Nancy Toby: Run Big!

I went to packet pickup today for tomorrow's Annapolis Ten Miler. This is an awesome race with which I have a long-term love-hate relationship.

It's VERY hilly and usually VERY hot. It lures you in, chews you up quite thoroughly, and spits you out. It would be a challenging course for October or November, but it's held in the dog days of August - so relentless heat, humidity, and sun are big factors. Add on 1 to 2 minutes per mile to your usual ten miler pace and lots of blood, sweat, and tears and you have the Annapolis Ten Miler.

I've run it three times now. It used to have a lovely route through the United States Naval Academy, but since 9/11 it's been routed around it for security reasons.

One of the big lures of this event is phenomenal schwag, and this year is no exception. We received a very well-made wind vest with an embroidered logo at packet pickup. I was delighted to see when I picked it up that the back is mesh and it includes pockets along the rear side edge, like a cycling jersey. This is going to be a perfect foul weather cycling vest! I'll wear it a lot.

Other years I got a polo shirt and a pair of warmup pants. Nice stuff that gets a lot of wear from the happy recipients! Last year I also got a hand towel with the race logo embroidered on it that they gave out after the race. This year the finishers' premium is an acrylic sailboat.

The course is deceptively difficult. I'm pretty sure that negative splits are impossible on this course. Tomorrow we'll start at Navy Stadium and the first mile just takes you on a loop around the stadium parking lots. That's your warmup, enjoy the horizontal surface because that's the last you'll see of it.

Then the course heads down toward the old section of town. Take the roundabout around the Maryland state capitol, then head down the old cobbled main street. Literally down, because there's a fairly steep slope down to the harbor. Take advantage of it and pick up some time here. We'll need it later on.

Swing past the harbor and Ego Alley where the big yachts come in, past the statue of Alex Haley reading to children and the plaque noting that the auction of the famous Kunta Kinte was held near there.

Then swing over by the Naval Academy gate and begin climbing up that hill you just came down. Take some water from the Naval Academy midshipmen and thank them for their enthusiastic support. Take a right at the top and you'll be heading straight up the old Severn River Bridge. It seems to go on forever and it's impossibly steep - don't forget that it's tall enough for sailboats to go clear under it! Enjoy the climb, because you're doing it again soon.

Down the other side of the bridge, almost to sea level, and then take a right and you're heading back up a steep hill into residential neighborhoods in the cliffs looking over the Severn. Up and down and up and down and winding around through this neighborhood you go. Fortunately there's good support from the local residents and they'll be out cheering you on.

Finally you have a long steep haul back down the hill, and another tough shadeless climb over the old Severn River Bridge again. If the temperature is high (and it always is) you'll be scorched on this treeless stretch and working hard over the bridge. Lots of folks will be walking. But after you clear it you've only got only one mile to go - but it seems like the longest on the course. I'll be one of the stragglers at this point and the aid stations will be starting to clean up.

Keep trudging through a zig-zag, and finally you'll see the stadium up ahead. But the course has one last bit of nastiness to leave you with - you have to go all the way around the backside of the stadium, where you're presented with a horribly steep climb to get to the finish line.

Cross the line, congratulate yourself, and pick up your finisher's sailboat. Enjoy your trophy and display it proudly. You've completed one of the toughest ten mile road races in the country!

Fortunately this is a "C" race for me this year - just a 10 mile workout as I gear up for marathon season ahead. I'll use this race to test my longer distance endurance, try out a new running shirt I got at the expo today, and test some new flavors of Carb-Boom gel to see how my stomach likes them during races. My three times (on the two slightly different courses) have all been between 2:11 and 2:14. I'd like to beat those, and tomorrow promises to have the coolest temperatures of my four attempts, but also with the possibility of showers. Let's just get out there and run the best race we can!

Thinking ahead, I'm starting to assemble some DVDs for bike trainer rides when the weather turns bad this fall. I want to head off that tired old "It's too boring" excuse. I don't want to lose the performance gains I've made this year over the winter.

* Ironman DVDs - http://www.ironmandvd.com/ironmandvds.html
Do you recommend any particularly inspiring years??

