The Hardcore 100

This weekend I was lucky enough to get about 11 hours in! My primary workout was the Hardcore 100, a 5 hour 37 minute indoor training ride.

It's sort of overwhelming to think of what's ahead of you when you put in disc 1 and see over five and half hours ahead of you. As the hours go by, the workout gets harder and the mental challenge increases.

I think that's what's so important about doing workouts like this in training: to face whatever you might bring to the table that day such as fatigue, dehydration, ect. and work out the solutions in training.

Surprisingly, each time I do it gets easier. This time I had one small glitch at about 3 hrs, I got off the bike ever so briefly to change my sweaty shirt, get some water, and use the ladies room and powered on through.

My theory is if you can sit on a trainer in the dingy garage for 5+ hrs, riding through the beautiful adirondacks--especially near Ausable should be a breeze on race day.

This week is a bit of recovery to start out with and then it's time to get organized for the Lake Waramaug Ultra.

Nutrition on the Run

I guess the popular Pre/ on the run nutrition these days is probably some type of gel or gatorade-type drink...plenty of carbs, maybe even a good portion of HFCS. Some may add in a bit a caffeine too, great if you want a quick sugar rush and then the crash which leaves you totally depleted in the end.

Still searching for nutritional nirvana, I don't know if the issue is protein, fat, less processed foods, the type of carbs ect.

But in my ongoing experiments, I did try organic baby food last night. Aramanth, veggies, fruits...couldn't ask for more nutritional value all in a portable very easy to use package.

Although I don't think it's the be all and end all to my search it does give me some ideas about self packaging some pre-race whole foods like potatoes ect in a similar manner. It does however give me a fall back plan when needing real good quality non-junk food in a pinch.

Training and the Mind

Lots of new info has emerged in the recent years about the perception of effort, and our own concept of limits that often holds us back.

The mind it appears, has capacity for far more than we could ever imagine. Tapping into that power could have enormous potential.

Right now, though, I am not thinking of huge goals or PR's. I've had a super long day, and this is only day 2 of my usual but extraordinarily long work weeks, which are mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting.

Trying to visualize my goals, visualize successful completion, and tap into that hidden mental strength to get this workout done tonight: Brick, 70 minutes hard bike followed by 30 minute T-run...and this is my second workout of the day.

No wonder they call it Brick, feels like I might be hitting the bricks soon!

Channeling willpower, strength, goals..

Burn Calories for Fuel 10K!

Beautiful April Day for a 10K. Missed a PR by a few seconds, but got a good 45 minutes in Zone 4/5 to compliment my very long Zone 2 36 miler from last weekend. Not quite sure of the official time yet, but it was good enough 3rd Place Overall Female!!!

K-O-N-A

Ok lottery results announced in 3 days, despite the slim odds the Crazy Eight Ball app on my iPod Touch says "outlook good". I'm thinking about the bay, the Queen K, and Ali'I Drive!!! But we'll see on Sunday @noon.

Aloha!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Fit some training into your workday!

Audio Fuel

This is an awesome training tool, available for Swim, Bike, and Run workouts. Some of the more recent installments are narrated by no other than Chrissie Wellington 3X Ironman World Champion. These workouts are challenging, put together seamlessly so the beat matches the prescribed pace of the workout and although you're gasping for air there's no way you can stop with Chrissie yelling through your earbuds. They're totally worth the price on iTunes for the self coached athlete. My under water headphones seem to be on the Fritz, I guess that's a topic for another post.

Ultra Training Run

Start time : 4:15'29 am
End time 12:03'39
Total time: 7:48'10.7
Lap Count: 39 laps
Ave HR: 121bpm
Distance :36.00 mile
Maximum speed :6.03 mph (9'57 min/mile)
Average speed :4.61 mph (13'00 min/mile)
Highest point :299 ft
Lowest point:148 ft
Ascent :4449 ft
Descent: 4491 ft
Ascent time :1:52'50
Descent time :2:06'10
Flat time :3:49'10
Maximum temperature :73 °F
Average temperature :49 °F
Minimum temperature :32 °F

Great Training Run!

So proud of the nutrition and hydration strategies which kept me from bonking: Lara Bars, Perpetum Solids, Potato Chips, electrolytes, Monster.

HR nice and easy zone 1 as above, kept me aerobic and able to take on fuel with ease the whole time.

Problems encountered: Right knee sore - think I need to stretch more, hamstrings tightened which I think put stress on the knee. Nauseous at the start- had a bagel for breakfast and a few M+M's. I think I would do better sticking to my standard Cliff Bar Pre race breakfast on race day. I may carry TUMS for nausea during the race.

I wonder if I'm the first person ever to run a marathon+++ right on our very own street. Peter says YES!

Ultra test run

Heading out now, just around 4 am.

9 water bottles with Heed, sustained energy.
6 Lara Bars
2 monster energy drinks
Perpetum Solids
Big full moon above me
Ipod loaded with tunes.
Time to Rock and Roll!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Recovery Week

This week finds me somewhere in the middle of block 2 of Ironman Traning, which is actually a recovery week. Coming from a running background, this has been a bit hard for me to understand as there are usually no "recovery weeks" in a typical marathon training program.

So last year, I mostly trained right on through recovery weeks right up until the very end when we were admonished to let our bodies absorb all the hard training we had done. I don't know if that helped me or hurt me.

Now looking at my log of the past 2.5 months, I see a lot of volume-- sometimes around 15-16 hours a week. And it's only April. I was feeling a little dull on the bike, but nothing major. I started to wonder about this rest week thing, there's just a day off so it's 6 days instead of 7 in the recovery week of program I actually follow. Joe Friel says deload every 3-4 weeks, and what that means may differ depending of conditioning. Huh??? A British site offerred the advice of decreasing volume by 50% and taking at least 2 full days off. Other sources were less helpful.

I decided to mix the British site's advice with Friel's, took 2 full days off (gasp!) and then returned to training tonight with a sort of technique/ loosen up workout mixing swim/ bike/ run and weights.

Here's the results: I woke up today with ENERGY!!! Had tons of ideas all day long, worked like a crazy woman, no one could keep up with me, weight was down 2 lbs on the scale, and the workouts felt great. Heart rate was nice and low on the run---about 105 going up hill, was able to spin a BIG gear no problem, and PR'd on a 50 in the pool.

I'll watch my body metrics and base the rest of the week on my response to workouts/ rest. f

So why is it that running programs don't typically include any deloading again????

Balance

It's April 1! I can't believe I've already been back in training for 2 months. How time flies.

Today I'm thinking a lot about balance. Paula Newby Fraiser wrote a nice article on this which was included in the ironman training program I am following again this year.

Last week was filled with a tough week at work, and in training--turned up the bike trainer resistance again. Then yesterday a race.

So I need to be a little mature about this, and realize that I have to balance these training/ racing/ and life stresses out for optimal recovery and health--both mental and phsyical.

I opted out of 2 different half marathons today. Instead I ran 2 mile loops in my neighborhood x 2 hrs 15 minutes with a aide station set up in my mailbox. Loops you say???? How boring! But think about the mental edge gained by doing loops!! It was a quiet Sunday morning, spent in zone 1-2, fueld by perpetum and endurolytes. Pushups, Pullups, ect afterwards to build some core strength mixed in with laundry, billpaying, and dishes! Then a nice hike in the forest with Peter and the dogs. Will top this off with a short swim right after I hit the grocery store.

So was able to mix in some light traiing with relationship and housework, which in terms of recovery and longevity I think will do more for me than redlining it again today and throwing my life all out of kilter.