The last looooooong ride

BIKE 7hrs and 115 miles

For the last long ride, the goal was a steady long ride that was for "time in the saddle". It was time in the saddle, that's for sure. But geez was I even moving?!?

I also wanted to get away from the usual Columbia route and ride with other riders. The race ride will have roads and riders I am unfamiliar with, so I should be training with them, right? So for this, I luckily found the TN 66 ride and DC joined in. The routes included a 70 and 40, it sounded like a somewhat good idea to do both. Once I arrived at the site, I realized that I have done this ride before (2009?). And once I got on the roads, I realized why I wasn't excited about coming back after doing it before.

The weather and day was great, sunny with a bit of wind out of the SE. Frea had brand new C4000 tires with a bright blue color that I didn't like at first but I thought rather sharp now. (I put the tires on Weds before dropping off the bike for a pre-race, and when I picked u the bike Friday I asked about the missing direction arrow the previous tires had. I told the LBS guy I didn't want to go backwards on the course. He didn't quite get me at first, IronHumor!!) The ride started going north so we had a tailwind. The first 20 miles passed fast in just over an hour. From this point the routes split, and suddenly we were alone on the long route. We rode west, then we rode south. Right into the wind. For a loooong way.

DC rode ahead which was kinda the plan. I can't train LSD at his pace, and there's not benefit for him to slow down for me. But I was dragging more slow than usual, and my HR was higher than I thought it should be. But I chalked it up to fatigue and long hours and wind.

The roads I was unhappy with were long stretches along a highway. There was a great shoulder, but it's still un-nerving to have cars coming up behind you so fast. Suddenly the familiar Columbia roads weren't so bad! But I kept plugging along, happy to be going my pace and keeping the focus within me. Nutrition was a little less than last weeks since the pace was easier--200 calories of InfinIT'/hr and one half a Powerbar/hour. This worked for the first 5 hours anyway.

We didn't stop much, only at 20 and 57. Near the end, DC said he's doing just the 70 loop. He still had a long run this weekend. Ohhh it sounded so tempting to stop...but I didn't really want to...but I didn't want to go back out on these highways...so what to do...what to do...  The MCTs!! Of course! The 70 route crossed on and off them, so they were nearby. Yay! I left DC and took off before realizing I needed more water. Brief stop at the Shell, then back out. By now it was 4.5 hrs in. And I was starting to drag...watching the garmin slowly climb up in the numbers.

It was around this point that I realized that my rear brake was dragging! Frea was picked up just yesterday for the pre-race check and I knew the brakes were adjusted to be just a hairs-width from the rims, but I'd check pre-ride to be sure they werent' touching. How long was it doing that?!?  Is that why I felt so slow, high HR, and overworked for the first 70 miles? Or was it headwind and fatigue?!

Out and back on Goshen/watershed, then down goshen to schoolhouse, marking the turn points so I could return to the truck at 7hrs and not before or after. Time passed slowly, and around 5.5 hrs I was craving more food. I changed the feeding schedule to 45 then to 30-35 mins to accommodate. Hydration was OK, it wasn't that terribly hot out,but I was both hungry and nauseated at the same time. At 6hrs I hit 100 miles. Is that all!?!?

Shortly after 6hrs, I stopped briefly to eat a caffeinated gel. The strawberry perpetuem flask I had was the most unappetizing thing, the powerbars were pretty much gone. And I had only one caffeinated gel in a set of 3. Nuts! I need to think this through more, I made a similar mistake on the IB last weekend.

My feet were starting to burn, but butt starting to get uncomfy, but otherwise I was feeling OK. Aside from a nearly extreme fatigue. I wasn't ready to quit, but I was ready to be done. Finally I got back to the final turn off to E-ville. And after a few extra minutes out n back to  round up the number...and FINALLY back to the truck! Yay! The longest ride was DONE!

I wanted to keep going for a few reasons. I knew it would suck, and I wanted to Embrace The Suck, as a fellow CdA blogger has said. I also wanted this under my belt, having announced to everyone that I was doing it was also a good push to do it. :)

I'm shocked at how slow the last hour was --15 miles only on a flat trail with the most favorable headwind in the last 45 miles!??  OK, OK, it was for time and not distance, but still!!

