09/19/2010 - 09/25/2010

Sunday, September 19th

Coach had me doing a 10.5 mile run today with the following instructions:

“Long run today at moderate pace doing your very best to keep HR within the low 170's. Training the body to go long and feel comfortable to be out there for extended periods of time. Good opportunity to work nutrition and hydration”

Back when I started training, I found a nice 10.5 mile out and back, that I did fairly consistently, for my long Sunday runs. What better time than now to revisit it? Looking back through my notes, my averages were 10:13 min/mile (02/28/10), 9:18 min/mile (03/28/10), 9:05 min/mile (05/09/10), and 8:52 min/mile (05/16/10). I can’t believe I actually did that run with an 8:52 average! Since I have 4 more months of running under my belt, you’d think that I would be able to crank out this run faster than an 8:52, but I didn’t. End result? About a 9:27 pace. Slower than when I did it back in March! WHAT GIVES?!?

Here are my notes to Frank:

“Tried some new compression calf sleeves. Seemed to keep fatigue at bay longer than normal, but no significant impact on HR. Felt solid until about mile 8 or 9, when I started to feel it. Mile 10 was terrible, and the last half mile was horrific. I consumed 2 gels and 20oz of water. I probably could have had another gel (or two). In retrospect, I should have kept a slower pace to meet your 2hr time limit.”

Could it have had something to do with the 100 mile ride I put in yesterday? Back in March, I only did a 64 mile ride the day before. If that’s the case, how was I able to pull off an 8:52 average in May when I did an 80 mile ride the day before? Maybe it was the heat?

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49808070

My new compression calf sleeves:


Monday, September 20th

Recovery day!

Tuesday, September 21st

Did the following “strong aerobic” sprint set:

Warm Up

400 swim easy
6 x 50 swim (:10RI)
4 x 75 kick w/fins and board (:20RI)
2 x 100 swim (:15RI)

Main Set

3 x (3 x 25 + 2 x 50 + 3 x 25) (:20RI)
5 x 100 swim (:20RI)

Warm Down

4 x 50 easy

My notes:

“Still getting used to the new stroke technique, but still felt smooth. Started to get sloppy around the 3rd 100 (of the 5 x 100's), so I brought the pace down a tad to concentrate on form. HR after all 5 100's was 142.”

Wednesday, September 22nd

Had my typical moderate ride in the morning with the following coaches notes:

“Will stay fairly consistent with this Wed ride, good middle of the week workout.
continue to monitor HR, no other anomalies since last Wed. with the HR?”

Here are my notes:

“Great ride today. I was eyeballing 50, so I went a bit longer than 2:30:00 (not much though!) No anomalies and HR looked good (145 average) @ 19 mph ave. Only used about 34 - 40oz of water and 2 gels. Probably could have had another. No fatigue and legs felt strong.”

Took a pick of the huge Kachina Doll at a turn-around point on my ride. For some reason we've called it the "totem pole" since I've known about it.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50071024

The Kachina Doll:


Had a 6 mile run to take care of which gave me the opportunity to do one of my favorite routes; the golf course. James indicated that he wanted to go along as well. In an attempt to beat the heat, we set off at 8:41 PM. While I was following Frank’s orders to keep a 10:00 min/mile pace, James was doing some speed work. Every so often, he’d sprint ahead and either slow down or jog back to me. Overall, it was another great run where I was able to accomplish the goals set forth. Again, the compression socks seemed to help with the lower leg fatigue, but not so much with the HR.

Frank’s notes:

“6 mile run tempo run keep easy ZIII high end..Holding pace 15-30 sec slower than race pace. Working stride, turnover and holding clean body positioning. Minimize bouncing which will create the efficiency we are looking for. Remember you are training for an Ironman not a marathon; want your legs feeling good for the last six mile s of the race”

My notes:

“Was actually struggling to keep pace slower! Concentrating on form. Felt good and enjoyed the run. The compression calf sleeves seem to help with lower leg fatigue.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50305288

Thursday, September 23rd

Had to squeeze in the following swim workout before heading to Anthem for the Jim Stenholm Crit:

Warm Up
200 easy
4 x 50 kick (:20RI)
4 x 25 swim (:15RI)
4 x 50 swim (:15RI)

Main Set

12 x 25 swim (:40SI)
4 x 50 swim (1:10SI)
10 x 25 swim (:35SI)
4 x 50 swim (1:05SI)
8 x 25 swim (:32SI)

Warm Down
2 x 50 easy

My notes:

“Took this opportunity (intensity = 2) to really concentrate on form. Not too fast, not too slow. Felt efficient.”

