Cosmo

Sorry folks, I have been really busy and it is going to get a lot worse real fast. I apologize in advance, but unless you want to hear about electron beams or linac calibrations, I probably will not be posting very much over the next month. I wasn't even planning on posting tonight, but hearing some sad biathlon news from around the world I figured I would at least type out a few quick thoughts from my head. And yes the time is 02:30.

Last Friday I had a follow-up with my cardiologist regarding an irregular heart beat I have been experiencing. I have passed every single test with flying colors so far. I still occasionally feel the irregularities, but have been told by several physicians that they are totally benign. I can either do nothing, or take a drug. Since I do not know how bad my allergies and asthma will be this spring, I chose not to take the beta-blockers. However the cardiologist has not given me the green light to train with no limits and even cast a doubt on doing an Ironman period. He ordered a 30 day heart monitor (argh) and would like to test me for a genetic syndrome called Brugada Syndrome. The last couple of days, I have had many thoughts swirl in my head from fear, to frustration, to damn-it-I-am-so-going-to-whoop-that-IM course determination.

Saturday, thanks to BuckeyeRunner, I was feeling rebellious and cranked out a 5 mile swim and 9 mile run. That was the best I have felt all year. My brain has yet to decide what I should think and how, or if, I should go ahead with my training. I have told my coach that I would like to continue, but without doing any high intensity workouts. Right now I know I can not give up this Ironman quest. Wil wrote something a few weeks ago that really hit the nail on the head for me:

"I mean, if I don’t show up one day, what’s the worst that can happen? If I don’t show up period, what’s the worst that can happen? I mean, I’d just lose my focus, abandon a goal, stop changing my life, let it settle, stagnate, fall into a rut, get fat, depressed, buy a bunch of copies of Vogue and Cosmo and In Style, watch the Olympics and dream of living driven …watch it all float away…yeah… not like my life depends on this ride every morning... nah"

This is who we are: we work, we train, we live, we love. I KNOW I am not ready to start reading Cosmo...

555-987-2688

I called my shrink this evening to schedule an appointment and luckily she has an opening eight days from now. Why the urgency? Well this is what I did:

- 7 miles on the treadmill, 3% grade, most done under 8:00 minute pace.
- 5 minutes later I was lifting with my buddy. Did a full hour of arms and some abs.
- Ate a ham and meat pie sandwhich with a peanut butter milkshake from Tommy's
- Sat through a good lecture on multileaf collimators
- Then swam 4200 meters. (2.6 miles)

None of these things by themselves are crazy, but taken in the proper order could cause some mental and physical anguish. My main set lasted 62 minutes and hurt. I was about to cut back on my 5km swim set on Saturday, until Wil called my bluff. So yes Wil, I will see you in the pool and on the road that takes us to Madison.

Thank you everyone for the good wishes.

Prove It!!!

Without the mind, the body will fail. Last week was a much need step towards improving my confidence. This afternoon I ran with a purpose: to show my Doubting Thomas mind that my body was still capable.

Here are my half mile splits (the first and last were to and from the parking lot to the first marker):

2:11/4:30/3:57/3:45/3:39/3:38/
3:27/3:28/3:18/3:38/4:17/4:32/2:30

I was pushing a bit harder than I should have, but I needed to see a few splits in a row below 3:30. And by golly they were there!!! So now my mind has seen that my body is still capable. So I'm on a little high, but I was going to sober up real soon.

I rushed home to pack up my bike and trainer to head to a group indoor training ride, led by my coach. Just so you all don't think I'm totally nuts, there is a projection screen with cycling and tri racing scenes and music to go along with the workout. (By the way, I have music on in the background for 90% of my indoor rides, just no TV.)

Here's the workout.
- Warm up for 10-15 minutes
- Spin at 120 up to 135rpms for five minutes
- Lactate ladder (read through the bike section here for an explanation)
- 2x10 minute "time trials"
- 3 min (1 min hard 53x19 gearing , 1 min at 53x18, last min all out) 4 min recovery x 8 with a climbing block
- Cool down

My legs were tired going into the ride, but they were dead by the end of the two hours, not to mention I was hungry (three hours of workouts and no gels - I know, I'm nuts.) We definitely earned our post ride chili and beer!!!

So just two quick notes on the rest of my week.
-I plan on doing a 5k and a 10k this Saturday. 5k swim and 10k run. Any takers?
-I'm praying for some good news on Friday. That is the day of my follow-up with the cardiologist. I'm on pins and needles...

