4 hours on the move and counting!

I did my first big continuous brick workout on Saturday, and woo-wee, am I tired!

The plan called for a 3 hour bike ride, followed by a six mile run.  Ordinarily, I would have rallied and gone out 9W for the long ride, but truth be told, the first and last 10 miles are not really training riding, since it is through the city, and I like to go with a group for safety (and then you always end up taking a break at the cafe in Nyack) but couldn't get a group together/buddy that was not light years faster than me, so I ended up just waking my butt up early and riding loop after loop in Central Park.  Not the most exciting, but good for mental toughness and enough hills for spice.  By the end it was getting crowded, but 8 loops plus one extra mini loop for an additional Harlem Hill/mile put me at 50 miles and change in about 3 hours, and then I dropped my bike back off at NYAC and hit the park AGAIN for six miles.  It was all I could do not to puss out and just do a couple of laps around the reservoir (flat) to get up to 6 instead of doing the real loop with hills, but I was glad I didn't waver, as four hours later, I was quite proud! I actually ran at a good clip, holding about 9 minute miles, and felt like I kept a pretty decent pace on the bike...definitely within the 16-18MPH "elite" speed bracket called for on the training plan (vs. 12-15 for "age groupers") and managed my nutrition right, as I didn't feel shakey or dehydrated or completely wiped out/bonked at the end.

Nutrition wise, I had a peanut butter sandwich in the morning for breakfast, plus some coffee and a bottle of water, then during the bike I had a GU and two bottles of water + ACCELERADE mix.  Between the bike and run I ate a banana and then carried a bottle of water + ACCELERATED with me, along with another GU, which I ended up not eating, but I did go through the bottle (about a liter in size).  I bought one of those bottles that go between my aero bars with a straw and that thing is literally I lifesaver! When the bottle is in a cage on the bike frame, I never drink out of it, but with that nifty thing I drink regularly and often.  Huge! I just stopped after 30 miles and refilled it with the bottle in my frame cage, and took off again.

This is your friend!

At the end, was I tired? Yes.  Mad at myself for not remembering to re lube parts of my feet (and other body parts) with Body Glide? Yes.  And I will DEFINITELY remember sunscreen reapplication, too.  I didn't get burned, but don't want to risk it next time as the weather continues to heat up.  Wrinkle prevention...vanity is my favorite sin!!  But
I definitely felt in control and like I did the brick to my fitness level/wasn't overwhelmed by the work out.  And considering the only other time I've ever done anything physical for four hours was when I ran the marathon two years ago, not too shabby!

I have been very focused on the bike length lately, and am still wound the most tight about that without a doubt, but my friend Cameron, who did IronMan New Zealand last year, told me that I can't run enough between now and November, and he's a fit dude, so I'll take that advice to heart.  I felt strong on those 6 miles, but at the end, I was definitely ready to be done, not ready to run another 20 miles! And I only did half the bike...and no swim! Waah!

The two biggest training blocks are still to come, though.  Next week is the last week of our aerobic block, then a week of "recovery" and then on to the "endurance" phase and "competitive" phase.  "Competitive" is the one that has the toughest workouts/longest days, so there's that to look forward to!

Call me the insomniatic wizard!

Anyone who has known me since high school will know that I'll have this reoccurring bouts of insomnia.  Nothing that warrants medication, but annoying nonetheless.  Usually it is nothing more than a classic case of "monkey brain," where you can't turn it off, and lord knows there were a lot of sleepless nights senior year of college, when the whole "where is my life going?!" just spins around and around, totally unconcerned to the fact that you have swim practice at 6:30am.   I've gotten better at coping with it over the years, and usually of course the best remedy is being exhausted from working out, because then I'll just pass out before I have a chance to start thinking, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.  And the past couple days, I just have not been able to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, which makes getting up early to work out that much more difficult.  Usually after a couple days it abates, but boy is it the most inconvenient thing to pop up during a busy work (and workout) week.

Which brings me to the second word, wizard, in reference to [NERD ALERT] the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf, the wizard, laments to Aragorn about how "3,000 years I have walked this Earth, and now I have no time," when pressed to make a speedy (and time sensitive) journey.

Come between me and a good nights sleep and I will END you!

I am actually a pretty efficient person as a rule, but admit to wasting time here and there, mostly spent giving Sasha belly rubs (although that can hardly be considered a bad waste of time).  As Amanda said in her last post, we are in the Aerobic stage of our training grid, and the workouts are getting looonger.  Hence the issue of TIME.  Even though the days are longer now (yay summer!) it's just not feasible to do a three hour workout after the work day ends.  She needs to study, I can't be confident I'll get away from the office/computer/whatever crisis is looming by 5 or 6 (nor do I want to be completing a long ride at 9pm), and so morning it needs to be.  Plus, now that NYC is starting to get sticky, it will be cooler in the a.m., too.

So far the distance building has been going well.  Amanda and I did a 10 miler in the Sacramento, California HEAT on Sunday and felt quite good--wasn't even sore!--and we've had great swims and lifts this week (she chided me on my push up form this weekend, so have been verrry diligent about getting my chin all the way to the ground). 

