Something to keep you going

I sit and write this message while wishing I were feeling better.  I seemed to have picked up a bug this past weekend that is making me extremely miserable.  Luckily for the most part this is all in my sinus and head, although I am run down, I think I am safe to say its not the flu.  This will be a rather short post since I am lacking energy in general.

 

I have had some extremely good workouts recently, a 3.65 mile run that was done at 8:15 pace.  Hey it was outside, that makes it good in general.  I had a pretty heavy swim week last week ending on Saturday with a 1000 yd TT at 16:34.  Not too bad, gives me an idea of my baseline and what to expect for next spring.  I got in the pool again on Monday despite feeling the onset of a cold for a good workout, about 2300 yards, during one of the main sets it had me do 100 yards at RPE 9, I came in right at 1:20, not anything to brag too much about, but still good for me.

 

Today was spent at home relaxing and trying to get better, although I still had to dial in to work for a little while, for the most part the day was relaxing.  I just wish I could kick the cold, it bothers me not being able to train!  I will probably take a couple of days off so I can make sure to recover before hitting it again.

A few things that keep me going through this time.  A new package came with another item for the future Hydration Post, this one I am very excited about and if I muster up some energy today I will start adding to that draft.  Another item on its way to me is a pair of Shimano TR51 shoes.  I cannot wait to get these to me.  My old shoes just never quite fit right so I think these will do the trick.  One strap will make transitions and maybe someday a flying mount a bit easier. 

Back to rest, movies, and an occasional nap for the rest of the day and evening, hopefully I will start getting some energy back tomorrow.  I may have to sneak in a few games of COD:MW2 tonight at some point if I am feeling up to it!

Beginnertriathlete.com Training Log Graph

I have had a good amount of people ask about the training log graph I have on my side bar that shows my weekly workout summary.  This is linked to http://www.beginnertriathlete.com and the workouts I upload there.  It is a pretty simple process if you are already uploading your workouts to the webpage training log, and if not that is also quite easy.

- Open the following link:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/widgets
- Under Your Training Volume, click Add to your Webpage
- This directs you to customize settings, enter your BT account name so it knows what data to use, also enter your title
- You can preview your settings
- Click Get Your Code

- Click in the area with the code that begins with <script

- Hit Ctrl + A to Select all
- Hit Ctrl + C to Copy the code
- Log into your blog and click on customize

- Click on Layout then Page Elements

- Click Add Gadget where you would like to place the Training Log

- Select HTML/Javascript
- Give your Gadget a name (Training Log Graph)

- Paste the code into the Content window and Click Save
- You can either preview the entire blog to rearrange where the Graph is located or Save to save the changes

- The Result:

Recovery, Offseason, and Training

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what have I been up to the past few weeks?  By looking at my blog some would think not much at all, which may be partially true, others may think I have been extremely busy.  If you are in that group, you would be correct.  Work has been absolutely insane the past few weeks which came at a good time in the training road, right after the Twin Cities Marathon, and before I ramp up my off season training. 

 

I will not go into details about how busy work has been, except that thank goodness for my workouts to keep me sane!  I did not take a ton of time off after the marathon, but gave myself some time to relax and get ready for the winter.  I have been riding the bike inside on the trainer and having some issues with numbness of the goods.  I have adjusted seat angles like crazy with the Fizik Arione seat only to result in varying degrees of bad.  I snagged an Arione Tri2 seat hearing that this helped many people out with the additional padding in the nose.  Well… it arrived and after some adjusting, still about the same results.  My thoughts are the next step is changing to the ISM Adamo seat.  (Skipping ahead in time to when I am writing the post, it causes no issues on the road… no idea what to think)

I started my offseason 26 week plan this past week.  Although it appears to be tailored for race season with some A, B, and C grade races, it is a good start until I am comfortable from reading the Triathlete’s Training Bible and making my own plan.  Here is what my workouts looked like this week:

- Monday: 2475 yd Swim, long set (Missed the bike ride due to some scheduling conflicts

- Tuesday: 45 Min Bike RPE 4, 30 Min Run RPE 2-3

- Wednesday: Rest Day (But I did Monday’s bike workout) 45 mins RPE 3 with 6x20 second top cadence spin ups

- Thursday: 30 Min Swim 3x400 RPE 3, even pace; 1 hr Run (45 RPE 2-3, 15 RPE 5)
- Friday: 2300 Yd 45 Min Swim

- Saturday: OFF!!!

