Miami Beach
Run - 13.1 miles
2 Lipodrene
Tony, first of all is about the best pre-race host imaginable. Not only did he give up his bedroom so I'd have a comfortable place to sleep, he also got me a bunch of bottled water, set 4 alarms, and knocked on the door at 5 a.m. to wake me up. He does triathlons too, so he knew the importnace. Anyway, I made it from his house in Flagami to the beach by about 5:30, had 2 bagles on the drive over, parked by Nikki Beach and took the shuttle over to Jungle Island where the race was starting.
This race was pretty fun. With all the people running it in costumes, and the shorter-distance, it just had an atmosphere of the sort of event that was full of people there for a good time. I figured given that you don't get much more serious than an Ironman, this would be a nice, fun final long run before the not-so-fun one in a week. Since I never dress for Halloween, my costume was "Guy in Black Shorts" and I did not bring the iPod. Nor did I bring any gels.
The emails I'd gotten had made it sound like they had gels at the aid stations, but it became pretty obvious by aid station 1 that they would not be providing anything other than water and Powerade at the aid stations. Good thing I brought a Cliff Bar with me, which I ended up eating half of at about mile 8. I started the race apparently running about a 9 minute mile pace, according to the guy running next to me who didn't shut up. Which I thought felt pretty maintainable, until he stopped and walked. "Break time," he said. Throughout the race I would see him pass me, then I'd pass him and his friend (female) and this went on until just before the turnaround on 48th Street.
The run was far and away the most scenic I've done this entire cycle, going across the MacArthur Causeway. through South Pointe Park and up the boardwalk to 48th Street, where you turn around, rtun back on the boardwalk along the beach, then do a loop of South Pointe Park before ending in front of Nikki Beach. And, fontunately, the sun really didn't come out until right at the end. I took a 3rd Lipodrene at mile 8-ish, and hydrated with 2 Powerades and a wter at every other aid station.
The miles seemed to go by quick, although my pace wan't much faster than usual, and I never felt labored or exhausted or worn out the entire time. Dizzy, a few times, but not once like I wanted to stop. The whole thing felt like it went pretty fast, I even felt like I hit the halfway point early. As it was, I finished in about 2:20, which is right where I thought I'd be. Yeah, I run slow. I know. The countless women 15 years my senior who passed me reminded me of this. But I also ran my pace. Meaning that I was in shape enough to run this and not get winded. Could I push myself more? Yeah, probably. But I think my mentality for these things is set towards Ironman. Like don't dog it, but don't push it too much. You got a long way to go.
And so that was how I ran this race. It was a lot of fun, and I ran exactly how I thought I would. Which is neither discouraging nor particularly motivating. It just lets me know that I know what I can do. And contrary to the Rickenbacker Ride of the day before, this actually felt good. So 2 for 3 on Miami workouts this trip (swim and run good, bike bad). A better percentage than ususal.
I will also note that there were a LOT of attractive girls on this run. Usually at triathlons, the girls look weathered and hard, and while their bodies are typically pretty good they look a little windswept. For some reason half-marathons just attract a different crowd. There was a girl standing next to me at the starting line wearing like a giant British Flag dress thing that was easily the best looking girl I'd seen at any endurance event. And the group of girls dressed as lifeguards who came and sat with me at the after party at Nikki Beach weren't bad either. I think when I get back to Miami, I'm gonna have to start going more of these.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
T104 - Half Ironman Weekend, Part One - Swim/Bike Brick
Miami
I realized that between Friday's workout and Saturday's half-marathon, I'd be basically doing a Half Ironman over two days a week before the big race. But it's over 2 days. So I think I'll be ok. I stayed up in Miramar Thursday night, and had to be up early as Klueber had to meet with his CIA rep or whatever it is he does, at like 7:30. So I drove down to Key Biscayne and parked my car at Bill Baggs park for the open water swim and bike brick. I thought this would be a good race simulation, even if it was a bit short.
Swim: 75 minutes - open water if possible.
Continuous swim. 1st 200m at RPE 9-10, then settle into race pace
2 Lipodrene
The training card actually only called for 45 minutes today. But the thing is, I don't wear a watch. So I looked at the clock on my car when I left to go to the water and it was 8:57, figuring I probably got in the water around 9. I got out in Biscayne Bay and just got into my stroke groove and was like "Shit, I can do this all night." I was actually swimming into the current, although the waves were still battering me from my right side. Because I breathe to the left, this was not such a big deal on the way out. So I get to a bend in the beach and see the first condo past the park isn't that far and decide to swim to it. Those condos look a lot closer from the water than they really are, let me tell you. I started swimming completely with the current, into shore, and it took a loooong time. But whatever. I got to the beach, stood up, pissed in the water, and headed back.
