The Iron Geek

My personal journey of going from an overweight IT leader to an Ironman.

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40 posts tagged training

Post Ironman Blues

I spent 18 months of my life mentally and physically preparing for a single day: November 5th, 2011 - Ironman Florida.

6 days a week of physical strain (up to 30 hours a week) and mental fatigue.  This was in addition to an already stressful work life and family dynamic (I have 3 kids six and under). For the lack of sleep and sore muscles, I was mentally in an awesome place.  Training and working towards my goal made me feel good and definitely improved my disposition.

The actual day of Ironman Florida was EPIC.  One that I will remember for the rest of my life.

But after the race, I was so physically and emotionally drained it impacted me in a way that I did not expect.  I felt like I aged a whole year that day.  I felt both “complete” and “empty” at the same time.  This goal that had haunted me for so long was checked off the bucket list.  I was left to ponder what was next and found myself headed in no particular direction.

About a week after Ironman, I was heading 180 degrees from where I had been.  I ate anything that I wanted, started drinking “like the old days” and really enjoyed the food that comes with the holidays.  Fast food came back in my life (my sweet mistress).

I started putting on weight, but didn’t think much of it.  I stopped working out completely.   The weight kept pilling on.  Soon I found myself 25 pounds heavier than race day and wearing the pants I had recently put in the attic.  I stopped looking at Tumblr at all.  

I ran a 15K in February where I almost DNF’d after realizing just how out of shape I was.  Then in March, when I should have been running in the NOLA marathon, I found myself huffing and puffing unable to do a 3 mile trail run with my brother-in-law.

All this just pushed me further and further away from training.  I didn’t want to think about.  Didn’t want to be consumed by it.  Didn’t want to deal with the fact that I had lost a lot of what I had worked so hard to achieve.  I was totally in a downward spiral.

That changed this morning.  This morning I laced up my new running shoes and ran out the front door.  It may have only been 2.5 miles of low-and-slow work, but I was running. And while I am pretty sore, I feel good.  I’m mentally in a good place and that is what matters.

I signed up for the Chicago marathon in October.  I’ve got just under 6 months to whip my sorry ass back into shape.  Hopefully I can use this blog and the Tumblr community like I did before: to keep my honest and on track.

And I think I’m going to get that Ironman tattoo…

You’re Only As Strong As Your Weakest Spoke

My long bike ride for the weekend was cut short by a broken rear spoke.  While at first I didn’t think that one broken spoke would be a very big deal, I discovered that it makes your wheel out-of-round and it starts to rub on the frame/brake.  Not fun. (Picture not of my actual wheel)

My friend from Masters Swim that I was riding with also had a broken spoke (strange), which actually caused more havoc on her bike.  We had to take off a break shoe in order for her to get back to the car, as it was rubbing really badly.

Somehow I still managed to throw down 65 miles (versus the planned 100), with the first 56 miles coming in at a personal best 3:08 (not counting bike maintenance time).  There were times where I felt very strong.  Down on the aerobars, legs pumping like pistons and the bike flying down the trail.  Every once and a while I feel like I might actually pass for a bicyclist.

Even though this was the first time I rode with someone else, I made sure not to draft at all.  While I was worried about biking with someone else for the first time (I’ve never done a group ride) it was fun and did help pass the time.

Yesterday was a 2:00 run that covered just over 11 miles.  I focused on keeping my heart rate down in the high 140s and still managed to keep a good pace (considering my AT is 158).

Today is a much needed day off.  My triathlon coach (who apparently did not take today off) just sent me my next the training plan for the next 4 weeks.  Oh boy.  It includes 6 hour bike rides, 3 hour runs and 6.5 hour bike/run brick.  With less than 3 weeks until Augusta and less then 9 weeks until IMFL, it’s starting to get very, very real.  He included a nice “note” at the start of the plan…

Todd,

We will have a few more big days and then transition right into our crisp 9-day taper to have us rested, sharp, and race-ready. We will arrive at the Augusta starting line well fueled, well hydrated, and mentally ready for an amazing racing effort. Let’s use this race as our Ironman dress-rehearsal…same pre-race and race routines, same pre-race and race fueling and hydration, same race equipment, and same race clothing. Stick with exactly what we did in training…race day is not a day for experimentation.

