Running with dolphins

Coolest experience on my long run on Monday. Running back from turn around after 1:15, running along Memorial Causeway, there was a huge group of dolphins swimming right along the water's edge. They seemed to be keeping pace with me and it was truly enjoyable, as much as a 2:30 run can be enjoyable. Still hot, about 93 degrees, add whatever for "heat index". I faired much better than last week, thank goodness! Anyway, off to Colorado on Saturday, yeah. Hope my sinuses don't act up, they're on the edge! Cheers.

On and on

Another solid week in the books. Just about same amount of time as last week and still in one piece. This week, the Dane left on Wednesday for a week in Europe so I got to focus on training and sleeping (and, unfortunately, work/cleaning/laundry/grocery shopping). I did manage to catch the Dane's cold before he left and am getting through that without any serious sequelae, thank goodness. The week started Monday with record heat. When you talk about record heat in Florida, that isn't fun for training. I know it's not Arizona or desert heat but, sheesh, it's humid here also folks. The record heat and a 2:10 run were staring me in the face when I came home from work Monday evening. The Dane was smart enough to avoid that long run and amazingly hot conditions. So, I was on my own. Time to toughen up and get going. I've stolen a motto for this Ironman training season which, anyone who is a CSC cycling fan will know.....HTFU. It means Harden the F#$% up! I normally, being pretty small in stature, handle the heat very well and am typically not bothered by it other than having to slow my run pace to keep the heart rate down. Well, I got about a half mile up the road and it felt like a blow dryer blowing in my face. I knew it was going to be a testing run. I knew the heart rate monitor was going to take a beating so paid a little less attention to it (sorry Luis). I got out a little over seven miles to the turn around point and wanted to sit down and cry. I never cave mentally in long runs like this so I knew these were special conditions. I looked across the Memorial Causeway and spotted a guy and gal running along at a really solid pace and thought, hey, I can do that. I began running again after a gel and some hot, watered down Gatorade from my fuel belt and my knees nearly buckled! Oh boy, who can I call to come and pick me up? But, of course, I don't have a phone. I had to go into survivor mode and make little goals for myself, which I did. Before I knew it, I was back to the golf course, 4.5 miles from home, with a cold water faucet, refilled and motored on. I made it home, negative splitted, no less. This was one of those days that will go into the motivational vault should I need it down the road (ie, IMFL). This really kind of put me in a hole physically for the week. I got a much needed massage on Wednesday which was wonderful! I did recover enough to ride 6 1/2 hours on Saturday with a 32 min brick which was a solid workout. We will be leaving for Colorado for Labor Day weekend and I am not upset that I might miss a workout or two! I think I need it for the final push into IMFL. I will be so happy to run in 70-something degree weather! Even if it is at altitude! So, HTFU and less than 10 weeks to IMFL! Cheers.

The fun continues...

Well, I've officially done the biggest training week of my life as far as my training logs go back. Nearly 23 hours in the log. And, I missed one easy run! I quickly realised Sunday when finishing bike/swim/weights at noon that an "easy" run wouldn't be so easy so decided not to do it. I have done all my other workouts. Logged nearly 200 miles on the bike this week which is my focus for this Ironman push - the key, for me, to building overall endurance is the bike. We rode 100 miles on Saturday and I didn't really feel that great but I got through it, practiced my nutrition strategy and just got 'time in the saddle', as they say. Today, another 3 1/2 hours on the bike and actually felt better than yesterday, weird. I'm amazed that, at 40, I can still recover from day to day. I think that is the beauty and secret of the MarkAllenOnline program, is the ability to get the volume and recover. When training aerobically, nothing is intense or "hard" to the outsider but if you do it long enough, it is difficult. The beauty is, in staying aerobic, you don't beat the body and it rewards you with a fresh outlook the next day. I know the hot weather is taking a toll on my run pacing because I have to slow to a crawl to keep under my MAHR (max aerobic heart rate) and it frustrates me greatly. I just hope this will improve as the weather cools. I have done a run in the am and my pace was about 50 seconds/mile faster just based on temperature.....amazing. There is hope! Cheers!

REAL Ironman training has begun!

