Nancy Toby: Run Big!

Today I got to sleep LATE for a workout day, and only got out the door at 8AM for a Long Slow Distance jog with my training buddy, David. It alternated between rain and drizzle for most of the way - the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto. Ernie seems to be taking his sweet time sauntering up the east coast. That's okay - train in adversity, race in adversity, right!?

We ran around the quiet roads in the wealthier neighborhood on the other side of town, nearly the only runners out on the road. As usual, David pushed and flogged me along. We finished up 16.0 miles in 3 hours 36 minutes total time, which included a lot of walk breaks for me, for an average pace of 13:30 minutes per mile. For me, that's a very speedy long run pace - nearly my marathon PR pace! When we finished up my leg muscles were tired, but I didn't feel exhausted overall. I could have gone another ten miles in reasonable shape.

OK, that's almost 2 miles swum yesterday, 16 miles run today, and tomorrow we plan to ride something over 100 miles. About 3/4 of an Ironman spread over 3 days. So far it's not feeling too bad - I hope I can remember that tomorrow!

We did have a few big tree branches blown down, and a little bit of flooding here in town at high tide today, but nothing too serious.

Just deep enough for the kids to splash around in the Crab Claw parking lot.

First of all, GO BIG Z! Congratulations to my favorite professional cyclist, Dave Zabriskie, for winning the US National Time Trial Championships today! (Yes, that's an old photo, not from today.)

Now about that swim. Today's workout was nothing remarkable, except it was in the "warm" (86*F) pool at the Y because the "cool pool" where I usually swim was closed for maintenance. So I had a toasty time and worked on EVF (Early Vertical Forearms) and wide arms and slipping my hand into the water near my ear and keeping a gliding extended arm.

3450 yards. If I had kept up a proper lap count I would have done another 100 yards to break 2.0 miles, but my arms were getting tired so I stopped.

Just for my own personal blog record, here are my workout times for various distances, done consecutively:

• 100 yards: 2:10 (= 2:22/100 METERS pace)
• 200 yards: 4:40 (2:20/100 yard pace)
• 300 yards: 7:19 (2:26/100 yard pace)
• 400 yards: 10:03 (2:31/100 yard pace)
• 1200 yards: 31:22 (2:37/100 yard pace)

Those were all at a reasonably comfortable pace, not pushing it. The 1200-yard time would only give me a 1:51 Ironman swim, but that's still 29 minutes ahead of the cutoff (2:20 at Ironman Florida) so that I have some wiggle room. Plus I don't have to turn around 47 times during the Ironman swim. I'll take it.

I can tell my shoulder muscle endurance is down because I haven't been doing that many swim workouts lately. I need to get it back up to 2 to 3 times per week for the next 7 or 8 weeks.

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Update: Here's a more recent photo of Dave the Champion! (Strangely tilted, though. He actually has a fabulous horizontal-back aero position.) YOU DA MAN Z!!

Freeze-dried whole fruit. Crunchy, sweet, tasty, packed with lots of zingy fruit flavors. Expensive, but worth it. My girls think they're candy, but I don't want to share. Only 150 calories for a huge bag. Blueberry and raspberry are both wonderful.

And I hate to say it, but the Starbucks coffee that I got in my hotel room over the weekend was yummy enough that I might have to start buying that for home. I have been assimilated.

Catherine did her whole alphabet puzzle today, almost. She has a little trouble scanning all 26 spots for the right place to put each puzzle piece, but she could turn most of the letters around to face the proper direction and she knew the names of all the letters except for I and J.

She even told me that G stood for Good Morning. She also informed me that Q stands for Quilt. Which is like a blanket. That you use when you sleep. At night. (All with appropriate signs, too).

I may be switching allegiances for my preferred discipline. You see, cruising along on the bike or floating along in the swim is easy. Running, especially when the humidity is 200%, is hard.

"It never gets any easier, you just get faster" -Greg Lemond

But the babysitter was here yesterday, I was paying her, and that means it's time to get serious and get the workout done. That's one thing that helps me keep focused in my workouts.

I was aiming for six 11-minute miles on the track. On the track for mental strength training, because those last dark miles on the road at Ironman Florida in the middle of the night are going to take a lot of that mental strength. Eleven minute per mile pace because that's just pushing it a little for me, I have to keep alert and pay attention to keep myself from shuffling too slowly. That's somewhere between my 10K pace and my ten-miler pace - a bit faster than I expect to be running at Ironman Florida.

• 11:04
• 10:46
• 11:03
• 11:13
• 10:56

Close enough. I didn't make it to mile 6 because I ran out of time. I spent too much time walking in the intervals between miles, and timing myself walking. And figuring out that my walking pace is too slow to walk it in at Ironman Florida, so I'd better crank up that running mileage. Ugh, I felt tired and sore in the evening, too.

More to come this weekend, even though Tropical Depression Ernesto is scheduled to arrive on Friday. Train in adversity, race in adversity, right!??

