Tulip's halfs

Half Ironman, Marathon, distance, future...

2011-12-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

OK, so last post back in October talking about bringing long runs back.Now we're well into December and I'm 217 miles further down the road, 19 training runs & 1 marathon race.The marathon training was a lot more enjoyable this time around. This whole distance thing is definitely settling in nicely in my legs. I'm sure some of it is due to taking more ice baths, but even during the long runs there is a lot less discomfort. The race itself was very enjoyable. First of all it was a very small marathon, the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon. A double loop around the lake in Baton Rouge, max 1000 runners. I ran comfortable from the start and managed to maintain a good pace all the way through mile 22. After that things started to get a little tough again, but with only 4 miles to go I can just grit my teeth and finish strong-ish... 4h29m finish, that's only 9 mins faster than the last marathon, but considering that I could actually drive home myself, and walk normal the day after... I think it was a major improvement!

So what's coming next?

Well first up is the Rouge-Orleans ultra relay in February. I did this race earlier this year as a six person relay, but the next one we're upping the ante and going for a three person relay. So double the milage, running roughly 42 miles each split up into five 6-9 mile sessions...

After that I don't have any firm plans, other than to keep my running mileage up (at least 20 miles during the weekends). I did my first weekend of that this week, running ~10 miles on both Saturday & Sunday, very easy pace. This will also help in my second goal for 2012 and that is to top 4000 miles. For 2011 I'm up to ~3550 miles, and considering that there were plenty of slow weeks this year...

I'm still toying with the idea of doing a full ironman distance in early 2013, but we'll see how the training progresses through 2012. I also have a ultra-distance trail run in sight for November of 2012, this would be a 50km trail run through Fountainebleau State Park.

2012 will be a true distance year :)

Long Runs are back :)

2011-10-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

First real long run as part of the my training for the Baton Rouge Marathon in December

Hot...

2011-07-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

Contrary to what the training log in the column to the right might show, I've not given up training.

Although I've not been swimming much since the last half Ironman, I have been keeping a pretty steady pace at training, with a moderate increase over the past two weeks. The real problem is running, running in the heat that is... The mean temp for the past month was 86°F or 30°C. No that's not the max temp, that's the mean daily temp... The average max was 94F/34C, the average low was 77F/25C, so it doesn't matter if you train early or late... it's either warm or it's hot... take your pick...

Now biking in the heat is manageable, just bring plenty to drink and just keep chucking along, the slight breeze from the speed helps to cool. I don't/can't run at speeds where there's actually enough air to move that would cool me down... so it's just hot... which brings my heart-rate up and as such speed down... sigh...

Couple more months of this and it'll start cooling down again...

Why? Because I can…

2011-03-07T18:46:00.001-08:00

Confidence is a wonderful thing.

I am confident in my physical capabilities, I know my limits, I know how far and hard I can push myself and where my comfort zone is…

So when a triathlon friend asks me if I would consider running 20 miles in 5 sections over a 21 hour period, I don’t need to think for very long… All I need to do is check the calendar and mark the date.

That’s what I did a couple weeks ago when a team that had signed up for had a runner forced to drop out. The race was the RougeOrleans Ultra Marathon. This trip goes from Baton Rouge to New Orleans following the Mississippi river for 126.2 miles as it winds down to the Gulf of Mexico. 300 runners took part, 34 as solo runners, the rest as 2, 3 or 6 person teams. The team I joined up with was a 6 person team.

So at 1.15pm (slight weather delay, including tornado reports and 3 inches of rain fall in certain areas) we took off, down river… The crazy part is that a whole bunch of runner already took off hours earlier. Some as early as 7pm the day before… So it turns out that only about 20 runners start. This makes for a bizarre start where the onlookers outnumber the runners by about 10:1… Most of the races I’ve done so far it’s usually more like 1 onlooker to 100 runners.

The first couple of legs are semi chaotic with a large number of people at each exchange, cheering each other on waiting for their runner to turn-up and change for the next. As the hours progressed and the weather was taking turns between dry & rain, and the teams started to spread out depending on how fast or slow they were the exchanges got calmer and calmer.

My first two runs were simply comfortable. The weather was perfect for me, low 60s (16°C), the wind was up there but manageable and I only got a little rain on the second run. After 4 days of pretty much no training at all my legs were well rested and turning over well.

The next two runs were in the middle of the night, I’ve done a few dark runs, but never in such isolated areas. If it weren’t for the sleep interruption I’d do all my long runs in those areas!! So peaceful, nothing but you and the path in front of you. Various types of small wildlife audible, lights in the distance and the occasional farm house and river factory. This is why I enjoy running!

Run 5 was supposed to be only 2.5 miles, but one of our runners had problems with her legs (running 20 miles is one thing, running it in 5 sections over a relative short space of time is a different thing all together) so I tacked on her last section of 4.4 miles onto it and turned my last run into an even 7 miles to the finish line…

This was also one of the most bizarre finish line runs I’ve ever done. For 6.8 miles I ran on the river levee, on a sunday morning pretty much empty apart from a few bikers, joggers & walker and even fewer ultra distance marathoners. The last 0.2 miles I ran on Magazine Street through hundreds of people, packed with cases of beer and rolling coolers, all walking towards the Mardi Gras Parade route that was about to start. The rest of team joined in for the last 100 yards and we all crossed the finish line after 21 hours and 14 minutes… 8th place (of 9) in our category, WOHOO!!!

Thanks team “Dude, where’s my van?”!! It was an experience to remember…

Things I learned from this experience:

I can run 24 miles spread out over ~21 hours
I understand the attraction of ultra marathons (“uh oh…”)
99% of people don’t understand ultra marathoners
Marathon bars are awesome
I can still stay up for 30+ hours and not completely fall apart (yeah OK, I have no recollection of putting my book down or turning my light off, as my wife did that for me)

Again? Yes definitely, maybe not solo, but I’m seriously looking into a 3 man team next year… 42 miles in 24 hours? bring it…

First Month, Big Month

2011-02-03T21:19:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you just shouldn’t think too much about training… Just get out there and enjoy yourself!

All too often I hear people with a training goal in mind complain about the training. I believe a lot of people forget that with a distance event a large part of training required is in your brain not in your body… If you cannot enjoy being on the move for the time you’ll be out there for whatever goal event you settled on then, well, don’t expect to enjoy the event.

Training for a half ironman takes up plenty of free time, like with any other hobby, if you don’t enjoy spending time on it, then well find a different hobby…

I wasn’t really thinking too much about how much training I was doing, I just put a bunch of classes (spinning, core, strength) into my schedule. That added to the usual schedule of a couple of runs, the Wednesday morning ride and the long ride/run on Saturday all of a sudden added up to:

48h13m of training
50.000+ calories burned
477 miles / 763 km on the road (bike & run combined)

That was January 2011

To compare: last year my biggest training month was February with 301 miles.

Ironman, here I come…

Picking it up

2011-01-09T15:22:00.001-08:00

So over the past two weeks I’ve been increasing the training a fair bit. The distance stuff is pretty constant but I’ve added a lot more strength type training to the schedule. The triathlon club where I work out has finally started to put some good classes together, and I’m now doing bootcamp 1-2x per week and TRX every other week, and a spin class per week as well.

The spin class is mainly to get my cadence up on the bike. I’m not turning the pedals fast enough, and according to the coach increasing my average rpm on the bike will improve my run after. In coach we trust, so spinning it is (good thing that it’s there’s a bunch of triathletes there who also prefer to actually go somewhere when on a bike).

This weekend I ran in the Jackson day race. This is a the 4th oldest race in the US, it follows the path a bunch of soldiers ran way back when to protect the city from the British back in 1815. It’s been run every year, with a few rare exception, since 1907.

It’s a point to point race, so every year a bunch of people (myself included) park close to the finish line and then run to the start line, then turn around and run the actual race. Good way to get a long run on a Sunday as the course is 5.6miles or 9km long. The weather report showed 100% chance of rain, but that must have been really light rain…

Did an easy run out to the start line (9m50s mile pace) and then ran negative splits all the way back to the finish line (averaging 8m47s pace).

Tomorrow morning I’m taking off, and then it’s back in the pool in the evening…

The third half…

2010-12-19T09:39:00.001-08:00

Half marathon that is. About 6 weeks ago I figured I wasn’t running enough so I signed up for Ole Man River half marathon. I picked the distance running back up and started doing some tempo work as well (run fast for medium distances). During my last tempo run I managed to keep an 8m30s mile pace, this put my personal best of a 1h58m55s within reach…

So here’s how it went:

Basically went out a little too fast, but managed to recover without letting the pace drop too much from mile 3 to 6, after that I felt really good so I decide to see if I could run negative splits the rest of the way… at mile 10 my average pace had dropped back down to 9m1s/mile so I was well on my way. Once the last mile marker passed I knew that I would make it comfortably although my HR was starting to max out, but who cares, I know I can run at max HR for at least 5-6 miles at that pace (that’s what the pace work is good for)

Finish time 1h57m43s… Nice

Back from never having left...

2010-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Well hello there blog!

It's not that I haven't been training at all over the past months. According to my trusted Garmin I've covered 1100 miles in 68h34m over 46 workouts, not counting the swimming and some other miscelaneous workouts where I either didn't bring the Garmin or forgot to charge it before hand.

Next race is a half marathon on the 19th, I started my long runs 3 weeks ago and the distance is there. The speed not so much, so I've started tempo-runs again. Basically medium distance continuous runs where you just push the speed constantly:

As it was nice and cool (low 50s F, or ~10C), I got into a nice stride and managed to steadily increase my pace throughout the run. Felt great, who knows if the weather stays like this I might be able to get close to two hours again for the half...

After that the training officially commences for the half Ironman again... WOHOO!

Travelling

2010-05-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

I did actually manage to get out of bed early on Thursday, another run/swim/run in the books... A few runners and bikers on the road, but I had the lake all to myself.

Since friday I've been out traveling, first to San Jose to meet up with my friend Andy and his family. There was 4 years of catching up to do, so there was a lot of talking while we took in the sights of San Fransisco and areas. Yesterday I flew back to Phoenix for a 3 day conference.

When it comes to training these kind of weeks can be difficult, especially if you struggly keeping a routine to start with. This might disrupt your normal workout routine and when you get home again it can be difficult to pick the regular routine back up.

This is where discipline kicks in, and a need to remind yourself why you are training...

