I have had this last chapter of my blog done up in draft for a long time but just haven't gotten around to posting it yet so here it is almost two months later. My last week 32 of tapering went very well except for the usual of feeling guilty about not doing enough, gaining weight and feeling like I am loosing my fitness and feeling slugish. I know all too well these feelings but it is part of the body healing to it's fullest physically, all the muscles, growing to their fullest capacity and getting loaded up with all the right chemicals to make them work with efficiency. Now if there was only a way to quickly get in that frame of mind where I did not feel that guilt.
A couple of small jaunts and bike rides this week along with a few short swims. My body is responding very well and I have to keep holding myself back. I am becoming like a spring wound up to it's maximum capacity and ready to unwind. Too keep my mind from dwelling too much on the negative this week, I stay busy getting all my gear together using my check list and adding stuff on at the last minute. The van is now fixed and tuned up and ready for the road.
At long last the trip begins. Linda and I are up early trying to catch the first ferry off the island. This way, we can meet up with my friends from Vancouver, Barb and Ger and Julie and Bob. We will be travelling together to Penticton. We have the coordinates plugged into the van's GPS to get us to the the coffee shop where we are suppose to meet. The ferry ride over is quick and I occupy myself with reading magazines. Bob and Julie walked on the ferry and will be getting picked up by Ger and Barb on the other side. I keep having day dreams that my van will not start when we are suppose to be getting off the ferry. But alas we finally arrive in Vancouver and off the ferry we go. Traffic not too bad. The talking GPS we have guided us exactly to the right coffee shop and about 10 minutes later we hooked up with Gerry and Bar and Julie and Bob. Surprize! Gerry is sporting a Mowhack cut and colored red to boot! When Gerry took off his peaked running cap and everyone saw it, we just howled with laughter. That's Ger! Full of surprizes all the time. We have a coffee and on the road we go to Penticton.
The ride over there seemed short. As we were getting nearer to Penticton, we kept seeing bike riders in their Tri suits getting some of their workouts in. This has the effect on us to really start pumping and we are getting exited. We arrive at our house that we rented and Linda and I have the basement suite all to ourselves which is good for privacy and peace and quiet. Linda and I are very axious for our daughter Tam, Rob and our grandchild to show up in a couple of days from now. During this final week, still have to follow our ritual of tapering and not letting the various muscle groups get to tight on us from inactivity. At the same time we absolutely do not want to exert ourselves even a bit too much. It is a fine line that we dare not cross over.
During this week, we go off and explore the Ironman fair where thousands of people are assembling each day and taking in all the products various sports company have to offer for health and fitness and also gear for swimming, biking and running and most of all nutrition stuff. I read an article in Triatlete magazine not too sample too many of these products for fear that it would act up in strange ways on our stomachs. Especially a couple of days prior to the big event. I avoid them like the plague but collect samples for later testing out.
Finally my family arrives from Calgary and we are so happy to see them. Mitchel our grandson has grown up quite a bit since we last saw him and we all hug each other with happiness. They are hauling a big 5'th wheeler and will be staying at a campsite a few miles from where we are. They bring out the t-shirts that Tammy make with cool graphics on the back sporting my Varmint logo and name "Team Varmint" That is so cool! and I am beaming with pride at my family's enthusiasm and pending support for me. Meanwhile we spend a lot of time with each other at their campsite waiting till Ironman day on Sunday. On Friday, I picked up our package and Friday night was spent assembling all of my gear and fine tuning my bike before racking it to transition the next day. I treat it like a baby and make sure that it is sparkling clean, oiled and going through all the gears to make sure everything is working just right. Just to make sure, I take it out for a short test ride. Everything is A-OK!
Saturday, I take off with my Tri friends to register and rack our bikes, while Linda hangs out with my family. I arrive back to the campsite fairly early for a pre-planned pasta dinner that Tammy has cooked for us. I enjoy our meal but try and not too eat too much as I usually do because historically it had not been very pleasant trying to digest all this food during an evening where I try and get as much sleep and rest as possible. Linda and I depart early after supper to make sure that I check all my transition bags, 5 in total for the next day. After that, I go upstairs and gab with my tri buddies for a bit and head off to bed early with the alarm set for 4 am.
I have a somewhat fitfull sleep that night thinking about the next day over and over again and how I will execute my plan. My goal is 12 hours or less but again that depends on how everything pans out. I just want to better my time from 2005 and not end up in the medical tent again with IV's stuck in me. At last the alarm sounds and I spring out of bed anxious to get going. After a hearty breakfast of Oatmeal and a banana and a coffee, I am ready to go. I kiss Linda goodbye and she wishes me the best. Her and the rest of my family will be following my exploits in the van throughout the day. I take off in the pitch black with my friends and arrive at the Ironman transition. I check out my tires and make sure all my gear is ready for the event. I make sure I go to the bathroom and try and get rid of the waste products laying in my stomach. Success! and a big sigh of relief come out of me. I am ready!
The Big Race
The Swim:
I am standing on the beach, in my wet suit with thousands of of other swimmers. The crowds are assembled above the beach also in the 10's of thousands. I futally try and spot my family but it is impossible amongst such a crowd. The adrenaline is building up and I am so axious to get going. I have decided to line up with Julie on the right hand side near the back so I don't get swum over at the start. We play the waiting game and then the Pro's are off. In a couple of minutes the big gun blasts off and it is our turn. I walk slowly in the water letting the crowds of swimmers ahead of us take off so I have a bit of clear water ahead of me. I am finally up to my waist and dive in and begin swimming. Everything goes good for a while. I am following so many swimmers that I lose sight of Julie and just try and concentrate on a smooth efficient stroke trying to draft off the swimmers in front of me. About 10 minutes into the swim, I start feeling very crowded and lift my head out of the water momentarily to realize that I am in the middle of a pack.
There is a lot of jostling around and there is no way of avoiding contact with other swimmers. At one point about 15 minutes into the swim, I get kicked in the head pretty hard by someone's heel and my goggles come off on one side. That kick to the temple sends me into a reel and I start feeling panic. I stop swimming trying to adjust my goggles and as soon as I have them on, swimmers are on top of me sending me underwater. A couple of times I try and surface but by that time the momentum of other swimmers against my stillness keeps me going under. I try not to panick and remain calm but it is becoming very difficult. I finally surface in a bit of clear water and start swimming a bit faster so I will not get swum over again. In the process, I swallow quite a bit of water and start coughing. I have to time my cough just right so that I get breath also at the same time. This goes on for a while and finally find myself strung out better between all the swimmers. My coughing subsides but realize I have lost lots of time. I decide not to let that bother me and just concentrate on finishing my swim with no more mishaps. It seems endless swimming towards buoys and waiting to catch up to the last buoy that would take me inot the beach. Meanwhile the swells plays tricks on my mind and stomach which is making me feel somewhat queasy. I finally see the beach and hotels off in the distance and know that I am almost finished. I swim until my hands start touching bottome and then stand up starting to unzip my wet suit. I am finally out of the water heading for the transition where a group of strippers help me strip my wet suit off my body. They help me up and I am on my way to grab my 1'st transition bag to change into my biking gear. The changing tent is so full of people that I join a few outside the tent and change into my biking stuff. During this process I had my sunglasses on the ground and saw a helper stand on them and break them. Great! I say to myself.....2'nd thing to go wrong. I later find out that it was not my glasses. Meanwhile after donning my helmet and gloves and shoes, I head for my bike which is well positioned in transition.
The Bike:
Grabbing my bike, I head off towards the mounting area and start pedalling. But for some reason I can't get clipped in! What the heck! I keep reapeating to myself trying first one foot then the other. No way I can't get clipped in. For a moment I think that my friends pulled a fast one on me and fooled around with my cleats. No way they would ever do that in such a serious event I say to myself. Meanwhile I am thinking maybe I picked up some mud from the soft wet grass and it stuck in my cleats. I reach down and feel my cleats. OH MY GOD! I forgot to take off my rubber cleat covers! How dumb is that! I pull over to the side get off my bike and dispose of these near the fence. I then mount my bike again lock myself in and breath a sigh of releif. Then I start laughing to myself on that stupid mistake I did. At the time, it's hilarious and I laugh about it to myself for a while longer. Hmmm...Third thing to go wrong. That should be all right? Wrong! Once I get into a groove on the bike, I am controlling my speed and keep it low. I am waiting for my heart rate to go down to start drinking. Meanwhile I check my speed on my odometer and it is not working. I keep fooling around with it but can't get it going. I suddenly notice that my pickup magnet is on the wrong side and it will not work untless I quickly change the front wheel to the other side. I decide ...the heck with it! I don't want to waste anymore time. Besides if I go by feel of exertion, I will know how fast I am going.
My heart rate goes down and I try my first drink. But for some reason I can't seem to drink enough. I keep burping and my gatorade won't stay down. I realize that the lake water I swallowed in the swim is too much and just laying there not allowing to ingest my much needed gatorade. This goes on for about 35-40kms and then I am able to start keeping some gatorade down if I just take small sips more often. Fourth thing to go wrong! I finally get through the steep section of McClean ranch road having controlled my speed throughout. On my way through Ossoyoos, my chain drops and I have to get off my bike to get it back on. That only took a few seconds and I was off. The much dreaded Richter's pass looms ahead of me and I am am ready to start the longest climb of the day. I have not seen my family yet but it should not be too long now. I am starting to have problems near the top of the climb and my inner quads start doing their little dance of quivers. Oh OH! I did not want this too happen as this what happened to me last time and ended up with disastrous results on the run. I try and ingest more gatorade and take in salt tabs at the same time. They seem to help a bit but the cramping is there. I get passed by Barb and Julie by the top of the climb and know that I am in trouble. The heat is getting worse now and I concentrate on drinking more. By now my stomach has settled down and I am able to keep down my liquids a bit better. By the time I reach the summit of Richters Pass, I am breathing hard from the effort but the crowds of people cheering us on wills me ahead. Finally, I reach the top! Now for the downhill section! I love the speed of downhill riding. But the wind starts kicking up and gusts of wind keep trying to force the bike to the side. It is very hard to keep in the areo position in this wind and keep control of the bike at the same time. But I manage to hold on and head off to the out and back portion where the special needs bag would be handed out to us should we need it. This section is very hot with no breeze to cool us off and extremely hilly in short spurts. Somehow Tam and family try and connect up with me but they get diverted off because they are not allowed on that part of the course. However after this section, I soon see them on the side of the road cheering me on with signs and taking pictures. I wave at them and smile. I have to keep telling myself to smile even though I am feeling rough. I yelled at them that I am having problems with cramping and Linda keeps telling me to hydrate which I am doing! I am getting tired of hearing this. I have a watch fixed on my helmet which keeps beeping every 10 minutes which I can help but hear to remind me to drink. That is not the problem.
At last the last climb of the day begins. The steep climb up to Yellow lake. This is fairly short 4-5 km climb but the steepest climb of the day. The trick is to stay in a high gear and keep spinning to lessen the load on the quads and to flush out the lactic acid. I passed a lot of people on that climb and thought that I would catch up to Julie and Barb soon but did not see them. There were thousands of people near the top of the climb willing us and cheering us on. It was quite a spectacular sight to see and really encouraging. As I neared the top, I breathed a site of releif as I saw the peak. From there on it was pretty near downhill all the way. At the top I made sure I hydrated properly and my cramping was lessening. I was starting to feel better. The speeds on the downhill section towards Penticton were something else achieving speeds of 70kms/hr on some sections. The winds were fierce and at times had to get out of aero to get both hands on the handlebars to keep control. Iit was also very hard after all this time having biked without sunglasses and at numerous times my eyes were watering. The skies were now clowding over and dark clouds were looming ahead of us. There was quite a lot of congestion of traffic on this section and I realized that my family would not be able to make it down in time for my next transition. As I neared town I made sure I spinned a lot to flush out the lactic acid left over in my legs and heading into town was cheered by thousands of spectators. I finally reached the transition and got off my bike handing it over to bike handlers to rack our bikes. I then headed over to my second transition bag to change into my running clothes. My transition was quick and on my way out made sure to grabbing watermelon, bananas and pretzels to eat.
The Run:
I finally headed out of transition and began my run. Suprisingly, I was able to get into a quick stride right away without cramping. A couple of kms out, I heard Tam and family cheering me on and spotted them. After acknowledging, smiling and waving at them, at took off at a brisk pace. Low and behold the rain started sprinkling. This was a blessing in disquise at it would keep me cool and prevent me from overheating. As I approached about 3-4 kms, I saw Julie and before I passed her, gave her a big hug and and wished her well. She mentioned that the run was going well and wished me well also. I figured Barb would just be ahead but a km further, she came up behind me. I must have passed her in transition or an aid station. After a few words and a hug and was feeling not to bad so took off ahead of her. As I neared the half way turn around point however, I began to experience cramping. I say my buddy Bob running effortless on his way back from the turn around and he seemed to be feeling good. I knew at that moment that I would not be catching him as he had too much of a lead on me. However he was 12 years younger than me and was having an excellent 1'st time Ironman. I had to get my focus back, dig inwardly for more strength to keep me going. By the time I hit the turn around at OK Falls, my cramps were severe and the camber on the side of the road was making it worse. I was hurting really bad. I decided to run mainly towards the middle of the road to ease the cramping. That helped and could hardly wait to get out of that really hilly section. At that time, I also started consuming a lot of chicken soup and coke. This seemed to help and I was able to walk and run in a fairly quick stride. I knew I was on better pace on this run than 2005, however I had lost 10 minutes on the swim and 20 minutes on the run, so I would have to make that up somehow. I looked at my watch and my 12 hour mark passed by so now it was just holding on, digging deep and try and gain some momentum. I was never so glad to see town approaching. I kept up my stride avoiding the walking now and soon I was in town and saw my family. I quickly stopped and gave Linda, a big hug and said I was feeling much better. Tammy said she would run with me a bit on the way back. I waived to Mitchel and said bye. About 10 minutes later, I had turned around and was heading back towards the finish line. Midway through that kilometer I saw my family , again and waved at them. Tammy then joined me to run towards the finish line. She stayed with me till near the finish line and handed me my cell phone so we could connect amongst the 10's of thousands of people there. As I crossed the finish line, I saw the clock and smiled. I had beaten my last time by about 12 minutes so it was still an improvement and felt good about my performance. As I approached the finish line I was high fiving lots of spectators and then finally crossed the ribbon with arms held high in Victory. I was a happy man. I achieved 3 out of 4 of my goals: To be in the top 10 in my age group which I came in 7'th, I had bettered my time by 12 minutes and I did not end up in the medical tent with an IV in my arm. Yahooo! My final result times for the even were as follows: My Swim - 1:30:26, Bike - 6:41:03 and Run 4:40:29. I came in 7 out of 52 in my age group and 1184 OA out of 2200+ participants. It was such a grand day and the best part was having all my family there to support me. Special thanks to my wife for all the support while spending endless hours away from home training. And thank you Tammy for bringing Team Varmint with you and cheering me on. Thank you Brent for your long distance support by tracking me on line all day. It means a lot that you were there for me too even from afar.
My future goals are now focused for Ironman Wisconsin for 2010. My Time goals are unsure at this time as I am getting a bit older and cannot expect to improve in this sport indefinitely but you know what? You can never tell. The next course will be flatter so maybe a PR time for an Ironman is not out of the question just yet. We shall see! For this next year I will take it easy and spend more quality time with my wife, expecially golfing with her. With final retirement looming just around the corner, life seems rosier as we go on. Rock On!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Week 31 - Finally! The Hard Work is all Done - The Taper begins
This week was a welcome week marking the first of 3 weeks of taper. The reduced mileage started but I still had to keep up a fair amount of intensity to keep everything sharp and finely tuned. The swimming keeps improving all the time and I am so happy about that. I finally had a swim with Julie managing to keep up with her so now this proves that I have improved and made a breakthrough in that discipline. I now went from 1 speed swims to 3. The first was when I was injured so could only go latida speed, losing a lot of time. The second speed is now my cruising speed which is faster and sharper with smoother controlled efficiency. The Third speed which I have just gotten is my racing speed. I can now hold this speed for up to 4000 meter which sets me up just fine for Ironman. Talk about that coming just in the nick of time. I should be able to equal or better my Ironman swim of 2005, I hope.
The biking as always is improving also now being able to maintain 31kph on some of my intermediate rides. I got a tuneup on my bike this week and got new shifter and rear brake cables put on. These are Noki cables of superior quality and gold to match my bike to boot. I also adjusted my seat again as it does not quite feel right but have to get this perfected in the next week or so as time is running out. I am bringing out both my training and race wheels just in case of the high winds.
