Wet Suit Day 7 - Nearly there...
My seventh day in the wet suit and closer to the goal than ever...
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nrmcdMaybe tomorrow, it is never too late to donate.
Just two days until my first double century, the elevation profile sure does have its ups and downs, mile 40 to 90 has an incredible amount of climbing.
Of course the question is what to wear to work tomorrow?
(Obviously not the wet suit again)
Wet Suit Day 6 - Inspiration
I am inspired by the all the people who have donated so far, I haven't had a chance to thank everyone yet, but will do very soon. I am getting closer and closer to the goal and have one more day to go. Originally I made a promise to a few people that I would either wear a Kilt to work for two weeks or dye my hair
green, if I hit my goal tomorrow then I certainly do both!
To donate or see how I am far go here:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nrmcd
Somebody asked me today, whether I wear the wetsuit outside work to places like the supermarket? The first few days I always had a spare change of clothes in the car, unfortunately not today, plus I really did need to go to the supermarket, I've worked in it, run in it, why not shop in it? A scary
experience as you can tell by the photo..
6 Months to go until Ironman Canada
It seemed so far away but now 6 months doesn't seem nearly long enough, still so much training to do between now and then. My swimming needs a lot of improvement and the thought of doing a marathon after a 112 miles cycling seems questionable, yet a
strangely compelling challenge and worth doing for a great
cause.
Between no and then I have several events I signed up for in preperation for Ironman:
March 3rd -
Death Valley Double Century (200 Mile Cycle)
May 5th -
Wildflower Half-Ironman
July 22nd -
Vineman Half-Ironman
Plus maybe a couple others and of course training that makes some of those events look easy...
Labels: Ironman Canada 2007
Wet Suit Day 5
Huge thanks to everyone who has donated so far! I'm now over half way there, just a couple more days to go. I'm still sweating and chaffing, but I will hang in there.
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nrmcd
As Cold as hell...
When something is really cold, it actually feels like it is burning. That is how my face felt when I put it in the water while swimming in the bay up at aquatic park this morning. The water temperature was approximately 53F and though I have swam in colder water before, this was no easier. The water was a little choppy but not unbearable, my hands and feet numbed fairly quickly, but my face only froze. This isn't the first time, I've been swimming the bay, I have done the "Treasure Island Triathlon" and "Escape from the Rock", when your in a race things seem different you just get your head down and get on with, when training you keep asking yourself "Why?". It is funny after wearing the wet suit days and being way too hot, then suddenly the opposite.
After the swim we headed out for a run down the Embarcadero, from Ghirardelli Square to the Ball Park and back. It took three miles for my feet to thaw out. The weather brightened up a bit and there was a bit of wind, generally the conditions were good.
Labels: Running, Swimming
Nutrition for Race Day
10,000 Calories in a day, how to manage it? Well firstly there is no way to replace all the calories burned in a day, I will need to rely on the energy stored in my body and fat and muscle, to make it through the Ironman. The number of calories I will take is around 3,000 if I'm lucky, through a combination of GU, Sports Drinks and various snacks I will need to carry. Between now and race I have to come with the right formula that works for me, I have great advice from my coaches, this mornings talk before our swim was very useful.
Wet Suit Day 4
More meetings, chaffing, sweating and of course strange looks. I need to get the word out on why I'm doing this, I certainly don't see this becoming a new fashion trend. People do suffer for fashion but nothing like this :-)
Wet Suit Day 3
Another day at work in the wet suit, more strange looks a few more donations. I can't describe what it like to wear a wet suit for 3 days.
Tonight was not
Ironteam track practice, but the TNT Spring
Tri team track practice so I went a long for a workout and to see all my friends on the team. I hadn't planned on wearing the wet suit for track, but when I arrived the heavens had opened and it was bucketing it down with rain, so I thought why take it off?
Did a couple warm-up laps, the wet suit seemed
ok, then on to stretching. I was not as flexible to be sure, bending down to touch my toes was a thing of dreams :) Lunges and swats seemed to be doable also. Next up was running drills, a bit of foot work, never have I looked more like a penguin.
Finally a 4 mile running set with 1 lap recovery between each mile. Four miles running in a wet suit? Well I didn't manage a 6 minute mile but I did manage the first two at 6:20, the third and forth were progressively slower, I was sweating buckets a felt like my body was on fire. In summary if you want to simulate training at 100°F in winter then run in a wet suit. That said it was very dangerous, keeping hydrated is extremely important, I would
never recommend anyone try this.
Labels: Running
Wet Suit Day 2
Another day in the wet suit, a lot chaffing but still hope....
Trying to hit my fund raising goal by March 1st.
