No race in base Part II

On race day, all athletes are hoping for the "peak", especially at the "A" priority race where you really taper down and mentally and physically focus on racing at your best. In order for you to make this a reality you need to have practiced your nutrition plan, mental imagery, positive thought about the things you have control over, pre-race meals and most importantly and most overlooked: you need to practice your actual race pace.
Steve Larsen, retired pro-cyclist and triathlete has a great quote.. "You can't train at 18 mph and expect to race at 22 mph". It is such a truthful and direct statement! The same thing applies to running: you can't run 9:30 miles all the time and suddenly on race day expect to run 7:30's. I'm not saying you need to train at race pace all the time, that would be counterproductive but you do have to spend time out of the comfort zone in order to improve efficiency and speed to higher levels. When you do train with speed, it should be based on what your current fitness level is. If you have no idea where you are at, it's time to set some benchmark's. Sign up for a 5k, schedule in a 10 mile time trial on the bike and field test yourself to determine what your highest sustained HR level and or watt level are at. Common mistakes athletes make with speed training:
1. Not enough or no speed training at all. If all your workouts are comfortable, that is the level you will be racing at as well and don't expect more beyond your current average pace ranges. Indeed, you can expect to slow down by at least 30 sec per mile on the run if you do not train to run at a race pace off the bike
2. Too much speed training: Too many days spent at very high intensities = an overtrained and injured athlete. You need the easy days to recover from the harder efforts.
3. Going faster than what your current fitness level should dictate. I see this all the time at the track. A 24 minute 5k athlete SHOULD NOT be doing 400 repeats at 1 minute and 30 seconds. It's too fast for your fitness level and you will invite injury and staleness. Track workouts should be uncomfortable because you should be running at a threshold pace but guess what? a 24 min 5k = just sub 8 min/mile pace. A more appropriate range would be 1:45 to 1:50 per 400. Those 15-20 sec make all the difference in the world from the track workout being detrimental to it being beneficial.
For those of you that currently train with me, you have your pacing ranges set for you. Please follow the guidelines at the top of the calendar. The key is there for you to maximize the benefit of each workout and you need to stay within those ranges until I am provided with enough feedback and field tests that would indicate progress and a need to change your ranges. If you are consistently over your "T" or threshold training zone, you are going too fast. SLOW DOWN! If you do not recover to a low 120's HR within 1 minute and 30 sec then you are also going too fast OR you are completely fatigued and unable to recover from the efforts. Speed session is over. The opposite of this also needs to be paid attention to. If your speed workouts suddenly become "comfortably hard" and seem easier, your heart rate ranges may be lower and you may also see a sustained watt range that is much higher than what your ranges indicate although you feel fine and can maintain them. This indicates that your fitness has improved and your coach needs to update your ranges to new levels. Great! That's what I'm looking for but I can't help you do anything unless you communicate with me and provide me with the data I need to coach you effectively.
For those self coached individuals out there, you can roughly estimate training ranges by subtracting 10-15 sec per mile off your 5k time, as well as using your maximal sustained heart rate during a race as the cut off point for how fast you go on the bike and the run. Monitor your perceived exertion levels and you should see an improvement in how you feel and the ability to maintain slightly faster speeds for longer periods.
So, don't be shy! Talk to your coach, email me, call me, I love it! I love hearing about your workouts! I know how much I think about my own workouts and its nice to share, I am a willing and eager listener. Take advantage of it!!!!

