Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my training!

Today is the last day of my "base" training phase.  Tomorrow begins my official, structured Ironman training program.  It is a 20 week program: 10 weeks of a "build" phase, 7 weeks of "peak" training, and a 3 week "taper", when I gradually reduce my training volume to be fresh and rested for the race.  Simply put, my training program is: more, more, MORE, then a little less.  The truth is, I have made this big deal of July 1st being the beginning of my real program, but it's not such a huge leap.  It's really just doing what I have been doing for 6 months: Gradually building up mileage and intensity to prepare my body for this massive one-day undertaking.  It's funny, when I put it that way.  I am spending A YEAR preparing for A DAY!  Crazy!  But that's not news.

The main difference going forward will be that my training schedule will be much more structured with more specific and concrete goals.  Before it was a matter of trying to get in key workouts and building fitness through consistency, but it was fairly haphazard.  Also, the distances will be getting consistently and progressively longer, aiming for peak fitness at the time of the race.  And it is just going to be more of everything.  Short technique-centered swims will now be longer swims; I will add in the third weekly run that I took out for base training.  The different phases are very aptly named: BASE being just putting in the time to slowly get your body fit enough to handle the training load; BUILD adding to the base, gradually building speed and endurance; and PEAK is pretty much "I cannot imagine maintaining this level of training for any longer!"

Needless to say, I am super excited for this next step in my Ironman journey!

Muddy Buddies are not your friends!

Karin was out of town for 2 nights and I got into 2 bad habits.  One was staying up late (like till after 11 pm!).  The other was making Chex Muddy Buddies.

Chex Muddy Buddies

For the uninitiated, they are called "Buddies", but don't be fooled.  They are not your friends.  They are like crack, and once you start making them you will keep making them until you are out of ALL the ingredients.  If you run out of only ONE ingredient, you will go out and replace it, and this cycle will continue until finally, mercifully, you are out of all ingredients simultaneously.  Also, I do not stop eating them when I am full.  I do not stop until either a) I am too sick to move or b) I run out of Muddy Buddies.

So, between the Buddies and the late nights I was not at my best for a few days.  My only workout Monday was the full body strength workout I did with my friend Kristin, which I literally yawned all the way through.  Then Tuesday (my day off from work!) I slept in till 7 am, spent hours on the internet, took a nap, made more Muddy Buddies, and did not work out at all!  Fortunately I ran out of Chex that day, and now I am back on track.

Yesterday I did the 25 mile "hilly" ride that used to drive me to tears on a regular basis.  I haven't ridden it in months!  I think February was the last time.  Yesterday I rode it and I did not cry, or even come close to crying!  My mental attitude was great!  I think it was a combination of being in better shape, so it wasn't quite as hard, and being mentally prepared for it to be challenging.  I feel like before I was seriously shocked at how hard it was every time I rode it.  Like I couldn't believe the hill was still that long.  But this time I treated it as the challenge it was and just kept pushing through.

This morning I ran 9 miles to work, which went great; then Kristin, Karin and I went to the gym after work and did our full body strength routine.  I hadn't been in the pool since Sunday, so I did a quick pool workout.  Just 18 minutes of technique drills, just to keep my feel for the water.

That's a good day of workouts!  Makes me want to reward myself...with some Muddy Buddies!

KISS: A footnote about training plans

In my quest to find a training plan I can build on, as I mentioned, I found quite an array of options that were all very different variations of the same basic elements.  What originally drew me to Matt Fitzgerald's plan was the title: SUPER SIMPLE IRONMAN TRAINING PLAN.  He says:

Simplicity is a virtue in Ironman training (and in triathlon training generally) because it minimizes the 
mental stress of the training process and makes it easy to chart and track progress....Naturally, there must be some variation in your Ironman training, but not as much as many athletes might believe.

