Today is Not That Day

embracing the vertical

As Macca says in his book, "embrace the suck." Lately I've been embracing the vertical, which used to be sucky but now I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. Friday's ride looked something like this:

MapMyRide says 2000 feet of climbing in 8 miles. I was going VERRRRY SLOOOOOW, like 3 MPH. My poor friend was wanting a workout, so I told him I'd meet him at the top. Here's the view halfway up from Bolinas to Panoramic...

Today I ran a 6 mile route that included going down & up the infamous Sand Ladder to Baker Beach, which is part of the Escape from Alcatraz route. Here's the view from the top (the white speck down there is actually a naked guy sunbathing in the fog. Puzzling but ok...)

So I'm headed down the ladder, watching my feet because a friend of mine wiped out here a few days ago, and when I get to the bottom I see something out of the corner of my eye (not the sunbathing guy).

What is that... a penis??

Yes. A guy in a yellow shirt and no shorts sitting with his legs open at the bottom of the sand ladder. FACING the sand ladder, not the water. I just kept going, not giving him any satisfaction for his attempt at shock value. I walked down to the beach and turned around to take a picture of him in his "greeter" pose, but he'd turned around and was watching me. Dang.

I took a pic anyway... you can see him at the bottom of the steps. No, he's not wearing any pants. WEIRDO.

I didn't take a picture of the naked guy fog-bathing either. Another weirdo. Who knew that Baker Beach turned into a pervy nudie camp in the afternoons?? I'll have to figure out a safe time to go. Was going to go up the ladder a couple times but with weirdo sitting right there, I opted for 1x. Here's the view of the stairs from the bottom:

So here's the other weird thing: elevation mapping. This run was either 380 vertical ft (MapMyRun), 634 ft (Garmin Connect), or 1340 ft (Training Peaks.) I guess I'll pick Garmin Connect as it's in the middle, and MapMyRun is usually on the low side. But TP gets its data from my Garmin, so it's very odd.

Anyhoo. More strength work on the schedule... TRX on Thursday and some big-gear intervals on the bike on Saturday. I can feel myself improving and getting stronger... the run today felt good, and I now barely notice the inclines that used to tire me out. I'm excited about the next few months of training.

Weekend randomness

I haven't posted in a while, partly because I've been a total slacker on the training front -- June was my "unstructured" month, which essentially meant no consistency and only 1x per week in each sport. Bad girl. Friday kicked off Round 2 of 70.3 training, this time for Miami! I'm stoked. I feel like the first 5 months of the year were all about building a decent base -- I'm finally to the point where 50-60 miles on the bike are no problem, and I seem to have worked through my run injuries -- and now I get to build on that base for a much stronger race in October.

That said, my open-water swim on Saturday was a big FAIL. I thought that it would be a brilliant idea to bring my swimsuit/cap/goggles to a 4th 2nd of July party... the house is on a man-made canal with warm water -- how often do I get to swim in calm open water without a wetsuit? NEVER. Whooo hooo!!

Me and my girlfriends after polishing off our first beverage (Mimosas). Note this is pre-swim.

After our second beverage (vodka/pineapple punch) and a lot of snacks, I thought it would be fun to learn how to paddle board. 

This was such a gorgeous spot for a party!

Ok, time to swim. Yeah, after 2 drinks. Smart girl. The water was initially colder than I'd expected... (nice face)

But then it felt great. Time to swim.

Better than a pool...

... but I forgot to bring my watch. After swimming for "a while" (I had no idea,) I was bored, a little tipsy, a little crampy from the cheese and hummus, and *really* wishing I was back at the party. So I turned around. Ha... I was only gone 20 minutes! So much for my 45-min swim.

Since I rode 60 miles (miles 50 - 55 were 1400 ft of climbing) the day before -- and ran hill repeats the day after -- I didn't feel like too much of a slacker. But today my pool time was a bit pathetic. I can tell that my slug month hasn't helped my swim endurance one whit, but it'll come back.

Ok... it's the 4th of July, I worked ALL DAY at my computer other than a 56-min swim before the pool closed, I'm listening to the boom of fireworks, and now it's time to jump on the trainer. Looking forward to a solid week of heads-down, 7 am to 10 pm computer time with training jammed in there every day to break up the monotony. Happy 4th!!

