LD: 16

So, in building miles for the marathon in just a few weeks, I did a long-distance run this weekend. 16.12 officially, according to MapMyRide's GPS tracker. This was longer, by two miles, than my previous longest training run, which was 14 last September in prep for the Brewers 1/2 marathon.

16.12 miles was about two miles short of my goal for yesterday. Let me explain:

The plan was to start in Waukesha and run the Glacial Drumlin trail about 8-9 miles to the Ice Age Trail which meets up with the Lapham Peak (race day) trails after about 2.5 miles. My plan was then to do one loop of the race-day trail (6.5 miles), meet Sherry at the tower and collapse after roughly 18 miles. The solid parts of this plan, to me, was building the mileage while not getting beat up by the trail the whole way, yet get on the trail after most of the miles were logged to get some feel for how race day might go.

It was a great run to start. At about 8 miles I thought, "Almost halfway there." And not ironically. Looking forward to it. I felt great, especially considering how just two years ago the thought of biking, much less running, 16 miles would have seemed ridiculous.

Then at almost exactly mile 15, not quite halfway through my loop on the Lapham trail, my calves seized and screamed. I'd been walking uphills, doing gentle downhills and mainly jogging the flats by that point. No speed, just keeping moving. My calves wanted no more of it. I wasn't even on an incline at the time. It wasn't a mental wall, as I tried to reason through things, stretch, keep going, etc. My brain wasn't ready to give in, but my calves did -- it wasn't an injury, that I could tell. They were just done.

I wanted to text Sherry to meet me at the bottom parking lot a dozen times, but I resisted and still wanted to make my goal. I walked through the pain, slowly. I sat on a bench and let my legs dangle. I slowly continued along the trail. And as I thought about how bad my calves were hurting, I knew that the downhills on this part of the trail were going to be replaced by about three significant uphills getting back up to the tower parking lot. I finally did text that I was going to be short, please meet at lower lot. I did not want to push the last two miles and possibly injure my now-exhausted calves. Everything else seemed fine - quads, hamstrings, feet, etc.

(Oh, also, I forgot to bring water with me. I stopped and drank briefly at a few bubblers,
but not much. I think it's entirely possible that if I'd been better hydrated, I could have made the whole planned 18 miles. Food--well, water--for thought.)

Today, my hips are tight, but my calves are fine. It's going to be a good rest day. Sometime in the next 12 days, I need to do a 20 (properly hydrated), and that will be by longest training run before the race.

My new timing plan for the race is 7 hours. I'm looking at 3 hours for the first two loops, and 4 hours for the last two.

My first marathon

In the disappointing hours, and days, that followed my DNF in Racine, I needed something. A new goal. A reason to keep training. A way to make sure all the Ironman workouts weren't "wasted."

So, I moved by Priority A2 race goal for the year, a marathon, from sometime in November or December, to six weeks away. I signed up for the trail marathon at Lapham Peak State Park on Sept. 7.

I'd been out there hiking on some of the trails recently, and when I googled "marathon, Wisconsin," the Lapham race popped up and I signed up. It'll be four laps on the hardest trail, with a diversion on lap 1 that climbs the tower and back down.

Since I'd been thinking seriously about doing the Death Valley marathon in December as my first, choosing a trail run 26.2 doesn't feel that odd.

Last week, I did my first walk of the whole trail to get an idea of all the terrain for the run. There are many rolling hills, and a few very steep climbs on the course. (It's a good thing I didn't walk the whole trail before signing up though, or I might not have done so.)

So now my next six weeks will include longer and longer runs, and some biking and swimming. I'm trying to do at least 4-5 mile runs a couple times during the week, and have long-distance runs just about each weekend when I can leading up to the race.

LD run this past weekend was 11.25 miles, in a bit over two hours. Sometime next weekend I need to work in 14-15 miles.

*Insert Polite 'DNF' Headline Here*

In this scenario, I'm the mouse
and the cat is Lake Michigan.

... Because I want to title this post, "Mindf---ed." Which is exactly where I am, still, when it comes to open water swims. I thought I had a plan, but I was wrong. Though by now I should be thoroughly exhausted, I have more than enough energy to burn after a disappointing day -- rather race. A very disappointing race. My day wound up pretty nice, with many thanks and all appreciation to Sherry and her extraordinarily positive and uplifting outlook on life, me, racing and so much more. Thank you.

In case you're curious, here's a quick sum up of (my first) experience with a 70.3-mile tri-distance race. I think I trained enough to finish (of course I'll never know for sure). I did an open-water swim of about a 1/4 mile 10 days ago, and while I didn't like the open water, even in a non-race setting, I did finish and confirm my plan that I could breast until my breathing calmed down and then switch to free. 