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nrmcdTonight was track practice (yes I took off the wet suit), 5 to 6 miles around a track in a wet suit just was not going to happen. Lunges, crunches, push-ups in Wet suit ooh, that scares me just thinking about it. Although we never put in a great distance at the track, it is far more intense workout. It was fairly cold night, which also reminded me I had a still cold, this definitely decreased my performance for the workout, plus the fact I'd already sweating 10 hours in a wet suit, can't forget that :)
Heart Rate number were a little erratic:
Max: 221 ?
Avg: 147 (should be right)
Min: 0 (well we all skip a beat occasionally, right?)
You always know it has been a good work out when you try to start your car with your house key afterwards :)
Labels: Running
Wet Suit Day 1
Just your average work day, well except for the wet suit :-)
Questions:
1. Did I
chafe?
Yes
2. Was it unconformatable?
Yes
3. Would I do it again?
If it helps me raise money for a good cause:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nrmcd
Then yes, please donate before I cause myself too much pain!
A huge thanks to everyone who sponosered me so far you are making a real difference in peoples lives.
The morning after...
A couple days of intense training and the cold I'd been trying to keep at bay finally hit me. I had a "workout hangover". Monday is a rest day on the training calendar for good reason, the body always needs a chance to recover.
The good old Sunday morning run
This morning I joined the Spring
Tri Team, for a run in
Los Gatos, last year I went there nearly every Sunday while training for Wildflower. I meet with my old teammates, Sandy and Jeremiah. We ran from
Los Gatos High School up to the dam together, but as I had a longer run on my schedule, I continued up all the way to the top of St. Josephs Hill, round off the mileage to 10 miles. (The picture on the right shows the great views from the trails, though I wasn't stopping to take pictures today, it is from my walking days :-)
Run Details (
Click here to see run on Google Earth):
10.40 miles
1hr 45
mins2145 feet of climbing
147
bpm Avg Heart rate
187
bpm Max Heart rate
1335 Calories burned
In the afternoon is was time to get another ride in, my plan was for a straight and fairly flat ride. Some days it seems to take an age to get out on the road, first unpack the bike for the car, next put the wheel on, lock the brakes down (forgotten this many time), get my cycle gear on, pump the tires, fill the water bottles and put them on the bike, bring some sports
nutrition, make sure I have everything need if I encounter a flat, can't forget those tire leavers. So after all that I start out on the ride, I pulled out of car park and all I could think was, something isn't right, I missing something. It took a minute to figure it out I had no helmet on, so I
quickly turned back and picked it up.
I started at
Arastradero and Foothill Expressway and continued to
Sandhill Rd, over 280 to towards
Woodside, then along Canada Rd all the way to up to 92. The weather was great for this ride the sun was out and the there was a strong headwind going out, so I stayed in
aero position the whole ride. Coming back the wind was at my back and it was full speed ahead :-)
After the ride I was truly exhausted...
Ride details (
Click here to see ride on Google Earth):
1hr 43min
31 miles
1700 ft of climbing
18 mph Avg Speed
36 mph Max Speed
138
bpm Avg Heart rate
165
bpm Max
Heart rate
1937 Calories burned
Labels: Cycling, Running
Escape to/from Santa Rosa ?!?
Today's
Ironteam practice was up in Santa Rosa, for a 52mile cycle around the
Vineman course, which I'll be doing for real in July. It was an early morning start to drive up there to start the ride at 9am. We had a good team showing, there was around 20 of us there. The weather was perfect and I knew it would be a great ride. The course was fairly flat with a few rolling hills, this allowed for a good pace on
the ride. For the first 7 miles we all rode as one group then gradually broke into smaller groups and I rode with Dan, Mike, Dana and Michael for the remainder of the ride.
The pictures on the right are from my camera, unfortunately the lens was covered in
perspiration from my bike jersey.
There were a couple of good climbs and descents at the end of the ride, leading to some good max speeds.
After the ride we completed the workout with the with a 20 minute run.
Ride Details (
Click here to view route in Google Earth):
2 hrs 46 minutes
2513 Feet of climbing
18 mph Avg Speed
38 mph Max Speed
132
bpm Avg Heart Rate
182
bpm Max Heart Rate
3367 Calories burned
Quick run after ride:
2.19 miles
7:58 min per mile
160
bpm Avg Heart Rate
174
bpm Max Heart Rate
Labels: Cycling, Running
Weekly Spin
Tonight was a 70 minute spin followed by 20
minute run. Not a lot to say about a workout like this, the spin was at Sports Basement in Sunnyvale, there is very little in terms of cooling available, no fans, after 20 minutes of spinning things get very warm in indeed and the sweat is raining down. After the spin we ran did a couple miles around the city streets.
Details:
184 Max Heart Rate
161 Avg Heart Rate
1300 Calories burned
Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay Century Ride
I had low expectations of the weather for Sunday, after the constant down pour the day before. At around 11am, I realized the weather was looking up and the roads were dry so on the spur of the moment, I decided take a trip to Santa Cruz and do a ride up Highway 1and do my very own Century Ride.