My notes from the ride:

“Was probably a 3.5 or 4 out of 5 tonight. Felt smooth, comfortable, and fast. This is the first ride since raising my seat post a bit. Felt like I was able to provide more power to the pedals. Only one random spike during warm-ups. Overall, a great speed ride!”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50305297

Friday, September 24th

Did this swim routine:

Warm up

1 x (2 x 100+4 x 50+8 x 25) (:10RI)
6 x 50 kick (:20RI)


Main Set

10 x 50 sprint (:10RI)
2 x 100 (:15RI)
5 x 50 swim (:10RI)
2 x 100 swim (:10RI)
10 x 50 sprint (:10RI)
2 x 100 swim (:10RI)

Warm Down
4 x 50 easy

My notes:

“Felt smooth and was able to hold a consistant pace for the 50 sprints. HR after the 1st sprint set was 166. HR after the 2nd sprint set was only 142.”

Saturday, September 25th

My orders were to put 5 ½ hours in the saddle. After hitting the dreaded exploratory ride last week, I mapped out a more solid route this time around. I kept the same loop in mind, but took out the ride into Vistancia that ran us into a dead end. We went a bit further south (into DC Ranch) and a bit more north (into Desert Foothills). Somewhere around mile 12, James informed me that one of his clients was putting out two bottles of water for us. Around mile 17, we rode up to their condo, James took off his shoes, and walked up to the front door. Sure enough, two cold bottles of water. We topped off and headed south to DC Ranch. Once there, about mile 35, James was stung, by a bee, on his tongue! He asked if I saw the stinger and I did, so I actually had to pull it out. After a few minutes to recover, we set off again. The rest of the ride went off without a hitch.

My notes:

“Legs felt great. Nutrition was 5 PowerBar gels, double strength EFS (about 76oz), half a Clif Bar, half a PayDay bar, and 14oz Coke. Did refill with water, so had more than 76oz of fluid. Only one HR blip (mile 96) otherwise, very pleased with ave HR.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50769485

09/12/2010 - 09/18/2010

Sunday, September 12th

Frank wanted me to do an 8 mile run today and here are his instructions:

“8 mile run holding tempo no doubt you will be working in the 170 range, hold HR steady”

Looking to mix things up a bit, from the “pounding the pavement routine”, I decided to take on the power lines trail again. Since that run is about 5 miles, I would have to find an additional 3 somewhere along the way. After helping get the fam off to church, I set off. It was a bit later than I wanted, but no big deal. During the beginning of my run, I felt a bit labored and sluggish. Once I got to the trailhead, I stopped to go the bathroom and snap a quick pic. Everything was pretty much following the same storyline as most of my previous runs until I got to around mile 6.75 or 7. I realized that I wouldn’t get the necessary 8 if I just continued to where I started. Maybe it was the heat, who knows, but I made the executive decision to serpentine through a parking lot (interesting path on the map!) to get some additional distance. When I was done, I saw that I came in within my typical pace parameters, but had a lower HR (163) by about 14 bpm. I attributed that to the bathroom/pic stop and having to stop and open a cattle gate.

My notes to Frank:

“Felt slow/sluggish for a solid 3 miles. Probably fatigue from yesterday's 126 mile ride. Felt OK between miles 4 and 5. Felt better (found groove) around miles 6 or 7 where I felt "faster".

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48857622

Start of the power line trail:


Cattle gate:


Monday, September 13th

Frank scheduled me for a recovery day!

Tuesday, September 14th

I had a follow up appointment with the original cardiologist that conducted that stress test I took pics of. He reiterated that everything came back normal and nobody could find anything wrong. After a bit of discussion, I told him that, while my HR is elevated compared to others, it really only effects me on the run. He indicated that, since I’m flat when swimming, and have a flat torso while in the aero bars, it may be an issue of the blood getting to my heart efficiently while running upright. He asked if I had compression socks or if I could borrow any. After I told him that I didn’t, he said that I may need more sodium in my diet. He actually prescribed salt tablets for me to take! He said I should take one pill 3 times a day. That would equal 3 additional grams of sodium per day! He said that I needed to monitor my blood pressure to make sure that it didn’t rise along with the increase in sodium. Well, I wasn’t so keen on all of that, so I told him I’d think about it (because I know more than the cardiologist!)

