't hurt my stomach nearly as much as the Gatorade did.
Because I've never pushed my run much, it really hasn't bothered me. Like I never hurt that much, I just get used to a constant dull pain from about mile 5 on. And the difference for me between 13-18 miles isn't a whole lot. 18-26, though, I'm thinking might. Point is, because I go slow and steady, I think I can keep it up longer even feeling like I have. So I have come to accept that dizzy and short of breath and tired is how I may well feel through the entire Ironman. It'll suck, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna cost me some time. And while that is disappointing, I've now felt like this for almost a month and really see no imminent signs of improvment. Just gotta play the hand you're deal, I suppose.
A friend, who I passed on my run, texted me later that night and I told her about how I'd been feeling like shit. She mentioned a lot of her friends had been coming down with mild cases of mono. Great. That's just what I need. But, it's not going to stop me either. Slow me down, sure, but not stop me. And hey, I'm training with that feeling. So come race day, dizziness and lethergy will just be a part of it I'm used to.
Showing posts with label bike/run brick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike/run brick. Show all posts
Friday, October 23, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
T93 - Exercising the Ghosts of Panama City - Bike/Run Brick
Panama City Beach
Trevor, and many others, have told me it's a good idea to go and bike your Ironman course before you do it. So I took off Thursday afternoon for Panama City Beach, about 4.5 hours from home, to do the bike ride on Friday. The last time I was in Panama City, it was when I went to sign up for last year's race. And I have a lot of significant memories associated with that trip. I don't talk much about my last girlfriend here, because though about 5 people read this, it is still not the forum for that. But that trip was when we went form just fucking to more than just fucking. And nice as those memories are, that is not something I need to be concerning myself with when I'm there for the race.
So while the overwhelming primary purpose of the trip was to ride the course, I also wanted to be able to get all the nostalgia out of the way now. To look at the beach by the finish line and the Mellow Mushroom on the run course and the Origin at Seahaven and the Wal Mart and remember how it had been last year. And then get that out of my head and create some new memories. The first of which was one of the physically hardest days of my life.
Bike - 112 Miles
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
Note I put mileage today instead of just time. Becasue this was a set course. I drove the course the night before to get it down, marking the mileage on a piece of paper from turn to turn, then laminating and taping the directions to my aero bars, so I knew where I was going, and how far I had to go. I parked at the Boardwalk Beach resort, right at where transition would be, and headed off.
The first miles are on the beachfront, which is very pretty. I did nicely there with the bike lane and crosswind. Then I turned north and just flew. Yeah, I knew there was some tailwind, but it didn't look like much. So I was going a solid 24-25 for about 19 miles, even maintaining a speed over 30 for about half a mile on a downhill and straightaway. Yeah, that was fun. I stopped at a Shell station to buy some more water, as it was probably about 87 degrees outside, and found I had forgotten my phone and cash. Only time I've ever done that is on the most important ride I ever do. fortunately, the gas station people are very nice in the panhandle and let me fill my bottles in the bathroom for free.
Do I turned East onto Hwy 20 for a 28 miles stretch, which featured a water stop at mile 33. There were seom rolling hills from miles 38-45, which I took well. I had a crosswind, so it wasn't much of a factor, and by the time I hit the turn from 20 to Hwy. 231 South, I was averaging 20 over the first 50 miles. I was very encouraged. Then I turned south.
So that wind, it feels a lot harder when you're going the other way. I got some water at the Hardees at the 51-mile mark, knowing there was no more water for almost 40 miles. This was not fun. First, the wind started kicking my ass as I headed south, struggling to get over 18. When I finally got to the end of it, I turned onto a road that looked like packed dirt. It was not. It was almost sand. And that shit is hard to bike in. Like I almost ate it about 6 times, and could not get over 12 on the dirt. This only lasted about 3/4 of a mile, but I was not happy.I later found out I turned early, and the real course is paved. Thank fuck.
The next stretch of the ride was ok, and I headed up to the one turnaround on the course at about mile 73. At this point, I was almost out of water, and had 16 miles to go to the next water break.. I was also starting to fade. I stopped the bike at the turnaround, and just took a break. I needed the rest to get up to the next water stop.
It didn't get much better. I didn't have to fight a whole lot of wind, but I just kept going slower and slower. I'm not sure if I nuked the village on those first 50 miles, but I was going in the same gears, putting forth the same effort, and not getting over 18. At all. I was dying all the way to mile 87, where there was a Gulf Power and Electric office in the middle of nowhere, where they let me use the water fountain. Nicest power company ever.
I got to mile 92, and felt like I was about done. I stopped leaned my bike on a fence, and sat on a tree stump. This was gut check time. I had 20 miles to go and really felt like I had nothing left. But I took a gel, had a little water, and just decided to grind out this last hour and a half. Yes, at the speed I was going, that's what it was going to be.
Well, the wind got frustrating, but never more than when I hit the turn at mile 100 and the giant bridge that greets you there. That north-blowing wind is just brutal, and I struggled to get over 15 that whole stretch, It just seemed to go on forever. I hit the beach road with 7 miles to go, and that wind only let up when a condo blocked it. I have never been more grateful for Florida's rampant overdevelopment. I even biked by the Origin at Seahaven and looked up at the balcony where I had eaten breakfast naked the year before. I gave it a little smile, then went back into aero and actualyl managed to push out at about 18 for the rest of the ride.
As it was, I made it back in 6:28 of road time, averaging about 17.2 for the ride. Not stellar. Especially when you consider my water breaks and stoplights and everything else borught my total time to around 7 hours. So my goal of breaking 13 hours may not be as legit as I had though. On a course this long, I can't fight the wind too much, because I need those legs for the next 50 miles of biking and that marathon thing at the end. Energy must be conserved. I may just not be as fast as I'd hoped.
I took gels at chows 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7. Cliff Bars at 3 and 6. I didn't finish the third. I only took 2 lipodrene and 6 Advil, probably not enough. Also went thorugh 4 salt tabs. Didn't come close to cramping, even with the lack of water, so I guess that was enough.