Now on the way back I had the current at my back, which I figured would make for a faster return trip. But what I didn't account for was the waves splashing into my face every other breath, as well as the waves knocking me around while I swam. There was some decent chop out Friday morning, even that early. Also, sighting became a problem. I kept looking up to sight myself to the lighthouse in the park (where I started my swim) and all I kept seeing was ocean. Like I kept swimming out into the bay instead of staying on the shoreline. Eventually I decided to hug the shoreline, and about 300 yards before the lighthouse all I could do was grab sand. Too fucking shallow. So I just got out and walked it. Got back to my car and it was 10:37. Accounting for time spent walking and getting my shit together, I figured the swim was around 75 minutes. Might have been longer, who knows, but it definitely made the bike a lot more rushed.
Bike - 3 Hours
2 Lipodrene
I had biked the Rickenbacker probably 25 or 30 times in the summer of 2008 when I was training for my first half-Ironman. So I felt like I knew the course well. It's very flat, and very windy, but I felt like since I knew it and I was stronger I'd do well. Well, I thought wrong. I'm not sure if it was me still feeling ill, or me being tired from lack of sleep, or the swim kicking my ass, but I got on the bike, did 19 for about 2 miles, then could not get much over 16 for a long time. Like I just wanted to put the energy into going faster but for some reason just couldn't. Didn't want to go fast. A couple of times I got up near 20 and just held back, and I don't know why. Maybe it was mental pacing myself, knowing I have the half-marathon Saturday morning. But that won't fly come Ironman day.
Basically, I did the first trip around the Rickenbacker and to Virginia Key in 1:19. That's distance of about 21 miles, BTW. Essentially, a shitty ride. A really shitty ride. Just could not get anything going at all, and a little distressing after the good Century ride and strong trainer session. Even when I hit the few sharp turns on this ride, which I usually navigated ok a year ago when I was a worse biker, I just stopped, unclipped, and turned because I didn't have the energy to try and navigate them. It was a very strange ride to say the least.
The second trip wasn't so bad. I got up to 18 heading out and kept that speed, going a little faster on the road out to Jimbo’s and obviously slowing at Mount Miami. But as I turned around to head back Tony, the guy who cuts my hair and the friend I was staying with that night (he's straight, don't get any fucking ideas) texted me to see when was the soonest I could come in. My appointment was at 4, but he really wanted to take the rest of the day off, and since he was letting me stay at his place before the half-marathon I figured I do him a favor. I got back to my car at 2:40, and decided to call it a day. Yes, I cheated myself out of 20 minutes of a really shitty bike ride (averaged about 16, a record low for anything, ever)and that time was instead taken up by increased time swimming in open salt water. Probably something I needed more practice in anyway.
The swim felt good, though it was mentally tough. But man, did that bike suck., I'm not sure why I had nothing for it, I've done swim/bike bricks before, and done races where that certainly did not happen. I'll chalk it up to a shitty day. And fortunately I have one more ride of significance before the race to get my confidence back up.
I realized that between Friday's workout and Saturday's half-marathon, I'd be basically doing a Half Ironman over two days a week before the big race. But it's over 2 days. So I think I'll be ok. I stayed up in Miramar Thursday night, and had to be up early as Klueber had to meet with his CIA rep or whatever it is he does, at like 7:30. So I drove down to Key Biscayne and parked my car at Bill Baggs park for the open water swim and bike brick. I thought this would be a good race simulation, even if it was a bit short.
Swim: 75 minutes - open water if possible.
Continuous swim. 1st 200m at RPE 9-10, then settle into race pace
2 Lipodrene
The training card actually only called for 45 minutes today. But the thing is, I don't wear a watch. So I looked at the clock on my car when I left to go to the water and it was 8:57, figuring I probably got in the water around 9. I got out in Biscayne Bay and just got into my stroke groove and was like "Shit, I can do this all night." I was actually swimming into the current, although the waves were still battering me from my right side. Because I breathe to the left, this was not such a big deal on the way out. So I get to a bend in the beach and see the first condo past the park isn't that far and decide to swim to it. Those condos look a lot closer from the water than they really are, let me tell you. I started swimming completely with the current, into shore, and it took a loooong time. But whatever. I got to the beach, stood up, pissed in the water, and headed back.
Now on the way back I had the current at my back, which I figured would make for a faster return trip. But what I didn't account for was the waves splashing into my face every other breath, as well as the waves knocking me around while I swam. There was some decent chop out Friday morning, even that early. Also, sighting became a problem. I kept looking up to sight myself to the lighthouse in the park (where I started my swim) and all I kept seeing was ocean. Like I kept swimming out into the bay instead of staying on the shoreline. Eventually I decided to hug the shoreline, and about 300 yards before the lighthouse all I could do was grab sand. Too fucking shallow. So I just got out and walked it. Got back to my car and it was 10:37. Accounting for time spent walking and getting my shit together, I figured the swim was around 75 minutes. Might have been longer, who knows, but it definitely made the bike a lot more rushed.
Bike - 3 Hours
2 Lipodrene
I had biked the Rickenbacker probably 25 or 30 times in the summer of 2008 when I was training for my first half-Ironman. So I felt like I knew the course well. It's very flat, and very windy, but I felt like since I knew it and I was stronger I'd do well. Well, I thought wrong. I'm not sure if it was me still feeling ill, or me being tired from lack of sleep, or the swim kicking my ass, but I got on the bike, did 19 for about 2 miles, then could not get much over 16 for a long time. Like I just wanted to put the energy into going faster but for some reason just couldn't. Didn't want to go fast. A couple of times I got up near 20 and just held back, and I don't know why. Maybe it was mental pacing myself, knowing I have the half-marathon Saturday morning. But that won't fly come Ironman day.
