Journey to Kona Day 177: Hot Yoga

Yesterday, I participated in a 90 minute hot yoga experience.  I've done hot yoga a few times in the past, and  I'm returning to it for a few reasons.  The first reason is that I see it as an excellent means of acclimatizing for the hot and humid climate in Kona.  I'm a big fan of heat acclimatization, and I've been pretty successful at preparing for hot races in the past.  The difference with Kona is the humidity.  That's an added challenge, but one that I'm excited about.  I generally like heat and humidity.  And so, I start doing hot yoga.

There are other advantages.  I just did a hard half ironman, and was still feeling the after effects when I did the hot yoga.  What a great way to stretch and let my muscles and ligaments recover!  Yoga is an interesting approach to strengthening my core and improving flexibility.  Doing the session reminded me of how challenging yoga is to do.  Anything that involved standing on one leg was difficult for me to do.  A clear advantage of doing hot yoga will be getting better at this.  It will certainly translate to swimming, biking and running.

The other advantage is the detoxifying effects of working out in the hot and humid conditions.  I could feel any toxins leaving my body.  That amount of sweating is a great way to get rid of toxins.  The challenge is staying hydrated during a 90 minute session.  I learned that they discourage drinking too much too soon in the session.  Which means that I'll need to start hydrating before the session.  And, I'll need to hydrate adequately during the session.

The other challenge is that the hot yoga not overwhelm my system and keep me from completing my other key workouts.  I was pretty washed out after the hot yoga session, though I was also recovering from a hard race.  I'm feeling much better today, so hopefully doing hot yoga will just fit right into my regular training schedule.

Journey to Kona Day 176: Having Fun

I looked at the pictures of myself crossing the finish line at the Santa Rosa 70.3 on Saturday and I saw pure joy.  Looking at my face and my body told me everything I needed to know about why I participate in this crazy sport of ironman.  There is no question but that I was having fun, at least in that moment!  A minute before, I was rounding the bend, grunting so loudly to mask the pain and to force myself to focus on getting to the finish line.  As I hit the home stretch, I had caught up to a 59 year old guy who'd I'd been trading places with for some time.  I kicked it, literally, into high gear and "sprinted" towards the finish line.  I was ignoring my body and just letting it loose.  I recently experienced this feeling at a local 5K, and realized that no matter how tired I was, no matter what my legs were telling me, if I willed myself to relax and just run fast, I could, at least for about a hundred yards.  I'm not sure how much further I could have run at that pace and effort, but I know that I felt like I looked as I crossed the finish line. At least for the moment!  Immediately upon stopping, I felt the weight of the race, although not like I have at some full ironman's where I literally have to sit or lie down for a half an hour.

This is my idea of fun.  It's great to have the photo, as it can be a constant reminder to me about what really matters.  The feeling of "enjoyment" that comes with giving a race a solid effort, is one that I am reminded of when I actually race.  Maybe it's the reason some people race often.  I know it makes me want to race more.  This feeling is definitely something that I need to embrace.  I spend way too much time being too serious.  I've been like that my whole life, wanting solve the problems of the world, or to help solve the problems of my family and friends.  Instead of that, I could be keeping in the moment and having fun.  In some ways, I'm trying to translate this to my day to day life and "work," as I try to decide what the next chapter of my life looks like.

I know that I set goals yesterday, and that's part of the "fun" for me. However, goals are something that I really need to let go of. Results don't define us, our day to day journey does.  And that journey needs to be enjoyed in the moment, just like I did on Saturday!

Journey to Kona Day 175: Kona Goals

I’ve written many times that I’m someone who thrives on having goals.  With 10 weeks to go before I complete a life long goal of competing in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, I know what my goals are.  Granted, time goals are ultimately influenced by weather conditions, especially in Kona. Nevertheless, I will set goals based on the idea that weather conditions won’t have a major influence on my race.  I can now base some reasonable goals on my training and my results at Ironman Boulder and the Santa Rosa 70.3.  Why am I doing this? Because, that’s who I am.  I’ve always set time goals, so why should I stop now? Fortunately, I know that life goes on if I don’t achieve them, which I rarely have.  On the other hand, setting the goals themselves have helped me to accomplish a lot over the years!

The other thing that is probably important is that everyone says it takes racing a few times in Kona to get the hang of it.  I wish I had the luxury of that, but this may be my only time racing.  So, with all that background, I’m going to set some goals!

The swim.  The salt water will help my swim time.  I have another 10 weeks to prepare and get stronger on the swim.  I seem to be swimming very close to what I used to swim 10 years ago, when most of my ironman swim times were around 1:12.  That will be my swim goal, swimming 1:12.  Anything faster will be gravy.  In the spirit of giving a range, I’d say my range would be 1:10 to 1:15.

Swim to Bike Transition.  Having not done the race before, it’s hard to judge, but my friend Robert comfortably had 8 minute transitions.  Looking at other 60 year olds last year, I think that 7 minute is reasonable.  My range, 6-8 minutes.

The bike.  This is the most fascinating.  My cycling is as good as it’s been in a long time.  At Boulder, I biked a few minutes faster than one of my competitors who biked 5:50 at Kona last year.  My bike in Santa Rosa, except for my fiasco with my aero hydration system, was near the top of my age group.  My main goal will be to bike under 6 hours.  I will go out on limb and give a range of 5:50 to 6:10.

Transition.  Looking at last years results, 6 minutes seems to make sense.  My range 5-7 minutes.

The run.  This is the most problematic, but my run at the Santa Rosa 70.3 has given me some confidence.  My ironman run PR is 4:30:39 at the epic 2012 Ironman St. George.  My goal has to be to achieve my Ironman run PR in Kona.  That would be epic!  So, there it is, my goal will be a 4:30 marathon.  I’m going to be extremely optimistic and put my range at 4:20 to 4:45.

Adding all the numbers up, it turns out that if I have an ideal day, I would actually achieve an Ironman PR, 11:31. That would be very cool.  I didn’t set out to put that number together, it just happened from the above calculations.  Also, very cool.

My “reasonable” goal is 11:55. “Reasonable” includes having one of my best ironman runs ever at the age of 60.  This would also be my second result ever under 12 hours.

My base goal is 12:25.  That would be my fourth best time ever.

The goal that I had originally set for myself when I began this journey was 13 hours.  That would definitely be respectable, and if I achieve that, I’ll be happy.  Ironically, if my swim and bike go well, I’d need a 5:15 run to achieve my initial goal.  So long as I don’t walk the whole course, I know that I can run 5:15.  

I’ve always been about setting the bar high.  I’ve been training to get back into the best shape of my life.  My results would suggest that I’ve actually done that.  I’ve now got 10 weeks to prepare and sharpen the knife.  As always, it will come down to the run.  The irony is that it’s not ultimately my run training that will determine my ability to have a great run.  It’s my swim and bike training that will put me in a position to start the run course feeling like I did two days ago in Santa Rosa, and six weeks ago in Boulder.  Yes, I’ll need the run training to actually execute a good run.  That starts in less than two weeks with my first 20 mile training run.

The other aspect to my preparation will be preparing to tolerate the heat and humidity.  I can’t underestimate the importance of this preparation as well.  It’s the ultimate equalizer.  

My goals are now set.  My Kona journey continues.

