November Transitions

November is a month of transitions. It marks the end of my 2011 off season and gives way to the 2012 training season. Here are the numbers for November. Very little of anything which is what a good off season should be. I am physically and mentally recharged and excited for the new season.

A lot of thought has gone into the 2012 season. The two big changes for this season:
1) I have me a bonafide triathlon coach!!! Lots of good stuff on the training calendar and definitely different than I'm used to. By the way, Training Peaks is pretty awesome!
2) Tracking and weigh in days!!! Hey, it worked for Ben Davis! Don't worry, I do it weekly not daily.

 Week 1:  149.8 (had a good Thanksgiving!)

Tomorrow begins the 2012 prep phase by easing into the pool at 5:30am. Swim bag is already packed and in the car. Will any one remember me?

Big Sur Half Marathon - 2011 Race Report

Last year, I ran the Big Sur Half Marathon. The Big Sur course winds around downtown Monterey, back towards the wharf, over to downtown Pacific Grove, down to Cannery Row and out along the coast then back again. Last year, I bitched and complained and short changed every workout. The longest training run I managed was a single 8 miler. As I ran that race, I found that never once did I find it not fun. I was disappointed in my 3 hour course time. I vowed it wouldn't happen in 2011.

I wasn't a perfect angel in 2011. However, I hit 2 out of every 3 workouts and every long run except 1. I did 2x8milers, 3x9milers, 2x10milers, and a single 11 miler. When my triathlon season ended, I began to notice a decline in my running speed even though I added boot camp to my weekly training. I tried more warm up which helped but didn't bring it all back. I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew I'd beat 3 hours but, by a little or by a lot, I didn't know.

The weather reports leading up to the 2011 Big Sur Half Marathon were doom and gloom - more preciously a very cold 70% rain. My most favorite race was running in the rain. But it wasn't arctic cold! To give me something fun to think about out there, I made a pledge to my friend Molly (what doing AZIM that day): if she made it to T1 before I made it to mile 10, I'd buy her a Lemon Drop. I figured we were both going for a PR so it would be a win no matter what.

Through out the night, I could hear the rain pounding down and it was still pouring when I woke up. I planned to wear a garbage bag over a long sleeved shirt and over my sleeveless running shirt and arm warmers. It stopped raining shortly before I left for the race.

Because of the proximity of the military base, Big Sur always does the Star Spangled Banner proud and they supply a few soldiers along the course for traffic control. Funny how calm I was. Of course, there was no swim and worry about vertigo. There was no bike and worry about flats. There was just the run and I'd been doing that week after week after week.

 When I got into my coral, I knew it wasn't going to rain enough to matter and it was warmer than it was last year. Off came the arm warmers and I threw the garbage bag away. By the time I had come back towards the wharf, I'd stripped off the long sleeved shirt. Perfect weather for a half.

The first part of the run was exactly as planned. GU at 45 minutes, then every 30 minutes after. I had brought my small water bottle to wash down the GU if I wasn't at an aide station. I was even able to do a 10 second fill up of the bottle. Perfect.

As I reached the turnaround at the top of the hill, I was 12 minutes quicker than last year. I had hoped to be moving faster on the down hill, but I was starting to feel the result of all that effort. At mile 9, the voice said to walk. I thought about Molly bouncing around in that frigid lake and kept running. Finally mile marker 10 - time 1:57 (turned out to be a tie with Molly!). Not as good as I'd hoped but still on schedule for a great PR. Somewhere shortly after mile marker 11, the sprinkles started as I hit the last hill. By that time, I was completely done with hills. I wasn't worried about rain by then. Not too much farther to go. Next it was Cannery Row at mile marker 12. The pain really started here and I wanted to walk. I thought of my niece struggling through a lot of pain in rehab and I pushed through. As I got out on the recreation trail, the spectators cheering helped me to keep going. Especially the guy who said we were 1/4 mile out. I didn't know if he was right, but I knew he wasn't that far off.

Finally, the finishing shoot. No smiles today. I just wanted to be done. Keep running.

Time: 2:34:33 and a major PR

That was 26 minutes in a year with me coaching myself. I wonder what I can do in 2012?

October mish mash

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Just nothing worth blogging about. However, here is a mish mash for October including a race report and October workout totals.

•  I need to mourn the loss of my dream time for the Big Sur Half Marathon. Not that it couldn't still happen, but it isn't as likely as I had hoped. Why let go now? Because I don't want to be disappointed in my actual time. I DO expect to have a great PR (providing my knee holds out) and I want to fully celebrate that. I will have to leave the dream time to next year.