- Sunday: 15 Min Swim (400 yds RPE 7, remainder RPE 3); 1.5 hour Bike RPE 3

This was the first week of the plan and it pushed me outside my comfort level, which was a good thing.  The swims are longer than I have been in the pool before, but it sounds like good way to get better at swimming.  The bikes have been painful with the annoying seat issue, and the run on Thursday was a challenge on the treadmill.  Luckily the bike on Sunday was nice enough that I could be outside.  Nice is a subjective term, nice to me meant mild winds 5 MPH or so and 49 degrees.  I put on some warm clothes and socks this time since the last time I rode outside my toes about froze. 

Lets continue to talk about the bike.  1.5 hours the longest I have biked before for a workout.  I decided to do a route I normally do 20 miles in about an hour give or take, a simple out and back.  Another 15 minutes on to the end of this would get me my workout.  I somehow forgot about wind, and the fact this would be my longest bike.  What did it result in.  45 minutes out got me 16.1 miles.  The way home did not go as quickly, winds picked up above 10 MPH and were conveniently in my face, so much for feeling strong.  The good news, no numbness, at least from the seat.  The toes started to go numb about 40 minutes into the ride making for a long ride back.  I made it back home in 1:42, not too shabby, not my 20 MPH average I was hoping for, but then again it was nearly 10 miles longer than any other ride I have done before.

 

I spent the majority of the day Saturday installing a new laminate wood floor after tearing out the carpet in our living room.  Not too bad for a days work.

 

Before:

During:

After:

Spent the night watching the amazing Iowa Hawkeyes win on the last play of the game to move on to 8-0.  I got a bit nervous, but they seem to pull out all the stops and do what it takes to win.

Back to work and workouts this coming week with a few more posts to be completed this week.

Good to Great…

Since my last post, there is a lot of very good news which makes this posting very easy to write.  Each of them is something special to talk about and I would be hard pressed to say which is the best news so I will address them in chronological order.  As my previous post indicated, my bike was to be delivered on Wednesday, I was not around so the delivery failed and I had to wait another day.  Luckily I was working from home Thursday and would be able to sign for it when it arrived.  Despite a very crazy week at work, I was free when the delivery man came with the large box!  I finished up work for that day although putting in more hours that day than a typical day.  My first free moment went to unpacking the box.

After a little handy work, the final product looked like the following setup on the trainer with the Fi’zi:k

Arione seat I decided to start off with on this bike. 
Can you imagine when you were a kid, opening a present at Christmas and then being told you could not play with it until the next week when you go back to school? This is exactly the pain I felt.  With the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday I wanted to make sure I was rested and recovered and ready to race.  Outside of a few minutes just spinning to test seat height, I let it rest after installing the Garmin cadence kit.  A few more pictures that combine my photography interest with my triathlon interest! The first is not that great of a photo by any means.

 

The second on the other hand, turned out pretty well.

Third not too bad, but cut off a bit of the seat and I think there is a small hair on the bike!
Finally the last photo which made its way to the banner was just an interesting perspective on things.
As I said, there are multiple good things that have happened.  The next thing to report.  Since my heaviest stage late last winter or early spring where I weighed myself at one point at 184.5, although I would not doubt I was higher than that, this is the highest measured weight I have had since my ‘fat stage’ in college that consisted of pizza dipped in ranch, fries dipped in ranch, and lots of sugary drinks and beers.  The good news? I have been keeping track of my weight daily (or pretty close) with SportTracks.  Saturday morning, I hit the lowest weight I have been in many years, 169.5, marking a point where I have lost 15 pounds.  Although I have only been recording in SportTracks since the end of June where I was around 183, the graph below shows my progress although not the full 15 pound loss.

One side note, not directly related to the events in this post, but as we went to pick up our packets for the marathon and 10-mile, we came across this at the expo.  I had to geek it up and stop for a photo. The lady in the booth couldn’t believe that it was me and said that had never happened before.
 
