Turbo sprints and week 5 update!

Week 5 of our IronMan training schedule is almost drawing to a close, and as indicated by the fact that neither Amanda nor I have posted since week 3, one might deduce that the past 2 weeks have been a bit intense/scattered.  I know she's swamped with all sorts of crazy tests, and well, there is always something with work--the peril of running your own company with your husband....you're the ones left holding the bag for anything and everything!

But I actually have had a solid two weeks of training, riding a bike OUTSIDE (shock of shocks) twice and getting some solid swims and even a mini brick in Easter Monday.  I deviated from the formal training plan a bit, but worked out everyday and was consistent if nothing else.  This week I've followed the plan a bit more closely, and did turbo sprints on my trainer today for the first time.  Once I move my bike back up to NYAC and out of Brooklyn (likely this weekend if the weather holds) that will be the end of the trainer for a while, so this trainer session may likely be by last, and it was a doozy. 

I have had complete bird legs my entire life (and so does most of my family, including my father, brother and my other sister...Amanda thinks she doesn't but I think she does, just not compared to the rest of us), and so while speed work isn't necessarily an obvious part of IronMan training, like building an extreme aerobic base, building overall leg strength is something I'm desperate for, and if it gets me even 30 seconds or a minute faster per mile, when multiplied by 112, that's a lot of minutes!

Here's the workout.  It doesn't sound like much on paper, but in practice, damn.  4 minutes is a loooong time.  Those seconds ticking down on my watch crawled by slower and slower in direct proportion to how badly by legs were burning!

15 minute warm up

I might have had my last day with you!

1 minute sprint (more than 100 RPM for all sprints....I tried to keep it in the highest gear I could while maintaining spin speed...and boy does the bike computer keep you honest)
2 minute steady recovery....higher RPM than warm up spin
2 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
3 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
4 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
4 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
3 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
2 minute sprint
2 minute steady recovery
1 minute sprint
10 minute cool down spin

I was dying! I was dying after the first 2 minute sprint, haha, and sweating like crazy. Grunting too, it was super cute.  Sasha came in periodically to check on my to see what all the fuss was about.  She's now learned that when I'm on the trainer, bringing me her favorite tug toy won't work (sad) but rather, she just comes in and checks or stares at me with a glum curiosity until I'm done.  And then she goes and gets her tug toy. 

Swim, bike, run, but not in that order...

As Amanda mentioned in her previous post, we both really fell off the wagon last week with our moves/study schedule/general life madness.  I couldn't even pop out for a quick run last week because I couldn't find my shoes or sports bras! I wore the same socks for three days, ha, but at least Sasha's toys were packed on top so she wouldn't be too traumatized by the chaos around us.

The most precious commodity of all!

That said, Monday was the start of a new leaf, and I had already scheduled in a swim with some of the NYAC folks, but was also dying to get out there and run, as the weather was half-decent, so I did a 6 mile run in Central Park and THEN the swim workout, which was surreal to say the least.  We used to always run then swim in the morning in college, but I wasn't running much due to residual injuries from a broken leg, and also, when I was finally back up and running, I had the benefit of youth.  No small thing to take into account, I am realizing!

Anyway, I actually felt good during the run (probably because I was so RESTED), but when I jumped in the pool, I literally felt like I weighed 700 pounds! It was a struggle to get "up" on top of the water and gain any sort of speed, but about halfway it finally picked back up, phew. Not that swimming after running is anything relevant for the Ironman per say, but being able to transition your body from one thing to the other is a key element, even if it is in reverse order!

Yesterday, I finally got my trainer set up in the new place and popped the bike up on that for about an hour.  Now that hurt! I was sore as could be this morning, but our training plan begins in earnest 3/1, so I guess I should get used to the feeling!  Amanda and I are settling on a formal plan in the next few days or so for the "8-month-out" marker.  Crazy!

