The longer road to Ironman

Late posts

2010-06-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Been a while but I think that moving is a reasonable excuse.

So the running is getting better because my asthma seems to be more manageable at the moment. I am still way behind on my training for the summer and will likely drop back to the 1/2 marathon training program to help me get caught up.

I have significantly stepped up my midweek training program by adding multiple spin classes in each week in addition to my weekend runs. If I keep that up for a few weeks then I should really start to see some major improvements. My weight is being very stubborn and not responding in the way it normally does to diet and exercise changes but the addition of spin should push it over the edge.

Sorry for the shortness of this but we are still recovering from the move so i am forced to write this on my lunch break at work. Hopefully I will be able to write a more complete update this weekend.

Still Struggling

2010-05-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

Not sure why it is so much harder to get going this time. I mean this is nothing compared to training for Ironman. I guess I am older, more over weight, my asthma is worse, I am married and have more family responsibility. I doubt it is any of those but maybe a little of all of them.

I am still struggling to keep up with the mid-week runs. I am either too exhausted from work or too over whelmed with my asthma to get quality runs in. My long runs are still fine, slower then I ever thought I would run but fine.

My new plan is to take some of the pressure of my running and just focus on doing anything during the week. Maybe let myself off the hook for that Wednesday run and go for an easy ride or a long hilly walk. Maybe without the performance pressures, I will be able to get some base building in and get enough momentum to get over the starting hurdle.

Blah....

2010-05-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a little bit tired and burned out at work... not really interested in doing much of anything work related. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up and nap. Oh well.

Things are still going well on the running front. I did my Thursday run and although I am still running slower then ever, I am still running. My Saturday run with the team went OK. I ran with the 13min/mile group who were much closer to 15min/mile but I wasn't about to complain.

They are still VERY disorganized and I hear that from everyone who used to do TNT. We are not organized and there is little to no communication on how things go. I wasn't sure if I needed to bring all of my gear over to the lecture on Saturday or if there would be time to swap before we started. In fact, even the pace coaches didn't seem to know whether they were going give us time for a quick potty break and gear swap or just take off. It seemed like a decision made on the spot. Lovely. Not to mention the nagging I am getting from other TNT people I see on the trail about our group learning to share the trail and leave some room for others.

As much as I am complaining, the team is huge help. It has kept me motivated and running. I have a goal, a plan, and I am moving.

Still Going!

2010-04-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Just over a week into my new training regiment and I am still going strong (which is more then I can say for some of my previous attempts). The schedule this week involved running Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday for about 25 minutes each. My work schedule kept me from running Monday but I did Tuesday and I am going today and I did a cross training workout on Monday. I will likely end up being 1 run short this week but I am very comfortable with that. Until my body gets used to running again, it is probably better to take it slow. My knees are not hurting exactly but I can feel that they are taking a beating.

I have also dropped about 3 pounds in the last 10 days. Some of that is likely water weight but I will take what i can get. I really need to drop another 15-20 pounds before the miles start to get too long.

Summary, things are still looking good.

Another New start?

2010-04-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

So obviously my life has gotten busier since becoming married and starting a wonderful jointed life. Also the economy has created a lot more job stress and longer hours. That being said, I have still totally and completely failed and getting myself motivated again. The post below was about accountability, if I had to write down my failures then I would be more likely to stick to my plan... unless of course I just skipped out on writing anything at all.

Well this year I have to do better.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in October and we are very excited about it! I expect that after October, I will be busy and tired and that I need to make any major life changes now and get them locked in before that day. To that end, I have joined a running group. TNT was the best thing that ever happened to me fitness wise. I am learning that I really struggle to motivate on my own. With a social group to support me and a group of people expecting me to be out there running with them, I find that I follow through better.

Enter San Jose Fit! It appears to be very similar to the old TNT run team except it is much larger (TNT was a larger organization and they divided the teams up into regions to keep the size manageable), less variety in the run locations, not quite the same organization (and that is purely based upon 1 workout - I fully expect to find that they are organized as the season progresses), and no fundraising requirements. I loved the fundraising with TNT but I am happy to leave it behind this year. It also helps since it is actually very likely that I will not do an event this year. All of the great races are around October/November and I have no plans to abandon my wife and new born to go and run a race and then recover. Maybe in the Spring I will race again. Kaiser 1/2 is in February :-)

OK, so I have started running again and the extra weight is a nightmare! I have never been in a serious running program this heavy (275 right now) and it just plain sucks. You wouldn't think that 15 lbs more or less would matter at my size but it really does. I really need to peel some of this off before the miles start to scale up.

Anyway, today's run. 2 miles - 29:10. Pretty sad but you have to start somewhere.

2010-04-24T22:59:00.001-07:00

Test post from my phone

A new beginning

2009-06-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

After IMC, things went bad in a hurry. I didn't understand it for a while but I fell into a depression and managed to add like 40 pounds in 6 months (didn't know that was possible). Since then I have taken off about 30 of the pounds and improved my diet significantly, gotten married, and started work on my certification as a personal trainer.

What I have not done is train. I haven't been in the water since Canada and have logged maybe 200 miles on the bike and 20 miles of running (which amounts to nothing over 2 years).

There were lots of false starts on training but there were always distractions (and by distractions I mean excuses) that kept me from following through. That is very confusing to me because I actually like training (well, not swimming but the rest) and can't figure out why I can't get any traction. i think my problem is the scope. I am so used to thinking like someone training for Ironman that I can't seem to get comfortable with a schedule of 3 hours a week of training (which is where I should be starting after all of this time off).

Anyway, this blog is now going to be my honest sounding board for how I am doing and how i am feeling. When I cheat on my nutrition plan then it will be here and when I bail on my training plan then I confess it here. My wife says that I need to be less hard on myself and give myself more room for misses (and she is smarter then me and has a PhD is Psych) but I feel that knowing that I have to write down my misses will help me to stay true to my gaols. If that doesn't work then I will revisit the plan later but lets see how it goes.

Update!!!

2007-09-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

So I have finally digested the season and all of its good and bad points... I think.

My plans for this year:
1) I am applying to be a Mentor for the TNT Winter tri season. That would mean a trip to Kona in April for Lavaman in addition to helping a bunch of first time triathletes experience this wonderful sport of ours. The competition for these mentor spots is very tough so I will be sure to let you know how that goes.

2) Wildflower Long course. I don't actually want to do this race this year but after dropping out on the olympic distance swim 2 years ago and missing the bike cut last year, I feel I have unfinished business there.

3) Mid summer I hope to do the Aids Lifecycle, a 7 day, roughly 540 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. 7 long days in the saddle can only help my cycling and if i can squeeze off some running in between legs then that would be wonderful tri training.

4) We'll see how the season goes, but I am currently sitting on a Canada slot for 2008. Who knows where I will be in 11 months but i learned a lot this year and who knows how i will feel next August. Maybe another try at Canada next year is in the cards :-)

My Ironman Experience

2007-09-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Canada was a wonderful experience as was Ironteam. I started the season with huge and seemingly unattainable goals and I achieved almost all of them. I achieved all of them except actually crossing the finish line in Canada. Naturally I was disappointed to not finish the race but I managed to keep a pretty good attitude about everything. Well, maybe not right at the moment, but shortly afterwards.

For those of you who don’t know me or know my history, it wasn’t all that long ago that I was just short of 300 lbs and couldn’t even conceive of running a whole mile. The journey for me this season was not just a 10 month journey to Canada and an Ironman finish but another year in a longer journey from who I was to a healthier and happier me. This journey was never going to end in Canada and I think that is why I handled my disappointment in Canada so well. Every year I am healthier and stronger and there will be many more chances to earn my Ironman title before my journey is complete. I learned so much this year about my body, fitness, and what works and does not work for me in training. I also learned a lot by watching my teammates complete their Iron journeys last week. I was so inspired by there courage to face the screaming winds and cold temps to push through the accumulated pain of over 140 miles of swimming, biking, and running to cross the line and claim their Ironman medals.

Add to that the teams fundraising success of over $600,000 and the close relationships formed with my team and it is hard to walk away from Canada with anything less then a positive feeling. Besides, Canada will still be there when I come back J

Thanks to my team, coaches, friends, and family for all of your support and sacrifice this year. Without you, the journey would never have happened!

OMG I'm here!

2007-08-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

I am actually in Penticton! I swam in Lake Okanagan today! There is no escaping it because it is actuallyhere!

Surprisingly, I am quite calm about it. I think a lot of my nerves were based on teh anticipation. Now that it is here, I am a lot calmer and feel more prepared.

With any luck, 36 hours from now I will be in T1 celebrating a fabulous swim :-)

Race Plan

2007-08-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here it is!!!! How I plan to not only survive Ironman Canada but finish in less then 17 hours :-)

Swim: Goal 2 Hours
My swimming has improved a lot this year and I am confident that I will make the time cut. I am still not a good swimmer so 2 hours seems like the what I should be looking at for a finish time.
Start the swim near the back of the pack to keep the wrestling to a minimum and try to push the pace early. This is sort of a gamble as I usually struggle in the water for the first 20 minutes or so until i get warmed up, but I am hoping to ride the draft of the massive group start for a while. The hope is that if i can push a little bit at the start they will drag me through the first .5 miles fast. Then I can settle in and just maintain through. If I can get a good draft to start, I might be able to finish in 1:45 or 1:50 which would be a huge mental victory. For some reason, the extra 10-20 minutes that would buy for my bike cutoff seems huge to me. If I can get on the bike by 9AM I am very confident that I can make the 5:30 cutoff and that is why I am willing to gamble a bit on the swim start.

T1: I would love to say 5 minutes but I plan on putting on Bike shorts here. Riding for 8-8.5 hours in tri shorts just sounds needlessly painful. Add to that the disorientation coming out of the water and i am assuming 12-15 minutes in T1

Bike: Goal 8 Hours
8 hours just feels like a tight limit for me on this course but when you work out the math it should be easy to make it. We'll just have to see how it works out but here is the plan.
The course description I found online suggest that the first 40 miles or so are mostly flat with a few rollers, one quick climb and a tail wind. This is the tricky part because I am walking the balance between saving energy for later in the day and putting in some quick miles to buffer against any issues I have later in the ride. Depending on the wind and terrain, i am looking to do 16-18 mph here sustained. Hard pace for me but sustainable. When i get to Richter, I just need to watch my cadence and conserve my way to the top. I will lose time here but I just need to stay steady. Its hard to guess a pace without a good feel for the grade of the climb. Then I just bomb down the back side as fast as I can ride comfortably. I need to take advantage of the downhills as much as possible with out risking a bad fall.
Now the course is described a long stretch of flat rollers and a strong head wind (I hate headwinds). This will be where all of that time spent getting comfortable in my Aerobars will really pay off. The goal here is to maintain around 15 mph but that is very weather dependant. The ride down the out and back to the special needs tent is apparently down hill and with a tailwind. This is approaching the 80 mile mark of the ride and from experience, I will be starting to feel the miles at this point so a nice downhill ride will be nice. Off the bike for a quick restroom break and top off my supplies at the special needs tent and then right back out. Hopefully the break will help me ride back up the out and back which has been described as an "uphill wind tunnel".
Back on the main road, I need to build back up some momentum after the long climb up from special needs. I need to buffer some time before I get to the climb at Yellow lake. I just have to drop in and grind out the long climb up which is described as not very steep but long. This will very likely suck as we are nearing the 100 mile point of the ride. Must remember how close i am to the top and then there is just the long fast descent to the finish to keep me moving through this. When I reach the top, it is only about 30 minutes to transition give or take and I should be able to relax and recover a bit on the descent to rest for the run (unless it is around 5 and then I need to push down the hill to make the time cut).