The Hamster Wheel Effect

If you have known me for any length of time, you have probably recognized that my brain is constantly multitasking. I am usually thinking of a million things at the same time while doing complicated physical activities so the results can sometimes be quite comical. The last two days have been a perfect example of what Dave calls "The Hamster Wheel", his term for how all my circuits are firing.
Tuesday morning started with a masters swim. Since I am off from work I had no excuse to jump out of the pool earlier so I swam a little longer. I hit 3000 today which is huge for me and the longest I have swum in 2 years. I felt a little fatigue in the shoulder towards the end but I didn't feel that it was affecting my stroke so I was happy to cap it at 3000 and be on my way for the day. The big workout had been planned for a few days and I was really looking forward to it. In early May, there is a 15 mile trail race from Plainview to Cold Spring Harbor and back. I had only head rumors as to how difficult it is in comparison to the Bald Hill run (see previous post) and I was considering doing it. From what I was told there are sections so steep near Cold Spring that it makes running difficult so you are walking/hiking some of the run and I wanted to go check it out. Fortunately for me I have a really great friend in Mary Ellen Stajk and she suggested we do a point to point run from the start in Plainview to the turn around point in Cold Spring. For those of you who don't know M.E. (which is highly unlikely because I sometimes call her 'the mayor' of the triathlon and running communities; she is a highly decorated multiple Hawaii Ironman Qualifier and finisher, a great runner with a passion for sport and a HUGE heart) she is a consummate planner, a very good friend and I was looking forward to some laughs and great conversation as we ran our way through the course.
The day was beautiful, we started out with one bottle of fluid and a few gel's each and ran at a very comfortable pace through a really nice trail. It was really fun, we never shut up, catching up on the latest news on family, friends and our fun athletic communities. When I trail run, I am usually alone so it was really nice to be able to talk, the time flies by although my focus on the trail was not 100% and half way through I tripped on a root and went sprawling like I was diving for home plate with my right arm forward and I managed to get some nice "trail rash" very similar to road rash but with dirt instead of gravel; much more preferable since I've had both. I always think falling is funny, M.E. was in front of me so she didn't witness the actual sprawl, just the after effect of me laying on the ground and laughing. I felt like a klutz, which I am and my 6 year old son often reminds me of this fact. We finished the run in about 1:25, stood in front of my car when the hamster wheel stopped for a brief period and I realized that the key to my car was 8 miles back resting snugly in my workout bag in M.E.'s car. Definitely a predicament and neither of us was laughing at this point, we had a few sips of water between us, no cell phone and neither of us was ready for a 15 mile/almost 3 hour run. M.E. calmly suggested we take the road back towards Plainview. It was 3-4 miles to her yoga studio and her hope was that we would catch her friend just before going into class and he could give us a ride back, or that someone she knew would happen along the road and we would luck out. If all else failed, we would duck back into the trail, a situation neither of us wanted. So we started out jogging back with me apologizing! What a dufus move, a point to point run, we drop MY car off and the only car key we did have was Mary Ellen's, not much help until we get back to where we came from. We made it back to a crossroads, with about 10 minutes to spare, I am completely clueless as to where I am and M.E. was a little disoriented as to the direction of the studio. We start running, made it a quarter mile when she thought we were going the wrong way. We turned back around and ran back and were almost immediately passed by her friend but unfortunately he didn't see either of us jumping up and down and waving, some good the hot pink shirt was that I had on. We ran a little further, realized the yoga studio was in fact in the other direction when M.E. said, "forget it, we're hitching". We were at a light and I saw the LIPA truck, I said, "Get the LIPA guy!", the light turns green and now we are holding up traffic. He was defensive because he thought we were going to yell at him but as soon as we asked for a ride back, he said "Hop in" to our great relief. It turns out he was a safety inspector and had a cooler full of Gatorade and water in the back, what luck! M.E. told him he had a "Pay it Forward" reward coming back to him as he drove us back to her car. He said "if a couple of girls in shorts can't get a ride, I don't know what this world is coming to!". M.E. apologized for our smell after running for 2 hours. He wanted to know how we got into the predicament we were in. M.E. said "you see this girl next to me? She has more degrees than she knows what to do with but she left the key back at the start" the LIPA guy laughed and said "oh classic case of a suitcase full of brains and no common sense". Too funny. That was the hamster wheel effect day 1.
Day 2: Even more gorgeous of a day, I had some consults at the lab in the early morning and the mountain bike in the car. I figured I had a quick hour to catch a ride over at Rocky Point before I had to be back at the house to get Van off the bus. My last consult took a little longer so I was eager to get out but the man I did see was truly inspiring. 10 years ago he was in a major car accident and suffered a "TBI" - traumatic brain injury. In his case his symptoms were very similar to a stroke, except it's not. The right side of his brain was impacted so he lost the function of the left side of his body, his speech is slow and a little garbled and although his brain forms all the words which he can see clearly in his head, it takes time for the signal to reach his vocal cords . It's similar to stuttering, where he has to slow himself down to get the message out. He is only 35 and in the last 10 years he has made tremendous progress. He walks on his own again, which they never thought he would do, and has some function in his left arm and hand and after extensive rehab and therapy over the last 10 years, he was ready to join the gym and motivated to continue correcting the left side weakness and rebuilding his strength. I am fortunate to get to work with people like this to design and exercise program around such serious complications.
Truly inspired, I headed for the trail entrance, got the MTB out and couldn't get the front brake to open to set the wheel in for some reason. A really nice guy next to me offered to help and it was so simple that I should have been able to figure out how to release the brake. Duh. Of course I have no tools with me, only my spare. I thanked him and hopped on the bike only to realize that my seat was about 5 inches lower than where it should have been. My sister, pictured below was up from NC last week and borrowed the bike to ride around the block with Van. I realized Dave must have lowered the seat and it was never put back. Of course it can't be anything simple, I needed an allen key which I did not have so I resigned myself to riding like a giant on my bike that fit more like my 6 year old son's bmx. Knees in my face, and gloveless because I was in a rush I continued down the trail, it was only an easy recovery ride after yesterday's unplanned long run, I just hoped my quads and hands wouldn't be too beat up from the incorrect position and hand nakedness on the trail. Hamster wheel effect day 2. Things I learned:
1. Don't rush and pay attention to what you are doing, make sure you have everything you need before you set out
2. I am not coordinated enough for talking and doing something else at the same time. I do it, but I don't pay attention to the other task and this has disasterous results with me forgetting keys, gloves, tools etc. Can you say ADHD? Yes, I have it.
3. Keep a multitool in your car or workout bag. You will need it and you should know how to use it.
4. Biking in the improper position really decreases your power output. Just simply sitting too low affected my ability to climb, I didn't have the glutes and hamstring recruitment I need to climb well in the trail and I ended up standing up alot, wasting energy. This applies to road bike to so if you've never been professionally fit, get it done, it's worth it!
So that's it, a long tale but funny, the wheel is spinning again this morning and I'm off to do a million things again, but this time I've got a check off list!

