Training Update for January 20 - January 26

My annoying cold is out of the system and back to full training this week.   Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it back to Masters Swim class due to various reasons (can't make it this coming week either), but I put in 5,400 yards still.  I also attended a spin class led by a coworker, Kevin (who will be doing Chicago Triathlon with us this year!).

Swim: 5,400 yards / 1:45
Bike: 37.35 / 3:14  (excludes Spin class mileage.. didn't have a way to track)
Run: 31.50 / 4:05
Strength: 2 Sessions / 2 Hours

Total: 72 miles / 11 Hours

Running seems to be on track again.  I did a 5 mile marathon pace run this week and stayed around 7:11 minute miles while a heart rate of 150.  This is spot on where I want to be.  These were flat treadmill miles, so you have to take it with a grain of salt.  Today I did 15 miles at 7:37 average pace with an average HR of 153, aided by some actual elevation gain.  I'm still feeling good about this.  My foot held up really well too.

Dishwasher Run
Saturday TKB and I decided to finally upgrade our dishwasher.  Off to the "local" furniture and appliance store.  We found one that met our needs (and mostly our budget) and took advantage of the free delivery, which was to be on Sunday.  By the time we got home on Saturday, I was exhausted.  So instead of removing the old dishwasher so that the delivery guys could haul it away, I went to sleep.  6:30am alarm so I could get my 15 miler in was waiting for me instead, so off to bed.

I eventually got out the door by 7:30am.  I did one of my favorite loops that takes me through Parkville, out to Argosy Casino then back up to 64th street through the Line Creek trail.  About mile 10, I get a phone call.  It's the delivery guys and they will be at our house between 9am to 11am.  It was 8:45 at the time!  Crap!!  I still needed to disconnect our old dishwasher!  I called TKB and asked her to do her best and took off.  Long runs are suppose to be low zone (heart rate) but so much for that.  Unfortunately, 75% of the 700 feet of elevation gain planned on this route was yet to come.

I took off and kept my pace pretty much the same for the rest of the trip but killed my heart rate considering the hills.  Just as I was getting near the final turn into my neighborhood, I saw the delivery truck leave!!  Dang it!!

When I got home, the new dishwasher was sitting in the kitchen the old dishwasher was about 95% of the way disconnected.  TKB did an awesome job getting it out but had issue with the water hookup.  So close!

I got the new one installed with few issues.  As you can see, it comes with a laser beam!  It's so quiet that they have this light on so you can tell if it is running

Training Update

Training took a hiccup this week as I started inexplicably coughing Wednesday night.  So much so that I slept in the other room so as to not bother TKB.  I did my swim Thursday morning (had a work meeting Thursday night so I had to skip Masters Swim class).  Then as the day got started I could tell something was going fisticuffs with my immune system.

I decided to head things off Thursday morning at work by starting the Vitamin C drip, so I walked down to the local drug store to pickup some Airborne.  I picked up the kind that you just suck on and it slowly dissolves... or so I thought.  I plopped it in my mouth and the effervescent fizz started foaming Vitamin C.  Slightly awkward yet refreshing.  I checked plenty of windows on the way back to the office to make sure I didn't look like a rabid software developer.  Apparently I picked up the kind you put in 4 - 6 oz of water and then drink.

I ended up leaving work at noon after a meeting.  I slept until 5:30pm when lovely TKB took care of me with some soup.  Temp was over 100 degrees by the time I went to sleep for the final time that night.

I stayed home Friday to rest up even though the temp had returned to normal.  Saturday I felt about 80% and resumed training.  

Sunday was a 14 mile run and the last test of my neuroma foot issue.  While I can generally tell it's there, it is the 12+ milers that cause pains.  I did 15 miles the weekend before but was slower than my normal pace, so I kept it moving during this 14 miler.  I'm happy to say that I didn't notice any issues at all.  Time to call the podiatrist and let him know how it is progressing.

Swim: 5,400 Yards

Bike: 37.84 Miles

Run: 21.88 Miles

Strength: 2 Hours

62.79 Miles / 9:10 Hours

I ended up missing a bike and run.

I'm still about 85% - 90%  Luckily I have one more day off from work to relax and maybe top off at 100%.

Thanks for reading!

Swimming With The Masters

Masters Swim 'Training Center" - Gladstone Community Center

Three years ago when I started participating in Corporate Challenge events, specifically the triathlon event, I first met Doug Hayden who is a masters swimming coach that worked at my company.  He was doing the swim leg of our corporate team.  As you may expect, he was also the coordinator for our company's swim team.  After the triathlon, Doug asked me to swim on the company team but I wasn't confident in doing it.

