Unleashing the animal

Countless times I have read on Coach’s blog about racing and training “like an animal”. Always wondered what it meant and if I had experienced it. The answer came to me last night during my group ride.

After riding the century on Saturday I thought for sure this week would be a slow, steady slugfest. I rested hard on Sunday; and when Monday came around I was actually looking forward to my run and testing my legs. I went out after work and was surprised to feel my legs respond well. I was not necessarily fast; but it was one of the best runs I have had in a while. I decided to run without music and to go out as light as possible. It was just a one hour run and I had hydrated well during the day; so I thought there would be no problem if I ran without water.

The schedule also called for running without HRM and boy did I love that! Going by feel felt awesome and the time ticked away pretty fast. My simple out and back route proved to be efficient, fun and yet challenging; as the last ¾ mile was mostly uphill. I was very happy with my performance and headed home in a high of sorts. As it always happens when I run after work; my adrenaline kept me up way past my regular bedtime. When I finally fell asleep; a severe storm rolled through that made me wake up every 45 minutes or thereabouts. A bad night of sleep to put it in simple words.

Tuesday morning came way too early and I was exhausted. The 3000 yds on tap did not look appealing; but I was going to put the effort and get through them. And then I reached the pool. The lanes were full and I made the decision of just showering and heading to work; switching my rest day from Friday to Tuesday. Needless to say; Tuesday night I was asleep by 9 pm.

Wednesday morning found me working from home; able to get a couple more hours of sleep and well rested. Work was busy, nothing too terrible but a constant stream of projects and requests. My feelings towards the evening ride swing back and forth: I wanted to bag it, I wanted to go out and ride hard…. Eventually I decided I would go and try my best to hang with the “B” group. A couple of times I had ridden this ride with the “C” group and found their pace too slow for me; but the B group seemed intimidating as it was always full of guys with long strong legs and a policy of “If you have never ridden with us and don’t know the route, take a cue sheet because we will not wait”.

Armed with a couple of bottles of water and a cue sheet, I decided I’d give it my best to ride with B. After the long, steady century I just wanted to go and ride HARD for once. My schedule had a couple of intervals built into it; but I wanted more. We rolled out and knowing that the first 15-20 minutes of all my rides feel awkward I stayed comfortably on the middle/back of the pack and spun my legs to make sure they warmed up nicely before I started the efforts. A couple of people must have thought I was already struggling by mile 1 when we were going up a hill and I was just spinning instead of pushing the higher gears. A couple of words of encouragement were thrown my way and I smirked and thanked them.

About 5 miles into the ride; the group got split in 2 at a traffic light. Since I was on the middle/back I was on the group that stayed behind. I got a little pissy about it; but quickly decided to change my attitude and make the most of it. There were about 8 of us and I quickly put myself towards the front. I got into the big ring and decided I would keep up with the leaders no matter what. I was going up hills on my big chain ring (something I do not do much); descending like a champ (I am a big chicken when it come to descending); and finding that I had to slow down so I would not pass the leaders that knew the route. I was holding back; and I just wanted to GO.

I rode like this for a while until I was certain of where we were going and what the route did. In one of the flat sections, I passed the leaders and asked if I could take a pull. I was met with incredulous eyes. And I took that as a challenge. I shouted: “jump in” and started hammering. I cannot begin to tell you how good I felt. Getting down in aero, pushing the gears yet keeping my cadence at the level I wanted; knowing that I (the short girl in the small bike) was pulling the big guys. I was riding on roads all too familiar to me, at speeds about 2-3 mph faster than I normally ride them at. We came to a stop light; I looked behind and saw I had dropped about ½ of the group. The guys that stayed with me were commenting on how fast I had pulled them on this particular stretch of the road; and were actually complimenting me on a job well done. But I was no where near finished. As soon as that light turned green I started going again and was determined to pull until the end of the ride.

I gave it my best; I was working hard and one of the guys passed me as if I was at a stand still. I tried hard to get on his wheel, but to no avail. Definitely too fast for me, but I did not get discouraged; it just made me want to work harder. I finally caught up to him at another traffic light. As soon as that one turned green I went back to pulling. And man, I was going fast! And I felt STRONG. I felt the animal coming out right from inside me; and it was the best feeling I have experienced in a long time.

I wanted to ride a bit longer so I headed to ride an extra loop; but the guys wanted to go back so we said our goodbyes. I left with a bunch of "Well done's" some "thank you for a great pull" and the one that made me feel the best of all: "hope you come back next week and I can ride in your draft".

Century!

I honestly do not know where time has gone. It has been over a week since I posted my last little update and so much has happened ever since. Here are some little snippets:

- I improved my OWS time for the one mile by 3 minutes
- That same weekend I went on a riding adventure and ended up getting lost; taking longer than expected and loving my iphone and its map application
- I participated in another 10 mile TT with my bike; and not only did I cut almost a minute of my previous time; I also came in second AG (not a lot of people in my AG; but it still counts J )
- I realized that of all 3 sports, I LOVE riding my bike; and think that during the winter I need to do a better job of working on my bike fitness
- I have become totally addicted to the TDF; and suffered withdrawal symptoms on both of their rest days
- I realized that I only have 3 months left until Ironman (holy cow!)
- I went on my first century ride and I am still able to walk! Ha!

