Week 8 Summary (07/22/07-07/28/07)

Weekly Totals:
Exercise Time 14:30
Running 4x, 52.05 miles
Biking 2x, 28.5 miles
Swimming 3x, 3850 yds

End of week averages:
Weight (lbs) 157.5
Body Fat (%) 5.5%

Caloric Averages:
Expended 3426/day
Consumed 3719/day
Fat 80g(20%) CHO646g(65%) P151g(15%) ROH 11g(2%) Fiber80g
Delta +472 cal/day

Easy...you call that easy?

The challenging workouts for my 'easy' week 8 are finished and I'm looking forward to the 6 days of rest that I'm allowing myself. Sunday featured my best swim so far. I did one mile total and 3/4 of that was continuous. This was after a disasterous swim on Friday after which I had decided that there was no way that I could train simultaneously for the Rockies race and the 1/2 Ironman Triathlon. I'm still uncertain about doing so just due to the sheer volume of time I spend running (14 hrs and 90 miles last week). That leaves very little time to train for a 56 mile bike and 1.2 mile swim. The door is still open at this time, but I'm not optimistic.

With respect to this week's run schedule...easy! 19.3 on Monday, 6.5 on Tues, and 22.3 in the woods at FH on Wednesday. Felt surprisingly good last night. I went for a bike ride this morning and my legs didn't even feel that tired. I'm giving them today and tomorrow off to rest up for my two triathlons this weekend. I could probably run a short, one hour run today and be fine, but I'm very concerned about not making it through the 1/2 mile swim on Saturday. I want to be well rested so between now and Saturday I'll just be swimming once, biking once, and lifting twice.

And I'm even going to treat myself to two more days off after the tri's. I won't be running Monday or Tuesday to allow myself some recovery time. I'm also hoping to gain some weight during these 10 'easy' days. My weight is already 6 pounds below my lowest marathon weights and I still have 5 to 6 intense training weeks to go.

Week 9 Summary (07/015/07-07/21/07)

Weekly Totals:
Exercise Time 18:10
Running 6x, 89.35 miles
Biking 1x, 20 miles
Swimming 2x, 2250 yds

End of week averages:
Weight (lbs) 156.9
Body Fat (%) 5.2%

Caloric Averages:
Expended 3896/day
Consumed 3846/day
Fat 81g(19%) CHO557g(58%) P147g(15%) ROH 55g(10%) Fiber65g
Delta -50 cal/day

Are we there yet?

It's Friday of week 9 and I've completed four challenging runs this week.
Mon 5pm 20.85, 3:00:43, 3625' of vertical in Wilmington
Wed 9am 25.55, 4:00:33, 7999' vert on the trails at FH
Thr 4:15am 11.6, 2:00:40, 4471' vert (9.1 Wilm + 2.5 trdml @11%)
Fri 4am 13.8, 2:20:09, 8994' vert (8.8 Wilm + 5 trdml @11+%)

In addition to my normal 3 hard days in a row, I'm adding a trail race of ~15 miles at Fair Hill on Saturday morning. I'm telling myself its just a training run, but I'm sure I'm going to end up running it harder than I should.

Wednesday's 4 hr run was the longest amount of time I've ever run in my life. Only once before had I even run more than 3:30 (a 3:50 NYC marathon that I ran with friends that I trained). The effort put forth on Wednesday is probably as great as anything I'll be required to do in the Rockies. The hardest Rockies stage is going to be ~26 miles with 7000' of elevation gain. I pretty much matched that on Wednesday and I did it while temperatures rose from 75 to 89 degrees and I consumed <32 oz of fluids. (WTF happened to the 70% chance of thunderstorms?!?!) So, I pretty much feel great about accomplishing anything I'll encounter out in CO. The key now is that in CO I'm going to have to string together 6 days of challenging runs.

Thursday morning's run was miserable. But, I kept telling myself "It's only 2 hours. Just do it, wuss." (Did you call me a wuss?) Yes, I've gotten to the point where 2 hrs seems like an easy day. And not just mentally, either. Thursday was bad. But, Friday morning I went out for 2:20 and my legs actually felt rested...like they, too, agreed that 'just' running 2 hrs on Thursday for them was no big deal. I felt great and could have continued running today but with tomorrow being the 4th hard day in a row, my 5th hard run of the week, and with my weekly total approaching 90 miles, I played it safe and stopped.

As week 9 concludes, that means I have completed 5 weeks of my training program. Its time for a 'break'. Beginning Sunday, I'll take it easy for the next 7 to 10 days, try to recuperate, gain some weight, take a mental break, etc. Half way through week 7, I'll then ramp up my training again for 5 more weeks. Then the last two weeks will be a taper. So, I'm kinda half-way there!!!

Crap! I'm only half-way there!