 

Inconsistently prepping for round #2

70.3 training starts back up again next Friday, so this was my last week of unstructured training... aka, do whatever workouts I feel like. I have (re)discovered that I'm not very good at this type of training; I become a sporadic, excuse-manufacturing machine. Hence, why I re-engaged coach to train for 70.3 #2 this season instead of "taking it easy" this fall. This month off confirmed that (a) I no longer think that "taking it easy" is a fun way to live life, and (b) I'd likely just lose my fitness and injure myself again from my inconsistency. 

My week in review:

• Monday: 5 mi tempo run in the morning. In the (sunny) afternoon I got the urge to swim in Aquatic Park, where the water temp is @ 55 degrees. During the first 10 minutes I was thinking -- WTF, I'm not training right now, why am I doing this? But when I was done I felt a tiny bit bad-ass, which made it worthwhile.
• Tues: 4x up the Lyon St stairs. 30 min total. 
• Wed: Nada. Got invited to booze it up with some friends so I blew off masters. I haven't gone drinking in AGES and I figured this was the only time for a while. Had a great time. Too much fun, in fact, and had to bail on TRX class the next morning becuase I was hung over. Grrr.
• Thurs: Nada.
• Fri: 30 min of TRX at home, then felt like running 8 miles. No consistency here, this was only my 3rd run since Honu 3 weeks ago. This was a slow one, kept it @ 146. My feet are still bothering me so I need to see someone about it. Ditto for hip flexor... all the stuff that bothered me at Honu popped up again on this run. 
• Today: 55 mile hilly ride up to Petaluma. Gorgeous day... @ 80 degrees and I was loving the heat. I think I live in the wrong city. Operation I ♥ Hills is still in full swing... lots of climbing. One killer hill was easily 10%+ grade for a mile (both ways.) Most of it required standing. I love that I'm finally strong enough to hang in a group for a ride this long, although I still get majorly dropped on hills. Fortunately I don't suck on the flats (which is good, as Miami is an uber-flat bike course.) 

Tomorrow: more booze. Mill Valley Food & Wine Festival with 10 friends... should be a good time. Next week I really need to start swimming again before Michelle kicks my ass with her killer swim workouts.

 

Gettin' my mojo back

(wow, 2 posts in one day!)

After Honu I really didn't feel like doing anything that resembled training, other than riding my snazzy new bike down in Monterey last week. I figured I'd take a couple weeks off, then start doing some strength training and maybe half marathon training, but overall keep the remainder of the year pretty chill. And then this week I must have had a serious brain contraction because I signed up to do IM Miami 70.3 in October. I figured:

• It's only June! What am I supposed to do with myself, really?
• The next few months will actually be warm enough to comfortably train
• It's a good excuse to visit my mom in Orlando and do a girls weekend in Miami
• The thought of warm water and palm trees again in 2011 makes me happy
• I have a new tri bike that I actually want to ride
• And the big reason: I missed my goal time for Honu...significantly. Must. Redeem. Self. ASAP.

That was Monday. But I still didn't feel inspired to start training. I figured I'd start on July 1. Until today. It was actually almost 70 and sunny in San Francisco. Yee haw! Finally, some nice weather. Must ride bike! Must do hill work to get stronger to hit my goal time!

So I did the Alcatraz route and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Great Highway along Ocean Beach was closed for sand-dune removal. Bikes were allowed, so it was a fantastic couple-mile stretch with no cars and no stoplights... just heads down and hammer. I normally turn around at the zoo, but today I felt like exploring. I kept going out to Skyline and headed south towards Pacifica. I've actually been afraid to do this route because on MapMyRide.com it looked like a lot of climbing. Well, I have decided that I now love climbing. That's my new mantra for the fall. I eat hills for breakfast!!

The route was spectacular. The hills weren't actually too bad, although climbing is definitely easier on my new bike (partly because of the geometry, partly an easier rear cassette.)