T2: Hopefully the easy descent into transition will help me get through T2 quickly. I need to change into my running shorts but hopefully, i can be out the door and on the run in less then 10 minutes.

Run: goal 6:30
I usually feel like crap coming off of the bike but i am usually fast coming off of the bike. We'll see how that goes on race day :-) My run plan involves breaking the race up into 4-10 km pieces (I know there are still a leftover 2.2 km but we are ignoring that for now). The first 10k I just need to get through like brick workout. Shooting for a 13.5-14 minute pace here. The 2nd 10k should be a little more comfortable and i hope to maintain closer to a 13.5 minute pace. If I am successful at this then i will be reaching the 1/2 point at around the 3 hour mark and would have about 3.5 hours+ left to finish. Very achievable. The 3rd 10k will definitely suck. I will be tired and it will be dark and i will likely feel like death is not such a bad option (based upon my feelings during the triple brick). My goal for this section is to do a lot of walking with a purpose and to try to maintain a 16.5 minute average pace here (about 1:50 to the 3/4 mark, leaving me with just over 90 minutes do the last 6.6 miles. That will of course be just pushing through to the finish, driven by the clock to run more then I really want to run. The worst part is that, just like Nike marathon in SF, the end of the run has your run basically to the finish line and then turn the other way and run away from the finish for a short out and back. That is just cruel. To be close enough to see and here the finish but then having to run away from it... they couldn't have found another out and back to add distance to?

Anyway, if the race goes that way, i will finish before midnight and there will be much rejoicing :-)

Confessions from a man on the verge...

2007-08-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

I haven’t written anything here in ages and there is a reason for that. I have been in denial. There was no way to write a blog entry without facing the fact that the race is right on top of me and facing what that means, but the question is, what does that mean?

It means that I am a mess. I haven’t been able to sleep through the night in a week (so I am a zombie now), my eating schedule is all screwed up (either starving or no appetite), and I am terrified of this race. I put on the happy face and tell everyone that I am ready but to be honest I have never felt like this before a race. I have been under trained before and I’ve been unprepared before but even when I couldn’t swim I was never this nervous pre-race. The odd thing is that I don’t know why I am scared. I have my race plan and I have done all of the visualization exercises to prep for the race. Finishing the race is something that I really think I can do and even if the worse case happens and I don’t finish, I really think that I can be satisfied with all of the progress I have made this year -I improved my swim PR in the Olympic Tri from 2 hours to 56 minutes, I’ve done my first 100+ mile bike rides, I’ve learned to use my Aerobars, and I no longer fear open water swimming at all.

What is the absolute worst thing that can happen? Well I guess I could be attacked a pack of wild dogs while on the bike, but barring that the worst thing that can happen is that I don’t finish. While that would suck, it would not be the first time that I failed to finish a race, so what’s the big deal?!?!

I don’t know but I really think it is the anticipation... the waiting and dreading. I really think that once I am there and the waiting is over I will feel better but until then... I guess I will just focus on the advice that I got from Tri-Geek Kahuna's blog "enjoy the hell out of the experience, enjoy the hell out of the day. It's your day. You are the star. Enjoy"

2007-07-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Aero Bars are COOL!!!! (supposed to be in the title but for some reason I can't type up there)

I've had them on my bike for over a year but never really felt very comfortable using them so I never did use them. Now I am feeling like my Pilate's is really helping my core strength and flexibility and my bike fit is better tuned so I started dropping down into my aero more often and who knew just how much faster that made you? Now i know why everyone uses them :-)

Still a bit of a struggle getting in and out of them but that is just a lack of handling skills and i will get over that someday, but i feel fast and comfortable in them. I need to develop a feel for what climbs and descents are too steep for me to be in them but it is another boost to my confidence about my race! If only it wasn't 7 weeks away!

My new race theme song!

2007-06-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I heard this song the other day for the first time in a very long time and it struck a chord with me and my training right now.

The Distance - Cake

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags go up.
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.
They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank.
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns.
Their prowess is potent and secretly stearn.
As they speed through the finish, the flags go down.
The fans get up and they get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone
In her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse,
He's going the distance.
No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine,
He's haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force.
In his mind, he's still driving, still making the grade.
She's hoping in time that her memories will fade.
Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause he's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone
In her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's going the distance.He's going for speed.
He's going the distance.

I think the lines about "the sun has gone down and the moon has come up and long ago somebody left with the cup" is very much my race philosophy. Someone will win IMC before I get off of the bike and by the time I finish the sun will have long since gone down. I also relate to "bowl shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse" and the "fighting and biting and riding on his horse".

The song just feels like a back of the pack IM theme song.

10 weeks and a clean bill of health (sort of)

2007-06-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

If you look to your left, you should be able to find the countdown to Canada and notice that we have passed the 70 day mark (10 weeks). If all goes well, 10 weeks from now I will be wearing $500 worth of finisher's gear and mixing my recovery drink with rum in celebration of my 16 hour and 58 minute IM finish (I'm being optimistic and think that I will finish a full 2minutes before midnight).

As the race gets closer I am torn between wishing the stupid race was over and I could get back to something resembling a normal life (one without pain) and wishing I still had 20 weeks left so I might actually be "ready" for the race if one can ever really be ready for their first IM. I need to keep reminding myself that what i should be feeling isn't either of these emotions but more of a sense of excitement and anticipation! This is the big adventure and it is getting closer, but I just can't seem to get past the fear of the event. Maybe as it gets closer.

I also saw my doctor and got me leg checked out. The Dr told me that my legs are shaped such that I will always be at a higher risk of some knee problem that I didn't quite understand but eventually figured out that he meant runner's knee (pain on the front of the leg just behind the knee cap) that I always seem to have. He didn't see any real problems with my Hamstring however and said that I might take it easy a bit to let it rest but that there was no reason to stop training... YEA!! I had my trainer/message therapist take a look at it and he found the problem right away. we talked a bit and he diagnosed it as a mild strain to my right Semimembranosus Muscle. He gave me some tips for treating it and also said that if I took care of it that it should heal up very quickly and I should be good to go :-)

The Dr also diagnosed my exercise induced asthma and prescribed an inhaler. Hopefully this will fix my tendency to struggle with getting good breaths late in longer workouts.

All things considered, the week has held a great deal of good news and I should be good for a good week of hard training!

Lake Berryessa

2007-06-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the lake at sunset from right out side our cabin. This is the part of the lake we had done our swim in that morning.

The quick summary of the first day goes as follows.

Swim: Planned for a roughly 2 mile swim in very warm and clear water. The clear part kind of freaked me out a bit as I am not used to being able to see fish swimming around beneath me or worse... snakes! Yes, i saw a snake while I was swimming. Not the most pleasant of experiences but he was swimming away (I only assume that he was male... I didn't get close enough to check).

The swim went well and I was feeling good until all of a sudden I started getting dizzy and feeling some nausea. Anyone who has been reading for a while knows that this is not a new feeling for me but that I have not had this sensation in a long time. I will start using ear plugs again to help keep from getting this (hopefully that will help). Other then that, the swim went well and I am still feeling pretty good for race day from a stand point of swim finish. That is a pretty amazing thing for me to say considering where I was at the beginning of the season :-)

The Bike: Planned for a 95 mile ride on some extremely rough roads with a lot of climbing. With my injury, i was planning to take today easy on my bike and hope to buy some more time to let it heal by keeping it easy today. This course was actually well suited to that as the first 24 miles or so are only "rolling". They are very rolling but none of the climbs are terribly long or steep. A good training ride with nothing too terrible to push my injury. I figured I would see how things felt but was prepared to turn around because the hills after that point were described as "evil" and I didn't want to get stuck out in those crazy hills with an injury.

So after riding out to the water stop at the base of the big hills, my leg was starting to feel a little aggravated but not too bad at all. The problem was that I was surrounded by coaches who asked my how much it hurt and when and such. The problem was that it didn't hurt too badly and that time and as I answered their questions it really didn't sound too bad. Add to that the need to prove my "toughness" to the coaches and I decided to push on and up the first hill. It didn't take too long to realize how bad an idea this was. The first climb was very steep and I was pushing right at 3-3.5 mph up the hill and putting a great deal of strain on my leg which was starting to hurt more and more. Not good.

A few miles into the hill I told Coach Mike that I was going back and started back to the cabin, still 25 miles of rough road and hills away. The roads were so bad on the way back that I actually plan on checking all of the bolts on my bike tomorrow to make sure nothing has come loose... it was crazy! I really held back on my pacing on the way back to try to keep the stress off of my leg but about 2-3 miles from the end, something gave and it got really bad! I had to ride the last couple of miles in on my 2 lowest gears to keep the pain under control... not the ride I had in mind. I iced it and tried to keep it loose with some light stretching and movement but it was definitely feeling worse then before.

Sunday - the run: Planned 2.5 hour trail run along the edge of the lake. The course was beautiful but pretty hilly and uneven. Obviously my times were very slow on this type of course but overall I felt pretty good about my run. My leg, which was a bit tight in the morning loosened up and actually felt fine on the run (as it normally does - the injury only seems to hit me on the bike). I had a brief bout with nausea at the turnaround and about 1/2 way back but they passed quickly and I was able to keep going. My legs felt pretty good as did my energy. I even managed a pretty good little push at the end once we got off the trails and I was able to open it up a bit down the stretch.

Summary: I learned a lot this weekend. My hydration and nutrition felt pretty good and I felt pretty strong on the recovery for Sunday. If it wasn't for my injury then I think I would have had an absolutely spectacular weekend.

Bad News!!

2007-06-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

Back Story: So in a previous post, I mentioned that we did a HUGE amount of climbing last weekend. I didn't really go into how much of a problem I was having at the end of those climbs. I was having a pretty intense pain on the lower part of my right hamstring (near the knee but on the side closest to the inside). It really only appeared when I would try to climb or put a lot of power into the cranks. It got bad enough that I actually got off and walked some of the hills. I didn't think anything of it because it didn't hurt when i walked on it or while I was resting. Just assumed a minor strain from too much exertion climbing.

Fast forward to this week: I haven't even thought about the pain in my leg as it hasn't been an issue at all during my running or weight training this week. I am really much more focused on trying to fend off any possible overuse running injuries from ramping up my run miles (which I am doing fine by the way). Went for a long ride today (mapped out a 70+ mile ride) but about 5 miles in (at the first steep climb) my leg flared up again and seemed to get worse at each climb. Luckily, the ride back to the car was downhill, but now I am worried that I have an actual injury to deal with (the first since I started doing triathlons). I've got ice on it now and I will see if I can still run on it tomorrow. If so then I will likely just stay off the bike until Saturday when we go to Lake Berryessa and then I can talk to the coaches about what I should do then.

This is really not a good time for an injury! I'm sort of in the final push to the end and really need to keep my training volume up in order to get through this. Hopefully this is just a minor strain and will clear up in a week or so.

Almost like I know what I am doing!

