HalfMax 70.3

Last week’s workouts:

Week 12 of 20

Mon:  Rest

Tue:   Swim 1,300 yards (drills); bike 45 min.

Wed:  Run 5 miles

Thu:   Swim 800 yards; bike 30 min.

Fri:     Rest

Sat:    HalfMax Triathlon (70.3 miles)

Sun:   Recovery (passive)

Last week’s workouts were a mini-taper in advance of the Fresh Ideas HalfMax Triathlon in Innsbrook, MO on June 28^th.  This race taught me a lot about what I need to work on as I continue the journey to the finish line in Louisville, but it also showed me how far I've come in this journey.

Race day started with a 3:30am wake up call so that I could load the car, prepare food to eat on the drive, and get to the race site at 5:30am (in advance of the 7:30am scheduled start).  The GPS said the race was 48 miles away.  I now think of all distance in terms of triathlon, so of course I scoffed at a mere 48 miles - I'll be biking more than that today!

You should get bonus points for not forgetting any gear for any race, regardless of distance

I unloaded and set up my transition area by 6:15, so I had plenty of time to relax, talk with my training partners and some friends from the St. Louis Tri Club, use the restroom, check out the swim course, etc.  Coming into the day, I felt okay, but certainly not 100% - I had some stomach discomfort on Friday that carried over.  My plan was to use this as a training day unless the field in the 40+ Clydesdale division didn’t look too tough.  There weren’t too many big guys, so I decided to see how I felt in the swim before deciding how hard I wanted to push.

Body marking and transition

My little slice of heaven 

Racing for a Honey Badger fighting to get well in the hospital 

Racked and ready - even had an inch of clearance between my tire and the grass

Swim course

At the swim start location, the race director gave us the instructions.  Those racing the half had to do two loops on each of the three courses to get the necessary distance.  The announcements also said things like “the bike is hilly – save energy for the run” and “don’t go out hard on the run – you have to do a second loop” and “this is one of the toughest half iron distance races out there – finishing this is an accomplishment”.  Uh, foreshadowing.

After the pre-race instructions, I took my spot in the back of the men’s corral, they blew up some fireworks with a TNT plunger straight from the Road Runner.  Since I’m a fairly slow swimmer, I started in the back and tried to get comfortable - it just never happened.  I was breathing every 2 strokes from the left side and wasn’t able to get into my typical 4 stroke pattern, or at least a 3 stroke bilateral pattern.  The lesson for Louisville is that I need to relax.  If I'm not in the right pattern at the beginning of the swim, I need to ease up until I get there - it will save me time in the long run.

Other than my swim being really slow – even for me – it was fine.  I swam much of the race alongside a guy who swam sidestroke the time.  I just could NOT pass him.  He finished the swim just in front of me and I noticed that he only had one arm.  I saw him a while later on the bike, and he was awesome.  

I was a bit dizzy coming out of the water (from breathing on just one side), but I shook that off as I walked from the swim exit to T1.  I stopped to use the restroom since I was no longer concerned about time - peeing on the bike will have to wait for another day.  I cleaned up my feet, put my socks, shoes, helmet liner, helmet, and sunscreen on, and I was on my way.  I grabbed a bonk breaker to eat as I got the bike leg going.

Before I was even done eating, I encountered the first tough hill of the race – quite the smack in the face to get you going.  I misjudged the hill, got stuck in the wrong gear, and almost had to bail and walk my bike up the rest of the hill.  I managed to shove the rest of the food in my mouth, stand up, and hammer my way to the top.  That was just the beginning of some serious climbing on this two loop course.  As I approached a short out-and-back around mile 3, I saw a guy sitting on the side of the road.  On my way back through I saw that most of the skin from his shoulders had been ground off due to an accident.  Ouch!

We climbed over and over again in the first 7-8 miles of the bike leg and things settled down a bit as we left the resort.  I got my legs back and pushed the pace a bit - everything was feeling good.  Then my ride started to go into the toilet - it was one thing after another.  I bumped the visor off my aero helmet twice, catching it once and having to turn around and go find it a second time.  I shot my last bottle of sports drink out of my rear cage - I went back to look for it, but couldn't find it - so I got to enjoy the last 26 miles with nothing but water and Gu.  At one point I stood up to stretch and yanked my left foot out of the clip and nearly wiped out.  The cover to my left crank kept coming out (had to stop and screw it back in twice), and the entire bottom bracket seemed to loosen up a bit (need to have that looked at this week).  

