What I've been doing this week.

On Monday I rode early before work. Just a little 1:30 level 1 & 2 thing. But it was cold!!! I swam 900 meters at lunch.

Tuesday I ran. Not much to report. Easy. Fun. Hit the weights a little. I talked to Chad for a little while. He definitely wants to improve his run next time.

Wednesday. Christ it was cold out. 50 degrees at 5:00 am. I kind of just sat around and waited for the sun to come up. Katie was getting ready to take Paige and Ken to Disneyland so I played with the kids until about 7:00. I rode to work and back. Today was a 45 minute level 3 ride with warm up and cool down at level 1. I really needed to do something about my levers. I totally screwed them up in the last couple crashes.

I got home and took the levers off Katie's bike (Ultegra 9 speed) and then took my levers off and I'm going to swap them until I decide if I'm going to buy a whole new 10 speed group or maybe see if my bike store friend will score me a deal on a new 5900. Anyway, now I've got parts all over the living room floor and cables and housings everywhere. I need to stop at the bike store and get some new cables and end caps. Hopefully I get everything back together tonight.

Thursday I ran. Great time! I now have 10 similar runs to compare I think. There is a definite improvement in total time and pace at each HR level. I'm very stoked. I just keep telling myself, "gotta get off the bike feeling great." The race is all about the marathon. The ride sets up the run. Might be a good idea to remember not to drown.

I swam at lunch. I've done my swim assessment and I've been working the drills that I was taught. I found some stride today in the water and cut 2 strokes off my 25 yard count.

Tomorrow I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm supposed to ride but with El Tour on Saturday I may just save myself for that or do a short level 1 ride. Assuming of course, that I get the bike back together. I'm not supposed to run two days in a row yet so that's out. Maybe I'll swim.

Tonight I'm going to drink beer and eat spaghetti. I need to "carb-up" for Saturday's ride.

It's a boy!

I guess we knew it was going to be a boy. Congratulations to my Brother Keith and his wife Vicki on the birth of Jake Ryan Petrine on November 15.

Funny story I'll share about Keith. He never reads this blog anyway. Three funny things Keith did when he was little: 1. Wet his pants when he laughed. 2. Sleepwalk. 3. Pass out when you show him a needle.

#3 is really funny because he's so scared of needles that he gets his teeth drilled without Novocaine so that he doesn't have to get a shot. If I were in a POW camp all they'd have to do is show me a dentist drill and I'd give up any secret they wanted.

So he gets to the hospital and Vicki is just wracked with pain from a contraction. No one will come help her. The anesthesiologist is busy and there are no nurses around. So Keith walks in the room and he's trying to help Vicki when some nurses start talking about the epidural and how they'll stick the needle in her spine. Suddenly Keith starts to swoon and the nurses all rush over to Keith. They tell him to sit down and they get him some orange juice. Now every nurse comes in the room and they all ask Keith how he's doing.

He finally tell them, "look, if anybody else asks ME, how I'M doing, Vicki is going to kill me." So they stopped worrying about Keith and helped Vicki deliver.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my wife Katie!!!

Am I allowed to say that I wish I was 32 again? Maybe I'd be able to run faster.

My Brother Keith's wife, Vicki is a week past her due date. Maybe she'll have her baby (a boy this time) today.

That's all this family needs is a couple more Scorpios.

Long ride and run

On weekends I'm supposed to do a "long" ride and run. 4 hours doesn't seem real long on a bike and 45 minutes isn't very long on the run. I know it's going to get harder and I'm sure that I'll be begging for weekends like this in a couple months.

I'm back to wearing gloves while riding. I wore them Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday just because it seemed too cold out.

We didn't stop during the ride and I didn't eat much before we set out. I kind of bonked after 3 hours. I need to work on my nutrition on the bike.

Helmet

I called Giro today and ordered a new Atmos under their crash replacement program. Basically they sell you a new helmet but Katie's nervous about me riding around with the helmet that wiped out in. My current one is fine but I don't need her bugging me all the time about it. :)

Swim assessment

I met with Ann from Camelback Coaching last night. They filmed me underwater, above water, from the side, coming to her, swimming away, etc. Then they downloaded the video into the computer and used a program to show me where I should be and where I actually am in the water. The good news is that I have a lot to work with. Seriously, I do almost nothing correctly and the couple of things that I do, I only do on one side.

