A walk down memory lane...

with IM Loo!

About a year ago, I did my first Ironman in Kentucky at Ironman Louisville. Oh what a day it was! Heat index hit 104F degrees with humidity and wind. This year however, temps were in the mid 70's at most- not fair!! IM Loo isn't IM Loo without the ridiculous heat & humidity! Anyway, as I was saying, back to last year, the end story was that I finished- officially. The highlight of my race day however had something to do with a random man on a red TT bike named Joe Vickory. It was about mile 85 when he rolled up next to me and said, "We can make the bike cut off!" Yes, it was that bad of a day out there. Every 10 minutes was the sound of an ambulance. People were getting off their bikes to sit under a shaded tree or to take a nap. I asked Joe what he was doing back here? He said, "My fingers are numb.. I don't know!" Joe and I were fighting against the clock and for awhile we were doing it alone until he rolled up next to me and all of a sudden, I felt like we were kind of doing it together....that was until he sped away!! I must have passed him at a water stop because somehow, we came out of T2 and onto the run together. 

We ran the first 7 or so miles together until he said, "I'll catch up!" He had said that many times before so I thought he'd catch up except I didn't see him anymore. Through the rest of my race, I was thinking about him. Hope he is ok... I wonder where he could be. Run course.. still ambulance every 15 minutes or so- people are dehydrated left & right! Not a good sight!! I crossed the finish line.. finished the race but no sight of Joe during my run when I left him to catch up. Few months later, thanks to Facebook, I found a Joe Vickery and messaged him. No response so I figured wrong guy. Couple months passed and I get a message on Facebook from Joe- it was him!!! So that year, he said the the medics took his vitals at mile 7 or 9 something like that..low heart rate and then ended up picking him up in an ambulance a few miles after that .. took him to the emergency room for 8 bags of IV fluid!!! Not to be beat down, he got a slot for Ironman Louisville 2009!

I was rooting for him ALL DAY long and of all the people I knew racing, he was the #1 guy I was rooting for and he did it!! He became an Ironman today and brought it to the race that brought him down a year ago- Congrats Joe! I am beyond happy & excited for you!!

Congrats to all my athletes who raced Ironman Canada & Ironman Louisville today!!

Workout Summary-

Swim- 2 hours and 7 minutes

Bike- 6 hours and 21 minutes

Run- 1 hour and 55 minutes

Total workout- 10 hours and 23 minutes

A proposition for the Golden Gate Bridge...

Always a war zone on the weekends...

It's the weekend.. anytime between 11am- 3pm is usually the worst...clipless pedals vs. cages. Computers on stem vs. map clips...it's cyclist vs. tourist! This can't be good and it's not- the war zone that every local cyclist has to fight through to get back in the city or get back to Marin after a bike ride. Don't get me wrong, the city loves tourists and I enjoy sharing my city with them because it is a fabulous one but when they invade my weekend playground with ignorant bliss where that bliss can cause bodily harm to my beloved bike (and me)... I get extremely agro! This weekend for instance..I yelled more than I ever did while crossing the bridge to finish my training ride. Conditions did not help as it was windy and foggy. Tourists on bikes were either pedaling so slow that you'd think they fall over or they were riding two abreast and you don't ride two abreast on the bridge at bike traffic prime! They're either riding in their ignorant bliss or in deer in headlights worry looking at oncoming bike traffic (which is not a good idea)! "LEFT!" did not even do my bridge war justice! With screams of "Left!" I added yesterday, "MOVE!" "STOP!" "HEY!" and lastly "you guys HAVE TO stay on ONE side!" 

I don't know if bike rental companies give a safety speech to folks with the intention of crossing the bridge but they should! And tourist riders, all we locals ask of you is to ride safely out there and pay attention to your surroundings. Believe me when I say that cyclists are more nervous about you than you are of them! 

So my proposition for the Golden Gate Bridge...make the rental bikers take the East side with the other tourists!!

Other than that, a good week of training with Thursday pain cave kicking my @ss! Heart rate hit 186- OUCH! 5 minute intervals with 2 minutes at T1 and 3 minutes at 2 mph over base, 3 mph over, 4 mph over, 5 mph over, AND 6 (wtf) mph over- after that interval, I had to collect myself before clipping out to feed the meters- phew! 

Lastly, GOODLUCK to all racing next Sunday- IM Canada and IM Loo!! I'll be tracking and rooting for all of you!

Workout Summary-

Swim- 4 hours and 20 minutes

Bike- 7 hours and 4 minutes

Run- 1 hour and 15 minutes

Total workout- 12 hours and 39 minutes

A whole new perspective on pain...

Topic this week...pain threshold!

So no pain week on Tuesday this week so I decided to go to my old stomping ground, Tuesday spin studio that I frequented often last year. I used to think that it was the best workout ever until I was introduced to the pain cave. What makes the pain cave so tough? Oh..let me count the ways:

1. It's warm in there! It's a treat when coach lets us have fans. There was a period where they were not allowed and that was torture!

2. Computrainer- you can't cheat your way through the class! You have to pedal to the watts. There is no hiding!

3. You never know what intervals are going to be in store.. 12 minutes? 36 minutes? 120%? 

4. You are ON for a solid 90 minutes!

5.  Not to mention..if you're not pedaling to the prescribed cadence..you're going to get barked at by h(authority) aka coach. 

