Start Me Up

Okay folks, my Boston training is trying to get off the ground. Unfortunately I haven't had much consistency in my training. Some weeks I can get out and train regularly, others, not so much. Regardless, I have decided to use the FIRST training plan for my marathon. Let me rephrase: I have decided to create my marathon plan based on the FIRST training plan. That should formally start July 1. I do not have every workout on every day planned. I am pretty sure I will need to adjust my training days on the fly.

There are a few things to note.

1 - I chose that plan because it gives you the three key run workouts and everything else you can fill in on your own. What I do not really like is that there does not seem to be any distinct recovery periods. That is why I am using their framework and making it my own.

2 - I am not much of a morning runner. I'd much rather have my workouts at 19:00, than 7:00. But this month I have been setting my alarm clock way earlier than I need to get up. I am trying to get my body awake earlier in the morning and even squeeze in some short morning runs before work. I feel so much more comfortable running and working out at night that I am going through some adjustments, like not sleeping enough. We'll see if I can make this experiment a success.

3 - With the early workouts, I will probably do some two-a-days. Hopefully this will get my running volume up a little. I think I will also do some bricks this year - maybe.

4 - I think the key to this plan is proper intensity. Now this is where it gets tricky. Get this: recent 5k PR is around 20 minutes. Recent 30k PR is around 2:10. Ummm, those paces are not too far off of each other. If I base my training off my 5k times, my expected marathon pace will be way too slow. So what I intend to do is base my training off my EXPECTED marathon time and back calculate. So this has me running some pretty fast intervals and tempo runs. Can I handle this? I don't know. But I figure I'll give it my best.

All right, so now some other news: I got through a sprint tri a few weeks ago. I'm hoping I can write a short report sometime. This past weekend was a DNS. After what I thought was a good week of training - 8 mile run, 30 mile bike than 45 mile bike on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday respectively, my old nemesis is back. That's right the trick knee is aching again. I can't seem to figure out what caused it. But what is worrisome is 1 - the biking seemed to aggravate it and 2 - it does not seem to want to get knocked out by a little anti-inflammatories. I am going give it a few more days; I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed.

Lastly: WIBA - I'll be there and hopefully I can be more than just a cheerleader.

By the way, does anyone think I can go and do Steelhead half IM just on a whim? Yes I may be that crazy.

PS - Great job to all the Ironmen and Ironwomen this weekend.

It's About Time

It's been about a month since I mentioned anything about training here in my corner of blogland. So what have I been up to?

Earlier this year, the plan was "race to get in shape." I got in a 3 mile run as part of a biathlon relay, a bike-run biathlon, and then a 10k run on three consecutive weekends. Those three "races" were good workouts that got my brain thinking about racing again. I also realized that I need to properly warm up before the gun goes off. In these shorter races, my engine really seems to need about twenty or thirty minutes of solid work before it gets into a good rhythm. So let's hope I can stick to that in my upcoming races.

I've got my first tri of the season next weekend. It's a sprint tri. I have ignored the swim all year. Let's hope I can survive the water to get to the bike and run. This week I wanted to get in a little speed. I got home from work stepped in the shower and contemplated bailing on my run. However running has always been good therapy for me. I thought about hitting the trails, but that would have been a bit of a drive. Instead I drove ten minutes to Beekman Park - one of my new favorite places to run. I will be planning my own workouts this year and I got some inspiration from E-speed and her 800s. Here's what I did:

10 minute warmup
Run 800, jog 400, Run 400, Rest X4 with negative run intervals.

Here are my numbers:

3:18/2:04/1:30/3:00
3:11/209/1:28/3:00
3:05/2:37/1:23/2:59
2:54/2:41/1:13 ---

I would have liked to have kept those last two jog intervals closer to 2:00, but I had some loose shoe strings.

If you try this set out, I would love to know what you think about it.

Wednesday night I wanted to get in an up tempo bike ride in. I am trying to find some good places to ride so I posted my route on my club forum. I got no takers. I even promised to have a couple extra bottles of Gatorade Endurance. Oh well - just Ferrah and me, 33 miles, with the computer saying 19+ mph average. I planned my route so near the end of the ride I would have about five or six miles without stop signs, traffic, or turns. Here I could get in the aerobars, put it in the big ring, have a slight tailwind, and crank...I think Ferrah liked it.