Basically, I did the first trip around the Rickenbacker and to Virginia Key in 1:19. That's distance of about 21 miles, BTW. Essentially, a shitty ride. A really shitty ride. Just could not get anything going at all, and a little distressing after the good Century ride and strong trainer session. Even when I hit the few sharp turns on this ride, which I usually navigated ok a year ago when I was a worse biker, I just stopped, unclipped, and turned because I didn't have the energy to try and navigate them. It was a very strange ride to say the least.
The second trip wasn't so bad. I got up to 18 heading out and kept that speed, going a little faster on the road out to Jimbo’s and obviously slowing at Mount Miami. But as I turned around to head back Tony, the guy who cuts my hair and the friend I was staying with that night (he's straight, don't get any fucking ideas) texted me to see when was the soonest I could come in. My appointment was at 4, but he really wanted to take the rest of the day off, and since he was letting me stay at his place before the half-marathon I figured I do him a favor. I got back to my car at 2:40, and decided to call it a day. Yes, I cheated myself out of 20 minutes of a really shitty bike ride (averaged about 16, a record low for anything, ever)and that time was instead taken up by increased time swimming in open salt water. Probably something I needed more practice in anyway.
The swim felt good, though it was mentally tough. But man, did that bike suck., I'm not sure why I had nothing for it, I've done swim/bike bricks before, and done races where that certainly did not happen. I'll chalk it up to a shitty day. And fortunately I have one more ride of significance before the race to get my confidence back up.
Friday, October 30, 2009
T103 - Tapering with Trainer Trance - Bike (Trainer), Swim
Gainesville
After three days off, I began my last tapering week before Race Week. Tapering is where you actually decrease your training hours, although the way I'm going it I still have some long workouts, just more days off. I'm not sure if this is the best method, but I've found my motivation on the shorter ones to be lacking, so I try and create a situation where I can maximize the training value.
Bike: 60 minutes (Trainer)
wu: 10 minute RPE3
main: 40 minutes RPE 7
cd: 10 minutes RPE 3
2 Lipodrene
I opted for the trainer since I did this workout on Wednesday, and Wednesdays don't leave much room for me to train before dark unless I want to wake up super early. And that wasn't happening. And given that this was a tapering week and I had 2 other bike rides scheduled (including a long swim/bike brick) I thought this would be a good time to use the trainer. It is still hot as fuck in Gainesville, and more humid that some parts of the summer. So this evening session on the patio was still especially sweaty.
I used the iPod and after the initial 10 minutes spend the better part of the 40-minute interval in aero with my eyes closed trying to get into the trainer trace. the trainer trance is pretty awesome because you really don't even feel your legs working at all, but you still go a lot harder than you would if you were looking up. I broke the trance several times, but the middle 40 felt strong. I still had some problems with saddle sores or hemorrhoids or whatever they are, and found myself shifting a lot every time I stood up in the saddle. but at the end I ended up averaging 18.8 for the hour. And even though Trevor says that's a meaningless stat, I really have nothing else to go by. One of my faster trainer sessions and despite the sweatiness and monotonousness, it was a good workout.
Swim
main: 200, 2x100, 200, 2 x 100, 200,
long intervals at RPE4, short at RPE 7-8
2 Lipodrene
I actualyl went pretty much straight from the trainer to my car and headed over to GHFC. I really should have looked up the warmup before I left, because the first 200 felt a little labored and my lats felt really sore. In addition, it was getting late and as such I started feeling dizzy and overheated. I have noticed that those symptoms really aren't too bad until about 7 or 8 at night, so I'm trying to avoid training that late the rest of the cycle. And fortunately, the race starts early.
Anyway, I wouldn't say I exactly crushed this swim, and I felt short of breath a LOT. the water also felt expecially cool, meaning I was getting that overheated feeling again. I took long breaks betwen sets and managed to get the workout done in the manner prescribed. But I did not feel good during most of it. I am learning how to manage whatever this weird illness is, and working out earlier seems to be a good solution.
I then proceeded to miss Thursday's workout, meaning I have 3 hard workouts in 3 days in Miami. And as we all know, Miami workouts tend to suck. Hopefully, I can reverse that trend in my last real week of training.
After three days off, I began my last tapering week before Race Week. Tapering is where you actually decrease your training hours, although the way I'm going it I still have some long workouts, just more days off. I'm not sure if this is the best method, but I've found my motivation on the shorter ones to be lacking, so I try and create a situation where I can maximize the training value.
Bike: 60 minutes (Trainer)
wu: 10 minute RPE3
main: 40 minutes RPE 7
cd: 10 minutes RPE 3
2 Lipodrene
I opted for the trainer since I did this workout on Wednesday, and Wednesdays don't leave much room for me to train before dark unless I want to wake up super early. And that wasn't happening. And given that this was a tapering week and I had 2 other bike rides scheduled (including a long swim/bike brick) I thought this would be a good time to use the trainer. It is still hot as fuck in Gainesville, and more humid that some parts of the summer. So this evening session on the patio was still especially sweaty.
