GOING ROGUE

I'm posting this in case you are not a FB friend and therefore, missed it. That, of course, begs the question: Why aren't you a FB friend? Prefer to stalk? That's ok too. You do You.

This is the week of going rogue. I finished my A race and will be starting my next training cycle. Coach told me that this is my mid season break to mentally recharge & get away from structured training before we head into a big training block. Her only requirement is that I don't sit on my ass all week. Of course, to prevent any said "sitting on my ass", she was kind enough to enter some low key, non structured workouts. 

Midseason break: WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA. Seriously, I tend to get burned out during the season. I don't mean the dangerous "burn out". I mean that early mornings, driving to races, constantly negotiating my schedule; that combined with the fact that I race once a month (or in this case every other week for a few weeks), all that takes a toll on me.  I never really thought about taking a break before.

How does going rogue work? I'm really not very good at that part, I'm pretty happy with swimming, biking & running. I know that it is a good idea for me to take a couple of days to do something different. It's summer in CO. It's not like I can't find something to do.

Sunday was a day off. This was definitely "sit on my ass day". We went to the race track and basic movements were uncomfortable: going from sitting to standing---NO. Decending and climbing that giant flight of stairs: I look like....like....I don't want to talk about it.

Monday, Coach recommended a super-dee-duper-easy bike. AH! My opportunity to GO ROGUE! I really didn't feel like getting on my bike. Instead, I thought, "I'm going to take the dog for an easy hike."  Yes. That sounded much more rogue-y. So, after the wrestling match that is bath time, we hit the trail for about 45 minutes.

(The dog officially hates me now).

For Tuesday: She recommends 30 minutes at masters....swimming super-dee-duper-easy. Like my lane mates are going to believe me when I say, "My COACH SAID SO."

JMan and I are going hiking on Wed.

Then, it's back to Boulder for the Thursday swim. Sadly, My giiiirrrrllll won't be there this week. I had a great time last week, and I love getting out to different open water venues. 

Saturday, it's back here for the MHM Cancer Sucks swim.

All in all, a fun week of being a little rogue-y.

After that, it's back to "work".

Over training & Over reaching

This is a sensitive subject because we want to think we are strong. We want to think that we'll know when there is a problem. Sometimes we don't know until we are sidelined or until something happens.

It's easy to point the finger at someone and say, "They are clearly overtraining."

But are we willing to analyze ourselves so critically; especially when we have a big race coming up?

Recently, Precision Nutrition wrote an article about this very topic. Quite honestly, I know what the symptoms of over training are, but I had never heard of the term over reaching. I'm going to bring up a few things directly from the article. I strongly recommend that you read the article. I'm just going to summarize a few things.

First of all, we should define a couple of things. We all know what training is. We put in the work. Then, there are rest days and recovery days. These are different.

Rest means rest. It's a day off.

Recovery means a lower level of intensity and duration, active recovery.

Our muscles grow, and we become stronger when our bodies have the opportunity to recovery from the stress of training.

If you read this blog post, you understand that based on our abilities, ages and genders, we all have different requirements for recovery and intense training. When our training exceeds our abilites or we aren't providing enough calories to support our level of training, we fall into body debt.

Precision Nutrition defined over training and over reaching as such:

Overtraining is the most serious version of this “body debt”, and it happens often to bodybuilders and other athletes who reduce their calories too drastically while training heavily and frequently.

Overtraining can involve:

• serious loss of strength and fitness
• significant and chronic joint and muscle pain
• serious changes in mood, such as major depression or other psychiatric issues
• significant sleep disruption
• major immunity problems — frequent and serious illnesses (e.g. bacterial/viral infections, etc.)
• hormonal suppression (e.g. low thyroid, low sex hormones, amenorrhea or irregular periods in women, etc.)

Over-reaching — the milder version of overtraining — is a far more common and insidious problem for recreational exercisers.

Over-reaching can involve:

• low energy and mojo
• persistently “meh” workouts; not really feeling into training
• feeling sore and achey all the time
• feeling mildly irritable, moody, or anxious
• minor, nagging injuries
• not feeling 100% — catching minor bugs, feeling run-down

Basically, in both cases, you feel like crap.

**************************

The problem with understanding the definitions is that we then have to apply them to ourselves. If you are a woman or man over 45, that's not easy to do.

I am the perfect example of this. For a few years, I was having the worst sleep ever. I started monitoring my sleep. I was moody alot. Although, I rarely get sick and hadn't been injured, I often felt like "meh" and had low energy. And, my performance was suffering. I am too young to be slowing down.

