Let's get caught up....

Tuesday morning I woke up at 4:00am to go for the swim. WHELP, as soon as I woke up, I reset the alarm clock and went right to bed - It just wasn't happening. That night, I was suppose to bike for 30 minutes. WHELP, I got home from work, looked at my bike and said, NOT HAPPENING tonight!

Wednesday night rolls around and I'm suppose to go for a short run. Well, it was time to stop using this past weekend as an excuse not to work out because it was now 2 days since I went 140 miles for the weekend so I strapped on my NEW running shoes and went for an easy 30 minute run. Man, my legs felt like lead as I trudged through this run with no heart rate monitor or watch. That was the only nice part about the run. My right knee seemed to feel a little sore so I took it really easy.

This morning I dragged my ass out of bed and made it to swim practice. Now I had every intention of moving up a lane because it was time. Well, wouldn't you know before I had a chance to move up, some of my swimming buddies said, what are you doing, you no longer belong in this lane. Man, that was just plain wrong. I guess it was their way of saying, hey, we can't keep up with your cute ass so you need to move on up. Well, and move on up I did! Basically today was called "let's draft off of people in your lane day" as I was just too tired to push hard. Although during one Z4 100yard set, I was nominated to go first. So I did and kept the lane going. We swam about 2500 yards today and as Ed said, "you got some speed work to do today"....

Tonight, I came home from work and fell asleep on the couch. Knowing I had to go bike for 45 minutes easy, I woke myself up, MADE myself put on bike clothes and kicked my ass out the door to go for a nice easy ride. So I rode Rock Creek and wouldn't you know it as I was heading back some guy started tailing me on the bike. Do you think he could have said something to me? I hate when other bikers draft off of you and don't tell you they are behind you in case something were to happen. So this yahoo was on my rear wheel for a few miles when I started to pick it up. Well he started to pick it up as well. Now, let me digress here for a minute, I did not want to workout tonight as you can tell, my legs were extremely tired and I just had no motivation. However, when some yahoo is tailing you, you just have to turn it up a notch. GUT CHECK TIME! So I just cranked it and knew I had this guy. You can just tell and you know it when you got someone. He just could not keep up as I left the guy in the dust. It was a happy moment for me because it is so very rare that I dust someone on the bike. So, I went a little harder on bike today then I was suppose to. Well, whatever - it was worth it.

On another note, I am sitting here on the couch icing my neck again - what is the deal with the neck?????????? nite-

Knees!!!!!

It's the day after our EPIC weekend and after a great night sleep, compliments of Tylenol PM (that stuff works great), I am moving rather slowly. Last night my knees were killing me as I went up and down the stairs. It reminded me of my first marathon days where we would complete a long run and my knees would scream in pain as I took to the stairs. Overall, I am just tired, my knees feel a little better, but nothing else really hurts. We are suppose to run 30 minutes easy today - NOT HAPPENING!

EPIC Weekend - DONE!

Sunday Sunday, what a fun day this was I must say......Man was it tough, you talk about taking everything out of me just to finish the day knowing that this was the PEAK of my training and now I get to taper. So, let me tell you how it went...

Today started out with a 2-mile swim event in Reston, VA. This was a well organized event and I hope to do this next year. Our wave started at 9am which was nice because I got to sleep in a little bit but the downside to it was we were going to start our 20 mile run in the heat. My plan for the event was to swim the 1st mile in Zone 2 and then the 2nd mile in Zone 3. There were several waves that were separated by 30 seconds and it turns out I was in the last wave. I must have put a ridiculously slow estimated finish time to end up in the back. So when I started, I was actually the last person to start, which turned out to be a good thing. As I got into my groove, I started passing a lot of people. It felt great to be doing the passing for once as opposed to being on the bike when the world passes me. It was awesome. The first lap was a nice, steady zone 2, my sighting was good and I seem to keep a straight line, well straighter then usual. I completed the first mile in 31:08.

The second mile I continued to stay in Zone 2 and still feeling pretty good, I picked it up to Zone 3 the remaining 1/2 mile to go and finished the second mile at 30:16. In total, I came in 12 out of 19 in my age group and 93 out of 198 overall.

After the race, I stuffed myself with about 12 Oreo cookies, drank some Gatorade and headed over to the run start which was about 2 miles down the road. I spent about an hour between the swim finish and the start of the run.