When traveling I check out the options before. In this case the hotel has a simple lap pool, so swimming gear comes along, and that's probably all I'll do for these few days.

Remember that when you're on holiday and playing tourist that you tend to walk a lot more than on a normal working day. Walking counts as training, eventhough you might not see it as a training session, you are moving...

AM training

2010-05-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

The first time since the race that I got out of bed early to go train, today was time for the first real bike ride. Out to Venetian Isle and back with the GNO-Tri group.

It was pretty windy on the way out, I stuck with the front group of about 15 riders that started to push the pace. They turned around after about 15 miles and only 3 of us kept on going. We condsidered waiting for the slower group to catch up but decided to see how it went... Pretty good actually, the wind was fairly constant so you're not constantly adjusting. We managed to keep 16mph average on the way out, the ride home was nice, the sun was starting to warm up but the breeze was cool so we could cruize at a nice 23 mph all the way home...

As we've got family from Sweden visiting for two weeks I'll be planning most of my training for the morning... It's been a while since I did my last weekday morning workout... we'll see if I can actually get out of bed tomorrow am for a swim.

Still slow, but design is final...

2010-05-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

The shadow is going to be a shade of gray instead of black, but other than that, this is what the final design is...

This week has been another slow training week, the usual post-race-lack-of-motivation. Did some weights & abs training on Tuesday and on Wednesday I ran from the club to the swimhole, swam half a mile and ran back again, followed by a chat and a burger at the club. It's funny, 3miles of running & a half mile swim is nothing anymore. Three years ago I would have been wiped out by that...

Tulip's Halfs version 2.0

2010-04-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

So here we are, exactly a week later...

Updated the header of the blog to reflect the future of my endevours.

It's interesting, when mentioning that I'm considering doing a full nobody tells me I'm insane anymore. I'm thinking 2 options:

1. Everybody's given up on telling me (just agree with the crazy person)

2. Everybody actually thinks it's a good idea

The only question I get about the schedule is why wait that long? Even the Missus asked that question...

hmmm...

OK so here's a tentative V2.0 of the schedule as well:

Autumn 2010 - Olympic distance Alabama
Spring 2011 - Olympic Distance New Orleans, Volunteer for NOLA 70.3 & do NOLA 70.3
Autumn 2011 - Augusta, Georgia 70.3
Winter 2011/12 - Another Marathon
Summer 2012 - Ironman Canada

Summary & post race week

2010-04-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

So over the past few days I've eaten all the crap food I've minimised eating for the few weeks leading up to last sunday's half Ironman... pizza, icecream, apple pie, chips, beer, you name it I've had over the past few days :)

Training wise all I did was a very relaxed swim in the lake, half a mile lap, get out, dry up in the sun, go home... nice

Oh, here's what you need to do to get ready for a half ironman in one year:

Distance: 1563.69 Miles
Time: 206hrs
Energy: 131039 kCal

(that amount of calories will keep 60W light bulb burning for about 100 days uninterupted)

The last turn…

2010-04-20T20:14:00.001-07:00

At 69.8 miles, that's where all the effort just seems to disappear, putting one foot in front of the other becomes truly automatic and your body doesn't mind to speed up. It actually savors the sudden boost.

It's the last turn, no more corners, just one straight line down to the finish line, the crowds become thicker, and everybody is cheering you on whether or not they know you.

I know that the feeling comes from that last injection of adrenaline. In combination with a whole load of endorphins already present that last boost makes you feel euphoric, like you could just turn around and do it again. This is addictive, feeling this good and knowing that you have put yourself into this state is so good that it's hard to describe. Joy, exuberance, euphoria, you know it when you feel it...

A year ago I was wondering how to start and finish a 70.3 mile journey? 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run, all in one day, all just using the power contained in your own body derived from the food & drink you nourish yourself with.

The answer is pretty simple: with a lot of training

So after 200+ training hours I jumped in that lake and just didn't stop until I crossed that line at Jackson Square...

During the stretch down Esplanade Avenue, before making the last turn, I was going over how this race differed from my first marathon that I ran back in January. The amount of pain & discomfort I was in then, compared to how great both my legs & head felt. The main differences were obvious in retrospect:

Mental attitude, the marathon appeared much more of a struggle then the half Ironman did. If you think it's harder it will likely feel harder...
Rest, my resting strategy before the half Ironman was much much better, my body appears to need total rest the few days leading up to a big race.
Nutrition, during the Marathon I think I did not take in enough electrolytes.
Pacing, this made the biggest difference. Once I was 12 miles into the bike ride I adjusted my speed & pace so that my pulse never got above 165. I know that once I hit 170+ I get into the anaerobic zone, and that's where the pain is...

I had to wait over an hour after the Pro's hit the water before my age group started, in that hour I got to see the Pro's coming out of the water (27-28 minutes). I also saw the first few people being boated back to shore. Their race over before it really got started. Mentally the swim is the most difficult part of the race for most. I'm lucky enough to have been born & raised with a complete lack of fear for open water.

This makes for a comfortable start, and this mental relaxation ensure you come out of the water ready for hitting the bike without a racing heart. I got kicked in the head twice, pushed & shoved a little around the turns, a couple of gulps of water instead of air as the water was a lot choppier than what it looked initially... but my head stays calm.

It goes something like this: Stroke stroke, Kick in the head, ouch, stroke, breathe, stroke stroke stroke, breathe gulp of water from wave instead, spit, stroke, breathe, stroke stroke stroke... you get the picture... just switch back to that basic pattern that you learned in the pool, three strokes & a breath, over and over and over again. It's Zen-like...

Transition One is organised chaos, while running the last 10 meters in shallow water, unzip wetsuit, strip down top half, off with cap & goggles, run over beach, through chute into transition area. An available stripper, sweet!, sit down, lift legs, swoosh, wetsuit gets stripped off, grab wetsuit from stripper, "THANKS!", run to bike, sip of fluid, spit (get rid taste of lake water), sip of fluid, swallow, watch on, towel face clean, compression socks on, bike shoes on, sunglasses on, helmet on (close & check strap), stuff nutrition in shirt pockets, race belt with number on, grab bike, run to bike exit, run past mount-line, get on bike, left shoe clip, right shoe clip, press start on watch, GO!

The bike ride was AWESOME! At mile 10 I noticed my heart rate started to creep up, I was averaging 19mph at that point mainly because there was a whole bunch of people cramped together on the bike. So I was pushing to get past them and find a good clear space to ride comfortably. Started to back of a little and a mile later I was at a heart rate of 158 and cruising at 18.5mph... SWEET! I stuck to my predetermined schedule of eating something every 3 miles until mile 45 and drinking small sips every 2 all the way

At mile 50 I was still at a HR of 155-160 with no problems in my legs, this is where you notice the pay-off from training. Almost 3.5hrs into the race and still feeling great! So here's the only point where I did not stick to my plan for the race. There are two bridges, one at mile ~51 and the other about 2 miles further. The plan was to just ease over them, let the legs spin no speed... Well there were soooo many people on both bridges that did not know how to use their gears... gaaahhhh!!!! You paid $$$ for those gears, USE THEM!!! Sooo I drop an extra gear start spinning at 90+rpm and floated past all these riders that are in way to high gears for an incline... There's no need to stand up on your pedals, just stay down on your bars, use the gears and keep your cadence...

Anyhow, after making the last few turns back towards transition... unclick right shoe, leg over saddle, role towards dismount line, unclick left, start running into transition... Helmet off, empty cold water bottle over head, nutrition Gu's into shirt pockets, bike shoes off, fresh pair of socks, running shoes on, turn race belt so number faces forward, set watch to run mode, GO!

Now we’re really on our way home… No more transitions, just find that comfortable pace and don’t let it go until you cross that line.

3 miles in, heart rate 163, check, legs good, shoulders relaxed, hey there’s Monte (61yrs, also on his first half IM). “Monte, looking good!!!”. Monte’s always got time for a big smile, just keep going.

Mile 6, heart rate 162, check, legs still good, shoulders relaxed, got a perfect routine down now when it comes to drinking and icing. This year they had ice water sponges on the course, this made all the difference for me with my performance in hot weather.

Mile 6.8, during these triathlons you get the habit of looking at people’s left calves, it’s where your race age is written. At this point I notice the number 80…

Yes, you read correctly 80, eight zero, eighty, 8 decennia. I had to look her up afterwards and here are her stats:

gender place:
315 out of 400

time:
7:13:17

swim:
50:21

bike:
3:22:47

run:
2:44:17

She was faster than 85 other women, most of them half her age, she was the oldest person out there, the oldest man was 71 and she beat him by 47 minutes!!

THAT, ladies and gentlemen is what this sport is about! Don’t let a little thing like age get in the way… Forget age group winners, forget pros, this woman from Spokane Washington is my real motivation…

Wow, but back to running…

After 8 miles my heart rate had actually lowered down to 156 despite a level pace. I considered trying to up the pace a little, only to throw the idea straight out again. I had a steady comfortable pace, leave it alone…

Mile 10, wow, really? 10? yeah, still chugging along, this feels like the swim now, almost Zen like, I’m there in that comfortable zone where you feel like you could go on forever… I know this is deceptive, but hey there’s only 3 miles to go…

Watch the slowly increasing crowds, a cup of Gatorade at the last water station, cup of ice down the back of my shirt, dump the last sponge, and the last mile has started. I come up to one guy, walking (36 on calf), head down… I say: “Come on, head up, let’s get this mile”. He turns his head, smiles, starts running, and we stay side by side. Shortly after a girl (24 on calf) blows past us at something like an 8min mile pace. My new found running companion says “I really hope she’s part of a relay”, to which I respond “otherwise she really needs to work on her biking”. We laugh and just keep running at our own pace (yes I looked her up afterwards, yes she was part of a relay).

And then there it is, the last turn. Half mile of building up bliss later and I see Ulrika, Kodi & Demetra on the side line by the finish line.

There it was, 70.3 miles in 6 hours 10 minutes… time to put my feet up on the sofa, pizza, couple of beers… and then sleep, beautiful sleep…

While resting...

2010-04-15T13:24:00.001-07:00

Your mind starts to work on other stuff again…
Like a long term plan!
Autumn 2010 - Olympic distance Alabama
Spring 2011 - Olympic Distance New Orleans, Volunteer for New Orleans 70.3
Autumn 2011 - Augusta, Georgia 70.3
Spring 2012 - New Orleans 70.3
Winter 2012 - Another Marathon
Spring 2013 - New Orleans 70.3
Summer 2014 - Ironman Canada
And maybe a few 'local' sprint tri's just for the hell of it now and then...

