Friday, December 26, 2008

The Pros and Cons of "Slow"

It's interesting that slow can be a good and a bad thing.

Wanting things to slow down...
Here I am at one moment complaining how crazy work is and has been for the last few months and that I can't wait for it to slow down. It seems like we've been going almost nonstop since October and there still isn't really an end in sight. I decided not to take any vacation days this week thinking that not only could I get caught up, but I could even get ahead. Everyone thought this was wishful thinking, but it's amazing how much y
ou get done with no one around bugging you every 5 minutes. I think I may have achieved my goal. January is likely going to be awful so the more I can knock out of the way now, the better I am. I was able to get overly organized on my project from hell and have pretty much documented everything I possible can. I am now almost at a point where I am pretty much waiting on other people for definitions, explanations, or directions and all of that has been sent off to the appropriate people (and cc'd to the other appropriate people so there's no "but I didn't get the email"). I'm almost ahead of the game.

Wanting things to speed up...
And then I switch gears to training and complain that I don't seem to be getting much faster. Or that I'm not getting faste
r at a fast enough rate. Sure, if I look at the numbers, they are generally getting smaller, but we're talking a few seconds here and there. It certainly doesn't feel any different. Yesterday I had a 10 mile run to do. I figured that this run would show me the improvements. I wasn't rushed into squeezing it in, so there wouldn't be any reason for cutting out a mile or 2. I slept in so I was well rested going into it (or at least supposed to be in theory). It was slightly warmer than it has been so I was less likely to hit my 1 hour freezing joint time limit. And there was the reward of being able to eat whatever I wanted to for the rest of the day. But it really wasn't all that different. I actually felt a little more tired going into it than my last few runs. I even felt a little rushed since I was technically supposed to be at my dad's house at a certain time even though I had already told them that this was unlikely. So it was a pretty slow start and I wasn't sure I'd be able to do my Z3 set without some real pushing. I had 3 miles in Z3, with a 2 minute walk break between each. This is actually one of the easiest Z3 sets there is and I was already dreading it. It is exactly 4 miles from my house to the main entrance to the Res and I usually just keep going onto the gravel for my longer runs - it's a little break from the pavement and there are a few rolling hills to keep me honest. But my first two miles were supposed to be out and back. This meant that the first would be going up the hill past the Res and the second would be going down the hill. This doesn't make for very even splits which is what I was aiming for. It also wasn't helping my motivation. At the last minute, I decided to pull into the Res and just run along the road there. A wise choice. The flatter course was much more motivating. There were some people ice-skating on the frozen Res, which seemed stupid, yet kind of fun. It's been so long since I've been ice-skating, which I used to do all the time. But it was a nice distraction as it was sort of a holiday theme and brought back nice memories. Suddenly I was ready to turn around and head home. And this always gets me. When I turn around, I am now facing the mountains and again, am just awestruck about where I live and how lucky I am to live here. This of course turns into how fortunately I am in general: to live in this beautiful place, to have supportive family and friends, to still have a job, to be able to run. I tried to enjoy the rest of the run as best I could. It didn't matter how slow I was, at least I was running. And you tend to see a little more when you run slow - this is what those fast runners miss out on. Sometimes it's good to be slow.

Sometimes slow can be a good thing. At it seems like right now
, this is what I need.



Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Finally, one Good (Cold) Day

With work and life all over the place, training has taken the back burner. I'm trying to get it in when I can, but I feel like I'm rearranging my schedule at least 5 times a day. And this %#!&* cold weather isn't helping! Come on, who can deal with -5? There's only so much running I can do on a treadmill (especially since all of my recent biking has been on the trainer) and I swim outside. I'm kind of limited.

Anyhow, in general, most of my twice a day workout days have been cut to once a day and my longer workouts have been cut to shorter. Everything seems to be suffering. I did make it through an 8 but supposed to be 9 mile run last week. It went okay until about 60 minutes in when my joints just had enough of the cold. An hour seems to be my limit in these low double-digit temperatures. And then the thawing out period is absolutely painful. My knees have never hurt more than when warming up after extreme cold. There always seem to be something wrong these days.

I woke up Saturday extremely un-excited about having to do a 35 mile ride/7 mile run brick. The ride had to be done on the trainer once again and it's really hard to stay motivated for over an hour with everything to distract you. But thanks to some dumb movies, I made it through 2 hours and 15 minutes. I was actually looking forward to the run at this point to just get out of the house. I quickly changed my mind when I got outside into the cold and the wind. It did force me to keep running though and I made it through all 7 miles. Finally, a workout in its entirety.

I also passed a man over by the Reservoir who was wearing shorts. Insane! It was 19 degrees factoring in the windchill when I left the house. He apparently is either crazy or doesn't have the same joint and warm-up pain that I have. I vote for crazy.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Anal? Perfectionist? Well, yeah...Triathlete.

Warning: I need to vent. This is just me ranting about work.

I'm on this absurd project for Merrill Lynch (sorry Kristina). It sucks. It's a HUGE site and a tiny timeline. The project plan is a nightmare. It's complete chaos. They had actually hired temp web developers for a while (they may still be there, but no one tells me much about the project). Oh yeah, and 90% of the project sits in another building, across the parking lot, a whole 2.5 minutes away. Everyone in this other building works off of a schedule posted on the wall. Yes, in this computer age, we have things written on the wall. This schedule changes at least weekly, but often several times a week and is only applicable for that week. It's the "this is what we're delivering this week" list. I can't see the wall unless I make a 5 minute roundtrip walk. But that's okay, because someone emails me the schedule for the week. HA! I wish. No, I'm going off of a schedule I was given over a month ago that I have since been told is essentially null and void. And here's the thing...for a lot of the stuff that the web is developing, they need data from me in order to finish everything. They can't completely code a page without my piece since they need to reference my code within theirs. This means that I should be done with thing before they start. So back to that schedule on the wall...what it really means is that everything listed are things that I would have needed to finish last week in order for the web to start working on them. But I'm not even give then schedule for this week, so how the hell am I supposed to know what I was supposed to have done last week?

That's Issue Number 1.

Issue Number 2. Project management. They have decided to create a ticket (essentially a work order) to track each module. There are often multiple pieces, and hence multiple people, working on a module. However, a ticket can only be assigned to one person at a time. It's a linear process. But we're not developing in a linear fashion - everyone is working on it at the same time and all are doing different things. So I'm supposed to update the ticket when I'm done with it even if someone else is assigned to it and potentially using it for something else. My comments end up getting lost in a huge mess of text. Really convenient for figuring out what's been completed or not. There's no way to filter on this. This means that I need to come up with another way to track my work because I know it's going to come back to me with people wanting to know if I'm done or not. And telling them to dig through a stack of tickets isn't going to cut it. The other problem I have with this approach is that if I run into an issue with my piece of the module, like mising data, where do I track this? Throw it into the ticket that's already assigned to someone else that really can't help me with my missing data and is therefore lost for all eternity within the bowels of a ticket? Just doesn't seem like a good idea. Who the hell is ever going to find this? An analogy: trying to find a word or phrase in a book without a Table of Contents or index. Good luck!