A group of us started the run around 11ish and it was hot. The sun was out, it was humid and it had to be close to 90 if not already 90 degrees. I started the run going very slow and was only averaging around 11 minute miles. I was being way conservative because I knew it was going to be brutal. I had a hat on and sunglasses which seemed to help when the sun was out. I seem to run without stopping till about mile 7 where I began to practice my run/walk technique. It was just too damn hot to keep running without intermittent walk breaks so i would run a mile, then walk for about a minute, run to the next mile marker, walk, etc.... I carried this on and at mile 11, I was back at my car and refueled. I threw a bag of ice over my neck just to try and cool off, took another electrolyte, refilled my water bottles and off I went for the remaining 9 miles. Again, it was the same run/walk technique except when I got to about 4.5 miles to go, I was taking walk breaks every 1/2 mile. I actually ran out of fluid around mile 17 and bummed water off this guy who was nice of enough to share. That was all I needed to get back home except for the quick water stop at mile 19. From mile 19 through 20, it was all mental to push myself to finish, thinking how long I have trained and that my EPIC weekend was about to come to an end. I could not believe I did it. When I finished I had the biggest smile on my face being so happy that I pushed myself to go 140+ miles in two days, by far the hardest workouts I have ever done in my life. Now I need to do that in one day in about 4 weeks!!

The one remarkable thing about this run is that during the entire run, in the blazing heat, my legs did not cramp up! This is an amazing break through because always in extreme heat, the legs would cramp up. Just remember that I took an electrolyte before the run and at Mile 10 and I also poured Endurance Liquid in my Gatorade as well. I'm not quite sure if this helped, but I know I will be using it again in a few weeks!

After the run, Coach Ed had the Team Z tent and bbg grill set up and I stuffed my face with two cheeseburgers and two hot dogs. I just ate and sat in the same spot for about an hour, numb to what I accomplished.

By the way, the 20 mile run took me 3:50 minutes! That is the longest 20 miles has ever taken me to complete, but given the fact that I just came off of a 3 week build cycle, biked 118 miles yesterday, swam 2 miles this morning and it was 90+ degrees w/humidity....I'll take it!

I have PEAKED now it is time to TAPER!

Unbelievable totals for the week:

Swim: 5.7M

Bike: 134M

Run: 33.4M

Total: 18:45 hours, 171 miles!

It's time to be an Ironman....

THE PLAINS.....

118 miles! 8:15 minutes! 7100 feet of climb! 90 degrees! 4 electrolyte pills! 1-gallon of sustained/gatorade mix! 8 gu shots! 1/2 gallon of gatorade! 1 gallon of water! and I still lost 4 pounds of fluids on the ride today. EPIC?? No, not yet as we still have to get through tomorrow but pretty damn close. This ride was tough, gut tough. I am beat right now and wonder how I'm going to get through the workouts tomorrow. Thank goodness my wife is gone until tomorrow because I am going to collapse tonight. For the last 30 miles of the ride I was craving Velvetta Mac & Cheese and Corona. So after the ride I drove around and found a grocery store and pick things up, came home at and drank one beer and I was tipsy! Well, let me tell you about today's ride:



I took this picture around 6:30am before the ride began. Look at that sun come up. You just knew it was going to be a hot one when you seen that orange ring just burning around the sun.

Today we started in The Plains, VA and rode all through the country side. I have no idea where we were during the ride but it was hilly and slow. The first loop was about 60 miles and I rode with Mark most of the time. When we made it back to the cars at mile 60, we refueled and headed back out again. The second loop was 58 miles and after 20 miles of the 2nd loop, we were way off course because we took a wrong turn. Well, it turns out several people took wrong turns because the cue sheet wasn't too clear. Well, as Mark and I regained our composure after realizing we screwed up, we headed back to the cars and got there around Mile 93. We refueled and headed back out again for the last leg that just seemed to take forever. I was so tired this last bit and could not wait until we got done. There were hills throughout this ride and they did not stop till the very end. Between the hills and the heat, this was the hardest workout I have ever done in my entire life.

Some thoughts I would like to recall in the future...