I used the iPod and after the initial 10 minutes spend the better part of the 40-minute interval in aero with my eyes closed trying to get into the trainer trace. the trainer trance is pretty awesome because you really don't even feel your legs working at all, but you still go a lot harder than you would if you were looking up. I broke the trance several times, but the middle 40 felt strong. I still had some problems with saddle sores or hemorrhoids or whatever they are, and found myself shifting a lot every time I stood up in the saddle. but at the end I ended up averaging 18.8 for the hour. And even though Trevor says that's a meaningless stat, I really have nothing else to go by. One of my faster trainer sessions and despite the sweatiness and monotonousness, it was a good workout.
Swim
main: 200, 2x100, 200, 2 x 100, 200,
long intervals at RPE4, short at RPE 7-8
2 Lipodrene
I actualyl went pretty much straight from the trainer to my car and headed over to GHFC. I really should have looked up the warmup before I left, because the first 200 felt a little labored and my lats felt really sore. In addition, it was getting late and as such I started feeling dizzy and overheated. I have noticed that those symptoms really aren't too bad until about 7 or 8 at night, so I'm trying to avoid training that late the rest of the cycle. And fortunately, the race starts early.
Anyway, I wouldn't say I exactly crushed this swim, and I felt short of breath a LOT. the water also felt expecially cool, meaning I was getting that overheated feeling again. I took long breaks betwen sets and managed to get the workout done in the manner prescribed. But I did not feel good during most of it. I am learning how to manage whatever this weird illness is, and working out earlier seems to be a good solution.
I then proceeded to miss Thursday's workout, meaning I have 3 hard workouts in 3 days in Miami. And as we all know, Miami workouts tend to suck. Hopefully, I can reverse that trend in my last real week of training.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
T102 - Santa Fe Century Ride - Bike
Gainesville
I am not a fan of group rides. But this weekend the Gainesville Cycling Club offers a couple of Century Rides that fit in perfectly with my training schedule. I chose this one because it had pizza afterward and was formerly sponsored by a Saturn dealer, and I felt like the challenge was the same as the next day’s Horse Farm 100. If that doesn’t sound North Florida enough for you.
Bike – 100 miles
2 Lipodrene
2 Advil
1 Endurolyte
The race started out a bit slow for my taste, with the pack of probably 300-400 riders all mobbed together. And since I don’t stop and start well, or really ride slow very well either, this was a bit frustrating. I found myself weaving in and out of people for the first 5 miles, not unlike the Komen Race for the Cure in New York. Except we were on bikes this time. By about mile 8 or 9 it has spread out enough that my only issue with crowds was the occasional large group going by me, and knowing when it was safe top re-enter the middle of the road. I tried to avoid drafting as much as possible, but didn’t mind at all if people did it off me. I’m really unfamiliar with the ethics and guidelines of group riding, so I just kind of went with the flow. I just didn’t want to make it too easy on myself either.
About mile 18 or so I had to piss like crazy. But knew it was at least 20 minutes to the next Rest Stop. It was raining lightly and I thought to myself “You know, Trevor has told me how a lot of people just piss while they’re on the bike and let it fly behind them There’s nobody behind me, and it’s raining anyway. Fuck it.” And so I found a downhill where I could just relax everything and let it rip. Rather disgusting, and my shoes and socks started feeling a little warm and wet, but within ten minutes I’d completely forgotten about it, and was like “Awesome. I just pissed myself on the bike.” It’s like an endurance athlete initiation, I think.
The first 25 miles felt really good, as I pulled into the first aid station at about 1:18 averaging about 19. The Rest Stops on this ride were incredible. Like they had M&Ms and whole packs of Oreos and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. It was like an elementary school lunch spread with water coolers at every 25-mile stop. I put my bike down, filled my Zephyrhills bottles (I am practicing with these as I’m planning on exchanging both bottles during the Ironman) and had about 4 Oreos and an Orange before heading back out.
1 Lipodrene
1 Advil
1 Endurolyte
Miles 25-50 were not as impressive. I once again found myself struggling to get up past 19, even though the wind was negligible on this gloomy Saturday afternoon. There was a lot of elevation gain, I think, over this 25 miles, and I got passed by a couple of groups I had no prayer of catching. And I wasn’t trying to draft, so I just had to let them go. It was at about the 2 hour mark that I felt that burst of speed and energy start to slip, and I realized I am a good cyclist for the first 2 hours of a long ride, then seem to fall off. “That’s the last I’ll see of 20,” I thought to myself, and resigned myself to a 6 hour ride. I hit the second rest stop at about 2:48, my average speed slowing to close to about 17.8. I had kinda hoped to break 18 today, but whatever. I had to finish the race.