Work has been extremely frustrating of late and it has negatively impacted my training - long days at work and sleepless nights. Well the rest of this past week of training went the hell as my allergies blindsided me Thursday. Miserable was an understatement. I tried to get to sleep early, but I had the Cavs game on in the background. Every few minutes I would wake up to hear LeBron scoring another basket. After midnight and two overtime periods, I was now wired as LeBron carried the Cavs to within one game of the finals. I was so tired, I woke up an hour after I was supposed to be at work. Luckily I have some flexibility at work.

WIBA 2007, who's in? I'll be making the pilgrimage.

Was it me or was this post Faulkner-esque? Okay last thought for today. I have yet to sign up for my "A" race, but this upcoming week will mark twenty weeks from race day.

Time to get formal.

And Go Cavs!!!

Infidelity

Dear Ferrah,



I don't think there is any easy way to tell you what I'm about to say. I haven't been spending much time with you recently. I know last year when we entered into our union, we laid out grand plans of racing crits, time trials, and even spending long weekends on rides out into the hills and countryside.

But things have changed quickly in my life. My job has taken me away from my, no our, favorite training grounds. And I've had to adjust to a new lifestyle. But there is another thing, and I don't know any we to make it sound any better. There is another woman in my life.

She came around just a couple of weeks after I started my new job. We started out as coworkers. I tried to keep as much distance between us as possible. But unfortunately my boss paired us together. I was responsible for getting her up and ready to work in the hospital. It started innocently - checking out her curves, finding out which of her buttons to push. One thing led to another and next thing you know...

That trip to Vegas, was all about her. All those nights working late, yes, they were with her. And unless I leave my job, much of my time at work will be with her. We had our big debut last week. But there is still so much that I need to know about her. In a few months, she'll be ready for even bigger challenges and yes I am in charge
of her development.

So Ferrah, I still love you. Last week when you and I drove an hour to Granville for some hills, I came to the realization that you are still my passion. I no longer have any feelings for her and I know it will take time to regain the trust that I have broken, but I am willing to do whatever it takes. Long weekend rides, races more often, I'll even try to put on those new Speedplay pedals for you. Please accept my sincerest apologizes.

I was wrong and I am sorry.

----

Athena,

I am taking my life back. I'm escaping your Siren spell. In a few more weeks, you're going to be on your own. See you later, bitch.

----

For Immediate Release -

9:00 EDT Thursday, April 26, 2007

Columbus, Ohio - A goddess has descended upon the radiation oncology department at RMH. At a ribbon cutting ceremony earlier in the week, revelers caught a glimpse of the future of cancer treatment in central Ohio. New equipment, appropriately nicknamed Athena, will be in clinical use in less than two weeks. A Varian Trilogy linear accelerator (linac) was outfitted with on-board imaging (OBI), cone-beam CT (CBCT), and respiratory gating equipment. In addition, ExacTrac, image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) equipment from BrainLAB places Athena in a pantheon above other linacs. Radiation therapy patients will benefit from the goddess of wisdom and war, which will give the radiation oncology staff a plethora of options in the fight against cancer. According to one of the medical physicists in charge of "appeasing" Athena: "The new equipment will be able to allow us to deliver radiation more accurately and more precisely. We will be able to plan and deliver radiation with tighter margins. This reduces excess radiation dose to normal tissues and ultimately allows us to provide better care for our patients. I can not wait to see all that Athena can do." Many cancer patients in central Ohio are thinking the same way and are eager to catch a glimpse of the new goddess in town.

Wired

This past weekend was a filled with social races. Saturday morning was my alma mater's commemorative Hudson Relays. I wanted a good long warm up on this windy and drizzly morning, so I ran a five mile lap before running four different legs. Each leg was about half a mile and those legs really tightened up afterwards. By the way, my team - the alumni - lost yet again. We did not get lapped which seems to be our battle cry. Sunday morning I joined up with a former tri teammate and we entered a biathlon relay. We both knew we were out of shape so I ran the three mile leg and he rode fifteen. But I wanted to be at the Hinckley Du, to see some old CTC and Team ER friends. So if you haven't read them yet, check out the race reports from TriEric and DaisyDuc. They are seriously at the top of their games.

The weekend was topped off by catching Wired to Win. Pretty good show. And it fits in very well with my current mindset.

I'm wired a certain way. And I've known that for a long time. I don't know how to run 5k/10ks. I am not a time trialist on my bike. I am not even really a long course kind of guy. Go figure.

Somehow I am perceived to be "fast." So I can run quarters on the track pretty "fast." Or my Ironman or marathon times were "fast." But in races that are like standards for "fast" (ie 5k run) I'm really not that fast. I haven't been wired to deal with that kind of intensity for that kind of duration. I'll bet you would have never guessed my career 5k PR is only a 19:01, which I ran at my second to last 5k race in high school.

