Richard Brockway's Team In Training Page
Racing to Save Lives
Welcome to my Ironman Team In Training home page.
I'm training to participate in The Vineman Ironman on August 2nd, 2008 as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. All of us on The Team In Training's IronTeam are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I'm completing this event in honor of my Grandfather, who we lost to cancer this year, and to all individuals who are affected by cancer related disease every day. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!
Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society's mission.
I will be using this page to post weekly updates on my training. So I hope you'll visit my web site often to check in on my progress. Thanks for your support!
Weekly Updates:
(07/14/08) Week 40. Race phase of training is complete!!! Today begins the first day of taper!!! I am sooo happy to start tapering… I am sooo tired. Race phase has been extremely challenging, physically and mentally. Last Tuesday we completed our supposed last spin of the season… and boy did we make that one count. Wednesday was 90 minutes of bike hill repeats on Bonny Doon Rd. I rested Thursday because on Friday I repeated the Vineman Bike course again. The previous weekend’s ride experience was not something I wanted to be my last memory of the Vineman’s course before going into the event. Fortunately, Kim and Nicole were planning on going Friday and it happened to be ok with work so I joined them. I took all of the learning’s from the last ride and applied them to this one. I started out slower (constantly reminding myself to hold back) and I switched back to my original nutrition program. The ride went great. I took 45minutes off my ride time of 5 days ago and I felt great when I finished. I even did a quick transition run right after the ride and my legs were fresh right from the start. I’m very fortunate and very happy to have been able to repeat the ride with such a better experience. Saturday was an hour open water swim at Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove which has been termed a ‘kelp crawl’ because there is so much kelp you literally spend the entire time crawling on top of it. After that we had a 15 mile run out along 17mile drive. Riding 220miles, 1 hard spin session, and 90 minutes of hill repeats in the last 6 days made that 15 mile run the most difficult run I’ve done thus far. It’s amazing though, no matter how tired you are and how much you hurt (I got blistered on both pinky toes by mile 5 and my legs felt like lead) you can still keep going as long as you keep up on your nutrition. The run which should have taken me 2:10hr took me 2:30hr (which included asking tourists for band aids for my toes and putting them on). After the run I was so tired I couldn’t even hang out with the team and wait for the rest of everyone to finish their runs. Instead I had to crawl into the small back seat of Bo’s car and fall a sleep for 15 minutes. Right now I am sooo glad to be finished with race phase and I’m looking forward to seeing how my mind and body responds to taper. Only 19 days left!
(07/07/08) Week 39. This week I learned nutrition and hydration are probably the most important aspect of endurance events for me. Remember how I said last week was our most difficult week. Well, this week was probably the most difficult week for me, not because of the physical challenges, but because of the mental challenges of keeping motivated when you’re just so tired. After the exhausting week last week we had only our usual one day of rest on Monday (which is never enough) and then we were right back at it. Tue: 90min spin, 30min run (I didn’t do the run because my good foot was pretty sore), Wed: 2.4mile ocean swim (which turned into 1.2miles because it was too foggy to continue safely), Thu: 90min run (which I didn’t do because I was exhausted and wanted to let my foot rest another night), Fri: 90min (10 mile) run to make up for Thursday followed by a 2.4mile choppy mid day ocean swim to make up for Wednesday (which I completed in 1:09hr!). Saturday was a scheduled 3000yrd swim followed by a 10 mile run (which I didn’t do and instead rested because I was tired and I had a painful blister on the entire bottom of my pinky toe from the Friday run). Then came Sunday’s on your on century ride. This ride turned out to be my most painful and psychologically challenging ride thus far. I chose to do my century ride on the course I’ll be doing my event