Do Things!

Wow, it's amazing where life can take you! Two years ago I wouldn't even IMAGINE I'd be getting ready to do my first Half Ironman next month. I'm also just blown away by the great people triathlon has brought into my life, the joy it brings, and the opportunities that present themselves seemingly out of the blue. This has been an amazing two weeks...am I overusing the word amazing? Amazing is a common thread in my blog, is even in the name of my developing website, trimazing.com, and my twitter name (TrimazingCindy), and it truly describes my state of awe!

With ultrarunner Scott Jurek

The day after the Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon I had an opportunity to meet an amazing athlete (this is my celebrity encounter I teased about in my last blog!), Scott Jurek. Scott is a record-holding ultrarunner, in that he runs a minimum of 100 mile events, primarily primitive trails at that. He's also vegan.

I received a Facebook invite from the Herbivore Clothing Company to meet Scott at a reception they were holding for him. It was a great intimate venue, complete with vegan snacks from his new book Eat & Run. When I arrived, there were four of us! How awesome to have one on one time with him to talk and really get to meet him.

My message from Scott Jurek

I hadn't read his book yet, so I got a copy and approached him to sign it for me. Scott was absolutely approachable and down to earth, and not like any celebrated athlete I'd met before...he wanted to talk about me, not himself. Our conversation was him asking about me. We talked about endurance events, running and triathlon, he wanted to know how long I'd been vegan and why, and he was really interested in the fact that I was a firefighter. He asked excitedly, "Do you know Rip?!?" meaning Rip Esselstyn, the vegan Austin (Texas) firefighter who authored The Engine 2 Diet. He was really looking forward to meeting him and then said, "You could totally be the female counterpart to Rip!" Cracked me up!

After searching for the perfect pen, Scott signed my copy of his book, and I love what he wrote--"Do Things Always!!" A theme running through his book is, "Sometimes you just do things," it is his mantra, used to get him through tough times, to pull from deep inside, to take advantage of unexpected opportunities that present themselves, to make hard decisions. Little did I know I would need this just a few days later...

I have been formulating my plan for next year's racing season...yes, already! I had been planning on doing the 2013 World Police and Fire Games in Belfast, Ireland August 2013; everyone around me knew this, I've told everyone I knew, started designing my tri kit for the Olympic distance triathlon I'd be competing in. I'd been tossing around the idea of doing a full distance Ironman too, after seeing how my Vineman 70.3 goes, but had nothing specific in mind--it was kinda on the back burner. Last Friday afternoon, however, threw a monkey wrench (yes, Dad, a left-handed monkey wrench!!) into everything! As many of you know, the World Triathlon Corporation announced Friday the inaugural event of Ironman Tahoe (IMT), September 22, 2013 and that registration would open MONDAY at noon. Wow, did the buzz start immediately!

I felt excited and nauseated simultaneously. What an opportunity, to participate in an inaugural Ironman event. Moreover, it's being held three days after my birthday and would make up for the Irongirl sprint triathlon I had to cancel the day after my 40th birthday last year. It seemed like a sign.

I was at work when I got the notification. I went outside and sat on the bulkhead behind the station in the sunshine to think. My crew came out and inquired what was up and we talked about the pros and cons, my concerns, and they encouraged me to do it. I was still not convinced. Walking back into the station, I decided to do one of my favorite summertime things...sit on the front bumper of the fire engine in the apparatus bay and watch the world go by. As I sat there, I thought about all the tough things I've done...the firefighter recruit academy, starting triathlons, etc and how I overcame challenges, both physical and mental. I kept hearing Scott Jurek say, "Sometimes you just do things." I was worried about the bike...it's a tough hilly course at high elevation; the swim wasn't a worry, and the marathon is an unheard of flat course. Suddenly, in my peripheral vision, a very old Hispanic man appeared, pushing his bicycle up the hill in front of the station. When he was directly in front, he looked over at me, flashed a great big smile and then gave me a thumbs up, pumping his arm in the air as he did it! That's a sign! He got to the edge of the driveway, put down his bike and gestured for me to come over to him. I thought, "Oh my goodness, he looks just like Ketut Liyer, the Balinese Shaman from Eat, Pray, Love (a pivotal book for me)...he has something to tell me, to guide me? He searched though his bags...he couldn't talk. I waited, it had to be a sign. He searched and searched and I patiently waited until he found what he was looking for and thrusted a business card for his landscaping business and pointed at the fire station's front lawn! Boy did I get a huge laugh at myself! But, I still think it was a sign...I was worried about the bike and his appearance was important.