Alpine training and rentry

While Amanda was being a dutiful granddaughter and flying across the country to see our grandparents (I am going in March/April), I was being a decadent newlywed with the husband and taking an impromptu trip to Austria.  We had cashed in all of our American Express points and got two tickets to Vienna, which for me, is the city of joy.  It's purely subjective, but "to me, it is perfect," to crib off of "Love Actually."  Don't get me wrong, I love New York, and London, Paris, Saint Petersburg, are all fantastic, but Vienna has this strange combination of being a manageable size, not too crowded, aesthetically beautiful, filled with history, and the music is right up my ally.  I'm a huge classical music nerd, from Opera to symphony, to string quartets (in Mozart's house, natch) and solo piano, with a bit of ballet tossed in for flavor, it was all within walking distance from our hotel.  Heaven!

The hillllls are alive!

And it isn't like I couldn't get all of that in NYC, but you just don't, because wherever you live in your real life, you're too busy doing all the things that accompany real life (work, laundry, family obligations, social obligations, TRAINING), but when on a mini vacation, you can! So we did.  And it was perfect! I would do runs around the Ringstrasse, around the Opera House and Hapsburg palaces by day, with some museum-ing after lunch, and then shower, nap and music in the evening.  This is why it is my city of joy!

One thing that put a bit of a damper in my Viennese jaunt was the fact that after a few days in Vienna we were scheduled to go into the Alps for skiing.  Skiing is my nemesis.  I stink at it, am terrified to death of it (hence the stinking, and then therefore more fear, etc. etc.), and the knee on the leg that I broke a few years ago has always been a bit wobbly.  It's never given me any problems running, but it is just a bit unstable when it comes to sudden side-to-side movements or something, and will pop out and then pop back in.  It hurts like crazy, and can happen at the weirdest times (once it happened while I was jumping up during a funny picture), and so I was skittish about it happening on skis with the IronMan on the horizon, as one day, it is going to pop out and not go back in.

I love these babies!

But when we got to Saint Christophe, the conditions were insane! And they don't groom their slopes in Europe, and after 3 days of non-stop, white-out snow, the hubs said that it was going to be way to hard for me to ski...he could barely manage, and he's good! So we went snow shoe-ing, which was AWESOME! The Alps are so gorgeous, and this way, I could actually enjoy them instead of sweating buckets of fear, AND get a good cardio workout in the process! The snow was almost up to my waist, so snow shoeing was quite challenging, and also the lack of skiing meant I would just hang out in the "Fitness Center" and do runs on the treadmill (shorter ones, since the altitude would kill me after about 5K), and then lots of pushups, squats, lunges, and knee/joint strengthening exercises, and the like.  I was as sore as a mofo afterwords--and by the end, my lungs felt strong!

When I got back to NYC/sea level, I went for a seven mile run and felt great, despite being on a plane for the entire day prior, and now it is back in the saddle for real.  I had essentially one last big romantic trip and now my main relationship will probably be with my bike for the next eight months. And one thing this did reinforce for me is to keep up the "dryland"/strength training for the ol' joints on the side in addition to focusing on the aerobic base.

Race recovery

To echo Amanda's latest post, we had a great, if extremely cold, half-marathon on Sunday! I was quite pleased with our 8:10/mile pace, and while I was definitely sore yesterday and this morning, I learned from Amanda that I can be a bit more aggressive with my out-going pace on longer runs that I have been.  I tend to start them out very conservatively and then when I am halfway, start to turn it on, but I can clearly be more aggressive, as I felt like I was really moving for the first 6 miles on Sunday, and was able to still finish strong, as we almost even-split the race.  Truth be told, some of that might have been due to the cold.  I have a feeling our first mile was the slowest, as by the time the gun went off, even though we had only been waiting around from 10-15 minutes, my toes were truly NUMB.

Not us.

