long swim

Swim 4000m (2.5 miles)
[10x400m on 8 minutes, 1:19]

7am in the frigid waters of Barton Springs with no wetsuit.
Back and forth, back and forth, 10 times until my arms felt like rubber.
Yummy warm bowl of oatmeal with almonds, walnuts, and protein powder.
Yay, just one workout today.

another awesome long run

Run 15 miles
10 miles@1:24 (8:24 pace)
5 miles@37 min (7:24 pace)
[2:02 => 8:08/mile average pace]

I love my long run week after week. Sunrise on the trail, me, my music, my breathing, my legs, and my attitude. There is probably a relationship between my consistently good performances and my positive attitude :) I ran solid and steady for the first 10 miles today and then cranked out some speed in the last 5. I feel great about my fast finish today. When I feel strong and visualize myself as a strong runner, I run strong*.

*notes to self to take into the Ironman marathon

nothing special

Run 5.5 miles with 6x (30 sec hard uphill/ 1 minute easy down)
[4.25 miles: 35 minutes, then hill repeats, then easy jog home, 50 minutes total]

Swim Strength warm up: 
25 pullups
25 pushups
25 sit ups

Swim 2500yd
2x600@IM pace (9:04, 9:06)
2x300@IM pace (4:30,4:36)
[44 minutes]

Solid brick

Bike 75 minutes, 21 miles
Intervals:
8 minutes - 2.64 mi = 19.8mph
12 minutes - 4.0 mi = 20.0mph
15 minutes - 4.95 mi = 19.8mph

Brick Run 2 miles, 14:55
Mile 1 - 7:55
Mile 2 - 7:00

I was very steady on my bike pace. My quads are tired but I had a little fire in my belly this morning that got me through it. I went directly from the the bike to the run with one mile to warm up and one mile hard on the way home. I didn't look at my watch at all during that last mile and was shocked to see my pace. I have struggled to hit a 7 minute mile in my run workout intervals lately. I guess I still have some speed in there even when I feel completely dead. This was a confidence builder because it makes me think there is hope for a good performance after I am tapered and rested.

dreaming of post-ironman days...

Swim 3400yd, 1:02
MS:
10x100 as 50 hard/50 easy on 1:45
6x200 (descend)@ 3:10, 3:06, 3:04, 3:03, 3:00, 2:55
A perfect descending set! Exhibit A that I am good at judging my pace based on perceived exertion. The goal was to get a little faster for each repetition and I did just that, all in a very controlled manner.
Good job Baxter.
---

I have two more weeks of this insanity before I start tapering. I have two mega-long rides left and one 20 mile run left. I also have the Danskin sprint triathlon, which I am looking forward to just because it's fun. My body is struggling and I need to focus on getting more sleep... 8 hours per night on the weeknights and more plus naps on the weekends. I am irritable a lot lately which I know is a sign of overtraining. Normally I would rest, but in this case I am simply going to hang on to get through the last two weeks the best I can. This week is a slight recovery week with *just* 15 hours of training.

Post-Ironman Things I Am Looking Forward To
Eating less
Crossfit WODs
Real running (no dead bike legs)
No saddle sores
Sleeping past 5:30am on weekends
Going out past 9pm on weekend nights
One workout per day
No stress about how to fit work around workouts
Social life
Time to cook new recipes
Time to play my instruments
Time to look for and buy a house

blow up

Sunday Planned Workout:
Swim 2.5 miles
Bike 3 hours with intervals
Run 30 minutes

Sunday Actual Workout:
Swim 2.6 miles, open water, 1:21
Bike 19 miles, 1:24

Things did not go as planned today. I started off fine with my race distance swim at Barton Springs. Back and forth, 10 laps with some zig-zagging=2.6 miles. I swam with no wetsuit, sucked up the coldness, and it felt good until the end. Then I put on my bike clothes, drove up to Parmer Lane, and started out on the bike. Even though I got an early start, the wind had already picked up on Parmer and it was about 15-20 mph. As soon as I got on my bike I knew my body was not happy. It was painful to sit on the saddle and my legs had nothing left. Ok, I guess I went harder yesterday than I realized and it was catching up with me.

