Hill Repeats

I gotta say, I was pretty disappointed about missing my quality run on Tuesday since I was sick. Given that running is my weakness, I've really been looking forward to those key run sessions, knowing that no matter how much they hurt, they are making me stronger. So skipping them sometimes hurts worse than actually doing them.

Given that I was feeling back to my old self yesterday, I sent Jen an email and asked if I could do Tuesdays run this morning instead of the easy run that would have been on tap had I been following the normal schedule. She said ok. YES!

The run workout this week was to find a hill that would take about a minute to run up, and charge up it 8 times. That didn't sound all that hard to me, but I figured it would be once I was actually doing it. See, I run hills all the time here. There's no flat option unless I were to drive myself to the track- even just running over to the track I've got some hills to cover before I get there.

But I've heard that running up hills during normal workouts is different than running up hills during a hill workout. I was about to find that out for myself.

Part of my challenge was to pick the right hill. I was pretty much a victim of overchoice when it came to this... But when she said to run about 2 miles before and after, I knew just where to go.

This incredible park is just over 2 miles from my house. I know I've written about it several times before, but it's just the most awesome place to run and it's my sanctuary so I can't help but write about it again. Humor me. ;)

So this first hill was where I watched the sun come up this morning.

I placed my water bottle on the grass next to a plant that would serve as my Start Line. Then I charged up the hill and around the corner until I got to a 'Caution Pedestrians' sign that would serve as the Finish Line. First time up, OUCH. This is going to hurt. 7 more times.

I gave myself two minutes to walk/jog down the hill to recover, so the repeats were on 3 minutes (You just can't take the swimmer out of me- I need interval 'Go' times.) I let my watch run continuously and went off on my hill attack every time the number was a multiple of 3. This was key because then I didn't have to worry about losing count after my brain was officially oxygen deprived and ceased having the ability to do simple math. Just keep going until the watch said 24 minutes and then jog home.

By the sixth one I could feel myself starting to fall apart... desperately swinging my arms (and whole upped body) as if that would help my feet pick themselves up off the pavement... I had to make a conscious effort to not let my shoulders actually touch my earlobes... My legs felt like J.E.L.L.O. Who would have known that just a few hard minutes could produce such an effect?

I barreled up the hill for the eighth time as fast as I could. WOW! I made it~ 5 seconds faster than I'd done the first few! Gasping for breath at the top. Hands on my knees as I tried to steady myself and not actually fall over. Goal accomplished. I worked that hill. I own that hill.

But I was happy for every red light I got to stop and wait at during that jog home.

What Do You Mean, I Can't Call In Sick??

Monday night my back started feeling all achy. At first, I attributed it to the weight lifting session I'd had in the gym that morning. I tried to remember all the exercises I'd done in an effort to figure out which one might have the been the culprit of the excessively achy back, but then realized that other than the pull-ups, I didn't really do any back exercises. So what's up with the aching back?

And why did my neck hurt? And now a headache? Uh oh. This was looking like the flu more and more with each passing minute.

I woke up Tuesday morning with what felt like a fever and my whole body just ached. My skin even hurt. It was bad. I sent Nalani a text message and told her I would not be showing up for our planned hill run. GRRRR. Another key run session missed because I was sick. GRRRR again.

But you know what's the worst part about being really sick when you're a mom? You can't really be a mom. Not a good one anyway. I was flat out on the floor in tears as Scott left for work yesterday morning... had no idea how I was going to handle my little Baby On The Move all day long when I couldn't really move myself. Um, I'd like to call in sick. But who do you call in sick to when you're a mom??

Anyway, I just sort of hung out on the floor most of the day and let Moana use me as a jungle gym. Apparently my body on the floor is way more interesting than pretty much anything else on the floor. In great news, she did take two rather long naps yesterday which helped me immensely. I felt really bad for the first one... Apparently I fell asleep right there on the floor and so did she. It's sort of sad to see your little girl sound asleep on the floor because you weren't responsible enough to get her into her crib. Just call me Mom Of The Year. But I eventually woke up, transferred her carefully to her crib, and climbed back in bed.

I guess the good news about being hit that hard by the flu is that usually those really intense bouts don't last that long. It was really just a 24 hour thing and I started feeling better last night. Phew! In the end, I guess I'd rather have one horrible day of being sick than a week of just feeling kind of sick but less than 100%. I feel fine today, although when I emailed Jen and asked her if I could ride my trainer today her reply came back, "NO NO NO!"

See, left to my own devices, I'd totally be on my trainer right now. But I guess this is why we hire coaches- to keep us from doing things that'll just keep us down. In the end, I'd rather be 100% and able to get in a good hard training session than just keep pushing myself when I'm down and never get better. Hopefully this extra day of rest will leave me feeling fresher this weekend so I can put in a good couple days of key training.