Journey to Kona Day 174: Santa Rosa 70.3 Race Report Part 3 (Run)

The first thing I noticed on starting my run was how good I felt.  My feet felt fine, in fact, my Hoka’s felt like I was running on soft carpet. This is the feeling I have when my legs feel good. About a half mile into the run, I hit the first aid station, I stopped briefly to grab something to drink, put ice in my pants, as that was going to be very important over the next hour or so, to maintain hydration for the entirety of the half marathon run. I am very familiar with the run course having done the IRONMAN here twice. It’s generally flat with some ups and downs when crossing over to the other side. My plan had been to go out over the first 2 miles as “easily“ as possible. The temperature was already rising, my legs were a little dead but I’ve done this many times before. I’ve done long runs on dead legs I recently ran home after doing a 5K and I knew coming in that the run was going to hurt. At the same time I was looking forward to it it was just a half marathon and I could hurt for upwards of two hours. With that said, I took the first couple of miles as comfortably as I could trying to keep my legs moving with good cadence while maintaining a breathing pattern of breathing every fourth step. I did fine with this and decided to hold this till until mile six, which was near the turnaround point of the run course. I actually found someone to run with around mile 1, and we ran together until mile 8.  I was talking to him about my race report and that I wasn’t sure that I had it in me to increase my effort at mile six, but when mile 6 came, I naturally increased my effort. It was hot, and I did walk through each aid station and make sure I was getting in plenty of fluids. I also put ice down my shorts and back at every opportunity. My legs were doing OK, it wasn’t easy but I maintained my effort and actually could feel my effort increasing while holding onto my every fourth step breathing pattern. At mile five, I started drinking Coke, not dissimilar to the point during an IronMan run when I do so. When I get to the turnaround point I start increasing my effort and breathing pattern to every third step, it’s tough, but I manage to get myself locked in to this and really tried to stay focused. I knew there was a little out & back on the run back to town, it always makes me a little crazy when I get there, because it feels like it makes the run back longer. It’s getting harder, but I put my head down and really focus on maintaining my effort and pace throughout this section. When I got back onto main path I knew I just had to keep pushing till the finish. I started grunting which keeps me focused and probably frightens a few people along the way but I knew it was time to do so there are many things going on in my body at this point.  It’s getting hard and getting even hotter, but this was what this race had always been all about. Could I push? Could I persevere? Could I go hard and could I have a solid run? A part of me wanted to slow down, and part of me wanted to walk. I was not going to allow that to happen.  At mile 10 I felt a little chest discomfort, which I think may have been related to my rib injury, but to be on the safe side, I backed my effort off a little for about a mile, and also massaged the area that was uncomfortable.  I was all in to finish strong, and I was gonna run  to the finish and have the best result I could have, leaving it all out on the course. The finishing stretch in Santa Rosa is always difficult because it’s longer than it seems so I just let myself keep pushing until I could see the finish line.  Once I saw the finish line, I went as hard as I could, crossing the line knowing I’d given it everything thing I had. My pace for the first 6 miles, was right around 9:15-9:30 pace, then for the next four miles was about 8:50 pace;  I slowed down at the end to about a 10 minute pace.

Run time 2:03:32 (10th in AG, winner of age group ran 1:38:04, but my run time was within 7 minutes all but four of the guys in my AG)

Overall:  5:49:14 (10th in AG, winner of age group was 5:03, third place was 5:18:45)  I do feel like I might have improved a few minutes on the swim with a wet suit and up to 10 minutes on the bike without my aero hydration system fiasco.  That might have gotten me to 7th or 8th.  With that said, I don’t think that I’ve ever gotten top 10 in a half ironman in my age group before (except for the race that qualified me for long course worlds in 2009).

What was really cool about my run report was how closely it tracked with my pre-race race report.  

As an addendum, when I woke up this morning, I definitely am feeling the effects of the race.  I'm sore and tired, pretty much all over. Which is good.

Journey to Kona Day 173: Santa Rosa 70.3 Race Report Part 2 (Swim and Bike)

I typically write my race report prior to my races, and then edit them after I finish.  That’s what I did for this race.  I thought it would be fun to not just edit it, but to highlight my edits and show how the actual race compared to my pre-race race report.  Tomorrow’s blog will be done this way.

I’ve actually been a little nervous prior to this race. That’s unusual for me.  When I first started racing I had more race day jitters, but I also had more expectations. For the last few years my expectations have been minimal, but my training has gone so well recently that I’ve started to think about what is possible at Santa Rosa. My swim has been going really well and so I seeded myself at the back of the first group going out to the water. This is the first departure from my race report. When I arrived in transition on race morning, they announced that the water temperature had dropped to 74.4 degrees, which meant it was a wetsuit swim.  The problem was that I hadn’t brought my wetsuit.  At first this activated my OCD and I couldn’t help but to obsess as to why I hadn’t brought my wetsuit.  So, I decided to walk down to the water and just chill.  I sat down and meditated.  I also reminded myself that this was an opportunity to practice swimming with my swimskin in a race.  I used the porta-potty a few times, completing what I’d started yesterday.  I actually started feeling a little cold, and was shivering a bit.  Instead of starting at the back of the first group, I seeded myself at the back of the second group. as I walked on the ramp, I was excited, and I knew that the first thing I needed to do was focus on my form. When I reached a point deep enough in the water to do a dolphin start, I put my arms in front of my head reached out and dolphin into the water in a streamlined fashion. The first strokes were going to be critical, because I needed to make sure I locked into the right form. Key elements of my focus included making sure I was raising each arm during recovery, slapping down at the water to assure my rotation. I also knew that I needed to focus and I needed my effort to be solidly consistent. At the same time I didn’t want to go too hard because going too hard, especially at the beginning, it’s not the most comfortable thing to do. I put my head down, made sure my arms were reaching out and kept checking on different elements of my stroke. I’ve actually been watching some videos as well as some swimming on television and realize the points to check on my stroke, for instance, when one hand is out in front moving forward the other hand would be at the end of my pull at my side, sort of in a Superman position. The one additional thing that I did was to focus on my arm turnover.  Watching the pros go out, I’d somehow realized what their arm turnover looked like.  For the first 300 yards, I’d guess that my arm turnover was closer to 33 strokes per minute, rather than the 27 that I usually do when I’m swimming comfortably.  Before I knew it I was at the first right turn and settled into a strong and steady stroke. I focused on maintaining my form and at the same time maintaining my effort. In the past races my swim has become something that I just try to do easy, this time I wanted to feel the effort the whole time, without going into the Red zone. I was able to draft at times, but didn’t put much energy into trying to draft. Actually, I managed to draft off another swimmer from about 400 yards to 1300 yards before I lost them at the turn back. Before I knew it I was now making the next turn and then the next one to head back towards the finish. I knew I was having a good swim, and I used that feeling to maintain my effort and energy. As I came into the finish of the swim I kicked a little more in order to make sure my legs were ready because the next part of my race was something I had been looking forward to. 

My swim time was 37:41, putting me 15th in my age group (the winner of my age group swam 33:43, my time put me within 3-4 minutes of all but two of the guys in my AG, I think that I’d probably have swam close to that with a wetsuit, but I might have overheated, so there’s no need to overthink this.

Coming out of the water I unzipped my swimskin, headed forward got onto the carpet and started running up the steep hill to the transition area. I’ve been preparing for this part of the race with recent running intensity that included 1 mile uphill efforts. So, the climb didn’t bother me at all, and I ran up the climb, passing numerous people for a change during transition. I decided to power walk the steep parts of the climb, but as it  flattened out at the top, got back to running. It certainly wasn’t easy and I was definitely breathing hard as I made my way into transition and grabbed my transition bag. I got a short break, sitting down to change into my bike gear. I put on my cycling socks, my cycling shoes, got them cinched up, then put on my headband, my sunglasses and my helmet, making sure I cinched up the fit on the helmet, put on my visor and then my cycling gloves. The gloves seem to take extra time, prolonging my transition a bit. I put my swimskin Into the bag, got up, headed towards my bike and handed the bag off to the volunteers, headed towards my bike.  I was excited.

