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November-December 2002
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Tomorrow begins my fourth official week of Ironman training (it will be a recovery week). So far, the reality of the fact that I am actually training for an Ironman race has not really hit me. I'm sure it will as soon as the race season rolls around again and I start reading the race reports from all my TNO buddies.

My last race of the season was Cascade Lakes Half Ironman in Bend, OR on September 7. It was a very tough course and I finished in 6:21. Not exactly the time I was hoping for (under 6:00), but I was still happy with my race. Since then, my husband (IronJeff) and I have moved from Portland to Bend, I have accepted a new position with my company, and I have taken several business trips. So things have been and will continue to be busy for quite a while. I'm definitely not your typical obsessive-compulsive, endorphin junkie triathlete. But I live with one. It makes for some interesting training sessions. While I am spacing out, enjoying the scenery, pondering the mysteries of life, my beloved is counting his cadence, head buried in the aerobars, trying to eke every last ounce of speed out of his legs while maintaining the optimum heart rate and taking in the pre-determined number of calories. Every 20 minutes or so, he loops back around so I can catch back up with him. We don't train together all that often :.

Jeff and I got into triathlon two years ago. I started running 3 miles several times a week in 1995 to lose weight. Prior to that, my only athletic endeavor was volleyball, which I played in high school, college (intramurals), and a few community leagues. Shortly after we got married in the summer of 1997, we made our first trip to Vail, CO. Jeff played in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and they spent several weeks playing in the Vail Valley Music Festival each summer. We rented mountain bikes and discovered the joys of screaming down a mountain at 40 MPH. We returned in 1998 and 1999, this time with our own mountain bikes. I ran my first road race (a 10K) in May 1999 when a friend at work invited me to run with her. I continued running when we moved from Rochester, NY to Portland, OR and in September 2000 we ran our first marathon. A marathon-running friend said there was a group of runners who were treading water ("water running without the floaties", he called it) to help recover from the marathon without injuring the joints any further. Well, an hour of treading water is fine when you're in a group of people, but when it was just me and Jeff staring at each other for an hour while treading water, we decided it was time to swim.

About this time, Jeff had a friend in law school (a smoker) who was planning to do a sprint triathlon in the spring with his wife. After hearing how little he trained compared to his wife (they both finished), Jeff and I decided we could take a stab at this thing. We volunteered for a couple of races that summer, then competed in a sprint and an Olympic distance race on our mountain bikes (plus my second marathon). This past season, I bought a tri-bike (a QR Kilo) and raced two duathlons, one Olympic, and two Half-Ironmans (New Balance in Victoria, BC in June and Cascade Lakes). If you are a glutton for punishment and actually want to read more of this verbal diarrhea, my race reports are posted on my website at .

When Jeff graduated from law school last summer (before racing the Half-Ironman in Victoria), we took a road trip to Victoria and Penticton, British Columbia. We spent a few days riding the bike course and training in Victoria, then drove to Penticton (site of Ironman Canada). We trained there for several days, including a ride that covered just over 100 miles of the Ironman Canada bike course. After that week, I realized that I could probably do an Ironman. But I still wasn't sure that I actually wanted to do one. There are many things I enjoy, and extreme pain is not one of them. I know how my legs felt at the end of the marathons, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to put myself through something more extreme than that. But after racing at the Half-Ironman distance, I realized that what people say really IS true - a half is much less painful than a marathon. That warmup you get during the swim and bike really decreases the stress on your joints in the run, it seems. Plus, I found I enjoyed the longer distance much more than the sprint and Olympic distances. I'm not a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination, and my 9+ minute miles just didn't cut it for the shorter races. But I found I was much more competitive at the longer distance and enjoyed it more since I could just settle into a nice cruising pace without killing myself. I'm all about the comfort zone :.

So we volunteered for Ironman Canada this summer and Jeff signed up for the race the next day. We had decided not to race the same Ironman races so that the non-racer could help nurse the racer back to the land of the living after the race. I thought I was off the hook for a while, but along came Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I signed up a few days after they made the official announcement, then started formulating my training plan. For the most part, I followed Friel's Triathlete Training Bible (TTB) to plan out my year of training. In a nutshell, the current plan is to go through 3 "cycles" of Base training, 2 cycles of Build, then peak and taper for Ralph's California Half-Ironman. Then I'll go through another 2 cycles of Base before peaking and tapering for Ironman Coeur d'Alene at the end of June. If you're not familiar with the TTB, this basically means I'll do about 12 weeks of aerobic endurance work (with some speedwork thrown in here and there), followed by 8-10 weeks of higher-intensity work, then 1-2 weeks of taper before the Half, then another 8 weeks of aerobic endurance work before peaking and tapering for IM-CDA.

