new bike rocks!
wow. better gearing, lighter, better control, more gears, stiffer, faster! its carbon fiber, doesnt rattle, has ultegra most everywhere. long crank, 12-27 in the back... pretty good wheels, nothing huge there - might be next year before i get the $1000 wheels. needs aerobars.
took out my new bike, which i thought to name "Nasty Bish" but now i am not so sure... name just doesnt fit so well any more. might re-think that.
so! normally i dont write mid-week, but wow!
ok ok ok... so, i did the long hill rides over the weekend and my legs were a bit tired, and, like i said earlier for some reason i am recovering better now ( beta-alanine ) ahem.
so, so... so we go riding! weeee... resa hasnt got her new bike yet so it was me first time on the new one and her on her bike. and we go out about 20ish miles and she gets a flat. and for the first time in about 30 or so rides its the front. totally amazing to both of us. we were standing on the side of the road and you know the old Candid Camera skits where they would set up something funny and get people's odd reactions on film? well, we are standing there staring at the flat FRONT tire and we are looking around a bit like someone must be filming this. i think the original tube was still in the front tire from about 10 years ago. so there we are staring at it. and we start laughing about it a bit. first time for everything i guess. an average ride for us has one flat, but its always the rear wheels with the chain and gears and pain in the butt.
so off comes the front tire and and its totally flat. i pull out a spare tube and reach for the FOCKING BIKE PUMP IS ON MY OLD BIKE!
ooops.
"Heya, Resa, you want to ride my bike back to the car?"
"No way i am riding to the car because you forgot the pump."
"Heh."
"Enjoy the ride sweety sweety."
so off i ride.
and on the way out we rode pretty slow as we were both a little tight and sore and just wanted to check out the new bike.
not no more.
i decide to see what i can do on the new bike.
it doesnt have the aerobars on it yet. so i was up in the wind as i hate the drops. and its not really set up yet. i just put the crap on it that afternoon, so its a bit un-comfy. also i was riding 15 miles up hill to the car. and on dirt roads that were sometimes gravel. and i went about 3-4 mph faster than we would have together. not sure if it was just me being all hyped up, but riding 20mph in the dark on a forest uphill dirt road not set up was amazing to me.
now i need a name for the black and blue bike.
"Bruises?"
and! thanks for the responses on the eating thingy. its a mystery to us for sure. but we will get it figured.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I AM AN (half) IRONMAN!!!!
well, we did it. the world's hardest half ironman.
at least that's what they call it. and i would have to agree with them as it would certainly be tough to get one harder. the course was pretty brutal. it was all climbing. there were about 5 miles of flats but otherwise you were going up or down at sometimes 10% grades for long periods. the run was the same. it was flat for about 1/2 mile and the rest was 6% grade with no flats.
and, this was done after doing a sprint and two warm up olympic triathlons.
so how'd we do? not fast! there was a winner and it wasn't us. :-) we came in 338th and 339th of 400 people. but the first 150 were pretty extreme. also we didn't have a very good day with my first pond swimming - ( read below next post ), bike disasters ( again ) and being generally slow. how could we have done? if everything had worked out - the bikes, swim and run all went as we can do them we would have maybe cracked 225. but i am guessing nothing went perfect for anyone so we are happy with the weekend!
i wrote a big writeup on the swimming. the running and biking were pretty non-eventful, other than the Resa's bike losing the chain. also this was our last event with our old bikes. my new one showed up yesterday and i am busy the rest of the day setting it up. in a few hours we go for the first ride on it - a 2 hour fun ride. :-)
beta-alanine is the bomb. just mentioning that. if anyone out there gets sore after a long workout - or during it. get beta-alanine. its huge improvement. i did more than an ironman on a very hard course saturday and sunday and am looking forward to hitting it hard tonight (tuesday) on the new bike.
my weight is now 189, down from 215 about a year ago. i think i am about 5 from my best weight.
thats all the good stuff. now the tricky thing: we cant eat anything while going that hard. neither of us can eat anything we have tried and not felt the puke fairy nosing around. if anyone out there has had this and has an tip on what to eat... please let me know! we are thinking of moving away from the energy bars / goos / candies / drinks to things like lasagna and potato soup and stuff. we used to do that while doing the longer adventure races and it worked then. hopefully it does again or we are in big trouble.
ok, weekly scores:
mentally: 7 - started off with 0.01 after the first two disaster swims. thought about just going to the car and calling the whole year off. after the next two great swims i bump mental to about 10+. and then take away 3 for the food issues. so a final of 7. had some of the highest and lowest points of the last 16 months all on the same weekend. came out way ahead though. feel pretty happy too.
physically: 9 - surprised at my recovery time/ability. its life time best right now. bonked badly on the final half marathon run due to lack of food. biggest problem for us now.
workouts: 9 - did more than we needed with 28 miles run, 120 biked and about 3 swam over the weekend. did everything at a very good pace for us, other than the runs - which, how fast can you walk up a 10% grade?
no events on the calendar now except the ironman in 95 days. feels pretty good mentally too, to just get to settle in for the summer without another worried weekend. we might find a half marathon or half ironman just for fun, but it wont be for time. this last weekend was that way, but we also learned so much and had to do all of our first time mistakes. ( i have a NASTY sunburn LOL )
see you next week, i feel i am on the home stretch starting today.