The problem comes in with the fact that these are the same symptoms of perimenopause. I assumed that's what it was. I tried everything possible to counteract the "hormonal issue" I was going through. For 3 months, I tried a hormone cream, but that didn't work. I switched to non-processed & organic foods. I did everything, but I still had problems.

Then, I was "forced" to take a week off from training....not because of sickness or injury but for other reasons.

That week, I slept better than I had in the previous years.

I realized that I had been on the verge of over training/reaching for a long time. Now, I know that I was probably bouncing back and forth between over training and over reaching. I could see it in my races: my 5k speeds had slowed. I could see it in my lack of sleep. I could see it in my moodiness. I had virtually every single symptom.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I didn't want to think that I was over training or over reaching. I wanted to blame something else. It's always easy to blame aging or hormones. It's harder to look at ourselves and admit that we have to back off or change something.

As I mentioned, I was forced into taking action. Otherwise, I would have kept plugging forward. At the time, I was upset about being forced to stop training. Now, I look back, and I think it was the best possible outcome for me. (I'm using the word "forced" because that's how it felt. I didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep going.)

The good news in all of this (for me) is that now that I am sleeping well, my hormones are better regulated. I don't have any of the symptoms that I had before. When I do have sleep problems or mood swings, they are short lived, and they follow a cycle. That's how I know they truly are "hormonal". I just need to wade through a day or two of feeling "meh" to get back to my normal mode of operandi.

The reason I wrote this post today is because I see many many friends who post these symptoms. Hormones (whether you are +50, in your 30's or female or male) regulate every aspect of our lives. They are responsible for our hunger & appetite. They are responsible for managing stress. They build our strength and allow us to get sleep.

Many of my friends are experiencing these problems because over reaching will put stress on your system causing hormones to back fire in all bad ways possible. BUT THIS IS NOT A HORMONAL PROBLEM IN MANY CASES. IT IS AN ISSUE OF OVER REACHING. 

If you are experiencing these symptoms, and you are blaming hormones, I highly recommend that you take a week off from training and see how you feel. If nothing else, it will reset your body. If it is truly a hormonal issue, it won't necessarily be fixed in the week. If it is a training issue, it will likely be fixed in the week. That's your opportunity to make changes.

Then, get with your Coach to come up with a plan that works specifically for you.

And read this article, it's short but it has some great insight.

Thinking it through

I'm not writing a race report. I did fine. My fueling was perfect. I did a lot right, and I made a few mistakes: typical race stuff. I wasn't disappointed with my race. It made me think about a few things though. That's always a good thing.

Yesterday was a good day. It called to my attention all of the things that I like and things that I don't like.

Let's go back in time, way way back in time.

I've run many distances in my 31 years of running.

What I like:
1.) 5ks, 4 miles, 5miles etc.
2.) Half marathon

What I don't like:
1.) 10Ks
2.) Marathons

I was never one of those people who thought longer was better than going fast. There was always the issue that when I did 20 mile runs, my runs would take longer than many people. But, my dislike of distances never had anything to do with how long it took me. There are plenty of people who run much slower than me who enjoy going long.

I ventured into long distances (half marathons, marathons, oly tri's, HIMs & IM) because I wanted to try something new.

After my DNF at CDA, I swore off long distances for awhile. I went back to the sprint distances. For those runners among us, the sprint distance triathlon will take somewhere between a 10k and half marathon finish time. So, "sprint" is little bit misleading. It still requires a level of pacing. It's a different animal altogether though. In other words, it's quite a bit different than running a 5k.

Last year (2013), I sprinkled in a couple of olympic distance races. One of those races, I finished with either 2nd or 3rd place (can't remember and who honestly cares?) The 2nd olympic distance of 2013, I DNF'd. It was officially the last race of the year, and I did it the day after Tour of the Moon (on a time trial bike). For the cyclists among us, you understand how incredibly difficult it is to ride cat 1 climbs on a TT bike. The following day, I was dead. I wrote about the Tour of the Moon AND the oly race the next day.

Last year, I decided to sign up for a 70.3 for this year. I've waffled back and forth about whether or not I should do it. I made it my A race for the year. I also signed up for an Oly A race (the one yesterday). For the rest of the year, I have a bunch of sprints and one more oly race.

Clearly, this is racing more distance that I have done in a number of years, but I've also spent time building up to it.

Since that time, I have had to defend myself from all the Ironman addicts out there. I've been constantly harassed on social media (as recently as Friday of last week on Twitter) about not doing HIMs and IMs. TOTAL lack of respect for what it means to go really hard.