I decided to turn around after 15 miles because (a) it was warmer than I'd expected so I removed my arm warmers, only to remember that I hadn't put on sunscreen. And (b) I still didn't have my seat positioned right after removing it for Honu... I think it's too far forward, and my knees were bothering me. I will definitely do this ride again, and maybe head down past Pacifica.

Here was the view on the way back, near the Cliff House... sailboats were loving the wind:

When I got home I definitely wasn't ready to sit indoors and work (benefits of self employment), so I threw on my running shoes and headed out for a 3 mile run. And tonight I was inspired to go to masters swim. Overall a great bike/run/swim day.... hmm. Feels like I got my training mojo back.

This Saturday I'm doing a group ride to Alpine Dam, which is yet another hilly route that I've thus far avoided. To give you some context, I generally have avoided any route with over @ 1800 feet of climbing. Alpine Dam looks to be 3300. Bring it on.

What's next

Now that my first 70.3 is complete, I've been thinking about what I need to work on and what race(s) make sense for the rest of 2011. The main thing I need to work on is...

strength and flexibility. I had a gait analysis done a couple months ago and the instructor noted that I "run with my hip flexors." I've gotten similar data points from my PT and body work pros that all point to the symptoms of 20 years of sitting at a desk: overly tight/shortened hip flexors and weak glutes. You can really see it in my race photos like this one where I'm running with my legs close together like I have to pee: 

I noticed that I look nothing like "real" runners with their nice extended gait... 

source

I also think that weak glutes is what is causing my piriformis pain. When I'm good about doing my strength work, piriformis pain goes away (and my knees stop crunching when I strengthen my quads.) So...

• TRX class starts on Thurs and I'm going to keep it up through the fall. I hate spending extra $ on a class at my gym, but this is where I see significant improvements in strength. 
• I'm also adding at least one yoga class per week and have been stretching every morning. 
• Lastly, I'm committed to hill work. Today I ran a 6 mile route that ends by coming up the Lyon St stairs... I had to stop 5 times coming back up due to weak legs (and partly cardio). Pathetic. I'll know I'm in shape when I can run this route without stopping! Ditto for finding hilly routes on the bike (which isn't too hard in SF.) 

The second big focus area is running. 

I need a lot more mileage in my running shoes. I have been totally falling apart after mile 9... mostly it's major foot pain (and hip flexors, but hoping that my strength/stretch work will address that). At the end of the Honu run, I couldn't really tell what hurt... everything hurt. Back/quads/glutes/hams/hips/hip flexors/feet/ you name it. Probably makes sense to start building miles after I get at least a month, maybe two, of solid strength/stretch work so that muscularly I can handle the load. 

Lastly, cardio efficiency. I totally get the need for lower heart rate work, and could see an improvement earlier this year. However, right now, given time constraints and trade-offs, I think building strength and flexibility needs to take priority. Lack of sufficient muscular base is my biggest limiter and the main cause of injury. I'd rather be a bit inefficient but strong, flexible and injury-free... at least for this year. But of course I need a good run base, and that can be low HR... will be talking with my Kona-bound coach to figure all this out. 

And now the fun topic... races! I'd been thinking of either Pacific Grove olympic or perhaps Santa Barbara, followed by the Healdsburg half marathon in October. But this afternoon I was talking with my mom who lives in Florida, and complaining about how cold it's been in San Francisco. She said, "well, come warm up in Florida!" So while we were on the phone, I started surfing the web looking for races in Florida in the fall. Mom nixed the ones in August and September as too hot... so I kept scrolling until I saw Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami on October 30. DING DING DING!!! Yeah, I know, I didn't think I wanted to train for another half this year. But this past week I've felt a bit aimless... and also thinking that I didn't want to lose all this good momentum after Honu. So I'm going to sleep on it (even though I've already checked out flights) and will decide tomorrow. 

Whooop! Goin' to Miami. Palm trees. Heat. And this race is not a mass swim start (yay, with 2500 athletes that would be a nightmare) and may be wetsuit legal. And FLAT!! (I'm pretty sure.)

Um... ok... sounds like I've kinda decided already. 