I decided over the weekend, with help from Portland Triathlon Club friends, swimming friends, and Mother Superior, to sign up for Ironman Tahoe, my first full distance Ironman. This decision means postponing the Police and Fire World Games until they come to the US in 2015, but that's ok. I will need to really work on my bike skills, will get a tri-specific bike at the end of this season, and work with my many friends also going to IMT on cycling and do altitude training around the Pacific NW. Mother Superior had the stressful task of registering for me and I'm in! Woo Hoo!


A couple of things to share about the Blue Lake Triathlon two weeks ago...

This  YouTube video came out this week, it's really cool. They had these little remote control helicopters at the event filming everything, so it's a great birds eye view of the course.

And just an image to remember to take in the joy of triathloning...my friend's 10 year old son doing his first triathlon at Blue Lake. What JOY on his face, and it was there for the whole event!

May you continue to be amazed, Do Things, and remember the joy of the event...ALWAYS!

Bound to Happen Eventually...

Well it was bound to happen sometime....a race without a PR. It's not like it's a bad thing though, I learned an enormous amount from my 2012 Vancouver Half Marathon--and I needed this lesson.

I felt so fantastic race morning. Nutrition, check, stretching, check, perfect weather, check. I've been training well, my run in last weekend's Oly tri was strong and a fast pace. I lined up with PTC friend Sherrie at the front of the 8:00-10:00 pace wave and planned to run my race plan to complete a 9:15-9:30 paced half marathon for a 2:01 event time, a PR from last year's 2:13:14.

As the race started, I saw Sherrie in my peripheral vision starting super fast. I thought, "Wow, Sherrie, yikes, you're going really fast!" I made the first turn, keeping up and then looked over to give her a WTF look and saw that it wasn't Sherrie at all, that I'd been paced by some complete stranger in a similarly colored shirt. The start is uphill. I checked my Garmin and saw I was doing a 7:30 pace!! I checked myself, felt fantastic, thought, gosh I should slow down, but thought, hey, money in the bank for later. About 1.5 miles in another runner asked what distance we were at and I told him and noted to myself I was doing an 8:30 but able to talk comfortably with him at that pace, and kept it up...still running uphill.

I ran through water stations, grabbed GUs, felt super. The sun was starting to break through clouds but I felt comfortable. We started up Evergreen with the hill and suddenly my legs were lead. Mile 7, midway up the hill, I started to walk. I felt chilled. I got to the top of hill, started to run, and really couldn't and walked to the top of the final hill. I knew I had a downhill from there to the Vancouver Firefighters' water station at the railroad tracks. Last year I remembered getting a 8:00 mile in that section and looked forward to making up time from my walk. However, when I got to this section, I was lucky to push a 9:30 downhill and knew I'd burned myself out at the first half of the race.

I ran to the big turn at Wintler Park and then walked/ran the rest of the way in...more walking than running. I was concerned that the heaviness sensation in my legs and chills were signs of electrolyte deficiency and dehydration, thinking perhaps I hadn't reloaded properly after my triathlon the weekend before. I decided to double up on Gatorade at all water stations from then on, instead of water. Sherrie caught up with me at mile 10. I decided to use her as a pacer, but honestly couldn't do it. Mentally, this was very hard for me. I was having problems doing my math, kept calculating my distance remaining with 12 mile total distance instead of 13.1, was really struggling. A little later, at mile 11, another runner came up and started asking about the Tri Club due to my tri kit; I started using her as a pacer. She wanted to talk while we were running and I just couldn't keep up with that. I told her, "Hey, I'm going to walk...I tried running someone else's race other than my race plan." I just wanted to finish. I realized I was going to be just over my PR at this point and there was no way to make it up.