After the ride I was completely wiped and ended up crashed on the couch, feet up and unable to focus to read an ultrarunning book DH picked up for me at the library.

Now for the last long swim and run!

Forced swim

SWIM 60 mins and 2500y MS of 10x150 at 75-80%, alternated swim and pull

Here we go again. I’m tired. Again. What’s new, right?

I haven’t been in the pool since last Saturday’s long swim, and here it is Friday. Needless to say my GTD challenge mileage is behind (by 2 miles at the end of today’s swim) and I still have about 13-15 miles to go if I’m going to hit 100miles by the end of June. A safer gamble is to shoot for 100 miles in IM CdA cuz we all know I’m not going to be swimming all that much in recovery week…

Precisely, I’m at 85.86 miles right now. There are 15days plus some hours until IM. That’s about a mile a day. I’ll need to be at 97.6 – 98 miles in 15 days, which works out to 12.2 miles to go before IM in 15 days or 2 weeks, which is 6.1 miles a week…which is just under 11K yards a week. I plan to swim a 4K this Sunday…which reduced the goal to only 8.7K per week…UGH…why am I so focused on that?

I guess my point was that I didn’t swim much this past week! When I’m tired, swimming is usually the last thing I want to do. Drag myself to a pool, pay $6-9 for a swim, get in cold water, and go back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth…  On top of that, it takes a lot of focus for me to swim properly. Form goes first for me (I’ve got the endurance thing nailed) and when form goes my speed drops off and I just get frustrated.

So it went today, without the frustration. On my 14^th and last YMCA punch pass, I forced myself into the water late in the morning (about 830am!) and randomly picked a workout from the card stack. Thankfully it was a short interval main set, those help with the focus. At first my mind said “2500 is so short” but right after it said “10x150 is long!”. Whiner. HTFU.

I was in a good mood, but not in good form. My right arm was obviously sweeping poorly and my left shoulder/arm was dragging more than usual. On the plus side, I did a 2x25 swim in which I did alternate side breathing just fine! When I tried it again later, it wasn’t quite so fine.

I’m back in the fatigue zone of “I shouldn’t even be driving”. My focus and motivation are really low. I just want to sleep, but it doesn’t come easy for me.

And I have a 6-7hr ride planned for tomorrow…

Fartleks are much harder than LSD!

RUN 6.5mi in 58 mins, 1.5 min fartleks with 3 min recovery

Yesterday’s 17 miler was refreshing and I didn’t even feel tired from it. That just goes to show how nice a low HR workout can be for your body. We’re about to learn about how a high HR workout can be bad for it.

The goal for today was long fartleks, and tracking HR peaks and valleys as the intervals add up. CP said my HR will increase over time. Instead I found that my RPR increased over time, and less so my HR or pace.

I ran the first 2 miles with the group. I looked down at the end of the 2 miles and saw that the pace was below 8:30. My HR was high. Time to drop off! I’d rather run with them, but I needed to do this workout.

It wasn’t just the RPE that changed, my form suffered too. They go hand in hand, I’m sure. It felt like once my body recovered, it just didn’t want to run efficiently again. I think part of the motivation behind this workout was to see what happens when the HR goes up in race, down too far, back up again, etc. I was asking about walking in a race to lower HR and this was part of the reply.

My HR for the intervals was mostly in the low 160s, and for the recovery in the low 130s. The goal for IM is to keep it in the low to mid 130s, so no fartleks for me in IM CdA!

This workout wiped me out. I was thoroughly fatigued, and needed a nap my 10am. I tried to get some rest in the middle of the day but ended up just lying there and not really napping. When I got home—same result. Unrestful napping. Overnight…same thing. Unrestful sleep. It’s adding up—all these hours of training—but it will soon be over and well worth the time put in J

SLEazy Mouse Long Run

RUN 17 miles in 2:44. Last mile in 7:57!

I’ve had some discontent lately with my training plan, I’ve felt like I’m just doing workouts do be doing workouts without really knowing the how and why behind them. As a scientist, I like to test things. And as an athlete, I like to test on me! So like a mouse, here I am!

So when I met with CP last night to discuss the problems in run pace I discovered at Sunday’s IB session, it was with the hope that I could not only gain insight into my big race but also learn more about how to leverage my final two long runs as simulations to remedy the problems.