See, a lot of plans look something like this:

Wednesday

SWIM 1:00

WARM UP

300 Swim, 100 Kick, 200 Pull

Intermediate set:

9 x 50 w/15 sec rest after each -- descend 1-3, 4-6, & 7-9 
(#1, 4, & 7 easy, #2, 5, & 8 medium, #3, 6, & 9 hard)

(ALTERNATE SET: 6 x 50)

MAIN SET -- BIG TARGET!

12 x 100 @race pace (85+%) w/10 sec rest between each

-- keep track of your total time (add up the time for each of the 100's) and record the average pace per 100 in your log book for future reference.

(ALTERNATE SET: 10 x 100)

500 Swim @75% intensity -- this will extend the aerobic activity

(ALTERNATE SET: 200 Swim)

COOL DOWN

4 x 75 easy (60%) w/15 sec recovery after each

BIKE 0:50

12:00 controlled spinning, gradually bringing your HR above 60%, to 70% by the end

3 x 3:00 ILT Set w/30 sec rest

- each repeat should be 6 x (20 sec one leg / 10 sec transition)

(20:00 / 6.2 mi / 10 km) @75% -- continuous aerobic effort

- record your time & average pulse for future reference

continue spinning @70-75%, gradually bringing your HR under 60% by the end

DAILY TOTAL: 1:50

(See those underlined links in blue?  Those are terms you have to look up in a training glossary!!)

Ummm...yeah...I don't think so!  Isn't it enough to get out there and run or bike or swim or lift weights for 2 or more hours every day without also spending an hour just trying to figure out what the hell your training schedule means?!  I would have to amend the above DAILY TOTAL to: 

DAILY TOTAL:

TRAINING: 1:50

LOOKING THINGS UP IN TRAINING GLOSSARY: 0:45

Matt Fitzgerald's schedule looks more like this:

Tempo Bike: 45 min. w/ 

last 15 min. comfortably hard

Interval Swim: MS: 10 x 

50m (1,500m total)

Which one would you choose??  I will stick with the KISS (Keep It Simple Slowpoke) method, thank you very much!  It is easy to increase the speed, number of intervals, or total duration of workouts without getting complicated.  Someone following the first plan may be faster come race day, but more likely they will just be more confused and stressed out for the 20 weeks before race day!

The best laid plans...

 WARNING: The following blog post is filled with a lot of training jargon and detail.

         

My "official" Ironman training plan starts in 6 days.  What this means is that I will go from my current training regimen of building general fitness and skills in swimming, biking and running to a much more structured program, where I do specific things on specific days and consistently build up the intensity and duration of my workouts with the goal of reaching my peak conditioning just in time for my Ironman.  I have been researching and eagerly anticipating this next phase since the beginning of my training.

The only problem is...I don't actually have a real training plan.  See, I thought I had one.  I found what seemed like a perfect plan from a triathlete writer/coach/nutritionist who I have come to trust and admire named Matt Fitzgerald.   But then I read the book Be Iron Fit, which included several training plans, which were very different from Fitzgerald's.  So I looked up a couple of other popular plans, and I noticed several key differences.

Fitzgerald's plan is much lower in volume than the others.  Meaning, it calls for far less time spent training each week.  Yet it doesn't include more intensity than the others.  As I have discussed before, there are generally 2 camps in endurance training, the high volume camp and the high intensity camp.  High volume takes a lot of time but is done at easier paces.  High intensity saves time but requires faster/harder efforts more often.  The camp that NO ONE seems to be in is the low volume, low intensity camp.  Presumably because this camp would be full of people who cannot go fast or far.

It also concerns me that Fitzgerald's plan is almost completely lacking BRICK workouts.  A BRICK is a complete bike workout followed immediately by a complete run workout (eg. 50 mile ride followed by 10 mile run).  BRICK workouts tend to be the key workout in most triathlon training plans.  Instead he has a lot of transition workouts, which include a short (15-20 min.) run after long rides.  These get your body used to running right off the bike, which is obviously extremely important, but they don't really prepare your body to keep running after the first couple miles off the bike.  And my body needs to go for 26.2 MILES off the bike, so it's kinda important.

