Carbs, who needs em!

For Lent I gave up bread, pasta, sugars, rice, legumes, and all the major forms of complex carbohydrates.  I do still eat fruit (limited to two a day) and I also have a bowl of plain oatmeal with a teaspoon of honey and nuts in it for breakfast each morning.  I didn't change this because it took me a long time to learn to love this breakfast and  make it work as my Ironman training breakfast and I don't want to have to find something else.  I also didn't count vacation, the food we had access to was limited and expensive!  We were on a small island where fresh vegetables were tough. I didn't order carbs unless there weren't other options.  We had to stick to a budget and that meant sandwiches for lunch.  The moment I was back on US soil I was back to no carbs though.

Now, you've probably said to yourself "this girl really isn't following lent very well" and you're right.  I'm an episcopalian. We don't technically do lent like catholics do.  I am also not really a church goer anyway.  I'm not to prepared to get into my religious beliefs in this blog at this point so that's all I'm going to say about it.

There are a few things that were hard about this:   Sweets.  For the first week I had a really tough time and I craved sweets ALL THE TIME.  The mornings were the hardest.  I would walk past people eating doughnuts in the train station and had to use all will power to keep from tackling them and stealing their sweet treat.  Worst part about this is I'm not even a doughnut person.  Before all this I never craved them.

I also get headaches in the afternoon and sometimes at night.  I've noticed that if I drink lots of water the headaches aren't as bad.  I never had to drink this much water when I was eating carbs.  I'm fine drinking tons of water.

I'm not sure how it feels yet.  Part of me likes it, I don't feel as bloated or lethargic after meals.  I also feel like i have a ton of energy in general. I don't know all the science behind the whole glycemic index and how it drives energy and being tired.

RAGBRAI - I'm in

I am in for RAGBRAI.  As of now I have only committed to three days.  I need to figure out work and vacation days to see if I can do the whole week.

Either way, I'm super duper excited.  I won't get into a ton of details now but the group (Name:  Chiowa)  is going to be awesome. Lot's of the 2010 Wellfit IMMOO crew are in it and we even somehow got Tridad into the crew (he's got three kids in elementary school and a wife who works full time).   I've never been to Iowa and what better way to see it than to ride my bike across it! 

Spring Break

For the last 6 days I have been in Sunny St. Croix enjoying spring break.  I'm not writing about training cause I didn't do any of it down there.   Yes, I know that in my last blog I wrote about how we should just do what our coach has planned for us.  And I do believe that, but this trip was about a balance.  I have been tri training for months upon months.  I wanted to just take this trip and enjoy it with Monkey without having to worry about sneaking off to get a workout in,  ending our night early so I could wake up and do a ride at 6 AM, or find roads to run on, and all the fun stuff that comes with training in an unfamiliar location  So yes, for 5 days I sat on the beach, snorkeled, swam with fish, boated, drank cruzan rum, read my book club book and relaxed!    

Here's a picture we took from our table at lunch one day,  Yes, that is a fruity cocktail with an umbrella in it.

I promise, I'm back to following the plan today!  2000 swim here I come!

Mixing apples and oranges

I witnessed a conversation where a few athletes (all of them training for their first IM race) shared that they don’t follow certain workouts that their coach gave them. Each of them had their specific reasons why and they usually ended with "I figure if I'm doing . . . . I'll be fine".  When I heard this and I couldn’t help but think in my head “ha, that just seems dumb, why wouldn't you just do what the coaches tell you? Do you honestly think you know how to prepare for this race more than they do?”  I didn’t actually say this out loud because I don’t want to be the A$%Ho$# in the group.  So instead I am writing a blog post about being coached.   

From my experience, learning how to be coached means you have to learn how to trust.

Yes, it’s like a relationship, you have to trust them for it to work.   

I've been working with Elizabeth Waterstraat (http://multisportmastery.blogspot.com) and Keith Klebacha (http://www.wellfitinc.com/about/ourcoaches/KeithKlebacha.aspx) for a little over a year now. I train with them through a variety of Wellfit's training group, currently the Ironman Wisconsin group.  I chose to train with a coach for Ironman because I felt there were too many variables (injury, illness, resting, nutrition, weight loss, tapering) Ironman race and the 9 month training period required to get to race day.  

Logistically speaking, coaching works like this: Every Tuesday I meet with 15 other athletes and Elizabeth to do a group brick workout. Friday morning Keith coaches a swim. For the other 5 days of the week we complete workouts on our own that our coaches have loaded to an online account. They send us clear, detailed descriptions of each workout that we are to do on our own. Elizabeth plans the run and bike workouts and Keith manages the swimming.  We also communicate with them via email regarding race plans, training hiccups, when I need to make a change to a schedule, etc.  I communicate more with Liz because the running and biking seem to be more of a focus for me this year.  As coaches, they tell us their plan will prepare us the most to be successful on race day.

