10+6+14=30 That's How I did Math Today

Daunting - that's the word to describe my workout scheduled for today. D.A.U.N.T.I.N.G.

Sure, just write "Run 30 Miles" on the schedule for Sept 28th and think I will just plop it into my calendar like it's just another day. Yes, I am aware I am training for an Ironman and that, in and of itself is daunting. But you work up to it. 50 mile bike rides followed by 3 or 4 mile runs gradually turn into 100 mile bike rides followed by 10/14/16 mile runs. It's a process of teaching and training the body and brain to adapt, get stronger, recover; and do it again. However, no matter how you work up to it, 30 miles is a lot of running. Marathons are 26.2 miles and in training for one of those the typical long run is 20-22 miles. So why 30? Believe me, I've asked, and I've been asked that by many who knew that was the plan.

 Well, whether it was a wise or foolish coaching strategy. IT IS DONE!! And because I was able to do it, I vote the coaching strategy was WISE. Sure my knee and IT band are achy, I'm on ibuprofen at the moment and icing my knee while wearing my compression pants; but I just ran flippin' 30 miles today! A marathon and then some. The mental advantage and confidence that has, and will give me on race day is valuable beyond measure.

The Break Down of My Math
10-  I started at 6:40 am - because of light, that is about the earliest I am willing to start on about the only flat trail in the south Denver area. I ran the first 10 miles alone and was fueling every 30 minutes and feeling pretty good. I was purposefully going slow in order to make the day as pleasant as possible for the duration. the first 10 went by pretty quickly and I met one of my girlfriend at 8:15am.

6-  She had an hour to run with me and we did 6 together. Those 6 flew by. I was still feeling great through those 6 and we talked the whole time. I haven't run with Erin in a little while so we had lots to talk about and catch up on. It was fabulous. I went through the fluids in my fuel belt in the first 16 and switched to my Nathan backpack after that.

14- About 9:15am we got back to our cars for her to go and for me to meet my other girlfriend who was going to run the rest with me (bless her angelic soul!), 14 miles left. The last 14 were harder than the first 14 to say the least. Julia is a serious lifesaver and motivated me throughout the run. She would have loved to be running faster and is truly a saint to repeatedly commit to run with me when she knows I will be slow! When I hit 26.2 we acknowledged that I had just run my 3rd marathon, and we kept going. The last 4 miles were the hardest of the day. With each mile I hit a new personal record. I was feeling every step in my knee and was willing myself to get to the end. With one mile to go, we upped the intensity to finish strong, striding through. As SOON as my watch clicked 30 miles - I stopped. I was not going to stop before that, but I was not running any further.

=30 - I am so glad that I was able to run the whole 30 miles and that it is under my belt now. I am ever grateful to friends who are willing to do hard things with me. 


That is more valuable in the long run than anything else I could have done today.

Weekly Schedule

Some have asked how in the world does one find time to train for an Ironman. Especially a mom with kids still at home during the day. Here was last week's training schedule:

Monday, Sept 19th - Sunday Sept 25th:

Mon:
6-7am Crossfit class (before the kids get up for the morning)
8:45-11:45am swim 2 miles, spin class (while Lydia is in preschool)

Tues:
6-7am - Run 10x400 fast intervals (total run of 5 miles) - avg pace 8:32 - intervals were between 6:30 and 7:30 pace (depending on hills)

Wed: (Dad takes over in the morning with the kids and Lydia has preschool then goes to a playgroup in the afternoon)
6:45am-2:30pm - Bike 80 miles (14.7 mph avg Palmer lake- headwind both ways!) , run 8 miles (9:06 avg -my usual 8 mile loop (includes the bluffs))

Thurs: Recovery Day

Friday:
6-7am Crossfit

9-11ish: Run 15 miles (9:55 avg pace - NOT feeling it today!) (lydia in preschool)

Sat:
6:30-7:30am - Recovery Bike - 1 hour - did not do this

Sunday: REST

17-18 hours of training last week.