• Although I was in Zone 2 during the 1st half and had a great time, I still suffered on the second half because of it. I need to remember during IM to take the 1st half in either high Z1 or low Z2. My goal is to run the marathon and if I am wiped on the 2nd half of the bike, I won't have a chance to do the run in its entirety.
• Either don't use the water bottle in the arrow bars or put a damn bag w/rubberband over the lid. I can't take any more splashing of gatorade all over me and the bike!
• I saw naked girls on the ride.....really, I did!
• Got lost and was cursing the ride coordinator.
• The hills and heat were relentless- but this was great training weather and am glad I did it.
• I got to listen to White Snake over and over again before and after the ride played by two of my tri buddies....
• Saw Coach Ed and Matt at mile 110 and as I fueled up he looked at me and all I said was, dammit, it's time to be an Ironman - well in retrospect, not yet, I need to get through tomorrow and then June 24th. It will happen, just need to be patient.
• Best thing of all....my ASS did not hurt!! Woooohooooo. It's amazing after I got my ASS fitted for my seat by getting the cheek bones measured, my ASS is a new ASS and lovin life when biking. No more pinch nerve, no more uncomfortable feeling. Don't get me wrong, when you ride for 118 miles, the tush will hurt, but not like it did before!!! : )
• Compact cranks ROCK! To train all season with standard cranks and then for this ride to use compact cranks...Man what a treat!!!!!!!! I could definitely tell a difference going up hills with a higher cadence and keeping my heart rate down.

Now, we need to prep for tomorrow......

EPIC Weekend has arrived

For a year now I have been hearing about it. I listened to the folks training for Lake Placid last year and what they had to go through. I knew it would be in the schedule and honed on it right away when the schedule was sent out by the Coach in January. The weekend that will test you and push you BEYOND your limits and then ask for more. EPIC - that is what our coach refers to this weekend. While most people are at the beach or taking it easy, we will be training and reaching our peak before we taper.

EPIC - it begins tomorrow when we start riding at 7 am and go 120 miles. The temperature is suppose to be in the 60's when we start and climb into the 90's throughout the day. Then on Sunday, we are swimming a 2-mile race at a lake in Reston, taking a short break and then at the heat of the day, run 20 miles! EPIC - and so it begins.....

It took me over an hour to prepare for tomorrow's ride. I have a cooler full of the following:

2-poptarts (breakfast)
1-powerbar (breakfast)
10-gu shots
2-gallons of water mixed with gatorade and sustained
1-gallon of water
1-gallon of gatorade
2-12oz cokes
1-bag of pretzels
1-16 oz bottle of Nesquick (recovery)

It will be interesting to see how much I use up. This looks like a chemistry project...

Thursday swim....

Today's swim was all about speed and muscular endurance. We did a lot of short intervals in which we were swimming 50's, 100's and 200's at zone 4 pace. For the 50's I was averaging around 46 seconds, the 100's around 1:38 and the 200's around 3:09. I felt really good and definitely led my lane today. In fact, I lead the lane on Tuesday as well and it's time to make a switch and move up. Before the wedding, I was one lane over for a couple of weeks but after the honeymoon I dropped back a lane because I slowed down some. Well, I think I'm finally back and ready to move up. It's taken over a month to get back where I was before but the training is paying off.

I missed the bike tonight because the bike store did not have my bike ready to pick up. So I had to wait for them to put on my new compact cranks (yes, more $$ spent). Yes, instead of getting a granny gear, I got compact cranks to see if this will help me with the hills. And after reading the write-up for this weekend's ride, there are going to be A LOT of hills.

Gut Check!

So, tonight at track we had to do 8 x 1200's at Zone 4 pace with a 2 minute recovery in between sets. This is the hardest track workout we have had, aside the 5 x 1600's in January training for Miami. I did the track tonight with Chris Wren who is 59 years old and is an awesome athlete. For the first 4 intervals, Chris was tailing just behind me as I could hear where he was by his breathing. For intervals 5 and 6 he ran just in front of me and when we got to 7 I felt pretty good and ran a little ahead of him. GUT CHECK - this is what he tells me before we start the 8th and final one. Well, little did I know that GUT CHECK meant BRING IT ON and that he was going to kick my ass on this one. Damn if he didn't finish about 10 seconds in front of me. The guys is amazing. Here I am trying to stay in my zone and not go anaerobic and he just turns it on. Good for him! Remember Chris - there is always a next time! : 0

My splits for the night were: 5:06, 5:06, 5:05, 5:10, 5:21, 5:12, 5:15 and 5:25 (average is about a 6:57 minute mile) - man, if I could only hold that pace during a 5K or 10K I would crush my current PR's!!

