Today is Not That Day

Birthday weekend

I definitely got a good dose of my favorite things this weekend: good friends, laughter, good wine, good books, and of course tri training! Coach kicked my weekend off on Friday with 42 my top-secret age x 50s in the pool, then 42 my top-secret age minute run. I somehow managed to squeeze my workouts into a pretty packed day at work, then cut out early to clean and cook as I had some friends over for dinner.

Look, I'm 1! (very happy about the cupcakes that my friend Alisa brought).

Me at 7:30 pm: "Girls, only 2 glasses of wine MAX for me because I have a big training day tomorrow." Me at 11 pm after 4 glasses of wine: "Hey, who wants to go out to a bar??" Lordy. I got home at 1:30 am, woke up at 8, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed. Surprisingly, I felt ok - no big hangover - but just felt off kilter. I've gotten on such a good schedule and rarely drink much anymore so this really messed me up.

I finally rallied around noon for my mock duathlon (to prepare for my first race next weekend.) Clearly I wasn't thinking straight because I decided to eat a big piece of leftover lasagna for lunch first. After realizing my mistake, I dawdled around for an hour so that I could digest my food, but I still felt gross on my first run... trotted along slow enough to stay under the "I wanna hurl" mark. Then it was on the bike for 28 miles (felt much better) and wrapped up with another short run. Phew! My legs were totally trashed but it felt good. Still trying to work on my nutrition; I have no idea how people drink a lot of fluid on the bike. It seemed like I was drinking constantly but I ended up half a bottle and @ 200 cals short on the bike, and I definitely felt the loss of energy on the last run.

After that it was nap-time! I love naps. Then browsed my favorite bookstore on Fillmore St. (aptly named Browser Books) where I picked up The Paris Wife, a historical fiction book written through the eyes of Ernest Hemingway's first wife. It's a beautifully written book, very well done. I couldn't be more different from the main character who is so domestic and traditional, but she's so immensely likeable and I'll be sad when Ernest leaves her. (See, that's the problem with historical fiction; we already know the end.)

This morning brought several hours of work (alas) but it was a rainy day and the outdoors was definitely not calling. I had another ride on the schedule so I popped in a movie -- Leon: The Professional -- and struggled to make it through an hour on the trainer. My legs were wrecked from yesterday! The movie was actually sorta  good; filmed in 1994, it was one of Natalie Portman's first movies. Funny to see her as a pre-adolescent girl who wants to be a hit man.

Overall the weekend was a great combo of friends, training, and total laziness with a book. Which was much needed, as this next week is going to be super-busy with work, plus more intense workouts. I can tell we're starting to move out of base HR training and into more of a build phase. Yay! Ready to start pushing it a bit.

Happy training!

Month #2: it's a wrap

Since tomorrow's a rest day, I'll just wrap up this month a day early. I'm a few days into my rest week and I'm finally starting to feel normal again, albeit rather lethargic. I'm looking forward to jumping into month 3 in a couple more days. Overall, month two went pretty well:

Swim: I have seen huge improvements since starting the master's swim class every Monday and Wednesday. The coach spotted some odd quirks in my stroke and we've been working them out. I bumped up to the intermediate lane and for the most part am hanging with the faster girls as long as we're not doing anything fast. Alas, when coach says "fast" I know I'm gonna get lapped. But in really good news, I've dropped from 8:19 for 400 yards (working really, really hard) to 7:45 for 400 (casually timed during my warm-up this evening.) Ready for my next swim test, coach!

Bike: I've been so fortunate to live in an area where I can ride outside in February. While I've seen improvement on the trainer (about 2 MPH faster at the same HR) I'm unfortunately not seeing the same improvement outside on hilly terrain. I did a ride last weekend that I haven't done since last September, and I'm slower now than I was then. Disappointing, but I also have to remember I'm keeping my HR lower this year and that's limiting my speed. And I'm guilty of having slacked a bit on my strength training, which I plan to rectify with my new TRX.