3000 yard swim:

Warm Up

300 swim easy

Main Set

3 x 200 swim/ kick w/20RI
Kick the first 100/swim the second 100
4 x 100 swim @ 2:10
8 x 50 @ 1:05
3 x 100 swim @ 2:05
6 x 50 swim 1:05
300 swim easy

12 x 25 sprint @ 45

Warm Down

100 easy

Here are my notes to Frank:

“Felt strong and efficient. Held 1:10 for the first 100 set. Held 30 - 32 for the first 50 set. Held 1:05 - 1:10 for the second 100 set. Held 29 - 32 for the second 50 set. Held 10 - 12 for the 25's.”

Wednesday, September 15th

I had a 2 ½ - 3 hour ride scheduled for the AM and a 9 mile run scheduled for the PM. I decided to go 2 ½. Here were Frank’s instructions:

“2.5-3.0 hr ride holding cadence, looking to see your HR avg. during the entire ride”

I was able to get in just over 47 miles with an impressive (for me!) average HR (148). I noticed that there were some “blips” with the final data. About 1 – 2 minutes in, I was showing a 200+ HR while the 2:21 – 2:24 (43 – 45 miles) showed the same thing. Truly bizarre.

My notes to Frank:

“Felt strong and fluid. Probably could have had another gel or two. HR was where I wanted it to be, even on the climbs. There were two sets of HR anomalies....one at 1 - 2 minutes into the ride and another around the 2hr 20min mark. I was actually stopped at a stop sign and saw '203' on my Garmin. No way, no how was I in that range, let alone the 226 max that is shown in the data on the left. Solid ride.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49124107

The last time I had a run after my morning “moderate” ride was on 09/01 and it was downright miserable. This run was no different. Well, at least it ENDED miserably. I started out with a great pace (for me) and held it within my usual pace for about 5 miles. Around this point, I was wearing cement shoes, my quads were burning, my feet were hurting, and my previously injured shoulder became a source of irritation. My shoulder, became very uncomfortable and bothersome. It was to the point where I actually had to run with my arm hanging down by my side for relief. I actually looked like I just got up off the couch and ran to answer the door with an arm that was asleep. My pace plummeted and it was a grind to just get home. On a number of occasions I really wanted to walk, but I kept telling myself to push through it. Ultimately, I finished, but was extremely disappointed with the results.

Here are Frank’s instructions:

“Easy sustained run holding tempo for a long run. HR keep it in the low end of Zone III need to make sure you have power bar or some kind of nutrition with you please and H2O. Great opportunity to work the nutrition on this longer runs, see how the GI systems reacts to different endurance products”

My notes to Frank:

“Your original duration of 1:10:00 is too unrealistic for me. That equates to about a 7:46 pace. Honestly, I could only keep that for MAYBE 3 miles. I started out great and felt fine for about 4 miles before I labored a bit. I was able to regroup for about a mile, but then the wheels fell off for the rest of the run. Legs and back were hurting and I couldn't pick up the pace. Even with my pace in the 10+ min/mile, my HR didn't come down at all. The only thing I feel good about was that I didn't stop running. I ran the entire time and muscled through it all. Overall, a bad run. Used two PowerBar gels and about 14 oz of EFS. Should have had more, but my stomach was cramping a bit.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49236627

Thursday, September 16th

One hour speed ride in Anthem. Here are my notes to Frank:

“Felt super strong and led out the crew every time. Was always in the mix for a top 3 finish. Something is going on with my HRM. It shows an HR between 197 - 204 for my WARM-UP laps. By contrast, last weeks HR results (for the exact same loop, at the exact same pace, for the exact same number of loops) was between 129 - 160. I had an hour of solid speed with about 30 min of warm-up / warm down...hence the 1:35 duration.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49355985