I thought I’d expand on the last one since it was quite the occasion. Last year I did this organized ride called “Lake Norman Excursion” if you look at my posts from last year; you will see that I had done the 65 mile option and was considering doing the 100 mile this year. Since I knew that long rides were coming; I ran the idea by coach. I mostly wanted to do my first century on a “supported” environment. What does that mean? With potties along the way; with water stops and with the peace of mind on the back of my head: should I need someone to pick me up; there would be vehicles doing exactly that. I didn’t exactly take advantage of all the stuff they had at the rest stops; after all I was experimenting with new ideas for my IM nutrition; but it was nice to not have to carry a gazillion bottles of water.

I got there early; mostly because I thought the ride started an hour earlier than it actually did; I got set up and started socializing with different people. I saw some old “friends”, some new ones, and just hung out until it was time to roll out. The first couple of miles were slow. You can imagine, about 600 people all starting at the same time; it is not exactly a recipe for fast, fast, fast. I was riding with a group of 3 other people and we were just keeping a conversational pace with some bursts of speed here and there to pass people that were going a little bit too slow. One thing that made me laugh early on: we had been riding for all of 15 minutes and we passed a couple, just as we were passing them the lady said: The first stop is at what 12 miles??. I thought to myself… there is someone who is really not enjoying herself on this ride; and who is having a hard time already. I did not want to be in her position.

We rolled past the first rest stop; we had plenty of water and food so we could skip it. We were keeping a nice pace; and I was focusing on my nutrition and hydration. I decided to try a combination of Carbo Pro 1200 and EFS liquid shot. Even though the Carbo Pro tastes like cough syrup; I found it quite enjoyable (I am one of those freaks that likes the taste of cough syrup) and the EFS liquid shot tasted like vanilla and was going down nicely. One of the things that I struggle with the most when fueling/hydrating during long workouts; is the taste that remains in my mouth after drinking sports drink. I can only drink so much of it; after a while it makes me gag. So I decided to get my calories from “food” and my salt from salt tabs, and stick with water as my main hydration source. This worked quite well for me. When we got to the second rest stop I already needed to use the potty (good sign of hydration spot on). So we took about 5 minutes to refill water bottles, stand in line and use the “facilities”. Then we rolled on.

At about mile 30 the routes split; and the group I was riding with chose the shorter distance. Here started my solo riding. I will say that it was not as mentally hard as I expected it to be. I was able to always keep people in sight and I think that helped. I would catch up to a group, ride with them for a few minutes and promptly get dropped on a climb. My strategy was to spin up the hills to try to keep my HR as steady as possible. With this being my first century I did not want to take the chance of pushing too hard too soon; and then be left with no energy to finish. Coach’s instructions were: I do not care how long it takes you, just FINISH the ride. And I was going to follow that to the T.

My nutrition was working great. I was getting a bit dehydrated perhaps; so I upped my water and salt intake. Within 30 minutes I was back on track. Around the fifth hour; my EFS liquid shot had ran out; so I reached for the first gel I could find. It happened to be a Chocolate power gel. I ate it; and within 15 minutes I could tell that it had messed up my stomach. It just felt like a rock; sitting there. I forced more water down; and made sure to keep eating and drinking as close to schedule as possible. The heavy feeling never went away; but it also did not get any worse. And I was able to get through that.

The route was H-I-L-L-Y; and I would be lying if I said that my hear did not sink a couple of times when after turning a corner I looked up and saw yet ANOTHER climb. But I put my head down, spun up and got through them. One thing that I noticed is that my cycling fitness has tremendously improved since last year. The 65 and the 100 mile options of this ride share a good part of the route; and I was able to realize that some of the climbs that last year “killed” me; this year were barely leaving me winded. Score!

The hours ticked by and then, I was done. I rolled back into the campus we had departed from; located my car; dismounted my bike and, even though I was tired, I noticed I could run. I got my running gear on and set on to my 10 minute run. My legs felt strangely ok. Sore? Yes. Painful? No. I could do this! Then, I noticed they were putting away the post ride food; so I chose to stop running to go eat. I wanted to eat something other than a gel. Man, a muffin never tasted so good. And ice cold water. Ahhhhh!

What did I take away from this experience? I think 2 things: I CAN ride the 112 miles in IM; and perhaps I need to revise my goals for the race. I was not as fast as I would have wanted to be; and I am not sure I can quite get there by race day in November; so it is time to take a good look at myself, my fitness and my progress; search deep in the heart and come up with goals that challenge me yet are attainable. Am I giving up on my “top secret” goal? Heck no! I just think that fixating myself on THAT particular goal; is just a recipe for disaster at this time. It might not be this year; but I WILL get there.

Mid week check!

Well, it is not exacly mid week; but it's as close as it's going to get.

Training has been going well; not superb, not bad; I am getting the work done. Week one of IM build found me with the lovely company of "Aunt Flo" and that ALWAYS makes me drag and feel out of sorts. I am a bit tired but nothing a few more hours of sleep this coming weekend won't fix.

