15 posts tagged “tri-training”
As I write this, it's not quite 8 a.m. on the longest day of the year, and I've already been to the pier and back for a morning swim in the Bay. I swam the perimeter again today, past my friend the Balclutha and the open gate of Aquatic Park that points directly towards Alcatraz. The water was exceptionally flat and still today, and cold as well, and I can only hope for similar conditions on Sunday. When I jump off that boat next to Alcatraz, and head in towards Aquatic Park, I won't care at all about the water temperature. Cold water does not bother me. But the currents are another matter.
It was a little sad for me today, when I woke up before sunrise for the last time this season. I've been doing it for so long now, and it seems fitting to me that I finished my open water training on the longest day of the year; that I got to watch the sun rise over the Bay for the last time on the day when we both showed up there earlier than either of us had all year.
I met my friends from my team--Maria, Melanie and Dave--and we plunged in together. They have all raced already. I'm still waiting. I hope we can meet like this after I finish. I like it, in the cold and the dark. I enjoy the camaraderie. As we swam, I looked ahead at Melanie, and behind to Dave, across and over at Maria, and was conscious that this was coming to an end. I'm not ready for it to come to an end. The next time I plunge into that cold green wet, it will be to race.
This morning I stood shivering in the dark in front of the heater. For six months I've been getting up before dawn to push myself as hard as I can, before the day even begins for most people. Today that ends.
I'm going to miss it.
I don't think I've ever annotated a photo to this extent before. Click through to the Flickr page to see the notes.
I'm racing in a sprint triathlon tomorrow in Sacto, getting ready for my main event, and I laid out all my gear to make sure I have everything. Wow. Lots of stuff. I thought it would make an interesting photo with annotations. Not pictured: bike helmet, bike and flip flops.
Yesterday, I swam 1.75 miles and then ran another 15. (wtf.) Running down 20th, I passed a really short person, walking the other direction, with a black sweatshirt pulled over their head, so that you couldn't see a face. As I ran by, they dropped a syringe on the sidewalk, I skipped a half-step sideways and glanced at the fistfull of needles and kept on going.
I don't usually run on city streets; I stay in the park. When I left the Koret Center, though, on my way to the park, I looked to my right, and saw an endless fogbank consuming everything in the distance. To my left there was sun. And junkies. And traffic lights. I felt better on mile 7 in the park than I did on mile 4 in The Mission.
Somewhere around mile 12.4 I felt terrible. Hungry or sick or just stomach drilled from a Clif shot I couldn't tell. But I had to walk for a while, and I ran the rest of the way slowly. I ended at the Koret Center, grabbed my bag and walked another mile or so back to our apartment. When I got home, I was dehydrated and dizzy.
I'm thinking of running the San Francisco Marathon in July.
Today I ran just over 13 miles at my "race pace." That's a half marathon. I had planned on running 12, but at mile 11 or so it occured to me that I was creeping up on a half marathon, and when you're that close, why not go all the way? Actually, the question that ran through my mind was "why not just run 13?" it floors me that this question could even occur to me. I ran track and cross country in high school, and today was the equal of longest I ran way back then, 19 years ago. Today it was no big deal. I ran the whole thing at an eight and ahalf minute pace and left plenty on the table. My plan this afternoon isn't to lie about on the couch; it's to take Andre bike shopping.
And all of this is due to my friend Lisa. Lisa was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last year and it was in her honor that I started doing this, and only because of her that I've been able to keep it up. My main goal here is not to get in shape, but rather to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The fitness is simply a nice side effect. But I do love it, and I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.
u p d a t e Oh! Oh, my! I have to update this because, as often happens, I became excited while relaying my little story, and completely, totally forgot the point of what I came here to say in the first place. Which is this: You shouldn't shy away from trying new things; you never know what you will love.
And I'm pretty fucking nervous about it.
u p d a t e : just to be clear, my tri isn't tomorrow. I'm just going to be swimming from alcatraz.
The Nike+ Vox challenge that I set up last month ends tomorrow at midnight. It's a tight race for second between Alaina and Jennie! Would anyone be interested in a re-match? If so, I'll be glad to set up another challenge.
I've got a new run route that I think is great for training. I run from Baker Street end of the Panhandle out through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach over to the southwest entrance to the Park, back up and East again through the park into the Panhandle, back to Baker Street and then up Baker until you get to Buena Vista Park. At Buena Vista I run to the top, and then back down again to my apartment. It's a classic, I love it, and it's a great way to prepare for the sand ladder.