So.. since being introduced to the pain cave, my threshold for pain has gone way up! Not to mention mental toughness because...well don't you dare get off that bike because you don't feel like you can pedal anymore. Bite your lip and push through! 

Photo: Pain cave- every Tuesday and Thursday mornings! 30 min warm up + 60 min of pure suffering = 1.5 hours of solid fun! My heart rate hit 181 in class that day- ouch!

Speaking of pain threshold..it's time I work on increasing that when it comes to pool workouts! The solution to that may be starting masters classes! Went to the PacWest master swim workout this Sunday and had a great workout. It wasn't as many yards as coach wanted me to put in but I worked hard for the time I was in the pool.. chasing down a guy that was way too fast for our lane! We'll see how that goes! Speaking of Pacwest, joined them for a training ride on Saturday which started from Woodacre out to Marshall Store and back. Solid training ride..minus the junk miles ..nailed my intervals...sunny warm day...awesome!

Photo: Ben aka Sanbagger Ben and I after the PacWest ride.
A good training week overall! Didn't run much this week because I saw TDR for some muscle soreness on my lower right side. Got beat up on the therapy table.. told coach.. coach took my run sessions out for the next 10 days. What happens when I can't run? I feel much more grateful for being able to the next time I put my running shoes on!

Workout Summary-

Swim- 3 hours and 27 minutes

Bike- 5 hours and 40 minutes

Run- 1 hour and 15 minutes

Total Workout- 10 hours and 22 minutes

Getting back in shape- post Ironman!

Starting to feel good again!

Good as in somewhat back in shape! No more feeling like I am going to puke or light headedness in the pain cave... although I guess it helped that we didn't have pain cave this week because coach was at camp in Tahoe. Muscles are starting to feel something on the saddle now and running doesn't feel like such a chore anymore. It's quite cruel how quickly one can feel sluggish and out of shape with taking a month or two easy after spending 6+ months training for an Ironman!

Had a great weekend of workouts! Saturday, rode with the ladies, Kara and Dana from Mill Valley out pass Nicasio and back! A ride full of highlights including seeing my coach's coach, my masseuse, and my bike doctor all in one pack going out for the Roasters Ride! To read a little bit about the Roaster's Ride, check out Kris Lunning's blog here! Only the big boys come out to play for that ride :-). We saw them congregating in Fairfax and tried to estimate when they'd catch us..it turned out to be mid way up White's Hill when I heard, "Hey Yi.. keep it going" or something like that.. I turned to see it was Kris rockin' his hot pink jersey! He later caught us again while returning from our rides. Sunday.. woke up early.. speed workout on the Sausalito bike path followed by an easy hour and a half spin with Rahim and Mary. Then lunch with Kara in Mill Valley. Sunshine is in effect again and I have the tan lines to show it!

Workout Summary

Swim- 3 hours and 8 minutes

Bike- 5 hours and 55 minutes

Run- 3 hours and 0 minutes

Total workout- 12 hours and 3 minutes

Last weekend of...

Last slacker weekend..

It was such a long week- let's see if I can recount the happenings.. 

Monday- Found out we weren't starting core & strength just yet. Next block of training is focused on going hard & aggressive for the Nautica Malibu Olympic Tri in Sept!

Tuesday- Wanted to stay in bed instead of going to CT class. Since coach wasn't going to be there.. it would have made it easier to skip but sucked it up and went!

Wednesday- First long swim since CDA- not too bad. feeling sluggishly slow and out of shape! coach said it was normal and feeling would go away with consistency!

Thursday- OMG- morning pain cave class was awfully painful! Heart rate hit 187 although I would have sworn I saw 189 on my polar. Ted had the perfect quote to describe the class during our meter break, "J*s*s Chr*st (pause) f*ck!" My friend Brian was spinning next to me and I would have said something to him about how hard I thought class was but I couldn't form any words! Plus, my watts were increased by 10 watts and for a class focused on T1 and 120%, 10 extra watts is a lot to get used to!

Friday- First long run since CDA- 1.5 hours- felt good cardio wise but mucles need to catch up!!

Saturday- Woke up at 3:15am- arrived at Vineman swim start at 5:20am for bodymarking duties (again)! Vineman Full is an IronTeam event so went to cheer the Teammate on! While bodymarking, I came upon a woman who said the dumbest thing I had ever heard-

Me- "Race age on left calve."

Woman- "I don't want to write my age."

Me- "Why not?"

Woman- "To confused the competition. My coach said I didn't have to write my age."

Me- "Is your coach the director of the race?"

So my actual thoughts- 1. That is the dumbest thing I had ever heard! 2. I really didn't care who her coach was except that she should fire him! 3. Bad mentality- coming into a race- not being confident in your abilities no matter what the competition is! Anyway, on a more positive note, congrats to all Ironteamers who finished the Vineman Full!! A great day out there for all with near perfect weather conditions!!

Sunday- Woke up early and headed to the sailfish wetsuit demo and PacWest swim clinic out at Aquatic Park followed by a nice hike with fabulous company in the Marin Headlands!!

Photo below- Kara and I working the sailfish demo!!

Photo below- Oh Alcatraz.. I know we're suppose to feel lucky to be able to swim with that as our back drop!
Workout Summary-

Swim- 1 hour and 10 minutes

Bike- 3 hours and 0 minutes

Run- 3 hours and 30 minutes

Total workout- 7 hours and 40 minutes - half of what I was supposed to do :-(