2007-05-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

The title refers to today's run, but let me just rewind a bit to Sunday's ride. I downloaded my Garmin and it claims that we did over 11000 ft of climbing on Saturday and that was in the first 50 miles of the ride (the last 20+ miles were basically all down hill). I tend to believe the Garmin and it did feel like that much climbing but I never dreamed that I could actually do that much climbing. Also, as much as I hate climbing, West Alpine and Kings Mountain are 2 of the most beautiful stretches of rides that I have ever done.

Now, back to the running. As I mentioned before, I kind of let my running fall behind a bit and decided that I should slowly ramp it back up to avoid an overuse injury. To do that I added several shorter runs (4-6 miles) to my training week to try to build back my base. They felt kind of difficult and uncomfortable but I knew that would pass. Today I went out for an 8 miler and felt great! I easily could have gone 2-4 miles further but decided not to risk injury. I am starting to feel that all of the time I spent reorganizing my training over the last few weeks is staring to pay off. I am feeling more focused and more motivated. I really expect to see some real progress over the next 4 weeks which is good since the race is 13 weeks from yesterday!!!!

Update on training reorg

2007-05-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

So as I was revisiting my training plans and trying to get a coherent strategy for the last 3 months, I reviewed some of my training totals for the last few months and realized the following. I started off the season very focused on swimming and neglected my bike and run. Once the swim was under control, I realized that I was very behind on the bike development and have really focused on it to the exclusion of the others. Not so good. My swimming is still fine but will not improve much at my current training volumes so I have searched for a good masters program to help force me to get my swims in (I won't tell you how many times I have been in the water since Wildflower). My running is actually not so bad. I don't feel like I need to develop a lot more speed, but I do need to redevelop my base. You can't just go out and do an 18 mile training run with no foundation (easy injury). I feel like my base is pretty good up to the 8-10 mile range but I don't feel like I can go out and start piling on the 14-16 mile runs just yet. Therefore, i am making it a priority to get in at least 2x 6 mile runs in each week and every other week I will make one of those a longer run (8-10 for now) and build back up to the level that the rest of the team is at.

The problem is that I need to do all of this while still maintaining a focus on my bike and improving that. The big move I made there was to try out a personal pilates trainer. I believe that he will be able to improve my flexibility and core strength to a point where I can ride my bike in a more efficient and hopefully pain free position. I think that will be a huge improvement if i can ride without needing to stop to stretch out my back and glutes regularly.

Anyway, that is where things are. Just 3 months until race day and I am feeling anything but confident but all I can do is what I can do.

Less then 100 days!!!!!!

2007-05-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

So anyone who looks to your left will notice somewhere over there is a new list of some of the blogs that I visit regularly. There is a very active community of "tri-bloggers" that are very supportive of each other and it is great to read about their journey and let it motivate me.

If you scroll down a bit from there, you may notice that the race countdown passed the 100 day mark several days ago... more then a little scary. It seems like only yesterday that I said with some pride "I am doing an Ironman next year!" Now I say with fear and trepidation "I am doing an Ironman in 3 months!?!?!"

After I got sick a few months back, my motivation just totally dropped away. It has been very difficult for me to maintain the intensity that I have needed and my attendance to the team training sessions has really dropped off. Part of that is that in the beginning it was fine for me do a 4 hour workout on Saturday, grab a nap, go to work for 12.5 hours, go to the Sunday workout for 4 hours, grab a nap and then go back for another 12.5 hour shift Sunday night. Now that those 4 hour sessions have changed to 6+ hours, I just can't do that anymore. Not good!

I have been told that a key attribute of an Ironman is adaptability. Enough with the complaining about the workouts that I cannot fit in! My new plan (as of a few weeks ago) is to focus on the workouts that I can fit in. That means that I need to refocus and lengthen the midweek workouts that do fit nicely in my schedule. Now that I rarely make the Sunday swims, I am joining a Masters swim group to help me get my training in. I need to turn my 30-40 mile weekly ride into a 60 miler on weeks that I cannot do the long ride with the team. The running that I have been totally ignoring to focus on my swimming and cycling needs to get bumped up and I need to focus on rebuilding the base (at least 2x 6 mile runs during the week every week). I am also looking at machine pilates (recommended by a friend) to work on my flexibility so maybe my back won't lock up on the bike.

My hope is that by focusing on what I can do and making the best of it, I can make up for what I can't. If i can actually follow through on everything above then I am confident that I can at least get to a point where I have a shot of making the midnight cut in Canada.

Girls on the Run

2007-05-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last week while looking on active.com for another 1/2 IM to try before the big day, I came across a small "race" in SF that was looking for volunteers and "Buddy Runners". I looked a bit further into it and the group, Girls on the Run, works to build confidence and self esteem through non competitive running and the program ends with a 1mile or 5k run. Seemed like a fun cause and a good way to spend a Saturday morning so I signed up.

The weather was beautiful and the kids were very excited and had a very "race" like atmosphere. The kids were all grouped by there schools and coaches and just full of prerace energy. My Buddy runner was an 8 year old girl named Demetria who was very shy and probably said 2 words to me before we started. She had opted for the 1 mile race and we lined up near the start line after some quick stretching and were all set to go. The horn sounded and off we went... at a full sprint! I had my Garmin with me just for fun and clocked us at better the 8 min/mile pace while trying to weave in and out of other kids and parents. There is no way that I could maintain this pace for the whole mile and was beginning to fear that she might pull away from me when she stopped... suddenly... right in front of me :-) It was all I could do to not run her over. We walked for a bit and I tried to encourage her that she may want to pace herself a bit. She agreed and so we started off again... at the same pace :-)

After the 1/2 mile mark Demetria was starting to show signs of fatigue as her run/walk ratio was sliding more towards walking but she was still in good spirits so i wasn't worried. As we got closer to the finish I told her we could walk as much as she needed but my only rule was that we needed to run across the finish line. That being said she went off at a full sprint even faster then the earlier sprints. Luckily, the crowd had spread out a bit and i had an open path to keep at her side as she crossed the finish line in 13:28 but at a sprint that clocked at 6:57/mile pace.

Other then needing to work on pacing a bit, i could not have asked for a better "buddy" and I swear that at no time during the whole morning did she stop smiling!

A great event and a great group. For more info please check http://www.gotrbayarea.org/

I believe it is a nation wide organization so you can look up the local chapter.

Race report Part 2 – the Bike

2007-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

So where was I? Oh yeah, out of the water J, my favorite part!

My blistering transition of just shy of 10 minutes will no doubt break absolutely no speed records but I am ok with that. On to the bike and out to the first climb – beach hill. Beach hill sucks! So I am grinding up beach when I realize that something is wrong. Beach is not an easy climb for me but my back is in knots about ½ way up and is making it very hard to generate any power at all. I climb down and do some quick stretching to try and loosen it up a bit. I am fairly close to the top and on a fairly steep section so I opt to just walk it up the last bit instead of trying to mount up on the steep section. I make it to the top and head off but my back is still tight. Not a good sign but I am optimistic that it will loosen up when I get warmed up. I push on through the small rollers in the park to some of the good down hills just out side of the park before turning right and heading out on Interlake Road. There is a number of decent rollers here (they were crazy climbs last year but I am a much better climber this year) and this is the first time that I was really exposed to the crazy head winds of the day. At this point I was cruising along at a decent pace considering the hills, the wind, and my back but I needed to stop for a few minutes to try to stretch out my back again. The pain in my back was severely limiting my ability to push a big gear. Anytime I tried to generate any real power, my back would just start killing me. By the time I finally reached Jolon and some relief from the wind, I was significantly behind my pace from the training weekend and in serious danger of missing the time cut. Luckily Jolon is the fastest part of the course. If my back would just cooperate, then this would be the place to make up some time. Unfortunately, my back just continued to get worse all along this stretch of road and I continued to lose time. My goal at this point was just to stay positive and just keep going. I knew that if I let the pain and the disappointment get to me then I wouldn’t be able to finish the ride and the last thing I wanted to do was quit.

By the time I finally reached mile 40 and Nasty Grade, I knew that I would miss the bike cut, but that was the least of my problems. My main concern at that point was just getting to the top of Nasty. I had hoped to be able to just grind my way up it but my back was just screaming when I got about 65% up and I was forced to walk the last bit of the hill to the right turn at the first “top of Nasty”. I then was able to get on and ride up and over the other 2 “tops” of the hill, but my back was through at this point. I couldn’t muster anything over 8 mph for any length of time unless I was going down hill and the uphill climbs were just a nightmare of slow and steady pain. It took more almost 90 minutes to go the last 12 miles and when I finally got back to transition, I could barely get off the bike. I was almost glad at this point to have missed the run as there was no way in hell that I could have even hoped to run any portion of the course right then.

Well, that was my Wildflower 07. Perhaps a better race then my Wildflower 06 but that doesn’t mean that much to me at this point. I still don’t really know what caused my back to be such a huge factor in my race but I have dramatically increased my work on improving flexibility in my lower back and glutes in hopes that my back will not factor into IMC. There is no way I could have ridden with that pain for 112 miles.

Wildflower Race report

2007-05-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

Wildflower long course is billed as the most difficult long course in the world (as listed in the brochure, not sure I believe that but it is definitely up there). Add to that the worst winds that any one can remember and you get a VERY difficult ride!! My goal for the day was to try to keep as positive an attitude as i had during practice weekend. It was really amazing to me how much more enjoyable to whole experience was if i didn't let it get me upset. Ignore the bad stuff and just keep going really makes it a better day. After all, what's the worst that can happen? DNF? Like I haven't done that before :-)

My day started bright and early at about 5:30 when i got up to start getting my stuff together and to ride down to the lake to prep my transition. Any long time readers will know how really bad I am in the water and also realize that I have a really bad history in this lake from last year. I was starting to get some butterflies even though I know that I am so much better prepared for the swim and even had a good swim here practice weekend in March. Even so, I was getting a little worked up and it took me several minutes to calm myself down and get my wetsuit on. Wandering around the start area waiting for my wave to go, I realized how much I use humor as a calming mechanism. All of my stupid little training jokes help to keep my nerves settled, but here I was ready to go and I didn't know anyone in my wave and everyone around me was too focused to interrupt! Just as my nerves were starting to get the better of me, Tyler found me. Tyler was starting a waver or two ahead of me and somehow found me in the crowds and came over to wish me luck. I don't know if he knew I was nervous or not, but just seeing a familiar face and a couple of encouraging words really helped me out a lot. I settled down and waited.

8:30AM Gun goes off and I am in the water. I only got hit and kicked like 4 or 5 times before we got a little bit of separation. I was still feeling a little bit uneasy but was able to work into a little bit of a flow and just focus on going forward. I got to the first buoy and realized that I was actually ahead of some of the people in my wave :-0 That never happens!! I didn't have a stellar first 1/2 swim but I was getting more comfortable and was feeling that I still had a good shot at my goal time of right around 60 minutes (not a good time by any stretch but a great time for me). About 3/4 of the way to the turn around is when the wind picked up and the water starting getting rough. Some of these waves hit me and it felt like a swimmer had just kicked me in the face but there was no swimmer there to have kicked me. Not good, but surprisingly, not that bad. I just tried to maintain form and go and I did. I managed to fight through the waves and a couple of invisible metal buoys that I crashed into (small unmarked buoys that look like propane cylinders floating in the water that I crashed into head first, ouch!) to finally reach the water exit and get out at 65 minutes!! Not bad and I can get even better with some straighter swimming and no crashing into buoys :-)

the 65 minute 1.2 mile swim sets me up for a good IM swim in August -paced to make the cutoff with 10 minutes to spare :-) Now I just had to get on the bike and conquer the hills (and, little known to me at this time, a killer head wind).