The running is going great but lately I sort of feel a lump in the sole of my right foot. It does not hurt but somewhat uncomfortable. The new shoes are now broken in, the speed laces in and I am ready to go on this one. Last run was 24 kms and I ran that very well at a 5:15 pace. One more 18km this next week and that will be pretty well it except for a few short ones.
I have started to get my gear ready now as we are leaving in 6 days and don't want to rush at the last minute. I also have been experimenting re-locating my bike equipment such as spare tubes, co2 cylinders and pump and levers without that big pouch. Think I got it down now and more weight savings. I also have my medical this week to confirm how great a shape I am in but really because it has been quite a few years since my last one and might as well get it over with with all the blood test and such. Anyway, things are going so well that I sense too well! I am being so very careful now not to get injured or minimise contact with too many people in case I get a cold or something. Also taking less risks on the bike...aero on the fast rides for example. Will keep my mirror on till the last day. 11 days to go now!
The biking as always is improving also now being able to maintain 31kph on some of my intermediate rides. I got a tuneup on my bike this week and got new shifter and rear brake cables put on. These are Noki cables of superior quality and gold to match my bike to boot. I also adjusted my seat again as it does not quite feel right but have to get this perfected in the next week or so as time is running out. I am bringing out both my training and race wheels just in case of the high winds.
The running is going great but lately I sort of feel a lump in the sole of my right foot. It does not hurt but somewhat uncomfortable. The new shoes are now broken in, the speed laces in and I am ready to go on this one. Last run was 24 kms and I ran that very well at a 5:15 pace. One more 18km this next week and that will be pretty well it except for a few short ones.
I have started to get my gear ready now as we are leaving in 6 days and don't want to rush at the last minute. I also have been experimenting re-locating my bike equipment such as spare tubes, co2 cylinders and pump and levers without that big pouch. Think I got it down now and more weight savings. I also have my medical this week to confirm how great a shape I am in but really because it has been quite a few years since my last one and might as well get it over with with all the blood test and such. Anyway, things are going so well that I sense too well! I am being so very careful now not to get injured or minimise contact with too many people in case I get a cold or something. Also taking less risks on the bike...aero on the fast rides for example. Will keep my mirror on till the last day. 11 days to go now!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Weeks 28-29- and 30 Time is a flying by.
With the increasing distances and intensity in the past couple of weeks, I have not had a chance to blog. Way too little time in a given amount of days I would say. So be it. But to summarize, after the 180K bike ride, I had an easy period in week 28 giving me a chance to rest, recuperate, re-energize and re-focus for the last couple of hard weeks left. I still had a long run of 32K. That run was not so great as I was trying to break in a new pair of shoes that day. Not too smart to start with a long run. The long and short of it was that I finished the run with very tender ankles from the stiffness of the new shoes.
The following week 30, the intensity stepped up again but since I was rested I merged into this hard week with little problems. The biggest news of all was that my shoulder was getting much better and my swims were so much more easier and at long last fun to be in the water. This week I also had a great ride of 120K and a long run of 24K that turned into 28K by mistake but whose counting. Everything is A OK.
The last hard week finally arrived and also completed that one feeling very well indeed. We capped off that week with a Tri relay with friend July and Darrell and myself with the anchor run leg. We all performed excellently that beautiful sunny day and I had a fantastic fast run. Our efforts for our team "The Cougar and Her Sugar Daddies" winning gold. 1 out of 1 in that category but who cares. Looking back at the results, we would have come tops in the mixed and masters category also. So we did ourselves proud. Even though my shoulder is so much better now I will keep my appointment for an ultrasound just to check it out and make sure my rotator cup is ok.
All the long hard work is now over and we now enter the 3 week taper phase. This phase will drop down the mileage drastically but Coach Al says the intensity still has to be there just to keep finally tuned and to keep the fast twitch muscles conditioned. 20 days to go before the big event! Yeaaaaaaahhh.......
The following week 30, the intensity stepped up again but since I was rested I merged into this hard week with little problems. The biggest news of all was that my shoulder was getting much better and my swims were so much more easier and at long last fun to be in the water. This week I also had a great ride of 120K and a long run of 24K that turned into 28K by mistake but whose counting. Everything is A OK.
The last hard week finally arrived and also completed that one feeling very well indeed. We capped off that week with a Tri relay with friend July and Darrell and myself with the anchor run leg. We all performed excellently that beautiful sunny day and I had a fantastic fast run. Our efforts for our team "The Cougar and Her Sugar Daddies" winning gold. 1 out of 1 in that category but who cares. Looking back at the results, we would have come tops in the mixed and masters category also. So we did ourselves proud. Even though my shoulder is so much better now I will keep my appointment for an ultrasound just to check it out and make sure my rotator cup is ok.
All the long hard work is now over and we now enter the 3 week taper phase. This phase will drop down the mileage drastically but Coach Al says the intensity still has to be there just to keep finally tuned and to keep the fast twitch muscles conditioned. 20 days to go before the big event! Yeaaaaaaahhh.......
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Week 27 - Nothing Goes Down Like a Cold Dead Frog After 180K Bike Ride
What a great week I had last week! Despite being a bit tired from the challenge, the week was easy enough to recover but hard enough not to go backwards. I completed all my workouts ok, feeling like I still had something left in me too push harder or do more than what was on the program. But I controlled myself and stuck to the plan. This Ironman fitness, once it kicks in makes you feel like you are invincible and I must watch out for that and not get carried away. At the weeks's end though, I was ansy and ready to go out on the longest bike ride of the year. 180K! However I had to work the night before and was very happy when my boss allowed me to start earlier and leave earlier that night. That allowed me to go straight to Nanaimo to my Coache's place with some friends to spend the night before heading off on the ride the next morning. We arrived there at approx. 9:30 pm and I got my foamy mattress out and set it in the basement. After an hour or so of gabbing with friends, it was time to hit the sack to get an early start. That night I slept like a rock, waking up refreshed and rairing to go. At 6:00am the next morning I had a healthy bowl of oats, banana, and peanut butter sandwich and got my gear ready. We headed off for the starting point near Coombs for an 8:00am start. However BOO BOO! I forgot my gel flasks but managed to find enough and borrow some to get me through the ride. With the help of another P&J sandwich of course.
My friend Bob was feeling on top of the world that day and he was determined to keep up with fellow cyclist and triathlete Graham who would be one of the fastest riders in the group. So be it! I was not there to go into a race so I was going to keep back with July and Gerry and Barb, a couple of triathletes who were more to my pace.
We started off fairly easy then the front group decided to start playing Cat and Mouse. Let them go I told myself but inwardly, felt like taking off with them. But again, self discipline took over my brain and kept the pace down with my other friends. What beautiful countryside we rode in! There was quite a bit of traffic but we managed to stay safe and at a good pace. A couple of hydrating spots where Al, my coach was there with his van with all our nutritional needs in it. The whole ride went well, and I drank and took my gels on time everytime. I ended up leading most of the way but I was ok with that. I had no cramps and ended the ride feeling really good. As a bonus, my and my other gal friend who was also in the 60 year age group decided to do an extra 5 km's just because we wanted to show off for those fast guys. HeHe. We ended up with 186 kms altogether. BOO BOO again! I was going to go for a bit of a brick run but forgot my running shoes at the house. Oh well! I knew I could run very well after a bike ride so that did not bother me. That night we stayed at my Coach's place to celebrate his 50'th Birthday and had a grand time. As soon as we got back from the ride, I downed a couple of Cold Dead Frogs. Sweet! They went straight to my brain and had to stop at two until I ate a shitload full of Hors Douvres and fantastic home made lasagnia. What a feast. When I finally got home that night, I slept so soundly again that a bomb could of gone off and I would not have heard it.
The next day I went for a 12K run on my tired legs and did not feel too bad at all. A bit low on energy but the muscles in the legs felt great! On Monday, I met up with my Tri friends again and we went for a 4k Swim. Disaster! I completed the first loop of the lake and felt exhausted! I decided to let the rest of the group go and just relaxed to catch my breath. I then decided to not kick at all anymore, point my toes and stroke. That seemed to work as all of a sudden my roll was smoother and better, I was more relaxed and efficient and not gasping for breath anymore. I ended up doing the second loop of the lake much faster and felt good about that. That's it! That is the way and style that I would practice swimming from now on. If I can just remember what I did........
Anyway all in all it was a fantastic week and I sure am looking forward to an easy recovery week with reduced mileage this week. The only hard stuff will be my longest run of 32K. Piece of cake! I can handle that. Rock on! Ribbit!
My friend Bob was feeling on top of the world that day and he was determined to keep up with fellow cyclist and triathlete Graham who would be one of the fastest riders in the group. So be it! I was not there to go into a race so I was going to keep back with July and Gerry and Barb, a couple of triathletes who were more to my pace.
We started off fairly easy then the front group decided to start playing Cat and Mouse. Let them go I told myself but inwardly, felt like taking off with them. But again, self discipline took over my brain and kept the pace down with my other friends. What beautiful countryside we rode in! There was quite a bit of traffic but we managed to stay safe and at a good pace. A couple of hydrating spots where Al, my coach was there with his van with all our nutritional needs in it. The whole ride went well, and I drank and took my gels on time everytime. I ended up leading most of the way but I was ok with that. I had no cramps and ended the ride feeling really good. As a bonus, my and my other gal friend who was also in the 60 year age group decided to do an extra 5 km's just because we wanted to show off for those fast guys. HeHe. We ended up with 186 kms altogether. BOO BOO again! I was going to go for a bit of a brick run but forgot my running shoes at the house. Oh well! I knew I could run very well after a bike ride so that did not bother me. That night we stayed at my Coach's place to celebrate his 50'th Birthday and had a grand time. As soon as we got back from the ride, I downed a couple of Cold Dead Frogs. Sweet! They went straight to my brain and had to stop at two until I ate a shitload full of Hors Douvres and fantastic home made lasagnia. What a feast. When I finally got home that night, I slept so soundly again that a bomb could of gone off and I would not have heard it.
The next day I went for a 12K run on my tired legs and did not feel too bad at all. A bit low on energy but the muscles in the legs felt great! On Monday, I met up with my Tri friends again and we went for a 4k Swim. Disaster! I completed the first loop of the lake and felt exhausted! I decided to let the rest of the group go and just relaxed to catch my breath. I then decided to not kick at all anymore, point my toes and stroke. That seemed to work as all of a sudden my roll was smoother and better, I was more relaxed and efficient and not gasping for breath anymore. I ended up doing the second loop of the lake much faster and felt good about that. That's it! That is the way and style that I would practice swimming from now on. If I can just remember what I did........
Anyway all in all it was a fantastic week and I sure am looking forward to an easy recovery week with reduced mileage this week. The only hard stuff will be my longest run of 32K. Piece of cake! I can handle that. Rock on! Ribbit!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Week 26 - Feeling Drained for the Cowichan Challenge!
This past week has been one of my heaviest training weeks yet. My coached warned me that it would be and asked me if I really wanted to do another Tri such as the Cowichan Challenge yesterday. Lots of long distance this week in all 3 disciplines. My shoulder seemed to not bother me so much this week so I pushed it a bit on my swims. My tempo runs went well and I did my really long stuff just 3 days after my previous week's long bike and run. But everthing went well and I lucked out on the weather. This week with the hot weather again and increased humidity, I made sure I practiced with salt tabs which does not seem to bother my stomach at all and gives me the added benefit of retaining water and amazingly prevents any cramping or those smaller muscle spasms that usually came along after the workouts. Those with the addition of L-Glutamine are doing wonders for my post workout and race recoveries.
At the end of this last week however I was feeling very drained of energy and did not feel like doing the Cowichan Challenge on Sunday. But on Saturday when I went to pick up my race package with friends Tam and Ivan, I decided that this was a so not important race for performance but important to me because it was a local race put on by my Club and and would be hanging out and participating with a whole bunch of friends. So I decided to keep this one strictly a fun one. Hence, I did not watch my diet at all and ate 3 plate full of bad bad bad foods such as pizza and fried chicken and calzone etc. and topped it all off with a Dairy Queen chocolate dipped cone. My friend Tam kept shaking her head wondering how I could consume all this and wondering about how it would react on my body the next day. No problem Tam......It will come out......in time I hope. After the meal when I got back home, I downed a couple of beers. Ahhhhh......Nothing goes down, like a couple of Cold Dead Frogs. (the name of my beer). I was definitely going into "Don't Give a Damn Mode" for my Fun Race" But I did go to bed really early that night at 8:30 cause I was so darn tired and immediately fell asleep which lasted till 5am the next morning.
The Fun Race:
Since I had committed to helping out with the final setup and monitor the transition area, I was out there early and the bonus of this was that I was able to get my vehicle in there and also had the pick of my spot on the racks for my bike. Also the timing was great as I was first in the bathroom and was able to expung my dirty deeds from the evening before. OOoohh....That felt good!
The Swim:
The crowd was not very big and there was only about 90 participants in the main event but I decided to take it easy and start at the back again hopefully pick up a draft. The swim was 1000m but seemed much longer from looking at it. You never know the exact location of these buoys year after year. Anyway the swim went fine but the time was again slow but I did not care. I finished the swim in close to 24 minutes. A full 5 minutes slower than previous years. But I did not care at that point. Fun right???
The Bike:
I got out of the water quite far back in the pack, quickly stripped and donned my cycling gear and away I went. The distance for the bike course was 34K. The heart rate was still high and I waited for about 5 minutes before I took my first drink. The adrenaline was starting to kick in and started to possess me and I started to push it! So much for the fun part of it! I had exited out of the water quite far back and was not happy where my position was right now. So I started to do what I usually do and push it more and the more people I passed, the more I felt like pushing. This was a really undulating course and had some pretty steep hills in it that made your legs scream and made you come out of the saddle. At one point I passed my friend Ivan and gave him some friendly encouragement. He had come out of the water ahead of me so I must be doing well on the bike to have caught up with him. This was also confirmed by passing a couple more good cyclists which I didn't normally do in previous races. I also caught up to my good buddy and training partner Julie as we headed up the last steep hill after Bell McKinnon. I yelled encouragement at her also and told her "C'mon Julie you are strong on the hills and can take me" That seemed to help as she passed me and kept it up till the top of the hill. Her and her hubby Bob had just completed 140K the day before and she was performing well but knew she was feeling tired at this point. I waved her good bye and took off for the remaining 6-7k to the transition. About 1km from the transition, I took my feet out of my shoes and when I got it, went to the wrong rack. I noticed my gear was not there and re-racked my bike. It was at this point that I noticed that I had forgotten to take out two of my full bottles of liquids that were in my bottle cages. I had just stored them there and meant to take them out before the race to consume after. No wonder it felt so heavy trying to sprint up those hills. Oh well.....so what? This was good practice with extra load and only a "Fun Race" right? Ya Right! The competitive demon had snuck inside me and was taking control.
The Run:
The 9km two loop run on this course is all trails in the bush and is definitely quite challenging with some good hills in it. As I was about ready to take off on my run, Ivan was coming in ahead of Julie so he had made up a bit of time. However this was my discipline and was now hoping to gain some time and hopefully catch up to some people I knew up ahead. After 1/2 a kilometer on the road you finally enter the trail and it is a good long climb to get up into the woods for the undulating trail run. That definitely takes the wind out of you and sends your heart rate shooting right up. By the time you reach the top there is a water stop but I was too pooped to drink. Awww the heck with it! I will wait till the next water stop. I started to get into a groove on the trail winding it's way through the woods. I love this trail running! Specially the downhills. I get to hop around like a frog. Anyway at the end of the first loop I finally caught up to my good friend Gerry and knew he was having a hard time just by his breathing. A pat on the butt and I took off downhill down the road behind the arena to get ready for my second loop. The climb up to the trail was much easier this time and was able to drink at this one. Then decided to go all out for this last loop. I was doing well but had to slow down a bit on some single track areas of the trail to pass other runners who were courteous enough to let me by. With one kilometer to go, I exited out of the trail downhill towards the road and to make my final sprint to the finish line. I was at the end of my rope as far as energy left in my body was concerned but as I entered the final stretch, all my club members were cheering me on and this gave me my final burst of energy to carry it on through the finish line. But I sure was happy to see the end.
Conclusion:
It was a definitely a Fun Race but as it usually goes when you are in the moment, it is hard to control the adrenaline and the competitiveness in oneself and in the end. No matter what, it boils down to doing the best you can on a given day. What this ended up as was one hell of a hard tempo training workout but throughout, never forgot that it was still a race. As I have done in all my previous races, I had came out of the water way back this time in over 60'th place out of about 90 but managed to make some gains in the bike and run to finish off the race in 20'th place overall with a time of 2:14:12. Not my best but good enough considering the training week.
