"Nick's Ironteam Training Blog", Also Known As: "Why I'm so tried all the time", "One Hundred and Forty miles in a Day", "Why I need to get more sleep", "Why I am always hungry", "It seemed like a good idea at the time", "It isn't a donut, is just simple carbs, I need it", "The pains of training", "Grammatical errors are the result of exhaustion and over-training", "It is all for a good cause!"
Saturday, April 28, 2007
A long the Skyline...
It is a week to until Wildflower, having not run or cycle since the Boot Camp weekend, I wanted to get a bit of riding in before race. The cycle team had organized a ride starting in Los Gatos, going up Highway 9 to Skyline with a couple options for return, either 84 or Page Mill, back to Foothill Expressway and back to Los Gatos. We started off the ride at 8:30am, surprisingly it was already starting to get quite hot, as it was a unsupported ride (no SAG or Water stops) I came prepared with plenty of fluid to keep me well hydrated, enough to last a good 65miles or so. We started off in a group climbing up Highway 9, it was just over one hour from the start of the ride when we finally hit Skyline. My cycle coach Matt, suggested I turn around go back so not to over things before next weekends race (always taper), however the ride was just getting to the good bit and I don't always take good advice my coaches offer me (sorry Mike, Dan, Kristen & Matt) so I continued on.
Just few minutes down the road, my chain came off, I stopped put it back on and tried shifting gears again, sure enough the chain came right off again. I realized my derailleur was out of alignment and made the necessary adjustment. However the rest of the group were few minutes a head of me by now so started to make my own way. There were large groups of people at the top of Old La Honda and again at 84, so I either pasted the rest of the group at one of these points. When I reached 84, which was the 65 mile route I was tempted to continued along Skyline further to King's Mountain, I always forget the amount of climbing that is involved in that section. Soon enough I reached King's Mountain road which would of lead me straight down into Woodside, but then thought well it is only a few more miles to 92, and of course the most scenic part of the ride is from Kings Mountain to 92 :-) From that point there are some nice rolling hills and some good view of the ocean. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, its sweat actually sweat on my camera phone lens). Going down one of the hills along Skyline, I felt all of a sudden I was being poked with pins, it turned out to be a large swarm of mosquitoes which hitting as I flew down hill. I finally reached 92 and headed down towards Canada Road, as I hit the bottom of 92, some guy shouted at me out of this car, I was worried at first and then repeated it again "38" he said, apparently he was clocking me on the way down and was impressed with the speed :-)
I whisked along Canada road, stopping to take a couple more blurry photos. As I reached Woodside, I was starting to think about my mileage, the heat and my head which was pounding. I continued along back to Foothill Expressway, via Sand Hill and decided having gone 60 miles it was time for lunch. So I stopped at a Cafe and had a sandwich and a Ice tea. It was a needed as deserved break, it was then I realized I still had nearly 20 miles left to go. I started off again, I should note is was just over 80F by now. Being the highly resourceful person that I am, I used the Ice from my Ice tea for my bottle of Gatorade to cool it off, the fact that there is nothing like warm Gatorade is good thing.
I had one final climb to go which the ascent up Mount Eden, although it is something I had done many times, it seems a little different having already done 70 odd miles with a lot of climbing, still I managed to make up and over. From there I just dropped down in Saratoga, on to Highway 9 with only few miles to go. I arrived back at Los Gatos at 2:35pm.
Well it is hard to believe another month has gone by so quickly. I've gotten a few great rides in, there was the awesome Boot Camp weekend and a bit of rest. The downside is I got very little running in due to injury. Wildflower is just around the corner and I have no doubt the next month will fly by just as quickly.
As a gift for the upcoming Wildflower Triathlon a friend gave me a pair of socks, neon pink with the word "Hottie" on the side. I can now stand alongside an elite group of girls on the Tri Team, wearing matching socks :-)
The cycle team were doing the great Caleveras loop this morning, a ride I had been looking forward to doing again. I stopped by chatted with my cycle coach Matt told him I needed to take the week off to legs a break after last week's Bootcamp weekend. The Ironteam were helping support the TNT Spring Tri team on their practice triathlon in preparation for Wildflower in two weeks time. So I headed over to Steven's Creek reservoir to lend an hand.
The last couple of practice Triathlons at Steven Creek, have left the occasional participant with some kind of injury like a broken arm, luckily everyone took the course carefully and no was hurt. I supported at water stop on the ride with a teammate from last year and also helped change a couple of flats. The rest of Ironteam went for a ride after they had finished supporting the swim, I managed to snap a couple photos as people came through the water stop.