I walk/ran the rest and finally ran the last mile into the chute. I came in at 2:19:22...drat.

Final turn to the finish line

Honestly, though, I needed this race, especially before Vineman 70.3. What did I learn?

• Plan your run and Run your plan.

Stick to it. My biggest issue was having a single discipline event. Not having a swim and bike prior to the run, I felt amazing at the start. I was able to run super fast. I had the fastest 5- and 10K ever, but I didn't pace right for the long haul. Plan for a negative split and DO IT. My endorphin rush from great performance from the start lead to racing HUBRIS and I melted my wax wings flying too close to the sun...

• A race is a terrible training run.

I was reading through some blogs about Ironman training (watch for an update as to why in my next blog) and in a particular section about training pitfalls was a note that races are not training runs. The adrenaline from a race event, the music, the people, the rush, will ALWAYS push you to perform at a higher level than you would on a training run of the same distance and course. I recognize this now.

• Rehydrate and reload electrolytes following events, especially if you are stacking events.

Feeling chills during warm weather running is a sign of exhaustion, dehydration, and low electrolyte levels. I actually had a wobble after the turn at Wintler Park, which I knew was electrolyte related. I will remember to push fluids and electrolytes after events from now on to adequately replenish.

Onward and upward and always learning!

Oh! One more lesson learned...ALWAYS print out your registration receipts and take them with you to packet pickup. This is the second event this season where I was not on the registration roster when I came to packet pickup. Had I not had copies of my receipts and registration confirmations, I would have had to pay again to participate in the event. I hope this isn't a sign for this year...

Big news and a celebrity encounter for the next blog. You won't want to miss it!

Safe training!

Oly Oly Oly! Blue Lake Olympic Tri Race Report

Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon, Blue Lake Park, Fairview, Oregon, June 10, 2012 - 3:03:27

I did my first Olympic distance Triathlon this weekend, and it rocked! I was thinking this morning that it might be my preferred distance now, as I really liked the endurance challenge it gave over the sprint distance. Hmmmm, I might really be certifiably tri-crazy now!

The Swim - 0:35:57 - 1.5 km (0.93 mi)

Water temp was 64 degrees, so I opted to go sleeveless. This was a great decision. I was plenty warm enough and felt the increased range of motion and comfort made up for any loss of buoyancy. This was my longest open water swim ever, and I hadn't had a chance to do any practice open water swims prior to the event, so I wanted to minimize any mental hindrances.

Ambient weather was perfect, about 53 degrees air temp, 62% humidity and dropping, 3.5 mph wind speed, mostly sunny. There was quite a bit of sun glare on the lake, but as I've swam here many times (sprint course only), I was used to the sun glare and familiar with sighting with it.

I felt strong and consistent during my swim, never felt fatigued or stressed. Just kept a constant pace, had great mental talk the whole way about swimming my own race. I did experience a few moments of calf cramping before the second turn, but I was able to deal with it without stopping my swim by merely swimming several strokes with my feet flexed instead of pointed, which immediately stopped the cramp. The first cramp was in my right calf and I think it was due to some mental attention on my timing chip strap which I had noticed was around my ankle and exposed, not under my wetsuit (I noticed this prior to the swim and decided to leave it there, it was perfectly secure and fine). That focus led me to think about my ankle and worry momentarily about my chip for some unknown reason and probably changed my kick somehow. As soon as I recovered the cramp in the right, I felt a pang in the left, again, probably due to change in kick. It only took a few seconds and then I made myself stop focusing on my chip strap and calves and had no more issues. Funny how the brain works!

At the final yellow buoy near the exit I began to kick more vigorously to engage my legs to prevent any wobblies or dizzies. I swam until I was grabbing sand, stood and ran up the ramp and all the way into the transition area. I felt great!

Notice how fuzzy and erratic my Garmin map is? I decided to wear my Garmin on my wrist rather than under my swim cap this time. The pathway isn't as clear, but really, I just want the time data and this gave me a much more accurate time than starting it early and shoving it into my swim cap.