I was pleasantly pleased. I was reminded about the triangle of HR to pace to RPE, and how they interact. How HR can go up in dehydration, and down in low nutrition. So here’s what I’m supposed to be doing this week:

Weds long run (today’s run): 2:30 as Slow, Light, and Easy. Sprightly, even. HR below 138. CP said to be Slow, Light, and Easy while running. The goal here is to learn to pace at a conservative HR for the first 20mi of the IM run, then have energy to burn in the last 10K. Think about the time saved doing 10s faster/mile in the first 18 miles (3 mins) vs 1-2 mins faster/mile in the last 10K (6-12mins).

Thursday fartlek run: 1-2mins of 10K pace, then 2-3 mins of easy. Shoot for a 1:2 ratio on the time. Observe that peaks and valleys of HR in the intervals will coordinately increase as the run progresses.

The Weds run goals were chosen based on previously long runs in which I had HRs of low 130s and low 140s. The low 140s run was last week’s 2hr run, under extreme fatigue and running with the group. So the low 130s number is likely the most accurate read out of my HR on a long run.

The weather today was cool, the sun lovely, the winds light, and overall oh so gorgeous for a testing run. My original goal was to sim brick run nutrition by eating more often, but I changed that to drinking more often instead. I had enough to worry about watching my HR.

The first 2 miles were rough and I didn’t settle in until after they were done. The first loop was boring and broken up by a 4-mile bio break and a few water stops. I saw MW with 3 doggies early on, the PM at the VC later. Caffeinated gel, then loop 2. I was more settled in loop 2 and didn’t stop except for forced water breaks. Saw MK pop out of a trail on the hill! This was fun! Another caffeine gel at the VC then off for the partial 3^rd loop. I hit the VC at 2:07 and 13.1 miles—I was disappointed by this but I was sticking to goal as measured by HR.

I found as I was running that RPE was not a good judge for HR, but maybe breathing is? There are times I feel like I could nose breath or not breath at all while running, HR tends to be 117-125. SLE. Other times I’m breathing harder and the HR is 130s, other times breathing similarly harder and it’s 140+. The only times I saw it over 140 was on hills, and I didn’t see my HR exceed 142. Good!

The final miles felt the easiest, and this was a surprise. Maybe it was the shot of caffeine. But I mentally measured out the turn-around so I’d finish 17 miles near the VC. Then I decided to open it up on the last mile and go as fast as I wanted. Let’s see if this HR stuff really works, and if I can turn it on in the last miles of race day.

I came down the hill under control, and once I hit the flats the beep for 16 miles done sounded. I was off! I promised I wouldn’t look at HR or pace until the 17 mile beep sounded.

I felt fast. I felt tall. I felt light, and clean, and so full of energy! I could feel the fresh gravel slipping back under my feet, the light headwinds, and that beloved feeling of flight. Only in the last hundredth did I yearn to quit. Beeeeep! 7:57 and ave HR of 152!! Well I’ll be damned! Sub-fracking-8!!

I couldn’t maintain that fast pace for a 10K in an IM, but maybe the last 5K? Or a more conservative pace for the 10K?

This run was also notable for the fact that my shoes felt great, my clothing was perfect, my feet didn’t hurt…Gawd I love it!

In summary a 9:44 pace for the entire run, and an ave HR of 130bpm. Well under the 138bpm goal. CP said I should view the 138 not as a goal, but as a ceiling. So now the problem is to find that HR in racing conditions off the bike. I have back-to-back 60x4 bricks but those aren’t until the final pre IM weekend. Wonder if a short brick this weekend would be beneficial to testing? I have a long 120-miler planned this weekend, haha, if there’s any time to test the stress of a long bike on the run HR, this would it? I’ll have to see what the plans are. While today was a great run, I don’t think it simulated the go-go-go feeling I had in Sunday’s session or in racing. 

The IronBrick Workout

BIKE 100 miles in 5:43, ave 17.5mph, 5900 feet climbing. (really? TP.com says 4300...) Ave HR 126bpm
RUN 10 miles in 1:31 for a 9:22 pace

This was a big workout with a lot of goals. Big workouts get long posts :)  Git your pork rinds and pull up a chair...

My plan for this session was a Race Simulation, or a Sim. This will probably be my only race Sim for CDA, not including TTT. That was sort of a Sim, but not quite. The wheels down time was 6am, so I was in bed early after packing and up early to get ready.