As excited as I was about the bike, I cannot say this did not also give me a great thrill.  I have been being very careful about what I eat and working to watch how much junk intake I have.  I even started to feel much better about my body composition before noticing some numerical results which is almost just as good for me as a number.  If you would have asked me 9 months ago what I thought my ideal body weight was, I would have told you around 180, as I struggled to lose or gain much around that weight even with regular running and exercise.  I am looking forward to what my body has in store for this winter where the treats get more and more tempting since I figured out a few great recipes for fudge last year!

Finally, I follow up with Sunday activities, a nice 26.2 mile run through the Twin Cities (official race report to follow) I am going to save most of the details of the race for the race report that I will finish up tomorrow.  My long run for training was 16 miles, due to some knee issues. This left a lot of doubt in my mind and come to find out Heather had similar feelings about my expectations. 

My first marathon was the Twin Cities 2008, finished with a 4:48:28 chip time which averaged out to 11:03/mile.  I said any improvement will be welcome, and I really hope to not be slower than the previous year since my training had lacked.  The next tier, sub-4:30, a good improvement on last year especially considering my focus towards short distance triathlons this year and skimping on the longer runs for marathon training.  Finally was the 4:15 goal, aka the ‘I don’t know what I did to make this happen, or how I even deserve this, but I may just crap myself if I could by some miracle run this time.’  The data behind my workouts explains the name:

9/27 – 9.08 miles @ 11:07 pace (with Heather)
9/20 – 8.08 miles @ 11:07 pace (with Heather)
9/13 – 16.39 miles @ 10:03 pace (by myself)
8/28 – 14:29 miles @ 10:37 pace (by myself)

For those who are not driven by numbers, obviously the 4:48 translates to 11:03, about the same pace as the runs I did with Heather for her 10 mile training.  Take my 16 mile run for example.  That would equate to roughly 4:23, smack dab between the other two goal times I had.  Since I said I was going to save the details for the race report, I will cut to the chase.  My finishing time:

4:12:38 chip time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Exceeded my top of the line tier.  More to come in another post.  Thank you to Andy and Brandis for your encouragement and through the race! You guys helped me hang on at the end when my body was ready to shut down.

Weekend Update

Where to begin besides I had a great weekend and I wish they were all this good.  Heather and I went out to eat at Chilis Friday night and got the 2 for $20, what a great deal, especially because they have some very good choices that include desert!  At one point I said that I was going to get the buffalo chicken salad and try to be a bit healthier since we would have the loaded fries appetizer and desert of deliciousness.  Heath then suggested a burger would be just as healthy since the chicken is breaded and the ranch they include with it.  I decided to get the salad since I used to live on it when I traveled thanks to Chilis To Go.  Again I cannot stress enough how good of a deal this meal is!  About as soon as we were seated we were interrupted by a work phone call which luckily only took a few minutes to resolve. 

Saturday we went to the Albertville Outlet Mall.  We went for two things, letting her look for some clothes and to go to the Carter’s store for our niece.  We stimulated the economy a bit more than expected by the end of our trip.  She had some good luck finding clothes that she was looking for, and we spent some time looking around at the different shops since I had never been to this mall before.  We went into a kitchen store to see what I could not live without, and by the end of the day we came out with a new shiny 15 piece stainless steel set of Emeril pots and pans.  I have been wanting to make the switch from our Cusinart non-stick to stainless recently.  I just do not care for the teflon pans, both from a cooking and cleaning aspect, but from some negative things I have read about some possible health issues from the teflon.

We also picked up a few other pieces of clothing for ourselves and a bunch of stuff at the baby store for our niece.  Overall it was a very good day, although we spent a bit more than anticipated.  After dropping off the clothes for our niece, we went home and made dinner.  Mmmm turkey burgers with all the fixings.  We then sat and watch the Iowa football game vs. Penn State.  What a game, although our offence looked lacking for most of the game, the defense looked amazing outside of the first play they were on the field.  What a great victory!  Yet again Iowa as the underdog is the team to watch this season. 

