Posts from — August 2008

Well, I did my first ever 112 mile ride.  What does it feel like, let me see, how do I describe it….?  Let me just say first of all that I have AMAZING friends that kept me entertained for my 7 hour jaunt.  Thanks Krista for round one and Joe, Doug and Bonnie for round 2!

The good news:

1.  I did it and am sitting here writing about it;

2.  My nutrition seemed good, I didn’t bonk or feel physically tired (NOT that I felt like I wanted to run ONE mile, let alone TWENTY-SIX, when I was done-see below)

3.  Although my butt wasn’t feeling super, it was tolerable and I was wearing my racing outfit, so that was good

The not so good news:

1.  I only averaged 15.7mph for the ride so at that pace it will take me 7 hours to ride the IM course.  However, this was a much hillier ride than IM FL, so we’ll see….

2.  my quads ached a little during the middle of the ride, then I got my second wind around mile 80, but at mile 100, they ached again.  But the worse was when I stopped riding and got off my bike.  HOLY COW, my quads ached like they’ve never ached before.  What’s up with THAT!?!?!?  and how the heck am I going to walk, let alone run afterwards?  I iced the quads for a few minutes and they felt much better…. WOW,  I hope this gets better after I finish up the Sept training of multiple 100 mile rides.

So, all in all I guess it was a successful ride, but it sure makes you wonder who the heck thought running a marathon after riding 112 miles was a good idea

Last weekend I bought the final pair of sneakers before IM FL.  Wow, I can’t believe it’s that close.  I got to run in this pair yesterday for 5 or 6 miles (the fact that I don’t know whether I ran 5 or 6 is in of itself an interesting fact!).  I don’t know if it was just the feeling of breaking in this final pair, or the fact that my running actually has improved this year, but I haven’t enjoyed a run like that for a long time.  It felt great, bouncy, energetic….  I need to remember this feeling at mile 20 on November 1st.

I’m so excited and ready to take this journey.  My longest, toughest training is coming this next 4 weeks, so remind me of this feeling when I’m exhausted and complaining

Finally, a beautiful-not ridiculously hot- day for the Cranberry Country Olympic Distance Triathlon.  The problem-my motivation…  It was very strange.  I was pretty tired going into the race, but usually I can rally once the race begins.  The swim went well.  I finally had a good swim day. This year has been weird on my swim.  But, thanks to Rachel, who fixed a quirk I had adopted this summer, I’m back to last year’s pace.

My favorite, the bike, was not my friend yesterday.  I just could not rally on the bike.  I did have to tweak my position due to patella pain, so maybe that was it, but it was not a “at one day” with my bike.  I still was able to tweak out 19.3 mph, so I guess my performance was better than how I was actually feeling.  Except that was 2+ min slower than last year on the bike.  Anyways….

I guess this is my year of the run.  I was able to run an 8:32 avg pace over the 6.2 miles which I was very pleased with.

All in all, I beat my time by 2 min, so what more could I want.  I just thought the bike situation was weird.  I am very happy to be on a rest week this week.  Between work stresses and training, I can really use it!

The best part was racing with friends.  You guys are the best!  I can taste those margaritas as I write this

Sometimes tri training can get cumbersome and you feel uninspired or tired.  My friend Mike and Heather Gollnick (yes, THAT Heather) created this great video to keep us going on those tough race days, or training days.  Enjoy…

http://iamtri.com/profiles/comment/show?attachedTo=1ti78b51kjrgz&attachedToType=User&commentid=chatter-1984656%3AComment%3A45955&xgsi=1

Yesterday Jim, Marie, Cary and I–yes, I did say CARY– did the Wild Dog triathlon.  This was Cary’s first tri and boy did he get indoctrinated on the swim.  This was the hardest swims I’ve ever done.  The wind was making the waves so big that every time you took a breathe, you inhaled sea water.  There were people hanging off of the buoys holding on for dear life!  I say “swim” loosely because there was no swimming going on LOL  How you did all depended on where you were situated and how many people were banging into you!

The guys were in the second wave, so that was good. Unfortunately for Marie and I, we were in the last wave.  There were bodies floating EVERYWHERE!  I hope someone got a picture of it.  Firm also didn’t have enough life guards, so it was pretty hairy.  ANYWAYS, Cary made it through the swim by side stroking to the first buoy.  Which probably turned out to be smarter than trying to swim like I was doing.