At the moment, swimming is my favorite of the three sports. For the first time since we started swimming seriously 2 years ago, we joined a Masters group. We've been swimming with them 4-5 times a week. I learned how to do a flip turn and the butterfly about two weeks ago, and I'm gradually learning how the real breaststroke is supposed to work. These are not exactly essential skills for triathlon, but I think that learning the other strokes has helped streamline my freestyle stroke. I've taken 10 seconds off my average 100 since starting the Masters group. And flip turns are just cool :.

My main challenges this season will be work and speed. For the next several months, I will be transitioning between my old position as a technical writer and my new position as product manager. I will be doing double-duty, training the new technical writer and trying to make some headway in my new position. I telecommute so my hours are relatively flexible, but I have to put in a lot of them. I generally start work at 6 am (I work for a company on the east coast, so I try to stay with their hours as much as possible). While I enjoy the cold weather from time to time, I don't particularly like training in it. For this reason, and because of my work hours, I generally train in the afternoons. I tend to get engrossed with work, so sometimes it's tough to pull myself away from whatever task I'm working on.

The other thing I really want to work on is cycling and running speed, especially the latter. As I said, I don't enjoy pain and learning to run faster generally involves, well, running faster, which generally involves, well, discomfort. BUT I know that if I can make myself face the music and gut out the speed workouts, those faster speeds will become more comfortable.

My first three weeks of Base training went well. Week #1 included a trip to Boise for a marathon (Jeff was running, not me) and to see Lori & Doug. I planned for the low-key weekend in Boise so I still got all of my hours in, amazingly enough. I also had two swim breakthroughs - learning flip-turns and butterfly. I'm hoping that butterfly will improve my upper body strength for battling through the swim start and cranking uphill on the bike. We had a fun trip to Boise - great company and a great city. I'm really enjoying Masters - this is the first time we've participated in a Masters group. I think I'll do better if I can find a group to run & bike with too.

Week #2 was a tough week of swimming, especially when the coach threw in a medley night. But I was able to lead my lane (#2) by a pretty good margin each night, so that was good. My running felt pretty good (but slow, as always). I was just not into cycling during Week #2. I don't know how much of it has to do with riding the trainer - usually that doesn't bother me much. I was a little lower on hours than I should have been, but I may be overestimating the amount of time I actually have to train. I'm going from 600 annual hours to 750 this year, so we'll just have to see. Work has been busy.

Week #3 was pretty heavy on the hours - 20+. I managed to get everything in, including a 3.5 hour ride on the trainer (ugh) and a 1.5 hour run on the weekend. I threw in a "little" hill work during the long run - I ran to the top of Pilot Butte. It's about a mile climb that gains 1000 feet in elevation. It takes about 30 minutes to run to the base of the Butte and back, so it makes for a nice climb in the middle of a long warmup and cooldown. I think I actually negative split the thing!

Week #4 begins Monday, and it will be a recovery week (10 hours or so).

Triathlon is important to me in the sense that it allows me to spend a lot of time with Jeff doing something we both enjoy, it keeps me healthy, and I've met some really great people. But it comes WAY down on the list of priorities, after my relationship with and service to my Creator, my husband, my family, my friends, my employer, and anyone else who happens to be around ?. I enjoy triathlon, but only to the point where it doesn't interfere with the other, more important parts of my life. That's really the bottom line for me.

If I had to come up with a motto, it would be "If I can do an Ironman, ANYBODY can do an Ironman!" Thanks for reading…stay tuned for my exciting adventures in the land of Ironman training :.