Because I need to be more organized than this, and as a CYA measure, I am tracking my work completely separately. I've given up on trying to convince people of the current method of madness. And of course what I've come up with tracks everything I could possibly track...what issues I have, who is looking into it, which tickets have been updated, and so on. I'm even tracking down to the specific data points that I have questions on. So at least I know where things stand. Actually, I was basically told that this is how they want to do it so I need to do it that way. Seems completely inefficient to me, but what can I do? So then I asked the web developers if they could let me know when I should promote my code to our testing environment. They asked if I could just constantly promote, like as soon as I was finished. I said that I would prefer some sort of confirmation from them that what I had given them worked and they were able to plug it in correctly. Sometimes we have different ideas about how things work and what I give them doesn't always work. I like to make sure my code works before it goes to anyone else. I test it to the extent that I can. When I pass it over to the developer, I also like to test this integration before sending it onto QA. What it really comes down to is that I take pride in my work and I like to do things right the first time. I'm thorough and I find that it saves a lot of time in the end. But they were basically asking me to throw away these work ethics and just go ahead a push it somewhat blindly. Their argument was that I would otherwise be getting hundreds of emails a day from developers asking me to promote my code. I really didn't have a choice and all I could say was that if I worked this way, I couldn't guarantee anything would work and that I would potentially break more things. I personally have a really hard time working this way. Again, I like being right the first time. I don't like being haphazard. I need to be organized.

Most of the people reading this blog are triathletes. You're probably all saying that there's nothing wrong with my way and that this is the way it should be done. That's because there's a certain personality and personality traits that many triathletes share. Being anal, being a perfectionist, being organized...Come one, we can tell you how many calories we need to injest per hour per activity. We measure out drink mixes for pre-workouts, workouts, and recovery. We are organized. We have schedules, routines. We have to plan in advance. And, and this is the big one, we remember every little thing that goes wrong and analyze it and over-analyze it and try and come up with some explanation as to why it happened and what we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. (This applies to good things as well, but we tend to not over-analyze them as much...). We do not like failure. We try and learn from our experiences. We are constantly striving to be better. I personally think that this is a commendable thing to want to achieve.

So it's really no surprise that I apply this to work as well. I probably apply this to most aspects of my life. Bu am I wrong for trying to do so? Am I wrong for trying to make things more efficient, to make things better?

I was at the bikeshop once and I was blabbing away to Tim (the owner). This was before my Ironman, and probably shortly after I got my new bike. Somehow I started talking about the movie Wordplay - a documentary about crossword puzzles and the people that do them (it's a good movie). I started to realize what I was saying and suddenly felt the need to follow it up with "sorry, I'm a bit of a dork". He looked at me and said that I was going to fit right into the Ironman world. I now understand.

So, to borrow from the old runner's saying...Triathletes. Yeah, we're different.

Monday, December 8, 2008

TGIS

4 mile run

Yes, thankfully it's a stabilizer week. A very much needed one. I took full advantage of it already by bagging my swim this evening. Aside from feeling a bit tired, it started snowing and got cold and the thought of jumping into a pool, well, let's just say that it was not such an appealing thought.

My run today was 3x400m hills. Yes, Monday seems to be Hill Day. I went out way too hard on the first one and was about to die after maybe 200m. The road was also covered in gravel from last week's snow, so it was already hard enough. I was not about to make the same mistake the next time around which meant there went my negative splits. I did end up doing the 3rd one the fastest, so at least I felt like I had somewhat redeemed myself. Last week I thought I was starting to like hills. I changed my mind today. Perhaps because I was a bit tired.

And it turns out that I made up for the swim by making applesauce. I think I used my arms more in this: peeling, chopping, and mashing, than I do in swimming. I was exhausted when I was through.

A Quick Week Recap

Monday: 5.5 mile run, 2000 m swim
Wednesday:
20ish mile ride (trainer)
Friday:
7 mile run (treadmill), 2000 m swim
Saturday:
40 mile ride (trainer)
Sunday: 2500m swim, 16 mile ride

The best day was probably Monday. I did some hill training and that went pretty well. I think I'm getting better on the hills and am actually starting to like them more. I prefer the longer distances - the 200 m uphill sprints still kill me. The rest of the week seemed to go downhill. I had a good ride on the trainer on Wednesday and decided it really comes down to what you're watching. The prior weekend I watched a not-so-great movie and the ride took forever. Wednesday I watched a completely dumb, but very captivating movie, and the time flew by.

I felt like crap most of the weekend. Saturday and Sunday didn't go all that well. I was supposed to ride 50, but was the closest I've come to throwing up on the bike. That was enough to make me stop. My legs have been quite tired the last few days - they were burning like made during the last few rides.

I think it's probably a combination of things. My house is on the market and had its first set of showings this week. It better sell quickly because I don't know how long I can last. It's not like I'm a messy person, but to keep things so excessively neat is just not possible. I'm trying to train myself to put everything away immediately, but then I hit that one night where I'm just exhausted and say "I'll do it tomorrow". And once you get lazy, it's like instant relapse into how you used to live. I've been getting up ridiculously early to vacuum and do dishes. The biggest problem is that you can't just shove things into the closet. So where do you put things like workout clothes which accumulate very quickly over the course of a week. I've started "storing" things in my car if I'm really struggling. The other thing is that I have to un-dogproof the house before a showing and then re-dogproof it later. There's a lot of inefficiencies in this process. Thank god for checklists.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Taking a Break for 27 Miles

Saturday: 27 mile ride
Sunday: 3.5 mile run, weights


I officially put my house on the market tomorrow, so much of this weekend has been spent getting ready for this. I had to get rid of Matt's canoe that has been sitting downstairs for who knows how many years. It's hard to envision a room's potential when there's a bright red 15 foot canoe in the middle of the room.

I got a storage unit and in went the canoe. And a bunch of my mom's stuff that I've had just lying around, unsure what to do with it. When someone dies, you want to keep their stuff around because makes you think that they're still around and distracts you from the fact that they're not. It's all of her weaving and spinning stuff, which does take up a lot of room. Let's face it, I'm not going to use it, so it's time to sell it. It's time to move on, so into the storage unit it all went.

We finally got to take a break for a ride around 2. It was still a little cool, but a beautiful day and so nice to be outside (and not dealing with the storage unit). Matt hasn't been out on his bike in a little while, but I told him he was free to go ahead anyhow. I reminded him how slow I am. And he was either really tired, really out of shape, or just being nice because he stayed with me for the duration of the ride. I had 3 x 3 miles in Z3. It went pretty well except for the 3rd one where I chose a slightly more uphill section. I did try and make sure it more rolling than last week and mostly succeeded. I certainly pushed myself harder than on my previous few rides. After 20 or so miles, my legs were feeling it. But I did manage to bring my speed up a little, which made me feel much better about both my legs and the ride in general.

I got home and did a half mile run around the block, took the dogs out, had dinner, and then headed off to the Garmin Slipstream team introduction party. And you know what I learned...there are some tiny cyclists out there. And pros at that. I was supposed to win the team-issued bike, but my raffle ticket was given away to some teenage girl on the junior team.