The next year I saw Doug at the corporate challenge track events and told him I had planned to take his class in the off season.  It was because I was eyeing my first ironman for that following year and I was also heading off any questions about participating on our team that year.

Sadly, I didn't join the class (and missed out an ironman podium by 5 minutes).

Now that I've done a 140.6, I'm done finding the next longer distance race to do (I'm not doing a double ironman event).  I need to start focusing on getting faster at the distance I enjoy... which, coincidentally, is suddenly the ironman distance.

If I plan to get faster, then time to work on my weaknesses.  So I showed up for my first class on Saturday!  My timing was rather poor considering it was the fourth of January.  Read: apparent New Years Resolutionist.

I showed up at 6:45am and chatted with Kristen (who has appeared on various blog posts here) waiting for the center to open.  Doug soon showed up and told us something I was pretty excited about, we were doing threshold testing.  This gives a good baseline of ability so we can see how we improve over time.  We did 3 x 300 yards and averaged the time to get our 100 yard time and then add 10 seconds.  My average was 1:35, so the threshold is 1:45.  Kinda cool, especially since I couldn't believe I could do a 1:35 pace, let alone 3 x 300 yards at that average.  Having other people in the lane helps!

First day and 3,400 yards done!  I talked with Coach Doug afterwards and he gave me some hints.

I have attended Monday and Thursday's (tonight) sessions as well.  Unfortunately, those classes are at 7:30pm and will be hard to attend because every other Thursday night I have a conference call for work and Monday I do my strength training with Sam at 4:30pm.  So it may be hard to drop 4,000 yards after shredding my arms "pumping the iron".  Naturally, Saturday's I prefer to swim/bike in the morning so swimming will be hard to throw in the mix without killing my entire Saturday.

So my goal is to do 2 sessions a week but naturally I'll want to attend all the sessions, if to just knock the demeanor of being a New Years Resolutionists.

The sessions are 90 minutes long, so we are hitting some pretty high distance.  In fact, on Monday we did 3,600 yards.  I had never hit that distance in a single training session during my ironman training.

Well, hopefully I can keep this up and see some great results!

Thanks for reading!!

New Year Musings

Just putting some thoughts together when I should probably be focusing on work work...

"Giving Back"
Every year I say I'm going to volunteer at a race and it never seems to fit in my training schedule (world's worst excuse).  At least last year we did our "High 5 Station" at the Garmin Marathon and had a complete blast.  This year, I'm going one step forward and volunteered to be the Kansas City Corporate Challenge Triathlon/Duathlon coordinator for my company.  This means begging and pleading people to participate in probably one of the more challenging events.  I've participated in this triathlon in 2011, 2012 (the only triathlon I did that year), and 2013.

Foot Issue
I've mentioned in the past problems with my left foot, but never elaborated.  Back in June I noticed during bike rides more than 20 miles I had a "hot spot" on the ball of my left foot between my big toe and the next toe (pointy toe?).  It never hurt but was definitely annoying.  I actually did mention it back in August in this post.  During a 20 mile run back in November, I ended up calling TKB after 15 miles because it hurt like crazy.  Normally I can rub on it for a bit and it is fine.  Not this time.

I talked to the doctor in my annual "well man's exam" in December.  He suggested some metatarsal pads to provide more cushion.  I went to a local running store and they installed them.  I later adjusted them because I was stupid.  If they are there to provide more cushion, shouldn't they be under the ball of my foot (no, they aren't.. that's one of the worst things to do)?  Not stupid enough?  I then went for a 10 mile run on them and then a 5 mile treadmill run the next day.  Two days later, that spot hurt like crazy.

The next week I got a referral to meet a podiatrist who is also a local triathlete.  When I finally met him on December 26, he did an x-ray and ultrasound of my foot and diagnosed it as a neuroma.  We talked about what caused it and we quickly pinpointed my cycling shoes. When I bought my triathlon bike in February, I went from SPD cleats to SpeedPlays.  The Doc suggested I look at the cleat placement and move them away from the balls of my feet. Oh... and he gave me a cortisone shot to help loosen up the neuroma.

