Linda, I just wanted to thank you for your post responding to my mojo/fatigue question. I am guilty of forgetting the many times you have posted this in the past. I'm guilty of feeling guilty about missing workouts and following the plan into a brick wall.
My body and attitude was telling me I should have taken a day off. I'm usually out the door by 5:00 am for these weekend rides, yesterday I could not bring myself to get on the bike until after 2:00 ( did not read your post until I got home). I came very close to returning home after 10 minutes, but stuck it out and rode for about 70 minutes.
After reading your post I felt better about cutting the ride short. I really crushed myself doing those intervals on Sat. and I guess at 47 I'm just not recovering as fast. Because I am trying to acheive some lofty goals, the 2 sides of my brain strugglle with one wanting to push to the limits and the other saying more is not always better.
I guess I am like my kids, hearing something 100 times isn't always enough. So please don't ever stop disseminating that message..
The last thing I wanted was any self doubt enering this race that I did not prepare enough, thanks to your post I am again reminded that a good part of being prepared is recovering and repairing properly.
I now know that I will enter this race in a great state of mind and very well prepared to compete. 34 days sounds great to me, can't wait to get there !!
Totally slept in this morning. Who else did as well as we kick off an easier week??
All in all, happy with this past weekend. Like everyone else, the Saturday ride was rough. Totally cooked after the work intervals. To be honest I didn't formally do any "intervals". We have a super hilly 45 mile loop so just hammered that as hard as I could and let the numbers fall where they may. Ended the lap at .87 IF for 2:30. Then set out for a second loop of the same. I was dying on that second loop. dragged myself through the first half and had to stop twice so that I could stand up while drinking/eating. But you know what, it worked. Legs came back and finished feeling great. who knew right?? Sunday became a jumble for us. Tossed in a long OWS much to our neighbors amusement. 3-4 of them were sitting on their docks having coffee and everytime we circled back they asked if we wanted to stop yet. it was funny. big breakfast after and then set out 12:30-1 ish to get the ride/run done. Like most people, thought this would be a death ride, but turned out feeling pretty good. Brick after was no problem. Currently sitting at -50+ TSB so opted to sleep in and get my ass to work early so I can catch up on paperwork!
My DH says,"34 days, huh? When are you going to start training for this thing?" Ha ha. I would've gotten up to bop him, but my legs are too tired.
Bob: Too bad there isn't a way for us to "test positive for fatigue" where the treatment would be REST. Then it would just remove any feelings of guilt about not doing a workout. Even the PMC charts aren't good for that because I think alot of times we try to see if we can still perform with big negative TSB numbers. Nope, we need a measuring tool like a Mood Ring---put in on our finger, the ring turns red = time to stand down. Anyhoo, good on ya for not needing that and being smart.
I slept in too! So happy there was no run. Going to the pool later this morning.
I slept in this morning as well although it was not entirely by choice. The forecast for this morning didn't look great last night but I set my alarm anyway, woke up, took a look out the window then checked our Masters team's twitter account, lightning in the vicinity = practice cancelled. Normally I'd be happy to go back to sleep but looking at the forecast for most of the week being scattered thunderstorms it's really starting to get old for me. Just one more practice I have to try and make up somehow fighting for a lane at one of the public outdoor pools-- if the weather cooperates long enough for me to get into one of those at lunch or afterwork.
On the bright side, the extra sleep was nice, trying to stay postive and hope for a good rest of the week.
So wanted to turn off the alarm and roll over, it was thundering afterall, surely no outdoor swim. But oh yes, have the Y membership, can swim inside, da#$. After a long weekend training in Madison, I was surprised to move as well as I did in the pool - this after a long-ish warmup of course.
This past weekend - oy. Went to Madison to ride two loops, did my Z4 and Z3 intervals on the first loop and knew that holding Z2 for the second loop would be a struggle. There were a million VQ riders out there, most crowded I've ever seen Fireman's and the course. The first hill coming out of Fireman's had fresh tar and gravel. My husband drove the course around 5 pm on Friday night and sometime between then and 8 am on Saturday they put down the fresh tar. Not just gravel, sweet, gooey black tar. Awesome. Great way to start, oh and when doing two loops, you get to do it twice. But it should be fine by next weekend as Witte was already fine this past weekend. Put in 95 miles (did part of the stick as I rode from my parents house to avoid the mess that I knew would be Fireman's park) and then a very fast 30 minute t-run, was shocked at how good I felt after that hard ride.
Got up a 5 am on Sunday to put in the 3 hours of 'work' ride at the Trek Centurion, planned to do the 50. Driving to the start I had the best lightning show of my life. Sat in the car watching people ride to the start corrals, there were no tents for shelter, and thought to myself, surely they aren't going to send us off in this madness? Finally with about a minute to spare to get to the corrals I got out of the car, put my bike together, it's now raining, and I'm muttering to myself the whole time 'this is crazy, they can't be doing this, what are you doing, just go home, ride later' blah blah. I get to the start and they have opened an airplane hangar and are shooing everyone inside. They announce severe storm approaching (duh) with hail, high winds, blah blah, but it will blow over, let's plan for a 9 am start. There's no leaving the hangar at this point, it's driving rain and lightning and hail and wind and....so I sit on the concrete floor for 3 hours when they announce no 100 miler, everyone will do the 50, let's saddle up and I think, this is insane. 1,000 riders on the same course with wet roads and big hills with sharp turns, etc. Just what I need, to crash 5 weeks out from IM. So with rain abating and the gun going off, I turn in my chip. Very hard to do. Went home, had coffee with my mom and read the paper. Skies finally cleared just after noon and so I went to do just one loop from the house and part of the stick (60 miles). 40 mph wind gusts and 88 degrees at this time. Can't win for losing. But ended up 'working' as supposed to and aside from sweat, remained dry. riding on dry roads. Course was a ghost town too, no cars, no bikes. What a difference a day makes!
