Memorial Day Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend of training which concludes a three week build cycle.  I am proud to say that I have completed 5 weeks of my 20 week Ironman plan.  For those who are mathematically challenged, that means I am one quarter or 25% complete!  That's all good and fine, but I still have tons of work to do.  At this point, I am still in my comfort zone because much of the training up to this point has been similar to the peak hours of a Half Ironman training plan (which I did last year).  However, going forward past Memorial day is when I enter uncharted training territory where distances and time continue to increase and become more of a burden on any form of a personal life that I currently posses. 

Anyway, this Memorial day weekend had me complete an 8 mile run in the morning and a 2200 yard swim in the late afternoon on Saturday.  Then, on Sunday I did a 52 mile bike ride out west and through some hilly, challenging terrain.   The bike ride was definitely the tougher of the two days because of the tough conditions.  The main problem was a stiff wind out of the East which made the long eastbound trek home very difficult.

I was finished with my ride by 9am on Sunday and when I got home Colleen was nice enough to make me a giant breakfast which I definitely needed. By 11am, I was on the couch, watching golf on tv and the next thing I knew I was sound asleep. This ride had taken ALOT out of me and I could feel it in my legs and just a general fatigue overall.

Interestingly after some rest & food I started feeling much better later in the day. That was good news because we were attending a wedding that evening and I really didn't want to be falling asleep at the dinner table!  Mission accomplished and it turned out to be a fun time.

Rest and Recovery

Anyone who has trained for any length of time knows the importance of rest and recovery. Exercise breaks down the body and then afterwards the body has the remarkable ability to recover and adapt by growing stronger. The benefits of exercise and a healthy lifestyle are well documented, so I am stating nothing groundbreaking here (as usual).

Tomorrow (Friday, 5/25), I have a scheduled rest day with no workouts planned. These days become more and more treasured as the training gets longer and tougher. Usually a rest day comes immediately after a long string of workouts and that is basically where I am today.  In fact, this morning at 5:30 I completed a tough 6 mile tempo run and then later tonight after work I get to hop on the bike for an hour long spin.

What does all this mean?  It means after an early morning workout with another looming after work, I have discovered a renewed interest and love of my lunch hour.  It has become a valuable opportunity for me to get some extra REST and RECOVERY!

Every so often when feeling a bit tired, I grab my lunch and drive out to one of my "secret spots" (yes, I have several) and I quickly gobble down my fuel (aka lunch) and then engage in what I call an "Ironman Siesta.".....Brilliant, isn't it?

Here is what it looks like. Please note that I took this picture myself right before my little catnap. But be reassured that 5 minutes after the picture I looked virtually identical AND was sound asleep!

May 21st....Monday Morning

Today I joked around with a couple people at work about my training schedule.  As I was grabbing my lunch out of the refridgerator, I was thinking I had already swam 3025 yards (1.7 miles) and ran about 5 miles....all before lunch.  I told one of my work cohorts that by noon on Monday I had probably "worked-out" harder and longer than most people will do in an entire week.  That is a true sign that you are in the midst of Ironman training.

Sunday ride in Oconomowoc

Yesterday (Sunday, 5/20), I had the pleasure of linking up and going out on a long bike ride with an old friend I used to work with back at Metavante. Her name is Leslie and we've kept in touch over the years and met up at different races.  Coincidentally, we both signed up for our first Ironman this year.  Leslie is a competitive age grouper and an extremely experienced and accomplished endurance athlete. Heck, she qualifies for Boston every time she runs a marathon and I know she will do very well in Ironman.  We decided early this year that we would have to go on some rides together and Sunday worked perfectly into both our schedules.

Drove out to her place in Oconomowoc where we decided to ride about 50 miles all over Lake Country and the surrounding rural areas.  Here were the details of our ride.....

We started by riding out a couple miles and met up with Leslie's friend, Fran who happens to be doing Ironman Coeur d'Alene at the end of June (yikes....like 30 days).   Fran was planning on riding the 50 with us and then finishing up with another 30 solo.  80 mile rides are what I have to look forward to in the not-so-distant future!

Anyway, our ride was pretty enjoyable.  It was tougher than I thought mainly because there were long stretches into a headwind that also seemed to coincide with some nice hills.  Overall I really liked the terrain and the quietness of the countryside.  We did start this ride at 7am on a Sunday, so I wouldn't expect to see too many cars, but it seemed like in the first two hours we only saw 3-4 cars on these rural roads.  It was a very pleasant change from my typical routes in the suburbs where cars are all over the place.  I also found it interesting how many cities we rode through that I had never hear of such as Ashippun, Pipersville, Farmington, & Concord.