The Doc explained that I may have a painful reaction from the shot but it only impacts 1 of 50 people.  Well, my friend Jill got a cortisone shot recently and feel free to read her experience about it in this post (seriously, go read it and read the entire post. It includes her report of spectating my ironman!).  She was amazed that it took her 7 months to get her cortisone shot when it took me about 5 minutes of saying "wah" and some ultrasound goo on my foot.  For the record, I never experience that pain.

I finally got around to adjusting my cycling cleat.  Sure enough... my left foot's cycling cleat was adjusted as far under the ball of my foot as possible while my right cleat was adjusted in the middle.  I moved them all away from the ball of my foot.

Unfortunately I won't be doing another long run for a few weeks, so I won't know for a while.  I can't say it's feeling any better yet but it doesn't usually flare up lately until I do a long run.

*sniffle sniffle*
I've been fighting off a sinus cold lately.  It's been pretty annoying.  It first hit me before Christmas and then again a few days later (had to take Friday off from work) and again on New Year's Eve.  Basically, any day I had off the last two weeks I've been laid up with this stupid cold.  Before it really hit me on New Year's Eve, I did manage a 5 mile run outside in the 50 degree temperature. I averaged 7:48 pace in my aerobic zone so I'm feeling pretty good that the reduced training since October is still keeping me with a good base for the upcoming season.

Ticket to Boston
Speaking of the upcoming season, I'm going to try a Boston Qualify (BQ) attempt again.  In November, I did manage this run:

My average heart rate was at the top of my aerobic range, if not pushing my anaerobic threshold.  That's not quite BQ (it's a 3:15 marathon and I need 3:08-ish) but I felt that had I been in a race with a pace group, it would have happened.  (Note: that was also my coldest run ever at 12 degrees).

I'm targeting Garmin Marathon in April (the site of last year's "High 5 Station").  For the record, I loathe training for endurance events during the winter.

Swimming with the Masters!
I'm not a New Year's Resolution type of person but I do have a goal to improve my swimming.  So I'm finally taking the plunge and joining a Master's Swimming class.  Assuming this cold doesn't hit me again, I'm going on Saturday.  I talked with the coach over the past weekend, suckered another coworker to join me, and mentioned it to a few other people (to make me accountable) and now I'm telling my three blog readers to make me even more accountable!  I'll report back on Monday!

Enough musing for now.  Thanks for reading!!

2013 Year in Review

2013 was my return to full blown triathlons....  as in full blown ironman, full blown triathlon bike, and fully blown bank account!

Races from 2013!

• Walt Disney World 5K
• Walt Disney World Half Marathon
• Walt Disney World Marathon
• Trolley Run 4 Miler
• KC Triathlon "Race Report"
• Kansas City Corporate Challenge Bike Race
• Hospital Hill Half Marathon
• Kansas City Corporate Challenge Track Week
• Topeka Tinman Triathlon - Long Course
• Kansas City Corporate Challenge Triathlon
• Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon - Long Course
• Lawrence Triathlon Race Report - Long Course
• Pigman Triathlon - 70.3
• Head for the Cure 5k
• Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare (10k/half marathon)
• Bringing Up the Rear 5k - always have to skip a race report each year, apparently.
• Beach2Battleship 140.6
• Thanksgiving Day 5k

Lesson's Learned:

• Not really new but confirmed.  Cross-training rules.  I finally hit my sub-20 5k and now I'm thinking sub-19 is a possibility.  BQ is becoming a goal in 2014.  It's funny how training for an ironman has massively helped my short distance running, which makes me think I can hit a huge long distance running goal.  It all seems rather backward but in November I ran 20 miles at the pace of completing a 3:15 marathon, so it gave me hopes.

• Nutrition is key for those endurance triathlons.  I had two completely different brick workouts a week apart.  Both were 5+ hours bike and a 1 hour run.  The first week I did not follow my nutrition plan and completely blew up on the run.  The next week I followed my plant to a "T" and had one of the best runs, ever.

• Listen to your body and do something about it.  I had a nagging foot issue that started in June.  It didn't really slow me down until I did a 15 mile run in November and it hurt so much I had to call TKB to pick me up.  Back in June I started noticing an annoying foot discomfort while on the bike and it eventually converted to a run discomfort.  As it turned out, the new cleats I had installed back in February were too far forward creating additional stress on my foot that led to a neuroma.  Fortunately I caught it early enough that a short trip to a podiatrist and some adjustments to my cleat and running shoe should resolve it.