Transition #1 took me 8:27 (the winner of my age group took 6:23)

I’m now about to embark on the second part of the race that I’ve been looking forward to.  I move quickly to the mounting area, get on my bike and clip in. I’ve made sure that I have my bike in a low gear so that I can easily spin up the short hill, before crossing over the lake and recovering from both the swim and the run up the hill to transition on the three-mile descent. Since you’re not allowed to be your aero bars on the descent, it really makes for an opportunity to be comfortable and to recover. Fortunately my position out of my aerobars is fairly aggressive and makes for good aerodynamics, which certainly helps me as I descend. This is where I departed significantly from my pre-race report. Literally about 1 minute into the bike, just before crossing over the bridge and getting to the descent, I hit a bump, and my Torhans aero hydration system (clamped between my aero bars), popped out of place and fell to the ground.  I immediately hit my brakes and stopped.  About 100 feet behind me, a spectator picked up the pieces of my hydration system and brought it to me.  I reattached it (I had to put the straw back in, and reclamp the system, unfortunately, I probably reclamped it to a spot that pretty much guaranteed that it would pop off again with minimal jostling.) and got going, having lost at least a couple of minutes.  I began the descent, realizing that I needed to hold my hydration system in place, but hit another bump and it came loose, forcing me to stop again at the side of the road to clamp it on again.  I continued the descent, unfortunately, having to scrub speed while assuring that my hydration system didn’t pop off again.  It was actually a bit frightening, holding on to the bottle with one hand and having my other hand on the brake.  This also wasn’t the best thing for my mental state, it did take a lot of energy.  It also stressed my neck and arms.  I considered dumping my hydration system, but the thought of wasting a $100 plus item, and missing out on the nutrition and hydration that I needed caused me to hold on to the bottle.  I did manage to take in some fluids (and a gel) and when I get to the bottom of the descent, make the turn and now start on the first climb of the day, which was only about a little more than a mile.

I’m not the best climber.  In fact, I’m typically passed by a number of riders.  It was my goal to go relatively hard on the first climb while not exploding. For a change I wasn’t being passed right and left on the climb, and while I was passed a few riders, I was smart enough not to go completely into the red this early in the race. Furthermore, I always know I will generally catch most people who passed me on the climb during the descents and the flat parts of course. Before I knew it, the climb was over and I was on the rolling generally downhill Santa Rosa bike course. This is where I’m truly in my glory looking for opportunities to flatten the rolling hills and to maintain my speed. It’s important to stay in my arrow position the whole time.   And that was my other focus. I felt really good on the bike, knowing the day was going to get hot I focused on staying hydrated, (the point that about 20 miles in I needed to pee, this didn’t happen, in fact, I never needed to pee on the bike, which I used one of the downhill sections to pee on the bike, something I’d improved upon at IronMan Boulder.) Unfortunately, this really didn’t go as planned.  I was holding onto my aero bottle for dear life, as this course has more bumps than Carter has pills.  I intermittently pushed, and alternated that with just focusing on keeping my aero bottle attached.  In fact, I finally figured out where to clamp it on the aero bars and it finally seemed to hold. Before I knew it Chalk Hill was in my sight and (I also attacked this last remaining significant climb, was again feeling good while paying attention to not pushing too hard.) I actually chose not to push up Chalk Hill, but instead just went up comfortably, and I’d say that 20-30 people passed me.  However, within 3-4 miles, I’d caught them all!

While coming down from Chalk Hill, I was thinking about the fact that I was having a (great bike ride and I wanted to maintain it to the finish.) decent bike ride despite everything that had happened.  And I really did want to finish the bike strongly. The other thing that I was really happy with was that I had planned on making sure that I got on the wheel of any faster cyclist who passed me for the requisite 15 to 20 seconds that I was allowed to be there, and then slowing down a bit to get into the legal draft zone for as long as I could hold that. I felt going into this race that doing that regularly could add improve my bike time by as much as five minutes which, considering my goals for this race could be significant. So, as faster cyclist‘s passed me,  I picked up my effort, got on their wheel, followed them for a short period of time, let them move ahead seven bike lanes and then try to hold out as long as I could until the next person came by. The most interesting thing about this, was as the race went on, I found myself not only holding onto these cyclists, but actually passing them.  In fact, one of the guys who passed me around mile 45 started the swim 10 minutes after me, swam a similar time, and we traded places over the next few miles before I passed him for the last time.  It turned out that he biked 2:43, which really makes me wonder if that would have been my bike time if not for all the craziness of my aero hydration system. As I came into town I hit the long straightaway, put my head down to maintain my aero position and focused on finishing strong. I passed a bunch people in the final 15 miles, and very few passed me.  I sat up a couple times to stretch, let up my efforts ever so slightly and before I knew it I was getting off my bike and walking up to the rack in transition area.  I always hate running or walking in my bike shoes, but I didn’t really care because I was excited to get on with the run. This was going to be what I’ve been waiting for. 

Bike split 2:53:38 (11th in my age group (winner of age group biked 2:43:10, I was within 10 minutes of all but one guy in my age group, and considering what happened to me, I should have been right up there.)

When I drove up to Santa Rosa two days ago I intermittently turned the heat all the way up in my car. I haven’t been doing that in the prior week, but I figured that even short bursts of heat would help me acclimate for a hot day on the run. I made my way to the bike rack put my bike in the rack (stopped for about a minute to pee) and then went and grabbed my run bag, sat down, took off my bike shoes and socks put on my socks and my running shoes, my race belt and my hat put my helmet away put my bike shoes away and then took my bag back to the rack and got moving out onto the run course. 

Transition 5:56 (winner of age group 4:03)

Journey to Kona Day 172: Santa Rosa 70.3 Race Report Part 1

I’ve decided to start my Santa Rosa 70.3 race report the day before the race.  I arrived in Santa Rosa on Thursday, driving over seven hours to get there, check in and go to my hotel.  Once I got to my hotel, I just chilled the rest of the night.  On Friday, I got up, put my race gear together and dropped my run gear bag at the run transition in Santa Rosa.  I came back to my hotel, as I had a phone call to make, and then put my bike in my car to take to the bike transition at Lake Sonoma.  That’s when the fun began.  When I took my bike out of my car, I realized that my disc brake calipers were rubbing significantly on the disc of my front wheel.  It turns out that I must have hit the brake lever when I put my bike in my car.  I decided, at first, that I could fix the problem on race morning. I went back to my hotel, chilled for a couple of hours, and then decided that I probably wouldn’t sleep well if I was worrying about my bike, so I drove the half hour back to Lake Sonoma and tried to fix the problem myself, which I wasn’t successful doing  Fortunately, there was a mobile bike mechanic there who solved my problem.  I spent a little more time on my feet and in the sun than I normally would have, but I had gained peace of mind.  There was one other thing about Friday.  After I woke up, I had a couple of hard boiled eggs at the hotel.  I don’t know if it was coincidence, but about a half an hour later, I began a day spending a lot of time on the toilet.  This isn’t something we triathletes talk much about, but getting our bowels cleaned out prior to race day isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Whatever the cause, by the end of the day, I was pretty well cleaned out.  I made sure that I’d hydrated well, ate some yogurt, a yam, and rice crackers. As I went to bed, I was thinking about my race day plans, one of which was whether to bring my wetsuit despite the fact that we’d been told the swim would most likely be a non-wetsuit swim.  The water had been 76.9 degrees the day before, and the temperature at the lake had been over 90 in the subsequent days.  Besides, I was excited to race in my swimskin in preparation for Kona.  I was in bed at 8 pm.

I typically write my race report prior to my races, and then edit them after I finish.  That’s what I did for this race.  I thought it would be fun to not just edit it, but to highlight my edits and show how the actual race compared to my pre-race race report.  Tomorrow’s blog will be done this way.

Journey to Kona Day 171: Adjusting

I drove seven hours today and arrived in Santa Rosa, checked in heard the athlete's briefing.  The most important news was that the water temperature is already 76.9 degrees, which means no wetsuit.  In many ways, I'm very happy.  I'm very comfortable and confident with my swim.  While I've been working on swimming better with my wetsuit, I've also been working on swimming better without a wetsuit.  It's also going to be a hot day, and starting out by swimming in 77 degree water will not heat me up much.  In fact, it should facilitate my goal to swim hard.

Doing ironman's is all about adjusting.  Fortunately, there's not really much adjustment to do, as I was hoping for a non-wetsuit swim.  One less thing to worry about, one less thing to have to deal with in terms of putting on and taking off the wetsuit.  Mentally, I'll get myself ready over the next 36 hours for my swim.  I was originally planning to swim in Lake Sonoma tomorrow after dropping my bike off.  That plan will continue now, but without wearing a wetsuit.