T1 - 0:04:03

This is kind of a slower T1 time for me, about 13 seconds slower than Midsummer Sprint last year. I struggled a little putting my shoes on for some reason. I did something new...I taped a running light to the bike rack that flashed red. This way I had a flashing light coming into transition toward the front of my bike rather than only the one on the back of my bike. I missed my bike coming into transition at Beaver Freezer and decided to try this...it helped!


The Bike - 1:21:20 - 40 km (24.85 mi)

 Yes, I tried something new on race day...a few things actually...I know you're not supposed to do that, but this was a training event in preparation for my Vineman 70.3, so I was trying things in anticipation of that event (there, my justification!). 




Aerobars
I had aerobars installed on my bike this week, an early Christmas present from friend Pam. They seemed to work out great. I actually was pretty comfortable in aero position, got some low back stress about mile 22, but simply got out of aero and into the hoods for a few minutes to stretch and felt better. Aerobars also gave me the ability to hydrate much more efficiently, as I added an aerobar water bottle, so all I had to do to drink was to move the straw forward to my mouth rather than reaching down for a frame bottle. Waaaayyyy better! That alone increased my hydration during the bike portion.

I didn't like having to move arms out of aero to shift. Am asking my bike mechanic to find bar end shifters for me.

Nutrition
I removed my hand pump from my bike frame and carried a CO2 inflation system in a frame bottle. This allowed room for a feed box on my top bar at the front tube. I dumped several packs of Cliff Blocks into it prior to the race and simply grabbed a block every 15 minutes or so when I remembered. I grabbed one when I first got into T1 so I was eating while changing. This worked great.

 
Cadence Sensor
I finally installed the Garmin Cadence Sensor on my bike the night before the race. I should have done it sooner, I know, but I just simply kept running out of time to figure out the worst instructions ever for installation! I ended up going on YouTube, if you can believe it, and got it installed. From spin class, I determined I needed to be 80-100 RPM, or at least be consistent. I ended up with an average 84 RPM and 17.3 mph.

I will be doing some more research on optimal efficient cadence. The bike portion is getting to be my weakest leg as honestly, I've not had any bike training. Being my second year and needing so much help with the swim and the run, I've just relied on the fact that I could cycle, but it's time to get some technique training. My last sprint at Blue Lake had an 18.2 mph average, so I've slipped.

 

T2 - 0:02:23

I actually could see the top of the light I taped to the bike rack so honed in quickly to where to return to in T2. Along with my red light, I taped a packet of Cliff Shot energy gel that I'd partially torn the top off of. I grabbed the packet and took gel as I ran out of transition, after a gulp of water. Again, this was a little longer transition time from last year, 15 seconds. I'm thinking that my transition times might be a little slower due to longer swim and bike distances. They aren't too out of line when I compare them with others in my AG/Division, in fact, my T1 was fastest of all and T2 3rd.

The Run - 0:59:43 - 10 km (6.2 mi)

Felt super strong in my run, particularly in the first half. I was hoping to do a negative split, but I must have turned off the auto-scroll on my Garmin so didn't have pace displaying during the run. I ended up with a positive split. However, I did run a GREAT pace, 9:31 min/mi average moving pace and 9:41 overall pace! I am super thrilled with this. I was first in my AG/Division with this run! 

Click to enlarge

I had encountered some shin splint sensation in my left leg about mile 3 but ran through it, telling myself it would work itself out, and it did. I then got a side ache on the right afterward and ran through it, able to tell myself that the left shin pain went away by running through it. Side ache didn't really go away, but I just ignored it.

I ran through all water stations, grabbing water, drinking and rinsing out my mouth while running, for all but the last water station, which I walked through. This was new for me.

1st Place Masters Athena!

The result? 1st place Athena 40 and Over! Totally rocked! I felt great, ran MY race and it paid off! I absolutely enjoyed this race. I'm feeling strong, well trained, and ready to rock Vineman 70.3 in 34 days!

Oh, and by the way...not only was I racing for me, but as a part of the Portland Triathlon Club for the TriNorthwest Club Team Challenge. Take a look at this! There are some people missing from our count, and we've just got word that the Portland Tri Club WON the Team Challenge! Way to go PTC!

Click to enlarge

PTC Women's Masters rocked the house!

