Wailing, Spanking, and Slapping

Paul has long referred to his lifting sessions as "wailing;" for example, "I'm going to wail on my pecs." After this weekend's long ride and long run, I tried to use wailing to refer to how my legs felt; "that ride really wailed on my legs." Paul, however, maintained that because these activities were much longer in duration than the normal lifting session, they required different terminology. So we came up with a continuum of physical intensity and pain: wailing, spanking (as in how my legs felt after the long ride), and slapping (how my legs felt after the long run). I'll keep you all posted as to whether these terms actually catch on.

With that introduction, there has been a lot of spanking and slapping going on for me in the last couple weeks. I decided yesterday that given the aimless nature of my life right now (in limbo with a finished but not defended dissertation and no job in sight), I was focusing all my energy on training and avoiding the world by training instead. Case in point: after the trip to Phoenix, I did 11 workouts in 6 days (5 swims, 3 rides, 3 runs). I've eased up a bit since then, but did a solid 48 miler on Saturday (that felt like ass on a cold, foggy day) and a 70 minute run on Sunday.

In other training news, I've ditched my physical therapist and his exercises. After almost 9 months of regularly seeing him and doing the exercises (he was also the 4th PT I'd seen), my hamstring still wasn't cured. In Phoenix, I thought things were great, but it turns out that really just going slow makes my leg feel 10 times better than going normal pace (8:30s). This is both awesome and (to me) tragic. I can run 10 minute miles without pain, but am afraid that having gotten myself into double digits pace-wise, I will lose any fitness and speed I ever had. I think I'm going to have to convince myself that really I'm running 9:59s just so I can mentally keep doing what my leg needs to feel ok and for me to get through all of this training. The other downside to this is that since I normally don't run 10 minute miles and have no sense of pace these days, I've done my last 3 or 4 runs on a treadmill to make sure I'm going slow enough. It sucks. I did not enjoy an hour on the treadmill Sunday when it was 50 outside, but hopefully this will all help in the long run and/or I'll adjust to this pace and get to go outside. Keep your fingers crossed because it's a gorgeous day outside and I can't keep myself on the treadmill too much longer!

I'm off to find other forms of distraction from job applications and a dissertation abstract that needs to be written (or copied and pasted from my diss intro). I'm thinking some sewing and soup making. And maybe a nap...

First Century Ride of the Year

Let's be honest: this was my second 100 mile bike ride ever. The first was a 140 miles on the first day of the STP ride last year. This ride felt (and was!) much faster, despite more than 4000 feet of elevation gain. After the ride, I was happy to find out that the ride had about twice as much elevation gain as IM CDA. This is a good thing because I was HATING life as I pedaled up the last hill back into Kirkland. Other than that, it was a great ride - no flats, no crashes, good company, and I almost had enough nutrition.

I tried a few new things nutrition-wise that I want to remember for CDA:

1. I felt like I was eating constantly, but I didn't get hungry until the last 10 miles. I had 2 bars, 2 gus, 2 bottles of Gatorade w/ carbopro for extra calories, Strawberry shot blocs, a flask of Perpeteum, and I bought 2 extra liters of Gatorade along the way. Next time, I want to double the Perpeteum and carbopro and and ditch one of the bars. Too much chewing!

2. Salt Stix! After about an hour of drinking and eating sweet gus and sports drinks, my tolerance for sweets is low. Very low. I don't know if this has anything to do with not getting enough salt, but I took a couple of Salt Stix pills w/ water during this ride and it seemed to help.

3. Knowing I had to run 13 miles in a relay race the next day, I wanted to try out a recovery drink. I had some protien and a not-so-tasty packet of strawberry Recoverite w/in 20 minutes of finishing the ride. The next morning, I was able to hold a 7:02 pace for my first 8 mile leg of the relay! Of course it was downhill, and it helped that 3 miles from the finish, a guy caught up to me and carried me the rest of the way. Not literally, but after he told me he was "taking it easy" because he did a "really hard workout" the day before, I couldn't let him beat me. When did I get to be so type A? Don't answer that.

Sun, sun, and more sun

I'm still in Phoenix, enjoying vacation and getting in some great training. It really helps to be visiting someone who's also training for a triathlon and doesn't think it's weird when you tell them you want to do two workouts a day!