Let’s race safe; race smart; and let’s cross the finish line in good health and good spirits. Following our race we will transition into our most challenging four weeks of the year. It’s crucial that we complete this training as planned. Take it a day at a time and hit each day’s training as perfectly as possible. Use all of our longer weekend sessions to practice our pre-race and race fueling and hydration routines. Listen to your body and get extra sleep. Let’s be consistent; train safe; and train smart!

The key to the next several weeks is consistency.  I need to hit all of my workouts.  

I’m excited.

Busts

After a 400 yard warmup, the Masters Swim coach informed us that we were doing “10x100 Bust”

After hearing everyone else groan, I ask,

“What the heck is that?”

“You swim 100 yards as fast as you can.  You do that ten times.  With a 2 minute rest in between.”

“OK”

“The goal is to be consistent with the times.”

“OK”

“Whatever you get on your 7th rep, will be your new benchmark time.”

“Well alllllllllrighty then.”

My first one was 1:36.  Then 1:42, 1:45, 1:52, 1:55, 1:56, 1:58, 2:03, 1:57, 1:55 (or something like that)

Let’s just say that I was the only one who wasn’t consistent.  The others settled into a pace and stayed within a second or two.  I just kept getting slower and slower and slowwwwwwwer.

The good news is that all the times were well ahead of my 2:20 pace in my last 2,000m swim.

The bad news is that I had just asked my coach yesterday if he thought 1:45 was attainable for my Ironman in 12+ weeks.  That’s a LONG way to go.  

More time in the pool, coming up!

An Ironman starts by swimming 2.4 miles…

I did something this morning that I didn’t know was even possible until it happened.  I swam 2.4 miles.

I. Swam. Two-Point-Four. Miles.

Holy Friggin Crap!

It took me 1 hour, 34 minutes and 37 seconds to swim 3,850 meters in the pool.  In that roughly 95 minutes, I conquered my biggest fear when it comes to completing an Ironman.  The swim.  

I now know that I can do it, and I can do it well within the cut-off time (2:20).  I now have just under 14 weeks to make it smoother and to make it faster.

I’m still in shock that I did it.  Absolute disbelief.  My longest swim before this morning was 1,000 yards.    I told my swim coach that my goal was to come in under 2:00 and he told me that “I think you’ll be surprised at your time.”  He was right.  Boohyah!

It took me about 1,000m just to settle in to a consistent breathing pattern, where I didn’t feel like I needed more air.  After that it was just lap, after lap, after lap, after lap. (158 lengths of the pool to be exact).  All this while I am coming down with a cold.

My shoulders and neck are sore, but it was totally worth it.

=)

I’m back in the saddle again!

Literally.

After 6 weeks of not getting on my bike once, I finally got back in the saddle and took her for a ride.  (This is my new bike, I might add, that I had only ridden a total of twice).

Saturday was scheduled to be my long ride.  Two weeks ago, I had a conversation with my coach about my “off time” and he had updated my plan to take a small step back for two weeks before getting back to normal.  So I followed that plan.

I rode 50.2 miles in 3:33 minutes

Surprisingly, it felt great.  It was probably the best long ride I’ve had to date.

I pretty much took it easy the whole ride.  I stopped every thirty minutes to take a gel and catch up on liquids.  I stopped at the half-way turnound for a full 6 minutes to rest and just take it all in.  I stopped for 5 or so minutes to refill my bottles with water.  Even with all that, I still managed a respectable 14+ mph ride. 