I anticipate great gains in my swim times.

HR Training

I have to remember to find out if riding too much will hurt me. I'm making sure I get the prescribed miles in at HR level 1, 2, & 3 with the required warm ups and cool downs in level 1 but I find that I'm adding a bunch of miles at varying levels of exertion.

On Monday I rode following the HR rules in my training plan to the letter. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to stay at a certain HR (+ or - 2.5 beats per minute).

Tuesday and today (Thursday) I ran, again following the HR rules. Man is that easy. I can't believe that I'm actually preparing for a marathon length run. I don't want to sound like I know what I'm talking about here, because I don't. But right now I'm just running for 15 minutes at HR level 1. This puts me at a 10 minute / mile pace or 6 mph. Then I run for 15 minutes at level 2. I move at about an 8 1/2 minute pace during that part of the run with 2 30 second sprints into level 3 & 4.

On Tuesday I noticed that I was keeping within the letter of the rules, but not the spirit. Yes, I did the run in level 1 but I really spent all my time at 1.9. Ditto when I was supposed to be in level 2 I ran at 2.9. It's much easier to stay at a certain HR range when running that when biking. I swear if you move back or forward on your seat your HR jumps or falls 5 bpm.

I swam 1,000 meters on Monday and Wednesday. I think I did the whole swim; warm up, rests, intervals, and cool down in a shorter time than I did the LT test last Saturday. Today is my swim assessment (finally). Now I get to see what's wrong with my stroke (everything). I'm sure after the swim tomorrow I'll use muscles I've never used before and I'll be dying.

I love doing something physical for the first time. The learning / improvement curve is so steep that you can't help but have fun doing it. I'm sure I'll be complaining like everyone else when I'm doing 4,000 meters at lunch 3 times / week.

First run

So I woke up this morning as usual at 4:45 am. But this morning I just lay there. I seemed to be unable to convince myself to get up. So I just stared at the ceiling for 2 hours before I finally rolled out of bed and got dressed.

Besides my LT test the last time I ran was two weeks ago Saturday and that was the day that I hurt my hip but I had a great run other than that. So I think I was a little nervous about running even though this run is done pretty much at HR level 1 & 2. Anyway I just wouldn't get out of bed.

Finally at 6:45 I got up and I was out the door. Man I keep forgetting how much I like running. It was so awesome out there.

Meeting

Last night my coaches hosted their first in a series of monthly lectures about Ironman. It was about what you can expect over the next 5 months. To start Bill asked everyone to introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their triathlon experience. So it goes around the room and everybody had done a ton of sprint and Olympic level distances and several Ironman distances. Some people were doing their first Ironman but they'd done many long distance events. One woman has done 100 mile and 24 hour runs.

Then it was my turn. I said, "Hi my name's Marc. I've never done a triathlon and I've signed up for Ironman."

Every head in the place turned. "Are you nuts?" Was heard from several people in the crowd.

And so it begins...

I hired Bill and Anne over at Camelback Coaching and today was the beginning of my formal training routine.

Nice, it's about half what I would normally do. The plan is designed so that you peak on April 15. They say in January and February I'm going to hate them.

Anyway, today was some easy spinning on the bike with a 45 minute aerobic exertion. Pretty easy. 900 meters in the pool at lunch. Turns out that I really enjoy swimming.

I ran out of beer at home Friday so I really don't think I had anything to drink on Saturday or Sunday. No wonder I feel like crap today. I think two of my home brews will be ready this week.

Swim

Did my 1,000 meter LT swim test today. The test is a little different and less scientific than the run and the bike tests. It's tough to wear a HR monitor in the pool because the strap slips every time you push off the wall. So you just write down how fast you can swim 1,000 yards and you use those times to determine your workouts.

Result: Let's just say that this is my weakest sport. Let's also say that this is going to be the place that I improve the most. Thursday I go in for my swim assessment. They film me underwater and basically will tell me that my stroke sucks.