Saturday morning, I did a 50-minute long run which went surprisingly well. I ate a full breakfast and was just finishing a cup of tea when we decided that if we were going to get out for a run before it was uber hot, we needed to leave asap. So my stomach was full and not too thrilled with the running at the start and quickly settled into a nice large side ache. But we were going slow so it wasn't too bad. We detoured after about 20 minutes for a bathroom at the gym, but other than that, the run went great. I was hot, but my leg had no pain the whole time which was truly awesome!!

After the run, we headed out to visit Steve at work (he's starting a metal recycling company, so we got to tour the yard and warehouse) in the Phoenix ghetto which Steve affectionately calls "Mexico." Had some great Mexican food for lunch, followed by some lying on the couch, and a quick swim later in the afternoon. The swim went ok, I ended up doing the intervals I needed to instead of wimping out and just swimming easy, but the pool itself had some issues--nasty disgusting taste, super foggy, and really shallow which made turns difficult.

Yesterday we declared a day off and instead headed out to do a quick hike in the Superstition Mountains which were super cool. And we just completed our ride for the day WITHOUT getting lost!!! It was great not to be wandering in town, detouring onto sidewalks, and stopping to ask complete strangers if they knew how to get home. Truly a great ride.

Now it's time for a shower and maybe sitting by the condo pool while we write resumes. It's a hard life in Phoenix.

Phoenix: sunny, 85, and lost on a bike

After spending $150 to get 5 copies of my dissertation printed and sent off to my committee on Tuesday, I figured it was high time to take a vacation! So I'm in Phoenix for the next 5 days to hang out with my friend Bri, train, apply for jobs (we're both unemployed), and enjoy the sunny weather!

This morning Bri and I decided to head out on a 30-mile loop that had flummoxed Bri earlier in the week. Apparently navigating the streets of Phoenix on-bike is a bit difficult--tons of the roads don't go through, but then reappear miles later with the same name, making for some very complicated directions. Bri was pretty sure she could do the loop the second time around, so we hopped on the bikes (I'm using her boyfriend's sweet road bike while I'm here) and headed out.

We rode a few miles, made a couple turns, and then... we were lost. The road we were looking for was nowhere to be found, but we hadn't missed any turns. A mere 20 minutes into the ride and the Phoenix-streets had already gotten us. Bri used her awesome navigational skills to work out a new route to hopefully connect back up with where we should be and it magically worked. Mountain Drive saved us from speeding motorists on bike-unfriendly streets. But...

No sooner had we turned onto quiet and serene Mountain Drive than Bri asked me for the directions which were stowed in my jersey pocket. I reached back, and the directions are gone!!! That's right. I managed to lose the directions when we got lost even WITH the directions. The next several miles involved a lot of guesswork, mostly accurate, and Bri guided us to an awesome bike path close to the Phoenix Mountains (think Mount Tabor-esque) and then to a nice canal path. And then the path ended and the wandering began. We ended up on a major road that Bri recognized but that was so nasty to ride on we ended up on the sidewalk for a couple miles! Then some wandering on a nice residential road in the hills, and we magically got back to a place that Bri recognized and could navigate home from.

Of the rides where I've gotten lost, this was probably my most successful--we still got in close to 30 miles, we still saw great views of the city and mountains, and there were no close calls with cars or jerk drivers. In fact, the one stop sign that I started to go through before realizing the on-coming car was turning, pulled up behind me afterward, thanked me for moving onto the shoulder, and assured me it was fine that I'd gone through the stop sign. I guess these Phoenix people are friendly!

I'm now sporting my first Phoenix sunburn (just a bit on the face) and lounging on the couch, reading about how to write resumes rather than actually writing my own, and wondering when snack time will roll around. Oh, it just came: Bri just got out the dried pineapple! Score!!

One Too Many Blue Hawaiians

Thanks to my brother's magical hangover pills, I woke up on Easter morning feeling only slightly bleh after my Hawaiian themed birthday bash on Saturday night. The workout for the day was a 65 mile ride + 30 minute run and I was less than eager because,

1. I hadn't touched my bike in 2 weeks
2. My quads were tight from Saturday's hills and the 1/2 marathon a week ago (is this possible?)
3. The forecast called for wind and rain - one of my least favorite combos
4. I was dehydrated (see title of post)

I met up with Lilia at 1:00 at the Washington Arboretum. An aside: Muggy, do you remember when I visited you in Madison and we ran in the Arb? It was 100 degrees at 6:00 and the air felt like armpits. I miss the humidity of the midwest....Anyway, Lilia is a much stronger biker than me, but she was also recovering from a 3:07 marathon last weekend, so she promised to take it easy. As we headed south around Lake Washington and the headwind made me feel like I was towing a 900 lb in one of those kiddie bike trailers. Lilia let me draft behind her for the first 33 miles, but I still had a hard time keeping up.