I mentioned that this was a 2 loop course.  The thought of that was fine until we came back to the resort area.  We picked up some nice downhills where I got up to 42mph, but then we had 2 or 3 absolutely brutal climbs.  Aaaaaand then we got to do the whole thing over again.  By the time I was around mile 45, I was ready to cancel my hotel reservations for Louisville, sell my bike, and never utter the word triathlon again.

 Bike elevation profile

As I entered the final hills on the second loop, I was hot, uncomfortable, and irritated from a sub par ride.  The thought of running a half marathon in 85 degrees with 66% humidity didn’t sound very good.  The only thing that kept me going was the thought of putting another medal on my wall and my general stubbornness.

In T2, I talked with Kelly (training partner) who was already done with the QuarterMax race.  She said the hills on the run were nasty, but the aid stations were well stocked.  I found K-Mac (training partner) at the end of the bike leg, so I walked over to talk to him and we started out on the run course together.  Our generally crappy attitudes were a perfect match.

I ended up sticking with K-Mac for the entire run.  We ran most of the flats and downhills but walked the uphills and whenever else we needed it.  We laughed a lot at the ridiculousness of it all.  It was to the point where we were out of breath just walking some of these hills.  We loaded up on Heed, water, ice, Coke, pretzels, granola bars, and anything else we could get our hands on at the aid stations.  They were indeed well stocked, and the volunteers were awesome.  

We finished the first 6 mile loop and forced ourselves to go back out for another.  Around mile 9, we came across a guy laying in the middle of the road (which was not closed to traffic).  He looked like he was stretching himself out somehow, but he chose a sunny, hot piece of asphalt to lay on instead of a shaded spot for some reason.  We helped him up and talked to him for a moment, and he kept on his way.  We saw him a few miles later and talked to him, and he seemed like he was looking right through us.  I saw a friend who is always happy around mile 10 (she was still heading out), and even she was miserable.  The volunteers said everyone was having a rough day - it appears that they were right. 

Just past mile 12, I saw the smiling face of a Tri Club friend and Ironman Louisville finisher who had words of encouragement for us (thanks Tiffany) and ran with us for a bit.  We loaded up at the last aid station and ran most of the way back to the finish except for a steep incline through the grass leading up to the finishing chute.  The announcer called our names and tried to bait us into racing each other, but K-Mac and I were happy to finish the race, and neither of us wanted to be "that guy" who pulls a jerk move and takes off at the last moment.  

Past mile 12 - heading to the finish 

Bringing it home, laughing about how there were only 10 bikes left in transition 

Finally done after a LONG day 

This was hands down the toughest day of racing I have ever had.  I didn’t feel well from the start, and wanted to call it a day after the bike leg.  I forced myself to "run" the half marathon, even though I walked a lot of it.  It was absolutely miserable out there.  

Finisher medal (right) and 1st place 40+ Clydesdale group (left).  I was, however, the only one in that group.  But as many have told me, I beat all those people who didn't get off the couch.

As soon as I was done, I realized how good this was for me.  Yes, it was tough, hot, and miserable, but I got through it.  I didn't DNF, I completed the course, and I didn't have any cramping/dehydration issues.  I even managed to have a fun during that death march of a half marathon.  Physically I felt great after the race other than general tightness which is to be expected.  

Lessons Learned:

1. Settle in during the swim - find your rhythm.  If you're too amped up, stop for a second and reset yourself
2. Ditch the tri top in favor of a cycling jersey for the bike in Louisville.  I have a bad sunburn on my back from 3 hours in aero position.
3. Get new cleats on my bike shoes before Muncie!
4. Eat as much as possible on the bike - preferably real food.  Bonk Breaker bars will be much better than Gu.
5. Squirting water on your neck and femoral artery on the bike really works to cool you off - just make sure your feet are in the right position so that the water doesn't go straight into your shoe.
6. Push fluids and foods on the run.
7. Regular Coke is really good.

This experience made me realize that I have gotten a lot stronger over the past year, and much more tolerant of these distances.  After Muncie last July, I was done for a week.  I'm ready to get in the pool tomorrow morning for 2 miles to pick up on my training schedule.  Now that I know I can survive heat and hills, Louisville is in trouble!

54 days

Guilty Your Honor!

