Sunday, November 25, 2012

ACCOUNTBILITY Keeping Me Active


My advice to others who are considering doing an ironman has been to get a coach.  I finally heeded my own advice and a little over three months ago, right after I signed up for the race, I approached a coach about taking me on to train for ironman Lake Tahoe. He agreed and a new phase in my quest for fitness began.  In doing so, I’ve decided to commit to following all of my coach’s advice without questioning. In addition to expert advice and a program that is based on science and continual analysis of my lactate and heart rate data, probably the most important aspect of coaching that I need at this point in my journey is ACCOUNTABILITY.
I’ve found that the motivation to keep active and lead a healthy lifestyle has gotten harder in my early 50s. Unfortunately, from everything I have read and through my discussions with others it looks like it continues to get even more difficult to find the motivation to pursue most things. Even with my practice of setting fitness challenge goals it can be hard to get out of bed at 5:30 or 6 am to get a workout in before I go to work. After work it is so tempting to skip that workout and just sit down with a glass of wine and unwind. Reporting in daily to someone that I respect and admire adds that little extra ounce of motivation that has given me a big boost in training.
Being accountable to my coach and his expert advice has definitely paid off as demonstrated by my performance at Austin Ironman 70.3.
IRONMAN AUSTIN 70.3

OCTOBER 28, 2012

I wanted to do a late season triathlon because it would give me a chance to see if I was really making any progress through getting a coach.  Getting ready for this race, I did pretty much everything my coach told me to do and not do, from the workouts to what to eat while training and racing. I only missed about 4 workouts in the three months and they were not crucial ones. I felt prepared.

Race Morning

My start time was 7:40 am. I woke up as planned at 4:15 to eat 400 to 500 bland calories for breakfast as my coach recommended.  I really had to force myself to eat this much so early in the morning.  Breakfast consisted of gluten free oatmeal with a scoop of soy protein powder, a honey and nut rice cake with honey and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, a small banana and green tea.
I left the hotel a little after 5 am and drove about 20 minutes to the race venue.  This race, like many others, had the bike to run transition (T2) and the finish line a distance away from the swim to bike transition (T1).  The parking was at T2 with buses to shuttle athletes and spectators to the start. We had all put our bikes in T1 on Saturday and our bike to run gear in T2.  As I was walking from my car to the bus, I realized I had left my water bottles with electrolyte mix in my hotel room.  Snap decision time. I decided to go back to hotel and get the bottles. By the time I parked again at T2 it was about 6:30 and there was a huge line for the bus. STAY CALM!!!!!  I waited in line, got to the swim start and got body marked, leaving about 10 minutes to re-find my bike in the dark, get my tire pressure right, and set up my bike stuff before they closed the transition area.  I was rushed and worried about forgetting something but I got it all done and outta there.  I had just enough time to hit the port-a-potty, put on my wetsuit and get down to the start as my wave was being let into the starting corral. I hoped this was not an indication of how the day was going to unfold.
This is the first time I’ve done a race with a strategy laid out by someone who has done the course and has a proven record of knowing what he is doing/saying.  My challenge was to correctly understand what he meant, remember it as I got tired and carbohydrate depleted and then to execute it. So I’ll lay out what I was trying to do as I understood it combined with the execution.  In other words, what I did versus what I was supposed to do.
The Swim
While the air temp was about 47 degrees the water temp was 71, so it felt good to get into the water. It was a deep water start and I lined up in the front row.  My wave was women over 50 and women under 20 years old.
The 1.2 mile swim course had three turn buoys, nicely set up so that the low morning sun was never directly behind any of them. The swim start is always crazy especially if I line up in the front.  I got kicked pretty hard in the head right off the bat and there was the usual unintentional bumping and hitting. The swim to the first buoy was: high arm turnover and a bit harder than I wanted to go-like “Uh-oh, should I be swimming this hard?”; pretty much as planned. 
I felt like I swam a little too wide on the turn at the first buoy. During the swim to the second buoy, I concentrated on lengthening out my arm stoke and not letting my mind drift off, not getting too relaxed.
Nearing the third buoy I was catching a lot of men from the wave before mine. After turning around the third buoy, I just tried to keep my speed up and keep pushing. This put me a little out of breath as I exited the swim. I did take advantage of the wetsuit strippers on the way to T1. Swim time was 37:51, pace 1:57 per 100 meters.  Although I didn’t know it at the time, I was in 4th place after the swim. I could tell there were a lot of bikes still in my area, but didn’t have any idea of where I was rank wise at that point. I could have pushed a bit harder from the swim exit to my bike and had a better transition time. Since it was so cold out, I wore arm warmers under my wet suit and took the extra time to put on a vest as recommended by my coach. I also put on socks since I’d have to put them on for the run anyway. My transition time was 6:18 which was the 6th fastest transition in my age group. Not so great, since a fast transition is an easy way to gain time on the rest of the field.
 
