My coach does know stuff... and, I have an Ironman goal.

I have been spending a lot of time on my long runs visualizing the run at Ironman – anticipating what I think the experience will be like and making a plan.

Much of my thinking is based on my first realization about the Ironman run: I am not going to run the whole marathon.

Thus, I started to experiment with various walk/run strategies. A little over a week ago I did a 50 minute run – run 5 and walk 1. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to pace. Rather, I focused on heart rate.

On race day I will set my Garmin to show me heart rate and distance.

I have learned that if I look at current pace I tend to go slower. I am running along feeling, “This is freaking hard. I’m dying,” and then I glance at my pace and note that it’s slower than expected. I start thinking things like, “What the point? I might as well walk.”

On the other hand, if I only look at heart rate and distance it’s a different experience. I am running along feeling, “This is hard. I’m dying.” Except now when I glance down I see a heart rate of 130 beats/minute I realize that it’s NOT that hard. I perceive it as hard but, in fact, I’m coasting. I am able to pick myself up emotionally and physically and go a little faster (I can always drive my heart rate up to 140 beats/minute).

This is what I did on this 5 and 1 run. Tried to press my heart rate between 135 and 140 and then I would walk for a minute. Here is the heart rate chart.

After 50 minutes my average heart rate was 129 beats/minute and my average pace was 6:43/km.

Coach Bruce explained that every time the heart rate is driven back up you create an oxygen deficit which has to be paid off. He encouraged me to run slow on my next run to compare. On Monday I ran 60 minutes at a low heart rate – no walking. Here is that heart rate chart.

After 60 minute my average heart rate was 137 beats/minute and my average pace was 5:59/km.

This is really encouraging. For a very marginal increase in effort and one that is easily sustained (my aerobic threshold is 142 beats/minute) I get a lot more speed. Over the course of the marathon this difference in pace is thirty minutes.

After a couple of weeks of experimenting, my Ironman race plan is settled: Swim easy, Bike easy (heart rate between 135 and 140), and then run easy (also between 135 and 140). I will break into walk at the aid stations during the run just to ensure that I am staying well hydrated and nourished but that plan is to make it a continuous, slow run.

And, I am back to having a time goal. Last year for males 45-49 the median time was 12:54. This is my goal. Finish in the top 50% of males 45-49. This is realistic: Swim 1:40, Bike 6:40, and Run 4:40 for a total of 13 hours. My long training days, going easy, make me feel that these times are easily achievable. Of course, it may all go to hell on race day.

Two good things from yesterday's lake swim (and one bad)

Every Wednesday I head out to Pike Lake to rinse my mouth with algae and become tangled in the weeds. Um, I  mean, swim. Yeah that’s what I do at Pike Lake: swim.

Each week I add some time. Yesterday was 45 minutes. By the end of August I want to finish at least two 90-minute open water swims.

Normally I just swim back and forth in the swimming area as I am too nervous to strike off down the lake by myself. Yesterday I had a swimming buddy (thanks Reagan) who led me north for 25 minutes before turning around and swimming back to the beach.

Two really good things happened yesterday.

First, I have got the wetsuit setup I really like. Last fall I bought a De Soto two-piece. It is an awesome suit. Very easy to put on and take off. Low neckline with no zipper at the neckline so it does not chafe (or even cut my neck like my previous suit prior to alterations). The only problem with my De Soto is that it is not quite as buoyant as I would like. I am sure that someone who is a better swimmer than I am would LOVE these De Soto suits. For me, though, I like feeling the safety of a little extra buoyancy.

Problem solved – instead of the De Soto Bibjohn (the bottoms) I used my old Quitana Roo sleeveless. I put the De Soto top over my old wetsuit. Brilliant! Bouyant enough that I can float without having to skull at all. In 45 minutes swimming I can almost just trail my legs and not kick at all. This all helped me to feel REALLY relaxed in the water. Excellent.

Second, we swam north for 12 minutes, paused, and then swam another 13 minutes north. After a brief chat we decided to swim back to the beach without stopping. Not a big deal to a lot of swimmers but I can count on one hand the number of times that I have swam, continuously, in open water for 25 minutes or more. So that’s good. But, the best news was that as I was swimming along I suddenly realized that I was thinking about work, family, holidays, etc. In other words, I wasn’t worrying about drowning. This was a THRILLING moment for me. I makes me think that I will not hate the 90 minute Ironman swim.