Much of the rest of the weekend was avoiding trying to get the house clean.
I had to drive Matt to the airport, which took up a good chunk of time. And I still wanted to take the dogs out - I feel like I have to take them somewhere during the weekend to make up for just walks during the week. We went over to the Res and they ran around in the sand and went crazy for a while. And then they were done. I then went over to the gym to meet Ralena and do our "weights". I can't really call it lifting since there is such minimal weight involved. I also got my run in on the treadmill - not what I really wanted to do, but it was already 6 and cold and dark outside. And then I forced myself to clean. Lots of vacuuming. With the amount of pet hair I vacuumed up, I could have generated at least another dog. But I'm almost there. I think.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Compliments

5 mile run
2500 meter swim


The day started out with an early 5 mile run. It was really hard to get out of bed. I didn't sleep all that well - one of the cats thought it would be a fun time to play with the humidifier. She likes watching the bubbles and then trying to attack them. I've contemplated putting plastic fish in the tank but then I figured she'd just play with it more. I digress. Anyhow, it was hard getting out of bed.

I finally got started and was moving pretty slow. I had 2 miles in Z3 that were starting to look like they might be a struggle. I was having trouble maintaining mid-Z2. I just kept slowing down. My knee was also starting to hurt in the front, but I think it was from the cold. I stopped to stretch and bit and that seemed to do the trick. It was time for Z3 and I'd just have to see how it went.

In the end, it wasn't too bad. It took me about half a mile to feel li
ke I holding a steady pace and could stop looking at my HR. Before long, I was at the turnaround and only had a mile to go. Just as I was finishing up the Z3 set, a very fit guy came running towards me at a very fit guy's pace. He was moving. And just as I was thinking how maybe one day I'd be that fast, he pointed at my hat and did a sort of hat's off/bow gesture to me. I was wearing my IM Florida finishers hat. It took me a minute to realize what had just happened and when it finally sunk in, I broke out into a smile. It totally made my day.




Tuesday, November 18, 2008

This Could be IT!

I think I may have finally found a house! I've been looking since around January. I've found one that I really loved but hated where it was located. I found another that I really liked but had a feature that I decided I couldn't live with (detached garage). And I've seen what feels like hundreds that had one issue or another. Let's just say that I'm a little on the picky side.

Anyhow, over lunch on Friday, I went out with my Realtor/friend (he has to be a friend to put up with me for so long). This place seemed to have real potential. It met all of my criteria. It wasn't perfect, but I've long since acknowledged that this house doesn't exist, at least in my price range. The "faults" were minor and definitely ones I could live with. I went back on Sunday and plan on going again with Matt this evening. I'm optimistic...this could be home.

Monday, November 17, 2008

More Hills

3 mile run
2000 meter swim


Another hill repeat day. Today was 3x400m. Since this was twice the distance as last week's hills, I had to find another hill. Last week's hill was just not long enough. I drove over to 75th and Jay - that's definitely a long hill and I should keep this in mind for the longer hill repeats. This was way more valid of a hill than some of the others I've been using.

I was expecting the run to be horrible. I felt so dead after the weekends activities. My arms were sore for most of yesterday after the swim. It hurt just to bend my wrists. And in general I had just felt exhausted. But I snapped out of it as soon as I got out of the car. It was so nice outside and it was great to get away from work for an hour. I warmed up for a bit and then hit the hill. I managed to negative split each interval for which I was very excited. And this is my first stabilizer week. It feels funny to say that being that it's week #3. I know the intervals weren't that long, but I was happy with the results. I'm starting to feel like I'm slowly making some progress and starting to get back to where I was a few months ago.

Carol was right. Wolfgang's class was definitely easier following Jane's torturous workout. Even the 100s on 1:45 seemed reasonable. Another successful workout. And tomorrow - REST!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Swimming in Circles

3800 meter swim
10 mile ride

Actually, it was more like swimming uphill. I went to Jane's class this morning. And yes, you can be sure I got there on time - early in fact. 90

BUT, I made it through the entire workout which is an accomplishment in itself since many people drop out. And another swimmate reminded me how easy Wolfgang's class will feel on Monday night.

I rode 10 miles on the trainer because it was getting pretty windy outside and I was running out of free time. I went to see my house again today and it ended up being sort of the in the middle of everything. I was supposed to do 15 and I chose to round down today.

I also lifted with my sister this evening. We've been pretty good about going - all of 3 times right now. But I figured if I dragged her into it, I'd have a much better chance of keeping it up. We'll see how long it lasts.
minutes is a long class this early in the season. She started us off with an easy warm-up of 8x100 on 1:40. Warm-up? HA! On a good day, 1:40 is still a decent effort. And it didn't really get much easier. As a result, I did lots of continuous sets and was just swimming in circles. My 100s because an 800.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

At least it's nice outside

43 mile ride

Well, somehow I did it. I was pretty sure that after last weekend's ride that 45 miles was going to be a stretch. A long stretch. I figured I'd just see how it went and do what I could. I dragged a friend along - thanks Deb. It's the only time I will ever be faster than her. She fractured her scapula a few weeks ago at a cross race, so the fact that she hung on as long as she did (over 30 miles) is impressive. She also hung in there for my 4 x 3 mile Z3 intervals.

It wasn't a fast ride by any means, and I struggled, but in the end got through it. And right now, that's more important than speed. It's only week 2.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Zone 400

5 mile run
1700 meter swim


I'm not sure which is worse - hill repeats or Z4. I don't think I'm quite ready for Z4 yet. I also don't think I'm quite ready for hill repeats. Today's torture was 6 200m hill repeats. I know that 200m doesn't sound very far, but let's just remember that I'm still at the point where 3 miles at an easy pace hurts. I headed off to the hill behind the ballfields and managed to map out 200m from bottom to top on the first interval. 200m feels pretty far to me. I'd make it about 3/4 of the way up the hill and then be about ready to die. And I let myself feel this way 6 times. I'm actually surprised I did all 6. And #6 was my second fastest. It's amazing how the thought of being done can be so motivating. The rest of the run was done at a snail's pace but I was not complaining.

I missed half of masters and was half wondering if Wolfgang would also kick me out of class for being late. Jane kicked me out of class on Sunday because I got there late and it was too crowded. But Wolfgang just looked at me with his look. Before he could comment on my timeliness, I said "at least I came". That seemed to satisfy him, at least until he started criticizing me for taking a break to rest (His theory is that because I'm late, I'm not tired and should therefore make all the intervals without taking an extra break. A lovely theory. Just not reality.) I barely held on for the part of class I did make. He was having us do 100s on 1:40 and that just isn't very realistic right now. I made 1 and then just did continuous hundreds. My legs were pretty dead from the run so it took everything I had to hang on. It's probably a good thing I got there late.

But so far, Week 2 already seems to be going better.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Getting Hit by a Brick

brick: 28 mile ride, 2 mile run

The scheduled workout was a 25 mile ride and a 4 mile run. I didn't think it would be that bad. It didn't seem like it would be that bad. Of course, I hadn't done much during the week.

I got started around 12:30, probably about when the wind started. It had been really nice and sunny that morning. It was no longer nice and sunny. I was cold throughout most of the ride. I always forget the booties...The wind held me at bay for a good portion of the ride. Had it not been for my Z3 segment, I may have averaged 10mph. Yes, I was that slow. I had 11 miles in Z3 that seemed to take forever. I finally finished that only to return to my 10mph pace. The ride ended up a little long. I didn't believe the Road Closed sign on 63rd. One of the signs made it seem like the road was only closed during the week, which is how they did it over the summer if I remember correctly, back when I was avoiding 63rd. But the sign was correct. The road was closed and I wasn't about to go off roading on my tri bike. So, turn around I did and hence the extra miles. Normally I don't mind a few extra miles, but today was not one of those days. 25 miles had already seemed long enough. If I hadn't been so cold, it would have been frustrating. I was just so slow. But I was too exhausted when I got home to care. Well, I cared enough to tell Matt that I didn't want to talk about it when he asked how my ride went.