The other thing that I did today was to write my race report.  This has become something of a tradition for me.  I'll edit it tonight and read and reread it tomorrow.  I'm excited to get out on the course on Saturday and give this race everything I've got!  I also look forward to adjusting on Saturday, as is typical in ironman and half ironman racing.

Journey to Kona Day 170: What Matters

My focus for the last couple of weeks has been the upcoming Santa Rosa 70.3.  In fact, I realized today that I'm actually a little nervous about the race.  The fact that I have a goal of giving it my best effort is putting some pressure on me.  Of course it's self inflicted pressure.  While I've been on my journey to Kona, I've prioritized something else the last couple of weeks.  On a certain level, I'm already looking forward to refocusing on Kona starting on Sunday.  With 10 weeks to go, it will be time to focus my training on the rigors of ironman, and more specifically, the Ironman World Championship.  That will include things like hot yoga, more for its acclimatization affect than the benefit of yoga, though that might be a great benefit as well.

At the same time that this is going on, I'm planning to start a part time job soon.  I've always gravitated to a number of things, and I'm really going to try to focus on a select few.  That's pretty simple when it comes to my ironman training.  It's getting simple when it comes to work.  And, the focus on my family is always straightforward.  But first, I have a task at hand in three days.

I swam today for twenty minutes, focusing on my form.  Finding my most effective swim intensities is an interesting phenomenon.  Today, I swam as hard as I could for 100 yards, and my pace was 1:22.     I then swam a solid effort for 200 yards, at a pace of 1:34.  There's no question that I could have held this pace for 300 yards, and maybe for 500, but that would have been it.  Finally, I set out to swim at an effort that I felt that I could hold for 1000-2000 yards, essentially a half ironman effort.  I only swam for 300 yards, but it was comfortable, and my pace was 1:39.  My new swim coach tells me that the difference between an easy effort and a hard effort for him is about 5 seconds/100 yards.  In some ways, that appears to be similar for me when looking at my effort for 1000 yard versus 200-300 yards.

The key to my race on Saturday will be getting out on the swim at the right effort and maintaining it.  That's what matters.

Journey to Kona Day 169: Wetsuit Musings

I took another swim lesson today while wearing my wetsuit.  It's been an interesting experience since my first lesson last week.  I realized then that I really wasn't comfortable with my form while wearing a wetsuit.  Form is what swimming is all about, and a wetsuit is supposed to help one swim faster.  With my goal to give my swim everything I have this weekend, it's time to lock in my wetsuit swim form.  I learned a few important things about my form last week, so really tried to lock them in today.  Swimming is about form.  The first thing that matters with my form is to aim a little deeper on my hand entry, as my hands were coming up before and creating drag.  I also really need to focus on having my hands enter the water more aggressively, which actually helps me with my rotation.

My swim coach had me doing 50 yard efforts with the first 25 focused on sighting, which is a very important part of open water swims.  The second 25 was focused on a high recovery and aggressive hand entry.  I did a few of these, each one progressively faster as I became more and more comfortable with my form.  I then did four 50's, starting from a standing position (like I will be at the race), each progressively faster, starting with 39 seconds and finishing with a 35 second 50 yards.  I finished up with two 75 yard efforts that started comfortably and built to a hard effort in 54 and 57 seconds respectively.  Now, if I can only figure out how to swim without a wetsuit the same way I swim with one!

I need to start getting mentally ready for the race.  The first step is being prepared to start out going fast on the swim.  In order to go fast, I'll want to get locked into my best form right away.  I've done a couple of lessons in my wetsuit and will plan to swim on the course on Friday when I drop my bike off.  Practice makes perfect!  I've got some key things to focus on while wearing a wetsuit, the main one which is making sure I aim a little deeper with my hands.  The rest of my form foci are pretty similar to what I do when I swim without a wetsuit.  Of course, it's now become possible that I won't even be wearing a wetsuit on Saturday.  The water temperature in the lake has bee rising with increasing temperatures, and it is possible that the race will be a non-wetsuit swim.  In that case, I'll have my swimskin, which also gives me some advantage in the water.

My goal will be to swim "strong" the whole way, draft whenever I can, and try to sight effectively.  I don't want to find myself swimming too easily or comfortably.  I want to feel like I've given my swim everything I have.  I have to trust in the fact that I'll feel good coming out of the water.  I also need to focus on the key elements of my form during the swim, although a half ironman swim shouldn't lead to much breakdown in my form.

Journey to Kona Day 168: What Drives Us

My plan today was to go for a relatively short bike ride and do a brief swim.  The idea was to get the blood flowing and the muscles activated.  I felt that some short bouts of intensity would serve me well.  I didn't really think too much about how intense my effort would be.  So, I set out on my bike, going comfortably for the first 15 minutes, and as I turned around, I decided to go hard over a half mile slightly uphill segment my typical loop.  I managed to hit the light while moving and pushed hard. My quads started to burn, so I backed off ever so slightly, staying in my aero position.  I kept pushing, and stayed in my 52 front chain ring, which I've never done on this segment before.  The intersection at the end of the segment was ahead, and I was again fortunate to hit it with a green light, allowing me to maintain my effort and pace.  This was pretty close to a consistent all out 90 second effort.  

When I got home and checked Strava, I discovered that my previous best time on this segment had been 1:56.  Today, I rode the segment in 1:27!  Did I push too hard?  I don't know, and in fact, I don't care.  It turns out that this was the 7th fastest time on this segment amongst over 4700 people!  How cool!  From a mental perspective, I couldn't be in a better place going into Santa Rosa, where I'll have some opportunities to push har on the bike.  I now know that I can push pretty hard for half a mile.  Both major hills are only a little over one mile long, so this means that I have a chance to push pretty hard up these hills.  

My left rib is a little sore tonight.  I also did a hard 300 yard effort in the pool.  My brain is fully ready for my race on Saturday.  Having a goal is important.  Achieving a goal is even better.  That's what drives me.  That's what matters.

Journey to Kona Day 167: Setting the Bar for Santa Rosa

I decided to rest today.  Better to help my rib fully heal and the rest of my body to recover from this last week than to "squeeze in" a training session.  It also gives me a chance to start visualizing next weekends race.  

I often say that I typically set the bar higher than I can achieve.  That goes for racing as well as many of the things that I’ve done in my life.  It’s been quite awhile since I set time goals for a race, but I always enjoy doing it, and I figure why not?  I almost never achieve my top goals, but I love setting the bar as high as possible.  So, it’s time to set some goals for my upcoming 70.3 in Santa Rosa.  The pieces of the puzzle have all fallen into place.  My training is exactly where I wanted it to be.  I’m doing exactly what I’ve wanted to do swimming, biking and running.  So, why shouldn’t I get my goals out there, and into my mind, so that I can begin visualizing race day?

My swim has gotten very consistent lately.  I’m swimming between 1:45 and 1:50 pace per 100 yds without a wetsuit.  Of note, I’m able to swim 100 yards fast without a wetsuit in ~1:19.  The other day, in a wetsuit, I swam 100 yards in 1:14.  So, let’s give myself the benefit of the doubt and assume that I’ll be able to swim the 1.2 mile swim (2112 yards) in 35 minutes.  That would actually put me about where I was several years ago, and I actually think that my swim endurance is better now with similar pacing.  If I’m hitting everything on all cylinders (great form, drafting, solid effort), I think that I could do the swim in 32 minutes.  So, I’d put the range on my swim time at 32-37 minutes (expected 34 minutes, I have to set that bar just a little higher).  

In both of my Ironman’s in Santa Rosa, my first Transition time was 9 minutes.  There’s a steep hill that I walked both times.  This year, I’m going to run up it.  I believe that could ultimately be worth about 2 minutes.  Looking at the top guys in my age group in previous years, 7 minutes is a reasonable goal, so I’ll make the range 7-9 minutes (expected 8 minutes).