In Hawaii

I arrived in Kona on Tuesday night, escaping cold and rainy San Francisco for warmth, sunshine, palm trees and the most perfect open water swim conditions the next morning. ...And as I moved to 'insert photo" I realized that Typepad eliminates all functionality for those accessing the site via an iPad. Lovely. So... Looks like I'll need to save all photos -- and explanatory detail -- for when I return. Suffice it to say, I've had an amazing time so far. The wind today was a bit over the top, and we're hoping it dies down a bit before Saturday. More to come when I can access a fully functioning site!

Cramming

This is my last week of training before taper begins... whoo hoo! I put in 3 solid months of base training, 6 weeks of intermittent, half-assed training due to work and travel schedules, and now last week and this week are heads-down, "get' er done" 11 - 12-hr training weeks. 

I've been a bit concerned about how well I'll be able to do given my less-than-ideal training schedule, but this past weekend I had a solid 50 mile ride followed by a 40- minute run where I felt GREAT. Total surprise. I suspect it was partly due to this:

Yep, 900 calories of Chipotle burrito right before my ride. I hadn't had a "good" long ride -- partly because my butt and shoulders do not like sitting on a bike longer than 3 hours -- but I don't think I've been taking in enough calories. Saturday was 1600 cals including my fuel on the bike, which seemed a bit high but I felt great and was still hungry afterwards. So now to figure out what to eat before my race! 

My swim is starting to feel really strong. I finally got kudos from the master's coach that I've "gotten the technique down" (yay!!) and now just need to work on building strength. Tonight I went 2750 yards -- by far my longest swim as I've only been doing 2000 - 2300. 

Which leaves the run... definitely the weak link. The longest I've run is 11 miles and that was pretty painful. Tomorrow's another long run and I'm hoping it feels better. 

I'm in a bit of a quandary about my bike. I rented a tri bike from a shop in Kona... trouble is, I normally ride a road bike with aerobars. My instinct says that I may be more comfortable on a tri bike; my road bike has compact geometry and I can't get it into the ideal aero position. I can't get my seat up and forward enough, and my hip flexors feel crammed. That said, "never try anything new on race day." So I'm debating packing my bike as a back-up. I'd rather not deal with it, but probably better safe than sorry. Anyone had experience with this situation? 

Regardless, due to my funky training schedule I've taken all the pressure off in terms of how well I'll do. I'm approaching this as a much-needed vacation, a chance to warm up (it's been freezing in SF!) and seeing how this 70.3 experiment pans out. Since I did better at Wildflower than I'd expected, I'm hoping that I'll be pleasantly surprised at Honu. I've definitely banked a lot of hours over the past 5 months and have stayed relatively injury-free. 

Happy training! 

Countdown to Honu

Only 3 weeks left before Honu, and I'm getting a bit nervous! It's been a challenging month for me on the training front. A lot of travel combined with what was probably the most important presentation of my career (which went well, I think!)... I honestly don't know how you all do it. Last week I was in Princeton, NJ and managed to squeeze in an hour run the night before my presentation. I love running in new cities. New Jersey gets a bad rap, but the countryside is absolutely beautiful. I discovered this running trail along a river...

I was running down this trail for a while, expecting to find a cross-over back to land. Fortunately I asked someone walking by when the next cross-over was, and he said, "oh, not for maybe 10 miles." Ok, time to turn around...

I 

Arrived back in SF yesterday, and today I went on my second long-ass training ride down on the Peninsula. Overall it was a better ride than last week's, although I had a lot of piriformis and knee pain for the last 20 miles. Grrr. Fortunately I know what it's from... I've been getting neurokinetic treatment which helps retrain your brain to fire the right muscles; my glutes aren't firing properly (especially when I do a lot of sitting, like I've been doing lately on planes and in front of computers!) So will be heading back to my magician ASAP.

Since part of my normal route was closed, I decided to do a bit of exploring on a new road... I am so glad I did. It was absolutely beautiful... a narrow windy road up through the woods, past hiking trails, and alongside a bubbling brook. No cars, and I passed no one except for a couple hiking. My lousy iPhone camera doesn't do it justice:

I'll be back down here to go hiking, for sure.