I'd like to get faster and I believe much of that has to do with rewiring my brain. I know how to run as fast as I can. I just spent a whole season running as far as I could. Now I need to find the threshold right before the pain sets in. A few years ago, a friend of mine said something that makes more sense to me now: "To get better at racing, get out and race more." By golly, I think I've found a little experiment for myself. I need to go out and race more.

Well I have a framework for my Boston Marathon plan (yeah I did say I would talk about my marathon plan, but it has not been meshed with my schedule. I've got some great ideas nonetheless.) and from the looks of it, I probably won't start on that plan until June sometime. So until then I'm going to try to step out of my box and try to get in some races in the next few weeks.

Fire up the neurons. It's time to rewire again.

A Brick?

Okay, things got busy at work as we were trying to prepare to showcase some new equipment and technology in our department. I'll still be busy the next few weeks as we move towards using everything clinically.

All right, quick training recap:

April 12 - Z2 60 minute trail run on the southern edge of Lake Mead national park.

April 13 - 20 mile ride with my team. It was supposed to be at a social pace, but we rode at a good Z3 effort.

April 14 - Brick. 16 mile Z2 ride followed by 70 minute Z3 run with TriEric and an IM WI sister.

April 16 - 3 hours of volleyball. You should have seen the sprained thumb I got. One week later and I still have trouble gripping a pen.

April 17 - 35 mile Z3 ride around Hoover Dam. No not the one in Nevada, but the one in C-Bus.

April 18 - 8 mile run; 2 mile warm up, 5 x 1 mile repeats, 1 mile cool down. I was not quite ready to hit the track so I ran around an intramural ballpark at The OSU. Unfortunately the coeds playing sand volleyball threw me off my plan and my mile splits kept dropping each time.

April 19 - 35 mile Z2-Z3 ride with some folks from my tri club.

April 21 - 45 minute Z3 trail run at Highbanks, my new favorite park. Followed by a 2 hour birding hike with a friend.

April 22 - 2 hour Z2 trail run back at Highbanks. Plus I got in an 20 minute open water swim later in the day.

Did anyone notice anything?

Yes I did a brick for the first time since, ohhh, maybe 2004? Why is this significant? Well I'm thinking of bringing the brick back this year. I am going to run a fall marathon and am gathering some training programs. I was talking with a teammate of mine a few weeks ago. She mentioned how well the bricks seemed to help her runs especially around mile 20 of the marathon.

So the fire is lit. I am really eager to get out and train. And with the weather being so perfect for Ohio, I am doubly eager to train. I am training more now than I have been since last summer. It's also becoming consistent as I am finally settling into some routines. But let's hope I can continue to check myself; I still have about six months till my race and there's no need to over do it. Next time, I think I'll discuss my thoughts on my marathon training.

Vegas Recap

I am back from Sin City. Yes I did spend some time in a few casinos and I did win a few bucks at the blackjack tables. But here are a few pictures of some of the other things I did. You'll have to excuse some of the poor photography of some of the images below. A little handheld digital camera can only capture so much.

Cleveland covered in snow.
This was taken in February 2007.

The near no-hitter.
I have some other pictures stuck on my camera phone.

Red Rock Canyon.

Sunset over the Red Rock Canyon area.

Venus over the Red Rocks.

Climax.
I am a physicist and a geek so it's not much of a surprise
that I went to the Atomic Testing Museum.

The museum included a gallery of atomic bomb explosions.
This image is from AtomicArchive.com.

Hoover Dam.
There are public restrooms on top of the dam itself.
Where does the water go when you flush?

Hoover Dam intake towers.

Hoover Dam Spillway

Hoover Dam Generator.

A bridge is currently being constructed just south of the Dam.
It should alleviate traffic problems, but the view of Hoover Dam will not be the same.

After touring Hoover Dam, I drove over to the Lake Mead area. I was disappointed that I needed to pay to drive around the lake, and refused to pay the toll. It made me realize how fortunate NE Ohioans are to have a free national park in their backyard. Luckily I found a trail to run before entering the park. It was an old rail line. You can see one of the tunnels in the left of this picture. By the way, the ankle felt fine. So you are spared the gore; unless you want to see this again.

Boulder Basin.
Part of Lake Mead.

Las Vegas City Lights from Red Rock Canyon.