The bike is interesting.  I’ve been looking at some predictive programs, and it looks like we may have a headwind for most of the bike.  That certainly will have an impact, but it will also force me to maintain my aero position the whole time.  There are two hills that I plan to go hard on. My bike power is as good as it’s been in a few years, and Santa Rosa is my personal best ironman bike split (5:47).  I’ve got to believe that I can ride at least 2:45, and depending upon conditions, could get this time down to as fast at 2:35 (if I torch the bike).  I would be truly disappointed with anything slower than 2:48.  I’ll make my goal range 2:35-2:48 (expected time of 2:42).

The Bike to run transition is supposed to be a bit long, due to the structure of the transition itself.  I don’t know how long this transition should take, but based on most half ironman’s that I’ve ever done, I’d say that a 4 minute transition is a reasonable estimate. (expected 4 minutes).

Finally, the run. My run is as good as it’s been in awhile.  9 minute pace on a flat Santa Rosa course is my goal.  I’d love to go faster, but don’t really know if that’s possible.  I’ll set my expected run time at 1:57.  If things go perfectly, and I can truly suffer, perhaps it would be possible for me to go as fast as 1:50.  If things don’t go as well as expected, then as slow as 2:04.  My goal range is 1:50-2:04 (expected time of 1:57).

Swim-32, 34, 37

T1-7, 8. 9

Bike-2:35, 2:42, 2:48

T2-4

Run-1:50, 1:57, 2:04

5:08, 5:25, 5:42

(In 2017, those times would have made for AG placements of 3, 4, 10)

Now I've got my goal.  No matter what, I love numbers and data!

Journey to Kona Day 166: The Impact of Intensity

It's been an interesting week.  My rib is still sore, but it hasn't kept me from doing my workouts all week.  I've alternated aches and pains in my low back, shoulders, and scapula throughout the week.  On reflection, intensity will strain the tendons and muscles.  When I started my run yesterday, running downhill from my house, my rib ached.  It didn't keep me from running, and it certainly didn't keep me from running a mile uphill faster than I have in many years.  The discomfort in my rib was replaced by the suffering of pushing myself to my limit running uphill.  Of course, I'd feel the rib aching throughout the rest of the day.  I also found my scapula spasming later in the day, although that was better when I woke up this morning.  My low back was a little sore yesterday, and I could feel it while in the aero position on my bike ride today.  I was a little sluggish getting started, but took my time warming up.  Ultimately, I intermittently pushed hard during my second loop, riding the loop almost a minute faster than ever before.  I actually felt pretty good after doing this, and after a short rest break, went out and did another fifteen minutes that included a hard 6 minute, 30 second and 1 minute effort, with some of the best power numbers I've had in years.

I recovered a lot with a nap, which I've been missing out on this past week.  Those naps are definitely both important and necessary.  Tomorrow, I'm supposed to run 8-9 miles, but I've been wondering if that's the best thing for me to do with just 7 days left to the Santa Rosa 70.3.  I've done a couple of intense runs, and a couple of intense bikes this week, in addition to some solid swim efforts that were associated with some shoulder soreness.  My muscles and tendons are ready for some recovery.  I'm sure that my overall physiological self could also use some more recovery.  I've been walking that line ever since Boulder, and I'll be pushing the limits again in seven days.  Fortunately, this is really the end of intensity for the next few months.  My ramp up to Kona will be focused on putting in volume.  It's a different type of stress, which is good.

I emailed my coach today, looking for advice on what to do tomorrow.  Do I run? Do I rest?  I usually intuitively know the answer to such a question, but I may not be certain of what to do until I wake up in the morning and see how I feel.  If I feel good, I may just go out and start running, and let my body gauge how I'm doing.  On the other hand, I may try to figure out what's the right approach, based on the facts before me and logic of what constitutes effective training. Intensity requires recovery.  Recovery matters.

Journey to Kona Day 165: Setting Goals

A couple of months ago I realized that the uphill mile that I run at the base of my neighborhood has a Strava segment called "Dead Runners Mile."  About a month ago I ran the 1.07 miles in 9:25, and found that put me in the top 20 for this year.  I had a goal.  Getting into the top 10 for the year would require me to run the segment in about 9 minutes.  So, first, my goal was to crack the top 10; next my goal is to break 9 minutes.  I wasn't really planning to achieve my goal for some time, since I'm primarily focused on ironman training, which has little to do with speed.  However, my preparation for Santa Rosa has allowed me to put in some intensity and speed.  Moreover, uphill speed training has myriad benefits that will probably allow me to continue to work on this hill in the upcoming months.  If not, then certainly after Kona.

Today was my last opportunity before Santa Rosa to go up the hill as hard as I could.  I warmed up for 2 miles and then attacked the hill.  My approach has been not to overdo it on the bottom portion of the climb, which undulates.  In fact, there's about 75 feet of climbing in the first half mile, but another 150 feet of climbing in the second half, with the bulk of it coming near the end.  I "set" my breathing at every third step, which corresponds to what we call Tempo effort, though I'm certainly pushing a bit above that.  I've gotten used to certain portions of the climb and pretty much try to maintain a consistent effort for the first 6 minutes.  After that, I alternate breathing every 2nd step with taking my foot slightly off the pedal and going back to my every 3rd step breathing, doing this about every 30 seconds.  According to my watch, I hit the mile mark in 8:24, the fastest I've done that portion.  The "Dead Runners Mile" is actually about 1.07 miles and I don't really have it fully marked off, so I just keep running hard until I can't anymore.  Strava will be the umpire and tell me what I did.

I get home and look at Strava, and there it is!  9:08. Eighth fastest in 2019.  Granted, over the course of several years, I'm about 82nd overall, so I choose to look at this year.  I send a screenshot to my coach, who notices that 8:57 is 6th on the list, so now I have a new goal!  Breaking 9 minutes will put me at 69th all time.  50th is 8:41.  I'm not sure if that's within my reach.  I'm happy, though, to know that this year 78 people have tackled "Dead Runners Mile," and I have the 8th fastest time. Not too bad, but more importantly, I continue to set my goals!

Journey to Kona Day 164: Having Fun

Today was the first day for medical student teaching at UCLA.  It's one of the funnest things that I do.  I'm reminded that having fun is important, in addition to the more serious and thoughtful things that I tend to fill my life with.  Having fun with training and racing also matters. I tend to be too serious about most things, and at the end of the day, it's important to have fun.  I got a job offer the other day (fortunately, a part-time job), and the overriding factor is that I would enjoy what I'm doing.  When I look back at my work life, I've had the greatest enjoyment when I'm not caught up in the more serious aspects of dealing with personnel and other fun stuff.  I've also had the most fun with my ironman training when I'm not too serious and just enjoying both the process and the race.

It reminds me of how I decided a few years ago to stop having my coach give me daily workouts.  I give myself workouts to do depending on how I feel.  Usually, I have some idea a day or two in advance, but I can change my plans depending on how I feel or if something else comes up.  Of course, my training for Kona has limited the things that will override my planned workouts.  With that said, there's definitely something to having goals to shoot for.  Tomorrow, I'll take another shot at setting a personal record for the uphill mile near my house.  It may very well be my last opportunity to put in intensity on the run for some time.  On the other hand, I already started "pencilling" in 20 mile runs for after Santa Rosa.  I know that doing a few 20 milers will do wonders for my run come October.  The same concept for my long bike rides, which I've already started noting on why calendar.  No excuses, and no substitutions.  This will be both meaningful and fun!

Of course, my idea of "fun" isn't always everyone else's. I'm looking forward to suffering in 9 days in Santa Rosa.  Since it's a half ironman, I can even do a little bit of suffering on the swim and bike.  In fact, I'll take a shot at "burning a match" on the uphill climb from the swim to the transition.  That's going to be my idea of having fun, as well be putting a little more effort than I usually would on the two "significant' climbs on the bike.  These climbs shouldn't be much more difficult than the climbs I'm doing in training.  Let the fun begin!

Journey to Kona Day 163: Intensity!