I arrived just gone noon and started my ride, there was a some head-wind going up Highway 1, but I managed to keep a average speed of 17mph. I didn't stop until I reached mile 50 which was at El Granada, just north of Half Moon Bay. I took a ten minute break, snapped a couple pictures and had some of my supplies.
I back heading south and then realized the time, gettting back back before dark was going to be a challenge, I had 50 miles to go and it was just coming up to 4pm and going to be getting very dark are 6pm. Racing the setting sun was just the motivation I needed to get my speed up :) Unfortunately with 8 miles to go it was getting dark quickly, the cars head lights were lighting my way. With just for miles to go I my tires go bang! I don't know what it was but thankfully it didn't puncture them and i continued on. A friend taught when I got my first road bike to never cycle on the white lines, due to traction problems, is there ever a good time to do this? If it is the only part of the road that you can see, then yes :)
Finally back in Santa Cruz with some street light I found my car, it was 6:40pm when I finished.
Click here to view on Google Earth.The Ride details:
101 miles
8,000 feet of climbing
Just under 6 hours riding
17mph - Average speed
6200 - Calories burned
680 - Calories consumed during
Actually the fastest and most challenging ride I've ever done.
Labels: Century Ride
Trials of the heart (Part 3)
Well after a week of heart rate training it was time to finally go all out in the
Conconi test. For this our team was at San Jose Athletic Club, they gave us the use of their facilities for this. The
Conconi test is to determine the training heart rate zones, maximum heart and lactate threshold.
After warming up on the 5mph (1% grade) for a few minutes the test began, I was to continue on the treadmill, increasing speed by 0.2mph until I hit my maximum heart rate. As I was doing this my teammate Ann, logged by heart rate every 20 seconds. It took
25 minutes to reach 10mph on the treadmill, when it came to hitting the button one more time on to increase the speed to 10.2mph, I reached forward pressed and nothing happened. I tried again with no results, I said to Ann, I've lost the strength to push the button! She then tried increasing, it was at this point we realized that it was not going to any higher, so time to boost the grade to 1.5%. I could only last another minute before I stopped. My hear rate had peaked at 203
bpm and continuing would not doubt involve vomiting, the goal of course is to stop just before this happens.
It was pouring with rain on Saturday, but I after pushing it to the limits on the treadmill, I was itching to get outside and run despite
the rain. So I left the gym the had headed off to
Rancho San Antonio. When I arrived there was only a slight drizzle of rain, but just 5 minutes later when I was ready to run, the down pour begun. I was not going to let this deter me so I
headed off up the hill towards the PG+E trail. I reached the top of the PG+E trail at in 45 minutes, then continue down to the High Meadow trail and back. My shoes were getting very soggy and the my music was being drowned out by the water in my ears. Fully drenched head to toe I headed back down the PG+E trail.
Details:
10.82 Miles
1hr 49
mins191 Max Heart Rate
165 Avg. Heart Rate
Labels: Running
Trials of the Heart (Part 2)
Second spin class of the week focusing on maximum rate.
2x 45 min sets with 15 mins of core
155bpm Avg Heart rate
194bpm Max Heart rate
Labels: Spinning
Trials of the Heart (Part 1)
First Spin class focusing on Max Heart Rate.
45 min sets with 15 mins of core
163bpm Avg Heart rate
193bpm Max Heart rate
Labels: Spinning
Ironteam Practice - Pleasanton
Second team practice for the weekend, it was the South Bay
Ironteam's turn to go up north to
Pleasanton. We started out with a 3,000yard swim, comprised of various drills and ladders, 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, etc.. Then out of the water and on to the road.
This was my first ride up in the
Pleasanton area, hence unfamiliar and feared getting lost. We were supplied with route maps, yes try cycling 20mph and read a map at the same time, I thought I'd just follow the people ahead of me :)
By the forth turn we had made a mistake but we got back on track very quickly. Soon we were out of the town on to the open road and the route bceame easy to follow. Some great long straights with few climbs here and there. On the seoncd half of the ride the wind was certainly a factor, there was a strong cross wind, followed by a strong head wind, eventually become a tail wind towards the end. The final section was through Dublin, too many traffic lights though we managed to just hit most of them right. Finally arrived back in downtown Pleasanton.
Ride details (
Click here to view ride on Google Earth. )
43.98 Miles
18mph Avg Speed
35mph Max Speed
1,939ft of climbing
130
bpm Avg Heart Rate
176
bpm Max Heart Rate
1683 Calories burned
Labels: Cycling, Swimming
Ironteam Practice - Gunderson High
The first of our North & South bay conbined team practices for the weekend was at Gunderson High. We started off with a 2500 yard, followed by a 9 mile by Lake Almaden.