* Spinervals DVDs - http://www.spinervals.com/
Any that you found especially helpful and motivating?

Others?

My two biggest movie recommendations for the trainer right now are:
Running On The Sun (2000)
Chariots of Fire (1981)

I may also order the Overcoming DVD about the CSC professional cycling team, of which I'm a fan.

Others? Thanks in advance for your recommendations! I'll compile a list when I get a few together!

---

Recommendations received (I'll keep a list here):

Overcoming - link to order inside USA

Ironman 1995: Karen Smyers victory, PNF collapse, Mark Allen comeback
Ironman 1997: Bob Jordan tearjerker
Ironman 1999: The Hoyt's journey

Movies:
Breaking Away
American Flyer
Pre
Miracle
Hoosiers
Rudy
Remember the Titans

Here's a great product for spraying on the sunblock in transitions in a big hurry, if you haven't seen it before: waterproof, sweatproof SPF 30 sunblock in a pressurized spray. I like to use it on my daughters, since it goes on very quickly while they're squirming around getting excited about going outside.

I also like SPF 36 Bullfrog in the pump spray, but it takes a little longer to get on. And after a while I my finger gets tired from pumping it.

Your skin will thank you. (Just ask Oldman and Holly).

Wow! what a difference 10 degrees makes! Today's bike ride - in only 80*F - was wonderful!! Plus very little wind helped, too.

Here's my route around the Bay Hundred peninsula, from St. Michaels to McDaniels and Claiborne, then to the bridge to Tilghman Island and back. 30 miles, with some nice glimpses of the Chesapeake Bay along the way. Flat and fast on wide shoulders.

I made an all-time high average speed for a longer ride: 17.2 miles per hour! On fire! With an average heart rate of 145 bpm. That's a massive improvement for me! I only made 16.2 mph in my last race on July 31st. Perhaps it helped that I paced myself most of the way with my watch timer: 5 minutes riding hard down in the aerobars, then 1 minute for sitting up briefly or standing, stretching, and taking a drink of water. That worked well to keep me fresh and my back lasted a lot longer before it started complaining.

I know I can get faster - more time in the saddle is the key! Finally I'm getting to the point where my creaky old body - including my crotch, which gave me discomfort for months and months, is finally getting used to the job I'm asking it to do and I'm riding strong!

Or is it that I'm finally getting Buttercup trained!?

I've turned on word verification for comments because I loathe comment spam. I'm sorry they've ruined it for the rest of us. :-( I also loathe cowardly commenters who use the cloak of anonymity to leave nasty personal remarks and other filthy evidence of their vile personalities while lacking the courage to claim their own words. That goes double for quasi-anonymous folks, who have gone to all the trouble of signing up for a blogger account yet put no other information about themselves on the site, with the sole objective of spewing rudeness and ugliness in their derogatory comments. You know who you are. "Uh, tell us how you really feel, Nance." But anyway....

For my *nicer* readers, here's one of the happiest little bears you're ever likely to see. I wish I looked that happy when I swim! I think I probably look just about that plump.

For those of you doing Ironman Wisconsin on September 11, 2005; or contemplating it for another year, there's a fabulous online tool for calculating all your split times. I haven't seen anything like it for other race locations.

My swimming has a long way to go. But it's coming along. Today was just a run-of-the-mill lap swim day, 1250m. Just for fun I counted strokes (and timed it) for 100m of breaststroke and 100m of freestyle, just so that I can track it in my training log as I (hopefully) improve. I was not pushing it, just swimming at my normal lap swim pace that I feel I can maintain over a distance.

Here's my data, just for the record, alongside some data from elite female swimmers, 13-14 years old, during 100m races. It's not a valid direct comparison, certainly, but it's the first such swim stroke data I could find in a quick net search.