Friday, September 17th

I was thinking about what the cardiologist said before he prescribed those salt tablets. He asked if I had compression socks. Instead of pumping myself full of salt and subsequently having to monitor my HR, I figured that I’d give the socks a try. I headed down to the local tri shop and picked their brain before I walked out with a pair of Zoot compression calf sleeves. I’ll give ‘em a whirl this Sunday (10.5 mile run) and report my findings next week. Today was also the time I needed to step up and buy a wetsuit. Up until around July, I was intent on borrowing the suit I used in the March tri or try to find a used one. It wasn’t until I happened upon a small distributor shop near my brother-in-laws gun shop that I decided to buy new. Scott, of Sailfish wetsuits, told me that he would give my 40% off and had about 5 different models to choose from. We were hit and miss for a few weeks until I finally hit him up again last week. After I tried on their “One” model, I decided to buy it. When I got the receipt, however, I saw that he gave me 50% off. AWESOME!

Before all of this happened, however, I had to take care of a 6 mile run.

Here are Frank’s instructions:

“6 mile run tempo run pace @ 75% of 10k race pace. Monitor avg HR and time completed”

Well, I’ve pretty much figured out that I only have two running paces; slow and slower. That being said, 75% of my 10K pace would be, what, um, well, super slow? He did give me a 1 hour time limit, so I zeroed in on that and attempted to keep it there.

My notes to Frank:

“Honestly, my 10K pace is probably 8:30 to 9:00, so to go 75% of that is fairly slow. You indicated that the duration was to be 1:00:00, so I tried to keep it as close to a 10:00 min/mile pace as possible. While I did have some fatigue from the previous days workouts, it was very manageable. If, however, you asked me to pick up the pace to even a 9 min/mile, I don't know if I could have done it for entire time. Some random HR "spikes" again. See 3.5 - 4 miles in. I didn't do anything different, held a steady pace, and felt nowhere near 199 or 204. This has been an HRM "issue" for the last 3 or 4 workouts .”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49355991

The afternoon saw this swim workout:

WARM UP

2x (100 swim, 100 kick, 100 pull)
8 x50 swim, 25easy /25 fast (:10 rest)

MAIN SET

Cycle through 6 Times

150 swim , rest :10
50 fast @ 90% right into a 50 easy
rest :20 start next set

WARM DOWN
2 x 50 easy

My notes to Frank:

“Didn't really feel strong, but didn't feel weak. "Sloppy" would probably describe it the best.”

Stock pic of my wetsuit:


Saturday, September 18th

4 ½ hour ride or 100+ miles. Got up at 3:15 AM, had some breakfast, and got the bike ready to roll. As I was riding to James’ house, I realized that I couldn’t shift gears on my rear derailleur. I came back to the garage to try and figure out what was going on. I noticed that the cable was loose and that was causing the problem. I texted James and then started to ride over to his house to get an extra set of eyes. As I was approaching his back gate, he was rolling out. I asked him to shine his light on my bike and that’s when I figured it out. I took my rear wheel off the day before to clean the gears and put a new tube in. When I did, I somehow removed the cable from its stop. I simply stretched it back to where it needed to go and we were on our way. The ride was pretty uneventful until about mile 50. At this point, we knew that if we continued our loop home, we wouldn’t get anywhere near 100 miles. We didn’t want to backtrack either. At this point, it became the dreaded “exploratory ride.” These types of rides are fine for tooling around on shorter, less intense, distances, but are no good for longer ones. If we are going to be in the saddle 5+ hours, we need a scheduled route and stick to it. Now, we weren’t sure if we were going to run into a dead end (we did), or where we would end up. James tried to pull up maps on his phone, but couldn’t get coverage! Ultimately, we ended up getting back on track and headed home. Around mile 75, my rear tube (the one I just put in the night before) was going flat. After changing that, we noticed we needed refills on our energy. There was a convenience store a few miles away and I had my heart set on a Payday and a Coke. When we got there, however, I discovered that the $3 I had stashed was gone. It probably got lost during the tube change since I keep the money in a pouch with the actual tube and gear to change said tube. Oh well, I refilled with water and had half of James’s candy bar. At this point, all of our momentum was gone. Stopping at dead ends, backtracking, flats, and a store stop all added to extra time out in record heat. We eventually had to put in about 8 garbage miles to get to 100.

