Prickly Heat

After the big weekend I took Monday off. Jodie and I went to the Labor Your Legs 5K and volunteered. I had packed our bikes into the truck because I thought we would be course monitors. We instead rode sweeper. It was a nice leisurely 3.1 mile ride.


Well, I have finally circum to the effects of the summer heat. For the past week I have been suffering from what appears to be ‘prickly heat’. Yeah, I did not know what it was either. You see, I started getting an itchy rash on my legs and the back of my knees. It was very aggravating. I would scratch at these bumps and they would become welts. They would get huge – like chicken pox.

I thought that it was because of dry skin or something like that. I made a mistake and started applying various lotions to help soothe the irritation. The prickly heat rash has now spread to most of my body. In researching this aliment I have discovered that it is from overused and blocked sweat glands. The sweat glands still produce sweat but it can not escape and the sweat forms these little pockets below the skin – gross. The only remedy is time, staying dry and keeping cool. I am already taking lots of cool showers (about 3 per day) but I have added a couple of cool baking soda baths to the mix. I am also applying a lot of baby powder to keep dry.

The weather this past weekend was much cooler so I don’t think that posed too much of a threat. However, during lunch I have been staying indoors. I have been running my 6 miles on the indoor track. Talk about boring. The track is only an 8th of a mile so 6 miles is 48 laps. Around and around. I skipped the track today at lunch and played a couple of games of racquet ball.

Tomorrow I will be back in the pool with Adult Swim, strength training at lunch and then the Wednesday Night ride.

Heat Wave 2010 - Race Report

First, I don’t have any pictures. I don’t really want to remember much about this race. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time, but I did not have a good race. I do not like being slower than last year! I don’t like the feeling of going backwards.

Pre-Race

I rode up to Ridgeland (Jackson, MS) with Chris. We stopped at package pickup at Indian Cycles which is a really nice bike shop. They always do it well with cheese and wine and beer and finger foods. It was fun to swap race stories with all of your friends while you touch and feel all of the latest and greatest bikes. I noticed that when I was here a few years ago I could not imagine spending that kind of money for a bike. This weekend I was thinking of all the great deals to be had. Funny how perspectives change. I did not buy anything.

There was a group that met up at Ted’s house for a wonderful dinner and camaraderie. We had a good time catching up for the last year. I was better this year and did not eat too much. This is only a near Olympic race. No need to carbo load as they say.

We all got up early and I drank some coffee and had a cliff bar. The temperature was supposed to be very hot. I drank a large bottle of sports drink. I filled up another bottle with just water.

We arrived with plenty of time to set everything up. I grabbed my transition place; got body marked, hydrated and used the bathroom. I still had about 45 minutes to do a practice swim and ‘get into the zone’. The temperature was less than we expected – it had rained most of the night and it was still overcast.

There was a chop on the water but after the half ironman in New Orleans I was not fazed. I jumped in the reservoir and swan a few hundred yards. I felt strong in my stroke. I was swimming well. I had a great swim at this race the previous year and I was excited about doing well. I took a gel.

Swim –

The race starts in 4 waves – first - < 35 second 35 – 44 third > 45 fourth women. I was in the second wave. The buoys would be to my right which is my strong side in the swim. I started way right and towards the front of the swim. The horn went off and I started swimming. I still felt pretty good. Even though there were a lot of swimmers in my wave I was able to pick Robin out to my right. He was a distinctive swim stroke. I tried to pace off of him for the race so that I would not have to sight much. We were swimming at the same speed. The swim was going well. I decided that I was going to move behind him to catch the draft and just have a nice fast easy swim. Robin always is a little faster than me in the swim so why not just take a ride. Before I could get over there I ran into a pocket of swimmers that just were not moving well. There was a good chop in the water. It was more pronounced after we left the protection of the cove. The faster swimmers were plowing ahead but the less proficient were struggling. I lost Robin at the point and I had to make a major course correction. Getting in this mix up was the first time that I took on water. I missed a breath and then took a mouth of water on the next. It seems that once my rhythm is altered my swim quickly digresses. I recovered soon enough and rounded the first buoy. I had struggled a little bit and was not having the best swim. I remember this being a really hard swim for me but looking back to yesterday I am not sure why. Yes, the water was rough and I am sure that my heart rate was much higher than it should be but I have been in worse. I drank a lot of water and did not swim strong. I was very happy to be done with this swim. I finished a few seconds faster than last year – the course was long last year so go figure.