When I signed up for Soma last year, I kept it on the DL. I told only 2 other people until I announced it here a couple of months ago.

I love triathlon. I love the complexity of putting a swim, bike & run together. If I didn't like any of the events, I could easily become a duathlete (compete in aquathons, duathlons or aquabikes).

Even a week ago, I was gung ho ready to do SOMA. Then, I raced an oly yesterday.

When I was running, I kept thinking, "What the hell am I doing? I could be done now. I am so glad I don't have to be out here for another 2.5 hours."

The 2.5 hours references the 70.3 (half iron: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 run)

I can swim all day every day. I often do 2.4 swim races. I can do a 1.2 miles in my sleep.

I can ride my bike all day. I can ride 56 miles and more. I've done many bike tours ranging from 100-150 miles.

I can run a half marathon. It's my favorite run distance.

But put them together......and I don't know if I really want to do that. I don't know if I want to be on a race course for 6 hours. It's a long long time.

But there's more. The second issue that I ran into yesterday was how much I hate pacing and racing with power. You know this. I hate the power meter. I love training with it. When I race, I just want to GO!!!

All of last year, I raced by feel. Maybe I was successful. Maybe I wasn't, but I felt great about my races afterward.

When you hit distances like the Oly, HIM and IM, pacing is EXTREMELY important. If you don't pace correctly for your course, the run is going to suck or be damn near impossible. In a sprint, if you go way over threshold, you can suffer through a 5K.

Yesterday, I was holding back and holding back. All I wanted to do was go hard, like I did last year.  BUT, I knew that I HAD to do it. (Last year, I faded badly on the run. My legs were just shot). Those climbs are no joke. It worked. I climbed the first hill without even feeling it. It was a long 10 mile climb. The second one was 1.25 miles and much much steeper. That one, I felt a wee bit.

Still, I felt stronger climbing yesterday than I did on the same course last year, and I was able to run. My legs really felt it, but I held pace better yesterday instead of drastically fading.

Comparing this year to last year, I was in much better shape this year than last year for the same race.

Still, there is the issues of time & pacing. Do I really want to plug along a race course for 6 hours? By plug along, I mean at the low HR, low power required to do this distance successfully. Plugging along has nothing to do with a particular pace or speed.

I know I can....hell, I can plug along for over 8 hours! (My first HIM). And 7 hours (My 2nd HIM).

But, I felt MORE success when I broke through 28 minutes at my 5K than I did when I went 7 hours at a HIM.

Do I want to plug along anymore?

That's kind of where I am now.

So. I decided that I am going to continue on with training as is because I have another OLY tri in 2 weeks. This one is a true oly with a 1500m swim, 40K bike, 10K run. I've never done this race, but I have ridden the bike course many times. It's the old IM Boulder 70.3 bike course, which is CRAZY FAST.

And we all know how much I like going fast on the bike.

My PR for a "true" oly is 2:55, on a hilly bike course...nothing like what I rode yesterday but a course that is known for being tough.

Once I'm done with the Peak, I can decide if I want to keep training for the 70.3. The way I see it; I don't really have to decide if I want to do the 70.3 until the week of the race.

There you go. I'm on a week to week plan now.

Coaching Counts

I'm going to take some heat for this post.

WHO coaches you matters. If you're a woman it really matters.

I used to think that men coaches were just as good for women as women coaches. I was wrong. The flip side, however, is true. Women coaches are equally good for men as they are for women. The reason for this is that historically all research has been done on male athletes. Women coaches have as much access to this existing information as do their male counterparts. In fact, training plans are built completely around men.

HOWEVER,

There are very few male coaches who are willing to put in the time, to go out of their way to learn about how women and men are different. Also, how women and men are different as they age and how it affects training, recovery & nutrition.

CASE IN POINT: Several months back, USAT offered several seminars aimed at women's needs. Coaches did not earn CEU (points) for attending these seminars. In other words, for a coach to attend, it meant they really cared about their female clients.

I follow MANY coaches on Twitter and Facebook. I did not see ONE male coach advertise the fact that he attended these seminars. Now, they could have gone in silence. But, if you were a coach, would YOU want half the population to know that you are taking a course to help them? Yes. You would. You would take pictures. You would thank USAT PUBLICLY. You would do everything necessary to show HALF the population that you take their training seriously.

In the past 6 months, I've learned all of this after doing all the research that I have been doing. I do this research because my training is important to me. I have goals. I want to accomplish those goals. I'm in a position where I can do what I need to accomplish those goals.

Recently, my Coach wrote this post about the differences between ages, genders & abilities.