2014-2015 ?

2010-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

140.6 miles... 17 hour time limit, hmmm...

Off topic...

2010-04-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

so here goes despite the conflict with nr1 & nr2. Thanks Pernilla... sigh...

50 Truths about Tulip:

don't like lists
can't say no to a challenge
is all about 90% done, the details someone else can take care of
exception to 3 is in graphics work where I can pick at details for 90% of the work time
loves cold
dislikes heat but has his heart set on being able to keep a good running pace in it
will complete a full Ironman someday
considers Sweden a good country to retire in
needs to get back into Skydiving
doesn't understand why people think they can't learn more languages
doesn't believe in the treatment of child abusers
does believe in the treatment of child abuse victims
thinks too much effort is being put in 11, and not enough in 12
hates american chocolate (Hersheys is sugar not chocolate!!)
thinks Swedish chocolate is OK
knows Dutch chocolate is well above average
considers Lindt to be the best chocolate in the world
laughs at people who blame their obesity on their genes
wonders what it would feel like to weigh twice as much, but will never find out
considers biking 100k in the morning and then going for a run a form of relaxation
considers jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at 12000ft an even better form of relaxation
wants to sit on the top of a mountain again, preferably in the company of his dad
now definitely knows there's no such thing as a perfect health care system
will never give up coffee
will never give up alcohol (well pre-race week I will)
will never give up chocolate
will probably never make up his mind entirely about the death penalty, but does believe that life-in-prison should be just that, and nothing less.
knows the human body is made for endurance, with most people it's just their head getting in the way.
has the opinion that Avatar in IMAX 3D will go down in history as one of the most ground breaking movies ever made.
wants to own a Jeep without doors at some point.
does not like shopping for clothes
looks good in a suit (but then again most men do I guess)
doesn't worry too often
takes a blink of an eye to make the biggest of decisions, ponders long and hard over some of the details.
doesn't like raw cheese, of any kind
thinks all types of mushrooms should be left where they are and do not belong on a plate to eat
wonders why people worry about things they cannot control
sucks at staying in touch with everybody
thinks good grammar is optional, in any language.
did nothing really consistent sport wise until I was about 22.
is still alergic to sesame
is amazed that I actually like working with analytical chemistry
misses working with risk management and will return to it one day
wonders what country is next, or even if there will be another country?
see nr.3, peace, out!

Hello, Lake P! and a quick peak into the future

2010-04-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks later than originally planed, but I finally took my first dive of the year into Lake Pontchartrain.

It was also my very first ever swim in a wetsuit. The only other time I've ever worn one of those was to go diving. Swimming in one is a totally different experience.

When you put one of these things on and you're not in the water yet it feels like, well, like you're in something that's about 2 sizes too small.

I can kinda relate to those size 8 people who feel like they HAVE to wear a size 6...

Once you're in the water and moving it's a whole different feeling. These suits are made of neoprene, which floats (it's the stuff that is now banned from swim suits for pool competitions) so it helps a lot in keeping your body flat in the water. This in turn allows you to swim faster...

My best mile time in still water is now 35min flat for the mile, my fastest time ever is 29min and change but that was in a current along the gulf coast (either that or they measured to course wrong).

With the my biggest race ever coming up in a little over a week now, the though obviously comes up: What next?

Good question, there is this tantalising thought about doing a full Ironman, the desire to it is there for sure. Can my body handle a juggernaut of 12+hrs on the go? Seeing the sunrise at the start of the race, and seeing it set before it's all over? Can my head handle something like that?

Questions that will need answering some day. The problem with a full is the amount of training hours. During the apex of the half ironman training I was training every saturday & sunday morning for 5-6 hours. After which I'd need to sleep, so weekends were gone as it was. Training for a full would require pretty much double the hours, during the week as well... So although I'd like to find out, I think for now a full will have to wait.

I will be doing the Alabama Coastal triathlon again though, I think I mentioned before that I have a bone to pick with that 6 mile run...

This summer I'm going to take a break first, then start working on flexibility & leg strength, together with getting my body better adapted to the heat. The ability to run in the heat will help me to become more comfortable when things heat up as they tend to do down here in the south...

Why Eric prefers it freezing…

2010-04-04T18:00:00.001-07:00

So today was time for a long run. As the weather is warming up rapidly I decided to do the long run around the time of day that I will be running the half marathon part of the half Ironman, which will be around noon-time…

For today noon-time meant 79°F or 26°C, perfect weather to find some shade, a hammock and a cold drink for most of New Orleans, but for me it was time to go for a 13 mile run…

I do all my long runs on heart rate keeping the average under 170 at all times. if I go above that for too long I know I'll simply crash. So I adjust my pace accordingly. As you can see from the graph below it was a bit of a struggle even at a very slow pace. This appears to be my body’s normal response to a jump in temperature.

I’m sure that my recent cold didn’t help, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t as well hydrated as I could have been (during this run I drank almost 1.5lts, or 50 fl.oz. of liquid, about half that as Gatorade the rest water.

I’m pretty sure that this was a good taste of what the running portion of the half Ironman is going to feel like. Two advantages that I will have at that point:

1. A whole bunch of other to share the pain with
2. No need to carry any liquids myself, water & ice at every mile

Sigh...

2010-04-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

So here we were, a little less than 4 weeks from race day. All is going fine, the weather is slow to warm which favours me. All good right?

Wrong

People who know me, know that I don't get sick very often. Seasonal flu passes me by with maybe a day of sniffles at worst. Well I guess my 3% drop in body-fat made me a little more susceptible...

So the past week I've been down w a cold. Now that does a few things to me. First of all it pisses me of, I mean com'on! Now?!? Sigh...

So training schedule out the door, and rest time it is. After 3 months of ever increasing training intensity, forced rest is not a whole lot of fun I can tell you. If the cold would have had me bed ridden it would be one thing, but I wasn't all that bad. So full stop in training results in a zero endorphins level...

Enter bad mood, poor missus, not only has to sit listening to sniffing snot faced husband, but also has to deal with bad temper... Fortunately I'm married to very smart missus so on the weekend she gets about her usual business of yoga, and goes for a walk with friends.

Almost a week later and just some of that lovely phlegm left to clear out of my lungs I'm now past my first tentative workout (a relaxed 4 mile run) and a longer workout (3.2 mile run to GNOTri, 30 min spin, same run home but faster)...

Ahhh, it's good to be back.

I got a few questions if I wasn't worried about the race. Well if I would have been in bed for a week and had to really recover then yeah I might be worried, but all I really did was miss a week of training. One week out of a year does not matter that much, if it does then you simply haven't worked hard enough the rest of the year...

Lessons learned…

2010-03-21T16:57:00.001-07:00

Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through 100+ miles on a weekend. About 80% of this on the bike the rest running. I can really feel the progression I’ve made over the past 2 months now, from being completely wiped out after just a 70 mile bike ride, I’m now still pretty good after 70 miles on the bike and a 8 mile run.

First lesson learned: Calories

During the weeks before I noticed that I was really struggling on the run post cycling. I talked to one of the coaches about this and the first questions he asked was how many calories I was taking in on the bike. Well about half a liter of Gatorade, 3-4 Gu’s, so about 400-500 calories… hmmm… on a 50 mile bike ride I go through about 3500 calories. Solid food is needed!

So on the first 70 mile ride after I had a double peanut butter (crunchy) sandwich on whole wheat bread, a banana and a liter of double concentration Gatorade, that makes for 1000 calories… Then 1-2 gels per hour on the run, makes for a lot better caloric intake to keep me going.

Second lesson learned: Ziploc bags

On the bike I have a small pocket on the centre bar to hold food, very handy to stuff PB sandwich into. I used the only thing we had at home: a Ziploc bag. Great right? Keeps it nice and fresh…

Yeah it does, but try and open a Ziploc bag while doing 25km/h, that doesn’t really work, so leave the bag open…

Third lesson learned: Rest

After the long training on Saturdays I sleep 30-45 minutes now, I notice that my Sunday “shorter” workout goes much better when I do this, it also means I have some energy to go for a meal or a movie with the Missus in the evening without falling asleep…

Sticky Sofa Syndrome – Pt 2

2010-03-12T21:59:00.001-08:00

So you figured out what put’s a smile on your face and gets you off the sofa?

Yes? Good, go for it, but take it easy, overdoing it might lead your joyous activity to become a chore and you’ll end up hating what you used to love… Initially all training should be done in moderation until your body gets used to being away from the comfy sofa it has gotten so attached to.

No? Don’t worry…

Possible solutions:
1. Think of something a friend of yours likes doing that you’ve never tried before… Now pick up phone, call friend, ask them for help to loosen rear end from the sofa you’re still in.

2. Remember that a 30, 45, 60min walk around the neighborhood is just as good a training as running the same distance or time. For those just starting it’s actually better.

My dad is a great example of the latter, he doesn’t like to run, it messes with his knees, but he can walk, walk and walk some more. He’s done walks that go for four days at 26 miles a day… Yes that’s walking four marathons back to back to back to back… Walking will get you in shape! Training doesn’t have to make you breath hard or make you feel like couldn’t move the day after…

Training is about moving your body, it’s different for everybody, belly dancing, swimming, walking, skiing, rock climbing, ball room dancing, canoeing, playing with the Wii (trust me it can be quite a workout)

All that matters is that your body is moving. Your body was designed to move, you have muscles (even if you might not be impressed with them), bones, tendons. The combination of these form an impressive piece of hardware that can do a lot more than you might think possible… Where do you want to go with what you’ve currently got?

Which is the next question: What is your goal?

Rather than say: “I should start exercising because [insert something I don’t like about myself]”

say: “I’m going to start training because [insert goal here]”

6 days 7 nights, or why I’m hungry all the time…

2010-02-25T19:19:00.001-08:00

Total Summary
Workouts: 7
Total Time: 08:11:49
Total Dist.: 102.2 Mi
Cal. Burned: 7940

Sticky Sofa Syndrome: Symptoms & Treatments. Pt 1 of ?

2010-02-24T08:18:00.001-08:00

Sunday afternoon after lunch, nothing on TV, bored, enough laundry done so you've got some decent clothes for work in the morning...