Run - 30 minutes
I put my bike away, put on some shorts, and headed out for a brief half hour run. I did not look particualrly good, but I felt ok. I took maybe 5 minutes between the bike and the run, though I'm gonna guess my transition will be longer. My legs felt ok, different muscles I guess. And I ran back up to the Beach Road, then back down to Mellow Mushroom. I remembered seeing all those miserable people running the marathon as I ate pizza and watched the UF/UGA game last year. Again, gave it a small smile, turned around and ran back to my car. My legs started to feel the tinyest bit sore at the end, but I know that marathon is going to be ten times longer.
So all in all, an ok trip. I didn't do as well on the bike as I'd hoped, but then again it was my first ever ride of that length. I'll know it better next time and hopefully improve. There will also be more water. The run was short, not much to say there. When it was done I finished my 3 slices of leftover Mellow Mushroom, downed a Powerade and a litre of Diet 7-Up, and got in the car. I drove back and when I arrived in Gainesville, I realized if I'd kepy running, I'd have just been getting done then. That's a long day.
But I did what I set out to do. I even saw my Cosmo article for the first time at Wal Mart. The ride was so tough, that has replaced most of my associations with the city. Mellow Mushroom was my pre-ride dinner and my 2nd turnaround on the Run. Seahaven is the 5-mile to go mark on the bike. The beach by the finish line, is, well, the finish line. So as not-awesome as the bike ride was, I still feel like this trip was definitely a success.
Trevor, and many others, have told me it's a good idea to go and bike your Ironman course before you do it. So I took off Thursday afternoon for Panama City Beach, about 4.5 hours from home, to do the bike ride on Friday. The last time I was in Panama City, it was when I went to sign up for last year's race. And I have a lot of significant memories associated with that trip. I don't talk much about my last girlfriend here, because though about 5 people read this, it is still not the forum for that. But that trip was when we went form just fucking to more than just fucking. And nice as those memories are, that is not something I need to be concerning myself with when I'm there for the race.
So while the overwhelming primary purpose of the trip was to ride the course, I also wanted to be able to get all the nostalgia out of the way now. To look at the beach by the finish line and the Mellow Mushroom on the run course and the Origin at Seahaven and the Wal Mart and remember how it had been last year. And then get that out of my head and create some new memories. The first of which was one of the physically hardest days of my life.
Bike - 112 Miles
2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab
Note I put mileage today instead of just time. Becasue this was a set course. I drove the course the night before to get it down, marking the mileage on a piece of paper from turn to turn, then laminating and taping the directions to my aero bars, so I knew where I was going, and how far I had to go. I parked at the Boardwalk Beach resort, right at where transition would be, and headed off.
The first miles are on the beachfront, which is very pretty. I did nicely there with the bike lane and crosswind. Then I turned north and just flew. Yeah, I knew there was some tailwind, but it didn't look like much. So I was going a solid 24-25 for about 19 miles, even maintaining a speed over 30 for about half a mile on a downhill and straightaway. Yeah, that was fun. I stopped at a Shell station to buy some more water, as it was probably about 87 degrees outside, and found I had forgotten my phone and cash. Only time I've ever done that is on the most important ride I ever do. fortunately, the gas station people are very nice in the panhandle and let me fill my bottles in the bathroom for free.
Do I turned East onto Hwy 20 for a 28 miles stretch, which featured a water stop at mile 33. There were seom rolling hills from miles 38-45, which I took well. I had a crosswind, so it wasn't much of a factor, and by the time I hit the turn from 20 to Hwy. 231 South, I was averaging 20 over the first 50 miles. I was very encouraged. Then I turned south.
So that wind, it feels a lot harder when you're going the other way. I got some water at the Hardees at the 51-mile mark, knowing there was no more water for almost 40 miles. This was not fun. First, the wind started kicking my ass as I headed south, struggling to get over 18. When I finally got to the end of it, I turned onto a road that looked like packed dirt. It was not. It was almost sand. And that shit is hard to bike in. Like I almost ate it about 6 times, and could not get over 12 on the dirt. This only lasted about 3/4 of a mile, but I was not happy.I later found out I turned early, and the real course is paved. Thank fuck.
The next stretch of the ride was ok, and I headed up to the one turnaround on the course at about mile 73. At this point, I was almost out of water, and had 16 miles to go to the next water break.. I was also starting to fade. I stopped the bike at the turnaround, and just took a break. I needed the rest to get up to the next water stop.
It didn't get much better. I didn't have to fight a whole lot of wind, but I just kept going slower and slower. I'm not sure if I nuked the village on those first 50 miles, but I was going in the same gears, putting forth the same effort, and not getting over 18. At all. I was dying all the way to mile 87, where there was a Gulf Power and Electric office in the middle of nowhere, where they let me use the water fountain. Nicest power company ever.
I got to mile 92, and felt like I was about done. I stopped leaned my bike on a fence, and sat on a tree stump. This was gut check time. I had 20 miles to go and really felt like I had nothing left. But I took a gel, had a little water, and just decided to grind out this last hour and a half. Yes, at the speed I was going, that's what it was going to be.
Well, the wind got frustrating, but never more than when I hit the turn at mile 100 and the giant bridge that greets you there. That north-blowing wind is just brutal, and I struggled to get over 15 that whole stretch, It just seemed to go on forever. I hit the beach road with 7 miles to go, and that wind only let up when a condo blocked it. I have never been more grateful for Florida's rampant overdevelopment. I even biked by the Origin at Seahaven and looked up at the balcony where I had eaten breakfast naked the year before. I gave it a little smile, then went back into aero and actualyl managed to push out at about 18 for the rest of the ride.
As it was, I made it back in 6:28 of road time, averaging about 17.2 for the ride. Not stellar. Especially when you consider my water breaks and stoplights and everything else borught my total time to around 7 hours. So my goal of breaking 13 hours may not be as legit as I had though. On a course this long, I can't fight the wind too much, because I need those legs for the next 50 miles of biking and that marathon thing at the end. Energy must be conserved. I may just not be as fast as I'd hoped.
I took gels at chows 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7. Cliff Bars at 3 and 6. I didn't finish the third. I only took 2 lipodrene and 6 Advil, probably not enough. Also went thorugh 4 salt tabs. Didn't come close to cramping, even with the lack of water, so I guess that was enough.