And it didn't turn out to be a terrible day for Moana. Check it out, she even found a new friend to play with.

Mama Found Her Mojo

I just had a great weekend of training! It's Sunday night... I'm feeling quite satisfied with the weekend that I just had. Phew!

I spent much of the month of June trying to get my mojo back. I know its very common to have some 'down' time after a big race that you've been focusing on for a long time... And while I can't say I was like, depressed, or anything, after Honu, I did spend about a month feeling somewhat unmotivated to train. Physically I didn't feel great and I felt like I was just going through the motions during my workouts, if you know what I mean.

In my head, Ironman Training began July 1, so I was trying hard to shift my mental focus back to wanting it... I needed to have some hunger for training... But I think I was just so physically tired (or something??) that it just wasn't happening for me.

But finally, this weekend, I felt it. My mojo came back.

The training plan called for an 80 mile ride, including 5 x 5 min hard toward the end, followed by a 4.5 mile run, including a 20 minute hard effort after I got going. That's a tough workout to do if you're just going through the motions.

Turns out, the group ride turned into a girl's ride, and the only two girls were Sandy and myself. As much as I like riding with the guys, riding with Sandy can be just as good. Our average speed may not be quite as fast without a boy up front breaking the wind, but that just means that she and I work harder to do it ourselves. Like we would in a race. So we took turns taking loooong pulls (like 20-25 minutes at a time) and just cruised in our aero bars at a steady effort... until the 5 minute intervals... when we just jammed down the road at a pace normally reserved for a 20K TT. It was awesome.

At the end of the ride, Sandy checked her computer, and we decided that our average speed for the day would have made us both quite happy with our bike splits if we were to ride the same pace in Kona.

Quick change of clothes after I got home and I was off running. In some sick kind of way, I was kind of glad that Jen gave me the green light to push the run for 20 minutes. Many times I'm told to just keep it steady, but not yesterday. Instructions said HARD, in capital letters. So I cruised through the first couple miles of my normal brick run at my normal pace, and then picked it up. I ended up running about 90 seconds faster than I usually do that run- with all of that gain in the last 2.5 miles. I almost peed myself when I looked down at my watch at the end. Really? A PR on this run course after that ride?? Niiice.

Focus on recovery... drink, eat, ice bath, compression socks... 4th of July celebrations... and off to bed before my 2 hour run today.

I remember when I first started training for Ironmans. Like, a looong time ago. First of all, we knew nothing about training methods or recovery or nutrition or whathaveyou. But beyond that point, I was just not physically capable of completing two hard workouts on back to back days. Every time I tried to do a long run the day after a long bike, I would completely fall apart and end up walking, head down, toward home.

I think it really takes years to teach your body how to Go Long. I know some people can do it seemingly overnight... but those folks must have more genetic talent (or something??) than I do, because for me, it took years.

Anyway, my body finally 'gets it'. After 15 years of triathlon training, I can finally say that I can pull off a great long run the day after a great long brick!

I was amazed at how fresh I felt when I woke up this morning. Since my legs didn't feel heavy or anything, I chose my hilly long run... the one that goes up and down relentlessly for 5 miles... and then at the end of the road I snuck through the fence and kept going up the unmaintained road that climbs up the side of a mountain... up up up... and then down... until the road actually ended at a highway that I wasn't going to cross. Turn around and go up up up and then down down down* and then eventually back to the park where it was time to turn the engines ON and push it for 20 minutes. I felt like a rock star running that section... I knew I was working harder than I'd ever worked on a long run (I've been a long time student of the slow long run philosophy, but Jen is teaching me to change up pace during long runs). I felt like I could actually pick my knees and feet up and run up the hills, rather than just slog up them like sometimes I do. Sweet! When I got to the gate that marked the end of the park road, I saw yet another PR on my watch. Gotta like that. I cruised home at what felt like an easier pace, but it was still as fast as I went last week when I ran shorter and pushed it. Go figure.

And now, with my compression socks on, I am actually feeling pretty good. Not nearly as beat up as you'd think after a couple of days like that. I think the key for me is making my easy days EASY. Thursday and Friday were both just aerobic easy days, so clearly that was the key for me this weekend. Keeping easy days EASY allows me to be fresh(er) for the hard days so I can go HARD.

And when I see numerical proof on my watch that I am improving, that goes a long way toward bringing back that mojo I had leading up to Honu.

Hoku Loves The Cheerios

So things are a bit crazier around here now that Moana is On-The-Go. My stay-at-home-mom job has really turned into a game of Chase The Baby... or Make Sure The Baby Doesn't Conk Her Head... or Don't Let Baby Touch The Bikes.