Of course, there are bad female coaches out there, just like there are bad male coaches. Not all women are going to go through the process of learning. BUT, if they currently train and race triathlon, the likelihood is good that they stay up on all the current research because it affects them. The BEST of coaches stay up on research because it affects their clients.

If you are a woman, and you are looking for a coach, here are the questions you need to ask (in my opinion):

1.) How will you assess & determine what my individual training will look like?

2.) How will my training differ from a woman who is 10 years younger? How will it differ from a man the same age?

3.) How do you stay current on research that benefits women (and men)?

4.) How do you respond when I question the training tactics?

5.) How will you respond when I have a bad workout? How will you respond when I quit a workout? How will you respond when I have a great workout?

6.) What percentage of your female athletes podium, qualify for nationals or world championships, etc. as compared to your male athletes? If a lower percentage of women qualify for big events, that demonstrates the point.

Of course, there are the basic questions such as: cost, communication, etc. My goal is to get you to ask the questions that are really going to matter. These are the questions that you need to ask early.

GREAT Coaches won't mind answering.

BAD Coaches will take offense.

Time to Wax Poetic

I guess it's time for me to wax poetic.

My A race is finally here. Six months after I started with my Coach, I never would have imagined that I ended up where I am. I'm staring down at a race that I feel 100% ready to take on. The olympic distance race is tough. It doesn't get much respect from age groupers. It's a balance between holding back and putting everything on the line the last few miles.

How do I feel? Great.

Am I nervous? No. Not at all.

That doesn't mean I don't care. It's an expression of confidence more than anything. I know the race will be hard. But so was training. When Coach had me start mile repeats (or build sessions) at race pace and get faster from there, I don't have any doubt that I'm going to do well.

Six months ago, I wasn't anywhere close to where I am now. I wasn't anywhere near as confident (particularly with my running). Every time I ran, it was more of  "ok, how is this going to go today." I don't feel that way anymore.

And don't be fooled, her training was some of the hardest training I've ever done. There were days that I would look at my training and think, "If she thinks I'm ready for this workout, then I am."

And that's how I handled it. Day after day, I would say that to myself. Day after day, I would do the workout.

But training is always more than the workouts. She built in plenty of recovery days. And there were days, trust me, when the recovery day was SO MUCH HARDER than the hard days, as I would run at paces that I was sure was slower than I could walk.

One of the things that I am most grateful for is that I have no pressure to place.  I get to go out and race. I'm a better runner and better cyclist than I have ever been. (Better swimmer too, but I've made the biggest improvements in running/biking). I enjoy the training and seeing all the pieces come together. I'm not worried about running off the bike anymore. I know I'm going to push hard the second half of that 10k because I've already done it.

As far as I'm concerned, I've already had the best of success because I know how much I've improved. Saturday is just the icing on the cake. I'm going out there. I'm going to have fun and PR's will be had.

The race isn't a time for me to prove myself to anyone. The race is a time to show off what I've accomplished the last 6 months.

The best part is that I know I'm only going to get faster and get stronger.

So, No. I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous because I know I'm ready.

Today's rant brought to you by the Hangry

Let me be clear about something, when I get consumed by the hangry, it is NOT A GOOD THING. It means I f*cked up my fueling for the day.

Next, if you post pictures of your breakfast, lunch and dinner, YOU HAVE AN UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

AND

You are putting your issues on display for everyone else.

But apparently that doesn't seem to matter.

NEXT, if you are training for Ironman, and you post THIS picture of your breakfast

YOU HAVE AN UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD.

AND

THAT IS NOT ENOUGH FOOD.

NEXT

If you post the picture of a bowl of fruit and call it breakfast and you weigh 50lbs more than me and are almost 10 years younger AND are training for HIMs and IMs.....I'M CALLING BULLSHIT.

Here are the facts, I train (for oly distance) up to 13 hours a week. And I'm hungry all the damn time. So much so that it has to be the single most frustrating part of training. No matter HOW MUCH I eat in the morning, I'm hungry again a few hours later (as in 3 hours later).

Few things make me as crazy as people pushing these unhealthy and unrealistic images of what they supposedly eat on a daily basis. Then, I see other people "liking" the status or saying, "OH YOU EAT SO WELL."

BULLSHIT.

Look, I love fruit and salad and all that but I would pass out if that's all I ate during the course of a day.

Meanwhile, I try to fill gaps with smoothies, and I get tired of smoothies. But they are necessary. I tried cooking all day long, and that was even worse. It's a ridiculous amount of food. So much so that Mr. Tea has almost begged me to eat convenience foods. I've tried them, but I can't stand frozen meals or anything that comes in a box.