Even with the tailwind, I could only go about 19mph on my tri bike and every other biker on the road was passing me, everyone. I couldn't face the intervals I had planned and I knew I would have a nasty tailwind coming back. I decided to cut things short and I turned around when I was 35 minutes in. For a good bit of the way back, I was going 10mph at max effort into the wind. I was on the verge of tears and wanted the ride to be over asap. It took me 50 minutes to get back. When I have normal energy levels, that section takes me about 60 minutes total, not 1:24.

I got in the car, went home, and proceeded to take a 4 hour nap. Then I laid around watching movies for the rest of the day. Then I slept for another 9 hours.

Real Ale Ride

Bike 75 miles 
[4:43, road bike]

I did the Real Ale Ride in Blanco Texas this morning. I am loving the organized rides as a way to get through all these long miles. The ride officially started at 7:30 but I got there early and did 10 miles before the start in effort to get in the time but avoid the mid-day heat.

The ride was HILLY and WINDY. There were a lot of large roller coaster style hills where you could use the momentum from the down to get part of the way up the up. Then you hammer the rest of the way up, or grind it out. Wisconsin is a lot like this so it's the type of course I am relatively good at because I know how to maximize my momentum and gearing. I totally rocked this ride with a 16mph average and stayed with a very steady strong effort throughout.

Oh yeah, and it was a really pretty course too... I did look up a few times :)

taco motivation

Bike 60 minutes with 15 x (30 sec max effort++/30 sec easy)
Great Northern/Shoal Creek on triathlon bike

Swim 4200yd
6x400@5:59,6:02,6:02, 6:03, 6:06, 6:06 (30 seconds rest between)
10x100 (50 hard/50 easy with 15 seconds rest)
[1:13 total time]
Deep Eddy Pool 

Today was bike to work day. My morning ride conveniently went by one of the breakfast stations and I picked up a free Kerbey Lane egg and potato taco on the last lap of my intervals. If there are a lot of people like me who are highly motivated by free breakfast tacos, I'm thinking that it would be worth developing a program for tacos for bike commuters every morning. The Austin transportation department is working on strategies to reduce traffic congestion but have they thought of this? I'd definitely bike more often if I could get free food on the way to work.

joyful running

Long Run - 20 miles
4 x 5 miles@43 min, 44 min, 39 min, 40 min
[2:50 total time => 8:30/mile pace]

This was a great run and a very solid performance. Why was it great? The joy of running. I filled my iPod with new songs, sang along (out loud on the trail), noticed nature, and made a point to smile. Yesterday I was in a complete funk about how grueling and hard this training is, but Teresa and Mo helped me turn it around and be positive. My mind gets in an Ironman performance rut and I forget to step back and realize how amazing it is that I am doing what I am doing. It turns out that my body is capable of awesome things.

The result: today I enjoyed every minute of my run and felt lucky to be able to spend 3 hours on the trail. At mile 14 I felt slightly sad that the run was going to be over soon. I smiled in mile 17 as the soreness was starting to set in. I sang Guns n' Roses to the people on the trail at mile 19 as I pushed myself to the very edge of a conversational effort. This was FUN, and that's what it's all about :)

fresh yet tired

Run 7.3 miles
[2x1.5 miles@11:07,11:06 - 1:02 total time]
Early morning run around Town Lake. I had the odd sensation of feeling fresh, yet tired. Rested and not sore after my rest day yesterday, but tired like a deep sluggishness that didn't go away once I got warmed up. My interval pace was about 7:20/mile and even though that's pretty slow, it's all I could do today. I had a good attitude about pushing as hard as I could no matter what my pace turned out to be.