Getting through the week

So, what keeps me going? I really don't know but I know one thing for sure is that I am digging deep to get started and through these workouts. As this weekend approaches, I am trying hard to hit every workout. Last night, being sore and tired from Columbia, I ran for 66 minutes (7.4miles) on a hilly course. I shaved 2 minutes off my time from 3 weeks ago on the same route while staying in Z2.

This morning, tough tough tough getting my ass out of bed. We had a hard workout doing zone 2 and zone 4 workouts and I crushed, I mean crushed the last 5x100's at Z4 averaging 1:35's. In total, we swam for 1.5 hours and went about 4ooo yards. Tonight, it took me about 2 hours to get motivated to bike. My quads are really sore and I had to push my way through this as I rode for 60 minutes on Rock Creek.

Tonight, I watch the Team Z IM video again from Lake Placid last year. That really gets me jacked up to push myself harder through these workouts and I need that momentum right now to get me through tomorrow 's track workout. It's going to be tough, just need to take one split at a time.

Oh, here's a picture of me approaching the finish at Columbia on Sunday (just a mere 2 days ago). Feelin good!

Columbia Tri

Finally!! It is such a good feeling to have a great race. To go into a race, not worry about what my time is going to be, feel good the entire time and do well. The Columbia tri is an Olympic, and the distances are 1M Swim, 26M Bike, 6.2M run.

Overall, it was AWESOME. I swam my fastest mile yet in just under 56 minutes, which is about 10 minutes faster then last year. My first transition time sucked as I could not get myself geared up quick enough (4 -minutes). I think I was still too excited from the swim. On the bike, I was expected to average around 14 mph, but for some crazy reason, I averaged 16.2 mph for a total of 1:34. With all those hills, that is the fastest time I have had on the bike yet to date and still stay in zone 2. Well, for some of the hills I crept up into Z3 and Z4. On the bike I felt like my whole age group passed me except this time, unlike Lake Anna, I did not let it get to me because I had a plan and was going to stick with it. I flew through the transition and took of on the run. This course is super hilly and I took the hills slow and flew on the downhills. I smacked T2 and was in and out of there in only 80 seconds. As my plan continued from the bike, this time I started counting how many people in my age group I passed on the run. I didn't count everyone because I would have lost count. I averaged between 8:15 and 8:45's for the first 4 miles and then I picked it up some and average around 7:30's for the last 2. I was on fire and felt really strong. My time on the run was 51:39 (average 8:19/mile). My final time was 2:57:13 and was 125 out of 186 in my age group.

Well my placing may not reflect I did compared to others, but man, I finally ran a smart race. I stayed in zone 2 for most of the race and know I could have pushed it harder on the bike and the run but I wanted to stay conservative. To do that well during the middle of a build cycle and at the hardest part of our training is a good feeling.

Oh, and by the way, I passed at least 20 people on the run during my little counting game.

So, we have one more week, and then taper. One more HARD week. I feel pretty tired now but at least we got home early so I can rest the remainder of the day. one more week. I'm actually going to miss this but all good things must come to an end.....so they can begin again another time.

Totals for the week:

Swim: 2.8m
Bike: 99 m
Run: 12.2m
Total: 10-hours, 114 Miles

**note, the workouts have been getting less in volume but higher in intensity.

Riley's Lock - Ride Today

So, I had this crazy thought today's ride was going to be easy. Hell, even the Route organizer wrote an email saying, "Honestly, this is an extremely friendly ride location for new riders. There’s some rolling hills but not so much as other places in our area." I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. I guess between this email and Columbia being tomorrow, I was a little naive.

Today, we rode 56 miles and started out at Riley's Ridge which is in Montgomery County right near the Potomac. The ride wasn't too bad, just more hilly then expected, but I am just worn out. I wrote in my training diary, "I feel like my body has been through a meat grinder." I think that sums it up pretty good. I've got one more hard week to go and then taper. I cannot wait. The good thing is that I am not alone and pretty much everyone I talked to training for CDA feels the same way. It's expected, it's just the way it is and this feeling of exhaustion, fatigue and motivation will get better. But for now, just grind it out.

Ride today, 56 miles, 4:02, 14.3 mph. (I can't wait till I get faster on the bike!)