T1

I ran to my bike and noticed how many in my wave were gone. My friend Dan was in transition and heading out. I wished him luck. My transition was quick – no problems.

BIKE

Dan was a few seconds ahead of me out of transition and I never saw him on the bike. I felt okay during the ride and took it out comfortable hard. I still have a fear of blowing up in these shorter races. I need to just kill the damn thing and pick up the pieces at the end. My gps watch was beeping that my heart rate was too high. This alarm was still set from the half ironman in New Orleans – the alarm was set too low for this race. I would normally not have a heart rate alarm at all. Fortunately it was windy and I could not hear the alarm much. I just ignored it for the most part. However, mistakenly, I did stay right around that heart rate level. Chris, who started in a wave just after me passed me with authority at mile 3 on the bike. However, I passed him at mile five like he was standing still. Oh, he was standing still with a flat on the side of the road. I saw a lot of flats on the course this year. I am not sure why. It took out a couple of the faster bikers. Sam had a flat on the way back on the bike, Chris ended up having 2 flats and Mica also went down. It was windy out on the trace in several areas. I could really feel the wind. I did not push the bike hard enough – not nearly hard enough. I later learned that I got passed by Lance around mile 10 – I never saw him. Regarding drafting, I am not sure what was different but the race was much cleaner this year – good job Ben (he was the head official). I think the rough swim separated the racers more than in the past. I pulled into T2 a couple of minutes slower than last year.

T2

I was not feeling strong as I dismounted the bike. It would be okay; my legs would come along quickly on the run. I was ready to make up some time. I planned on taking a caffeine gel just before the run. It did not seem appetizing. I exited T2 in a respectable time.

RUN

I immediately noticed that I left my gps watch on my bike. Damn, I have grown to rely on this for my pacing. It has become a crutch. I do not know how hard I can push without it. I need to learn to race by feel rather than by instrumentation. I just started pacing off of someone that was running well. I do not know how fast it was. After only a half a mile I started to feel sick. My stomach was in knots. My belly was sloshing around. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME! I thought about walking back and not finishing. It hurt that bad. Once again - THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME!

I have often joked about having a cast iron stomach. I ran through the first water station. I did not want anything in my system. Right around mile one I saw Lance. He asked me how I was doing and I said not well – I was hurting. I ran past him but before long I had to stop on the side of the trail. I was making those puking noises and starting to gag a little. I bent over and a stream of hot brown liquid ejected from my mouth. It was short and sweet. I jumped back on the trail as I apologized to the racers around me. They just said do what you have to do. I caught back up to Lance and passed him again. I was able to run fast when I felt well but my stomach was like a time bomb. It felt like seconds were ticking down to another incident. At the mile two station I grabbed a cup of water and swished out my mouth. Once I had cleared the station I pulled over to the side again. This was a repeat of round one. I immediately felt better and ran a comfortably hard pace. There was a good hill up to the turn around. I was feeling better and my pace was increasing. The slow bike and run had really spared my legs. I was getting stronger. Just past the turnaround point I came up on Dan. He was struggling a little bit. I pushed past him. Sometime in the next mile that time bomb started to ring again. I was looking for some cover and found a large tree just off of the trail. I went behind it and the column of filth that ejected from my mouth was spectacular! Later I would get comments on the drama and the noise that was erupting. Once again I immediately felt better. At the next water station I grabbed two cups of water and swished out my mouth and took a drink. It felt good. I started to drink the next cup of water but it was sports drink. My stomach turned again. I quickly discarded this cup.

With only 2 miles to go I was ready to race. About time! I picked up the pace. I felt fresh. I ran with authority. People were telling me to “go get’em”; telling me that I was looking strong. I don’t think they realized that they had probably passed me several times. In the last mile I came up on Raland. He was running strong. I told him to not let me pass him (I had forgotten that he had started in a wave prior to me). I ran past him (he would end up with third place Clydesdale – Lance got fourth by a few seconds).