Swim 3650yd 
[1:01]
MS: 5x200, 6x150, 6x100
Again it was that fresh, yet tired feeling. My muscles weren't sore and my upper body felt almost too rested. However, I couldn't lock down a good form and I had no strength. When I know early in the workout that I've got nothing left, do I stop or do I continue just to get through the miles? That usually goes on a case-by-case basis. With this swim, I decided to just get in the distance however I could. I added some pulling with paddles to mix things up. I didn't push the effort because it felt pointless to do that. Sometimes I think I have better swims when I am a little sore because it is easier to feel the muscles working.

Strength Session
For time:
50 pushups
50 situps
50 squats
50 lunges
50 pullups
50 kettlebell clean and jerk
[17:38]
I missed a week of strength training last week and have been easing off on it in general. It has come to the point where I am losing some of the strength I built from all the hard work I did on Crossfit earlier in this 20 weeks of training. This workout was harder than it used to be. I feel weak. It's really important that I stay consistent with this stuff so I continue to have a strong core foundation and prevent injury.

Food issues.... I am fighting weight gain in a serious way right now. Lots of cardio = lots of low-grade inflammation = cortisol = my body hanging onto fat. I am logging my food to control calories in versus calories out, aiming for about a 300 calorie deficit per day to lose 2-3 pounds. I slacked off for a while and some non-ideal foods crept in for the sake of convenience. I found out from my food log that I had been eating too much. It is so easy to do that when you are hungry all the time. Managing calories and getting back to gluten-free and dairy-free are my main strategies right now.

10 x 12 minutes... think about that

Bike 3 hours with 10 x (12 minutes hard / 3 min recovery)
[52 miles, 2:52, Parmer Lane out and back]

Brick Run ~3 miles
[28 minutes (15 out/13 back neg split)]

It was a tough ride today with all those long intervals. It was a good way to make myself focus on steady effort for the entire ride. Riding this way, I was 8 minutes faster than when I did intervals on this same route a couple weeks ago. It's definitely something to think about as a race strategy too because I was close to my half ironman bike time even with the warmup, cooldown, and 3 minute recoveries. Running off the bike... yuck. After 5 minutes I wanted to stop because I was hardly moving and my legs felt terrible. I forced myself to keep going, and as usual my legs came around and I was able to run at a normal pace after about 12 minutes.

I was eager to get this done and still have some weekend left, so I got up at 6am and was on my bike at 6:45. It's still just noon and I am done, showered, stretched, eaten, car unpacked, and workout logged. I am looking forward to a whole half day of freedom.

Stick a fork in week 14 of training. It's done! On to week 15, aka 6 weeks left.
Volume this week:
Swim 10,4000yd (3:00)
Run 32.5 miles (4:30)
Bike 162 miles (9:30)
Total time: 17 hours

Horseshoe Bay

Bike 70 miles [4:15]
Around Horseshoe Bay Texas

Mo and I stayed at the Horseshoe Bay Resort as part of a work thing she was doing and it was one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. Seeing people relax made me realize that I never relax. Hearing her colleagues talk about staying up to play mini-golf followed by poker made me realize that training requires that I go to bed early every night and I miss out on these things. It was a reality check on how hard I am working right now. After my ride today, we had a nice lunch and hung out by the fancy pool... no lap, no goggles, no cap, no workout cards, just playing around and lounging. After this weekend - 3 more weeks then 3 weeks of taper.

As for the ride, I put my head down and got 'er done. Nutrition today was reliably good using combo of natural solid foods and EFS products. The scenery was among the prettiest of any of the rides I have done this year. The weather was perfect, and I found out later that it poured all morning here in Austin so I really lucked out on being out of town :)

run swim tacos

Run easy 3.5 miles with 6x30 sec sprint up hill/jog down
Hill repeats the day after my long run... seriously?? I don't usually use running as a recovery for running but I am sticking to my training schedule this week. Amazingly I felt a lot better after this recovery run than before. The hill repeats were short enough to be energizing and not draining.