• Doing this with friends are so much better!  In January and August I completed the Disney Coast-to-Coast challenge by running the Goofy Challenge in January at DisneyWorld and Dumbo Double Dare in August at Disneyland.  It was so much fun running these with TKB, Joe VI, Lauren, Rebecca, Jill, Ronnie, Jess, Jaimee, and many others!  Joe VI and Lauren's costumes were a huge hit as we got plenty of publicity from the runDisney people.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb with the Disney Villians

Image found on runDisney media page

Our most recent pub is from this BuzzFeed Page

• Ironman is possible.  Being able to train for an ironman race and completing it with joy makes me think doing another one is possible.  Possibly 2015?  We shall see.

2014

My year is starting to take shape in terms of schedule.  I have already cancelled my first race of 2014, Phoenix Marathon.  After the my foot issue started to escalate, I wasn't able to get passed 12 miles without having to stop, take my shoe off, and rub on it for a minute.  This isn't going to help my Boston qualify (BQ) chances.  I'm hoping I've got that on the mend now.  

My "A" triathlon race is Chicago Triathlon in August and I'm also looking to BQ, which may be goals that are hard to achieve together.  I'm looking at my first BQ attempt in April, which gives 4 months to focus on Chicago.  But if I don't BQ in April, I'm looking at a second attempt in October.  That's only 2 months after Chicago.  Can I get my run endurance up in time?

I'm planning to continue my strength training program and add in a masters swimming class.  I've been tossing around the idea of getting a coach as well but not sure if that will fit into the budget.  We'll see.


Update:
So I was reading my Pigman Tri 70.3 race report and found that I had typed this line:

"This does NOT mean I'm going to do a 10 hour, 32 minute ironman in October.  If I did that at some Ironman-branded races I would qualify for Kona.  Not. Going. To. Happen."

True...  but I didn't do 10:32.  I did 10:24.

Maybe 2014 needs to be the year of doing a better job estimating my race finishes.

Race Report: Thanksgiving Day 5k and Family Stroll

Last race of the year!

That I'm aware of...

TKB and I signed up for this because a friend of ours had identified this race as her first 5k ever!  So naturally we had to participate.

I've been working on my distance running  in November and my cross training has taken a dive but I'm still doing some cycling (when you were doing 180+ miles on the bike per week, any slight dip in cycling is considered a dive).  I was curious if my short distance speed had taken a hit, so very curious about the result.

TKB setup our team, the Meat Sweats, and our friend Erik who started doing 5k races this year and completed his first half marathon last month also signed up.

Pre-Race
The race is on Thanksgiving but it didn't start until 9am.  This meant that I had plenty of time to get my Green Bean Casserole about 95% ready to go but I had to get up at 5:30am to do so!

We left about 7:30am and after a stop at Caribou Coffee, we arrived on the Sprint Corporate Headquarter campus.  With the temp hovering around 35 degrees, I elected to wear my light running tights, thin base layer, skull cap, and a T-shirt.  It was cold but I was comfortable.  We walked to the start lines where there was a warming tent where we waited for Erik, Bess, and Chris (Bess's hubby).

TKB, Bess, Dork, Chris

While waiting, I took off for some much needed pre-race duties

With about 12 minutes until the start, I took off for a warm-up run and then worked myself into the 6:00 minute mile pace area of the start corral.  It was pretty crowed with some people spilling out of the side corral.  They announced 7,500 participants but it was more like 4,500 people showing up.

Start!

With being about 10 feet behind the start line, it took a few seconds to cross.  I got bumped over a few feet as the people outside of the corral were trying to make their way through.  Fortunately this was before the timing mat.

I had forgotten my Garmin (with all the meal prep, I had to quickly get ready for the race which meant leaving my Garmin at home by accident), so I couldn't keep tracking of my pace, splits, distance.  For short distance races, this is generally a good thing.  I focus on running by perceived effort. Looking at my watch can cause me to slow down thinking I'm going too fast.

I settled in behind people I thought was running a pace that would be challenging but I could still keep up.

The previous week I had talked with TKB about wanting to drive the course to get an idea of the elevation, which never happened.  Erik pointed out that he likes not knowing.  You might hold back in preparation for a big hill.  This was definitely the hilliest 5k I had raced this year.  My PR was set at the Bringing Up The Rear 5k in October (oh.. oops.. no race report) with 19:28.  That course was flat (maybe 20 feet of elevation gain) and this race was about 120 feet (based on TKB's Garmin).  The elevation seem to come in chunks too.