I thought maybe I'd feel better during the run. I figured maybe I was more cold than tired and that I'd wake up with some Z3. Not quite. My feet were numb and I was really just plodding along trying to get some feeling in them. I was still cold and not getting any warmer. I turned around after a mile and headed home, deciding to call it a day. I figured with the extra miles on the bike I was still breaking even relatively speaking.

Getting back into shape sucks!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Week 1, Day 1...Square 0

3 mile run
17 mile bike

Slow. That's the word of the day. I haven't done much for the last month and a half. I definitely enjoyed my time off, but started feeling like a slug a few weeks ago. Work has also gotten crazy busy and I've started to miss taking a break at lunch to go for a run. It was time to start again. I started swimming about 3 weeks ago and tried running last week. Since Harvest Moon, I've swam 6 times, ran 4, and biked once. Totally out of shape.

I'm glad I did a few workouts before Week 1. I was starting to feel like I needed to get in shape before I really get in shape. And this way, there are no surprises with how slow I am. My runs have been 3-4 miles and the first few hurt. I've gotten a few seconds slower each run. Totally out of shape.

But, as Craig says, now I'm ready to start up again. And I am. Week 1, Day 1 was easy. Everything in Z2, though Z2 feels a little hard these days. I'm not focused on time right now and just trying to monitor heart rate and try to figure out how much I need to readjust my zones. So nothing too exciting with the run or the ride. It was my first ride on the Computrainer and so far, so good. Though it's definitely not as fun as power max. There's something about 7 other people dying along with you that makes you hold out for just a little longer. I'm going to have to get some good movies this winter. But tonight was a short ride and TV was enough to get me through it.

Complete aside: Tomorrow is a rest day. I know, I haven't done anything yet and I'm already getting a rest day. But there will be no resting. Tomorrow is The Day. November 4. The day we've been waiting ALL year for. History in the making. And as nervous as I am, I am optimistic that Obama will pull through to victory.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Starting Again

It's time to start training again. I met with Craig a few weeks ago to discuss goals for this coming season and a review of this season. My thoughts on the season haven't changed much, so I won't go through that again. I had a harder time setting goals that I thought I would. CDA is obviously the big race of the season, but I'm not sure what my goal is having already done one. Sure, I want to be faster and since it's a hilly course and hills are not my strength, this is definitely a challenge in itself. Craig brought up Hawaii and I said, "Sure, that's always out there." And so it was put out on the table. But this is sort of one of those secret goals that I have, the ones that come after the real goal. And this in itself is kind of silly because usually both of them are revealed. For Florida, my "real" goal was to finish and to finish strong. I did not want to be crawling across the finish. My not so "secret" goal was to finish under 12 hours because no matter what people say, you have a time set in your mind. But this always came after my "real" goal.

Throughout my training, I proved repeatedly to myself that 12 hours was possible. I had many moments of doubting it though, and had to revert back to the Just Wanting to Finish Goal. It probably wasn't until a few weeks before the race that I let myself tell myself that I was ready. Of course, saying this outloud was sometimes enough to make me panic and doubt and revert back to the "real" goal. But then it finally stuck. I remember telling Petra the day before the race that we were ready and that unless something went horribly wrong, there was absolutely no reason that we would not finish before the cutoff. 12 hours was entirely possible. And I absolutely believed it at this point.


My problem is that I don't want to set unrealistic goals. At one point during training, things were going really really well and I was on track for a 4 hour marathon. At this point and after reviewing the prior year's results, Hawaii popped into my head. Maybe, just maybe. It didn't turn into a goal, it was more of a wouldn't this be a pleasant surprise if it happened. Matt didn't think I should think about it because it might get my hopes up. My argument was that it was better for me to have a positive thought in my head of maybe I can do this than to have a negative thought of I can't do this. Positive thinking is always better. I looked at it as getting my spirits up which helped in training.

This year is different. Hawaii still seems like a long shot. Last year's winning time for my new age group was 10:34. There were 5 spots given to my age group, with the slowest time being 10:42. That's a big time difference. I know it's so variable, but that's still a big time difference. So, we decided on 11 hrs, where the extra hour came from shaving 30 minutes off the bike and 30 minutes off of the run. However, then I consider my goal for the season: 30 minutes total off of my half-Ironman. And this didn't happen. In trying to be positive, and reminding myself of the conditions I faced during this year's halves, I have attempted to make this seem reasonable. 30 minutes off of a half, an hour off a full. The math adds up. My full time was pretty much twice my half times. Convinced?

The big thing is going to be the bike. Once again. The plan: 1. We are going to really work on hills. 2. Power max class. We both agree that this really helped me last year. 3. Computrainer training outside of power max classes. My new indoor trainer will become my friend. As for the other two, I don't think I'm going to shave a lot of time off of my swim - I'm going for 2 minutes. I am more than happy with my swim and it's not like I'm really going to gain a lot of time. I will have to work on the run, but also hope that I don't have any weird injuries this year that prevent me from getting in the longer miles. I personally believe I need more interval workouts - more hard interval workouts. I remember early on this season (before I really started racing) how hard my workouts were. I remember thinking they were way harder than IM training. But they paid off, so I want a few more here and there. And then there's transition. I can easily bring down my 10+ minutes of total transition time.

But first, I must start training...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Big One

Kona. The Ironman of all Ironmans. It's here.

Good luck to my coach Craig, who is absolutely crazy for racing this with broken ribs and broken teeth after surviving a car crash less than 2 weeks ago. You are a superstar!

Good luck to Uli on her first Ironman. Have a great race.

And good luck to the few other people I swim with that have made the trek.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Reflections on a Season

The long awaited day is here. The end of the season. I'm so ready for a break.

I've sort of been reflecting on this season all season. But now that I've had a few days of doing absolutely nothing, I feel like it's now appropriate for me to tie it all together and put everything into perspective.

The plan is to take at least 2 weeks off, but I'm sure I'll start getting antsy after a week. I'm not going to jump right in - I need to take some time off to get my hamstring completely back to normal. It's been doing so much better over the last month, but I was to be absolutely sure that it's healed. I plan on swimming and yoga for the next few weeks and then I'll start thinking about hopping back on the bike and heading out for a run. I finally broke down and got a Computrainer (with the CDA course no less) and am looking forward to training with it. I think it will be really beneficial.

So, my thoughts on this season...I don't think it was a great season. I never felt like I completely settle into things. I never felt like I was making progress. I also felt so unsure and unprepared. I felt tired a lot. I felt like I was all over the place. The whole plan of build, build, drop back down, build, build, drop back down never really happened. I didn't feel like I was pushing myself very hard - I didn't feel like my workouts were geared towards pushing me too hard. I don't want to go so far as to say that it sucked, but I was not happy with it. It felt harder to train this year than it did last year for an Ironman. I know I've complained many times about blaming it on the race schedule that I chose. I had 3 races in 6 weeks, followed by another set of 3 that were 3 weeks apart. It seems like most of my season, at least a third of it, was tapering. This drastic change in tempo really threw me off, and I believe this is why I just never felt ready. The pattern of go hard followed by do practically nothing did not have a good rhythm into which I could settle. It was not the same feeling of going hard, going hard, and then followed by a stabilizer week. Tapering is very different from stabilizers.