OK, I was able to replace old my bike seat (lower one, below, with the stuffing coming out) with the new one in an identical model (top one), both Forté Contour Women's Saddles. This involved transferring the water bottle holder to the new one, and getting it aligned just right on the bike, which means endless playing around with threads and fittings. I think I have it all squared away now, FINALLY, though.

But replacing the sliced-up handlebar tape didn't go nearly as well. It took me a couple of tries to wrap it correctly with the "Felt" logo on the outside. Then getting the brake handle loose involves two Allen-wrench settings linked to some kind of obscure internal fitting. Now the brake lever is loose and I can't seem to tighten it without disassembling the whole thing again. Grrr!

Before:After:
Maybe I should just toss out the whole works and replace it with a fancy new $600 carbon aerobar set, eh? Nah, not this year.

In my countdown to my Ironman attempt, I was reviewing some online training programs again. Hey, what do you know? My volume has looked remarkably like this chart! Including the final build about 9 weeks out from the event, which I'm entering into now. What I have planned for this next nine weeks is remarkably similar to most training program recommendations out there for someone at my fitness level. How 'bout that?

I was also enjoying Gordo's thoughts on improved performance after some slack time. I'm in agreement with the notion that consolidation of training improvements happens not during the actual training, but during the rest and recovery phase afterwards. So my vacation weeks, a.k.a. step-back weeks, have had an important function, I believe, in terms of mental and physical R&R.

But now we're heading into the final countdown. For those casual readers out there, suffice it to say that this blog is probably going to be consumed by my obsession with this single Ironman triathlon over the next 2.5 months. Please keep arms and legs inside the ride at all times.

P.S. Congratulations to PuddyRat on becoming an Ironman at IMC! I'm looking forward to that race report!

Despite my emphasis on consistency in training this year (which was VERY solid up until the beginning of May), my training over the summer has been a roller coaster. When I've been traveling, preparing for travel, and recovering from travel, or had a race week, my training volume has plunged downwards. Lots of high weeks with 14 to 15 hours of training, but then they've dipped down a few times into the region of 7 to 9 hours per week of training. Which isn't enough.

66 days to go until Ironman Florida. Subtract 14 days for a 2-week taper, and that leaves us with 52 days. Seven and a half weeks of training left to go.

Now since my babysitter has gone back to school, I'm re-figuring out how I can get my training done while juggling two three-year-olds. Lots of rain in the forecast too this week, so that precludes a lot of jogstroller time. Back on the indoor trainer with me!

Oh well, it is what it is. A lot can be accomplished in 52 days! Especially with a solid base. RIGHT? That's still nearly two solid months. My plan for this Labor Day weekend includes a century ride, but I'm not yet sure when I can squeeze in the swimming I need to do. And some running some time as well. It might end up being a run-bike-run brick again, starting in the darkness on the track. Whatever it takes!

But I just did a calculation that makes me feel a little better, a la Ellie:
So far in my training this year, I've done the equivalent of over:

• 29 Iron-distance swim legs
• 17 Iron-distance bike legs
• 19 Iron-distance run legs

So while it's still lower training volume by some standards, spread over 34 weeks, it's still something. . . .

This is a quick recap of my getaway weekend to Colorado to attend the wedding of my old college friend Debbie. I flew to Colorado on Friday afternoon and the wedding was that evening, at a gorgeous location outside Littleton, southwest of Denver at the Arrowhead Golf Club.
I got held up in some traffic on the way to the wedding, unfortunately, and arrived just in time to witness the wedding vows and the kiss.

Yes, I did get dressed up! Here's a shot in the, uh, bathroom.

The happy newlyweds Debbie and Jeff:

They had a very fun reception and we made great use of the disco ball dancing to the oldies with old friends. (I was also able to talk triathlon with several people from the old crowd from San Diego, where I used to visit Debbie frequently, too - ah, how I envy their training grounds!) I didn't wear heels, just dressy flats, and my feet were much happier for it during the dancing.

The next day I got in a pretty good workout in the hotel fitness room - an hour on the exercycle and then 75 laps of the 15-yard-long hotel pool. The weather was kind of cold and wet so I had the pool all to myself, but the water was nice and warm. I had forgotten my watch upstairs so I counted laps by swimming up and down each of the 4 lane lines once, then across the diagonal. Repeated 15 times. I was getting 9 strokes per 15 yards fairly consistently = 1.66 yards per 2-arm stroke. It could be longer, but it's better than the 1.43 yards it used to be, and I think I'd slow down a lot to achieve a much longer stroke right now.

The weather got worse before it got better! This was about all I saw of the real mountains on the way back over to Debbie and Jeff's house.

Fortunately the weather cleared up! They hosted a fun cookout at their fabulous home, with yummy food and great company which was enjoyed by all.

Much too soon it was time to go home again. . . .

I'm back! I had a great trip, too! I can't post photos until tomorrow, though, so I'll have to catch up with you all then. The weather was kind of sucky but everything else on the trip was great. I even cleaned up pretty well too. More tomorrow. Sleep now.