Run - 30 minutes
I put my bike away, put on some shorts, and headed out for a brief half hour run. I did not look particualrly good, but I felt ok. I took maybe 5 minutes between the bike and the run, though I'm gonna guess my transition will be longer. My legs felt ok, different muscles I guess. And I ran back up to the Beach Road, then back down to Mellow Mushroom. I remembered seeing all those miserable people running the marathon as I ate pizza and watched the UF/UGA game last year. Again, gave it a small smile, turned around and ran back to my car. My legs started to feel the tinyest bit sore at the end, but I know that marathon is going to be ten times longer.
So all in all, an ok trip. I didn't do as well on the bike as I'd hoped, but then again it was my first ever ride of that length. I'll know it better next time and hopefully improve. There will also be more water. The run was short, not much to say there. When it was done I finished my 3 slices of leftover Mellow Mushroom, downed a Powerade and a litre of Diet 7-Up, and got in the car. I drove back and when I arrived in Gainesville, I realized if I'd kepy running, I'd have just been getting done then. That's a long day.
But I did what I set out to do. I even saw my Cosmo article for the first time at Wal Mart. The ride was so tough, that has replaced most of my associations with the city. Mellow Mushroom was my pre-ride dinner and my 2nd turnaround on the Run. Seahaven is the 5-mile to go mark on the bike. The beach by the finish line, is, well, the finish line. So as not-awesome as the bike ride was, I still feel like this trip was definitely a success.
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.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
T84 - IDGAF Day - Bike/Run Brick, Swim
Gainesville
This is becoming a disturbing trend. IDGAF, for the unaware, stand for "I Don't Give a Fuck," which was completely my attitude today. Again, this felt like one of those workouts I was squeezing in, even though I had all of Sunday free to do it. I just didn't much feel like getting off the couch.
Bike - 60 minutes
2 Lipodrene
I took my bike into the shop Sunday morning at the crack of 2 p.m. and had it back in an hour, realigned and retaped and ready to roll. So when I got home I was actually pretty motivated for the workout. So much so that I decided half an hour down Waldo-Williston would be a good trip. It's a little more hilly than Hawthorne, but not too bad. It was also the site of my worst ride ever last cycle, the one where I couldn't sleep so I decided to ride early, found it freezing cold, and ended up averaging about 15. But that was in February. It was cold. I was perpetually stressing out about my girlfriend leaving. And I wasn't sleeping. And oh yeah, I'm a little better of a cyclist now. So I figured no big deal.
One again, I figured wrong. I knew something was wrong when I was going 24-26 the whole way down Waldo. As I said before, you really don't notice when you have the wind at your back, and I looked for flags or trees or something and everything looked still. But whatever, I just figured this showed how much I'd improved. Notsomuch. I turned around and for some reason just lost all motivation. The trip back is all uphill, into the wind. Not something I'm a fan of. It didn't help that I couldn't drop down into Aero because of the massive wound on my right forarm, and my shoulders were jamming up, still residual from the accident.
Basically, I was pissed, felt like shit, and didn't want to be there. So even though I averaged about 20 on the way down, I was going a steady 13 a lot of the trip back and ended up averaging 17 for the ride. That's 1 mph slower than I did on my 5 hour ride, which included the crash. Not only that, I turned around at 28 minutes, and made it back in 1:05. Meaning the return trip, of about 9 miles, took 7 minutes longer than the trip down. So maybe that road really is that bad, and it wasn't just my poorer conditioning and stress that led to that awful, awful ride back in February. But who knows. Maybe the run would go better.
Run - 30 minutes
Alright, so get off the bike, have another spoiled yogurt PowerGel and do a nice run to the stadium and back. Can't fuck that up, right? Well, again, I started out strong, but by the time I got to the stadium I was fucking starving and didn't really want to run back. Again, just started chopping my steps, and by the time I got to about 11th St., I decided to say fuck it and walk the rest. Just didn't want to finish. I really don't know why. I'm not sure if the accident took a lot out of me, or I just had a shitty attitude today, but workouts like this need to be few and far between
Swim - 12x100. Practice bi-lateral breathing every other set. Do much later or earlier, but not within a few hours of the brick session
1 Lipodrene
I got back around 5 from the wasted Bike/Run and followed the advice on the card. Headed over to the pool about 9 p.m., which was nice because nobody was there. I was supposed to practice breathing every other set of strokes, but after about one lap (50 meters) of doing this, I said "Fuck this." Lung capacity is one thing I really haven't worked on, and since I was in a shitty training mood I wasn't about to push it. No excuse, I just didn't give a fuck. So I went back to normal breathing as I went through the motions to get this done. I didn't even time myself. I didn't care.
I think around set 8 I actually started pushing it, either because I was warmed up, or the Lipodrene kicked in, or because I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but the last four sets actually felt really good. So at least I ended a shitty day on a high note.
But I can't afford many more bad workouts during training weeks. I got a month of balls-out training to go before I taper, and I need to make the most of it. Sometimes a couple of bad workouts in a row motivates you to crush the next one, and I hope that's the case here. This trend cannot continue.
This is becoming a disturbing trend. IDGAF, for the unaware, stand for "I Don't Give a Fuck," which was completely my attitude today. Again, this felt like one of those workouts I was squeezing in, even though I had all of Sunday free to do it. I just didn't much feel like getting off the couch.
Bike - 60 minutes
2 Lipodrene
I took my bike into the shop Sunday morning at the crack of 2 p.m. and had it back in an hour, realigned and retaped and ready to roll. So when I got home I was actually pretty motivated for the workout. So much so that I decided half an hour down Waldo-Williston would be a good trip. It's a little more hilly than Hawthorne, but not too bad. It was also the site of my worst ride ever last cycle, the one where I couldn't sleep so I decided to ride early, found it freezing cold, and ended up averaging about 15. But that was in February. It was cold. I was perpetually stressing out about my girlfriend leaving. And I wasn't sleeping. And oh yeah, I'm a little better of a cyclist now. So I figured no big deal.