The trip was a much needed break from work. But now I'm back and ready to go again. I'll try to post my thoughts on this past weekend. And as a teaser, it involves me and a brick workout!!!

On the Move

This post will be a bit scatter-brained - just like I am feeling right now. Training took another back seat last week. I got in a total of, er, 2 hours of workouts last week. Why so little training? Well I wanted to make up some time at work so I could go to the Jake for what was supposed to be a baseball game. I can't believe I was one strike away from seeing a no-hitter (not the nine-inning version, but an official game nonetheless.) I can't believe I sat through three snow delays. Yes snow delays. I guess that's what I get for going to a ball game on Good Friday.

Just an aside, I'm not sure why I like watching baseball at a ballpark. I've never picked up a bat and faced a pitch. So maybe it's the statistics of the game. Or maybe it's just the belief that something special will happen on a warm summer night under the lights. Whatever the reason, I like it.

So I went from the blustery cold snow of C-town to spending a few days in Vegas. Anyone have any suggestions as to where to go and what to see while in sin city?

This evening I drove out to Red Rock Canyon. Beautiful. One parking lot was open till 21:00. So I sat out there tilted my head back and looked overhead at all the stars I haven't seen in a while. Boy was Venus shining bright tonight. I'll try to put some pictures up after I get home.

Unfortunately, there was a little damper on the evening. I tweaked my ankle while jogging along the trail. It feels like I stretched that peroneal tendon again. I got some ice on it tonight and I'm really hoping it will be fine tomorrow. I guess I ought to take it easy nonetheless, but I've got some training this upcoming weekend with my new team. I've also got a little 5k race to run on Sunday. One of these days I'll start on my way to Boston.

Hmm, I'm out of thoughts right now. Thank you. Please come again.

Hammer

I think my legs may still be quaking. What was supposed to be a casual thirty mile ride turned into much more than that.

Last Thursday was the day for Ferrah to make her C-bus debut. I brought my bike into work as a reminder to my coworkers that I was leaving earlier than I normally would. I did not think anyone cared as I was at work earlier than normal to compensate. The ride was the first official Thursday Night Ride for COTT. This would be a ride with entirely new faces for me. Well some faces I had seen before at races and social gatherings. And surprisingly I was recognized as well from previous races.

The plan was to leave promptly at 18:00 for 30 miles or so. A few of us were ready to roll, but at 17:59, our leader was no where to be found. A quick call and, oops, we were at the wrong parking lot. So we busted our butts for 2 miles to meet up with everyone else.

Now with a crew of about fifteen intrepid riders, we set out. As is common in group rides, the packs started forming early. Having my share of testosterone, I went with the leaders. I had nary a clue where we were or where we were going. I did remember to stuff a cue sheet in my back pocket just in case. Unbeknown to our seven man breakaway, the lead rider was using an inappropriate triptik. About 19:15, the sun was sitting low in the sky. We were about 24 miles or so into the ride and we were still traveling away from our starting point. I knew something was wrong and had to say something.

At the next turn, we stopped and examined the situation. We were indeed off course. The lead rider had been using a 45 mile route as opposed to 30. The cell phones came flying out of the back pockets. Calls were made. Rumbling and grumbling arose. One cyclist whipped out his gps hoping to plot a route to our destination. Several motorists were stopped in hopes of getting directions. I pulled out the cue sheet and believed we could get back on course. No one had a headlight. Darkness was quickly coming. And on a cloudless night, the cold would arrive soon as well. After a quick consensus, we had to set the wheels in motion again. Since I had the best guide to safety, that meant I was now at the front and pulling the train.

Time to bring out the hammer.

For about the next hour, it was the steady buzz of six cranks with the occasional click of gear shifting. We were fortunate to have a nearly full moon shining down upon us, as if to say, "I've got your back." I had given my arm warmers up to a young lady, so I was a tad chilly, but I've been cold before. Finally we made the last turn and caught sight of the first park entrance. Now it was just three of us who had to cover the remaining two miles to the other parking lot. So when we pulled in, the park ranger gently reminded us to remember to get back before the sun went down. We were truly grateful for her patience with us.

What a ride.

I know that I should be trying to keep my workouts in a steady zone 2 or zone 3; after all I am in pre-base right now. But it is nice to know that my cycling is evolving and I am becoming a stronger rider. That night I was keeping steady cadences around 100 rpm. And I was moving at 20+ miles per hour. By golly I might have some hamstrings, or at least I've built some neuromuscular connections.

In spite of everything, is there anything else or anywhere I would want to be? Probably not. I can't wait to do it again...