Thursday night, I went to pick up my rented wetsuit. They didn't have it. The poor clerk was very sweet and truly sorry that it wasn't there, unsure if it might have been sold or double reserved and already out to a different renter. I think, all in all, I took it pretty well in stride. No anger, cursing or anything else. We went to another shop to try to get something last minute, and their only suit left didn't fit. Ah well. Forget it. I'll swim Lake Michigan in just my trisuit (which offers no buoyancy or warmth), since it's been in the 90s the past week or so. 

Most of the week, I'd been watching my intake to be lower fat, complex carbs and lean(ish) protein. Saturday we went to Racine to checkin and get the bike into transition. Things were mostly smooth and I was looking forward to the race (nervously, I think, Sherry will tell you). 

So, we got up at 4 and headed down to Racine. Setup my transition spot, found Sherry and we walked the mile up the beach to race start. Beautiful day. Not too big of swells (from shore). I wandered into the water and got acclimated to the temps -- I think about 65 degrees if I remember correctly. It would have been nice to have a wetsuit, but I'm not blaming, just observing. 

Pollock's "No. 1, 1949"

Then I was soon into my wave start, standing at the back, ready to get going and breaststroke until I got comfortable. Horn goes off, and in I go, walking until it got too deep. Then I started swimming, and it was OK. Then I started getting hit in the face by the swells. They compromised my breathing, and my mind went all Jackson Pollock. 

I saw one of the boats nearby and made my way over to hold the edge for a minute (legal). They asked if I was OK, and I said that the swells were tougher than I expected. (I was just barely a 1/10 mile in, and hadn't turned yet.) They asked if I was done, and said that the swells work more with you than against at the next buoy, which was the turn south. I thanked them, felt better and started swimming again. 

I made it a bit further, but the swells felt even bigger (I don't think they were). In my head, I was super-focused. On the next buoy, 1/10 mile away. I wasn't sure I could make it through the swells to get there. I tried to tread water for a bit and really think. What I came up with went something like this: "I don't think you can make it there. If you do, I'm not sure you can make the next one." While I was treading water, another boat circled nearby. There were already three racers in it that were done. I hung onto the side. I tried to get myself to go back out, but I couldn't make my f---ing hand let go of the boat. I climbed in. 

DNF.

I'm not going to recount the pain and disappointment in the decision to take myself out, the boatride back to shore, the walk up the beach passing by competitors whose waves hadn't started yet or anything else. That's between me and God. But I can tell you it sucked. 

I was lucky to have Sherry to help lift my spirits enough to make the walk back a mile down to transition and walk in, amongst all the people who did make the swim and were suiting up to bike, and I packed my transition bag and walked my bike up the hill and back to the car.

I encountered 3-4 different Ironman volunteers who were reassuring, wished me a better race and so forth next year. Even some spectators who saw me walking the bike out did too. It was heartening and what the sport is about. 

I'll be back. This isn't the end. I'm going to work on my psychology for the open water, which I suspect will be adding a lot more open water swimming to my training. As they say, "Winning beats finishing, finishing beats DNF, DNF beats DNS, and DNS beats Didn't even get off the couch." I'm only one step down from where I want to be and two up from where I was. 

Crap II

My brother just pointed out to me that it's been awhile (again) since I posted. Some updates ... A couple weeks ago, I did the Green Bay Olympic tri as a test run on several things. 

I learned that with very little prep, I can do the endurance thing and finish. My times won't be great, but I finish. 

I learned that wetsuits do indeed offer a huge advantage in buoyancy for the swim. Huge. 

I learned that hard as I try to stay calm at the start, my adrenaline ramps up and combines with the chaos of the swim start. It makes my breathing and form terrible, and I switched to breast again. Right now, my only solution to that is to try and do some open-water swims on my own before Racine, and to change my race-day plan. As of now, I'm going to plan to hit the water towards the back of the pack and start with breast. When I feel comfortable, I can switch to freestyle when my breathing settles down. I think that will be much better than having a freakout early on in the water, or doing breast the entire 1.2 miles and expect my legs to have enough left for a 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. 

I learned that my new Trek Madone is a sweet, sweet ride. I tackled the 29 miles in a good time, wasn't too sore or worn out as a result of having the wrong bike. 

I learned that I need to push myself on the run more. I did OK, but I know I left some out on the course. 

I learned that I need to be doing workouts 5-6x every week, minimum, with two-a-days as often as possible. This week I'm planning to do swimming each morning, and a bike or run each afternoon or evening. 

-----

I will do a post later this week to update my training numbers. 

Well, crap.

Just saw my numbers for the tri, and they weren't as good as I thought. The clock I saw that said 11:37 must have been off.