I think it's because I was in such shitty shape late last year; worst of my life. When I started out, running a mile was a huge deal. It's interesting to see that my average distance is only 3.7 miles with an average pace of 9:32.
That seems short and slow to me now, but I remember when a 1.7 mile trip around the panhandle took me 20 minutes and a lot of cursing.
Last weekend I ran more than ten miles, with more than 600 feet of climbing, and my pace was still faster than my overall average. I feel like I've come a long way.
I bonked this weekend. Hard. So hard that it felt like I'd never bonked before (though I certainly have) as this was an order of magnitude higher. A big full-body, day-ending bonk.
We had a brick(a two sport training session, in this case a swim and run) on Saturday that began in the Larkspur / Corte Madera area at Redwood High School. I got up early that morning, and ate right away: some scrambled eggs, around 7 am. I drank plenty of water, plenty of electrolyte mix, and was off.
The swim wasn't so bad, we warmed up, drilled, did a 12 minute time trial (which was tough, but short) and then practiced mass starts by swimming through a "gauntlet" for four lengths (100 yards) with teammates surrounding us on all sides splashing the water, pushing us down, pulling us, grabing our arms and legs, and swimming on top of us.
It was damn fun.
Afterwards, we sat and shivered for 45 minutes below a cloudy sky whiel the coaches gave us tips on fast tire changing and descents (while the other half of the team was in the pool). I think this long pause and cold weather may have hurt me. During the clinics, I ate a Clif bar. And then, I was off again on a 10.23 mile run through Ross up to Mt. Tam and a little way up its eastern slope.
I finished up with everything by 12:30 or so and after some dicking around in the parking lot, drove back to San Francisco a little after one pm. I dropped Maria off on the way, went to pick up my mail, and stopped in at the grocery to pick up some Sushi. At this point I was feeling pretty good, if very hungry. I was hoping to meet up with Andre if he came in my neighborhood to go bike shopping, and was even thinking I'd be able to get a drink that evening with Andy and Ami.
No such luck.
By the time I got home from the store, after 20 minutes or so of looking for parking, I was feeling pretty lousy, and things were acelerating quickly. I barely made it up the steps (four flights) with all my gear and groceries, and was gasping the entire way. By the time I got in the door, I realized I was shaking pretty badly, and was starting to get a little freaked out. I sat down and ate right as soon as I got in the door,at 2:40 or so, but it seemed like it was too late. I was completley sick to my stomach by this point, desperately nauseus and still shaking all over.
After eating, it was all I could do to drag myself three feet over to the couch and drop myself on it. It was Hell just getting my (still wet) tri shorts off. Harper was at work, and I was scared, really scared, and confused and disoriented. My whole body fet like it was breaking, and I curled up in a ball and tried to go to sleep.
Harper came in from work within a few minutes of when I had dropped on the couch, to find me a total wreck. Not only was I feeling lousy physically, I was done mentally as well. I was totally confused and scared, emotional, and just an all-around mess. She helped me get it together, got me in the shower, and made me a Cytomax recovery shake. Within a half hour or so of her getting home, I was starting to feel a lot better, but I was still pretty much a wreck the balance of the evening and felt like shit much of Sunday.
Lesson learned: eat within a half hour of working out. Eat while you're working out.
I know these things, I've known them for years, but I didn't practice them and I felt like I paid a huge price for it on Saturday.
Wow. Cold.
The water was 53.2 degrees F / 11.8 degrees C. Or: Cold.
I'd splashed around some in the Pcific on my three ill-fated surfing adventures, and of course I've taken a quick dive in the water before. But there's a huge difference between doing that and continually sticking your face in the water to swim. Making myself do that, and then breathe normally while swimming, was one of the hardest things I've done so far during this training: Not physically, but mentally. It took me ten minutes or so to begin swimming normally, and even then I had trouble with sighting and swimming a straight line, and bumping into others. I also swallowed a ton of water. A ton. Of Water.
When they called time, I almost didn't want to come out. I was just coming up on 2/3 of a mile, and finally getting into a groove. Although the coaches said we had to warm up, I think the real key was to let my face get completely numb--as you can maybe tell from the rictus attempt at a smile I made as I emerged.
Finally, I'm a mere $54 dollars away from my Team in Training fundraising minimum. (Though I still have another $1200 to go before I hit my goal.) If you'd like to make a contribution, please check out my fundraising page. You can find a link there that shows how the money is spent.
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