86 Days of Training

She's a brick -- house. The lady's stacked and that's a fact,
ain't holding nothing back. 

Ok, so I am nowhere close to being a brick house, but I can dream. Today was my first brick workout of my training, and I am pretty pleased how well it went. During last season's training, the first mile of the run was more about convincing myself that I am not a big fat old slow loser, which is exactly how I would feel as I began each run, but today's run segment was awesome. I changed my shoes, put on my hat, grabbed my water bottle, and ran 3.1 miles in just over 31 minutes. Nothing hurt, I breathed easily, and my legs didn't feel like they were filled with cream of mushroom soup. Some days, for no particular reason, you just nail your workout - that was today. 

It wasn't long, but it was good.

I tried to find a relatively flat 10-mile loop, and this is what I came up with.

Only one hill around mile 6 that gave me a bit of grief. Oh, and the deer that decided to run in front of me on my 32 mph descent.

The run was completely shaded along a babbling brook -- very nice.

...and it was flat!

  

88 Days of Training

Hamstring Horror

Ok, "horror" is a bit over-dramatic, but I was shooting for alliteration.  I woke up on Wednesday with a VERY sore hamstring. I do not remember pulling it while I was running last Monday or Tuesday, but it sure did hurt. I stuck to riding and core work until it felt better. So, here we are almost a week later and pain free. Super! I'm about 2 miles into my run and it starts to hurt again. grrrrr.... All the experts (none of whom I have met nor checked their credentials) warn that these injuries can be chronic and worsen over time. Piss off, experts!!  I stopped running at 2 1/2 miles, stretched, and I am now icing and blogging. The good news is that riding does not seem to hurt my hamstring at all. My next race isn't until September, so worse case scenario, I kick but on the bike and hobble in the 10k.

Training Schedule Check-up

I am happy to announce that my bike and run training is pretty much on track with my training plan from beginnertriathlete.com. In fact, my cycling is well ahead of schedule. The swim training, on the other hand, has been non-existent this Summer. As soon as I return to Florida with my warm Atlantic Ocean, indoor pool at Bally's, and my own backyard pool, this will all change.

Eating & Sleeping

As much as I will miss Vince, and Kitty, and Ithaca, I must admit that I am looking forward to returning to my old eating and sleeping habits. Large dinners at 9:00 pm followed by sitting on the couch and watching TV until 11:00  is not the evening habits of a triathlete -- not even a back-of-the-packer like me. 

Weekend Pictures

 We did two rides this weekend: a 45 mile loop around Lake Keuka and a 36 mile ride around Lake Scaneateles (pronounced Skinny Atlas.) Holy Moly, the Finger Lakes are positively gorgeous, and I will miss this place dearly.

 This is Lake Keuka. It is shaped like a Y, and it is absolutely beautiful. The homes around this lake appear to be mostly Summer getaways. On this particular ride, the lake was full of sailboats and the air was full of children's laughter and the smell of bbq.

Vince and I at the tail end of the Keuka Ride.

This is at the top of Nunnery road on the East side of Lake Skaneateles. This ride was only 36 miles, but it was far more challenging than I had anticipated. Two hills I had to walk up, and one of our roads turned out to be 1 1/2 miles of uphill gravel, so we were both forced to walk that part. 

Vince walking his bike up Bacon Hill Rd. --I did not smell any bacon whatsoever!

                    
                 

Just another picture of me in front of a gorgeous lake.

The village of Skaneateles was founded in the mid 1800s as a Utopian experiment community. The town existed for a little over three years and consisted of several hundred liberal progressive abolitionists, all of whom tended to the operations of a large and profitable farm.   Geez, seriously? Look at this guy's pad!

94 Training Days

Tweakapalooza

It's time to blow the dust off of Trixie and show her the lovin' she deserves. I set her up on the trainer this morning so that we could get reacquainted  with each other. I then spent the next three hours tweaking the fit. I have only had Trixie for less than a year, and we completed 3 sprints together last season, but I just never got around to getting a proper fit.

