Hot Run to Work

Ran into work again this morning featuring the 15 mile route.  Today is officially the hottest day of the year this summer and when I started at 5:30am, it was a humid 75 degrees.  By 10am it looked like this (notice the “Heat Advisory” warning):

Took 20 oz of water and 16 oz of Ironman Perform Sports Drink with me on the run (on my water belt) and consumed all of it by mile 8 when I reached Hart Park (where I filled up 20 more ounces of water).  This was a tough run and I had to scale back my pace about 30 seconds per mile in order to keep my heart rate in the desirable zone.  It was definitely a HOT, TOUGH, & SWEATY workout that I am very glad is over. 

Big weekend coming up featuring a Saturday that contains 6 hours of straight endurance work on the bike and run (80 mile ride followed by a 6-7 mile run).  Let's hope this heat wave cools down by Saturday!

Recap and Reflection

I’ve reached a bit of a milestone in my training plan and it seems like a good time to reflect on things a bit. I am basically at the half way point as I begin week 10 of the 20 week plan. Things are going pretty smoothly and I am happy to announce that I am not injured, sick, or nursing any nagging physical ailments (at the moment). You can see from the chart below that weeks 10 & 11 (6/25 & 7/2) are BIG build weeks that feature some tough workouts. In addition the other two big build weeks (7/16 & 7/23) and (8/6 & 8/13) are also going to be very taxing both mentally and physically.

The fact that these big weeks all occur within the heart of the summer will definitely test me in many ways. I’ve been busting my ass week in and week out and haven’t missed any workouts at this point, so I feel like I am prepared to handle what is ahead. However, one never really knows for sure when entering uncharted territory. All I can do is continue to work hard and keep positive. I will surely encounter more hard days, but how I bounce back and forge forward will be the key to my success. One of my mental thoughts that I keep handy is that I really only have SIX more brutally tough weekends to endure. And of those SIX weekends, it is typically ONE day (usually Saturday) that is exceptionally tough. So the bottom line is that I have SIX days of real hard physical work to endure before Ironman (7 if you count Ironman day….but I don’t because that is pay-off day).

Who can’t get through 6 days….RIGHT?

Ironman Wisconsin Profile

Miscellaneous cool Ironman Wisconsin 2012 Profile Information:

Swim Course

Bike Course

Bike Profile

Run Course

Run Profile

Mad One Repair

For the last month or so there has been a clicking noise in my drive-train when I pedal the Mad One. It only seems to occur in the harder gears or when I am putting forth heavy power (like on hills). It can be pretty loud at times and after trying a host of things on my own, I’ve determined it's not going away and that I will need to take it in to the shop for analysis. On Tuesday (6/19), I took it over to Emery's and Brent was not there so one of the bike mechanics took a look at it for me. He tightened up my pedals and a few bolts on the crank and told me to try that out to see if it clears up my issue. I had a feeling this wouldn’t help because I think over the course of the last couple months I had already tried that (I’ve tightened many things in an effort to fix this issue). Anyway, I figured he was the mechanic and I was willing to give that a try.

Unfortunately the clicking noise was still there on my Tri-Wisconsin ride Tuesday night, so that particular fix did not help. Yesterday (6/21) I brought the bike back in to Emery's, but this time Brent was there and took a look at it. He immediately began fiddling around with the cranks by putting heavy hand pressure on the pedals. He was on his hands and knees pushing and pulling on the cranks and voilà he was able to replicate the clicking noise without ever needing to pedal or physically ride the bike. Probably an old Olympic cyclist trick, so I was impressed. After about 2 minutes without hesitation he said I probably just needed my bearing plates tightened up and they could have it done for me to pick up tomorrow no problem. If they discovered anything else, they would call me and let me know.

Two important lessons here. First, there is no substitute for having a true professional with a ton of experience and knowledge looking at your bike when you have a problem (unfortunately that is not always possible). Second, he may be old & sometimes cranky, but Brent Emery knows his shit and has always left me as a satisfied customer and that is why I take my bike to his shop.

Now the real test will be whether the issue is fixed. I won’t know until I get the Mad One back out on the road in a couple days. We shall see, but I am confident he’ll be running smooth again!

UPDATE: Yup...I was correct.  I picked the bike up the next day and chatted with the mechanic.  It was the bearing plates and they also did a lube of the bearings and reassembled everything.  Pretty much exactly what Brent indicated & after a good hilly 37 mile ride on Monday, June 25th, the Mad One was silent as a mouse and smooth as silk. 