One again, I figured wrong. I knew something was wrong when I was going 24-26 the whole way down Waldo. As I said before, you really don't notice when you have the wind at your back, and I looked for flags or trees or something and everything looked still. But whatever, I just figured this showed how much I'd improved. Notsomuch. I turned around and for some reason just lost all motivation. The trip back is all uphill, into the wind. Not something I'm a fan of. It didn't help that I couldn't drop down into Aero because of the massive wound on my right forarm, and my shoulders were jamming up, still residual from the accident.
Basically, I was pissed, felt like shit, and didn't want to be there. So even though I averaged about 20 on the way down, I was going a steady 13 a lot of the trip back and ended up averaging 17 for the ride. That's 1 mph slower than I did on my 5 hour ride, which included the crash. Not only that, I turned around at 28 minutes, and made it back in 1:05. Meaning the return trip, of about 9 miles, took 7 minutes longer than the trip down. So maybe that road really is that bad, and it wasn't just my poorer conditioning and stress that led to that awful, awful ride back in February. But who knows. Maybe the run would go better.
Run - 30 minutes
Alright, so get off the bike, have another spoiled yogurt PowerGel and do a nice run to the stadium and back. Can't fuck that up, right? Well, again, I started out strong, but by the time I got to the stadium I was fucking starving and didn't really want to run back. Again, just started chopping my steps, and by the time I got to about 11th St., I decided to say fuck it and walk the rest. Just didn't want to finish. I really don't know why. I'm not sure if the accident took a lot out of me, or I just had a shitty attitude today, but workouts like this need to be few and far between
Swim - 12x100. Practice bi-lateral breathing every other set. Do much later or earlier, but not within a few hours of the brick session
1 Lipodrene
I got back around 5 from the wasted Bike/Run and followed the advice on the card. Headed over to the pool about 9 p.m., which was nice because nobody was there. I was supposed to practice breathing every other set of strokes, but after about one lap (50 meters) of doing this, I said "Fuck this." Lung capacity is one thing I really haven't worked on, and since I was in a shitty training mood I wasn't about to push it. No excuse, I just didn't give a fuck. So I went back to normal breathing as I went through the motions to get this done. I didn't even time myself. I didn't care.
I think around set 8 I actually started pushing it, either because I was warmed up, or the Lipodrene kicked in, or because I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but the last four sets actually felt really good. So at least I ended a shitty day on a high note.
But I can't afford many more bad workouts during training weeks. I got a month of balls-out training to go before I taper, and I need to make the most of it. Sometimes a couple of bad workouts in a row motivates you to crush the next one, and I hope that's the case here. This trend cannot continue.
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.
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.
Friday, August 28, 2009
T69 - Rainy Day Recess - Bike/Run Brick (Stationary Bike, Treadmill)
Gainesville
Fucking rain. I left Seattle to get away from the fucking perpetual gloom, but I forget occasionally summers in Florida provide a similar effect. Such was Thursday. The rain never let up all day, so my 90 minute light spinning ride became relegated to the exercise bike at GHFC. I wasn't about to do a 90-minute trainer session with a road ride the next day and a race on Sunday. And it's recovery week, so that's what exercise bike sessions are for. I opted to do a little bit of what I used to call "Fake Limited Triathlon" and do an Exercis Bike/Treadmill brick. Or, bascially, an incelement weather workout.
Bike - 90 Minutes (Stationary Bike)
2 Lipodrene
Because the Marlins had a noon game, there really wasn't much to watch on TV during a 90-minute exercise bike session other than reruns of "King of The Hill." Which was fine by me. I had exchanged the F-ed up headphones earlier in the day, and brought the iPod along. I decided on an all-Silversun Pickups set, including some older stuff that was on there from before I even liked the band. But it was suprisingly motivating, and aside from feeling a little worn out at about the 1-hour mark, the ride went pretty well. It's hard to gauge how good an exercise bike workout is, becasue you don't really go anywhere and the resistance is set. But I averaged about 17.5, which is not great, but not bad. I wasn't really pushing it, but I did get in some good sprints. I was also encouraged by the fact that I biked a lot harder that last 15 minutes than I had the rest of the session.
I took a gel at the one hour mark (didn't see the need for 2 during an indoor workout) and finished a full bottle of water. The exercise bike has a totally different seat than a regular bike, so my ass was surprisingly sore after about 50 minutes. When I finished up at the 90-minute mark, I seriosuly had trouble walking. I've developed saddle sore immunity from my bike, since I've ridden it so much, but this one left me seriosuly uncomfortable. And the walk to the treadmill was very awkward.
Run - 30 Minutes (Treadmill)
Went back to abuse the Summer Run 2009 mix, once again, but the first 5 minutes all I could think was "God damn, my ass is sore." But as with all extremety pain during a run, once I got going it pretty much went away. I mean, I still feel sore from the exercise bike seat now - 20 hours later - but at the time it wasn't an issue. This was a short, indoor run with an iPod, so obviously I crushed it. It felt so good that when I got to "Big Sky" at about the 28-minute mark, I opted to just run to the end of the song. I NEVER extend workouts past their assigned times unless I'm going slower than I should be. Ever. But I was motivated and felt like I wanted to keep going and so I did. Nice to crush a run, I hadn't had a real good workout in a while.
Recovery week is going well, and this is the kind of workout you do during recovery week. I just hope the rain lets up, as I can't really be subbing in the stationary bike during the next month. That was something I did a little too much last cycle, and we all know how that turned out. But I've been avoiding most of those habits this time around, and I feel like the results will reflect that.
Fucking rain. I left Seattle to get away from the fucking perpetual gloom, but I forget occasionally summers in Florida provide a similar effect. Such was Thursday. The rain never let up all day, so my 90 minute light spinning ride became relegated to the exercise bike at GHFC. I wasn't about to do a 90-minute trainer session with a road ride the next day and a race on Sunday. And it's recovery week, so that's what exercise bike sessions are for. I opted to do a little bit of what I used to call "Fake Limited Triathlon" and do an Exercis Bike/Treadmill brick. Or, bascially, an incelement weather workout.
