train slow to race fast

Now that Ironman is over I'm training for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  I love running.  I have been a runner my entire life: a sprinter when I was a kid and a marathoner as an adult.  The thing is... If I *only* run... I get sick of the monotony of it.  This is why I do triathlon.

The balance I'm looking for at the moment is the proper mix of swimming and cycling so that I'll improve my fitness but not so much that I'll be too tired to run.  Know what I mean?

I have update my running ahead log.  I've been using Runkeeper which is a fun iPhone GPS app... but I don't like the blog widget :/

So I did an all out 5k run yesterday to figure out my training paces.

Here is the run.

The time on my run keeper app was different from Rob's Garmin by about a minute.  I used a time of 24:30 as my 5k time.  This is the slowest 5k time that I have run in recent history.  In fact this would normally be a 5k easy for me.  The fact is, though, I haven't done any speed work in a long time.  My Ironman training has been long slow distances... and you know what they say... if you train slow you'll race slow.  I'm also thinking that I haven't fully recovered from Ironman which took place 10 days ago.

Nonetheless,  here are the numbers.

I was scared shitless leading up to this race to the point that my Dad (my race crew) described me as "mentally shut down."  I was deep down in a focused state of mind. It may have seemed "shut down" from the outside, but I was highly focused... so highly focused that nothing else seemed to matter.

My experience in Texas was totally centred around the race.  We arrived in Houston on the Wednesday afternoon.   I purchased healthy food from the grocery store to avoid restaurant food... although we still ended up at the Golden Corral.  Got to sleep early so that we could be productive on Thursday.

Thursday was spent unpacking and putting my bike together.  I went for an hour long easy test ride and an 20 easy run.  The heat wasn't too bad although the sun was hot.  Thankfully I found 110 SPF sunscreen... which I have never seen in Canada.  After a ride, a run and a shower we went into the Athletes Villiage for the athletes' check in.   I spent a bunch of time trying to make my Timex Global Trainer Body Link and Cadence and Speed sensor work.  The Timex guy was super nice and replaced my broken watch (i'm on my third unit now)... but they weren't able to get my cadence sensor to work.  Also had to pack up my bike and run gear bags for the transition area.

On Friday morning I went for my first open water swim of the season... the day before the race. The water was warm and somehow... I was able to tap into a zen frame of mind.  I've done enough open water swimming that it's sort of like riding a bike now.  I felt ready for race day.

Later, I ended up having to check my bike in for repairs... and the tech dude couldn't get the Timex to work either... so it's $130 later and I now have a Cat Eye sensor.  Spent a small fortune in the Ironman store... saw Chrissie Wellington at a book signing but didn't have time to get in line to personally meet her.  Got my bike out of the repair shop just in time to get to the bike check at the transition area and turned in my gear bags.


On race morning we were up and out the door by 5:30am for body marking.  Brought my water bottles etc to the bike check and made our way to the swim start.  I was focused on my race strategy.  We got into the water 10 minutes before the canon went off for a mass swim start.  I positioned myself near the back closest to the buoys.  I swam a nice solid easy pace and was somehow totally calm the entire time.  There was a lot of splashing and plenty of body contact among the 2000+ swimmers.  I swam the 2.4 mile (~4000m) distance in 1:39:49.

The bike was my undoing.  The first half of the ride was fine... but I had mixed up my Hammer Perpetuem too thick (ug...) and I ended up with severe stomach cramps before the ride was over.  I had to choke it down over the last hour of the ride because I was worried about having too much of a calorie deficit.  It was not fun.  My ride was 7:35:28... very disappointing. I would have expected 26kph (16.8mph). But my stomach cramps were so bad I could hardly go down on my aero bars.

The run was basically a process of evacuating all of the Hammer Nutrition along with all the other side effects it produced (gas, bloating and the runs)... and in spite of this I managed to run the entire marathon.  I only stopped to walk through the water stations and at port-johns.  Other than that I kept on trucking at a ridiculously slow (~7min/km) pace.


I'm not happy with my race results per se... but I'm proud of having finished. I was totally wasted at the finish line, and my time of 14:58 was the best I could have possibly done under the circumstances.

