Today is Not That Day

Training week 2: Musings on RPMs and death marches

Finally settling into a rhythm with training and the new job. I wasn't sure if it was possible, as every job I've worked on the service side had been crazy hours and travel. But this culture's different, and work/life balance is supported and encouraged. There's even a shower in case I need to bust out a run during lunch.

The swim is going better than I'd expected. While my shoulder still complains on occasion, it seems to be holding up fine. I've only been doing @ 1600 yards each swim, but next week I'll join the master's slow lane and see how it feels to push a bit more distance and pace. I'm really looking forward to swimming with other people! It's the only sport I can be social in right now... no group rides for me until I regain my hill strength.

And speaking of bike...Ugh. But a good ugh. A needed ugh. Yeah, I'm working on cadence and my legs are not happy campers. My happy cadence is 70 - 75. I rode outside yesterday and the goal was to maintain 80 - 85+ with a mix of easy and moderate. Umm... easy is not 80+?? To my legs, maintaining 80+ is HARD. I don't think my RPE scale is the same as my coach's; hers goes from 1 - 10 and mine goes from 5 - 10.

I kept catching myself slowing down cadence when it was time to go easy -- "ah, I'm now resting in my happy cadence zone... No wait, I'm supposed to stay 80+. Ugh." Needless to say, I'm using my gears more than I ever have. Ta da! My head now knows that easy is not a slower cadence but an easier gear, but my legs still haven't gotten the memo. And my hootchie is angry about the memo; now that I'm not mashing gears, my butt and girl parts HURT. So it's good we're not tacking on too much mileage right now as I gotta toughen up my "area." High cadence = pain = not easy. My head's getting them all mixed up; maybe when I'm tougher on my seat it will all seem easier.

Yesterday also brought some needed wind training! Last year at Honu we were so lucky with the weather. The winds weren't bad at all on race day... but the high winds in the days prior gave an indication of what it certainly could be like on race day. So yesterday I got to practice in those conditions... occasional gusting crosswinds and a headwind that created whitecaps at Nicasio reservoir. Riding on flats and slight downhills at 10 MPH. Check. 

Not that you can see said whitecaps as my camera phone is worthless, but they were there. And yes, it was otherwise a lovely day! Mid-60s and sunny. And windy. So the tailwind back was AWESOME. Cranking at 90 RPM, flying, and loving it. I guess this RPM thing is partly psychological as I had no problem @ 90 going fast. Hmmm...

Ok, today I've got a long-ish run on tap in Golden Gate Park. I'm ramping up to do the US Half on April 8; I'd like to have one confidence-building 13.1 mile run before Honu. The run course at Honu is demonic... after starting out on short/steep hills and spongy grass, miles 9 - 12 is a desolate, hot, out-and-back section fondly called "the death march." I am dreading the death march because mile 9 is normally when my body (hips, feet, hip flexors, and basically any muscle/tendon/ligament below the waist) says, "ok, I'm done now!" I could be running a half in paradise and post-9 miles would still be a death march. So I need to get some miles in these legs so I can smile at the death march in June. Hah! Death march my ass... I eat desolation for breakfast. Grrrr.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend. Happy training!

 

NorCal training in February

(I know... 2 posts in one day! Crazy!)

It was another gorgeous weekend in San Francisco. I've heard it's been gorgeous in other parts of the country too, which is makes me feel better. If I could magically blow some of this sunshine over to you snowbound foks, I would do so!

Exhibit A: Cycling in Tiburon. Lots of sailboats out on Saturday!

Exhibit B: Running through the Presidio yesterday. The city is doing a great job clearing out underbrush and landscaping so that I can enjoy this unobstructed view (that road below is my hill-repeat location on the bike! It doesn't suck.)

Today is fog-bound, however, so I'm glad it's a swim day. Happy training!

Training for 80

I've been writing for the past several months that I had zero intention to do a 70.3 this year. 2012 was going to be all about run focus and body alignment. But a little over a week ago I received a note in my inbox from my friend who did Honu with me last year: "Hey, I signed up again for Honu. You in?"

Ummm... yes. I waited a few days so I could think about it... and then remembered that this race is on Lance's schedule, which means an early sell-out. So I registered and not even hours later I heard that it was, in fact, sold out! So I barely made it in.