I slept like crap on Saturday night for whatever reason, which made getting up in the morning for our 9 mile run a challenge.  It took me a while to get going, and the weather was a bit cooler and windier with some strong 20 MPH gusts.  It made the run a bit more of a challenge than I expected.  This was my confidence builder for the marathon since my last long run was … eh at best.  Although this did not have the distance, my knee felt pretty good and all in all it was a success.  I am still a bit sore today, Tuesday, in my quads.  Hopefully in the next day or so it goes away and I will have a few days before the race.  We picked up some new flooring and purchased a water softener which I later installed that day to replace the broken one from when we moved in to our place over two years ago.  The install was pretty painless since it hooked up to the existing bypass valve with no modification.  We now have soft water, and hopefully no more hard water spots on our dishes, showers, and toilets! 

We had dinner with Heather’s aunt and grandparents to celebrate her aunt’s birthday on Sunday.  I helped pick out the cake, chocolate fudge surprise.  it was a surprise I did not put more weight on for as much as I ate, and as I am writing this, I wish I had another piece!  Sunday night I was ready for bed at 8, talk about lame!  I held off a while, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. 

We have a week of cleaning and getting the house ready for company this weekend (and it just has needed a good cleaning for a while.)  This will keep my nights somewhat busy fixing a few things (a piece of trim that our dog decided to use as a chew toy.)  Since this is supposed to be a recovery week, my final run was tonight, a easy 3 mile run with Heather before this weekend. 

Looks like the bike is to be delivered tomorrow, although I will not be around to sign for it, go figure, but then again it is not like I am going to be riding before Sunday afternoon.  I must say, I have been reading a bit more about MetriGears new Speedplay power pedals.  They are set to release in Q1 2010, just about perfect timing.  What a great location for a PM.  Not tied to wheels, although I do not have race wheels, not tied specifically to a bike like a crank is, not that I have two bikes, but dang pedals.  Considering the cost of a set of Speedplay Zero pedals and what they are talking for these, they will be a strong competitor in the market if they turn to be as reliable as they say. 

On the Juice…

So I did it… broke down and went in to visit a doctor at Fairview Sports & Orthopedic Clinic due to knee pain while running.  Note this is the same issue I was having last year, but only this time it was in the left knee.  Pretty typical ITBS just not quite as severe as when it was on my right side.  I recover much quicker, within a couple of days rather than a week of massively limping around, but none the less it still bothers me after only a few miles of running.

I made an appointment to be seen and ended up walking out with a little extra.  They did a cortisone injection to hopefully get me through the race.  I was not looking forward to this since after last year it made me almost pass out, and I am normally fine with shots and needles.  I think it was more the fact that they have to move the needle around to spread it out a little that got me.  That and the fact that when I looked down last year he had barely started the injection.  This time was better since I was laying down and not watching every move.

I dislike having to go this route, but on the same page, I want to get through the race and not be crippled for an eternity afterwards.  I want to give myself some recovery time and get back into tri training in the offseason.  My training is going to be extremely limited for the next week and a few days.  I may squeeze a 6 mile easy run in early next week to keep myself from losing too much.  I will be spending a good amount of time in the pool pushing some hard laps out for cardio work.

My Goals:

 

I am going to loosely throw out my goal of 10 minute miles for the marathon, putting me at a 4:20 marathon, about 28 minutes faster than last year.  I do not think this is too far of a stretch if my knee stays pain free.  All things considered under 4:30 will be pretty good for me.  Ideally I would be able to run it in under 4, but using my better judgment, I do not think that is realistic.

I mentioned I will be swimming, but not biking.  Although they said biking would be fine, there is a bit of a problem.  The Trek Equinox 5 and I parted ways Monday evening.  I got in a 30 minute Spinervals Technique drill, which I must admit provided some very good benefit.  He came and picked it up later that evening after we tweaked his position a bit for the interim until he gets a professional fit.  I think I will be looking to buy a few more Spinerval DVDs or ask for them as gifts this winter to help pass some time on the trainer.  That is of course when I get my new bike.  Now that I do not have a bike around to ride, I am extremely anxious to receive the new one.  The store received it last night and will be building it up and getting it ready to ship out to me.  (Hopefully by the end of the week)  I am very glad to have the old one gone, but I am also very ready for the new one.  It is probably good I do not have it too far in advance of the marathon.  It will force me to spend more time in the pool and not pushing hard on the bike. 