Cindy Werhane, Sue Moote, Sherrie Austin, Christine Ernhardt, and Me

My next event will be the Vancouver Half-Marathon, June 17, 2012. I'm looking forward to the longer run in prep for my first Half Ironman. Woo Hoo!

Until next time, wishing everyone safe training and great events!

Shamrock Run 2012

Shamrock Run, March 18, 2012

High School buddies, Patty and Seriny, came to Vancouver for our Second Annual Girls Weekend/Shamrock Run. We vowed to do a few things differently this year, however:

• Sleep the night before (and that means more than three hours)
• No hangovers for the run
• Eat a little something before the run, which, without a hangover, is much easier to do!

And we were successful! We ended up late night shoe shopping the night before, but did get home at a decent hour and hit the sack for some great sleep.

The weather forecast was all over the board the week before the run and by Saturday night, there was a chance of snow flurries during the race. But it ended up being beautiful that morning, 34 degrees and partly sunny.

We ran as part of the Portland Triathlon Club team again this year. Patty and Seriny ran the 5K and I ran the 15K.

The 15K course changed a little bit this year, for the better. It still ran over Marquam Hill, but the route wound a little differently through downtown and I liked it better...no running partway up the Burnside Bridge and down this year.

The race was fantastic for me! I ended up with a new PR by 13 minutes with a time of 1:32:50. How amazing is that!?!? I felt great throughout the whole event. I ran the entire event, only walked during water stations and one 15 second stint by the base of the VA Hospital. It started raining on the way down the hill, and I ran as fast as I felt I could safely do with slippery roadway conditions. Here are my splits:

Click on chart to enlarge

I didn't have my Garmin last year, so I can't compare my splits between the two years. Boy, do I wish I had that info!

Interestingly, my iPhone was not working that morning, wouldn't play music more than 30 seconds at a time, so I ended up going without music, and I wonder if that helped me. I have noticed in the past that I ran faster without music, but hadn't really tested that theory for months.

I'm super happy with my results. I felt great throughout and at the end as well. I know my training is helping greatly, as well as proper race prep the night and morning before!

Some of PTC Board: me, Jon Bero, Becky Hillary, Margaret Heald, and Zach Wiens

No, I didn't swim/ride/run off the edge of the planet!!

 

Wow, did time get away from me there...and it's not like I don't have anything to blog about either! So let's get to talking.

Happy New Year 2012!!

Seriously...It's March 6and I'm finally writing my New Year's salutations?!? I honestly started writing this blog February 3rd...what the heck?!? It's looking like it's going to be a rockin' year (and rollin' too)!

My New Year didn't start off exactly how I had planned. I decided to take the week of Christmas to New Year's off from my Half Ironman (HIM) training plan I was working on for a little break before starting up on the Portland Triathlon Club Race Team HIM plan from coach Jeff Smith. That plan would have worked great had I not come down with strep throat January 2! So my one week hiatus grew into a nearly three week break, which as I've learned from Jeff, is where "detraining" starts to occur. DRAT! It took me a while to get back on track from the detraining and recovering from being sick, sicker than I realized strep would make me. I did get going again was really glad I started my training in November so I had some reserve built up.

January 1st also brought a new fire station assignment, which has turned into a great thing. I moved from the ultra crazy busy station in Rockwood, where I've spent the majority of my 18 year career. Station 74 is actually one of the busiest stations in all of Multnomah County, averaging 15 calls per 24 hour period, the majority after 8PM. My new station is in a primarily residential, improved socioeconomic area and runs about three calls a shift, all during the day and usually sleeps all night! This is turning out to be a great thing for my training, allowing me time to train on duty, get sleep, and be rested enough to workout the next morning when I get off duty rather than going back to bed at home.

This new station had just finished an earthquake preparedness remodel and required quite a bit of work to get things back together and the project wrapped up when I got there, which took a lot of my attention. Now it's pretty much done and I can get back into a routine!