Run details (
Click here to see Run on Google Earth):
9.18 miles
1hr 12 mins
11.9mph Max
7.6mph Avg
216 Max Heart Rate <- note this seems like device error.
176 Avg Heart Rate
Labels: Running, Swimming
Of course the question is what to wear to work tomorrow?
Somebody asked me today, whether I wear the wetsuit outside work to places like the supermarket? The first few days I always had a spare change of clothes in the car, unfortunately not today, plus I really did need to go to the supermarket, I've worked in it, run in it, why not shop in it? A scary experience as you can tell by the photo..
Tonight was not Ironteam track practice, but the TNT Spring Tri team track practice so I went a long for a workout and to see all my friends on the team. I hadn't planned on wearing the wet suit for track, but when I arrived the heavens had opened and it was bucketing it down with rain, so I thought why take it off?
Did a couple warm-up laps, the wet suit seemed ok, then on to stretching. I was not as flexible to be sure, bending down to touch my toes was a thing of dreams :) Lunges and swats seemed to be doable also. Next up was running drills, a bit of foot work, never have I looked more like a penguin.
Just your average work day, well except for the wet suit :-)
This morning I joined the Spring Tri Team, for a run in Los Gatos, last year I went there nearly every Sunday while training for Wildflower. I meet with my old teammates, Sandy and Jeremiah. We ran from Los Gatos High School up to the dam together, but as I had a longer run on my schedule, I continued up all the way to the top of St. Josephs Hill, round off the mileage to 10 miles. (The picture on the right shows the great views from the trails, though I wasn't stopping to take pictures today, it is from my walking days :-)
10.40 miles
147 bpm Avg Heart rate
In the afternoon is was time to get another ride in, my plan was for a straight and fairly flat ride. Some days it seems to take an age to get out on the road, first unpack the bike for the car, next put the wheel on, lock the brakes down (forgotten this many time), get my cycle gear on, pump the tires, fill the water bottles and put them on the bike, bring some sports nutrition, make sure I have everything need if I encounter a flat, can't forget those tire leavers. So after all that I start out on the ride, I pulled out of car park and all I could think was, something isn't right, I missing something. It took a minute to figure it out I had no helmet on, so I quickly turned back and picked it up.
18 mph Avg Speed
138 bpm Avg Heart rate
Today's Ironteam practice was up in Santa Rosa, for a 52mile cycle around the Vineman course, which I'll be doing for real in July. It was an early morning start to drive up there to start the ride at 9am. We had a good team showing, there was around 20 of us there. The weather was perfect and I knew it would be a great ride. The course was fairly flat with a few rolling hills, this allowed for a good pace on 
the ride. For the first 7 miles we all rode as one group then gradually broke into smaller groups and I rode with Dan, Mike, Dana and Michael for the remainder of the ride.
2 hrs 46 minutes
18 mph Avg Speed
132 bpm Avg Heart Rate
2.19 miles
Details:
I back heading south and then realized the time, gettting back back before dark was going to be a challenge, I had 50 miles to go and it was just coming up to 4pm and going to be getting very dark are 6pm. Racing the setting sun was just the motivation I needed to get my speed up :) Unfortunately with 8 miles to go it was getting dark quickly, the cars head lights were lighting my way. With just for miles to go I my tires go bang! I don't know what it was but thankfully it didn't puncture them and i continued on. A friend taught when I got my first road bike to never cycle on the white lines, due to traction problems, is there ever a good time to do this? If it is the only part of the road that you can see, then yes :)
101 miles
25 minutes to reach 10mph on the treadmill, when it came to hitting the button one more time on to increase the speed to 10.2mph, I reached forward pressed and nothing happened. I tried again with no results, I said to Ann, I've lost the strength to push the button! She then tried increasing, it was at this point we realized that it was not going to any higher, so time to boost the grade to 1.5%. I could only last another minute before I stopped. My hear rate had peaked at 203bpm and continuing would not doubt involve vomiting, the goal of course is to stop just before this happens.
the rain. So I left the gym the had headed off to Rancho San Antonio. When I arrived there was only a slight drizzle of rain, but just 5 minutes later when I was ready to run, the down pour begun. I was not going to let this deter me so I 
headed off up the hill towards the PG+E trail. I reached the top of the PG+E trail at in 45 minutes, then continue down to the High Meadow trail and back. My shoes were getting very soggy and the my music was being drowned out by the water in my ears. Fully drenched head to toe I headed back down the PG+E trail.
10.82 Miles
2x 45 min sets with 15 mins of core
Second team practice for the weekend, it was the South Bay Ironteam's turn to go up north to Pleasanton. We started out with a 3,000yard swim, comprised of various drills and ladders, 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, etc.. Then out of the water and on to the road.
43.98 Miles
130bpm Avg Heart Rate
9.18 miles
216 Max Heart Rate <- note this seems like device error.