My swim time was 23:21, my Bike which was outstanding for me that day was 1:09:36 and my run was 41:16. I had come into 16'th place on both the bike and run out of 89 competitors and was really happy with my performance of this really "Fun Race" There's that word again.....FUN! and you know what? It really IS a lot of FUN no matter what we go through! I have one more week of hard trainng to do with my longest 180K ride at the end of the week and then I get a reprieve....An easy week of Rest and Recovery. Rock on!........... Now for some post recovery drink of more cold Dead Frogs..........Lot's of Carbs. Ribbit!
At the end of this last week however I was feeling very drained of energy and did not feel like doing the Cowichan Challenge on Sunday. But on Saturday when I went to pick up my race package with friends Tam and Ivan, I decided that this was a so not important race for performance but important to me because it was a local race put on by my Club and and would be hanging out and participating with a whole bunch of friends. So I decided to keep this one strictly a fun one. Hence, I did not watch my diet at all and ate 3 plate full of bad bad bad foods such as pizza and fried chicken and calzone etc. and topped it all off with a Dairy Queen chocolate dipped cone. My friend Tam kept shaking her head wondering how I could consume all this and wondering about how it would react on my body the next day. No problem Tam......It will come out......in time I hope. After the meal when I got back home, I downed a couple of beers. Ahhhhh......Nothing goes down, like a couple of Cold Dead Frogs. (the name of my beer). I was definitely going into "Don't Give a Damn Mode" for my Fun Race" But I did go to bed really early that night at 8:30 cause I was so darn tired and immediately fell asleep which lasted till 5am the next morning.
The Fun Race:
Since I had committed to helping out with the final setup and monitor the transition area, I was out there early and the bonus of this was that I was able to get my vehicle in there and also had the pick of my spot on the racks for my bike. Also the timing was great as I was first in the bathroom and was able to expung my dirty deeds from the evening before. OOoohh....That felt good!
The Swim:
The crowd was not very big and there was only about 90 participants in the main event but I decided to take it easy and start at the back again hopefully pick up a draft. The swim was 1000m but seemed much longer from looking at it. You never know the exact location of these buoys year after year. Anyway the swim went fine but the time was again slow but I did not care. I finished the swim in close to 24 minutes. A full 5 minutes slower than previous years. But I did not care at that point. Fun right???
The Bike:
I got out of the water quite far back in the pack, quickly stripped and donned my cycling gear and away I went. The distance for the bike course was 34K. The heart rate was still high and I waited for about 5 minutes before I took my first drink. The adrenaline was starting to kick in and started to possess me and I started to push it! So much for the fun part of it! I had exited out of the water quite far back and was not happy where my position was right now. So I started to do what I usually do and push it more and the more people I passed, the more I felt like pushing. This was a really undulating course and had some pretty steep hills in it that made your legs scream and made you come out of the saddle. At one point I passed my friend Ivan and gave him some friendly encouragement. He had come out of the water ahead of me so I must be doing well on the bike to have caught up with him. This was also confirmed by passing a couple more good cyclists which I didn't normally do in previous races. I also caught up to my good buddy and training partner Julie as we headed up the last steep hill after Bell McKinnon. I yelled encouragement at her also and told her "C'mon Julie you are strong on the hills and can take me" That seemed to help as she passed me and kept it up till the top of the hill. Her and her hubby Bob had just completed 140K the day before and she was performing well but knew she was feeling tired at this point. I waved her good bye and took off for the remaining 6-7k to the transition. About 1km from the transition, I took my feet out of my shoes and when I got it, went to the wrong rack. I noticed my gear was not there and re-racked my bike. It was at this point that I noticed that I had forgotten to take out two of my full bottles of liquids that were in my bottle cages. I had just stored them there and meant to take them out before the race to consume after. No wonder it felt so heavy trying to sprint up those hills. Oh well.....so what? This was good practice with extra load and only a "Fun Race" right? Ya Right! The competitive demon had snuck inside me and was taking control.
The Run:
The 9km two loop run on this course is all trails in the bush and is definitely quite challenging with some good hills in it. As I was about ready to take off on my run, Ivan was coming in ahead of Julie so he had made up a bit of time. However this was my discipline and was now hoping to gain some time and hopefully catch up to some people I knew up ahead. After 1/2 a kilometer on the road you finally enter the trail and it is a good long climb to get up into the woods for the undulating trail run. That definitely takes the wind out of you and sends your heart rate shooting right up. By the time you reach the top there is a water stop but I was too pooped to drink. Awww the heck with it! I will wait till the next water stop. I started to get into a groove on the trail winding it's way through the woods. I love this trail running! Specially the downhills. I get to hop around like a frog. Anyway at the end of the first loop I finally caught up to my good friend Gerry and knew he was having a hard time just by his breathing. A pat on the butt and I took off downhill down the road behind the arena to get ready for my second loop. The climb up to the trail was much easier this time and was able to drink at this one. Then decided to go all out for this last loop. I was doing well but had to slow down a bit on some single track areas of the trail to pass other runners who were courteous enough to let me by. With one kilometer to go, I exited out of the trail downhill towards the road and to make my final sprint to the finish line. I was at the end of my rope as far as energy left in my body was concerned but as I entered the final stretch, all my club members were cheering me on and this gave me my final burst of energy to carry it on through the finish line. But I sure was happy to see the end.
Conclusion:
It was a definitely a Fun Race but as it usually goes when you are in the moment, it is hard to control the adrenaline and the competitiveness in oneself and in the end. No matter what, it boils down to doing the best you can on a given day. What this ended up as was one hell of a hard tempo training workout but throughout, never forgot that it was still a race. As I have done in all my previous races, I had came out of the water way back this time in over 60'th place out of about 90 but managed to make some gains in the bike and run to finish off the race in 20'th place overall with a time of 2:14:12. Not my best but good enough considering the training week.
My swim time was 23:21, my Bike which was outstanding for me that day was 1:09:36 and my run was 41:16. I had come into 16'th place on both the bike and run out of 89 competitors and was really happy with my performance of this really "Fun Race" There's that word again.....FUN! and you know what? It really IS a lot of FUN no matter what we go through! I have one more week of hard trainng to do with my longest 180K ride at the end of the week and then I get a reprieve....An easy week of Rest and Recovery. Rock on!........... Now for some post recovery drink of more cold Dead Frogs..........Lot's of Carbs. Ribbit!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Week 25 - Post Race Recovery and Build Up
After taking Monday off, I felt pretty good with not too much stiffness and no soreness in the legs. But it was nice having a day off totally from training anyway. Normally I go for a recovery swim the day after a race with not too much of anything else. However the planned swim for that day did not materialize as I unexpectedly got called in to work. On Tuesday I did a lot of stretching and core work which made me feel really good. I also put in in a 50K Bike ride to Duke Point on a nice Sunny day.
On Wednesday, it was back at the lake for a 2000 M swim, coffee break rest and then off I was on the hills of Ladysmith doing a 12K Tempo run. The legs felt just great. On Thursday it was back for another 40K Tempo ride on the bike and then on to a tempo 10k run. Friday was my longest swim this year with 3000M going across the lake and back 4 times. My shoulder held up and was only a bit sore at the end. Hopefully, I am starting to heal as I gave my arms quite a lot of rest in the past couple of weeks with very little swimming and weights. I cannot make up for lost time and expect too much too reduce my swimming times but just maybe now that the soreness is starting to go away, I can push a bit harder in the water and gain a bit of time.
Saturday was a scorcher of a day and I headed out with a group of friends on a bike ride. They had left from Duncan therefore I was joining them 30K later. We had not ridden more than 40K when 3 of them had flats which slowed down the pace a bit. When they decided to turn around, I continued on as I had to get some extra mileage in. Altogether because of the heat, I consumed almost 8 bottles of gatorade, supplementing with a copious amount of gels and a salt tab every hour. I finished the 140K ride feeling no cramps but really hot. I quickly got home and took in some L-Glutamine and had a ice cold protein shake. Later on I treated myself to a nice juicy steak and a couple of good Belgium beers. Ahhh....So refreshing!
On Sunday I did not know how my legs would feel after the long previous day's ride. I had 24K long run planned and it was already screaming hot by 9:00am when I left. I carried my gatorade bottle and one gel with me. That was soon gulped down because of the heat and thank God there was a gas station convenience store on my route where I could re-fill my bottle. The one thing I forgot however were salt tabs as I was sweating profusely in the humid hot climate. But I survived the run with a good steady pace and had a good nap after to rest myself for work that afternoon.
All in all it was a very good week of post race training, and this coming week is loaded with high mileage. I also have an Olympic distance Tri this weekend but with all this heavy training, I am guessing I will not have too much gas left in the tank for a good performance. If I do not feel up to par, I do not think I will participate in this one. But we shall see and play it by ear for now. 8 Weeks to go to Ironman. Time is swiftly going by and so much training to complete.
On Wednesday, it was back at the lake for a 2000 M swim, coffee break rest and then off I was on the hills of Ladysmith doing a 12K Tempo run. The legs felt just great. On Thursday it was back for another 40K Tempo ride on the bike and then on to a tempo 10k run. Friday was my longest swim this year with 3000M going across the lake and back 4 times. My shoulder held up and was only a bit sore at the end. Hopefully, I am starting to heal as I gave my arms quite a lot of rest in the past couple of weeks with very little swimming and weights. I cannot make up for lost time and expect too much too reduce my swimming times but just maybe now that the soreness is starting to go away, I can push a bit harder in the water and gain a bit of time.
Saturday was a scorcher of a day and I headed out with a group of friends on a bike ride. They had left from Duncan therefore I was joining them 30K later. We had not ridden more than 40K when 3 of them had flats which slowed down the pace a bit. When they decided to turn around, I continued on as I had to get some extra mileage in. Altogether because of the heat, I consumed almost 8 bottles of gatorade, supplementing with a copious amount of gels and a salt tab every hour. I finished the 140K ride feeling no cramps but really hot. I quickly got home and took in some L-Glutamine and had a ice cold protein shake. Later on I treated myself to a nice juicy steak and a couple of good Belgium beers. Ahhh....So refreshing!
On Sunday I did not know how my legs would feel after the long previous day's ride. I had 24K long run planned and it was already screaming hot by 9:00am when I left. I carried my gatorade bottle and one gel with me. That was soon gulped down because of the heat and thank God there was a gas station convenience store on my route where I could re-fill my bottle. The one thing I forgot however were salt tabs as I was sweating profusely in the humid hot climate. But I survived the run with a good steady pace and had a good nap after to rest myself for work that afternoon.
All in all it was a very good week of post race training, and this coming week is loaded with high mileage. I also have an Olympic distance Tri this weekend but with all this heavy training, I am guessing I will not have too much gas left in the tank for a good performance. If I do not feel up to par, I do not think I will participate in this one. But we shall see and play it by ear for now. 8 Weeks to go to Ironman. Time is swiftly going by and so much training to complete.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Week 23 - 24 - Feeling the Pain and Eventual Success!
The increased training in week 23 was having it's effects on my body. I was now starting to feel tired, but that was to be expected. I just had to dig in a bit further, tolerate the pain of exhaustion a bit more and let the training build my fitness even further. What I had to do a bit different this week was to get extra rest and sleep by going to bed much earlier and getting up a bit later. That seemed to work and I was feeling much better for my workouts. The days that I worked, I never used to get home until close to midnight and watch TV for about an hour until going to bed. Now as soon as I got home, I left the TV off and went straight to bed. Hey! Time management is a good tool in training and there are always various ways to increase your training time and rest. It just takes a little prioritizing & a little bit of imagination.
As in previous weeks prior to a 1/2 Ironman event, I decided to get the harder workouts a bit earlier in the week including this week's long 100k bike and 24k run. This would ensure I was a bit more rested going into the race weekend. However I hit a snag at the end of that week. On Sunday, I decided to go swimming with friends instead of going solo as I had been doing. Bad result! These youger friends were much faster in the water than I was and like an idiot, I tried to keep pace with them. With an already bad shoulder, I put too much strain on it and so sore the next couple of days that I could hardly move it and was in mucho of pain. I dedided not to swim for the rest of the week and not even touch any weights even though they were light reps. That and Ibuprofen seemed to help and hoped that I would be alright by the weekend. My running and biking during this past week was a bit reduced for a taper for this race. However, I made another error in judgement. On Wednesday, I had made plans to run to Heart Lake which would be just over an hour and thought that would still be ok. However, we ended up doing the complete Heart Lake/Stocking Lake loop which took us two hours. On top of that, I never expected the very steep climb it would take to reach the top of the mountain and my quads were definitely feeling it from the tempo bike the previous day. After the run, I felt exhausted and felt that I had compromised my chances for a good race. However by Saturday, I was fairly recovered again. . Not the same as a full blown proper taper but good enough to give it a good go anyways.
The Race Report:
Saturday was spent cleaning and adjusting everything on my bike. After a couple of months on the bike with training wheels, I finally put on the deep dish Cane Creek racing wheels with it's own cassette and it's matching chain. I went out for a 4-5K ride just to make sure everything was working fine and shifting right. After a few minor adjustment on the rear de-railler, I got it shifting just right and proceeded assembling the rest of my gear for the next day. I put everything by the door to the garage leaving my gel flasks in the fridge to keep fresh. That evening I went to my work store BBQ where the food was great but not exactly conducive to a pre-race diet and ate fairly light with no alcohol drinks.
I came home around 9:00pm and was in bed by 9:30. I set my clock for 4:00am but was actually up before the alarm. I quicly dressed in my Tri outfit, had my breakfast and was on the road by 4:15am. On the trip down, I going over the race course mentally and almost hit a deer on the road. Close call. A little later I remembered that I had left my nutrition gels in the fridge and cursed myself for my forgetfullness. I would have to go around when I got to the race site to see if I could borrow some from friends. When I got there, I got bodymarked and then went to my bike to organize my gear for transition and inflate my tires. I decide this time to inflate to about 130 psi, 20 pounds over my norm. I figured I needed 7 gels to fuel me for the bike race and after my call out to my friends to help me out, other Triathletes heard my plight and gave me some of their extra gels they carried aside from their race bundle. Triathletes are a great bunch of unselfish people who really care for one another and I was so appreciative of them. I managed to actually get 12 gels through their generosity. In transition I took notice of all my competitors trying to guage their possible fitness shape. One competitor in particular was very muscled and well defined in physique with well pronounced calf muscles. I figured this one I would probably have to pay attention to. I could see everyone else in this group were doing the same thing and checking each other out also. It would have been comical had I been able to hear what they were thinking about in their minds. I figured there were about a dozen people in my age group.
The Swim:
The wind was up and there was a slight chop on the water. I was a bit nervous about that. However on the good side, the water was warmer than what I had been training in at Fuller Lake. That was a good thing. I lined myself up in the middle but at the back to take advantage of the mass draft to pull me a bit. The Army Howithzer blasted off and off we were away. I had decided to take it easy to make sure my shoulder would hold out without straining it again. I had given it a bit of a test run on Friday and everything seemed fine. I got into a rhythm, sighted a lot and kept on course. The chop was a bit difficult but soon found out that by breathing on the opposite side more often, it helped. I just concentrated on relaxing and once in a while finding a swimmer ahead to draft. Finally, I was exiting out of the water and felt pretty good with lots of swimmers still behind me.