- MG

Monday, November 18
Swim: Masters (3000 yd - IM kick set, fly drills, descending free 150s)
This week is my first recovery week for Base 1 training. For the last three weeks I have done 15-20 hours/week, so this week will be around 10 hours. My main focus this week will be on nutrition, since I need to be more careful with the decreased activity. So no PB pie 9. Masters practice was good - there were a ton of people so he moved most of us "Lane 2" folks to Lane 3. My triathlete buddy Joel and I traded off leading the 150s. I like recovery weeks :

Tuesday, November 19
Swim: Time trial (2200 yd - 500 yd warmup, 1500 yd time trial, 200 yd cooldown)
This was the first 1500 yd time trial I've done since the middle of last season. My time was 27:30, (1:50/100yd). I did it at a fairly comfortable pace - I probably could have (should have) gone harder, but I wasn't sure how it was going to go so I took it semi-easy. It's also quite possible that I lost count somewhere in there, but what else is new :. Maybe next month I'll add flip-turns :.

Wednesday, November 20
Swim: Masters (2600 yd - kick set, fistgloves, non-freestyle 100s)
Ugh. This was a painful session. I was thinking I'm finally starting to get the "body-dolphin" part of the breaststroke, so I opted to do that for the longest set of the practice (6 fast 100s). On about the third one, I inhaled a big ol' gulp of water and just about heaved all over the pool by the last 25 of that set. I'm pretty sure there's still chlorinated water in my lungs - not so good. The next two sets were supposed to be descending, and by the third set I pretty much crumbled. I was supposed to run for 30 minutes today but I swapped it for masters so I'll run tomorrow.

Thursday, November 21
Run: Strides (30 min)
Good run. Nothing too eventful, just an easy run with a few 20 second strides thrown in. Felt pretty good overall.

Friday, November 22
Bike: 1:50 (warmup, 30 min time trial, cooldown)
Rode out to Hwy 97 toward Redmond and did the time trial on a mostly flat stretch there. Jeff took my MPH reading because my bike computer needs to be recalibrated or something (it showed that my ˝ IM bike split at Cascade Lakes was 51 miles - NOT). Average speed was 21.7 MPH - covered almost 11 miles in 30 minutes. Better than my best average last year, so that's good. Average HR for the last 20 minutes of the TT was 165, so I'll use that as my lactate threshold on the bike until the next testing week. It felt pretty darned good.

Saturday, November 23
Swim: Masters (3200 yd - 1300 warmup, 30 min swim for yardage, cooldown)
The swim coach is trying to get some kind of aerobic timed swim in every month. Last month was the 3000 or 6000 yd "Postal" swim. This month is the 30 minute timed swim. I guess I am competitive (or maybe just a slacker when I'm by myself) because today I beat my time trial swim from Thursday by 7 seconds per 100 yd. I suppose I should count that as my actual time trial. I did 1750 yards in 30 minutes (1:43/100yd). It was actually a pretty fun swim, and I knew I wasn't working as hard as I probably should have in the Thursday TT. Since it was the first real TT of the season, I didn't know what I could do.
Bike: 3 hour MTB
Just a fun, easy (mostly) aerobic ride on some new trails up toward Mt. Bachelor. It was good to be out riding on a nice sunny day in November. It did get pretty cold when the sun started going down. We hopped in the car and feasted on steaks at Outback afterward :.

Sunday, November 24
Run: 1:15 (warmup, 3 mile TT, cooldown)
Time for the 3 miler was 27:28 ~ average of about 9:09/mile. It sure felt a heck of a lot faster than that. I'm sick of being a slow runner! I know I just don't work at it as hard as I should, so I have no business thinking I'm going to get faster. Oh well…I suppose this just leaves more room for improvement. Average HR for the last 20 minutes was 177, so that will be the lactate threshold I'll use to set my run HR goals for the next four weeks.

Monday, November 25
Bike: 2 hr (warmup, 4 x 6' tempo intervals, cooldown)
Jeff went with me for my bike workout. We headed east on a road by our house that has some rolling hills. At one point, you can see the entire Cascade mountain range, even as far as Mt. Hood (near Portland). We couldn't quite see Hood today, but it was a gorgeous sight nonetheless.
Swim: 1:15 (Masters - freestyle)
Fun swim - it wasn't actually a masters practice because the coach is out of town, but he left some workouts for us to do while he's gone. The one for today happened to have several IM sets, but we skipped it in favor of a freestyle workout he had scheduled for later in the week. Monday just isn't a good day for IMs.

Tuesday, November 26
Swim: 1:15 (Masters - IM sets)
Swim was good - same deal as yesterday with the written workouts left for us. We went back and did the workout with IM sets from yesterday, which I am actually enjoying more than I used to.
Run: 1:00 (warmup, hill intervals, cooldown)
I had a nice run in the afternoon (when it finally warmed up). Everything felt good. I'm sure I was slow as molasses, but what else is new? At this point, running is all about feeling good for me. I dislike it just enough that I think if I can create a large number of positive running experiences, I will actually start to like it. Hey, it's just a theory.