Swimming in a Focking Pond!
This is only about the swimming as the bike and run were just grind-it-outs on the hills. Other than maybe mentioning that there was no FOCKING WATER for the last half of the run. Just mentioning it. Not like I was thirsty after 20+ hours of running around for 3 days and it was FOCKING 85 degrees out with no focking wind... FOCK! Well, just a note there on water. Those fockers.
OK!
Experience: ( is what keeps you from making mistakes, and what you get by making mistakes )
Race 1 – was 300 meters. Panic attack and I pretty much walked the whole thing – you could touch bottom for about 70% of the course. Lol did some dog paddle and breast stroke.
Race 2 – 1500 meters. Panic attack and long struggle through one lap of the course. Wouldn’t have even done that if Resa hadn’t been there. Did some real swimming about 20% of the course. Mostly said naughty words. Two different people stopped and asked if I was ok. I am surprised they even noticed me. Maybe it was the bug eyes and drowning flailing.
Race 3 – 1500 meters. after the bikes and run already that day I was pretty tired when we got to the swim and I just figured I would try swimming from the start and see if I could go anywhere. Went around once, felt settled in about 400 yards out. Got to about 100 feet from the first lap finish and had a *monster* leg cramp. Like someone shot me. I bobbed in the water like a cork for about 30 seconds and struggled to shore flopping like a fish. Also I was feeling really sea sick. Sat there about 2 minutes thinking I was being pretty lame so I did another lap. Both laps were about the same – pretty easy actually. Got out really sick again. ( I get this at the pool too – but I just stand 5-10 minutes in the shower and it goes away ). Very lucky I am not sick while swimming. I am always sick out of the water so that didn’t bother me too much and I get cramps when we swim after running so that was nothing new either. Also the bike first split up the people and we only met about 5 other swimmers. So the water and atmosphere were calm. At the end of this I was the happiest I was all weekend ( and that includes the awesome downhills on the bike ). Took me a month to get over the panic in the pool and only 3 pond swims. Yeah ken!
Race 4 – 1900 meters. Felt very confident about the swim, I got some sleep too. Which I didn’t much the night before. Also I couldn’t eat after the first race because I was worried about the long swims the next day. Got in the water and started cruising along. It was two laps so the faster people passed us continuously the first lap. And then another sprint race started behind us and those guys passed us on the second lap. But it didn’t bother me like the first two races. Fine, let them bump and bounce along. Resa and I swam together and about 5 times someone would swim between us. I heard her laughing at one point. The worst part was getting a mouth full of muddy splash. I didn’t like crowding other people, it didn’t bother me that they were impolite, I guess I figured they were top 200 people and had a bit of time pressure. But when we caught up to people ( maybe 3 times? LOL ) I stopped when I felt a foot. Did the 2 laps and got out feeling great. No cramps because it was the first event of the day. And… doing what I shouldn’t and experimenting, I took a Dramamine pill for the first time ever before that swim. Worked extremely well. Turned a swirling dizzy pukey headache into just a dull annoyance for a few minutes.
To do it next time I would increase my effort about 20%. I think I went slower than I had too by a lot – just concentrated on breathing. Not on form all that much. I feel really good about the ironman swim now.
SO!
Some Advice: ( everyone has advice – unlike experience )
Swimming pretty much freaked me and Sheila out too much to go on… Mark was pretty freaked the first long time too but seemed to really find it for the last 2 races, Resa had no problem at all other than a sore neck from looking for me. Amy seemed creeped for the first 20 minutes the second race but got over it after her first lap and was fine after.
Get in the water and practice swimming at least once. There will be people grabbing you all over like an orgy or something. So maybe swim with some people and swim right on top of each other so you touch and splash. You will find that being a certain distance ahead or behind there are sweet spots where you get splashed *every* stroke. Some of the faster people will not be able to steer too well and they will cross your path over and over. Also you get splashed right in the mouth from the guy next to you as you breath so don’t count on getting clean air every time. The suit will feel crappy on land – like you are in a way too small suit but gets much much better in the water. At first I thought I would freak because I couldn’t move very well, but after the first good swim for me in the third race I REALLY liked the suit. Also I stretched the thing into my core so I had floods for legs and my arms ended about halfway between wrist and elbow. Maybe I am just 5 inches taller than the average guy, but they could make the suits really long and let you cut them shorter. Ah, well.