I was now running like I know I can run. I was running hard and feeling strong. I finished very strong – after all I had only really run the last 2 miles of the race. I was glad the race was over. I finished and grabbed a bottle of water.

FINISH

After the finish I was able to wander away from the crowd and find some seclusion. I was able to purge the rest of this vileness from my system. It is hard to throw up fast during a race. It seemed like another gallon came up. I later looked at my one water bottle on my bike. I had drunk maybe 10 ounces of water during the bike and so very little during the run. I am having trouble believing that I swallowed that quantity of water during the swim. It boggles the mind. I would have liked to know what my paces were for the 10k run. Sure, my total run time was longer than last year but I finished strong.

RESULTS

Overall of was 4 minutes slower than last year. My swim was slightly faster. My bike was off by 3 full minutes (23.1 MPH compared to 22.0 MPH). My run was off by 90 seconds (7:27 pace compared to 7:42 – I must have been running pretty fast WHEN I was running). I don’t know how this happened but compared to my age group I was 8 places better than last year in the swim, the same for the bike and I improved by 1 on the run.

Overall I placed 4 better than last year in my age group (but that is not saying much because I was not stellar last year either). This could have been a strong race for me but it just did not happen.

For triathlon, for me to get better on the run I definitely need to get better on the swim. I have often said, “I will not win the race on the swim but I sure can lose it!”

Recovered?

I truly appreciate all of the kind words of encouragement. I am feeling much better - after my run on Thursday morning I stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on peaches, bananas, and yogurt to get my system back on track.

I was still a little run down but I went to the pool anyway at lunch. I was not going to push it or anything. I ended up having a nice easy 2000 yards and felt better after the swim than before. This was reassuring! The swim is still there and my times were within reason even though I was swimming very comfortably.

I had originally planned for the volume to drop off a lot this month but for the intensity to increase. Well, my body is not going to allow me to increase the intensity but I have dropped the volume down. I honestly know that my training has been in order and that I should still be able to tap into it on race day. I still have 2 weeks to get everything in order and I know that I will not build any additional fitness this month - I am just hoping to restore a little bit of my prior fitness.

This has been a very frustrating "taper" but I bounce back quick and I am sure I will be ready by race day. I am just going to have to manage my health more closely - like they say - it is better to go in __% under trained than __% over trained (you can insert what ever percentage you want - I have seen them quoted all over the place - I like 20% under and 1% over).

Sick and tired - and weak

From my last blog post: “My goals for the rest of the month are to stay injury free and fresh - both mentally and physically.” - I wish.

I woke up Monday morning feeling fine from the weekend events. Maybe I was just a tad tired from the weekend. I decided to sleep in and hit the pool at lunch time. I only got to swim once last week and really wanted to hit the pool hard this week – give the legs a break and really fine tune the swim.

I swam about 600 yards and then Chris joined me in the pool. He had some challenging workouts. We started with a couple of 50’s on 60 then moved on to paddles. We finished up with 5 sets of 100’s on 1:40 – that is fast for me. The first couple were okay and then they got hard. Chris said that I completed each 100 at less than 1:30 – it would have had to be close.

I’m not sure if it was from the pool or what but my stomach got just a little upset during the afternoon. I am so big on talking about never getting sick – well this year has been a big exception. Anyway, Jodie and I went for a drink after work. She had a glass of wine and I had a couple of drafts – nothing major but we had a good time just chatting. We ran some errands and then made it home by about 8:30PM. My stomach was still a little sour but no big deal. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and some iced tea.

However, I woke up around midnight in intense pain. It felt like Mike Tyson had punched me in the gut – not some simple upset tummy. It was like I did about 1000 sit ups and crunches times 100. Being completely still in bed my torso from the bottom of my rib cage to the top of my pelvic girdle ached. My stomach was bloated and I needed to throw up. I made it to the bathroom and everything came up – the beer, the sandwich and the tea.

You would have thought that I would have felt better but the aches were still there. They lasted all night. All of the next day I continued to have difficulty keeping anything down. I tried to keep my fluids up but they even came up sometimes although I was able to keep urinating so I knew that I was not dehydrated. This lasted all of Tuesday and Wednesday. Since Monday I have lost 7 pounds – not really they way that I wanted to get down to my goal weight.