Wednesday, November 27
Swim: 3500 yd (warmup, IM set, main set of 300s, 200s, 100s, cooldown)
We wanted to get a good swim in before heading to Portland. I worked a bit early in the morning, then did a Gordo swim workout that had lots of IM sets and freestyle intervals. Then we went to the coffee shop for soy mochas and gooey snacks and headed for P-town.

Thursday, November 28
Run: 2:00 (LSD)
Went for a run on our old stomping grounds (Barbur Blvd/Downtown Portland/Terwilliger). The run felt good, but I did some walking during the last half because my left knee was screaming at me. I think I need new running shoes, plus the camber of the street in that area is pretty severe. We drove back to my parents' house for a lot of cooking & eating. I made cornbread dressing and a winter fruit crisp. The dressing went over well, but the fruit crisp was (expectedly) overshadowed by the caramel-chocolate torte. That was okay, though…more for Jeff :

Friday, November 29
Swim: 1:30 (warmup, interval sets, cooldown)
Swam intervals and gave mom a swimming lesson. She's just starting out with the TI drills and I tried to give her some pointers on working on balance. She's making progress and she's one who will work on drills & basics without getting impatient. When I wasn't coaching mom, I was swimming with Jeff - we did most of the same workout as Wednesday because that's the workout we happened to have with us. At the end I decided it was time to do some racing with Jeff. He kicks my butt on freestyle but I can hold my own with the other 3 strokes. Hey, I'll take every little bit I can get :.

Saturday, November 30
Off (Travel)
We left around 2 pm to drive back to Bend. Nice, uneventful drive to cap of a fun weekend with the family. Can't wait to see them for Christmas.

Sunday, December 1
Bike: 4:45 MTB (2.5 hr ride, crash, 2.25 hr ride)
It seemed like a good idea at the time… Riding "whoop-de-dos" at high speed. There's a section of Phil's trail where there are a series of about 15 of them, with just enough room in between to get going pretty stinking fast. On about the 7th one, I made the "whoop" but caught a bit too much air on the "de-do" and went flying. Landed on my left hip and my noggin - thank goodness I was wearing a helmet. The next 2+ hours to get home were not fun. Besides being too chicken to do anything fast, my hip was screaming every time I pedaled with my left leg, especially on the uphill portions. Luckily it was mostly downhill.

Monday, December 2
Off
Walking is not an enjoyable task today. I'm gimping around here like Frankenstein. My left shoulder is starting to ache too - guess I hit that too. Oh - my neck is telling me I sustained a bit 'o whiplash too. But wait! There's more! I'm developing one heck of a bruise on my hip - a lovely shade of purple. I hate crashing.

Tuesday, December 3
Off
Well, I hoped to be up and at 'em again today, but I can't lift my left shoulder without pain and my hip is still bothering me so… change of plans. Looks like this will be a recovery week (it's supposed to be Week 2 of Base 2). I'll just shift everything down and do two three-week sessions (Base 2 and 3) instead of finishing Base 2 and then doing a 4-week Base 3 sessions. 'Cuz this week ain't lookin' too promising.

December 4-31
Well, the rest of December was starting to look like December 2 & 3, so I decided it was time to re-assess the training plan. I took about two weeks off from running and cycling and a week off from swimming. I did a few non-Masters swim workouts the week after crashing and felt okay, although my hip was bothering me when pushing off the walls or kicking much. I used the pull buoy quite a bit in those first couple of practices back. By the time I was mostly recovered, the holidays were upon me. We spent several days in Portland with my family, then flew to Houston to see Jeff's family. We managed to get a few swim and run workouts in but I had lost quite bit of momentum (and motiviation).
Over the break I re-vamped my training program and decided to just start fresh during the first full week of January. The plan is a combination of Gale Bernhardt's Half Ironman and Ironman Performance Plans from Training Plans for Multisport Athletes. Basically, I'm starting with the the last 13 weeks of the 27-week Half Ironman plan (to prepare for Cali Lite in April) and then I'll switch to the last 13 weeks of the 26-week Ironman plan for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. The plans tend to be a little lighter during the week than what I've done in the past, and I think that will help me stick to it.