Pleasant surprises

I think that April break from work is going to turn into my "Annual spring training camp". It's only Monday and already I'm having a great week off!!! This may be due to my actually taking a day off of exercise on Sunday. Me and my tired dogs kicked up a restful day of reading and relaxing on the couch in the sunroom. I went through a partial guilt session about getting out to ride for an hour but Dave knocked me out of that. Sometimes you need to be reminded by other people that it is OK to rest and recover. Saturday I had a great 8 mile run home from Van's soccer practice and managed to get in the pool afterwards and swim as well so it was a really good day. My legs felt strong from the earlier long run on Tuesday so I am encouraged. Sunday I went up to the college to watch the new duathlon that Marty, Sam and Larry were participating in. My intention was to get out and ride after Dave finished running but Van ended up having friends over so the next intention was to go out at 4 when they went home. When 4pm came, I was flat out on the couch and arguing with myself to get up but I was so tired. Finally Dave said to me, "you've done something everyday this week and you are off all week, take a rest!" so I did and I'm really glad because I FELT GREAT TODAY!!!!!
I put Van on the bus and ran down the block with intentions of just getting in 2 miles to bump my weekly run totals to 19 miles and I actually felt so good I ran a third mile and fit in some yoga before heading over to the lab to meet with some clients. When I got home, I immediately got dressed for the first road ride of the year. I've been out, just on the MTB and the longest was 2 hours so I was apprehensive about going out with anyone else but to my surprise I ended up feeling really great! The winter gamble I took with riding outside on the MTB only and supplementing mid week with one to two really intense workouts for a shorter duration totally paid off. Conventional wisdom (CW) typically points to doing alot of long lower intensity level workouts in the winter to lay down the groundwork for your aerobic base. While this is true to some extent if you go from the racing season in the fall to less frequent workouts at really light intensities you lose all of that hard earned fitness you won the year before. As a physiologist, I move against the CW here. Now, post season it is important to back off the intense training and allow your body to recover, but really it only takes 3-4 weeks for you to recover from the long and intense mileage phases that typically are capped off with a big race, either a full or half marathon or ironman. It is in my practice to give the athletes I train at a minimum December off from training with me, usually it's the 2 months: November and December to decompress from the previous season and to do the type of workouts you feel like doing without following a regular schedule. It's good for you mentally and it gives you time to rehash your previous season and set goals for the next. When January rolls around or if you more like me, April, you are fresh faced and ready to go and put the time into the regularly scheduled training. This year I have done a little experiment on myself, incorporating the less is more training attitude of the off season with some high intensity interval training for extremely short intervals to maintain the previous seasons fitness. I'll tell you more about what I did in a moment, first, today's ride.
So being apprehensive about riding with my very consistent 21-22 mph average husband, I went out alone. No computer, I didn't want to see my speed, I just wanted to ride by feel. I did however start the stopwatch on my wrist because I can't be completely without data and I also took a known route that I frequently use as a benchmark but I would only be able to see what I was averaging at the very end of the loop. I felt great, I climbed up the 51 hill with minimal effort, my average cadence was high for me, right around 90 RPMs and comfortable. I ended up averaging over 19 mph for the loop and then through in some extra hill repeats through the golf course because I was feeling good and wanted to extend the time a little bit. I got in 72 minutes. I hit the end point of the benchmark ride at 56 minutes and I know its 19 miles around so I might have even averaged out to around 20 mph. I was super happy with this for alot of reasons:
1. First road bike ride of the year
2. It was windy and a head wind for 3/4 of the ride
3. It's a hilly loop, for those of you that live around here, the Halsey Manor loop is a great ride
4. I love riding fast in aero, it's really fun