I'll be doing a smaller run this afternoon (fartleks + six mile lope) and then a long bike tomorrow (50 miles in Central Park...not quite comfortable yet riding on the roads/9W on a week day).  Saturday is REUNIONS down at Princeton (yay!) and then Sunday I'll do another 9-10 mile run.   That long ride is the trickiest, but I'm determined to get out of bed on Friday with the birds and get it done!

Week 1 down!

Last week was our first "official" week following an Iron Man training plan that we downloaded from Triathlon Geek.   So far, so good! In fact, it was not that difficult...not that it won't be extremely challenging down the line, but I was pleased that the first week was really quite straightforward...it meant that I had been doing a good job staying in shape/keeping my fitness level up these many months, despite work and the move's best efforts to sabotage me!

The training plan is broken down into "Adaptation," "Endurance" and "Competitive" segments over the course of 37 weeks, with a "Taper" leading in to the race, as well as "recovery weeks" between the three main segments.  So obviously "Adaptation" is going to be the easiest, helping us build up to things like "90 mile bike ride followed immediately by 10 mile run with a break after 6 hours"....HAHA I don't even understand that, that is how crazy that sounds!! I don't even get to SLEEP for more than 6 hours often enough, so there's that to add in to my bewilderment.

Within each daily workout, there are also three different levels: Age Group, Elite and Pro.  I am going to try and stick with Elite/Pro for as long as I can/as long as I feel comfortable doing so, especially for the swim, as the Age Group swim is definitely too easy for me, but I'll adjust the run/bike as the distance/time begins to build. 

Run, Sasha, Run!!

Today's workout for the Elite/Pro is a 45/50 minute timed run, with some sprints thrown in mid-way, and an ab session afterword.  One thing I like about the plan is that it forces me to do some strength work that I would never do otherwise.  As I've said before on this blog, Amanda loooves to lift weights/has to keep up a certain level of base strength for her Army fitness tests, etc., whereas I am happy to stick with push ups/squats/carrying Sasha around and telling her what a wiggle worm she is.  I don't see that listed as a workout in the plan, ha, but I may have her join me for those springs today out in the park! She is a speedster!

Staying on track in the cold

While Amanda dominated her training this weekend, I was not quite as adept as she at getting out on that unexpectedly warm Sunday and doing a brick.  I had committed to doing a 12 mile run come hell or high water, and so that's what I did, and carried a fleece beanie in my hand the whole time, since I didn't realize how warm it was until I was a few miles in.

And then as soon as the warmth was here, it was gone.  It is now a balmy 22 degrees here in Brooklyn, and due to some work commitments, I wasn't able to do my usual Monday-night swim with my NYAC teammates, but got in a solid 90 minutes on the trainer and was as aggressive as I have ever been on the trainer, workout and interval-repeat wise.  Thank goodness I have some old seasons of Project Runway downloaded on to my laptop and Sasha was zonked out after chasing some squirrels that must have been low on nuts earlier this afternoon (why else would they leave their warm dens and venture out in this cold!?), so I didn't start to get bored after an hour.

Now that Amanda and I have MATCHING Cervelos, we are comparing notes on some random fit issues and how it feels to be in aero and shifting up and down from that position.  I still feel like I have to yank it when I am in the highest/lowest gears...or else my finger flicks just aren't strong enough yet! 

This guy is becoming my steady companion now that the temperature is in the mid-20's!

Also, I don't have a bike computer installed yet on my Cervelo (Amanda is bringing me one this weekend when she comes to visit me in NYC for the half-marathon on Sunday, yay!), so I don't know how many miles or RPMs, but I know deep down when I'm falling off my cadence and did my damnedest not to fall off when in the higher gears or getting tired in the later intervals.

Here was my workout:

20 minute warmup

10 x 30 seconds hard in high gear, 30 seconds rest, low gear

3 minute recovery/easy spin, 2 minute build back up

10 x 1 minute hard in high gear, 1 minute rest, low gear

5 minute recover/easy spin/back stretch-out

15 minute strong, keeping cadevnce steady in a higher/harder gear.  Not so hard I'm over-gearing, but 1/2 gears below.  Still high enough though that it is tough to maintain my cadence after a few minutes.

5 minute recovery

5 x 20 seconds fast spin, 40 recovery

10 minutes steady, 5 minute cool-down.

I was really burning in the ol' thighs at the end, and I'll defintiely need to get some new ideas (and a computer) as I try and up it to 2 hours.  I have a feeling it will be a while until it is warm-enough again for me to bike outside, so will have to content myself with the trainer, and hopefully I can get a session in early in the morning (when my husband is also awake, as it is loud enough that it would wake him up in our apartment) and then a run during the afternoon, before it gets dark/too cold. 