Training Tools Tuesday, #2

For this week's TTT, I am going to highlight something that many of us in the snowy parts of the world have. I sometimes think just a little differently from the norm, so I have actually grown accustomed to and enjoy using this week's training tool. It happens to be my bike trainer.


What I have is the CycleOps Fluid2 flywheel. I purchased my trainer two winters ago. Back then it was a magnetic, but somehow the resistance unit got messed up and started destroying my tires. You can see the damage on the flywheel which was shredding the crap out of my tires. Don't ask me how the flywheel got like that. I don't have a clue.



So I needed just a new resistance unit and I was able to get just the fluid unit. Since then I have ridden a ton on the trainer with little problems. I suppose I could have gotten any other trainer with similar qualities, and still tell you all why I like it. This just happens to be the one I have.

Call me crazy, but I intend to keep working out on my trainer for a few more weeks. Why? Here are a few reasons:

- more flexibility with time
- comforts of my own home
- easier to complete workouts
- safety

Regarding the time flexibility, I can come home anytime and still jump on my bike. 8am or 9pm I can still spin indoors. I can't do that when I am riding outside because there is/was no sunlight. I would have to pack my bike and gear, sometimes drive somewhere before beginning my workout. That takes up extra time which can make all the difference some days. Trainer 1/Outside 0

Comforts of home include having all the food and water I need without having to throw it into the back of my jersey. I have running water, towels, and a toilet. One negative of the indoors, is that I can't just spit on the ground, but I got around that by having a plastic cup nearby. Trainer 2/Outside 0

The workouts I have are geared towards indoor winter riding anyways. Things like isolated leg drills and high cadence work can not really be done outside. Can you imagine spinning away at 130 rpms and then having to stop suddenly at a red light? Trainer 3/Outside 0

Which leads to safety. I don't have to worry about cars running into me. No railroad crossing. Very little chance to get a flat tire. No debris or stray deer running across your path. Trainer 4/Outside 0

Despite the lopsided score, don't think that I prefer indoor riding over the outdoors. When I moved back to riding indoors last fall there was a mental transition that had to occur. I had to come up with the positives and remember exactly why I was doing this - IM Wisconsin. Once your mind is on board, the body follows. I have been riding indoors for several months and have gotten into a good groove with it. And when you have a good thing, why rush to change it? Especially since there's still some snowflakes in the weather forecast.

I thought about also discussing my logic for not watching TV or movies while I spin. I tried that with my tri club's forum and I think the general opinion was that I was a little off my rocker. If anyone wants me to discuss it further, drop me an email and I'll send you my thoughts.

Roller coaster

Today was quite an up and down day. Got up early (for me) and was at the hospital for a school project by 07:30. Worked straight through till 14:30 when I finally left for lunch. Didn't mind the rumble in the tummy because I was able to finish everything I needed to do without having to come back some other day. I also found two pennies, heads up, on the floor. My lucky day, huh?

So went home to relax before heading to the gym. Got to the gym and forgot my swim trunks. Doh!!! Went back home...went back to the gym. Pissed that the weights will get cut out of the workout today, but excited that the pool was finally in its 50 meter configuration. Got a new swim workout to try too. 50, 100, 200, decrease the rest intervals, lather, rinse, repeat 3 more times then do that block again. Well, my coach gave me the intervals based on 25 yard pool. (I told him I would make the adjustments based on my perceived exertion.) Well, if you have ever done any swimming in a long course pool, you know there is a difference. Here are a few things I learned about my pool today:

- when you think you're close to the wall, you're probably still 25 meters away.
- you're not going to be able to follow the black line on the bottom of the pool, especially if the line is dashed and 16 feet below the surface of the water.
- unless they have a huge clock on the wall (which they did not) or have super human eyesight, you're not going to be able to see the clock at the other end of the pool.
- you have plenty of time to calculate in your head your next send off.
- keep reminding yourself that your times are slow because meters are longer than yards.
- I'm still not at the wall...how long is this thing?

I still haven't found the proper conversion for times between a 25 yard pool and a 50 meter pool, but my best guess is to add about 6 or 7 seconds per 50.

I should have cut some of my warm up and drills down because I ended up getting in only 3/4 of the main set done before they kicked me out. But heck I did 3200 meters and that's 2 miles and it felt pretty darn good.

Got home and now I'm back down after reading this about the LA marathon.

Oh well, I guess today wasn't my lucky day, especially since I don't believe in luck. Maybe Cliff has some extra beer and ice cream....