on up in Sonoma (109miles of the course at least). In hind sight I came into the ride way too cocky from my last weekend’s really good ride and with far too high of expectations for my performance. All lessons that are probably more important than the actual physical training itself. At first the ride started of well. I was holding an aggressive pace but was feeling good… it didn’t feel like I was pushing any harder than I did on last weekend’s long ride. But by mile 40 it all started to fall apart. I began to feel like s***t and began to think It may not be a good idea to try to finish. It was creeping up to the low 90’s and my stomach didn’t want anything to do with food. By the time I made it back to my truck to fuel up and start the 2nd, and last, loop I was hurting as bad as I ever have. I ended up resting there for almost 25minutes while I ate a turkey sandwich and continued hydrating. When I started out on the last loop I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish. Fortunately one hour later I started to come around. I think that turkey sandwich started doing its job. And I was able to pick up my pace to something a little more respectable. Have way through the loop (~80miles) I stopped off at a school to refill my water and eat yet another turkey sandwich. I ended up resting there another 10 minutes. At this point it was the heat of the day (~93 degrees) and with only 29 more miles to go I was counting the 1/10ths of miles… especially when a I hit an awful head wind that pushed my pace back to 11mph on the flats in aero position. It also didn’t help that my water bottles were now full of 90 degree water… not too refreshing… and it doesn’t help cool your core temperature. The last 10 miles all I could think of is getting off my bike seat… ouch again! Although, when I stood my legs weren’t fatigued, my heart rate would sky rocket and I’d begin to feel light headed. Finally I did make it back with a total time of 7:15hr, 6:30hr of which was my actual ride time. Not too terrible for how bad I felt but by far not what I was expecting to do. I definitely learned a little more about what my body needs as far as nutrition and how the heat affects me. Right now am counting the minutes until taper.
(06/30/08) Week 38. This week was probably our most difficult week. The triple brick was painful, the first hilly century ride was brutal, and the 20 mile run the day after a hard 90 mile ride introduced me to a new level of discomfort. But this weekend brought everything to a whole new level. The weekdays were as action packed as usual, nothing special to note but as usual the workouts were enough to keep us tired for the big weekend workouts. Due to the smoke from the fires we were unable to do our scheduled East Bay century ride on Saturday so instead we repeated our 98mile hilly (8000+ ft of climbing) ride that we did back on week 36… but with a few extra miles to put us into the triple digits. Amazingly, even though I was as tired as I was, I had the best ride of my life. My nutrition came together after the triple brick, I laid off the caffeine, I upped my fluid intake, and I pushed harder right from the start. The first 60 miles were great. My pace was consistent and my water stops were short. With in 25 miles I was in the lead (remember, it is only officially a race in my head :) ) even though we had staggered start times and I was the last to head out. But by the time mile 65 rolled around my legs were screaming in pain. They even hurt on the down hills. Mile 85 - 90 was arguably one of the steepest climbs of the day, and my legs kinda just went numb with pain and I was able to focus on more important discomforts… like my saddle… ouch! I finally made it to the top of the last hill around mile 92, had a cookie at the last water stop and headed back to the start/finish. I have no idea where the new found pain-free strength in my legs came from (must have been a magic cookie), but I pushed really hard and rode really fast to finish the ride before 3pm (2:55pm to be exact). My total time was 7:02hr with a ride time of 6:50hr… which was about a 40 min improvement over my time two weeks ago! It’s amazing how nutrition and hydration can make or break you. Then the next day on Sunday was a short little 2.8mile pool swim at Stanford followed by a 15 mile semi-hilly run. I was really tired on the run but surprisingly beat my last 15 mile run time by 9 minutes with a time of 2:06hr. It’s probably not worth mentioning it, but I will… I’m F’n exhausted!