Have a great week and yes Kitima - cut back on the long run and no Z4 intervals, I'll take that!
I was on the phone with Beth last night and just as we were wrapping up our "business" I said "man, I could really use a rest day" and she said "yeah, aren't you glad tomorrow is just a swim?". HUH? Are you joking?? I hadn't checked the schedule yet and so at 8:30 last night I was doing the happy dance 'cause all I had to do was SWIM the next morning!!! I slept in to 6:00!!! OH JOY!!!! Gotta say, that was probably one of my best swim workouts this season too. :-)
Heather- soooooooooo glad you turned in the chip. You made the right call there- very smart. We've had WAAAAAAAAY too many accidents this year! No more injuries everyone! OK? Promise!!!
Kitboo, we need to talk to Moo Jo about designing a special fatigue Moooooooooood ring :-)
Thanks Nemo - I can't tell you how hard it was to turn in that chip. Never done that before and especially with the rain slowing, I felt like I had to give a really good excuse and the volunteers just grabbed my chip and could have cared less. Really need to worry less about what others think . But was justified ultimately in that the rains came back wtih a vengeance and I would never have held Z3 at any point with the crowds and wet roads. All in all the right decision but amazing how hard it is to execute!
Smart Move Heather. I really wanted to do that race, but decided not to for a number of reasons and when I say the weather yesterday I was really glad I wasn't there.
So for my catching up...
Friday - I completely destroyed myself with Jim again. Don't have the numbers in front of me, but we did 64' at FTP and I was a good bit over FTP for 3 of the 5 intervals. Best one was 12' at 301 watts and a VI of 1.00...thats 1.065 IF !!! Somehow we managed to than push each other to over 2 hours of 85% work. I ended up with a total ride of 4:45 at .824 for 314 TSS and that includes 45' of easy spining to WU/CD.
Saturday - We finished right about 5 on Friday and I had this great idea of getting out for an early ride on Saturday at 7. Bad Idea.... 14 hours was not even recovery. I actually was holding 85% for a little while but it started to fade really bad about an hour in. By an 1:15 I was struggleing to hold 75%. I ended up riding the last hour at .5 and it was tough. I did do a 35' brick run that was very comfortable and faster than my EP.
Sunday - Got up and did 3700 yards at Masters. Last week was the first time I ever swam fly, and I was able to do 6 100 IMs on 1:55 and I was averaging about 1:40. They also taught me how to start of the blocks which was fun other then the one time I got a goggle full of water.
Monday - Woke up to T-storms so I couldn't go to the pool and I was not going to run outside after last weeks epic run in the storm. I was going to sleep in by Abigail decided it was time to play instead. Not sure yet if I will cramp a run or swim in tonight or just take the day off completely.
Heather-agree with Nemo...hard to turn around and go home, but prolly a wise decision! Also, glad to hear Witte is better and hopefully the new soft tar will be better for RR #2!
Gina-read through your race report....thankyou....very easy to read and I loved how you broke your 6 hours down into 1 hour intervals with average IF for each interval. Going to try that on RR #2. Your report helped me get my head around these RR....thank you thank you for all the great ideas!!
Loved the workout today....really, really needed that! going to be a good week....I can feel it enjoy peeps!
This group is becoming one living entity--total mind meld going on around here. Gotta love it!
Some of you saw my FB melt down this morning. When I learned there was NO run, I could not believe I had dragged my a$$ out of bed at 5:15. I was very tired, but underneath I feel really good, so I thought I'd just get a swim/brick done. Thank gawd, I saw Nemo's FB post! Why bother to check the training log myself. Back to bed for 3 solid hours. Got up feeling much, much better.
My 18 y/o son then asked me if I wanted to go swim a workout with him. When your teenage boy asks you to spend time, drop everything and run! We had a great time together. The Internet was down here so I couldn't see the workout for today so I made it up:
300 w/u
2 x 400 timed
15 x 100 (got in the groove with these so at 10, kept going to 15)
500 pull
100 c/d
It was a great swim. I did 3,200 while Taylor swim 6,000 in the same amount of time. If only. I needed just a swim day, and it was perfect.
@Bob--trust me, I struggle with the same issues. No way do I do recover with perfect timing, and I often have a bit of guilt about it too. I'm trying, trying, trying to get better at it, and am. One other thing--I dropped out of training for 2 weeks b/c of Keith's accident--3 swims and 1 bike test only. As Patrick said, even with the immense stress, my body at some level was resting. I came back like an animal (a lil' peep animal, but you know what I mean). Before the break, I was LOW on mojo, with an extremely bad attitude, and a lot of self doubt and flagellation. The rest did me wonders--turned everything around physically and mentally. Now I'll finish up, and taper will come just in time before I started taking another nose dive. Patrick often tells people to take a couple weeks EZ in the middle of the IM cycle, and now I know why. No one will do it, but it works. You have such immense talent, and are poised for a crushing race--just don't let fatigue undermine all you've done and can achieve. We're *this* close, and you are looking crazy prepared!