Bike - 90 Minutes (Stationary Bike)
2 Lipodrene
Because the Marlins had a noon game, there really wasn't much to watch on TV during a 90-minute exercise bike session other than reruns of "King of The Hill." Which was fine by me. I had exchanged the F-ed up headphones earlier in the day, and brought the iPod along. I decided on an all-Silversun Pickups set, including some older stuff that was on there from before I even liked the band. But it was suprisingly motivating, and aside from feeling a little worn out at about the 1-hour mark, the ride went pretty well. It's hard to gauge how good an exercise bike workout is, becasue you don't really go anywhere and the resistance is set. But I averaged about 17.5, which is not great, but not bad. I wasn't really pushing it, but I did get in some good sprints. I was also encouraged by the fact that I biked a lot harder that last 15 minutes than I had the rest of the session.
I took a gel at the one hour mark (didn't see the need for 2 during an indoor workout) and finished a full bottle of water. The exercise bike has a totally different seat than a regular bike, so my ass was surprisingly sore after about 50 minutes. When I finished up at the 90-minute mark, I seriosuly had trouble walking. I've developed saddle sore immunity from my bike, since I've ridden it so much, but this one left me seriosuly uncomfortable. And the walk to the treadmill was very awkward.
Run - 30 Minutes (Treadmill)
Went back to abuse the Summer Run 2009 mix, once again, but the first 5 minutes all I could think was "God damn, my ass is sore." But as with all extremety pain during a run, once I got going it pretty much went away. I mean, I still feel sore from the exercise bike seat now - 20 hours later - but at the time it wasn't an issue. This was a short, indoor run with an iPod, so obviously I crushed it. It felt so good that when I got to "Big Sky" at about the 28-minute mark, I opted to just run to the end of the song. I NEVER extend workouts past their assigned times unless I'm going slower than I should be. Ever. But I was motivated and felt like I wanted to keep going and so I did. Nice to crush a run, I hadn't had a real good workout in a while.
Recovery week is going well, and this is the kind of workout you do during recovery week. I just hope the rain lets up, as I can't really be subbing in the stationary bike during the next month. That was something I did a little too much last cycle, and we all know how that turned out. But I've been avoiding most of those habits this time around, and I feel like the results will reflect that.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
T42 - Nuking The Village - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
This is an expression I learned from the guy who taught me how to blog, a fellow named Matt in New York who wrote a blog called the IJC. I won't talk about him here, but the term refers to a night when you go out drinking, and start doing shots and chugging beers like a moron to the point that you are either incoherent and passed out by midnight, or you power through the entire night being "that guy," who requires extensive babysitting. Either way, you went too hard, too early, and now at the end you're a total fucking mess. I didn't go out drinking, but today's workout, I nuked my village. Think I just got a little too excited and forgot I had a brick.
Bike - 1 Hour
2 Lipodrene (down to my last pill, that refill better fucking get here soon!)
I took yesterday off as my knee seems to have decided it wants to start acting up again (no idea why)and thought it better to switch the rest day that was supposed to be today to Monday, then do last Sunday's workout today and skip the Tuesday workout altogether. You lost yet? Basically I am skipping the first workout of this recovery week and doing the last one from the last week of Base 1 instead, since they are almost identical. ANYWAY.....
I had to wait until 4:15 to start the bike, and as I was getting my water bottles ready, Trevor looked up from his iPhone and asked how long I was going. Having just gotten his Super Cervelo fixed, he wanted to come along. Usually long rides with Trevor consist of me keeping up with him for about 10 minutes, wasting my legs, and dropping back for the other 2 hours and 50 minutes. But today was an hour, so I figured why not push it a little. See how long I could keep up. This is a guy who averaged over 20 for the entire Ironman, so it's a good lead to follow.
He managed to lose me at the first stoplight (I hit the red) but did wait at the trailhead. I kept up with him at a solid 22-24 clip until we got to some hills, where he kept that clip and pulled ahead. Well, lasted about 14 minutes this time, I thought. Still, an improvement. But once the hills flattened out he has slowed down and looked over at me when I caught him and said "I was just seeing if I could drop you. I can't keep that pace, shit. I thought I'd lose you a while ago." With that I shot up the first big hill in the hammock at over 20, maintaining that almost to the top. Trevor pulled back out in front for much of the rest of the ride, but I hung with him at 22-24, taking the lead a few times to give him a break from pulling. Although I made a point to avoid drafting as much as I could since that wouldn't really be keeping his pace as much as using his bike to make me go faster. But at the end of the ride, I'd more or less hung with him the whole time. Took a gel at 45.
When we got back to the light at Main, he was like "You're a real strong rider. The only way I'm dropping you is tactical shit like knowing when to push it going around curves and up hills, and timing light and accelerations. That's advances shit you can work on and get a good 20 seconds on people every time." He also advised me to start practicing using my small ring. Since I don't feel like a pussy now for using it, I feel like this should be to my advantage. But on flat ground, I can keep up with this guy. And that's a major stride from where I'd been previously. So that felt good. I ended up averaging 19.4 for the ride, and when I got back I had some serious adrenaline going. So I took the iPOd, feeling a good run coming on as well.
Run - 60 Minutes. At least, that was the plan.
Soooo, yeah. Learned a few things today. Good as my legs felt on that ride (they never burned for more than a few seconds, even going up hills) at minute 22 of run they went out. Now, granted, I was running up and down the hills on the backside of the campus loop at a much faster pace than usual because I was so pumped from the ride, and I had the iPod on. And though I've decided I was overusing that Silversun Pickups CD on so many levels, I think I can still use it for workouts. And it worked here. But as soon as "Panic Switch" ended, my legs did too. Like the just went "Hey, fuck you pal. These quads have been working harder than ever the past hour and a half, and you can just hold the fuck on while we take a little breather." So I took me second gel a little early and let them relax as I stopped and did some stretching.
Well, all that adrenaline must have made me forget about my knee, because as soon as I started up again, it was like someone had re-ripped my meniscus. Also, probably becasue I was tired I was plodding more than usual and putting more stress on my knees, but after another half mile or so, my knee was done. My legs felt better, but the knee was just not feeling this run. So, for only the second time ever, I adopted my "quitters punishment" policy and forced myself to walk the rest of the course home, even though turning around would have been a lot shorted. You're gonna be miserable either way, I figure, and the only way to be miserable for less time is to start running again. But every time I tried, my knee was once again telling me to go fuck myself. And I wasn't going to push it as I'd rather puss out on a run during a recovery week than do damage that may hinder longer runs down the road.