Swimming, biking and lots of running

The freakishly warm weekend allowed both me and Amanda to take our bikes back outside.  She was quite ballsy and cranked out 50 miles!  I stuck with Prospect Park loops ad nauseam, combined with some runs afterwords, but during the riding portions in the park, I really tried to become more and more comfortable in aero on my Cervlo, which was easier said than done, since the park was relatively crowded due to the warm-ish day, and I kept popping back up in to the break bars, worried about random people running out in front of me, etc. but I kept at it loop after loop, and really tried to stay in them, especially for the one big hill, to get used to shifting in that position and as Amanda discovered on her ride, too, having to truly use just your legs in isolation.

Hold that position!

On my runs I felt great, but was not logging in more than 5 miles on any of them, and what with a half marathon coming up in just two weeks, tomorrow I am doing two loops in Central Park no matter what! I don't want to loose the great run conditioning I built up training for the NYC marathon, and so it will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow on that second loop and then I can gauge what I need to do between now and the 27th a bit better.  Amanda and I both plan on running this half marathon "tired" but we're anal enough that we want to do it well, too, and not just struggle through it!

Today, I was back in the pool with the NYAC tri club for our weekly swim workout, for a total of 3,000 which felt great, but I plan on limiting my swimming to just these Mondays so that I can keep focusing on building up my running and of course the biking, which will be mostly on the trainer now that the weather is going back to chilly, but once it starts to warm up, off to Nyak and 9W I will need to go! 

Pacework on a crammed schedule

I was hoping to take advantage of the warm day yesterday to log in at least 8, perhaps even 10 miles in Central Park, but since people would not. stop. calling. me. (or screwing up what they were supposed to have completed two days ago for that matter) I was WAY behind schedule and had dinner plans but was determined to get a run in and had left my gear at NYAC (near central park) on purpose.  By the time I got out of the office, up to NYAC, and changed, I had literally 30 minutes to run, and then 10 minutes to get back to the locker-room, change (no shower, just a towel-off), and be back outside getting on the subway. 

Quick like a Bunny! But not a morning pug (or person for that matter)

Sadly, the 6 mile loop is not possible for me in 30 minutes...if it were, I would be happily living large off my endorsements!  But could I bang out 4? Off I go (sans hat so I wouldn't get my hair sweaty and thus hide the fact that I had not showered once at dinner....vanity! vanity!), pounding it out as fast as I could. 

'Round the loop I go, and holding steady 7:25 pace, wheeling back through the doors of NYAC and into the locker room with almost a minute to spare.  How a four-mile hard factors in to my over all Iron Man training scheme I'll never know, but sometimes it is all about the small victories and just getting something, anything, in when the real world is closing in around you.  Plus, even though I was definitely pushing my pace, I still felt in control the entire time and never like I was about to die or fall severely off.  

And yet, while this is all very well and good, it just reinforces the notion that once I hit the start of my formal training plan at around the 7 month mark, all workouts must be taken care of in the morning during the week, with few exceptions.  There is just too much that crops up during the day that encroaches on a late-afternoon/p.m. workout, especially once I factor in travel time and the fact that my actual workout time is going to get longer and longer.   Time to start getting in better habits now!  I am NOT a morning person, so there will be some grumpiness in the future, but nothing coffee can't fix.  You'd think that all those years of early-morning swim practices since the age of 15 would have fixed this, but I actually think it has made me crave sleeping in even MORE!

Choosing a training plan

After a lovely and much-needed Christmas holiday, Amanda and I are ready to start the New Year off with a bang!

I did some biking, running and even an outdoor swim over the holiday.  I was down in Richmond visiting the husband's family and their club has an outdoor heated pool--heaven!! I miss swimming outside so much...it is the one thing I can't get in NYC and the fact that it was the middle of December and only crazy people desire to swim outside in such conditions, it meant I had the entire pool to myself.  I logged in 3,000, even doing 10 X 100 of intervals/1:20 pace/1:15 for the last few, so thrilled was I with my outdoor solitude.  100's of any multiple more than 5 was something I had swore I'd leave behind in college (along with 200's of butterfly), but I was feeling spry, and the opportunity to have an empty pool on a winter's day all to myself won't come again for quite some time!

Now, the time has begun for Amanda and me to find a training plan and schedule out the upcoming ten months.  It sounds crazy, but with our respective schedules in the real world (school, work, travel, family obligations, etc.) along with the other races we plan to do in the summer, the further out we can plan our training, especially long rides, I figure the better-off we will be in terms of sanity and making sure we are prepared to perform to the best of our abilities come November.

Does any one recommend a particular Iron Man training plan?  We are both of a relatively high fitness level.  I've run marathons before and we've both competed in almost a dozen Olympic races between us.  I personally feel comfortable with the longer runs, leftover from my marathon training earlier this autumn.  I want to especially focus on my bike endurance--both time in the saddle and just being able to run off the bike effectively.   I prepared to integrating doubles back in to my life...shades of college and high school swimming all over again!

This is one free training plan I found online, but welcome recommendations in the comments!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=441

And then a few other options on Training Peaks for a fee of course:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/what-are-you-training-for/triathlon-ironman-training-plans.aspx

Will be exciting to take the next steps!