But as far as pacing goes, Amanda is the opposite, or at least so she says.  She tends to take it out too aggressively and really die at the end, so us racing together was a good learning experience for us both! I think a lot of my soreness is from the mini fartlek's we were doing in the beginning to zip around people, as well as all the clenching we did in the beginning at at the end of the race as we scooted back to our room at NYC, clutching our space blankets, bagels and frozen apples.  Also, I didn't hydrate very much during the race, since the water was ice water (or frozen) and I didn't want to get my already freezing hands wet! Or my face! I was really jealous of all the people who had those big balaclavas over their faces.  I brought a neck gaiter to wear in the beginning, but ended up taking it off after 4 miles, as then I was just getting sweaty on my neck while still being cold everywhere else!

After the race, I swam a bit with the hubs (like, about 500 yards verrry slowly) and then got in the hot tub and sauna for a bit to stretch and continue warming back up.  I did a real swim with the NYAC tri club on Monday night, which felt great and definitely helped move any last bit of soreness out of my legs.  Today, I was a bit stiff in the morning when I woke up in my calves but did a nice hour-long spin on the trainer.   I did some interval work, and then some serious stretching afterwords.  I think I will be 100% tomorrow and ready to keep back at it! I think Amanda and I will have a great running base built up by the time the weather gets warm and we can kick it in to gear with the biking, which is going to be our biggest hurdle for the Iron Man, as it is definitely our weakest link of the three, and also the longest segment by FAR.   If we can drop in 15-18+ mile runs no problem by early spring time, I feel like we'll be in great shape to start building up our base on the rides, and focus on running off the bike, too.

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. 

Did 12 miles in the park today...

...not bad for a Tuesday, and then I even met our library rep for a beer. I hogged the entire bowl of "bar popcorn" but whatever.  I felt great on the run! Even tried to negative split it.  The hardest part of the whole thing was honestly the fact that my HANDS were FREEZING after the first 15 minutes, and I was already wearing gloves AND mittens!

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! 

I can still swim!

I love it when I manage to surprise myself! After a much more hedonistic weekend than I had planned (including going out on a SUNDAY to a NYC chef/sommelier party that one of my writers was a part of), I was slightly dreading a group swim with some of my NYAC tri club teammates, secretly wishing I could enjoy the solitude of a solo plop 'n flop.

Wow-wee!

But I am glad I pulled my finger out and rallied, as one of the guys that showed up is also a former college swimmer, and after a warm up and kick set, we did 300, 200, 100 twice on 1:15 pace, first round swim, second round pull.  Doesn't seem like much, but let me tell you, I haven't done anything on 1:15 page is YEARS.   Probably not since my first year our of Princeton! Ha! I didn't think I had it in me, but I guess I am in better shape than I thought, perhaps thanks to not letting my marathon conditioning on the run flag or that dang trainer, which is both my best friend and nemesis these past few weeks!

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-to-high 40's, so a run will be in order, but in the meantime, when I do get back in the pool I need to be better about challenging myself a bit more on my intervals!

No Patreaus sightings, alas!

Spies!

Mixing up my usual run-route, in which I either hit the W&OD trail on foot instead of bike (which is sometimes discouraging, because all I can think at every land mark is "Aw man, I'm only HERE" versus on the bike), or else two trail runs near our house, I decided to hug Georgetown Pike coming out of my parent's neighborhood and run out to the CIA and back.  The foot path runs along the periphery of my old high-school (where our 4-peat Virginia State wins for the swim team are still listed on the outside brick, booyakasha!), all the way out to the CIA, where I can't help but voyeur through the barbed-wire fence and eyeball all the security cameras. 

The guards are probably rolling their eyes at me loping along, but I couldn't help smiling "back" at them as I envision General Patreaus and Paula Broadwell (or whomever) taking their "runs" along this same route.  For some strange, voyeuristic reason, I was OBSESSED with that story when it first broke.  It was all so weird and just plain silly in some respects, and sad too, especially for both of their respective spouses. 