You're thinking about going to do something active, but there's just something that keeps your behind stuck firmly to the sofa. Gravity has nothing to do with it as you can easily get up from the sofa to get something to eat drink, grab the remote or even put a DVD on that you’ve already seen 53 times, but there’s REALY nothing on TV. Any attempt at making other plans seem to only end up with you sitting firmly on the sofa again though, just thinking about how you should be out there doing something active to meet that fitness goal you came up with on new years day…

Congratulations!! You're just another normal person suffering from Sticky Sofa Syndrome. The inspiration for the name of this syndrome came from Sara, someone who dares to and manages to fight the glue. She’s not alone, I’ve been there and on occasion still am…

So how do you go from stuck to couch like it’s covered in superglue to actually getting out there and doing what you’re thinking about doing?

Well first of all you need to ask yourself a question: Why do you want to go and work out?

If you just answered any of the following:

Because it’s good for me

Because I need to loose some weight

Because I said I would

Then that’s half the reason you’re still stuck on the sofa. Exercising “just because that’s what I do” is only for professional Athletes, and let’s face it, we’re not going to be one of those nor do we have aspirations to be one.

The first step to getting rid of the glue is to find a good reason to get out there, something that is fun for the brain. If you’re head doesn’t believe in the fun of being active then your behind is going to stay right where it is!

So part 1 ends with a question:

What puts a smile on your face that is associated with getting your body in gear?

Things not to do during a group ride…

2010-02-20T18:34:00.001-08:00

Today I went out with a group of riders some from the Triathlon and others from the local bike club.

Riding in a group has the benefit of being able to keep a good pace. It can also be saver as you’re much more visible.

However there are a couple of things that you might want to consider not doing when riding in a group:

1. When crossing lanes on a heavy traffic highway don’t cross in front of an 18 wheeler. Seriously? No idea who it was, but he was either suicidal, stupid or both…

2. On a 4 lane highway stay in the right lane and listen when someone in the back shouts “car coming back”. I’m sure it’s great chatting with your riding buddies and trying to stay next to them, but stay out of traffic…

Both of the above tend to piss off drivers and gives cyclists a bad reputation and will get you killed one day…

As skydivers tend to say when discussing safety: BSBD, Be Safe or Be Dead…

Looong ride

2010-02-14T19:06:00.001-08:00

On Saturday evening around 6pm I get an email from the triathlon coach that tomorrows long ride will be out to Fort Pike… That’s 60+ miles… OK then, I head to the kitchen to get more food.

Weather wise it couldn’t be any nicer, about +8 Celsius with pretty much no wind to speak of. We start with a group of about 15 riders, 10 of whom take off early on a pace that I say “thanks but no thanks” to.

The remaining five of us get settled in a nice pace of around 16-18mph and keep going once we get to the normal turn around in Venetian Isles.

A slight head wind meets us on the way home, but with the sun up nicely it’s a real nice ride home.

When I hit stop on the Garmin, the mileage says 66.98 miles, not bad for a Sunday morning.

Magic moments

2010-02-09T20:11:00.001-08:00

After 20 miles on the computrainer at the Triathlon club, I decided to go for a run outside. Just an easy run to test out the feet after the doc decided I needed modified inlays & drained some excess fluid out of the joint to which my big toe is connected (that sounds painful, but the painkiller he was using to numb the area caused me not to feel my toes for the rest of the day)

It’s about 8°C and raining gently, zero wind.

The lakeshore drive on which the club is closed down completely just passed the club for Levee work and even all the streetlights are switched off. The only light on the area is the glow from the City.

So out I go at a comfy pace and the rain is slowly falling, my legs are rejoicing after no running for 3 weeks. I turn around after about 20mins and I start heading back. At this point my breathing is still easy, even with the cold rain my body is warm and my legs are turning over easy.

I look out over the lake and the light from the city puts a soft glow over the water. I’m know 2 hrs into training but I feel like I only just started and like I could keep going…

All the painful miles of the marathon get forgotten during moments like that…

Building up slowly

2010-01-25T21:12:00.001-08:00

12 weeks to go until the Half Ironman. So we’re getting to the first apex of the training curve, the one where the ramp goes up. Tonight’s swim was great, a lot of weird drills but I managed to keep a good pace through each one.

The biking is going OK, not been riding outside much, instead I’ve been spending more time on the trainer indoors. There are two benefits to training indoors. The first is that it’s a lot warmer indoors, I prefer training in cold but come April it will be a lot warmer here so I might as well start getting used to it. The second part is boredom, sitting on a bike for two hours that’s not going anywhere is boring. So from a mental aspect it’s much tougher to keep going. By the time I get to do this outdoors it’ll be much more fun and easier on the brain…

Tomorrow I’ve got appointment with doc to take a look at the joint connecting to my big toe on my right foot. I’ve not been running at all since the marathon and the swelling just doesn’t disappear, time to have a pro look at what’s going on in there…

At least it doesn’t stop me from training as the toe feels fine when I’m biking & swimming, and a break from running is good for my brain anyway…

26.2, check

2010-01-12T20:36:00.001-08:00

So what do 26.2 miles running feels like?

Well exhausting and painful are two physical terms that come to mind. During the last mile pretty much all I could think about was how I would never do this again… ever… After 4 hours and 37 minutes on the road, I was done… as done as you can get, well there’s always something left as I didn’t pass out at the finish line, but to a large extent it is mental exhaustion.

The never again thought continues while you struggle stepping of the side walk to cross the street to the hotel, and struggle even more trying to get back up on the other side. All thought stops when you finally let your legs dip into a fantastic ice bath…

An initial feeling of normality returns when you sit down for some food (well some… half a gallon of Dr.Pepper, olives, bruchetta, a steak with potatoes & tomatoes, half a pound of tiramisu and a cappuccino).

The rest of the day, evening and next morning are pretty much just painful. Walking is a struggle. While I limp around I get the usual comments about it not being healthy, etc etc, and sure the actual act of a marathon is exhausting to the body, and potentially damaging. Which is why I slowed to a walk after my knee started to complain too much. Pain is not bad in itself, it is a warning signal like the low fuel light in your car. Your body will hurt when you run this far for the first time, with training people run 4 times this distance without lasting damage, an 82 year old man can run his 100th marathon. Most injuries come from people not listening to the pain, and acting accordingly (slow down, treat, train differently) but instead pop a few painkillers and keep going… stupid…

But I digress, now we’re two days later and my legs are starting to feel normal again and it is time to start looking ahead to the next major challenge: 70.3 miles in a combination of swimming, biking & running… Training started last week, and continues tomorrow am, an hour on a spinning bike at low resistance to get the legs moving… better bring the mp3 player as sitting on a stationary bike is boring as hell…

Winding down…

2010-01-07T18:15:00.001-08:00

This week has been all about winding down towards Sunday’s marathon. Monday I was in the pool for the first time in a long time. A little rough around the edges for the first couple of laps but it all came back quick enough.

Tuesday & today was all in the name of keeping muscles loose. So an easy mile warm up followed by a low resistance ride on a spin bike. After that a good stretch and then home for a meal.

It’s kind of difficult, having ramped up the training continuously over the past six months, sitting back and doing very little is pretty difficult. It’s no fun either, you have to change your attitude from training to reach a goal to resting to be able to complete the goal…

So here’s me sitting on the sofa, working on completing my first goal for 2010, completing a marathon…

As only Nina Simone can sing it…

2010-01-03T09:01:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I signed up for the 16 week half Ironman training program at the local Triathlon Club. Training started today with an easy 42 mile bike ride with the GNOTRI group. My first time on the bike in a looooong time.

A little cold at the half way with cross winds and the tempo falling off a little in the group (we’re riding social so we stay together), but on the way back the sun started to come out and with the wind in the back for the last 5 miles it was really nice.

Tomorrow will be my first real swim in a while. Through the triathlon club we’ve got access to a 50m indoor pool while we’re waiting for the lake to warm back up again. The lake is a little cold even for my standards at a mere 10°C (50F), so we’ll stick with the pool for a while…

Marathon next weekend so not a lot of running this week, start up for Triathlon training…

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

The last long run, and the last last long run

2009-12-28T19:52:00.001-08:00

There is something magical about running through a snow blanketed landscape.

When I left my father's house, the mid winter sun had not yet managed to climb above the tree tops and the streets were empty. After a short run through the village I made the turn parallel to the train tracks, at this point still just enjoying the cold winter air and the beautiful wintery landscape. I struggled to keep a decent pace with all the snow on the ground, but I wasn't too worried about it as I knew I'd get to clearer paths later on. The nice crunching sound of my shoes on the snow in the otherwise silent morning and the gorgeous views of the first sunlight falling on snow covered pastures made me forget about everything else for a while.

Unfortunately the bliss didn't last all that long, only 3 miles in and my stomach started to bother me in the same way it did when I started my running career, the problem being that way back then I stopped after 4 or 5 miles now there were 19 more to go...

I managed to struggle through another 8 of them, but as I couldn't keep my energy gu down I just had to face up to the fact that this wasn't going to work, sigh…

It really sucks having to quit, especially when the weather is perfect, legs & lungs are fine, but just your stomach decides to throw a fit.

Although I had not scheduled anymore real long runs after that day I just couldn't let my last long run be a crappy one like that. So on my last Saturday I went back out again, this time starting from my sister's house instead. Some might think me crazy to run 20+ miles the day before having to sit in an airplane all day, but the mental side of running being a major reason why I’m running the marathon, I wanted to finish the distance training with a good solid run.

The weather was a little milder and most of the snow had cleared from the roads and paths apart from a couple of miles just before half way where it was pretty slippery (I'm pretty sure that's why my knee was stiff the day after). The major hills at mile 11-13 went pretty well. I didn't really start to struggle until mile 19 after which all major muscles were hurting and my stride was deteriorating rapidly and my pace along with it.

Being somewhat familiar with the basic geography of the area I also figured out at that point that this was going to be a little more than 22 miles. I also forgot about a few hills close to my sisters house the last one of which at mile 23 did me in completely and after that I was just focused on getting back in one piece and a I ended up walking the last kilometer.

A day later and my legs either want to move or be perfectly still, any start or stop or change in pace hurts like hell. Glad the missus isn't around to enjoy that...