The swim hat was so freaking tight it gave me a headache. Fockin hated, hated, hated the hat. Some people say put the goggles under the hat but I think that would be harder than it would be worth. Also push them on your face harder than normal. 2 of the 5 full laps I did, I had water in there. I didn’t get water the last two loops as I smashed them on until I had a bout the air density of the international space station in there.
The biggest things though are not the waves or the goofballs around you, but the water. First off you couldn’t see in it at all and you kinda panic as the lights go out every 2 seconds. Light dark light dark. But the biggest by far was something I would NEVER had thought of. It was cold. Really cold as it rained and a bunch of water was going through and you hit some warm spots but over all it was really cold. Which with the wet suit on you don’t get cold, but your face and hands do. This is what was the biggest killer I think. You put your face in the cold water and you gasp. And that ruins everything. You cant breath and you certainly cant swim. This is why some people did the breast stroke. And you don’t figure it out right away. All you get is a panic the first second cold water is in your ears and you jerk your head out of the water. So, what to do? Well, I would *highly* recommend getting into the water before the start – about half of the people did. Just get in about waist deep and go under water, it’s hard to even hold your breath the first few seconds. But you get used to it after 30 seconds. Also you suit will come on-line and start warming you.
The suit is great. It completely gets you up out of the water – which was my big worry before hand. ( ahh those innocent days ). I don’t kick at all because I don’t have the legs as it is by the time the run comes around. And the suit gets you up and flat ( if you are swimming! ) and you can cruise along without kicking. Which i think The Resa was also doing a bit more of on the last race.
One side breathing. I swim bi-laterally in the pool, as does Resa. Don’t bother during the race! You get enough sensory overload on one side without having to double it up with two complete worlds of splashing and swimmers and lifeguards and landscape and sun and whatever! Also you try to remember whats on both sides of you and that’s more thinking than you probably need to be doing. Just get comfy going on your good side, I did that for maybe 30 breaths then switched sides and did the other side for a little while. But even the switch will feel weird as you cant see anything while face down.
Sighting, which I am not very good at. I had Resa steer for me. She swam on my right and sights very well. I probably looked every 10 breaths or so. Every 2 breaths when we closed on a corner. But I think I swim very straight. I practiced swimming in the pool without lanes with my eyes closed and I went very straight. You can use the surrounding landscape as a sight if you are good at that sorta thing. Also the sun was easy. If you look towards the sun ( with mirrored goggles ) and put it at say 5:00 position you can use that as a sighting tool. I did that a lot. Just kept it in the same place and swam along, when I looked forward I was almost always directly on track. More though I think Resa did all of the driving.
And a small note on your hands – the cold water turned off my left hand. And my right was going as we left the water. It got too cold to move. I couldn’t work the zipper on the suit or my coat 10 minutes later. Also tying my shoes was hard. And, during the swim I had nothing for making a cup any more. My left hand was just open and unmovable. Resa said she started getting it too and had some trouble with one or two fingers. But! Good news for you guys, my hands are pretty super sensitive to temperature, I wear gloves running when its below 70 degrees. ( no joke )
And the final piece of advice would be to breath. Just get moving and concentrate everything on breathing the first 3-5 minutes. Turn, breath, blow out, turn, breath. Don’t worry about speed or whats around you, just breath regardless. After you know you can breath then you can add in things like form, where you are going and dodging people/buoys/tree branches/killer fish.
That’s all I got.
OK!
Experience: ( is what keeps you from making mistakes, and what you get by making mistakes )
Race 1 – was 300 meters. Panic attack and I pretty much walked the whole thing – you could touch bottom for about 70% of the course. Lol did some dog paddle and breast stroke.
Race 2 – 1500 meters. Panic attack and long struggle through one lap of the course. Wouldn’t have even done that if Resa hadn’t been there. Did some real swimming about 20% of the course. Mostly said naughty words. Two different people stopped and asked if I was ok. I am surprised they even noticed me. Maybe it was the bug eyes and drowning flailing.
Race 3 – 1500 meters. after the bikes and run already that day I was pretty tired when we got to the swim and I just figured I would try swimming from the start and see if I could go anywhere. Went around once, felt settled in about 400 yards out. Got to about 100 feet from the first lap finish and had a *monster* leg cramp. Like someone shot me. I bobbed in the water like a cork for about 30 seconds and struggled to shore flopping like a fish. Also I was feeling really sea sick. Sat there about 2 minutes thinking I was being pretty lame so I did another lap. Both laps were about the same – pretty easy actually. Got out really sick again. ( I get this at the pool too – but I just stand 5-10 minutes in the shower and it goes away ). Very lucky I am not sick while swimming. I am always sick out of the water so that didn’t bother me too much and I get cramps when we swim after running so that was nothing new either. Also the bike first split up the people and we only met about 5 other swimmers. So the water and atmosphere were calm. At the end of this I was the happiest I was all weekend ( and that includes the awesome downhills on the bike ). Took me a month to get over the panic in the pool and only 3 pond swims. Yeah ken!