I'll write up on the bike later in part 2!

All about sleep management

2007-04-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

I find that my life right now is dominated by sleep (or more accurately, the lack of sleep). Most days I am totally fine and feel great, but working nights and training for IM is not easy. There are weeks were we train for 5-6 hours Saturday then I take a few hour nap and go to work for 12 hours only to go straight from work to our Sunday workout where we will do another 5-6 hours. Then I rush home for a quick nap and back to another 12 hour shift. Actually, that just isn't happening anymore. It worked fine when we were doing 3-4 hour workouts but it is just too hard now. I have even started to miss Wednesday workouts on occasion because after work on Wednesday morning I need to run my errands and I don't get to bed until 4 or so and then trying to drag myself out of bed for a 6:30 track or swim workout just doesn't happen.

This has been real struggle for me over the past few weeks and I have finally resolved to fix this problem once and for all. I will now just skip the Sunday team workouts if I worked the night before. I'll do a quick shorter on my own workout before bed. I will force myself to get an earlier Wednesday nap so I can be sure to be up for the Wednesday workout and I will need to up my training volume on my off days of Thursday and Friday to balance the drop in volume from going light on Sundays. It's a bit harder to do long workouts alone but I have done it before and will do it again. If I don't pull things together quick then I will be too far behind to be ready by August. I only have 4 months left!!! It is still enough time but barely.

Wildflower training weekend

2007-03-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

So I get over the flu, over my sinus infection, I'm just starting to get back into a training mind set and get into the swing when all of a sudden - wildflower training weekend! I had originally hoped to use the weekend as a gauge of my Wildflower race but with everything that had happened I figured that I would not be 100% for the weekend and should just focus on staying positive and learning the course so i would know what to work on for the next several weeks preparing for the actual race. As it turns out, being sick may have been the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to lower my expectations for the weekend.

We get out to the water before dawn to set up transition and get ready to go. The weather is beautiful! No rain, warm and sunny (well the warm and sunny actually come later but we were anticipating a warm and sunny day). The water was cold but not frigid (my guess would be 60 but i could be off by 5 degrees either way). We get the signal to go and we are off. I need to back up for a second and remind everyone that I have never had a good fresh water swim...ever... in fact nearly drowning in these waters the previous year marks my last fresh water swim. Needless to say I was a bit nervous. I knew that I was 10 times the swimmer that I had been back then but until you actually do it, it hangs over you. I head out and feel pretty good. The nerves settle quickly and I settle into a rhythm. Not a good one because i can still feel some junk in my lungs rattle around a bit and I am just feeling a little off. Maybe its remnants of the flu or maybe just warming up still in the cold water, but i am off a bit. I swim a bit and then stop to catch my breathe and then repeat the process. I start to warm up a bit and start to make better progress. Everyone around me is having a great swim!!! It encourages me to just push a bit harder. I make it to the turn around at about the 40 minute mark - 80 minutes for 1.2 miles is not great but would still mark the fastest race swim I have ever done so definitely a good sign but it is a bit off of the pace i need for Ironman. I duck my head and start to swim back, fully expecting to repeat my normal pattern of swim for a bit and rest for a bit repeating as my breathing allows, however I don't seem to be becoming winded (my natural state in the water). I just keep swimming... and swimming... and swimming with only a brief stop to sight better (the sun is now in my eyes so sighting is an issue). I make it back to the start area still feeling good and with some energy left to keep swimming if i needed to but i am happy to get out ... in 65 minutes!!!! I swam the back half of the course in 25 minutes!!!! My swim confidence is now soaring through the roof!!! I still need to work on my swim but fears of missing the swim cut are rapidly fading and I am now left with the confidence that the real test will be the bike course which is the place I would rather focus on anyway.

Speaking of the bike course... it is time to get on the bike. I start off and wind through the park a bit heading towards beach hill (the first and steepest hill in the course) and manage about 1/2 way up before needing a break (very steep). Stefanie is nursing a bad knee and is walking the hill so I decide to join her... its a long day and maybe pushing up this hill at mile 3 is not the right way to start (at least that is my justification for walking). We get near the top and remount and head off. Last year I rode the Olympic course and I am familiar with the next 12 miles or so of the course and remember it as very hilly - lots of long slow climbs and speedy descents. Somehow the climbs don't seem as bad this year (perhaps I am a bit stronger this year) and rarely find the need to descend into my climbing gear on these early hills. I am sticking to my nutrition and focusing on staying positive no matter what happens (again that is my focus today - don't get distracted by things that go wrong). So far that is an easy plan as I am still flying high from the swim and the ride is not going too badly. As we approach the first water stop at about mile 20 I am starting to feel like I am missing a bit of push in my legs, not a lot but just a bit. I can't quite seem to push my normal gear and I am riding just 1-2 MPH below what I had hoped to be riding at this point (this is some of the flattest terrain in the entire ride). Dan offers me an option of Sagging from the next water stop past Nasty Grade but I put that off until we get there. Dan knows that I have been sick and is trying to make sure I have options to not over do it. Also the coaching staff did a great job of making the day about a long workout and not about doing the full course (the training weekend is much earlier then normal and many of us are a bit under trained for this course). We ride on and I am still feeling a bit sluggish on the bike but not terrible. This is where I would normally start to feel a bit down. The day is moving on and I am falling behind my pace with some of the hardest hills still to come, but my new training philosophy seems to be working and i just keep trudging on. we get to the next water stop at about mile 35 (well over 1/2 way there but very close to Nasty Grade). I opt to keep going as I really want to challenge Nasty and see what it is like. I know that if I don't then it will hang over me for the next month and be a big fear on the bike ride in May. All of the riders around me have been picked up and sagged in to start the run but I feel very strongly that I need to keep going. The last Sag vehicle says that it is my last chance or I will be out all alone. Again I think "just one big hill" to the water stop and if I need to sag from there I will feel OK about it. Finally at about mile 42, I make the left hand turn up nasty and it isn't so bad. It is steep and long but not super steep and I can just drop down into my climbing gear and grind away. I am feeling that the hill is definitely defeatable. The only problem is that it is hot and exposed. I am baking in the direct sun and there is no wind. My own speed is down around 5 mph so there is really nothing to cool me off. I make it maybe 1/2 way up before I lose the battle mentally. I really believe that I could have beaten that hill but after the swim and the 40 miles of riding and the heat and sun on that hill, I just couldn't keep going... so I walked the last 3/4 mile up the hill which was not significantly easier then riding as it turned out. It sucked but I am still glad that I tried it. I now know what to expect on the hill and I really believe that I can beat it and I know what to expect mentally at that point and now I can prepare for it. I make it to the top and get a ride back into base from there missing the last 12 miles or so of the ride. For those of you who might be doing the race yourself, when you get to the op and turn right... there is more hills. You haven't made it to the top yet there is still several more good climbs after turning right. Just thought you should know.

So now i am back to transition and getting ready to run when I see people starting to come in and finish from the run! Not only are they finishing before I start, I never even finished the last of the ride! Anyway, i strap on my belt and head out. About this time is when i realize that my lungs are on fire. I have always had some asthma symptoms but usually after a workout in the cold and never ever during a workout, but it is killing me now. I can't run for more then a minute or maybe 2 at a time before I am just gasping for breathe. This is not good. I run walk out for a bit making really poor time but still moving. I have 3 hours to make it back before they close the course and I know that I am the last participant on the course. I make it to the first water stop and one of my old run coaches (Terry) is there and gives me a big pep talk and motivates me to take off out of there and push through for a while but eventually the burning in my lungs sucks the motivation from me. The sad part is that I still have a little bit of pep in my legs and I am thinking that I could have made a real run at finishing in 3 hours if I could just breathe. That brings me to mile 4 :-) Mile 4 represents the end of the first part of the run and the beginning of the Hike. From mile 4 to about mile 6 it is all crazy hills that just make running not an option for me. With my lungs in the condition they were in, even walking the hills was very stressful. I kept trudging along and chipping away at the distance and was shocked to realize that I was still relatively positive at this point. I was hot and tired and disappointed with mu lungs but I noted that I have been going for the better part of 8 hours at this point and it really didn't seem like it had been all that long. I think the mental toughness just develops in the background during your training and you don't even know it. Anyway, to shorten this already super long post, I keep going and workout with the coaches that the right course for me is to just keep going but to skip the campgrounds and the pit and just head down lynch to the finish (about 8.5 miles). I even manage a weak run at the end (at the urging of Dan and Steve... I would have been content to just fall across the line).

When all was said and done, I completed a 1.2 mile swim, 44 mile bike ride, and 8.5 mile run on a very difficult course hot conditions in about 10 hours. Not so much the pace I had hoped for but I still felt pretty good about the experience. I have no confidence that I will finish Wildflower in the time limit now but looking forward to Canada I'm thinking ... If I have come this far in such a short time, where will I be in August? Maybe ready to cross the line by midnight :-)

Where have you been!!

2007-03-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

This post was written prior to the Wildflower training weekend but I forgot to post it. I will post my Wildflower update in the next day or so

I am sorry that I have been missing in action for the last several weeks but I was very sick for about 3 weeks and have only resurfaced recently. It feels kind of weird to be training again after missing 3 weeks!! I don't feel 100% yet but I seem to be doing OK. I know this is going to affect my big Wildflower training weekend so i am rethinking my expectations. I had originally hoped to get a good feel for the course and set down some baselines to work on for the actual race in May. Now I am just thinking I need to get through what you can and learn what I need to work on for May. Ignore the clock and just try to push through as much of the course as i can.

We'll see

End of a LONG Weekend

2007-02-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

After yesterdays long swim and run I was feeling surprisingly fresh yesterday for our long swim and bike. That's good! We showed up in Pleasanton to workout with the Northbay team and were pleasantly surprised to find the pool setup as a 50 yrd pool!!! I have never done laps in a 50 yrd pool but figured that it had to be good because it would be easier to count and it would be more like open water swimming (you rarely get to push off the wall in an open water swim).

We jumped right in and got right to the swim (well, I got right in and started but I was also 10 minutes late and everyone had already started). I could definitely feel a little fatigue in my arms from the previous day but was pretty happy with how I felt. The big difference was that I could definitely feel my core muscles sagging a bit more then normal (fatigue from the swim/run the day before) but even that was a good sign! Not that my form had degraded but that I could now feel that my form was degrading. It really is amazing how far my swimming has come in the past few months. I still suck but things are rapidly coming together in the water. I didn't keep a real good count of how much we did in our workout but I believe it was about 2200yrds. That puts me in Ironman swim distance for the weekend. Not bad for the first week in Febuary :-)

Next was the big 40mile ride. It started out just fine but I had to push a bit to keep up with other groups as we worked our way through town. Most of us were unfamiliar with the area so we tried to stay together to keep from getting lost (even though most groups did get lost for brief periods through out the early part of the ride). Things were going well and I was making pretty good time chasing the faster groups (maybe 1-2 mph faster then my normal pace) up until about mile 13 when we hot a small climb and I just didn't have anything left to chase with. The long weekend of running and swimming had finally caught up with me. It was a little bit of an emotional let down to have to drop a lot of speed and ride alone for a while. I usually ride alone but after spending the first hour of the ride with people it was kind of hard to keep a positive attitude tired and alone with a lot of miles left.