Anyway, in summary 24.46 miles, climbing 211m/695 ft over 5.6km/3.5mi in 4 hrs flat, happy enough with that. As long as there aren’t any icy patches during the actual marathon and the temperatures don’t climb too much over the next week or so then I shouldn’t be too far off the 4 hr mark

On a little side note: found the function for displaying total mileage by month in the program I’m using to log all my training. Here’s what the past six months have looked like on the running front:

Up, up & away…

2009-12-09T19:06:00.001-08:00

So today was speed work time again. I went for the mile repeats with running recoveries using the same route as last time. The goal was to run not only the fast miles faster & faster but also to keep the recovery miles a little faster for each one.

Check & check, mile 6 was a little up and down. I accelerated too fast end ended up having to run the last quarter mile well below the average up until then, the mile was overall still fast enough, and I know where my limit is for the mile. What I’m really happy with is the last mile where I managed to maintain a pace slightly below my target marathon pace…

This weekend will be a short one with only about 13-14 miles for the long run. This in preparation for the long run in the Netherlands the week after. My dad has planned out a neat little 22.8 mile run around the “rolling hills” of Wolfheze.

I found a cool site that can create an elevation profile for most areas of the world.

This will be the longest run ever with the most elevation ever… It’s going to hurt, during & after, I’m going to be hungry (estimated calories burned: 2900), but most of all, after this I’ll be ready… ready for 26.2…

The same but different

2009-12-06T10:30:00.001-08:00

So another week, another long run… Yesterday was another 1.5 miles longer than last week, now I’m up to 18.3 miles.

From a mental stand point the run went very well, I no longer really suffer from those disabling mental breakdowns. This is probably partially due to managing my calorie intake during the runs (no more real low blood sugars)

From a pace perspective I still have some work to do. The first few miles I need to run a more even pace, I end up trying to improve my pace to quickly (mile 7 & 8 were way to fast). The 6 miles after that are pretty good, but I end struggling the last 3 miles because of the soreness that kicks in.

What appears to be the same every time is that my body starts to hurt about the time where last weeks run finished. So at about mile 15-16 my body started to ache…

What is different about it is that it’s always something else that starts to hurt. 3 weeks ago it was my knees, last week it was my calves, this week it was my upper hamstrings, glutes & all the small muscles around my hips.

What’s always the same as well is how easy the last mile is every time. Well mentally easy at least. Now it’s just a matter of getting through the first 25.2 so I can relax the last mile :)

Next weeks long run will be a “short” one at about half marathon distance. I will be focusing on going out at the right pace of about 9.20 and try and end up running an average 9.00 minute mile, but at a very level acceleration.

Feeling great…

2009-12-03T16:48:00.001-08:00

Last night was speed work night, went to the track and a mile warm up (1st bar) followed by accelerating half miles.

I take about a 30 second break between each half mile, and aim to run each half mile faster than the previous one. The last one I always try and accelerate the whole time and end up almost sprinting at the end. Usually by then your lungs are screaming and your legs are humming along in chorus, but that’s what good speed work will do to you…

Where I am now in developing my condition is that I recover really fast after these shorter work outs, which leaves you feeling really good the day after. After strong work outs like this you can really feel the pay off from suffering through the last miles of long runs…

What does it take to get there? steady progression:

This graph shows the number of miles I ran in each month from July onwards. This is a little skewed as I was still cycling a lot during July through September. What you don’t see here either is the hours in the gym, there aren’t many of those, but those hours make all the difference for being able to sustain this kind of mileage increase and staying injury free.

Street cars, cemeteries, trains, sunny weather & ice bath

2009-11-29T13:22:00.001-08:00

Today’s run was a tour of some of my favourite areas of the city.

On St Charles I was running towards the usual large numbers of streetcars as I was running the full length of the avenue. It’s kind of weird to see them all dressed up with Christmas decorations as the weather was a nice and comfortable 15°C with not a cloud in sight.

My route also took me through the downtown area, running through here you’re infallibly chased by weird looks of both locals & tourists wondering why someone is running through the party are of town. It also takes me onto the straightest part of the route: Canal Street, a 4.5 mile straight line (with more streetcars) al the way up to one of the large cemeteries.

Getting close to the cemetery I started to really struggle with keeping my pace. I sped up too much during mile 10 and was paying for it now at mile 13. Up until then I managed to run a relatively good steadily increasing pace. Half marathon distanced I passed at 2h flat, which is good as on marathon day I’m aiming for sub 4hrs.

The cemetery is a really nicely landscaped area and running along Old Metairie is normally a nice and relaxing part of the run. Being at mile 14 and my legs starting to really protest and my heart rate being above 180 meant that this was everything but relaxing. I managed to keep a level albeit slow pace.

Well that was until I was about 400m away from the train track about a mile away from home… ding ding ding ding… ah crap! There was no way I would make it across before the train would get there. So what? might some of you think, train passes you get going again? Well the trains on this track are all cargo trains, never shorter than 50 cars, usually closer to 80, and don’t go very fast… So it takes about 5+ minutes to pass. Trying to start running again after that is somewhat painful, but hey at least it was the last mile.

When I got home my legs were aching badly, I could also feel my knee although nowhere near as bad as last week. So good stretch, and then try something new: ice bath. It’s what it sounds like, fill batch with cold water so your legs are covered, add some ice to bring temp to about 10°C and then sit down in it.

This sounds crazy to most, but if my legs could talk they would have sighed in relief after about 2 seconds. A few hours later now and my legs feel better than they did last week, we’ll see how they feel tomorrow, but I can see this becoming a post-long run routine…

Pain & Where my legs will take me next week

2009-11-22T09:43:00.001-08:00

My left knee was sore after the run yesterday. It’s a lot better this morning indicating that it is the same muscle imbalance I had 2 years ago. So the next few weeks it will be back in the gym to work that out.

I’m also reducing my running during the week to limit the amount of impact on my knees to ensure that I don’t do any damage to them while the muscles recover.

On a side note:
Recently I read an article about the consumption of pain killers amongst long distance athletes. I was shocked to read that well over a third would take pain killers before and during long distance events.

I understand taking pain killers after an event if you cannot walk normal because of muscular or joint pain. Having to change the way you walk just puts stress on other parts of your body, so there’s a good reason to take some pain killers.

During yesterdays run my legs started to hurt about half way through mile 11 and didn’t stop until I got home 3 miles later. Every long distance runner out there will know this pain, it’s not disabling, it’s there like a headache but in your legs. This pain is a signal that your leg muscles are getting to point of being done. The trick is to know how much you have left after the pain starts, which is why you need to be able to feel this pain… No painkillers before and during please, and only limited after…

Longest ever…

2009-11-21T08:30:00.001-08:00

Well until next week, from here on out the long runs will get longer every week until the Marathon on January 10th.

Today I ran past 13.1 miles for the first time ever though, with the plan to go out easy and try and run negative splits all the way (each mile faster than the previous one).

This is what the actual route looked like.

I now I was doing OK on the negative splits from mile 5 onwards as I can see my average pace on my watch and that kept slowly ticking downward as the miles progressed. Looking at the stats afterwards put a big smile on my face, all miles from mile 9 onwards below 9:00/mile. This all bodes will for a Marathon time below 4 hours if the weather conditions cooperate…

So 16 miles next week, 18 the week after that, followed by a 14 miles (but at faster pace) and then the final really long run when I’m in the Netherlands on Dec 18th… 22 miles. My dad is going to plan that route with some hills late in the game to simulate the race course 3 weeks later.

Now it’s time to learn how to cook gumbo… The great benefit of long distance running: EAT LOTS OF FOOD!!

Couple of weeks summary

2009-11-17T17:18:00.001-08:00

So travel back from Sweden one week, weekend after we’re in Houston for an engagement party, and last weekend I come down with a (for me) rare cold. So no long distance for the past couple of weeks. Glad I was ahead of schedule on that part.

I did do a couple of non logged workouts in the form of intense core workouts. Two weeks ago I went out for a mile or seven run. Half way through mile one I decided to turn it into running mile repeats. So one mile slow, one fast etc. Here’s the stats:

All the miles (apart from mile 1) are run accelerating. That means that I start the mile of slower and keep on going a little faster through the mile. Even the slow miles are run this way. This sounds very hard but it gives you a better recovery during the slow miles as you slow down a lot at the end of the fast mile. The hard part about it really is that you never stop.

At mile 6 I decided to see what I could really do, so I just kept going as fast as I could throughout the mile. I was surprised to see how fast it went. HR was up to about 194 at the end of the mile, but I recovered back down to 175 within 400 yards of slow running/jogging.

Today I did a short run of 3 miles. The air was cool and dry, so perfect for first run after not doing much of anything for a whole week. So with plenty of energy I went out comfortably and managed to somehow get round in 25m30sec (8m20s/mile). Guess I’m still OK…

This weekend has 14 miles on the schedule… never ran that far, ever… Gotta love looking forward to new experiences.

Negatives into positives

2009-10-29T18:49:00.001-07:00

It’s easy to allow any opposition or down turn in your live to get the better of you. In most cases it’s really up to yourself to decide what to do and then go with it…

We spent the last weeks in Sweden because of the untimely loss of my wife’s mother.

That little sentence has a lot of content, and this isn’t the place for that content. The effect of this on my training was nothing more than that the regular training went out the window but the running shoes and some cold weather clothing did go into the suitcase.

This particular area of Sweden is pretty much all rolling hills speckled with rocky hill sides, so a great opportunity to test my legs after 3 years of training with a max elevation change of maybe 100ft.

So my long run looked like this:

Total elevation change of +486/-475 ft over 10.7 miles. All the time managing an average pace of 9m24s.

I was particularly happy with the last part where I was able to run a 8m32s mile at mile 10.

What does all this mean? Well nothing more than that running in cooler drier surroundings is a LOT easier than running in humid warm weather like we have in New Orleans…

The varied view and getting “lost” in the woods helps as well. It distracts your mind from the running and keeps it focused on where you’re going and where you can safely put your feet. I can warmly recommend bringing a GPS watch into a wooded area and just go for it, don’t plan too much and trust the GPS will get you home…

Keep going…

2009-10-11T09:18:00.001-07:00

Of the endurance sports I’ve done, running is the hardest. Hardest that is from a mental aspect. The main reason for this is that it is so easy to stop running and start walking…

This is also the reason why it’s a great way to challenge & stretch your mental capacity for endurance. Yesterday was a good example of that for myself.

I planned on doing 8 miles. I figured out a route based on one I’d run before and I just modified it in my head for variety and I thought it would be approximately the same distance give or take half a mile.