Breakfast: banana, cashews, coffee, water, 2 poached eggs, half a lara bar, uh...think that's it. I usually eat too much before a ride. Oh, I also ate my apple/protein powder mixture. Yeah, I tend to eat too much.

Set up and prep was fast and orderly. The bike had 2 powerbars, a gel/perpetuem flask, 3 fluid servings of Infinit, 1 dry serving of Infinit, and 1 extra water bottle. All of this food was consumed on the bike. The weather was surprisingly cool, no wind, nice sunshine. :)  Drastic change from last weekends 90+F weather!

We started at 6:20, I was chomping at the bit and pulled the group out. We went up Cherry and headed to Millstadt on the normal loop. I saw other members of the group on this section only briefly, then it was just and DC. We skipped the Mills stop, although it looked like most of the rest of the group didn't skip it. It was just 10  miles into the ride!!

Off to Waterloo. DC stayed ahead of me 90-some percent of the ride. This was previously agreed on. But he couldn't get too far ahead, I knew the route ;)  He'd check to make sure I rounded a corner or he'd wait while he ate or shuffled water bottles. Super fast stop of ~5mins in Waterloo and off again. I was having some of that race mentality I get, that "distracted how-far-ahead/how-far-behind thinking that messes me up in races. This was worst in the first loop, but I liked it. I don't get this feeling on a group ride and it's exactly what I needed in the Sim today--a dose of that race day feeling. Skipped Valmeyer and headed to the "special needs" stop at the truck. At hr, I hit 53 miles which would make for a 6-6:15 bike split on IM day.

My goal was simple: My Pace, My Speed, My Ride. No Social Time. Race Sim. And this ride was doing just that. I let DC go and didn't push to keep up with him. I thought about cadence, form, comfort. I sipped my Infinit and ate half a Powerbar every 45 mins. My hydration and nutrition were working great, cooler weather helped with this but cooler weather is also expected in CDA.

The second loop was just like the first, with no stops in the 40 miles. My Pace. I took downhills a little faster than normal, hit bumps with confidence, grabbed bottles and ate without stopping. My only discomforts were in the saddle, and really that's almost a given. My arms were OK in aero (and looking back I spend more time than ever in aero in this ride), my left neck/shoulder only started to hurt late in the ride, my feet started to hurt around the 95 mile mark, and I lost a little focus in those last 10 miles on the flats. Caffeine would have been perfect, but for whatever reason I didn't bring a single gel with me! I had the perpetuem/gel flask that was caffeinated but I needed more.

Starting at 15 miles out, I started making the switch to pre-run nutrition. Problem was I had a near-full aerobar bottle of Infinit. I didn't want to stop to dump it, so on the way to B road I would take a mouthfull on Infinit and spit it out. LOL. It took about 10 mouthfulls to empty it. Then I moved water into the aerobottle. By this time I had half a serving of the flask mix left, barely enough to get me to the run.

Regardless, this was my first ever (I think) century in which I rode without continuously stopping or waiting. It was go go go the entire time. ABP if you will. The question I faced during this ride was whether or not this was my IM pace. There was a lot of hills to break up the ride, the usual short and fast found on this route. Nothing too long or sustained. My legs are still recovering from the past few weeks, so I was in granny gear a lot. At the end of the first loop, I  thought I might should slow down in the 2nd one, but I never did. I thought I'd need to hold up to preserve the legs for the run. In the end I did slow down on the flats in the last 10 miles but only 18mph instead of the 19mph I had on the first pass. So did I need to slow down? Nope.

My HR aved 126 and peaked at 152. My TTT Oly #1 had the same average. Many times I'd look down and see the HR in the 130-145 range, but I was only looking down because I knew my HR was too high. I wasn't looking down when I knew it was low. Biased reporting! I'm happy with the HR.

I don't think I could have gone too much faster on this course and still have legs for the run. IMO, this was perfectly executed for today's Sim!
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On to the run!

After a quick T2 (sunscreen, BodyGlide on toes, FuelBelt, rack Frea, visor) we were off. The sun was still out and the heat of the day was building. I didn't stop for a bathroom break, and it turns out I didn't need to. I only had 140 calories of Perform and 1 flask of water. The initial plan was that there would be support on the run, but that's another story...and not for here....