So I am encouraged. For the previous 2 years I have been injured so I'm already started from a better place than where I was at last year so I am actually getting psyched up to race this summer and that hasn't happened for a long time. 2 years ago I crashed out hard in a bike race, separated my shoulder, tore my supraspinatus, and also punctured and tore my labrum. It took all summer to figure out what was wrong and I had the repair surgery in Nov 2007. It took 4 months of "physical terrorism" as Sinead calls it to just be able to lift my own arm above my head. I wasn't allowed to road ride until May last year, I couldn't run for a good ten weeks and yet I was determined to complete the Timberman 70.3 in August. It was a daunting task considering I had no base at all and hadn't swam since the previous June. My first stokes were scary and I couldn't swim more than 5 minutes but I did manage to swim 39 minutes, albeit painfully at Timberman, and Bike at 3 hours on the nose. It was thrilling because I was only able to get fully into aero position in mid June before the race last year. Timberman is a great race and if you've never done it I suggest you sign up. I'm going back again this year but with slightly different goals.
Injury is humbling. I was in the best shape in 2005 when I did IMLP, I haven't quite been able to get back there so I am hoping this is the year that I can fully return to that feeling of high fitness. It's a great feeling.
Back to what I did this winter. Instead of obsessing about how many days I was riding this winter, I rode when I felt like it or when I needed a break from running. Since my second half of my run is my weakest link in long distance triathlon, I have spent the winter running and swimming. For cycling I returned to a little known study done by Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata. Tabata Intervals are 20 sec all out efforts followed by 10 sec recoveries. For new Tabata enthusiast's, 10 sec is not to doable and you need to build up your tolerance. I can't give away all my secrets but Tabata's are best done after a few harder just sub threshold efforts to get your body ready for the super intensity. 40 sec rest is usually good to start Tabata Intervals with and if you can complete 6 you are doing a great. Each week, you cut down the rest interval by 10 sec. If done over the last 15 minutes of a workout, you'll have enough left in your legs to finish a 5 minute cool down and if you are not jelly legged, you didn't work hard enough. I did these once to twice per week for the last 6 weeks with a MTB ride on the weekend. It was a pleasant surprise to ride as well as I did this early and I am really looking forward to the road training now that the weather is more hospitable. Things I've learned about myself: I hate and my body hates being out in the cold so later season races are the way to go for me. It gives me plenty of time to build up and I don't have to freak out about not being outside on those 30 degree and less days.
So, even though we are approaching the race season, keep in mind, you don't need to stop the speedwork over the winter completely. One day of cycling with just sub threshold efforts (think fast aerobic) and one day of running with similar efforts can go a long way towards avoiding the spring slog.

Spring break!

For you teachers out there, the few days before a major break can stretch out to feel like 2 weeks have gone by. I was pretty lucky this week, my students weren't too off the wall by this afternoon and I finished the new evolution powerpoint yesterday so they got to watch a movie today. I hardly ever show a video in class so they were all excited when they walked through the door and saw the TV in front of the room. Of course, I'm not showing the lastest DVD out, we watched "Voyage to the Galapagos" but they truly appreciated watching a video today and they were interested. Darwin's theory of natural selection is very interesting to students, or it can be, we've been having fun with it this week and they liked seeing the actual video of some of the weird creatures I talk about in class. When we come back from break, I'll have them "Adapt a Rat" to one of four island scenarios and it's really cool to watch what creative high school students come up with.