Well this turned out to be my route:

A nice 10.4 miles.. I had my Garmin watch with me so once I hit mile 4 and wasn’t anywhere near half way yet of my planned route I figured that this run would be a liiitle longer than I thought.

Here’s the options that went through my mind:
1. Figure out a shortcut
2. Stick to the route, stop at the triathlon club and ask someone to drive me home
3. Walk the rest
4. Just keep going

I had already planned in a short stop anyway at the tri-club’s swimming point at the lake front to take in some nutrition (you can see the pause symbol at the north east point of the route), so I decided to keep going until there and make up my mind.

Turning onto lakeshore drive the wind hit me straight in the face, and I knew that the 2 miles along lake shore were going to be tough. When I stopped on top of the levee and tried to enjoy the Hammer-gel I brought along and enjoyed the scenery, I went through my options again. I was past half-way and there were no feasible shortcuts, asking for a ride is just only feasible if you’re injured, and walking is just too boring. So that left option 4, and off I went. A little slower with the strong wind in my face, but mentally relieved. The moment that you do not give yourself any options you’re free to go on with what you’re doing and truly let your body do the talking.

Most people’s minds underestimate what their bodies can do. This is part self-image, part self preservation. Your mind wants to keep your body at rest, wants to tell it not to go to faster, further, harder. Your body just does as it’s told. You need to make up your mind as to what you want to do.

Of course there are limits to what your body can do, and you should be careful with how far and how hard you push your body especially if you’re only just beginning. However, when you’re feeling you should quit, you must always ask yourself the question:

“Is it my mind that wants to quit, or my body?”

If the answer is your mind, tell it to shut <insert optional expletives> up, and keep going.

When it’s your body, you still need to check a couple of things:
The stop signs are:
1. Dizziness
2. Stabbing pain in joints or muscles
3. Irregular heart rate or breathing

If you’re feeling any of the following:
1. Burning lungs
2. Fast heart rate
3. Burning muscles
4. Sore muscles

Slow down a little, BUT KEEP GOING!!! This is where your body starts to develop, where fat loss starts, where mental endurance is gained, where you’re body and mind are getting stronger!!

I’m not telling anyone to start doing what I do, I know I’m somewhat crazy. However if you feel that your body is stuck at a place you don’t want it to be, then you need to make up your mind to do something about it. Weight loss and/or endurance gain is hard work and takes a lot of time, that’s the simple fact of the matter.

When my sister & my dad signed up to join the 40km for 4 days walk in Nijmegen, the Netherlands (yes 160km or 100 miles over 4 days, yes that’s almost walking a marathon every day), I had no doubts that my dad would complete this, he’s been a great walker for as long as I can remember, flat, hills, mountains, he just keeps on going. The challenge was really more one for my sister. I’m still not sure what made her do this, I know part of it was trying to shed some weight, but I was interested how well she would do with the training.

Well I kept track of her mileage, and by the time she started the 4-day walk she had walked the equivalent of Houston to the Atlantic ocean just in training miles.

She made up her mind, got going, and finished! Healthier, stronger and with a very proud family.

Speed work!

2009-10-02T13:11:00.001-07:00

Any runner out there usually groans at the sound of those two words. Yours truly included…

Speed work is pretty much what it sounds like, working on your speed. The problem is that it’s not a short sprint. It usually consists of 400-1600m runs with recovery time in between each interval.

There’s a whole bunch of different exercises (Runner’s World has gathered loads of them in different articles) so there’s no need to get bored with just doing the same exercise over and over again.

A lot of people skip this and just run distance in training for races. This works, but progress will be slow and sometimes even non-existent. Speed work is hard, as you’re constantly revving up your heart rate and breathing to somewhere in the 90-100% range, with only short recovery (<60 sec) between repeats.

The upside to speed work is the pretty much instant effect on your distance runs. If you do your speed work right, your long runs become easier and more comfortable, you can run a little faster without the increase in your heart rate & breathing. You’ll also find that you stride gets extended and more comfortable. So: fewer steps per mile = less impact = less fatigue = going for longer

As with any training session, good warm-up and pre & post stretch is critical to stay injury free!

I just started my speed work up again, my running has been real uncomfortable lately, but during last nights speed work I found out that my stride had become really short. I was effectively trying to go at speed for 3rd gear while in 1st gear… no wonder my heart rate & breathing rate were going through the roof!!

So when I started using the benefit of my long legs, I was running 25seconds/mile faster and my heart rate was lower… duhhh

How fun was that?

2009-09-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Alabama coastal triathlon that is... 1500m gulf swim, 24.4m bike, 6m run

After the usual crack of dawn routine, the race started pretty much on time. I like the sequence start where a person leaves every 3 seconds.
It made the race a pretty comfy affair in the water.

Me being a newbie to swimming in the gulf, I was a little nervous about the height of the waves but once I managed to untangle myself from the 1st turn buoy it was a very comfortable swim (on a side note: I prefer the taste of the lake over that of the gulf)

Transition had plenty of space and was well managed. The bike ride was a nice ride along the coast (bike lane!!!) with a nice kick after 9 miles in an over and back across the bridge. I'm surprised every time how many people I see that just don't use their gears though.
Plenty of cops & staff along the way directing riders and managing traffic.

The run was rough (for me) being a 6 mile straight out and back with no shade and temp hitting the 90s.Needless to say that my running time sucked majorly. Not helped by water promissed at every mile turned out to miss out at mile 2 (& 4), that was more of a mental thing, but by that point the race is pretty much all about your mental status... Ah well, survived in just over 3hrs, which was mainly due to the very slow run.

Overall a very fun and well managed race w pretty good post race food (why serve low calorie beer after a race though??). I'm putting this
one on my list for next year!

So what's next? A marathon in January. Training starts tomorrow...

Still training?

2009-09-16T18:53:00.001-07:00

Yep I am, I’m just in one of those phases where I don’t really want to know how I’m doing. Confused? Well I get these moments where I just don’t care about how fast & far I*m going. I just swim, bike or run and sod the statistics.

Over the past month or so I’ve done another practice triathlon with the local club, and did my first real long distance ride out to Venetian Isles with the same group. That’s a total of 45 miles (72km), took a little over 2.5hrs. This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. My running has been pretty bad though, I’ve been struggling to find a comfortable pace, and I really noticed that during the practice triathlon. A longer run followed by boot camp last Saturday put me past that, partly due to the cooler temperature and the rain. The only not so fun part was a severe cramp in both calve muscles during the swim part of boot camp…It took a few minutes of sorting out by the trainer to be able to walk again :)

I’ve started some more cross training with weights, core & boot camp, but haven’t really gotten into a good rhythm with that yet.

This Saturday is the next stage, a race for which I could have trained more, so it’s not about what time I make but about making it through without stopping for 1500m swim, 40km bike & 10km run… It’s just another step towards the half Ironman next year, and about that: the entry form is filled in and just needs to be mailed… No turning back after that. Not that there is any option for that anyway…

Building back up

2009-08-30T09:37:00.001-07:00

I know the log looks empty, but that’s because I still haven’t put the PC back up. I’m slowly building my training back up after a minor muscle injury (probably caused while moving)

Got this through email from the local Triathlon group:

No training?

2009-07-29T15:01:00.001-07:00

No… just lazy on the logging side… there’s about 15-20 session I haven’t logged into the system. So it’s actually been the opposite. I’ve had my first week of 8 sessions/week w one rest day. So yeah that means 6 days with two days with double sessions (swim in morning something else in the evening)

My body doesn’t seem to mind this at all, I’m feeling great, no problems with muscles or joints, weight is stable, so all is good!

It’s been a lot of longer distance swimming, and now it’s time to hit the bike a little more for the next 2 weeks and then focus on the running again the 4 weeks up to my next race which will be the Olympic distance triathlon in Alabama in September.

I’ve also incorporated well needed strength training back into my schedule (2/8 sessions)… I don’t like lifting heavy pieces of metal inside, but I also know it will give results and keep my muscles in the shape they need to be.

Oh I haven’t mentioned how the 34 floors run went… In a nutshell: it turned out to be 35 floors (you could get onto the roof) & a lot faster than I thought it would be… 5min flat to get to the top… it was fun standing at the top and screaming down to Kodi to pick up the pace as he had 2 floors to go by the time I got there :P

The coming 6 months

2009-07-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

Half way through the year and although it feels a long way away the 18th of April 2010 will be here faster than I can imagine.

The schedule for the next 6 months is lots and lots of training with a few good milestones along the way.

On the 19th of September I will take part in the Olympic distance triathlon in Orange Beach, Alabama.

After that the next challenge will be to complete a full marathon. I found one in January in Biloxi, that should fit nicely in with the rest of my training. When I started this road to a half Ironman I said that I did this because a marathon seemed more of the same.

Well I still feel the same about the marathon but over the past few weeks I have been thinking about what the biggest challenge. That would be the mental side of the long distance race. The first hour is never a problem, neither is the last 30 minutes or so. The 3-4 hours in between is where the struggle is…

So I figured that if I can run for 4 hours non-stop then I can do 5-6 hours of combined swimming, biking and running!

Well that’s the plan anyway, we’ll see on the 18th of April 2010 if it works…

Only 134m…

2009-06-30T12:43:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you have these ideas that just pop up out of nowhere, and just won’t go away…

Here’s one of my latest: run the stairs in the Lakeway building where my wife works.

Yes, the tall one on the left… 34 floors… So I talked to one of my fellow triathletes Pam, and she agreed to come along for the fun. Then we talked Kodi into it as well… So this Thursday we’ll be driving each other up 34 floors of solid stairs…

Then on Saturday there’s a training triathlon organised by GNO-TRI, 800m swim, 20 miles on the bike & a 4 mile run, followed by a BBQ.

Looks like it’ll be a great week!!

Ups & Downs

2009-06-27T14:32:00.001-07:00

With the temperatures soaring in the mid 40s (Celsius) training outdoors is a bit hit and miss. One day I seem to be OK like on Tuesday’s run, but other days I struggle through a session. I’ve logged all my sessions as normal but not really looked at pace for either the bike or run as the heat is taking too much of a toll on those. Until the heat gives way to cooler weather I’m calling all this “heat conditioning training”. Especially the bike-run interval training was good for this as you never stop moving and never settle into a comfortable zone on either of the events.

In a masochistic sort of way I’m hoping this heat will last another 2 weeks to really give my body a good chance to adapt to working out at higher temperatures and humidity.