Bike/seat: I've been excruciatingly uncomfortable as I was trying to adjust to a firmer seat; I finally gave up and ordered a test saddle: the Cobb V-Flow Plus (formerly called Blackwell Flow.) I read a ton of great reviews on how comfortable it is... so I found this cycling shop in Seattle that carried the saddle and (better yet) has a test program (I can't find anyplace in SF that allows me to test saddles!). I received my test saddle a couple days ago and it's a really interesting design: it's narrow... so narrow in the back that it fits between your sitbones. Because of this shape, you're just sitting on soft tissue supported by foam, not gel, and tilting your pelvis forward a bit to allow it to be cradled rather comfortably. I've used it now on one trainer session and it wasn't bad. My only concern is that, while very comfortable when in drops or aerobars, it's awkward to sit up if you want to take a break. It's so narrow there's nothing to sit back on. I'll see how it feels on a longer ride outdoors and report back. So far it's definitely better than the last one I tried (Specialized Ruby) but that's not saying much. I'll happily fling the Specialized off a cliff if I get a chance; I was worried that my ass would become permanently bruised.

Run: Lots of improvement here... I can actually run! Last month I was still struggling with hamstring tightness and pain, but this month it's gotten so much better. Still an occasional tightness, but I'm pretty much back to normal. I've mostly just been doing heart-rate training and slower distance stuff, but I'm very happy that I'm back up to 8 miles. I think I tripled my miles from last month.

Run/Shoes: I bought new shoes a month ago -- Saucony Kinvaras -- and LOVE them. They're a bit flat but I added my Superfeet inserts (I have very high arches) and now they're perfect. Very comfortable and super light. I can see why people have a hard time adjusting, though. I started running in them right after an injury and therefore was only going 2, 3, 4 miles at a time... that was exactly the right break-in process for these shoes. I had to build up my calf muscles gradually as the heel drop is so much lower. My calves got so much bigger from wearing these shoes that I no longer can zip up my nice brown boots! But on the plus side, I now have nice calves and feel like the extra muscle should help with injury prevention. The only time I'm not sure about running in them is doing hills; because of the lack of heel padding, it's just a LOT more work. I might try a different brand just to mix in for any hill training.

Bricks: We added in some transition runs this month, and I'm so relieved that my legs don't feel as awful this year as they did last year when running off the bike. I guess once your body learns it, it gets easier each season. I'm hoping that this will also be the case with cold-water swimming once that starts in April... wow, it took me 10 swims in Aquatic Park before I (sort of) acclimated to the temp!

Month summary:

• Swim: 17,794 yards
• Bike: 213 miles
• Run: 63 miles

Happy training!

Crying uncle

Let's see... the last time I posted, I was struggling to rally for an 8-mile run in the rain. That was the first time since 1/1 that I've had any resistance to a training session. The day before, my heart rate was way too high for my slow pace on a brick run. That should have been my first clue that I was about to cry uncle.

While Monday was a light day, just Master's swim, my legs still didn't feel rested by Tuesday's spin class. Simply walking up the stairs to my apartment the last few days has been draining and slightly painful. And on yesterday's run, my body just said "enough." My legs felt like lead and my heart rate was, yet again, far too high. At master's swim last night I stuck it out for 45 minutes and then just got out of the pool. I'm done. Uncle. 

I came home from the pool pretty stressed out. Am I losing my fitness somehow? Am I not eating enough protein? I know I've slacked a bit on strength lately but did that have this kind of impact? Am I going to be able to race in the coming weeks/months? Does this make me a failure or a quitter for not sticking to the plan?

This is where a coach comes in handy. The reassurance that this is a normal part of training, that "ta da!" we've simply found my temporary limit and now it's time to rest, was a big relief. I am now experiencing firsthand the old adage, "no pain, no gain." Ahh... got it. And so rest week begins a half-week early. We moved some things around and today, instead of hill repeats (the thought of which yesterday made me want to cry) I have blessed nothing on the calendar. My body is very thankful.

Somewhat reluctantly I'm learning that rather than a linear progression of fitness, training seems more like a dance. There's a forwards and backwards rhythm to it... one that requires patience and listening. I suppose if it were nice and linear -- do this for a week, and then that for a week, neatly codifiable -- everyone would be peak performers. But it's this blend of art and science, knowing when to lead and when to let go, knowing that crying uncle is not only ok, but necessary if (and because) you're pushing hard enough... these are the intangibles that make this training process so fascinating to me. I'm not sure, but I'd bet that top performers have all mastered the dance of the intangibles.