That's my sister Amy and her fiance Dan in the pic. They are up from NC this weekend to work on the wedding plans for Nov. Amy, my sister Wendy and the kids, mom and Grandpa Lou were over for dinner this afternoon. I still can't believe Amy is getting married. Dan's a great guy and they are making a really nice life for themselves down in NC. Van was so thrilled that his Aunt Amy was here and he had her biking around the block, playing frisbee, whiffle ball, and just about ripped out every toy from his room. He misses her.

My grandfather is something else. He will be 84 this year. The vision and the short term memory are on the way out but he is really healthy and his memory for detail from years ago is astounding. I barely recall what I had for breakfast and he can give you the most minute detail about someting that happened 60 years ago. World War II had a huge impact on his life so often his conversation drifts back to that time. Tonight over coffee while everyone else was relaxing in the living room he got into a conversation with me about dead bodies being brought back from the war and his families grave plots. In one instance he'll say to me "you know my son.." and of course its my uncle but I never point that out and in the next instance he's telling me about Edward Mailer from 60 years ago and what they had for dinner on a saturday before he was shipped out to Belgium during WWII. (Poor Edward was also the subject of a body brought back from Belgium and hence the grave plot discussion, it was all a little surreal).

I feel like I've been up for 48 hours by this time. I had a zen swim workout yesterday morning. Last week I made the mistake of leading the lane. I was fine for 30 mintues but it wiped me out for the rest of the day. Yesterday, I reminded myself to be happy where my fitness was currently at, I swam third back and didn't feel like I was pushing myself and my shoulder over the edge at all. I swam 60 minutes. That's the longest amount of time in 2 years, so I'm encouraged. Of course, I wish I was back in my old lane down towards the other end of the pool with the faster swimmers but with patience it will come. My overall fitness is good, the swim specific just needs time to come back so I will continue to be patient. So Wed night I got about 5 hours of sleep and realizing that my family was coming over today and I wouldn't be able to get a workout in after work this afternoon, I got up at 4:45 again and rode the trainer this morning. I had a good workout with some over/unders with cadence in a race gear, followed by 6 x 20 sec sprints with a short recovery and I actually think it worked out some of the kinks from Tuesdays' long run. Last night I only got in about 6 hours of sleep so my sleep deprived body is calling for bed and I am so psyched that I have 10 days ahead of me off. Mon and Wed I consult at the lab for a few hours but it leaves plenty of training time before Van gets home from school and I've got the rest of the week to get in some longer rides and more frequent runs so it should be a great training week. Off to bed!

Oxymorons and juxtapositions

I am contemplating these words as I sit in front of the computer, alternating a sip of a black & tan and thinking about my workouts over the past week. Alcohol and triathlete's are not two things that necessarily go together, except on days after an "easy long run", preceded by a 1 hour Easy spin on the trainer, preceded by a "comfortable" 2 hour mountain bike ride and a transition run in the days before. It was a tough week. My week is actually ending today on April 15th and not on Friday because for those of you that know my family well, it is the last day for tax season! Yea! I never thought about taxes much before I met David. It was only one day out of the week for me but after spending the last 9 years of observing and living with a home office CPA, tax season is brutal and it is the only time of year I would like to fast forward. There is still another few weeks of many hours of work for David but the main deadline is here so hopefully he can breathe a sigh of relief and actually get some sleep at night.
Back to oxymoron's and juxtapositions.
So, I ended up with an extra day off on Saturday. I should have gotten my arse up early on Saturday morning but after running a hard 5 late on Friday evening and spending an entire week getting up at 5:20 everyday, sleeping in on Saturday just took over. Excuses, ones I won't be able to make in another month but sleep in I did. By sleeping in I mean 7am when Van pounces on me in the morning but an hour and a half is an hour and a half more sleep. When I think I can exercise later on in the day, I will usually put it off. Off to soccer or shall I say "ball bunch" for Van, then Van had his buddy over until 7pm so a 2 hour ride wasn't happening for me. I did get out on the MTB on Sunday and while my butt is more comfortable on the seat, the 2 hour ride was hard. I went around the trails behind my house and its a lot of short, steep climbing. I managed a 2 miler off the bike and crashed for the evening. Whipping myself back into shape always hurts at first but I look forward to the progress when I eventually say "Only a 2 hour ride today??". Monday evening Dave had clients coming in and out. The 14th brings in all the last minute people for Dave and the people picking up their completed returns. At 7pm I had no energy for a 9 mile run so I did an "easy" 1 hour spin on the trainer. It feels good that I can put those words together at this point so at least my time spent training has gone somewhat forward. This morning I was off regular work so I put Van on the bus and slogged myself up to Bald Hill. There are 2 Bald Hill's on LI, one off North Ocean Ave and the other little know Bald Hill is out this way. I haven't run the white trail in that direction on awhile, I remembered why this morning. YIKES!!!!! There are some sections along the trail that are so steep I had to walk. It was more of a run when I could get my HR below max/Hike workout but I am going to use that particular 9 miler as a benchmark. 4 weeks from today I will attempt it again and we'll see how long it takes me to be able to run the whole thing. I will definitely be in good run shape then. Until then I will celebrate the end of tax season, the end of the training week with another swig from my Black & Tan :)

