Help, I think my tri bike is trying to kill me....

..in a slow, painful, piercing kinda way!

No joke!

So I've heard about such problems from other triathletes, but on my road bike I've experienced none. I could go for miles and miles on my Fuji, with no chaffing or other such traumas. But after 10 min on Slice, I was on fire....not the kind of fire you'd want, though. I managed the 45 min but had to get out of aero every 14 min for 1 min. So help me...are my shorts to blame, are there any bike shorts that you've discovered that help with this problem, is it just a matter of getting used to the bike, is this going to get better? The aero position is awkward and uncomfortable enough without the "downtown" trauma!

Thoughts

I am blogging with Glee in the background. It's the Madonna episode. Do you know I was obsessed with Madonna in highschool? I mean, truly obsessed. I would spend hours in front of our black and white TV playing the only video of her I owned, dancing away. My room was covered with pictures of hers. I was determined to become a famous geneticist, never marry, and live this 100% independent life. I still think she is amazing with her ability to challenge norms and break molds. I still get shivers when I hear one of her old songs...

And no, I did not become a famous geneticist, and I did the whole marriage and child thing, but somehow I managed to remain independent (as independent as you can be when you are married, with a child and a job). I really don't miss those teenage years. Or my 20s. Love my 30s, though, I grew into myself in my 30s, if you know what I mean. I am content. I am at peace. I still strive, but I accept. I enjoy my life.

I've had all these "deep" thoughts during my night, headlamp lit, easy 12 miler today. Night, quiet, peace, after a day packed with thoughts and words and more words. Things are just as they should be right now, just as they should be. It's good, it's really good!

What's your weakness?

As some of you know I have some some lofty racing goals for 2011. I put this goals out there because I want to show myself that I am strong enough to set goals that are hard, that I may never achieve, that I set for myself with less regard for what others think about me if I do or do not meet them. I know I am not defined by meeting a certain goal. I also know that I love the chase more than achieving the actual goal...once you get to the top of the mountain and the views are amazing, you still have to walk down.

The first couple are running related - breaking 20min in the 5K and 1:30 in the half marathon. Honestly, the 5K should not be hard; in fact, I ran a 19:38 per Garmin in the summer, but you never know with longer courses, wind, snow, etc. The half marathon seems a tad of a challenge...

In my quest to improve my ability to focus I have been learning new things about my body. I have a pretty good aerobic engine. I don't get out of breath easily. When I run fast, my lungs are mostly fine, HR is not v high (perceived), but my muscles become weak as time goes by. This weakness manifests itself in decreased stride efficiency. I start to become less springy. My feet make contact with the ground longer than necessary. It becomes an effort to lift my knees up. My body becomes straight rather than leaning forward. Of course, my legs are not fresh as I work them pretty hard in the bike/run combo (I don't really use them much in swimming), but still, they need to be stronger. So I am doing plyometrics and hill sprints galore. I also have some longer hill efforts planned, which I am excited about because....I don't do well on hills.

I have also noticed that I run faster at track than on the road. This is likely mental. For ex., I ran 4 miles @ 6:25 average at the track 2 weeks ago, and 3.07 miles @ 6:30 on the road. The runs were a bit different in that the second was a progression with 4 faster descending miles before the 3, but still, running in circles seems easier to me. I manage to focus much better at the track and my pace seems to be more even. The 4 miles were ran descending from 6:35 to 6:17. In the 3 miler I lost focus during the second mile and ended up running a 6:46 (this was a bit uphill, however), and than had to bring it home at a 6:12.

The other thing I have been thinking about is tolerance. A really fast blogger just ran a sub 3 marathon. In her report she talked about having a HR of 188 at some point, the higher she's ever had, higher than her HR in a 5K. This is absolutely amazing to me. I picture myself in that situation, with heavy breathing forcing myself to slow down for fear of blowing up. Neither a Garmin or running by feel would help in this situation. It's sheer will power and confidence and toughness. I want some of that! I know these things are practiced in training. And I do that. But you can't really practice going all out all the time, because of the potential for injury. You need to somehow give it all in the race. I have always said that I train harder than I race. This strategy has served me well. However, I think that I am at the point where, if I want to be faster, I need to find a way to allow myself to suffer more in a race, to take risks, to believe that my training will allow me to go above and beyond the limits that my brain and body are putting on myself when things get tough in a race. And I think that I can practice this via mental rather than physical training.