Boot Camp Day 2 - "Tacking Into the Wind" (aka the Tesla Loop)
Day 2, was at Lake Del Valle in Livermore. A early start to the day with open water swim starting at 8am. Unfortunately I was running late a got a little lost on the way but still managed to arrive at 8:05am and quickly transition into the water. The water was good, cool but calm, the swim was 25 minutes out and back so depending on pace somewhere around a mile of swimming.
After the swim was the main event of the day a 60 mile bike ride, when driving to Lake Del Valle earlier I couldn't help but notice the long climb and descent to get to the lake, and sure enough this was to feature at the beginning and end of the ride. This photo captures a rare moment and provides proof that I do really read the maps I am given. No has ever called into question my sense of direction, only my ability to follow them. Today's tactic for not getting lost in the far off land of Livermore was to stick with other people who knew where they were going. It also turned out that for the most part the route was fairly simple, a loop on Tesla Road.
First up was the climb out of Lake Del Valle Park, it was 2.5 miles long and around 650 feet of climbing, certainly a good warm-up for the rest of what was to be known as an epic ride. Just over the top of the first climb was a great decent I hit 38mph and braked so not to fly off at the corners. At the bottom of the hill things seemed to flatten out however from looking at the elevation profile it was clearly an illusion and by mile 12, I was no longer fooled and started wonder when this slow climb would end, the answer was mile 15.
At this point in the ride I was with 4 other riders, Tyler from the our own team and the rest were from the North Bay. We had been riding in group for the last 7 miles pulling each other on a little, as the top of the hill approach I got a burst of energy and broke away from the group, but I was not prepared for what was on the other side. A fast and furious decent with number of hairpin turns, this was the scariest decent I have ever done on my Tri-Bike! The picture along side really doesn't do it justice. During this portion I managed to keep my speed below 30mph for the most part. By the time I had reach the bottom my fellow teams had blown by me.
At mile 17 the fun began, the road a head was a straight with a comfortable downward trend, I got into the aero position and hammered it out. It was a great stretch of road, I felt like I was flying along it, averaging nearly 30mph with a peak at 38mph. Things were going great but suddenly and without warning, all the force I was putting into the pedals was lost as they were now spinning without any traction. To begin with I thought the chain had slipped off however it turned out the as top gear on the bike given way. A changed down a couple gears and things seemed to work fine again so I continued along.
What makes the ride "epic" is what happened next. Slowly but surely the wind made it's presence known and I started to be pushed from left to right by a cross wind. My bicycle is well designed aerodynamically for heading into the wind but not for cross winds, in fact is much worse than a regular road bike. I managed to keep a good speed going for a while but as I left the valley and headed towards Tracy keeping the bike upright was a challenge. Just up ahead was the first rest stop at mile 27.
I took a break at the rest stop and regrouped with the others who were just behind me, there was just a another 3 miles before the cross winds would end and the head wind would begin. As we head into the wind we form a pace line that even my Cycle Team coach would be proud of (well accept for the fact some of us, including myself were on Tri-bike with those nasty Aero-Bars). We pushed through the wind effectively as team, North Bay and South Bay united. Once through the head toughest part of the head wind all bets were of as the group fractured again, Tyler and I took lead while the guys from the North Bay dropped behind.
The next 30 miles were a gradual climb back towards Lake Del Valle, the wind was still there but it was behaving better than before. At mile 50 while going up the a hill, my front tire punctured, Tyler stopped with me (though if he known what was going to happen after this I'm sure he would been happy to get a couple minutes lead on me). We quickly changed the tube while doing so two of are North Bay counterparts passed us by (though did offer to stop help).
Back on the bike and at the top the hill we started a nice straight forward decent. I was going around 30mph when I hit a bump in the road and which point one of my rear water bottles jettisoned from by bike directly in the path of Tyler who was right behind me. I turned around to look as felt something come lose and heard an explicative from behind. He ran right over the bottle but managed to keep his bike going straight. I turned around to retrieve my ammunition (I mean water bottle) and Tyler continued ahead.
The bump had also loosened my gears (rear cassette) further and my bike started to sound very unhealthy as I finally leg of the journey began. We managed to pass are fellow North Bay teammates as we started to climb back into the park where we had begun. It was on the final descent where I hit my max speed of 40mph on the ride and that was without my top gear even functioning.