The last two days have allowed me to do something that I normally stay away from during ironman training.  Going hard. My coach talks about different athletic types, and I'm someone who likes to intermix intensity into my training.  In fact, I thrive on it. Today, I was able to do several hard efforts on my bike ride, and it felt fantastic.  I had a swim lesson, mostly in my wetsuit, and was able to put in some hard efforts in the water as well.  Coupled with a hard uphill mile run yesterday, I've gotten in some solid intensity in the last two days, and in the absence of volume, it really feels good.  In fact, the concept of reducing volume while adding intensity is both interesting and fascinating to feel.

The other cool part of this week is seeing where my swim, bike and run is at.  I'm swimming solidly, at paces that I haven't swum in a decade.  I've only started my lessons and my swim training.  I still have room and opportunity to improve, albeit about 8 weeks, while I'm training for Kona.  In lieu of the improvements that I've made in the last few months, I certainly think that focusing on my swim, continuing to lock in my form, and improving my endurance at a higher pace, will be well worth it!

Today's bike ride showed me the my bike power/speed is also as good as it's been in a long time.  Santa Rosa will give me a good idea as to where that translates in a race.  Similar to my swim, adding volume to my cycling in preparation for Kona should lock in both my fitness and power.  Putting in several more long bike rides leading up to Kona is a huge priority.

The "surprise" is my running speed.  I'm very happy with my recent paces, and I've seen that I'm better able to hit my goal cadence.  Yesterday's uphill mile was my best, and I'm planning to repeat that same effort tomorrow.  The real question is what type of pace I'll be able to hold during the half marathon portion of a 70.3.  Then, similar to my swim and bike, will be run volume.  I'll be channeling my "20 x 20" run program from a few years ago.  I've already signed up for the Camarillo half marathon two weeks after Santa Rosa.  I'll convert it into a 20 mile day, and I'll be on the road to more 20 mile runs in preparation for Kona.

It's not surprising that I enjoy intensity, whether it's training, racing or working.  It's who I am, and why I do.

Journey to Kona Day 162: Permission

I wanted to run hard today.  First, I got permission from my coach.  With 12 days to go before the Santa Rosa 70.3, reducing my volume of training, while having some intensity, is not only fine, but probably the best thing for me to do if I want to maximize my opportunity to go as fast as I can on race day.  Since I have no soreness in my legs from my run on Sunday, running hard today was ok.  I warmed up with an hour of walking and a one mile easy run, then I took to my one mile, ave 3% grade, uphill climb.  I took off running fast, and breathing hard, though more attuned to a "Tempo" effort, one that I could theoretically hold for an hour.  As I pushed up the hill, I increased my effort towards the end, so that during the last two minutes of climbing I was alternating between running super hard to near maximal effort.  My time up the one mile climb was 8:35, which I believe is my fastest time up this hill.  When I got to the top, I needed to walk for one minute, then ran downhill moderately fast.  That's my run for today!

I get to do some similar workouts on the bike this week.  The part of me that loves intensity will be really happy!  The other good part of this is mentally preparing to feel like this (suffering) at the end of the Santa Rosa 70.3.  It's also great to be practicing my uphill running, as when I come out of the swim in Santa Rosa, there is a short uphill to the transition area.  I've always walking this during my Ironman's, but this year, I plan to run up the hill.  There will be an opportunity to recover while I'm putting my shoes and helmet on, and then again on the first downhill section of the bike course.

Permission is important for this kind of training.  As usual, I will typically tend towards overdoing my training.  Before I do anything extra long or hard, it's usually good to get permission from my coach.  Twelve days to Santa Rosa, time to sharpen the knife.  I'm looking forward to this!

Journey to Kona Day 161: Trusting My Swim Form

I don't think I wrote too much about my swim on Saturday.  I swam with a friend of mine and ended up swimming 3 sets of 1000 yards at pretty much my "fastest" effort.  I don't like to use the word "hardest" effort, because swimming harder rarely equates to swimming faster.  I also had the complicating factor of getting a "hitch" in my right shoulder when I started.  I don't usually stretch before I swim, though this is a reminder as to why I should. I ignored the "hitch" and swam anyway.  Yesterday, my massage therapist worked out most of whatever was "stuck" in my shoulder.  But back to the swim.  Despite having pain in my shoulder during most of the swim, I managed to keep a solid pace for 1000 yards, three times.  The best part was that when I got out of the pool I didn't feel like I'd exerted myself at all.  I was really focusing on my form, but also focusing on going as fast as I could while maintaining both my speed and my form.

Why does all of this matter?  It matters because my fastest ironman swims have come with very fast, consistent efforts.  Granted, I had a current, and I was able to draft both times, but that's also the point.  Because I was drafting, I maintained a solid effort the entire time.  In almost every other ironman I've ever done, I allow myself to get into an "easy" rhythm, but in retrospect, it just allows me to swim slower.  In my quest to perform as well as I can in Kona, I'll want to maintain a solid effort throughout that swim.  My first opportunity to prepare for this will come in under two weeks in Santa Rosa.

I anticipate that the swim groups for the Santa Rosa 70.3 will be 25-29 minutes, and then 30-34 minutes.  If my recent swim set gives me some idea of how fast I should be able to swim at a 70.3, then 34-35 minutes is certainly a reasonable possibility.  In fact, if I truly focus and push myself, I might be able to go a little faster than that.  Mentally, I'm beginning to get in the mindset of jumping into the water and swimming fast, holding my form and maintaining a solid effort for the entire swim.    My form is solid and my endurance has been getting better by the week.  I just have to trust in my ability an keep my focus.

Journey to Kona Day 160: Wardrobe Musings

Today was a good day.  70 degrees and humid, I sweated a ton during my 13.1 mile hilly run.  I focused on keeping a solid effort, but not going to hard, hence my breathing right at 4 steps per breath for most of the way (though I did let my effort come up a bit over the last two miles).  The humidity and sweating made me think of Kona and the fact that I normally wear my trisuit for the entire race.  Might I consider changing into shorts and a running shirt in T2?  Why not?  It will take me about a minute more to do so and I might be more comfortable during the run.  Perhaps.  I also would have a choice from amongst my many Ironman shirts to wear.  I'd lean towards 2012 St. George, although it's gray.  I might also wear the 2010 St. George shirt.  It was my first ironman.  Anyway, these thoughts occupied my meditative time on the run today.  I didn't know how today was going to go.  I was pretty tired on Friday and I did swim hard yesterday.  But I was ready.  My legs actually felt pretty good and I laid down a very solid 13.1 mile run.  In fact, my fastest time along the hilly loop that I'm now running, despite the effort being comfortable.  Before I knew it, I was finished with my run.

After my run, I had a massage.  I really need to do that more often.  My legs were a little sore and tight after the run, but felt completely fine after the massage.  I've noticed that as I've had some massages done after long workouts.  It's probably a good idea.  I had to drive 2 1/2 hours tonight, I'm giving a couple of lectures tomorrow and driving home afterwards, so I'm not sure if I'll get any training in tomorrow (though I did pack my running clothes, just in case).  Under two weeks to the Santa Rosa 70.3, I've begun visualizing the race.  I'm also occasionally allowing myself to start visualizing Kona.  Hence, starting to think about what I'll wear.  I'll see how my trisuit holds up at Santa Rosa before I make a final decision.

Journey to Kona Day 159: Patience

I had originally planned to ride long today.  Two things happened to change that.  The most important, we need to watch my grandson this morning, and I won't leave my wife alone to do that.  Second, I was dog tired yesterday after a bike ride that probably included more intensity than I was able to handle. In fact, I looked at my bike data from yesterday and I actually put in 16 minutes over 200 watts.  Not too big of a deal, but big enough to put me over the edge of fatigue yesterday.  This calls for patience.  It's important for me to listen to my body, and my body definitely was speaking to me yesterday.  It's always a fascinating experience to try to balance ones fatigue with training.

Fatigue comes in many forms.  Mental fatigue is a very real phenomenon.  It can not be discounted in the overall scheme of things.  It can be combined with physical fatigue, or it can exist by itself.  When it's combined, it's definitely more challenging.  I have had numerous things that give me mental fatigue for many years.  Most of these things, I choose to do, some just happen in the normal course of life.  But, the mental fatigue matters.  Physical fatigue can be more obvious.  Running 20 miles will bring about physical fatigue.  Running a 5K will cause physical fatigue.  Cycling for 5 hours will leave on fatigued.