This week's (26th-Oct2) schedule looks like this:

Mon
6am Crossfit
8:45-11:45am - bike 2.5 hours (16.7mph avg. - 470 to greenway trail), run 30 min (8:31 avg pace)

Tues
10-11am - Swim 3200m

Wed
6:30am-11am - Run 30 miles easy/slow (9:40 avg pace,  4hrs 50 min)

Thurs
6am Crossfit
9:30am Recovery Bike 1 hr on spin bike

Fri
6am Crossfit
9-11 - 1 hour easy bike (15.1mph headed to cherry creek trail and back)  followed by a 4 mile run (7:56 avg pace - golf course loop)

Sat
7-10am 1 hour swim/1.5 hour bike -cancelled this -  did not do anything today!

17 hours training this week, this week seems a little light (unless you look at Wed), which it is because of the rest and recovery needed to run 30 miles. I haven't done it yet, it's tomorrow. I am nervous but just plan to take it very slow, stop to refuel, and I have two amazing friends meeting me to run different portions of the last half with me. It will be interesting running more than 26.2 - new territory for me, we'll see how it goes!

This is where I get to Ride

When I signed up for this Ironman thing, it was ONLY because time-wise I felt I could do it without taking time away from my first and most important job of being a mom. 4 out of 5 kids are in school from 8am-3pm. The other one, my darling 3 year old, is in preschool 9 hours/week - mon/wed/fri 8:45-11:45. With those 9 hours, an afternoon playgroup for my 3 year old on Wednesdays (once every 3 weeks I host the playgroup); my early mornings (home by 7:15/30 at the latest in order to get kids ready and off to school), and with an occasional long morning on Saturday, I can have 20 hours/week to train without taking "mom" time away. My 3 year old is my little buddy the rest of the time during the day and we do dance and gymnastics classes, play with friends, shop at Costco, Target, and the grocery store, cook, clean, and all the other stuff that comes with living in a household of 7.

So today was one of those Wednesdays where Lydia was off to her friend's house after school, until 3 when I would pick her up, and then we go get her siblings from school. That gives me from 8:45-3pm for a long day - and while that is a long day of swimming, biking, and running; for those really long days - it is actually not enough time! So to remedy this, my husband has rearranged his schedule so that he can be the one in the mornings on Wednesdays to get the kids up and off to school. Fewsh! Now I can leave at 5 or 6 am to get all the training in for those days when I have to RIDE 100 MILES and then RUN 10+ afterwards (which is what I needed to do today), or for those days when playgroup is at my house and I have limited time. Unfortunately, we are in Sept and it is still dark at 5 and 6 am. Which means I waited until 6:20 this morning to take off on my bike for my FIRST EVER 100 MILE RIDE.

The Florida Ironman is a FLAT course, but as there is nothing flat around here, my hundred mile ride was full of rolling hills. I did not go into the mountains, I'm no fool! The ascent was still approx 4500 feet total though.  It was tough, but doable. I used the ride to practice my fueling, making sure to drink and eat every 20-30 minutes, 1 PB&H sandwich, 2 slices of banana bread, 6 gels, and 4 water bottles of gatorade over 6 hours and 20 min. I wanted to get off the bike and feel good running. I did a gorgeous ride today, it actually threatened rain ALL day which stressed me out a little bit, and the fact that I did not see even one other cyclist the whole first 94 miles (I guess they all knew it was really supposed to rain, but lucky for me, it did not!)

This is where I get to ride:

Just about a mile or two after I took this picture, there were two deer bucks on the right side of the road about 50 yards in front of me. I slowed, not knowing what they would do, and also to get my phone out to take a picture. They were beautiful, one had medium sized antlers and the other one had smaller ones. They started towards me, which made me slow even more, and then they crossed in front of me about 10 yards away, crossed the street bounding and as hopped right over the wire fence as if it wasn't even there. It was really cool! That was at about mile 75, and I was thinking how lucky I am that I get to do this, in this environment and see the beautiful things around me.