The problem with some of the higher volume plans is that they are measured in time rather than distance.  So there are a couple more camps for ya: The time camp vs. the distance camp.  I personally prefer to measure my training in distance.  I get why the time camp is appealing, but for me, and many others, the bottom line is that races are measured in distance.  I don't get to stop running the Ironman when I hit that 13 hour mark.  And for someone like me (ie. slow) I fear training by time would leave me very short of the finish line!

To help clear up these discrepancies I checked out yet another training plan on trifuel.com.  This training plan called for 14 hours a week of training at 20 weeks prior to the race!  Most of the other plans called for 8-11 hours a week!  (Fitzgerald's plan starts at more like 6-7 hours a week!)  So what is up with that?!

Of course, I always expected to tweak any plan to fit my specific needs.  Everyone does.  Everyone is different so training needs are highly individual.  This is what many fortunate people have a coach for.  And if I had any disposable income I too might have a coach.  Then again, I might not.  I like the challenge of figuring it out myself.  Plus I am not a big fan of someone telling me what to do.

Anyway, every plan needs to be adjusted for the individual.  For example, I probably put more emphasis on strength training than many beginner Ironmen.  Some people make an effort to squeeze it into their jam packed swim bike run schedule, but I actually prioritize it above some of those workouts.  For me, I firmly believe that the strength training I do (particularly plyometric workouts, which build strength and power while getting your heart rate up) is as important to my running performance as actually running, so I cut down or replace some running workouts with that.  Also, it is important to train to your weakness, so of the 3 disciplines, I personally need to really prioritize bike workouts.  (If you are weak in all 3 sports, you should train for the weakest.)

The point is, I was prepared to create my own plan based on the blueprint of existing plans, but I guess I hadn't realized there was such a disparity between plans.  The good news is, after all of my reading and training thus far, I pretty much know what is important to me in a plan.  So I will likely take the general structure of Fitzgerald's plan and add the things I need, like a little more volume and the all-important BRICKS.

And all that fun and excitement begins July 1st!

Scottsdale Beat the Heat Race

Kristin, Karin and I before the race.  Ironically
an ambulance company was the main sponsor!

It was 104 degrees when the race started.  The race was planned for the Saturday before the hottest day on record in Phoenix, when it reached 122 degrees at 2:47 pm.  Considering this, we felt pretty lucky that it was only 104!  It was such a dry heat that I didn't even sweat!  For 3 miles!  And I didn't see many others sweating either.  More specifically, people's clothes were wet with sweat, but the dry air evaporated the sweat from bare skin so quickly that no one seemed to be perspiring at all!

I ran the 5k with Karin and a few other friends (including my gym buddy Kristin), while 2 of our other friends ran the 11k!  All the runners started together, then the 5k runners turned off near the 2 mile mark.  When we reached that turn, I was extremely glad I was only doing the 5k!  The weird thing was the heat didn't really seem to bother us until well into the race.  It probably helps that we work outside in this heat every day.  I only really started to feel it around 2.5 miles, and then only because I could tell my lungs were working harder than usual.  (Apparently running in extreme heat or humidity is similar to running at altitude in terms of physiological adaptations.  Meaning: it's harder to breathe!)

We worked from 5:30 am till noon, then headed to the race.  We made sure to be very diligent about hydrating throughout the day.

I finished in 28:29, which I was very happy with.  I had no idea how to pace myself in that kind of heat, so I was careful not to push too hard in the beginning.  Karin had to walk a good portion of it because she is still recovering from a achilles strain (safety first!), and I know forcing herself to walk was hard on both her patience and her pride!  At the end of it all was this:

4-story water slide!

We went down the slide, which felt fantastic, then we went home and ate a whole pizza between the 2 of us! Then we staggered to bed at 7:45 pm (!) and were fast asleep by 8.  I felt great during and after the race, but I guess exercising in that heat takes more out of you than you realize!