Breaststroke speed (meters/sec) : Elite: 1.27 Me: 0.54 (42%)
Breaststroke speed (sec/100 m) : Elite: 78.7 Me: 183 (43%)
Breaststroke stroke length (meters/stroke) : Elite: 1.61 Me: 1.04 (64%)
Breaststroke stroke frequency (strokes/sec) : Elite: 0.79 Me: 0.52 (65%)
Breaststroke, strokes per 25 m: Elite: 15.5 Me: 24.0

Freestyle speed (meters/sec) : Elite: 1.59 Me: 0.54 (33%)
Freestyle speed (sec/100 m) : Elite: 62.8 Me: 185 (35%)
Freestyle stroke length (meters/stroke cycle) : Elite: 1.90 Me: 1.31 (68%)
Freestyle stroke frequency (stroke cycles/sec) : Elite: 0.84 Me: 0.54 (64%)
Freestyle, stroke cycles per 25 m: Elite: 13.1 Me: 19.0

What does this tell me?
* Not that I don't compare well to the elites. That's obvious - I'm about 1/3 as fast! It's not my objective to challenge the elites, that's laughable! Besides, I wasn't even RACING. ;-) I was in a 25m pool and I don't even know how to do flip turns. Yet.
* My objective is to see how my own performance improves gradually over time, and the numbers hopefully move in the right direction, as I repeat this little test periodically in the future as my swimming improves. Today's test gives me baseline data.
* My breaststroke is comparatively better than my freestyle. They were approximately the same speed today.
* Both my distance per stroke and stroke frequency should increase in order to get faster, over time. (Although most experts say work on the technique first to enhance efficiency, then work on stroke frequency and power later).
* I'd like to find some better comparative data, say, for example, female masters swimmers. If you have those numbers for stroke frequency and stroke length, please send them my way! (Like this study, showing that world record times for older female masters swimmers for 1500 m are in the 25-minute range, and anything under 30 minutes is pretty darned fast).

---

Here's some more swimming data I was just referred to in another great source: the 2000 women's US Olympic Trials (thanks, Jill!):

Breaststroke, 200m, speed (meters/sec) : Elite: 1.22 - 1.34
Breaststroke, 200m, speed (sec/100 m) : Elite: 74.6 - 81.9
Breaststroke, 200m, stroke length (meters/stroke) : Elite: 1.61 - 2.01
Breaststroke, 200m, stroke frequency (strokes/sec) : Elite: 0.665 - 0.770
Breaststroke, 200m, strokes per 25 m: Elite: 12.4 - 15.5

Freestyle, 800m, speed (meters/sec) : Elite: 1.58 - 1.74
Freestyle, 800m, speed (sec/100 m) : Elite: 57.4 - 63.2
Freestyle, 800m, stroke length (meters/stroke cycle) : Elite: 1.70 - 2.22
Freestyle, 800m, stroke frequency (stroke cycles/sec) : Elite: 0.73 - 0.94
Freestyle, 800m, stroke cycles per 25 m: Elite: 11.2 - 14.7

That is just sick, isn't it? I mean, those Olympic freestylers could do a full lap in our 25m club pool in 29 seconds flat. And those aren't even the sprinters.

I found it. Conclusive evidence of Shelley's nefarious activities. Right over there on her blog for the whole world to see.

I sure hope that syringe is full of EPO. Because I may just need it.

I love the Tri-geek Kahuna's rant: Blog or else! Yep, if the blogs on my sidebar can only muster one or two posts for the entire summer, they're getting culled off my list. That's ridiculous! There are no vacations from fitness! Show me a triathlon blog with infrequent posts and I'll show you a blogger who isn't training.

Also, another blogging pet peeve: If you're going to stop by someone's blog, why not take a moment to LEAVE A COMMENT? It only takes a moment and it's a nice compliment to the blogger that their writings are having an impact out there for their readers. Blogs are meant to be more or less interactive - so COMMENT already!

I can't believe that Shelley talked me into this.


The Ford Ironman World Championship selects 200 athletes each year to participate through a lottery system. One hundred and fifty of the athletes will be selected from the United States applicants and fifty athletes will be selected from other countries. The Ford Ironman World Championship is one of the most in demand athletic events in the world. Qualifying gets more difficult each year, so the lottery is another option to enter the race.

