Monday, May 29, 2006

A Wild, Windy Weekend

The weather forecast for Memorial Day weekend was, in two words, going to be hot and windy. Not just kinda hot or kinda windy, but REALLY hot and REALLY windy. Saturday was in the low ninety's and sustained winds of 30-45 mph with gusts of close to 70mph. I was glad I got my run in by 8:30am! I didn't have any other activities planned for the rest of the day, so I just did some stuff around the house and listened to the wind howl! But, I did need a good long ride of about 4 hours on Sunday. With one eye on the weather forecast (I love weather.com!), I planned my ride. I decided I could handle heat or wind, but not both, on the ride. I talked Sparkle into riding with me (actually she volunteered, needed practice for RAGBRAI) and I talked Sid into practicing his RAGBRAI skills as well (he's our sag driver). With the winds forecast to be about 25-30mph out of the south, we picked a little town called Maxwell, about 15 miles SE of Ames, as our starting point, and Iowa Falls (55 miles due north) as our ending point. We'd never ridden any of these little county roads, but there was very little east-west riding to be done so it looked like we could sail all the way.

I called another friend who recently moved to Ames and just bought a new bike, and he wanted to ride along for just the little stretch from Maxwell to Ames. After loading up two trucks with bikes and clothes and all the stuff we'd need at the end of the ride, picked up Kevin, we dropped off one truck at Sid's so he could come get us in Iowa Falls. Sparkle, Kevin, and I drove to Maxwell and headed north on our bike with a nice breeze at our backs, the sun shining overhead, and temps in the upper 70's to low 80's at about 9am. The county roads were smooth, black asphalt and traffic was next to nothing - perfect for cycling. Less than 30 minutes later, we were nearly back to Ames and hadn't really even broken much of a sweat yet. Although this was Kevin's third ride this year, the conditions were so perfect that he opted to continue on with us for the rest of the ride, rather than head back into Ames.

There were times where, without pedaling, we were cruising along at about 20-22mph. It was just a glorious day to be on a bike. We hit one stretch from Fernald to McCallsburg where the roads sucked pretty royally but everything else was great, so we forged ahead. We had a couple east-west traverses to keep us on our new favorite county road, and those times made us bitter. I had to lean about 25-30 degrees into the wind to keep from being blown off my bike and the road, because by now the winds were about 30mph out of the south again. We made such good time, we got to Iowa Falls about an hour before we thought we would. The wide open road gave me a couple stretches where I could really hammer it for 3-4 miles at a time. I think I hit close to 37 mph on a straight, flat section of road. It felt awesome! And it felt great to be able to maintain that for 8-10 minutes at a time. Perfect!

By the time we got to Alden (about 50 miles into the trip), Kevin was wiped out. We stopped at the Casey's for some refreshments and to cool off for a few minutes. The last 6 miles into Iowa Falls were heading east and that sucked! If we'd made Kevin go one more mile, I think he would have sat down be the side of the road and just called a cab from Ames to come get him. He was done. 55 miles isn't bad for your third ride of the year! We found an air-conditioned watering hole in Iowa Falls, drank some beverages of the adult variety, had some food, then all was well! We visited with Sid's sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew, had some well-deserved Dairy Queen and made Sid drive us home.

I really enjoyed the "destination" ride. Kinda reminded me of RAGBRAI. Now if only we could get the wind to be at our backs the whole week of RAGBRAI... Truth be told, I think we could have made it all the way to Canada on that ride, if we'd been willing to give it a shot!

Today I wanted to take another shorter ride since yesterday's ride was a little short of my time goal. I somehow talked Sparkle into heading back out with me for another roughly 17 miles, then I had a little brick run to do. The wind was still pretty intense, and the brick run was blazing hot. Last bit of training for the long weekend is another open water swim tonight with the triathlon training group and the IM'ers.

A Little Less Chlorine, In Week Sixteen

Scary as it sounds (and it sounds pretty darn scary to me!!), this week marks the end of the first 15 weeks of training. That means that there are only 15 more to go!! WHOA!! While I appreciate how far I've come since February, I have even more appreciation for how much further I have to go by September. I had a few moments of near panic this week thinking about what I need to accomplish over the next couple of months.