Race 4 – 1900 meters. Felt very confident about the swim, I got some sleep too. Which I didn’t much the night before. Also I couldn’t eat after the first race because I was worried about the long swims the next day. Got in the water and started cruising along. It was two laps so the faster people passed us continuously the first lap. And then another sprint race started behind us and those guys passed us on the second lap. But it didn’t bother me like the first two races. Fine, let them bump and bounce along. Resa and I swam together and about 5 times someone would swim between us. I heard her laughing at one point. The worst part was getting a mouth full of muddy splash. I didn’t like crowding other people, it didn’t bother me that they were impolite, I guess I figured they were top 200 people and had a bit of time pressure. But when we caught up to people ( maybe 3 times? LOL ) I stopped when I felt a foot. Did the 2 laps and got out feeling great. No cramps because it was the first event of the day. And… doing what I shouldn’t and experimenting, I took a Dramamine pill for the first time ever before that swim. Worked extremely well. Turned a swirling dizzy pukey headache into just a dull annoyance for a few minutes.
To do it next time I would increase my effort about 20%. I think I went slower than I had too by a lot – just concentrated on breathing. Not on form all that much. I feel really good about the ironman swim now.
SO!
Some Advice: ( everyone has advice – unlike experience )
Swimming pretty much freaked me and Sheila out too much to go on… Mark was pretty freaked the first long time too but seemed to really find it for the last 2 races, Resa had no problem at all other than a sore neck from looking for me. Amy seemed creeped for the first 20 minutes the second race but got over it after her first lap and was fine after.
Get in the water and practice swimming at least once. There will be people grabbing you all over like an orgy or something. So maybe swim with some people and swim right on top of each other so you touch and splash. You will find that being a certain distance ahead or behind there are sweet spots where you get splashed *every* stroke. Some of the faster people will not be able to steer too well and they will cross your path over and over. Also you get splashed right in the mouth from the guy next to you as you breath so don’t count on getting clean air every time. The suit will feel crappy on land – like you are in a way too small suit but gets much much better in the water. At first I thought I would freak because I couldn’t move very well, but after the first good swim for me in the third race I REALLY liked the suit. Also I stretched the thing into my core so I had floods for legs and my arms ended about halfway between wrist and elbow. Maybe I am just 5 inches taller than the average guy, but they could make the suits really long and let you cut them shorter. Ah, well.
The swim hat was so freaking tight it gave me a headache. Fockin hated, hated, hated the hat. Some people say put the goggles under the hat but I think that would be harder than it would be worth. Also push them on your face harder than normal. 2 of the 5 full laps I did, I had water in there. I didn’t get water the last two loops as I smashed them on until I had a bout the air density of the international space station in there.
The biggest things though are not the waves or the goofballs around you, but the water. First off you couldn’t see in it at all and you kinda panic as the lights go out every 2 seconds. Light dark light dark. But the biggest by far was something I would NEVER had thought of. It was cold. Really cold as it rained and a bunch of water was going through and you hit some warm spots but over all it was really cold. Which with the wet suit on you don’t get cold, but your face and hands do. This is what was the biggest killer I think. You put your face in the cold water and you gasp. And that ruins everything. You cant breath and you certainly cant swim. This is why some people did the breast stroke. And you don’t figure it out right away. All you get is a panic the first second cold water is in your ears and you jerk your head out of the water. So, what to do? Well, I would *highly* recommend getting into the water before the start – about half of the people did. Just get in about waist deep and go under water, it’s hard to even hold your breath the first few seconds. But you get used to it after 30 seconds. Also you suit will come on-line and start warming you.
The suit is great. It completely gets you up out of the water – which was my big worry before hand. ( ahh those innocent days ). I don’t kick at all because I don’t have the legs as it is by the time the run comes around. And the suit gets you up and flat ( if you are swimming! ) and you can cruise along without kicking. Which i think The Resa was also doing a bit more of on the last race.
One side breathing. I swim bi-laterally in the pool, as does Resa. Don’t bother during the race! You get enough sensory overload on one side without having to double it up with two complete worlds of splashing and swimmers and lifeguards and landscape and sun and whatever! Also you try to remember whats on both sides of you and that’s more thinking than you probably need to be doing. Just get comfy going on your good side, I did that for maybe 30 breaths then switched sides and did the other side for a little while. But even the switch will feel weird as you cant see anything while face down.
