“Rest” Week

August was a long, tough month of training but I finally made it to the “rest” week. (FYI – I did manage to complete the 3 hour run Sunday at 7:44 pace which was the last workout of the block). I put rest in quotes because none of Karen’s workouts are all that easy! I love it though…this is what is going to make me a better athlete.

In terms of scheduling, this week was kind of tough. The YMCA decided to close their pool for a week of maintenance. I freaked a little, trying to figure out where I was going to swim. Fortunately, the CNY Tri club has a link that lists all of the local training opportunities in central NY(including swimming) and I was able to find an open pool out at Caz College for my 1000yard time trial. The only downside is that they are only open 6:30a-7:40a. Fortunately the swim only takes about 30 minutes…plenty of time (or so I thought). Had a lifeguard showed up, it would have been plenty of time. After standing in the locker room with 6 other scantily clad women, it was announced that the pool would not open today because there was no lifeguard. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Now what? I suppose I could have just skipped it but instead, I searched for another pool. I had to be at work at 10am and still had a 90minute run to get in so it would have to be something open after 7pm on a Friday night! Luckily, the downtown Y was open until 9pm so after work, I headed down there for the time trial.

Considering that I had run 90 minutes around Caz Lake in the morning and then stood at work for 9 hours, the time trial went fine. I managed a 13:11 which was only 2 seconds slower than last month. A solid effort in my opinion. Next up was a 3 hour ride on the Syracuse 70.3 course in the morning.

This was my first time riding the official approved course for the Sept. 19th race. It was tough. The first 10 miles or so are just climb after climb with no real downhills. Eric let me use a ZIPP 808 wheel on the back to see how I liked it. The wheel had a different cassette on it and I noticed it as soon as we did the first climb…I am still not familiar with the numbers and everything but this cassette was not as easy as mine for the hills. This was supposed to be an easy ride but whenever Eric and I get together, it always ends up being hard. Basically me, pushing to keep up with him since an easy ride for him is 22+mph!! Anyway, by the end, we managed the course in 2:44:51. On the 15 minute run that followed, I felt great. Good and strong!! I’m not thrilled with how I felt on the course, but I guess what matters is how I feel on race day. I am not sure how I feel about the race wheel. Everyone says it makes such a difference compared to the stock wheels I am riding but after one ride it’s hard to form an opinion. Eric said I could hold on to it for now and try it on my rides this week.

After the ride, I went to pick up my girls. We headed out for a trip to Beak and Skiff to pick some apples. It was a beautiful day for it and they were picking Paula Reds…one of my favorite kinds of apples! Both Phoebe and Maggie had a blast climbing the ladders to pick the apples, riding the tractor and checking out the beehive in the store. Next we headed to Target for some back to school shopping, Wegmans for some groceries and then home for a bath and dinner. While dinner was cooking, all three of us devoured some homemade guacamole! A great way to end the rest week.

UCAN

My first “freebie” came in the mail yesterday. I got a package of samples from UCAN … a new sports drink that was developed with a modified corn starch to provide long lasting energy. Please visit UCAN to learn more. Basically it comes as a pre-workout drink in lemon and blueberry pomegranate and a post workout protein drink in chocolate and vanilla.

So 20 minutes before my run this morning, I mixed up and drank the lemon drink. My run was to be 90 minutes at an easy pace with 5x1mile repeats at 6:45 pace. (btw, I bagged the run Wednesday after the swim because I was just too tired and hungry. Eventually I will hopefully learn that I need to eat between swimming and running). I was really amazed at how great I felt during the run. It was really gentle on my GI system too. I didn’t get any indigestion or aftertaste which was a nice change from some of the other sports drinks or pre-workout foods I have tried. After the run, I used the chocolate post workout powder mixed into skim milk and drank it on my way to work. So easy and so little time required…perfectly convenient for me!

I spoke with my contact at UCAN after the workout and got some more clarification on how to use the product. Apparently the modified corn starch sustains energy by encouraging fat burning and lasts for over 2 hours. This means that on a long run, no need to carry anything but water. He said Meb Keflezighi drinks it before his marathons and then just drinks water during the race.

After hearing that, I decided to try it out on my 2.5h long run. IT WENT GREAT!!!! I was really excited at how strong I felt during the run today. Sunday I had a 1.5hour long run that ended up very slow because I felt lightheaded by the end. Today, I negative split the 4 loop course. I ran the 1st half at 7:46 pace and the 2nd half at 7:14 pace feeling stronger as I ran further. I drank the blueberry-pomegranate drink right before heading out and was able to go the whole run with no gels, bars or sports drinks. My stomach felt good and my legs felt even better – no “dead weight” feeling like I have been having on runs in the previous weeks. I ran 20.2 miles in 2:31 (7:30 pace). I was psyched!