@Heather--way to be smart. SO glad you a still standing and not taken out by those conditions! Way to call it.
@Matt - your comments remind me, on my first loop of the course Saturday, doing my Z4 intervals, it was very hard. Then trying to hold Z3 for the 3x15 min was even harder but I kept thinking, what would Mancona do? Oh yeah, destroy himself, c'mon girl, push push push. Thanks for the motivation, knowing you're out there killing it makes me think I can push myself a little harder too. As Coach R says, you want to race faster? you need to train fast. I'm trying!
Linda -glad you were able to get back to sleep. Sounds like you had a great time at the pool
Matt- You and Jim seem like the dynamic dual
Well to get caught up. I ended up not being able to get a workout in on Friday. Work was terribly busy and I'm running low on SAUs. I was glad to spend Friday night with the family. I needed it as much as they did.
Saturday I got up early and crushed the ride. I hit all the intervals at the zone pacing and still had enough to not struggle the last hour to get home. It was a great ride and a beautiful day.
Sunday I started out having a great ride until about an hour in my rear tire blew out. I had a hole right through the tire. I was going to put a tube in just to get back home but I couldn’t get it inflated. My first Co2 cartridge went completely to waste blowing apart my fill adapter. Once I got the adapter back together I couldn’t seem to get enough CO2 into the tube. I had broken an o-ring on the fill adapter. It just wasn't my day to ride. I called my wife and she came and picked me up.
Today I didn't get to sleep in but it sure is nice only having to swim today. I got the swim done at lunch.
I was SUPER tired yesterday after Sat's RR. Kept wondering how was I going to muster up to do Monday's work. Got in the sack by 9p last night and slept fairly well. Starting to have WEIRD dreams though.
Woke up feeling fairly refreshed, in for a short day @ ;work and in the pool by 11ish. Managed 3000 yds before the the fire alarm went off and they cleared the building. I called it a day there.
photos taken by our tri buddy David Wonn, also doing IMWI, so we have trained the three of us for 1,2, now 3 Ironmans together.. if one of us mentions a "goal" to each other, we hold them to it! so David will pipe up during an interval..."what is your effort/" "I think that with that power, that you can work harder!" oh yeah we cut up too.. like last long run, he texts us that he was late and at 5:15 a.m. I quip back "sure you are!" so he then sends us a pic of a train where he was caught at.. no mercy from me either....as I told him he coulda got the pic of the internet!
today I swam and then took Rudy for a run, felt strong in the water... but then forgot to wear watch so not sure of exact time but it was clicking whereas last week I was super fatigued during swimming. oh I had week 15 and not week 16 and hadn't read the FB so yes I attempted running but was tired sluggish,, and then got back and laughed at myself cuz there was no run today!! no wonder I was dad gum tired!! so it was half the mleage of my normal monday runs but did some good high kicks/side kicks and etc while in the walk breaks.. one way or another these hamstrings are gonna loosen up!
Handling in the rain.. easy and slow on the breaking... with water on the pads it will take longer to stop and with less traction on the road, you'll want as much time as possible. I also tend to keep tire pressure on the lower side (100 psi or so). It's alot like handling a car in the rain.. same rules apply..
Well, I got to sleep in anyway, regardless of schedule. Sat- got up early to go down and see local sprint tri and cheer my peeps on. Got in 5 mile run during the bike section. Headed out abt 2pm for my 4 1/2 hr ride and abt 2 hrs into the ride, went over a tricky set of tracks (that I've gone over like a million times), and went over the second set and down I went. Bike is fine, scrapes, bumps and bruises and a nice cut over the eye, resulting in 16 stitches. Drs orders- no bike or running for a few days and no swim for abt a week. Thank heaven it's a down week! Was wonderful to sleep in this morning but did really miss yesterday's ride!
Thanks, Kris!! Who'da thought to look in the WIKI?? DOH! I have been working on mine, but it always helps to see others.
Hope the eye is not too bad! I imagine you have a shiner
Not to be like the guys in "Jaws" when they are comparing scars, but this is what I did going across RR tracks (Suck Creek, Kris) in April. Go over them almost once a week!! Always have to be warry.
Swim only today was awesome. Except now, 2 days in a row, weird guy at the beach. This morning he greeted me like an old friend then started talking about something, I was clueless and had to get going. I actually felt rude walking away, but he just kept talking. He is giving me the heebee jeebees. I probably won't swim again until Friday to try and get rid of him. I leave my car keys in my swim bag and I am no where in site for most of the swim. I always get nervous when I see someone on the beach near my stuff. Has never been a problem, but this guy takes the prize.
Those naps yesterday totally messed me up and I had a horrible nights sleep. Tonight it is 80 degrees at 9:30 pm, gonna be a hot night.
Bike AND run tomorrow (but the run is short and easy!)
Michele- trust your gut on the creepy guy. That instinct is akways dead on.