Although this was only a 3 hour ride, I was also to continue an experimentation I've been doing with getting my nutrition out of a bottle instead of having to worry about lugging around gels and other types of foods on the bike.  I've been using Perpetuem in the form of a single bottle that provides my required 200 calories an hour (for 4 hours).  It worked well for me and I was never hungry nor did I experience any stomach issues of any kind.  The only issue I had is that I need to carry a bit more regular water for hydration purposes.  Now that I am using one full bottle for nutrition, it means I only have 1 bottle for water, which on a hot day like today, it wasn't enough.  In the future on these rides I will need to also use my aero bottle so that I have plenty of drinking fluids.

To summarize Sunday was a very good ride with a couple of very strong cyclists.  Rides with these types of people, can only make me better.  Here is Leslie and I at the end of our 50 miles.  I look tired, but I am not sure she broke a sweat.....

Rainout

Yesterday was interesting. The plan was to do a 90 minute bike ride through the hills. I had the perfect day planned where after work I would pack up my cycling gear, load the bike on the Thule bike rack and drive out to Lannon for the weekly Tri Wisconsin ride. I was really looking forward to this because it was a rare May weeknight where the temperature was actually nice (high 70’s at 6pm).

I had been checking the forecast all day and there was never more than a 30% chance of rain. However, as I was driving out to Lannon it was getting pretty dark and didn't look real encouraging. The minute I arrived at my destination it started lightly raining. There were at least a dozen cyclists milling around and as I parked I noticed they all slowly moved inside their cars as the rain increased. After parking my car, it started to rain pretty hard so I pulled out my iPhone and saw there was suddenly a severe thunderstorm warning which included hail and 50 mph winds as a bonus. I almost couldn’t believe what I read because as recently as an hour ago there was only a 30% chance of rain and no pending thunderstorms in the forecast.

After confirming this bad news, I basically high-tailed it home, cleaned up the soaking wet bike, removed the road wheel, put on the trainer wheel and cracked out a 90 minute ride on the trainer. As I started my workout, I was happy to see that the Brewer game was on TV and so I got to watch Zack Greinke pitch a gem of a game (they won 8-0), so it made all the running around and nonsense much more tolerable. Workout complete!

My view from the trainer

Blessing of the Burro Ride

In addition to it being Mother's Day on Sunday, this weekend also included the annual Blessing of the Burro bike ride on Saturday.  I am part of a triathlon group known as the Donkeys who are a fun group of pals who love triathlon, training and socializing.  There is a long history behind the group and I definitely do not know it all, however I do know that I enjoy being part of everything.  Anyway, Saturday's ride was the official kickoff for the 2012 biking & training season.  Even though most of us train year round (to some degree), this ride is always something to look forward to mainly because Wisconsin winters are long and brutal and April/May finally brings somewhat decent weather that will allow us to get back on our bikes and do outdoor riding instead of the long, boring hours on the bike trainer in front of the TV.
The Burro ride is usually in the neighborhood of 20 miles and the goal is to see the Donkey's (yes, real donkeys).  For training purposes today I needed to ride 45 miles, so I needed to be creative and find a way to tack on 25 additional miles.  It turns out the starting location for the Burro ride is about 13 miles from my home in Menomonee Falls.  If you do the math we have 13+20+13 = 46 miles....perfect! 

Out to the New Berlin starting point

The Donkey Ride

So the stage was set to ride from Menomonee Falls to New Berlin & link up with everyone for the 20 mile Burro ride and then ride back home after the 20 miles.  As an added bonus I was able to link up and ride into New Berlin with a newly discovered friend who is also training for Ironman this year.  He lives just a mile down the street from me and is a rather good cyclist.

He met me just outside my house at 7:15 and we took off promptly.  We start chatting along the way and we get maybe 1/4 mile and my rear tire blows out.  Great way to start a long day on the road.  Ironically the day before the ride I only had 1 spare tube and 1 co2 cartridge packed in my saddle bag.  I haven't had a flat tire in almost two years, but I figured I better throw in an extra tube and a second co2 cartridge for this ride just in case.  Because we built extra time into our ride, I had plenty of time to change my flat on the side of Pilgrim road.  This is always good practice for triathlon and especially a long distance event like Ironman.  I was actually impressed with my ability to make the repair and be back up riding in what seemed like under 5 minutes.  John and I chatted while I changed the tire and perhaps that made it seem faster than it really was.  Either way, it was smooth, easy and required virtually no thinking on my part which is a good sign.

A couple of real beauties.

