Monthly Archives: January 2012

Ironman Training Week 8

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Another week of training complete. This was our first of two weeks of “marathon taper” so volume was down a bit. I was thankful for a slight decrease in the number of workouts as well as for some extra sleep! Here’s how the week went:

Monday:

I intended to do an easy (Zone 2)  60 minute spin on the trainer this morning but woke up feeling absolutely exhausted so I changed my alarm to 7 a.m. I definitely didn’t regret it! I woke up at 7 with 9 hours of sleep behind me still feeling a bit out of it.Including the 2 hour  nap I took on Sunday afternoon I was at a total of 11 hours of sleep in the last day yet I was still tired. I was definitely smart to rest.

In the evening, I had my swim analysis with Coach Jim Vance. You can read more about that in my blog post here in case you missed it. I got in only about 400 yards of swimming in this session  but surely learned enough to equate to several hours in the pool.

Tuesday: 

Woke up early for a 8.5 mile mid-week long run. I actually felt really good waking up at 5 a.m. and had a pretty good run. This was our last mid-week long run before the marathon. After work I came home and put in a huge Costco lasagna for us to eat after a 70 minute Zone 2 Spin on the trainer plus P90X Ab Ripper. My legs felt a big heavy during this workout, most likely from the weekend ride.

Wednesday: 

Started the day on the trainer with The Sufferfest’s “A Very Dark Place” which goes straight into some sprint work after the warm-up and then consists of 5 x 4 minute 80-100% effort intervals. These were tough and I found that my legs couldn’t keep up with my heart rate. Overall though, my average watts was higher than the last two times I did this workout. After work I headed to the pool for a 2,000 yard swim. I focused entirely on two things – my hand length and keeping my fingers pointed toward the bottom of the pool. After a warm-up, I swam 10 x 50, alternating my focus between these two things. During the warm-up I tried to focus on both and found that it was difficult to do both at the same time! After my 50s, I did some 100s focusing on alternating breathing and then did some quick 50s. The whole time I focused on what Jim taught me at my swim analysis. By the end I felt like I had shown some great improvements. Honestly, I had hoped to miraculously get faster with my new found skills but in reality it takes time to implement these new techniques and to see improvement. I just have to be patient and keep practicing! I was happy that the workout only took me 45 minutes, which was at least 5 minutes faster than the last time I swam 2,000 yards.  The highlight of the workout was when I got in the Jacuzzi afterward and the girl who had been swimming in the lane next to me told me that I was a great swimmer.

Thursday: 

I drove to the gym first thing in the morning and got in 6 Yasso 800s. Including my warm-up and cool-down I got in 6 miles of running. It was quite a relief to only 6 of these intervals rather than 10, although it was still a difficult workout. After the Yassos I got in the pool for a 1,000 yard swim. Again, I focused on the two things that Jim taught me, as well as bilateral breathing.

Again, I was thankful for lunchtime yoga at work this week!

Friday: 

I considered making up for Monday’s skipped Zone 2 easy spin on the trainer but ultimately decided that sleep would benefit me more. This ended up being a complete day of rest!

Saturday: 

12 mile run. I thought it’d be nice to “only” run 12 miles on Saturday. We slept in and started our run at 9 a.m. and it was HOT. It was nearly 70 at 9 a.m. already! We haven’t been training in heat and didn’t expect to run the marathon in heat either but Mother Nature doesn’t consider my marathon schedule when she makes her decisions. The heat wasn’t the worst part of this run – we got a strong offshore breeze coming at us on the way down the coast and then it suddenly changed directions and ended up being a very intense headwind the the 6 mile run home. It was very intense and made running MUCH more difficult! This definitely wasn’t the confidence  building pre-race long run I thought it would be. I came home hot and tired with a Garmin reporting a terrible average pace. Blah!

Sunday: 

50 mile bike ride. Despite the fact that both our Half and Full Ironman races are on very hilly courses, we decided to stick to the coast on Sunday and do our scheduled 50 mile ride on flat terrain in order to save our legs for the marathon next weekend. Overall I felt pretty good on this ride and was able to compare my pace and heart rate to the previous time that we rode the same course and my pace was up nearly 10 seconds/mile which was a good sign. I definitely felt much better at the end of this ride than the time before as well so that was a good sign! However, the area just above my left ankle (kind of the top of my lower shin) was irritating me during the second half of the ride. When I got off the bike and got into my running clothes with the intent of doing a 3 mile brick run, I ended up running to Asia and Jeremy’s house and turning around because it was definitely irritating me! On the pain scale I would say it was about a 2-3 out of 10 on the bike, more of a dull annoyance, and about a 4 when I started running. I figured it definitely wasn’t something worth risking making worse just a week from my race so I came home and stretched a lot and took some advil and hoped that it would be back to normal quickly!

Volume Totals

  • Total Yards Swum: 3,400
  • Total Hours Biked: ~6
  • Total Miles Run: 27
  • Hours of Core Work: 1.25
  • Total Time: ~13 hours

Nutrition

No real changes in nutrition other than I seem to be letting myself eat quite a significant amount of sweets lately. Even though these extra treats aren’t making me gain weight by any means, I know that they aren’t part of a healthy diet and I should probably cut back. I made cookies last Sunday afternoon and Mike and I ate the ENTIRE batch by ourselves by Wednesday evening. Oops! And this was on top of the cupcake I ate Monday at work as well as the ice cream we bought at Whole Foods Tuesday night. Oopsie!  I need to get my sweet tooth on lock down.

I may still write a blog about this, but my blood work from my doctor appointment came back this week showing I have slightly elevated potassium levels. My doctor told me that I should cut back on foods with high potassium, but all the foods I am supposed to cut back on are healthy and a big part of my diet, so I haven’t really made an effort to do so (bananas, oranges, lentils, pears sweet potatoes, avocados, mushrooms, to name a few…).