At first... I never wanted to ride my bike again.  The swim was fine, and the run only sucked due to a terrible ride.

Now, a week later, I'm determined to do it again, and get it right.

My bike... all packed up.

Today I ran an easy 14k run on my lunch hour... and then after work I met with Ian, my coach, to pack my bike up for the flight and to go over my race strategy.

Wanna hear it?  Okay... so it's organized by discipline into three categories; effort, nutrition and psychological.  Here are Ian's words of advice to me:

SWIM
Effort: Find an easy relaxed swim pace that minimizes energy consumption (mental and physical). During the last 1000m of the swim rehearse mentally in detail how your transition will go.
Psychological: The swim is the shortest discipline.  You won't win or lose the race based on your swim time.  Remember, 10 minutes into the bike ride you will have totally forgotten about the swim, so don't let yourself stress over it. Be patient and stay calm.

BIKE
Effort: When you get on your bike your HR will be elevated from the swim and transition... so don't look at your HR data for the first 30 minutes - at all. During these 30 minutes the trick is to ride 'ridiculously slow.'  Let the people pass you for now.  You'll do the passing later.  After the 30 minutes go ahead and increase to an intensity of HR = 135 bpm and ride that out for the balance.  You'll find at the end that you aren't getting passed very much at all.
Nutrition:  Bring 2 x 1000 calorie bottles of Hammer Perpetuem and 2 bottles of Endurolytes Fizz.  Leave an additional one of each in your special needs bag.
Psychological: you have to be disciplined on the bike.  90% of poor run performance is the result of going out too hard on the bike.  The difference will play out in the run. Be smart. Go slow at the beginning.

RUN
Effort:  Don't use HRM on the run.  Just go by pace.  Choose a LSD pace that you think you can sustain over the whole run.  Don't start out too slow because there is typically only one 'gear' in the IM marathon.  If you settle into a slow pace, you'll have a hard time kicking up a notch.  Walk through every aid station. Good form is important.
Nutrition: Gels and Endurolytes Fizz.  In the last 10km go for coke (caffeine and sugar). Also, I got an almond butter and honey bar because my body doesn't respond well to sugar in the long run.  Protein is better for the early miles.
Psychological: Break the marathon down into 26 x 1 mile. Focus only on the mile at hand and count them down.  Most people go through two rough patches in the run but it won't last. Leave the bad miles in the past, and move on at the next mile.  The bad patch will end in a mile or two.  The next mile is bound to be better.  Since this is your first race, the goal is to finish feeling strong - like you could have gone faster.

So... my plan is to follow this advice exactly.

It's hard to believe that race day is only 10 days away.

I can hardly concentrate.  One minute I'm sure I'll finish, and then the next minute I'm scared to death of the last 5k of the run (no the last 10k shit... must not hyperventilate).

So...

Last weekend I trained like a bastard:

I swam a full 4k on Sunday.  I just had to have that behind me.  It wasn't hard really. My arms were tired during the last 500m... but whatever... it was just tired, not agonizing pain or anything.

I did a five hour ride mostly at an easy pace (130km).  With my HR at 120 I was consistent at 23 km/hr and then for the last hour I rode with HR at 130 and my average pace was 26.5 or so.  After my ride I ran 4k just to work on the transition.  It took me around 20 minutes to get my legs moving... and I was comfortable at a 6 min/km pace.

I had to break my 20k run into two parts due mainly to time constraints and me getting sick of running on my treadmill at 11pm.

But... that's pretty much it for now.  I'm done.  Now it's time to rest up... maintain strength and then get 'er done on race day.

I'm meeting up with Ian on Monday to go over my race strategy.  He'll pack my bike up for the flight... OMG what will I do without my bike!

I have been going weekly to RMT to loosen up my quads and calves. I'm feeling good.

I'm feeling really good.

This was worth the months and months of training.

I'm going to be a lost soul after this.

What will I do?