When I woke up yesterday I felt good.  My resting heart rate was low.  My HRV was high.  The first thing I noticed on the bike was that my legs were tired, they really felt the stress of riding uphill or riding hard.  So, I rode hard anyway.  Sometimes, the feeling melts away and I get stronger.  Not yesterday.  In fact, the answer was there at the end of the day.  I was dog tired.  Patience takes priority at this point.  No hard workouts today.  Except that I am planning to swim a ton!  Of course, I won't count that, I say tongue in cheek.  It will be interesting.  I'm going to swim long with a friend who is doing an ultra swim in a week.  So long as I keep my swim effort comfortable and easy, I should be ok.  It will actually be a good test.  I'll be patient.

Journey to Kona Day 158: Shut Up Legs, or Not

Any cycling aficionado knows Jens Voight and his mantra, "shut up legs."  My legs weren't too much in the listening mood today.  Knowing that I may not be able to ride as long as I'd like tomorrow, I decided to not only put some time on my bike today, but figured that I'd get a little intensity in as well.  I definitely tried, putting in some short hard efforts, but from the moment I started today my legs felt sluggish.  Sometimes when they feel this way they warm up and feel better.  Not today.  On one hand, this may be confirmation that my body sensed I needed a little more rest this week than my mind had planned, hence my rib injury (which is about 90% better, and had no effect on my cycling). It's actually not something that I've felt in awhile.  When I got to the final climb to my house at the end, I started as if I was going to go all out for 1 minute, but my legs screamed at me pretty quickly and I decided it wasn't worth the extra pain and suffering today.

It is interesting how the body can be overridden at times, but other times, it's just plain hard.  Today was one of those days, with a caveat.  I still had a good, solid ride with normalized power or 175 watts, which is pretty much where I've been for the past couple of months.  I never really rode easily and did nearly get in a two hour ride.  From a training perspective, that's fine for where I am and what I'm working on.

The concept of pushing beyond what your body perceives as limits can vary from pushing when you can't breath to pushing when you feel like you have no strength.  There's the feeling when you sense that your muscles are full of lactic acid.  On many occasions, I thrive on these feelings.  Just like I say that the only way to finish a 5K is to feel like I'm going to throw up.  There are occasions where the feeling is one of nearly passing out.  While many people, my wife being at the top of the list, think that this is crazy, it's part of the "joy" of having exercise and competition as a key part of ones life.

During my ride today, I did do some visualization of my bike and run coming up in two weeks in Santa Rosa.  I hope to be able to suffer big time during that race!

Journey to Kona Day 157: Guilty Pleasures

I was going to ride my bike this morning, but I woke up early and started watching the 6th Stage of the Tour de France.  I decided to enjoy watching the Tour.  What a race today!  My wife jokes about how it makes no sense to watch cycling on television, but I appreciate the effort that these amazing athletes put in, and to some degree, vicariously enjoy what they do.  How they maintain the wattage they do is remarkable.  I guess that it's all relative.  I enjoyed todays race immensely.  I'll ride tomorrow!

Life is about balance, and that's not something that I've ever been good at.  I'm working on taking care of myself, and to some degree, that's what today was about.  On a side note, watching the Tour does have psychological benefits.  I will put myself in the position of these athletes the next time that I race.  I believe in visualization, and watching elite athletes compete at the highest levels is something that I can use in my own visualization.

I also decided that an extra day of rest to my rib wouldn't hurt today, and I had over three hours of driving to do, after which I ended up swimming for 20 minutes, thus testing out the rib.  It passed.  Still a little sore, but I was able to swim.  Guilty pleasures go hand and hand with rest and recovery.

Journey to Kona Day 156: Healing

This year has been about healing.  I've still got a ways to go.  I was quite scarred by my experience last year.  Some days are better than others.  The key is not to dwell or get caught up in reminders of the mental injuries.  Similarly, I've been in a relatively constant healing mode in regards to my training.  The SnowDrop Ultra did significant damage and required a solid month of recovery.  It probably didn't help that I was still in the depths of my mental injuries.  Even my coach noted that I hit a bottom that I'd never hit before.  I've subsequently had my two rib injuries, the first one setting me back a week, and the second one setting me back three weeks.  Were they setbacks?  Or were they breaks in training and opportunities to heal?

My rib injury from Sunday seems to be resolving quickly.  I was able to do a solid bike ride this morning. While only riding 45 minutes, I could have ridden for three hours.  However, I realized that I still needed some rest from last week.  Again, we need to take time to heal.  It's been a constant refrain for me this year.  I'm often reminded that ironman is a metaphor for life, and the need to take time to heal is just as true for life as it is for training.  I anticipate that I'll be fully recovered from this small setback (was it really a setback?) by the time I get in the water for the Santa Rosa 70.3.

I had a meeting today where a question was posed to me about what's important and what I want to do.  That seems to be a pretty regular question for me, and I've been avoiding answering it.  One thing I have been certain of.  Kona is still at the top of my mind as a singular focus for this year.  I've allowed a few other things to take up time in my life, but at the end of the day, I want to devote the necessary time to train in order to give Kona my best shot.  The last box to check off before entering the last stage of training is my next race.  It will allow me to see where I'm at both mentally and physically.  I need to heal in both realms to be ready.

Journey to Kona Day 155: The "Science" of Periodization

I was talking to my coach this morning, and this topic came up.  I've realized that one of the reasons (I think) for my intermittent injuries, is that my body tries to tell me when it's time to rest.  We're all familiar with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), which is fairly obvious.  Mine peaks 36 hours after finishing a hard workout.  While my muscles actually felt fine Sunday night, and even felt pretty good Monday morning, by last night I could feel some soreness from my Sunday morning run. Sometimes I can "delay" the feeling of the soreness with continued training "through it."  That may or may not always be good, which is what fascinates me about this topic.  I believe that theirs a similar phenomenon that I'll call DOCF (Delayed Onset Cellular Fatigue), which may also peak at some point after a hard workout, or a series of hard workouts.  Fatigue is often more insidious and can by hidden by endorphins when we keep training through it.  This is one of the reasons, in my opinion, for overtraining.  One wonders sometimes how athletes manage to continue hard workouts while entering an overtraining zone.  I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying it, but I think it may not be all that complex.

Obviously, I'm addressing this topic because I'm trying to "rationalize" my rib injury.  I want to say that it occurred as a reminder for me to get a few extra days of rest.  If my previous injuries in the past year are any sign, I'll come through this in even better shape!  Hence the discussion of Periodization.  The concept is one of causing stress or "injury" and then achieving healing and recovery and coming out the other end fitter, stronger or faster.  I put the word injury in quotes because at a cellular level that's what we're doing with a hard downhill run.  We're causing micro tears and injuries, that upon healing, leave us stronger.  Nevertheless, it's an injury.  Which is the irony to all of this.  You've got to break muscle down in order to get stronger.  That's pretty much standard thinking and science.

The concept of periodization has to do with how we "schedule" our workouts to allow for the stress and injury to occur, and then for recovering and healing to be maximized.  There are many books written about this, and many different training schedules.  At the end of the day, we're all unique.  I've  been looking back at my training logs and wondering what is my ideal training "period."  As I write this I realize that may very well depend on the type of training.  If I'm just doing volume based training, i.e., lots of hours spent with little to no intensity, I may be able to go through a longer block of time before I need to rest and recover.  On the other hand, higher intensity will very well require that the rest and recovery be more immediate.  Over the past several months, I've had quite a variety of training stimuli.  I started on New Years with my 100 miler, which required a month of rest.  I've put in 2-3 week blocks of volume, and I've certainly put in some 4-7 day blocks of both volume and intensity.  The most important take home message is that I appear to have been making significant progress across the board.