Back in training

I got back from vacation on Tuesday night, but today was my first day back to training.  I did an hour on the bike trainer and 40 minutes in the pool.  Shortly before I went on vacation I discovered the motivational value of watching cycling while I was riding on the trainer, so I set up the DVR before I left and came home to this:

That's right; hours and hours of motivational programming to watch while I pedal my heart out on the trainer! Tonight I watched the women's triathlon world series in Auckland, New Zealand.

In between my bike and my swim I went for a 1.25 mile run with Karin.  It was 4:30 pm and 106 degrees.  We did this for only one reason: to get a taste of what we are in for tomorrow, when we will be participating in a 5k called Scottsdale Beat The Heat, which takes place at 2:47 pm.  It should be around 105 degrees.  This is what runners in Phoenix do for fun during the summer months...apparently.

I am currently reading a book called Be Iron Fit.  It is a general guide to Ironman training and racing, including several training plans.  It occurred to me about half way through that I should have read this book 6 months ago!  For instance, while reading about the marathon portion of the race it suddenly became clear to me that all that hemming and hawing and deliberating I did back in December about running a marathon in Ironman training was completely irrelevant.  It is now obvious that the training for and running of the Lost Dutchman Marathon was well outside the actual Ironman training period (the longest training plan I have come across is 36 weeks, and most are between 26-30), so it was really never an issue.  I could have trained for it like a regular marathon, ran it, recovered, then started Ironman training.  Oh well.  This whole Ironman thing is nothing if not a learning process!

Well I am back from my tropical vacation and I am ready to train!  Little Corn Island in Nicaragua was fantastic!  There was quite a bit of rain, but it did not stop me from scuba diving, swimming, running and doing a little yoga!  It did, however, keep me from spending as much time as I had hoped here:

Despite a fairly active vacation I did gain a few pounds, and I suspect the culprit may be:

Too much beer :(

I got in 4 runs, all over the island, which were a huge highlight of my days.  There are few things I love more than a good run, followed by a great breakfast (cooked for me and served to me!) like a giant cinnamon coconut pancake or eggs Benedict!

These are some of the running paths I explored on Little Corn.





I also got in a few swim workouts.  The side of the island we stayed on was the windy side, which was great for cooling island breezes, especially for sleeping, but not so great for swimming.  But the other side (near our dive shop) was great for swimming.  Sometimes I used buoys or boats as markers to do intervals.

The red line illustrates my "laps" between boats.

I also did 2 yoga classes.

Awesome yoga studio! Screened in, on stilts, tucked back in a jungle setting!  Not so awesome: My yoga skills!




Both classes convinced me that I have a) basically NO flexibility and b) a lot less strength than I thought.  I really only ever do yoga on vacation, and I intended to incorporate it into my Ironman training for flexibility, strength and injury prevention, but have not yet managed to do so.  Also, I NEVER stretch, which is a pretty big sin and a recipe for disaster.  Two difficult yoga sessions immediately convinced me that stretching and flexibility training are not optional and must begin immediately!

My days on little corn followed a general pattern.

I always got up around 7 am.  We usually went to bed no later than 9 pm, but often stayed up reading till 10 (!).  "Nightlife" was nowhere on our list of priorities!  As I said at one point in the trip, as we strolled to our cabins shortly after dinner, "All of my favorite things happen before 9 pm."

On days when we were scuba diving at 9 am I had coffee before, then we had breakfast or lunch afterwards.  But the days when we didn't dive till 11:30 am were the best, because I could go for a run, then have coffee and a delicious breakfast, then read in a hammock, then go diving.

Eating was a huge highlight of the trip.  I am very glad we all seemed in agreement about this!  I am sure everyone got sick of hearing me discuss my breakfast plans, which I did several times a day!  I love breakfast!  And I love it even more when I get TWO breakfasts!  Like coffee and a giant cookie before a dive and then eggs and toast after a dive!  Every night I excitedly discussed my planned menu choice for the next day's breakfast.  No, seriously, every night.  And more than once throughout the day.  It would not be incorrect to say breakfast was one of the best parts of the vacation!  One of the last things I said as we prepared to board the little boat to go back to Big Corn island to catch our flight (before anyone was open for breakfast!) was, "I am so sad I don't get another coconut cinnamon pancake."