After the ride, it was time for from core and strength training, including but not limited to 200 crunches, some big number of push-ups, a lot planks and number people asking when it was going to end :-)
A big thanks to the Coaches from putting together this weekend of torture, no I mean training (no really torture describes it better :-)
Today was first day of our IronteamBootcamp Weekend, packed with Swimming, Cycling and Running. The long day ahead started at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park, at 9am. We started off the morning with a 1hour swim, doing 1000 yard repeats broken up into different sets. Towards the end of the swim the rain started, my shoes sitting by the pool ready for me to start the run after of course it didn't take long for these to become very soggy shoes, luckily I had a spare pair in car.
Then for a run in the rain, which took us out from Burgess Pool to Standford Campus for some loops. I took the run easy and chatted with a member of the North Bay Iron Team, as they were join us for our Boot Camp weekend. By about 1.5 into the run my IT band flared up and running became hobbling once again, so I walked back to back to start and got ready for the cycle.
The rain was still coming down as our ride began, just as everyone was heading out I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses, not needed to protect me from the absent Sun but from the inevitable spray from the front tire. I had heard the ride brief so knew the general loop but I was on unsure of the beginning, I had a fifty/fifty chance to make the correct turn at the beginning, seemed those odds weren't good enough so I started out the wrong way. I suppose I should note I could of looked at the map but I still have a sense of adventure :-) It wasn't long before I was back on track and caught up with the rest of the team. I was also drenched to the bone with a nice mud wash on my legs and spray up my back. Despite the conditions it was nice little loop through Portola and I still managed to get a nice speed with safety in mind.
Just as I wasn't sure about the beginning of the ride I wasn't sure about the end either, though I had directions they were some what like a damp rag and unreadable by now. Of course I know the area, so I made my own way back, though a wrong turn did add some extra distance at the end.
After the ride we had a short break for lunch then it was on to sets of Spinning, Running, Strength and Core. The running was out of the question after the morning's hobble and the the spinning while generally ok, though gave me the occasional wince as a sharp pain shot through my leg. This however meant I had plenty of time to devote to the strength and core training, plus some stretching for good measure. By the time we finished (around 3pm) the Sun was finally out and it was looking like a nice day :-)
Sometimes we actually repeat life's up and downs again and again. Tonight was a little hill climbing with the cycle team on Mount Eden. After the third repeat I got a little bored so I went down the other side and continued along Pierce Road up to Highway 9. With no else about I dropped into my Aero bars and descended Highway 9, of course that said the first tough turn and I was back on to brakes, safety first. After that it just a long straight with a gradual downhill which allowed for nice speed accept to for traffic lights. With quick calculation I worked out I would need to do 120mph to hit all the lights correctly, despite my best attempts I was not able to average this speed (yes, I know need to train a lot harder). After the ride I went home and baked cookies.
Bring three and four pence we're going to a dance...
This morning was my first ride with the cycle team in preparation for the Lake Tahoe Century in June, which is called "America's Most Beautiful Ride". The training ride was a 50 mile loop from Los Gatos to Alpine Road, with a couple of good hills a long the way, which provided 3,847 feet of elevation gain.
I meet up with my group which comprised of 8 riders including the coach. The goal of the cycle team is to actually ride as a team pulling each other along in a pace line. There is a lot of skill involved in riding as a pack (peloton) and the margin for error is small, if a rider makes a mistake an accident taking out several riders can occur, safety is of the up most importance.
Due to safety reason Aero bars are not used while pace lining as they do not allow immediate access to brakes. I have to admit there were a couple of times where instinct told me "use Aero bars", it's kind of like when Obi-Wan Kenobi says "use the force, Luke!", yet I am strong willed and did not give in to the temptation :-) Thus not endangering my fellow riders.
The joys of pace lining, the biggest obstacle in the way of the cyclist is air resistance in of him/her, remove that and cycling becomes a whole easier in terms of effort needed. I should note pace lining is illegal in Triathlons, hence it is something I have avoided over the past year.
I quickly learned that keeping in formation can be very tough, it is all about staying at an even pace and not constantly accelerating and decelerating, doing this causes a concertina effect in the pace line.
The second thing to remember is not to drop the rest of the group when leading the pack. Speed increases must be done gradually so that the stays to together.
It took a while to get use to these concepts, I did unfortunately drop the group a couple times, as in any aspect of life people just don't like to be dropped.