This is when things got really bad! At about 14 miles in, we got out of the city and out into the open countryside... And straight into a strong and steady headwind!! I was already tired and emotionally down and now to be into a headwind!!! This dragged on for several miles and the constant wind just kept my body from recovering at all and it just dragged on. What I had not realized was that most of this ride had been just slightly uphill. This helps to explain why the ride was so hard on me. I didn't realize this until about mile 26 when all of a sudden we hit several consecutive miles of steady down hills!!!! My speed was up, my legs were resting, and I was smiling again! Life was good again. When I finally hit flats ground again back in town, I was able to maintain a pretty good pace because my legs had rested quite a bit on the down hill and I was able to push a pretty good pace right up until the last 4-5 miles. At that point my energy dropped out again and those miles just seemed to never end. I wasn't nearly as upset at this point because it had been a long day and an even longer weekend and being tired like this was part of training for Canada.

Anyway. I eventually did make it back and managed to log a few hours of sleep before going to work Sunday night. I am surprisingly not that sore today but I do expect my lower back and glutes to be feeling it tomorrow.

Build Phase?!?! But I liked the Base Phase!!

2007-02-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

So we transitioned this week from the base phase (building an aerobic base and getting the body conditioned to deal with an ever increasing work load) into the build phase (where we ramp of the volume like crazy) and we are starting off in a spectacular fashion.

Today we started off by hosting the North Bay team down here for a swim and run. I did 2400 yards in the pool and actually felt very good once I got warmed up and all. I am finally turning the corner from the spending every second in the water thinking about how much I can't swim and how long this set is and being totally focused on how terribly unhappy I am being in the water to a place where I am now occasionally distracted by other things or my mind is able to wander off and I can just swim. The same thing happened a few years back with running and it was the start of actually enjoying running. I am not convinced that I will ever get that far with swimming but it is nice :-)

After the swim we went out for a 9 mile run (longest of the season so far). It went very well for me. Not the fastest pace I have ever run but I ran the whole distance at a very consistent pace which is amazing for me. Anything over 10k and I usually start to lose my pacing and need to take frequent walk breaks but not today! I was very happy with my run and even happier when you look at the fact that it was after a long swim.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we get to travel to Pleasanton to train again with the North bay team for another long swim and then a 40 mile bike ride (longest of the season so far). That's a lot of training for one weekend. Hopefully I can make it through :-)

Getting caught up!

2007-02-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

I have about 3 half written posts that I will finish up and post in the next few days. It has been a crazy few weeks but things are finally getting back to normal. It has impacted my training but not so much that I am worried yet. I only missed 1-2 workouts per week. Not good but not enough to really hurt me if I get back on track ASAP.

It is amazing how much progress I have made already in just the first several months on Ironteam, but it is even scary because we are approaching the 1/2 way point quickly and I still don't feel like I am even ready for Wildflower (or even in the vicinity of ready). My only real reason for optimism is that I have finally started losig weight again. When we first started ramping up the training, my weight actually went up! I was losing fat and gaining muscle which is good, but I really want to have less mass to carry up Nasty Grade and finally that is starting happen. I have dropped about 3 inches from my waist and about 5-6 lbs since the season started and we are only starting to ramp up our volumes. If I can complete all of the training and start the race about 40-50 lbs lighter then when I started then I feel like I have a real chance at it. I'll update my training volumes soon :-)

Feeling Guilty

2007-01-12T22:39:00.000-08:00

So before I confess my sin, I feel the need to point out that we have averaged around 2 coached workouts a week since the beginning of October. In that time, I have missed 2 coached workouts. One was to talk to the fall tri team about my horror/triumph story from Treasure Island 2005 (long post but worth the read if you have the time) and the other was to actually compete in Treasure Island 2006. Add to that a training weekend where I literally spent as much time training as sleeping and then a tough week at work afterwards that kept me from catching up on my sleep and I think my sin was justified... sort of.

On Wednesday night I... sort of...well I skipped our coached swim :-(

My swim has improved by huge amounts, but I still need every swim I can get. I was just feeling a little burned out and isolated from my non Ironteam life. I realize that this is only going to get worse and I need to develop better coping strategies then skipping workouts. The worst part was that I felt so guilty about it that I didn't even really enjoy it.

Oh well, back to the training grind :-)

Long day of training

2007-01-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

I have a strange work schedule where I work nights from 7PM to 7:30AM 3-4 nights a week. It's great because it gives me lots of days off each week to train. The problem is that I work every other Saturday night and every Sunday night. That means that after working a 12.5 hour shift last night, I went straight to a 4 hour workout this morning (anyone who has ever worked nights knows that by 5AM your body really wants to be asleep). I didn't make it home to bed until after 1PM where I was able to sneak in about 4 hours of sleep before having to get up to go back and work another 12.5 hour shift (which I am about to start now).

Enough of my sleep deprived complaining! Training was great today! I was really tired and really didn't want to swim today. The workout started out really badly and it took me a long time to sort of settle into a comfortable flow. The good news is that I did eventually settle in and managed a 2600 yard workout today (longest ever) and was just 2x50 away from completing the entire workout (They always put the pool covers on and shove us towards our bikes before I can finish the workout). I have never been that close and so I see that as a big positive!!! I was also able to complete the prescribed distance of each set without any stopping (if it said 300, I did 300 without a rest). The one weakness I had was that my 20 second rest periods between distances was often closer to 45-60 seconds, but even that is better then before.

Next, we had a 2 hour ride waiting for us. While prepping for the ride, I misplaced my keys and by the time I was able to get going I was a good 5-8 minutes behind the team :-( I mentally prepared to just settle in and ride alone until the turnaround, but the Coach Mike had a different idea. Somehow, Mike convinced me that it would be fun to chase them. I think that we had some favorable traffic lights that helped out some but we did manage to catch up to them fairly quickly and none to soon. I was just starting to fall off of his wheel when we caught up with the back of the pack. This was the first time I have ever tried to chase down anyone ever (any sport) and it was fun. It was also the fastest sustained ride I have ever done that wasn't at the very end of a ride. I had a feeling that this would come back to haunt me later when we got to the hills, but it was worth the satisfaction of catching the team and having people to ride with. The hills were actually not so bad. A lot of steady cuphill but only a few places that were actual climbs. The worst was the climb up Bailey but that is really not as bad as many of the other climbs that we do regularly. In the end, my little chase episode didn't cost me very much at all later in the day ( a sign that I am getting stronger) and I think the fact that I wanted to kill myself during the last 4 miles was more a fact that we had been going consistently for 4 hours (combined swim/bike) and with my lack of sleep, I was just drained.

At the end of the workout, I really felt like this is definitely a workout that I could not have even thought of completing 2 months ago. Real measureable improvement. Maybe this Ironman think can actually happen :-)

Time to refocus!

2007-01-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Now that IMC is right around the corner, it is time to get refocused on my short term and long term goals!

Obviously, my ultimate goal here is to finish Canada in 16:59:59 or less

To get there, I have set a number of shorter term goals to get me there.

1) Complete the Louie Tri in 2 weeks in a better time then I did at Treasure Island this year. The big challenge with this is to survive jumping into the bay and avoiding the ice bergs (there aren't really ice bergs in the bay, but it does feel like it).

2) Lose at least 5 lbs by the end of January - this will be a repeating theme as I really feel that losing weight will be the easiest way to achieve my main goal of making the time cuts at Canada.

3) Lose 10 lbs by the end of Febuary

4) Raise $4000 by the beginning of March

5) Compete in our "Wildflower training weekend" which is basically us doing the long course but without the actual race going on. I just hope to complete it at any pace this go around - good prep for the real thing 6 weeks later where i will kick butt.

6) Lose 15 lbs by the end of March - I will skip the rest for now, but just say 5 lbs a month and a total of 40 lbs by the end of August (race day). Very manageable.

7) Complete Wildflower in 8:30 (It's a tough course, otherwise I would shoot for 8 hours even)

8) Reach my fundraising goal by early July so I don't have to worry about it down the home stretch.

9) Contemplating doing the Vineman 70.3 at the end of July as a last minute opportunity to polish my race prep.

10) Feel ready and comfortable on race day.

11) Generate world peace and end hatred and poverty - about as reasonable as most of my other goals :-)

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

So I realized that this is the year! It seems so much closer now. When you say "I'm doing an Ironman next year" it seems like a distant goal that is so far away that you don't have to worry. Now next year is this year... or something like that. If all goes well, next year at the holidays I will be an Ironman.

I had a great holiday but I am torn by my training. I did a lot more training then I feared I would do with all of the holiday distractions, but not as much as I could have or should have done. Oh well, can't change it now. Time to refocus and get it done!

Happy Holidays! Good Friends, Good Food, and a Stomach Virus

2006-12-27T00:30:00.000-08:00

Yep! The food was excellent, the company was great, and whatever hit my stomach afterwards was killer. I was forced to skip my much anticipated ride today to recover. I am feeling better now with only mild stomach issues. I hope to be back to full speed by tomorrow.

I hope all of your Holidays were healthier then mine :-)

What did I ever do to you?

2006-12-24T02:39:00.000-08:00

These were the first words out of my mouth to Coach Dan as I crested the top of the hill on Pierce Road. Even with my new super climbing gear, this was among the toughest hill rides that I have ever done. Between Mt Eden, Pierce, and Rt 9 we were pretty much climbing for the first 14 miles of the ride (and some of the areas were VERY STEEP). Then we followed it up with a quick run to make it a brick. Just further proof that you should not skimp on your coached holiday gift. It just doesn't pay :-)

Fast track, a broken bike, and an icy kick board...

2006-12-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

The week in review... Wednesday was our coached track workout which I must say was both "interesting and engaging". After warming up, doing drills, and some easy laps, they paired us up basically fastest with the slowest, next fastest with the next slowest, etc. Needless to say I was paired with a rabbit (Dana) who just qualified for Boston. The workout was for one of us to stay and do squats, crunches, and pushups until the other runner returned from their lap and we would switch. We would do this for 4 laps. This sounds like a great thing for me right... Dana is so fast that I will barely make one set of each workout before she would get back from her run. The problem is the guilt factor. I felt bad leaving her there for my normal 2:45 laps and pushed my pace to about 2:10 (blazing fast for me) and then slowed a bit on the last one down to about 2:30. We then had to run a mile together. Ideally, we would slow to my pace but again, my ego got the better of me and we did a 10:15 mile (my 2nd fastest ever). In my mind, we would now do a little cool down and be ready to call it a night... after doing a 2 mile time trial. Ouch! Really regretting all of that speed I wasted earlier. I hung back for the first mile to see how I felt and then pushed the pace up slowly as I finished in a time of 21:45!!! Better then an 11 minute pace after all of the other running we had already done!!