I if I can manage to compete the 3.8 km Ironman swim in 90 minutes I will be 275/314 (last year’s results). Slow… but I can totally live with that.





Only one bad moment.

Somewhere in the middle of the lake I got tangled in the weeds. It feels like a Giant Kraken coming to the surface to pull you under. I fought free of its tentacles and carried on though. Phew. That was close.

My longest ride and longest week ever

TODAY'S BIKE – 5 hours 10 minutes, 134 kilometers. I started at 6 am. Rode a couple of hours and stopped to refuel. Rode another 2:25 and stopped to refuel. Then rode the last 45 minutes.

Today’s bike was scheduled at 5 hours easy. I did 5:10. It was a great ride. Aside from sore-butt syndrome it was a good, confidence building experience. I feel VERY strong. After five hours in the saddle my legs felt great. No obvious fatigue of any kind. Generally, it didn’t feel like I had done much of anything. That is an awesome feeling. My intensity was a little lower than last week. No real reason for this; I was just relaxing and enjoying the day.

TODAY'S RUN – 30 minutes at 4:55/km. I did the run after supper. Between the bike and run I ate and had a much needed two hour nap. Not needed so much because of the ride as it was that  I was running on six hours sleep from the previous night (and 2/3 bottle of wine + 2 beer – making the ride that much more impressive).

My average moving pace was 5:00/km so I was a hair’s breadth slower than I was supposed to be. The best news is that my average heart rate was 144 beats/minute which feels pretty good.  I am thrilled to see that heart rate at that pace at the end of my heaviest week so far.

RUN PART II – After my 30 minutes I did 12 minutes of running 3 minutes and walking 1. I set my watch to show heart rate and during the run portions tried to run at about 145 beats/minute. This is the proper way to motivate myself on race day as getting real time feedback on my heart rate reminds me that I can work harder. In other words, pace can be defeating but looking at my heart rate tells me that what I perceive as hard work is not really hard work.

At this point I think my Ironman run plan is to run between the aid stations and take a good long walk at the aid stations – one minute to 90 seconds? My fall back position is run 3 + walk 1. Looking at other people's run times at Ironman they are REALLY slow. I would like to turn in a 4:30 marathon time. Reminder to self: Do not blow yourself up on the bike.

The Week in Review

Swim        2:10
Bike        8:40
Run        3:23
Strength    1:00

Total        15:13

My longest week to date.

Despite my demoralizing interval run on Thursday, I feel really good about this week and where I am at. I feel like I can go forever. And, other than my hips I feel 100%. There are no injuries or twinges of any kind. All is good.

I am tired but I think I have found my motivation

Recently, training has some good and some bad.

On a good note, I am enjoying cycling. This weekend saw a 112 km ride. This is my longest ever. I actually enjoyed it. Not until the 3:45 mark did I find myself in the least bit fatigued. Shortly after finishing I felt like I had done nothing at all. Cycling is good.

Yesterday I had a very good open water swim. I really focused on staying long and easy with my stroke. When swimming I have a tendency to start too fast, drive my heart rate too high, become uneasy in the water, and then get defeated mentally. Yesterday I worked hard to simply relax and keep swimming. If I found the stress level rising I simply kicked back to a very easy pace and relaxed. It worked. And, with a weekly long open water swim I feel confident that Ironman will go well (Frank Dunn in August will be a good test, too).

On a funny note I reached one of the buoys in the Pike Lake swimming area and had a freak out moment. Looking down into the murky depths I saw a severed human hand. I came up for air and then looked again. This time it had become a severed human foot. Aaahhh! I was about to call for help when I popped up to see Mark looking at me, “Hi Dave.” He was swimming in his wetsuit and the water at Pike Lake is so thick that all I could see were his pink extremities. We had a nice chat. Panic averted. No corpse after all.

The bad news is that my overwhelming impression of my training is … overwhelming. I feel tired and I am having a ton of trouble staying highly motivated. Interestingly, it’s running that has become the hardest of the disciplines for me.

As the volume of training has increased I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the willpower for hard intervals. If it was simply a matter of volume, I would be happily out there on some long training days taking it easy and enjoying the scenery. Where I suffer a lack of strength is where it’s volume AND intensity. I am hoping, however, that as of this writing that my strength is returning.

