Change of Plans

This morning, I was excited to do a planned brick workout with The Firefighter. I always go to his house to do those kinds of things, but this morning he came to my place. It was great to get an extra 20 minutes of sleep with no driving or loading up the car. He showed up promptly at 5:30 a.m. so that we could get our bike trainers set up in the living room to do a trainer workout for 45 minutes followed by an hour long run. The bike routine was to include a warm up, speed drills and then some steady pedaling before going out on a run. I say was - in past tense - because right when I began to strap up my shoes and pump up the alternative rock music, a loud burst of air shot out from my rear tire. This was the same rear tire that had popped a few days ago. We changed the tire as quickly as we could, knowing this workout could still be salvaged with just a shorter, more intense bike portion, when we saw this:

The black bump poking out near my left pointer finger is the tube trying to escape the tire. It was a bulbous, tumor-like bump where the tube was breaking through a hole in the tire. This pretty much put an immediate end to all of our plans. My beautiful tires I had bought the day after Thanksgiving 2009 were no more. Here is the scene of chaos as we cleaned up the bike situation while trying to decide what Option B was. By we, I mean The Firefighter cleaned up and I photographed (my bike stayed upside down in the living room for about 7 more hours).

We made a quick decision to go out on the run anyway with a little speed work. We set out into the scorching mid-90's heat with the sun high in the sky, warming up as we ran the first mile. We proceeded to do every other mile under 8 minutes, with in-between miles anywhere from 8:30 to 9 minutes. We kept each other accountable on the pace while talking about work, our crazy decision to sign up for a second Ironman within the next year, and how our wives are much better with the finances then we are. This light conversation really helped make sure we didn't overdue it in what turned into roughly a 10.3 mile run. For not planning it out, this run was a great confidence booster, as well as a strong indication of the progress that we have made so far. We got back to my house, and I planned to get new tires later in the day so we could do a bike ride the following morning.

Later in the day, I made my way to Performance Bike to fix my problem. I had previously used 700x25 sized Continental Gatorskin Ultras. I talked with the salesman and decided to go with the same tire in a 700x23 for less surface area and a faster ride. Less surface area of the tire touching the ground creates less drag and a faster ride for the same power input. I immediately counteracted this increase of speed with anti thorn tubes from Forte that weigh 265 grams in order to hopefully prevent any future popped tubes(regular tubes weigh 90 grams for this tire size).

I also talked to the salesman about my tire pump by Ascent not working very well to make a seal on my tube valves. I use tubes with a Presta Valve, and the salesman recommended using a Presta Valve Adapter. This can be screwed onto a Presta Valve to use the Schrader valve portion of your pump.

I had not yet worn out the Schrader portion of my pump, and it worked like a charm and made a perfect seal, allowing me to easily pump the new tires up.

I now keep a valve adapter with me on my bike, as well as one in the garage for morning pressure checks before riding. The Presta valves can be susceptible to bending, or in extreme cases snapping off, so I look forward to using the adapter to hopefully prevent any future tire-pumping issues. A successful workout, a new width of tire to try out, and learning a thing or two about tire valves made for a good day...even though it was a little different then I had originally planned.

A Workout and a Surprise

I began my day in Indianapolis, with a 4:20 a.m. Eastern time wake-up. I flew through some storms in the Midwest on my way back to sunny Phoenix, and drove home just like any other day. I called The Firefighter driving home to see if he wanted to workout with a reply of, "I'll call you sometime after 10:00 a.m." I got not one, but three calls back on my cell phone and then a call to my house saying, "Why haven't you answered your phone? I just signed up for the 2012 Ironman Coeur d'Alene." His three messages confirmed it on my voice mail. The next thing I knew, I had talked to my wife and added another Ironman to my schedule in June 2012. I'll be doing the race with a half dozen other people that all made the spur-of-the-moment decision. This was not part of the plan for next year, but beginning to travel for races was a part of my long-term plan. So the surprise is that The Firefighter and I are doing Ironman Arizona in November 2011 and following it up with Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June 2012.