The Bike:
I noticed still a lot of bikes in my age group area and felt I was in the first 3 or 4 of these anyway. I transitioned fairly fast omitting the socks inside my cycling shoes. I started biking and relaxed for a while to let my heart rate drop before taking in my first fluids. Soon I was in a rhythm and started doing the hilly section of the course early on in the first of two loops of the course. I held back and decided not to push it too hard yet as it was too early. I drank steady throughout the bike, and passed a couple of people in my age group which I could tell because the age group was marked on the right calf of everyone. After a while I was passing a lot of people and by the end of the first loop, finally caught up with that particular competitor that I had decided to pay attention too with good reason. He was strong and looked relaxed on the bike. I slowly passed him and knew that I would not leave him far behind. Sure enough, 15 minutes later he passed me. We exhanged greetings and kept on passing each other back and forth throughout the whole race. I knew I had it in me to take off and gain some time on him but decided to hold back as I did not want to compromise my run. He was probably thinking the same thing. We were in constant sight of each other and by the end, we came in to transition at the same time. As we were coming in we smiled at each other and I said "I guess in comes down to the run right?" He said "Yes, I hope you are not too good on the run." I said "Ditto Man!" In transition I was changed very quicly and as I was leaving saw him still sitting there putting on his shoes. I had a bit of a head start and on my way out, I wished him good luck. I had a feeling he would not be far behind. I had a bit of a head start but in reality I was at a disadvantage as now, as I would not be able to see him sneak up on me in the winding trails around the heavily treed lake. I started the first of two loops around the lake and was running steadily and conservatively hoping he would not gain on me right away. I soon got into a quick leg turn over right and my legs felt just great. Pretty soon I was in a good stride and was passing person after person. I kept telling myself these were all the people that had gained an advantage on me in the swim and here I was now catching them all in my best discipline. The transition area was coming into sight which marked the end of the 1'st of the two 10K loops and the crowds were there cheering us on. It made me feel so good to get the cheers and support from the crowd of spectators! So far so good, I had held off my competitor for the first half and now if I could just hold on. I felt so good in my legs and my breathing that I decided to try and increase my pace for the second half hoping to gain some time on my competitor. I felt at this time, that I was first and he was second. I had no idea how far behind me he was and that made me a bit nervous. I dared not peek behind me and lose concentration. I just kept up my stride, stopped momentarily at every water station to drink and quickly got going again. With two kilometers to go, I increased my pace yet again and was wondering if he could see me ahead as we were now in a clear section. I resisted the attempt to look behind me and concentrated very hard on keeping my pace hard and steady. Even as I approached the finish line, I put on my hardest sprint and under the finish banner saw the clock and my time of 1:15. I put on a huge smile and lifted up my arms in total elation as this was a Personal Best for me despite the shortened bike course. As I sat down on a chair for one of the volunteers to undo my timing chip, who do I see cross the finish line but my fierce competitor only 15 seconds behind me. Wow! I said to myself. This was the closest competitive race I every had. We had remained within a minute of each other the whole way. We shook hands with respect for each other as we both knew that we had run a hard strategic race and if I had not been that bit faster in the bike to run transition, it very well could have been turned around, and he knew that also.
Conclusion:
I felt the best ever in post race than any Triathlon that I had ever done with no cramping in the legs at all. Just a bit in the feet which is normal. I cooled off my leg muscles in the water just to make sure and was back in time to see my friend Tammy cross the finish line. This was her first Half Ironman which I had talked her into doing and was so damn proud of her accomplishment. I was puzzled however at where her husband Ivan was as I knew he was out of the water way ahead of me and had not seen during the whole course. I concluded that he must have beat me in but later found out he had a lot of bad luck on the bike with flats and derailling the chain and one too many pee stops. I told him as unpleasing as it may sound that he would have learn how to pee on the bike but he laughed and said "Never! I could never do that." As it turned out he had a fantastic race despite despite the few mishaps on his bike. From becoming a non athlete to competing in his first Half in a year was quite formidable. I was so very proud of him for all the gains he had made this past year and the injury he had to deal with. I just hoped that he would keep it up as I think this sport is tailored for him and knew that he could become really good at it. As for me, my results were as follows: Times in each discipline were Swim 1.9Km - 44:04, Bike 87 Km - 2:51:53 and Run 20Km - 1:36:41. I ended up 125 out of 496 Overall, 103/276 OA Men, First of 10 in my age group. I got out of the water in 338'th position, managed to pass 153 athletes by the time the bike portion was finished into 185'th place. Finally in my run I managed to pass another 60 people bring me into 125'th place overall. I might of been weak in my swim but thought I had made up quite a bit of time in my other two disciplines. One of my best friends Barbara Dortch also shared the podium with me in her 1'st place win in the 60 to 64 age group. What a great fantastical day this turned out to be. All that sunshine, the volunteers, the crowds, competitors and to boot, as a prize for my first place win, I won a pair of New Balance running shoes which I needed very badly. My fitness for my goal race of this year's Ironman was increasing and on track for my eventual goal of a sub 12 Ironman race. Barring any injuries or sickness, I was well on my way to achieving this. This was totally my best and happiest day of the year for me so far. On another note, I have been feeling very negative about my swimming lately and my friend Tammy has brought this to my attention. But that doesn't mean that I don't think the swim is just as important even though it is the discipline where you gain the less time. If I can somehow manage to get rid of this shoulder injury which I think is more tendinitious than anything else, I know I could get better and swim faster with the proper training and coaching in this very technical sport. This will be my goal for this next year. Thanks to my Coach Al Shirley, the training plan is definitely working to my advantage so far. I also have my boss Sherry to thank, as she has been very accomodating with regards to my work days and hours so that I could keep up with my arduous training and racing to my eventual goal of Ironman in August. It is creeping up very fast now and I forge ahead to keep improving.
As in previous weeks prior to a 1/2 Ironman event, I decided to get the harder workouts a bit earlier in the week including this week's long 100k bike and 24k run. This would ensure I was a bit more rested going into the race weekend. However I hit a snag at the end of that week. On Sunday, I decided to go swimming with friends instead of going solo as I had been doing. Bad result! These youger friends were much faster in the water than I was and like an idiot, I tried to keep pace with them. With an already bad shoulder, I put too much strain on it and so sore the next couple of days that I could hardly move it and was in mucho of pain. I dedided not to swim for the rest of the week and not even touch any weights even though they were light reps. That and Ibuprofen seemed to help and hoped that I would be alright by the weekend. My running and biking during this past week was a bit reduced for a taper for this race. However, I made another error in judgement. On Wednesday, I had made plans to run to Heart Lake which would be just over an hour and thought that would still be ok. However, we ended up doing the complete Heart Lake/Stocking Lake loop which took us two hours. On top of that, I never expected the very steep climb it would take to reach the top of the mountain and my quads were definitely feeling it from the tempo bike the previous day. After the run, I felt exhausted and felt that I had compromised my chances for a good race. However by Saturday, I was fairly recovered again. . Not the same as a full blown proper taper but good enough to give it a good go anyways.
The Race Report:
Saturday was spent cleaning and adjusting everything on my bike. After a couple of months on the bike with training wheels, I finally put on the deep dish Cane Creek racing wheels with it's own cassette and it's matching chain. I went out for a 4-5K ride just to make sure everything was working fine and shifting right. After a few minor adjustment on the rear de-railler, I got it shifting just right and proceeded assembling the rest of my gear for the next day. I put everything by the door to the garage leaving my gel flasks in the fridge to keep fresh. That evening I went to my work store BBQ where the food was great but not exactly conducive to a pre-race diet and ate fairly light with no alcohol drinks.
I came home around 9:00pm and was in bed by 9:30. I set my clock for 4:00am but was actually up before the alarm. I quicly dressed in my Tri outfit, had my breakfast and was on the road by 4:15am. On the trip down, I going over the race course mentally and almost hit a deer on the road. Close call. A little later I remembered that I had left my nutrition gels in the fridge and cursed myself for my forgetfullness. I would have to go around when I got to the race site to see if I could borrow some from friends. When I got there, I got bodymarked and then went to my bike to organize my gear for transition and inflate my tires. I decide this time to inflate to about 130 psi, 20 pounds over my norm. I figured I needed 7 gels to fuel me for the bike race and after my call out to my friends to help me out, other Triathletes heard my plight and gave me some of their extra gels they carried aside from their race bundle. Triathletes are a great bunch of unselfish people who really care for one another and I was so appreciative of them. I managed to actually get 12 gels through their generosity. In transition I took notice of all my competitors trying to guage their possible fitness shape. One competitor in particular was very muscled and well defined in physique with well pronounced calf muscles. I figured this one I would probably have to pay attention to. I could see everyone else in this group were doing the same thing and checking each other out also. It would have been comical had I been able to hear what they were thinking about in their minds. I figured there were about a dozen people in my age group.
The Swim:
The wind was up and there was a slight chop on the water. I was a bit nervous about that. However on the good side, the water was warmer than what I had been training in at Fuller Lake. That was a good thing. I lined myself up in the middle but at the back to take advantage of the mass draft to pull me a bit. The Army Howithzer blasted off and off we were away. I had decided to take it easy to make sure my shoulder would hold out without straining it again. I had given it a bit of a test run on Friday and everything seemed fine. I got into a rhythm, sighted a lot and kept on course. The chop was a bit difficult but soon found out that by breathing on the opposite side more often, it helped. I just concentrated on relaxing and once in a while finding a swimmer ahead to draft. Finally, I was exiting out of the water and felt pretty good with lots of swimmers still behind me.
The Bike:
I noticed still a lot of bikes in my age group area and felt I was in the first 3 or 4 of these anyway. I transitioned fairly fast omitting the socks inside my cycling shoes. I started biking and relaxed for a while to let my heart rate drop before taking in my first fluids. Soon I was in a rhythm and started doing the hilly section of the course early on in the first of two loops of the course. I held back and decided not to push it too hard yet as it was too early. I drank steady throughout the bike, and passed a couple of people in my age group which I could tell because the age group was marked on the right calf of everyone. After a while I was passing a lot of people and by the end of the first loop, finally caught up with that particular competitor that I had decided to pay attention too with good reason. He was strong and looked relaxed on the bike. I slowly passed him and knew that I would not leave him far behind. Sure enough, 15 minutes later he passed me. We exhanged greetings and kept on passing each other back and forth throughout the whole race. I knew I had it in me to take off and gain some time on him but decided to hold back as I did not want to compromise my run. He was probably thinking the same thing. We were in constant sight of each other and by the end, we came in to transition at the same time. As we were coming in we smiled at each other and I said "I guess in comes down to the run right?" He said "Yes, I hope you are not too good on the run." I said "Ditto Man!" In transition I was changed very quicly and as I was leaving saw him still sitting there putting on his shoes. I had a bit of a head start and on my way out, I wished him good luck. I had a feeling he would not be far behind. I had a bit of a head start but in reality I was at a disadvantage as now, as I would not be able to see him sneak up on me in the winding trails around the heavily treed lake. I started the first of two loops around the lake and was running steadily and conservatively hoping he would not gain on me right away. I soon got into a quick leg turn over right and my legs felt just great. Pretty soon I was in a good stride and was passing person after person. I kept telling myself these were all the people that had gained an advantage on me in the swim and here I was now catching them all in my best discipline. The transition area was coming into sight which marked the end of the 1'st of the two 10K loops and the crowds were there cheering us on. It made me feel so good to get the cheers and support from the crowd of spectators! So far so good, I had held off my competitor for the first half and now if I could just hold on. I felt so good in my legs and my breathing that I decided to try and increase my pace for the second half hoping to gain some time on my competitor. I felt at this time, that I was first and he was second. I had no idea how far behind me he was and that made me a bit nervous. I dared not peek behind me and lose concentration. I just kept up my stride, stopped momentarily at every water station to drink and quickly got going again. With two kilometers to go, I increased my pace yet again and was wondering if he could see me ahead as we were now in a clear section. I resisted the attempt to look behind me and concentrated very hard on keeping my pace hard and steady. Even as I approached the finish line, I put on my hardest sprint and under the finish banner saw the clock and my time of 1:15. I put on a huge smile and lifted up my arms in total elation as this was a Personal Best for me despite the shortened bike course. As I sat down on a chair for one of the volunteers to undo my timing chip, who do I see cross the finish line but my fierce competitor only 15 seconds behind me. Wow! I said to myself. This was the closest competitive race I every had. We had remained within a minute of each other the whole way. We shook hands with respect for each other as we both knew that we had run a hard strategic race and if I had not been that bit faster in the bike to run transition, it very well could have been turned around, and he knew that also.
Conclusion:
I felt the best ever in post race than any Triathlon that I had ever done with no cramping in the legs at all. Just a bit in the feet which is normal. I cooled off my leg muscles in the water just to make sure and was back in time to see my friend Tammy cross the finish line. This was her first Half Ironman which I had talked her into doing and was so damn proud of her accomplishment. I was puzzled however at where her husband Ivan was as I knew he was out of the water way ahead of me and had not seen during the whole course. I concluded that he must have beat me in but later found out he had a lot of bad luck on the bike with flats and derailling the chain and one too many pee stops. I told him as unpleasing as it may sound that he would have learn how to pee on the bike but he laughed and said "Never! I could never do that." As it turned out he had a fantastic race despite despite the few mishaps on his bike. From becoming a non athlete to competing in his first Half in a year was quite formidable. I was so very proud of him for all the gains he had made this past year and the injury he had to deal with. I just hoped that he would keep it up as I think this sport is tailored for him and knew that he could become really good at it. As for me, my results were as follows: Times in each discipline were Swim 1.9Km - 44:04, Bike 87 Km - 2:51:53 and Run 20Km - 1:36:41. I ended up 125 out of 496 Overall, 103/276 OA Men, First of 10 in my age group. I got out of the water in 338'th position, managed to pass 153 athletes by the time the bike portion was finished into 185'th place. Finally in my run I managed to pass another 60 people bring me into 125'th place overall. I might of been weak in my swim but thought I had made up quite a bit of time in my other two disciplines. One of my best friends Barbara Dortch also shared the podium with me in her 1'st place win in the 60 to 64 age group. What a great fantastical day this turned out to be. All that sunshine, the volunteers, the crowds, competitors and to boot, as a prize for my first place win, I won a pair of New Balance running shoes which I needed very badly. My fitness for my goal race of this year's Ironman was increasing and on track for my eventual goal of a sub 12 Ironman race. Barring any injuries or sickness, I was well on my way to achieving this. This was totally my best and happiest day of the year for me so far. On another note, I have been feeling very negative about my swimming lately and my friend Tammy has brought this to my attention. But that doesn't mean that I don't think the swim is just as important even though it is the discipline where you gain the less time. If I can somehow manage to get rid of this shoulder injury which I think is more tendinitious than anything else, I know I could get better and swim faster with the proper training and coaching in this very technical sport. This will be my goal for this next year. Thanks to my Coach Al Shirley, the training plan is definitely working to my advantage so far. I also have my boss Sherry to thank, as she has been very accomodating with regards to my work days and hours so that I could keep up with my arduous training and racing to my eventual goal of Ironman in August. It is creeping up very fast now and I forge ahead to keep improving.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Week 22 - This Week, 2/3's of the Way Mark to My Goal
Having reached this timeline in my training program without sickness or injury leaves me very confident that I will achieve what I have set out to do. This past week certainly has been challenging as the mileage and intensity of week 2 of the build since my 1/2 Ironman two weeks ago, is starting to take it's toll on my energy levels. But I am proceeding ahead without giving in to that tiredness as I know that will benefit me in the real event when I reach those same milestones. Sometimes one just has to toughen it out and let the mind take over to will oneself to go beyond of what he thinks is insurmountable. I have given in to those moments earlier on in my beginning years but now know that when things get tough, I can get tougher if I really persevere and push through the pain, of lactic acid and exhaustion. One just has to focus really hard and keep pushing no matter what amd I am determined to do that.
I am also not letting this awful cold weather we have been subjected to, deter me from completing my scheduled training. My long ride and run this past week were a bit tougher and I definitely am feeling more tired now. I keep thinking of Lance Armstrong and the long cold mountain rides he used to do in the bitter cold rain and that helps. If I can push and make it through this next week, I can look forward to an easier week next week thank God. This hopefully will rest me up just enough to be able to compete decently in my next challenge. I know I will not be at my best due to training right through this but I must keep reminding myself as my coach says, that these are all training grounds to my eventual goal, The Ironman.
The pain in my arthritic shoulders joints in this damp cold weather is also bothering me a lot and affecting my swimming but so far it has been somewhat manageable with a bit of Ibuprofen. The lake this past couple of days have actually gone back to being a bit colder. Crazy temperatures for almost middle of June. But no use worrying about something beyond my control so I must forge ahead. My immediate goal for this next week is trying to maximise the amount of sleep I can get on a daily basis so I can complete the next day's training without feeling too exhausted. This means no TV, Computer surfing or other meaningless wasted time. Sleep - Eat - Shit - Drink - Train - Work and Rest over and over again. The life of an Ironman triahtlete.....It's a tough, selfish and demanding lifestyle, but nescessary to achieve The Goal. Keep smilin!
I am also not letting this awful cold weather we have been subjected to, deter me from completing my scheduled training. My long ride and run this past week were a bit tougher and I definitely am feeling more tired now. I keep thinking of Lance Armstrong and the long cold mountain rides he used to do in the bitter cold rain and that helps. If I can push and make it through this next week, I can look forward to an easier week next week thank God. This hopefully will rest me up just enough to be able to compete decently in my next challenge. I know I will not be at my best due to training right through this but I must keep reminding myself as my coach says, that these are all training grounds to my eventual goal, The Ironman.