We made it through the hills of Pilgrim and Sunnyslope roads on fresh legs averaging 19mph for the those 13 miles.  We got to New Berlin a bit early and waited for the the rest of the group to arrive.  Eventually about a dozen people showed and we headed out on the 20 mile jaunt.  At the 10 mile mark we reach our main destination - The Donkey Corral featuring the mascots of our group....Pedro & Taco (as named by a son of one of the Donkey Masters in our group).  We fed them some shot blocks, pet them, and take strength from them for the 2012 season.

The 20 mile ride was enjoyable and the time past quickly. We averaged a casual pace in the neighborhood of 16 mph.  Before we knew it we were back to our starting point and the conclusion of phase 2.  John and I said our farewells to the group and took off home to finish the last 13 miles of the trip.  Unfortunately some wind picked up later in the morning and the trip home was into a nice little headwind making things much more work than the ride out (which had no wind).  We still averaged about 17.5mph on the way home, but my legs were starting to feel it especially on a couple of those bigger climbs.

The day was a success and although the weather was cooler than desired, it was a fun time with the Donkeys.  Let the 2012 outdoor riding season begin!

Me drawing strength from the Donkeys

Today's Menu

Todays menu features sore quads, sore/stiff calfs, and somewhat tight hamstrings. I am glad it is a planned rest day. I just drank my disgusting tasting Whey protein drink and am now ready to start my workday. TGIF.

The week of the Time Trial

Whew...Time Trials (TT's) are over! Week three of my training plan has me doing speedy time trials in all three sports. Seem like a bit much to do them all in the same week, but what the heck? I am a slave to the plan anyway, so I am okay with this!  For those of you who do not know about TT's, I will provide my best explanation.  One way to train (in all three sports) is by heart rate (HR).  In order to train by HR, you must determine your Anaerobic Threshold (aka Lactate Threshold) which is essentially the maximum HR that you can sustain in a 30 minute period.  There are several ways to figure out this value, but an easy way to do so on your own is to run, bike, or swim as HARD as you can for 30 minutes and then take the average heart rate of the last 20 minutes.  This is essentially what I have done this week for all three sports.  To give you an idea, I will include my workouts for today and note the run portion in which I record my average HR for 20 of the 30 minutes.  This average HR is used to set up various training "zones" in which you will target for various workouts. It's really that simple as 1-2-3.

Morning workout (with HR test):

50 minute run.  After 10 minute warm up, you are going to run for 30 minutes as hard as you can for the entire 30 minutes. After starting the run, hit your 'Lap' button so you record the average HR over the last 20 minutes. This can be run on track the or measured course (flat). Record the time and get a 10 minute cool down. Stretch when done and add in Core 1, 2 or 3.

Evening Workout (no HR testing):

Tosa High School Track

Easy spin for 60 minutes in small chain ring.


So I did my morning run as described above.  A time trial for the run is usually best done on a flat course. There is no better option than doing it on a track. For today's workout I chose the home of the Wauwatosa West Trojan's track which is a local high school facility open to the public. A very nice soft running surface and well kept grounds.  And at 5:50 AM on a crisp Thursday May morning, I had the whole place to myself!  Here is how it looked today --->>

Things that make me go Vrooooom....

It was about time for me to upgrade and replace my old cycling shoes. My old Shimano’s had served me well for several years, but were not quite as comfortable and lightweight as I would have liked. It was definitely getting to be the time to replace and upgrade them with something lighter, cooler and more comfortable. Let’s face it, I’ll be spending a lot of time in these shoes this summer. It seemed logical to me to upgrade to the latest and greatest in a year where I am taking on a full Ironman. So I hit up my peeps at Emery’s in Milwaukee and got set up with a lightweight carbon fiber soled Shimano shoe. It has only one Velcro closure which makes taking them on and off much easier than my old pair (which had 3 straps). In addition, the venting is fabulous and the shoes weigh about the same as that quarter in your pocket. A real pair of beauties I must say.

Meanwhile my running shoe collection appears to be doing just fine much to Colleen’s chagrin.  I would have to believe that a little clutter in the laundry thing is acceptable. No?

The Europa-Virus Defeated!

One full week after its attack on my immune system, I have officially claimed victory over the annoying Europa-Virus. I am also very happy to report that although it did force me to miss one workout (last Tuesday), I was diligent and physically well enough to manuever my schedule around enough so that I was able to execute all my workouts (creative scheduling).

That wraps up a strong week #2 and the body feels good. I'm not complaining at all (yet)!

UGH

The good news is I had a great trip in Europe, but the bad news is I picked up a nasty sore throat and virus. I was able to get in two workouts (Sunday run & Monday swim), but had to skip my hour long bike ride yesterday.  I might try to swim today depending how I feel after work.  Last thing I want to do is be taking more days off after 11 glutenous eating and drinking days in Europe!  Oh well, I'm still in good shape and a few more days off won't kill me.