Normally when I finish those rides, my quads are thrashed.  Not this time.  My quads felt perfectly normal.  I felt great.   I felt good enough to easily add a 30 minute run at the end, but didn’t want to risk injury.  The only thing that hurt was my thighs.  

I shoulda grabbed some Butt Buttr.  Oh well, I was starting to miss those huge bruises on the inside of my thighs anyway…

I got in the car after the ride and checked my email.  There was a response from my Triathlon Coach, Don, about my workouts.  I had sent him an email the night before letting him know that I actually missed the last two weeks of workouts that he had put together and explained why.

Let’s just say that he was NOT HAPPY.

My journey to become an Ironman that started about 15 months ago has had a lot of ups and downs.  It was last August that after another bike crash, I also fell off the training wagon.  Several weeks of not working out, and I decided that it was burnout and I made the decision to focus just on running (with the goal of competing in the Georgia Marathon in March).

There have been other ups and downs too.  He basically gave me the “take a look in the mirror and decided if you are serious about this.” speech.  He’s right.  The timing around this was not good.  I am putting myself at risk of being injured, either training, or during the race.

While I needed to hear it, it really took the wind out of my sales.  After such a great ride, a note like that completely changed my mood.  I don’t want him to blow smoke up my ass, and it was something that I needed to hear.  But I don’t take criticism like that well in general, so that really hit me hard.

But this morning I decided to focus on the goal.  Become an Ironman.  I was in the gym on the treadmill at 5:30 a.m. this morning.  I also spent some time in the pool.  Okay, it was with my kids, but I did practice some flip turns.  =)

13 weeks and 6 days to go…

Most People Are Starters, Very Few Are Finishers…

So it’s been a while since I posted to this blog, or even since I’ve been on Tumblr.

Things have gotten a little off track in the last month or so.  Well actually, I guess a lot off track.  After I had my little “Symphony Of Destruction” my rib was really bothering me and kept me from working out.  Other than a few trips to the pool and maybe two runs, that is all I have done in the last month.

It hasn’t all been about the injury.  After I was feeling better I had a short trip out to the World Series Of Poker.  No excuse, but I didn’t workout while I was in Vegas.

Last week, the wife and I got to have 8 glorious days in Hawaii by ourselves (special shout-out to the in-laws for watching the kids!).  Again, I had every opportunity to workout (packed all the right stuff) but didn’t.  It really came down to wanting to unwind and relax with the wife (which involved a fair amount of poor eating and too much drinking) and it just didnt mesh with working out.  The net result was putting on 10 pounds!

And this week I have been suffering terribly from jet-lag.  Normally this doesnt effect me, but a 6 hour time change coupled with one red-eye leg, and another cross-country leg a day later (stopped in Seattle with the in-laws), has really messed up my clock.

I missed my Olympic distance race in July.

I have just over 14 weeks until my Ironman race.

It is weighing on my something fierce.  I need to get back on track.  I have worked too hard and come to far to fall short.  I need to finish this.

Tomorrow I am getting a private swim lesson at 5:00 am.  I will not miss this lesson.  After the lesson I will go for an hour long run.  I will get back on track and I will get back in the saddle.

I will become an Ironman.

Post-Symphony-Of-Distruction Update

The Good: My Rib’s Not Broken.

The Bad: I’m still only 80%

My rib has really been bothering me.  It hadn’t really hurt right after my SOD “incident”, but by the following Monday it really hurt.  It was a deep ache and I was really worried I had a cracked rib.  It hurt when I turned the wrong way, tried to sit up, or of all things, slept.

After urging from my triathlon coach, I visited the urgent care facility last Tuesday morning for an x-ray.  (No, that’s not really my x-ray above)  The results were negative.  No broken bones.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that the pain medication that he gave me made me really nauseous.  I almost lost it on my lap driving home from work last Thursday.  That was the last time I took one of those bad-boys.

After taking last week off from doing any training, I got back in the pool this Monday (5:00 am).  It was TOUGH.  My rib hurt and I just felt like I had no fitness.  I never fully had my breath.  30 minutes into an hour workout, I had to bail.