(06/22/08) Week 37. Ouch! The Triple Brick hurt! This week messed with my head. The weekday training was pretty much same as usual except it took me much longer to recover from the previous weekend. Tuesday was a spin/run… I did the entire workout but I was tired so I lowered the intensity. Wednesday was suppose to be an early morning swim but when I woke up my body told me it needed more rest so I took the day off (very happy I did). Thursday was bike hill repeats on a 1 mile stretch of Bonny Doon Rd. For 6 miles of riding in 1 hour we climbed 3,600ft (pretty good considering I finished before work). Friday turned out to be a 32mile ride from my house, to Waddell Beach, and back to work along Hwy-1. That day was during the heat wave and it was perfect for a morning ride… I’ve ridden when it’s been so beautiful. Saturday was only a 2.2mile swim at Kelly Lake in Watsonville. The real challenge came on Sunday… The Triple Brick: 2 hour bike, followed by a 50min run, then another 2 hour bike, then a 50min run, then another 2 hour ride, and finally the last 50min run. With transition times considered it’s a 9 hour event! We started at 8:15am and finished a little before 5:30pm!!! We set up ‘camp’ at Edgewood and Canada Rd off 280 in Redwood City. Each bike portion was a different loop in the area with a fair amount of climbing each time. The run was either a loop or an out and back on the surrounding trails. My bike total was 95miles and I did ~16–18miles running. The first 6 hours went really well, I was feeling strong and my nutrition and hydration was excellent. But by the start of the last bike portion I was starting to hit the wall. I couldn’t seem to get enough water and my stomach didn’t want to have anything more to do with power bars, gels, or sport drinks. As painful as it was I finished the bike with a respectable distance. Then on to the last run. It wasn’t so much that my leg muscles were tired that made it so difficult but that my body was tired. I popped a few enduralytes and headed off on the run with a full 24oz water bottle. In hindsight I should have taken 2-24oz bottles of water because I was thirsty! At the 25 min turn around is when I got my first hamstring cramp on my right leg. Ouch those hurt… and they don’t let go for a few minutes. The next 5 – 10 minutes was a combination of walking and running to prevent any more camps but I’d get a few more on the same hamstring before it was all over. At about 35 minutes is when I ran out of water… but I just had to muscle it out. As painful as it was I finished the return portion only 5 minutes slower than the out-portion so my total run time was 55minutes. Let me tell you, when Beverly gave me a turkey sandwich and an ice cold coke when I got back nothing in the world had ever tasted better. It took about 20 minutes but I eventually started to feel human again. Afterwards I just kept thinking… ‘That shouldn’t have been so difficult…’ I’m definitely going to have to spend time figuring out a nutrition plan that works better for me after so many hours. Right now I’m exhausted and I hope I can recover quickly. Next Saturday is supposed to be the most difficult bike ride of the year. Wish me luck!
(06/15/08) Week 36. Wow… Every weekend just keeps getting more and more difficult. When I first signed up for the Team in Training Ironman team I was concerned they wouldn’t push me has hard as I wanted. Boy was I wrong. Every weekend I’m impressed at how far the coaches push us. The weekday trainings were pretty much the same as the last few weeks so I won’t go into details. The weekend, like usual, was something special. On Saturday we started with a 7am 2 mile swim in the Steven’s Creek Reservoir and immediately following was a 98mile “hilly” bike ride (our coaches tell us it was ~10,000 ft of climbing!). The swim went really well. The water temperature was perfect (almost too warm for a full wetsuit – a sleeveless wetsuit would have been just right) and I felt really good. One of my teammates and I had a really good ‘race simulation’ battle during the swim where we were passing and re-passing each other and fighting for the lead on each buoy turn. That was a lot of fun and it made the hour swim go by really fast. The bike ride, although extremely challenging, went really well. It was the longest ride I’d ever done (it seems that every weekend I’m able to say that :) ) and by far the hilliest. We basically started at the reservoir, climbed up and down to Skyline (Hwy35) twice before heading out to Hwy 1, and then came back over Skyline (with miscellaneous hills in between) to finish at the reservoir. The ride was scheduled for 98 miles total but that apparently wasn’t enough for me so I took a wrong turn (by accident of course) and added an extra 5 miles and 1000ft of climbing or so making my ride 103 miles (my first Century!). After 7:30hrs of being in the saddle I was toasted! When I got back I inhaled 2 burgers then went down to the reservoir and went for a swim… so refreshing. That day we started at 7am and I got off my bike at ~7pm… that was a long day! So thankfully Sunday’s workout was much shorter. It was a quick 15 mile run on Sawyer Camp Trail in San Mateo. I ended up running with one of the faster runners on the team who pushed me to finish the run in 2:10hrs. It’s cool, and kinda sad at the same time, that we now refer to a 15 mile run as a short workout. Right now I’m very tired but looking forward to the infamous Triple-Brick next weekend.