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:
Registration: 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship Lottery
Purchase Date: 08/23/05
Team: United States
Category: Lottery Application
Event Date: 10/14/06
Name: NANCY TOBY

The 2006 Event will be held on October 14th in Kailua-Kona, HI. The lottery results will be posted on April 15th, 2006 at 12:00 pm EST on www.ironmanlive.com. Athletes who are SELECTED through the Ironman Lottery must have completed a Global Tri Group (GTG) endorsed event within one year of the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship to validate his/her lottery slot. Lottery winners should plan on completing the validating race before August 31, 2006, and all validating information should be received in the Kona Race Office by August 31th, 2006. Failure to comply will result in forfeiture of the lottery slot.

It's amazing how two 2-year-olds can turn a simple trip to the grocery store into an adventure fraught with unpredictability.

Let me say first that we're incredibly lucky to have Peapod grocery delivery by the Giant grocery stores in our area. I don't know what we would have done without it in the last couple of years. We're able to shop online and get all our groceries delivered within a two-hour window for a nominal charge. It's pure luxury. I honestly don't know how parents who have to take two or more little ones to the store simultaneously do it without going nuts. When we need to make an emergency run to the store, my husband or I have always done it while the other watches the girls. A couple of times we have taken Catherine, but not often.

But today we were out of milk, Steve wasn't here, and I was forced to take both girls with me to the store. Together. For the first time in their little lives both together, believe it or not!

Catherine threw a tantrum first getting into the minivan because she apparently thought we were going for a walk instead of driving somewhere. Wrong. But she settled down when we were underway.

At the store parking lot I got a cart and I strapped Catherine in the seat and put Elisabeth in the basket. Elisabeth remained seated quietly the whole time in the bottom of the basket like a little angel, just taking it all in silently! What a good girl!

As I was going in, I passed a woman exiting with a cart overflowing with 87 bags of groceries, two tiny girls traipsing alongside, and a baby in the cart seat. It put things in perspective for me really quickly.

Inside the store the girls seemed overwhelmed and were as good as gold! I was not expecting that! I asked Catherine if she wanted one of her favorites, watermelon, or "wa-muh", and she was happy to help me pick out a slice.

We went through the aisles and I piled up the groceries around Elisabeth in the cart. The only little problem was when she tried to open the little carton of fresh mozzarella swimming in water. I didn't think that was a good idea, but some rearranging solved it.

Otherwise they were quiet and happy the whole time! *shocked disbelief*

The only time Catherine was unhappy was when I took the watermelon out of the cart and put it on the checkout stand. I think that she thought I was giving HER watermelon away to the cashier.

One of the older checkout ladies started asking Elisabeth, "Will you give me your curls?" I thought that was a little creepy. But fortunately we were all done shopping without incident and I was able to pack up my groceries and hustle my girls out and take everything back home again.

This was definitely a lucky break today. I know I'll have to pay double for this one some time in the future. Just wait until they learn to wheedle for me to buy them things....

I couldn't be more delighted that that cowardly human sewage Eric Rudolph got life in prison without hope of parole for the deadly bombing at Centennial Park at the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games in 1996. In fact, I think a substantially harsher penalty would be entirely deserved for his terrorist acts, including his deadly bombing of an abortion clinic in 1998.

I was at Centennial Plaza that very day for my work at the Olympics, just a few hours before the bombing occurred.

---

Another interesting Google mapping application: Map the registered sex offenders that live near you. Uh, if they're registered. Take a look at Washington, DC: there's a pretty scary concentration of them in the Southeast quadrant of the city.

A couple of my correspondents wrote today about a woman who participated in the 18th Central Park Triathlon (1/4-mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5 mile run) yesterday. She apparently omitted one of three laps in the swim and still tried to claim an award for the 55-59 age group. The race director was on to her tricks, though, since she apparently was known to have done this kind of thing previously.

The woman from whom the LOSER CHEAT was so eager to steal the first place AG award, Dr. Harriet Kang, is back-of-the-pack runner and physician who does a lot of volunteer work at marathons (Boston this year, I believe) and with Achilles runners, and is extraordinarily supportive of everyone she runs with. That first place finish couldn't have gone to a nicer first-time triathlete. :-)

---

Contrast that ugly mental image of the LOSER CHEAT with a far different picture of courage and indomitable spirit (from a message in the new Big Bike Forum, check it out!):

"If you ever wanted to make an excuse for not going that extra mile, forget it. After watching this video you'll never have another excuse again. If you don't know them, it is about Team Hoyt. I actually saw another video of this and it brought me to tears."