Finally communication is key, a couple times during ride I heard a couple people shout from behind and I had no clue what they were saying, turns out it was something about a gap? :-)
Even I start to wonder ever so often whether I do any swimming. Well now I have proof thanks to a video created by my coach. There are few things to note about the video, it is slowed down that my stroke is easier to see, it was done at the beginning of swim practice (I was much better later after some good tips) and of course the camera adds 20lbs :-)
Well this weeks schedule called for hill repeats, at least one schedule did, always best to have two training schedules that way you can always find something to do. I've done hill repeats on Mount Eden, a number of times but was looking for something that offer more of challenge and sure enough I found it! Mount Diablo is 3800 feet tall towering over the surrounding area, I've hiked it a couple times before but attempted cycling, however seems to be designed for it there is a 10 mile paved road that weaves up to the top.
The climb starts through a residential area with a number of potholes one of them causing me to stop and retrieve my back headlight which had shaken off. Once through there you enter the State Park and the road becomes better as the climb gradually became steeper the views got better. It isn't until mile 5 of the climb you realize you haven't even seen the top yet and there is still a long way to go.
At mile 7 you can start to see your progress and feel a real sense of achievement. At the this point in the climb my heart rate was at a steady 170bpm. I had managed to pass a few other crazy cyclists on there way up, having someone to chase always helps.
Just around this corner was another mile and half of tough climbing. Finally I could see the summit but what remained was was a very steep climb. On the last final 800 yards, I could feel my heart pounding and was becoming out of breath, yet the end was in sight I had to keep going, I checked my heart rate and could see it was in the high 190s, but I figured I still a few beats in me so continued. I made it to the top having reached a max heart rate of 203bpm, the highest I had ever done while cycling.
In just over 1hr 15mins, I had reached the top only having cycled 12.5 miles, though it had been a long and steep 12.5 miles. I took some time at the top to recover and chatted with another cyclist, it turned out he too was training for Ironman Canada in August. After 10 minutes of recovery I headed back down; now for the fun part. While the road was steep and fast it also had many sharp turns and sheer drops off the edge, so I kept my speed below 25mph for the most part going down hill. The main obstacle turned out to be cars, while they could easily pass me on the way up, they were so friendly about letting me pass them on the way down. For sometime my speed was constrained by a Ford Taurus with a license frame which read "Sexy Senior Citizen", thankfully they turned at the junction and I was able to continue down without a pace car a head of me for a while.
I soon reached the exit to the park, the descent took nearly half the time of the climb, as it should :-) Of course it wouldn't be hill repeats if I didn't do it again, so I turned around and started the climb, at least this time I knew what I was facing. The ride up was nearly identical to the first I even dropped my chain in almost the exact same place. That final 800 yards was just as tough even though I had to pull over to let a car pass me, this time my heart rate only hit 202bpm. Now it was getting late in the day so I decided to take a few phots from the top and make my final decent and go home.
It is a week to until Wildflower, having not run or cycle since the Boot Camp weekend, I wanted to get a bit of riding in before race. The cycle team had organized a ride starting in Los Gatos, going up Highway 9 to Skyline with a couple options for return, either 84 or Page Mill, back to Foothill Expressway and back to Los Gatos. We started off the ride at 8:30am, surprisingly it was already starting to get quite hot, as it was a unsupported ride (no SAG or Water stops) I came prepared with plenty of fluid to keep me well hydrated, enough to last a good 65miles or so. We started off in a group climbing up Highway 9, it was just over one hour from the start of the ride when we finally hit Skyline. My cycle coach Matt, suggested I turn around go back so not to over things before next weekends race (always taper), however the ride was just getting to the good bit and I don't always take good advice my coaches offer me (sorry Mike, Dan, Kristen & Matt) so I continued on.
Just few minutes down the road, my chain came off, I stopped put it back on and tried shifting gears again, sure enough the chain came right off again. I realized my derailleur was out of alignment and made the necessary adjustment. However the rest of the group were few minutes a head of me by now so started to make my own way. There were large groups of people at the top of Old 
La Honda and again at 84, so I either pasted the rest of the group at one of these points. When I reached 84, which was the 65 mile
I whisked along Canada road, stopping to take a couple more blurry photos. As I reached Woodside, I was starting to think about my mileage, the heat and my head which was pounding. I continued along back to Foothill Expressway, via Sand Hill and decided having gone 60 miles it was time for lunch. So I stopped at a Cafe and had a sandwich and a Ice tea. It was a needed as 
deserved break, it was then I realized I still had nearly 20 miles left to go. I started off again, I should note is was just over 80F by now. Being the highly resourceful person that I am, I used the Ice from my Ice tea for my bottle of Gatorade to cool it off, the fact that there is nothing like warm Gatorade is good thing.
4hrs 57mins (ride time)
193 Max Heart Rate
43mph Max Speed