This afternoon we picked up our packet for Columbia and checked in our bike. I just need a good solid race.

Just Plain Exhausted.....

I know I'm suppose to be tired but man I am just plain exhausted. We did a track workout last night, 7 x 1200's at Z4 pace with 2' recovery in between each set. I was doing the splits between 5:00 and 5:19, and averaged around 5:10 - that equates to about a 6:50ish mile. It was so hard to keep going and I could barely keep myself in Z4 as I was at the low end most of the time. If I could have just kept it up at threshold it would have been less then 6:50's.

This morning I made it to swim practice, early, with wetsuit in hand, got to the pool and everyone was standing in the parking lot. SWIM CANCELLED. The pool was emptied yesterday and was not filled up completely so we couldn't swim. That sucked because it could have been an extra hour sleep which I NEED right now! All day I was extremely tired, my right leg/knee was hurting and I could barely walk without a slight limp. I bagged the bike tonight and the HH because I am just worn out.

Time to get some sleep and rest up for the weekend. We got a long bike on Saturday and Columbia tri on Sunday. I've got another week to go before taper

So far this week...

As a treat to myself because I had a great workout this weekend, I skipped Monday's run. I barely made it to the Tuesday swim as I only got 5 hours sleep and tossed and turned all night. I swam for about 75 minutes and went 3300 yards. My timing and breathing were WAY off and I could not get in a groove.

Tuesday night I switched out my bike seat and biked Rock Creek for a hour or so. Man, what a difference with the new seat. Who ever knew you could get fitted for a bike seat. Fascinating.

Skyline + run

WOW!!! What an incredible ride with awesome views. It was absolutely beautiful today to bike skyline. We went 66 miles, starting at Front Royal, into the park and turned around at Panaroma. And you talk about hills..there were some serious hills. The first 5 miles up to Dickey's point I averaged only 7 mph!!!! There were some long SLOW climbs but I managed to stay in Z2 for most of them. (except one hill where I had to pass Roy - sorry Roy couldn't resist!) . Then the downhills, man holding on for dear life as I got up to 38 mph. I could have gone faster but I was a WUSS and braked a little. I hope to avoid the whole braking thing in CDA. In total, it took me 5:21 for the ride.

After the ride, we did a brick and I went for a 35 minute run. My legs were shot during the run but I managed to feel pretty good about 20 minutes in to the run. Good to know what to expect during IM.

Well, this was another great week! Two more weeks until we Peak. Here are the totals for the week:

Swim: 2.5M
Bike: 77M
Run: 25M
Total: 105M, 11:42

Saturday Run

Today's run went pretty well. A few of us broke away from the group and didn't run in Reston and instead we ran the Mt Vernon trail from Roosevelt Island to Old Town Alexandria and back. There were about 8-9 of us and we ran for a total of 18 miles. The weather wasn't so bad when we started but it got pretty hot at the end which is good training for CDA. Last year at CDA the temp was 90 degrees. I figure during IM, I'll start running around 4 or 5pm so hopefully it will be a little cooler at that time.

On average I ran 9:55's which ranged between 9's and 10:15's in Zone 2. I think I overstated by Z2 pace after my heart rate testing as being around an 8:30 minute mile. I guess my body cannot sustain that 8:30-9 minute pace before the heartrate creeps up on me. My main goal today was to stay in Z2 and don't walk. It was pretty tough at the end to not take a few second walk break but I managed. All is well.

Jazzed up!

I'm not sure if it is the caffeine or what but I just walked outside for a little break in my work day and as soon as I opened the door, I felt that warm, humid air and it reminded me of my first Oly 2 years ago, Diamond in the Rough. All these awesome memories came rushing back. I wish I could blow off my day and go run and bike for a few hours as I am pretty jazzed up right now!

Am I only the only person this happens too?

Spending money like crazy...

I went to the bike shop tonight and just dropped another 300 bucks. I am afraid to figure out how much money I have spent in the last year getting ready for IM. Tonight I bought some compact cranks, new bike seat (my ass will thank me), bike shorts, more hammer gel and some other crap. They also adjusted my chain because it was rubbing the derailer.