Congratulations to my buddy Chad who did Ironman Florida today. Spectacular swim and bike times. His second half marathon was a lot slower than his first half and he still posted a great time. I haven't talked to him yet to find out how it went. I look forward to that.

By the way, I drank an awful lot last night. I finished all the bottled beer I had left and then switched to tequila and finally to Jack and Diet Pepsi.

I have 3 new beers on draft but they are all still too new to enjoy. I'm hoping they develop some taste and character before El Tour de Tucson on 11/18. Hey, it might be nice if I developed some taste and character as well.

One more rest day and the actual formal training begins.

ciao

More testing...

This has been a very quiet week for me, training wise.

Last night I did the second round of LT testing. This time it was a test of LT while running. I'm still not completely sure I understand why the body can move different amounts of lactic acid out of the body at certain heart rates during different exercises, but hey, that's why I hired a coach.

Have I mentioned that I'm not the biggest running fan in the world?

So here's how the test works: You get on a treadmill and warm up for 10 minutes eventually reaching a pace that is super comfortable. For me that's a 10 minute mile pace or 6 mph. Then they start raising the speed by .2 mph every 60 seconds. At the end of each minute they write down your HR and ask for a subjective measure of how you feel and also note other data like how your breathing looks and how you look in general. You continue until you no longer think you can maintain the pace for a minute. That happened for me at 6:40 miles.

Final result: LT HR 175 bpm @ 7:19 pace. Again, I don't understand why this number is 8 bpm higher than my bike LT. Theoretically, as long as I don't hit 175 I should be able to hold that pace for extended periods of time. Sounds hard though. Good thing my training never calls for that.

Today I do the LT swim test. This I'm not looking forward to. Simple test: Warm up for 10 minutes and then swim 1,000 yards as fast as I can. I'm worried that "drowned" is going to be my LT result for this test.

Resting comfortably

Really taking it easy today. Well I did work out with the beer pretty hard last night.

That's Paige on the left as a Wild Thing from the book "Where the Wild Things Are" and Ken as Curious George and me as his friend, "The Man in the Yellow Hat".

And yes, I had to dye those clothes myself.

Testing

Lactic Acid.

This is the bane of my existence. Lactic acid is created by your body as a byproduct of your muscles burning fuel for energy. The harder you work the more lactic acid you create. It's really nasty stuff. It's what causes your muscles to tire when you sprint for 20 seconds. It's what causes your calves to to burn when you climb stairs for too long. It's what killed PFC Santiago for God's sake.

Anyway, your body produces this stuff all the time but your blood flow allows it to be flushed from your system. To be honest, I have no idea where it goes. There is this magic heart rate level at which your body can no longer flush away the lactic acid. Your body produces more than your can eliminate. This is called your lactate threshold (LT). It's important to know this number because theoretically you can work out at a heart rate level below LT forever. Knowing your LT also allows you to focus on the "zones" at which, if you work out in them, will either increase the amount of fat your burn and increase your aerobic capacity or strengthen your muscles. So last night I went in to find out my LT on the bike.

I've done an LT test many times in the past. You ride 3 x 15 minute intervals at a maximum sustainable effort with 10 minute rests in between and then you take 97% of your average heart rate over those three efforts. That should be your LT. The problem with that test is that they say no one actually works out at their maximum sustainable effort.

So in the lab they put you on your bike on a stationary trainer (boring) and set it up so that no matter how hard you pedal you generate 80 watts of power. If you've never done this I highly recommend it because I can't explain why no matter how hard your effort your work doesn't change. Anyway after a 10 minute warm up the goal is to maintain a cadence of 90 rpm while they raise the output watts by 20 every 60 seconds. Your vitals and subjective level of work are recorded each minute until you can no longer sustain 90 rpm. They use this data to determine how many watts of power you can sustain and your LT.

Results: 340 watts, LT 167. I think a power meter might go on the Christmas wish list.

Thursday: LT on the run. They say it's different, I can't say, I've never done it before.

By the way; if you didn't get it, the PFC Santiago line was from A Few Good Men.