Reflection on the Week

I put a lot of emphasis on sleep this week and definitely succeeded in getting plenty! I got at least 8 hours of sleep each night and some nights over 9 hours. Other than the two speed work sessions, I kept my intensity quite low at all times. The highlight of the week definitely was my underwater swim stroke analysis and the low point was probably the long run on Saturday since we ran the last 6 miles into what seemed like a wind storm. I’ve never had a “great” taper – meaning I never feel super strong and ready to dominate a race, so I’m not surprised that I didn’t have a fabulous long run this weekend.

Despite being able to fit in a lot of sleep this week, I didn’t leave much time for relaxation. This week was very “go go go” since I had a doctor appointment, the swim analysis, and a hair appointment during the week and then plans with friends literally all weekend. This weekend was jam packed and I didn’t have a minute to just sit and relax. I told myself coming into the new year that I would make less commitments but I still have a hard time saying no to anything. I’m considering telling everyone that I will be completely MIA for the month of May and I apologize in advance for not attending any social function!

How did your week go? Do you have any tips for balancing Ironman, sleep, social life, work life and “me” time?  Have you ever had a pain in the upper ankle/lower shin when cycling (and did it go away)?

Swim Stroke Analysis

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As I’ve mentioned recently, I’ve been struggling with my freestyle swimming form. I’ve attended a TriClub technique swim, researched online, read The Triathlete’s Training Bible, and talked to other triathletes about technique and I’ve come up with a lot of different advice. However, the overarching principle that seems to tie all of these sources together is form is everything. I liked the way The Triathlete’s Training Bible put it best: Swimming is like golf. You won’t get any better at golf by going out and playing as much as possible – you get better by learning the correct technique and form. Swimming is the same – great improvements can be made by making some simple changes to your form. In my case and in the case of most triathletes, endurance isn’t what is holding us back from being great swimmers – we can run a half marathon or bike 50 miles easily, but 50 yards in the pool can leave us heaving for air.

The main questions I needed answered were. 1) What is wrong with my current swim technique? 2) What is right about my current swim technique? 3) What can I do to make my technique better? Since my research and time spent at TriClub technique swims wasn’t really giving me any answers to the questions. I’ve taken a look at Mr. Smooth, which is a computer generated animation of a man swimming with the “perfect form” but it was hard for me to figure out exactly what he was doing as compared to me.

So, I did some research on people in San Diego that offer swim video analysis, and I found Coach Jim Vance. I had heard good things about him and I knew he was involved in the Tri Club, so I decided to go with him.

Underwater Swim Analysis

I met Jim at a local pool on Monday after work. After a 200 yard warm-up in which he video taped my form from above the pool, we moved on to a few fast 50s. Jim explained that true form comes out when people are swimming at race pace. After the first 50 he told me that I swam it in 38 seconds with 37 strokes. I have counted my strokes before during a 50 and it was usually 37-38 so this sounded about right. If you haven’t heard of it, Swim Golf is a drill where you swim 50 meters hard and count your strokes (one stroke = right and left arm entering and exiting) and then add it to the number of seconds it took you to complete the 50. In this case my golf score was 75. 75 isn’t a bad score, but the ratio of strokes to seconds wasn’t ideal. Although everyone’s ideal stroke to seconds ratio is individualized, it’s helpful if you can use fewer strokes to get yourself across the pool and therefore use less energy.

Jim had me repeat my hard 50 again and this time he taped me below the water. Then he asked me to do it again but this increase my arm cadence. I felt myself not pulling as far into the water when I tried this technique. He had me swim one more 50 and this time he taped me from the front. After only 400 yards we were finished and after I changed we headed to a local coffee shop to go over the results.

Jim mentioned at the pool that he immediately saw some things I could work on. He told me that he prefers to give his athletes three things to focus on improving so that they aren’t bombarded with information. First, however, he began by explaining that he believes there are three main principles of good swim technique:

  1. Length. Swimmers should spend as much time as possible in the lengthened state.
  2. Pressure. Knowing when and how to apply pressure in the water is key.
  3. Direction. Pressure means nothing if not applied in the correct direction.

Next, he went on to explain that I’m not spending enough time in a lengthy position, I’m not applying enough pressure in the water and I also apply pressure in the wrong direction at times. What a mess!

What I Do Wrong: 

I have work to do in all three areas, but first and foremost, I need to work on where my hand enters the water and how far I reach. Oddly enough, my left and right hands enter the water at different times. My right hand enters earlier and then I push forward and reach, dropping my shoulder and losing power. My left hand enters farther out and gathers more water to push down and propel me forward. The left arm is right and the right arm is wrong.

Once my hand enters the water, my “catch” is pretty weak, especially on the right side since I’ve already lost half of the water by letting my hand sink a bit. Once I catch the water, I then pull it in a crazy motion under my  body. I was originally taught the “S curve” method where you make an S under your body as you push it down, thereby  pushing more water. Then, as I’ve learned that this is wrong, I’ve been trying to correct it and I ended up with a funny looking pull. In this case,  both of my arms are wrong, although I tend to pull in a different way with each arm. Instead, I need to focus on keeping my fingers pointed to the bottom of the pool when I am pulling. This will ensure that all the water I’m moving is propelling me forward, not in a different direction. I’ve found that in open water swimming I tend to veer left and this is due to the fact that when my right hand pulls, I end up actually pulling some of the water across my body in a diagonal motion from left to right, pushing me toward the left.

Although Jim was trying not to bombard me with all the things I do wrong, he also mentioned that I need to work on the timing of my stroke so that I can gain that much desired length. I should spend the most time possible in the stretched out position, which means that as soon as I start the pull with one arm, the other arm should be propelling above the water to start the catch.

Practice Makes Perfect

As Jim explained good swim technique and what I was doing wrong, he also had me stand up and practice. We were in an empty coffee shop but I still felt like a nut pretending to swim without water. After several attempts of throwing my arm up and over and then pulling it down as the other arm came up, I really understood what he meant. I could feel my hips thrusting forward and creating extra power as I moved my arms. He pointed out that this power is why great swimmers tend to nearly float on top of the water when they swim, just like a speed boat moves up on top of the water when it accelerates quickly.

Before we wrapped up the session, Jim gave me four main points to work on. He also followed up with these four points via e-mail the next day in addition to sending copies of my video for me to take a look at.