I am so ready to be done with this whole thing.  I mean... the end is in sight.  I don't know if I will do well on race day, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'll be as ready as I can be.  I've done (most of) the work and it's almost time to just let the chips fall where they will.
My legs are tired... and sore... all. the. time.
I guess this means I'll benefit from a good taper. Maybe the race will go well after all.
On most days though, I feel totally anxious and pretty much terrified of the run.
Other times, after a rest day or two... I feel good. Like I'm going to be okay.
I have appointments booked for RMT next week, followed by chiro and ART a few days after that.

Holy hell, I'm scared.  This minimalist approach really requires a tonne of faith in one's coach.  I can't believe that I'm going to be ready in time.  I can barely cycle for 6 hours... never mind run a marathon after that.  I know I can do the swim... but it's the run I'm worried about.

... is my achilles heel.  Seriously, I know I need a rest from training when my achilles tendonitis flares up. My calves are aching and my feet are going numb when I'm running.  Today I have my feet on ice, I took two advil (which I avoid normally) and tomorrow will be a short swim session and some core and upper body conditioning. I made a wee adjustment with my bike shoes too, which is meant to reduce strain on the calves in favour of quads and hamstrings.  Fingers are crossed.

I have to say though, it's all worth it.  Last weekend's training was epic!  On Sunday I cycled 125 km (in the wind all by myself) and then ran 7 km at a good pace. I was fully expecting to walk those 7km but my pace was surprisingly awesome.  In fact, on my out and back route, my average pace was 5:30 ish and on the way back I had to make a conscious effort to run "easy" as per my training plan.

Also, I swam 3000m at a pace of around 2:10/min which makes me happy. The days of the 2:30 swim pace are gone...

So race day is around the corner... and I have a pretty good grasp of what my performance will look like, based on my training.  I expect to swim at around 2:15 in the worst case scenario (current, panic etc), cycle at 25.5 kph (if there is wind) and run at 5:40 for the first haft of the run deteriorating down to 6:15 by the end of it (pessimistic, I know).

With these estimates my handy dandy calculator predicts: 15:38:58.  If my marathon pace ends up being 6:30 I'll be okay with that as long as I finish.

This weekend I had a pretty large training load: a 29k run, a 2600m swim and a 100k ride. Plus an easy ride to loosen up my tired legs.  Crazy.  The ride was the hardest part of it all... and the run was pretty rewarding with a pace of 5:30ish.

Today is a rest day. I already feel restless. I'll have to work it out with pushups and planks.

I was supposed to ride for 210 minutes yesterday, which is 3h30.  It was only my second outdoor ride of the season.  I bundled up in lots of layers for protection from a cold north wind.  While the sun was shining and the temperature was just above the freezing point, the wind chill was bringing the temperature down to -5.

I rode an out and back route along Russell Road.  At the 1h45 minute mark I was at around 45km. There had been a cross wind the whole way and I was thinking that on the way back it might work to my favour.  I decided to ride out the extra 5 km to make it a nice round 50k. There were a couple of really big hills at the end before I turned around... but it was no biggie.

On the way back I fully expected relief from the wind I had ridden again on the way out.  Instead it was worse! Way worse.  My average pace on the way out was hardly affected was closer to 25kph. On the way back the wind was almost blowing my bike over.  Gusts regularly slowed me down to 16kph and a few times a low as 13kph.  It was slooow going.  And that wasn't even the bad part. I was freezing.  My feet were going numb and aching at the same time.  To make matters worse I had run out of water by the 70 km mark.  This should have been an easy problem to solve since I had my debit card with me... but most of the towns along the way were shut up for Good Friday.  I didn't have to suffer for too long before I found a convenience store open in Carlsbad Springs.  Thank god.  I was nervous to leave my bike outside the shop because I didn't bring a bike lock.  I got blue Gatorade, gross.  I don't know why put dye in a drink?

Anyway I made my way back slowly.  Factoring out the time in the convenience store as well as bushwhacking twice when nature was calling, my overall time was 4h25 min.

The distance wasn't the problem, it was the wind and the dehydration.  Today my legs a bit stiff and my face is sun and wind burned... but otherwise I feel good.