And so I totally embrace my rest week. My body is craving it. I bought some compression sleeves which feel fantastic (but my attempt to sleep in them was a total failure.) I also bought some compression shorts which ended up not being tight enough and I need to order the smaller size online. And, since I just got a new client (hurray!!) I treated myself to my own TRX. I'm SUPER excited about this! It's seriously the best exercise I've ever done. And since it's in my home I have absolutely no excuse to bag my strength training :-)

My first race is in a little more than 2 weeks. And because I don't feel remotely ready for it, I haven't wanted to fully commit to doing it. I haven't even wanted to think about it. So I'll put it out here publicly (Hey everybody, I'm doing a duathlon in 2 weeks!) to psych myself into committing, into making it real. As long as I set my expectations low, that it's just a way to practice race mode, pacing and nutrition, then perhaps I'll give myself a pleasant surprise. Underpromise and overdeliver. Or just deliver. Either way is better than the alternative.

Have you cried uncle lately? How did it feel?

 

Online training logs

Every day I upload my training data to three different sites: Training Peaks, Garmin Connect and BuckeyeOutdoors.com. I'd love to just use one site, but I find that all three offer functionality I want.

Training Peaks is mandatory, as that's where I get my planned workouts from coach and upload my actual data. I could just use the free version, but of course Training Peaks only makes data analysis available to paid subscribers. I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay a paid subscriber as pretty much the only data I look at in Training Peaks are my "whoops" chart:

(as in: Whoops, sorry coach, I exceeded my HR zone x% of the time,) and my pace chart to see what % of my run I was below 9:00 min/mi while staying (mostly) within my HR zone:

I'm finding a lot of the rest of the whiz-bang charts are pretty worthless. Take this one, which compares my run pace to my fastest bike pace. Seriously, what genius came up with this?

After I upload to Training Peaks, I'm usually off to BuckeyOutdoors.com. I found this site last year and have used it to track all my training. I really like this site; it's super easy to use and it's free. One feature that keeps me coming back is the Challenges section. There's a tri challenge each year (how much can you swim, bike and run?) and the same people are on it this year as last. One big difference in the rankings from last year: Me! I was definitely towards the middle bottom of the pack last year, and this year I'm in 3rd place:

Barely. I'm competing with someone named J.R. Brock from Texas for 3rd. Right now I'm only 12 miles ahead. Next time I log on he'll have done a 40 mile ride and I'll drop down to 4th again. I have no idea who this person is, but it's turned into a little game. I'm totally jazzed for Paul in 1st place: he's doing IM NZ! We're looking forward to his race report.

The other thing I like about BuckeyeOutdoors.com is the ability to select any date range and pull up a report by sport. This is a much easier way to compare months or years. Training Peaks only has fixed ranges like "last 28 days" and doesn't break things out by sport.

Then of course there's Garmin Connect. One thing I like about this site is that the data shown actually matches what's in my Garmin (unlike Training Peaks, which is usually off on pace and also doesn't distinguish between "moving pace" vs. "average pace.") I also like that I can title my workouts by route, and then do a search for all workouts with that route in the title. That enables me to compare my progress on the same route at a glance:

And of course the Player is the coolest feature ever. I like to see where on a route my pace or HR picks up or drops off. 

I'd love to use Garmin Connect instead of Buckeye, but unfortunately there's zero reporting capabilities.

So my wish list is that someday Training Peaks would get some clues on usability, functionality and reporting from some of these free sites. And in the meantime, I'll continue using three training sites.

What site do you use?

Random Friday

My random tidbits from throughout the week:

I am trying out a new saddle, which is like sitting on rocks. I bought a Specialized Luna seat from someone in our tri club for $50 and have been trying it out for a week; the first time was ok, the second time was a long ride and my butt was really starting to hurt by the end, and a few days ago I almost called it quits: I attempted to start a trainer ride and couldn't even sit on the saddle. So I swapped it out for my old one, but 30 minutes into that session, my feet started to go numb and I was soooo uncomfortable. I think I'm going to stick with the new seat and hope that I can build up some butt callouses.

I'm headed up to wine country tomorrow for a ride and my first transition run of the season. It's supposed to be 70 and sunny; can't wait.