Theoretically, this is not a big deal, it's like sports in high school. Go to practice, do the drills the coach lays out for you, do the sprints, always try your hardest, show up for the game, win or lose. If you lose then you go back to the drawing board: maybe you work on perfecting some plays, or you move some players around, change your line up. Well, here's the stress that comes with Ironman. You only get one shot, the line up is what it is on race day.  You can imitate race day, practice it over and over again but due to the recovery time needed for the Ironman Distance it is not realistic to do the entire 140.6 miles as a practice. We can do the full swim, followed by the full bike and then can do a short run.  Running the entire 26.2 miles is extremely difficult to recover from.  Then you factor in the fact that ironman entries are tough to come by, these races fill up a year in advance (maybe 9 months for less popular races such as Louisville).  If you don't make it, or fall short of your goal that day you have to go back to the drawing board which means you have to sign up, give yourself a recovery period (think a month), get a new plan and train for another 7-9 months for a race.  You get the point though, you’ve got one shot.  The anxiety around race day can be paralyzing and solid training is the backbone that enables you to work through the anxiety.    So, there is a level of trust you have to have in your coach. You HAVE to believe that your coach is doing everything they possibly can (and that their capabilities are good enough to get you to your goal) to put together a plan that will prepare you to execute.  You have to put your faith in them that their plan will work and that it is the best plan out there.   

I will admit that last season, at first, I didn’t trust my coaches.   I did not respect them the way that I should have.  I would change the workouts they gave me, or do something else, or not email them and ask them for advice, or get the advice and just not follow it.  Then I got sick, had to sit out from training for a week and had to go to my coaches for advice and help to get me back to my normal routine.  I also started having IT band issues and had to stop some rides early.  Others weren’t having this problem.  Coach worked me through it and got me back to train free.  I realized that up until that point I had one foot in the water, and the other foot was standing on dry land.  Race day wasn’t going to work till I got wet So it finally hit me “If you aren’t going to follow their plan, why pay for them”.  I also admitted that they have a TON more experience with the Ironman race than I do.  They’ve raced it themselves (and raced it really really well) and coached tons of athletes of all sorts of levels through very successful race days.  They are PAID to do this as a full time job.  They do this all day, all year around.  Their job, livelihood, passion, chosen path is coaching athletes through races.  It is in their greatest interest to set us up to be our best on race day.  It looks better for them.   Admitting all of this and experiencing that they do know what they are doing was the key to getting me to finally submit to their coaching.  I stopped changing workouts, questioning their suggestions, started being honest with them about how I was doing and just did exactly what they told me to.  And everyone knows the ending of this story, their plan worked.  I met my goal, in fact I exceeded my race time expectations and had a ton of fun doing it. 

The point is, just trust your coach.  I understand it’s hard to, but if you aren’t going to trust them then why pay all the money to have them coach you?  Training for this race is about going hard on the days you need to go hard, then resting on the days you are supposed to rest so you can build strength fitness levels.  If you follow their plan for hard days but do your own thing on the lighter days you are mixing apples and oranges and who knows what kind of results you will get. 

Ladies and Gentleman I have an important announcement:

Today I completed 30 real push ups (3 X 10 reps).

Ok, so here's why this is important and exciting to me.  For years I always thought real push ups were too hard for me and that I just wasn't strong enough, that I just hadn't built up enough strength to do em.  Or I thought they were just for men, or for women who were really in shape of had the "guns".  So every time I did a push up I would stick to the "girl push ups"*, the ones where instead of being on your toes, your on your knees.  

Last December, during pre-season I realized that in order to get a nice upper body workout with my girl push ups I had to do 30-40 reps.  Talk about time consuming.  So I tried to do a set of real ones.  I could barely do one.   I thought to myself "ok I've been doing these for years, and I'm not all that much closer to doing a set of real ones.  Maybe this approach (the girl push up approach) to getting strong isn't working for me".  So I agreed to myself that each week, 3 times a week I would do 3 sets of the most I could possibly do.  The first week I could only do 1 push up, so a total of 3 that day.  It was frustrating,  but I just kept saying "hey you gotta start somewhere.  You have to work at this, you can't just magically build the muscle to do 10 in a row".  So each week I would try to do more.  Sometimes the push ups weren't in the best form so I would often do the same number as the week before but I would aim at maintaining my form.  So finally today, I did it!  I met my goal.  I completed 3 sets of 10 push ups in good form.  

So no, real push ups are not reserved for the strong men, or the women with guns.  Even I can do em.  You probably can to if you're willing to try just one.