52 degrees this morning...Brrrr

Ken got over to my house to ride at 5:45 am. He was dressed like he was going ice fishing in Canada! I threw a long sleeve t-shirt on under my jersey and headed out.

Cold.

This "no gloves" thing might have to end soon. Ken was wearing full finger winter gloves and I'm riding with none at all. Even when I tried to blow into my hands it didn't do much good. Although I wasn't suffering much from the saddle sores the fatigue and the cold caused me to feel a great deal of doubt about the ride.

As we began the climb onto Hummingbird Lane a great thing happened: As I crested the first hill I could see a sliver of the new day's sun break over the mountains to the east. Immediately I could feel the rays begin to heat my body. The warmth spilled over me like an optimistic baptism.

That's why I love the morning rides. It's when you get to see the day that is coming, not think about the day that has passed.

5 Days - 500 miles

510 technically. Nice time. But I'm not ready to qualify for RAAM.

Back to running and swimming tomorrow. I hired a coach this week. I go in for LT testing on the bike on Monday and Thursday we do a run LT test.

Friday - 70 miles

Great ride today! A little tiring. Maybe I'm just a little tired.

I remembered that back in France we had very cushy seats and nobody complained about their butts being sore. You see, normally you want as hard a seat as you can stand because you don't want any energy being wasted by your butt bouncing up and down on a foamy seat. The seat I'm about to get is just a molded piece of carbon fiber with no padding whatsoever.

For today's ride however, I cannibalized Katie's bike and took her comfy seat and put it on my bike. Very comfortable. I had no issues whatsoever and I don't even think I lost that much energy to the seat.

Thursday - 100 miles

Can't decide how I felt about today's ride. Very windy out on the west side but that helped in some areas as much as it hurt in others. Nothing really noteable about the ride other than I can't read a map correctly I guess. I got to work and I was at 70 miles. Since it's about 20 home I had to add 10 in town here. That is my least favorite thing to do, ride around with no destination.

I'll say this - I don't know about this saddle sore. Every pedal stroke is agony. My butt finally went numb at about mile 65. Ugh. I'm really not sure about Friday at this point. The goal was 500 in a week. I'm the one that pushed it to 500 in 5 days. Maybe I could take it easy Friday and rest it up and finish up on Saturday.

Wednesday - 103 miles - CRASH!!!!!

Today I went North instead of South. I put a ton of Lidocain on my saddle sores. That REALLY kept the pain away for about an hour. There was no wind and I kept to my active recovery pace and the ride pretty much passed without incident. That is, until....

I was on a bike path and coming up out of a tunnel. The road veers right but dumb ass me was paying attention to something else when a curb jumped out in front of me. I crash a lot and I'm starting to get really good at it.

I must have looked like Ninja Man going over the handlebars because I was totally relaxed and I was in a pretty tight tuck. I flew about 10 feet over the handlebars and hit the ground rolling. I banged up my helmet (Katie must own stock in Giro because she's making me get another one) and got some road rash on my left shin and my back and left hip ended up getting torn up a bit. But, this is the cool part, my hands are pristine. I don't wear gloves and usually after something like this your hands are all torn up because you try to stop yourself with them. It's really a bad idea to do that because that's how you end up breaking your wrists.

So when I hit the ground my bike pulled a little "Evel Kenevil at Caesar's Palace" and it tumbled over me. Then I'm laying there on the ground laughing because nothing was broken. The bike's OK. It's taken some shots over the years and the shift levers probably need replacing but besides that it's OK.

Tuesday 107 miles

What did I do today? Oh yeah, I rode my bike. I can't describe how bad I felt this morning. Man, I hurt all over, especially in the saddle region. I don't understand where it came from but I have a really uncomfortable saddle sore.

I rode with my buddy Ken this morning to work and then I went South to Tempe Town Lake and then East out to Fountain Hills and did one lap of the Ironman course. Doesn't look too hard. Of course that was done without swimming for an hour before.

After leaving Ken I rode the rest of the way pretty much at 130 bpm HR and I never stressed out my legs. I was really surprised how good I felt for the ride home. That active recovery crap really works.