Swim is going swimmingly. I consistently hit some intervals today that I seriously doubt I could have done a week ago. Master's class is really helping; the coach is pretty good about technique pointers. Apparently my right arm pull is now "perfect" but my left arm still needs some work. Think I'll stay late after master's on Monday and attempt some flip turns.

My hamstring is surprisingly pain-free today. I say "surprisingly" because I gave it a good workout yesterday in TRX class and I rode some good hills today. Maybe that's what it needed; someone to show it who's boss. Stretching my hip flexors 2x per day has also been helping a lot.

Oh, speaking of TRX: we had a ridiculously enthusiastic (overcaffeinated?) TRX substitute teacher yesterday morning who kicked our butts. It was great, and (even better) I'm not that sore today. I jumped rope for the first time since I was about 10, which was fun. And I'm now on a mission to boost my count on Atomic Push-ups.

I am no longer in the mood to go out and consume alcohol on weekends. I went to our tri club happy hour tonight, lasted an hour, and just wanted to come home and make a healthy dinner. So here I am on a Friday night, perfectly content to update my blog and go to bed early. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of our great weather this weekend until the rains come back on Monday.

Happy training!

 

Monthly wrap

I was just looking at the numbers for my first month of "real" training compared to all of last year. Wow. Last year was my first year in triathlon; I'd started training (if you could really call it that) in mid-January.

2010

• Swim: 58 mi (102,080 yds)
• Bike: 981 mi
• Run: 484 mi

January 2011... starting to lay a great base:

• Swim 13 mi (22,300 yds)
• Bike: 299 mi (wow, 30% of last year's total!)
• Run: 23 mi... behind the curve due to rehab, but things are progressing!

Today was a much-needed rest day, and this week's theme is recovery. Looking forward to seeing what February brings! I like getting the training schedule in small bite-sized chunks. If coach told me what kind of volume I'll probably be doing in April/May I'd probably freak out :-).

Random training notes

Do you guys do this? Go through your day and periodically think, "should I blog about this?" Sometimes I'm scripting posts in my head as I'm going through my life. Anyway, nothing merited its very own post so here's my hodge-podge of semi-note-worthy (to me, anyway) events of the week:

I got a lousy bike fit. It was with our tri club bike partner so I figured they'd know what they were doing, but I ended up educating the guy on how to install my aero bars. My first trainer ride after that was awful  (partly because I'd burned my legs up, more on that in a sec) but also probably due to the fit. I futzed around with the seat and aero pad position today and now it's much better. My wish list includes a tri bike, but since I have a very nice and functional road bike, this should be servicable for this season.

I burned my legs up last weekend. I've never known how many calories to consume on rides... so last weekend I did back-to-back rides with nothing more than water for the first, and a gel + half a sports drink for the second. It took me days to recover from that! So after some tips from coach I'm a bit more prepared nutrition-wise for my longer rides this season. I could totally wing it last year just doing sprints and Olympics in my half-assed training approach, but I'm definitely learning that I have to be much more organized and diligent about all the little details -- nutrition, hydration, strength -- now that I'm training "for real." Speaking of strength training...

I did my first TRX class today and my arms/shoulders are jell-o. Awesome full-body training! Seems like all the gyms (mine included) are charging extra for TRX classes; this is a series of 4, and if you miss one, you're SOL. I'd love to buy my own TRX for home use after the class but I have no idea where I'd hang it. If you have one, do you have ideas? Drilling a fixture into my ceiling is unfortunately not an option.

Tomorrow's a HR benchmark run. I'm so excited to be running again, and I get to run on a track for 3 whole miles without stopping, whoo hoo! Funny how your idea of successful training gets completely reframed when you're coming back from an injury. And running is now the only part of my training where I'm not stressed out by looking for improvements. I've been pretty zen about it... just enjoying the action of running... in the moment, totally unconcerned about pace. Just very concerned about creating the perfect HR graph :-) My goal tomorrow is to see what my pace is within my aerobic training zone. It's just setting a benchmark, unlike my swim test next week...