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Please don't write me a ticket

A reality of training for Ironman is that you have to make sacrifices.  If you asked most people who are training for or who have ever trained for an Ironman what they have sacrificed in the name of the race they would probably tell you that they have sacrificed time with their kids, hours of sleep, friendships, maybe even a promotion at work.  Well, for me I have sacrificed a sense of style, call me petty or superficial for feeling passionately enough about this to write a blog about it.   Two years ago I was stylish, wore make up and put a decent amount of energy into getting ready for work in the morning.  I used to have a new outfit every month, a shoe collection that consisted of more heels than tennis shoes and flats.  I ironed my clothes, dry cleaned things, had cute commuting shoes that I could rock during every weather condition.   It's safe to say that I was working it.

It has all gone out the window.  I've sacrificed working a sense of style to working the pool, a bike and a pair of running shoes.

Me losing it in this field is a result of not having as much time to spend on Michigan Avenue browsing clothing stores and a lack of  spending my money as a result of triathlon/running race entries, equipment, training/coaching fees  Instead of buying a new outfit I find myself buying new running shoes.  As soon as I find something I like online a red flashing sign comes up in my head telling me I still haven't paid my race entry fee for some race I've committed to doing. Or every time I go to put on makeup in the morning a part of me just says "why bother, you have to work out during lunch so it will just come off anyway".  Now with that specific example you are probably saying "well, bring your make up with you and just reapply after you work out.  Well, then that's an additional 5 minutes that I don't have that I would need to budget into a lunch hour. Now, if I did have that extra 5 minutes I would rather spend it stretching or rolling on the foam roller, but the fact is I don't have it.  My workouts are already taking slightly longer than an hour to get in, then you add a quick shower and throwing clothes on and I'm pushing it with my boss.

In addition to the whole money/time issue I just can't always carry everything to make myself fashionable.  I carry around a bunch of bags (work/lap top bag, a workout bag, a grocery bag from stopping off before the office to make sure I'm stocked with good post workout refueling options, etc).  I used to drive downtown to work which made things a lot easier 'cause I could use my car to store things.  Since parking is at least $13 downtown I am trying to avoid driving.  Since the bags can get clunky and heavy sometimes I give up a bag  so that I don't kill myself and just wear what's in the bag.  IE - I put my workout leggings over my tights and under my dress and then I wear my running shoes as my commuting shoes.  I can usually stuff a tank top and a sports bra in my laptop bag with no problem and there ya go, I've reduced a bag!  Now, the result if I can look like a mismatched crazy women. For example, this so this morning for my morning commute I was wearing my work closes: teal with black nylons.  Then to reduce my bags I wore my gym shorts under the dress (not a huge deal, people can't see em), and my committing shoes were my running shoes.  Since it was raining I wore my Royal blue north face that hit slightly past my hips.  Ok, so put that together and you have a bunch of clashing blues with a horrendous pair of running shoes acting like commuting shoes.  I would post a picture but I'm not sure I want that on the internet and I left the house after Monkey so I'm trying to avoid having him see me in an outfit like that.   I even looked at myself in the mirror and said "wow, this is what it's come to"

So, Fashion police please do not write me a ticket.  Can you please consider me to be an international diplomat between now and September 11th (diplomats pretty much have immunity according to the recent Law and Order episodes I've watched).  I promise that after the race I will get back to my old self.  note: I can turn on the tears if it will help my cause.

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Spring is almost here

It's starting to feel like spring is around the corner. 

It's been warmer (above 25 degrees) and the bitterness has started to move away.  It's still really windy, which I know, can be really tough on a bike.  But at least I'm not stuck in my snow boots anymore.  My boots were amazing but also annoying at the same time.  I own a pair of tall Sorel's.  They keep me warm and dry in the snow.  The issue is they weigh about 1.5 lbs each.  So I haven't had to wear them for about a week and a half.  It's been amazing.  It feels like my feet are so light.  I could go on and on but I will stop.


The point is:  Spring, I'm ready.  You can arrive any day you want. 

For once the situation called for some brattitude.