I finished the ride feeling really good. I was very pleased! My awesome running friend met me to run after my ride. She is a wonderful woman to agree to that. She is a faster runner than me, so to run with me after a 100 mile ride, knowing it will be slower than usual - - - - let's just say I LOVE her!! And she actually pushed me to run faster than I ever thought I would after that ride. I was hoping to have a 10 min average for the marathon portion of the Ironman (4:20). In just an open marathon my goal would be 8:30min/mile average (3:45). Today she helped me run at a 9 min/mile pace for 10.5 miles, on hills! I was way stoked on that. Maybe I can run a 4 hour marathon at the Ironman - it is a totally flat course, at sea level. Or maybe today was just extra good because I was stoked on making it all 100 miles on the bike for the first time. Time will tell. All in all, a great day for such a long day.

Today is the first day where I legitimately feel as though I will be able to accomplish the Ironman feat. And maybe even accomplish it well. It is good to gain confidence in training.

Utah Half Ironman - August 27th, 2011- Round 2

This is my second year doing this event, and it is the only race I am doing this year that I did last year. Because of that I was very interested in seeing improvement in my times. Last year my goal going into my very first 70.3 was to be under 6 hours. It's a flat bike course and a flat run. That was doable. My time last year was 5:53, and that included a long swim (the course was a tad long - don't know how much, but it was definitely long). My goal for this year was to be under 5:30 - so I needed to shave 23 minutes off. In hopes that the swim course would be accurate I was hoping to shave 5 minutes there, 12 off my bike time and about 6 off my run, and also have faster transitions.


This year my time was 37 minutes faster at 5:17*.  The asterisk is because the BIKE course was about 3 miles short, and the swim course had to be short too! What!?!?! How can you set up a 70.3 race course that is not 70.3?! The bike is supposed to be 56 miles long. My GPS read 52.5 as I came into transition. The directors said it was actually 54 miles long, but when they realized it they had already marked all the roads and didn't want to confuse us by re-marking  (understandable) - but get it right the first time!  I don't buy that it was 54 - my GPS is not that far off. So anyway if you add back on the 3 miles they left out of the course at my average bike pace (20mph) that would add in about 10 minutes. Then the SWIM, it had to be short because it had my swim time as 36 minutes, and that includes a 100 yard jog up to the transition area before you cross the timing mat. My goal was to be 38/39 minutes and I know I swam straight and fast (for me). So if you add back a minute or two there to my 5:17, plus the 10 minutes for the bike being short, then my "apples to apples" time was right at 5:30. And my transitions were way better this year!

Before the start

SWIM 
Mass start with all the female participants (about 100) plus the relay team participants. Always a little crazy at the start, but I am getting used to it and really just focused on swimming strong and finding someone to draft behind. That part of it was on and off, I'd get behind someone and they'd take off, or they were too slow and I had to get around them. Drafting doesn't always work out! I felt good through the swim and as always was just anxious to get that part over and get on with the race. I came out of the water 23rd in the women (I only know this because of the results posted after the fact). I ran up the hill and got my wetsuit stripped off and ran into transition. I was out of transition in 47 sec (3rd fastest T1) and off on the bike. 


BIKE

It was a warm day already at this point (about 8am) and was only going to get hotter! Forecast was for high 90's by mid afternoon. The bike was flat and I got busy eating my PB&H, gels, and downing fluids about every 20-30 minutes. The course was an out and back, so as I was getting close to the turnaround I started to count the girls that were coming at me the other direction to see how many were ahead of me.  I counted 20 or so, then I passed a few, and a couple passed me. I got to the turnaround in 1hr 20min, and was thinking I was good to finish at my goal. The turnaround was not 28 miles though on my watch so I was trying to figure out where the extra distance was going to come from since it was simply an out and back course. I didn't worry about it too much just kept peddling away. My average speed was right at 20mph and that was where I wanted to keep it. Right behind me at the turnaround there was a pretty nasty crash - after I turned around I saw two cyclists down, I don't know what happened but then the volunteer yelled that they needed to call medical. Such a bummer.  There was one girl on the bike course that I kept flip flopping with, she'd pass me, then I'd pass her. She passed me near mile 40 and I didn't catch her again after that on the bike. I came in off the bike and my watch said 2:38 - a full 24 minutes faster than last year, but again, approx 3 miles short.  I thought I was probably right about 20/21 going into transition off the bike.