Got the Bike and run done this morning. I couldn't believe how dark it was still at 6:00! The days are sadly getting shorter :-( I had trouble hitting the FTP intervals on the bike, my legs just didn't seem to have it in them. But after about 45 minutes I finally started feeling good again. I think the older I get, the longer the warmup I need. The run felt great- 20 min listening to my Mile 18 Party Playlist (cracks me up, "Dancing Queen" comes up and I imagine Coach Rich giving the "HELL NO!" look to Noodle! HA HA HA). No trouble from the calf this morning at all and I held a decent pace.
If tomorrows run goes OK, I'm gonna attempt the long run on Thursday (with my calf in a compression sleveve). I'll stick close to home (never more than 3 miles away) so I can shut it down and walk home the minute any little sign of trouble pops up.
Nemo- I hear ya on the need for longer warmup. NO way am I warmed up in 15 min!
I had the battle of the mind this morning trying to get up. Got in and out of bed 3x starting @0500. Finally, AIS @ 0557. Legs very sluggish warming up, got through the first 2 FTP by skin of my teeth, last one @ .90 only. Brick run was humid but good.
Check today off.
In between pack list obsessing, I am looking at MTBs for the fall. No numbers, no intervals, no schedule. JUST FUN!!!
Not much to report.....finished the brick drenched. Very high humidity today....now feeling like a southern chicka Got done a few minutes before the storm started. Kind of feeling blah Time for shower and food!
No chain day on the intervals! (Well, interval #1 at least. ) One helluva sweat in the humidity--you could cut it, I swear. No chain on the first one. The second not too bad Had to break the last one up. Went way to hard on #1. Ran OK after--learning to handle this humidity, much to my amazement.
Off to Keith's company's beach party, which is more chore than amusement, believe me. Me in my bathing suit with his engineer co-workers, and them in theirs--lordy, sometimes it's uncomfortable.
Just a warning...I'm in bad mood and probably will be ranting. Feel free to just ignore and move on but it will show that I'm human and definitely don't hit all my workouts either.
So Sunday was Swim only and Monday was completely 100% off...thats 2 days of rest, which is unheard of for me. This is supposed to be a rest and test week for me and I gave it a try.
Got up this morning to do an FTT, legs felt fine, I felt fine and the test went horrible. It was not a motivation issue just week legs and high heart rate. What was worse is that my brick run went bad as well. Typcially if the bike is bad I can still pull off a decent run to make up for it, not today.
I can put a bad test/workout behind me and move on pretty easy, however I can't ignore the fact that every time I take a complete rest day I have shitty workouts for a few days after. When I just workout everyday (and take easy days instead of rest days) I do much better.
I'm about to give up rest days again, since I didn't take them until this year and have much better experiences with easy days as needed instead of rest days. I just started another thread on this.
M: ditto on creepy guy. in fact if he is there on Friday? don't swim, not worth it. just thinking about it, he could get in your car, he could follow you, he could XXX.. nope. report back Friday! reminds me of a time when I seemed to attract this guy who wasn't an exerciser and then he said he had seen me riding! and started conversations... I avoided the start site and even drove by when I saw him there to start somewhere else. ugh. listen to the hairs on your neck, that is why God gave us them!!! smile.
oh, you know Matt you have mentioned this before but I also what is causing the fatigue besides "duh".. for you to WANT to take rest days... just wondering about your medical checkups.. and if not recent, rule out anything like that, just sayin' that if you normally don't even take one and then feel bad and sluggish, well that is normal for me too, I feel horrible on rest days and in taper too! and since you plug in all of your numbers and I bet your sleep, just wonder if you can see a pattern ....
Nemo, gina, yes it takes me a long time to warm up in all three sports. sometimes for group things I wil show up earlier so I can warm up just to join the group but sometimes they are so early that I lumber along.....
everybody else, hope everything went well.... I met up with Heather and David and another tri friend and we warmed up and then did a 20' interval.. my power was down, my legs felt tired but I stayed the course.... I try not to bail mentally even if physically I have... did another interval and this guy passed me!!! uh huh, in white shorts, with blinkie light and then had the nerve to look back to sorta ask if I was going to pursue? well okay, looked like he needed a reason to work too!! ha.. well okay he speeds off but like I said I stay the course and pretty soon he either let off the gas purposely or not! and I passed him.... that burst of surge.. cost me on the run as my legs were like concrete and I had to take some walk breaks with H. then we decided to go for lake swim and that did me in! a good swim no less and 98 degs outside was a tad warm with the sun beating down! we now have a heat index of 108 and another head advisory! m
I got a swim in yesterday... but not the wo I was supposed to. I've been feeling more and more like my swims are just too much work. I finally asked the master's instructor for feedback and he had me do some drills. So I did not get the distance done, but hopefully my form improved. I continue to feel like I am working harder and harder, but I'm just not getting faster. I may be more excited to hit T1 than the finish line in Madtown.
Today I got my bike ride in but I had to start in the dark which made me nervous. I bought a headlamp in the spring, but never used it since it does not stick to my helmet. I did some laps around a local lake - got in around 24 miles in 1:15 or so. It felt good to push it after a couple RR the last couple weekends.
I then ran for about 45 mins and was a bit bored, but otherwise felt good. I was glad to be out in the humidity, it felt good to sweat!
I'm excited for the vdot test Thursday. My two tests this year have not gone well, I am looking for redemption!
Thanks all ladies re: creepy guy. I am thinking that I will resume putting the car key in my bathing suit so I don't leave it on shore. Just leave my sandals and towels, but in a different place.
