Week 24: R-E-C-O-V-E-R-Y!

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Recovery week couldn't have come soon enough! 160 miles and over 9,000 feet of climbing over 2 days really wore me out. I had to really push myself to find the motivation to show up for my swim workout on Monday. The factor that finally pushed me to go was that Coach Nancy had set up a post workout dinner with the few of us that swim in Pleasanton. Yes, food is a strong motivator in my life. When I arrived at the pool I was already planning in my head that I was going to take it easy. It was a beautiful sunny day and this always bring the masses to the pool, so the lanes were awfully crowded. Nancy and Skip managed to kick people out of their lane and recruit Nick, Mike, and me to join them. So I'm in a lane with 3 (guy) teammates and a coach. Of the group, I was the only one that had done back to back centuries that weekend (100 mi/100k). My plan of "taking it easy" just went out the door. We all had to do the same workout and time it just right so that Skip and Nick would only have to lap Nancy, Mike, and me once per set. I kept up, but I was absolutely wasted. I must have been a good sport, because they let me pick the dinner place. I love eating with my teammates, it's like being in the Klump family (The Nutty Professor), only we're not grossly obese, we just eat like we are.

On Saturday, I met up Team Shadow, the best Tri Club on the planet, for a leisurely 30 miles in the Oakland hills. Hills never feel leisurely, but nonetheless, I appreciated the quality time with good folks.

On Sunday, I skipped the coached workout at Aquatic Park and instead played hooky with my East Bay teammates at Shadowcliffs. Lucky for me, the Orca Swim Club guy was there and offered to test anyone that that wanted to swim outside of the swim lanes (you have to have a permit). Unfortunately, this test had to be done without a wetsuit. What?! Jess assured me that the water was warm enough, but as I crept into the reservoir in just my bathing suit, I was mumbling all sorts of swear words. The test was really easy, swim down and back. I passed with flying colors. I then promptly put my wetsuit on, thanked the test guy for my new Orca swim cap, and jumped in the water to swim the perimeter of the lake. I really liked this swim and am thinking about making it my Friday night ritual, we'll see.

Condition: Enjoying the recovery

Week 23: Focus Week - Biking

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What an amazing week! On Friday night, I tried to get to bed early, but I had a lot of anxiety about the big day ahead. I would be riding the Tierra Bella Century (100 mile) Bike Ride. Up until this point, the farthest I've ever ridden my bike was 60 miles. I was so restless on Friday night, that I overslept on Saturday morning. Luckily, Tony, my carpool buddy, also overslept so I didn't miss my ride. Tony and I missed the team roll out by at least 30 minutes. We drove past our teammates who were already out on the course as we headed to the bike start.

It's not a race though, it's just a ride. I was able to keep up with Tony for the first 20 miles, but it just became too much work. I let him go. I caught up to him around mile 30. He was on the side of the road with a flat. I hung around and watched him effortlessly change his tire and thought about how bad I suck at changing flats. Once we got rolling, I eventually fell back again. Around mile 40, the mountain climbing began. Apparently I had no idea what I was in for with this ride. I must not have been paying attention when Coach Dave said this ride has 6,180 ft of climbing (!) The 3,312 foot climb to Henry Coe was so friggin' hard! I had to get off my bike twice. My heart rate was too high and my bike was going so slow that I was at risk of just falling over. I caught up to my teammate, Belinda, at the very steepest point. She and I were swearing like sailors all the way to the top. We were eventually rewarded with the 50 mile rest stop where we met up with the some of our teammates and waited for the rest of Ironteam.

What goes up must come down. And as you can see from the elevation chart above, we came down fast. Since I apparently wasn't listening when the coach described this course and never checked the elevation chart, I had no idea we still had another 1,184 feet of climbing starting around mile 70. So my downhill relief was quickly met with my uphill despair. I was spent on this hill that I wondered if I was hallucinating when I saw a zebra grazing with ponies. Either it was real or Coach Dave was tripping too. He claims to have a picture of it.

The last 20 miles of the ride were awesome. It started with a thrilling downhill and then put us on the flats. Coach Dave and Tony allowed me to draft off of them for the last 15 miles or so. Drafting is when you ride directly behind the rider in front of you (inches between their back wheel and your front wheel), it somehow creates a pocket of lessened resistance, you can conserve over 30% of your energy by doing this. This is ILLEGAL when racing triathlons but it's fair game in a headwind at the end of a 100 mile bike ride. Once we turned onto the last stretch of highway, we were treated to a tailwind! We were hauling 28 miles per hour on the flats. At the last 5 miles, Coach Dave said we had 2 more small bumps to get over and then we were home free. I gave everything I had to stay on his wheel over the first "bump" and when we reached the top, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on for another hill. Tony was feeling the burn as well. Then Coach Dave yelled back that he was mistaken, that was the last of the hills. Woohoo!! Shortly after we pulled into the finish, racked our bikes, and I had completed my first 100 mile bike ride. It was amazing, I felt like a rock star. I checked my Garmin, I burned over 5,699 calories - time to eat!