I didn't reach my goal of bringing down my half-IM time by 30 minutes. In fact, I didn't bring it down at all. In fact, I had my slowest two half-IMs of the 5 or 6 that I've done. Even my full IM time divided by 2 was faster than both of these this season. I don't want to use excuses, though I was sick for the one race. I suppose that's a somewhat legitimate excuse, but who knows.

I know I should be happy with my other results and I am for the most part. My shorter races in general were much faster than previous equivalent races. There definitely was improvement and most of it was pretty early in the season. My bike times over the shorter distances have definitely improved. And my bike time at Vineman was slightly faster then my 5430 time from last year despite being sick. And being that getting faster on the bike was another goal for the season, I guess I can say that I was mostly successful with this. It didn't show in my half, but it was definetly evident in other races. I broke 19 mph in several races. That is an accomplishment. It's just the my big goal was my half-IM and there was nothing even close about reaching that one.

Well, at least I know that I shouldn't do that kind of schedule again. At least I can take that away from the season. Other things to which I am thankful...I never got injured. The hamstring thing was definitely a nag, but nothing that caused extreme pain and something that I could still definitely run through. It was just a reminder that I need to do more stretching and to continue to be aware of how things feel. I am also really happy that Matt chose to tri this season, or most of it, with me. I'm not sure he'll do it again next year, but it was nice to have someone to "train" with (we could at least leave the house at the same time) and to commisserate with, as well as to celebrate with. I still have a few months to try and convince him that he really wants to stick with it.

And now it's time to start thinking about next year. Coeur d'Alene, here I come!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Harvest Moon Long Course

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

I agree with Mike that this should be called Hardest Moon. It wasn't just the course - it was hard in so many ways. I was so ready to be done a month ago. It's hard to drag yourself out of bed at 4:30 for a race you're not thrilled about. It's also hard to drag yourself out of be at 4:30 when it's 47 degrees and raining. Everything about waking up that morning screamed "Go back to bed!" Driving over to Kansas (well, it's practically Kansas) with the both the rain and temperature coming down, Matt said at one point "If it's 47 and raining when we get there, you're not racing". You know what? I didn't argue. I was more than fine with that. So it was almost unfortunate when the rain stopped. Of course, then the wind started. As you can see, I really didn't want to get out of the car.My second mistake of the day (the first being getting out of bed), was to hit up the port-a-potty before the lines started forming. I will reiterate that I got there before the lines started. Meaning that I didn't have to wait. Meaning that not a lot of people had been using them. So how it was to be that this was the most repulsive smelling portable toilet I've ever been in is beyond me. I actually gagged. Twice. Even thinking about it now brings back memories I am trying to suppress. Anyhow, there went my chance at eating anything before the race. I usually have to force something down as it is, but there was no way I was going to get anything to go down other than water.

Shivering and with teeth chattering, I went to set up shop. No one around me was putting out extra clothes and here I was practically with a suitcase of extra clothes: arm warmers, knee warmers, heavy long sleeve shirt, jacket, and gloves. Was no one else cold? Then the guy with the single speed shows up and racks across from me. Matt wondered if he was out of his mind. I told him that I bet he'd pass me on the bike. I put on my wetsuit and sweatshirt and headed down to the beach.

We stood behind a shed to block the wind. I couldn't get warm. The wind had picked up and I didn't think I could actually leave the cover of the shed. They announced that the water temperature was 61 in the cove and likely several degrees colder farther out. I really did not want to do this race. Matt told me to just try the swim and then decide. I knew he was right. I finally went to go check out the water. It actually wasn't bad. After all, it was warmer in the water than it was outside. I think that because I was already so cold and numb, I couldn't really feel how cold the water was.

I found a spot on the other side of the rope, but I was way off to the side of the other pink caps. I was amidst the blue caps, but just assumed that they were also starting. Someone said GO! and none of the blue caps went anywhere. I guess I was on my own. Because of where I started relative to everyone else, I somehow ended up in the lead. I could see the whole pink pack each time I went to breathe and just couldn't figure out how I was so far ahead. According to Matt, it was pretty funny to watch since I was all alone out front for a little while. I settled in behind another pink capper and decided to draft off of her. She probably wasn't the most ideal person to draft off of as she was relatively my speed, but she was right there, so I tried it. The water was relatively clear and she was a kicker, so she was pretty easy to follow. I lost her going by the last few buoys as we started to catch up to the previous wave, so I swam the last little bit alone.

I got out and it was cold. I spent several minutes struggling into various pieces of clothing. I figured putting on a long sleeve shirt would be easier than wrestling with arm warmers. I was wrong. I also couldn't really feel my hands, so speed wasn't really my concern. I went with the long sleeve and long knee warmers. I did forget my gloves. I threw my towel down when I grabbed my shirt and the towel fell over the gloves and I immediately forgot all about them. It didn't help that I couldn't feel my hands as a reminder. I was instantly reminded when I got on the bike. It was *&%&!-ing cold. I tried to pull my sleeves over my hands, but it didn't work so well and made shifting difficult. After a few miles, I seriously contemplated turning around. My hands just hurt and didn't seem to be getting any warmer. But then my friend Steve rode up beside me and I cheated by accepting outside support. He asked how I was doing and I started ranting about the cold and forgetting my gloves. He offered me his and I gladly took them. Thank you Steve! I'm not sure that I would have been able to finish without them - I kept them on until the last 5 or so miles. The ride was pretty miserable. I'm so glad I had ridden in two weeks before so I felt a little better prepared. Of course, when I last rode it, it was probably at least 95 degrees and now I was at the opposite end of the spectrum. My feet were numb and my legs were pretty cold throughout the ride. The last set of rollers were the worst. I couldn't really stand because my quads were so cold and ready to give way. I couldn't really push down or pull up on the pedals due to other numbness in my legs. And so I pretty much crawled up the hills. It's usually at this point that I start to look forward to the run and something different and finally getting off the bike. I was not looking forward to the run. I had no idea how my legs were going to handle it. I would soon find out.

Oh, and with maybe 500 feet to go before the dismount line, Mr. Single Speed passed me. I laughed.

T2 was not much better than T1. I put my shoes on my numb feet and then realized that I hadn't take my knee warmers off. I also wasn't doing very well at balancing on one foot, so there was a bit of flailing going on. And I almost forgot to take off my helmet. But then I was off. The first section of the run was on very rutted gravel and goes downhill. It just didn't seem like a good idea to be running on such a course when I still couldn't feel my legs. I shuffled for the first mile because I was afraid to lift my foot on the ground and not be able to feel it when it hit back down again. Around mile 4 I was finally back to full feeling. It was also around this time that the hunger started to settle in. Remember no breakfast? It was catching up with me. Despite following my normal routine on the bike, I never really caught up. I really started struggling just before mile 10 and my blood sugar started to drop. I went for the Coke at the next aid stop knowing that the sugar would kick in immediately. My Hammer gels were not quick in responding. That seemed to help and I stuck with it for the duration. My injured hamstring felt great throughout, but the other hamstring started to tighten up and forced me to walk for a bit. But I was okay with it - I knew I wasn't breaking any records. I was determined to finish strong and stick with my resolution from Vineman of making the last mile count. Thanks to the Coke, I was able to do it. I hardly ever drink soda, but I crossed the line actually craving it. And because of the BBQ lunch, soda was about all that I was able to get.