It is hard to believe less than a week and a half until the marathon.  I am nervous that I will not be able to run much before then and hope that things go well for the race.  Speaking of waiting, I am waiting for The Home Depot to call and let me know my flooring materials have arrived, it was supposed to be in Tuesday at the latest… guess that was wrong.  We had a dehumidifier overflow and stain/ruin some of our carpet in our living room.  We have decided to replace it with wood laminate flooring to match the kitchen and dining room.  I should not be in such a hurry to get the flooring since I will not put it down until after the marathon anyway to save myself some aches and pains. 

In the mean time I will be reading Triathlete’s Training Bible, BT, and SlowTwich to pass some time.  I am also currently putting together a list of recommended reads.  Hopefully most of them are available at my local library and I will be able to start reading through them over these winter months. 

One other thing I almost forgot.  We ordered our Garmin Forerunner 50 kits at Costco for 79.99 plus some tax.  I bought them for a few reasons, the first of which is the extra heart strap.  Why not have another, or maybe some day I will snag a 310xt and need a new strap for it.  Another reason, the foot pod for running indoors this winter.  I know it is not ideal, but better than nothing and a spendy accessory if you purchase it on your own.  Finally I want to have a watch for swimming since I normally do not record lap times etc.  I read some negative reviews about battery life not being great but we will see how it works out.  Last but not least, it gives me a winter project to write a review about the watch!

Run, Run, Run some more!

This week could be a classic case of not taking enough recovery time after a workout.  I do not think the race was my strong effort, but I am not sure what would have zapped all of my energy.  I went out Sunday with Heather on her 7 mile run and felt good running the day after a race.  These runs are in my lower range, but help get my mileage in for the week. 

Monday I was going to bike, and realized that I left my helmet in Heather’s car.  I figured this would be a prime opportunity to test out the trainer and a Spinerval DVD that it came with.  I was not sure what to expect, but did enjoy the session.  I got a good workout from it as you can see below.
I will be purchasing some more DVDs to get me through this winter on the trainer focusing on building my speed.  I will be making a post soon with some of my winter goals after the marathon is complete. 

Tuesday was a 6 mile run, but I felt like I was pulling a plow the entire way.  My pace was 8:17, not quite what I wanted from this workout, but none the less I got the workout complete. 

Wednesday was a good workout in the pool, working on form.  The guy that was swimming between Heather and I made us look very slow.  We both could tell how good of a swimmer he was. 

Thursday… oh Thursday.  I had some time I had to take off this week so I decided on a couple of hours Thursday afternoon and some of the day Friday.  I figured I would try and squeeze my long run in on Thursday so I could run with Heath on the weekend for her long run.  My workout was supposed to be 20 miles, my peak before the marathon.  I made the first 8 miles and managed pretty well.  I started out on the second 8 mile loop and felt like the darn plow was back for this workout.  I pushed through a few miles, but then realized I was not going to make as much as I thought and took a walk for a mile.  I ran the remainder and cut part of it short, ending just about 14 miles. 

This was a huge let down for me.  My longest run has been 16 miles, so the marathon is going to be quite the adventure.  To add in complexity on top of it, my knee has been causing me issues again.  I think I am going to see if I can get in this week and get it looked at before the race.  There is not much time left before the race, but I hope something can be done to get it a bit better.  I think its the same old ITBS as my right knee had last year.

 

Friday I rode the bike again for almost 21 miles since a huge combine went past me right when I was going to turn around and I would have been stuck behind him, so I went a bit further than normal.  The workout averaged 19.9 MPH, not bad over that distance. 

Sunday was Heather’s long run of 8 miles so we ran together, again my knee flared up, but this kept my HR zone very low, even dipping below my Z1 in Training Center.  I recalculated my LT zones with my 6 mile run earlier this week although I felt slow, it gave me some pretty good numbers. 

Things to look for this week: Selling my Trek, my new bike being shipped to me, some more miles running, and a few other workouts.  I have a few things in the works and cant wait for the bike to come in and get some more pictures on here.

As a final note, I just got my copy of Triathlete’s Training Bible and am very engaged in reading it.  It has grabbed my attention and hope it continues that way.