Feeling better on Thursday I went for a short 3 mile run before work. It was very hard starting out but it got easier. I am not back to 100 percent but I think I will bounce back just fine.

Last week I thought that it was good to get the back pain out of the way before the big race – now this week the stomach bug. What will next week bring – a broken clavicle – lord I hope not.

Episode IV – A New Hope

I felt better yesterday afternoon and I get an ‘A’ for effort. I actually made it back to the gym after work to complete my swim workout. However, there is no lap swim at 5PM on Tuesday and Thursday – SMACK. So I just hopped on the bike and rode home. The effort was a little higher than I would have liked.

I had a nice evening and started to organize morning group activities. I sent the call out – a lot of people are still busy with school being still in session. But Tony was up for a swim. I asked him what the temperature of the lake was and he said that wetsuits were not allowed! I thought to myself – he is a bigger man than me. I gathered all of my gear up prior to bed so that I would not be stumbling around in the dark.

The sun was up by 5:45AM (good times) and I had my coffee and put on my wetsuit. I’m no fool. Got to Tony’s house and he was wearing a wetsuit also – nice joke. When we got in my feet were cold – not freezing – just cold. Tony put in a small beach during the off season – that was nice in the feet. After swimming for just a few minutes the temperature was near perfect. We swam across the lake. Man I wish I could swim straight – I’m working on it. I might be just a little faster than Tony but the zigzagging negates much of that. I started to swim next to Tony and sight off of him. This was much easier. I then decided to draft off of him. It made a big difference! I would swim in his draft and then swim out of his draft. While in the draft I really had to slow my stroke down – I had to add a lot more glide. It was like I was coasting. The next race I think I will really try to get on someone’s feet. Without losing all of the momentum with sighting and the efficiencies of drafting – well – if I can pull this off…

Tony went ahead and signed up for the Gulf Coast Half in Panama Beach on May6th – tempting – Sam, Chris, and Mike and now Tony and several more will be there. Speaking of Sam – he won the Mullet Man Triathlon (I love the name of this race – they also have a Mullet parade and a Mullet toss – FYI – it is a fish) in Pensacola last weekend. He got 5th last year and just keeps getting faster.

Finished up with the just under a mile swim and it was still early. I was going to drive to work but since I had time I went home and put my gear away and jumped on the bike. A nice 6 mile trip and shower at the gym.

I have a run at lunch and have organized the Tuesday / Thursday morning ride again. I love this time of year.

I know that I will not lose my fitness being sick - I'm just frustrated - I'm just not very good at being sick. I'm the guy who says feel my forehead and regardless of the temperature I want you to say - "Wow - that is so hot - I don't know how you could ever endure this - you are so strong - can I get you anything?" I then say - meekly, "No - I'm fine - I'll be okay". As you start to leave the room - "Maybe some ice cream would be good." It is just a damn good thing that I am not sick very often - I go years and years with nothing - Knock on wood.

On the illness front – not 100 percent but much better.

Swimmingly sick

The run at lunch yesterday went a little bit long – 35 minutes turned into 50 minutes. This was what I was talking about in my last post. Having fun and doing more than the plan calls for – Oh well – All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Last night I got home and felt great – better than I have for days (feels like weeks). I played around in the garage with the bikes. I took the race wheels off of my triathlon bike and swapped the cassettes and just messed around. It was fun. I had a couple of beers and turned some wrenches.

This morning – sick again. What? Really sore throat is back and tons of mucus! I had already committed to cycling to work (the days are just too nice) but it was hard to get going. I had planned on leaving the house at 6AM so that I could ride to the gym and be in the pool by 6:30AM. I left late but still got in the pool by 6:40AM. My workout – the first real swim workout since New Orleans called for 3 x 1000 yards with 30 second rest. The first set went okay – I was about 8 seconds off of my best (1000 yards today in 16:08 – 1:36 / 100 yards). Then I just gave up. I was tired, I did not feel well and I convinced myself that I would go back to the pool later if I felt better. This is most likely a lie.

Since I do not enjoy the swim as much as the other disciplines (I think it is the camaraderie) it is easier for me to blow it off. I know that you should work the most on the activities you like the least. I’m working on it.

It seems like it was not long ago that I was bragging about a Personal Best every other post. I'm ready to get back to that!

