Run it Out
Documenting the trials and tribulations of becoming an Ironman
It's been awhile but it's been busy.
May 1, 2016
So like the title says, its been awhile but in summary its been a crazy month. Work trips and conferences in Orlando, training, work, family, training, courses and exams and training. It's been a productive month. Sure I lost some workouts here and there along the way but I bumped up my FTP to 226 from 213, ran an impromptu half marathon today and set a new PR to boot at 1:40:31 in rain and wind.
One thing that I learned this month for sure is the importance of planning. Planning your workouts, planning your nutrition, planning even your laundry if you're on a budget like me and can't just buy copious amounts of workout gear, planning your personal time, planning your week, your month, your year. You gotta plan to plan even. I'm beginning to appreciate it, especially in light of this past month and how much I got done and had fun along the way to boot!
Bottom line, plan and then plan some more.
Luckily I did and am.
Must be my lucky day!
Spring is coming and it's time to re-engage.
Mar 18, 2017
As you can tell by looking at the dates of my last post, I have clearly been neglecting this site. I've been toiling away training but have not been putting any time in here and that's got to stop. There's been a lack of accountability growing in my training and reviving this site is part of my plan to check it and get back on track. So let me bring you up to speed.
Last summer I saw some real progress. My run times were consistently dropping and my bike times were getting better as I grew more comfortable on the Red Rocket. At one point during one of my interval sessions last fall I actually spied a 4 min mile pace during one of the peaks! Full disclosure, I maintained it for only ten or twenty seconds but I hit it and to see that number was fantastic.
Then the Canadian winter came on in Ottawa and things slowly went a little sideways. My plan to start swimming hard come winter was pushed to the new year. Running long runs outside became difficult with the snow and ice ( I am completely paranoid about running in snow and ice and risking an injury ) so I substituted them for long runs on the treadmill at work which became difficult when the runs stretched over an hour. Seriously what is the deal with a half hour time limit on treadmills?!
So swimming eventually came online only to be bumped at least once a week in favour of a meeting which meant the only time I could swim on those days was at night. Sadly, I didn't hold myself accountable here and never got to those sessions. Those meetings are largely finished now so I'm planning on staging a resurgence in the pool both at the one near my work and closer to home.
Biking indoors was going well. I finished a Base plan and moved into a building phase feeling good. Then my computer died and setting the trainer up with the new one led to more frustration (and unfortunately more than necessary cursing) and ultimately a new much lower FTP. Whether this new one or the old one is more accurate I don't know and I try not to dwell on it because like I like I said, its much lower and after working reasonably hard all summer and fall my ego and confidence took a bit of a hit. Heading into week 3 of the build phase program has me in good spirits mostly, now that I've gotten the computer and trainer synced and calibrated at least.
Running. It used to be and likely still is my strong suit but admittedly I've been slacking. Yes, several winter colds among other things have allowed me to hit that "Skip" button far more frequently than anticipated. I told myself since I was a stronger runner and was only laying the foundation miles for harder spring training I could get away with it. But that's not the type of athlete I aspire to be. That's not the example I aspire to set for my daughter. So it ends today.
The poor planning.
The excuses.
The worsening diet.
The lack of motivation.
The acceptance.
Today, I'm getting back to the grind. And its going to be awesome!
Schedule bruising
April 2nd, 2016
Wouldn't it be nice if you could lock in a schedule and never have to worry about adapting it to life? Holidays and long weekends always throw me off and its a genuine challenge for me to keep a solid schedule as inevitably something comes up or in this case, my parents came up for Easter. This is, of course awesome, I'm just saying losing track of my schedule is why I've been away and not posting for the last week. I've been busy though getting my workouts in. Lots of miles counted and time on the trainer ridden and yes even several laps swam in the pool (Yes!).
Aside from the obvious success in getting the swim going, there have been other victories, namely raising my FTP to 213 now which I suspect is more realistic than the 179 I tested to earlier. That number was always suspicious to me given I'd never really done an FTP test before and during the subsequent workouts before challenging the test again, I routinely felt unchallenged during the workouts. This number is giving me some good workout soreness so I think there will be some positive gains made here in the next week or two.