Swim 3700yd [1:02]
MS: 3x1000, 1x500
This was going to be 4x1000 (60 rec) to simulate an Ironman swim but it started lightening and the pool was cleared halfway through my last interval. I was solid and steady but in the second half I really needed to think about my form in every stroke in order to stay on pace. Based on my pace today, I think I am looking at a 1:05-1:07 IM swim. 1:07 is my current PR.

Then... Torchy's breakfast tacos! (eaten too quickly for photos)

Up at 5:45am for multiple hours of training for the 4th day in a row... I am an Ironman workhorse zombie.

long run

Run 18.5 miles [2:36 => 8:23/mile pace]
6am, 75 degrees, 70% humidity
Workouts, workouts, and more workouts. This training is a grind. Eat sleep train. I still love my long runs though. I started from my house (in the dark), ran to Town Lake, did the 5 mile loop and returned to my house. It was mostly downhill on the way out, and uphill on the way back. I traveled light with two gels and a flask of water that I refilled at every water fountain available. I didn't take my ipod (unusual for me) and I didn't miss it. I didn't take my watch because it is broken and I haven't gotten a new one yet. I enjoyed being free of "stuff" and just focusing on running. Running without my watch was nice and I think I ended up going faster because I had no idea about the numbers. Perhaps I am faster than I think when I just run on feel. This was a good solid run. It was supposed to be 17 miles but I miscalculated the route a bit.

one advil to the rescue

Tuesday
Run 5 miles with 3 x 1 mile hard [42 min]
Ugh. I am tiiiiired. My body can't seem to catch up.

Wednesday
Bike 90 minutes with 6x hill repeats
Did 3 x Far West, 3 x Mesa
Experimented with standing vs. seated climb.
It's been a long time since I've done these hills as repeats and am excited to report that I have gotten significantly faster on less recovery than when I did them regularly in 2008. Great workout today. I didn't let myself do less than what was planned even though those bargaining devils entered my head a few times.

Swim 3200yd [57 min]
MS:
4x300@4:18, 4:17, 4:15, 4:22 on 5:00
2x400@5:56, 5:52 on 6:30
1x500@7:29
I went into this swim tired and irritable from being stuck in traffic. I killed it. My arms were strong and I swam faster than threshold for all the repeats. Ok, I admit I took one Advil this morning because I have been feeling lingering inflammation throughout my body. Since I only take Advil as a complete last resort and have probably only taken 15 total in my life, this was kind of a big deal. One little ibuprofen pill has a huge effect on me. Two great workouts today. Hmmm.

chocolates in my hat

Swim 3500yd [1:03]
MS:
6x150@2:04-2:07 on 2:30
8x100@1:18-1:24 on 1:45
8x50@0:39-0:43 on 1:00

Bike 45 minutes, hill intervals, trainer

Run 2 miles easy with sprints [18:00]

The countdown begins... 13 weeks down, 7 weeks to go. I surprised myself with the swim intervals today- I haven't done short repeats in a while and I have gotten faster. 1:18 was my previous 100yd PR and I matched that today on several of the repeats without specifically trying to sprint for a PR.

Training is kind of like this classic Lucy clip...  it starts off real nice and manageable when you are 20 weeks out but becomes complete chaos by the end. I'm in damage control mode and am nearing the point where they start putting chocolates down their shirt and in their hats.

Armadillo Hill Country Classic

Bike 108 miles [6:41], road bike, 15-20mph wind
Run 3.5 miles [29 min]

Today I joined the Armadillo Hill Country Classic ride in Liberty Hill TX and did the longest route they offered, 108 miles. The weather was cool (low 70s) and mostly cloudy with a 15-20mph wind. The wind was a factor from the beginning and I kind of dreaded going out because even my car was getting blown around as I drove there. It turned out not to be too bad. Many sections were shielded with trees, and the course changed directions many times so there weren't too many extended periods directly into a headwind.