So a few things. First, on bricks, don't go balls to the wall on the bike. This was not a max effort today, but it was a hard effort, and having a 6.8 mile run after that I probably should have laid back a little. Also, on long runs after long bikes (or at least fast bikes) I'm going to stick to a flat course to preserve my quads. I don't feel bad about this given that the Ironman course is, in fact, completely flat. I may jsut do a series of stadium-and-backs so that if my knee gives out, I don't have to walk 4.5 miles home. On a bad knee.
I'm not sure why my fucking knee has decided to be a bitch again, but whatever. Short of surgery I can't really control that. But this is my last run of recovery week (in keeping with the recovering theme) unless I feel 100% on Sunday, which is a scheduled 90-minute run. The week after that is swim-intensive, so this should be just the break it needs before getting a real test in 2 weeks.
This is an expression I learned from the guy who taught me how to blog, a fellow named Matt in New York who wrote a blog called the IJC. I won't talk about him here, but the term refers to a night when you go out drinking, and start doing shots and chugging beers like a moron to the point that you are either incoherent and passed out by midnight, or you power through the entire night being "that guy," who requires extensive babysitting. Either way, you went too hard, too early, and now at the end you're a total fucking mess. I didn't go out drinking, but today's workout, I nuked my village. Think I just got a little too excited and forgot I had a brick.
Bike - 1 Hour
2 Lipodrene (down to my last pill, that refill better fucking get here soon!)
I took yesterday off as my knee seems to have decided it wants to start acting up again (no idea why)and thought it better to switch the rest day that was supposed to be today to Monday, then do last Sunday's workout today and skip the Tuesday workout altogether. You lost yet? Basically I am skipping the first workout of this recovery week and doing the last one from the last week of Base 1 instead, since they are almost identical. ANYWAY.....
I had to wait until 4:15 to start the bike, and as I was getting my water bottles ready, Trevor looked up from his iPhone and asked how long I was going. Having just gotten his Super Cervelo fixed, he wanted to come along. Usually long rides with Trevor consist of me keeping up with him for about 10 minutes, wasting my legs, and dropping back for the other 2 hours and 50 minutes. But today was an hour, so I figured why not push it a little. See how long I could keep up. This is a guy who averaged over 20 for the entire Ironman, so it's a good lead to follow.
He managed to lose me at the first stoplight (I hit the red) but did wait at the trailhead. I kept up with him at a solid 22-24 clip until we got to some hills, where he kept that clip and pulled ahead. Well, lasted about 14 minutes this time, I thought. Still, an improvement. But once the hills flattened out he has slowed down and looked over at me when I caught him and said "I was just seeing if I could drop you. I can't keep that pace, shit. I thought I'd lose you a while ago." With that I shot up the first big hill in the hammock at over 20, maintaining that almost to the top. Trevor pulled back out in front for much of the rest of the ride, but I hung with him at 22-24, taking the lead a few times to give him a break from pulling. Although I made a point to avoid drafting as much as I could since that wouldn't really be keeping his pace as much as using his bike to make me go faster. But at the end of the ride, I'd more or less hung with him the whole time. Took a gel at 45.
When we got back to the light at Main, he was like "You're a real strong rider. The only way I'm dropping you is tactical shit like knowing when to push it going around curves and up hills, and timing light and accelerations. That's advances shit you can work on and get a good 20 seconds on people every time." He also advised me to start practicing using my small ring. Since I don't feel like a pussy now for using it, I feel like this should be to my advantage. But on flat ground, I can keep up with this guy. And that's a major stride from where I'd been previously. So that felt good. I ended up averaging 19.4 for the ride, and when I got back I had some serious adrenaline going. So I took the iPOd, feeling a good run coming on as well.
Run - 60 Minutes. At least, that was the plan.
Soooo, yeah. Learned a few things today. Good as my legs felt on that ride (they never burned for more than a few seconds, even going up hills) at minute 22 of run they went out. Now, granted, I was running up and down the hills on the backside of the campus loop at a much faster pace than usual because I was so pumped from the ride, and I had the iPod on. And though I've decided I was overusing that Silversun Pickups CD on so many levels, I think I can still use it for workouts. And it worked here. But as soon as "Panic Switch" ended, my legs did too. Like the just went "Hey, fuck you pal. These quads have been working harder than ever the past hour and a half, and you can just hold the fuck on while we take a little breather." So I took me second gel a little early and let them relax as I stopped and did some stretching.
Well, all that adrenaline must have made me forget about my knee, because as soon as I started up again, it was like someone had re-ripped my meniscus. Also, probably becasue I was tired I was plodding more than usual and putting more stress on my knees, but after another half mile or so, my knee was done. My legs felt better, but the knee was just not feeling this run. So, for only the second time ever, I adopted my "quitters punishment" policy and forced myself to walk the rest of the course home, even though turning around would have been a lot shorted. You're gonna be miserable either way, I figure, and the only way to be miserable for less time is to start running again. But every time I tried, my knee was once again telling me to go fuck myself. And I wasn't going to push it as I'd rather puss out on a run during a recovery week than do damage that may hinder longer runs down the road.
So a few things. First, on bricks, don't go balls to the wall on the bike. This was not a max effort today, but it was a hard effort, and having a 6.8 mile run after that I probably should have laid back a little. Also, on long runs after long bikes (or at least fast bikes) I'm going to stick to a flat course to preserve my quads. I don't feel bad about this given that the Ironman course is, in fact, completely flat. I may jsut do a series of stadium-and-backs so that if my knee gives out, I don't have to walk 4.5 miles home. On a bad knee.
I'm not sure why my fucking knee has decided to be a bitch again, but whatever. Short of surgery I can't really control that. But this is my last run of recovery week (in keeping with the recovering theme) unless I feel 100% on Sunday, which is a scheduled 90-minute run. The week after that is swim-intensive, so this should be just the break it needs before getting a real test in 2 weeks.