Sighting, which I am not very good at. I had Resa steer for me. She swam on my right and sights very well. I probably looked every 10 breaths or so. Every 2 breaths when we closed on a corner. But I think I swim very straight. I practiced swimming in the pool without lanes with my eyes closed and I went very straight. You can use the surrounding landscape as a sight if you are good at that sorta thing. Also the sun was easy. If you look towards the sun ( with mirrored goggles ) and put it at say 5:00 position you can use that as a sighting tool. I did that a lot. Just kept it in the same place and swam along, when I looked forward I was almost always directly on track. More though I think Resa did all of the driving.
And a small note on your hands – the cold water turned off my left hand. And my right was going as we left the water. It got too cold to move. I couldn’t work the zipper on the suit or my coat 10 minutes later. Also tying my shoes was hard. And, during the swim I had nothing for making a cup any more. My left hand was just open and unmovable. Resa said she started getting it too and had some trouble with one or two fingers. But! Good news for you guys, my hands are pretty super sensitive to temperature, I wear gloves running when its below 70 degrees. ( no joke )
And the final piece of advice would be to breath. Just get moving and concentrate everything on breathing the first 3-5 minutes. Turn, breath, blow out, turn, breath. Don’t worry about speed or whats around you, just breath regardless. After you know you can breath then you can add in things like form, where you are going and dodging people/buoys/tree branches/killer fish.
That’s all I got.
Monday, May 17, 2010
new bike?
did a pretty normal week. had some trouble in the water. right out of nowhere too. my swimming i think has been going great. but i have been using the pull buoy to keep me more flat in the water. well, for the last few weeks i have been cutting parts of it off to get me to swim without it long term. i must have cut a bit too much last time as the last two swims were pretty brutal. might be that my arms are just tired though. i was hoping to get through the swim without using my legs too much. just a little flutter now and then, save them for the biking and running. it has sorta worked, but now i am hoping the wetsuit acts like a pull buoy!
in other news i ordered a new bike. it hopefully shows up in the next few days. it is a road bike, not a time trial bike. we figured we would want to use the bikes for the next 10 years, so that's why the roadies. they look great on paper. 10 pounds lighter, better gearing, 10 years newer. my sister got one a few days ago too - and easily outclimbed us on a tough hill. and on her old bike it was the other way around. so we are really looking forward to the new ones.
did a mini tri yesterday. we swam 2800, rode 30 and ran 8. was pretty tired after that. :-) then we cleaned the parrot cages and the car out. got it all done about bedtime.
this next week is supposed to be another in the build phase but we are turning it into a semi tapering week. on friday night we have a triathlon. its a huge 250m swim, 5 mile grueling bike and then a run to you drop 1 mile. then, no rest for us because the next morning is an olympic sized triathlon. be only my second of those and first in 10 years. and! since that sounds like fun there is another one that night. so two olympics in one day. should get us to bed pretty early on saturday. which would be good as there is a half ironman on sunday.
kinda hoping both my wetsuit and bike show up this week. ;-)
next week should be the longest entry ever as i have 4 races to tell you about. well, hopefully 4, we might get trashed too bad to do them all. but we should learn a lot. its called the ohio triple T. also i think we will both be glad to have that weekend behind us. its been out there for about 2 months nagging at us. we have spent a lot of mental time on it. after that we have nothing planned as far as signing up for a race until the ironman. also resa is now out of school for the summer and we look forward to a lot of relaxed weeks.
ok, scores.
mentally: 8 - nervous about the coming week. had a good day yesterday after a really rough start in the swim. i guess i would call my mental state somewhat fragile. ;-) i feel that this coming weekend which we should have tapered a few weeks for will be a huge indicator of my ability to handle big stress. will be my first time in a pond in a wetsuit since scuba class. so i can see me being a 2 or a 10 next monday.
physically: 8 - bit worn down but making a slow recovery. my weight is at 192 about 5-7 above what i think it should be in 3 months, so that's pretty good. nothing hurts for the first time in a few weeks. achy everywhere, but no pain anywhere. glad its a rest day!
workouts: 8 - did all the workouts last week, the sprints are just killing me in the morning, the resa has it a lot easier with the big gaspy breaths than i do. but! our cruising speed has gone from 11:00 per mile to about 10:00 mile in the last few months. also we set our personal best ever pace for 3 miles at under 8:45. so that is big improvement.
so, pretty wrapped up in the coming weekend. we wont do all that well we know, we are run down a bit now and this is pretty tough stuff coming up. but! we are going for the experience, hopefully we get a year's worth of ideas and tips over a weekend.