Week 10 Summary (07/08/07-07/14/07)

Weekly Totals:
Exercise Time 14:10
Running 4x, 59.35 miles
Biking none
Swimming 2x, 2700 yds

End of week averages:
Weight (lbs) 156.8
Body Fat (%) 6.2%

Caloric Averages:
Expended 3905/day
Consumed 3898/day
Fat 96g(22%) CHO545g(56%) P140g(14%) ROH 47g(8%) Fiber65g
Delta -7 cal/day

Not a bad bit of (running), huh? You know, sometimes I even amaze myself.

Week 10's challenging runs are complete and have been an unmitigated success. They were:

Wed 6am: 2:14:04, 12.95mi (7.15 outside+5.8 trdmill@11+% incl, 6230' vert)
Thurs 5pm: 3:15:00, 20.75miles on the trails at Fair Hill
Fri 4am: 3:00:00, 17.0mi (10.75 outside+6.25 trdmill@11+% incl, 6785' vert)

I'm definitely exhausted. The runs went much better than expected though. 6:15 and almost 38 miles of running in a span of just 15 hours is both flabbergasting and exhilarating. In the past 4 1/2 YEARS, I've only run for longer than 3 hours a total of 4 times and to do so twice in 15 hours is very reassuring when considering what will be required during the race. I feel that, besides from the altitude differences, these 3 days might closely represent the effort required for the first 3 days of the race. Of course, during the race I'll need to do this for three more days! There is also the fact that I may wake up tomorrow morning with an injury and my elation will be quashed. But for now, I can enjoy the weekend and relax (i.e., focus on lifting, biking, swimming, and one easy run. Yeah, relaxing, right.)

Should I have taken the blue pill?

My swimming has continued to improve. After Thursday night's success of improving to 500 continous yards, I couldn't wait to try for more. I was back at the Y Friday after work for my next attempt. However, the past two mornings' runs, especially Friday's 2 hours at 11% incline (>10,000 feet of ascent), and last nights 1500 total yards left me quite tired. My first few laps in the pool were miserable. My legs were really tired and even, for the first time, my upper body was sore from swimming. But I gradually loosened up and was on my way to seeing how long I could last. When I was finished I had completed 1000 yards without stopping. So happy. My race distance later this month is 880 yards (a half mile) so now I feel like I can focus on my technique since now I know that I can swim like an idiot and still make it through the race without having to get pulled out of the water. Of course, this assumes that I'll be ok in an open body of water instead of a pool. Big assumption at this point.

Saturday morning was my final 'challenging' run of the week. My goal was 3 hours on the trails at Fair Hill. Things started off very well. My legs were great considering the 3 hours at incline on the treadmill and 2900 yards of swimming I endured over the previous 48 hours. I was wearing my Garmin GPS in the woods for the first time, too. The forecast was for the temperature to be about 77 degrees when I finished at noon. (This will be important later.) As usual, I got lost in the woods. For about 75 minutes! But, not a problem because the GPS can send me back to my start point at any time. Being lost actually helped me pass the time. But around 2 hours in I really started to tire. Rapidly. I never drink water or replace fluids/calories in any way during any training runs. It almost cost me on Saturday, I think. By 2:30 I was struggling mentally. "Finish the run, its just 30 more minutes. Don't wuss out. Its 10 minutes to the start, then just go past there for 10 minutes and turn around." ----"No. Stop now. You're not thinking straight. Your muscles and breathing are starting to struggle immensely. Go drink that Gatorade you have at the car and go home." ----"You can't quit. This is only half the amount of time you'll be out during the Colorado runs. What were you thinking? Can I still back out? You're not ready to do this. Wimp." ----"Look. There is the car! I'm freaking stopping...if I can make it there." So I stopped at 2:40. Was definitely dizzy and not thinking clearly. I actually sat in the car and wondered if I was alert enough and thinking clearly enough to drive. Turns out I was incredibly dehydrated. Even after consuming the 32 oz of Gatorade (2 pounds), my weight was down to 151.7, about 9 pounds less than when I started. Like I said in an earlier entry, performance will decline when hydration losses equal about 2% of your body weight. 11 pounds lost divided by 160 pounds (I didn't dump during the run to contribute to the weight loss) is almost 7% of my body weight. The temperature was actually 87 degrees F when I finished. I'm sure I was close to suffering some major problems had I continued to run another 30 to 40 minutes.

Once I had time to reflect upon the run later in the day, I considered it a major success. No, I didn't reach my goal time. But, I did push my body probably about as far as I safely could. Still have concerns about whether I can train for this race. At this point though, it would take an injury or something really major to make me turn back. I think about it every morning when the alarm goes off at 5 (or 4:30, or 3:45), but I just can't let myself quit. Plus, it won't be 87 degrees without water stations in CO.