Since we don't have a garage, my bikes reside in a little nook near the kitchen. They are currently barricaded with a chair, which only does a mediocre job of keeping a curious baby away from the greasy chains.

And seriously, who really cares about a little road grime on a baby's hands? I mean, shoot, her hands are constantly covered with dog hair now that she's crawling everywhere. I vacuum every day, but the second that Hoku stands up and walks across the room, the wood floor is once again carpeted with black hair. We need a yard.

And speaking of vacuuming... lucky me! Moana is not (yet?) afraid of it. Most of the time I do it while she's taking a nap upstairs, but sometimes I do it while she's awake. The other day I held her in my left arm while vacuuming with my right just because I wanted her to be near the loud machine in hopes of minimizing any future irrational fear she might acquire. She had no problem with it. In fact, she reached out for the handle as if to push it herself. One of these days I'll be blogging about how Moana vacuums the room herself every morning as part of her daily chores.

Let me live in my own little Dream World, will ya?

Anyway, it can get a little dangerous around here if I'm not watching Moana every second. One of her favorite past times these days is to cruise around the house looking for stuff she can climb up on to stand. The dishwasher is a favorite for sure. Which isn't a problem now that I'm remembering to put the knives up high or in the back.

So Hoku has really taken a bigger interest in Moana lately. I'd like to say that it's because she really just adores the little baby who likes to grab her hair but doesn't know the meaning of the word gentle, but I don't think that's actually the case. But it might be the Cheerios. Usually in the evenings while I'm trying to make dinner, I stick Moana in this scooter chair thingie and let her cruise around the house. You should see her in this thing- she runs! And then BANG! Right into the wall. It's pretty funny. Anywho, lately I've been putting Cheerios on the little tray table thing. They keep her occupied, but she doesn't eat them. Instead she throws them on the floor, one by one... and Hoku wags her tail and follows her around like a puppy. Or like a vacuum cleaner. Inevitably there will be a Cheerio or two left in the seat after I put Moana to bed, and Hoku finds those too.

Raising The Bar

July 1. My friend Mike called today the start of "Over-Training Camp". Ha! Good thing I have a coach to keep me from doing all of Mike's workouts.

I think it's something like 14 weeks til Kona. I'm looking at it as 3 months of training- July, August, and September... Because October will just be 9 days of taper and then race day.

So even though I've been training plenty over the last few weeks, in my head, Ironman Training started today. It's more of a mental shift than anything so far because my actual training schedule isn't yet altogether different from what I was doing leading up to Honu. Although I would suspect that it'll become bigger here shortly.

I'm no stranger to IM training. This will be the tenth time I've trained for an Ironman. I have no idea how many 100+ mile rides I've done over the years. A lot. Last time I trained for an Ironman (Kona 2007) I did eight long rides (95-115 miles) and ran after every one of them.

The thing is though, last time I trained for an Ironman, I didn't have to be a mom as soon as I got home from those long workouts. In fact, I think most of the time I was able to just eat and shower and eat and stretch and eat and then sleep. By myself. So it'll be interesting this time around to see how I do with what will likely be some compromised recovery. Already I've dealt with some of that... like when I do a long run in the early AM hours during the week... I walk in the door all sweaty and thirsty with my heart rate still up above 150 and before I can blink I get handed a baby as my husband is rushing out the door to work. It's like Tag Team parenting around here when I'm training a lot.

Luckily Scott is supportive and understands that this big stuff isn't year round. Though I'll probably owe him every Saturday all winter long so he can surf and play soccer...

Anyway, Nalani and I have a new swim training partner. Just when you start to think you're swimming pretty fast, along comes an ex-collegiate swimmer to serve you up a piece of Humble Pie. Quinn is awesome, in a lot of ways. Nalani met her at the swim race last weekend and invited her to join our AM training sessions. She showed up on Monday and then again this morning. I really like her. But Nalani and I just about died trying to keep up with her. There actually is no keeping up with her. Maybe just trying not to get lapped by her is a better description of what we're doing. It's good though. Swimming with Quinn is raising the bar for me. No getting complacent and thinking my swim is good enough...

Which makes me think about a lot of the other people I surround myself with... I definitely feel some sort of magnetic pull toward people who are faster than me. I like to find them and train with them. They push me. They also make me feel slow a lot of the time, which is okay. When I am constantly comparing myself to the fastest people around, it's inevitable that I will feel "slow". But where's the drive to get faster if you're always the fastest one around?

Family Fotos

While we were in Ohio, my awesome mom arranged to have some professional pictures taken of us... I'm happy to say they turned out great! And I've spent the last few hours trying to go through them all and pick out a few that we actually want printed. I'm totally a victim of overchoice!