Next week is my swim test. Just checked out Training Peaks and there it was. Eeek! Yes, I'm more concerned about this one. Well, "concerned" is not the right word, but I've been swimming a lot this month (relative to last year) and I know I'll be bummed if I don't see much progress from my baseline over the holidays. I also know I'm being a little irrational, and it's good to have that self awareness... my rational self knows that I know I'm stronger and have more stamina now. I might not be much faster, but I just need to relax and trust the process. It will come.

I made Blog of the Day on the Endurance Athlete Project's Facebook page.. thanks Patrick!

Lastly, thanks to those of you who commented on my Loneliness post... it's good to hear your stories and perspectives.

happy training!

 

 

Week 3 is a wrap!

I can't believe the incredible weather we're having in San Francisco...  60s and sunny all week, and more of the same in the forecast. It's usually rainy and foggy... I'll take it! So my last bike ride of the week was yesterday's group ride to kick off the season... 60 folks from our tri club headed out for an easy 40-miler over the Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, around Paradise Loop to Tiburon and then back home.

It was a bit of an ego crusher to realize that after 3 weeks of work, I'm still a solid back-of-the-packer when it comes to hills. Especially since I was riding with folks for whom this was their first time on a bike since September. Ouch. As I wrote to coach, "more work needed." I just have to remember that I hardly trained on the bike last year, and it will come. Doing that group ride was even more motivation to build up my strength.

Funny, I've been living in spandex for the past couple weeks... I put on my favorite jeans for the first time in ages to meet some friends last night, and I could barely squeeze into them! No, haven't gained weight... my legs are bigger. I've definitely gained muscle mass. "Yay!!!" says the wanna-be-rock-star tri girl. "Crap, I'll have to replace anything that's not spandex!!" cries the skinny-jean-loving girl. Ha. Same thing's happening with my lats from swimming. Really looking forward to seeing this transformation over the coming months. This is fun. 

Lastly, the big story from the week is that I'm running! All of 4 miles today, a slow jog/walk mix, but I'll take it. Hamstring's feeling better (2nd appt with my new magic man shortly) and I'm ready to start making some progress here.

So... final total for week 3 of my HIM training:

• Swim: 4600 yds
• Bike: 79 mi
• Run: 6.2 mi

Next week brings my first TRX class, whoo hoo!

 

Highlights of the week

Happy Sunday! Yesterday was such a gorgeous day for a ride... and in typical San Francisco fashion, a nice day is generally followed by a foggy day. I lay here listening to the foghorns, sipping my coffee, planning my week. Ok (confession), actually I was in my blog reader looking for more updates from you all, but nothing's been posted since last night!! What's up with that? Do you people think you have a life or something? Ha. Ok fine, I'll write my own post.

Bike: Already wrote about my favorite bike ride yesterday. Next week brings more biking, and a slightly sadistic schedule from coach who put a hill workout the day before a hilly group ride already on the calendar. I suspect that's to tire me out so I don't exceed my HR zone on the group ride like I did last weekend :-).

Swim: This was a big swim week. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I got above 4k yds/week last year (when I was "coaching" myself.) This week was a record for me: almost 7k. I was so happy yesterday was a rest day; my shoulders are wondering what the heck I'm trying to do to them. But I'm making progress! Cut a couple seconds off my 25 yd sprint time, and am now close to being able to bilateral breathe. I've been feeling like such a newbie trying to breathe on my left side, snorting water up my nose and flailing around in the water like a spastic donkey. Finally discovered that it's easier to learn this with pull buoy and paddles because I can't drop my lead arm as easily. Will try this again today.

I will confess, I almost ditched the bilateral breathing after the third time I snorted/inhaled water. I thought, f- this, I am fine just breathing on my right! And right at that moment, one of my motivator songs came on (I was wearing my new waterproof iPod! Such a great Santa gift).

I am a fighter and I(I'm a fighter)
I ain't gonna stop(I ain't gonna stop)
There is no turning back...
Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter

Oh right. That's why I'm doing all this. So I sucked it up, kept going and felt really good about it. The power of music is pretty cool... the right music can change my mood in seconds. What is your power song?