Got on the bike late as I could not figure out the new cable setup. Cut back on warm up and cool down so I could get going. I had a hard time with the intervals, but I did get 100%, with a few minutes of standing for the last 2 intervals. Run was awesome, I was flying even uphill and was well under LRP. I was soaked with the high humidity. Supposed to start easing back tomorrow afternoon. Which wil be great for the LR, but makes morning swims C-O-L-D.
Comments
Linda, I just wanted to thank you for your post responding to my mojo/fatigue question. I am guilty of forgetting the many times you have posted this in the past. I'm guilty of feeling guilty about missing workouts and following the plan into a brick wall.
My body and attitude was telling me I should have taken a day off. I'm usually out the door by 5:00 am for these weekend rides, yesterday I could not bring myself to get on the bike until after 2:00 ( did not read your post until I got home). I came very close to returning home after 10 minutes, but stuck it out and rode for about 70 minutes.
After reading your post I felt better about cutting the ride short. I really crushed myself doing those intervals on Sat. and I guess at 47 I'm just not recovering as fast. Because I am trying to acheive some lofty goals, the 2 sides of my brain strugglle with one wanting to push to the limits and the other saying more is not always better.
I guess I am like my kids, hearing something 100 times isn't always enough. So please don't ever stop disseminating that message..
The last thing I wanted was any self doubt enering this race that I did not prepare enough, thanks to your post I am again reminded that a good part of being prepared is recovering and repairing properly.
I now know that I will enter this race in a great state of mind and very well prepared to compete. 34 days sounds great to me, can't wait to get there !!
Totally slept in this morning. Who else did as well as we kick off an easier week??
All in all, happy with this past weekend. Like everyone else, the Saturday ride was rough. Totally cooked after the work intervals. To be honest I didn't formally do any "intervals". We have a super hilly 45 mile loop so just hammered that as hard as I could and let the numbers fall where they may. Ended the lap at .87 IF for 2:30. Then set out for a second loop of the same. I was dying on that second loop. dragged myself through the first half and had to stop twice so that I could stand up while drinking/eating. But you know what, it worked. Legs came back and finished feeling great. who knew right?? Sunday became a jumble for us. Tossed in a long OWS much to our neighbors amusement. 3-4 of them were sitting on their docks having coffee and everytime we circled back they asked if we wanted to stop yet. it was funny. big breakfast after and then set out 12:30-1 ish to get the ride/run done. Like most people, thought this would be a death ride, but turned out feeling pretty good. Brick after was no problem. Currently sitting at -50+ TSB so opted to sleep in and get my ass to work early so I can catch up on paperwork!
Good job for listening to your body, Bob.
And 34 days?! Acutally, that sounds just about right.
Leigh - I slept in -- legs want a full twenty-four hours before the pool.
My DH says,"34 days, huh? When are you going to start training for this thing?" Ha ha. I would've gotten up to bop him, but my legs are too tired.
Bob: Too bad there isn't a way for us to "test positive for fatigue" where the treatment would be REST. Then it would just remove any feelings of guilt about not doing a workout. Even the PMC charts aren't good for that because I think alot of times we try to see if we can still perform with big negative TSB numbers. Nope, we need a measuring tool like a Mood Ring---put in on our finger, the ring turns red = time to stand down. Anyhoo, good on ya for not needing that and being smart.
I slept in too! So happy there was no run. Going to the pool later this morning.
Am I dreaming or is there no long run this week?
On the bright side, the extra sleep was nice, trying to stay postive and hope for a good rest of the week.
So wanted to turn off the alarm and roll over, it was thundering afterall, surely no outdoor swim. But oh yes, have the Y membership, can swim inside, da#$. After a long weekend training in Madison, I was surprised to move as well as I did in the pool - this after a long-ish warmup of course.
This past weekend - oy. Went to Madison to ride two loops, did my Z4 and Z3 intervals on the first loop and knew that holding Z2 for the second loop would be a struggle. There were a million VQ riders out there, most crowded I've ever seen Fireman's and the course. The first hill coming out of Fireman's had fresh tar and gravel. My husband drove the course around 5 pm on Friday night and sometime between then and 8 am on Saturday they put down the fresh tar. Not just gravel, sweet, gooey black tar. Awesome. Great way to start, oh and when doing two loops, you get to do it twice. But it should be fine by next weekend as Witte was already fine this past weekend. Put in 95 miles (did part of the stick as I rode from my parents house to avoid the mess that I knew would be Fireman's park) and then a very fast 30 minute t-run, was shocked at how good I felt after that hard ride.