in other news i ordered a new bike. it hopefully shows up in the next few days. it is a road bike, not a time trial bike. we figured we would want to use the bikes for the next 10 years, so that's why the roadies. they look great on paper. 10 pounds lighter, better gearing, 10 years newer. my sister got one a few days ago too - and easily outclimbed us on a tough hill. and on her old bike it was the other way around. so we are really looking forward to the new ones.
did a mini tri yesterday. we swam 2800, rode 30 and ran 8. was pretty tired after that. :-) then we cleaned the parrot cages and the car out. got it all done about bedtime.
this next week is supposed to be another in the build phase but we are turning it into a semi tapering week. on friday night we have a triathlon. its a huge 250m swim, 5 mile grueling bike and then a run to you drop 1 mile. then, no rest for us because the next morning is an olympic sized triathlon. be only my second of those and first in 10 years. and! since that sounds like fun there is another one that night. so two olympics in one day. should get us to bed pretty early on saturday. which would be good as there is a half ironman on sunday.
kinda hoping both my wetsuit and bike show up this week. ;-)
next week should be the longest entry ever as i have 4 races to tell you about. well, hopefully 4, we might get trashed too bad to do them all. but we should learn a lot. its called the ohio triple T. also i think we will both be glad to have that weekend behind us. its been out there for about 2 months nagging at us. we have spent a lot of mental time on it. after that we have nothing planned as far as signing up for a race until the ironman. also resa is now out of school for the summer and we look forward to a lot of relaxed weeks.
ok, scores.
mentally: 8 - nervous about the coming week. had a good day yesterday after a really rough start in the swim. i guess i would call my mental state somewhat fragile. ;-) i feel that this coming weekend which we should have tapered a few weeks for will be a huge indicator of my ability to handle big stress. will be my first time in a pond in a wetsuit since scuba class. so i can see me being a 2 or a 10 next monday.
physically: 8 - bit worn down but making a slow recovery. my weight is at 192 about 5-7 above what i think it should be in 3 months, so that's pretty good. nothing hurts for the first time in a few weeks. achy everywhere, but no pain anywhere. glad its a rest day!
workouts: 8 - did all the workouts last week, the sprints are just killing me in the morning, the resa has it a lot easier with the big gaspy breaths than i do. but! our cruising speed has gone from 11:00 per mile to about 10:00 mile in the last few months. also we set our personal best ever pace for 3 miles at under 8:45. so that is big improvement.
so, pretty wrapped up in the coming weekend. we wont do all that well we know, we are run down a bit now and this is pretty tough stuff coming up. but! we are going for the experience, hopefully we get a year's worth of ideas and tips over a weekend.
Monday, May 10, 2010
taperize me batman
so we had an easy week. and boy was it easy. the first two days we did somewhat hard workouts and i was gassed. then we took a day off in the middle, headed down to do our 230 mile bike ride for the weekend.
saturday was the first half and the wind was pretty crazy. really hard riding at times. and then there were times when that 40mph gust would blow you down the street. there were a lot of very tired bikers out there.
my ride was a bit of a disaster. tire went slow leaky from about half way to the end. didnt notice right away and then i didnt care too much and rode it flat the last 20 miles. the resa's rear tire ( it is always the rear, so was mine ) also went flat. pumped her's up and since we were both going very slow we decided to just tough out that flat too and we both came in pretty worn out.
so what did we learn? well, i for one have a new passion in life, and that is to get slippery in the wind. i was wearing a big jacket and baggy pants and i paid badly for it. normally i dont ride in the cold or we are cold and not windy. but this was both and i had on a lot of balloony stuff and the wind was pretty harsh. so at the halfway point i skimmed it down to tight stuff and that made the rest of the day easier. sadly my legs were pretty blown and i then got the flat.
also, more nasty was that the wind blew on my just operated on eye. it dried it out really bad and when i rubbed it i think i yanked the flap off a bit as i couldnt see through it any more. also stung like a motherscratcher.
the next morning i fixed both flats... resa's tire is completely rotted out and an air bubble popped out and blew up the new tube. i decided not to ride the trip on sunday from my eye. my legs were better than i thought they would be. beta - alanine i am guessing. either that or maybe i am getting in better shape? :-)
well, after i decided to not go sunday i swapped my rear wheel with hers. and then my tire on her bike was flat a half hour later. we drove out to her and she said lets pack it in. she didnt feel like doing the 8 hour ride back up the hill alone anyway. the bikes are pretty old and need a lot of care right now. so rather than going through all the bother of cleaning the dirt off them and oiling the chain and stuff we decided to upgrade our 30 pound bikes with 17 pound ones. so we are off to the store to look at new high end bikes tonight. we have talked about it for a few months and we might desperately need the 30 minutes or so we could maybe get with new bikes.