The aid stations were well-stocked and I enjoyed the squares of PB+J on squishy white bread at every opportunity. I also supplemented my food with Larabar, EFS electrolyte drink, and EFS liquid shot for a total of about 1500 calories and 4 bottles of water.


I met a guy, Andy, around mile 35 and we stuck together for the rest of the ride, working together to draft and taking turns blocking the wind. Later on we joined a larger group of ten riders for more help with the wind. As for the distance, it was easy and enjoyable until mile 45, additional focus was needed for miles 45-75, and I really needed to bear down and concentrate through the discomfort for miles 75-108. I went through a rough patch of near calorie-bonk around 75 but was able to fix it by taking a good big drink of the EFS liquid shot. The strong sweet vanilla flavor of that can be hard to get down and I learned that I may not be able to rely on it for as many calories as I was planning. Solid food is most appealing to me while riding.

After 108 miles I was ready to get off the bike, but was not totally spent. My butt and back were the most sore and my quads were tired, as expected. Next up was an easy pace 3.5 mile run on a flat route around my neighborhood. After the initial stiffness was worked out, my legs felt good. Well, as "good" as they could have. This is a good sign that my nutrition worked. I went into this long day short on sleep and am happy with the solid result.

Post-Workout:: smoothie, ice bath, stretching, rolling, FOOD!

traveling this week

Tuesday
Long Run - 14 miles [1:52]

Swim 4200yd [1:12]
MS: 2x500, 3x400, 4x300 @ 1:30/100 pace

Wednesday
REST Day

Thursday
Run - 2x1 mile@7:11, 7:09, treadmill, 5.5 miles total, 45 min

Strength Workout
5x20:
Pushups
Situps
Squats
Chair Dips

Friday
Swim 2000yd, 35 min
MS: 1x400, 2x300, 1x200@ 1:32/100 pace

Massage

I went to New Orleans for a conference for work on Wednesday and Thursday. I was operating on very little sleep, long days, plane travel, different foods than usual, and standing on my feet for hours. It was very obvious to me how the quality of my workouts depends on a delicate balance of reduced stress, mental calm, rest, and diet. I scrambled to catch up on sleep for the weekend and ended up with 9 hour nights on Thursday and Friday.

link between inflammation and fat

Chronic stress begets chronic inflammation, which chronically elevates cortisol, which induces insulin resistance and belly fat accumulation. 
-from MarksDailyApple.com

I don't agree with everything about the Primal lifestyle on Mark's Daily Apple, but I do think the above statement is 100% true. It backs up what I have observed in myself about hormone levels and fat during hard endurance training. The best way for me to reduce the effects are to aim for an anti-inflammatory diet.

good workouts

Strength Workout
30 lat pull warmup (55-70)
30 jumping pullups with controlled down
30 burpees
30 box step ups for each leg (24 inch box)
30 side lunges with 25 lb plate held at chest
20 push press (started at 45, maxed at 55) - no improvement here, status quo
30 deadlift (started at 45, maxed with 15 reps at 75lbs) - yikes, found my weakness here!
40 bench press (started at 45, maxed at 85) - haven't done this one in a while, big improvement
4x30 seconds plank - I should be better at this. Needs work to hold longer.

Bike
45 minutes, spin class with: [3x (4x30 sec max/30 sec rest)]

Run
30 minutes, 3.7 miles, treadmill
[10 min@8:30 pace, 10 min@7:20 pace, 5 min@7:40 pace, 5 min@8:30 pace]
The 7:20 pace run was the hardest part of today. I was nearly anaerobic and really had to work with my mind to keep it going. I chose to do this on the treadmill because I knew it would force me to get the workout done as planned, no cheating on the paces.

My renewed warrior mindset went to the test today and I won. When I let myself off the hook by cutting a workout short or doing fewer intervals or going less intense, I am only hurting my own race performance. I need to challenge my body to do things it doesn't want to do when I am training so that I am prepared to do that when I am racing.