Eating turned out to be a problem, at first I was ready to stuff my face with whatever was put in front of me, but a wave of nausea put that on hold. It was important that I eat for recovery because the next day I had the Primavera Metric (60 mile) Ride to do. I was eventually able to eat a vegetarian Ethiopian plate, I figured the protein packed lentils would help me get the nutrition I needed. I took an ice bath that night and propped my legs up on pillows while I slept.

Sunday morning came too quickly. My wonderful fiance woke up early with me and made me a bacon and egg breakfast. I drove down to Union City and showed up at registration 30 minutes late (are you seeing a pattern here?) Once again, I really had no idea what I was in for with this ride. As you can see from the map above, there were lots of hills, 3,786 feet of them. I got through the ride and at the end of the day, I felt like a rock star.

Lessons:

• Don't forget to bring a recovery drink. Fill it with ice cubes so it's not warm hours later.
• I had a really low heart rate on Sunday. This is an indicator that I'm fatigued...duh!
• Next time I need to bring my running shoes and do a short jog after riding 100 miles. This will be a hint of what race day will feel like.
• Electrolyte pills work.
• Careful what you eat. Stick to salty stay away from sweet.
• Ride at your own pace.
• Ice bath and elevate the legs

Condition: Stick a fork in me...I'm done!

Week 22: Focus Week - Swimming

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The Run focus week wore me out, so I had a hard time getting into the Swim focus week. On Tuesday, I reluctantly showed up to the pool. In my mind I was talking myself out of doing the entire workout because I was just so exhausted. Just when I had make up my mind that I would skip the marker set, who walks out onto the pool deck? Coach Nancy and her husband Skip. I guess that was the sign I needed to commit to the workout. I ended up doing the entire workout including the marker set, in which I swam 1,850 yards in 30 minutes. That was enough to give me the momentum I needed to do the rest of the week's workouts.

On Saturday, we swam for an hour in Lake Del Valle. The water was much warmer than the last time we swam there, so it was acutally an enjoyable hour. I was thrown off my rhythem when I t-boned a kayak. Yup, I swam right into the side of a kayaker. It was actually he who crossed into my line. Other than that, it was smooth swimming. After our dip in the lake, we headed out on the trails for an 8 mile run.

Condition: Feeling good in the water

Week 21: Focus Week - Running

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This was the first of 3 Focus Weeks. The series started with running, the discipline of which I need the most improvement. The training calendar had us doing a few back to back running days. On Wednesday, I met up for a captain's run at Heather Farms. After our 80 minute run, there were lots of groans. It was actually pretty funny. Here we are endurance athletes training for one of the most difficult races to exist and if you make us run 2 days in a row we start to whimper. Our bodies are just so used to recovering one group of muscles by working out another, so a week of running feels like a huge effort.

Saturday's workout in Novato was great. We started with one hour of Triathlon University. The topic, "What keeps you up at night?" It was a great way for us all to air out our anxieties and worries. The overall message here was maintain your commitment, listen to you body, and take it one day at a time. Easy enough. We had a 2 hour pool workout, in which we had a 500 meter marker set. I swam my 500 meters in 7 minutes and 17 seconds, which I thought was pretty good. I later learned that my teammate Skip had done it in 4 minutes and 54 seconds. What!? Turns out, he swam in the Olympic trials in 1980, but never realized the dream due to the U.S. choosing not to participate in the Moscow Olympics. Ok, I guess don't mind getting blown away by an almost Olympian. After that we had a 90 minute trail run on a looped course. I have to be honest, parts of this run really sucked. There were two long inclines that were so steep, my feet were slipping down as I hiked up them. The good part was reaching the top, where there were the most beautiful mounds of wildflowers, trees, another ridge, and a spectacular view of the bay. Then another sucky part - the downhill was so steep I almost slipped down it while walking. So it had it's ups and downs, literally.

On Sunday, I participated in the second annual Rhodes Race. This is a fun run put on my friends Matt & Claire. They raised over $5K for LLS and had 164 runners participate, by far the most successful fundraiser I have ever seen. Your registration fee was a donation and it was done on a sliding scale, for $50 you got a 30 second head start, for $100 you got a 60 second head start, and for $1,000 you won! I couldn't resist, so I bought a 30 second head start (pictured above). Unfortunatly, my advantage ended quickly when Dennis, Christian Kierney (the winner), Corey, and a blur of other fast runners blew past me within 45 seconds of my start. It was a beautiful day for a run around the lake and so many of my TNT friends were there. Thanks Matt & Claire for putting on such a fun event :)

Condition: Happy to move on to my swim focus week