Cycling intervals

So I got out and about yesterday and did some real training. 9 miles at an 8 minute / mile pace. I felt pretty good and the exercise did make me feel better. But I could tell that I was still under the weather. I am not a nap kind of person – it can be difficult for me to lie down in the afternoon. I get stir crazy. I stare at the walls and have to get moving.

Well, yesterday I relaxed for a little bit after lunch and took a 3 hour nap. I was out like a light. Even after I woke up I was still tired. I was lethargic most of the evening.

I was gratified to have completed a day in the new training plan. I have made it a goal to follow this new training plan as close as possible. I always tend to add too much – fun stuff like going for an extra bike ride with the group or doing a few extra intervals – you know – just getting caught up in the fun of it.

Today called for a 45 minute interval session on the bike and a 35 minute run later in the day. I set out my cycling gear and was glad to see the sun up at 6AM. The intervals were hard – 10 x 1 minute with 2 minute recovery. Man – some of those minutes seemed to last forever!
The time off – even though ill – has made me excited again about training.

As a side note - I have done those running and cycling exercises to see your sweat rate - you weight before and after and take into account how much you drank. I should have done this during those cycling intervals this morning just to determine my expectorant rate! Yuk. Who knew so much mucus could be expelled in 45 minutes!

Back on the plan

Sunday is the start of my training week. Just last night I was reading something and it said it would be okay to exercise with a cold as long as you do not have a fever- as I have said this sick thing is kind of new to me. My new training plan only called for 70 minutes of running. I say only because this is a weekend day after all. Seventy minutes is really not much when you have the whole day.

I hit the trace at around 8AM without my heart rate monitor. I did take the old GPS watch just to gauge the pace - not sure why this was important to me today. I was calculating what pace I should run for today and I decided that 8 min / mile would be cool - I don't know how I decided this but that was the line that I had drawn.

So 9 miles in 72 minutes and I felt pretty good. My base is solid. My cardio system was never taxed by this run - no heavy breathing - never really felt too hard. It definitely was not zone 1 or low zone 2 but it was not bad. However, at about mile 7 my hamstring started to get tight. This has been bothering me whenever I run long or run fast. Not sure what to do about this - even though I was ill this week I did take about 5 days off of running. You would think that the hamstring would be better after the rest. Oh well.

Glad to be feeling better - I'm not feeling good but better - no fever. I am on the road to recovery.

Saturday = rest day ??? - frustration...

Taking it easy again today! Still not feeling real great (understatement = productive cough = yuk -- If I was Steve in a Speedo I would take a picture). I also have some running around to do because the past two weekends I was out of town (first New Orleans and then Jackson - for that century ride). I am excited about getting back to exercise and my A race Ironman is still not until August so a little time here getting better will not effect anything.

I have said this before but I am really going to try and follow my new training plan as close as possible. I have been doing my own thing and training hard for a long time - and seen good results. But I think with a race as long as an ironman - winging it is not an option.

Now to disregard everything I just said - I also really want to add some extra intensity to my strength training. More functional strength. I don't care how much I can bench press or curl. I just want to be stronger.

Time to feel better first!

Still feeling puny but better –

Thanks for all of the kind comments - they are appreciated!

It has been frustrating watching the super nice weather and not being able to engage it! I do not like off days – they are hard enough as it is – but taking a lot of rest days and not feeling rejuvenated is even worse. I feel better today! I just had another quick easy swim yesterday – more to just do something.

Hopefully I can take it easy this weekend and then hit the new FULL IRONMAN training plan next week.

I’m ready to get back on the horse – always the bright side – maybe these sniffles are what I needed to keep the motivation high – to keep the drive alive!

Back in the pool

I have taken it rather easy this week. My training volume has been reduced to about a quarter of what it was leading up to the half ironman. The main reason is that I have this damned sore throat and all of the associated aches and pains of a cold.

I did get back in the water for the first time since the race. That would be about 10 days. It felt pretty good. I was working on breath control - this is a tough one for me. It seems like if I do not breath just about every stroke than I get that feeling of being oxygen deprived. It is uncomfortable. I did some drills of bilateral breathing to better combat this. It worked okay but I need a lot more practice. I would like to raise my comfort zone in the water.

Anyway, 30 minutes / 1500 yards.