1 Lipodrene
1 Endurolyte
My back wasn’t hurting so I skipped the Advil. Well’ once again I wasn’t feeling incredible coming out of the rest stop, but I noticed about a mile into this third leg that this was pretty flat and straight. SO I got back down into aero and a funny thing happened: I started going a solid 21-22. For a while. I mean I kept the speed up pretty much through the whole 25 miles of this section, save for one part where I went up to 25 to pass a guy. He drafted behind me, then offered to pull adding “I can pull if you want, but I can’t pull that fast.” Awesome. That was all I needed.
At that point I got back in aero, kicked it up a gear, and did a solid 25-27 for about 10 minutes. I still have no idea how I did that, and was wondering to myself at the time “”How are you doing this?” but then I realized that I’ve probably been able to do this all along. I just need something with no wind and no elevation to slow my momentum. For the first time, I raised the average speed of my ride a good .5 mps over the third 25 miles of a Century, and felt strong doing it. Yeah, that 4th Lipodrene may have had something to do with it. But who cares. I’ll do a pill every 25 miles on the Ironman if that’s what it takes. I got to Rest Stop 3 at the 77 mile marker at just over 4 hours, averaging about 18.6 Go hard enough and I’d be done in an hour and change.
1 Lipodrene,
1 Advil
1 Endurolyte
I will add here I was not using slat tabs but rather the Endurolytes sample I got with my race packet. Anyway, I was all jazzed up to crush the final 25 miles, when I strangely found myself once again unable to go over 15 consistently. I spent about the first 3-4 miles thinking “Fuck, this sucks. I guess I nuked my village going 27 up those hills.” Then I tried something: I shifted into a harder gear and used only a smaller amount of energy, and immediately found myself going 18. I got into Aero and was back over 20 for a good part of the ride.
When I got to the 441 crossing I had to unclip and stop, which was fine except for the fact that my left cleat came off save for one screw. As in the fucking cleat was hanging off the shoe so not only could I not clip in, but the fucking thing was scraping against the bike frame for the entire last 8 miles. Impressive, I was still able to go about 18-20 the last 8 miles and ended up averaging 18.4 for the ride. Funny how I haven’t averaged over 17 on any short rides in a while, but was able to turn in a pretty decent ride today.
Maybe I just have a better mentality on these longer rides. Like I know they mean something so I put in stronger effort. Either way, my 2 best workouts of the week were the 4000 meter swim and this 100 mile bike. And while ideally they’d all be good workouts, if you have to have 2 that stand out, those are the ones you want. I definitely got my bike confidence back today. My back barely hurt on this ride. My saddle sores didn’t bother me. And I had my fastest average speed on a ride over 50 miles. Can’t complain too much. And couldn’t ask for a better final Century ride before the Ironman. Except maybe for my shoe breaking.
I am not a fan of group rides. But this weekend the Gainesville Cycling Club offers a couple of Century Rides that fit in perfectly with my training schedule. I chose this one because it had pizza afterward and was formerly sponsored by a Saturn dealer, and I felt like the challenge was the same as the next day’s Horse Farm 100. If that doesn’t sound North Florida enough for you.
Bike – 100 miles
2 Lipodrene
2 Advil
1 Endurolyte
The race started out a bit slow for my taste, with the pack of probably 300-400 riders all mobbed together. And since I don’t stop and start well, or really ride slow very well either, this was a bit frustrating. I found myself weaving in and out of people for the first 5 miles, not unlike the Komen Race for the Cure in New York. Except we were on bikes this time. By about mile 8 or 9 it has spread out enough that my only issue with crowds was the occasional large group going by me, and knowing when it was safe top re-enter the middle of the road. I tried to avoid drafting as much as possible, but didn’t mind at all if people did it off me. I’m really unfamiliar with the ethics and guidelines of group riding, so I just kind of went with the flow. I just didn’t want to make it too easy on myself either.
About mile 18 or so I had to piss like crazy. But knew it was at least 20 minutes to the next Rest Stop. It was raining lightly and I thought to myself “You know, Trevor has told me how a lot of people just piss while they’re on the bike and let it fly behind them There’s nobody behind me, and it’s raining anyway. Fuck it.” And so I found a downhill where I could just relax everything and let it rip. Rather disgusting, and my shoes and socks started feeling a little warm and wet, but within ten minutes I’d completely forgotten about it, and was like “Awesome. I just pissed myself on the bike.” It’s like an endurance athlete initiation, I think.
The first 25 miles felt really good, as I pulled into the first aid station at about 1:18 averaging about 19. The Rest Stops on this ride were incredible. Like they had M&Ms and whole packs of Oreos and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. It was like an elementary school lunch spread with water coolers at every 25-mile stop. I put my bike down, filled my Zephyrhills bottles (I am practicing with these as I’m planning on exchanging both bottles during the Ironman) and had about 4 Oreos and an Orange before heading back out.
1 Lipodrene
1 Advil
1 Endurolyte
Miles 25-50 were not as impressive. I once again found myself struggling to get up past 19, even though the wind was negligible on this gloomy Saturday afternoon. There was a lot of elevation gain, I think, over this 25 miles, and I got passed by a couple of groups I had no prayer of catching. And I wasn’t trying to draft, so I just had to let them go. It was at about the 2 hour mark that I felt that burst of speed and energy start to slip, and I realized I am a good cyclist for the first 2 hours of a long ride, then seem to fall off. “That’s the last I’ll see of 20,” I thought to myself, and resigned myself to a 6 hour ride. I hit the second rest stop at about 2:48, my average speed slowing to close to about 17.8. I had kinda hoped to break 18 today, but whatever. I had to finish the race.
