2011: Doing it Better

The motto for 2011 was "Do It Better" and I think I met that in every sense of the phrase. This was my first full year of doing real triathlons. But I didn't stop there. I did a duathlon and several aquathons. I worked hard to swim/ride/run faster and was rewarded by achieving heights I had never considered.

I also worked hard to become a real agility and obedience team with Shelby. For that, I was rewarded with many titles including Shelby's Beginning Novice (a surprise to many).

I also made great new memories with old friends and family and made new friendships that I hope will continue to grow.

I enjoyed the year so much, I thought some one should make a movie about it...

Motto for 2012 is "Do It Stronger". Here's wishing you all a stronger 2012!

Ice berg in the pool!

Dinner Club
Saturday was Grumpy's and my turn to host dinner club. He decided to make Beef Wellington. He had this wonderful beef tenderloin hunk of meat that he pasted with a mushroom mixture and wrapped in prosciutto.

 Then, he wrapped the pastry around it. Sorry, no finished picture. It was fabulous.

Training

This has been a step back week. Training has been so lite I've hardly noticed. Most exciting thing on the calendar this week are the swim and bike tests. I was at the pool this morning to knock off that swim test. Brrr. 36 degrees! It took me 250 yards before the goose bumps went away -- or may be I was too numb to notice.


The swim test is one of the easiest tests that I need to do. However, I was worried I'd screw it up by miscounting or stopping my watch in the middle or some ditzy thing. But, I didn't! As I came back from each 75, I reminded myself to check the wall clock, THEN hit my lap button on my watch, then go when it was time for the next 100. Hope I gave coach good data.

Christmas eve is when I do the bike test. I'm a little worried about that as I watched the power meter on last night's ride jump all over the place yet I held the cadence pretty constant. If nothing else, coach will let me know if my meter needs to go back to the factory.

The run test won't be until next week. I'm hoping last night's off the bike lite run of the bike is a good indicator. My runs have been feeling good so, hopefully I'll get good numbers next week for the test. I wouldn't mind a new 5k PR either but, that will just be a side benefit.

For now, I sit in a long sleeved T-shirt, running jacket, Grumpy's pull over sweater, thermal pants, sweat pants, 2 pairs of socks and a blanket. I hope I thaw out by Christmas.

Weigh In Day


Maintained this week -barely. 

Week One:  149.8
Week Four: 146.6 

I'm not feeling as confident on next week's weigh in. Seriously, weighing in THE DAY AFTER Christmas ????? It is what it is and I'll own it.

Thought I'd forgotten weigh in day -- didn't you!

But, I didn't forget. I just didn't want to just post a weigh in. Sorry, kind of boring but, weigh in has to get posted.

I have no pictures to prove that training is going well. My swim is almost back to where I left it at the end of last season. I'm excited about being there so early in training. I'm doing lots of drills that I really hate but, really need. Next week is swim and bike test. Starting to get nervous.

Weigh In Day
 
Ok, I won't bore you any longer... Monday's weigh in turned out ok. Down another pound!

Week One:  149.8
Week Three: 146.6 

The goal for the next 2 weeks is just to maintain. If I happen to lose, great. But, I will enjoy the holidays -- with in reason.

The Big City

Back in training and loving it. To ease back into things, Grumpy and I rode in San Francisco with my sister, Shelly, and my brother Ray. Saturday morning, we started at Crissy Field. It was windy and in the 50's but, the sky was a beautiful, clear blue.

Upon leaving the parking lot, we immediately had a steep (but short) climb up to the Golden Gate bridge. We rode across the eastern side which allows both pedestrian and bicyclists. Because we were so early, the tourists hadn't come out yet so riding wasn't difficult.

We stopped along the bridge several times to take in the sights. Grumpy insisted in taunting any one who might be interested in Escape from Alcatraz. My brother had his helmet cam going. Yes, it was really this loud on the bridge.

 

 © 2011 Ray Prevost

Although we had planned to go further, we ended up spending time in Sausalito. We viewed some amazing house boats and had a nice lunch at Fred's.

In order to get on the west side of the bridge (cyclists only), we had to ride under the bridge and then up this hill. I looked at my power meter during this and it was at 282!

Although the western side is for cyclists only, it was SCARY! It's more narrow and there are a wide range of cyclist. I don't think that was on my bucket list, but I'll write it in if not.

Weigh In Day

It's weigh in day! Believe it or not, this actually helped me avoid a little temptation this week. Down 1.2 pounds! Ok, a little truth here. Week one's weigh in day followed a especially big weekend and I knew it would be easy this week. Not to diminish accomplishments, but I won't really be working until I'm below 145. The rest is just ebb and flow. Still, gotta love this downward trend.

Week One:  149.8
Week 2: 147.6

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 ;-)