So this ride took me FOREVER because I kept having to stop for various reasons. Stretch out my piriformis / duck under a tree during 3 surprise rainstorms (no, my clothing wasn't waterproof) / buy a Snickers bar because I was sick of Gu / pee in the bushes, even though I wasn't drinking enough (?). I was on the road easily over an hour longer than I'd planned. Then got home and tried to upload my Garmin, but my entire workout had disappeared from history. WTF? Has this happened to anyone?

So... 3 weeks 'til Honu. Next week's schedule in Training Peaks is a bit daunting :-). I need to ramp back up in a big way in all three sports, plus really focus on stretch and strength. Fortunately my workload has lightened up and I have no travel between now and Hawaii. Yeehaw. Time to buckle down and FOCUS!

Regaining my mojo

I've been woefully negligent about participating in blogland the past couple weeks! First there was my week-long trip to Oxford, UK where I was a worker bee at the Skoll World Forum. And I mean work: 7 am to 11 pm every day. I managed to get in 1.4 hours of training that week. But on the plus side: I escorted Desmond Tutu to his car, brought hot tea to Queen Noor of Jordan, and briefly met Jude Law (who is, in fact, just as good-looking in person but unfortunately he knows it.)

I got home late Sunday, had one day to unpack, fit in a bike ride, do laundry, repack, and then fly out on Tuesday to St. Louis. I spent a day with my best friend from 6th grade, and we had a great time catching up on exciting things that 12-yr old girls do... like re-enacting Xanadu almost every day on roller skates in my driveway. Fun times. Ha.

Then I drove 1.5 hours to Southern Illinois University to participate and speak in a conference for 2 days, drive back to St. Louis to hang out at the airport Holiday Inn, and attempt to fly home the next morning. Things didn't exactly go as planned... thanks to thunderstorms through the midwest, I missed my connecting flight in Chicago and barely got home in time for my hot date. My planned swim got bagged, along with a few other training sessions that week. I have no idea how people manage to train and travel.

So... about 8 hours of training for 2 weeks, and no swimming to speak of. My first swim back was titled "this swim will kick your ass." Yep... that it did. It's amazing how much 2 weeks off will push your swim fitness off a cliff! I have a lot of work to do.

Last week I just did not have my training mojo. It was ridiculously hard going from a dead stop back up to full training... it felt a bit like trying to ride uphill in the big chain ring from a complete stop. The only thing I was excited about doing was a 55 mile ride this past weekend... it was by far my longest ride, and the weather could not have been nicer. So my legs are actually still a bit trashed, but that ride gave me a bit of momentum.

Then today was my first open-water swim of the season. I finally bought my own wetsuit this weekend and was ready to try it out... in 53-FREAKIN'-DEGREE WATER. O#*%#%$&! I'm not good with being cold, and only lasted about 20 minutes. What a relief to get that over with! One thing I was really happy about: I didn't have the physical effects of cold water that I endured last year (like asthma as soon as my face hit the cold water.) This time around, my body actually remembered that it's not going to die in cold water, and it didn't take long to acclimate and start swimming. The other good thing...

I got my mojo back.

As much as I dreaded doing this swim, I confess... I felt a tiny bit bad-ass. I enjoyed struggling into my new and very tight wetsuit. I loved the sun, the salt water, the slight chop, the sound of a seal barking, the tourists watching the crazy chick swimming in Aquatic Park. This little swim got my mindset back into the world of triathlon, and it was actually pretty fun. I just wish it weren't so freakin' cold.

Then tonight was a trainer session that I had to abort due to (more) glute problems. I'm pretty sure my hip is out of whack again, thanks to walking all day through airports after losing a heel on my right shoe. So I'll be putting in an emergency call to my magic man who fixed me up last time, and have my fingers crossed that he can get me in quickly. I have some much-needed hill training to do this week!

New saddle, shoes, and other news

It's a gorgeous spring day in San Francisco... perfect for a long ride but alas, today is a very light day as I've got my first race (duathlon) tomorrow. I'm very thankful that the race organizers pushed back the time from 7 am to 7:30 as it's daylight savings time and it will take 1.5 hours to drive to the race. So I'll be waking up tomorrow at 3:30 am body-clock time, which I'm less than thrilled about... but it will be fun to get back into race mode.