1 Lipodrene
1 Endurolyte
My back wasn’t hurting so I skipped the Advil. Well’ once again I wasn’t feeling incredible coming out of the rest stop, but I noticed about a mile into this third leg that this was pretty flat and straight. SO I got back down into aero and a funny thing happened: I started going a solid 21-22. For a while. I mean I kept the speed up pretty much through the whole 25 miles of this section, save for one part where I went up to 25 to pass a guy. He drafted behind me, then offered to pull adding “I can pull if you want, but I can’t pull that fast.” Awesome. That was all I needed.
At that point I got back in aero, kicked it up a gear, and did a solid 25-27 for about 10 minutes. I still have no idea how I did that, and was wondering to myself at the time “”How are you doing this?” but then I realized that I’ve probably been able to do this all along. I just need something with no wind and no elevation to slow my momentum. For the first time, I raised the average speed of my ride a good .5 mps over the third 25 miles of a Century, and felt strong doing it. Yeah, that 4th Lipodrene may have had something to do with it. But who cares. I’ll do a pill every 25 miles on the Ironman if that’s what it takes. I got to Rest Stop 3 at the 77 mile marker at just over 4 hours, averaging about 18.6 Go hard enough and I’d be done in an hour and change.
1 Lipodrene,
1 Advil
1 Endurolyte
I will add here I was not using slat tabs but rather the Endurolytes sample I got with my race packet. Anyway, I was all jazzed up to crush the final 25 miles, when I strangely found myself once again unable to go over 15 consistently. I spent about the first 3-4 miles thinking “Fuck, this sucks. I guess I nuked my village going 27 up those hills.” Then I tried something: I shifted into a harder gear and used only a smaller amount of energy, and immediately found myself going 18. I got into Aero and was back over 20 for a good part of the ride.
When I got to the 441 crossing I had to unclip and stop, which was fine except for the fact that my left cleat came off save for one screw. As in the fucking cleat was hanging off the shoe so not only could I not clip in, but the fucking thing was scraping against the bike frame for the entire last 8 miles. Impressive, I was still able to go about 18-20 the last 8 miles and ended up averaging 18.4 for the ride. Funny how I haven’t averaged over 17 on any short rides in a while, but was able to turn in a pretty decent ride today.
Maybe I just have a better mentality on these longer rides. Like I know they mean something so I put in stronger effort. Either way, my 2 best workouts of the week were the 4000 meter swim and this 100 mile bike. And while ideally they’d all be good workouts, if you have to have 2 that stand out, those are the ones you want. I definitely got my bike confidence back today. My back barely hurt on this ride. My saddle sores didn’t bother me. And I had my fastest average speed on a ride over 50 miles. Can’t complain too much. And couldn’t ask for a better final Century ride before the Ironman. Except maybe for my shoe breaking.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
T101 - The Yack and Rally - Swim
Gainesville
For Aaron Klueber...
I have this friend who likes to yack ("yack" is slang for vomiting, for the unaware). It is usually brought on by alcohol consumption, but this guy will generally empty the contents of his stomach into the nearest appropriate receptacle and/or sidewalk after drink 4 or 5. Sometimes multiple times in a night. But the guy never quits. He just yacks, picks his beer back up, and keeps drinking. And it's that kind of dedication that motivated me to fight through an otherwise uncomfortable swim on Friday.
Swim: speed day
wu: 3 x 200 - swim, kick, pull
main: 16 x 50 odds RPE 4, evens RPE 8-9
2 Lipodrene
This warmup was unpleasantly long. Especially for a day of sprints. Nonetheless, it felt fine (slow kicking, but that really is low on my list of things to improve at this point) until I got to the third lap of the "pull" section. It was at that point that I felt like my stomach had grown a garbage disposal blade and it was banging against my intestines. I somehow managed to make it through the last lap, and then just hightailed it into the locker room and let it rip into the toilet. And I get REAL loud when I'm yacking, like it sounds like someone is dying. I was just glad nobody stopped in asking if I was ok. I just stood over the bowl in my jammer spitting and yacking for about 2 or 3 minutes, gave myself a few minutes of sitting down by the pool to recover, then got right back at it. Yack and rally. It's the only way to go.
I did the 50s as one at race pace and one sprinting. This worked fairly well as the first set was a little shaky given the yacking, but after that I settled in to a solid pace. I did let up a few times on the last quarter lap of the sprints, maybe on some of the middle sets. Those were sprints where I'd give myself a nice long breather in between and then do pretty well on the next 2 or 3 sets of 50s. And as I got further along in the training day, the intervals got shorter. So the last sprints felt better than the first few. Again, maybe I just needed a sprint warmup, or, better still, needed to get further away from the yacking.