(06/08/08) Week 35. This past week has been extremely challenging and enlightening. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the position to push myself harder than I ever have and see how my body (and mind) responds. The weekday training schedule was very aggressive. Tuesday: Swim (3200yds), Spin(60min), Run(30min), strength(30min). Wednesday: Bike hill repeats (90min), strength(30min). Thursday: 7mile trail run. Friday: Swim (3800yds). Then the weekend’s training took it to a whole new level. Saturday: 91mile ride. Sunday: 20.5mile run. Despite the rigorous weekday workouts I came into the Saturday ride feeling really good. So good in fact, I decided to see how my body responded when I pushed it as hard as it would go for 91miles. Well aware that this was going to be a really painful experience and I might totally ‘blow up’ before the end I pushed myself from the start. And indeed, it turned out to be one of the most physically and mentally challenging rides I’ve ever done. Around mile 45 is when my legs started complaining. But to my surprise once they hit a certain threshold of pain and fatigue they simply plateau’d. The pain never got unbearable and I still had a good amount of power. When I finished the ride I was wiped out. And after the 30min post ride run (and a hamstring cramp or two) my legs had never been so fatigued. Knowing that the next day I was scheduled for a record distance run I did everything I knew how in order to recover in time. I went home and took and ice bath, Ibuprofen, followed by more ice, and to bed early. To my surprise I actually felt pretty good in the morning. And other than my legs being a little tired I felt good when we started out. I was scheduled for an 18 – 20 mile run. Since the longest run I’d ever done was 15miles last weekend, and since I had pushed so hard yesterday, I decided to wait to see how I felt instead of committing to a particular distance. When the 8.5mile turn around point came I was feeling really good so I decided to push it to the 10mile mark (making it a 20mile run). The run went great. I was holding a 9min/mile pace for most of the run. On mile 15 is when my hamstrings and quads were their most vocal about what I put them through the previous day. However, I was still able to keep a solid pace going. It wasn’t until mile 18 that the real pain set in. I knew I could make it (the pain wasn’t nearly has bad as Saturday’s ride) but I was counting the seconds until I got back. I ended up finishing in 3:08hrs which I was really happy with. But man were my legs tired! When I got home I took another ice bath to help the recovery. The strange thing is that despite how tired I was and how fatigued my legs were I felt really anxious and my legs were really fidgety that evening. Fortunately, Sunday nights are the nights I allow myself to have a couple of drinks and that took care of the relaxation nicely :). Right now my legs are fatigued but my energy level is up and I’m looking forward to next week’s challenges!
(06/03/08) Week 34. I’m Back!!! It’s been a while since my last posting. Only once I started feeling better and more motivated did I realize what a huge impact my foot injury had on my spirit and training. For the last few months I haven’t felt great during any of my workouts. Every long bike ride I went on I felt like I was taking a step back in my development. And my swimming seemed to fall apart all together. Dehydrated, stressed out, and constantly fatigued. It’s amazing what your mind can do to your body. This process has really made me appreciate the balance between mental health and physical health, not only in training for ultra endurance events but also in every day life. Fortunately, having a goal greater than selfish reasons helped me through these hard times and I never once considered quitting. Throughout the year I’ve been introduced to many people whose battles with cancer make my troubles seem so insignificant I’m almost ashamed to let them get to me. So I muscled through and here I am, feeling better than ever. We’ve begun our Race Phase training which means that we are quickly ramping up to near-Ironman distances in every aspect. Last week, in addition to working out an average of 2 hours every day during the week, we rode 85 miles on Saturday (the longest I’ve ever ridden before) and on Sunday we swam 2 miles in the ocean followed by a 15 mile run (the longest I’ve ever ran too). And despite feeling a little tired and fatigued, I feel great!