The 10+mile bike was nice.  The slight uphill was only in one location, with the headwind, it made it challenging, but a nice change.  It would have been REALLY fast had I not rode 61 miles the day before for my IM training (LOL- very different throwing in a sprint race while training for an IM).  Everyone had a great bike ride.  I was surprised it wasn’t harder to pass people since all 400 people were on the same 3 mile path at once (it was a 3 loop course).  But except for a few spots, it was pretty much go at your pace.

The run was what surprised me the most.  I felt great on the run and ran it the fastest I’ve ever run 3 miles.  So that was nice.  Cary learned that being a fast runner does not make the fastest runner in a triathlon!  He went out of transition too fast, hit the hill with the headwind and never quite caught his breathe until the water stop where he could walk a little and get a sip of water.   Marie also had a great run.

Jim had a great race too and really cranked on the bike.  He also did well on the swim, considering the conditions.

We had a great breakfast afterwards and it was another fun weekend adventure for our group.

Next stop for me is Cranberry next weekend with Doug and Bruno.  Then Pumpkinman with Jim, Marie, Cary (#2 for him), and Kim.  THEN THE BIG KAHONA!! IT’S COMING TOO FAST.. LOL…

Funny Title9 and Pumpkinman group, we were just discussing this this morning.  Below is an email I received from Sportsworkout regarding a study that was done on this very topic…..  I am proof sport specific works!

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What is the best method to train for strength or endurance: static, dynamic, or isokinetic? The answer depends on what you are training to accomplish, the goal of your training. If you just want to get stronger, almost any method will work. If you want to gain strength to improve performance in work or sport, your training should be specific to your goal. We conducted a study in which college women trained with weights (isotonic), isokinetic devices, or calisthenics. The isotonic group did best on lifting tests, and the calisthenics group scored best on calisthenics tests. The isokinetic training group, which gained strength on the isokinetic devices, came in third on the other two tests. This study showed the importance of training in the manner in which you will eventually use the strength (Sharkey et al. 1978).  Today we will focus on static (isometric) training.

STATIC (ISOMETRIC) TRAINING

Based on an early study conducted in Germany (Hettinger and Müller 1953), static training was popular until studies finally compared isometrics with traditional weightlifting and found that static contractions came in a distant second. Isometric contractions don’t provide a sense of accomplishment through lifting something, they elevate blood pressure, and they are seldom specific to the training goal. Isometrics do have some uses: in rehabilitation, when that is all that the patient can do; for work at the sticking point of a lift; and for activities that require static strength or endurance (e.g., archery or rock climbing). More recently, isometric contractions have been used in conjunction with weightlifting to produce better results.

I haven’t written a post in a while about my training because it’s been soooo busy between work, kids, training and coaching, but I had to write this today.  I will try to catch up on the other posts soon!

Something crazy happened this weekend.  You may or may not know that my strategy for the past year leading up to IM FL was to focus on the bike.  Get a lot of biking in, stay steady in the swim, and do what I can on the run.  This strategy was critical for my “getting there” without injuries due to my spondylothesis in my back and my 2 ACL reconstructions on my left knee.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing.  Biking a lot.  This week I did not taper at all.  It was actually one of my highest volume training weeks.  I even rode 61 miles on Saturday (the day before a Sprint tri).  I did the Wild Dog sprint tri yesterday.  We won’t discuss the swim, but all I can say is that it was THE ROUGHEST water I’ve ever “swam” in.  It took almost 9 min for me to do 1/4 mile swim!  You actually couldn’t swim.  The waves were too high.  People were holding on to the buoys for dear life. It was scary.  Anyways….

The bike went OK, my quads were tired from biking the day before, but I still averaged 19.4 mph because it was pretty flat- except the head wind on one small hill (it was a 3 loop course).  But, why I write this is the RUN!  Even though my quads were tired, I had the best run I’ve ever done.  my legs were so happy to get off of the bike and use my hamstrings more, I just cruised. It was weird.

I ran a 7:40 pace.  This was without taper.  As a matter of fact, I ran hill repeats on Fri morning too!  My point is that I’ve been so focused on the bike that my legs have gotten so much stronger, that it has transferred to my run.  Due to my ACL Surgeries, I really have to minimize my run training, but it hasn’t hurt me one bit!  Atleast on the SDT!  We’ll see next weekend at Cranberry for the ODT.

I was just amazed at this and thought I’d share

Keep it going…..