What's your weakness and what do you do about it?

Happenings and "travelling CD" winner

It's a busy time of the year for me, not because it is Christmas - we do that really small - but because of work. My schedule will change starting January 1st as I will have to work more outside of my home, which means less training flexibility. So, I am trying to build up a nice cushion of clinical hours so that I can relax a bit when training hours are going to go up before my HIM. What does this means?

* I had my first night run (easy 10 miler) with a headlamp - 8 to 9:10ish pm. Loved it. I thought I would be scared and lonely, but there were other runners and bikers (glad to know I am not the only crazy person!), and I got caught up on NPR podcasts. I was super tired after 10+ hours of work and wanted time with Petru as well, and by the time he went to bed I just felt like hopping on my bike for some trash TV, rather than go out in the cold for a run. But, I felt amazing once I got going. I might make night running a habit...it works for me!

* I finished my bike fit today. There was some drama with the fit, but we figured it out and finalized it today. Let me just say that: 1) the fit took about 5 hours total (2.5x2 sessions), 2) he measured angles and points in space, and lots of other things that I do not get but that took a lot of time, 3) he corrected my pedal stroke, 4) he corrected my back position, 5) he explained so many fit/position things that really increased my understanding as to why a tri bike is superior to a road bike, how to ride a tri bike, and why simply putting aero bars on a road bike can lead to injury. On top of it all, I had a blast with Jay and Ben. No offense to women, but there is something ....easy, uncomplicated and direct about having conversations with guys...love it! I did not take pics (yes, I know...) but my bike will be back this weekend (they have to cut a few cables, etc) and I'll post some pics and ask for name advice, blog style:)

* Although my runs are going well, I am really intimidated by my planned HM pace. Last week I had a 4 mile time trial which I did at PR 5k pace with last mile sub planned 5K pace, but that required me collapsing in the middle of the track for a couple of minutes when the run was done. Next week I'll have 6 miles at planned HM. That will be the ultimate test and will show me if I my HM pace is doable. Nothing like running fast, though!

* Every time I do short, fast (for me) swim intervals, say 10-20X50s my form collapses; I need to literally talk myself back into better form: legs together, elbows high, glide....Hrrr....when will this become second nature? Someday, I suppose...

* I need to do some long bike rides. My longest ride since the HIM was a 2 hour ride last week. I do bike 5-6hours/week, but usually 45-90 min doing a ride from "Workouts in a binder". On Sunday I'll attempt a 3hour ride, part on my road bike and part on the tri bike (I am going to slowly transition myself into the tri bike as to avoid injury).

* Recently NPR's "On Point" had a great podcast on "the science of aging" . One of the quests was a 92 year old woman who is setting records at hurdle, hammer throw, etc. Amazing to hear her talk. One of the main messages was that aging well entails a combo of aerobic and strength training, with as much variety as possible. Swim/bike/run/core work fits right in, no?

* And now the winner of the "travelling CD/AM's favorites" is....drumroll....SSB! email me your address! Congrats!

On overtraining

One of the reasons I read blogs is to learn.

One of the best blogs for learning is Elizabeth's Waterstraat's blog.

You may want to add it to your blog roll right now. It's that good.

A few days ago she posted a great article on overtraining, that made me pause and think. Ah, I love that. I went back and read the comments people left and they made me pause, and freeze, and really think.

It is easy to think of overtraining in terms of feeling low energy, burned out, and not being able to hit your times during workout. Most of us have been there in one form or another. It's part of finding your limits. We tend to think of stage 3 of overtraining, one that involves suppressed hormones, depression, feeling sick all the time as reserved for elites or those who maybe run a marathon every weekend. But real overtraining is more common than we think. It is dangerous. I can see it easily happening to me and to you. So read on, maybe post it on your blog, and lets spread the word and make sure that we don't let it happen to us!