On Friday, I met up with Bob (has done IM Wisconsin a few times and is going to again this year), Brad (has done IM Wisconsin a few times before but not this year), and Mike (a IM Wisconsin virgin, like me) out at Peterson Pits (nice name for a swimming hole, eh?) for some open water swim practice. It's been since last June since I'd had my wetsuit on, and I forgot what a constricting, claustrophobic feeling that is. I wasn't very comfortable for the first 200 yards, and by then I'd lost the group and any chance to practice drafting. I never got 100% comfortable, but I guess that's why we practice. We all have pretty flexible jobs, so we'll be getting out there over the lunch hours on a semi-regular basis to get lots of yardage. I was starting to feel really good (probably too good) about my swimming while pool swimming was all I was doing. This was quite and eye-opener for me.

I kind of reached my breaking point with the weather this week, too. I figure that it is the end of May, so the weather should be done screwing around and just get hot and sunny and stay that way until mid-September. Of course, the crazy Iowa weather has a different idea. Sunday's long ride outside became a half outside and half on-the-trainer ride because it tried to rain on me. Of course, once I got back home and got on the bike on the trainer, the rain stopped and never re-started. I was too bitter to get back outside that I just finished the ride indoors and watched a movie.

My brick runs (runs right after a bike ride) have been feeling great for some strange reason. Usually I feel like like someone surgically attached someone else's legs to my body and then told me to get up and run without letting the anesthesia wear off first, but lately I feel like I've been allowed to use my own legs. And when I feel pretty good, I tend to push it a little bit on the run. Wednesday's brick felt awesome, so by Thursday night's stand-alone run, I had no "go-juice" left in my legs and I had a terrible run. I was just pooped.

As the Memorial Day weekend approached, the temps crept into the blazing-hot range. Saturday's group run was a real cooker, even at 7am. So, I'm just adding "heat acclimation" to the list of things to work on.

Since this is the end of the first half of my training, I thought it might be kinda fun to see just how much of everything I've done since the end of February:

41 miles of swimming (that's about from Ames to Iowa Falls!)
57.5 hours of riding (roughly 920 miles, if you figure about 16mph average pace or 2.4 solid days of riding!)
311.3 miles of running (as a comparison, Interstate 80 is 306 miles in length across the state of Iowa!)

Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 5100 yards (about 1500 of that in open water)
Bike: 4 hours, 45 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 25.5 miles

Sunday, May 21, 2006

No Time to Houseclean, In Week Seventeen

I began this week in Chicago with a run on Sunday morning prior to all the Mother's Day activities. My run was far less than stellar. I guess I could attribute it to all the traveling and previous day's events, but I think I just didn't feel like running. Yuck. I struggled through a minimum amount of running, then called 'er quits. No sense killing myself in the name of checking another workout off the list. By the time I made it back to Ames and had another run on Tuesday, I felt much better and was glad I didn't beat myself up over one less than perfect workout.

Swimming went well this week, too. Monday, however, someone forgot to check the thermostat at Beyer Pool, so we all had an icy, take-you-breath-away workout. Thankfully, all the little old ladies took care of the complaining (I knew they would) and the temp was back to normal by Tuesday. By the end of the week, it seemed that many of the regulars had left town, so there were less than 10 people in the pool on Thursday. I took advantage of that and did a longer straight swim (as opposed to drills, intervals and the such). I was surprised at both my endurance and the speed I was able to maintain. Makes me feel a lot better about what kind of time I can achieve in my races this summer.

This was another week where biking ended up not being a priority. I've decided to blame that on the running group. That group dictates what days are run days, even if they would be better suited as bike days. Only two more weeks of the running group then I HAVE to make cycling my number one priority.

While in Chicago last weekend, we all went to Tina's mom's house in Willow Brook. I guess I never knew that Tina's brother, Tom, was big into cycling. We shared a quick chat about racing wheels (while my mother looked very confused...), and I realized that Tom may be a great resource for me on the topic of cycling. Where was he while I was shopping for my bike?!?!