I've also started to make use of the LSCT Test and am collecting the data from that to measure my recovery more effectively. Too early to get a read on these numbers but that will come later. So tomorrow after my long run I will post the results from this past week but since I missed posting the week before progress, here's that data shot and I'll add this weeks after a nice long slow run, hopefully not at the -8 degress that's being forecasted.
Update: With a -24 degree windchill and knowing gm route has plenty of exposed areas, I pushed to tomorrow and am taking a true rest day - no swim and no run, just baseball.....I ok no but it is Opening Day and I am stoked for that. Go Jays!
Time to Celebrate!
March 22nd, 2016
This week I knocked a big monkey off my back. I'm talking about that thing that has been lurking in my mind for weeks and months now. Kind of like the dentist. You know you need to go and just do it but you still don't want to. In case my thoughts about dentists weren't clear, on my first trip to the dentist I called him a big dummy. I've obviously since grown up but its still one of those things I just don't like. This week I didn't go to the dentist. I went swimming.
Strange, right? Here's this guy writing about trying to become an Ironman and he compares swimming to the dentist. Maybe it would be less strange if it weren't the first part of the sport but ya, for me, it's like the dentist. At least at this point. Maybe later it'll get better but for right now and especially the last few months since the last time I was in a pool, the thoughts been there lurking. But anyway, I went and made a point of getting a swim in Monday and because of that I'm going to celebrate my little victory. Sure, I only lasted 250 yds and about 25 minutes (I like to think that if I hadn't needed to get some food in before a class I could've stayed longer and probably stretched it to 400 or even 500 yrds) but hey, I got in a pool!
And I made a point to get a few laps in!
Sure its a tiny victory that hopefully in the coming months will look insignificant but for right now its huge and I'm celebrating. How you ask? With an hour on the bike trainer tonight courtesy of Trainer Road and their "Tunnabora" workout and a run and another swim tomorrow night!
Rock on! Right? Right!
Must be my lucky day!
Happy St Patrick's Day!
March 17th, 2016
Not even going to lie or hide here, March Madness started this week and its been on my mind most of the day so here are some random thoughts and lessons I’ve learned since I committed to this sport last summer. Sometimes randomness is good and it spurs thoughts in a previously unrecognized direction or train of thought and sometimes its just filed away in the cabinets marked “for use later”. So, here’s hoping Kansas and UNC don’t let me down and that UNC takes the Final. Oh and ya, hope you get something if even just a smile from the below. Good luck with your brackets.
I can’t swim far. I used to think I could handle myself relatively well in a pool. I can. For about two minutes and then I’m gasping for air. This isn’t to say I am uncomfortable or anything, I just have no stamina swimming. I can hop up and go run a half marathon but swim three straight laps in the pool? Not a chance. Yet! If you’re new to the pool, like me, I feel your pain. If you’re saturated with chlorine already, how was your start?
24 hrs in a day is a lot of time. Seriously. There is really a lot of time in the day and you really can squeeze in a lot of things. Warning, planning is required but ya, failing to plan is planning to fail - just don’t spend all your time planning and not doing!
Working out indoors, I stink. No really, I think my wife dreads the days I run or bike inside because the laundry room is well, ya, I sweat, it happens. I’m ok with it. Fans help.
Running by feel and the ability finding an extra gear are very useful tools. Recommend knowing how the two relate though to avoid blow outs of the non diaper kind (narrowly avoided one with my daughter today at the library, whoo!)
Balance is extremely valuable. Including the kind that measures it as having a cupcake in both hands.
No man is an island. Seriously, think about it and then go thank you supporters for helping you achieve your goals in tri.
My island’s rockin”!
Must be my lucky day!
Two Things About Spring
March 20th, 2016
Just a quick update here as spring, as lovely and fun as it is, generally means two things for me: I really need to remember to clean up the yard more during the winter from the dogs (we've two main pups, Sophie our ol' girl and American Mastiff and Nora/Norey/Doodle who goes by one of those three names depending on what she's doing and whether she's eating something of ours at the moment, our Australian Sheperd and then a third who stays with us occassionally.) It's not the best pic of Sophie and Nora but it's kinda accurate.
And two, Allergies. It's the latter driving me nuts today and for most of the weeked and it really makes me kinda miserable to be around when the allergies are going. They kind of come and go throughout the day which makes sense I suppose but they have a tendency of making me short at times which makes me feel immediately bad about after a quick response as I rush for the tissue box again.