this next week is a harder one and the following should be our hardest of the year with 3 triathlons on the weekend. feel pretty rested today.
scores!
mentally: 8 - this is the hard one... i really have no answer for what state i am in. feel lame about the easy week. scared about my eye being big trouble, but good about my recovery from a hard ride and really good about maybe getting a new toy. but i also had the worst ride of the year on saturday and didnt get to even go on sunday. so i give it an 8.
physically: 9 - felt gassed on wednesday - at that point i would give me a 4, but a few days off and a great rebound from the 113 miles into the wind. also all systems are back on line, no sore back or neck or foot, all recovered. even my eye which kept me from riding yesterday is at about 80% now. looks like time off worked wonders. :-)
workouts: 3 - worst set of crap of the year. pretty focking awful. at least i didnt gain weight. had panic attacks in the pool for the first time in 30 weeks and felt all around burned out wednesday.
what i am going to work on mentally over the next few months is getting control of my emotions. i still get a little too down on myself over bad days. let it linger a bit. also i look forward too much. i dont think i was in really bad shape wednesday but thinking ahead to the weekend got me all messed in the head. so thats my primary homework. and! i get to start right away as my first ever 1/2 ironman is in 12 days and we are not tapering a bit for it. also to warm it up there are 2 quarter ironmans the day before. ( just smiling here )
should be fun.
saturday was the first half and the wind was pretty crazy. really hard riding at times. and then there were times when that 40mph gust would blow you down the street. there were a lot of very tired bikers out there.
my ride was a bit of a disaster. tire went slow leaky from about half way to the end. didnt notice right away and then i didnt care too much and rode it flat the last 20 miles. the resa's rear tire ( it is always the rear, so was mine ) also went flat. pumped her's up and since we were both going very slow we decided to just tough out that flat too and we both came in pretty worn out.
so what did we learn? well, i for one have a new passion in life, and that is to get slippery in the wind. i was wearing a big jacket and baggy pants and i paid badly for it. normally i dont ride in the cold or we are cold and not windy. but this was both and i had on a lot of balloony stuff and the wind was pretty harsh. so at the halfway point i skimmed it down to tight stuff and that made the rest of the day easier. sadly my legs were pretty blown and i then got the flat.
also, more nasty was that the wind blew on my just operated on eye. it dried it out really bad and when i rubbed it i think i yanked the flap off a bit as i couldnt see through it any more. also stung like a motherscratcher.
the next morning i fixed both flats... resa's tire is completely rotted out and an air bubble popped out and blew up the new tube. i decided not to ride the trip on sunday from my eye. my legs were better than i thought they would be. beta - alanine i am guessing. either that or maybe i am getting in better shape? :-)
well, after i decided to not go sunday i swapped my rear wheel with hers. and then my tire on her bike was flat a half hour later. we drove out to her and she said lets pack it in. she didnt feel like doing the 8 hour ride back up the hill alone anyway. the bikes are pretty old and need a lot of care right now. so rather than going through all the bother of cleaning the dirt off them and oiling the chain and stuff we decided to upgrade our 30 pound bikes with 17 pound ones. so we are off to the store to look at new high end bikes tonight. we have talked about it for a few months and we might desperately need the 30 minutes or so we could maybe get with new bikes.
this next week is a harder one and the following should be our hardest of the year with 3 triathlons on the weekend. feel pretty rested today.
scores!
mentally: 8 - this is the hard one... i really have no answer for what state i am in. feel lame about the easy week. scared about my eye being big trouble, but good about my recovery from a hard ride and really good about maybe getting a new toy. but i also had the worst ride of the year on saturday and didnt get to even go on sunday. so i give it an 8.
physically: 9 - felt gassed on wednesday - at that point i would give me a 4, but a few days off and a great rebound from the 113 miles into the wind. also all systems are back on line, no sore back or neck or foot, all recovered. even my eye which kept me from riding yesterday is at about 80% now. looks like time off worked wonders. :-)
workouts: 3 - worst set of crap of the year. pretty focking awful. at least i didnt gain weight. had panic attacks in the pool for the first time in 30 weeks and felt all around burned out wednesday.
what i am going to work on mentally over the next few months is getting control of my emotions. i still get a little too down on myself over bad days. let it linger a bit. also i look forward too much. i dont think i was in really bad shape wednesday but thinking ahead to the weekend got me all messed in the head. so thats my primary homework. and! i get to start right away as my first ever 1/2 ironman is in 12 days and we are not tapering a bit for it. also to warm it up there are 2 quarter ironmans the day before. ( just smiling here )
should be fun.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
week 7 done
well, that was the hard week in this series. next week, #8 is an easy week.