I also registered for Wildflower oly, renewed my USAT card... and hired a new coach!! I wanted to mix things up and get some new perspectives, so I decided to sign on with Elizabeth Waterstraat. After listening to Molly rave about her coach -- plus seeing Molly's training improvements, seeing how ELF came back from new mommyhood to totally ROCK Eagleman and Kona, and I've always loved her training blog posts -- it was a pretty easy choice.

I am a bit nervous though -- last year was a sufferfest thanks to muscle imbalances (which have mostly been corrected except for my hip flexors) and this year I have less time to train before the race. But the words of the day, kiddos, are consistency and durability. I don't care about going fast, I care about finishing strong (which will enable me to finish faster than last year.) I have less biz travel on my plate this year, which will help a lot.

So I just finished week one of training. It's funny, I didn't know I missed training until I started up again. This is what I've needed: a big goal and a coach. Someday perhaps I'll be one of "you people"... those who are compulsively addicted to getting in the training hours every day no matter what's happening in their lives. This former bookworm isn't there yet, but I'm working on it! 

I get asked "why?", of course, by my more sedentary loved ones. Why another 70.3? Wasn't one enough? My response: the older I get (I'm about to hit 43 in a couple weeks!) the bigger the sense of urgency about fitness. I'd printed out the image from the aging prevention study and taped it above my computer; it's the most compelling reason I've ever found for lifelong fitness efforts.

As my new boss said to me on Friday, "I'm training for 80." It puts IM training in a different perspective, yeah? You train for 9 months for Ironman, but we will train the next several decades for a quality of life in retirement only enjoyed by a rare few. It just occurred to me: I'm only 22 years from retirement age. Holy crap. This aging thing sure does sneak up on you.

At the gym yesterday while I was trying to do single-leg squats with a crunchy knee, I became aware of some self-sabatoging thoughts: "Well, I'm in my 40s, I can't really be expected to knock these out like a 20 year old." There's a tiny kernel of truth in that, BUT... there are also plenty of 60+ master's athletes who could kick my ass.

It's time to raise my own bar on what's possible. Time to stop assuming where my limits lie. Time to HTFU and start training like my life depended on it. Which, of course, it does. It just depends on how I want to define life and living, both now and when I'm 80.

First trail run

I've lived by the Presidio for 6 years, which is full of great trails... and yes, I finally decided to get my butt in gear and actually run on them. I've resisted it because -- whaaah -- it's hilly and hard. Buck up, buttercup. My mantra this year is "durability" and that means building strength and power and...yes, embracing hills. (More hills please! Thank you sir, may I have another?)

So I bought some trail shoes: Saucony ProGrid Peregrine... I love my Kinvaras, and the Peregrine feels similar with a bit more traction.

We've had such crazy-nice weather this winter... it's more like summer. How fantastic is it to be out running through the woods on a sunny, 60-degree day and come upon this view?

The return route is pretty much "up."... one section at 19% grade which will make some good hill repeats. See those houses in the top right corner? That's the goal.

So my legs are mildly jello-ish and I only did 750 feet of climbing. Can't wait to see improvements and start trail running up in Marin on some real vertical.

Yesterday I did my first ride in over a month. When a 25-mile ride feels like 45, I know it's going to be really "fun" working my way back to fitness. Tomorrow I head back to the pool and see if my shoulder will go longer than 20 minutes.

Whoo hoo, I'm back to tri training!

Ramping back up from Surf City half

Yes, I've been woefully negligent on blogging! I took a new job in Berkeley -- it's currently on a contract basis, but I'm pretty sure I'll switch to full time. And when I do, that means no more flexibility to jump on my trainer at 2:00 in the afternoon. I've loved the flexibility of working from home, but I just haven't loved the loneliness of it. So I'll have to start bucking up and doing what most of you do: work out early or late.

Anwyay... I did my first stand-alone half marathon last weekend @ Surf City in Huntington Beach... A race report would be of no interest to anyone as my hip flexor/psoas pain (which usually crops up at mile 9) decided to make itself known at mile 2.5. Grrrr. I'd gone to my "magic man" a week prior to see what he could do about it, and I think that was just a really bad idea. Too close to race day.

So it was a looong morning, having to stop and stretch and massage this weird muscle knot every mile (sometimes twice a mile.) But hey, I was in SoCal with friends and the weather could not have been more perfect. So tempting to pack up and move down there! I won't. I love SF. But I think I need more frequent trips down south!)

There were some "interesting" people running the race. How'd you like to hula hoop for 13.1 miles?

Or balance a melon on your head? (Yes, he ran the entire race with a melon on his head.)