Frank’s instructions:

“100 plus ride holding 18 mph looking to see your avg HR for ride”

My notes to Frank:

“4:30 on the bike is faster than 18 mph for a hundy! Ended up getting the 100, but it was closer to 5:20. Felt fairly strong, but was feeling the previous days workouts around mile 75. Some more random HR spikes around mile 80. I happened to witness my Garmin spike up to 216 for no reason.”

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49808054

09/05/2010 - 09/11/2010

Sunday, September 5th

After last Wednesday’s dismal performance on the power line / Cave Creek run, I was determined to get out there and do it again. This time, however, I waited until it was a bit cooler and took off just before 6:30 PM. Everything started out the same as all of my other runs and stayed that way until I was finished. September is Dove season, so it sounded like a war zone when I was out there. I couldn’t see anybody, but the sound of shotgun blasts could be heard from all around. As I just stated, it was a pretty normal run with a higher HR and a slower pace. All things considered, it was an average run for me.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47999912

Monday, September 6th

Since I didn’t have work today, and Kristi was still at the family cabin with the kids, I decided to tackle my moderate ride. I was able to sleep in and take my time getting ready. I finally got out the door around 7:15 AM. I was aiming for 50 miles at a “comfortable” pace. In other words, I wasn’t out to break any records, nor was I out to make too many stops, or slow down. Ultimately, I was able to ride 51.6 miles at a 19.7 mph average. My average HR, at 143, was looking good too! Ultimately, I was extremely pleased with this enjoyable ride.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48000003

Tuesday, September 7th

Swim workout today:

Warm up

1 (400 + 4 x 100 +4 x 50) w/15RI
6 x 50 kick w/20RI w/fins w/board (FAST)

Main Set

6 x 50 easy w/10RI
6 x 50 drill/catch up or fingertip drag w/15RI
6 x 50 BUILD w/20RI
6 x 50 kick FAST w/10RI
6 x 50 FAST w/20RI

Warm Down

200 easy

Total 3000

Again, nothing to report about this workout. Still concentrating on a strong follow through on the pull portion of the stroke.

Wednesday, September 8th

Had a meeting with Frank to go over my swim video and to analyze my stroke. He offered up a few pointers on the recovery portion of my stroke as well as my hand entry. We discussed my revelation of dismissing track workouts and he agreed. At this point in my training, we have both come to the conclusion that the run will just be a “get it done at a comfortable pace” game. Spending some extra days at the track really won’t benefit me as much as getting comfortable running long distances at my elevated HR.

My run started out a 6:47 PM and I had to run portions of this route in the dark. I’d say that between miles 3 ½ and 6 ½ were the worst because there were no street lights and I didn’t have any type of flashlight. I didn’t want to sacrifice my pace, but I sure as heck didn’t want to twist an ankle on a hidden pothole. So, for those miles, I was playing a cautious game of “Looking out for Obstacles.” Fortunately, I made it through unscathed! It was a cool evening and I felt fairly solid.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48256574

Thursday, September 9th

YES! I made it back to one of my favorite competitive rides of all time….the Jim Stenholm Crit in Anthem. It is truly an “hour of power” that has some seriously fast riders. I was able to make it out there about a half an hour early to get in a solid warm up. After about 10 small 1 mile loops, it was go time. As mentioned before, since I’m the only aero bike out there, I don’t like mixing it up in the pace line. As a result, I like to lead out as much as I can in front. On lap 2 (of the fast bigger laps) Chris Wylie showed up on his moped to motor-pace us. I cautiously started out just behind him, but pulled out to let the road bikes benefit from it instead. I absolutely love this ride, love riding with this group, and am ashamed that I haven’t participated as much this year. Not anymore! I plan on using this ride every Thursday for my speed training (instead of those intervals on Rancho Paloma).

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48377794

Friday, September 10th

Back in my May blog (written in June) I had the following to say:

"While picking up my second pair of running shoes (they were 30% off!) I saw that GU came out with a new flavor…Jet Blackberry (has 2x caffeine!) I moved from Vanilla Bean to Just Plain last year and have recently become sick of it. Oh, I’ve tried the other flavors, but immediately rule out anything without caffeine (just a personal thing), and can’t take the rich chocolate or espresso flavor while riding. I can tell you, for me, Jet Blackberry is here to stay for a while…it’s that good!"