I have also been paying close attention to my nutrition and logging in my food intake on an online tool. I think I have been doing well in that regard too. With the exception of yesterday.

Yesterday was a "special" day since I went to lunch with a woman I met at my last OWS. It turns out she is training for IMFL too and lives close to my house! I have not trained with people for a very long time and this is a much welcome change. Anywho, we got together to talk about training, triathlon, injuries and all that goes along with being an athlete. Even though we met at a healthy place, you never know exactly what is IN the food they make. So all I could do is guess amounts and nutritional values based on what I saw my food contained. I did not go crazy and ate like a mad woman; but I did not act all concerend about it. I tried to keep it as natural as possible. And I think I did well.

Today I am working from home and the best thing about it (besides being able to wear my pjs all day) is that I get to watch "le tour" as it is happening. Yay Versus!!!!

Tonight I have a bike ride with some hill repeats thrown in there for some flavor. I think I have pictured what hills I will be riding, but it will all depend on how traffic is behaving. The ONE thing I need to work on as far as bike handling skills go; is making U turns. I am SO scared of them that each time I have to do one I end up unclipping and turning my bike around. Silly, I know, but the last time I attempted a U turn fully clipped in I ended up falling off my bike and having a bruise/ bump the size of a watermelon on my left butt cheek. Thanks, but no thanks.

And that is how my week is going so far. A couple of more days and then the weekend is here; which will bring me an OWS and a 4 hour bike ride. It is time to start building my endurance back up. I am armed with a new nutrition plan (thanks Cat!) and I am ready to give it a go.

Let's get this show on the road!

Ironman build starts today

And I am ready to tackle it head on.

On tap: longuish run after work. Followed by recovery and ice bath; so I can get up and run again tomorrow.

Yeah.... Bring it!

The game is ON

I am not quite sure what happened yesterday during and after my bike test. Something inside me changed. Maybe it was the good results I got from the test (which hurt like crazy) or maybe it was Coach's comments about my performance; I am not sure what, but my game mind is ON.

Ironman build starts tomorrow and I am excited to say the least. I looked at this week's schedule and I am picturing in my head which routes I am going to go; which hills I am going to tackle and how successful I will be at completing all of my swim workouts.

Now more than ever I am convinced that my head plays a big role on how I perform my training sessions; and I am very serious about controlling my thoughts and making them work to my advantage.

The game is ON; and I am ready for it.

Holy cow!

It has been like a month and a half since I last updated this blog. Honestly I didn't feel like there was anything worth writing about. Not that my life is not full of adventure or really cool things (I wish); but it's just that I've been focusing on work, training and spending the rest of the time with my family.

We took a pretty cool vacation to Disney World... Well, more than pretty cool; a ROKIN' vacation to DW. We booked it about 2 months in advance and we kept it a secret from the little one until the day before we left. Why you might ask... Simple, have you ever told a 4 year old that you are going somewhere really exciting in a month; only to have them ask you EVERY SINGLE DAY: Are we leaving today?? 4 year olds have no sense of time; at least our 4 year old doesn't. So we chose to keep it a secret. Mind you, I was dying to tell her where we were going. I had been preparing her little by little in conspicuous ways... Say, Would you like to go to DW one day? (while looking at DW pictures on the computer)... You get my drift.

The night we told her was priceless. When we broke the news she covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes opened as big as I have ever seen them and she said: Oh my gosh! The look in her eyes... Man, I live for this stuff. Making your children happy is the best feeling in the world!

The trip went without a hitch. I asked coach for a smaller "load" of training; since I wanted to fully focus this time on being a family. With IM training looming in the horizon and all the countles hours I will spend away from home I wanted this to be all about my daughter, my husband and the 3 of us as a family unit. We had a blast. We rode rides, we ate junk food, we swam in the pool (ok splashed around), we had breakfast with the princesses, we filled out an outograph books and we took more pictures that I will even be able to print. And yes, we spoiled her rotten. It is hard not to when you are in this magical place, you know?

Upon our return, work slammed me hard. Deadlines, requests, things I had never seen/done before; a very bumpy 2 day trip to Chicago. Somehow I pulled it off.

Training has been going well. The past 2 weeks were "adaptation" after vacation and this week is rest/test week. I am only testing in 2 sports this time. Run and bike. Wednesday was my run test. It hurt like a mother effer; but I am super pleased with my results. Let's just say I held a pace I never thought I'd be able to hold. Yes, I thought I was dying while I was running at that pace; but 3 months ago, I thought I was dying when I was running a pace 30 seconds slower. So I call that progress.

Tomorrow is my bike test; and oddly enough I am really looking forward to it. Biking is my favorite and I want to keep getting better and better at it.

Ironman build starts on Monday and seeing my schedule on Training Peaks makes me excited/nervous at the same time. It is all becoming so real, you know? It seems like it was yesterday that I signed up for the race and here it is, July already, and there are a mere 4 months to go. It's coming and I am ready (OK not yet, but I will be)!