On Saturday, the north bay team came down for a spinerval at the same track. This is the point where I realize that the minor bike problems that I suffered with on the previous evening where actually caused by my bike missing a chain pulley on my rear derailer. No bike for me :-( I figured that I would just keep running while everyone else ran and then I would join them on the track repeats. That seemed reasonable until I had been running for almost an hour and 45 minutes (about 35 minutes longer then my longest run in the last 3 months) that I realized that my body was turning against me. I walked a bit until the team started its last track set and finished with them. Not a bad workout but it was cold and my legs never really felt good.

On Sunday, we met the north bay team at a pool up in Pleasanton. It was about 27 degrees outside so getting in the heated pool was actually a much desired activity that morning. We warmed up for a bit and then started grabbing for the kickboards on the side of the pool for some kick drills... only my board was frozen... as in a film of ice had formed on my kickboard. After drilling for a while, we did a 5x100 set to get going and then we were asked to do a 500. I have never done a 500 but was not terribly surprised. i finished the first 400, then took a break before the last 100. Then Dan said, now do the next 500 faster... what!?!? The first part that sank in was the "next" 500, as in we are doing more then 1 500? Then I realized that he had said faster. What?!!? As mentioned before, I am not a strong swimmer and my arms were starting to fatigue at this point, but this is how we get stronger so I pushed through. I broke the 500 up into 200s to get through and then we did some smaller sets before cooling down. We then did a spin workout on my newly repaired and functional bike (Yeah!!!) and then got the snot kicked out of us by a "quick and easy" core work out that basically made me want to crawl to my car and die (I may not have mentioned that I have no core strength and therefore suffer through most workouts). We then packed up and headed to the cars. As we were heading out for breakfast, Dan mentions to me that they "accidentally" had us do the workout written up for the fast swimmers and that our workout should have been sets of 300. Oops!! Let this be a lesson to you, never skimp on holiday gifts for your coaches because you will pay in the end :-)

Info links for IMC, IMUSA, and Wildflower

2006-12-13T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here is some fun info I found while I was eating lunch tonight. Hope someone finds it helpful

Ironman Canada FAQ
http://www.byrn.org/gtips/faq.htm

Ironman USA
http://www.byrn.org/gtips/imlp.htm

Wildflower
http://www.byrn.org/gtips/wfcourse.htm

Enjoy

Bike geek bullseye

2006-12-10T01:17:00.000-08:00

I now have a large bullseye on my back, or more acurately, on the back wheel of my bike. After struggling to make it up yet another steep climb last week and realizing that even the climbs that I can do, I do at a super low cadence, I decided to chuck my pride and regear my bike. I can hear the snickering of the bike geeks already, but the bottom line is that cadence equals efficiency and my cadence is too low on a lot of the climbs that I train on. Plus, anything that helps me get up nasty grade in May is a good thing :-) When I have my Wildflower 1/2 IM medal around my neck, it won't matter what gear I was in.

I have gone from a 12-27 to a 12-32 rear cassette. That equates to an almost 20% decrease in gearing in my climbing gear! That is huge!!! I really want to challenge Hicks now and see if I can make it.

I do of course realize that I wouldn't need the new cassette if I just dropped 20 lbs of body weight but that doesn't happen overnight and will still take several weeks to achieve, but the cassette is on now.

Pestilence

2006-12-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

So this post is for a bit late but it is for 2 weeks ago.

I, like everyone else I know, got hit by the flu. I was hit less hard then most, but I actually credit my training for that. I noticed that I was feeling a lot more fatigued then usual and that my heart rate monitor was showing much higher rates during my warm ups then usual. I decided to take a couple of days off to try to get kick it quickly. I figured it was better to miss 2 days of training then to suffer through sub standard training sessions for a week or more. Plus I hate being sick :-(

After 2 days of rest, i joined the team for a fun but HILLY ride. After the ride, my first symptoms popped up and I actually felt sick for about 12 hours before I was my body was able to fully kick it out of my body. I was tired the next day but felt fabulous the following week. Just proves what I have always said. When in doubt, rest will usually pay off. It is a long season and a day or two here and there won't matter. It is the long term consistency that matters (at least that is what "they " say).

Hoping you are all pestilence free :-)

So this is training...

2006-11-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks, as the training volumes have gone up, I've noticed that my legs are always just a little bit heavy and my muscles are just a little bit fatigued. I was beginning to worry about overtraining and whether this was a sign that I wasn't ready to handle this training load. I don't feel overly tired and I haven't noticed any drop in performance while training so it doesn't quite fit the classic overtraining symptoms, but I was still concerned.

I have been working with a personal trainer for the better part of the past year and decided to approach him with this problem. He pointed out that we have been steadily increasing training intensity over the last few months and that my recovery time between sets is actually decreasing over time. Some of my best workouts have been in the past month. Overtraining would have me needing more rest and recovery to struggle through the same workouts, but I am moving easily through harder workouts.

It occurs to me that maybe this is what training is supposed to be like! Maybe now, I have built enough of a base that I am actually able to really train now and this lingering muscle fatigue is just part of pushing my body. This also explains why people would feel a little jittery while tapering. The muscles are finally fully rested and fueled and your body is ready to go. I had never experienced that because my body was not able to maintain a training load that would highlight the difference.

Another unexpected lesson about my body on my journey to Ironman.

Ride and Tie

2006-11-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, the team had our "ride and tie". It's a brick training event involving 2 person teams that share a mountain bike, alternating between running and biking in a leap frog pattern around a nearly 2.5 mile loop. It is designed to help get your legs used to running off the bike which is much harder then it sounds (after biking hard, your running muscles are super tight it feels like your legs are made of lead). At the end of each loop, you have to run up a hill with your partner and complete a challenge before you can continue on.

This event is one of the more creative and fun events of the year as costumes are encouraged and the challenges tend to be very fun and also tend to lend themselves to great (and embarrassing) photo moments :-)

This is at the startline

Some of our great costume moments!

Our "ref" coach Dan showing his dance moves

A new take on the classic 3-legged race

And last but not least, the winner of the costume competition... Me!!! I am hesitant to post pictures as my family will likely see this but it is all in fun.

Yes those are fishnets and I had lost the apron somewhere along the way so it may not be clear that I am supposed to be a French maid.

There are many more pictures from the day but I can only post five per entry. If anyone is interested in seeing others, just let me know.

The longest swim ever!!!

2006-11-20T15:30:00.001-08:00

I have gotten a little behind on my blog and will try to catch up this week over the holiday.

Last Wednesday, we had a coached swim workout with the team at Burgess pool in Palo Alto. It is no secret that I am a poor swimmer and due to poor technique, use so much energy to get through the water that I tend to reach exhaustion long before I can cover any significant distance. Tonight was different! I have been swimming so much lately that I have been feeling more like a fish then a biped and it has been paying off with increased comfort in the water and a cleaner stroke. I actually was able to complete a 225 yard set and would have been able to complete the 300 had I not gotten caught up in swim traffic (4 people in the lane)! That is huge for me! I can't seem to do that well on my own but this is still a huge improvement from a year ago when I struggled to complete a 25 on a regular basis. What is even more impressive is that through the course of the night, with all of the drills and sets put together, I swam roughly 2000 yards! 2000 yards without a wetsuit is such a huge change from where I was even a few weeks ago that I have a hard time really getting my head around the accomplishment. I need to keep in mind that 2000 is really not all that far and less then 1/2 of the distance that I will need to cover on race day, but screw it this is a huge breakthrough for me.

But wait!!! There's more!!

The next morning, I was scheduled for a swim with my swim coach Robin. I was hoping that he would take it easy on me because of my big workout the night before and would give my achy arms a bit of a rest. This was perhaps a slightly naive thought on my part but worth a try. I did some drills and warmups on my own for about 20 minutes before he came out to start my session that helped to loosen up my arms but needless to say that 60 minutes later and after my 2nd 2000 yard swim in 24 hours, my arms were done! Other then that I still felt great!

It is very odd for me to say this, but I think I can imagine a day in the not so distant future when I will actually consider myself a swimmer. Who would have thought it?

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water!

2006-11-15T03:57:00.000-08:00

I guess that I shouldn't have laughed at my friend for being afraid of the sea lion we ran into at Coyote point last month.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/14/BAG88MCPRM5.DTL

What the hell was I thinking?!?!?

2006-11-12T13:42:00.001-08:00

So I recently added my monthly training total to my page. I was looking at it early and noticed that for the month of October, I had trained about 5000 yds swimming/ 90 miles biking/ 30 miles running. That monthly total is actually very close to an ironman distance. If I take all of the training from the month of October and roll it into one 17 hour period, that is pretty close to my race! In case you missed that, THE ENTIRE MONTH OF OCTOBER in 17 hours! Why did this seem like a good idea ;-)

I suppose at some point, I will need to accept that I actually have signed up for this thing and that it is not all some crazy dream. Maybe I should actually start actively fund raising or something crazy like that. Nevermind, that is what July is for :-)

Bit of Ironman Wisdom (just not mine)

2006-11-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

So, as I have been exploring other blogs on the site, I have come across a whole community of Triathletes that maintain blogs! Many of them are returning form IM Florida and are sharing there experiences and it has been very interesting and inspirational to me to follow their journey as I begin my own.

Here is a link to a post that I think is very interesting and a great bit of Wisdom that I would like to share with the rest of the team.

http://nancytoby.blogspot.com/2006/11/things-ive-learned-or-relearned.html

Some of my favorite lines:

Speed is no indicator of character or intelligence, although some faster people may try to convince you otherwise.

There's very little "forgetting" to eat or maintain a manageable pace or use sunblock. There's planning or not planning.

Going hard for 12 hours is much more than double going hard for 6 hours. And mile 20 is still the halfway point in a marathon.

In triathlon, some totally unhealthy obsessive-compulsive behaviors can start to seem darned-near normal.

Louie Bonpua

2006-11-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Just added a link to a summary on Louie. If you don't know who he is then you need to read that link. His story is amazing and the number of lives that he touched and changed is bigger then you can imagine.

Treasure Island 2006

2006-11-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

So if you have been following my blog and race career to this point and let’s face it, how could you not be following this gripping and compelling story of woe and triumph :-) then you know that my swimming has been less then stellar over the last year. That was until I became “Lord of the Swim”. Armed with my new optimism and the realization that there is no way my race could actually be worse then last year’s, I entered the water at Treasure Island on Saturday for the Olympic distance race (1500 meter Swim, 40 K Bike, 10 K Run).

My goals were simple, 1:15 swim (a large improvement over my 2hour nightmare last year) and a 4:15 total race time (again a big improvement over getting pulled from the course last year just short of transition). In my wildest dreams (and yes my wildest dreams are about racing, don’t judge), I might go 1 hour swim and maybe near 4 hour total race but these were stretch goals to fantasize about (your judging again!)

The swim: a 750 meter triangle that we circle twice to reach the nearly 1 mile swim distance. Just prior to getting into the water I notice that there is one guy in my wave who is not only not wearing a wetsuit but is wearing baggy basketball shorts for the swim! I assumed he was crazy but more about him later. As the swim horn sounded I just started swimming and swimming. I first came up to catch my breath about 2/3 of the way to the first buoy ... and I wasn’t alone!!!!! I was on the back end of my wave but still with the actual group!!! This is an unheard of event and brought much joy to my heart and a spring to my step (impressive while swimming)! Imagine my surprise when I hit the first buoy at 9 minutes! I tried not to get too excited as I expected to slow a bit as I tired but I was 1/6 of the way through the swim at a sub hour pace and actually ahead of 1 swimmer! I just kept swimming and then doing sidestroke to catch my breathe much like last year but this time I was doing significantly less sidestroke. As I passed the ½ way point I was at 28minutes, still under my stretch goal and feeling good! It wasn’t until I rounded the last buoy that I was actually starting to really fatigue and slow, but now the finish line was only 250 meters away and I was still in sight of a sub hour swim so I just pushed through and kept going and going. I crossed the swim mat in 57:29, more then an hour faster the last year!!! It is really hard to describe how excited I was at this point, but if you have read any of my last few entries then you understand what was riding on my having a good swim and here it was.