Either way I motivated myself with the yack and rally. Turning in a pretty solid swim after emptying my stomach in the GHFC bathroom is pretty fucking awesome. And maybe that was this illness' final exit from my body. I felt ok the rest of the day, which was good considering I had the Century ride on Saturday. Because the training card called for a 3 hour ride Saturday, I opted to give my legs a rest Friday and tack the 90 minute ride onto Saturday's workout, then add about another hour. Basically what I"m saying is I saw no point in tiring out my legs the day before a Centruy ride, and felt the 90 minutes of energy would be better spent elsewhere.
For Aaron Klueber...
I have this friend who likes to yack ("yack" is slang for vomiting, for the unaware). It is usually brought on by alcohol consumption, but this guy will generally empty the contents of his stomach into the nearest appropriate receptacle and/or sidewalk after drink 4 or 5. Sometimes multiple times in a night. But the guy never quits. He just yacks, picks his beer back up, and keeps drinking. And it's that kind of dedication that motivated me to fight through an otherwise uncomfortable swim on Friday.
Swim: speed day
wu: 3 x 200 - swim, kick, pull
main: 16 x 50 odds RPE 4, evens RPE 8-9
2 Lipodrene
This warmup was unpleasantly long. Especially for a day of sprints. Nonetheless, it felt fine (slow kicking, but that really is low on my list of things to improve at this point) until I got to the third lap of the "pull" section. It was at that point that I felt like my stomach had grown a garbage disposal blade and it was banging against my intestines. I somehow managed to make it through the last lap, and then just hightailed it into the locker room and let it rip into the toilet. And I get REAL loud when I'm yacking, like it sounds like someone is dying. I was just glad nobody stopped in asking if I was ok. I just stood over the bowl in my jammer spitting and yacking for about 2 or 3 minutes, gave myself a few minutes of sitting down by the pool to recover, then got right back at it. Yack and rally. It's the only way to go.
I did the 50s as one at race pace and one sprinting. This worked fairly well as the first set was a little shaky given the yacking, but after that I settled in to a solid pace. I did let up a few times on the last quarter lap of the sprints, maybe on some of the middle sets. Those were sprints where I'd give myself a nice long breather in between and then do pretty well on the next 2 or 3 sets of 50s. And as I got further along in the training day, the intervals got shorter. So the last sprints felt better than the first few. Again, maybe I just needed a sprint warmup, or, better still, needed to get further away from the yacking.
Either way I motivated myself with the yack and rally. Turning in a pretty solid swim after emptying my stomach in the GHFC bathroom is pretty fucking awesome. And maybe that was this illness' final exit from my body. I felt ok the rest of the day, which was good considering I had the Century ride on Saturday. Because the training card called for a 3 hour ride Saturday, I opted to give my legs a rest Friday and tack the 90 minute ride onto Saturday's workout, then add about another hour. Basically what I"m saying is I saw no point in tiring out my legs the day before a Centruy ride, and felt the 90 minutes of energy would be better spent elsewhere.
Friday, October 23, 2009
T100 - This is Just How It's Gonna Feel - Bike/Run Brick
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.
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.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
T99 - Relapse - Bike, Swim
Gainesville
Bike: 120 minutes with hills. Solid effort ranging from RPE 3 to RPE 7
2 Lipodrene
441 and I have never been friends when it comes to the bike. I can honestly remember exactly one ride I've had on it that felt good, and I was hopped up on all kinds of Sudaed that day. Tuesday, I opted against the Sudafed, but still felt this was the course I needed to be biking to prepare for the wind on on the Ironman.
Heading down, I was not flying through Alligator Alley as I had been on my last trip, so I decided I would do a solid one hour down and another back. Simple enough. I felt a good combination of headwind and tailwind, meaning that the resistance should be about the same both ways. Even looked like a bit of a crosswind going through Payne's Prairie.
The fucking computer was still acting weird, registering speeds like 10 and 15 when I clearly knew I was going faster. I didn't so much mind, but it was a little disappointing when I saw my average speed on the way down was about 16, and I knew full well I was going faster. But this was only one factor that led to a very sbu-par ride.
It was close to the end of the day, meaning I was getting this ride in as late as possible, and didn't really want to be out there. I have also noticed my effort on short workouts has also diminished, because the long ones seem so much more relevant. I mean, if you're not going to put in any effort, why even bother training? It was sad, really. I also was feeling light headed and dizzy and sluggish again. I thought I'd given my body enough rest, but it appears that that didn't do the trick. I just have no motivation to kick it into high gear (no pun intended) and it showed on the way back.
I'm not sure if it's the realization that I'm going to have to not fight the wind super hard on the Ironman that has led to this, but when the wind kicked up in some spots I just flat out didn't give a shit. I just up-shifted and let it slow me down. then I'd look at my speedometer and see "10" (which was wrong) and not know exactly how much I"d slowed, and cared even less. Just a lackluster effort altogether, and what's worse was it didn't even bother me. This is a bad sign. I've now come to hate being on the bike, where until maybe a month ago I loved it. It's starting to feel like last cycle, and I don't like it one bit. But my body is just not responding and because the only way I can go faster is if my body can do it (as in I don't really push myself much. I need to start responding but I'm just lethargic all the time on bike rides. All I can do is hope I start getting back into it in the next few weeks.