But back to the task at hand.  The run is about 8 miles and I tried to hold it to sub-8 minute mile pace, although that was easier said than done come the end, as my legs were definitely getting tired and wobbly, no doubt due from the impromptu long ride the other day.  I probably won't be taking many more long rides before Christmas due to some traveling, and I can't go swimming for at least a week because of a scratch on the inside of my eye (ouch!) and chlorine is a no-no,  so there will be a lot of running in the next few days.  I'm hoping to get a true long run in prior to Christmas, between 14-15 miles, perhaps even tomorrow, since right now, my legs feel pretty fresh.  It is almost as if the run helped shake out some of the lactic acid/kinks from my ride.  Perhaps I'll try for along the Potomac.  I'm sure to have some sort of gossip-politico sighting there!

Animal of the run part II

I am very jealous of Amanda's cats and kittens sightings during her very impressive long run.  My animal sightings in NYC can range from none whatsover, to very cute and smiley dogs, to squirrels, which I instinctively stare at nowadays since I am always dragged along towards them whenever I am with Sasha, although a few times in Central Park I have seen several raccoons (in the twilight hours) and the odd bunny.   I suppose I see a lot of horses too from those wretched carriages that I am still surprised are legal, but I just feel sorry for them and then feel like I have gritty teeth for the remainder of my run/ride from the horse doots that are swept up into the air from passing cars.

Run! There is a trashcan full of hot dogs ahead!

I plan on going for a long run myself tomorrow.  Amanda, you will be my motivation! I don't think I am up to 15 miles yet.  Even though I trained for the NYC Marathon this year, my mileage has definitely fallen off since then and I think aiming for a solid 12 will be right on target! Otherwise, my feet will be too angry with me to handle high heels I plan on wearing to the publishing holiday shing-ding on the docket for Wednesday. Shallow, but such is life!

Weekend warrior

I had set three goals this weekend: work on this biography of ballerina Alicia Markova I am editing (amazing!) and get in a long run and long bike/trainer session, as the upcoming week is pretty crazy with work obligations during the day and after-hours.

Saturday was gloomy and gray but I was jonsin' for that long run, so logged in 10 miles around Brooklyn and over the Brooklyn Bridge and back.  Dang, it is WINDY up there! I usually stick to Prospect Park when trying to do long runs, but I don't want it to get too stale for me, so figured that on a less-than-ideal sightseeing/bridge walking day, the tourists would not be clogging the bridge up too much and I'd have some freedom to run it at a fairly quick clip.  While I was trying to hold a fairly steady lope of 8:30/mile, I tried to make sure I integrated a few speed bursts every 2 miles or so, setting my watch to beep every 17 minutes.

I am one of those runners that hold basically the same pace for a 5K as a 10K, and while that is great for me in a lot of ways as I increase my distance for the Ironman and has served me well in marathons, I won't get any faster in the end if I don't integrate a bit more speedwork.  I plan on signing up for a few mid-winter 5K's just to stay sharp.  Plus, every time I run with Amanda back home when we're at our parents house I hate when she schools me on a final sprint/kick! Additionally, while the ultimate goal of 2013 is this Arizona Ironman, I have at least two shorter triathlons on the dockett: the NYC Triathlon and a sprint up on Montauk with the hubs.

I am definitely a touch sore today from the run yesterday, and plan on having a good long spin on the trainer this afternoon to keep building up my aerobic base and get used to riding in aero.  I am still fiddling with my seat angle as I am still getting a bit of rubbage in some less-than-ideal spots when riding in aero, so good to address this now!

Good cycling training videos?

You'd better work!

Anybody have an recommendations? A drizzly and freezing-rain day in NYC today thwarted my plans for a run, so it was up on the trainer again for me, and while catching up on the episodes of Ru Paul's Drag Race that I missed was positively riveting (Raven was ROBBED) as I pedaled away, especially during the segments of Lip-Synch For Your Life, something a bit more conditioning and strength focused might be a good idea to have in the queue.   I welcome any suggestions!