Not that I have been goofing around for the past 7 weeks but this past week began feeling like IM training. Firstly, I had over 21 hours for last week in the training log which I haven't done since last summer! The legs are generally tired and it's hard to wake up in the morning but we get up anyway! The scary thing about it is, the long ride will get much longer! I'm not really sore or anything though, which is good. I usually only get sore from weights. Basically, did about 16,000 yards swimming, 170 miles biking, 35 miles running and about an hour total in the weight room. The only problem is that I also worked about 45 hours! I feel like I'm recovering pretty well - should be because all of the work is aerobic other than weights. We have a 2 1/2 hour long run after work tonight so I'm hoping for a thundershower to cool it off a bit but that's not likely today. One thing is for sure, I'm well heat-acclimated right now! The Dane is hanging in there like a trooper, trying to get as much training as he can before leaving for Europe the end of the month. We are then looking forward to our trip to Colorado over Labor Day weekend, should be nice and cool there! Cheers.

Top Gun Tri race report

Race went better than expected. When entrenched in ironman training and racing a sprint tri, one never truly knows how the body will respond. I do remember in my workouts on thurs and fri prior, I was breathing really hard with super heavy legs. I didn't expect anything great, just wanted to go out and give the hardest effort that I could. Woke up around 4:15am to get out of the house early and get to the race early (I'm anal about these things). Everything went fine, got our race packets then had to have one of the bike mechanics in the Outspokin tent run my gears because they were skipping with the race wheel on. No problem there, waited around a bit but got to catch up a bit with Donna S. Got to my rack which was filling up fast and found an acceptable spot. No racing Elite, I'm going for Master's victories now that I'm 40! There were only 3 girls signed up elite and, alot of times, my own age group is more competitive! We started with the men 40-44 which is always a clobberfest! I kind of got tripped up on the sand which slowed my entry into the water a bit but got my feet back underneath and headed for the turn bouy with everyone else. Getting around the bouy, I got a heel to the face and my goggles got popped off. I calmly stopped and emptied the salty water from them and sealed them back down and went on my way. I swam hard, only 1/4 mile so really a sprint! We had a bit of a current to swim into so the times were quite slow. I got out, didn't even look at my time just cruised into T1. I had no idea where I was place-wise because there were tons of other people exiting the water from prior waves. Got on the bike, gears working great, and tried to really hammer. I had my HR monitor on and, luckily, it worked on the bike (have Polar bike computer) but it didn't work the remainder of the race. Total waste! Oh well. It was the least windy day I can remember at Fort Desoto so really tried to keep my HR steady around 172 which was painful but it's only 10 miles! I really ride scared because the bike tends to be my weakest event and some of the girls in the age group are really fast riders. Got into T2 feeling pretty taxed but looking forward to nice, hot 5K run. Had my usual slow transitions - I just can't get my shoes on very fast. The run was 1/2 on sand and 1/2 on pavement; thankfully, the sand was first. I pushed pretty hard, probably too hard in the first mile (6:20-something) and really paid the next mile. I backed off a bit the next mile and tried to keep the tempo up in the last mile. I was really happy to see the finish though! I had no idea what position I was in but I did see who I thought was going to be my greatest competition in the age group behind me on the bike so hoped I got the win. I did win Master's (my first) and actually won overall the women with the fastest time overall. This was quite a shock to me because all of my training has been aerobic; my runs have been averaging over 9 minute miles to keep my HR down. I was really pleased how hard I was able to push myself while basically racing alone. The race was a lot of fun because we got to see a lot of people we haven't seen in a while. The Dane gutted out a top 5 in his age group which was one of the most competitive. Not bad for someone who hasn't gotten in any training in almost 2 weeks! We had a fun, relaxing weekend. Looking forward to getting back into voluminous training again this week in the final 12+ weeks to IM Florida. I can honestly say I'm pretty happy about my current fitness level. A good place to be at this time. Cheers!

More of the same...

I have been lazy in updating my blog recently. I guess because there is not much new going on and I don't think everyone wants to hear about my workouts week in and week out. I am happy to have the Dane back home - he was in Europe for the past week. Had a decent week of training last week. My runs are frustrating me a bit because I have to run sooooooo slow to keep my HR down to satisfy my coach. I have been doing my long runs on Monday after work and the temperatures have been in the low to mid 90's with heat index well above 100 degrees which jacks the HR even more! I have been getting it in though which is important. We have a race this weekend (Top Gun sprint tri)which will be interesting since we haven't raced since Florida 70.3 in May! I'm sure I have zero foot speed and am hoping I don't get thrashed. It's nice to change up the weekly training structure a bit and get in a race. I'm actually looking forward to racing and not being a slave to my stupid heartrate monitor. I'll update after the race. Ciao...