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.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
T37 - Nothing Like Tasting Tobasco Vomit - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
So I learned from my mistakes. After that long swim last night all I ate was the aforementioned Muscle Milk shake and some microwave popcorn, causing me to go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep. So I got out of bed at 4 and had a bagel with peanut butte,r which seemed to do the trick. I had wanted to knock this workout out earlier (like 1 or so) but realized I was gonna need some real food before I could do what was essentially the back 2 legs of an Olympic-Distance triathlon. So when I went to buy gels today I stopped at Publix and got myself a half a pound of turkey and a sourdough baguette, which I then covered in my traditional Tobasco/Cajun spices mix. This was both a good and terrible idea.
Bike: 2 Hours small chainring work
2 Lipodrene
Trevor once told me there is absolutely no reason to ever use your small ring in Florida. And not that I'm one ever to be called out by stuff like that, but I was called out on that one. I have not used my small ring except on the trainer since the Escape to Miami, where I had forgotten to switch it back after my last trainer workout before I left and changed it back as soon as I could get it to. I can't even tell you when the last time I used it in training, outside of California. Maybe last summer on Mt. Miami. At any rate, I told the small ring to go fuck itself today, despite what my training card said.
And this is where I was reminded of that old Marine Corps saying "Hard is just a 4-letter word for stupid." For some reason, I just couldn't get it going on the bike, possibly because I'd done a 50-mile ride less that 48 hours earlier. The first half was just labored the whole way, as I was beginning to convince myself Hawthorne had a lot more hills than it let on. This was, again, until I hit the turnaround. I made it 17.3 miles in the first hour, not a good pace at all.
The way back was a different story. I was going 20-21 most of the time on the flatlands the whole ride back, and it literally felt like a completely different ride. Though I don't know that I shoulda done the small ring the whole time (where's the training value in THAT?) maybe the way down it would have been a good idea. The ride back was fantastic as I spent a good deal of it in aero and made it back in under two hours(1:57) despite taking 1:01:30 to get to halfway. I was happy.
But I didn't make it to the end of Hawethorne and got incredibly thirsty. The salty turkey and Tobasco has something to do with this, as I was through 2 bottles before I even got a quarter of the way back. I'm going to consider a third bottle. I also took 2 gels on the ride, as I am becoming very disciplined about this given how lethargic I seem to get when I don't/ Oh, and all that spicy food for lunch? Didn't help the reflux, I was belching up, borderline vomiting, Tobasco sauce and sour cream and onion chips for most of the ride. So the food helped, but maybe I gotta pick something milder next time. My stomach didn't hurt, but that taste is not one you like to have coming up when you're trying to hammer down.
Run: 50 Minutes
I took another gel with me to take at the 15 minute mark as, minus my 8-minute transition, this would have been the logical time to take another one. I started out with some good strides and made it to about the stadium before I started getting really choppy. There were a ton of people out running today, and you really never realize how slow you are going until a group of black middle school girls passes you. And these were not like mini version of the Williams Sisters. These were like mini versions of girls you see on the Maury show. Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of those people are about the same age as these girls. Anyway, the point is at the halfway point (which I also use as my 45-minute halfway point but I knew I was slow today) I knew I was doggin in. No excuse really except that it was exceptionally humid. Gonna have to get used to these long bricks.
Once I hit the stadium I was able to stride it back pretty well. the run was not fantastic, but was a decent confidence booster after what I felt like was a strong biking effort for the previous hour.
I am running out of Lipodrene. We may have our first ephedra-free workout sometime next week. That's gonna suck. Thank God its recovery week. I'm also looking ahead and trying to figure out how August training is gonna work. That's a HUGE month and I"m only home for 10 days. Definitely gonna have to sit down and figure out what I"m gonna do where. The bike will be tough. I can rent one in Kona, for sure. And maybe in Charlottesville or something. But I don't really wanna ship my bike to PIttsburgh. We shall see.
So I learned from my mistakes. After that long swim last night all I ate was the aforementioned Muscle Milk shake and some microwave popcorn, causing me to go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep. So I got out of bed at 4 and had a bagel with peanut butte,r which seemed to do the trick. I had wanted to knock this workout out earlier (like 1 or so) but realized I was gonna need some real food before I could do what was essentially the back 2 legs of an Olympic-Distance triathlon. So when I went to buy gels today I stopped at Publix and got myself a half a pound of turkey and a sourdough baguette, which I then covered in my traditional Tobasco/Cajun spices mix. This was both a good and terrible idea.
Bike: 2 Hours small chainring work
2 Lipodrene
Trevor once told me there is absolutely no reason to ever use your small ring in Florida. And not that I'm one ever to be called out by stuff like that, but I was called out on that one. I have not used my small ring except on the trainer since the Escape to Miami, where I had forgotten to switch it back after my last trainer workout before I left and changed it back as soon as I could get it to. I can't even tell you when the last time I used it in training, outside of California. Maybe last summer on Mt. Miami. At any rate, I told the small ring to go fuck itself today, despite what my training card said.
And this is where I was reminded of that old Marine Corps saying "Hard is just a 4-letter word for stupid." For some reason, I just couldn't get it going on the bike, possibly because I'd done a 50-mile ride less that 48 hours earlier. The first half was just labored the whole way, as I was beginning to convince myself Hawthorne had a lot more hills than it let on. This was, again, until I hit the turnaround. I made it 17.3 miles in the first hour, not a good pace at all.
The way back was a different story. I was going 20-21 most of the time on the flatlands the whole ride back, and it literally felt like a completely different ride. Though I don't know that I shoulda done the small ring the whole time (where's the training value in THAT?) maybe the way down it would have been a good idea. The ride back was fantastic as I spent a good deal of it in aero and made it back in under two hours(1:57) despite taking 1:01:30 to get to halfway. I was happy.
But I didn't make it to the end of Hawethorne and got incredibly thirsty. The salty turkey and Tobasco has something to do with this, as I was through 2 bottles before I even got a quarter of the way back. I'm going to consider a third bottle. I also took 2 gels on the ride, as I am becoming very disciplined about this given how lethargic I seem to get when I don't/ Oh, and all that spicy food for lunch? Didn't help the reflux, I was belching up, borderline vomiting, Tobasco sauce and sour cream and onion chips for most of the ride. So the food helped, but maybe I gotta pick something milder next time. My stomach didn't hurt, but that taste is not one you like to have coming up when you're trying to hammer down.