(03/16/08) Week 23. BOOT CAMP!!!! Saturday and Sunday was Boot Camp. It consisted of 15 hours, both days combined, of every training exercise we do: open water swimming, pool swimming, biking, running, spinning, strength training, and A LOT of nutrition management. The weekdays were similar to the previous build weekdays in terms of training load, but the weekend was something special. I woke up at 4:45am Saturday morning to be up and ready at the Aquatic Park in San Francisco for an open water swim at 8am. That was then followed by an hour ride through the lovely SF hills. Afterwards we changed into our running gear and ran (I power walked… which is very difficult, btw) over to these long flights of stairs that covered 2 city blocks. I ran/quickly-walked up the flights 10 times with 100 squats in between then power walked back. Then we started our spin/run/strength sets. 45min of spinning followed by a 3 mile run (I walked of course) then back for a 45min spin followed by a 1.5mile run followed by 30 minutes of strength (pull-ups, push ups, squats, hell) followed by a 1.5mile run followed by DONE! It was ~5pm once we got packed up started driving back which got us home at ~6:30pm. Then shower up, eat a HUGE dinner, and go to sleep ASAP to do it again tomorrow! Sunday was pretty much the same but instead of the open water swim it was a pool swim for an hour and instead of power walking I aqua-jogged… and instead of 8hrs it was ONLY 7 hours of working out. Needless to say I was/am EXHAUSTED!!!... but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Fortunately next week is recovery week because right now I’m not sure my legs have ever been this sore.
(03/09/08) Week 22. Not going to write much on this week. It went pretty well. Stayed off the foot for the most part, things are healing on track. In addition to the normal Tuesday through Friday workouts We went for a 57 mile bike ride out behind Milpitas on Calaveras road. Beautiful ride. We held a fast pace the entire time finishing in 3:15hrs and it was fairly challenging. On Sunday did an open water swim (~1mile) at Cowells followed by a bike ride from hwy-1 in Santa Cruz up to Bonny Doon Winery and back. Legs were pretty tired from Saturday so the ride was difficult. Right now I feel pretty good, foot is doing better, can’t wait to start running again.
(03/02/08) Week 21. This week I learned that the pain I was feeling in my right foot was the result of a stress fracture. On Friday I was diagnosed with a stress fracture on the second metatarsal in my right foot. Fortunately, it looks to be a minor fracture and the podiatrist said that in 3 weeks I can slowly start back into running (I can still bike and swim). My next event is a half ironman on April 13th which involves a half marathon (13.1 miles). I probably won’t be back to the same performance I was before the injury, but I should have enough time to slowly ease back into things without risking a re-injury. On higher note, this Sunday I completed my longest bike ride ever, 52miles. The ride took place in the Uvas reservoir area and boy was it windy. I pushed really hard but I felt great afterwards. Right now I’m a little frustrated with the foot injury but I’m optimistic about focusing on my riding in the mean time.
(02/24/08) Week 20 (yes, 5 months!!!) This week was “immersion week”. That means it was a mini-peak in our build phase right before a recovery week. Our on-your-own workouts were longer and our coached workouts included workouts in all 4 disciplines (swimming/cycling/running/strength training). On Sunday our workout was a total of 5 hours!... 2 hours of swimming (~2.3miles) and 3 hours of a combination of spinning, running, and strength. Unfortunately, my foot was still not back to normal but I ran the 3 15-minute sets anyway… as a test to see how my foot reacted. While running the pain wasn’t too bad but following the workout it let me know it wasn’t fully healed yet. Other then that, the workout went great. It was really challenging but we all made it through with energy to spare. It is a really good motivator to finish these long workouts and be able to say “Wow, that was tough, but it wasn’t really that bad”. This next week I’m going to focus on substituting scheduled runs with swimming or cycling to let my foot rest. Fortunately this is a recovery week. Recovery week doesn’t mean no workouts. We still have the same frequency of workouts but their intensity and duration is a little lower to prepare us for the following 3 weeks of building. So it should be a little easier to let my foot rest. Right now I’m feeling surprisingly energetic but looking forward to the recovery week.