The pain in my arthritic shoulders joints in this damp cold weather is also bothering me a lot and affecting my swimming but so far it has been somewhat manageable with a bit of Ibuprofen. The lake this past couple of days have actually gone back to being a bit colder. Crazy temperatures for almost middle of June. But no use worrying about something beyond my control so I must forge ahead. My immediate goal for this next week is trying to maximise the amount of sleep I can get on a daily basis so I can complete the next day's training without feeling too exhausted. This means no TV, Computer surfing or other meaningless wasted time. Sleep - Eat - Shit - Drink - Train - Work and Rest over and over again. The life of an Ironman triahtlete.....It's a tough, selfish and demanding lifestyle, but nescessary to achieve The Goal. Keep smilin!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Week 21 - Still on a High
This past week has been amazing for me. I thought the day after the Half Ironman last week, I would be a bit drained but hardly anything except for a little stiffness in the calves from running in that soft sand. But I decided to be cautious anyway and take the day off except for a small easy recovery swim. On Tuesday, I was going for a short tempo ride but the weather turned really bad with rain so I did a tempo workout on my spin bike. On wednesday I mistakenly read my schedule wrong and went for a Brick workout of 30/10k. but felt really great throughout the whole workout.
On Thursday I decided to do my long bike ride because the weather outlook later on did not look good plus I had to work on my usual long ride day. The ride went really well and I hydrated on time each time and took a gel every half hour. In addition to that I brought along some salt tabs to start practicing with but only took one and forgot the rest. I would have to get used to a whole new routine with these salt tabs. But the weather was a bit cool anyway and did not nescesarily need them. I finished my 110K ride feeling really good after only four days since the half.
The remainer of the week went the much the same way with workout after workout. I just felt super. By Sunday it was time for my long run and and even then, went for an extra 2K for a total of 22. At the end of the run I was starting to tire a bit but overall, I had an absolutely fantastic week of training and was quite pleased with myself. 3 more weeks to go before the next race, the New Balance Half Ironman, my favorite 1/2 IM on the island. Time to kick it up a notch in my training as I must start getting more bike mileage under my belt. I have also decided to drop the Vancouver 1/2 in July in favor of the Cowichan Challenge just so I can race with all my friends and not compromise my training too much. All is going well and according to my amended plan.
On Thursday I decided to do my long bike ride because the weather outlook later on did not look good plus I had to work on my usual long ride day. The ride went really well and I hydrated on time each time and took a gel every half hour. In addition to that I brought along some salt tabs to start practicing with but only took one and forgot the rest. I would have to get used to a whole new routine with these salt tabs. But the weather was a bit cool anyway and did not nescesarily need them. I finished my 110K ride feeling really good after only four days since the half.
The remainer of the week went the much the same way with workout after workout. I just felt super. By Sunday it was time for my long run and and even then, went for an extra 2K for a total of 22. At the end of the run I was starting to tire a bit but overall, I had an absolutely fantastic week of training and was quite pleased with myself. 3 more weeks to go before the next race, the New Balance Half Ironman, my favorite 1/2 IM on the island. Time to kick it up a notch in my training as I must start getting more bike mileage under my belt. I have also decided to drop the Vancouver 1/2 in July in favor of the Cowichan Challenge just so I can race with all my friends and not compromise my training too much. All is going well and according to my amended plan.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Week 20 - My first Half IM of the Season
I have that feeling of great fitness after this past week. Did all my scheduled workouts as planned, throwing the hardest ones in at the beginning of the week. This allowed me a bit of rest before the big race yesterday. I even got my new wetsuit, a Nineteen Frequency model which I managed to try on once at an interval session at Fuller Lake on Wednesday. It seemed a bit tighter than my QR suit but felt good in it and allowed me the boyancy I needed to balance me properly in the water. As usual with the wet suit on I felt faster and it gave me the confidence I needed not to worry about this aspect of the triathlon.
Now on with the race report. The day before Saturday was a beautiful day and was hoping for a similar day on Sunday. I was a bit worried about the water temperature but the sunnier days this week should have warmed up the lake a bit more. The previous reconasance race bike course last week was good because I now knew where all the hard spots would be and where I was to take it very easy. It was not a delightful course, as the roads were rough and lots of pot holes. And depending on the traffic could be a bit hazardous. I had never run on that particular trail course so that was a bit of a mystery for me.
The night before, I had packed up all my stuff and put it in the van as I did not want to fool around at 4:00am in the morning to do all that. I went to bed at 9:00pm that night and kept waking up every two hours or so to check the time on my digital clock. I also set a battery powered one just in case of power failure. My clock was set to go off at 4:00am but woke up at 3:45 and decided to get up and make my coffee and have breakfast. I had Vector cereal, a banana and almonds and figured that would suffice me for the 3 hours prior to the swim. I would also have a Gel 1/2 an hour prior to entering the water. At 4:15 I was on the road and on the way to the race. Got there early enough to get a good parking spot, but still to early for body marking therefore I just laid and rested on my mattress in my van listening to calm music and mentally prepared myself going over every aspect of the race for that day.
I had set myself a plan to use this Tri as a training platform for my Ironman and was determined to execute that plan. I did not want to think about placing, time or any kind of medals for that day. I just wanted to experiment with relaxing and slowing it down for the first two disciplined in order to see what I had left in the gas tank for the run. Even the run, I was not going to run at my usual faster pace. I still had weeks of hard training to go before my next half and did not want to blow myself up needing too much wasted time for recovery. The only real thing that I was a bit worried about was shoulder problems that had been plaging me this past year. Old age and arthritis was starting to set in but I was determined to not let that hinder me.
With 45 minutes to go before start time, I went and got myself body marked and to my transition spot to prepare my bike and gear. We had to leave our bikes there overnight from the day before and was crunched up with other bikes with not too much room to assemble my gear. However the transition marshall annouced that we could move our bikes to other empty racks if we wanted to and I quickly took advantage of that in order to find myself the ideal spot right at the end of the rack where I could lay out my gear on the side instead of in front or behind my bike. This strategy would also give me a place to lean or hold on too for balance while I was transitioning. I blew up my tires to the right pressure and donned my wet suit, two swim caps with my goggles and 10 minutes to start time stepped into the water for my pre-swim warm up. Surprisingly the water felt not bad at all and swam back and forth and stretched before the gun went off. Did I say gun??? How about a big howitzer cannon those Army Reserve Guys brought over? Quite the touch AND quite loud.
I positioned myself on the outside edge behind most of the crowd. I was determined not to get thrashed around by other swimmers. Call me chicken but I knew my limitations in the water and like Lisa Bentley, I knew my swim would be the slowest but also very confident that I would more than make up the time in the other two disciplines. My run was my fastest discipline and I would overtake many competitors in that last and most important part of the race. However more importantly was to discipline myself to take it more easily at the beginning of the bike and hydrate, eat and pace myself throughout that whole leg. I must and did not get carried away with the exitement of it all and the adrenalin rush as I tended to do in past races and forget about he effort and hydration.
The Swim:
The gun went off and I took off easily letting the thrashers ahead of me go. Everything was going fine until I got bumped by another swimmer and my right goggle started leaking. In order to fix it, I had to stop for a moment, let the water out reseal my google and I was on my way. But for some reason I swallowed a bit of water and started coughing, I kept control, did not panic and kept swimming and coughing for about two minutes until I got it under control. However when I sighted next, I saw the swimmers ahead of me quite far and holy cow! I had lost a lot of time. But as I kept on swimming, it seemed I was gaining quite rapidly on them....Too fast actually until I had a look around and realized that I was swimming off to the right in the oncoming lane of swimmers heading back to the turnaround point. I looked to my left and they they were, the bunch I WAS suppose to be with. Oh me gosh! I truly had to correct my course and get moving as I had lost a lot of time.The second loop was a bit easier and had gained momentum and finally caught up to a few swimmers that I could draft on the way in. I finally got out of the water and ran to my transition spot unzipping my wet suit on the way. M.y shoulders were a bit sore but did not warrant any Ibuprofen
The Bike
I got out of my suit and changed in about two minutes and off on my bike I went, remembering to relax and get my heart rate down. I knew I was quite a ways behind everyone because of my slow swim, but did not panic and start pedaling too fast. Once my heart rate was stable, I drank and resumed a cadence that was not too hard and kept the speed under control. Pretty soon I was in a rhythm and the first set of hills were ahead of me. I would have 3 more loops after this to do so kept it down a bit not hammering the hills. About 5 km's later, we had this steep long hill to climb that I had to get out of my saddle for. But I kept the cadence easy in my easiest gear and climbed up with no problem. At the top of the hill was the only aid station on the bike course and topped up my aero bottle. Pretty smart of them to position that aid station there as everyone would have slowed down quite a bit making it easier for them to grab gatorade or water and a gel without the helpers having to run after them if they were too fast.
My computer on my bike was also not working properly and could not get a read of how many km's or my speed so went by feel rather that visual indicators. As I got into my rhytm again, I noticed myself starting to pass some bikers. How many I am not sure but maybe about 15 - 20 in the whole race. My friends Julie and Alanna were out running the course for fun that day as well as to support me. It was quite nice seeing them everytime I looped and appreciated their words of encouragement as well as my beloved whom I threw a kiss at evertime I saw her. I was focused, concentrated on my drinking and actually drank 4 complete bottles in the biking component as well as one gel every loop also. So far so good the plan was in action and I was following it with precision. Finally I was approching the transition at the end of the bike and downed the rest of my gatorade before arriving and dismounting. This time I did something I never tried before and that was undoing the velcro strap on my shoes prior to dismounting the bike. Shoud of practised that but it worked well and when I racked my bike did not have to struggle taking off my sockless feet out of my shoes.
The Run:
I heard the voice of Ironman announcer Steve King, and over the loudspeaker found out I was about two minutes behind my first place competition. This guy was from Texas somewhere and for a minute thought he was a hot shot from the states. I decided not to let that bother me, but at the same time knew that this was the stage where I was to test myself out to see if the slower steadier paced bike ride was going to work in my favor. As I took off on the run, I realized my legs seemed like they were still fresh with no sign of cramping at all. Bonus! I said to myself. I steadily increased my pace and no more than two hundred meters in front of me passed a guy that seemed like he was my age. I felt certain of it. As I zoomed by him I heard him mutter something seemed like "Oh well!" I kept on increasing my pace a bit until I was in a fast enough but not breathing too hard pace and tried to maintain that pace. However by now, the sun was out in full force with not too much cloud cover. In addition the trail was somewhat sheltered from any cool breeze. I decided to stop at every aid station and to keep on drinking. I was starting to sweat quite a bit by now because of the heat and cursed myself for not having brought any salt tabs with me. Because of the cold spring, I had not even trained with them yet. That was about to changein the future, I said to myself. As luck would hold out I was running behind this tall guy who had a buddy give him a container of salt tabs and he kindly offered me some as he had noticed my sweat pouring out of my body. The temperarures were quite high by this time and we still had 10k to go, so I took two of them right away hoping these would be sufficient to sustain me until the finish. They were! From 11K to 16K it was an unexpected upward climb on soft sand and this proved to be quite difficult and energy consuming. I definitely could not keep my pace on that section and it seemed like forever until the turnaround came. At this time I had passed quite a few runners and knew that I was still making good time on the run. Some had slowed down and were walking. The second time I ran into whom I thought was my competion, I knew I had gained quite a lot of time on him and knew he was not even a threat anymore as he was running slow, labouring. From 16K to the finish it was a downwards grade where I was able to pick up more speed. I started hearing the announcer and crowds in the distance and knew I was close to the finish. When I got off the trail, for the last 150 meters to the finish line, I poured on a blazing downhill sprint and came across the finish line smiling and not totally exhausted for the first time ever in a triathlon. I got a great appreciative applaude from the crowd and was totally elated. My friends, all came and congratulated me and even my wife who was so proud of me, did not mind getting my sweat on her as she gave me a big hugged.
Conclusion:
I had executed my plan to a tee and it had worked for me. A few hiccups like the goggles and coughing and sighting and of course the salt tabs but mostly everything had went well. I had proven to myself that proper controlled pacing, steady hydration and nutrition could translate to a better feeling run. I was now determined to keep these critical points in my mind in future races. Overall I finished 1'st in my category with a time of 5:32:19. Not bad for a tough island course. I had exited out of the water in 84'th place out of 94 and managed to pick pass 40 competitors in the race to finish 44 overall. I was extremely happy with that. Apart from age, Canadian champion, Lisa Bently and I have a lot more in common with our race strategy. If it is your strongest discipline and have the talent for it, take it all on the run! Four more weeks till the next Half Iron which I hoped to do a bit better in as it a "B" race for me. I am hoping to have my best Half IM of the season at that one. Now twenty four hours later, I feel good, no soreness or stiffness but know there is some internal muscle damage there so will be taking it a bit easier for a while letting myself fully recover. Tonight I am going for a nice easy recovery swim with friends. Man! How I love this sport! Keeps you young, healthy, fully alive, and a zest to keep it up forever!
Now on with the race report. The day before Saturday was a beautiful day and was hoping for a similar day on Sunday. I was a bit worried about the water temperature but the sunnier days this week should have warmed up the lake a bit more. The previous reconasance race bike course last week was good because I now knew where all the hard spots would be and where I was to take it very easy. It was not a delightful course, as the roads were rough and lots of pot holes. And depending on the traffic could be a bit hazardous. I had never run on that particular trail course so that was a bit of a mystery for me.
The night before, I had packed up all my stuff and put it in the van as I did not want to fool around at 4:00am in the morning to do all that. I went to bed at 9:00pm that night and kept waking up every two hours or so to check the time on my digital clock. I also set a battery powered one just in case of power failure. My clock was set to go off at 4:00am but woke up at 3:45 and decided to get up and make my coffee and have breakfast. I had Vector cereal, a banana and almonds and figured that would suffice me for the 3 hours prior to the swim. I would also have a Gel 1/2 an hour prior to entering the water. At 4:15 I was on the road and on the way to the race. Got there early enough to get a good parking spot, but still to early for body marking therefore I just laid and rested on my mattress in my van listening to calm music and mentally prepared myself going over every aspect of the race for that day.
I had set myself a plan to use this Tri as a training platform for my Ironman and was determined to execute that plan. I did not want to think about placing, time or any kind of medals for that day. I just wanted to experiment with relaxing and slowing it down for the first two disciplined in order to see what I had left in the gas tank for the run. Even the run, I was not going to run at my usual faster pace. I still had weeks of hard training to go before my next half and did not want to blow myself up needing too much wasted time for recovery. The only real thing that I was a bit worried about was shoulder problems that had been plaging me this past year. Old age and arthritis was starting to set in but I was determined to not let that hinder me.
With 45 minutes to go before start time, I went and got myself body marked and to my transition spot to prepare my bike and gear. We had to leave our bikes there overnight from the day before and was crunched up with other bikes with not too much room to assemble my gear. However the transition marshall annouced that we could move our bikes to other empty racks if we wanted to and I quickly took advantage of that in order to find myself the ideal spot right at the end of the rack where I could lay out my gear on the side instead of in front or behind my bike. This strategy would also give me a place to lean or hold on too for balance while I was transitioning. I blew up my tires to the right pressure and donned my wet suit, two swim caps with my goggles and 10 minutes to start time stepped into the water for my pre-swim warm up. Surprisingly the water felt not bad at all and swam back and forth and stretched before the gun went off. Did I say gun??? How about a big howitzer cannon those Army Reserve Guys brought over? Quite the touch AND quite loud.
I positioned myself on the outside edge behind most of the crowd. I was determined not to get thrashed around by other swimmers. Call me chicken but I knew my limitations in the water and like Lisa Bentley, I knew my swim would be the slowest but also very confident that I would more than make up the time in the other two disciplines. My run was my fastest discipline and I would overtake many competitors in that last and most important part of the race. However more importantly was to discipline myself to take it more easily at the beginning of the bike and hydrate, eat and pace myself throughout that whole leg. I must and did not get carried away with the exitement of it all and the adrenalin rush as I tended to do in past races and forget about he effort and hydration.
The Swim:
The gun went off and I took off easily letting the thrashers ahead of me go. Everything was going fine until I got bumped by another swimmer and my right goggle started leaking. In order to fix it, I had to stop for a moment, let the water out reseal my google and I was on my way. But for some reason I swallowed a bit of water and started coughing, I kept control, did not panic and kept swimming and coughing for about two minutes until I got it under control. However when I sighted next, I saw the swimmers ahead of me quite far and holy cow! I had lost a lot of time. But as I kept on swimming, it seemed I was gaining quite rapidly on them....Too fast actually until I had a look around and realized that I was swimming off to the right in the oncoming lane of swimmers heading back to the turnaround point. I looked to my left and they they were, the bunch I WAS suppose to be with. Oh me gosh! I truly had to correct my course and get moving as I had lost a lot of time.The second loop was a bit easier and had gained momentum and finally caught up to a few swimmers that I could draft on the way in. I finally got out of the water and ran to my transition spot unzipping my wet suit on the way. M.y shoulders were a bit sore but did not warrant any Ibuprofen
The Bike
I got out of my suit and changed in about two minutes and off on my bike I went, remembering to relax and get my heart rate down. I knew I was quite a ways behind everyone because of my slow swim, but did not panic and start pedaling too fast. Once my heart rate was stable, I drank and resumed a cadence that was not too hard and kept the speed under control. Pretty soon I was in a rhythm and the first set of hills were ahead of me. I would have 3 more loops after this to do so kept it down a bit not hammering the hills. About 5 km's later, we had this steep long hill to climb that I had to get out of my saddle for. But I kept the cadence easy in my easiest gear and climbed up with no problem. At the top of the hill was the only aid station on the bike course and topped up my aero bottle. Pretty smart of them to position that aid station there as everyone would have slowed down quite a bit making it easier for them to grab gatorade or water and a gel without the helpers having to run after them if they were too fast.