Half Ironman Training

The Portland Tri Club Race Team's training plans were released the first of January, so I transitioned from the generic HIM plan I was working on to the race team plan that fit with my Vineman 70.3 timeline. It's been great, a lot of work, averaging about 12 hours of training a week now. It's been a lot of work to shuffle the plan around (and learning the Training Peaks program we're using to facilitate the plan online) to work with my schedule and life, but it's working out. I did take a week off last week because I just got exhausted from the juggling and needed a break to get life stuff done and have some semblance of a social life! I have read and heard a lot about the difficulties people have juggling Ironman training and family/relationships/work and hadn't appreciated how difficult it could be to juggle Ironman training as a single person, not having anyone to pick up slack to help do simple things such as grocery shopping, household chores, errands, etc. Heck, I couldn't get my blog done! That week helped me get things reorganized and now I'm ready to get back on track.

Firefighter Stair Climb

This weekend is the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle. I've very excited for it! My tri training has been the bulk of my prep for it. I have added some stair stepper and stairmill training with my SCBA and turnouts/SCBA the past few weeks. I have decided to go with a larger capacity SCBA bottle so I don't have to stop halfway for a bottle change; it does add about 3.5 pounds to my pack, but I think it will work out ok. My plan is to have a 1 step/second pace, which gives me a projected 18 minute overall time. We'll see how it goes race day! My start time isn't until 3:10 in the afternoon. After one firefighter starting every 10 seconds since 8AM, the ambient temperature in the stairwell should be at least a balmy 100 degress or more with all that body heat. Yay....!

There's still time to make a tax-deductible donation on my fundraising page. I appreciate all the donations that have been made in memory of my father and grandmother, and in support of my climb. Thank you all!!

Shamrock Run

The weekend after the stairclimb will be the Portland Shamrock Run. You may recall that last year was my first Shamrock Run and that it was part of a girls' weekend with high school BFFs Seriny and Patty. Well we've decided to make this an annual event, so we are all running this year; Seriny and Patty will be doing the 5K, I'm going to do the 15K again. And this year....we won't be hungover for the start of the event...I'm pretty sure...

So, it's been a long update. There a ton to write about, but I'll break it up into other posts. My next post will be next week all about the stairclimb. I can't wait!!

Train well!

Cindy

The Hard is What Makes it Great

It was a hard week. And, of course it's hard...it's training. At first, I was going to title this week's blog post, "Training Sucks" but then got out of my pity party and remembered a scene from one of my favorite movies, A League of Their Own:

Most of my training this week was hard, both mentally and physically. I know it's part of the cycle, but it took a lot of mental strength to get my training completed. Part of it was some fatigue, I think, and gave myself an extra rest day where I literally slept most of the day.

Swimming
I've been doing some reading on swimming technique and decided it was time for me to grow up and start bilateral breathing. Swim power comes from the core through proper body rotation. Breathing to one side generally results in poor body rotation on the opposite side, leading to asymetrical swimming. So, I'm retraining myself to breath bilaterally, every third stroke. And it's hard. It's like brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. But it will get there. Here is a great web resource on bilateral swimming: http://www.swimsmooth.com/bilateral.html.

This morning's drill was speed work, 20x75m tempo swim, with warmup and cool down. I worked on my bilateral breathing with it. I felt awful about a third of the way through. Was really tempted to quit and really had to talk myself in continuing, but I did it. However, 100m into my 200m cool down I realized I was going to vomit--and fortunately made it out of the pool to the locker room toilet. It was all water...seems I had a belly full of pool water from the mouthfuls I got learning how to breathe on my left side. Ugh. What a fitting end to a hard workout.

Running
Apparently I'm trying to run faster...faster than I can right now. I had a 30 minute easy run scheduled early in the week which turned into a too fast out and walk back. I was having trouble understanding what had happened until I looked at my splits:

Turns out I had a very inconsistently paced run, anywhere from 7:54 to 9:30 mile (the 10:59 is part of a walk). I was confused by this at first, and then I realized that my Garmin was not showing me real time pace during my run, rather an average, allowing huge swings in my tempo. No wonder I was exhausted. Grrr! So I changed the settings on my device and had another 30 minute run a couple of days later:

Much more consistent. And no exhaustion or walking. Note, I felt so great at the end of the run that I did a sprint at the end. My overall pace improved as well. So, I need to work on keeping my pace consistent, watching the big tempo swings.