(02/17/08) Week 19. This week I learned that it is better to be safe than to risk injury. Unfortunately I didn’t listen to everything I’ve read/been told and decided to push myself resulting in a foot injury. Fortunately it appears to be a minor injury and I’m hopeful to start running again soon. Basically it happened on Thursday during a lunch time run up U-con trail in Pogonip. I was running with someone who likes running down hill really fast and I pushed myself trying to keep up. Apparently it stressed my foot a little bit and it’s been painful to run ever since. Other than that it was a really good week. On Saturday we did a really fun and challenging ride up Empire grade, down Felton Empire to Hwy 9, back up Felton Empire to Bonnydoon and down to Hwy 1. Then on Sunday we did an open water swim at Cowells. Boy was that COLD!!! It took about 10 minutes to acclimate our faces to the water (basically numb them out) before we could start swimming. The swim ended up going really well and it was a really nice morning. But it was so cold that when I got out my arms and legs swelled up for a couple of hours where there was no wetsuit. Afterwards I was unable to participate in the 1:45hr run because of my foot…. But I’m sure the cold helped it. Right now I’m feeling really good and I’m optimistic that my foot will heal quickly.
(02/10/08) Week 18. The first week of our BUILD PHASE! This week was challenging. I learned how important our base phase building over the last 4 months was. There’s no way I would have been to complete this week feeling as good as I do right now if I hadn’t have prepared so long. The weekday workouts were similar to the usual weekday workouts as the base phase except they are a little bit longer but a lot more intense. Tuesday went over to Santa Clara after work to spin/run with the team… that was fun but very time consuming. Wednesday’s track work out was brutal… lots of strength and lots of speed work (and I was still really tired from heavy leg training Monday and the spin Tuesday). Thursday was a nice swim that acted as recovery. Friday I did bike hill repeats up at UCSC at lunch… very tough (Andy Ward worked me). Saturday was a 1:40hr run (10miles-ish?) in Nisene Marks… lots of hills. And Sunday was the peak with a 4000yrd swim followed by a 40mile ride (Aptos High - Corralitos - Eureka Canyon - Old San Jose Road). Very challenging! That night I slept for exactly 12hrs! Right now I surprisingly feel good and am looking forward to an even more difficult week.
(02/03/08) Week 17. RECOVERY WEEK!!! This week was really mellow. Although I was still scheduled to work out 6 days this week on my own I ended up skipping on the training over the weekend and went down to San Luis Obispo to visit family. It was very nice because being so busy lately it’s been a while since I’d been back down there to see everyone. Right now I am feeling very well rested and ready to start building.
(01/27/08) Week 16. This week I completed my very first Olympic distance triathlon!!! This experience has taught me to listen to my heart rate monitor and stick to my game plan. The tri was held on Treasure Island in SF and it consisted of a 1 mile swim, followed by a 25 mile bike, and finished off with a 10k run (6.2 miles). I was really happy with my swim time (~27min) and I made it out of the first transition onto my bike with only a hand full of people in front of me. I started out at a fast pace, for myself, and I felt great… which was the start of my problem. My plan was to ride at an avg heart rate of ~165. Instead I started out at 180! I quickly tried to slow down a bit and get my heart rate down lower. However, when I got it down to 175 I was feeling really good and was able to hold conversation with a rider that caught up to me and I didn’t want to slow down (and of course I didn’t want to get passed :) ). So I decided to push it and see what happened… kind of a test because I had never gone at that pace for 25 miles. Sure enough, at mile 18, I found out what happens when you push yourself past your anaerobic threshold for over an hour… you hit the wall. Quickly my heart rate started dropping (couldn’t get it above 160) and my legs started feeling like lead. The last 7 miles I was doing all I could just to hold a reasonable pace. On the last lap another rider caught up and passed me (the only one to pass me on the bike), but I did my best hang on and finish the bike portion right behind him finishing in 1:26hrs. Between the two of us, I was quickest on the transition and started the run ahead (at this point no one had passed me since I got out of the water). The run certainly did not start off well. I usually run my 10k pace at a heart rate around 175 – 180… starting out I couldn’t get my heart rate above 160 and my legs were virtually useless. I had hoped earlier in the day to complete the run in 45 min… that certainly wasn’t going to happen. The run consisted of 4 out-and- backs so each time I made a turn around I saw