  1. Further entry point of your hand into the water, out in front of you. Remember, as you get tired you will shorten, so this is the first item to focus on. It will generate momentum for you and keep you higher up on the surface of the water. This will also prevent that hand from shooting down and then back up. I think it will also help you swim straighter in the open water.
  2. Keep your fingers pointed to the bottom of the pool when you swim. This will straighten out that pull, and allow more of the energy to displace you forward, which is where you want to go.
  3. Use a snorkel. This item will help you watch your hands and movements without worrying about breathing
  4. Practice bi-lateral breathing. This will help build your coordination of the movements, and become more aware of your stroke.

I was able to get in the pool twice this week and I focused solely on the points mentioned above. Part of me was hoping that swimming would miraculously become much easier and my times would improve dramatically in just one or two session in the pool, but of course this is unrealistic. I did, however, notice a slight increase in speed and decrease in effort expended as I incorporated Jim’s suggestions (focusing on one at a time during each 50 yard interval). I also am much more confident now because I know what I need to work on. Jim told me to drop the drills (ie catch up drill, zipper drill, etc) and instead just focus my mind on specific parts of my stroke as I swim normal freestyle. I know that Jim’s advice is going to improve not only my swim stroke but also remove a lot of the doubt I was having about what the correct form should look and feel like. There’s a lot of advice and various techniques out there which have created a lot of confusion for me, but now that I’ve chosen Jim’s as my own technique, I have a guideline to follow and can finally focus on getting better.

If you are in the San Diego area and are interested in getting a swim analysis, you can read more about Jim and his services here: http://coachvance.blogspot.com/2008/01/coaching-by-jim-vance-trainingbible.html .

Have you ever had a swim analysis done? If not, what ways of learning proper form have worked for you?

Making Fun of Ourselves

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It’s always fun to have a good laugh at yourself. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, a new YouTube video theme has been taking over the internet lately – “Sh*t ____ Say.” The first one I was “Sh*t Drunk Girls Say.” It was pretty funny I must say. Then I found “Sh*t Brides Say” and sent it to all my recently married or currently engaged friends (there are a lot!) I found “Sh*t Cyclists Say” but I couldn’t really relate since I don’t really think of myself as a cyclist. I also came across “Sh*t Accountants Say” which brought back some memories from my time spent slaving away at a Big 4 accounting firm. Then finally, drum roll please….someone made “Sh*t Triathletes Say.”

I won’t gab any longer. Let’s get to the good stuff. Here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1KTEgLKhjIw

Although I don’t say all of these, I’m guilty of a few:

  • “follow my blog…”
  • “Just a B race”
  • “Tapering right now, I’ve got my A race this weekend”
  • “I need to replenish my electrolytes”
  • “Cycling’s my weak sport”
  • “I think I need a massage”
  • “I can’t, I have to get on the bike at 6 tomorrow”
  • “I bonked”

Which are you guilty of saying?

Ironman Training Week 7

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After an incredible marathon peak week last week, I went into this week feeling encouraged that I could actually complete the volume required of an Ironman without losing my job or falling asleep at the wheel. Last week my main focus was on running as it was the peak week for my long run, my mid-week long run (10 miles) and my Yassos (10 x 800). This week my mid-week long run went down to 8.5 miles, my long run was down to 16, but I wanted to attempt the Yassos one more time to give myself some more confidence that I am ready to PR at this marathon. Although my run mileage was down, the total hours this week went up because I added one more easy spin and I added more yards to my swims. I also managed to fit in my weekly yoga session!

  • Monday: 60 minute Sufferfest “Very Dark Place” on trainer – easy effort AM; 2,000 meter swim (80% drills) PM
  • Tuesday: 8.5 mile run AM; 45 minute easy effort spin on trainer plus 15 minutes of Insanity “Cardio Abs” PM. I hadn’t done Insanity since I finished the program in early December and I definitely lost some of that strength! It felt good to get back into it. One of the things I really want to make sure I don’t leave out is core work since core strength is so vital to all three sports.
  • Wednesday: 60 minute Sufferfest “Downward Spiral” on trainer – hard effort AM; 2,000 meter swim PM. After spending the majority of my Monday night swim focusing on skills, I was kind of sick of them. Instead, I decided to do a normal swim workout but reminded myself to focus on my reach and my catch the entire time. After a warm-up and a few laps focusing on breathing every 3rd stroke, I then did a pyramid scheme workout of 400, 300, 200, 150, 100, 50 and then finished with 4 x 50 at hard effort and then did a cool down.
  • Thursday: I slept in this morning and got nearly 9.5  hours of sleep. It was a great decision! Then I did lunchtime yoga at work. The last two Thursdays of the month my office has a yoga instructor come in and do a 1.25 hour yoga class. The class is beginner level so it’s perfect because I get a good stretch but I’m not painfully sore the next day. Since I have yoga on my schedule for once a week, this works out perfectly. The best part about a lunchtime workout is that it leaves either my morning or my evening free. In this case, I slept in until nearly 7 a.m. and got over 9 hours of sleep! After work I went to the gym to face off with the Yassos again. I really wanted to complete 10 Yasso 800s one more time to build my confidence that I could indeed run a 3:50 marathon. I did complete 10 x 800 Yassos (8.5 miles total), but I must admit I struggled with this workout! It came at the end of a long week and I was just not feeling energetic. By Yasso #7 I was contemplating just doing 8 and calling it a day. Instead, I took a Gu (yes I had a Gu on the treadmill) and started feeling a bit better and powered through the next three intervals. I was pretty tired at the end and decided to skip the 1,000 meter swim I had planned for myself.
  • Friday: Rest!!!
  • Saturday: 16 mile run. It rained pretty hard Saturday morning which actually didn’t interfere with our workout since Asia was returning that morning for a business trip. We ran around noon and kept it nice and easy. We kept with our 1 Gu every 40 minute schedule and everything went well.
  • Sunday: 45 mile bike ride & 3 mile run. We went back to the hills on Sunday. We have been riding the coast (ie no hills) for the month and a half or so as we ramped up our marathon mileage. However, since there was a marathon going on down the coast in Carlsbad and since we were starting to taper our marathon mileage we decided we could go back to our Pizza Port course which has about 1,500 feet of climbing over 43 miles. As compared to CdA (6,000 feet of climbing over 112 miles) it is about 35 feet/mile compared to 53 feet/mile. So…Pizza Port is an intermediate slope at best and CdA is black diamond. I’ve ridden this ride several times on my old borrowed bike and this was the first time on my P2 and I definitely felt a difference. Overall, we finished the route faster than previous attempts and I felt pretty good at the end of the ride. I definitely could have ridden longer. We immediately put on our running shoes after the ride and ran a quick 3 miles. We easily ran a sub 9 minute mile on these three miles and felt pretty good finishing the brick.