The addition to my 2012 schedule was a surprise (though a welcome one) and my wife's support was an even greater surprise. Idaho for a summer vacation is not necessarily a tropical destination.

With my wife's okay and a lazy day behind me, we made our way to finish up with a back and bicep workout followed by abs and a run workout on the treadmill. My wife is doing the Jeff Galloway system to build up for 2 half marathons, and today was scheduled to be a 30-minute training day. This system is not one I would choose for myself in triathlon training, but would highly recommend for anyone focusing solely on the run. It involves combinations of running for a period of time followed by some walking, such as 3 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking. I ran 3.5 miles next to her to keep her company. This was not an epic workout, but a good one following an early 4-hour flight and a $630.00 Ironman investment.

Don't Try This at Home

I landed last night on flight 216 from San Diego to Phoenix at 10:30 p.m., and drove home to arrive at my house around 11:40 p.m. I had a planned ride this morning with my common training partner, The Firefighter, and I wanted to blow it off because it involved waking up around 4:00 in the morning and getting potentially less then 4 hours of sleep. It just seemed kind of dumb. This is about the time I read this, and said to myself, "Alright, I can do this." When the very person you are planning to ride with blogs about the benefits of training with a partner having someone to hold you accountable, you can't just cancel on less then 5 hours notice. So I unpacked my bags and headed up to bed, put on my PJ's, turned off the lights, and realized that I was not tired in the least. I was fairly exhausted from a long day of 4 flights and then the drive home, but I was not ready for bed. It took reading 40 pages of a book, putting on a pair of compression socks to help my leg circulation, and taking three Advil, but I was eventually ready for bed. I finally hit the sheets at 1:30 in the morning. As I was dreaming about wonderful happy things, the alarm went off, telling me that, yes, I got only 2.5 hours of sleep and was about to embark on a 52.5-mile bike ride on a day with a high of 113 degrees.

A Marathon Bar, bottle of Gatorade and 32 ounces of water later, I was prepping my equipment to show The Firefighter he had definitely held me accountable. I really wasn't excited. They say that the workouts you least look forward to are often the best ones - the ones you really appreciate after. I did appreciate 5:00 a.m. and 91 degrees before the sun has come up, but not as much as I hoped I would. The ride started well, as I warmed up after a long run the day before and tried to get some blood pumping to my tired legs. Seven miles in, I started feeling pretty good as I met my training partner and we were off catching up because we had not trained together for a couple weeks. Twenty-five miles in, I heard him say, "I'm trying to push it more today, but we're not really going very fast." There was a little levity and excitement around mile 30 when another cyclist we saw biffed randomly and fell off his bike (he was okay). We had spent the entire ride up to this point with a headwind, and we were looking forward to rounding the corner into 12 straight miles of downhill riding...it would be like in the movies when a beam of sunlight parts the clouds and you hear angelic music in the background.


We reached our corner, only to find that there was no music, the sun was high in the sky beaming down everywhere, and the temperature was now around 97 degrees. This was only slightly alarming, but then the wind shifted and we once again had a headwind that felt like my wife was holding her hair dryer to my face. The dramatic high of the ride came around mile 44 when my tire popped and my water bottle holder broke mid-ride. Even with all of that, we had optimism and high hopes, saying that we would treat the last portion of the ride like a time trial and sprint home. Unfortunately, lactic acid had built up in our legs, and we were actually more tired than had we never stopped.

It was a gutsy ride if ever a training ride can be. A windy morning during the hot summer in Phoenix, blown tires, cyclists falling off their bikes...and all on 2.5 hours of sleep. And, the lack of sleep was after a long workday when I had also done a long run the day before. I can honestly say that the lesson for the day is that although this is the type of workout that can represent strong gains and mental fortitude, you can also hurt yourself by overdoing it if you aren't in mid-season training or you don't know your limits. The poor luck and follies I had today were really pretty fun in the moment. But had I not hydrated correctly (and had I not experienced symptoms of overdoing it in the past and learned if I had pushed too hard), I could have really hurt myself today by risking heat exhaustion or a pulled muscle. So the next time you read your friend's blog and he is doing the right thing by holding you accountable...don't be afraid to say "no" if necessary and just go back to bed.