Focus

During my morning run today I started thinking about a comment a friend made last week during a run. She said that my running has improved drastically during the past year and a half. And she was right.

I think a lot of the progress was due to luck. Had I picked a different training plan, one that focused on mileage rather than speed, I think I would be in a different spot now. Choosing "Run less, run faster", which focused on intense runs and low mileage, showed me how to work hard during key runs. Being the perfectionist nerd that I am, I had to make the goal paces for these runs, no matter what. Those tough workouts increased my speed dramatically, and also toughened me up. I started to absolutely love, rather than drag, the tough runs.

Next, I incorporated more mileage. Initially I had a tough time keeping the easy runs easy, but eventually I learned that I can do that if I don't wear a watch.

The higher mileage combined with awareness on my part, changed my stride from heel to forefoot. More recently, I have come to notice the difference between just dropping my foot on the ground, and actually pushing with my big toe, like I am trying to move the ground below me. This little tweak is absolutely amazing. Try it sometimes, if you are not already doing it. You'll notice that you run faster at the same effort.

In the past few months I have also realized that running fast requires focus - on form, on breathing, on keeping the pace you want to run, on your goals. When I run 10K pace or lower, the slightest drop in focus makes me slow down. And the faster the pace, the quicker this happens for me. It's like my body wants me to run a certain pace that it is used to, that keeps me "safe" and "comfortable" and unless I pay attention, my pace will slow down.

I have read a lot on how important focus is in running well, but the reading has never clicked with me until recently. I don't think focus is my strong suit. I tend to space out a lot, I like to space out a lot. Unless I am doing something that requires intense mental work (ideally one that involves numbers or analytical skills), chances are I am going to space out. In fact, I think I walk through life day dreaming at least 1/2 the time. So part of the challenge for me is going to be to improve my ability to focus during my runs. I think I have the speed, I have the strength and I have the endurance. With an improved ability to focus, I may be able to reach my goals!

Suggestions on how to do this are welcomed:)

Reading, learning, and i-phone drama

My living room table is cluttered with 2 piles of books, one pile for work, and one pile for training. It drives Chris crazy, but I need easy access to those books.

Recent training reads/rereads:

1. Workouts in a binder for indoor cycling by Dirk Friel (not to be confused with Joel Friel). This little book is awesome. It has endurance, speed, force, power, form workouts and it also gives schedule ideas for base training. I've done a few workouts so far and I love them!

2. Run faster from 5K to marathon by Hudson and Fitzgerald. This is my running bible. I read it and then I read it some more. I have learned a ton about my running from this book.

3. Total immersion by Terry Laughlin. My swimming bible. I think I am developing a bit of a feel for the water, and an awareness of my stroke and my body because of this book.

4. Training plans for multisport athletes by Gale Bernhard. This book has some pretty good info on training periodization and how to create your own training plan.

5. Championship training by Dalam and Jonas. V good book with plans that are easily molded based on individual strength/weaknesses.

Are you reading anything run/bike/swim related that is good?

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Training continues to be good. I am actually following a training plan for my HM in February. On Saturday I managed to run 12 miles with 8 @ MP and last 4 @HM. HM felt very hard, but the terrain was hilly, and it was windy and very cold. Still, I wanted to bottle the postrun feeling. I could have used a sip of that yesterday when I showed my MIL a pic of Petru on my i-phone and she started scrolling until she got to a naked picture of me. Lets just say it was a bit embarrassing but my MIL is pretty cool and honestly I think she was nervous that the next picture would be a naked Chris, so she immediately handed me back the I-phone saying "Looking good, AM". Chris was in tears laughing. Yes, no more naked pictures on my i-phone. Otherwise, Thanksgiving was lovely and uneventful. As I mentioned before, I am not a big fan of the traditional food - I can't stand stuffing, for ex. - but I loved cooking with my MIL and with Chris, and spending a ton of time with Petru. Hope you had a good one, too! And be careful of what you store on that I-phone.

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Don't miss out on the chance to received "the travelling CD" and a few of my favorite running things giveaway.