Week 11 Summary (07/01/07-07/07/07)

Weekly Totals:
Exercise Time 14:45
Running 5x, 54.55 miles
Biking 1x, 20 miles
Swimming 3x

End of week averages:
Weight (lbs) 158.1
Body Fat (%) 6.5

Caloric Averages:
Expended 4240/day
Consumed 3432/day
Fat 65g(17%) CHO473g(55%) P118g(14%) ROH 75g(15%) Fiber50g
Delta -808 cal/day

We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?

After Thursday's disappointment with my abbreviated workout and left quad injury, I was pleasantly surprised later that evening and Friday morning. Thursday evening was my 3rd swim lesson and 8th swim session overall. My coach was happy with my progess and we worked together for 800 yards. After his departure, I swam for another 700 yards, 500 of which was continuous! And, I felt like I could have done more but at 1500 yards total for the workout, I didn't want to overdo it. Still, I was very encouraged because the distance for my first triathlon (July 28th) is a half mile (880 yards).

Friday morning it was back to the treadmill. After Thursday's failure I mentally really needed a good workout. The goal was 120 to 150 minutes at 11% incline. My legs felt tremendously better than yesterday and I knew early in the workout it would be a success. But at around 90 minutes, I started to tire physically and especially mentally. Soooooo boring. As I'm plodding through the final hour I can't believe I have to do these treadmill workouts for another 9 weeks. The only thing that could make them worse is if instead of watching the news or espn on the Y's tvs I was forced to watch something horrible like cspan, or networks like Lifetime, Hallmark, Oxygen, or the WB. Bored out of my skull, I decide that I have to stop at 2 hours. The mental part is killing me and physically I'm probably pushing a little too hard if I want to recover in time for my 3+ hour trail run tomorrow. I depart satisfied with my workout and happy that my quad recovered, but discouraged about the mental challenge and how I began to tire. I definitely felt like blasting the treadmill.

Upon my arrival at home, I stepped on the scale and realized why my condition started to deteriorate. Even though I hydrated with 32 oz of Gatorade during the run (~2 pounds of weight), I lost nearly 9 pounds and was down to 153.7. While on the treadmill, I was sweating so much that it looked like I had just stepped out of a pool. I was sweating so much that the belt on the treadmill was so wet that I was losing my footing at times. Considering that 9 pounds is over 5% of my body weight and a loss of just 2% in hydration levels will effect athletic performance, it's no surprise that I started to struggle. Hopefully I recover in time for my 3+ hour run on Saturday. At least it won't be as boring as the treadmill.

I have a bad feeling about this...

Only two weeks of training have elapsed and I've encountered my first setback. My week began with my long, slow run. Last week's was 18 miles in 2:35 and the goal this week was going to be about 21 miles in 3:00 to 3:10. Around the 2 hour mark, my legs began to fatigue but not excessively or with any cause for concern. By 2:30, I was quickly moving into the 'Uh-oh' range. As I'm loath to ever have to abbreviate a workout, the internal struggle in my brain begins. I know that I can complete my planned workout, but whether I should is becoming painfully obvious. As the discomfort in my quads and especially my glutes is rapidly transitioning from fatigue to pain, I shorten the outing. 19.1 miles in 2:45 for an 8:40/mile pace. Still faster than I think I should be going. I could have completed the workout and finished my 21 miles, but the risk of injury was growing rapidly with each footstrike. As it turns out, I was fortunate to stop when I did. My left quad is injured and has hurt me since Tuesday morning, necessitating me to forgo my run yesterday and bike instead. I attempted to do my scheduled run this morning (120 minutes at 11% incline on the treadmill) but had to stop after just 60 minutes as my legs are still recovering from Monday. Fortunately, the discomfort is very much related to impact and running on an 11% incline helps to minimize impact and pain.

Some good news...I've swam twice since my last blog entry. On Saturday I was able to increase my longest stretch without a respite from 75 to 100 yards. On Tuesday, I was able to increase that to 350 yards! And, the only reason I stopped was due to a foot cramp. I seem to have my breathing rythym under control but my form has gone in the crapper. My strategy for the swim at this point in time is to be able to complete my race distance, a half mile (880 yards), without stopping. Once that has been accomplished, I'll then return to focusing on form and technique.

Week 12 Summary (06/24/07-06/30/07)

Weekly Totals:
Exercise Time 16:40
Running 5x, 55.85 miles
Biking 1x, 28.2 miles
Swimming 4x

End of week averages:
Weight (lbs) 156.8
Body Fat (%) 6.2

Caloric Averages:
Expended 3549/day
Consumed 3788/day (skewed by ~12,000 total over Fri+Sat)
Fat 82g(19%) CHO537g(57%) P140g(15%) ROH 59g(11%) Fiber59g
Delta +239 cal/day