Long Run at the Hyatt in Albuquerque

I'm on a three-day trip and had a 16-and-half-hour overnight in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have a long bike ride scheduled on my upcoming days off, and while in Vegas a few speed workouts were completed, so in Albuquerque it was time to begin getting serious about my commitment issues with the treadmill. On my training schedule, an 11-mile run was in order for the day, but due to poor planning, I had no Gatorade or Gu packs to help give me calories for this almost-half-marathon endeavor. After hydrating the night before with a Santa Fe IPA micro brew and a local Albuquerque red amber (it was good, but a little hoppy for my taste), I woke up and had a cherry pie-flavored Lara Bar for breakfast. I don't really recommend drinking beer to hydrate the night before, so I drank a couple 12-ounce cans of water and had a Grande Starbucks coffee to wake me up and keep my spirits high for the impending run. Then began my journey into 96 minutes of running with nothing but daytime television and an image of myself in a mirror to keep me entertained.

The gym was wonderful with ample equipment, a great weight area, stretching mats, and even equipment to support kettle bell workouts. There were men's and women's locker rooms as well to freshen up there if you didn't want to go back to your hotel room. The workout was a success, beginning at 6 mph and taking five minutes to work up to a 6.7 mph pace I held tell the twenty-minute mark. I gradually began raising the pace to 7.1 mph which I held for the remaining fifty minutes or so. I did have to take two water breaks not computed into my running time, but I held a strong 6.86 mph average pace throughout the 11 miles.

It was in the 90's in Albuquerque by the time I had woken up (I got to the hotel after 11 pm the night before), so an inside workout was necessary. I like the discipline required of the treadmill to hold a pace and not adjust with whims of fast and slow sections if distracted. What I'm not a fan of is trying to stay occupied. Today it was a combination of Orange County Choppers and ESPN. While running at 7.1 mph changing the channel is not the easiest of maneuvers, so having stations in close proximity is of high importance. Commercials are so slow that they actually feel like they are running backwards in time, thus the need for a backup channel. Today I can thank my successful run on 3 episodes of OCC in a row with story lines of an Eragon-themed bike and a reusable bio fuel bike. The lesson from all of this is that you have to know yourself and be familiar with your limits. I can't just stare off into oblivion for two hours. I need stimulus, and today I was lucky enough to find Orange County Choppers among Judge Judy, and soap operas.

The Great Coffee-Flavored Gelato Battle of 2011

Today started out with a humble beginning, or what some would call "lazy." I slept in until around 10 a.m. before getting up to get ready for the journey home to the surface of the sun - also known as Phoenix, AZ. Last night, Hilary and I ate at the Wynn buffet. The amount of eating was of an epic proportion. When I thought no more food could be eaten, Hilary showed up with 2 scoops of coffee-flavored gelato and we made a game of taking turns taking a bite with the first person to quit eating losing the game (real healthy game, I know). The battle was hard fought by yours truly, but Hilary finished off the last bite and so won the Great Gelato Battle of 2011.

We had other plans for the night, but after multiple pounds of king crab legs, prime rib, veal short ribs and lots of other goodies we decided to go to the room and call it a night. Once we touch down in Phoenix today, the plan is still to work off some of this excess weight with yet another treadmill workout with Hilary to make up for the one I missed this morning. The goal is to make this a speed workout and average 8 minute miles for the duration of the run. To put a cherry on top of the teaching week for Hilary, I am going to show her a lower body routine that includes exercises beneficial for running, such as step ups, or single leg hamstring and quad extension machines. We work out at different gyms, so I can only hope I've given her the tools to pursue her training for the next four months or so. I'm looking out over my view of the Las Vegas strip sad that I'm leaving, but happy to be heading towards my home, and my running partner Skittles.