Horribly Hilly Hundreds Event

What an event!  This is the type of race that really puts your cycling skills to the test.  It is a relentless course with tons of hills throughout the ride.  My Garmin showed a total of 6,800 feet of elevation gain over 68.37 miles.  See the RACE REPORT that I posted on Beginner Triathlete.com for more details.

This was certainly worth my time and effort as a training ride for Ironman in September.  I am very glad I did it despite it being painful and quite difficult.  It was everything I expected plus more and it is an experience that I will treasure for quite some time!

 

Run to work!

Today the training plan had me doing a longer run effort. Because Thursday is a work day, I decided to run from my house in Menomonee Falls to my work which is in West Allis. The route I had planned was over 11 miles and was a nice mix of some trails, a parkway road and city streets/sidewalks. The plan called for 1 hour and 50 minutes of running, so I knew I would arrive still needing some extra mileage. That was not a problem because I have plenty of “routes” around work to add as much time or mileage as needed!  This is how things looked as I left my house at 6am....

It was a perfect, picturesque morning with temps in the high 50’s & little wind. Ironically about 2 minutes after taking the above picture I got into the woods and came within 15 feet of a pretty big deer. I had to cross through this wooded trail in my neighborhood to get to the first paved road on my route and this is where the deer was standing. He stared me down and wouldn't move as I approached him. The only think I could think of was that video from "Amazing Shocking Videos" where the deer is on its hind legs attacking a guy. It seemed like he did not like me infringing on his territory so I stopped 15 feet in front of him (in fear of getting any closer) and I said, “HI”, pulled out my camera, and got this shot….

After taking the picture and a having a 2 minute staring match with him, he finally decided to scamper off into the woods. That was certainly the most interesting part of my run. The remainder of it was smooth, easy and enjoyable. In fact after having a tough day (mentally & physically) last Saturday on the bike, it was nice having a day like today where my heart rate and effort level were very low during the workout. It barely felt like I was exerting any effort and that made me very happy. I felt like I could have gone forever at that pace and that is encouraging indeed!  Mission accomplished today.

Tough Weekend

This weekend’s training (June 9 & 10th) definitely tested my toughness. It was the first weekend this summer with some pretty extreme temperatures (close to 90). Us Wisconsinites aren’t quite acclimated to this type of heat this early in the summer, so I knew I was in for a couple of tough days.

I intentionally did my workouts early on both Saturday and Sunday in order to beat the heat as much as possible. Saturday wake-up call was 5:15 and after some food, stretching and preparing my bike set up, I was out the door at 6am for an easy 20 minute run. Colleen joined during this run which is always nice especially in a longer (4+ hour) day of endurance work. Immediately after the warm-up run, I jumped on the bike and headed out for a 61 mile adventure through some very hilly terrain. This particular route had 2,700 feet of vertical climb over the 61 miles. To provide a perspective, the Ironman course has 2,900 vertical feet of climb over 112 miles. So I was basically packaging the same amount of hills as Ironman into a shorter (61 mile) ride. Pretty brutal, but IMO necessary in order to prepare for Ironman. As a side note, next week’s Horribly Hilly Hundred bike race has close to 4000 feet of climb over 63 miles (ouch).

Saturday’s ride went pretty well, but it definitely had some bumps and bruises. Around 50 I started experiencing some stomach issues and had a hard time with my nutrition. Basically the thought of a gel or my liquid nutrition made me nauseous. Even water didn’t seem real appealing. The wind, although not terrible, was 15 mph out of the West, so that also made this ride tougher. Throw in the heat, the hills, the nutrition issues and the wind and things got pretty tough at the end for me.

Although I successfully made it through the bike, I still had to finish the workout with another 20 minute run. By this time, it was downright HOT with full sun and not much shade on my running route. I knew this tiny, little run would be VERY hard on me. And guess what? It was. Running 20 minutes is nothing to me, but after a pre-bike run and a bike through tough conditions, this was very difficult. I struggled to finish, my stomach did not feel well and I was extremely drained. Ironically my HR on the run was much lower than I would have guessed which is the one good sign out of this workout.