Anyway, here are a couple (ok, a bunch) of my favorites so far.












By the way, if you live in Ohio and want Emily Snyder to take some shots for you, contact her through her website.

Super Domestique

In a cycling road race, the name of the game is Drafting. You save so much energy sitting on some one's wheel, and when all that matters is who gets across the finish line first, the more energy you save for the sprint, the better.

Today I did the Pineapple Hill Road Race. It was part of a 3 race "Stage Race", with the Time Trial and Crit taking place yesterday. Road race was today.

My friend and Pac Velo teammate Jenny (pictured below) did awesome in the TT and crit yesterday and therefore started the race tied for 1st place overall (GC) today.

In order to win the GC title for the weekend, she needed to beat another gal named Michelle across the finish line today. Unfortunately they scored the each race with points rather than time, so it didn't matter by how much either gal won- just that her wheel was first across the line. That was bad for us because Jenny had about 30 seconds on Michelle after the TT, so had they scored it by time, Michelle would have had to attack us and try to get at least 30 seconds on Jenny. But alas...

I showed up today to help do the hard work for Jenny. My job was to be her 'Domestique'... or Work Horse, I guess you could say. Go to the front and pull. Set a hard pace. Jump and sprint up the hill. Block the wind. Make it HARD for the other girls. Bury myself with no regard to my own finish so that Jenny could be as fresh as possible for that sprint finish.

And bury myself I did.

Here's how it went down: The first 20 minutes of so were really slow and easy. Boring. Sandy (another of our teammates who was there to work for Jenny today) and I looked around and at each other and then at Jenny who gave us the signal to get to the front and lift the pace. We did that and right away whittled the group of 12 starters down to 5 contenders. Basically, It was Jenny and her two teammates (Sandy and me) vs Michelle and this other gal named Esther. We knew Michelle and Esther were really strong, but the three of us working together might be able to crack them? We were going to try!

Up the 5 mile hill the first time, Sandy and I did all the work, rotating at the front and putting in some good jumps and sprints. Michelle and Esther and Jenny just sat on... waiting for the sprint finish.

We flew down Snake Hill on the second lap! Jenny was feeling super strong, as was I, and we were YAHOO-ing out loud at how fun all this was!

Start of the second time up the hill... I told Jenny that I would put in a series of attacks- hopefully forcing Michelle and Esther to chase, which might wear them out. So very early on at the start of the long climb, I jumped up and sprinted ahead... looked behind me... no one. They didn't chase me. Hmmm. Kept up a tempo pace. Looked behind me again. Still a big empty gap. They weren't chasing me. Hmmmm. What to do? What to do? Those gals might have been willing to let me ride away for the win, given that I wasn't competing for the GC title since I didn't race yesterday. BUT,

Today was about Jenny and getting her to the line first, and my job was to stay with her to help her do that... so I sat up and waited. When they caught me, I was Jenny's only teammate. Sandy wasn't feeling great and had let us go. Jenny and I decided that we had to make Michelle and Esther work, but the only person they were going to chase was Jenny, so Jenny was going to have to do some attacking herself. So she tried that. They responded and jumped right with her, and eventually it was me back on the front with instructions from Jenny to "Just keep the pace really high."

Um, ok. I'll try. I was fried by this point from all the sprinting and jumping and pulling I'd already done, but we were getting close to the top of the hill and the finish line so I gave it what I had. I led as fast as I could until there was just about a mile left to go, and that's when Esther, for the first time all day, went to the front and put.the.hammer.down. She was flying!! And Michelle went with her. Grrrr!! Jenny told me to GO but I just could not. Sorry, Jenny! It was up to her now. Unfortunately those attacks Jenny put in earlier up the hill might have still been in her legs because she just couldn't quite sprint with those girls and ended up third.

As disappointed as we could be that our race tactics didn't pan out like we wanted, we were not disappointed at all! (Ok, maybe Jenny was a little disappointed, but she got over it quickly.) The thing is, that was so much fun today that even though we didn't win, we loved it! We tried every tactical trick in the book but just couldn't make it work. Afterward I rode for a little bit with Michelle and Esther and congratulated them on a smart race (they really had no choice but to just sit in given that Jenny had TWO strong teammates with her today)... they commented very sincerely that they were really glad that Sandy and I showed up because it made the race way more tactical and fun.

So I can't help but think about the stark difference in reactions at the finish lines between the swim race yesterday and the bike race today. Yesterday, I was the one (smartly) drafting, and I came out ahead. Today, I was on the other end of it, killing myself all day only to be beat at the line by the smart girls drafting off of me. But in the end, either way it turned out, I had a blast! I think what I learned this weekend is that I really like a good race. Regardless of the outcome. A good race is fun. :)