If cycling took a hit during the week, running was, well, off and running! This was the final push week for the running group, so we had a "long" 7 miler on Tuesday and a "longer" 10 miler on Saturday. The group is just short of dying. They think I am trying to kill them with miles. For a group who's first "long" run was 4 miles nine weeks ago, making them do over 30 miles in 8 days gives them good reason to think I am torturing them! But, now they are on to the taper period, so I'll be back in good graces in a week or so. I stuck in another 6 miles on Thursday night, and everything feels fine. The 10 miler on Saturday actually ended up being a great run for me. It was a great confidence boost for Dam to Dam in 2 weeks. It was a negative split run, not by design, but just because I really found my zone on the last half of the run and just felt like I was flying!

I've added a couple of pictures to last week's post and will be adding some more in the next couple of days. Keep checking back!

Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6500 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 50 minutes
Run: 27.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of lunges and core work.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

No Need for Sunscreen, In Week Eighteen

Another crazy week is in the books, and I am realizing more and more every day that it is literally impossible to fit all this training into a week and still have any time left over to be a normally functioning member of society. But then again, no one ever said that triathletes are even remotely normal to begin with...

Since I have 3 swim workouts to fit in each week, my new game plan is to go to the pool as much as possible, as early in the week as possible, in order to make certain that I get all three workouts in. This week, it worked out to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Since graduation was on Sunday, the pool was nearly half as full as it has been, and for that I am VERY grateful. I swam the vast majority of my laps this week in a lane all to myself. This makes happy! Still, I haven't figured out how to squeeze a 3000 yard swimming workout (and all the pre- and post-swimming driving/parking/changing/showering) into a lunch hour, but I still think the workouts are going well.

The crazy May weather took it's toll on my cycling again this week. It has been chilly, wet, and windy for a while, and it makes me bitter! There was a slight break in the weather on Sunday, and I couldn't bear another trainer ride, so Sparkle and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to Big Creek to ride the asphalt trail to Des Moines and back. Without getting too specific (and using words that my mother would not be proud to see me type), it was the worst ride either of us have ever been on. The trail SUCKS and is hard to get off of if you wanted to ride home on the road. And, if you do get off the trail and onto the road, chances are good that it'll be a road so heavily traveled that you opt for more riding on the sucky trail rather than risking probable death-by-5th-wheel-travel-trailer. Without getting too specific, neither of us will EVER ride that trail again. The worst part was that we had spent so much time getting so few miles ridden that the 3-hour bike ride was reduced to a 1 hour 45 minute ride followed by a quick 1.5 mile brick (bike and run) run.

Post-Crappy Bike Ride at Big Creek


Wednesday morning the weather again allowed me to fit in a quick brick workout. The plan for Thursday was to get another trainer ride done while the laundry was jumping between the washer and dryer and the 6 loaves of Mother's Day bread were baking (and presumably my bags were packing themselves and loading themselves into my truck too). Needless to say, that didn't happen (the bike ride or the self-laundering/packing/loading bags).

But, I did end up getting the IronMaiden and her trainer loaded up into the truck to make the trip to Chicago so that Roehr and I could do our long ride together (in her living room). We knew that riding together on the trainer would be better than doing it alone, but we both still hit a slightly bitter stretch even with the added moral support. We managed 2 1/2 hours (along with the help of Wedding Crashers and Police Academy) followed by a 3 mile run. It was supposed to be a brick, and it was. But only of you consider a roughly 10 minute transition and a full change of clothes a quick change! Actually, it turned out to be one of the better post ride runs I've had in quite some time.

I guess I can't complain too much about my running. It's been quite some time since I've had a massage, and I can tell. My IT bands nearly protrude out of the sides of my legs and the are tight as can be but, strangly enough, aren't causing me any problems (yet). After giving me fits last week, my hamstring went from feeling horrible to feeling basically no discomfort at all this week. Not sure why that is, but I'm gonna ride it as long as I can!

Overall, I only missed one workout this week: a mid-week ride. Not too bad considering all I had to get done in order to get out of town for the weekend. My running group had a substitute coach for their 8-miler. Next week is their final 10-mile run before they start to taper for Dam to Dam.

I love coaching this group every year. It gets me back into a regular running routine in the spring, and ends the first week of June, just when summer really kicks off. I feel like I've been waiting forever for summer to get here, and now it's only a couple of weeks away!! Every year, it feels like the Iowa winters get longer and longer and longer, and I just get more and more bitter with the bitter, yucky weather. This spring is not helping my attitude about Iowa. There has been so much rain and cold and wind... Bring on the heat and humidity!!!