DC said he would start off with me then take off. I encouraged this, I said I had to do this at My Pace. Also, I didn't want this to become a repeat of the injury in March--long run after a long ride on these very same roads. So I wanted to focus on where my feet were going.

The first two miles were the worst for some reason. Likely the bike to run transition. My HR was lowest in these miles though, and much higher in the later ones. We passed some other runners training for IMLP, nice motivation! I love seeing other runners and riders out here, it's like a tri camp on busy days.

I Sim'd my way though water stations, using the Garmin to mark each mile. I'd walk 15 seconds and drink something. I did everything but the cup toss :)

I felt good on the run, but was moving faster than my expected race pace. I deemed that OK, thinking this was a good opportunity to see what it would take to blow me up, to see how fast I could to, and see just what I could do. It was a bit mind-numbing to run on these roads, there wasn't much to look at and it was awful quiet. I was looking forward to seeing our other riders coming up, but didn't see the first ones until mile 4, more at mile 7, and the last after mile 8. So it was lonely. A good mental prep. Just keep going.

At mile 8 I heard a train coming from the right, I thought Oh Shit. Maybe I can beat it? Then I heard a train from the left, I thought Oh F*ck. Nope, can't beat them. So I had a bit of a break. My HR had been increasing since mile 6 and was solidly in the 160s now. Even with the train rest, it didn't come back down! Need to think about that one. DC was long gone by then, but CB said I was nearly catching him as I was just 0.3mi from finish! Turns out DC had only 3 mins on me for the run. Wow! Someday I might just catch him...

The only thing I would change for this was bring more gels. This was a minor oops, I had the calories for a normal stand-alone 10 miler but not a brick 10 miler. They are different! But I was OK. I finished in 1:31 (faster than expected) and recovered pretty fast. I had the "long run cough" for 14 mins or so afterwards. I was able to tolerate water and about 20 mins later some light food.

Overall a good run!

Injuries? They did OK. My left knee was tight near the tape (all applied fresh yesterday) and for the 1st twenty miles I debated removing it for fear it was pulling too much or the wrong way. But it warmed up and did OK. No issues with the ankles, some tightness and pain in the right ankle but that also warmed up. Some pulling on the sole of the left foot that also warmed up. Apparently I just need some time to get moving, then I can assess injuries and pains? The hip issues from Thursday's long run also haunted me a bit on the bike, but not on the run. I could feel the tightness while in aero and I was sure I'd feel it on the run, but no. Maybe I should keep in mind stretching on the bike to keep that loose and evaluated.

Anything to change?
-gels for late bike and for the run
-slow down on the run, keep the HR lower
-...anything else?

Quantity over quality?

SWIM: 4300y in 95 mins. 3x1000 Locos.

I woke up not wanting to swim. I went to the pool not wanting to swim. I warmed up...you get the idea.

The WU was an 800y, with kicking q425y. This made for a nice 75 swim interval and a short interval to rest and think about form. When the WU was done, I still didn't really want to swim.

But the loco is one of my favorite workouts. 25easy/25fast; 50/50; 75/75;100/100; then back down for a 1000y interval. The first one I swam in 20:03, certainly not fast but I wasn't TT'ing either. Especially when half of the swim is "easy". So that was good. The 2nd one I pulled and could feel the off-balancedness of my swim. My right arm is not catching effectively. But I still felt fast(er) and long in the water. 2nd interval in 19:10-ish.

The 3rd one I tacked on just to hit the 4000y distance. I pulled the first half in 9-some odd minutes, dropped the pull buoy for the next few laps until my ankles started talking, then took the buoy back to let them rest. The CD and extra 300 was 50's. The last few I did only to do them. I didn't enjoy them particularly, I just wanted the 2.4 distance. Got it!

2013 Race Options?

It's a rest day. I'm feeling much clearer, but still tired and easily confused. But it's during these times that my thoughts turn to fancy...as in the 2013 and beyond bucket list.

Great Floridian iron race in late October. Birthday iron!!


Vineman in late July.

Survival of the Shawangunks, early September. Total of 30mi bike, 19mi run, and 2.1mi swim. The bike comes first then it's a run-swim-run-swim-etc adventure race!