The Bike
I was supposed to start out keeping the pedal pressure light and to get situated and comfortable, eat something and settle into my target heart rate which was the middle of zone three. In the moment, I forgot all of that and started off trying to hit my zone three watts right away.  This really brought my heart rate up too high too fast. I started to eat a 200 calorie Kit’s Organic Bar at 20 minutes into the bike. The bar was too dry and I was breathing too hard, but I knew I needed to get in at least 200 calories every hour. It took me twenty-five minutes to force that bar down, even though my coach specifically said “do not force food down.” The first part of the course had the most hills and I really didn’t think I could keep up the strenuous pace I had going. My heart rate was too high for my watts and I decided to concentrate on my heart rate zone and keep it in mid zone 3, which is what I had been instructed to do but had forgotten. Sometime in the second hour my heart rate and wattage zones began to match up in the way that they should. Instead of attempting more solid food, I ate two gels during the second hour for another 200 calories. 
The course got flatter for the last hour and I was able to keep a pretty good pace.  Since my breathing was under control, I attempted to eat another bar. I chose a Bonk Breaker Bar which was much moister and went down easily which put another 290 calories in the bank. After two and a half hours of riding, it was looking like I would do the 56 miles in less than three hours, IF I could keep up the pace and didn’t get a flat tire. Potentially finishing the bike in less than three hours motivated me even more, since my previous half ironman best bike time was 3:03 hours.
When I got to my bike rack spot in T2 there were only two bikes in my area and I realized it was possible that I was in third place in my age group.  Another 50 to 54 year old rolled in right after me.  My bike time was 2:56:36 which is an average pace of just over 19 mph. My average heart rate during the bike was 142, only two beats per minute over my target. YEAH!!! On the bike I drank 2 and a half bottles of water with one Nuun electrolyte tab in each bottle. I was aiming for one bottle an hour, so that wasn’t too bad.
 
The Run
The woman who came into T2 right behind me passed me very soon after I got out of the transition area. The 13.1 mile half marathon was set up as a three loop course running through the convention center parking lot, out onto a road, and looping through the lake park where the swim had taken place. I was supposed to use the first mile through the convention center parking lots to “get settled.” It ended up being my fastest mile at about a 9:30 pace. Once out of the convention center and onto the road there were big rolling hills that dictated my pace. I followed instructions and did not “attack” the hills but ran up them at a slower pace, running faster on the flats and on the downhills.  The great thing is that I ran up the hills rather than walked up the hills.  That in itself felt like a triumph. The other piece of advice that I remembered and followed was to run harder than I think I want to or can.  My internal mantra during the second half of the run, when all I really wanted to do was walk up the hills, was “don’t let all that training go to waste.” The other thing that kept me going was I just wanted the run to be over.
I consumed gels at about miles 4, 8, 10 and 12. I drank water on the run at every aid station, except around mile 8 when I walked just long enough to take 2 salt tabs and 2 Advil. The muscles in the left side of my lower back were tight and as a result my left hip was hurting. I felt relief during the third loop of the run.
Because it was a three loop course, there was no way to tell what loop anyone was on. It was also getting pretty crowded by my third loop so I had no idea if I had been passed or if I passed anyone in my age group.  I was getting pace information every mile from my wrist GPS until it froze at one hour and 57 minutes. I ran to the finish line inside the sports arena not having any idea of what my run time was.  I thought despite the fact that I pushed myself hard my pace sure was slow. I forgot to look at the clock as I was coming through the finish line.  When I looked back it read 6:15 and some fraction. My wave started 10 minutes into the race, so that meant my time must be around 6:05. WOW, could I have had that much of an improvement from my prior best time of 6:31?
Results weren’t being posted yet, and I went to gather my stuff so I could get to my cell phone. Surely my husband was tracking me and I could call him and get the low down. I thought there was a possibility that I was in fourth place, then again, maybe not.  My stuff included my bike and three bags, one with my heavy, still wet, wetsuit. I decided I’d first schlep my stuff to my car and call home from there. Then I saw Sag Monkey, my bike transport people, set up right near where I picked up the last two bags, no need to take the long walk to my car with my heavy burden.  HUGE RELIEF!!! They took my stuff, sat me down in a lounge chair, and gave me a Gatorade.  I dug out my cell phone and called my husband. He said I had finished in 4th place. My run time was 2 hours and 20 minutes which works out to an average pace of 10:42 minutes per mile.
A finish time of 6:04:50 was a great improvement and a fourth place trophy was just icing on the cake. My coach said “this is just the beginning.” Now I get a day of rest followed by a light training week, only 9 hours of swimming biking and running… Ironman Lake Tahoe will be here before I know it.
 


 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

ACTIVE AFTER 50


My second Ironman was on my 50th birthday in 2008 and I'm moving into the 55 to 59 year old age group in 2013, so I was thinking about a late season Ironman as a goal for 2013. Suddenly on a Friday in June I saw that the Inaugural Ironman Lake Tahoe was announced for Sept. 22, 2013 and registration would be opening the following Monday June 18, 2012 at noon. I had the weekend to mull it over, or more truthfully: rationalize it to myself.
 
Over the weekend I thought about the Pros and Cons:

PRO
CON
The bike to run transition and finish line will be in Squaw Valley where we have a condo, making it more convenient and inexpensive than another option like Ironman Cozumel
The lowest elevation is above 6,000 feet and I live at sea level
I could train on the course
My husband isn't crazy about me doing another Ironman
My husband could comfortably hang out at his second home and just pop out to finish line
I was thinking about a November Ironman and a September Ironman might interfere with the ski season
I would be at the young end of my age group
It’s hilly and it would be hard.

Over the consideration weekend I went for a bike ride with one of my training partners who I affectionately refer to as the Three C’s. This C, although she didn’t want to join me, was enthusiastic about me doing it and she would even come and volunteer; something about doing body marking on ironman triathletes. (Body marking is writing the race number and age on the athletes' arms and legs.)

Monday at noon, I got a text message from C reminding me to sign up before the race sold out. Soon after I received her text I was in.  The race sold out in 19 hours, so I am grateful for her reminder. 

I’ve been doing triathlons for about 12 years now and have been pretty much self guided until I sought out the help of a nutritionist in 2009. His expert advice made a tremendous difference in my performance and I started to get on the podium more often than not in local races. It’s a nice bonus to everything else I get out of participating in this sport.  The Ironman branded races attract a pretty competitive crowd and even with the improvements I’ve made, I typically finish in the middle of the pack of my age group in their races. So here it is in black and white for the world to see: “I’d like to do better than finish in the middle of the pack.” In order to have a chance of doing that, I determined that I need a coach.