I’ve been out of Gu for some time now and keep forgetting to pick up more. As a result, I’m running up to the local Fry’s supermarket to pick up some PowerBar gels for a $1.00 a piece. In one of my previous blogs, I indicated that it was more watery and easier to eat during exercise (compared to Gu). Well, while I was at the Airpark Bikes, picking up a Bento Box, I saw that they were having a special on PowerBar gels. Buy one box of 24 for $25.00 and get a second box of 24 for free! Well Howdy Doody PowerBar gels!!!! Back in May, I also said that I only use the caffeinated gels, but in light of me having a higher HR, I figured that I’d put the caffeine on the shelf and use only non-caffeinated. I bought a box of vanilla and raspberry cream.


Swim workout:

Warm up

2 x 100 easy swim
4 x 50 kick w/fins and board (:20RI)

Main Set

20 x 25 (:60 RI) 3 fast, one easy. Fast means FAST and easy means really easy.
200 easy

3 x 200 swim (:20RI)
4 x 100 swim (:15RI)
1 x 200 swim
4 x 50 swim (: 10RI)

Warm Down

100 easy

Total 2600

Today was the first day I tried to incorporate Frank’s suggestions on my hand entry and recovery position. I gotta tell you, it feels so wrong to do it this way, but I know it’s right. It’s difficult to break the old way of doing it because it was so comfortable, but, that being said, I could definitely tell that I was more efficient in the water.

After my swim, I had to get in a run. Since it was already 6:40 PM, I didn’t want to be out too long and decided on a shorter “faster” run that kept me close to home. All streets were fairly well lit too. I felt real good and my 8:32 pace was pleasing, but my real pleasure was seeing that last mile clock in at an 8:06 pace (the fastest split of all 4!)

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48857590

Saturday, September 11th

James, and I, wanted to nail a 120 mile ride today. So, after some planning, we came up with a route that took us down to Tempe (on part of that darn Ironman course that gave us so much trouble with flats) and back. In order to get home at a decent time, we had to roll by 4:00 AM. Just the night before, we realized that this would put us going down nine mile hill in the dark. James texted me and asked if I was cool with that. I responded, “No, but I’m also not cool with getting home at noon.” So, we rolled at 4:00 AM. As we were heading south on Pima, about 8 miles in, a white pick-up truck (with skull stickers on the back window) buzzed by us and just kept on his horn the whole time. Obviously, some intoxicated fella that just left the bars in Cave Creek. Once we started descending into Rio Verde, the temperature was downright CHILLY! I really had to keep my speed in check because it was still pitch black and my front light would only give me mere seconds to avoid any obstacles. James, on the other hand, was a bit bolder and was about a minute ahead. Finally, we reached the bottom of the hill and the sun started to light up the sky over the mountains. It was awesome. Since it was light out now, we were able to pick up our pace and climb out of Rio Verde in decent time. We hopped on the Ironman course and headed down to Tempe. When we got to the turn-around point, we noticed that there was a 9/11 memorial set up. There were about 3000 flags and each one had a victim’s name and other words attached to it. It was quite moving to say the least. We stopped and took some pics of the flags and the empty lake that we are supposed to swim in in November. The latest news indicates that it will be good to go in time. If it isn’t, a contingency plan has us swimming in Saguaro Lake (several miles off of the bike route). On our way back, at about mile 88, we stopped to refill water bottles and to grab a snack. I found a double package of Twix bars and a 16oz Coke while James hooked up a Payday bar with some Coke. I probably had the four bars, and Coke, finished in just a few minutes. I gotta tell you, this little “meal” was just what the doctor ordered! Around mile 90, I realized that I forgot to turn on my Garmin and short changed my record about 2 miles. That means that when we were done, James would show 120 and I would only show 118 even though I did 120. Well, I was determined to show 120, so I would have to put in a few more miles. Silly games, I know. Right around mile 105, we were heading south on Pima when an Escalade came zooming up behind us, buzzed us, and tried to immediately turn right in front of us. Both James, and I, had to slam on our breaks….as did the SUV. James was pretty fired up and started yelling at the guy. The driver started to roll down his window to yell back at us when traffic started piling up behind him. As they started honking, we all rolled forward and James kept going at it with the driver. After the driver sped off, a few other cars stopped to see if we were OK. Ultimately, James got the license plate number and called 911. They sent an officer out to look for the guy, but to no avail. Once we got close to home, I saw that I was just shy of 7 hours in the saddle and wanted to get it. After a quick spin around the neighborhood, I shut it down. I would classify this as an “epic” ride that we will be talking about for years! By the way, those raspberry cream PowerBar gels?!? Muy bueno!