RUN
I flew through transition in under a minute (59 sec- 6th fastest) and passed a few of the girls that were just ahead of me off the bike, including the one I kept trading places with. She then passed me shortly into the run and was going a pretty good pace. I tried to calm my breathing and steady my pace. I was going 8:30 and felt ok doing it but knew I needed to slow down to make it the whole 13 miles.  I slowed my pace to a 9, that was my goal pace for the run. last year I ran a 9:20. I held that for awhile but it kept slipping. So I forgot about pace and ran where I was comfortable. Last year I distinctly remember absolutely hating the first 3 miles and questioning my sanity for doing the race! This year I never felt that awful and just kept plugging away. It really was just a matter of getting through it this year. the run was hard, but doable. My pace was not what I wanted, but faster than last year's pace (9:14 this year vs. 9:20 last year) There were times I wanted to walk and I just would say in my head, "just keep running, just keep running, don't stop, slow down, but don't stop." It worked. I ran the whole thing and passed a ton of people, mostly guys (weird). But I think it's because the girls ahead of me were great athletes and I wasn't going to be passing many of them, while the guys I was passing were the slower guys (all the guys started 5 or 10 minutes ahead of the girls based on age) so when I passed them I was not just passing them, but I was 5 or 10 minutes ahead of them based on their age and their start time. The run course is fabulous! 70% shaded which really helped a lot! I was slower than I wanted to be and I don't know if it is because I went harder on the bike or if the heat was the reason - maybe a little of both?! I did pass a few girls in the first few miles though and thought I was probably positioned in the top 20 females. You can't really make a goal based on placing, or winning your division, or being in the top 10 or whatever, because you just never know who is going to show up at these events. The competition this year was much better than last year! If I had been under 5:30 last year I would have won my division and been in the top 10 females. This year I was 5th in my division and 19th overall female. Nonetheless I am pleased with my performance.

I came to the finish and 3 of my 5 kids jumped in and ran across the finish with me. It was great to see them at the end and my husband also. His time was 4:46 - and with all the same adjustments as me, he was under 5 hours, which was his goal for the day. Overall a great day for both of us.

The race was easier this year than last year on my body. The recovery was nothing to complain about. I wasn't sore. Tired the day of the race, but that's normal. I got back to training on Monday and did an 80 mile mountain ride (6200 ft of elev gain) on Wed - that equals my longest bike yet - and at 6 hours on the bike for that one, it is hopefully close to the time I will be on the bike for the Ironman in November.

Copper Triangle - 78 Mile Mountain Ride

Saturday, August 6th: Gorgeous Ride, Gorgeous Day. A little cold in the mountains at 7am (when we started). The ride goes over three mountain passes, from Copper Mountain Resort over Fremont Pass, then over to Tennessee Pass, then finally to Vail Pass. The first 58 miles or so were a breeze, the work started when we got to Vail. It's about 15 miles of steady climbing with some pretty steep grades in some places (10%), It was for sure the hardest climb I've done, and on the tail end of a 78 mile ride did not make it any easier! But I did it, and enjoyed the gorgeous mountain views en route.

Before we started

Bill taking a photo at the beginning of the ride

At the TOP! we made it! 6 miles to go at this point and they are all downhill! YAY!!

Back to School Brick

My kids started school last week. August 2nd - kinda early, but we have a modified traditional schedule where we get a 2 week fall break and a 2 week spring break, so we start super early. It's good and bad. Anyway - 4 out of 5 started last week with #4 starting kindergarten - it's a full day kindergarten but they did half days for the first week to transition them into it. So that day, Tuesday the 2nd I was scheduled to swim a mile, bike 60, then run 10.  Almost like doing a half ironman, my husband had the same workout. I swam from 6-7am, came home and got kids ready for school, took them for their first day, then was planning to take this little one on my ride. I knew I wouldn't get 60 miles pulling her, I was hoping for 40, I only had 3 hours before I needed to be back to the school to pick up my kindergartner by 11:20.