Mileage:

  • Yards Swam: 4,000
  • Hours Biked: 5.5
  • Miles Run:36
  • Total Time:~15 hours

Nutrition:

Weekly nutrition was good overall – lots of healthy salads, lean protein, veggies, & good carbs during the week. On Sunday night I made a big pot of turkey chili and we had that with our salad or sandwiches all week. The weekend had more indulgences but overall within reason. Well, except for the massive mud pie that Mike and I split on Friday night during our dinner date. One nice thing about Ironman training is that I can eat these things and not feel guilty! I’ve actually lost a few pounds in the last couple of weeks, which has been a little surprising based on the amount of food I’ve been consuming! My hunger has been pretty intense at times.

I LOVE Dessert!

Workout nutrition went well. Lately I think I’ve been under-nutritioning on the bike, partially because now I only have one water bottle holder and I don’t like to have a flavored drink and no water to go with it. So I’ve been riding with water. This week on the ride however, I had one Stinger Waffle during the first half, a half peanut butter banana sandwich at the stop and then another Stinger Waffle toward the end of the ride, for a total of about 630 calories during the approximately 4 hour ride/run. I felt fresh at the end of the ride and good on the run.

Overall Thoughts:

This was the first week ever that I’ve completed four double workout days in a row and I felt pretty good most of the week. The Yassos at the end of the week were probably the hardest and I think that putting run speed work near the beginning of the week is a better idea. I actually have already incorporated this change into my Ironman training plan beginning after the marathon (after two weeks of recovery with no speed work of course). It was hard to end the week with my most demanding workout so I don’t plan to do that again!

The First Step to Achieving is Believing

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Today I had lunch with coworkers and they were asking me questions about the Ironman.  In line with what typically happens when I tell people I intend to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and then run a marathon, one of them said, “I could never do something like that.” And, as usual, I tell them that they could. I truly believe that anyone can run a half marathon, do a triathlon or even complete an Ironman. But they have to want to do it. And not everyone does (which is totally fine!), but I wish they’d stop believing they can’t do it.

I have a friend who tells me the reason she can’t run is that her hip hurts when she runs. I asked her if she has ever gotten fitted for running shoes. No, she says, she just wasn’t born to run. Her body isn’t holding her back from running – her mind is (I mean hello haven’t you heard of the book Born to Run? ;) .  She has a mental block that is telling her that running isn’t possible. I think that a lot of people believe that endurance athletes are different in some physical way that allows them to compete. I often hear people respond when I tell them I have a marathon coming up, “I can’t even run one mile without stopping.” I usually tell them that neither could I when I started training, but I started with one very slow mile and worked my way to two and soon enough I was running ten. They hear what I’m saying but still don’t believe they can do it.

I used to be one of those people who didn’t believe I could do it. I was always an active child but I was never particularly good at any sport. I had this belief that people were either naturally good or bad at a sport and I was bad at most of them off the bat so I figured I had no potential. I didn’t really realize that if you worked hard and practiced a lot, you could actually improve dramatically. The longest I stuck to any sport was 3 years, but on average I’d play a sport for 2 years. I participated in dance, gymnastics, ice skating, basketball, track and field, swimming and finally field hockey. I was best at swimming but I loved field hockey most (and was pretty good for a beginner).  Luckily, I was fairly good at swimming without a lot of effort and that is why I excelled at it. If I did something and didn’t do well immediately, I wasn’t interested. And for me, running was one of those things.

I’ve mentioned this in my blog before, but I genuinely appalled running for the majority of my life and avoided it at all costs. However, I gained the lovely “Freshman 15″ and discovered the summer after my freshman year that running helped me lose the weight the fastest (despite the elliptical machine lying to me and telling me I burned 1,000 calories per hour on it). So I ran. I got to the point where it wasn’t so bad. I could even run three miles without stopping. I didn’t have a desire to run any farther than that until I began searching for an outlet for some internal pain. I signed up for my first half marathon when I was at one of the lowest points in my life. 2008 was a rough year for me. I was miserable at my job, I was miserable in my former relationship, I was taking out my pain on my friends and I was drinking way more than I should have. I was searching for any outlet for my pain, any way to escape and do something different. So I signed up for a half marathon. And then I dumped my boyfriend. And then I quit my job. I made amends with the friends I hurt and I made many new ones. I ended 2008 still with a heavy heart but also with a new sense of hope. I trained for that half marathon not knowing if I could finish it. I still wasn’t sure if I had what it took to cover 13.1 miles but at least I was trying. I didn’t enjoy most of my training since I trained alone and mostly on the treadmill, but I had some very special moments during my long runs where I couldn’t have been more proud of myself. I remember the first time I ran 4 miles without stopping. I couldn’t even believe that I had achieved it. Soon enough I was running 9 or 10 miles. It was an indescribable sense of accomplishment for me to cross the finish line of my first half marathon in January of 2009 without having walked one step. I had accomplished something that my insecure 13-year-old self would have never imagined I would. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it.

I’m not over exaggerating when I say that finishing that half marathon marked a turning point in my life. It probably had a lot to do with getting rid of the boyfriend and job, but it also had a lot to do with the self-confidence I achieved by completing something that I had formerly believed I wasn’t made to do it. The years following that half marathon have been the best years of my life. As I explore more ways to push my body past its limits and achieve goals I set for myself,  I have become more self-confident, patient, disciplined, and most importantly, happy.