Saturday’s run was supposed to my 90 minutes at 4:55/km (this was after 4 hours in the saddle). I was good until about the 50 minute mark and then I decided that I had gone far enough. Oof. I started the long walk home. On the walk, though, I found what I hope will be the motivation to see me through the coming weeks.
I am the Learn to Run Coach at Brainsport. It’s my job to motivate thirty-five new runners to make it through an eight week program culminating in a 5 km road race. I remember my first ever 13 week program going from never having run to running 10 km. It was hard but I did it. And, I was proud of myself.  The members of this clinic are getting through something similar now. I am sure that they are finding it hard. And, I am sure that they are getting through it.

Buoyed by their commitment, I started my feet going again and finished up my run. Thank you for the inspiration.

OK… this week will be a good test for me. Time to suck it up and get it done. Ironman is now less than eight weeks away. I need to:

(1)    Get enough sleep;
(2)    Stay positive; and
(3)    Do what I have to do.

I am lucky to have a job that leaves my afternoons free. I am amazed that anyone with a full time job EVER gets through an Ironman. Really, you would have NO life.

This week’s training plan:

MONDAY – 90 minute pool swim, 40 minute easy run.
TUESDAY – 90 minute ride with 2 x 10 minutes HARD, 60 minute run with 2 x 10 minutes HARD.
WEDNESDAY – 60 minute open water swim, 60 minute easy ride.
THURSDAY – Run 10 x 1 km at 4:30 with a 2 minute break at 4:55 in between (this is THE test this week), 60 minute swim with Coach Paul.
FRIDAY – 60 minute strength training, 45 minute swim, 30 minute easy run.
SATURDAY – DAY OF REST.
SUNDAY – 5 hour easy ride, 30 minute run at 4:55/km.

As go my hips, so goes my mood

It has been a really interesting week for me – emotionally and physically. I have noted previously that as go my hips, so goes my mood. The week started strong but faded.

In fun news, I can now claim to be a sponsored Iron distance athlete. There is a new product that was developed from science done at the University of Saskatchewan called Genki Bar. Basically, it’s a slow burning energy bar which is lentil based. Imagine an Eat More bar with lentils instead of peanuts and you are pretty close. I am relieved to say that I genuinely like them. I have been experimenting for two years with stuff that I am willing to eat on LONG rides and runs – stuff that I am willing to eat when I do NOT want to eat ANYTHING. I am really glad to get a chance to use Genki – thanks to Bruce and Theresa for setting me up. They are available at Brainsport. It’s not exactly Tiger Woods money. Well, in fact, it’s no money at all but I am awaiting a Genki Bar visor. That’ll be cool.

Sunday and Monday, following the Chinook Half Iron race my hips felt as good as they have felt in a long time. No soreness at all. As the week has worn on, though, my legs in general – and hips in particular – have grown very tight, sore, and tired.

Wednesday night was the first “Brainsport Learn to Run Clinic” which I am coaching. Our inaugural run consisted of a five-minute warm up walk followed by eight repeats of 30-seconds running and two-minutes walking, followed by a five-minute cool down walk. One would think that such a minor run would be easy on me. Later Wednesday night I was awoken by the worst bout of hip pain that I have ever experienced. I woke up at 2 am with crushing pain in both hips. This happens every night but normally I simply reposition and immediately fall back asleep. Not so on Wednesday – I was awake for half an hour and nothing that I did helped the pain. I can’t see how this relates to the running clinic but anything seems possible. Rotation is the problem so maybe I need to watch changing direction move back and forth among the group of 35 new runners?

As of this writing I am on a plane to Ottawa and my legs do not feel good. My hips are sore, my IT bands feel tight, and even my knees feel a little bit off. I am hopeful that these six days in Ottawa will help my legs recover – I have three runs in Ottawa for a total of four hours. I must remind myself, though, that I have never been able to make any sense of my hip pain. It seems to come and go with no relation to my activity level.
I also note that I am fatigued. In preparing for Ironman I did a lot of reading and this came up frequently – Be ready to find yourself tired all the time. I think I’m there. This may be part of the problem with my legs. I’m just plain tired.