So last weekend I went to the local Chicago park district pool to do my swim test.  So if you take out the time I spent waiting for Dirty to get there to help time my test and count my strokes, I was in the pool for 60 minutes.  My swim test didn't need to take me that long to do.  With the warm up involved it should have take me 35 minutes instead of 60.  Much of my time was spent bouncing around lanes trying to find a swimming situation where I could split the lane with someone else.  The other option to sharing a lane is to swim in a cirlce. This makes sense when you have more than two swimmer in a lane.  On days where I'm just doing a workout I don't mind swimming in a circle.   If I have to let someone pass me, or slow down to sit on someone's feet for 3/4 of a lane becuase I need to pass them, I'm fine with it.  I don't take every swim workout that seriously.  I save the serious swim workouts for Masters practice.  I just needed 1/2 of a lane for 17 minutes to do the 10 x 100 with 20 seconds rest.    Maybe I'm the one that wasn't playing by the rules, but in my mind 4 people (women swimmers in particular) were not playing by the rules.  On 4 seperate occcasions swimmers came into my lane, becoming the third swimmer.  Now, I know what you are thinking . . . every lane was probably full with at least two swimmers so they had to come in my lane and I should shut up and get used to sharing.  Well, let me now tell you that each time a 3rd swimmer joined my lane there were at least TWO lanes with only one person in them swimming.  As a result, I would stop and bounce over to the other lane and this was just for the warm up.   When I was ready to do my test set I waited around for 20 minutes for a lane (and for the swim time

So yes, I think this situation deserves some brattitude.  Why on earth would you get into a lane that is already full when there are two other lanes that only have one swimmer.  So yes, I gave a couple of dirty looks in the locker room when lap swimming had closed.  They deserved it. 

Rest/Test Week #1.

Two days ago I completed my rest/test week.  These are my favorite weeks.  The first of many that I will go through on my path to becoming iron (again). 

To give you some background to understand rest/test week I should explain that my training is completed in 21 day/3 week increments followed by a one week period of rest. Each three week block has a specific purpose that will build me to race day.  Sometimes they are built around developing and practicing form and technique.  Other blocks are about strength or endurance.  During this period of rest (7 days) the intensity and amount of time I train drops significantly.  These rest weeks are crucial to my physical and mental health and also toward developing the muscle I need to To build muscle and endurance it is crucial to have rest week.  My coach once explained (i'm paraphrasing this because it was said a year ago) that you could ride your bike every day in a row but you would never become stronger.  Strength comes from rest.  When you workout you break your muscles down.  Recovery let's them fix themselves again and when you do build themselves to be stronger.  I truly believe this.  I believe it is also important mentally to rest.  Right now I'm not as drained but come June, rest week will be my time to catch up with friends, sleep, my boyfriend, my favorite TV shows and couch time.   I will write specifically focused on rest and recovery.   This rest week was also combined with TEST WEEK!!!!!  I LOVE test week.  It's an opportunity for me to see the fruits of my labor.  

So here's what test week is.  Every other training block rest week is combined with a test week. This years first test/rest week fell on week 4.  Doing it this early allows us to get a good baseline.   I will test again on week 12 (April), then again on week 20 (June).  Test week means that in addition to dropping the number of hours spend training, we complete the following tests:

Bike Test: 20 minutes on the bike going as hard as you can.  At the end collect the following data:
- Average Watts
- Average HR
- Max HR
- HR 1 minute after the test is complete

Run Test:  20 Minutes on the treadmill (set at 1% incline) as hard as you can go
- Average miles/hour

- Average HR

- Max HR

- HR 1 minute after the test is complete

Swim Test:  10 X 100 with 20 seconds rest in between

- Average time for each 100

The tests I just laid out are HARD.  I don't really focus on my HR data during these tests.  My coach just needs this to determine my HR zones for training.  The hard part comes when you look at your average miles per hour, watts and time for each 100.   There are moments where I do truly believe that each of these activities (individually) are harder than the Ironman itself.  It's when I enter into the pain cave.  Yes, the whole thing is about PAIN.  And in order for me to to my best on this test I have to find the pain and just sit inside of it and try not to let it slow me down.  I can't listen to my body telling me it hurts.  I have to listen to my heart telling me that I am amazing and will not hold my self back from being my best.  

The results of test week can be interesting.  Sometimes it shows you that you're out of shape.  Sometimes it's the right kind of reality to get you to take your training more seriously.  Other times it's the proof that you've done your job, or it's the positive reinforcement to keep you motivated and a reminder to continue to trust your coach.   This time around it was the positive reinforcement I needed.  I have not done these tests since last year during IM training.  Since Ironman 2010 I took a month off and then did a off season triathlon training group that included cycling, running, strength and masters swimming.  I'm proud to say that this years test showed that I am faster in each discipline!  Yes test PR's across the board!  I'm happy about this.  I've put some a lot of time into the off season to become stronger.  Being stronger allows me to be better at these tests.   I'm under an 8 minute mile average.  And my swim test was the best yet (I'm still not close to my Swimming times from HS but oh well).   I've been working with a masters swim team and it shows in my times.  During the bike test I was able to hold a record of 213 watts, last year my best test was a 204.  

So yeh, it feels good.  So good that I'm pumped for this next training block that started yesterday!  20 more days till I get to rest again!.