Not that I'll be racing hard, mind you... I've prepared a bunch of excuses on why I won't do well I've done a lot of slow and steady HR training since January, and we just started adding a bit of speed work. The other potential hinderance is my own body:

1. My hamstring has started grumbling again. I was so happy to have healed up, but a couple hard and faster sessions last weekend strained it a bit. Should be ok to race on, but I'll have to be very careful and listen to my body. I made an emergency appointment with the magicians at Psoas on Thursday and ended up with Michael, who specializes in neurokinetics: the science of identifying which muscles aren't firing right and which muscles are compensating for them.

Him: "Your hamstring is tight because your quad is weak." (yes, just on my left side; I could feel it when he tested the muscle)

Me: "How could my quad be weak? I've been cycling/running/strength training non-stop this year!" 

Him: (after a bit more testing/poking/prodding): "Your quad is weak because your lower back muscles are compensating." (And true enough, I have HUGE knots in my lumbar area, but I've had those for years.)

Coincidentally, I've been complaining to coach that I felt like I wasn't getting any stronger; I have felt weak and it has puzzled me. Michael did confirm that muscle imbalances can definitely interfere with training progress so I'm looking forward to seeing if he can help matters. He didn't want to loosen up those back muscles too much given the race on Sunday, but I'll be going back next week for a longer appointment.

Ok, now on to fun stuff: the triathlon-shaped hole in the bottom of my financial bucket new shoes and saddle!

2. My calves and achilles have started really bothering me since I picked up the running pace over the past 2 weeks. I have a very strong suspicion that my new Saucony Kinvaras have something to do with it. They're very light, minimalist shoes and while I LOVE the light weight and better feel of the ground, my calves, feet and achilles just need to work a lot harder than they used to when it comes to hills or speed work.

So I went shoe shopping a couple days ago. It felt so weird to put on traditional running shoes with all that clunky padding... it felt like my feet were wrapped in spongy bricks. So I went with the Asics Gel DS Trainer.

 

These feel a lot like the Kinvaras -- ighter weight and low to the ground, but with a bit more cushion and slightly higher heel height. I'm hoping there's enough difference to merit buying a new pair of shoes, but I just couldn't bring myself to go back to regualr running shoes. The one difference I do feel is weight; the Asics are lighter than most running shoes but still 2 oz heavier than the Kinvaras, which will take a little adjustment.

So in addition to the shoes, I've been using The Stick on my calves and Achilles, plus standing on it so I could roll out the bottom of my feet which are crazy tight. Lemme tell ya, tight feet are painful. It's all starting to loosen up so I am hopeful that my 2 runs tomorrow won't feel like I'm running on inflexible metal pogo sticks. Not a fun way to run.

3. My butt has been so sore from trying out different bike saddles. But I did some reading and discovered the Cobb Flow, which I can't seem to find a single negative review on. I couldn't find it locally, but a Google search revealed Herriott Sports Performance in Seattle that not only carried it, but offered to send me a test saddle for free.

It's an interesting seat design... narrower than most saddles in the back, and you sit a bit differently on it as well. From a description on All3Sports.com (because I can't open the very informative Cobb Cycling site):

The V-Flow is designed for performance riding of a triathlete, where the rider is rotated much more forward, riding on a completely different part of the pelvis area. The narrow rear section is especially great at relieving pressure from the hamstring muscle and the upper adductors. These pressure points are two of the leading causes of leg cramps and lower back pain.

After a few rides on it, I've decided to go ahead and purchase it. It does take a little adjustment but I do not have the butt pain that I've had on several other saddles. And the red/black color palette matches my bike, which of course is all-important (kidding.)  The guys at Herriott are awesome; I was supposed to send the test saddle back to them within 2 weeks, but after learning I have a race on Sunday they said "no worries! We''ll mail you a new seat and just send back the test seat when you're done with it." Perfect.

So... today I'll hop on the trainer for 30 minutes and swim, figure out how to set my Garmin for multi-sport, and pack everything up so I can just hop out of bed and go.