Typical post race week

2009-06-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

As always, the week after a race my training sucks. 90% of this is mental. It's comming down from a good race and then having to pick it back up again for the next race...

Today was actually a good training day. Parked 2 miles from the swimming spot in the lake. Ran there comfortably, swam half a mile and then ran back just as comfortable. Back in the saddle :) well for real this weekend... After more swimming tomorrow morning.

Great race!

2009-06-14T18:29:00.001-07:00

So today it was time for my very first Triathlon, the Indian Creek Triathlon, a so-called sprint distance with 800m swimming, 30km on the bike and 5km running.
In true Louisiana style the first wave left about 15min late. I started in the second wave, with the simple plan to relax in the swim and just allow it to take the time it took. I was zigzagging a bit so I’m sure my swim was closer to 1000m (swimming in a straight line isn’t all the easy yet). Just over 20min later I was back on dry land and heading back to the transition area to get on the bike.
The bike ride was on very good roads (with for Louisiana very few potholes), the track was open to regular traffic but very well patrolled by police & volunteers. The rolling hills are perfect for me, I got straight into a comfortable cadence & pace and managed to complete the 30km in 51 minutes!
Transition to the run was pretty comfortable from a muscular point of view, which is a first, however my lungs felt like they wanted to quit, probably because my heart rate was still high from the bike ride. It took a full mile to relax into the run. I still managed to complete the run at an average pace of just over 9min/mile, giving a run time of just over 28 min.
So overall completion time was 1h47m including the transition times.
Lessons learned:
Learn to swim in a straight line
Relax during the last mile on the bike to get heart rate down
Be a little more organised in the transition area

Solid beginning to the week…

2009-06-10T19:59:00.001-07:00

Lake Ponchartrain does not taste nice… The swim on Monday was a bit of a struggle… mainly because of the breathing, still… ah well I get round…

By the time I got out of the water it started to rain, on with the running shoes and off for a run. 4 miles, easy breathing, 8:30 pace, nice rain, slight breeze, perfect conditions…

Tuesday was bricks training, this basically means bike, run, bike, run etc… Two loops, 20min each, I wasn’t pushing it as I could start to feel my legs by the middle of loop two. This will have to become staple diet for my training, as I know I struggle with the bike to run transition. At the moment it’s 4+1 miles, but that will be extended as the year progresses. There’s a nice 10+4 mile loop with my name on it…

This morning’s swim was great, well to be honest the last 5 minutes of it were. For all my swimming the main theme has been: struggling with the breathing on freestyle swimming. Towards the end of the session the Dave who I shared a lane with points out that I seem to be moving much smoother through the water when I do the pull exercises (only using arms). On those I can breath every 7th stroke and not run out of breath. Whereas on a normal freestyle stroke I struggle at every 3… He pointed out that I kick too much, but wasn’t sure how to explain a correct kick. So in comes coach Marshall. Well two lanes later and I find out how to properly kick with my legs… Less is more, is what it comes down to.

Will be interesting to see if I can apply this on Sunday’s race.

Good weekend!

2009-06-10T19:45:00.001-07:00

Well Saturday went great, although we had to turn things upside down a little as the wind was blowing too strong to get in the water at 7am. So with a fellow triathlete from GNOTRI and her husband we set off on a 20mile bike ride to start things off.

I’ve really found my cadence again and can now once again comfortably ride at 90rpm while maintaining a good speed. This makes a good base for the longer distance training that I will need to start later in the summer.

For runs we did mile repeats, easy 3, keeping an average 8.23min/mile pace.

The swim was not as comfortable as I like it to be, but I get round half a mile in about 20mins, and I can switch to breast stroke whenever I feel like it. Efficient? No, but for now it’s whatever gets me back to shore and on the bike…

One more thing I learned: don’t sit on the seawall stretching when the sun is out in full force without a t-shirt on. There was still a pleasant breeze, so I did not notice the sun until I got home and in the shower… ouch…

Didn’t do much on Sunday apart from a long walk.

Big day tomorrow

2009-06-05T19:18:00.001-07:00

I joined the local Triathlon group, on the mailing list today an invitation came in to do all three events tomorrow. So hey why not lets go!

So tomorrow there’s half a mile of swimming, 20 miles on the bike and a couple of miles running on the program!

1k in the lake

2009-06-01T19:20:00.001-07:00

The Greater New Orleans Triathlon Club meets several times a week at the lake front of Lake Ponchartrain to go swim, run, bike or a combination there of.

Today was swimming, my first time swimming in the lake, really nice water temperature. Nice to know that it feels OK to swim in open water.

Did 1k, no idea in what time, don’t really care either. It’s 200m further than I need to 12 days from now :)

The importance of a true self image

2009-05-24T07:40:00.001-07:00

While I watched the Ironman 70.3 finishers this year there were two things that were really noticeable.

The first one was that the human body is made for endurance, and I mean real long distance stuff. Not everybody will be very fast, but everybody who does not have any major injuries can do an Ironman 70.3. Proof of that lies in a couple of observations:

seeing a number of 40s+ with very obvious beer bellies finish 70.3 in less than 7hrs
watching two 60+ ladies chatting while slow jogging to the finish in the same race
reading about a 82 year old man who finished his 100th marathon on his birthday, he did not start running until he retired when he was 65.
Reading about the great American foot race

The second observation was that the longer the distance the more of a mental challenge the race is. I saw people finish in complete agony with obvious muscular cramps, no more energy, dehydrated, overheated, but they were still running and had a determined look on their face. Then there people who had a lost look in their eyes, and they were walking but they were walking relaxed there obviously was nothing wrong with their body, it was their minds that gave out.

The difference between the two types of people is having a true self image. I think the people that gave up mentally have not trained the mental part enough, kept the training within their already existing boundaries, never pushed themselves through the mental barriers of long distance maybe because they thought it was only training, on race day it will be different, only do the hard training sessions when the weather is nice… That creates a false self image. Sure they can swim, bike or run a long distance but only when all the circumstances are right for them…

The ones that kept pushing themselves even when it got hard are the people with a true self images, they know they can do this, they have trained for this, they want to finish, they want to finish strong, and that is how they trained…

I’ve been at the point during runs where my head starts to mess with me, telling me to give up, just stop, it’s enough, don’t bother, you can’t go any further, why are you bothering with this, just stop…

There have been times when I did give in, stopped running. It is damn hard to ignore those mental impulses and actually listen to your body, listen to what your heart rate says, what your breathing says, and what your legs say. If they are quiet then you have to tell your head to be quiet and keep on going! This is were the training is the hardest especially if there isn’t someone next to you during the training, but that is also where you can make the most progress. Because if you can keep going and push yourself past the impulses of quitting, THAT is when and where you become stronger, both physically and mentally!

Logically there is an even harder part, once you’ve passed that mental barrier, and you reach the physical barrier. When your heart & lungs start to complain you can simply slow down a little, drink some water, take in some sugar, poor some water over your head. However, when your muscles start to complain… that is when you’re really on your own, that is where the second fight starts, that is where it’s You vs The Wall, and the question: “Which one is harder”? will need to be answered. I’ve not yet found out, but I’m sure I will within the next 12 months…

Solid week with a great ending

2009-05-22T20:59:00.001-07:00

Swimming didn’t happen once again on Monday, but I did go for a ride on the bike in the evening. Easy going as I’m going to build the miles and pace slowly this time to not get my shin messed up again.

Took Tuesday off as I planned to do a double session on Wednesday with swimming in the morning and running at night. Swimming was hard with a lot of isolated leg & arms workouts. In the evening I ran and even though it was relatively warm the run was real easy going. Managed to keep a nice and even pace throughout the run for 5.5 miles.

Thursday night we went to the movies so nothing happened on the training front, apart from “carbing-up” at the cinema

Friday morning back to Swimming, very small group probably because of the memorial day weekend coming up. Just did a lot of laps. I’m slowly starting to get a rhythm in my stroke that feels comfortable. Marshall has been giving some great tips on where to focus my improvement.

Friday evening was a race, the Annual Greek Fest Olympic Run, a simple there and back 5k on the north east side of city park. After the run you get to do into the actual greek fest area for some good food and free beer for the runners.

I aimed to go out at a 9.00 min/mile pace, and finish with a 8.30 mile pace. The weather was perfect with a cool breeze blowing across the canal. I started out at 8.20… After 3/4 mile I still felt good, so I decided to keep the pace and just see what would happen. At mile 2 I was at an average pace of 8.16… At that point I was still feeling great, breathing easy, although my heart rate was climbing well past 175. When I got to mile three with only 200 yards to go I just jumped into a flat out sprint finishing at 25m30sec, one of my fastest 5k times! The data from my Forerunner confirmed what I already felt, ran negative splits all the way, that is what a good race is run like…

2 Souvlakis, a beer, Baklava with icecream, and more Baklava as a reward afterwards!

Heat!

2009-05-17T08:07:00.001-07:00

Last Friday it was time for my first longer run in ages, as well as my first double training day.

Swimming in the morning followed by a run home from work.

Marshall (swim coach) decided it would be fun to change things around a little on a Friday so we started with push-ups after the warm up followed by a nice 600m pull exercise (swimming just using your arms) after which we did a bunch of sit-ups before moving onto kicks (you guessed it: only legs)

Home for breakfast, and then a nice days work at the end of which it was a balmy 89°F (32°C) when I left the building. By mile 4 I was starting to struggle and noticed that my heart rate was steadily climbing to 180 and beyond. At that point in the route home there is no more shade either… Gave it another mile but noticed that the overheating wasn’t going to go anywhere so I walked the last half mile.

Did sleep very well that night, can’t remember the last time I slept until 11am…

A little variety…

2009-05-11T19:55:00.001-07:00

So after 2 weeks of pretty much only swimming, I finally got back on the road again. A short run on Sunday in 30+ heat and high humidity may not have been the best start but my legs were fine.

Today I did a combination of running & inline skating. Legs were good & breathing was easy.

A little too enthusiastic…

2009-05-01T06:21:00.001-07:00

How do you know you’re getting older? Well usually your body will tell you…

Me thinks I took a little too big a leaps after I bought the bike. Two weeks ago I started having pain in area below my right shin. After some deductive reasoning with my wife we came to the conclusion that it was probably a minor inflammation. As I’ve pretty much got on the bike and started doing 30+ miles after doing no serious biking for about 4yrs and running 20 miles a week on top of that, and well my leg didn’t like that I guess…

So off the bike, and off the running for the past two weeks, pop some Advil twice a day, and Humpty Dumpty is all well again.