We didn't stick around for very long - it was still pretty chilly although the sun finally came out. It certainly wasn't my finest race. It was hard and conditions made it worse, so getting through it was a feat in itself. And though it wasn't fun, I'm glad I did it. It probably would have been worse had I skipped it. When I rode the course a few weeks ago and realized how hard it was going to be, I was sort of determined to do it and be able to use it as my baseline for starting CDA training. Since CDA is going to be hilly, I wanted to have a race with a hilly course so that I know how it feels and so that I have a better understanding of how hard I'll need to work so that CDA is a completely different experience. When you're at the bottom, there's nowhere to go but up.

swim: 32:53
bike: 3:20:51
run: 2:16

total: 6:15:27

age: 12/24
women: 40/110
overall: 207/329

More photes...


Sunday, September 14, 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

Democratic National Convention - Final Night

Enjoy the photos! One of these days I'll get around to summing it up. It was awesome!


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Change is Coming

3.5 mile run

Okay, if you haven't figured it out, this isn't really about the run. The quick recap: it was a very easy Z2 run. Nothing of interest happened. Nothing profound ran through my head. I'm not even going to try and make things up.

I'm sitting at home on the couch (where I hardly spend any time) watching the DNC and getting excited. For the change that is coming. For the change that seems inevitable. With all the energy put into the primaries, towards the end, it seemed like everyone was just getting sick of it dragging on. There was fear that this energy was gone and that we used it all up in the primaries. But it's starting to seem like that energy is picking back up again.

It actually started for me on Sunday morning at the start of the race. There was an announcement that the mayor of DC had joined us that day. It was funny because I had seem him earlier in transition and he seemed so familiar. His parents own the Fleet Feet store in DC and I lived around the corner. It was definitely my running store, and then grew into my triathlon store as well. He wasn't the mayor when I lived in DC, but I've still found him to be inspiring. DC needs a mayor like this and it was a honor to be in a race with him. And Matt was luck enough to finish with him. I later went to a private event at Red Rocks on Sunday that was primarily for the sponsors. But there were a handful of delegates that had already arrived and there was definitely excitement in the air.

Of course, maybe it's because I'm here in Colorado where everything is taking place. Or maybe it's because I need to believe that this can happen. This is history in the making and we need to do everything we can to make this happen. November 4 is right around the corner. How many lives have been lost in the last 5 years? How much money have we thrown away (or borrowed from China) to pay for this unjust war? How many national problem have we ignored? How much money do the experts say it will take to pay for universal healthcare? How much for fixing education? And how much do we spend monthly on this war? Change is absolutely needed. I'm watching Biden accept the nomination right now. I'll be there tomorrow at Invesco when Obama accepts his nomination. The
Obama/Biden team is here and are forging the way. We need to join in. We can do this. Yes we can.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Little Engine That Could

6 mile run, 22 mile ride

I'm trying to get back in the game. It's only for another few weeks. But it's really hard to stay motivated. I'm tired. I want to be lazy. But I can hang in there for another few weeks.

I ran at lunch today and was still a bit tired from Sunday. My main set was 8x100 striders, 2 miles of Z4 with 4:00 recovery walk, and finally .5 miles Z4 with 2:00 recovery walk. It seemed pretty warm and definitely humid. What's up with this humidity? I thought I left all of that behind. Anyhow, I took it pretty easy on the striders and probably got up to high Z3. It's just too short of a distance for me to really get my HR up there. The hardest part of the striders was keeping track of how many I had done. I think I did 8...

I think because I was feeling so tired, I didn't overthink the Z4 set. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it, but I wasn't dreading it either. I started at a good pace and didn't go out to hard. In fact, throughout the first half mile or so, my HR was frequently dropping back into Z3. Towards the end my HR was getting a little high and I had no problem slowing it down. I wasn't going for time. It was hot and I was tired, so I was just going to stick to the plan. I finished the 2 miles and enjoyed my 4 min recovery walk. The problem was that it was really hard to get started again. My legs felt like they were done and it was quite a struggle to get everything going again. But I made it through and finished the workout. Success. And I was quite surprised with my times - 7:50 pace for the 2 mile bit and just under 7 for the half mile. Not sure where that came from.

I got home with the plan of riding. Matt had said he would ride with me so it didn't seem like it would be that hard. But I got home and we took the dogs for a quick walk and neither of us really wanted to go. We started talking about how nice it would be to have a Computrainer right now. The thought of leaving the house just seemed ridiculously hard. And Matt wasn't making it any easier. Despite wanting to, I couldn't give in. We got dressed and headed outside. Once we got started it wasn't nearly that bad. Getting started is always the hardest part. We did a quick out and back on 36 to get in some rollers. I was supposed to do a steep hill, but skipped it since my hamstring was pretty sore after the run. I figured the rollers would let me still get in a decent workout and wouldn't aggravate my hamstring too much. I ended up doing about 30 minutes in Z3/Z4 and tried to just spin my way through the rest. In the end, I was glad I got on the bike, but it was an even better feeling to get home.

Only a few more weeks. I can hang in there.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Steamboat Race Report

3/4 mile swim, 20 mile bike, 4 mile run

Matt and I headed up to Steamboat early Friday afternoon. We took the scenic route through Estes just because we could. I haven't been through the park in probably at least 15 years. It was really beautiful, although it's horrifying to see the destruction by the pine beetles. We rolled into Steamboat just before 6 and got settled into our condo and spent the evening watching the Olympics.

We slept in on Saturday (no dogs to wake us up early) and eventually made our way to packet pick-up and the pre-race meeting. Matt forgot his goggles, so we made a quick stop at Sports Authority and then drove the bike course (and here he was making fun of me about how much stuff I brought. I had 2 pair of goggles, but they were too small for him). We then decided to go for a short ride to stretch out our legs. We rode along the back part of the course since it was so close to where we were staying and we figured it would be better to ride the rollers rather than the flat stretch because what exactly would that give us. The road was a little rough with the recent chip seal, but nothing too uncomfortable other than a slight tickle along my forearms from the vibration. The rollers weren't so bad. And then we turned around and hit the wind. Let me rephrase that. And then we turned around and I hit the wind. Matt just kept on going. I battled the wind for a few miles wishing with all my might that it would not be windy on Sunday. But I can say that at least I'm getting a little better in the wind. We headed back to the condo to meet up with Mike who was going to stay with us that night. He and Matt went for a quick run and we headed over to Safeway to buy some stuff for dinner. After a yummy dinner of pasta, bread, salad, ground beef for the boys, and meatless balls for me, we settled in to watch the mens marathon. I also had a glass of wine, which I never do before a race. I also had about 20 gallons of water to counteract any affects, but it still straying quite a bit from my pre-race routine. It was a symbol that this race was supposed to be fun and no pressure. It was also an attempt to get me out of my current mindset of being done for the season - maybe if I enjoyed this race, I'd be more excited going into Harvest Moon.