My computer on my bike was also not working properly and could not get a read of how many km's or my speed so went by feel rather that visual indicators. As I got into my rhytm again, I noticed myself starting to pass some bikers. How many I am not sure but maybe about 15 - 20 in the whole race. My friends Julie and Alanna were out running the course for fun that day as well as to support me. It was quite nice seeing them everytime I looped and appreciated their words of encouragement as well as my beloved whom I threw a kiss at evertime I saw her. I was focused, concentrated on my drinking and actually drank 4 complete bottles in the biking component as well as one gel every loop also. So far so good the plan was in action and I was following it with precision. Finally I was approching the transition at the end of the bike and downed the rest of my gatorade before arriving and dismounting. This time I did something I never tried before and that was undoing the velcro strap on my shoes prior to dismounting the bike. Shoud of practised that but it worked well and when I racked my bike did not have to struggle taking off my sockless feet out of my shoes.
The Run:
I heard the voice of Ironman announcer Steve King, and over the loudspeaker found out I was about two minutes behind my first place competition. This guy was from Texas somewhere and for a minute thought he was a hot shot from the states. I decided not to let that bother me, but at the same time knew that this was the stage where I was to test myself out to see if the slower steadier paced bike ride was going to work in my favor. As I took off on the run, I realized my legs seemed like they were still fresh with no sign of cramping at all. Bonus! I said to myself. I steadily increased my pace and no more than two hundred meters in front of me passed a guy that seemed like he was my age. I felt certain of it. As I zoomed by him I heard him mutter something seemed like "Oh well!" I kept on increasing my pace a bit until I was in a fast enough but not breathing too hard pace and tried to maintain that pace. However by now, the sun was out in full force with not too much cloud cover. In addition the trail was somewhat sheltered from any cool breeze. I decided to stop at every aid station and to keep on drinking. I was starting to sweat quite a bit by now because of the heat and cursed myself for not having brought any salt tabs with me. Because of the cold spring, I had not even trained with them yet. That was about to changein the future, I said to myself. As luck would hold out I was running behind this tall guy who had a buddy give him a container of salt tabs and he kindly offered me some as he had noticed my sweat pouring out of my body. The temperarures were quite high by this time and we still had 10k to go, so I took two of them right away hoping these would be sufficient to sustain me until the finish. They were! From 11K to 16K it was an unexpected upward climb on soft sand and this proved to be quite difficult and energy consuming. I definitely could not keep my pace on that section and it seemed like forever until the turnaround came. At this time I had passed quite a few runners and knew that I was still making good time on the run. Some had slowed down and were walking. The second time I ran into whom I thought was my competion, I knew I had gained quite a lot of time on him and knew he was not even a threat anymore as he was running slow, labouring. From 16K to the finish it was a downwards grade where I was able to pick up more speed. I started hearing the announcer and crowds in the distance and knew I was close to the finish. When I got off the trail, for the last 150 meters to the finish line, I poured on a blazing downhill sprint and came across the finish line smiling and not totally exhausted for the first time ever in a triathlon. I got a great appreciative applaude from the crowd and was totally elated. My friends, all came and congratulated me and even my wife who was so proud of me, did not mind getting my sweat on her as she gave me a big hugged.
Conclusion:
I had executed my plan to a tee and it had worked for me. A few hiccups like the goggles and coughing and sighting and of course the salt tabs but mostly everything had went well. I had proven to myself that proper controlled pacing, steady hydration and nutrition could translate to a better feeling run. I was now determined to keep these critical points in my mind in future races. Overall I finished 1'st in my category with a time of 5:32:19. Not bad for a tough island course. I had exited out of the water in 84'th place out of 94 and managed to pick pass 40 competitors in the race to finish 44 overall. I was extremely happy with that. Apart from age, Canadian champion, Lisa Bently and I have a lot more in common with our race strategy. If it is your strongest discipline and have the talent for it, take it all on the run! Four more weeks till the next Half Iron which I hoped to do a bit better in as it a "B" race for me. I am hoping to have my best Half IM of the season at that one. Now twenty four hours later, I feel good, no soreness or stiffness but know there is some internal muscle damage there so will be taking it a bit easier for a while letting myself fully recover. Tonight I am going for a nice easy recovery swim with friends. Man! How I love this sport! Keeps you young, healthy, fully alive, and a zest to keep it up forever!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Week 18 and 19 Strength Phase - Fitness Kicks up a Notch
My week 18 last week was quite busy between training and work and other projects on the go so I did not have time to blog my workouts. But just the same, week 18 went very well. The most significant event of last week was my first open water swim of the season. I had watched my friends Tam and Ivan the previous day go for it and could tell that the water was very cold just by watching them. Their breath was hard to get under control and their swimming a bit eratic due to such low temperatures but I admired their courage to go ahead and try it. They came out of the water with cold extremeties and face. At that moment I had the feeling that it would be quite a while before we would be able to swim there on a regular basis. I had intended to swim with them at the beginning, but with a 125K ride and a two hour run the days prior to left me a bit weak and drained and did not want to risk getting hypothermic and sick in the terribly cold water. It had to be around 10 degrees if that.
That night however after thinking about it, I said I could do this! The next day I said to myself I would go out and attempt it on my own. Which is not a very smart thing to do on my own in a lake with hardly anyone around. But a few fisherman were around to see me if I got into trouble. I was hoping for a bit of warm sunshine but the next day came and it was overcast and cool. I did my workouts that morning of weigths and biking and in the early afternoon headed out to the lake. It was a bit of a chore trying to remember all the gear I needed to bring as it had been over 8 monts since my last open water swim. I almost forgot my goggles but remembered them at the last minute. I was phyching myself out before I even left and did not really want to do this but reminded myself if my newbie friends could do it, I as a more seasoned triathlete should be able to do this also. My early days in the navy I had done quite lot of cold water diving and my instructor had often told me that at the beginning in the first few minutes it was very important to control your breathing and relax as much as possible until we had our bearings and were able to concentrate on the task at hand. I decided to dress in my wet suit at home in case I had problem with the zipper as I was on my own with no one to help. After making a mess with baby powder ll over the floors in my home I headed out for the ten minute drive to the lake.
When I got there, and walked out to the beach I felt very lonely. I donned two swim caps to keep my head and ears warmer. I stepped in the water and stepped right back out. Oh God it was so cold! I decided not to linger on this, set my timer on my watch and dove right in! The cold water suddenly surrounding my whole face was a shock! Don't think...I said and started swimming right away. The cold water slowly seeped throughout my suit. Once my body warmed up the thin layer of water between the suit and skin it was much better. I slowed down my breathing right away eshling long and easy and took long slow graceful strokes. In a minute, my breathing was in a rhythm and I increased my stroke a bit. To be honest it did not feel too bad...So I said to myself. As I slowly circumnavigated the lake I got used to it and it seemed like it was not that cold. In truth, my hands and feet were getting so numb that I was not feeling the cold anymore. I had made up my mind to do the whole lake and did so, not stopping once. Sighting was a bit of a chore as I was breathing more on one side tending to make me swim to the right all the time. I sighted more often to get my bearing and my last 150 meters my shoulders were getting a bit sore and could not feel my hands and feet at all anymore. When I got to shore, it was a chore trying to get my suit off as I had no dexterity in my fingers to peel off my suit. But I did get it off and trotted off to the van to get some warm clothes on and my heater going in the van. The trip up from the beach to the van, I felt like I was walking with stumps as I could not feel my feet hit the ground. It took me a solid two hours after to regain feelings in the heels of my feet as they thawed out. Well now I knew I could do the distance of a Half Iron but the speed would take some work as the form was totally different than the pool. I felt proud of myself for accomplishing this and vowed from now on to get 3 swims in a week no matter what. And I did.
That weekend I met up with friends Julie and Bob and had a great ride up the inland highway to Parksville and back. I felt strong the whole way and we managed a pace averaging 28 kph despite the fierce headwinds on the way back. My trapezoid muscles below my neck on the left side was still getting sore but managed to control the pain with a bit of Ibuprofen, the wonder drug and the only drug that I take nowadays.
The following week I was suppose to go on this bike training camp up to Penticton for whole week, but having missed being at home for my wedding anniversary for the two to three years prior to, I decided to stay home instead and devote a bit of time to my wife. Triathlon training is a very selfish sport and one must take time to ensure family is not ignored for too long. Maybe even indulge in some golfing with her as long as it did not interfere in my training of course. Yes I could do this!....I hoped! Another impulsive thing I did the previous week was sign up for the Half Ironman series. I had to do 3 out of 4 to get this cool looking biking jersey so registered myself for the series with the first one coming up in a bit over a week. "Oh my God! What did I do that for", I said to myself. After rationalising it all, I felt I was very fit and these 1/2 Iron distances would be good training ground for me to practice my nutrition, pacing in early race and transitions. I planned not go all out in these races but would control the whole event from beginning to end. I really wanted to see if self control early in the bike and keeping up the nutrition every ten minutes for drinking and 30 minutes for eating a gel would translate in a better run for me. I would find out next week.
I also dediced to keep up my whole original training plan and finished off the week with a 160k ride on my own which went just great! I even went for a little run after this to see if my legs were ok and so they were. I was in a high cadence with hardly any adjustment and my legs still felt great with no signs of cramping or muscle spasm. I was so elated with my performance that day. Despite being by myself with no benefit of a draft in the winds I still managed a 27.8 kph for the whole ride. The next day the long run of 20K went just as well but was a bit more tired. But this L-Glutamene that I had been taking two to three times a day was working wonders for me helping me with muscle recovery so much faster. I am glad my shipment of this substance that I bought on line arrived in the mail just in time as my original supply was running out.
I also managed to get three more swims in and yesterday for the first time noticed a dramatic increase in temparature out there. I managed to do the whole lake again but this time it was cold but managable and no more freezing of my hands and feet. Yeahhhh! Things were looking up. My buddied Tam and Ivan arrived as I had just finished my swim and they also experience the same warmer water. At least Tam was able to babble without drooling like she came out of the dentist with a frozen jaw as last week. They talked me into going on a 80k bike ride the next day and I agreed as this would allow us to go over the course for the race next week. That day of my swim, the sun was out in full force and the temperature almost 26 outside. Today during our ride, the temperature again was phenonenal with temperatures rising up in the mid 30's. It was quite a ride. Not more than 15 minutes into it, I was taking the lead and coming up to a light and had to slow down. Tammy who was behind me did the same but her hubby Ivan seemed to have misjudged the distance between his front wheel and her back wheel and TTTRRRRRRRRR.....His spokes entered her derailler and down he went! I heard Tam shriek and looked behind me and Ivan was on the ground with mucho traffic on the highway. However after examining the bike and seeing about 4 spokes bent, he decided to try it out as it did not seem to wobble that much. It was ok and we carried on. And how about Ivan, well a bit of a war wound on the outside of one knee but nothing to worry about. He had a quarter size bruise also on his hip which he insisted on pulling down his shorts once in a while for us to see. Tammy of course was embarassed at his shameless exibition in public. Shameless yes. We think he is shameless exabitionist by nature but harmless. HeHe. Cute bum Ivan! But too much information Dude!
The other thing that happened was Tammy lost the cap off her nut at the end of her skewer. Nothing serious. But she was unerved a bit and decided to stay in the rear for a while until she worked up enough courage to take the lead again. I was nervous following Tam who was riding too close to the white line for my comfort level. With ten feet of area from this line to the edge of the pavement it boggled my mind why some people rode that close to the traffic line risking getting hit by vehicles or turbulence from those big monster trucks. Ivan was a bit more conservative however allowing a bit more room so I decided to draft off him instead. When it was my turn to take the lead, I rode way over to the right allowing as much space between me and the heavy traffic at that moment. In the event me and a vehicle ever touched, statistics showed the biker was always the looser. I had experienced many turbulences in the past when the riding area was too thin and was forced to drive close and at times almost got pushed off the road or sucked into the wheels from the turbulence caused by those big 18 wheelers. Over the years, I had seen enough riders who were put out of action with vehicle encounters and was determined not to be one of those statistics. Some of those people will never ride again because of serious injuries and these incidents have left me somewhat wiser and bit more cautious over the years. Once we got to the lake there was no more lines but now we had to be even more cautious as that particular road was narrow and very rough with lots of pot holes. The lead driver had to keep his eyes out and warn the others of impending hazards. The ride went well but still a bit too much traffic for my liking and not a very nice Tri bike course. Every one was out because it was such a beautiful day. We stopped at the transition area and I familiarized Tam and Ivan with the layout and what was what. We also tested the water in the lake with our feet which was cold but not too bad, then headed back to Duncan. On the way back we took some back roads into town which got us out of the heavy trafficked highway and on to some nice quiet solitude and exhaust free roads. We finished the ride with exhilaration as this was their longest ride and the nicest weather day of the whole year so far. I noticed that my friends had come a long way in their fitness and they were so much fun to ride with, laughing and joking the whole way. I have to rate this ride as one of my most pleasurable ride of the year that I will remember for sure.
Now one more week to go before my half Iron race next weekend. The hardest thing for me to do will be to control speed as I know now how very fit I am and will be enticed to go for it. But I must keep with the plan and just go out and cruise this one with no expectations of placing. Just do it right, start slow, hydrate, eat at proper times and keep it all at a cruising speed......Wellll maybe on the run if I have lots of gusto, I will pour it on a bit but not all out. Let's hope for warm weather and very little traffic. Even a reduction in the swim distance would be a bonus due to the unusual crappy Spring weather and the low temperatures in the lake. We shall see.
That night however after thinking about it, I said I could do this! The next day I said to myself I would go out and attempt it on my own. Which is not a very smart thing to do on my own in a lake with hardly anyone around. But a few fisherman were around to see me if I got into trouble. I was hoping for a bit of warm sunshine but the next day came and it was overcast and cool. I did my workouts that morning of weigths and biking and in the early afternoon headed out to the lake. It was a bit of a chore trying to remember all the gear I needed to bring as it had been over 8 monts since my last open water swim. I almost forgot my goggles but remembered them at the last minute. I was phyching myself out before I even left and did not really want to do this but reminded myself if my newbie friends could do it, I as a more seasoned triathlete should be able to do this also. My early days in the navy I had done quite lot of cold water diving and my instructor had often told me that at the beginning in the first few minutes it was very important to control your breathing and relax as much as possible until we had our bearings and were able to concentrate on the task at hand. I decided to dress in my wet suit at home in case I had problem with the zipper as I was on my own with no one to help. After making a mess with baby powder ll over the floors in my home I headed out for the ten minute drive to the lake.
When I got there, and walked out to the beach I felt very lonely. I donned two swim caps to keep my head and ears warmer. I stepped in the water and stepped right back out. Oh God it was so cold! I decided not to linger on this, set my timer on my watch and dove right in! The cold water suddenly surrounding my whole face was a shock! Don't think...I said and started swimming right away. The cold water slowly seeped throughout my suit. Once my body warmed up the thin layer of water between the suit and skin it was much better. I slowed down my breathing right away eshling long and easy and took long slow graceful strokes. In a minute, my breathing was in a rhythm and I increased my stroke a bit. To be honest it did not feel too bad...So I said to myself. As I slowly circumnavigated the lake I got used to it and it seemed like it was not that cold. In truth, my hands and feet were getting so numb that I was not feeling the cold anymore. I had made up my mind to do the whole lake and did so, not stopping once. Sighting was a bit of a chore as I was breathing more on one side tending to make me swim to the right all the time. I sighted more often to get my bearing and my last 150 meters my shoulders were getting a bit sore and could not feel my hands and feet at all anymore. When I got to shore, it was a chore trying to get my suit off as I had no dexterity in my fingers to peel off my suit. But I did get it off and trotted off to the van to get some warm clothes on and my heater going in the van. The trip up from the beach to the van, I felt like I was walking with stumps as I could not feel my feet hit the ground. It took me a solid two hours after to regain feelings in the heels of my feet as they thawed out. Well now I knew I could do the distance of a Half Iron but the speed would take some work as the form was totally different than the pool. I felt proud of myself for accomplishing this and vowed from now on to get 3 swims in a week no matter what. And I did.