Along with the warmer weather, summer just brings so many more fun things! It's less than 70 days to RAGBRAI! I'm very much looking forward to that week. I know that it won't be exactly like the other RAGBRAIs I've done the last couple of years, but just the idea of the ride puts a big smile on my face. And, in those less than 70 days to RAGBRAI, I will have 3 triathlons, at least one trip to Madison, my grandma's 100th birthday, etc...

Having spent some of this weekend with Grandma Klein, I know she is looking forward to having her whole family together for her birthday in July. It will be a really crazy time, but so cool for her to have everyone in one place at the same time. I'm sure it's been since we all went to Boise for Christmas about 15+ years ago since we've all been together in one place. And now, all (except me) of her grandchildren are married (or engaged) and she's got 4 great-grandchildren. What a cool thing for her AND for all of us! Plus, she only turns 100 once, so it's up to all of us to make it as cool an event for her as possible.

Grandma Linda has a very special Mother's Day with Sophie (top) and Lauren (bottom)


Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6600 yards
Bike: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Run: 11 miles

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Finding a Routine, In Week Nineteen

Last weekend, the weather was nothing but rain. Rain, rain, rain. From Thursday evening to Monday evening. That meant that I was back on the trainer for another long Sunday afternoon bike ride. Thankfully, I had some movies sitting around that I hadn't watched yet, and one of them happened to be exactly the length of the ride I needed. So, for 2 hours 30 minutes I rode the bike and watched the Pianist. Good movie and good (as good as can be expected on the trainer) ride.

My hamstring issues are back. And back with a vengence. I just can't seem to get this thing to behave. But, it's pretty much just part of who I am now, so I'm dealing with it the best I can. I always feel like a one-legged runner when I first start off running because I can't really use the leg much for the first 1/4 mile or so. So, it ends up looking like I'm just dragging a dead limb behind me til it warms up. Despite the hammy problem, I still managed to get some quality runs in this week. Monday, I did my favorite 5 mile loop in record time and in a good heart rate range. Tuesday, I made the running group do a little bit of speedwork (they hate me now...) for 3 miles. Thursday, Sunshine and I did 6 miles at the most steady pace I've done in months. And Saturday, Sunshine and I (and the rest of the group) did 9 miles at a very decent (for me) pace. Not too bad for a gimp!

With all the running, the biking took a bit of backseat. It was unintentional, but after the long ride on Sunday, I only got back on the bike for one more quick 50 minute ride.

I think swimming may be becoming my strong suit. I am starting to feel very at home in the pool. My stroke is great and my confidence is building. Now that school is out, the pool should be a bit less crowded. Already this week, I started noticing more of my triathlete friends in the pool. It's great when we all get to swim together. And, I even swam in the "FAST" lane this week! It sounds more impressive than it is, though. I got to the pool late enough that there were only about 15 of us swimming. The "SLOW" lanes were busy, but not so in the other lanes. It may be the only time I get to use that lane, so I took advantage. I felt faster just being there!!

It's only 4 weeks til Dam to Dam and I am ready to get to racing. I can't wait to start putting some of these training weeks to use!

I'm heading to Chicago for Mother's Day. Roehr and I are already figuring out our workouts for that weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but I'm also pretty psyched to hang out with Roehr and have her show me how it's done on the bike. I'm itching for a good quality long bike ride.

The twins will be in Chicago and I can't wait to see them again. There will be lots of competition on who gets to spend time with the girls. Between Lauren and Sophie meeting their great-grandmothers (and namesakes), one aunt, their uncle, and their cousin (all for the first time), their other aunt (me) and the grandmothers won't have a chance!

But, twins are in the air this year. On May 1st, my friends Betsy and Bryan became proud aunt and uncle to twin girls. On the SAME DAY, my friends Ricky and Tawna had their twin boys. There is another friend/acquaintance who was showing me pictures of his (roughly) 3 week old twin girls just on Friday. Good golly! I almost know more people with twins than single babies! The more the merrier!

Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 5800 yards
Bike: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Run: 24.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of core work.