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48857614

9/11 Memorial. Notice the airplane in the sky.


9/11 Memorial


9/11 Memorial


Tempe Town "Lake"


My mid-ride snack

08/29/2010 - 09/04/2010

Sunday, August 29th

Well, after so much time off, it was going to be real interesting to see how a longer run was going to go. My goal was to just “get it done.” I really didn’t care about my average minutes per mile or my HR being in the stratosphere. I knew my HR was going to be much higher than I anticipated, so I was not going to stress any more about it. In fact, I told myself that as long as I was comfortable, I wasn’t even going to look. The weather was nice and I felt good the entire time. Right around mile 6, I realized that I wasn’t going to get in 8 miles if I just headed back to my original starting point. I did a quick loop around a neighborhood which sealed the deal. 9:33 pace with a 166 bpm average HR. Again, a slow pace with a higher HR. Oh well! Considering my layoff, I was very happy with this run.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46853876

Monday, August 30th

Today was my appointment with a cardiologist. After an initial consultation, he wanted to put me through a stress test. The nurse led me to a torture chamber like room, shaved patches of hair off my chest, hard wired me to a machine, and made me get on a treadmill. They started me walking very slow on a slight incline. Every so often, they would elevate the speed and incline while taking my blood pressure and monitoring my HR. They kept asking if I could go faster and higher. Each time I said yes. Ultimately, however, the doc eventually stopped me and let me recover (even though I could have taken it to the next level!). He said that it looked like my max HR was about 193 and they were looking for it to come back down to 100 within 5 minutes. Well, I got down to about 104 and he said that everything looked absolutely normal. Two more EKG’s also supported his assessment as well. He said that I could continue training as I have and that he would like me to follow up with an echocardiogram at their hospital office. With that, I paid my copay, made my appointment, and went home. After I got home, I looked in the mirror and realized that I looked like Steve Carell in the 40 Year Old Virgin after he had his chest waxed. I wasn’t having any of that, so it all came off. When I showed Kristi, she only shook her head.

The treadmill:


The monitor:


Hooked up 1:


Hooked up 2:


Tuesday, August 31st

Today was a speed ride in the morning and a swim in the afternoon. Since I hired Frank, I’ve started to move away from the “speed swim”, “moderate swim”, and “long swim” designations. He has some speed workouts, some drills, some intense kicking, etc, but they are all about the same in length….roughly 3000 yards. So, it’s tough for me to differentiate them.

The speed ride was my typical interval training in the neighborhood. Sprint up, recover down. I think the last time I did this was on my road bike earlier this month. I got in 7 or 8 good intervals before calling it quits. I averaged 146 bpm with a max of 194!

Not to get off topic, buy why must people walk or run in the BIKE lane and think they have the right of way? Look, I understand running in the bike lane, so long as you are going against traffic and get out of my way. Please don’t make me swerve into traffic or slow down to go around you! I also don’t like to play chicken with you at 20 mph. Note to those walking, please use the sideWALK! That goes for you too, Mr. Dog Walker! There is no need for you, and your pooch, to take up the whole lane and then not budge when I approach you. Here is an e-mail that I sent to James after my ride:

Also, I encountered 14 people in the neighborhood bike lane this AM.

- A running couple that split so I rode between them
- A man walking his dog
- That loser that I argued with. He was walking with his back to me smack dab in the middle of the lane.
- That ladies running group (5) twice. They were running 2 abreast and then 3 abreast. The first 2 made a mild effort to get out of the way, but the outside lady (group of 3) actually had to dodge me at the last second by moving her shoulder....I was ON the white line.

OK, rant over.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46982218

Frank’s swim workout was as follows:

Warm up – 400 swim, 6x50 swim (:10 RI), 4x75 kick (with fins and board), 2x100 swim (:15 RI)

3x(3x25 + 2x50 + 3x25) (:15 RI)
5x100 swim (:20 RI)

4x50 cool down

2650 yards and everything felt fine. I did practice following through on my pull more since Frank indicated that I’m pulling my hand out of the water a bit too soon. I noticed that this gave me more power and longer strokes too. Only problem was that I wasn’t used to it, so that combined with my layoff, gave me some sore shoulders!