That weekend I met up with friends Julie and Bob and had a great ride up the inland highway to Parksville and back. I felt strong the whole way and we managed a pace averaging 28 kph despite the fierce headwinds on the way back. My trapezoid muscles below my neck on the left side was still getting sore but managed to control the pain with a bit of Ibuprofen, the wonder drug and the only drug that I take nowadays.
The following week I was suppose to go on this bike training camp up to Penticton for whole week, but having missed being at home for my wedding anniversary for the two to three years prior to, I decided to stay home instead and devote a bit of time to my wife. Triathlon training is a very selfish sport and one must take time to ensure family is not ignored for too long. Maybe even indulge in some golfing with her as long as it did not interfere in my training of course. Yes I could do this!....I hoped! Another impulsive thing I did the previous week was sign up for the Half Ironman series. I had to do 3 out of 4 to get this cool looking biking jersey so registered myself for the series with the first one coming up in a bit over a week. "Oh my God! What did I do that for", I said to myself. After rationalising it all, I felt I was very fit and these 1/2 Iron distances would be good training ground for me to practice my nutrition, pacing in early race and transitions. I planned not go all out in these races but would control the whole event from beginning to end. I really wanted to see if self control early in the bike and keeping up the nutrition every ten minutes for drinking and 30 minutes for eating a gel would translate in a better run for me. I would find out next week.
I also dediced to keep up my whole original training plan and finished off the week with a 160k ride on my own which went just great! I even went for a little run after this to see if my legs were ok and so they were. I was in a high cadence with hardly any adjustment and my legs still felt great with no signs of cramping or muscle spasm. I was so elated with my performance that day. Despite being by myself with no benefit of a draft in the winds I still managed a 27.8 kph for the whole ride. The next day the long run of 20K went just as well but was a bit more tired. But this L-Glutamene that I had been taking two to three times a day was working wonders for me helping me with muscle recovery so much faster. I am glad my shipment of this substance that I bought on line arrived in the mail just in time as my original supply was running out.
I also managed to get three more swims in and yesterday for the first time noticed a dramatic increase in temparature out there. I managed to do the whole lake again but this time it was cold but managable and no more freezing of my hands and feet. Yeahhhh! Things were looking up. My buddied Tam and Ivan arrived as I had just finished my swim and they also experience the same warmer water. At least Tam was able to babble without drooling like she came out of the dentist with a frozen jaw as last week. They talked me into going on a 80k bike ride the next day and I agreed as this would allow us to go over the course for the race next week. That day of my swim, the sun was out in full force and the temperature almost 26 outside. Today during our ride, the temperature again was phenonenal with temperatures rising up in the mid 30's. It was quite a ride. Not more than 15 minutes into it, I was taking the lead and coming up to a light and had to slow down. Tammy who was behind me did the same but her hubby Ivan seemed to have misjudged the distance between his front wheel and her back wheel and TTTRRRRRRRRR.....His spokes entered her derailler and down he went! I heard Tam shriek and looked behind me and Ivan was on the ground with mucho traffic on the highway. However after examining the bike and seeing about 4 spokes bent, he decided to try it out as it did not seem to wobble that much. It was ok and we carried on. And how about Ivan, well a bit of a war wound on the outside of one knee but nothing to worry about. He had a quarter size bruise also on his hip which he insisted on pulling down his shorts once in a while for us to see. Tammy of course was embarassed at his shameless exibition in public. Shameless yes. We think he is shameless exabitionist by nature but harmless. HeHe. Cute bum Ivan! But too much information Dude!
The other thing that happened was Tammy lost the cap off her nut at the end of her skewer. Nothing serious. But she was unerved a bit and decided to stay in the rear for a while until she worked up enough courage to take the lead again. I was nervous following Tam who was riding too close to the white line for my comfort level. With ten feet of area from this line to the edge of the pavement it boggled my mind why some people rode that close to the traffic line risking getting hit by vehicles or turbulence from those big monster trucks. Ivan was a bit more conservative however allowing a bit more room so I decided to draft off him instead. When it was my turn to take the lead, I rode way over to the right allowing as much space between me and the heavy traffic at that moment. In the event me and a vehicle ever touched, statistics showed the biker was always the looser. I had experienced many turbulences in the past when the riding area was too thin and was forced to drive close and at times almost got pushed off the road or sucked into the wheels from the turbulence caused by those big 18 wheelers. Over the years, I had seen enough riders who were put out of action with vehicle encounters and was determined not to be one of those statistics. Some of those people will never ride again because of serious injuries and these incidents have left me somewhat wiser and bit more cautious over the years. Once we got to the lake there was no more lines but now we had to be even more cautious as that particular road was narrow and very rough with lots of pot holes. The lead driver had to keep his eyes out and warn the others of impending hazards. The ride went well but still a bit too much traffic for my liking and not a very nice Tri bike course. Every one was out because it was such a beautiful day. We stopped at the transition area and I familiarized Tam and Ivan with the layout and what was what. We also tested the water in the lake with our feet which was cold but not too bad, then headed back to Duncan. On the way back we took some back roads into town which got us out of the heavy trafficked highway and on to some nice quiet solitude and exhaust free roads. We finished the ride with exhilaration as this was their longest ride and the nicest weather day of the whole year so far. I noticed that my friends had come a long way in their fitness and they were so much fun to ride with, laughing and joking the whole way. I have to rate this ride as one of my most pleasurable ride of the year that I will remember for sure.
Now one more week to go before my half Iron race next weekend. The hardest thing for me to do will be to control speed as I know now how very fit I am and will be enticed to go for it. But I must keep with the plan and just go out and cruise this one with no expectations of placing. Just do it right, start slow, hydrate, eat at proper times and keep it all at a cruising speed......Wellll maybe on the run if I have lots of gusto, I will pour it on a bit but not all out. Let's hope for warm weather and very little traffic. Even a reduction in the swim distance would be a bonus due to the unusual crappy Spring weather and the low temperatures in the lake. We shall see.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Week 17 Strength Phase - My first Annual Tri
Well this week was not that great as far as weather goes. Darn rain is sure depressing sometimes. But gotta make the best of it and get out there anyway or I would never get my training done. I did not skimp on my training load this week despite the Triathlon I was getting in this weekend. However I planned all my hardest training for the earliest part of the week in order to save a bit of energy for the Saturday event. Out of the whole week however I missed my first long ride in my schedule but would make up for it after the sprint.
We left on the 3pm ferry Friday evening with a confirmed reservation on the new Coastal Renaissance ferry. Very nice fast and modern. I had not slept very well the past 3 days. Don't know why as I am not usually nervous about a triathlon. Anyway I hoped to catch some good Zzzz's tonight at my friends Gerry and Barb's place. We went out to dinner that night and loaded up on some pasta. Then we headed back to the apartment and made sure all our gear was packed and ready for the morning. We would be leaving by 6:00am
The next morning I woke up feeling rested and refreshed. After getting to the centre and registering, I started getting my bike and gear ready. A few things started going wrong just because that's the way it is with the first tri in the season. 1'st, I could not find my race belt and borrowed $20 from Bob to go buy one. But at the last minute I found it stuck in my shoe. Next I was heading for the pool and instead of grabbing my goggles, I grabbled my sunglasses. Duhhhhh! Back to my bike I went to fetch them. From there in was a long wait in the lineup for my swim wave to start. I had put myself down as 16 minutes because that is what I had achieved in training. However due to this weird system they were using, there was 9 swimmers in the lane at all time. As soon as one was finished his 28 laps, another swimmer would jump in to replace him. So I got stuck in the middle of this pact most of the time so just decided to relax and go with the flow. 18+ minutes later I was out. Yuk! I hate pool swimming.
Anyway out I went and ran about 120 meters to the transition area, got into my cycling shoes and helmet, glasses on and off I went. Brrr.... wet and a bit cold at the start but soon I was pedaling 110 rpm's on the bike and warmed up. It was two loops of a 10k loop and at the first turn I went the wrong way. The marshall quickly yelled at me and I did a 180 to get back on track. I got into the aero position and stayed there the whole time with the exeption of a couple of tight turns and up on this overpass. I was riding good and strong on my Varmint tri bike which I had only ridden once since last year.
Back into transition and as I was standing on one foot balancing to get my running shoe on I went ass over tea kettle and fell down. Shit! another couple of seconds lost. However I was quickly changed and off I went on my run. It felt like my legs were pumping up and down at the same cadence as the bike. By this time the weather was quite warm and I picked up some more time. All in all I finished in a fairly good time despite my lousy swim and picked up fourth position in my age group. It was a well put on event and the weather was the greatest. Sun the whole time. I will go back for sure. Well maybe if I can conquer the pool, but I hink not!
Since then I got the results back from my doctor that my pain in my shoulders are caused by a bit of arthritis setting in and will just have to grin and bear it with pain killers once in a while. That is why the swiming is so difficult for me as I seem to be in pain everytime I push it in the pool. But soon I will be in the lake in this new wet suit I got after the race. It is a nineteen suit, top of the line. The day after the race, I managed to get 70K in on a flat course in Vancouver and the weather held off until we got back. Now back to the grind on more intensifying training which will not let up until we do the New Balance Half Iron in about 6-7 weeks from now. But the training is still going well, no sickness, no injury so not too much too complain about except for the darn shoulders joints. Shit!!!! I guess that means I am getting old! Oh well forever young in my mind! Rock On!
We left on the 3pm ferry Friday evening with a confirmed reservation on the new Coastal Renaissance ferry. Very nice fast and modern. I had not slept very well the past 3 days. Don't know why as I am not usually nervous about a triathlon. Anyway I hoped to catch some good Zzzz's tonight at my friends Gerry and Barb's place. We went out to dinner that night and loaded up on some pasta. Then we headed back to the apartment and made sure all our gear was packed and ready for the morning. We would be leaving by 6:00am
The next morning I woke up feeling rested and refreshed. After getting to the centre and registering, I started getting my bike and gear ready. A few things started going wrong just because that's the way it is with the first tri in the season. 1'st, I could not find my race belt and borrowed $20 from Bob to go buy one. But at the last minute I found it stuck in my shoe. Next I was heading for the pool and instead of grabbing my goggles, I grabbled my sunglasses. Duhhhhh! Back to my bike I went to fetch them. From there in was a long wait in the lineup for my swim wave to start. I had put myself down as 16 minutes because that is what I had achieved in training. However due to this weird system they were using, there was 9 swimmers in the lane at all time. As soon as one was finished his 28 laps, another swimmer would jump in to replace him. So I got stuck in the middle of this pact most of the time so just decided to relax and go with the flow. 18+ minutes later I was out. Yuk! I hate pool swimming.
Anyway out I went and ran about 120 meters to the transition area, got into my cycling shoes and helmet, glasses on and off I went. Brrr.... wet and a bit cold at the start but soon I was pedaling 110 rpm's on the bike and warmed up. It was two loops of a 10k loop and at the first turn I went the wrong way. The marshall quickly yelled at me and I did a 180 to get back on track. I got into the aero position and stayed there the whole time with the exeption of a couple of tight turns and up on this overpass. I was riding good and strong on my Varmint tri bike which I had only ridden once since last year.
Back into transition and as I was standing on one foot balancing to get my running shoe on I went ass over tea kettle and fell down. Shit! another couple of seconds lost. However I was quickly changed and off I went on my run. It felt like my legs were pumping up and down at the same cadence as the bike. By this time the weather was quite warm and I picked up some more time. All in all I finished in a fairly good time despite my lousy swim and picked up fourth position in my age group. It was a well put on event and the weather was the greatest. Sun the whole time. I will go back for sure. Well maybe if I can conquer the pool, but I hink not!
Since then I got the results back from my doctor that my pain in my shoulders are caused by a bit of arthritis setting in and will just have to grin and bear it with pain killers once in a while. That is why the swiming is so difficult for me as I seem to be in pain everytime I push it in the pool. But soon I will be in the lake in this new wet suit I got after the race. It is a nineteen suit, top of the line. The day after the race, I managed to get 70K in on a flat course in Vancouver and the weather held off until we got back. Now back to the grind on more intensifying training which will not let up until we do the New Balance Half Iron in about 6-7 weeks from now. But the training is still going well, no sickness, no injury so not too much too complain about except for the darn shoulders joints. Shit!!!! I guess that means I am getting old! Oh well forever young in my mind! Rock On!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Week 16 - Weather Plays Havoc with Training
To say this week was the worse ever for training would be an understatement. Here we are in late April into what is suppose to be our Spring and freaking Hail, Snow and Rain is still upon us. This has been very detrimental in my training this week as I have not been able to get my long endurance training in. Even the intermediate tempo training was affected in that I had to do some of my workouts inside which, when lasting over an hour can be excrutiatingly boring. Thus, I have not been a very happy camper this week. But I have tried to do the best of a bad situation and got most of my workouts inside.
Not the best for quality and realistic training but what can I do? I definitely was not going to risk getting an accident on the roads with the bike and possibly ruining the rest of my training that's for sure. I often wonder how those prairie boys do all that training in the winter inside, but have to admire them if they can do that. To me having lived in God's country for the past 40 years and training in light clothing all year around has spoiled me and cannot stand being indoors too much. But hey!! If I did not have that fancy Ergo spin bike and treadmill and a big screen TV to distract me, I would be that much worse off right? So no....I can't complain as I have it better off than most when it comes to decent training methods and variety.
I know deep down that global warming is causing all this, making me determined to be more of an enviromentally consious person who has to do all he can in order to do his little part in saving our earth from the bad things us humans are doing to wreak havoc on this planet. Enough about that though......So what if I have missed a couple of days of good training? Some people are sick or injured for weeks on end and end up recovering and having excellent results. I remember my last Ironman year three years ago with my IT band injury which kept me from running for weeks on end. I eventually bounced back to run better than ever. So for now, it's a pretend injury keeping me out of action.
Actually the decrease in training volume will probably benefit me in the Sprint Tri next weekend...Who knows? For now I am very content in being uninjured, healthy, and fit as a fiddle. Things could be much worse than bad weather right? Time to stop whining and and plan ahead for a good tri this weekend. Everything else will take care of itself. This week is now my easy rest week and will make the best of it to re-energize and re-focus on the big picture. I have to keep reminding myself that it is no use worrying about things beyond my control and the weather is definitely one of them. For now, I am really looking forward to my trip to Vancouver next weekend. Time for fun and friendship with old buddies and a good training Tri to boot! Life is great after all!
Not the best for quality and realistic training but what can I do? I definitely was not going to risk getting an accident on the roads with the bike and possibly ruining the rest of my training that's for sure. I often wonder how those prairie boys do all that training in the winter inside, but have to admire them if they can do that. To me having lived in God's country for the past 40 years and training in light clothing all year around has spoiled me and cannot stand being indoors too much. But hey!! If I did not have that fancy Ergo spin bike and treadmill and a big screen TV to distract me, I would be that much worse off right? So no....I can't complain as I have it better off than most when it comes to decent training methods and variety.
I know deep down that global warming is causing all this, making me determined to be more of an enviromentally consious person who has to do all he can in order to do his little part in saving our earth from the bad things us humans are doing to wreak havoc on this planet. Enough about that though......So what if I have missed a couple of days of good training? Some people are sick or injured for weeks on end and end up recovering and having excellent results. I remember my last Ironman year three years ago with my IT band injury which kept me from running for weeks on end. I eventually bounced back to run better than ever. So for now, it's a pretend injury keeping me out of action.
Actually the decrease in training volume will probably benefit me in the Sprint Tri next weekend...Who knows? For now I am very content in being uninjured, healthy, and fit as a fiddle. Things could be much worse than bad weather right? Time to stop whining and and plan ahead for a good tri this weekend. Everything else will take care of itself. This week is now my easy rest week and will make the best of it to re-energize and re-focus on the big picture. I have to keep reminding myself that it is no use worrying about things beyond my control and the weather is definitely one of them. For now, I am really looking forward to my trip to Vancouver next weekend. Time for fun and friendship with old buddies and a good training Tri to boot! Life is great after all!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Week15 - Longer, Intensifying, the Strength Phase Begins
As we near the 2'nd week build up of this first week of strength phase, my body is feeling it but my mind is still saying yes bring it on but a bit more carefully! I have survived another week of hard training and am starting to feelsome it's effects. Not all bad! My body is responding to the increasing work load and feel confident at this stage of the program that I am right on track with the timing of it and forever ready to forge on.