Vegas Trip Workout Number Two

So The Lion King was a pretty good show with cool costumes. Aureole was not a good dining experience, though if I was a Wino I think I might have liked it more. I took the lazy option and caught a cab from the Encore to the Mandalay Bay, but really it's like 3 miles...Can you really blame me in the heat of June? To make up for it Hilary and I went against the normal Vegas grain today and worked out at the fitness center. We started with introducing Hilary to a pull workout, or back and biceps. I'm continuing the process of helping teach my beautiful bride the basics of weight training to support her pursuing endurance sports. After a good weight lifting regimen we did planks for abs with some assorted other exercises followed by the wonderful treadmill. A nice change from my normal on-the-road treadmill workout, because I had someone to talk to, keeping me honest about holding a pace that can equate to a real marathon. Now that we knew the Encore offered free water bottles and towels this time we honestly took advantage bringing a 32 oz. Kirkland water bottle we refilled and still came away after the workout with 4 little bottles to take to the room. I started once again with a 6.7 mph pace and after ten minutes upped the the pace by .2 mph for the first half and hour. I then went to five minute adjustments and finished with 9.5 mph to complete a 5 mile workout. I have so much respect for anyone that can hold a 6:18 pace for a whole marathon because that is moving fast.

I rewarded myself for a good workout with the second consecutive day of sitting by the pool with a bucket of 5 beers (please do not do this if wanting to be supportive of endurance training, I am on vacation remember) and splitting some nice bar food with the wife. We definitely didn't bring sun tan lotion and the one we bought broke after we protected my wife, so I look like a lobster that got a good workout and then drank 5 Coors Lights. I am off to continue an active day of walking over to the mall for more wife shopping, checking out the Wynn's dealership for Ferraris and Mazeratis and their 5-star golf course. To add a little crescendo to the trip before going home tomorrow, I am going to the  Wynn's buffet to just eat as many calories as I can fit in my belly, knowing that five miles on a treadmill didn't even come close to countering the damage I have done in the eating department. This is my first vacation working out regularly, and I have to say it is very rewarding to know I am not losing any ground with my training while living it up in Las Vegas. I intend to get one more workout with Hilary in before going home tomorrow, but we'll just have to see what kind of damage the buffet and following dueling piano bar does before the final decision on that fitness center visit is made.

Training in Las Vegas

I'm on a vacation in scorching hot Las Vegas at the Encore part of the Wynn resort. Even though this is a vacation and I'm having a great time a workout was still necessary to continue that progress towards a under 12:00 ironman, and maybe even a strong marathon in 2012 for Boston qualifying. The new theme for the Vegas resorts is one that though some people might not be a fan of I loved. They billed me for a resort fee that included full access to the fitness room and wifi. The fitness center was a small piece of any gym you would pay a monthly fee for. The equipment all had it's own tv to watch, complimentary headphones to listen to, water bottles and towels. My wife Hilary and I did a workout with weights, abbs and then of course some cardio. I started with a warmup of 6.7 mph for the first ten minutes or so and worked my way up to a 5 minute climax at 9.5 mph. I only went five miles on the run, but it was a relaxing environment and definitely made the bucket of corona's by the pool that much better knowing I had worked off some of those calories. I am helping Hilary develop a weight training program and begin a running program to build for better overall body strength as well as run in the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon. The plan is to workout the next two days while in Vegas. The beauty of Vegas is that we walked multiple miles yesterday, I had to throw some elbows and get physical at the COACH outlets to get my wife a couple new purses and really stay active throughout the entire day. Though fighting off housewives from throughout the country to make my wife happy with a new purse was a good workout, it is nice to know that Vegas is starting to force that healthier lifestyle on us and make these vacations that much easier to continue the training. I cooled down with a few hours by the pool and intend to continue that R n R with a nice dinner at Aureole watching wine fairies fly 5 stories to get me that perfect bottle of wine and then the Lion King at the Mandalay Bay. While on vacation I use my workouts as a way to not lose what I've been working so hard at, not necessarily trying to make major gains. Though the fitness center room was great for letting me keep the workouts going, the Wifi was a nice added touch to help me update this blog.