OK, so today, I really had a revelation about HR rates. Call me a moron or ask me how I DIDN’T know this, but whatever. Maybe my zone 2 isn’t what Garmin says it is? I guess I just took it for granted that it would give me a pretty good estimation of what it was after I entered my max HR and resting HR. It’s entirely possible that my zone 2 is much much higher. While this still doesn’t reveal any answers about my 180+ on low pace running, it is somewhat of a relief to me.

Wednesday, September 1st

Moderate ride in the morning and a run in the afternoon or evening. Since my HR seems to be very high at relatively low paces (8:30 – 9:30), I don’t know how much good it’s going to do me to get out on the track. I mean, I’ll be at 170 for my warm up laps and then boil over on my first “on” lap. I always knew that the on laps were at my limit, but when we are talking mile repeats, I just can’t hold 188 - 190 bpm for very long. I’ve started to develop the mindset that I just need miles under my legs. That being said, I’m probably going to scrap the track (sorry Eric!) and just grind out miles to help condition my endurance.

I only had about 2 hours to get this ride in, so I was hoping for at least 40 miles. James had a bit longer, so he was going to branch off at some point and try for at least 60 I think. I felt real good and things were pretty much normal. The only oddity to report was some goofy HR readings from mile 20-25. I show a HR of 214 or 229 on the graph and a max of 244 on the data! I showed James and he said that he had some elevated readings around the same time. Elevated for him, however was like 165.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47126812

I had my second appointment with a cardiologist today and had an echocardiogram done. Essentially, it’s an ultrasound of my heart. Last time I saw something like this, we were looking at Kaitlin before she was born! I noticed that I couldn’t get my resting HR below 65 and the technician actually said that he thought it would be much lower because of my athletic build/background. Uh, thanks. It only took about 20 minutes before I was done.

I still had to get my run in, and made the unfortunate decision to join James on his tempo run through the desert behind our house. Everything started out pretty normal, but when we picked up the pace (to a whopping 7:30) my HR went straight to max and I couldn’t hang on. I slowly backed off the gas and let James gap me. I came back to about a 9:30 pace, but couldn’t get the HR to settle down. As a result, I ended up walking a bit. After a quick recovery, I was back at it, but my HR shot up to 190 and I had to walk again. After a couple of times doing this, I packed it in and walked home. It was probably a couple of different factors working against me that led to this dismal performance. It was 106 degrees, I rode in the morning, and I am coming off of a pretty good lay off. Overall, I was severely disappointed with this run/effort.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47261138

Thursday, August 2nd

My echocardiogram results came back clean and the cardiologist said that I have an “athletic” heart. In fact, he said that everything was functioning fine. I talked to him a bit about my elevated HR, my incredibly high HR when running, and some various other items. He said that some people just have higher HR rates and he wasn’t concerned. He did recommend that I take a supplement called CoQ10. He told me a story about how Greg LeMond was having HR issues back in the day and after a myriad of tests, this supplement helped bring it down. It’s now widely used for my exact “situation.”

My swim workout was as follows:

Warm up – 300 swim, 12x25 swim sprint (:10 RI), 6x50 kick with fins and board (:20 RI)

3x(3x50 + 200 + 3x50) (: 15 RI) (1:00 RI between sets)

10x25 swim sprint (:05 RI)

100 cool down

Again, everything went fine. Still practicing that longer follow through and really working the shoulders.

Friday, September 3rd

DAY OFF

Saturday, September 4th

James and I were planning on a 100 mile ride today, so we were rolling at 4:30 AM. Since its dark for another couple of hours, we had to break out the head lights and tail lights. We met up with a couple of other Ironman trainees and nailed an additional 10 miles before meeting up with the rest of the team. We stopped about 3 different times to refill water bottles. Personally, I had 2 bottles of EFS electrolyte drinks, 1 Powerade, 2 Gatorades, and 1 water. All told, I probably had about 144 oz. The best part was during our second stop. While paying for my Gatorade, I saw a Twix bar by the register. I probably had that thing conquered before I was out the door. It was awesome. Combine all of this with 4 Powerbar gels, and it was quite the feast.

Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47999904