I slept pretty well, especially for a night before a race. I woke up and walked out into the living room where Matt was out on the balcony laughing. According to him, what we were hearing was rain and gale force winds. I think we were all kind of thinking "Hmmm, maybe we should just go back to bed". Or maybe it was just me. The skies started to clear and the winds dropped to just below gale force. It looked like it was all passing over when we headed over to the lake. However, hanging around for the start, it seemed like it was getting worse. The wind was picking up and the temperatures were dropping a bit and the cloud cover came back. So much for no wind on the bike. The thought of just going back to car and sleeping was a very tempting thought.

But before long, the race was underway and inched my way into the icy waters reminding myself that this was the fun race. And we were off. The water was pretty frigid at first, but it wasn't as bad as Show Low and I got used to it pretty quickly. I started out in front and stayed in front. Unlike my last few races where I just couldn't get close enough to the front and had to fight my way out of the pack, things were nice and smooth from the start. I did swim into a few floaties, but I was expecting these. I wasn't expecting the mud pits at the end and sinking to my knees trying to get out of the water. I had a sudden image of Uncle Remus' tar baby - I wanted to put my hands down but then thought they'd get sucked into the mud and I'd end up on my face. Let's just say that it was not a quick exiting of the water.

I ran into transition and found my bike. I was still a little chilled so I decided to go with the arm warmers. And yes, I had also brought leg warmers and knee warmers. I decided to leave my gloves back in the car thinking that that might be overdoing it. I probably wasted about a minute getting the stupid arm warmers on my wet arms. It's kind of like getting into a wetsuit - there's always a struggle of sorts. The woman racked next to me came running up as I was fighting my clothing. Her boyfriend was right off to the side yelling that #1 was about 2 minutes ahead. She swore and then took off to catch her. Wow, I was pretty close to the front of the pack. Not like I had a chance of catching anyone on the bike, but it's still a nice mental thought to get stuck in your head right before your favorite leg.

I headed off on the bike and quickly found what I'm assuming was about a high Z3 pace. It was a little hard to tell with the altitude. I wouldn't say that I noticed it directly, but I did notice the effects of it with it just taking a little longer to catch my breath. I hit the railroad tracks and one of my water bottles went flying. I think I've lost about half of my bottles this year from railroad tracks. I kept going, ready to attack the rollers. Well, I didn't quite attack them - I was having some issues with other riders not riding to the right and trying to get around them without crashing into the cyclists on their way back to transition. I got to the turnaround and then WHAM! The Wind. Negative thoughts started leaping around and I tried to fight them out. Suddenly an old man (70? 90? old) came from nowhere. He had been riding on the bike path along the course and the bike path crosses the course by the turnaround. He was looking to his right at all of the cyclists coming towards him. He started pedaling across the street. I don't know how he couldn't know, but he seemed completely unaware that there were also cyclists coming from his left as well. He starts crossing the street directly in my path. I started to scream "Hey! Hey! Watch Out! Watch Out!" and started to slam on my brakes. He finally looked over at me with a confused look of "huh?". I slowed and swerved around him as did another guy. As the guy passed me he said "that was dangerous". You think? Well, there's nothing like adrenaline to get you going. Except for the fact that yelling had been exhausting and took quite a bit out of me. I was already breathing hard, but the yelling had been like doing some Z5 intervals. I was now completely out of breath. And dealing with the wind. The next few miles over the rollers were tough. I was fighting the wind and just couldn't settle into a comfortable pace. Finally something clicked and the moment had passed. I was on a hill and decided that the person I was behind was just not going quite fast enough. I made the pass and was back in the game. The rest of the rollers went much better, despite the wind. The home stretch was flat and should have been uneventful. But that would be too easy, right? I was getting close to the left hand turn back into the park. A car got into the left hand lane to turn as well. I assumed they were spectators and they had left plenty of room in the lane. The cop waved them through the turn since they weren't cutting anyone off. I was pretty much along side of the car as they started to make their turn. Their turn was really wide, thus making my turn really wide. They started to slow down and were practically blocking the right hand side of the road. There were a bunch of spectators on the corner. They started to yell. The car slowed more. I now had no way to get around them. I started to yell "Move! Get out of the way!" as did the spectators. The car slowed more. I was just about to reach out and pound on the window (yes, I was think close to the car and had maybe a foot of road between them and the side of the road) when they finally veered left and took off. I had been screaming quite a bit more than I had at the old man and was once again completely depleted of oxygen. And of course, I was now heading uphill. I struggled for a bit thinking that this was going to be a long ride back into transition. But I got to the final hill and something clicked again and I powered up the hill back into the parking lot.

I threw on my shoes and grabbed my hat as was off for the run. The leading wave was just starting to finish as I left for the run, so I realized that I was still pretty close to the front. The first half is relatively downhill and I figured it would be super easy. But it was also into the wind and it took me about a mile to fully catch my breath and get into a comfortable rhythm. That first mile I was definitely thinking that I would not be able to keep this up. I was also trying to conserve something for the second half since it would be uphill. Once I finally got comfortable, I was able to enjoy things again and admire the scenery. Suddenly I was at the turnaround and heading for home. The second half of the run felt so much better. I wished I had pushed a little harder. I was expecting the hill to suck, but I hardly noticed there was a hill. By the time I figure out that I still had quite a bit left, there was only about a half mile remaining. I went into high gear and charged over the hill to the finish line. I saw the clock at just under 2 hours. I was hoping to break 2, and I had about 45 seconds to get myself over the line. This turned out not to be a problem - they must have started my wave a little late. Final time: 1:58:49.

swim: 19:36
t1: 2:46 (stupid arm warmers)
bike: 1:02:42
t2: 1:12
run: 32:35

age group: 6/54
women: 23/243
overall: 111

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Long Training Days

Tuesday: 42 mile ride
Wednesday: 10 mile run


I asked not to taper this week before Steamboat this coming weekend since it seems to be throwing me off. So instead I get distance and intensity throw at me. Just like I asked for.

I was supposed to do 50 yesterday, but that's nearly impossible to get in after a full day of work this time of the year. There's just not enough daylight left. I tried to leave work early, but still didn't get out until about 25 minutes after I had planned. My main set was 11.5 miles Z3, recover, 7 miles Z3, recover, 4 miles Z3. I had written down the distances on my hand. I know, I know. I usually will write it on a small piece of paper and tape it to my stem, but that takes too much time and time is a precious commodity these days. I know, I know. I should have done it the night before. But I didn't. Anyhow, once I got started, I immediately couldn't remember if I was supposed to do Z3 or Z4. It turned out that I really didn't need the distances written on my hand as I immediately committed them to memory. I instead should have written the intensity. I was wavering between the following: it's probably Z3 because I have Steamboat this weekend and Z4 seems like it's maybe too much right before a race OR Z4 sort of makes more sense because he usually breaks up the Z4 sets into smaller blocks and the Z3 sets are more like do 23 miles. So I compromised and did high Z3/low Z4. It was close enough.

In addition to going harder than I was supposed to, I also chose a slightly more challenging course for myself which included 2 times on the Rollers of 63rd, the hill heading east on Nelson between 63rd and 36, and the gradual climb heading east on St Vrain between 75th and 65th. It was a bit more climbing than I usually do. But I guess I knew I wasn't going to get 50 miles in, so I might as well make what I could do count. I tried to plan it so that each interval would have a good combination of up and down, but ended up completely miscalculating on the second one. This one pretty much seemed to be all uphill. I averaged somewhere in the 16s for this uphill interval, which I'm happy with - I'm usually in the single digits climbing. Overall I was able to average low 17s, which I rarely am able to do during a training ride. Go me!