I rode Hains Point tonight for about 45 minutes. Ahh, the luxury of recover week. However, I had to ride in a higher gear the whole time because the damn bike shop made my chain worse. Great, i need to go back there again on Saturday to get it fixed before I do skyline. As of now, I cannot ride in my lowest gear. That would not be good for Skyline. I'll probably drop more $$ when I go back again. It never ends.......

updated some posts

Just updated my Lake Anna race nightmare and some summaries in April if interested. Again, this is catch up week!

I thought this was a recovery week....

I skipped last night's run as I had to go to the chiropractor to get my neck adjusted. MAN, what a relief. That neck of mine never got better from last week and hurt like hell each morning for several hours until it loosened up. Finally got some relief there.

This morning, thinking we were going to have a leisurely swim turned out to be a 90' straight swim, freestyle. We warmed up for about 10' then got into so it was actually only 80' straight - still a long time but in the end, a good workout. I figure I covered between 2.2 and 2.7 miles in that time frame - not bad.

I feel like this week is catch up week because I need to catch up on everything I have blown off these last two weeks. Last night was doctor, tonight was bills, haircut and blog update, tomorrow will be run and then try and get a laptop and on it goes and spend sometime with my wife who is getting anxious! This should be labeled Catch up week! But, we got a brutal workout ahead this weekend.

Stats for the week

Swim: 2.3 miles
Bike: 141 miles
Run: 17 miles
Total: 158 miles!! 14:15 hours!!

This was an awesome week. Now, time for recovery week! woooohooooooo

Wow!

It's incredible how you push yourself through each workout, day after day, week after week, month after month, some workouts easy, some hard, but mostly fun and feel pretty good after you are done. But then you have that one workout, that one SWEET workout where everything comes together and you get that HIGH, that high that drives you back for more just so you can have that sweet workout one more time. Man, that was today! What an incredible ride. 112 miles!!! It was phenomenal. Don't get me wrong, it was hilly, it was damn windy but everything worked out just right, the right pace, the right nutrition and the right company. This is what it is all about. Taking your body to a place it has never been before and relishing that moment, holding onto it as long as you can because you know the moment will come and go but the desire to get back there will keep you pushing until you get there again and again and again.

We rode from a place called Boyce, VA. Never knew the place existed but the scenery was absolutely beautiful and not much car traffic. Mark and I spent the night at a hotel since it was about 2 hours from my house to get there. We were well rested as part of the team camped. No way was I going to camp before a 112 mile ride. I wanted a bed and get a good night sleep. It was the right decision. We started around 9:15am and the weather was windy and in the 40's. The day warmed up to the 50's by the end of the day. The first 55 miles of the ride were pretty steady and I kept a nice easy pace staying in Z2 averaging ~ 14.5 mph. I did not want to repeat Lake Anna again! After refueling, the next 15 miles were absolutely brutal as I only average about 11mph pedaling into the wind. IT SUCKED! This was the point where every 5 miles was a milestone. However, after mile 70, either the wind eased up or was behind our backs as we picked up the pace and average the last part around 15.3 mph. I knew when I hit 80 that it was in the bag. I just need to have that same feeling at IM. In all, it took us 7:50 minutes and I averages ~ 14.4 mph. I was the last to come in, but no worries, I was happy with that time and l hope to average the same in CDA.

By the way, the group I train with, Team Z, did a phenomenal job in sagging, cheering us on and waiting for us with BBQ at the end! And getting some cookies from my secret pal certainly was a treat as well. It was a great day. I just need to remember, keep the HR down!

Saturday blues....

My neck is killing me. I woke up yesterday and today in which I could barely move my head without cringing in pain. I can't wait until Monday to see my doctor. Between yesterday and today I have been struggling just to stay awake. I feel like I am in a fog right now. I slept in today to about 10am and felt so lazy. I went for a run and ran with Carol for the first time in about a year. That was probably the highlight of my day as I've got the Saturday blues.

I spent about and hour just now preparing for tomorrow's bike ride. Tomorrow's distance-110 miles! Holy Moly - that is a long way. My longest ride to date is 83 miles and that was about 5 weeks ago. For tomorrow, I prepared 4 water bottles and a pitcher of sustained / gatorade mix, 10 shots of gu and 2 bags of pretzels. Man, it's a lot of work just to get ready for this. I can only imagine what is going to be like to prepare the day before for IM!

Off I go and remember, GO EASY!

CDA IM Get together...