I tried again on Tuesday and made it 50 minutes before I had to quit.  By now I’ve decided to take it slow, recover well and not risk more injury.  Still, I hate giving up early in a workout.

I was back in the pool again this morning and did the entire hour, although I had more rest/break time that I normally would take.  It’s getting better, just not quickly.  I think I would have been better today but I managed to twist just the wrong way while sleeping last night.

Tomorrow will be my first run since the SOD.  I plan on going out slow and staying slow and see if I can keep my heart rate in check.  With only 3 weeks until my first Olympic Distance Triathlon, I want to make sure that I don’t lose another full week.

Then this weekend is my long bike (4:00) and long run (2:00).  So unless things go really bad tomorrow, it’s back to “reality”.

You know you’re a triathlete when…

…you’ve done two workouts before 7:30 am.

  • 5:00 a.m. 1-hour Masters Swim Class - Check!
  • 6:30 a.m. 1-hour Zone 2 Run - Check!

Although, I will admit that I almost fell asleep after sitting down to put on my work shoes this morning.  =)

Less than 23 weeks to go before Ironman Florida race!

He’s a Brick…HOUSE!

Here is the data behind my 3:30 brick workout (3 hour bike ride, 30 minute run, back-to-back) from earlier today. You can click on details to see my speed, heart-rate and other data…

I covered just over 44 miles on the bike and almost 2.5 miles on the run.  To say that I am tired would be an understatement.  I have some EPIC bruises on my thighs (grossed my wife out by showing her)

The bike ride felt better than the last.  A new saddle helps.  My right knee started bothering me at the end of the bike, but didn’t hurt at all while running.  I had a hard time keeping my heart-rate within the right zone when I did the run.  It didn’t help that I started out to fast (something like an 8:00/min/mile run).  

In other news, I competed in the Schlotzsky’s Bun Run last weekend.  This is our charity 5K race that is held in Austin every spring.  The Bun Run was the first race that I had ever competed in last year, and my time was 39:20.

I have mixed emotions about this years race.  While I easily set a Personal Record (PR) at 28:05, I could have done MUCH better.  It was so HOT and HUMID that I ended up walking several times near the end (after going out of the gates with a 7:54/min/mile to start).  I suppose that I should be happy considering that I had ridden 47 miles the day before, and I had no taper associated with this race.

I am excited for this coming Saturday, my first triathlon of the season: The Peachtree City Super Sprint.  This is a 300 yard swim, an 8 mile bike and a 2 mile run.  A perfect warm up for a busy triathlon season.

Giddy up!

Banging Away

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog, but that is because I have been too busy working out!  I have hit every one of my workouts for the last three weeks.  That streak came to an end tonight when tornado warnings in the area kept me home with the family.  (I actually tried to ride first.  I got less than 50’ before the wind had me headed for a ditch.)

To catch everyone up:

  • My run is getting faster.  I have found that my “steady” pace has been increasing over the past few weeks.
  • My bike is getting longer.  I covered over 40 miles last weekend on my long ride.  I managed to do so with a 15/mph, which is a big increase just over the past few weeks.
  • My swim is getting swimmier.  My swim is still struggling.  I have been working with a swim coach on the mechanics, which are improving, but I haven’t been able to pull it all together.
  • My weight is going down.  I have adopted a calorie counting approach given by my triathlon coach that has gotten me over the hump.  I am at my lowest weight in 15+ years.

In other news, after my long ride last week, I made the decision to go through an extensive bike fitting by All3Sports.  I have now ridden the bike for long enough to know that it wasn’t configured right for me.  Plus, having lost almost 40 pounds since it was initially fit, I expected things to be different.

The fit process was pretty intense.  I had computer sensors hooked up to my various joints that measured my movements on the bike (just like the picture above).  I got to watch a stick-figure representation of myself move on the tv screen while I rode.  The whole process took over 2 hours.