Validation

Well I started this post last week, but I got sidetracked...I can't quite remember but I think it had something to do with Beamish, corned beef and cabbage, and black pudding. Anyways, I think we all, consciously or not, seek some form of validation from time to time. Whether it's watching your 5K times drop, or getting some positive feedback on a project you put your sweat into, or even a return smile when you smile at someone first. During last week's training, I saw a few things that confirmed my progression. Here's a quick review of last week since I want to throw up another post tonight.

Swim: My coach took a look at my swim again for the first time since December. Back then I looked so bad he scratched my normal workouts and had me drilling for months. He watched and then said something like this: "Well, you're not going to be an Olympic swimmer, but you've come a long way." Hot Damn!!! I still need to keep working at it, especially gliding and reaching, but boy that kind of news, it feels good.

Bike: I know I am improving, I can feel it. My coach puts into my indoor trainer session what he calls a lactate ladder. You spin at 100 rpms for 55 secs in then accelerate to 120 rpms for five seconds. Every minute you accelerate for 5 more seconds. You work your way through the ladder down to 5 seconds at 100 rpms and 55 seconds at 120 rpms. I am a masher, so I really struggled with these. But this past week, boom, no sweat. Well, actually liters of sweat, but I finally nailed it. But yeah it feels good.

Run: I had been nursing that ankle for a little while. I finally worked myself off the treadmill and hit the bike paths. Well I had runs on consecutive days of 9.5 and 6.5 miles. The ankle still isn't 100% but it's pretty strong. The really good news is that getting back to my form from two years ago. After a long slow warm up I revved up the engine a bit and was cruising nicely between 7:05-7:30 pace for about four miles. Hard to tell with a few missing mile markers and the traffic light. Seeing your mile splits improve, that definitely feels good.

So to sum up last week: It feels good...

Bravissimo!!!

Music moves the soul, or at least today it moved mine. Curly Su did a magnificent job at her recital!!! If you can put on a performance like that than Ironman should be a piece of cake. AWESOME job!!!

TriEric, TriSaraTops, and Elizabeth were all there too for a mini blogger convention. As a bonus I walked away with a door prize, too!!!




So way back before I wanted this...


I wanted this...


Before I was passionate about triathlons, I was passionate about the piano. Well, as passionate as I could be for a grade school/high school kid. I know I probably will never be as good a piano player as I was before, but I certainly do miss playing. My fingers have been rusting for more than ten years, not to mention multiple dislocations and sprains. But after listening to Curly Su this afternoon, I moved "Find a piano and some spare time" towards the top of my to do list. Thanks for the inspriation.

Training Tools Tuesday, #1

Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow. Today I am a follower. I have noticed a little trend going around in the blogland that I often visit. Some bloggers are having a regular weekly column. Tri Eric has done a fine job with Two for Tuesday, What's Cookin Wednesday, and Family & Friends Friday. So today I unveil Tuesday's Training Tool. Yeah sorry to step on his Tuesday toes, but I just did not like the sound of Thursday Training Tools. I guess if there was enough commotion from you the readers I could pit my post against Survivor.

So what will TTT entail? Every week I will try to highlight something that I use during my training. It could be watches to wheels, gels to glasses, bikes to beer...Well you get the point. I got the inspiration over the weekend during my run and you will see why in a minute. So what is the first item we shall see?

My waterproof shell.

It's the Superlite Waterproof Jacket from Endura, shown here in blue.

Late last fall when I went to my favorite store for gear, I knew I wanted something highly versatile. I didn't see anything I liked immediately, so I talked with my buddy at the store and asked him what else he could get for me. He got on the phone with the Endura rep.

Buddy: "So how about a light weight waterproof jacket."
Me: "Hmmm, aren't these mostly cycling jackets?"
Buddy: "Yeah but I have run in one before." He exchanges a few more words with the rep.
Buddy to me: "The rep says since this is a new jacket, you would be the first in North America to have one."
Me: "Okay you know your stuff. Do they have one in blue."
Buddy asks the rep and then says to me: "Yup, you can pick it up in tomorrow."
Sweeet.

I have done a few rides and a few runs wearing this jacket in a variety of conditions. I did notice I got a bit hot on some of my runs, but it did the job. Well then on Sunday my opinion went from "its okay" to "love this jacket."
Why? Well my run was done in about 55 degrees F and a steady rain. And you know, what I stayed dry and surprisingly did not overheat as I thought I might. Awesome. I think it looks pretty nice too. Functional and fashionable. So thumbs up to my new favorite jacket.