The swimming has been great, learning how to swim & breath all over again. The nice thing is that the fitness is already there, so I can keep going for 45 min without feeling dead.

Today I swam 300m nonstop using breast stroke. This was very easy and gave me the confidence that I will not have any major problems for my first triathlon on the 14th of June (800m swim, 20mile bike, 3.1mile run)

LoveSwimming

2009-04-17T08:55:00.001-07:00

No there’s no space in there, it’s the name of the company that swimming coach Marshall Love runs.

I went for my first real swim today. Although I can stay afloat quite well in water, I found out today that I’m learning swimming all over again. Having learned how to swim at a young age you kind of take it for granted that you can swim. That stops quickly when you’re thinking about swimming 1.2 miles and that is only the first small part of a much longer race. I found out that swimming 4 laps (1.2 miles = ~40 laps) in my paddling-along technique will have me wiped out in no time.

I like Marshall’s coaching style, he really can explain swimming well, as he can break the whole thing down into a series of events that you can train separately, after which you tie everything back together and you end up with a swimming stroke that works!

I’m not there yet, but I can see how well this is going to work…

Oh I noticed that I have not mentioned that swimming class takes place at 5.30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. No that would not be 5.30 in the afternoon, that would be 5.30 it’s still dark in the morning…

Quiet week

2009-04-13T10:48:00.001-07:00

Apart from a good bike ride on Wednesday and a solid run on Thursday it was a quiet week on the training front. Basketball was fun as usual but it’s not really productive training for me.

On Saturday Ullis and I ran the Crescent City Classic, we made it round in 1h07m, which is a respectable time for a first 10k. I do notice that running that slow is now actually detrimental to my muscles as my shins & calves were complaining drastically by the end of the day and on Sunday… It was great to see Ullis manage to keep a nice level pace and run the whole race without walking.

Goal for next week is to find a good pool to swim in. I’ve pretty much made up my mind to the Indian Creek Triathlon, and this means I have to get going in the pool to get a feel for how my swimming is and how I function in transitioning to the bike. That reminds me, I also need to get some goggles that’ll actually keep water out of my eyes…

End of the week…

2009-04-05T08:53:00.001-07:00

Now it’s Sunday, and I’m writing, so I survived one of the longer weeks I’ve done so far from a distance point of view…

Yesterday’s bike ride was comfortable, a little chaotic as I didn’t know the streets very well. Along the lake front there were hundreds of people preparing for today’s Ironman 70.3… A great inspiration to see so many people in good shape enjoying themselves.

The run was a different story… The stretching tips on the bike did make the transition easier and the first mile was a lot more comfortable than Thursday’s run.

However come mile 4 leaving the park I was starting to struggle. I’m pretty sure I was a little on the low side when it comes to energy which did not help. I did find a comfortable 9.40-9.50/mile pace which I felt I could maintain for the remaining 4 miles.

I also measured my HR recovery. It took a full minute to go from a 168 pulls to 120, and another 3 minutes to drop to 100… It stayed there for about 20 minutes before it started to drop off (drinking a load of water w electrolytes & sugars).

It’s Friday…

2009-04-03T21:23:00.001-07:00

So normally you’d think, go home, kick back, open a beer and chill out… Well normally yes, but today I wanted to go for a short run after yesterdays 20+4miles bike+run. My legs have felt tired all day today so I wanted to loosen them up, and also to see how I respond to being active the day before a long training session.

Up until now I’ve taken a day off before my long sessions and this has worked well. As all the trainings over the past 2 weeks have been so comfortable I want to see how my legs respond to a little more pressure. We’ll found out tomorrow when a 30mile bike ride followed by an 8 mile run is on the schedule…

Today’s run was comfortable and I managed to keep an average 8.27/mile pace which is fast for me.

I’ve also found some good tips about stretching legs on the bike prior to transition, we’ll see how that goes tomorrow. Up bright and early…

379 days, 7 hours, 41 minutes and 15 seconds… and counting…

2009-04-03T21:22:00.001-07:00

It’s been announced…

I’ll be there…

First transition

2009-04-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve done transitions before (run then bike, run then inlines, inlines then run) but never after any serious distance.

Today was a first. 19.something miles on the bike (comfortable pace of 17.5mph) and then a solid 4 mile run…

First 400 yards were very uncomfortable, especially calves & hip flexors. Going to have to learn to stretch those properly during or before transition.

For the first mile and a half or so I struggled finding my normal running pace of 9.00min/mile. Once I found it the remainder of the run was very comfortable.

More running

2009-03-30T17:09:00.001-07:00

Another perfect running weather day. Ran from work to the Lakeway Gym and then up & over the Levee and back again 11 times.

The pause signs are where I stopped, my GPS watch picks this up automatically, the 1st one it seems to have lost the GPS signal temporarily while I ran under the rather large concrete construction of the I-10 interstate. The rest is major junctions. What I’m really happy about is to see the effect these stops have on my heart rate, as in that it plummets pretty fast.

The first two stops are about 1 min & 30 sec respectively (stretching & waiting for traffic at veterans), and during I drop below 120 bpm. I’m going to have to do some recovery trials soon…

Perfect running weather

2009-03-29T09:28:00.001-07:00

Just around 16-17°C when I left the house. I forgot my heart rate monitor, but that’s really a good thing as I’m doing some beta-testing for a training software module that uploads the data from SportTracks to the online site so that all the totals show up on the right hand side in this blog.

6.25 miles according to the GPS, at a nice average pace of 9.00min/mile (5.6min/km).

Very comfortable run today, legs are great even after the 40miles on the bike yesterday. Little stiff in upper body but nothing that some consistent bike & weights training will not take care of.

Turns out…

2009-03-28T14:41:00.001-07:00

weather was perfect, bit of a strong wind on the way out, but the thought that fighting all the wind is going to get paid back on the way home :)

One real advantage to cycling along the river with the wind coming from that side is that the river is still cold. This makes the breeze across the rive nice and cool.

Looking at the data my new Garmin Forerunner 305 is producing, I’ve still got a good bike ride in my legs. Although I’m turning over the pedals a little slow (avg 81rpm), I’m turning them over nice and even.

Tomorrow a 6 mile run in the morning before we head out to Diamondhead for a BBQ.

Not good…

2009-03-27T09:04:00.001-07:00

99% humidity, 80% chance of rain & thunderstorms… Not exactly what you want when you’re planning on doing 40 miles on the bike.

Ah well, we’ll see what it looks like in the morning.

First two rides

2009-03-24T20:23:00.001-07:00

So right now it’s all about cycling. Going back to my roots :-)

If you want to make sure that you never ever spend more than a couple of hundred dollars or maybe a thousand on a bicycle but you really like cycling… then never allow a sales person at bicycle store to talk you into trying a carbon frame… Just stay away… don’t do it… because you’ll never look back…

On Sunday morning I walked outside on a pair of shoes you just cannot walk on, climbed onto the saddle, and once I heard the slight but distinctive noise of two pedals locking into my shoes it was like I’d never been away from a bicycle…

Coasted down Broadway into Audubon Park, and then onto the river levee heading west. The levee path tightly follows the Mississippi river and is fully open to the elements, which means I’ll be getting plenty of practice riding with the wind coming from all angles.

Today I did the same route with a little more power on the way out, mainly because I met up with another cyclist in the park who asked if he could draft behind.

I love being back on the road again!!!

My pride & joy

2009-03-24T20:04:00.001-07:00

Kuota K-Factor, lots of carbon :P
Shimano 105 set
Speedplay X/5 pedals
Shimano TR31 shoes

How I got here...

2009-03-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

If you'd ask anybody from my childhood to describe me with a few keywords, then the word "sport" would probably never come up.

Sure I was on a bicycle a lot, but which Dutch child isn't. Cycling is not a sport in the Netherlands when you're a kid, it's just something everybody else does to. I did play tennis for two seasons or something like that, but that's about it until I was 21...

So how did I get from doing practically nothing to now aiming for an Ironman 70.3?

Well very slowly for starters. I started doing some basic exercising when I was at the university of Hertfordshire. I got it in my head that it might be a good idea to do some cycling the morning of my exams. I have no idea how I got the idea, but I did, and it worked very well to help me relax.

When I lived in Bristol I had no other option than to bike to work, could not afford a car, and there was simply no public transport available. So I did 16 miles every working day. That year I walked everywhere as well, for the same simple reason: no car.

Then I moved to Macclesfield, lived 3 min walking away from work (that's literally), and well did nothing else. Until one of my colleagues talked me into joining his Karate training club. That is the first time I actually found something I enjoyed doing and stuck to for any significant amount of time. I also started to run a little every now and then, but not enough to really start enjoying it.

Sweden is the next country and I fall straight back into doing nothing for the first 6 months or so. Then I discover Innebandy (floor hockey), which I regularly for about a year or so, at that point a colleague challenges me to doing a local 8.3k race (weird distance I know). I accept, and complete the whole thing in a reasonable time and actualy enjoy the sensation of running. That kind of keeps me going for the next couple of years, well on and off inbetween everything else that was happening.

So then I meet Ulrika, and she makes a fleeting attempt to introduce me to lifting heavy pieces of metal... njah not my thing.

USA... I start running again, more out of boredom than anything else really. When I finally get to work, I keep on running, but with no specific goals in mind. Then Ulrika starts training with personal trainer and he always asks what you want to achieve while training with him... After a while Ulrika asks me the simple question what my goal is with my running. My answer is even simpler: I don't have one...

Hmm maybe that is why I never really consistently have done anything. I still don't know exactly how I got there, but all of a sudden I'm the one working out with a personal trainer. After 3 months I can run further & faster, have a six pack, and a real hunger for working out. After some minor knee problems, I end up running a decent 5k and looking forward to a 10k. The 10k I was planning on running falls through for the simple reason that we managed to book a vacation for the same weekend.

Again, I have no idea where the next idea comes from, but before I know it I'm telling the whole world I'll be doing a half marathon under 2 hrs. So with a firm goal in sight, I start training, suffer through my first half marathon at 2h8m something, and end up doing my second half marathon in 1h58m a couple of months later.

Somewhere in between the two half marathons on a random wednesday this question strikes me: Now what?

And there you have it... all of a sudden you're on your way to an Ironman 70.3