My result at Ironman Boulder certainly backs this up.  My swim was solid, and my bike was stellar.  While I'd have liked to run faster, I know that the altitude was my limiter and that I was pretty consistent in relation to others in my age group.  In the end, it became a very solid "training day" as witnessed by my ability to do an intense week of training just a week and a half after doing an ironman.  Then, I needed some solid rest.  Similarly, and again I know I'm rationalizing my rib "tweak," but now I have a few days of enforced rest and recovery after another very solid 4-5 days of training.  The bottom line is that we're all individuals, one size never fits all, and there is as much art as there is science to periodization.  The real answer to this will be in just under 3 weeks when I race the Santa Rosa 70.3!

Journey to Kona Day 154: The Morning After

I was planning to swim the morning for recovery, but my rib is still a little sore.  I could go to the pool, try to swim, and if it hurts at all, stop.  Or, I could just rest my rib today, get a massage, and let my body recover rom the last four days.  I'm a little sore, but it's a "good" soreness.  A little tightness in my calves, a little bit of glute soreness. Legs a little tired overall.  All pretty much perfect.  No soreness would mean I didn't have an adequate degree of training stress.  In terms of the rib, I'm hoping that it's just a very localized strain, in which case it will certainly be completely better in three weeks, and mostly better within the next week, enough to not interfere with my training.  Fortunately, and this is what always intrigues me, is that I have just put in some significant training stress over the past four weeks, starting with Ironman Boulder, followed by a very intense week about 10 days later, and then the past weeks efforts.  The body needs to recover, though I'm not sure why I need to hurt myself in order to remind myself to do so!

The best news about my rib is that I'm able to get out of bed.  When I've had a significant rib injury in the past, it's really hard to get up from a laying position for the first few days.  While I'm a little sore getting out of bed, I'm able to do so, which is a significant positive sign right now.  The decision on what to do today from a training perspective is all about risk:reward.  The risk is aggravating my rib and causing myself a greater setback.  The reward is purely recovery related at this point.  Swimming is a great recovery exercise.  I could also go for a walk today, which has become a pretty good recovery and training tool for me this past year.

There is also the mental aspect of all of this.  I wanted to swim today, and I I sit here and write this, I keep thinking about giving a swim a shot today.  That's my brain speaking, which also tells me that I tolerated the last four days of training pretty well.  Also, as I write the, I'm watching today's stage of the Tour de France, which probably gives me a little mental training boost.  So, I go back and forth.  Rest, recovery, a little bit of training, but gentle, what do I do?

On a side note, after my run yesterday, I took a nap for nearly two hours.  I went to sleep last night at a reasonable hour and got a solid 9+ hours of sleep.  That's really the key for me right now.  Sleep is arguably the single most important training and recovery tool that an athlete has at their disposal.  It can be so easy to not pay attention to this, but that would be a huge mistake.

My wife just suggested that I give myself a couple days of rest.  She's always right about almost everything, so that settles it.  Plus, the Tour stage is actually pretty exciting as I watch it, so i can live a bit vicariously for the moment by watching a bike race.

Journey to Kona Day 153: Humor and More Mind Games

I ran 15 miles on Thursday, will a 5K in the middle.  I swam 40 minutes straight on Friday as recovery.  Yesterday I rode my bike 81 miles with 6000 feet of climbing (5 hours and 15 minutes).  Today was another long run.  I ran with two people from my tri club and we ran a trail to the beach.  The run itself was about 16 miles.  The first half was mostly downhill, the second half mostly uphill.

Let me start with the humor. Or, perhaps, not so humorous.  It turned out that the trail had a few streams that we had to ford.  On the way out, I managed to step on rocks, although I did put my foot in the stream once.  Not too big of a deal.  On the way back, on the last stream crossing, I slipped.  As I slipped, I felt my left ribcage, where I'd been injured a few months ago, strain.  I literally felt the tissues stretching.  First of all, I hope it was just scar tissue from my recent injury.  On a certain level, the injury wasn't as bad as what happened a few months ago.  I didn't fall, I don't think my rib popped out of place.  It hurt a little, and that hurt persisted through the remained of the run back, which was all uphill.  Fortunately, it didn't hurt too much, and it didn't limit my breathing or movement.

I realized that I'm three weeks from Santa Rosa.  Of course I need to injure myself today.  Hopefully, this injury is minimal and won't impact my training.  The next few days will tell me that.  I'm not as injured as I was so hopefully I'll still be able to swim and bike for the next few days.  Since I've run 39 miles in the past three days, a few days off from running won't really hurt.  In fact that's the coolest part of all this.  The trail run was 15.6 miles.  I drove home, changed my shoes and did three more miles, all up and down, to get me to 18.6 miles for the day.  The rib hurt a bit during this, as I'd probably cooled down a bit, but it was doable.  I showered, ate and then took a nap.  When I woke up my legs felt fine!  My rib still hurt, but my legs felt fine.  Pretty nice feeling after the training I've put in the past few days.

Now, the run itself.  It's remarkable how much it helps to run with other people.  For most of the run, I was conversational, and keeping about an 8:30 pace (gradual downhill).  On the uphill run back, until the very steepest section, I kept a 9:30 pace.  I wasn't trying to run too fast or too hard, but I also wasn't trying to run too easy.  This goes to my question from yesterday's blog.  I ran nearly 34 miles over the last three days at 9:30 pace.  Those runs included over 2,000 feet of climbing.  On a flat course, there's no reason that I can't be running at an 8:30 pace.  I just have to do it.  In the meantime, I'll laugh at the fact that I managed to injure myself three weeks from my next race.  So, what's new?

Journey to Kona Day 152: Mind Games

I don't know what got me to thinking about the fact that I think I've gotten into a bit of a slow running rut.  My 5K two days ago clearly showed that I can still run relatively fast.  Not quite as fast as I used to, but fast enough.  If I could maintain a 7:37/mile pace on a hilly 5K, I wonder what pace I should be able to keep for a half marathon.  A lot of my runs have been around 10 minute plus pace lately, of course with a lot of hills.  Still, it was just three years ago that I was doing twenty mile runs at 9 minute pace.  But even then, I could never translate those runs to an ironman run pace of anything faster than 11 minute per mile pace.  I never have.  Well, almost never.  I've done a couple of ironman run at around 10:30 pace.  Clearly, one reason is my bike fitness.  If I'm not fit enough on the bike, my runs will be slower.  I've been working on that.  So, the question is, if I can maintain my legs after a long bike, what type of run am I capable of?  My 5K has inspired me, as well as the fact that I ended up doing 15 miles on Thursday and my legs felt fine the next day.

The best part of all of this is today's bike.  I rode my bike for 5 hours and 15 minutes, pretty much all of the ride at ironman effort, or even a little harder.  My legs felt fine, and I really had little drop off in energy and effort from start to finish.  I paced myself well, and I took in 300 cal an hour, to make sure  that tomorrows run is also ok.  I did seven loops in my neighborhood, and during the sixth loop I was feeling tired and my legs felt like they might be done.  And then a guy on a road bike passed me going up my last hill.  I sped up a bit, and talked to him the entire way up.  Hmmm, my legs still had energy.  I had actually been thinking of ending my ride after the sixth loop, but the fact that I still had the legs to ride up the last hill inspired me to do one more loop.  I actually did that loop on my old tri bike, as it has a power meter.  I'm not sure if I went a little harder or not not he last loop, but it turned out to be my fastest and my power was exactly where I'd love it to be for an ironman.  An hour later I got a massage and two hours later, my legs felt like I hadn't even ridden.

Which brings me back to the mind games of running faster.  I've been so focused on running easy, that I think I've gotten a bit lazy.  The 5K has inspired me to start thinking that I can run faster again.  First, I have Santa Rosa in 3 weeks.  What pace can I keep for a flat half marathon at the end of a half ironman?  Certainly, 9 minute per mile pace should be reasonable.  But how much faster can I go?  How much can I override my own doubts and just run faster?  My legs have been ok lately.  Ultimately, how fast can I run at Kona?  Perhaps that's my ultimate goal for the race I've been looking forward to for so many years!