15 minutes

During the course of a pleasant but hectic day, I really look forward to 15 minutes for myself. For me, the alarm clock goes off at 5:20 am, I get myself dressed, then get Van up, dressed and fed. I love teaching, I really do but at the end of the day, I am wiped out from giving of myself to my students to help them succeed. Off to home where Dave and Van wait for me. I always make time for hugs and conversation with Van as soon as I walk in the door. Today, he gave me a picture of a teapot that had flowers, frogs, a bird and him and I holding hands. We talk about his day. I needed to finish a powerpoint and send it out for a lecture I am giving at BNL on the 15th for a national convention on exercise in the workplace. Van waited semi patiently for me to finish and by semi patient I mean asking me every 30 seconds if I was done. I put it aside to go outdoors and play "Obiwan and Anakin attack the droids", he had all the lightsabers set up so for the next 45 minutes we were lightsaber dueling and karate kicking imaginary droids, Darth Vader, Count Dooku, General Grevious and several other bad guys. It is now 7 pm and I still haven't fit in the training so I decide to spin on the trainer while Van watches "Alvin and the Chipmunks" for what seems like the millionth time in 3 days. I managed to squeeze in 30 minutes to Alvin singing "I had a bad day and won't you take me to funky town" while Van danced, sang and rewound that sections a hundred times but its worth the sacrifice of a beautiful outside day on the bike so that I can be in the basement laughing at my sons jokes in between songs and the happiness I get from him laughing at something he finds funny. Since I haven't been swimming regularly, I really looked forward to 15 minutes of absolute peace and silence in the pool just to wind down for a brief few moments. In I went and the tranquility lasted for about 3 minutes. Van wanted to come in, which was fine but he ended up getting cold, so I gave him a towel and he proceeded to pitch a fit about going in the hot tub. Dave was outside doing something with the hot tub so I sent him out wrapped up and went back to swimming. 45 sec later, Van is back standing in front of me, still pitching a fit. I sent him into his room to change and went back to swimming. I swam peacefully for maybe another minute before I have Dave screaming on the side of the pool about Van and finally I lost it. 15 minutes!!!!!! All I wanted was 15 minutes alone! Am I selfish? Maybe, probably I am. Dave would say I am. I think I yelled at Dave something about having a little support for 15 minutes. He of course pitched his own fit about all the support he gives towards the house and then I got really mad, but just went back to swimming. He threw a towel in the pool at me. I did finish the stupid 15 minutes of what was supposed to be peaceful swimming. NOT.
Of course, I'm stewing. Is any one person's job more important than another's? Of course not. I think that most people do not honestly understand how hard teaching really is. To be a good teacher requires constant preparation. I am always wondering how I can improve something to help the students learn better and then there is the pressure of the administrative tasks and mounting paperwork plus the extreme amount of energy it takes to focus 5 classes of 28 students. The amount of energy on discipline for an orderly classroom, worry because I truly care about their success and not just in the classroom is tremendous. Its stressful! Those 15 minutes of a sound depleted environment are so necessary because my entire day revolves around students and family continually wanting and asking things of me. With the 15 minutes I feel like I can be a better mother, wife, teacher and coach. I need that time to pull away from the world a little bit so that I can stimulate my thinking processes for the night and day ahead.
Instead, my energy was drained a bit further and onto the tasks of daily living: ironing for tomorrow, emptying the dishwasher, laundry, emptying the compost, cleaning the kitchen. Before you know it, it's now 9:30 and I've missed most of Idol (although I did catch my fav, David Cook and he wasn't that good tonight).
Anyway, I feel like the slugs in the Farside cartoon heading for the salt lake. Time to hit the hay and recharge. Tomorrow is an 11 hour workday between teaching and the lab but I do look forward to seeing my family, my niece and sisterinlaw Jackie are up from Florida, so it will be a relaxing evening full of good laughs. I love my family. Will I get the 15 minutes tomorrow? Probably not, but it makes the next 15 minutes of time really appreciated...