So while I'm not proud of my finishing time, I got one of these... and my next one should be a nice PR.

Next up is Oakland half in March, Wildflower Oly in May, and Napa to Sonoma half in July. Now that it's February I need to start kicking tri training into high gear. I've attempted a couple short swims and so far my shoulder has held up ok. Magic Man worked on my back muscles which haven't been firing properly (hence why my shoulders roll forward) so a couple more sessions there should do the trick.

Job #1 is to continue working on fixing my shoulder impingement and building strength in my legs to correct my muscle imbalances so I can actually RUN and finish a half without funky pain. Job #2 is to try to get close to last year's Wildflower time and ideally go < 3 hrs. But job #2 is dependent (of course) on job #1. I've decided I do need a coach... I just don't have the discipline yet to do this by myself!

 

Aging prevention: triathlon training

Have you guys seen this?? Amazing:

This was from a study published in the Physician and Sports Medicine Journal, which compared athletes and non-athletes from age 40+.

It is commonly believed that with aging comes an inevitable decline from vitality to frailty. This includes feeling weak and often the loss of independence. These declines may have more to do with lifestyle choices, including sedentary living and poor nutrition, than the absolute potential of musculoskeletal aging. In this study, we sought to eliminate the confounding variables of sedentary living and muscle disuse, and answer the question of what really happens to our muscles as we age if we are chronically active. This study and those discussed here show that we are capable of preserving both muscle mass and strength with lifelong physical activity.

We found that chronic intense exercise preserved muscle mass and prevented fat infiltration of muscle in masters athletes.

Note that the "athlete" participants had the following profile:

Forty masters athletes (20 men and 20 women) were included in this study. Subjects were included if they were aged ≥ 40 years, trained for fitness and sports competitions ≥ 4 to 5 times per week, and did not have current sports-related injuries that limited their ability to compete in sports competitions. Many were age-group winners for their sport. The subjects were primarily composed of runners/track and field participants, bikers, and swimmers.

I don't know about you, but this doesn't describe me! One drawback to this study is that it doesn't include those who start exercising later in life. It also doesn't reflect the "semi-active" population, ie. those who might walk regularly and/or have a 3x per week gym routine. I'm loking forward to future studies that explore these two scenarios, but in the meantime this has certainly motivated me to ramp back up on training.

Kicking off year 3

I just noticed that my last blog post was late November... such a slacker I am! December was a really rough month, full of constant travel and 3 weeks of a chest cold. Yesterday was my first cough-free day since 12/13. Needless to say, my running took a big hit, and I'm still hovering around 6 miles when I should be up to 9. This weekend I'll see how far I can go.

So of course it's January and my blog reader is full of inspired and inspiring posts about 2012 goals for triathlon. Alas, triathlon has been a distant memory thanks to my shoulder injury that's taking its sweet time to heal. After 5 months it's just now starting to mend, and I've been a bit reluctant to get back on the bike. I'd been thinking perhaps 2012 would just be a running year, plus some continued strength/PT work. I wanted to do Wildflower but in a distant, hypothetical way, like I should want to do Wildflower (or any tri, for that matter).

But today I got inspired. It was a beautiful sunny 65-degree day, and my first time on the bike since August. Just an easy 25 miler that didn't suck as badly as I'd expected... and it was fun. I've definitely lost bike fitness but felt stronger than I did this time last year. I started feeling optimistic and a bit nostalgic for training.

I'm giving myself the remainder of January to focus on shoulder PT before I sign up for Wildflower. I still have a tough time staying more than 5 minutes in aero at a time, and I haven't ventured to the pool yet. Pool time is next week... we'll see how my shoulder holds up. But I'm finally getting the bug again.

For kicks, I went back to last year's mileage recap. The bike numbers are inspiring! I doubt the other numbers are accurate though.

	2010	2011
Bike	971 miles	1871 miles
Run	484 miles	467 miles*
Swim	58 miles	80 miles*	(est 5k yds/week x 28 weeks)

I no longer have the pro version of Training Peaks so I can't pull reports, so I used Garmin Connect which doesn't include any manual entries for run & swim. The run numbers seem really low at 467, but I was injured the first couple months of 2011, and then again from Aug - Oct. So this is really only 6 months of real run training and doesn't include Garmin-free days (so maybe 20 mi/week x 24 weeks? Say 500 mi.) Swim numbers I had to totally guess at... again, since I stopped swimming in Aug this is only 8 months of swim training.