Here's the video: http://www.jeffiscool.com/films12/TeamHoyt.wmv

Here's their web page: http://www.teamhoyt.com

Over the weekend we had a bit of a non-event: my girls' 2nd "Equivalent Birthday". That is, August 20th is two years from their due date. If you think back to how long ago I posted about their 2nd birthday party (2 years from their actual birth date) on June 1st, that tells you how seriously premature they were - they missed out completely on about twelve weeks they should have been in utero. They've come a long way since they were teensy 2-pounders!

We're very lucky that these girls are happy and healthy and doing great. Catherine is perhaps a couple of months behind a regular developmental schedule, but talking away and jumping and running and doing everything right in sequence. She is seriously far-sighted, though - a opthalmologist appointment this week may tell us how soon she needs to get fitted for glasses. They're inevitable by the time she's 4 or 5.

Elisabeth has substantial speaking delays. Since she had a bad heart (that was repaired at 5 months) she was very weak her first year. She only learned to walk this April at 22 months, and hasn't quite learned to run yet. She was fed mostly through a tube until about 8 months, which delayed the proper development of her speaking musculature. She only said her first word within the last few weeks, after much coaching and prompting - finally she says "mum mum" for "more" food. She knows dozens of signs, though, and adores watching her signing videos.

We had a breakthrough today, though: Elisabeth signed a sentence on her own! We were having breakfast together and talking about how Daddy left earlier. Elisabeth signed "bye-bye", "car", and "all gone" all in a row, showing me she knew that's how Daddy left! Even though she makes clear progress every day, it's still reassuring to Mom to see that her mind is working and thinking about conceptual things that aren't visible in front of her!

We're looking forward to having a family celebration of their "Equivalent Birthday" in a few weeks when their paternal Grandpa visits and we can combine it with a celebration of his 80th birthday.

Totally unrelated.... I think some of these doctored photos are hilarious. Part of an ongoing series at Fark.com. I think I need to buy a copy of Photoshop.

And more fun links found on Fark:

Mullet-hunting at the Iowa State Fair

Top 100 Hunks (this link's for you, Dawn)

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."

Today I was the bug. Why?

"It's not the heat, it's the humidity."

Damn straight.

I did everything right for my planned 15-miler today. Laid out my running clothes, got to sleep very early, woke up before the 5AM alarm, drank some coffee and had some cereal, and I was out the door at 6AM, 20-odd minutes before sunrise.

The humidity hit me like a wave as I walked out the door. It hadn't rained, but everything was wet. Still, it was "only" 77*F before dawn, and I thought it wouldn't be too bad.

I was wrong.

After a mile of jogging I was sweating hard. After 2 miles I was sopping wet. NOTHING evaporated. Not a hint of breeze in the air. The mosquitoes never went to sleep, and they were delighted to see me out and about. The deer flies buzzed around my head. I used my bandana about once per stride to mop my face and fend off the insects.

By 4 miles I stopped to wring out my ponytail (it was dripping down my back, how disgusting) and got about an ounce of liquid out of that, and another ounce of liquid poured out of the bandana. My shirt and shorts and socks were a sodden dripping mass. I stopped to remove a stone from my shoe and found that my feet were wrinkling prunes. It might as well have been raining.

I programmed my watch for 5:1 run:walk intervals. That lasted about, oh, a mile.

By 6 miles I was a trudging, dispirited mess. I had plenty of water, plenty of salt, and everything I needed - except a teensy breeze, maybe, and a smidgen of evaporation.

So much for all my great techniques for not cutting long runs short. At the 7.2-mile intersection, I headed for home. I was beaten. I'll just have to do that 15-mile run another day.

Today I was only good for 9.6 miles. I got back home about 8:30AM, by which time it had plummeted to a mere 89% humidity. But I was already toast. Wet, soggy toast.

*SPLAT*