The good news is that there were several configuration changes that dramatically improved my fit on the bike, but not without some costs.  The bad news is that my bike will not be able to go “all the way there”.  For me to get the most comfortable as possible, I would actually have to get a different bike.  

The short story is that there are two main type of bike configurations: “Long and Low” versus “Tall and Short”.  My current bike is one of the “Long and Low” bikes and to best fit me I would need a “Tall and Short” bike.  

Funny thing about how All3Sports works, they fit you FIRST and then tell you which bikes you can choose.  With my current bike, I bought the bike first and THEN did a fit to try and make it work.  Obviously, that All3Sports has the right approach.

So now I am faced with the decision of investing a lot of money into my existing bike to get it “better” or spending a ton of money on a new bike to get it right.  Frankly, I don’t like either option.

For anyone thinking about getting a triathlon bike, GET THE FIT FIRST!  That is all

Great Workout Week

So I have managed to hit every single one of my workouts this week (with the exception of today’s swim, which I plan to make up tomorrow). 

I have come to learn that my body responds well to working out on continuous days.  I wake up feeling better, and that’s pretty cool.

Even after my hella bike workout on Wednesday (almost 1/2 of it at a high heart rate).

Focus Areas:

  • Running: I am working on my running pace.  I am not able to run as far, but I am running faster.  I am going to try first increasing my speed, then increasing my distance.  This is a difficult transition to make.
  • Swimming: I’m working on all aspects of my swim, but with a special focus on kicking and flip-turns.  
  • Biking: With my bike, the focus is on using my clips to generate power: pedaling in a complete circle and using the up-force of one foot as much as the down-force on the other.
  • Mornings: Going to bed earlier, to get up earlier (the wheels kinda fell off the track on that one tonight!)

I’m looking forward to a good weekend and a great next week.

The Last Time I Rode My Bike, It Bit Me

My minor bike crash last August left me with this lovely scar.  At that time I was feeling overwhelmed with my training and decided to focus on my run in preparation for my marathon.  As a result, I hadn’t been back on my bike until 2 weeks ago, when I started my long-haul training for my Ironman in November.

The first thing that I noticed was that “area” on my thighs that connect with the bike seat get real sore, real fast.  I forgot just how tender that area is.  I’m looking forward to getting enough time on the seat for that to harden up some.

I also noticed that shifting is as much science as it is art.  At certain points on the ride it felt like I was shifting every 15 seconds.  I’m sure that get’s easier the more time that I spend on the bike.

Two weekends ago I did 60 minutes at about 14.1 mph average.  Last weekend I did 90 minutes at 14.4 mph average.  This included stopping for Gatorade breaks as I wasn’t comfortable grabbing it from the cage while riding on the busy Silver Comet trail.  Not bad for the first couple of times out, but it needs to improve dramatically before November.

It also included my Zone 4 workouts (high heart rate).  In each workout I was scheduled to do 5 minutes of Zone 4 near the end of the ride.  On the first weekend I got 2 minutes, 1 minute of rest and another 2 minutes of Z4.  The second weekend I was able to do 3 minutes, 1 minute of rest and 1 minute of Z4.

It’s fun to ride the bike, but it’s really fun to go fast.  =)

Looking Forward…

Looking Ahead

Having completed my marathon, I’m looking ahead to the next phase of this journey.  Last August, after a minor bike crash and a significant case of burnout, I had taken almost 3 months off from training.  Then I made the decision to focus specifically on my running in preparation for the Georgia Marathon.  I had became overwhelmed with the Ironman workout schedule and concentrating on my running was the right thing to do at the time.

But now the marathon is over and it’s time to get back on that horse.  With 31 weeks and 6 days until my Ironman, there is no time to lose!