Got up a 5 am on Sunday to put in the 3 hours of 'work' ride at the Trek Centurion, planned to do the 50. Driving to the start I had the best lightning show of my life. Sat in the car watching people ride to the start corrals, there were no tents for shelter, and thought to myself, surely they aren't going to send us off in this madness? Finally with about a minute to spare to get to the corrals I got out of the car, put my bike together, it's now raining, and I'm muttering to myself the whole time 'this is crazy, they can't be doing this, what are you doing, just go home, ride later' blah blah. I get to the start and they have opened an airplane hangar and are shooing everyone inside. They announce severe storm approaching (duh) with hail, high winds, blah blah, but it will blow over, let's plan for a 9 am start. There's no leaving the hangar at this point, it's driving rain and lightning and hail and wind and....so I sit on the concrete floor for 3 hours when they announce no 100 miler, everyone will do the 50, let's saddle up and I think, this is insane. 1,000 riders on the same course with wet roads and big hills with sharp turns, etc. Just what I need, to crash 5 weeks out from IM. So with rain abating and the gun going off, I turn in my chip. Very hard to do. Went home, had coffee with my mom and read the paper. Skies finally cleared just after noon and so I went to do just one loop from the house and part of the stick (60 miles). 40 mph wind gusts and 88 degrees at this time. Can't win for losing. But ended up 'working' as supposed to and aside from sweat, remained dry. riding on dry roads. Course was a ghost town too, no cars, no bikes. What a difference a day makes!
Have a great week and yes Kitima - cut back on the long run and no Z4 intervals, I'll take that!
Heather- soooooooooo glad you turned in the chip. You made the right call there- very smart. We've had WAAAAAAAAY too many accidents this year! No more injuries everyone! OK? Promise!!!
Kitboo, we need to talk to Moo Jo about designing a special fatigue Moooooooooood ring :-)
Thanks Nemo - I can't tell you how hard it was to turn in that chip. Never done that before and especially with the rain slowing, I felt like I had to give a really good excuse and the volunteers just grabbed my chip and could have cared less. Really need to worry less about what others think
. But was justified ultimately in that the rains came back wtih a vengeance and I would never have held Z3 at any point with the crowds and wet roads. All in all the right decision but amazing how hard it is to execute!
So for my catching up...
Friday - I completely destroyed myself with Jim again. Don't have the numbers in front of me, but we did 64' at FTP and I was a good bit over FTP for 3 of the 5 intervals. Best one was 12' at 301 watts and a VI of 1.00...thats 1.065 IF !!! Somehow we managed to than push each other to over 2 hours of 85% work. I ended up with a total ride of 4:45 at .824 for 314 TSS and that includes 45' of easy spining to WU/CD.
Saturday - We finished right about 5 on Friday and I had this great idea of getting out for an early ride on Saturday at 7. Bad Idea.... 14 hours was not even recovery. I actually was holding 85% for a little while but it started to fade really bad about an hour in. By an 1:15 I was struggleing to hold 75%. I ended up riding the last hour at .5 and it was tough. I did do a 35' brick run that was very comfortable and faster than my EP.
Sunday - Got up and did 3700 yards at Masters. Last week was the first time I ever swam fly, and I was able to do 6 100 IMs on 1:55 and I was averaging about 1:40. They also taught me how to start of the blocks which was fun other then the one time I got a goggle full of water.
Monday - Woke up to T-storms so I couldn't go to the pool and I was not going to run outside after last weeks epic run in the storm. I was going to sleep in by Abigail decided it was time to play instead. Not sure yet if I will cramp a run or swim in tonight or just take the day off completely.
I'm thinking about an FTT tomorrow ...
Heather-agree with Nemo...hard to turn around and go home, but prolly a wise decision! Also, glad to hear Witte is better and hopefully the new soft tar will be better for RR #2!
Gina-read through your race report....thankyou....very easy to read and I loved how you broke your 6 hours down into 1 hour intervals with average IF for each interval. Going to try that on RR #2. Your report helped me get my head around these RR....thank you thank you for all the great ideas!!
Loved the workout today....really, really needed that! going to be a good week....I can feel it
enjoy peeps!
This group is becoming one living entity--total mind meld going on around here. Gotta love it!
Some of you saw my FB melt down this morning. When I learned there was NO run, I could not believe I had dragged my a$$ out of bed at 5:15. I was very tired, but underneath I feel really good, so I thought I'd just get a swim/brick done. Thank gawd, I saw Nemo's FB post! Why bother to check the training log myself.
Back to bed for 3 solid hours. Got up feeling much, much better.
My 18 y/o son then asked me if I wanted to go swim a workout with him. When your teenage boy asks you to spend time, drop everything and run! We had a great time together. The Internet was down here so I couldn't see the workout for today so I made it up:
300 w/u
2 x 400 timed
15 x 100 (got in the groove with these so at 10, kept going to 15)
500 pull
100 c/d
It was a great swim. I did 3,200 while Taylor swim 6,000 in the same amount of time.
If only. I needed just a swim day, and it was perfect.
@Bob--trust me, I struggle with the same issues. No way do I do recover with perfect timing, and I often have a bit of guilt about it too. I'm trying, trying, trying to get better at it, and am. One other thing--I dropped out of training for 2 weeks b/c of Keith's accident--3 swims and 1 bike test only. As Patrick said, even with the immense stress, my body at some level was resting. I came back like an animal (a lil' peep animal, but you know what I mean). Before the break, I was LOW on mojo, with an extremely bad attitude, and a lot of self doubt and flagellation. The rest did me wonders--turned everything around physically and mentally. Now I'll finish up, and taper will come just in time before I started taking another nose dive. Patrick often tells people to take a couple weeks EZ in the middle of the IM cycle, and now I know why. No one will do it, but it works. You have such immense talent, and are poised for a crushing race--just don't let fatigue undermine all you've done and can achieve. We're *this* close, and you are looking crazy prepared!
@Heather--way to be smart. SO glad you a still standing and not taken out by those conditions! Way to call it.