probably all to the good - i am accumulating injuries right now. woke up fine but in rapid order today i got a sore lower back, sore upper back ( this has been off and on for a few weeks ) and also the worst is a sore right ankle. this came on at mile 8 today and its killing me now. boo hoo. :-)
but tomorrow is off and then the next 4 days are easy. then the weekend has us riding 200 miles so that should be a lot of fun.
well, after another week of playing with the pills i have come to conclude the cordygen5 is not at all for me. the resa might try it now and then she says - but i am done for good with it. just made me too sick all the time. the carnage looks like a good one though. i have for sure noticed a big difference in my stamina. i can run a bit faster than before and not be out of breath at all. not to make it sound easy. i still have to do all the running and the tiredness afterward is probably even more than before as you can push harder. but, even if there were no speed increase i would be happy about the carnage because i dont have to breath so hard now.
the last 3 days were pretty tough. we had to make up a missed day from resa's school. also the week is bumped up quite a bit. the rides are now a lot harder. the weekend ride went from 1 hour to 3 hours this week. so friday we biked hills for 1.5 hours and then ran an hour with sprints. saturday we biked 36 miles at max. was pretty dead after that. and today we ran 9 miles. also during those 3 days we had our longest and second longest swims lifetime. the second longest was all sprints. i am getting a lot better in the pool. this weekend we are going to get our wetsuits. should be fun panic attacks out in the lake later in the months ahead! finally feel at home in the water.
i think my back is going to be fine but my foot has me really worried right now. would suck if that was a long term injury.
also a bit gassed from this week. the first 5-6 weeks we added or double the weekend workouts from feeling they were too lame. not no more. we are still doing more on the weekends than the book calls for, but not by 100% any more. now its like 25% more. :-) well, this weekend will be about 15 hours of biking so that should get us back into the silly numbers again.
otherwise nothing new, just the foot from today and the ongoing pills testing.
so... this weeks scores are:
mental: 8.5 - kinda waffled between how i feel things are going: 9 and the fact that my foot is messed up - 8. if my foot was ok i would be pretty pleased right now.
physical: 7 - more tired than any time yet. and the foot. but i dont feel i am anywhere near crashing. next weeks score might be a 4,5 we should be pretty cooked after the bike with some running in there too.
workouts: 9 - did them all, did them pretty fast and strong. we planned on upping the weekend run today from 9 to 12ish but ran out of time.
good week. all in all very happy right now. :-)
probably all to the good - i am accumulating injuries right now. woke up fine but in rapid order today i got a sore lower back, sore upper back ( this has been off and on for a few weeks ) and also the worst is a sore right ankle. this came on at mile 8 today and its killing me now. boo hoo. :-)
but tomorrow is off and then the next 4 days are easy. then the weekend has us riding 200 miles so that should be a lot of fun.
well, after another week of playing with the pills i have come to conclude the cordygen5 is not at all for me. the resa might try it now and then she says - but i am done for good with it. just made me too sick all the time. the carnage looks like a good one though. i have for sure noticed a big difference in my stamina. i can run a bit faster than before and not be out of breath at all. not to make it sound easy. i still have to do all the running and the tiredness afterward is probably even more than before as you can push harder. but, even if there were no speed increase i would be happy about the carnage because i dont have to breath so hard now.
the last 3 days were pretty tough. we had to make up a missed day from resa's school. also the week is bumped up quite a bit. the rides are now a lot harder. the weekend ride went from 1 hour to 3 hours this week. so friday we biked hills for 1.5 hours and then ran an hour with sprints. saturday we biked 36 miles at max. was pretty dead after that. and today we ran 9 miles. also during those 3 days we had our longest and second longest swims lifetime. the second longest was all sprints. i am getting a lot better in the pool. this weekend we are going to get our wetsuits. should be fun panic attacks out in the lake later in the months ahead! finally feel at home in the water.
i think my back is going to be fine but my foot has me really worried right now. would suck if that was a long term injury.
also a bit gassed from this week. the first 5-6 weeks we added or double the weekend workouts from feeling they were too lame. not no more. we are still doing more on the weekends than the book calls for, but not by 100% any more. now its like 25% more. :-) well, this weekend will be about 15 hours of biking so that should get us back into the silly numbers again.
otherwise nothing new, just the foot from today and the ongoing pills testing.
so... this weeks scores are:
mental: 8.5 - kinda waffled between how i feel things are going: 9 and the fact that my foot is messed up - 8. if my foot was ok i would be pretty pleased right now.
physical: 7 - more tired than any time yet. and the foot. but i dont feel i am anywhere near crashing. next weeks score might be a 4,5 we should be pretty cooked after the bike with some running in there too.
workouts: 9 - did them all, did them pretty fast and strong. we planned on upping the weekend run today from 9 to 12ish but ran out of time.
good week. all in all very happy right now. :-)
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