• It sucks losing fitness. My long runs have been going great. I'm able to hold a better pace for the full run than I did last year. I'm still slow by other comparisons, but faster than I was last year -- in the long runs. However, yesterday's 10k was even SLOWWWERRR than my 10k in the Mermaids ???? I've lost that much fitness? I didn't feel bad but it seems I may have a cold. Was that it? I certainly couldn't get much air. Very bummed about that 10k (race report follows)

• Am going to have to do something different than boot camp. As I start to train again, the schedule just doesn't work no matter how much I fit the pieces together. I have stuff at home, but I won't use it. So, gotta find a gym. 24 Hour Fitness, Club One, Right Stuff?

• Got out and rode with my new power meter -- avg. power 94 while completely zone 3 or less. Don't suck as much as I thought I did when I tested it to see if it worked (that was a max 34!)

• Started reading Training for Endurance by Dr. Philip Maffetone -- If he's good enough for Mark Allen and Dave Scott (and by extension Chrissie Wellington), then he's good enough for me!

 Marsh Madness 10K Race Report (No pictures as the camera was goofy)

The course is a relatively flat paved/trail course along the Palo Alto marsh lands. The weather was perfect. I was well rested and while not feeling GREAT, I was feeling OK. Usual early, lite breakfast and then off to the site. I was really hoping to get a finally 10K PR and had worked out what my average speed needed to be -- I wasn't trying to crush my old PR, just improve by 20-30 seconds. I also wanted to stick with my fueling plan for the half marathon -- GU electrolytes and Carbo Pro to drink and GU gel at 40 minutes into the race.

Used my inhaler 20 minutes before race start (some times I forget and suffer at mile 2) I did static and dynamic stretches to warm up. Did a few striders. Got my heart rate up a tad. I lined up in the middle, towards the back. I wanted to hold it down for the fist mile until I was really warmed up. So far so good.

Gun went off, we started off slowly for the first mile. Passed a few walkers, but sticking to plan. Some how, I picked up the pace WAY too early in mile 1. When I hit the second mile, I couldn't hold the pace. At the first water station, I walked while drinking my GU Brew/Carbo Pro mix. By the fourth mile, my knee started to bother me. At this point, I walked so that I could eat the gel and drink some more mix. I was huffing and puffing so I slowed down to my planned half marathon pace. This worked for a little while and then even that seemed too tough to hold. Miles 4 and 5 I had significant walks. When I ran, my stomach sloshed. After mile 5, I picked up again. I was determined to hurry up and get this over with.

Is it because I'm losing fitness? Is it that I went out too fast too early? Is it that I'm coming down with a cold? On the one hand, very frustrating on the other, my long runs have been great (or at least for me). Definitely need to rethink the fueling.... gel is ok, but will need to stick with aide station water I think.

7th out of 13.... hmmm. middle of the group. last year, I'd have been last/almost last.
10K: 1:14:20 (more than 7 minutes over my PR)

October totals (look at the running volume!!! BIG for me ;-)

When September and my Season Ends

With the end of September also comes the end of my triathlon season. I sure wish that I had logged my hours for 2010. It would be fun to compare, but I KNOW this year's numbers would have swamped them. The best way to see this is to compare January's totals with September's:

Compare January's paces to September's and there is improvement across the board. Of course, these are some what rough numbers: .25 mph faster in the swim, almost .25 mph faster in the run, and almost 2mph on bike. I might actually get respectable some day.

One of the things I wanted to do this year was work on strength. As you can see by the year end total for TRX, that hasn't happened yet. I start BootCamp next week so we'll see. I'm determined to drop some weight and build some muscle. Now that I have numbers to compare, I can't wait to blast them apart next year.

Mighty Mermaids - 2011 Race Report

The last of this year's Triathlons is over and done with, but it was fun. The Mighty Mermaids Triathlon is held in Capitola. I was really nervous about this race because it would be the longest of my ocean swims. This is the one that I've been working towards since June.

Grumpy and I drove the bike course yesterday since mapmyride was showing me a really scary course. I mean don't those look like ski slopes?

Any way, between Grumpy's driving and me trying to read the map, I got a major case of car sickness. At this point, everything DID look like a ski slope - ride and run!

I really didn't know how to plan for this race. Go all out on the bike and hold on for the run? Go easy on the bike and save it all for the run? Not that I know how to do that, but I'd try.

I was worried about getting parking, so I had us there before 6am. It was nice to have plenty of time to set up transition, get body marked, find the ride in/out and run out. We then went down to the beach to check out how things were set-up. 

I got in for my warm up around 7:15am. I was surprised at how warm the water was. I mean, it was still cold, but I was able to get my face in the water on the second try. Pacific Grove holds the record for cold this year.

I'd been watching the waves carefully so when something that looked like a wave came towards me, I dove. Ok, so may be a little early, but I wasn't going backward today!

Sighting was tough since often the swells blocked my view. I just kept my eye out for the largest group of women. I was able to find fast feet several times on the way out. On the way in, it hit - my nemesis V-E-R-T-I-G-O. I'm not sure if it is my breathing or the cold water freezing my brain. The cure is a few minutes of swimming doggy style. I got out of the water a little too soon and a very wobbly.