Great Brick Workout

Just got done with an incredible brick workout. Nothing says fun like getting up at 4:15 to get in a 52 mile bike ride. I chose a route that let me go 27 miles before having to stop at a single stop light. The ride had a gradual climb throughout the first half with one big hill and then a nice reward of coasting the rest of the way. Here is a link to the ride I did http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/36893928/ and finished up with a two mile run with my buddy Skittles. She's our lovable Cairn Terrier.

Skittles was pretty pooped after a two mile run, but considering I was still in bike shorts and she has a manly pink collar I kind of pushed her for speed this morning. Today was  great for me, setting a PR in average speed over the bike distance with 19.5 mph and then 7:50 miles on the run.  Other then almost tripping over Skittles at the mile and a half mark which could have lead to disaster, it was a great morning. I used 4 power bar gel's and drank 40 fl oz of water 28 fl oz of Gatorade endurance. The focus of the workouts right now is building. Getting comfortable sitting on a bike for 3 hours and used to running after pedaling consistently for the same period. To see a new PR on a regular build workout was music to my ears. This particular course is very similar to the bike course in Ironman AZ so I plan on riding it at least every other week. Getting up so early was tough, but being rewarded with such a nice morning and a great workout made it well worth the sacrifice. Now I just have to muster up the motivation to make it to the gym for weight lifting and I'll be able to call it day.

Strength Training for Triathletes

It's early June and I'm five months from Ironman AZ. I'm starting this week with a program from Strength Training for Triathletes by Patrick Hagerman. You can run and bike all day everyday, but if you don't help the muscles get bigger and support the slow twitch fibers (in the case of an Ironman) then you are setting yourself up to plateau and reach muscle fatigue earlier. Bigger muscles can last longer, I'm not talking about looking like a body builder, but rather the strength of your body in specific motions that support the three disciplines of triathlons. This program did a lot for me in just four months during training for my last Ironman, and now I'm hoping to enlist it's help to reach new goals. For longer distance your regimen is broken into three periods, muscular endurance, hypertrophy and power or strength. Each serves it's part in making you a better athlete and more prepared to handle the pitfalls of longer endurance races. The book supports your pursuit of any distance, sprint, olympic, half, or full Ironman. The book also allows you to identify weaknesses and gives specific exercises to remedy them. Starting this week I'll be doing three weight training workouts a week and in the muscular endurance phase working on 20 reps per exercise 2-3 sets with 30 seconds or less between sets. You feel silly trying to do that many reps with almost no weight, but by the time the whole program works towards a few weeks of low reps and lots of rest you feel primed for those long stretches on the bike, or finishing strong in those last six miles of the run. The book can be found at most major chains for running, or cycling and is available at amazon, barnes and noble, or borders. I'll still get a 50 lap swim in today in a 25 yard pool at LA Fitness and check my swim off for the week. I don't have all the answers but I know from experience this guy Patrick Hagerman gives tools for success.

Keeping things interesting

I just got home from a four day trip running 8 miles on a Precor treadmill in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn, and in Kansas City for 6 miles on a Life Fitness treadmill. Today I needed a rest after being away from home for 9 of the last 10 days so here comes a Yoga class with the wife. When training for an extended period of time for a specific race, or just in routine training for your race season monotony can can lead to uninspired workouts. I don't really have to worry about that, I wish I could get a little monotony sometimes, but adding a Yoga class, or a different route for your run/bike ride can invigorate things keeping it from getting too routine.  Even for those of you who love getting a run in at the gym, using that machine you don't normally choose can throw that uncertainty that gets that much more out of your workout. Your body can begin to fall into patterns knowing how much is left when you hit a specific street, or exactly how the pace on the treadmill feels. I have used three treadmills side by side in these hotels and had each one a little different from each other when the same pace and incline was input. The ultimate goal is how you perform on race day and these small sacrifices will keep those workouts more interesting as well as yield better results. I'm now grabbing my yoga mat, and heading off to change things up.