I have worked with my coach and landed on a great schedule of warmup races this year.  They are as follows:

  • 5/14 - Super Sprint - Peachtree City, GA
  • 6/11 - Sprint - Savannah, GA
  • 7/10 - Olympic - Chattanooga, TN
  • 9/25 - Ironman 70.3 - August, GA
  • 11/5 - Ironman 140.6 - Panama City Beach, FL

I also plan on sprinkling in various 5K and 10K races as we go, as well as some fun stuff (like the Warrior Dash on 5/15).

My top 3 goals for the next 32 weeks:

  1. Improve My Swimming
  2. Lose Weight
  3. Increase My Speed

You may remember that my swim is in pretty bad shape.  My overall swim fitness is low, my stroke needs some work and I need to get comfortable in the water.  I have signed up with a swim coach at my gym.  We seemed to hit it off on our first visit and as both a swimmer and a triathlete, he understands what I need.  I’m looking forward to working with him.  My triathlon coach wants me to focus on beating the swim cutoff for Ironman (which is 2 hours and 15 minutes).  That means I need to be able to do 2 laps in the pool in about 3 minutes, 42 times!

Losing weight is another top priority.  I estimate that have 47 pounds to lose before race day.  I’m not going to force my weight to a certain level, I say that I should be about 180 pounds based upon other people that I know, and consider to be in good shape, and using their relative weights.  The fact that I woke up to a 227 this morning, compared to the 235 I have been at for weeks, is a great start.

Finally, I need to increase my speed.  I just re-read a great book called Brain Training for Runners.  It talks about how your mind does some internal calculations about the distance you are going to run, and the pace you can run to meet that distance/time.  The book goes into ways that you can train your brain to increase that pace.  I would absolutely love to get down to an 8:30 pace.  My last 10K was at 1:05, and that involved too much walking.  An 8:30 pace would put me at just under 52 minutes, so that is my new 10K goal.

I’m writing this post at 5:30 in the morning, getting ready to head out for my workout, so hopefully that is a trend that will continue.

Hitting the Wall

I did my final long run before my marathon yesterday.  I managed to run about 18 miles in 3:30 minutes.  I now start a 2 week taper before the Georgia Marathon on 3/20

For the first two hours, I felt great.  Much better than my last long run.  I was able to get into a really good groove, and just felt good.  I was utilizing a 11 minute run followed by a 1 minute walk approach given to me by my coach.  These 11/1 cycles have really allowed me to extend how far I run, and helped me to shave 35 minutes of my last 13.1.  

But after 2 hours, I started losing energy, a lot of it.  It wasn’t that my heart rate was high, or my breathing was heavy.  It was just that I had no gas in the tanks.

For the 3rd hour, I was unable to maintain any duration on my runs before needing to walk.  And after 3 hours, I started developing cramps in my hamstrings and calves.  I walked for the last 30 minutes.

It turns out that I was significantly under-hydrated and under nourished.  When I emailed back and forth with my coach today, he was amazed on how little Gatorade that I had consumed (just 1 bottle in the first 2 hours). I was taking a gel every 36 minutes.

He told me that I need to be consuming one bottle of Gatorade every 35 minutes and one gel every 25 minutes.  (DOH!)

I was in such a groove with my heart-rate and breathing, that if I can avoid the energy “bonk”, I think that I am going to be in really good shape for my marathon in two weeks.

I’ll be running with the devil…

I Missed A Critical Workout

I’m playing Mr. Mom this week as my wife is visiting her parents with our son.  The girls and I are on our own.  Unfortunately, my youngest daughter isn’t feeling well and was awake all night last night.  We both got just about 2 hours of sleep at 7-9 am this morning.

The girls were going to visit the Play care/play center while I did my scheduled 2:45 minute run today.  But with a sick kid and no sleep, that wasn’t going to happen.  And with my wife out of town until Thursday night, I’m unlikely to be able to make it up.

After my long run last weekend, now I’m really feeling unprepared for my marathon, less than 3 weeks a away.  I have a final 3:30 run next weekend before a 2 week taper to prep for the race.

I’m having doubts that I should even run the race…

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