This week was good. It was a reset week which meant using a valid FTP on the bike and a couple of good workouts in as well. Ended up pushing my long run for the week to Monday and swapping the rest day to today because I needed to spend more time in front of the computer writing an assignment for a business class. Not ideal but as long as I get the run tomorrow and the swim before class at 6pm I don't feel too bad about it. A plan is one thing but no plan survives contact with the enemy so as long as I get the workouts in, the order doesn't matter too much to me. Anyway, here's the weekly summary:
It's The Little Things
March 15th, 2016
This week’s positive note is all about the little things and getting them right. For instance, the past three weeks that I’ve been focusing on my biking, I’ve been using my CycleOps PowerBeam Pro I picked up second hand off of EBay and have just essentially been mashing away on the pedals assuming I’m getting good value out of my efforts. Well, as I mentioned last time I ran the FTP test a second time and managed to not freeze up my computer so I actually got a valid result. Tonight’s workout was the first using valid power targets and what a difference. It was a great ride. Came to realize I really need to eventually add a cadence sensor to my kit so I can really hone in even more effective workouts but even without that bit, I came off the bike at the end feeling like I really contributed to my cycling abilities and am already “jonesin” to check my FTP again as I feel almost certain I could improve it. Realistically, it’ll be about the same with sleep, nutrition etc being the difference makers I would assume if I were to re do it. But still.
Even something as simple as adding a fan to the basement so I’m not dripping with sweat from the heat of the workout contributed to my feeling fresh at the end of the hour workout (it was the Ericsson workout for those familiar with Trainer Road workouts). Just simple little tweaks that come with experience and using your noodle. And as if that wasn’t enough to give me a boost about things, the leftover balloons that are still down in the basement from my daughter’s birthday party weeks ago reminding me of the fun we had and the fun Ava is just absolutely pushed things over the top for me.
Maybe next time you're sloggin away a trainng session, look around and find your little something to tweak or that you recently tweaked or something that reminds you of someone fun and wild and free.
What a way to end a day!
Must be my lucky day!
The Importance of Somethings
March 13th, 2016
So, another false start. It happens. This is my thought process right now. It’s ok though really since Im not targeting any races until late this summer and more than likely next year as much for financial reasons as for training ones. Dang this sport is expensive, especially for a single income family. Training wise, I don’t want to just throw away the entrance fee for a race just to do it. I know I could complete a triathlon, of any distance with proper training. The thing is though I don’t want to just complete one, I want to do well too. For the record, I’m not saying I need to win for it to be worthwhile, rather I want to be able to look back at the result and know that I performed close to my top potential which means I need to get some work done first.
With that in mind, I’m tapping the partial reset button. See, when I started up with Trainer Road, as awesome as the program is, during the FTP test for the Sweet Spot Base plan, at the beginning of the last 8 minute effort, my computer froze which threw off the resulting FTP. Being naïve about the way the program uses that important bit of data, I just carried on. However, I soon realized that the target efforts for each subsequent workout were based off this. Again being naïve, I just continued anyway figuring I could work hard and just guestimate my way there. Huh, spell checker didn’t pick up guestimate, guess its actually a work. However, I thought about it yesterday and realized that I really should be working with a valid FTP to help me target more effective workouts so I re- did that today instead of the planned 90 minute ride the plan called for. Came out with a 179 FTP which is miles better than the 100 FTP that the aborted test gave me a couple of weeks ago. Still have a lot of work to do though so time to get cracking on that.
This past week was a planned recovery week anyway but with a very quick trip to Winnipeg and then Air Canada gratefully put me on standby for the first of two flights on Wednesday putting me home at 230am, everything was thrown off and my body just hurt for a few days. Got the planned workouts in Thursday and Friday but just felt off. Anyway, with a renewed focus on proper planning I put in the effort this morning to get the proper FTP result and while I haven’t put together my exact plan for the week, I’ve got the rough sketch in my head so I’m almost there. Three solid rides, three solid runs and at least one swim to get going on that side of things. I’ve been feeling over stretched so I don’t want to wander into too many swim workouts too soon so I’m going to tinker with adding that side in over the next two months and since there’s no race to rush for I’m hoping to get things right.