Swim:  34:30   PR! (SV Tri 38:31)

Off to transition. Where is transition you ask? .25 mile up that hill.

 

T1:  9:40 (includes the run up to transition and the run around transition to get to my spot)

Done fooling around in transition, and off on the bike. Hmm. What do you know? There's a hill followed by a hill.

The bike course was hilly, but nothing different that I've ridden all summer. The unfortunate part is that almost every good down hill had to be taken slowly for a variety of reasons: sharp turn at the bottom, speed bumps, giant pot holes. You name it and every time I tried to press for good down hill speed, I was foiled. There was also a MAJOR up hill that we didn't drive yesterday and I'm glad! No one stayed in the saddle for this one and some even walked their bikes up. This was equivalent to the first rise on Sierra Rd.
Bike: 1:45:30
T2: 2:10

The run was 2 loops of which the first loop you had to run almost into the finish shoot before veering off to go back up the hill and through transition. There were more hills in the run and I hate running in sand!

Run: 1:13 (SV Tri was 1:13:09)
Overall: 3:44:30  Total Ascent 1241ft   (SV Tri 725ft)

So, in comparing this Oly with the SV Tri and subtracting 5 minutes for that run from the ocean to transition, I was only 6 minutes over. Given the spotty training I've been doing over the last 6 weeks and the extra 500 ft in ascent, I'm REALLY happy with this race.

What I did right:

• Dove in to the wave at the start.
• Stayed on fast feet.
• Brought and used extra GU.
• Got there early so had a great transition spot.
• Drive the course before hand.

What I did wrong:

• Not doing any race specific training.
• Not doing enough off the bike at pace runs.

Amazing end to peak week

This week has been a week of contemplation. I really want to do a HIM next year. Early in the week, I had convinced myself that any thing less, would mean I'm a failure. I struggled to get in the time needed for an Olympic. How would I do trying to train for a HIM?  The nail in the coffin was when I asked Grumpy if he'd support me doing a HIM and he answered "No". I also looked at my times, and frankly, I don't want to do a 7 hour HIM. 

I was pretty bummed about that and very confused as to what I should plan for next year. I just bought the book Your Best Triathlon by Joe Friel. Since I'm at the end of the season, I jumped ahead and in the last chapter I read:

"Am I Racing the Right Distance?  ... Or perhaps you are racing Olympic distances even though your speed is not great and your endurance is. If this description fits you, maybe you should move up to the half-Ironman distance."

Some how, everything fell into place. No, I won't be doing a HIM in 2012. But now I am actually planning it for in 2013 - as in, I'm doing it. Not afraid to plan it. Confident to plan it. In the mean time, I've got plans for 2012 and a lot of work to do.

Saturday, I did the Jan Lipson Ride For Diabetes which my friend Molly put on. This is a small event that benefits the Diabetes Technology Society. I went into the ride with a new attitude and my goal was to ride those 30 miles as fast and hard as I could. My plan was to leave nothing in reserve.

With in the first 3 miles, I picked up my first drafter and had lost Grumpy. No problem, I'm having a blast. Once I made it over the steep hill and started the rolling hills, I started getting glimpses of Grumpy in the distance. That meant the fast guys had dropped him and my mission was to catch him! It took a few miles and some really hard peddling, but I did catch him. At this point, we picked up 2 more drafters and I was ready to draft off of Grumpy. About the time we reached Old Almaden, Grumpy was spent. So, I pulled again. Some how, I dropped Grumpy going up those little inclines. We reached the turn around point. I waited for Grumpy and the drafters used the trees. The way back was peddle as fast as possible. At the end, Grumpy pulled ahead just so he could said he won -- really???   
30 miles 2:02 not bad for the head wind, hill, wait, and stop lights. Stoked!

This morning, I met up with a group of PinkLadies that are doing the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon. They had 10 miles to run and I had 9. We met at Los Gatos Creek trail for an out and back. There's NO WAY I was going to keep up with them. My goal was to do my run as close to my Big Sur Half Marathon pace as I could -- and honestly, I didn't want them to get back too much before me. Going south, the trail is a slight incline. I worked HARD to keep my pace up. Going north, the trail is a slight decline -- woohoo!
9 miles 1:42:11 AND I BEAT THEM BACK WITH TIME TO SPARE!!  Stoked!

Next week is the Mermaids Mighty Triathlon - I'm ready!

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K & Pacific Grove Sprint Race Reports

No. I'm not an over achiever. No. I'm not crazy. Yes. I did do 2 races on the same weekend. No. I don't have pictures, but it DID happen because there are on-line records!