people gaining on me. Fortunately as the run when on my heart rate started creeping back up and my legs started to feel better, but by that time I was spent. Right before the last out-and-back (1.5miles left) I was passed by another participant who I knew was a strong runner. “Fudge That!” I thought… “I can’t let this guy beat me”. So I stepped it up and to hang on. He had a much faster pace than I thought I could run, but I was going to give it my all and see what happened. At the last turn around (3/4mile left) I passed him and made my break. My heart rate had finally gotten back up to 178 and I decided to try to gap him. I put my head down and ran my heart out, never looking back. I kept telling myself, “he’s going to pass me any second”…. And then I’d push even harder. At this point of the story it may sound impressive as if I were sprinting all out… but in reality I probably looked like a drunken sailor stumbling down the road. As I crossed the finish line I looked back to see that I had opened about a 30 second gap finishing the run in 53minutes. In reality the goal of the event was not to race (they didn’t even keep official times and placings) and the other guy probably wasn’t even racing me. But that didn’t matter to me at that point… I had won! :). Despite hitting the wall on the bike I finished the entire event in 2:55hrs. I was extremely tired and extremely happy with my result (my goal was 3:00hrs). I can safely say I gave it my all and did the best I could, and that gives me great satisfaction. Right now I’m tired but I learned a lot and I’m even more motivated now in my training.
(01/20/08) Week 15. This was another challenging week. Again, I was still a little tired coming off the previous week. Tuesday spin was challenging but I tried to lower my intensity level. Wednesday I afternoon I did a heavy leg weight lifting work out and I felt really good, but my legs were tired for that night’s track workout. Thursday I swam ~3500 yards at a low intensity and when I got home my body was exhausted... I could barely keep my eyes open and I was in bed by 9pm. Friday my legs were at the peak of their soreness and my body overall was really tired so I took the day off. Saturday morning we went on an icy 45 mile ride from Los Gatos to Uvas Damn followed by 30 min run. I tried to keep my intensity low during the ride and although I was pretty tired I felt good afterwards. Sunday was another cold morning, but we went swimming in the SF Bay anyway. Only ~25minute swim but it was COLD! We followed the swim with a 90 minute run along the Bay Trail. I felt pretty good and the tiredness is beginning to leave. Right now I’m looking forward to the Olympic distance Tri next Sunday on Treasure Island and the recovery week leading up to it.
(01/13/08) Week 14. This week was very difficult and very motivating. It was the first week in while that I did all 6 workouts in a week. I was tired for Tuesday’s spin/run from the previous weekend’s workouts. Then on Wednesday night’s track workout I was really tired. I had a lot of trouble getting my heart rate up to where I normally train at so I knew my body needed rest. Fortunately, both Thursday and Friday were scheduled swim days. I focused on low intensity active-recovery swimming and really worked on form instead of speed or intensity. By Saturday I was feeling good again. That was good because Saturday we had a brutal bike ride. We started out next to Hwy 280 in Redwood City and road up to Skyline via Kings Mountain, then down skyline to the 84, Portola, Sandhill, and back. It registered ~35miles on my bike computer. Then right after the ride I did a trail run for 30minutes. I was exhausted. After I got home and ate I never left the couch. My legs weren’t use to going anaerobic for so long. Sunday morning I felt good. We swam ~2500yards then ran for 90minutes (I did ~10miles). It was another challenging workout but I felt better after it then I did Saturday. Right now I’m feeling very good and looking forward to more challenging workouts.
(01/06/08) Week 13. After New Years day I got back into the swing of things. Thursday I spun at home which I hate… especially when I have to do it by myself. Friday I swam after work… I tried out my new zoomers (small fins for swimming so you can focus on your stroke and body position) for the first time and focused heavily on doing drills. Saturday I attended my first coached spinerval. The spinerval consisted of a 20 minute spin, followed by a 10 min run, followed by 5-10minutes of strength training… and repeated 4 times. It was brutal… I was surprised at how difficult it was. On Sunday I was pretty sore from the spinerval but we had a twenty mile bike ride followed by a 40minute run. Having started out already tired made it a lot more challenging than it would have been, but I made it through fine. Right now I’m really looking forward to the Monday rest day (Monday’s are always rest days) but I’m really motivated to take my training up a notch.