The difference between me and my coworkers or friends that say they can’t run a race or do a triathlon isn’t that I’m any more capable, genetically gifted, hard-working or athletic than them. It’s that I believe I can do it. I know that if I set the goal to cover 140.6 miles in 1 day that I can do it. I also know that the difference between me and a lot of other people is that I want to do it, because it’s not everyone’s life dream to test their physical limits and endure up to 17 hours of pain just to say they are an Ironman. That’s my dream, not everyone’s and I’m not saying it should be. But what I don’t like is to hear from people who are sedentary, that don’t do any cardiovascular activity at all to keep their heart healthy or add years to their life that they can’t do something. If you’ve ever watched a challenged athlete missing both legs compete in a triathlon or cross the finish line of a 5k or watched a 350 pound Biggest Loser contestant finish the season by running a marathon, you know this isn’t the case. I hate to sound cliché, but you can do anything you set your mind to – you just have to be smart about it and know your body and your limits. You can’t go from couch potato to Ironman in three months but you can certainly make progress toward it in that time.

So if you’re thinking about doing something, do it! Believe me, it’ll be worth every moment of sacrifice and temporary pain when you achieve your goal.

“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” Les Brown

 

I Love/Hate Swimming

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Feigning Happiness to be Wearing a Swim Cap

Swimming and I have a love/hate relationship. I love that I have experience swimming in high school and therefore I am considered a “fast” triathlon swimmer. I hate that despite this, swimming is still my least favorite sport of the three.

Here are my 3 main reasons for disliking the swim:

1) It’s cold. I hate being cold. I seriously would not survive living anywhere but Southern California. I drive with seat warmers on in my car all the time, even most days in the summer, and I turn the thermostat up to 76 at work if I can. Even though I can swim in a heated pool, getting out of the pool wet is cold. Even worse is swimming in the ocean because it’s never warm, even with a wet suit on. Yes I’m a baby.

2) It’s boring. Let’s be honest, swimming the same 25 meters over and over isn’t fun. Swimming is like running on the treadmill ALWAYS. Except, when you’re swimming, you can’t watch TV on mute or people watch the variety of characters that frequent the gym. Instead, you just stare at the bottom of the pool for an hour straight. How is that not boring?

3) I constantly question if I’m doing it right. I know that I swim faster than a lot of my age group, BUT I still know I have work to do and I constantly question it. It frustrates me!

There are some ways for me to alleviate the pain of swimming. #1 is a lost cause – I just have to get over the cold. I will be getting a spiffy neoprene cap soon to help with open water swims but I probably won’t sport it at Master’s swim.  #2 can be remedied by doing more group swims where my interaction with other humans will be more than just asking if I can share their lane at the gym. The problem with that is that the group swims through the Tri Club meet at 7:30 p.m. and end at 8:45. That means I don’t get home til past 9 when ideally I like to be in bed reading a book, not frantically showering and trying to shove a hot dinner down my throat. As I mentioned in a previous post, I found out that the local YMCA has drop in Master’s Swim classes every day of the week starting at 6 a.m. This could be a good solution. I haven’t tried the classes yet because I’ve just gotten back into swimming and I’m not sure I’m ready for a Master’s class yet.

I’m currently in search of an answer for my last problem. Although I think I’m doing a lot right when it comes to swimming, I know I’m doing some things wrong. I just don’t know exactly what they are and how to fix them. I’ve been reading the Triathlete’s Training Bible and doing online research on technique so I know what good form sounds like and looks like, but I’m not sure how to implement it. I’ve gone to the TriClub’s technique swimming class and listened to each of the motions of the freestyle stroke explained and I’ve done drills to practice each stroke, but I still don’t know if it’s right. I had a swim instructor at Master’s swim this summer point out that my stroke has a poor catch so I have been focusing on that, but I still don’t know if I’m doing it right. Right before TriRock I thought I had a breakthrough and fixed my catch but I think I lost it during the 4 months I took off from swimming after the race.

So my solution is that I am going to pay a pretty penny to have my swim stroke videotaped and analyzed. I’m still on the hunt for a swim coach to do this with me. I’m hesitant to spend the money on arguably my strongest sport of the three, but since I am an over-thinker, I know that if I don’t find out what’s wrong with my stroke and figure out how to fix it, I will constantly question it and probably never get any better.

What is your least favorite part of triathlon? How do you make it more fun? Have you had your swim stroke analyzed? If so, did it help?

My New Bike!!!

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From BikeReviews.Com

When I started triathlon way back in June of 2011 (I know seems like just yesterday, no?), I wanted to make sure that I actually liked the sport before investing in a fancy bike. I also wanted to get more experience riding a bike so that I would know what kind of bike I actually wanted.

The Decision to Buy

In my early days of riding a road bike, I wasn’t sure that I liked it. My first real bike ride was during a practice triathlon with the Tri Club and I was bored on the short 7 mile bike portion. As I started cycling more, my back and butt hurt so much that I could barely imagine riding 40 miles let alone 112.  However, once I got more experienced on the bike, it grew on me (and the pain went away, or at least started later in the ride). I started enjoying our 2-3 hour bike rides, especially if the weather was nice. There is something pretty exciting about riding a bike down a big hill or covering more miles than I do in three days commute to work in just one ride.

Sometime in the Fall, after my 2nd triathlon, I decided I’d start saving for a bike. I was hoping to have the money by at least February so that I’d have time to practice on my new bike before the 70.3. Mike and I started dubbing every opportunity to not spend money as one to put money toward the “bike fund.” In September, Mike purchased his first triathlon bike (he rode a very old road bike that he purchased used for less than $1,000 for his first Ironman and all previous triathlons) after doing A LOT of research. Every time he got on a computer he was researching the best bike for his buck. He ultimately purchased a Cervelo P2 and was very happy with its performance.