Run: 50 Minutes
I took another gel with me to take at the 15 minute mark as, minus my 8-minute transition, this would have been the logical time to take another one. I started out with some good strides and made it to about the stadium before I started getting really choppy. There were a ton of people out running today, and you really never realize how slow you are going until a group of black middle school girls passes you. And these were not like mini version of the Williams Sisters. These were like mini versions of girls you see on the Maury show. Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of those people are about the same age as these girls. Anyway, the point is at the halfway point (which I also use as my 45-minute halfway point but I knew I was slow today) I knew I was doggin in. No excuse really except that it was exceptionally humid. Gonna have to get used to these long bricks.
Once I hit the stadium I was able to stride it back pretty well. the run was not fantastic, but was a decent confidence booster after what I felt like was a strong biking effort for the previous hour.
I am running out of Lipodrene. We may have our first ephedra-free workout sometime next week. That's gonna suck. Thank God its recovery week. I'm also looking ahead and trying to figure out how August training is gonna work. That's a HUGE month and I"m only home for 10 days. Definitely gonna have to sit down and figure out what I"m gonna do where. The bike will be tough. I can rent one in Kona, for sure. And maybe in Charlottesville or something. But I don't really wanna ship my bike to PIttsburgh. We shall see.
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 10, 2009
T32 - Yeah, That Was a Dumb Idea - Bike/Run Brick
Gainesville
Wednesday was a nice off day. I took a long nap once I got home and then decided to go out Wednesday night. Typically I don't do this, but this girl had been texting me the whole week I was gone about all the things she wanted to do once I got back, so I figured what better way to end an off day? Bad decision.
Bike: 2 hours
I ended up meeting up with this girl Wednesday night, but it had been a while since I had dealt with a group of females under 21, and forgot that such groups operate by groupthink. Therefore a 1 a.m. trip to a frat house was the decided upon activity for them, despite the series of texts I had received that day implying a different ending to the night. Oh well, such is life in a college town. Anyway, I would not really have been so irritated had I not used time that could have been spent working or sleeping to go out. Similarly, I had about a pitcher of beer, which while ineffective insofar as getting me drunk, I definitely felt in my legs when I got on the bike. I felt like an idiot for going out, and vowed to start re prioritizing.
The first hour of the bike was very easy, I didn't push it since that's what the training card suggested. I did manage to get to nigbridge in 28 and 30, not a horrible time. But I only made it 17.4 miles the first half. The way back, though, it was like my legs woke up and I averaged about 18.5 on the return trip. I think the night out required a longer warmup than usual for my legs, and therefore I didn't really get going until the way back. I was happy with the last hour on the bike, and the ride seemed really short. I took gels at the :45 and 1:30 marks, and that seemed to work well. I also made the whole ride on only 2 bottles, probabl a function of it being late in the day. Still, nice to see I don't have to do the whole train on a 2 hour ride if I time it right.
Run: 1 Hour
1 Lipodrene
I figured I wouldn't need to take another gel since I'd had so many and the run was only an hour. This was not a bright idea. Not only did I decide to run without music (a good and necessary decision given my headphones don't work)but I decided to run the campus loop, which given that I was going to be running slower than normal since this was a brick, ensured overtime on the workout. Sure enough, I found myself about 20 minutes into the loop going "Yeah, no way I make this in under 1:15. Oh well, better to go a little too far. They don't call it Ironman training because it's easy." I briefly considered just running out half an hour and back, but that wouldn't be in the spirit of this training cycle. So I did the whole loop, although by the time I hit the Publix on 34th I was starving and cursing myself for not bringing a gel along. Finished in just under 1:15 (about 1:12, unscientifically) but the lesson here is on bricks, do the gels every 45 minutes no matter how you feel at the time. your workout will thank you.
And of course, I decided to go out yet again.....
Wednesday was a nice off day. I took a long nap once I got home and then decided to go out Wednesday night. Typically I don't do this, but this girl had been texting me the whole week I was gone about all the things she wanted to do once I got back, so I figured what better way to end an off day? Bad decision.
Bike: 2 hours
I ended up meeting up with this girl Wednesday night, but it had been a while since I had dealt with a group of females under 21, and forgot that such groups operate by groupthink. Therefore a 1 a.m. trip to a frat house was the decided upon activity for them, despite the series of texts I had received that day implying a different ending to the night. Oh well, such is life in a college town. Anyway, I would not really have been so irritated had I not used time that could have been spent working or sleeping to go out. Similarly, I had about a pitcher of beer, which while ineffective insofar as getting me drunk, I definitely felt in my legs when I got on the bike. I felt like an idiot for going out, and vowed to start re prioritizing.
The first hour of the bike was very easy, I didn't push it since that's what the training card suggested. I did manage to get to nigbridge in 28 and 30, not a horrible time. But I only made it 17.4 miles the first half. The way back, though, it was like my legs woke up and I averaged about 18.5 on the return trip. I think the night out required a longer warmup than usual for my legs, and therefore I didn't really get going until the way back. I was happy with the last hour on the bike, and the ride seemed really short. I took gels at the :45 and 1:30 marks, and that seemed to work well. I also made the whole ride on only 2 bottles, probabl a function of it being late in the day. Still, nice to see I don't have to do the whole train on a 2 hour ride if I time it right.
Run: 1 Hour
1 Lipodrene
I figured I wouldn't need to take another gel since I'd had so many and the run was only an hour. This was not a bright idea. Not only did I decide to run without music (a good and necessary decision given my headphones don't work)but I decided to run the campus loop, which given that I was going to be running slower than normal since this was a brick, ensured overtime on the workout. Sure enough, I found myself about 20 minutes into the loop going "Yeah, no way I make this in under 1:15. Oh well, better to go a little too far. They don't call it Ironman training because it's easy." I briefly considered just running out half an hour and back, but that wouldn't be in the spirit of this training cycle. So I did the whole loop, although by the time I hit the Publix on 34th I was starving and cursing myself for not bringing a gel along. Finished in just under 1:15 (about 1:12, unscientifically) but the lesson here is on bricks, do the gels every 45 minutes no matter how you feel at the time. your workout will thank you.
And of course, I decided to go out yet again.....
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.
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