Tuesday I have my next super long brick workout (4 hour bike, 90 minute run). This will be the next test for UCAN! I am excited to see how it goes…

My Heart Rate Monitor

My Polar brand RS 100 heart rate monitor came in the mail yesterday.  I have mixed feelings about this.   Remember Rocky??  In the action flick Rocky IV, Rocky fights the Russian boxer.  You get to see the dichotomy of their training for the upcoming match.  The Russian is training on a treadmill with all sorts of monitors hooked up to his body…checking every possible parameter to make sure he is getting the most out of his workouts.  He’s punching a monitor to check his power output…watching himself improve.  Not Rocky, however.  Rocky is outside running in the knee-deep snow, punching bags hanging in a barn, hauling sleds weighed down with logs.  I have always felt like Rocky…an athlete with a pair of sneakers and a watch.  So the idea of hooking myself up to a monitor is a bit foreign. Karen wanted me to get one last year and I kept putting it off because I never really thought that hrm’s were necessary for training.  Karen’s advice did not fail me once last year, though so I decided to humor her and go ahead and get one.

So, now it is here and I got to do my first workouts with it this morning.  First, I got on the bike and rode for a 10 minute warm-up then 20sec hard followed by 10 seconds rest for 10 reps. Then a nice 15 minute ride to cool down.  I strapped myself in and was good to go.  The heart was beating on the monitor like it was supposed to and it read 50bpm.  FYI-so far I have read the manual and know the basic functions of the monitor.  I most definitely could not give a lecture on how to use this piece of equipment but I now know the basics.  Anyway, I  just checked the watch every few minutes to see how I was doing.  Since it was my first time using it the numbers didn’t mean too much. (Later, when I was on my lunch break-this was my 8am-7pm day at the pharmacy-I recorded the information that was saved from the workout).   My heart rate averaged 122 on the warm-up, 142 on the intervals and 135 on the cd.

The watch is pretty cool – it will give you the time you spent in an interval, your average heart rate, your heart rate at the end of the interval, your percentage of max heart rate, calories burned, time inside of min and max heart rate.  It beeps at you every time you are not working within “your zone”.  It will also keep track of your total workouts for a given time period.  The only downside so far is that it only stores one workout and then that gets erased the next time you start timing something.  I guess I just have to make sure I write down the information before the next day’s workout.  I am sure it does a lot more and I may even figure it out one day .

Next I switched shoes and jumped on the treadmill.  The workout was to be 10 minute warm-up then 1 mile at 7:15, 1 mile 7:00, 1.5mi at 6:45 then 1.5mi at 6:30 then 15min cd.  Again,  I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to handle the 1.5mile at 6:30.  But, although it was difficult, I was able to do it!  This time my heart rate changed a lot.  I averaged 135 for the wo, then 140, 145, 153, 163 (my hr max for the workout was during this interval at 169) and then 152 for the cd.  I spoke with Karen later in the day and she said the heart rates were right where she expected them to be but that it was too high on the cool down.  Oops, slower cool down next time!

Tomorrow is a 115minute ride on the trainer and then a 3400 yard swim in the pool followed by a tiring swim session with Maggie…wonder where my heartrate will be highest!!

My New Bike!!!

Well, it came! I ordered a new bike last week at Bicycle Alley in Manlius and Eric got it in for me today.  I am so excited to be riding a real tri bike this season.  This past season I was riding a Lemond Chromoly Steel rode bike, tricked out with tri bars, a bento box and lots of water bottle holders.  The bike was really the wrong size for me (too big), too heavy and very bottom of the line.  At ChesapeakeMan, I passed many riders during the bike portion of the tri with all of them doing a double take as my dinosaur and I rode by!

I think it was a good idea for me to ride it for the year, however for a few reasons.  I had no idea how much I would enjoy doing triathlon for one so why invest lots of money in something that may be a 1 season thing.  The second reason is that I really focused on just getting better on the bike…improving the engine (how many times did I hear someone say “it’s not the bike, it’s the engine” when they saw my bike).   Finally, it made me appreciate my new bike even more!!

So I am sure what you are all wondering is how does it feel to ride it?  Is it faster, smoother, lighter??  Well, I can’t answer that because I haven’t ridden it yet!  I don’t want to take it out and get salt in the chain and I don’t want to ride it on the trainer because I don’t want to sweat to get on it.  And then there is the cleaning…I know – I am a total goof.  Eventually the winter will end and I will take it out.  But for now it looks beautiful occupying a wall in my spare bedroom.

Next on the wish list…aero helmet, new trainer and a wetsuit.