My overall time was 1:55:46, which at under two hours still beats my goal for the race. So that's awesome. And both transition times were under four minutes, which means I improved on that from Pewaukee too.

My swim time for the 500 was 10:52, which absolutely rocks. During my timed training swims with my coach, my average 500 has typically been around 12 minutes. Then T1 time was 3:47.

My bike time was OK at 54:23, which was a 15-mph pace. I know that could've been much better if I'd simply made time to get the bike in for a tuneup last week. And/or got out for a few more rides in the past couple weeks.

My run clocked in at 44:26 for a 14:20 average mile. That sucks. I'm way better than that. Over a three-mile run, I should be averaging closer to 10:30 or 11-min. miles. I know part of that is because I haven't done a brick since last summer ... so I guess I know which part of the 1/2 Iron training plan I really need to concentrate on.

Bricks, bricks, bricks.

I think I need to find a tri I can run in June as a trainer -- maybe something Olympic distance as a step up from these sprints.

J-Hawk Early Bird sprint tri recap

OK, so just got home from the J-Hawk Early Bird tri in Whitewater, and it’s incredible how much difference a year makes. It’s all about perspective, which, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” 

Well, I think I know what kind of person I am (let’s not go into that). But, standing on the other side of having done not only my first tri in Pewaukee last summer but also some running races, this morning was a completely different tri than last year. 

I wasn’t anxious about the swim (mainly because it was a pool swim instead of open water). 

I didn’t obsess over nutrition and hydration (I had some GUs ready to go, and electrolyte drink in my water bottle.) After all, it would be less than two hours (hopefully), and that’s less than some of the LD training runs I did for the Brewers 1/2 marathon last fall. 

All in all, it was a great morning. 

For the swim, they started three of us in one lane about seven seconds apart. The first swimmer said she was going to breaststroke the whole way (500 yards, or 10 laps), and the middle person said he would do some free and switch to backstroke when he needed a breather. I knew I would likely do free the whole way and have to pass at some point … and I did. The middle guy and I passed the woman on the first lap, and then I passed him on the second lap. Then I was open for several laps, caught up to the first lady and passed her again, and was free for a couple laps. Then I caught and passed the other guy again, and the first lady one more time just as I started the 10th lap. I powered through that and went out to the bike. 

The bike course was relatively flat, and I made a conscious effort to enjoy it instead of be mad that I didn’t have my new road bike yet (thanks to a screw up at the bike shop … where I won’t be buying now). My poor Trek hybrid was neglected all winter, and wasn’t happy to be out today, so we muddled through together, found a smooth rhythm a few times and like that (it seems) I was back in transition for the run. 

The run I was looking forward to, because it was mainly on a nature preserve. It was hilly, and a few areas were pretty mucky, but it was a nice run (about three miles, I think). I didn’t plan to, but ended up doing a run-walk-run because my quads felt decimated early on from the bike. (That I remember from the last tri and brick trainings last year.) I finished strong and felt good. (Still feel good…)

I’ll add some numbers in my next post when I get my chip times. But my wave started the swim about 10 a.m., and I was through the finish and eating a chocolate chip cookie on my way to the car at 11:37. 

Oh yeah, and today’s race kicks off the 12-week training plan for the Racine 1/2 Ironman in July. Off we go!

Now time for a shower, get dressed and go to have a steak dinner with my parents and older brother. (I think I’ll take a nap over there, because if I nap here I may not make it…)

P.S. And one more note on perspective, from comedian Steven Wright: “Anywhere is walking distance if you have enough time.”

New beginnings

So after a lot of personal upheaval, I'm settling into 2013 and just recently got signed up for two races, one in a few weeks and one that will be my priority training target for the first half of the year.

In a couple weeks, I will be running a 17k (10.5xxx miles?) on March 17 - St. Patrick's Day. This is my motivation to get started running again after many weeks off. I feel like I could go out and run 10 or 11 miles right now and do OK, but it will be better to build up to it with this race.

As to my priority race, on July 21, I will be running the Racine 1/2 Ironman. Starting that 12-week training program is right around the corner from St. Patty's, so after March 17 I'll need to start training so I can do ... the training. Finishing this race will be a huge step toward tackling a full Ironman tri by the time I'm 45.

Not to get too personal, but an added hurdle with training going forward will be scheduling around when I will have my kids. Rather than scheduling big bricks or long runs and rides on weekends, I will need to work them into every other weekends and early mornings or evenings when I'm free. I'm sure I'll get it figured.

Also this year, still planning to do the Brewers 1/2 marathon (2nd annual) in September, and maybe even a full marathon by November.

Coming soon, I'll be buying a road bike and a wetsuit.