Run: Whoo hoo! I completed a successful test run this week. All of 12 minutes of running, but no piriformis pain and just a little hamstring tightness. I spent 2 hours yesterday with an "Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening" specialist yesterday afternoon who said she could help my residual/chronic hamstring tightness. I'm not sure whether she can help my hamstring (feels exactly the same now as it did before) but she added a significant amount of mobility to my hip flexors and quads. I don't think my legs have felt this much range of motion since I was like, 12. So I think this is a definite injury prevention resource, and it should make me a faster runner. My next run test will be later today, and after 2 successful tests I can start adding more run time.

Strength: Last time I posted, I'd done a bunch of stair repeats. I love the stair workout because the next day (and the next) my body usually notifies me of what I've been neglecting in strength training. This time it was partly my quads, but the real story was my calves. 2 days later I could barely walk. Even today, they're still a little sore! On the bright side though, it's the first time my glutes and hamstrings haven't hurt the day after stairs so I've been doing something right. More stairs next week. And whoo hoo! TRX classes start on the 27th so I need to work harder on strength this week so it doesn't completely kill me. I know I'm going to be so humbled...

Non-Training: This is such a busy month. I'm working with a large Foundation to develop content for their upcoming forum in Oxford, England and our deadline is rapidly approaching. Actually our deadline is this Friday to have everything baked, and we're not even close. Eeek! But I managed to push the ball forward on a potential new project with a VERY large global consumer products company. If I can get this, it will be the big break I've been needing in order to build my fledgling company. Cross fingers!!!

More random non-training: My cats making out cleaning each other's faces. Gym bag in the background. So glad I don't live with anyone because training-related stuff is now all over my apartment. 

Hope you're all having a great weekend! 

 

 

First week of training

So I'm halfway finished with my first week of training. And it's my first week of training with a coach. Unfortunately I'm being a terribly high-maintenance athlete because we're trying to work through what I can and can't do yet given an injury, plus I'm getting a remedial grade on knowing how to read my swim workouts. Last year was my first year swimming, and all I did was swim back and forth. Boring! Now I get to decipher the use of all these fun pool toys and secret swimming code words. Sometimes quite unsuccessfully, but I'm getting there.

Which reminds me of a very funny comment that Jeff left on Jason's post about how to tell someone's a triathlete when they're in the pool:

Here are how I tell if someone is a triathlete at the pool: Multiple tan lines, numerous swim toys (pull buoy, fins, kick board), mp3 strapped to Aqua Sphere googles, wearing jammers, not doing flip turns, wearing swim cap with a Tri name on it, some type of s/b/r tat, smell like chlorine before you get in the pool, swimming 2:30/100, a Total Immersion book at end of lane, grease on right calf, dirt underneath finger nails, drove to gym in a hybrid hatch back with a 70.3 bumper sticker, a bike bottle at end of lane for hydration ... or (drum beat) the number one reason someone knew you were a Triathlete? You told them (-:

What really made me laugh is that I just ordered a waterproof MP3 player. And I do bring one bike bottle for hydration. And I have the Total Immersion book (and video) although I don't bring it to the pool. Too funny.

On a positive note, I am on the road to health. I went to a PT on Monday who determined that I've been a biomechanical disaster waiting to happen, and that if I don't hurry up and realign myself, I'll get the same injury on my right leg. So it's all about the glute medius right now to get my knees and ankles in alignment. If you're interested, check out this excellent article on the role of the glute med in running and how to diagnose and correct a glute med weakness.

I also discovered that while I was all proud of myself over the past few months for getting up to fairly high reps of a couple glute med exercises, I've been doing them wrong. No wonder I ended up injured. So today I went to the gym with PT exercises in hand and struggled to get through all of them correctly. It hurt so good.

And the best news: my hamstring is almost entirely healed and I could do an exercise pain-free today that I couldn't do at all last week. I suspect this could be due to the bodywork and acupuncture I got yesterday.  So now I'm primarily just dealing with piriformis pain... but I think I've figured out how to banish this pain for good. I decided to cut out the one thing that aggrevates it the most: sitting. Yep, I was bed-ridden all day with my computer on my lap. Thank goodness I work for myself. I think I sat for a grand total of 15 - 20 minutes all day, and that was just for meals. And although I woke up with big-time piraformis pain, it had almost vanished by the time I got back from the gym tonight. I think after a few more days of bed rest, ice, stretching, and foam roller, I'll be good to go.

And meanwhile, I'm back to pool running tomorrow. It's actually kind of fun.