The swims this week were a bit better but I have to admit that I have hit a plateau in that discipline and really don't think there is enough time to progress with my speed in the pool. However I know I can do much better once we get into open water with my wet suit on so to me it is not a very big deal. My shoulders are getting much better and should be ready to push it much harder in the lake once I get there. The swim is very critical in the Sprint event and I know I will be losing maybe 2-3 minutes there but I will definitely have to make up a lot of time for this in the bike and run portion.
The runs for me this week were a bit more tougher that usual. I have to get into a new pair of cushiony running shoes soon as these ones are almost done for and therefore can feel more shock absorbtion throughout the whole leg transmitting to my back and spine. That is why I think I feel it so much this week. However the muscles seem to be recovering well as the stiffness is gone in no time whatsover. This week I had to work on Sunday which is really my Long Run day but it is a good thing because I had a day off training and did my 18K run today instead. Still felt it though because of my shoes.
The cycling has been all great this past week culminating in my longest distance yet of 105K. I carried 3 and 1/2 bottles of endurance gatorade and one bottle of water with a flask of gels and 1/2 dozen fig neutons. I was drinking every 10 minutes and taking gels every 30 minutes. I absolutely went through everything I had and felt well nourished and hydraded. However I was a bit overdressed sweating like crazy but you know what? Heavily laden with clothes and all those bottles using the training bike, I still managed to average 28.7 K/ph throughout the whole ride so felt good about that. That did not stop me from downing a humongous ice cold glass of thick rich whey protein shake with fruits, berries and almonds. Man did that hit the spot and recovered within a few hours after that ride.
So all in all .....an excellent week of training and looking forward to an easy week off after this next one. Then on with the Sprint Tri in two weekends from now. Ooooh....I am a bit nervous about the swim in this one but I have to remember it is only a training sprint to practice my transitions and to get an overall guage of my condition so far. So what else can I say except keep forging on ahead with caution, and wisdom of what I have learned in the past about such training. Soon it will be sunny and warm Yeaahhhh!
The swims this week were a bit better but I have to admit that I have hit a plateau in that discipline and really don't think there is enough time to progress with my speed in the pool. However I know I can do much better once we get into open water with my wet suit on so to me it is not a very big deal. My shoulders are getting much better and should be ready to push it much harder in the lake once I get there. The swim is very critical in the Sprint event and I know I will be losing maybe 2-3 minutes there but I will definitely have to make up a lot of time for this in the bike and run portion.
The runs for me this week were a bit more tougher that usual. I have to get into a new pair of cushiony running shoes soon as these ones are almost done for and therefore can feel more shock absorbtion throughout the whole leg transmitting to my back and spine. That is why I think I feel it so much this week. However the muscles seem to be recovering well as the stiffness is gone in no time whatsover. This week I had to work on Sunday which is really my Long Run day but it is a good thing because I had a day off training and did my 18K run today instead. Still felt it though because of my shoes.
The cycling has been all great this past week culminating in my longest distance yet of 105K. I carried 3 and 1/2 bottles of endurance gatorade and one bottle of water with a flask of gels and 1/2 dozen fig neutons. I was drinking every 10 minutes and taking gels every 30 minutes. I absolutely went through everything I had and felt well nourished and hydraded. However I was a bit overdressed sweating like crazy but you know what? Heavily laden with clothes and all those bottles using the training bike, I still managed to average 28.7 K/ph throughout the whole ride so felt good about that. That did not stop me from downing a humongous ice cold glass of thick rich whey protein shake with fruits, berries and almonds. Man did that hit the spot and recovered within a few hours after that ride.
So all in all .....an excellent week of training and looking forward to an easy week off after this next one. Then on with the Sprint Tri in two weekends from now. Ooooh....I am a bit nervous about the swim in this one but I have to remember it is only a training sprint to practice my transitions and to get an overall guage of my condition so far. So what else can I say except keep forging on ahead with caution, and wisdom of what I have learned in the past about such training. Soon it will be sunny and warm Yeaahhhh!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Week 14 - Back on Track
I have to admit that this past week has been one of the best training weeks yet. Except for Monday though. I wasn't scheduled for anything as it was my day off but I decided to go for a relaxing recovery swim just to get my sluggish body mobile again. But the night before, I attended a staff party and had a bit too much wine. The rest is history. After swallowing water and coughing under water, I decided to call it quits after 1000M.
However the rest of the week was great with good tempo runs and bikes and really decent brick workouts. The weather is still playing havoc with us and we had a late Spring snow dump so I ended up doing a few workouts inside on my spin bike and treadmill. Boy the weather sure is cold for this time of year. I am a bit leery of getting in the lake at our normal time which is the end of April this year as it has been very cold this winter and the water will be freezing.
By the weekend I was starting to feel the effects of my hard workouts but still managed to get a good 90K ride in with friends Bob and Julie. Except we seem to stop a bit too often for my own liking because of my friends needing to re-supply with liquids and pee breaks. Oh well what can I do but go with the flow?
Today I had a great long run again adding on an extra two KM just because I felt so good. Excluding my warmup and cool down, I averaged 5:32 min. kms again. L-Glut and an hour power nap and I was fine again with no stiffness in my calf muscles. This next week will be the last week of my endurance phase and overall it has been a good progression in my training.
However the rest of the week was great with good tempo runs and bikes and really decent brick workouts. The weather is still playing havoc with us and we had a late Spring snow dump so I ended up doing a few workouts inside on my spin bike and treadmill. Boy the weather sure is cold for this time of year. I am a bit leery of getting in the lake at our normal time which is the end of April this year as it has been very cold this winter and the water will be freezing.
By the weekend I was starting to feel the effects of my hard workouts but still managed to get a good 90K ride in with friends Bob and Julie. Except we seem to stop a bit too often for my own liking because of my friends needing to re-supply with liquids and pee breaks. Oh well what can I do but go with the flow?
Today I had a great long run again adding on an extra two KM just because I felt so good. Excluding my warmup and cool down, I averaged 5:32 min. kms again. L-Glut and an hour power nap and I was fine again with no stiffness in my calf muscles. This next week will be the last week of my endurance phase and overall it has been a good progression in my training.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Week 13 of Endurance Phase - Recovered!!
Well what a difference a week makes. One week I am totall zonked out and can hardly train and the next I am full of energy and giving it all I got! Such was the case with me in the last couple of weeks. This week was a great week except for the weather which kept me inside on a couple of workouts. After that fatigue I experienced last week, I approached my training cautiously to ensure I was completely recovered. But not to worry as everything was back on track again. The biking was a bit dicey as the roads were icy and the weather was not cooperating. I therefore did some of my bike workouts inside on my spin bike followed by a run on the treadmill when it was a brick. All good!
Originally my program was designed around a 15k race that I was suppose to do this last weekend so since I decided to skip this race, I kinda had to modify my training. a bit this week to compensate for this. I increased my running distance a bit as well as my biking. Not a problem as everything went well. Because of my fatigue the prior week to this last one, my coach had recommended that I take L-Glutamine 2 - 3 times a day to increase my muscle recovery time. This substance is one 62% of the total amino acids that the body produces on the average but is quite depleted when doing hard workouts. Since it is one that is naturally present in abundance there is no bad side affects from supplementing this with other vitamins and minerals.
As it turned out it had quite a marvelous effect and did in fact speed up my post workout recoverys as well as the unexpected result in that my bothersome shoulder pain seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. Bonus! This resulted in better swims this past week that were relatively pain free. I was even able to increase the power in my stroke with no lingering throbbing pain afterwards. This gluatamine supplement seemed to be good for me so far so I have decided to keep on taking it. As well I am supplementing my diet with Omega 3 capsules, extra vitamin D and other anti-oxidant to rid my body of those free radicals. I am also reading more into homeopathic medicine, natural healing and other health related articles. It sure can't hurt so why not try and improve my health any way I can.
As for my training this week, I couldn't of been more happier, and it was capped off by a great long run and as luck would have it found a $20 on the road in the process. What more could I ask for.......well maybe a $100 dollar bill would have been better but hey let's not be greedy! I'm am very happy, appreciative and content that I seem to be back on track again. Now.... on to my last week of endurance before I enter into the strength phase. Now the bike portion would really increase. But I am ready, willing and able so bring it on!
Originally my program was designed around a 15k race that I was suppose to do this last weekend so since I decided to skip this race, I kinda had to modify my training. a bit this week to compensate for this. I increased my running distance a bit as well as my biking. Not a problem as everything went well. Because of my fatigue the prior week to this last one, my coach had recommended that I take L-Glutamine 2 - 3 times a day to increase my muscle recovery time. This substance is one 62% of the total amino acids that the body produces on the average but is quite depleted when doing hard workouts. Since it is one that is naturally present in abundance there is no bad side affects from supplementing this with other vitamins and minerals.
As it turned out it had quite a marvelous effect and did in fact speed up my post workout recoverys as well as the unexpected result in that my bothersome shoulder pain seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. Bonus! This resulted in better swims this past week that were relatively pain free. I was even able to increase the power in my stroke with no lingering throbbing pain afterwards. This gluatamine supplement seemed to be good for me so far so I have decided to keep on taking it. As well I am supplementing my diet with Omega 3 capsules, extra vitamin D and other anti-oxidant to rid my body of those free radicals. I am also reading more into homeopathic medicine, natural healing and other health related articles. It sure can't hurt so why not try and improve my health any way I can.
As for my training this week, I couldn't of been more happier, and it was capped off by a great long run and as luck would have it found a $20 on the road in the process. What more could I ask for.......well maybe a $100 dollar bill would have been better but hey let's not be greedy! I'm am very happy, appreciative and content that I seem to be back on track again. Now.... on to my last week of endurance before I enter into the strength phase. Now the bike portion would really increase. But I am ready, willing and able so bring it on!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Week 12 of Endurance Phase - Blaahhhhhhh!
After the race last Sunday, I decided to give myself the normal complete day off. Thank God for that because when I got up that morning, I just felt drained. After a half marathon, one should give themselves at least a good week off but I could not afford that luxury in my training plan. Forge on I said to myself. I took it easy all day sleeping on and off and did a bit of stretching to ease the stiffness in my calves and hips. I slept long and hard that evening and when morning came along I wanted to keep on sleeping. But gradually my mind said "Get up you slug" Time to get going. Reluctantly I crawled out washed the cobwebs from my head but still did not want to go out. I put on my heart rate monitor and confirmed my feelings. I was almost 8 BPM more than normal. This was not going to be a good day I thought but was hopeful for feeling better once I got going. Eventually after a light breakfast, I donned my shoes, and went out for my tempo run. Did I say tempo? It was more like a slugo! I could just not get my legs turning over but I did my best and crawled back home with my tail behind my legs. So much for that workout! Maybe tomorrow it would be better. I showered and ate and slept again until it was time for me to go to work. The evening shift dragged on with my tiredness getting the best of me and I was glad to head for home.
I flopped into my bed as soon as I got home and slept till 8:00 the next morning. Again I took my heart rate and it was the same. Elevated but I was not feeling sick. Just drained of energy, and lacked the desire to go out again. However I knew that I would have to reduce the intensity of my bike ride that day. But I went out and slugged it out for an hour anyway. As the previous day there was just no zip in my cadence but made it up my long hill home again. The next day the same, except I decided to stay home and do a workout on my spin bike because I had no energy to take most of the strain on my legs running. It went no better than my previous days.
On Friday my heart rate was still elevated and I still was not sick but feeling very drained with no desire or motivation to get out there. But stubborn as I am I said to myself, OK just go out there and have an easy day, I went out for a 10k run, which wasn't exactly a run but a slow jog. As in all my runs this one ended going up my long hill and I was just shuffling. It was so bad that two girls were running ahead of me and one was pushing a baby buggy up the hill and I was not even gaining on them. I did manage to catch up to them and commented to them how amazing they were to run up the hill with pushing a baby buggy. They tried to return the complement about me being pretty good also for my age doing the same thing. I said thanks but inwardly I knew different. That's it! On Saturday I decided to give myself another complete day off any workouts. I volunteered for an extra shift at work to take my mind off things.
On Sunday, Bang! I woke up feeling completely refreshed, and wide awake. Gone was that tired feeling and felt completely re-energized. I took my heart rate again and WoW! It was right back down to normal. How could I feel so different from one day to another? But I was not going to complain. I got into my running outfit and took off for a proposed 18k long run. I did not know whether I could go this long after this terrible week, but sure was going to find out. I make sure I had a good breakfast and hydrated properly and took off. Slowly at first but mile by mile I felt good so increase my pace. By 3 km's I was in a good stride, drinking every 2k and at my turnaround at 9k, took a gel and continued on a fairly fa st pace. I was not petering out whatsoever and kept it up till I got home. I fed my stats from my Garmin watch into my computer and was amazed to see that I had averaged my run at a 5:30 pace with an ave. heart rate of 152-3 BPM. I was back to normal and felt ecstatic with my good run and how I was feeling. However I would have to be cautious on my next few workouts starting easy just to make sure that I could sustain max output when needed.
I have become attuned to my body over the years and can just tell when I am not feeling up to par. This past week, I am sure, was the result of chronic fatigue which was coming on just prior to my race (hence the not so great race) and through easy workouts, lots of sleep and taking a couple of days off, resulted in making an amazing recovery and a complete turnaround in about 6 days. It is truly amazing what the body can accomplish through careful monitoring of workouts, heart rate and now I am looking forward to a good week of training. On to Week 13, the second last week of Endurance. I don't know about being ready for the 15K race next weekend but if I miss it it will not be such a loss as the Ironman training is more important for me. I have a Sprint Tri in 5 weeks from now and that will have to be my main focus. Now if I can only get the shoulder problems alleviated, I would be in seventh heaven. For now I am just content that my Blah week is over! Whoo Hoooooo!......
I flopped into my bed as soon as I got home and slept till 8:00 the next morning. Again I took my heart rate and it was the same. Elevated but I was not feeling sick. Just drained of energy, and lacked the desire to go out again. However I knew that I would have to reduce the intensity of my bike ride that day. But I went out and slugged it out for an hour anyway. As the previous day there was just no zip in my cadence but made it up my long hill home again. The next day the same, except I decided to stay home and do a workout on my spin bike because I had no energy to take most of the strain on my legs running. It went no better than my previous days.
On Friday my heart rate was still elevated and I still was not sick but feeling very drained with no desire or motivation to get out there. But stubborn as I am I said to myself, OK just go out there and have an easy day, I went out for a 10k run, which wasn't exactly a run but a slow jog. As in all my runs this one ended going up my long hill and I was just shuffling. It was so bad that two girls were running ahead of me and one was pushing a baby buggy up the hill and I was not even gaining on them. I did manage to catch up to them and commented to them how amazing they were to run up the hill with pushing a baby buggy. They tried to return the complement about me being pretty good also for my age doing the same thing. I said thanks but inwardly I knew different. That's it! On Saturday I decided to give myself another complete day off any workouts. I volunteered for an extra shift at work to take my mind off things.
On Sunday, Bang! I woke up feeling completely refreshed, and wide awake. Gone was that tired feeling and felt completely re-energized. I took my heart rate again and WoW! It was right back down to normal. How could I feel so different from one day to another? But I was not going to complain. I got into my running outfit and took off for a proposed 18k long run. I did not know whether I could go this long after this terrible week, but sure was going to find out. I make sure I had a good breakfast and hydrated properly and took off. Slowly at first but mile by mile I felt good so increase my pace. By 3 km's I was in a good stride, drinking every 2k and at my turnaround at 9k, took a gel and continued on a fairly fa st pace. I was not petering out whatsoever and kept it up till I got home. I fed my stats from my Garmin watch into my computer and was amazed to see that I had averaged my run at a 5:30 pace with an ave. heart rate of 152-3 BPM. I was back to normal and felt ecstatic with my good run and how I was feeling. However I would have to be cautious on my next few workouts starting easy just to make sure that I could sustain max output when needed.
I have become attuned to my body over the years and can just tell when I am not feeling up to par. This past week, I am sure, was the result of chronic fatigue which was coming on just prior to my race (hence the not so great race) and through easy workouts, lots of sleep and taking a couple of days off, resulted in making an amazing recovery and a complete turnaround in about 6 days. It is truly amazing what the body can accomplish through careful monitoring of workouts, heart rate and now I am looking forward to a good week of training. On to Week 13, the second last week of Endurance. I don't know about being ready for the 15K race next weekend but if I miss it it will not be such a loss as the Ironman training is more important for me. I have a Sprint Tri in 5 weeks from now and that will have to be my main focus. Now if I can only get the shoulder problems alleviated, I would be in seventh heaven. For now I am just content that my Blah week is over! Whoo Hoooooo!......
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