I had a pretty slow transition but I haven’t spent any time working on it (Lord of the Swim sounds sexier then Lord of the Transition). After 7:04 in transition I finally made it out onto the really bumpy and pothole ridden 4 mile bike loop that we would have to repeat 6 times. At first I just thought that I wasn’t quite warmed up from the cold water but after about 6 miles, I was getting very worried about how much my legs were burning. The course was pretty flat so I shouldn’t be burning. Then I realized that this is what it feels like to actually race! I have never “raced” before because I was always more interested in just finishing then I was in my finishing time, but today was different. I was a man on a mission. If I could just manage 15mph on this technical course then I might actually have a shot at sub 4hours, so I just let it all ride. If I fell apart on the run then so be it, but I was going for it. At about this point I saw mister no wetsuit again, still wearing the same long baggy shorts on the bike. As I looked closer, I realized that he didn’t have a seat on his bike! He was riding from a standing position the WHOLE TIME! This guy was hardcore and I can only imagine what his plans are for the run. I finished in 1:36:33 which was well ahead of my estimate and actually placed me right in the mix of all of the slower people in my age group and left me about 1:15 for the run after my leisurely 3:56 T2. Actually, I wouldn’t call it leisurely but I just felt like I was forgetting something so I lingered to make sure I had everything. I had everything and was ready to hit the course... almost literally. I hadn’t done any brick workouts in quite some time and I had never run after riding that hard in my life, I started to run and my legs just didn’t want to come along so I nearly fell. The first mile was miserable! I walked and shuffled for a while but I was moving so slowly that there was just no way that I could possibly make the 4 hour stretch goal so I would have to be content with a 4:15 and a great personal swim time. That is until I reached the first turn around ( the course is an out and back course that you do twice) and saw that I was at 18:25. 18:25!! That is right at a 12 minute pace! How in the world did I go that fast with how slow I felt! Reenergized and starting to feel some spring in my legs (more valuable now then in the water), I started to push a bit to make my goal time before my legs could realize what was happening and revolt on me. As I was making the turnaround for my 2nd loop, I saw Mr no wetsuit no bike seat guy out for his run... Pushing his kid in a stroller... and beating me... by 30 minutes!! Anyway, I am not pushing the run like I pushed the swim and the bike mainly because I have got nothing left to push with. My body is done but I had built a little bit of a buffer so if I can just maintain 12 minute miles for the last 3 miles then I should be able to clear 4 hours. Not only do I maintain 12 minute pace, but I manage to go 1:09:40 and PR my 10K and finish the race in 3:54:42!!!! That is 3rd form last in my age group but still an absolutely amazing race time for me!!! The day is a spectacular success and I have most of my TNT family around me to share it with me (which is good since they can take a big chunk of the credit for getting me here).

As tradition dictates from last year, I had to come back on Sunday for the sprint race. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn’t take too long in the water to realize what happens to your body when you really “race”. The lead weights that has taken the place of my arms were not nearly as effective today but I still managed to finish in just over 20 minutes. I won’t bore you with the details of the race but needless to say that I was significantly slowed by fatigue from the previous day. That being said, I still had a good day and finished in 1:54:32. Not bad for being tired and sore. The real high point of the day was being able to find enough left in my legs to run some of my friends in to the home stretch where the crowd energy would get them to the finish. It was great being able to share in their accomplishment and maybe help them a little with the last little hurdle. Congrats to Leslie, Heather, Jean, and the entire TNT fall team for a great race and thanks to everyone who helped me in the last year to get me to my finish line!

Twas the night before TI and all through the Hotel...

2006-11-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in my hotel resting for the big race tomorrow trying not to get too worked up about the swim (my new Lord of the Swim philosophy). The big thought that I can't get around is that I NEED to have a good race tomorrow. I never have huge expectations or feel performance pressure on my races. It's just not how I race. The problem is that I have failed to finish every tri that I have ever entered that was longer then a sprint distance race (I have finished 1 of the 5 races that I have entered). I have been fine with this up to now, but at some point getting better just isn't enough. I'm on the Ironteam and plan to do an Ironman in less then 300 days! If I still can't finish a 1500 meter swim in a reasonable time then what chance do I have of completing an Ironman?

The one bright side of all of this is that, I know I can do this. I am so much stronger in the water now then I was 12 months ago. When I was at Big Kahuna, I was on a 1:30 swim pace (before I got sick). If I can just keep from getting sick, then I should be able to go 1:15 or better. I actually think that I might be able to go sub hour, but that is by no means a requirement for a successful race.

I guess we'll see tomorrow!

Lord of the Swim... or how I learned to stop fearing the water and love the swim

2006-11-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

There are 2 reasons that I have decided to embrace the swim and move past my swimming fears.

Reason #1, a good friend of mine has been pushing me for months to adopt a more positive attitude about swimming in hopes that a little confidence would help me in the water. I understand the sports psychology argument for that, but I have always been more of a realist and knowing my limits has helped me to manage my disappointment at my past failures. Now it is time to stop worrying about failing and focus on finishing. If not now then when? Canada is now less then 300 days away. I need some finishes!

Reason #2, I think I have turned the corner!!! After 16 months of swim lessons, coached workouts, open water swims, and every swim gadget imaginable, I am finally getting better! I was able to swim multiple sets of 100s at the coached workout on Wednesday!!! 3 Weeks ago, I couldn't do more then 50's (this is in pool terms, in a wetsuit I can swim farther). Plus my workouts are now regularly over 1000 yds. I really feel like I am close to being a "swimmer". Even Robin (swim coach) commented on my recent progress and how much more comfortable I am in the water now.

We'll see this weekend!

My 2005 Treasure Island Story - Finally

2006-11-01T22:50:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday I was given the honor of speaking at the Fall Tri Team’s send off party. I wasn’t so sure that my story was the story to share with a room full of first time triathletes the week before their first race, but Coach Chris felt that it would be a good send off story so I told it. The following is a fairly accurate retelling of my Treasure Island experience from last year. I apologize if it is a little teachy but it is from my notes for my presentation to the fall team.

After doing 2 marathons with the team, I wanted to try something different last year and decided that Treasure Island was the event for me. All I needed to do was to buy a bike, learn to ride (haven’t been on a bike in many years), overcome my fear of water, and learn to swim. It almost seemed too easy!

So I bought a bike, signed up for swim lessons at the YMCA, and joined the team. I instantly fell in love with cycling and at first there were lots of people who swam like me so even that wasn’t so bad. Everything was happy and good... for now. As time passed, everyone got better at swimming and I did not. I couldn’t make it from one side of the pool to the other without having to stop to catch my breath. I kept training and assuming that it would just click eventually but I was starting to get worried. My first open water swim did a lot to reassure me because the extra buoyancy of the wetsuit let me move through the water more easily and removed any fear that I could drown, but I was still in no place to do the 1500 meter swim at Treasure Island.

As the race continued to get closer and my swimming was not improving, I began to wonder if I wouldn’t be better off switching to the sprint distance race. I knew I could handle the bike and the run, but the swim was becoming a bit intimidating. In the end I decided to sign up for both races. If I couldn’t finish the Olympic swim on Saturday, then I could do the sprint race on Sunday. Now I had a backup plan and I was feeling much better. Okay, maybe “much better” is a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. I think my real failing here was not realizing just how badly the race could go. I would soon find out the hard way!

Race morning finally arrives and the weather is beautiful!!! Sunny and warming up quickly! We are all excited and nervous and all of the other things that you are supposed to be on race morning! I set up my transition, went and got in line for the porta-potties, checked my transition again, got in line for the porta-potties again, checked my gear a third time, got my wetsuit on, checked my transition for the fourth time (do you get the impression that I had some nervous energy) and then got my wetsuit on and started to congregate at the starting area. The coaches were out giving us some last minute instructions and a pep talk about how great we were going to do. At least I think that is what they were saying. I was kind in my own world and staring at the buoys about 17 miles out in the water (ok, so maybe they weren’t quite that far but they were definitely further then they should have been).

Finally, it is our turn to get in the water. The waves were leaving every 15 minutes so we had about 10 minutes to swim around and get used to the REALLY cold bay water. The thought that is repeating in my head at this point is “What the HELL are you doing here! In what way is this a good idea! The longest swim you have ever done is 800 yards and that took like 14 hours to finish!" I was finally able to calm myself down a bit by repeating the most important swimming tip I had ever received and it is one that I freely pass along to you now. “Breathe in above water, breathe out under water... Breathe in above water, breathe out under water...” I find this works well as a breathing mantra as it is the one thing that I do not want to forget and do incorrectly.

The starting signal is sounded and we start swimming. TI is 3 buoys in a triangle that is 750 meters around and you have to do 2 loops to finish the distance. I swim for a while and then stop to catch my breath. Swim... rest... swim... rest. Through this process, I got to meet the super great volunteers in the kayaks out supporting the swim. I have no idea where they found these angels of the water but they helped to keep my spirits up during that first lap. 45 minutes into the swim and I finally complete the first lap (I did mention that I am a horrible swimmer right). A 90 minute pace is about what I was expecting so all in all I was feeling pretty good at this point. That was all about to change!

After rounding the starting buoy, I took a little break and then started to swim again. When I lowered my head to take my first stroke, everything started spinning and it took me several seconds to figure out which direction up was. Not so good! As I continued out, I was dizzy, light headed, and nauseous! I kept going and chipping away at the distance but I was miserable. Again I feel the need to thank the great water support team for keeping me company and feeling like I was safe, but I was fading fast. This was not the swim I was expecting and I was truly hating every second of this.

I feel the need to pause for a moment and share what is probably the most important lesson that I learned from this whole experience. When things go bad, the reasons to quit are everywhere. You don’t need to look for them. You don’t need to rationalize an excuse. It just all comes naturally. What doesn’t come as easily is all of the reasons that made you decide to do this in the first place. You forget about all of those early morning swims that you suffered through so that you could be in the race now. You forget about all of the tear wrenching stories from your honorees. You forget about how great the finish line feels after the race. These are the things that you need to think about in advance and have ready in the back of your mind to fight all of the negative emotions that rush out when things take a bad turn. I did not have these prepared and I was ready to quit. I was happy to quit. The thought of being warm and dry on land was so seductive that nothing else mattered.

Just as I was about to quit, the TNT women’s wave was getting fired up to get into the water. They had an honoree from the East Bay team speaking to them and loudly telling them how great they were and how great they were going to do. They are not quitters and they will not let this race beat them. I am in the water thinking to myself “But I am a quitter, I want to quit, I want to be dry” in a very whinny and annoying voice. As he continued on and on about the cause and all of the people that we were helping to live better lives, I realized that I couldn’t quit. I wanted to but I could not.