I am really excited about the Brainsport Learn to Run Clinic. Everyone likes sharing their passions with other and running has certainly become something of a passion for me this past two years. The part of being a coach that is really interesting to me, though, is how much I will learn. Over the years I have taught communications and poker (lots of poker). Being compelled to teach makes one compelled to learn. I find myself answering hard questions like, “Why do you run?” I am working on that and will have a more formal answer soon.

Here is my training schedule for this week:
Sunday – Run 2 hours  with 10 x 30 second sprints.
Monday – Run 10 x 1 minute at 4:30 + 1 min at 5:15 and then run 30 minutes at 5:30/km. Also, if the hotel pool is at all adequate I will add a swim 30 continuous.
Tuesday – Hotel pool permitting, swim 30 continuous.
Wednesday – Run 3 x 10 minutes at 4:30 (with 10 min at 4:55/km in between).
Saturday – Back in Saskatoon – Ride 4 hours easy, run 90 minutes at 4:55/km.
Sunday – Lake swim 45 minutes continuous. Ride 60 easy.

Chinook Half Iron distance post-race thoughts

First I will offer general comments, then specific thoughts on each portion of the race, and then comment on my nutrition throughout the day. If you just want to skip to the video, it's at the very bottom.

My overall finish: 93/106.

Official Times

SWIM: 1:00:40   22/22 age group (I was the second to last swimmer out of the water – Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina beat me out of the water by 2 seconds)
BIKE:  3:46:43   18/22 Age Group (chip time was 3:57:19 which means I was 10:36 in total transition time)
RUN: 2:19:13     13/22 Age Group

This is a small race with a field that is, I think, tougher than the races with larger fields. There are less casual athletes racing this distance at Chinook than larger racers. The race is EXTREMELY WELL organized. I was very, very impressed. In fact, in the lead up to the race I think that Race Director Mike Bock never took longer than 30 minutes to reply to any email I sent. Thanks Mike! You're awesome. My only niggling complaint is that the explanation of the race the night before was too long and included too much detail (particularly from the Run Coordinator). For experience triathletes it was old hat and for newbies it would have been WAY too much. A simple explanation that includes "The course is well marked" would have been adequate.

If my swim time had been 50 minutes (which should be well within my ability) then my overall finish would have been 86/106 which is more in keeping with where I think I am at compared to typical Iron distance endurance athletes.

SWIM

I was very disappointed in my swim. I am to a point where my swim mechanics are good (at least relative to where I was). But I refused to swim continuously for more than 200 meters at a time. When I ask myself, “why?” I don’t really have an answer. I guess I find open water swimming to be problematic. I tried a couple of times to kick onto my back and do a little backstroke. This was impossible as it immediately resulted in a feeling of motion sickness. I never felt worried about safety or anything like that. I just felt modest disorientation. I will consult with coach Paul but I think I better ad a longish open water swim every weekend for the next several weeks. I need to be more capable of open water swimming. I am thinking that a short break of 20 second will be fine every 500 meters or so. This will mean 7 breaks over 4 km as opposed to 20 breaks over 2 km which is probably what I did in this race. Oof.

BIKE

I felt really good about my bike. I rode the 93 km with an average heart rate of close to 150 beats/minute at 80 to 90 rpm. This was my goal. It is a very hilly course. I wound up with a 6 minute break at the turnaround. I did not want to break this long. I was just stopping to use the port-a-potty but Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco beat me too it and he, well, he took a long time. My average moving speed was 25.8 km/h which was slower than I expected and slower than I would like to ride at Ironman.

I note that at the beginning of the ride I was getting a fairly sharp pain on the outside of my left quad. I wrote it off to the affects of the cold water and carried on and it passed. I stretched my calves frequently throughout (on just about ever downhill) – I think this had benefits later in the day. And, near the end of the bike my right hamstring was complaining but I never noticed this on the run.

 I am guessing but I think two laps of this course would, in fact, be tougher than Ironman’s bike course. Here are the elevation comparisons.

Chinook and Ironman Canada elevations.