Anyway, here's a picture of what I had for 2nd lunch today.

Oh, and I had these (2 of them):

This is how we do it.

Your daily dose of GET PUMPED. Thanks LBTEPA

So, yea. I've gone from ~12 hours of weekly training to 9:30 to 7:15. 

Are you tired of me yet? 

I guess it's time for RACE STRATEGY! WOOO HOOO! I'm posting this because I have a lot of people who read my blog because they love them a good train wreck are interested in multisport but don't currently participate. 

For those of you in the know, the race is a 1500m swim, 30 mile bike + 10K run. This is the bike elevation profile: 

Warm Up:

10 minute swim.

1500m Swim:

Before starting: 1 gel + salt tablets.

As far as finish time, last year was my fastest swim ever. Still, I made a few mistakes. The first mistake was that I did not situated myself correctly at the start, and I started with the men in 45-49 ag. This year, I am going to start in the front. I've been practicing sprinting for the first 100m or so and then finding a rhythm. These guys are big and strong, and last year I got run over too many times. I can compete with the top 3 men, so I am going to start with them. 

We all know the saying, "You can't win a race on the swim, but you can lose it." My goal for the swim is hard & controlled. 

Last year, I was 4th on the swim, and that's because of the very long run to transition. My swim alone put me in 2nd. I was passed on the way to transition. This year, once I get out of the water, I really need to run hard to the bike. Once I'm on the bike, I can take a few minutes to calm down.  I'll strip off the wetsuit when I get out of the water. With that long of a run, I know I need to run hard. The best way for me to do that is sans wetsuit.

30 mile Bike:

This is what I really want to focus on because I want to pace this better than I did last year. 

Miles 1-4: Rolling hills. Hold under 90% for the first 4-5 miles. HOLD BACK. 

Miles 4-14: BIG climb (this is the longest climb) followed by a sharp 1 mile descent.  On the climbs, no more than 120% and 120% for only 1-3 minutes at a time.

Miles 15-17: 2nd BIG climb (This is the steepest climb) followed by 1 sharp descent with turns.

Miles 17-30: It's rollers all the way home, a lot of straightaways and very few turns. This part of the course is VERY fast. Last miles are a strong 90-95% FTP.

I have been training with setting my garmin to drink every 10 minutes. I rotate through sports drink and water. 

This year, I must go easier on the first set of rollers and prepare for the climbs. Last year, I hit those first rollers SO hard. I was burned up by the time I got to the 2nd climb.

It was pretty ugly.

The key to my bike is that I've never really raced using power, and I've been learning my zones. This might be hit or miss, but my goal is to get as close to that as I can for the end part.....which is why taking it a little easier in the beginning is really important. I did really well at E-Rock (minus the fact that I went a little too hard at the start). I think I'll be able to pull this off. 

GOAL: Last year, I was on the bike for 1:36:46. I have to plan for about that time. 36-48oz on the bike of water (depending on the heat) and my concentrated drink (which I have been training with) ~400 calories + 750-1000mg of sodium which means a salt tablet in addition to my sport drink.

I feel really good about getting a bike PR, as long as I stick to my plan.

Also, during the last 10 minutes of the ride, I'll take a gel to get ready for the run.

Let me sum up: Take it easy, hold back then hit the 2nd set of rollers. 500 calories on the bike and 36-48oz of water.

10K Run:

Wow. The run. I won't go into all the mistakes I made last year; most of which came from the issues on the bike.

My time last year: 1:05:50. This is a very nice run course with the normal little hills. Nothing significant in regards to hills. I will carry an extra gel with me for the halfway mark. (I will have taken a gel right at the end of the bike). As long as I pace on the bike and fuel on the bike, I'll run well. I know that to go sub 1:00 I need to hit an average pace of 9:39. My goal is to start the first mile around a 10:00-10:15 and pick up 15 seconds or so every mile until the halfway point. Then, the 2nd half will really be about going hard. If I follow this plan, it means that the last couple of miles are really going to have to hurt to go sub 1:00. (I've never gone sub 1:00. Not even in a stand alone 10K. PREPARE TO BE AMAZED).

If you've made it this far, and you want to read last year's race report, you can find it here.

***

Over the past few weeks and months, I've put so much into training. I'm so excited for this race. For me, it's less about my finish time than it is about following a plan. I know I can run hard at the end of a race. I trust the plan that my coach put together for me. The workouts that she put together for me, showed me how to go hard when it counts. I think the most important thing that I've gained is the confidence to do this, to make this happen. 

This week is all about eating well & recovery & putting it all together on Saturday.