2008 motto, no race in base

Twas a good week. I love this time of year, even though we only had a 3 hour window of that 65 degree sunny weather on Saturday, it was enough to spark the spring cleaning frenzy and the itch to get out and train. Last week, Dave and I decided that we needed at least one day of structured swimming so we took back up with the masters program at St. Joes. We have been swimming with Rick since 1995, how time flies! The once per week push in the pool will be enough to maintain and improve swimming speed in conjunction with our pool and the lake once it warms up. I was a little nervous going in because I haven't been swimming regularly over the last 8 weeks so I was really pleased that I was comfortably making all intervals with 20 sec to spare. Another 2 weeks and I'm back in my regular lane. I was tired that afternoon. There is something about swimming hard that just knocks the crap out of me for the day. If I bike and run hard like that, it doesn't have the same effect. It was great to be running outside Saturday in the beautiful weather and I had a kicking mountain bike ride yesterday. I finally worked up the courage to bike in the trails behind my house. We have miles and miles of them but they are also miles and miles of hilly, technical terrain that is quite sandy. My heart rate was pegged up over 170 for most of the 70 minute loop. I figure I'll build myself up to 2 loops in there, you just can't make that kind of training up anywhere else. 2 hours in those trails will easily equal 3 hours on the road and I find that I just have more fun negotiating the twists and turns of mountain biking lately than riding on the road. I was thinking to myself yesterday that after this season, I may concentrate on Xterra off road triathlons exclusively next year with the Vermont 50 thrown in if I can train my arse to sit on a MTB for 6 hours! Sinead will be all over that and I'm also thinking I would like to switch gears literally and give some cyclocross a try. Both Charlie and Sinead have been trying to talk me into that. I think I'll get myself through another whack at marathon this fall and next year I'll revert to the kid-like personality and play in the dirt.
I ran 8 miles on the TM today. THAT is an exercise in mind control. You have to really psyche yourself up for running that long in the same spot. The good things about are: Van is down there goofing around and is happy that I am with him, and I work harder to finish quicker because its sheer torture. I ran an 8:45 pace on there today and I was quite comfortable. I negative split each 1.5 miles by increasing the speed by .3 for every song on the Ipod. That Ipod is the best invention going. I was a little dismayed when I looked at the Steamtown marathon site today because in highlighted caps is the rule: NO IPODS, or MP3 PLAYERS ALLOWED ON THE RUN COURSE. I know that its a rule with the track and filed federation, I'm guessing for insurance reasons but how are they going to enforce that with 1000's of runners? For every race I'm in, I always see people wearing the mp3 players, I'd like to run 26.2 with it, it certainly helps. For the long distance triathlons, its small enough that they would catch and DQ you, and besides I wouldn't want to deal with the Ipod in transition but to have my nano with the Timex Icontrol watch Dave got me for Christmas and exactly 4 hours of music (I want to break 4), it's way too tempting to resist...
So back to my motto for this year, I have been consistently driving up the intensity of my running, teetering on the edge. It's a fine line between pushing the pace and over training and I am fortunate enough to have the knowledge backround to tackle it as well as the body awareness after 10 years of trial and error in this sport. You can't run faster if you don't run faster. It's that simple. Base is comfortable but racing is never comfortable so if you want to race fast, you need to train fast to. I've always been a proponent of periodized interval training as many of you have the pleasure of experiencing. Back in high school, my gymnastics coach said to me "Jen, you don't have inherent talent for this sport but you do have the ability to work really hard to get where you want". That's always stuck with me and unfortunately I do not have innate running talent, it's only taken me 10 years to figure that out, so I have committed to be a workhorse, but a smartly trained workhorse over the next 6 months.
If you want to get faster, take the interval training and recovery seriously. It really works!~