Strength and Conditioning
This was my first week of Coach Jeff Smith's Strength and Conditioning program that I introduced last post. I know it's important...it's just not fun...yet. It's a lot of work for me, which tells me just how much I need to do it. I wasn't able to do three sets of all the exercises, started with one set of each of the exercises this week. I'll increase to two sets next week, then three the following.

Resting
It occurred to me that scheduling my workout rest days on my fire department shift days really isn't resting in the desired sense. I scheduled them on shift days because it is just nice to not have to try to run at the station with interruptions for emergency responses, lug my bike and trainer into the station, or get up at 4AM in order to get a swim session in before work. However, I don't truly completely rest or relax when I'm at work. Not only are we running calls and doing drills and other administrative stuff, but I never sleep well, even if we don't get called out at night (pipe-dream, we ALWAYS get called out at night). By the end of this week I could totally tell I was at a rest deficit. I truly could not seem to function and ended up sleeping in very late, taking a long afternoon nap, AND going to bed early. I will be adjusting my workout schedule to include some off-duty rest days from now on. 

TRI NorthWest Rankings
It wasn't all bad last week, well, really, this week wasn't bad, it was just hard. Being new to this sport I don't know about everything that happens, and one of those things this week was the TRI NorthWest Final Rankings for 2011. Turns out, I ended up being ranked #8 overall in Open Women Sprint Distance category and #1 in Athena 39 and Younger Sprint Distance--Wow! Just in time, I guess, I really needed the inspiration and boost this week!

So, remember, it's supposed to be hard...but the end result will be so sweet!

Pain in the...Park and Other Places!

Portland Triathlon Club's Pain in the Park

Wow, what a week! Actually, almost two weeks since my last post. Been very busy training, having moved into Base 1 of my Half Ironman training. Granted, I'll move back into a preparation phase again in January when the Half Ironman training plan for the Portland Triathlon Club Race Team comes out, but it keeps me motivated and training for now and I can already see gains in my performance, especially swimming. Here are the goals for Base 1 from BeginnerTriathlete.com:

Racing Prep: Begin doing your some of your workouts on terrain which simulates race day.

Training: Here in Base 1, we'll be increasing hours a bit while keeping consistency. We will add 1 hard workout per week-1 workout, not 1 hard day. We will also begin sport-specific strength work by incorporating hills on the bike and run.

Physical Health:
Imagine showing up for a 10k race in peak fitness. Then imagine having to put on a 20lb backpack at the start line to carry to the finish. I want you to get the most on race day from all the training hours you put in. Running fast is helped greatly by having a high strength-to-weight ratio. You don't need to be in peak form at this point in the season, but begin to monitor weight and body fat % for later comparison and take a look at your diet for areas to improve-nothing drastic, just little changes at a time with continuous improvement over the entire training period.

Include with your training log a 1-10 scale for daily nutrition with 1 being a weekend in Vegas and a 10 being a nutritional angel. Rank yourself and monitor areas to improve. Most of us know what is good and bad eating so self seed yourself on this one.

Search out sports nutritional information to read during this period. There's a lot of good stuff out there. Email me if you need some good links.

Mental Health: Day after day it's tough to do all the workouts solo so try to find someone to join you for some of the sessions. A masters group once a week is good (this will be your 1 hard session!), but keep the rest easy. Talk to people in your area in person or via the net to find new routes and training partners.

Efficiency: Aero positioning and power output on the bike oppose each other. Ride lower and your power output will suffer. Begin working this month on flexibility of your back and legs. Come race day, your goal is to be as thin to the wind as possible, for as long as possible without suffering power output. Flexibility is free speed.

Winter Motivation Training
The Portland Triathlon Club started participating in the Winter Motivation Challenge with the USA Triathlon organization December 1. From now until February 29, 2012, those of us who have chosen to participate are submitting weekly mileage, competing against clubs of similar sizes throughout the country. We are also offering prizes for the club members who get the most training done at club workouts. It coincides well with my ramped up training schedule! My mileage since Dec. 1 was:

swim: 5.4 mi
bike: 87.5 mi
run: 20.7 mi

Plus, I worked out at five PTC training events too. Great motivation!