I started swimming again with renewed determination to not let this swim beat me. I stopped long enough to cheer the women as they passed me for the first time (2 laps, they will pass me again later) and encourage them. Several stopped to ask how I was doing and cheer me on in the middle of there race. How can you not love TNT participants!

We should fast forward a bit now towards the end of the swim. I am finally rounding the last buoy and heading to the finish area. Most of the rest of the swimmers have already finished and have moved on to the bike and run but a few people from the last waves are still out with me. I am getting colder and sicker as I go but I am fully committed at this point. There is no way that I will let all of this suffering be for nothing. I will finish this swim if it kills me (which is actually starting to sound like a preferable option at this time in the swim). As I am making my last desperate drive down the home stretch, my stomach finally surrenders and I am physically ill in the water. Luckily there is only 4 other people still in the water and they are no where near me so I don’t feel to badly about polluting their water. I manage to push on and finally reach the end where it takes 2 people to drag my body from the water and up onto the exit stairs.

Dry land at last!!!! I try to stand only to realize that I am even dizzier then I had realized and some one actually had to walk me to the timing mat where Coach Chris met me. Keep in mind that I have just spent 2 miserable hours out in the water, I can barely stand, I am freezing, and I am dehydrated. I am not in a happy place. The last thing that I want is a Pep talk. Chris takes one look at me, smiles and says “You did it!!! You finished the swim!!! The bike and run will be easy now!” I don’t know if it is a coach thing or just Chris, but somehow he knew that this is probably the only phrase that he could have uttered that would actually make me excited to be in transition! Chris helped me to my bike and helped me out of my wetsuit (being unable to stand under my own power made changing difficult). Technically, I probably should have been penalized for getting help in transition, but seriously, who is going to penalize the guy who just spent 2 hours on an Olympic swim! Like it would matter that is point!

I suck down some sports drink and a cliff bar and manage to some how get dressed for the bike. My transition was on the order of 20 minutes but I was starting to feel stable by the time I hit the bike mounting area and actually got going without falling over. I am going pretty slowly because of all of the exertion and problems in the water but I am moving. All of a sudden it hits me. I am out of the water!! I am on my bike and loving life!!! I smile at everyone I pass and thank every volunteer, cop, and cheering spectator who will make eye contact with me! The sun is shining and the birds are singing. A new day had dawned!

An interesting side note on the bike ride is that I am basically the only man left on the course at this point (the men’s waves went first). The course involves doing 6 twisting loops on the poorly maintained roads of Treasure Island and on one of those laps, a women who was cheering us on noticed me and yelled that she was going to “flash” me the next time I rode by. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when I came back around there she was with her shirt up high flashing me! Having never been flashed before, I was a little surprised by how disappointing it was. Flying by on a bike at 14 mph, everything is kind of a blur, but as they say, “it’s the thought that counts”

So here I am slowly looping the island again and again, smiling and cheering everyone on when on my last lap I see Coach Chris yelling at me to go. At the time, I didn’t realize what was happening, but a short time later, a motorcycle with a police officer on it tells me they are closing the course for the pros and that I need to get off the road now. 2 miles from the transition and I am being pulled from the course!!! Didn’t they know what I had been through!!!!!

I get off of my bike and begin to walk back to the transition area. The word “Frustration” does not even begin to do justice to how I was feeling. I wanted to throw my bike down and just scream, but I didn’t. The only thing I knew at that point was that I was NOT coming back the next day to go through all of this again. I was tired and dehydrated. There was no way that I could be ready physically or emotionally for another race the next day. I was done.

After racking my bike and changing shoes, I headed out to the run course to cheer on my team. The worst part of all was that I had to retell the story of my failure over and over again as I ran into more and more of my friends. The only thing that kept me going was seeing every one coming down the final stretch into the finish area finishing their first Tri.

Somewhere between the 20th telling on my story and the “victory” dinner that night, I managed to talk myself into at least considering racing again the next day. My friends and coaches didn’t push me but were very supportive and that really helped me to come around. Needless to say, I did race the next day.

This is getting very long so I will keep my story of the 2nd day to minimum. They actually announced my name at my wave start as someone who missed the cut on the previous day but was back for another try. I was a little embarrassed but the crowd really got behind my story and cheered me on. Day 2 was only a 500 meter swim (1/3 the distance of day 1). I was tired and dehydrated but still managed to finish the swim in 25 minutes, cut my transition by ½, rode about 2 mph faster then the day before and set a personal record for my fastest 5k ever at the end of the race!!! Not bad for my 2nd day of racing!

It took me months to really get over the emotional impact of failing to finish that race, but the interesting thing is that now, one year later, the thing that I bring away from that race is that I finished the swim. With how under prepared I was and how miserable I felt, I finished. The amount of confidence that I have taken from that has carried me through all of my other failed races and allowed me the audacity to try an Ironman. I finished that swim when I had absolutely no right to be in that race. Imagine how things will go when I actually know how to swim :-)

Adventures in swimming

2006-10-29T01:34:00.000-08:00

I spoke at the Fall Teams send off party for treasure island last week. They wanted me to share my TI story from last year. I am in the process of putting together an entry describing my adventure last year and will hopefully get it posted prerace to properly build suspense :-)

Training plan for Friday involved a ~60 minute ride in the morning with some friends from the team and then a quick open water swim and short run with a friend that I some how convinced to do the sprint distance next Sunday. The true fun part of the story involves the swim (as it usually does with me), however posting that story here may actually get me killed but suffice to say that involves my friend getting attacked by a "man eating" seal ;-) Other then the seal attack and my friend ripping her wetsuit, it was a fairly uneventful swim.

So this was my big last week to peek for TI and I was looking at my training totals and was surprised to find that through the whole week, I had not even done the distance of a 1/2 IM (close but not quite - see last weeks training totals on the side bar). I think because I am working on going faster that it feels like I am training more, but these distances are nothing compared to the distance I racked up when I tried to do Big Kahuna. But I do feel faster :-)

Last push for Treasure Island

2006-10-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Big training day today!!

Started before dawn with a 6AM run at Rancho. I pushed pretty hard to try to keep up on the way out, but the slight uphill made it difficult and I eventually started to fall off of the pace a bit but I still finished the 5.5 mile run at better then a 12 minute pace!

Did a quick and uneventful swim at the pool mid morning and then met up with some of the team for a spin session in the evening.

Total training time today is about 2:30.

Another big day tomorrow with a morning bike ride and then an open water swim and run in the afternoon and then I plan to slow down for the next week to taper for TI next weekend.

It's kind of funny how much less time it takes to train for Olympic then it was for 1/2IM. After all of the 4 hour rides and 3 hour runs that I did for Kahuna, this just seems so much more low key. I need to enjoy this now because this will all change soon as we start to ramp up our distances in a few months.

Weekend Training

2006-10-24T01:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Fall team's practice Tri. This was my team last year and I know all of the coaches and most of the staff. There was no way I was going to miss supporting them as they get ready for Treasure Island in less then 2 weeks!

It was great to see everyone again and cheer them through the water and on the bike! It was also an opportunity for me to spend some more time connecting with my new team. It continues to amaze me how many great people are always involved with the team! I don't know if it is the cause or just the type of people who would sign up for these events but people are always so supportive of each other. A team like this gives me a lot of confidence that I will be able to make it through the tough months of training to come.

After everyone got back from supporting the ride, we went out to do a quick 3 mile run. I had almost forgotten how tough a course this was. I managed to finish at better then a 12 min/mile pace my heart rate was bouncing around between 168 and 184 for the entire run!!!

Sunday was a coached swim and bike. The swim was like all of my other swims... pretty crappy. I am getting better though. I managed to complete my first 75 ever! That may sound crazy since I am doing a 1500 meter race in less the 2 weeks, but swimming in a pool is very different then swimming in a wetsuit in the ocean. After the swim we went out for a 60 minute ride. The bike ride was a lot of fun!! I very flat out and back on Foothill. The slight downhill on the way out had us cruising at about 18 mph!! Even after the the slight uphill coming back we managed to finish at about a 15mph pace and I could have gone a bit faster! That is good news for my TI races!!

The first 2 weeks...

2006-10-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

We are now finishing up our 2nd week of training (only 9.5 months to go) and so far so good. I am a slow runner but I have completed 2 marathons in the past and have done 2 half marathons this year so I know I can cover the distance... eventually. I just started on the bike last summer and still need to build some climbing power but I have completed a few 60 mile rides on moderate hills so I know I will be OK there as I build on my hill training. The problem is my swimming. I just learned to swim last year and an argument can be made that I still don't know how to swim. It is frustrating because I have made huge improvements in my mechanics but I still struggle to do more the 50 yards at a time. I go to the pool and see people who are less conditioned then me thrashing through the water doing sets of 200 or more while I struggle to do a single lap. I've been swimming for a year and still can't do more then a lap at a time. My only saving grace is that I swim very differently in a wet suit. I am still a poor swimmer in a suit but at least I can cover distances.

I bring all of that up to explain why my week has been so up and down. We did track workouts and bike workouts and I felt great! I am slow but able to complete the workouts with the team and not feel like I shouldn't be here. Then we hit the pool. At first, everything is OK because we are doing drills and I have been doing many of these drills for months and I am right there with the rest of my group. Then we get to swimming 50s and I am still right there. Next we need to do 100s and 150s and I fall way back again. There is still a lot of season left, but it is frustrating to be 16 months from learning how to swim and still be so far behind.

Anyway, that is my emotional rollercoaster for the week. We are getting together tonight to start fundraising and then tomorrow I get to help cheer on my former team as they get ready for Treasure island! That will get me motivated again and feeling good!

Until next time...

The big introduction

2006-10-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

My name is Charles and I have decided to train for an and compete in Ironman Canada as part of the Silicon Valley Team in Training team. For the next 10 months or so I will be training roughly 6 days a week by running, biking, swimming, and weight training to prepare myself for the big day and I plan to use this site to chronicle my journey. I will share all of the ups and downs of my training and fundraising as well as the emotional rollercoaster that is triathlon for me.

I will give a bit more of my history in a later entry, but for now I should probably tell you more about the Team in Training (TNT) in general and Ironteam in particular.

TNT is a charity endurance training program that has trained many thousands of everyday people to run marathons, 1/2 marathons, triathlons, century bike rides, and Ironman. They provide you with coaching, structured and supported training, a team of people to motivate you, and a group of honorees to inspire you. Honorees are people who have a personal experience with Leukemia or a related blood cancer who come out to remind us why we are training and inspire us to keep going when we get tired or cold or are just plain ready to stop. The team then provides transportation and lodging for the event as well as the entry to the event. In exchange for this support and help, we agree to raise money to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in funding research and patient and family support.

http://www.teamintraining.org

So what is Ironman? Ironman is a very long triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and finally a full marathon (26.2 mile run). Total distance is 140.6 miles and you must finish in 17 hours for it to count.

http://www.ironman.ca/

So why would I want to do such a thing? The obvious answer is the above section on the society, but in reality I could have done several smaller tri's to raise the funds without all of the time, effort, and suffering involved with an Ironman. The real reason is a topic for another day mostly because I am not sure that I fully understand why I am so attracted to the Ironman.

That is enough from me for now. My next post will have an update on my training for the last 2 weeks and then we can go from there.