Happy day everyone!
@Matt - your comments remind me, on my first loop of the course Saturday, doing my Z4 intervals, it was very hard. Then trying to hold Z3 for the 3x15 min was even harder but I kept thinking, what would Mancona do? Oh yeah, destroy himself, c'mon girl, push push push. Thanks for the motivation, knowing you're out there killing it makes me think I can push myself a little harder too. As Coach R says, you want to race faster? you need to train fast. I'm trying!
Linda -glad you were able to get back to sleep. Sounds like you had a great time at the pool
Matt- You and Jim seem like the dynamic dual
Well to get caught up. I ended up not being able to get a workout in on Friday. Work was terribly busy and I'm running low on SAUs. I was glad to spend Friday night with the family. I needed it as much as they did.
Saturday I got up early and crushed the ride. I hit all the intervals at the zone pacing and still had enough to not struggle the last hour to get home. It was a great ride and a beautiful day.
Sunday I started out having a great ride until about an hour in my rear tire blew out. I had a hole right through the tire. I was going to put a tube in just to get back home but I couldn’t get it inflated. My first Co2 cartridge went completely to waste blowing apart my fill adapter. Once I got the adapter back together I couldn’t seem to get enough CO2 into the tube. I had broken an o-ring on the fill adapter. It just wasn't my day to ride. I called my wife and she came and picked me up.
Today I didn't get to sleep in but it sure is nice only having to swim today. I got the swim done at lunch.
I was SUPER tired yesterday after Sat's RR. Kept wondering how was I going to muster up to do Monday's work. Got in the sack by 9p last night and slept fairly well. Starting to have WEIRD dreams though.
Woke up feeling fairly refreshed, in for a short day @ ;work and in the pool by 11ish. Managed 3000 yds before the the fire alarm went off and they cleared the building. I called it a day there.
Keep on keepin on!!
photos taken by our tri buddy David Wonn, also doing IMWI, so we have trained the three of us for 1,2, now 3 Ironmans together.. if one of us mentions a "goal" to each other, we hold them to it!
so David will pipe up during an interval..."what is your effort/" 
"I think that with that power, that you can work harder!" oh yeah we cut up too.. like last long run, he texts us that he was late and at 5:15 a.m. I quip back "sure you are!" so he then sends us a pic of a train where he was caught at.. no mercy from me either....as I told him he coulda got the pic of the internet! 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/4870439582/in/set-72157624550771449
after our 30/30s last Wednesday...
this was last WED intervals.. and we are about to start.. note the "game faces!" one week after Heather's wreck! she was as strong as ever.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/4869830917/in/set-72157624550771449
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/4870348754/in/set-72157624550771449
newly engaged Heather still on a roll!
from Sunday: I rode 44 after Saturdays 75/run 7....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewonn43/4872563423/in/set-72157624550771449/
"the Blur"
**
today I swam and then took Rudy for a run, felt strong in the water... but then forgot to wear watch so not sure of exact time
but it was clicking whereas last week I was super fatigued during swimming. oh I had week 15 and not week 16 and hadn't read the FB so yes I attempted running but was tired sluggish,, and then got back and laughed at myself cuz there was no run today!! no wonder I was dad gum tired!! so it was half the mleage of my normal monday runs but did some good high kicks/side kicks and etc while in the walk breaks.. one way or another these hamstrings are gonna loosen up! 
m
Nemo- Link to your pack lists??? Mine have vanished in E*cel!!
Thinking about bike handling in the rain. I don't intentionally ride in the rain, so just thinking through it. Any advice?
@Gina- this should help out with the checklists. If not, I've got plenty (did I mention the anal retentive planning gene I have??)
endurancenation.us.dnnmax.com/Resou...fault.aspx
Handling in the rain.. easy and slow on the breaking... with water on the pads it will take longer to stop and with less traction on the road, you'll want as much time as possible. I also tend to keep tire pressure on the lower side (100 psi or so). It's alot like handling a car in the rain.. same rules apply..
Well, I got to sleep in anyway, regardless of schedule. Sat- got up early to go down and see local sprint tri and cheer my peeps on. Got in 5 mile run during the bike section. Headed out abt 2pm for my 4 1/2 hr ride and abt 2 hrs into the ride, went over a tricky set of tracks (that I've gone over like a million times), and went over the second set and down I went. Bike is fine, scrapes, bumps and bruises and a nice cut over the eye, resulting in 16 stitches. Drs orders- no bike or running for a few days and no swim for abt a week. Thank heaven it's a down week! Was wonderful to sleep in this morning but did really miss yesterday's ride!
Thanks, Kris!! Who'da thought to look in the WIKI?? DOH! I have been working on mine, but it always helps to see others.
Hope the eye is not too bad! I imagine you have a shiner
Not to be like the guys in "Jaws" when they are comparing scars, but this is what I did going across RR tracks (Suck Creek, Kris) in April. Go over them almost once a week!! Always have to be warry.
THIS IS FROM APRIL!!! NOTHING CURRENT!
Those naps yesterday totally messed me up and I had a horrible nights sleep. Tonight it is 80 degrees at 9:30 pm, gonna be a hot night.
Bike AND run tomorrow (but the run is short and easy!)