Getting through Saturday was tough, but I also knew I had a decent run to do on Sunday. Once again, I was out early (6:30 am) to beat the heat in order to run 1 hour and 35 minutes. I intentionally ran this slower than usual and took my hydration with me in the form of my water bottle belt. The good news is that this run went much better than Saturday’s workout. Although the temp was hot, I did much better managing the heat by taking it “easy” in the conditions.

That wraps up week #7 of training. One more “build” week coming up and then another recovery or “easier” week.

Hills, Hills and More Hills!

I have taken the liberty on most of my outdoor rides this year to make sure I am cycling through very hilly terrain. It isn’t easy, but it is critical for Ironman Wisconsin training because of all the long, steep climbs on its bike course. Yesterday’s workout was no exception while getting out with the Tri Wisconsin’s weekly bike ride. It’s a great route through the hills surrounding the Holy Hill area (you definitely notice the “hill” part of Holy Hill while on a bike). On a couple of the declines my speed was well over 40mph and on some of the climbs it was closer to about 4mph. There were about 30 riders and I was fortunate to link up with a two-time Ironman Wisconsin finisher who was a very good cyclist herself. The weather was perfect, the route fun and challenging and the group has a bunch of great people. No matter how you carve it up, it was a great day and I look forward to Pasta Night (after the ride) next week. Simply awesome.

In the spirit of cycling and hills, I suppose I should also mention in less than two weeks I am doing a crazy endurance event called the Horribly Hilly Hundreds (http://www.horriblyhilly.com/). This a cyclists dream ride featuring some of the most absurdly difficult hills anywhere in the state. It isn’t necessarily the size of them (although some of them are quite massive), but more the frequency of them. I am doing the 100K route (62 miles) and there is close to 6,000 feet of climbing. That basically translates to being in a situation where you are either going up a hill or down a hill for the full 62 miles (ie no flat sections). I am told from several others who have done both this event and Ironman Wisconsin, that the 62 miles at Horribly Hillies is more difficult than the Ironman course and that those 62 miles feel much more like 100+ miles of a normal century ride. On June 16th I will get to find out myself just how difficult it is. I may not be quite where I need to be training wise, but I also have confidence to know that I will be able to push myself through this torturous event! All of this will help me in the bigger goal of completing Ironman in September!

Stay tuned for an update and race report for my Horrible Hilly adventure sometime after June 16th!

Things said in a Locker Room

Yesterday I had a conversation in the locker room with a guy I know.  I found it entertaining, humorous and quite telling about what the general public knows about Ironman.  This guy is probably in his 30's and in good shape, but probably not involved in endurance events.  I don't know if he's ever run any races or competed in any type of triathlon event, but my guess is probably not based on our conversation.

From past experience I have discovered most people know very little about triathlon and fewer people know the various distance of triathlons or even that different lengths exist.  I get that and whenever someone starts asking me questions about the sport I usually try to bring it down to that level assuming they don't know much.  However, I assume most people know triathlon is about swimming, biking and running.

The guy in the locker room definitely knows I am a runner, but I'm not sure if he knows of my triathlon experience.  In the locker room he says, "You got any marathons coming up".  I respond, "Only one and that will be in Ironman."  He looks at me confused and I could tell he didn't know that Ironman contained a marathon so I say, "Yup....26.2 miles or running after the swim and bike".  He responds by saying, "So Ironman is a Triathlon?" and I respond affirmative.  He then asks how long the bike portion is and I tell him it is 112 miles.  He looks despondant and asks, "So you ride that on a mountain bike?".  "Nope, it's usually ridden on a road or triathlon bike" I say.  He looks around, scratches his head and says, "Where do you ride 112 miles?" to which I indicate it is done out on the hilly rural roads west of Madison.  He looks shocked and says, "MAN....so you do that all out on the street?".

At that point I am not really sure where he thought I would be riding 112 miles, but my best guess was that he thought it might have been on trails on a mountain bike.  Anyway, he concludes our conversation by asking me how much time do I have between each sport.  I basically summed it up by saying, this is a race, so you want to get to the next sport as fast as possible keeping in mind that you have to finish all three sports within the 17 hour limit if you want the designation of being an Ironman.

I am not sure if all of that sunk in with him, but I was glad I could help educate him just a little bit and hopefully he learned that Ironman is serious business.  It isn't just another race.....It is IRONMAN and it is a designation that is bestowed on those who put in a ton of time, effort, sweat, planning and hard back-breaking work.  I'm pretty sure he had no idea of the amount of work that is needed to complete an Ironman, but most people don't, and I am okay with that!