With being as cold as it was, running whatever pace I was running, and charging the occasional hill it became hard to breathe.  I just focused on picking off people to pass and not my lungs trying to escape my chest.  Halfway through I felt like I was starting to overheat.  Some people were running in clothes I would normally expect mid-summer.  That's pretty hardcore.

Around the last half mile the race headed back into the Sprint Campus and, fortunately, downhill.  It was here I noticed my left shin started to bug me.  This is new.

I caught one guy during the last quarter mile and he seemed to be in my age group. I just kept pushing.  I could see the clock from a few hundred yards away and it had just clicked over 19 minutes.  This is going to be close!

When I finally crossed, the clock read something around 19:28. I knew I had beat my PR with it taking a few seconds to actually get started!

Finish: 19:21.9
Overall: 50 out of 4,472
Age Group: 5 out of 172 (missed 4th by .9 seconds!!)

Post-Race
I walked through the finish chute, which contained water, bananas, apples, Krispy Kreme donuts.  TKB had purchased a little gift for Bess and we also had Erik's race shirt in the car, so I immediately hoofed it back to the car to get them.  This means walking back the last quarter mile of the race.  I saw some dude wearing those wheelie shoes (they have a little wheel in the heel of the shoe).  He was just rolling down the hill.  Not cool dude.  Not. Cool.

I made it back to the start line just in time to see Erik PR!

Not too much longer TKB, Bess, and Chris finished!   Congrats Bess!!!

Chris in grey, Bess in black in the middle, and TKB in the blue jacket.

Once everyone was back, we took off for home.  Turkey time was at noon!!

Overall
Happy to see a new PR on a challenging course with the step back in total training this month.   So this year I got my PR from 20:02 to 19:22.  Maybe sub-19 is a possibility but I think I'd rather focus on longer distance race goals before trying that.

Congrats again to Bess!

Other Notes

Looks like the green bean casserole was a success.  Made from scratch, not cans of cream of mushroom and beans from this guy!  I think next year I'll be playing around with the recipe.. maybe some bacon?

We went out that evening to watch the Plaza Lighting ceremony with my brother's family.  Surprisingly not as cold as we had thought!

Getting back to training...

Decided it was time for an update (also known as procrastinating on doing some work work)

Training has been spotty for the last few weeks.  I've been focusing mainly on running with a couple bike rides on the trainer.   I have yet to get back in the pool.  With the weather changing, my new work responsibilities, and catching up on 6 months of chores, it's been difficult getting back in motion.  The last three weekends I've done a couple brick workouts and definitely getting in long runs of 17, 18, and hopefully 20 tomorrow.  Basically I'm getting in 5+ hours each weekend but the mid-week training hasn't been consistent.  With the upcoming holiday, that might not happen until December.

The Next Big Thing
People have asked me what my next big race is.  While I have registered for multiple 2014 races already, I'm debating on doing the Phoenix Marathon in January.  My parents "winter" in Arizona and it would give us a chance to visit them there for the first time.  With Phoenix being a flat course, it provides a great opportunity for a Boston Qualify.  I'm still hoping I can ride the coattails of my ironman training into a 3:08 marathon.  That would be a 21 minute PR and taking 30 minutes off my ironman marathon time.  Technically I need a 3:10 but with the floating time cut-off, it may mean I need a 3:08 to actually get a bib after everyone has registered for Boston.

I'm still thinking this is a possibility.  I did 18 miles last weekend at an 8:08 average pace and I finished this morning's 10 miler with a 7:25 average pace (miles 6, 7, and 8 were 7:00, 6:58, and 6:47).  To hit a 3:08 I have to run 7:10 pace for 26.2 miles.  My plan would be to hang with the 3:05 or 3:10 pace group.

All of this is up in the air for multiple reasons.  That week may be a huge week for a project at work, so that may cancel my plans all together.  The other reason?  I loathe cold weather training.  This morning was a battle to get out the door:

That 11 mph wind was NOT fun.  Tomorrow's 20 miler is going to be even colder. I just hope the wind is nonexistent.

Photo of the Week
One cool thing that I got in the email last week was this:

I got an invitation to participate in the 2014 Age Group National Championships!

I'm still debating on participating because this race is two weeks before my "A" race of the year, Chicago International Triathlon.  Having two international distance races within two weeks doesn't bother me but it means a lot of traveling in August.  My hope is that I qualify every year, so if I miss this year I'd be invited back.  My current age group and the 40 - 45 age group is pretty competitive, so it might not be that easy.  To qualify you have to finish in the top 10% of your age group.  I qualified at Beach2Battleship 140.6.