Got the Bike and run done this morning. I couldn't believe how dark it was still at 6:00! The days are sadly getting shorter :-( I had trouble hitting the FTP intervals on the bike, my legs just didn't seem to have it in them. But after about 45 minutes I finally started feeling good again. I think the older I get, the longer the warmup I need. The run felt great- 20 min listening to my Mile 18 Party Playlist (cracks me up, "Dancing Queen" comes up and I imagine Coach Rich giving the "HELL NO!" look to Noodle! HA HA HA). No trouble from the calf this morning at all and I held a decent pace.
If tomorrows run goes OK, I'm gonna attempt the long run on Thursday (with my calf in a compression sleveve). I'll stick close to home (never more than 3 miles away) so I can shut it down and walk home the minute any little sign of trouble pops up.
MIchele- DITTO on the creepy guy!! Stay away
Nemo- I hear ya on the need for longer warmup. NO way am I warmed up in 15 min!
I had the battle of the mind this morning trying to get up. Got in and out of bed 3x starting @0500. Finally, AIS @ 0557. Legs very sluggish warming up, got through the first 2 FTP by skin of my teeth, last one @ .90 only. Brick run was humid but good.
Check today off.
In between pack list obsessing, I am looking at MTBs for the fall
. No numbers, no intervals, no schedule. JUST FUN!!!
Not much to report.....finished the brick drenched. Very high humidity today....now feeling like a southern chicka
Got done a few minutes before the storm started. Kind of feeling blah 
Time for shower and food!
No chain day on the intervals! (Well, interval #1 at least.
) One helluva sweat in the humidity--you could cut it, I swear. No chain on the first one. The second not too bad Had to break the last one up. Went way to hard on #1. Ran OK after--learning to handle this humidity, much to my amazement.
Off to Keith's company's beach party, which is more chore than amusement, believe me. Me in my bathing suit with his engineer co-workers, and them in theirs--lordy, sometimes it's uncomfortable.
So Sunday was Swim only and Monday was completely 100% off...thats 2 days of rest, which is unheard of for me. This is supposed to be a rest and test week for me and I gave it a try.
Got up this morning to do an FTT, legs felt fine, I felt fine and the test went horrible. It was not a motivation issue just week legs and high heart rate. What was worse is that my brick run went bad as well. Typcially if the bike is bad I can still pull off a decent run to make up for it, not today.
I can put a bad test/workout behind me and move on pretty easy, however I can't ignore the fact that every time I take a complete rest day I have shitty workouts for a few days after. When I just workout everyday (and take easy days instead of rest days) I do much better.
I'm about to give up rest days again, since I didn't take them until this year and have much better experiences with easy days as needed instead of rest days. I just started another thread on this.
M: ditto on creepy guy. in fact if he is there on Friday? don't swim, not worth it. just thinking about it, he could get in your car, he could follow you, he could XXX.. nope. report back Friday! reminds me of a time when I seemed to attract this guy who wasn't an exerciser and then he said he had seen me riding! and started conversations... I avoided the start site and even drove by when I saw him there to start somewhere else. ugh. listen to the hairs on your neck, that is why God gave us them!!! smile.
oh, you know Matt you have mentioned this before but I also what is causing the fatigue besides "duh".. for you to WANT to take rest days... just wondering about your medical checkups.. and if not recent, rule out anything like that, just sayin' that if you normally don't even take one and then feel bad and sluggish, well that is normal for me too, I feel horrible on rest days and in taper too! and since you plug in all of your numbers and I bet your sleep, just wonder if you can see a pattern ....
Nemo, gina, yes it takes me a long time to warm up in all three sports. sometimes for group things I wil show up earlier so I can warm up just to join the group but sometimes they are so early that I lumber along.....
everybody else, hope everything went well.... I met up with Heather and David and another tri friend and we warmed up and then did a 20' interval.. my power was down, my legs felt tired but I stayed the course.... I try not to bail mentally even if physically I have... did another interval and this guy passed me!!! uh huh, in white shorts, with blinkie light and then had the nerve to look back to sorta ask if I was going to pursue? well okay, looked like he needed a reason to work too!! ha.. well okay he speeds off but like I said I stay the course and pretty soon he either let off the gas purposely or not! and I passed him.... that burst of surge.. cost me on the run as my legs were like concrete and I had to take some walk breaks with H. then we decided to go for lake swim and that did me in! a good swim no less and 98 degs outside was a tad warm with the sun beating down! we now have a heat index of 108 and another head advisory! m
Today I got my bike ride in but I had to start in the dark which made me nervous. I bought a headlamp in the spring, but never used it since it does not stick to my helmet. I did some laps around a local lake - got in around 24 miles in 1:15 or so. It felt good to push it after a couple RR the last couple weekends.
I then ran for about 45 mins and was a bit bored, but otherwise felt good. I was glad to be out in the humidity, it felt good to sweat!
I'm excited for the vdot test Thursday. My two tests this year have not gone well, I am looking for redemption!
Got on the bike late as I could not figure out the new cable setup. Cut back on warm up and cool down so I could get going. I had a hard time with the intervals, but I did get 100%, with a few minutes of standing for the last 2 intervals. Run was awesome, I was flying even uphill and was well under LRP. I was soaked with the high humidity. Supposed to start easing back tomorrow afternoon. Which wil be great for the LR, but makes morning swims C-O-L-D.
Matt- Sorry about the bad day. You are a phenom!