The Search 

When I started looking at bikes, I went straight to the women’s triathlon bikes, namely the Cannondale Slice, which I thought was the most attractive of the female triathlon bikes. However, it was slightly out of my price range. I started window shopping at the local  bike shops (there are two within walking distance of my house so we went to each of them several times) and I started talking to bike shop employees about triathlon vs. road bike, womens vs. unisex bike options. I asked more experienced triathletes what they thought. I came to the consensus that having a women’s bike doesn’t matter (basically the handle bars are closer together for women’s smaller shoulders but I have quite wide shoulders so this really didn’t matter), although they are more attractive to me. On the argument of road vs. triathlon bike though, I was torn. Some said, “If you’re going to own one bike, own a road bike.It’s more comfortable and easier to handle.” However, Mike pointed out that he was perfectly comfortable in the non-aero position on his P2. Some said “If all you are going to do is compete in triathlon, get a tri bike. Aero bars on a road bike are very uncomfortable and  you will want to be aero in the Ironman.” I also questioned my ability to actually stay aero during the Ironman since I chose a race with such a hilly course. So…Road bike? Triathlon bike?

The Purchase

So over the holiday break I did some more serious bike shopping. All I had to do was ride the Cervelo Ultegra P2 for 10 minutes and I knew I’d found the one.

Getting Fitted on My New Bike!

And even better, Cervelo was having a deal where if you found someone else to also purchase a Cervelo, you each got $1,000 off!!! I ended up with a sweet 2012 Cervelo P2 for under $2,000.  I scored! I purchased the bike at Nytro, a popular local bike shop, and also got it fitted that same day.

Some fun facts about Cervelo and the P2 in particular:

Chrissie and Her P2

  • The P2 is very popular due to its ability to fit people very well. This is due to its “tried and true geometry” according to OnOnTri.com.
  • At the 2010 Kona Bike Count published on the LAVA Magazine website there were 468 Cervelos on the pier in Kona out of 1661 total bikes counted. Fully 28% of the field was on Cervelo. The remaining 72% of the field was divided up among a scattered 51 brands (source).
  • Chrissie Wellington road a P2 for many years and won more than one Kona Ironman World Championship on it (she is now sponspored by Cannondale so she rides one of their bikes).
  • Aside from reducing drag resistance, the aerodynamic design of the P2 Ultegra increases speed. It is equipped with excellent components, including the handy rearwheel cutout, higher headtube, narrow TrueAero tubeset, and internal CableStop (ICS) (source).
  • Cervelo has won the Best Team Bike category of the Cycling News Reader Poll for the last 7 years.

Riding My New Bike

The first few times I road my bike it was on my trainer in my living room. I didn’t have my power meter set up yet so I can’t say if there was a difference in power on the new bike, but I can say that I could feel that it was far superior to my old bike. A week after my purchase I finally had the chance to take the P2 out for it’s long ride debut. We rode about 38 miles down the coast and down the Oceanside bike path. I could tell an INCREDIBLE difference in both power and comfort. I was even able to ride in the aero bars for the majority of the miles on the bike path. Mike and Jeremy who usually ride several minutes ahead were quite surprised at how close I was behind them each time we stopped. I found it easy to hold a pace nearly 2 miles per hour faster than before and I was passing both men and women cyclists throughout the ride. By the end of the ride, I was confident that I had purchased the right bike for me.

The only discomfort I’ve experienced on my new bike is the seat. Since I purchased a uni-sex bicyle, I was given a men’s seat. Obviously my body isn’t made the same way as a man’s. I am currently on the hunt for a new bike seat and have been given some great suggestions. I’m currently trying out a tester seat for the week and hopefully I”ll have a new seat by next week.

I’m very satisfied with my decision to purchase a new bike and also with my decision to purchase a triathlon bike. I was told that triathlon bikes are harder to handle and manage, but honestly I’ve noticed no difference. When I’m not in aero, it isn’t really an issue to reach across to my aero bars and shift.

Do you have a road bike or a triathlon bike? How did you decide which brand/style bike to buy?

Ironman Training Week 6 – Marathon Peak Week

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Asia and I on Our Epic 21 Mile Run!

Wow what a week! Not only did I workout more than I ever had in one week, I also put about 10 hours of overtime at work. It was definitely a struggle to get everything done, but all in all, I would say it was a successful week. I did skip yoga and would have liked to have done at least one more short core workout but I did get my key workouts in. I also tried to get as much sleep as possible with all things considered.

Before you read my workouts this week and wonder why I put in so much work with 5 months to go until Ironman, let me preface by saying this was my marathon training peak week so my run volume was really high. Combining my high run volume with three bikes and 3 swims added up to a lot of hours of working out! All three swim workouts were technique focused and fairly short, which helped.

Workout Summary: 

Monday: Slept in (much-needed) and then did 1,600 meter swim after work. Found a swim workout online and did 2 x 50 easy, 1 x 100 easy warm-up then 2 x 50 (alternating each lap using just right arm and just left arm), 4 x 25 kick (on back). Main set was a Pyramid – 50, 100, 150, 200, 200, 150, 100, 50 followed by 1 x 100 and 2 x 50 cool-down.

Tuesday: 10 mile mid-week long run AM. Woke up at 4:55 a.m. for this one so that Asia could get to work by 8 a.m. I had 2 Gus on the run, one at mile 3 and one at mile 7 since I didn’t have time to eat breakfast before. We took it VERY easy and experienced an absolutely stunning sunrise. It felt good to get this run out of the way so early!; Easy spin on trainer & P90X Ab Ripper PM (while watching the Bachelor – multi tasking is fun).

Wednesday: Sufferfest “The Hunted”  on Trainer. This workout has a 20 minute continuous effort, unlike most of the other Sufferfest videos which are shorter intervals. Mike used this as a change to test his average power over the 20 minutes, but unfortunately I couldn’t do the same because I clipped the wire on my power meter as I was moving it from my old bike to my new one. I had to order a new set of wires! I felt pretty good during this workout although I woke up pretty tired.  PM - 60 Minute Tri Club Technique Swim Class (at local JCC) – Approximately 1,000 meters. This class is a great resource provided by the TriClub and I haven’t been taking advantage of it lately. I was glad I went, although I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know, it’s great to listen to someone explain proper swim form and go through all the drills. We swam on a 33 meter length pool and did the following drills after the warm-up, starting with work on balance and rotation and progressing through: kick on side, kick on back, kick on stomach and rotate to each side without using arms, repeat last drill but with 1 stroke every 6 seconds, repeat again with 1 stroke every 3 seconds, closed fist drill, zipper drill, catch-up drill, alternate breathing sides, freestyle focusing on longer strokes, etc.