By mile 64, I was ready to keel over. I need to keep working on my hydration & nutrition on long bike rides if I'm going to have enough energy to run (walk/crawl) a marathon. I've been experimenting with Gu, Perpetuem, all kinds of bars and some other snacks. When I'm riding, it's easier to drink my calories, but I have a hard time getting enough. Any ideas?

Maui Half Marathon

The Valley to Sea Half Marathon in Maui was the last race I did as a twenty-something. And it was a good one! Thanks to a downhill course, I shaved 4 minutes off my PR and got to spend the rest of the day lounging on the beach. Here's the official report:

5:17: My alarm goes off and I hop out of bed, wide awake. I'd woken up at 3 and 4, worried that my alarm wouldn't go off. I heated up some of yesterday's coffee, tried to choke down a luna bar, some milk and some orange juice (I do better with liquids early in the morning). I tiptoed out in the dark and drove 4 miles to the shuttle. I'd missed the 5:45 shuttle, so I waited for half an hour for the second shuttle, carrying only me, to leave. I had no extra clothes and it was raining at the start, so I was happy to have only 15 minutes to warm up and hit the Honey Bucket before the Hawaiian fire dancer did his thing and the gun went off.

7:00 a.m: Just before the start, a woman, now known as Marie, started talking to me. I asked her about the course and made some small talk. I had no idea I would end up running most of the race or that she'd win the race. We both took off fast and formed a pack in the front with two other women. The first three miles were downhill and when I checked my splits for the first time at the three mile mark, my watch read 18:52. Woops! Lindsey, one of the other women in the pack commented about breaking her 5k PR. I found out that Lindsey and Marie both ran at Division 1 schools and realized that I might be a bit out of my league, but I felt good and was having fun chatting with Marie, so I kept going. Marie just moved to Maui for a wildlife preservation job from Seattle and used to run with Club Northwest. Small world!

7:30-ish: About 5 miles in, I still felt great, but was really really hot. After we came out of a lush rainy jungle, we were running along the highway and even early in the morning, the pavement was radiating heat. At the second aid station, I grabbed a Gatorade and a water and splashed the Gatorade in my eye as I attempted to drink and poured the water over my head. I had taken off my sunglasses in the rain and as I tried to wipe them off and put them on, one of the lenses popped out. I stuck the lens down my shirt and put my glasses back on my head. So much for sunglasses.

Mile 8: Marie's roommate Jeff was taking pictures along the course and around mile 8, she pulled off to get some water from him and go to the bathroom. I ate my vanilla gu and ran alone for 3 or 4 miles. I could see the two front runners about 50 meters ahead and I tried to close the gap as the caffeine kicked in.

Mile 11: I started HURTING. I missed the 10 mile marker so mile 11 felt really long, especially running alone. My hip/hamstring started to ache and I started having a debate with myself. Should I slow down and treat this as a training run or should I keep racing and risk hurting myself? My pride won and I kept pushing. The last 1.5 miles were on the beach and I had the same debate, knowing that the sand is rough on my achilles. Marie caught up to me and took off for the two first place women, who seemed to be slowing. When Marie passed me, I felt like I wasn't even moving. I tried to hang on, but I couldn't. There was a turnaround at the half mile mark, so I got to cheer on Lindsey and Marie a few seconds before rounded the corner. I tried to catch up, but my legs had nothing. I was 4 seconds behind 3rd place and as I crossed the finish line, I saw the time: 1:30:48!!!

That night we ate the world's worst cheeseburgers, some delicious fruity drinks and went out dancing in Lahaina. The DJ was playing nothing but cuts (Imma be Imma be!) and before I knew it, the bartender was making last call. I could hardly walk the next two days because my quads hurt so bad. Luckily, all I had to do was walk to the beach, where I could plant my butt and stare at the impossibly blue ocean.

Recommendations?

I have a butt chafing problem when I ride. Always. Always have, from the first day I got my bike. I've tried every kind of lubricant known to man (even though that sounds dirty), and it doesn't get rid of the chafing.

Tricia suggested that perhaps I should try different shorts, so I'm polling ALL our readers :) to find out your short recommendations. Yes, I could search on my own, but this is way more fun, allows me to write a quick post, and avoid the last two paragraphs of my dissertation!