Swim: race-specific
main: 3 x 750,
1 is RPE 3, 2 is RPE9 for first 100 then RPE5, 3 is RPE 5
2 Lipodrene
I figured maybe more stimulants would help make for a better swim. Now I"m starting to think this bottle of Lipodrene is just an ephedra-free knockoff that the ephedra outlet scammed me on. I'm really feeling nothing. Anyway, I headed out to GHFC after about half an hour at home. The first 750 was a little tough, as my lats were still a little sore form the previous evening's 2x2000. Understandable. So my first 750 took about 17 minutes, much slower than the night before, but again I wasn't overly concerned. The second one went well, but I still felt short of breath and found myself dogging it a few times. It wasn't the soreness, but more the tiredness. Again, bad sign.
Strangely, the third one went well and I did it in 15 minutes, which while slower than I'd like to be doing a 750 was still right on my race pace. I got out of the water and was immediately dizzy and wanted to sit down. I sort of dazed through the locker room, slugged to my car, and drove home.
This sickness isn't going away. I've come to realize that it has caused training to regress, and the more I think about it, the worse training gets. I don't know why I feel slower and less motivated now than I did a month ago. Maybe it's the fatigue of training. Maybe it's the cooler weather. Maybe it's whatever this is that makes me dizzy and short of breath all the time (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome would be cool just cuz it was on Golden Girls). But it seems here to stay. Now I have to deal with it.
Bike: 120 minutes with hills. Solid effort ranging from RPE 3 to RPE 7
2 Lipodrene
441 and I have never been friends when it comes to the bike. I can honestly remember exactly one ride I've had on it that felt good, and I was hopped up on all kinds of Sudaed that day. Tuesday, I opted against the Sudafed, but still felt this was the course I needed to be biking to prepare for the wind on on the Ironman.
Heading down, I was not flying through Alligator Alley as I had been on my last trip, so I decided I would do a solid one hour down and another back. Simple enough. I felt a good combination of headwind and tailwind, meaning that the resistance should be about the same both ways. Even looked like a bit of a crosswind going through Payne's Prairie.
The fucking computer was still acting weird, registering speeds like 10 and 15 when I clearly knew I was going faster. I didn't so much mind, but it was a little disappointing when I saw my average speed on the way down was about 16, and I knew full well I was going faster. But this was only one factor that led to a very sbu-par ride.
It was close to the end of the day, meaning I was getting this ride in as late as possible, and didn't really want to be out there. I have also noticed my effort on short workouts has also diminished, because the long ones seem so much more relevant. I mean, if you're not going to put in any effort, why even bother training? It was sad, really. I also was feeling light headed and dizzy and sluggish again. I thought I'd given my body enough rest, but it appears that that didn't do the trick. I just have no motivation to kick it into high gear (no pun intended) and it showed on the way back.
I'm not sure if it's the realization that I'm going to have to not fight the wind super hard on the Ironman that has led to this, but when the wind kicked up in some spots I just flat out didn't give a shit. I just up-shifted and let it slow me down. then I'd look at my speedometer and see "10" (which was wrong) and not know exactly how much I"d slowed, and cared even less. Just a lackluster effort altogether, and what's worse was it didn't even bother me. This is a bad sign. I've now come to hate being on the bike, where until maybe a month ago I loved it. It's starting to feel like last cycle, and I don't like it one bit. But my body is just not responding and because the only way I can go faster is if my body can do it (as in I don't really push myself much. I need to start responding but I'm just lethargic all the time on bike rides. All I can do is hope I start getting back into it in the next few weeks.
Swim: race-specific
main: 3 x 750,
1 is RPE 3, 2 is RPE9 for first 100 then RPE5, 3 is RPE 5
2 Lipodrene
I figured maybe more stimulants would help make for a better swim. Now I"m starting to think this bottle of Lipodrene is just an ephedra-free knockoff that the ephedra outlet scammed me on. I'm really feeling nothing. Anyway, I headed out to GHFC after about half an hour at home. The first 750 was a little tough, as my lats were still a little sore form the previous evening's 2x2000. Understandable. So my first 750 took about 17 minutes, much slower than the night before, but again I wasn't overly concerned. The second one went well, but I still felt short of breath and found myself dogging it a few times. It wasn't the soreness, but more the tiredness. Again, bad sign.
Strangely, the third one went well and I did it in 15 minutes, which while slower than I'd like to be doing a 750 was still right on my race pace. I got out of the water and was immediately dizzy and wanted to sit down. I sort of dazed through the locker room, slugged to my car, and drove home.
This sickness isn't going away. I've come to realize that it has caused training to regress, and the more I think about it, the worse training gets. I don't know why I feel slower and less motivated now than I did a month ago. Maybe it's the fatigue of training. Maybe it's the cooler weather. Maybe it's whatever this is that makes me dizzy and short of breath all the time (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome would be cool just cuz it was on Golden Girls). But it seems here to stay. Now I have to deal with it.
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