Thursday: 10 x 800 Yasso 800s (8.5 miles) plus 1,000 meter swim.  Swim was 300 meter warm-up and then 12 x 50 alternating 4 different drills – closed fist, zipper, catch-up and focus on extension. 100 cool down. Yoga was planned for the evening but I skipped it since I had to work late and we were meeting friends for dinner.

Friday: Complete day of rest.

Saturday: 21.3 mile run. I took it easy and focused on race day nutrition and  felt pretty good finishing this run. You can read more about this run here.

Sunday: 49 mile bike ride down the coast and up to the Oceanside bike path (was supposed to be 45 mile ride plus 3 mile run but we didn’t want to run on tired legs from our long run and then accidentally overshot the bike mileage). I had oatmeal before this ride which is pretty substantial and then had 2 Stinger Waffles (160 calories each) and a Gu. Despite this, I was REALLY hungry by the end of the ride! I was also exhausted by the end and very thankful to get off the bike. Last week I came to realize that I need to buy a new saddle for my new bike that fits my lady parts better and this ride reiterated this fact. I was extremely uncomfortable for a significant portion of the ride. I tried riding in aero for the majority of the bike path portion (it’s about 7.5 miles each way) but on the way back it was too painful to ride like that.

Weekly Volume (Time on bike includes door to door time, including stop lights and bathroom breaks): 
  • Miles Run: 39.8
  • Hours Biked: 5.75
  • Yards Swam: 3,600
  • Total Hours: 14.5 
Nutrition
Nutrition this week overall went pretty well. I found a recipe for a healthy lentil soup and made it on Sunday night. We had salad for lunch with a cup or cup and a half of soup for the first half of the week. One of the things I struggle with is getting in enough calories from healthy food and I think lentil soup is a great addition to my salad so that I can get enough calories and enough nutrients. On Wednesday night we put in our Costco sized lasagna before we got on the trainers and had that for dinner and for lunch another day during the week. I ate a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables all week. As usual, the weekend was a different story since we end up going out to eat with friends and also need a lot of calories to satisfy our hunger. I think we have a good balance going – we typically eat fairly “unhealthy” foods for three meals per weekend and then eat very health the rest of the week. It’s also nice to have a reward for all our hard work – knowing I get to eat pizza and drink a beer after my long run makes it a little more fun!
As for workout nutrition, I think I’ve got my run nutrition down – 1 Gu every 40 minutes seems to be perfect. I may need to incorporate salt later on but I don’t’ think it’s necessary for the Surf City marathon which starts at 6:30 AM and 50 degrees and will finish by 10:30 and 65 degrees. Bike nutrition still needs some tweaking. According to Ken, the coach who performed my Vo2Max test, I should hold back on extreme amounts of calories on the bike right now to get my  body used to burning fat for fuel. I plan to start testing my Ironman bike fuel strategy starting the week after the Ironman. Right now I’m only eating about 150 calories/hour on the bike and it has a lot to do with the fact that my new bike only has 1 water bottle holder and I use it for water. I can’t drink only a flavored drink without being extremely thirsty. I am looking into buying CarboPro which is a tasteless carbohydrate drink and mixing it with some sort of electrolyte mix. That should add some calories without having to chew anything on the bike.
Reflection on the Week
Overall I was quite impressed with myself this week! I was able to get in a significant volume of work and not finish the week completely exhausted. I took a complete rest day on Friday which definitely helped and also got in a nap on both Saturday and Sunday. I also got an average of 8 hours of sleep each night this week, if not more. The only thing I wished I’d made time for was yoga and maybe one more short core workout, but I think in the end the extra sleep and mental rest was probably more important.
Definitely the highlight of the week was completing my 10 Yasso’s 800s in 3 min 50 seconds each. With a 1 mile warm-up and 1/4 mile jog intervals between, it ended up being a total of 8.5 grueling miles on the treadmill. Definitely a mental and physical test! According to Bart Yasso, I’m now ready to race a 3:50 marathon. As of now, however, our plan is to run a 3:55 marathon pace and then if we’re feeling fresh, pick it up. My A race this season is Ironman, not the marathon, and I don’t want to hurt myself due to my ego!
A second highlight was getting in the pool THREE times! I struggle to find motivation to swim so it was a big accomplishment for me to swim three times in one week. Although my swim workouts were short, they were all focused on technique. My primary goal in the next month is to improve my technique so that when I start doing long master’s and open water swims I am using proper form.
How did your week go? 

Old House to New House Run

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This week was our peak week of marathon training and we finished it off with a 21.3 mile run. When I trained for my first marathon, I only ran over 20 miles one time, but when doing some research on how to improve marathon times, one of the things that I read was that it was useful to run over 20 miles more than once (ideally 3 times). Well we settled with two 21 mile runs with an 18 mile run in between.

Saturday was our second of those 21 mile runs and we decided to run the same route as the first time. Ironically, the first time we ran this route was 1 year to the day that we moved from Pacific Beach (a college student and beach bum infested neighborhood of San Diego) to Encinitas (a hippy and family infested beachside suburb of San Diego) and ironically, the exact distance from my old apartment in PB (Mike lived 1 block up the street so it works for him too) to Mike and my new apartment in Encinitas was 21.3 miles. Despite the fact that this route was VERY difficult and included a MASSIVE hill in the middle, we thought it would be fun to run from our old house to our new house.

Old House - North Pacific Beach, San Diego, Mile 0

We woke up Saturday morning and drove 30 minutes south to Pacific Beach and left the car there. The temperature was right around 60 but we decided to ditch the jackets and run in tank tops since we knew we’d get hot. As usual, Asia and I ran together and Mike ran ahead since he is MUCH faster (he finished the route over 50 minutes faster than us). The first few miles are through the neighborhoods of North Pacific Beach and then Birdrock, a community within La Jolla. We run through huge beautiful houses and get peaks of the ocean on occasion.