Just as I was getting ready to head out I get a call from my husband. He is about an hour into the ride portion of the brick and has had 2 flat tires. He's out of tubes, which means I get to go pick him up. He was about 20 minutes away (driving) so I go get him and bring him home and then head out on my own bike ride. I now have only about an hour and 45 minutes for the ride. I got about 25 miles in as I finished at the school to pick up my kindergartner. She had a fabulous day, by the way and LOVES school. Always nice when they do! 

We came home, had lunch, got the babysitter, and I headed out on my 10 mile run. At about mile 8 my plantar fasciitis started acting up. I then got a nasty sore throat that night that I am still (over a week later) getting rid of. I know when I push my self too hard my body rebels and I get sick. It actually doesn't happen very often, thankfully.

I was supposed to run again Thursday and got about half way down my street when I had to turn around because of the fasciitis. Went to crossfit instead that day. Friday I had PT and she worked on my foot (along with all the other ailments I have currently!).

Cherry Creak Sneak - Olympic Tri Recap

This was a race that neither Bill or I were excited to do. Our summer planning was not optimal for this one. We spent all last week (mon-thurs) on a pioneer trek through dusty, dry, hot, Wyoming with the youth from our church. We got home after midnight on Thursday. We walked approximately 35 miles pulling handcarts for the week, and while that was not swimming, biking, or running, it was tiresome enough! We had Friday to recover and get ready for a race Saturday morning. I actually felt really good getting up Saturday morning. We arrived just outside the Cherry Creek Reservoir at 5:45 and headed into the park on our bikes. Immediately, Bill got a flat tire. He fixed it, and we were off again, immediately again, another flat. A gash in his tire. He was done, spare tubes all used, and no spare tire. I went on down to the race start and got set up. Bill had decided to go for a run (to at least get a work out in). He showed up as we were getting ready to get into the water and let me know that he was now going to do the Duathlon. The event had and Olympic Tri, a Sprint Tri, a Duathlon (bike/run), and a 5k run. He had already brought his bike down and got a loaner tire to use for the race, but was not in time to get ready for the Olympic, so they let him switch to the Duathlon. I know this blog is supposed to be about my races, but I have to mention here, that he won the entire Duathlon! Pretty cool!

OK -  My race. I was a little bit nervous beforehand (always am). The water at Cherry Creek was nasty - worse than I remember it and so dirty I couldn't even see the bottom with goggles on at 2 ft deep. There were only 58 women registered (and only 46 who finished it) for the Olympic Distance Tri. I was hoping to place well because of this, in addition to performing well in each sport. The swim was a bit long (just over a mile, instead of 1500m), I have a new garmin gps watch that is waterproof so I can now wear it for the swim too-  Love it! Anyway - so my swim was 13th out of the 46 women who finished the race and again included a 1/4 mile run up to transition - 33:23. My transitions continue to get faster, but still need work.

Off on the bike and the course was fast with a few hills  - the roads around Cherry Creek are very bumpy and rough - hard for a road bike - I kept worrying I was going to get a flat. I averaged 20.3 mph (which I was pleased with) and finished the bike in about 11th place overall for the women. My bike time was 6th out of 46 women. I passed several women on the bike and only 2 women passed me - both in their fifties!! I'm so impressed by them!!

It was getting pretty hot by this point and I knew the run was going to be hard. Heat always makes me (and usually everyone else) slower. I began to pass some men and women on the run and was feeling ok. It was pretty hot! I kept trying to push my pace. There was only 1 person (male or female) that passed me on the run - it was a girl and she was bookin' it. I checked the results on her afterwards, she ran under an 8 min avg. I ended up passing more people and passed the last two girls that I would pass, within the last mile or so, putting me in 6th place overall out of the women for the race. I was 2nd in my age division and only 24 seconds behind the leader in my division. My run was actually one of my slowest race paces yet (8:38 avg) - and 9th out of 46. I don't know if I was slow because of the heat, because I pushed it maybe too hard on the bike, or because of the week I had leading up to the race (probably a combination of all of that).

Conclusions: I am not interested in doing another race at Cherry Creek Resv. Dirty water and bad roads. My transitions still need work, the girl who beat me in my division had 18 seconds on me just from transitions.

Nonetheless I was pleased with the day and can now look towards the half ironman at the end of this month.