On the plus side of things, the weather is warming and the snow is going.
Must be my lucky day!
Training Plan
Missed Opportunity
March 11th, 2016
Admittedly, I’m going to miss my training goals this week. Having a very quick trip to Winnipeg that led to getting back into Ottawa at 2am was a big factor but so was poor planning on my part. See, I knew that getting the run in on Wednesday was going to be difficult. I knew this and so I put everything together and forgot the most basic part of a plan. I didn’t verify the times the gym in Winnipeg opened. As a result, I left myself without enough time to hit the gym and the mess before a meeting and had to choose between a workout and food and for me, food always wins. I simply need to eat otherwise I am an unproductive unpleasant individual. Just ask my wife, she’ll verify that in a second. Without food in my system, I just need space. Unless my mind and body are occupied then I think I’m bearable but ya.
All this to say I need to plan better. I also need to address nutrition on the bike. I’ve got it down for the run so that’s not a problem, I know I need some fuel about 45 min into a run if its going an hour or longer and then every half hour or so from there. But the bike I still need to figure out what works exactly for me.
The thing is though, that’s do able. So was planning better and getting the run in that I missed this week. I failed in that regard but it is do-able. Running, biking, and even swimming, my least favourite, are do-able endeavours. You just need to plan, then commit to them and then go out and accomplish the actions. Simple, right. You’re capable of this. Can you pack a lunch? Then you have the necessary skill set to plan a week of workouts and go knock them off, one at a time. Think of all the bigger, more complex tasks you have completed. Odds are you haven’t been overly inclined to accomplish each and every one of them but you have, haven’t you. So what’s the excuse? There is none, right. You’ve simply let yourself down. Well my friend, that ends. No more missed workouts because you failed to see the obvious hole in the plan. Starting this weekend, plan your lunch and then plan your workouts. Get them in, because you know what to do and how to do them so go out and do them and accomplish the goals you have.
Continually raise and meet your standards,
Or forever live below the bar.
Must be my lucky day!
Spring’s in sight!
March 6th, 2016
This winter admittedly wasn’t that bad. True, there have been a number of winter storms over the last few weeks, actually just about one every week for the last month or so, but overall, its been pretty mild. That being said the weather has turned, I’m calling it, winter’s over. It’s above 0 today and there are forecasts calling for temps above 10 degrees this week so yup, winters done in my books. I don’t see it making a comeback, its down for the count.
So, outdoor runs are on the horizon and that’s good because this week again I missed another run due to weather and I’m struggling trying to adapt to the solid schedule. Hopefully I can right the ship and get things grooving again. I’ve signed on with Trainer Road and am loving the workouts there. Currently I’m rocking the Sweet Spot Base Mid Volume I record and jamming along. These are by far the easiest workouts to schedule since after work and after my daughters gone to sleep I can just head down to the basement hope on my trusty steed Red and pedal away at the workouts. The runs lately have been harder to schedule but with the weather turning I will be able to run outside and not have to try and force the runs into my workday schedule. I’m finding the treadmill I’ve been using just isn’t conducive for my goals and I’ve let the run go when I can’t get to the gym mid-day or outside. I still got a couple of good runs in this week but still short of what I was hoping to do overall. Hoping to get outside later this afternoon for a couple of miles but will have to see what family commitments are made first. The swim still eludes me. Matching my schedule with times when there is a pool time available has been harder to do. I can either catch the last half hour of one after switching buses to one much earlier and basically lose an hour of my morning and some sleep for a half hour or try and force in some pool time at the expense of when I do the bike workouts in the evening. Going to put some thought into this today and see if I can find a better solution because the current schedule isn’t working.
As mentioned, I switched over to Trainer Road this month and am loving it. The specific workouts and the text that accompanies and explains each stage is immensely beneficial for someone like me and I really expect this to provide a huge contribution to my biking. If you haven’t checked it out yet, definitely take a gander and since there’s a free month trial, what have you got to lose except some time on your bike.
So, below is the data from the week with last week’s data to the left and the most recent week to the right. Of note, the bike workouts on Trainer Road are about power and not miles so there is no data on how many miles I rode, only the miles I ran.
Must be my lucky day!