Last week’s workouts

Mon:  Rest

Tue:  Swim 2,500 yards (main set = 10x75; 10x25); Bike 1 hr. + 10-min. transition run

Wed:  None (was supposed to run 6 miles but overslept and worked late)

Thu:  Swim 2,500 yards (main set = 5x200); Bike 1 hour

Fri:  Run 45 min (8x2-min fast)

Sat:  Run 13 miles; Swim 3,275 yards

Sun:  Bike 65 miles

Total mileage = 118.66

Last week was the last build week in the third cycle (week 11 of 20), so I have a recovery week to look forward to.  Of course I registered for a half iron distance triathlon next Saturday, but that's a story for next week's post.  I can tell it’s Monday because I’m in full “training zombie” mode.  I’m awake, but feel groggy.  Seems typical of my rest days.

The ulnar nerve issue I've been dealing with for a few weeks seems to be in check - I’ve logged 125 miles on the Cervelo in my new position, and that (plus making a conscious effort to move around often) seems to have done the trick for now.

My weekday workouts were pretty standard stuff, although I missed Wednesday morning’s scheduled 6 miler because I forgot to set my alarm and I couldn't run at night because I had to give a presentation for work.  I managed to forget my alarm again on Thursday, but woke up on my own at 5:05AM which gave me enough time to swim before going into the office.

This weekend's long training sessions started bright and early on Saturday morning with loops in Creve Coeur Park with one of the Honey Badgers.  I was fully prepared to run these miles solo, but was thankful for the company (thanks Dan!).  We successfully endured oppressive humidity and rapidly warming temperatures. You know it’s bad when we’re trying to figure out who's shoe we hear squishing.  It was time to bring out the old trick of stuffing my shoes with newspaper to dry them out quickly. 

Creve Coeur Park

I finished running around 8:30 and got in the pool at 10:30 when lap lanes opened up.  The plan was for 3,275 yards which is my personal distance record.  The distance wasn’t a problem, but my cramping calves made it a bit of a struggle.  I took a water bottle with some of my Infinite Nutrition mix in it, but that did little to help.  

I finished the day off by watching my daughter’s basketball tournament in the afternoon, and watching Liar Liar with Amy and Adam that night.  It was nice to have both of those workouts done by noon!

On Sunday I joined four Honey Badgers for a Trailnet ride in St. Charles County.  The route called for 50 miles, so we did that and added an additional 15 on at the end for a total of 65 (my personal distance record).  Since we started a little later than we planned (cough Susie cough), I bagged the 10-minute transition run in favor of getting home, unpacking my gear, and showering before we met the running team at a local bar to send off one of our friends who is moving to North Carolina.  I REALLY need to start bringing my GoPro camera to some of these training rides - there's some pretty spectacular scenery out there.  This ride went up through St. Paul's, MO (which I proclaimed as MY town) and provided some good hill work.

Church on our route through St. Paul

At this point in training I feel very good physically, it's still the mental part where I need focus.  These long session distances are hard on their own - putting them all together is hard to imagine.  Putting them all together in the heat is scary to me.  I keep telling myself to take it one day at a time and focus on the payoff - running down the chute at Fourth Street Live in Louisville.  

The finish line in Louisville is one of the best on the circuit

I've also been struggling with husband/dad guilt - especially on these long training weekends.  IF I'm actually home, there's a good chance that I'm asleep.  I haven't had to miss too many family things so far, but it's going to get very difficult to balance things over the next 2 months.  I've been reading up on tips for balancing training and family, but haven't found many new insights yet.  

As I'm training, this is the thought that creeps into my head:

But, this is how they say they feel:

In fact, as I'm sitting her writing this, Amy texted me the picture below with a note that says "feeding my Ironman".  She's making me egg and rice cups for grab and go breakfasts, and curry chicken with rice and vegetables for my lunches at work.

It takes a village to raise an Ironman, and I have an incredible support system!

61 days.

Ironman Training - Half Awesome, Half Horrible

Last week’s workouts

Mon:       Rest

Tue:        Shut down – no activity (see below)

Wed:       Run 6 miles (easy pace)

Thu:        No swim (see below); Bike 50 minutes

Fri:          Run 5 miles (speed work)

Sat:         Run 10 miles

Sun:        Bike 60 miles

Total miles:  94.22

  

Last week marked the half-way point in training for Ironman Louisville.  Ten weeks of fun and excitement down, ten more to go!  To date, I’ve logged 826 training miles - just over the distance between St. Louis and Denver (24 swim, 556 bike, and 246 run).  