The Plan: 

1. To spice things up, do the Palo Alto Moonlight 10K on Friday night as my "long" run for the week (i.e., run it very slowly). 
2. Do the Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon as an all out brick (Note that the swim is 1/4 mile and the run is 2 miles)

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K

The weather reports said chance of lighting in the east bay and in the Sierras. It said nothing about all of the bay area. Grumpy did the 5k walk and then it was my turn to do the run. It was pretty crowded so I stayed toward the back since I was going to run slowly.

The first 2 miles went as planned and there were lots of people around. As soon as we were committed to running the levees, the lightening started and the crowd thinned. The ground was surprisingly secure. I had plenty of light between my headlamp and my little flashlight. So, I was off. At some point out around mile 4, I found my rhythm - that point when your form is correct so you're not expending as much energy. Unfortunately, I don't have the leg to keep that -- but I felt it FINALLY!

It was around the 4.5 mile mark when the rain started. I LOVE running in the rain, but lighting when I'm the tallest thing out on the levee wasn't too appealing. Once back on to the asphalt, the course goes to a stupid little out and back to make the mileage. As I got to the turnaround, this most amazing gust of wind hit me. I was almost at the turnaround so hoped to use it as a tail wind as I turned. Unfortunately, it died as soon as I needed it.

I finished the run at 1:10:36 Garmin said 6.37 miles which wasn't bad for starting really slowly and having to wade through the crowd. But had I done too much? Quick - Protein, E21, Ice Bath. Compression Tights. Bed.

Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon
Amended Plan - Survive the swim. Bike like hell. Do what you can on the run.

Although I got to bed by 9:30pm, something had me up every 2 hours - Shelby wanted something. I had to pee. Grumpy came home and the grrls had to let me know...  on and on. Finally, 3:45am arrived, things were loaded into the car, and we took off for Pacific Grove (roughly 1 1/2 hour drive). After a little back and forth, we found a great place to park and began unloading my stuff. 


I had Grumpy pump my tires because the last time I did it, I tore the stem off. No sooner had he put the pump on and the air fizzed out that he realized that the pump was broken. CRAP! By the light of the Pilot's hatch and my cell phone, he actually fixed it! I got to transition by 6:20. We had assigned spots. I got set-up, got my body markings, and made a note of where the various ins/outs of transition were before heading down to the water. 


OH MY GOD that water was cold. It was colder than Santa Cruz last month. I made sure to get my face in the water and get over the shock. The swim was only 1/4 mile and you had to crawl over kelp. Turns out all my fretting about the kelp was over nothing. What I should have been concerned about was that people would bunch together to stay in the channels that the previous waves had made. This was the most physical swim I've had yet. I got kicked twice and twacked on my goggles once -- none hard and none hurt. Just enough for me to get out of there.

Swim: 11:22 - I survived


I tottered out of the water and started up to stairs to transition. By the time I reached my bike rack (which was the farthest away from swim entry), I had my legs back. Quick change... oops put my helmet on backwards but fixed it before I left transition. 


T1: 3:53

The bike course was 2 loops of 3 miles out and back along the coast. This is where the lack of recent riding hurt. I concentrated on pumping, pumping, pumping (and not drafting) but I wasn't getting much. This course had a short hill that I lost a lot of speed on, but I made sure that I pumped hard on the way back down to regain what I lost. As I came in to make the turn for my second loop, I made sure to get to the left early -- but no too early. Seemed like there were a lot of people that didn't do their second loop because on this time there wasn't any one out there for a long time. I caught some one at the turn around point and she promptly fell in front of me... YIKES! UNCLIP UNCLIP UNCLIP.  I DID IT!!!! So, off I went back to transition -- making sure to dismount BEFORE the dismount line.

Bike: 46:56 (if you believe their mileage is 15.80 if you believe Garmin 310XT mileage, it is 16.29)

So, off to the other side of transition to change and then back to the other side for the run out.

T2: 3:12 (pretty impressive considering where my spot was!)

The run course was 2 loops 1/2 mile along a trail that follows the coast and then cuts back on Ocean View to Lover's Point. It started off as painful as usual. I thought that it was because my legs were still sore from Friday night's race. My calves were SKA-REEMIN' but I ignored them. I glanced at my Garmin to see my pace was 13.89 -- shit, this is going to be a long 2 miles! I made it around the first loop and I noticed my legs weren't hurting any more. I started to push harder and glanced at my Garmin -- huh? 14.56???? Whatever, it doesn't hurt so just go. At the final turn, I looked at the Garmin again --WTF?! 14.89!!! Then it hit me. That wasn't pace -- it was the total mileage for the WHOLE race! I had no clue how fast I was going!

Run: 21:11

No PRs this weekend. In all, not bad for a training run and a brick. I know the lack of riding mileage in August and early September has hurt me. I hope I can get some of that back for Mermaids.

P.S. Grumpy ran his first ever race - 5k for a whopping 26:04! So proud of him. Imagine what he could do if he trained.