After diving we would have lunch, then read in chairs or hammocks (weather-dependent).  Some days I would go for a swim or an afternoon run.  Sometimes we played games.  Karin and I got massages.

That was it.  Eat. Dive. Exercise. Eat. Read. Relax. Eat. Sleep.  That is life on Little Corn.

Boat from Little Corn to Big Corn

The plane from Big Corn to Managua

This is where we spent sunny days

Our dive shop

This is where we spent rainy days

Off the grid till June 19th!

Toes painted...

Bag packed...

Off to Nicaragua!  Off the grid for 10 days, so expect to be bombarded by pictures and vacation/training reports when I return!!

Leaving on vacation in 2 hours; just checked mail for last time...
Yay my magazines made it JUST IN TIME for flights and airports!!

Vacation!

When I am not running, swimming, scuba diving or yoga-ing I will be HERE.

In four days I am leaving for a 12 day vacation to Little Corn Island in Nicaragua.  Little Corn is a tiny island in the Caribbean that you can only reach by water taxi from Big Corn Island, which you reach by a tiny plane.  We are going primarily for scuba diving, but it is also a great place to just relax.  It is fairly undeveloped, with electricity available about 5 hours a day, I think.  There are no vehicles; just dirt paths to link the various beaches, restaurants and dive shops.

So I will not be on my bike for at least 12 days.  That is a big deal for someone in Ironman training!

However, I will have plenty of opportunities for running:

and even better, endless opportunities for open water swimming:

I just downloaded a bunch of books on my kindle for the trip, among them several "beach reads"...but also the book "Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance."  Even on a Caribbean island, Ironman is never out of mind!  In fact, it was on a dive trip to Fiji last year that I read [Ironman World Champion] Chrissie Wellington's memoir, "A Life Without Limits" and first became intrigued by this whole Ironman thing.  By the end of that trip I had downloaded and read 3 more books about Ironman!  Within a few days of returning home I got a gym membership to have pool access for training.

Anyway, though I will be training on vacation, I plan to seriously relax and enjoy the low-key island life.

And then, shortly after I get back to real life...JULY 1ST my REAL training begins!!!

THE PERFECT WEEK!

Got on the trainer and looked through the TV on-screen guide and guess what was on??
Professional cycling!  It was awesome to watch a bike race while I was riding to nowhere!
It was very motivating.  (But I do wonder, aside from cyclists on indoor trainers--WHO watches pro cycling?!)

Well, I finally did it.  I finally had...A PERFECT TRAINING WEEK!  Actually it was just an all-around perfect week.  I had 2 days of quality time with Karin, including a very successful home improvement project; I worked 48 hours at the airport; I got in all of my training workouts--a total of about 10 1/2 hours of training; and I even managed to buy and prepare healthy food for most of the week and clean the bathroom!  Boy am I tired!

Karin and I had a great couple of days of quality time, painting our counters and hanging out, at which time I informed her to enjoy those 2 days because she pretty much wouldn't see me again for the rest of the week.

Yesterday Morning I was missing one workout in each discipline to complete my "perfect week" of training.  I generally do 2 sports a day in training, but on Monday I only did my long swim and a very minimal strength circuit, which put me a little behind.  But I was so close to a perfect week; so yesterday I did...EVERYTHING.  I did a full-body strength session, a run, a swim and a bike!  When all was said and done my week looked like this:

MONDAY: 47 minute swim
                  10 minute (kettlebell) strength circuit
TUESDAY: 30 min. swim
                  1 hr 10 min trainer ride (with intervals)
WEDNESDAY: 9 mile run
THURSDAY: 45 min. Full-body strength session
                     25 min. swim
                     45 min. trainer ride
FRIDAY: 36 mile ride
                 2 mile transition run
SATURDAY: "Rest Day" (aka 16 hour workday)
SUNDAY: 45 min. full-body strength session
                30 min. run (w/ intervals)
                17 minute swim (drills/technique focused)
                30 minute trainer ride

Total workouts: SWIM  4
                        BIKE   4
                        RUN   2.5 (I count short transition runs as 0,5)
                        STRENGTH  2.5 (10 min circuit=0.5)

Total workout hours:  10.5

That is what a "perfect" week looks like.  It has not happened before and it will likely not happen again.  Because I am so tired!  I was barely functional on my 16 hour workshift.  I averaged 5-6 hours of sleep a night.  So although there will hopefully be many more perfect training weeks in my future, I doubt there will be another one during which I work and train and home improve so much in one week!

One thing I absolutely did not accomplish this week was laundry.  I did not wash a single scrap of clothing (except for hand washing my swimsuits), and yet my many work uniforms and workout clothes continued to appear, clean and ready for their next use!  Thank goodness I have Karin!!!!

Guess who likes cycling?!

Something strange and wonderful has happened.  Suddenly I can't wait for my next long bike ride!  I know...I am as shocked as you!  On Friday I did a 36 mile ride on the same bike path as the week before.  It was 3 pm on a weekday (and about 102 degrees) so there was virtually no one out there.  It felt almost like a private bike path.  Although I know it is probably not the most effective route for training because of all the turns and other people on the path, I love that it is 36 miles completely away from traffic.  From the moment I get on my bike to the moment I get off I never ride on a road with cars.  This makes it possible to relax and enjoy the ride from the very first pedal stroke, rather than have to suffer through traffic for the first 7-12 miles before I can relax and really focus.

I also discovered on my last ride that the path is not as much of a speed limiter as I thought.  It turns out that the major speed limiter is, in fact, ME.  I was riding along the other day, just really enjoying myself, and I looked down at my speedometer and saw that I was going 13.8 miles an hour!  Oops!  Talk about a leisurely ride.  That speed won't even get me through the Ironman bike portion under the cutoff time!  I wondered why I was such a slow rider; then suddenly I thought: well, I'm not actually putting any effort into it at all!  Sure I was moving, but I wasn't really trying.  So I decided to actually pedal harder.  And Voila!  Suddenly I was going faster!  So for the second half of the ride I made sure not to let my speed drop below 15 mph (except for turns and street crossings of course).

I think my excitement for my next ride comes from a) a truly enjoyable bike path away from traffic and b) the realization that I can and should be working harder, and now I want to see what I can really do.

I also noticed a whole new level of comfort and handling on the bike.  Surely it is from repeated long rides, but I also think the fear and anxiety from my crash is finally starting to subside.  I assume that is how it is with most crashes: afterwards there is a lot of fear, but as you log more miles without incident the fear is no longer in the forefront of your mind.

One of the great things about this bike path is that it is only a few miles from work, so I just put my bike in my car and go straight from work.  Unfortunately, I know my days of long rides after work are numbered, as it is already well over 100 degrees these days, and a 40-50 mile ride in the beating sun at the hottest part of the day in these temps is not very smart.  I have done my work commute in the middle of 115 degree days plenty of times, but that is only 11 miles; a whole different story.  When I am riding the temperature feels fine because I make my own breeze, but as soon as I stop moving it is like I stepped into an oven!  Also there is the simple equation of an 8 hour work shift loading bags and cargo in 110+ degrees followed immediately by a 40+ mile ride in the same hot temperature.  By the end of my ride I feel so disgusting!  By that point it is the culmination of over 11 hours of physical activity combined with sweat, dirt and multiple applications of sunscreen on top of the sweat and dirt.

As the days continue to get hotter I will have to adjust my routine accordingly.  As for now though...I CAN'T WAIT FOR MY NEXT RIDE!!!