The first place I started was here on slowtwitch.com. This site had very useful information and diagrams, but it babbled on about geometry and angles and numbers and stuff, and, quite frankly, it made me want to poke out my eyeballs with a plastic spork.


A bit more research brought me to a youtube video advertising bike fit software. This proved to be the most helpful. I watched the video about a dozen times, and then started tweaking my bike and videotaping myself until I was set up in a similar fashion as the athlete in the video. Now, if only I could look like her (and swim like her, and bike like her, and run like her.)

Here's a picture before I started the tweaking process:

My leg is a bit too straight and and my arm needs to be closer to a 90 degree angle. My butt is also far too wide, but there's not much I can do about that.










Here's a post-tweak pic:

I lowered the seat and moved the saddle forward a bit. This helped with hip and leg angles, but I was still having trouble with the position of my arms. Finally, I moved my aerobars in about half an inch, and that seemed to do the trick. I did an easy 10 miles on the trainer focusing on form rather than speed, and I felt pretty good. I'll take her out in the real world tomorrow and see how we get along.

95 Training Days

Yikes! While I was on vacation, my training days dipped into the double digits! I must confess, I am beyond nervous. The Adirondack foothills just about demolished my confidence as a cyclist, not to mention being accompanied by Vince "the machine" Richards who never seems to get tired and has the lung capacity of a friggin' elephant. The good news is I just went for an effortless four mile run this morning, so I guess wheezing, moaning, and crying up category climbs must have improved my cardiovascular endurance.

Here is a link to my first ride of vacation. We got a little lost, and I still think I am missing a piece somewhere because the mapmyride distance does not jive with the bike computer reading. The most impressive part is the elevation data. Check this out:

 I plan on creating a separate page with links to all the rides from our Tour de Champlain. Please stay tuned for further developments.

I am also back to logging everything I eat and drink on my food diary. Although I logged hundreds of miles and climbed crazy hills, the fact remains that I was on vacation. I ate huge campfire meals late at night, drank more wine than usual, and visited a fair share of microbreweries (my number one dietary weakness.) Now, it's time to get back on track. 

116 Training Days

I guess I completely forgot to blog yesterday. I will try not to let this become a habit. I have well-intended abandoned blogs strewn across the blogosphere paving my way to hell. So, yes, yesterday I ran a bit over three miles in a bit over 30 minutes. I know I need to run longer distances, so I will, starting tomorrow. No, really, I swear I will. I have the very best of intentions.

Let's talk about today. Today I spent some quality time with Trixie, my tri bike. I have been neglecting the poor girl ever since I began training for the MS 150. Well, now I am training for a half ironman triathlon, so I need to show her a bit more lovin'. I took her out on the flatest road Ithaca has to offer. The plan was to just ride back and forth and back and forth as fast as possible. The flat rode I chose was absolutely treacherous - craters, ridges, bumps, gashes, roadkill - it may have been flat, but it was far too dangerous to spend any considerable amount of time in the aerobars. The end result: 12.87 miles, max speed 31.9 mph, (Woohoo! Yay for gravity!) average speed 12.9 (Boo for uphill.) Following my ride, I attempted a trail run, which was really more like a trail trot due to the rolling hills, stair climbs, and my own cardiovascular limitations. Overall, I got a great workout and some great pictures.

Scenes From an Ithaca Trail Run.

118 Training Days

Today is a rest day. Vince installed my new handlebars, and now he is making lasagna. Nice!

119 Training Days

Needless to say, Stormtrooper needed new tires.

Here she is in her new sexy red pinstriped rubber. Oh yeah, Baby!

So, we take her out on the most beautiful bike ride in all the land, the Lake Owasco Loop. I am pleased to announce that there were two hills on my rides I was unable to ascend; there is now only one. Most importantly, Vince and I rode like a well-oiled machine. We kept a pace of 18mph on the straights, and there were only a handful of hills where I lagged far behind. No flat tires, no pissy attitudes, no near-death experiences. Oh, and fireworks after our dinner at the pub.

The Route

The Elevation

Just a couple breathtaking shots of our ride around Lake Owasco.