Pain in the Park
One of the PTC workouts I did this week was Pain in the Park. Abbey and Carolyn lead a weekly Boot Camp style workout at various parks in the Portland Metro area through the winter months. This last week was held at Portland's Waterfront Park and was just a ball! After a stretching session, we jogged across the Hawthorne bridge and down to the Eastbank Esplanade where we did intervals of different styles of pushups and hill repeats up one of the ramps; back over the Hawthorne Bridge doing Fartlek run in leap-frog fashion; three sets of a five-station conditioning workout, 45 seconds at each station; a rousing game of Duck-Duck-Goose with abdominal workout if you were tagged "Duck"; and cool down with abdominal workout. Below is a little video of our Duck-Duck-Goose game!

Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Jeff Smith, one of the triathlon coaches from Upper Echelon Fitness, PTC sponsor, put on a Strength and Conditioning Clinic this weekend. Silly me, I thought when I signed up that it was a classroom-style clinic...but no, it was a workout clinic! It wouldn't have been a problem other than I was super sore from Pain in the Park and had a half marathon scheduled for the next day! Oh well, I signed up for endurance racing, didn't I?

The clinic was great! We got a ton of information and I have a lot of working out to do... Jeff's program is a three part strength and conditioning series made up of Base, Preparation, and Performance periods. The Base and Preparation periods are six weeks long and performance is 12-16 weeks during your racing season. During Base, you do Upper Body, Lower Body, and Core workouts, one of each once a week. Prep has Upper and Lower Body each once a week and Core workouts twice a week. Performance has Core and Upper Body one to two times a week and Lower Body once a week. Each period builds on the previous, becoming more dynamic as you progress. We worked on the specific exercises during the clinic, and I tried to keep my reps down as not to work my lower body and abs too much with my race the next day.

Ironman Kona Spin Party

So, I'll be adding Strength and Conditioning Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to my now normal five to six day swim-bike-run schedule. Jeff assured us that the soreness will taper off after the first two weeks...sigh...

And then right after the clinic we had a club spin while we watched Ironman Kona. I really didn't want to walk out on my buddy Zach's Kona Party since I was at UEF already, so...I spun for an hour and figured it was definitely time to take a break. I mean, com'on, I needed to taper sometime!




Holiday Half Marathon
And if all that wasn't enough, I had a half marathon today! I knew it wasn't going to be my best run, but I was really looking forward to seeing how I performed with three workouts the day prior and no taper. I learned so much and I'm really not disappointed at all with my performance. My abs were pretty sore in the morning and my quads and glutes a little achy. I stretched in the morning before I left the house at 6AM.

The race is an out and back on the Bluff, basically miles 17 through 22 of the Portland Marathon course that I did in October. It's flat and familiar.

My first 8.5 miles went fantastic, way better than I expected. I averaged a 9:30 pace and felt so good. I only walked at the water stations which were spaced every two miles. After the turn though, both butt cheeks contracted and turned into bricks! They didn't hurt, but they just kind of seized up. I didn't feel tired otherwise, had great energy, wasn't short of breath, no aches anywhere, just lost a lot of range of motion. I really didn't want to push and cause cramps or tears and I really, really didn't want to push and cramp up my hamstrings, so I walk/ran the rest of the way in, which turned into mostly walk toward the last two miles. Oddly enough, I was only 9 minutes away from my PR, which blew my mind! It was a great learning experience for me to see what I was capable of doing when tired and sore. I really had not tested myself this way before and it taught me a lot about where I am in my Half Ironman training. I think I'm in good shape so far; I've got over 200 days of training before Vineman 70.3 and I know what I can do right now when fatigued. Mentally, this was a great thing for me, something I can carry with me and I'm very glad I did it. I did ice bath when I got home later in the afternoon, something I felt was critical. Brrrr, that was way colder than I remember it being in the summer and fall!

That's it for this week. Whew, that was a lot! Not too much going on for the next couple of weeks. Haven't decided yet which New Year's event I want to do, one at midnight or one later in the day on the 1st...or both, who knows! Either way, I'll blog again in a week or so. Have a great week!