I was very hesitant setting my alarm for 4:30 this morning. I was going to attempt a 12 mile run just a mere hours after my hilly ride. I figured it would be interesting. But it wasn't. I woke up at 4:30 with a killer headache that's been bothering me on and off over the past few days. It was the sort of headache that was not going to help with the run. I quickly figured out if I could rearrange my day and move the run to the evening. I didn't really have a choice though because there was no way I was going to get anything resembling a good run with a pounding head. I went back to sleep and woke up 2 hours later feeling quite a bit better. But it was going to be a struggle to get the run in. I'm having people over tomorrow so the plan was to clean tonight and by clean I mean vacuum the endless amounts of dog hair that just instantly reappears. It's like spontaneous generation. I don't know why, but it takes me an hour to vacuum just the upstairs (which is where we spend most of our time). I have a system too, there's just a lot of hair. Anyhow, I decided it would be a late-ish night and I would vacuum after the run. As if running 10 miles at the end of a long day isn't bad enough, but to add vacuuming on top of this...could I have a more fun evening? This is why I need a personal assistant. Or I guess a maid would work as well. I heard recently on one of the NPR game shows about a survey where they asked women if they could have 2 service-type people available to them, what would they pick. A large majority said a handy-man and a maid. They asked the same of men and surprisingly they answered the same.

Back to the run. I was supposed to do 12 miles, with 6 in Z3. And yes, it was supposed to be Z3 this time. It started off fine but when I went to start the Z3 segment, I found that I was still in Z2. Hmm, tried again. Nothing. Then some cramps started popping up. I wasn't sure if I just hadn't timed my afternoon snack right (I did feel rather full, but I've been starving the last 2 weeks or so) or if it was hydration. I decided to stick with Z2. There was just no forcing the Z3. I turned around after 5 miles since vacuuming was looming in the back of my mind. I'm not sure that I would have been able to do 12 - I was pretty dead after 10. 10 would have to suffice. And considering the problems I was having, it turned out to not be a bad run for Z2. Certainly not my finest run by any means. But for an evening run, it certainly wasn't my worst run either.

I got home and guess what I did? I vacuumed. Wow! It was so much fun. I won't go into detail. You're not missing much. But that was about all I was able to get through. The rest of the tidying up will have to wait until tomorrow where I'll somehow find time to squeeze it in.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Sometimes You Just Need a Break

5 mile run

I had a 6 mile Z2 run on the schedule today. It seemed like a lot after the 9 from yesterday, but it was Z2 and the sun was back out, so I figured what the hell. My relay teammate Deb IM'd me mid-morning asking what I was doing over lunch. She was complaining about how she hasn't run in weeks, but I finally ended up talking her into running with me. I promised her it would be easy. And it was. I had my HR monitor on, but barely paid attention to it, so we ended up running a little slower than Z2. But it was fun and stress-free. Sometimes you just need to take a little break from training. Thanks Deb!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

So Ready to be Done

Saturday: 40 miles (trainer), 3 mile run
Sunday: ~2700m swim, 9 mile run

After about 2 days straight, it has finally stopped raining. And although Colorado in general needed it, I did not. After all, I already take 2-3 showers a day...

On Friday I was just supposed to swim. Being that Wolfgang is out and being that it was raining, I had absolutely no problem skipping this workout. I was able to rationalize that walking the dogs in the rain was pretty close to swimming. Instead, I finished off the day, and the week, with pizza and watching the Olympics.

Because I did not have the foresight to check the weather frequently, I woke up to Saturday's rain thinking that the entire weekend was going to be like this. I had planned on driving out to Aurora to do my brick on the Harvest Moon course. It was bad enough to have to drive to Aurora, but driving to Aurora in the rain...no way. Unless I absolutely have to, I don't ride in the rain. The roads are slick and people are stupid. It's just not worth it. Not to mention that it was also pretty cold. Instead, I tried to talk myself into getting on the trainer. Again, let me stress how stupid I was in not checking the weather. Had I any idea that Sunday was supposed to be absolutely beautiful, I would have ridden on Sunday and this post would probably be called something like 'The Ride of My Life'. But no, it was nothing but rain in my mind.

I needed to do 2.5 hours on the trainer. It was early. It was cold. It was raining. The Olympics are on and I'm still several days behind. Given these conditions, is there nothing better to do? Um, yeah, about a million, including going back to bed or having a cup of coffee and curling up in front of the TV. I could not have been moving any slower. I took things in very small steps in the hopes to get motivated. I brought my bike upstairs. I took a little break. I set up the trainer. Another little break. Turned on the TV. Break. Got dressed. Break. And then the thought crept into my mind. I think I'm ready to be done. Maybe today is the day I should end my season. Life has been very hectic and it's been a very long season and I've done plenty of races. Maybe it's time to stop and rest before starting again with CDA training.

But somehow, somehow, I found myself climbing on the trainer. Somehow I found myself starting to pedal. Somehow I found myself starting to get lost in watching the Olympics. I'd love to say that somehow I found that 2.5 hours had passed, but time didn't go so quickly and I was more than aware of how much time I still needed to do. Eventually (and not somehow), I got through 2.5 hours. It took a bit longer than 2.5 hours due to my finding many reasons to get off and make minor adjustments. And I still had a 9 mile run awaiting me. But I found myself at least somewhat looking forward to this - at least it would get me outside. I finished the ride, changed, and headed out on the run. It had stopped raining at this point and I was way overdressed. In addition, I had absolutely no energy. I was having a hard time maintaining my regular eating routine while on the trainer, and I just hadn't eaten enough. About 2.5 miles into the run my blood sugar dropped and there was no way I was going to do 9 miles. It just wasn't going to happen since I clearly needed more calories than I was carrying with me. I staggered through another half mile and then walked home. I'd try again on Sunday...

I awoke Sunday morning to sunshine. I figured it was temporary since I was still under the impression that it was supposed to rain all day Sunday. As I headed over to the pool, I noticed that there were not many clouds in the sky. Hmmm, I wonder. Let's just say that I was not happy when I finally checked the weather. I thought I was ready for Jane's class. Ha! She changed my mind almost immediately - we were only doing 25s and I wasn't getting any rest. It was going to be a loooong class. I had to keep moving back until I was at the end. I was close to keeping up, which means that I was nowhere near the person in front of me, BUT I didn't get lapped. I started to feel a little better as class went on and finished with a very small sense of accomplishment. I had made it through the entire class after all.

I got home and ate. In my mind, it must have still been raining as I just could not seem to really wake up. I just felt really sluggish. I decided to lie down for a little before attempting my run. We had dinner plans for my sister's birthday so I couldn't waste too much time, but I figured it couldn't hurt. After about an hour I finally got up. I had to start the run soon or it just wasn't going to happen. It was probably about 2 or 2:30 when I finally left the house. I dressed more appropriately today and brought a little more food, just in case. I had 6 miles to do in Z3 and decided to start this after a mile so that I could get it out of the way. The run was about 200% better than yesterday and not just because I made it past mile 3. It really was nice outside. My legs finally felt like they had fully recovered and I breezed through the Z3 set. Before I knew it, I was back home with another long run under my belt
(finally). Maybe I'm not quite ready to end the season...