What are my goals for 2012? I think I'll have to stick with Olympic tris this year. The 70.3's that interest me are all in the first part of the year and my shoulder won't let me tackle those. So I'll shoot for sub-3:00 at Wildflower and Pac Grove, throw in a few half marathons to build up my weak sport, and a lot of strength training to continue fixing my muscle imbalances. I'd also like to do more hiking and start trail running, plus learn to love the hills. If I can stay injury-free this year, I have a score to settle with the 70.3 distance in 2013.

Happy new year!

motivation - the hard work is worth it

In this post I talk about my training and motivation -- because it's all about me, right? It's my damn blog. Ha. -- and at the end I link to a phenomenal writer and include a snip of her phenomenally motivating recent post. If you wanna skip my musings, be sure to click through to read Sarah's blog. So gifted and wise for only 28.

---

After 3 months off, I am starting to really miss triathlon training. But my group half-marathon training just commenced on Saturday and I can tell this is gonna be good. I've been largely training by myself for the past 2 years, and what a difference a group makes!

We meet at 6:30 pm on Tuesdays (to run) and Thursdays (for bootcamp); I wasn't sure about night running but last night was my fantastic first night run. It feels a bit like running in the rain -- you see all the warm lights in the windows... everyone home from work, snug and cozy, fixing dinner -- and you're out running in the chilly dark. Awesome. Makes me feel a tiny bit bad-ass. Then Saturdays are our long runs. I'm adding stairs and hill repeats on Sundays.

When I got home last night I logged on to BuckeyeOutdoors.com for the first time this year -- it's the only free program I know of where I can create my own training plan, upload Garmin data and create reports. Since I have PT 4x per week (for shoulder rehab and previous injury prevention), plus a focus on weight training for the off-season, plus needing to add in a few more running miles each week, I knew I needed to map out a plan. Having a coach and weekly plans in Training Peaks really kept me going earlier this year, and now I need to do it for myself.

So I've been thinking about motivation, and what I need to keep going. For the first 40 years of my life I wasn't into sports, so I haven't built up that inherent need to move like many of you who started young. I just started all this last January and I'm realizing that while I'm gradually "becoming" an athlete and crave sport after I've been away for a couple months, I'm not there yet. I need some external motivators... I need to intentionally create the context and conditions that will keep me on the path. Those things include:

• Accountability, whether training with friends or having a coach
• Companionship to keep things fun. Fortunately this overlaps with accountability.
• A plan. If I wake up without something specific to do on my calendar, it doesn't get done.
• A goal. I've signed up for two half marathons in 2012. Knowing that I MUST hit a certain distance by x date to avoid another sufferfest is key.
• Cheering on others' successes. I love following friends and fellow bloggers as they accomplish things I can only dream of. So excited for Molly and Mary for great races at IMAZ. Loved reading Alyssa's race at IMAZ for a Kona slot; I actually teared up at the big pass with 1/4 mile to go. Amazing. I've always believed I'd NEVER do a full IM, but in the last couple days I've been thinking that it's no longer inconceivable.

But hang on... one step at a time. I need to get my body comfortable with running 13.1, and that's the goal of my two 13.1's on the calendar. I need to get my shoulder rehabbed so that I can start swimming and training for Wildflower by Feb 1. If I can manage both of those goals, I'll find a late-season 70.3 to train for.

It's exciting to have a general plan and goal for next year, knowing that things may change but that I'm working towards something... a gradual progression of distance, speed, and comfort with the process. I didn't have this sense earlier this year... I'd just wanted to complete a 70.3 but it wasn't in any kind of greater context for my life. I didn't have a "what's next." This 3-month slugfest has really sucked from a fitness retention standpoint but awesome from a mental standpoint. I'm realizing that sport is becoming part of me; not something I have to do to stay healthy but something that is simply part of who I am. And that's really cool.

In closing, I thought you'd enjoy this fantastic blog post, The hard work is worth it. I was trying to find a shorter clip to post here, but I can't get any shorter than this. (Note: she's not a tri blogger, but she is a triathlete. I find her posts inspirational for all areas of my life.)