My workouts last week varied from the schedule due to injury, but I still logged 94 miles?!? Sheesh.  I’ve mentioned the numbness in my left arm after cycling over the past few weeks, and it got to the point where I was concerned that I would end up doing permanent damage to the ulnar nerve.  Instead of pushing through, I shut down my workouts and sought medical advice – something more formal than a Google search.  In a nutshell, the issue seems to be compression of the ulnar nerve either in the wrist or the neck.  The exact diagnosis isn’t known, but I was cleared to continue training.  If symptoms don’t improve, I will do a nerve study.  The good news today is that after 60 miles this weekend, my arm feels normal - no more numbness.

Since I was reasonably confident that my nerve issues were related to the bike, I went back to Big Shark to have them evaluate my fit and make some adjustments to possibly alleviate some of the issues causing my problem.  We ended up changing the seat position and we moved my aero bar arm pads out and raised them up a bit.  I’ll ride with this new configuration for a few weeks and see where we go from there. 

On the swimming front – uh, there was no swimming front.  I didn’t swim at all last week.  I skipped the first 2 workouts because I was figuring out my arm problems, and I missed my long swim over the weekend because I was traveling and just couldn’t squeeze it in.  So it goes.  I’ll be back in the pool bright and early tomorrow morning.

Speaking of traveling, I was “home” (Chicago suburbs) this weekend, so I did my 10 mile run in Schererville and Munster, IN – the area where I spent the last 2 years of high school before going away to college.  It was evident with this run that my training in St. Louis has been paying dividends.  The air was cool and dry, and the course was seriously flat – like 75 feet of total elevation gain flat.  This is compared to St. Louis where the humidity is so high that you can hardly breathe, the temps are significantly higher, and I can get more than 75 feet of elevation gain on my own street!  Given the change in conditions, this run was a piece of cake.  Maybe it doesn’t help me get ready for the conditions in Louisville, but every now and then it’s nice to have a run that doesn’t feel like a death march and doesn’t require stuffing your shoes with newspaper.

Found a great trail, but it was only about 1.5 miles long

Found this small river and thought it looked nice.  However this is Northwest Indiana, so I had to crop the dumped tire out of the picture.

After the run I went to my niece’s high school graduation party in Mt. Prospect.  On the drive up, I noticed that the GPS said 48 miles.  I’m now putting all of these distances into training/Ironman terms in my head.  My thought was – meh, I’ll be riding more than that tomorrow.  I had a similar thought on the drive up on Friday.  I was in Bloomington/Normal, IL, and I had 140 miles to go to get to Schererville.  THAT made the lunacy of Ironman seem real.

We left the party at 7PM to drive home to St. Louis, arriving at 12:30AM.  When the clock struck midnight, I thought about all the things I had done over the previous 17 hours (the Ironman time limit):  I woke up at 7, ran 10 miles, ran an errand, went to lunch, drove to the party, attended said party, and drove almost all the way to St. Louis.  Remind me again why I thought this was a good idea?

For last weekend’s long bike, I met up with two friends on Sunday morning for a planned 60 mile bike ride and 15-minute brick run (the latter of which didn’t happen).  These two are training for Ironman 70.3 Muncie – it is nice to connect with them for a ride here and there, but 60 is their max (unless they accidentally get lost).  If I see them after this, it will just be for part of a ride as my distances work their way up to 100 miles. 

We rode a route on the MCT trails where I’ve been many times before – so nothing extraordinary about the route other than a 10 minute window of rain.  A few minutes after the rain stopped, my season almost ended.  Taking a turn (maybe 12-15mph), my back tire fishtailed, but I managed to hold on.  I’m pretty sure my season would have been over had I gone down.  The old adage “the bigger they are the harder they fall” is certainly true, so I don’t know that I would have come out of this with “just” some road rash, bumps, and bruises.  I’m a big guy – if/when I go down, it is going to be spectacular and will likely require medical assistance, horse tranquilizers, and a crane. 

Post ride chocolate chip cookies stuffed with mini Reeses cups.  Thanks Elyse!

As for the run brick – I had been on my bike battling wind for 2 hours.  And it was Father’s Day, so I bagged it in favor of getting a mustache pretzel from Pretzel Boys in Des Peres with my kids and maximizing my time at home.  Despite having nothing but support from my crew at home, I am having some serious husband/daddy guilt right now, because I’ve been gone most of the day the past few Sundays.  I feel guilty for the time I’m missing with them, the projects at home that aren’t getting done, and I know the next 10 weeks are going to be just as hard on them as they are on me.

And a few hours after this picture was taken, we discovered that my son is allergic to Advil (see swollen eyes).  Oops!  