La Jolla Cove - Mile 4ish

However, at about mile 4, we start getting the good stuff. We ran along the gorgeous ocean for about a mile before reaching La Jolla Cove, which is famous for the sea lions that bask on the rocks nearby (and stink up the place). Thousands of tourists come to the cove each year to snorkel, kayak through the caves, scuba dive or just enjoy the scenery. We stopped her for a bathroom break and our first Gu. We have a new strategy of taking 1 Gu every 40 minutes. It has served us well so far and I plan to use this strategy in the race.

Mile 4 and Still Smiling!

As we left the cove we were officially starting to run the La Jolla Half Marathon (the most difficult half marathon in Southern California) in reverse. We started up a big cobblestone hill that I remember sprinting down at the finish of the La Jolla Half this April and then made our way through the streets of La Jolla until we reached La Jolla Shores, the location of the Tri Club Aquathons that I participated in this summer. After we ran along the beautiful beach there, the real “fun” began as we started to scale the backside of Torrey Pines hill.

Although only the first 2 miles of this hill are steep, it seemed as though we were running at an upward incline for the next 6 miles. We took a Gu just after we finished the steepest section, which was probably good because according to my heart rate monitor my heart rate was up to 185 on the steep section, meaning my body was using about 100% carbohydrate as fuel rather than fat.

Torrey Pines State Park - Mile 11

I was very thankful to pass by Torrey Pines Golf Course and enter Torrey Pines State Park. We cruised the next 1.5 miles at a very nice decline and once we got to the bottom, we were already 11 miles in. We stopped for the bathroom again to take another Gu and refill our water bottles. However, another pretty significant hill awaited us as we ran into Del Mar. This was the point that we let ourselves have a bit of a pity party and complain that the hills were never-ending. Sometimes the middle part of a long run is the hardest – you arent’ still fresh from the beginning and you feel like you have a LONG way to go. At least mile 20 of a 21 mile run brings hope of the end coming!

Del Mar - Mile 12

 Once we reached the top of the hill in Del Mar (we’re about 75% of the way up in the picture above), we were thankful that we had some easy downhill miles to come. We ran through the neighborhoods in Del Mar and then along the coast and then passed the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Dog Beach. Once we hit Via de La Valle, we knew we were 5 miles away from home.

Fletcher Cove, Solana Beach - Mile 17 (the "Home Stretch")

By the time we reached Fletcher Cove, the main beach in Solana Beach, we knew that stopping to refill water bottles and take Gu was a good idea but that our bodies would not appreciate it. We stopped anyway, and getting back to it was hard.  Once we made our way out of the neighborhoods in Solana Beach and could see the coast again in an area called Cardiff, we were officially in the “home stretch” with about 3.5 miles to go.

Running into Cardiff – Almost Home!!
 
As usual, someone had dressed up the Cardiff Kook. This time, it was a high schooler asking a girl to formal:

The Cardiff Kook

 
I was feeling much better at this point than the last time we ran this route. The Kook represents 2.2 miles to home. As we kept going, we tried to talk as much as possible to keep our minds off of our sore bodies. I started this run slightly sore from my Thursday morning speedwork, despite taking Friday as a complete rest day. By the end of the run, my glutes, feet, and quadracepts were very sore and I had developed a pretty bad blister on my pinky toe (I rarely get blisters so this was new to me!).
 
Soon though, we were back in Encinitas. Home Sweet Home!

Home Sweet Home!

 
After some much needed stretching and a recovery drink, I showered and got ready and we headed down to Pacific Beach with Asia and Jeremy to get our car. We met up with some other friends for pizza and beer and celebrated our accomplishment.

Pizza, Beer, Football and Friends - Yes Please!

 
How do you make your long runs more interesting? Do you take breaks during long runs and rides or do you try to minimize stopping?

Bike Lane Wars

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Ah the bike lane. Drivers hate cyclists for riding in it, cyclists hate runners for running in it, and runners hate walkers for walking (or worse – standing) slowly in their pedestrian sidewalks so that they are forced to run in it. Now that I’m a “cyclist” as well as a “runner” and a “driver,” I can see all sides of this eternal battle. Before I was a cyclist, I didn’t like that people riding bikes would come so close to my car and worse, when they took over my lane in order to pass other cyclists or runners. Now, I’m much more patient with riders. However, it scares me that MOST drivers couldn’t care less about cyclists.

I stumbled across and interesting opinion piece today about runners in the bike lane. Asia and I frequently run in the bike lane. Actually, I run in the bike lane so often that sometimes I forget to use the sidewalk when I’m taking a walk! Most of the time I have to use the bike lane because there isn’t a sidewalk for me to run on. Other times, however, I run in the bike lane because the sidewalk is crowded or full of obstacles called curbs.

According to this opinion piece, not only is it rude to run in the bike lane, but it’s unsafe. Of course I knew it wasn’t safe, but I didn’t really consider it being any less safe than biking in the bike lane. From the blog, “Add a runner to the mix—particularly one with headphones, going with the flow of traffic—and you’ve got a recipe for a really scary collision just waiting to happen. I can imagine a scenario where a runner decides to bail on the sidewalk and steps into the street, maybe from between two parked cars. He doesn’t see the bike coming, the biker doesn’t see him, and—WHAM. You get the picture.”

Although I try to be very careful to watch for cyclists when running in the bike lane, I honestly just really hope that they see me and don’t run me down. I know that’s a naive way to look at it, and after reading this article and thinking it over, I’ve decided to really try to make an attempt to run more safely by avoiding  bike lanes and using paths when necessary. As a cyclist, I am quite annoyed myself when I am riding in the bike lane and not only have to watch out for cars but also for runners, who usually don’t follow the flow of traffic like cyclists do. In fact, this weekend during our ride Asia almost took out an oncoming runner when we were both getting passed by other cyclists and we had no room to move over to avoid the runner. It was a close call!

Do you run in the bike lane? Are you a cyclist who hates runners in the bike lane? What are runners supposed to do if there is no sidewalk on part of our route?