Tonight there was just over 20 of us that met at Tracey's apartment for a get together. They served pasta and lasagna, no surprise at all. It was a great opportunity to get to know the others we are training with as we all talked about why we are doing IM. Some are doing it for the 2nd time which is incredible, and the others including myself the 1st time. There were some amazing stories in which people told us they are training for IM because:

• a few stories about people were always athletic and had a serious injury, such as breaking their back, ankles, whatever, and they never knew they would be able to do something like this.
• one gal got divorced from her husband who survived 9/11 and had panic attacks. Were way of coping with those things was to train for IM. This is her second one.
• Some grew up ever in sports and were never athletic and had the desire to accomplish something big
• One was always told that she can't do something like this by her dad so she said screw it and signed up
• A couple were swimmers all their life and got burned out but missed being fit so started up doing triathlons and went for it

....and on and on the stories went. These people ranged in age from their low 20's to mid 50's.

It was nice to hear that everyone is feeling pretty worn out and knowing you are not alone through this. Team Z is a great place to be when training for something like this. I know I could not do it without them. This was an amazing night.

Oh, and why am I doing IM, that answer will come soon enough.....

PAIN!!!! in the neck.....

First, let's talk about track Wed night and then to the PAIN part. Track was pretty good. It took a lot to get going and I was pretty tired throughout the workout. We did 6 x 1200's at Z4 with 2' recovery between sets. I averaged around 5:18's for the workout. Heck, my first 12oo was at 4:50 which if I was to do another lap would have been around a 6:30 mile!! However, my pace slowed down with the other 1200's as they got harder as the night went on.

When I got home that night, my neck was really sore. I first felt my neck cramping up after swim practice last night and it really bothered me when I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, late for practice it really hurt. At swim practice right when I jumped in the pool to get started I felt a twitch and knew that was it. I tried swimming for about 20 minutes and my neck was killing me. I got out 30 minutes early, showered and left in serious pain. I definitely need to goto the chiropractor!

Tonight, we biked around Hains Point. We did 5' w/u, 30' Z4, 5' Recovery, 15' Z4 and cool down. During my Z4's I averaged 19.6 and 19.4 mph, respectively. This week was very tough and I feel pretty warn out. I have a huge ride on Sunday that I need to get ready for. But before that, we had a get together with all the people training for IM. That is worth a separate post.

just another day...

Last night I tried a new hill workout for the bike in my neighborhood. The route is about a 3.5 mile loop in which I go down a steep hill with a lot of bends and turns, into Rock Creek park, then I ride in Rock Creek racing cars so I don't get run over, then back up a mega long hill out of rock creek that has one stretch of a 11% climb. So, I did the loop 3x, tried to stay in Z2 and creeped into low Z3 and finished up in about 51 minutes. Pretty good workout. We will see how it goes week after week and I can improve on that time while keeping the heartrate down.

Tonight is track, ug. Gotta get motivated......

Motivation!

Man, last nights run took everything out of me just to get outside and START! My motivation was so low because I am so worn down. However, Carol said to me as I was about to crash on the bed, "the sooner you get out there, the sooner you will be done". So, I got my ass off the bed, strapped on the shoes and went out for a run. Turns out after the first 10 minutes I was jacked up and ran the same route I did last Monday in the Zone 2 and did it 5 minutes quicker for a total time of 1:07. If I figure 9 minutes miles its about 7.4 miles. by the way, there are some mega hills on this route, one lasting about .3 miles, the other about 1 mile. Great prep for IM.

It's amazing how I think my new Z2 pace varies between 8 and 8:30 minute miles, however what I am finding is that I cannot sustain that pace and after 3 miles into the run, my heart rate shoots up to Z3 and I have to back off. Can you imagine, 8:30 pace, if I could keep that for a 26.2 miles??? That's a 3:43 marathon!!! Hmmmmmmmmm, I have no plans for the fall....Wait, I can't be distracted, I need to finish IM first!

Swim this morning was at 5am! Yes, 5am so I was up at 4:00am and out the door shortly thereafter. We swam 3600 yards today in 1.5 hours. I'm averaging about 1:43/100yards.

Now, off to a hill bike ride if I can get motivated!

Catch up time......

Well, I am having problems with my computer at home so I have been able to update my blog as frequently as I wanted to. Let me try and get up to speed by back dating a few blogs. I will fill in the gaps as I get time. Training is taking up all my time. So hear it goes.