Changing gears, someone asked me last week if I was ready for the Ironman.  Um, no.  Not even close physically or mentally.  I don’t have the endurance that I know I need, but I know I will develop it over the coming weeks.  Physically I feel okay outside of my left arm.  My arm is settling down, and I just have a few random aches and pains that come and go.  The big problem for me right now is confidence – the more I think about this race, the more I doubt my ability to finish, let alone finish it in the heat.  And I’m generally not a person who thinks like this, especially as someone who has gone through processes like this as I’ve worked up from the couch to 8 marathon finishes.  I just know how disappointed I will be if I take a DNF on August 24^th.  I really feel like this is a one-time shot.  Either I finish it or I don’t.  I don’t plan on trying this again.  

I know, I know - one day at a time.

68 days to race day.  Back to the pool in the morning.

Well That was Frustrating!

Last week's workouts

Mon:  Rest
Tue:  Swim 2,075 yards (main set = 8x75 yards); Bike 55 min. w/last 20 comfortably hard + 10 min. brick run
Wed:  Run 6 miles (easy pace)
Thu:  Swim 2,075 yards (main set = 4x250 yards); Bike 50 min (easy)
Fri:  Run 45 min (8 x 2 min. fast)
Sat:  Run 12 miles
Sun:  Swim 2,625 yards; bike 54 miles + 10-min brick run

Total miles:  108.14

This week was 9 of 20 in the formal training program.  By Sunday night, I was exhausted.  Got to bed around 8:30, and was fast asleep by 9:00 or so.

My week started out with a pulled muscle in my neck which was an issue when I turned my head to the right.  This is kind of important for swimming!  My swim workout was okay - I could feel it, but it loosened up as I swam.  By the time 10am rolled around, it locked up like a vise.  Lunch time trip to Walgreens...check.  A few days of treatment, and it felt better.

I've mentioned before the great support I get at home during this journey.  From my wife's awesome meals and understanding my training schedule, to my kids thinking that it's normal for Dad to go to sleep at 9:00 and being okay with me missing a game or not being able to play catch, to my dog who likes to snuggle - everyone is on board in helping me to achieve this ridiculous goal.

Salmon, brown rice, zucchini noodles, and tomato

Carne asada, spanish rice, and fruit

Snuggle buddy!

The work week flew by and gave way to a busy weekend.  On Friday night, we had a team event at a local food truck night, which was a fun distraction from training.  Saturday I ran 9 with a few friends and finished up my scheduled 12 miles with the Miles Against Melanoma 5k.

Just a few of many Honey Badgers who came out to support Amy's fight against melanoma

Sunday started at 8:30 when I left home to get to the pool for my scheduled 2,600 yard swim.  I got in as soon as they opened and it done.  Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.  Just another day in the pool.

As soon as I finished swimming, it was time to drive out to the MCT trails where I met up with 8 teammates for a 55 mile ride.  This ride featured one person's pedal falling apart (she was left with nothing but a stub), someone else getting stung by a bee inside their helmet, I broke a spoke, and someone's car wouldn't start.  It just wasn't our day.

I didn't get home until about 4:30, so it felt like I had been at the office all day.  I had some serious husband/dad guilt when I was driving home, so I need to figure out a way to schedule these workouts better so that I can actually see everyone.  However I know that in a few more weeks, I won't have much of a choice.  But we only have 11 more weeks to go, right?  And one of those weeks we'll be on vacation, so I can train early and spend the rest of the day with my crew.

Well that doesn't look right!  I lost focus for a second, over corrected, and hit a branch - next thing you know...PING!  If this happens again, I may invest in a wheel with more spokes and a wider base to distribute the weight a bit more.  I am a big man and am putting a lot of pressure on those wheels.

I've said before that I'm ready to eat the siding by Sunday afternoon.  This time the porch was the victim. 

A few last notes.  first, my kitchen looks like a bottle factory by Sunday night, with 6 running bottles, 4 bike bottles, my aero bottle, etc.

I read this article in the latest issue of Triathlete magazine.  Hey look!  I have two of the four hottest races in triathlon history on my schedule this year - Muncie and Louisville.  Uh oh!

Finally, I'm still dealing with some numbness in my hand and arm from Sunday's long ride.  Time to get it checked out.  Hope this doesn't put me on the biking DL for a while.  Wonder if it's related to the positioning of my elbow/forearms while in the aero position.

With that - it's time for bed.

75 days to go!