My swim coach used to call this “cashing in.” At the end of the year, all of your work, all of your invisible hours in the pool, laps painted and erased on top of each other in tireless sequence; every set a measure against yourself; each frustrating day in the cold pool, each microscopic change in threshold potential–it’s all work that you’re putting in the bank. Exhausted, I would look up to my coach from the water and ask him with my eyes, “Can I ever make it? Am I doing it? Is this worth it?” He knew, intrinsically, the phenomenon that is cumulative, additive work, of minor changes built into powerful movements, and yet all he could do was push us to do our best in the present, enticing us into the future by telling us the stories of great legends before in his attempt to inspire us and make us dream. Without knowing, without having been there, I had to put my head down in the water and trust, trust, trust that the hard work would be worth it. My muscles shivered. I was tired. Could I do it?

Yet throughout the year, he would tell us over and over again, “Put your money in the bank!!” And when we did something great, he’d jump up and down and shout excitedly, “THAT’S the money in the bank!” I would return to the wall, trying again, reaching, stretching, hands seeking something invisible and unknown, wondering if any of my work would add up, doubtful that the painstaking days of testing would measure up to something worthwhile. But I trusted. I continued.

And then when the collection time came, when all other fanfare was stripped away and we were faced, naked, with the clock and a crowd and our bodies, when the end-of-the-year championship performance would arrive as it inevitably did each year, we’d see what we were capable of. How we did. What our cumulative actions amounted to. Whether or not we’d been working hard and building up assets. We would cash in. And somehow, in the four-year tenure of my time there, somehow they transformed an awkward, inexperienced, shy teenage swimmer from the slowest lane into a chiseled, daunting, All-American swimmer–this person I still don’t fully recognize today, despite years gone by. A trophy on the wall: this is the evidence that I marvel at as a reminder that yes, it can happen.It can happen to me. I can make it happen. You can make it happen.

It happens.

 Happy off-season training!

 

2012 looks to be a running year

I just signed up for two half marathons, whoo hoo!

• Surf City in San Diego on Feb 5. This will be the goal of the 3-month group training class that starts this Saturday.
• Napa2Sonoma Wine Country half on July 15. We're getting a team together, which should be great fun (although I'm not entirely sure about drinking wine post-race at 9 am.) 

I'm also planning to sign up for Wildflower again, although I really need to see how my shoulder fares over the next couple months. PT starts on Tuesday and I have crossed fingers and toes that this will work! Surgery would suck.

I am so much happier now that I have some goals for 2012. I was turning into a slug. Apparently I need to be signed up for a race in order to get motivated... alas, sad but true.

On becoming a runner

I finally have an answer on what's going on with my shoulder (which is still quite painful.) My doctor said that the MRI revealed a partial tear in one of the tendons in my rotator cuff, plus a bone bruise. He also said that partial tears are a bit of a mystery... ie. they really have no idea if it will heal on its own or not. It mostly depends on the individual, age, etc.

So... I'll start 6 weeks of physical therapy to strengthen the muscles and adjacent tendons and see if they can take over the load that the torn one is currently carrying. If that doesn't work, then surgery is an option... apparently they just "file down" the tear, which spurs a healing reaction.

I asked if I could make it worse by swimming. He said, "probably not, but we don't really know. If you do make it worse, we think it could be easily fixed." Hmmm. I'll hold off on swimming for the next few weeks and then give it another shot. I'm also having trouble holding my upper body weight on the bike; hopefully PT can help with that as well.

One interesting point: when I told him that I'm a newbie when it comes to athletics, he pointed out that we gain muscle mass and strength much faster than tendon strength, and this can become an issue for those jumping into sport later in life. Slow & steady is the key.

Soooo..... that leaves running. Hurray!! It no longer hurts my shoulder to run, so I've been slowly ramping up distance and pace running 3 - 4 x per week. I pushed both simultaneously until I got up to my regular 5 mile route, but I'll stay at this distance for another couple runs and continue working on pace before bumping up to 6 mi. Here are my recent stats; what I find very cool is that I really haven't tried to run faster... I've just felt stronger each run.

• last Tues: 3.18 miles at 10:03 pace
• last Thurs: 4.7 mi at 9:52 pace
• last Sat: 5.23 at 9:47 pace
• yesterday: 5.28 at 9:27 pace

I signed up for a 1/2 marathon training group which meets 3x per week starting on 11/19 with the Kaiser Half as the goal on Feb 5. If you live in SF, check it out! I'm so excited to start training in a group.

So my goal in the off-season is to fix my weak link -- running -- and work on strength training. I've been thinking about what I want to do next year race-wise. As long as my shoulder stops giving me problems, I'll do Wildflower again with a goal of sub-3 hours. I'm still on the fence about whether I want to tackle another 70.3 next year. We'll see how I feel.