By way of comparison, the total climb at Chinook is 327 meters or 1073 feet. Don’t be deceived by the different scales represented. The total vertical at Ironman looks to be about 1500 feet. More but not THAT much more. The struggle I had at Chinook is that there is very little in the way of extended flat portions. It’s pretty well rollers the whole way with a couple of a particularly arduous climbs. I have never ridden Ironman before so this is speculation on my part. Basically it comes down to talking to people who have done Ironman. They seem able to get a pretty reasonable guess as to their overall speed compared to the usual speed riding on the flat. I came up 3 km/h slower than I expected to. This surprised me.

RUN

I was happy with my run. I ran the first lap stopping only at water stations. Just a nice easy pace. On a positive note, at the beginning of the run both of my calves were a little painful. I soldiered on and this feeling passed. In fact, I was kind of happy to realize at some point that I was feeling completely healthy – nothing hurt, it was easy to run at about 6:15/kilometer.

In the second lap I did drop into my old habit of taking 40 pace walking breaks. Did I have to? No. Did I? Yes. Am I weak? Yes. I am wondering if I should not plan, in advance, for Ironman as a walk run – run 4 minutes, walk 1? This might break it up for me keep my pace high instead of starting out with a straight run and then feeling, later, like I was failing myself?

Nutrition

Breakfast – 6:15 AM
Peanut butter and jam on Wonderbread.
One cup of Starbuck with cream and sugar.

Pre-race – 7:30 AM
300 ml Gatorade
1 gel.

Swim to bike transition – 9:00 AM
300 ml Gatorade
1 gel.

Bike (from 9 AM to 1 PM)
I drank 2.4 liters of Gatorde evenly throughout.
I had 5 energy gels spaced out 40 minutes apart.
Very near  the end of the bike I noticed that I was hungry. I had a Hammer energy bar that the turnaround staff had slipped into my bike bag.

Bike to run transition (1 PM)
300 ml Gatorade
1 energy gel
Applied Nip Guards (not nutrition per say, but necessary or feeling good).

Run (1 PM to 3 PM)
At he 2.2 km mark – 100 ml Gatorade
(at every aide station I doused myself with cold water – NICE)
At the 5.5 km mark – 100 ml Gatorade
At the 7.5 km mark – 100 ml Gaorade and 1 energy gel.
At the 10.5 km mark – My stomach was not too happy. I felt bloated and a little tiny bit like I might throw up. I felt fine nutritionally so I switched to straight water.
At the 12.7 km mark – 150 ml water
At the 16 km mark – 150 ml water
At the 18 km mark – 150 ml water

OK… now I have to go for  a bike ride and a run (I think I will try run 4 + walk 1 to see what sort of pace that creates).

Week in review + Three family Bridge City Boogie pre-race meal

Since my failing at the Sask Marathon a couple of weeks ago I have bounced back nicely. Last weekend I enjoyed Moe’s Triathlon. This week I put in some good time and mileage and finished the week strong.

The most exciting part of the week was sharing a race this morning with my whole family!

I did 10 km, Arthur 5 km, Heather and Oliver 2 km.


Weekly totals:
Swim 3:15
Bike 7:00
Run 2:30
Strength 1:00
Total 13:45

The week finished with a long session on Saturday that was stronger than I expected. Saturday night I had too much to eat – all the wrong stuff, bacon, scallops, shrimp, prime rib, chocolate, wine, wine, and wine – but got up on Sunday and ran a personal best 10 km run. 47:15. I ran without looking at my pace one. If you had asked me upon finishing about my time I would have guessed 47:30 as that is what it felt like – pushing to stay faster than my marathon race pace of 4:55/km but not so fast that I wasn’t all but certain that I could maintain. Pre-race I hoped that I could maintain 4:45 and I did.

One bad note from this week -- I appear to have developed a limp. I am not even aware that I am doing it until it is pointed out. I will watch this in the coming days to see if it's an on again off again thing.

Otherwise a good week. My confidence is much restored. I very much look forward to the Chinook Half-Ironman this coming weekend as I am a little bit fitter and a lot smarter than I was a year ago. Like always, I have no particular goal but I am curious to see what I manage. I predict I will be under six hours.
In order of appearance in the video that follows:

Ralph – 10 km 53:42
Raj – 5 km 21:32
Sehjal – 5 km 29:29
Marsha – 2 km 15:11
Heather – 2 km 12:42
Thomas – 2 km 15:10
Arthur – 5 km 28:37
Emily – 2 km 14:13
Oliver – 2 km 12:05
Me – 10 km 47:15