(12/30/07) Week 12. This last week I didn’t work out much. I was in Spokane for Christmas visiting family. Sunday was the only day I exercised. I went on an 11 mile hike in the Big Basin area again. This time we did the Berry Falls loop. It was a really good time and very challenging. There were a lot of significant elevation changes and very few flat sections. It took about 5 hours total and that was moving at a very brisk pace almost the entire time. It was a really good training day. Right now I’m feeling a bit tired from the hike, but I’m very motivated to get back into training full time.
(12/23/07) Week 11. This last week we’ve been on holiday break. During this time we don’t have coached workouts but we still have on your own workouts scheduled… which has resulted in some slacking. However, I’ve been calling it much needed rest. On Sunday I went on a 4 hour hike in the Big Basin Park area with some teammates. We estimate that we did around 10 miles. It was a good workout and a nice change of pace. Next week I’ve scheduled another hike that’s a little bit longer. Right now I’m feeling good and looking forward to another rest week.
(12/16/07) Week 10. This week I focused on improving strength. On Tuesday at lunch I completed a heavier than usual leg weight lifting session. This meant that my legs were completely sore and relatively useless for the next three days. I still spun Tuesday night and went to track on Wednesday but I took it easy Thursday thru Saturday to let my legs rest. On Sunday we had a team swim/run at Gunderson High. The swim lanes were set up long ways (Olympic distance… 50m instead of 25yards) which made the workout an interesting change of pace… I really liked it. After the work out the coaches estimated we swam about 2.5mi… a little over the distance of the ironman swim. I personally think the coaches were a bit generous with their math but I’m not going to argue. Afterwards we ran for 40 min and I felt really good. Since we are still in the base building phase I’m going to continue focusing on building leg strength. I think this will be a big benefit once we begin our longer, more intense, bike/runs. Right now I’m feeling a strong and motivated.
(12/09/07) Week 9. Today I completed my very first triathlon. It was a sprint distance (swim: 1/4miles, bike: 12miles, run: 3miles). I had a really good time but man was it cold. The air temperature was around 40 degrees and the water temperature around 55 degrees. Because the water temperature was so cold and we didn’t have a lot of time to acclimate/warm up in it I had a hard time taking in breaths of air while swimming. 1/3 of the way through I thought I was going to have to stop and catch my breath. But the swim was so short I just pushed through it and finished. Getting out of the water and transitioning was also more difficult because my hands and feet had little feeling by that point, but over all I did well and was the second person to exit the transition. The wind chill on the bike ride also made things challenging. I had to focus on keeping my hands moving so that they didn’t numb up and make braking and gear shifting impossible. Only one person passed me on the relatively hilly bike course. The run was an out and back on the trail running along side the reservoir we swam in. When I started the run my feet were completely numb but about a fourth of the way through feeling started to come back. I felt good through out and was able to hold a fast pace. I finished the event with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes. I was really happy with my performance and I felt really good throughout (except for the cold). Right now I’m feeling very motivated and I’m looking forward to doing an Olympic distance next.
(12/02/07) Week 8. Unfortunately we received some bad news about our entry for Ironman Canada. The Ironman Corporation has re-evaluated its policy for providing race slots to charitable organizations and has decided not to give our team any slots this year. Therefore, we will not be participating in Ironman Canada. We will instead be competing in the Vineman ironman in Napa. This is a pretty big let down since we had all planned on doing IMC and had our hearts set on participating in one of the best Ironman competitions in the world. However, we still have our hearts set on the goal of raising money for a cure and to complete on of the biggest physical challenges of our lives. Plus, Vineman is also supposed to be a great event. On a different note, I completed a 32mile bike ride followed by a 6mile run on Saturday. I was very happy that after the long ride I was able to hold a 7:30min/mile pace for the entire 6 mile run. It shows me my training is paying off and I’m progressing in my fitness. Next Sunday is our first practice tri. It’s a sprint distance so it should be a lot of fun for my very first triathlon. Currently of feeling strong and very motivated.
(11/25/08) Week 7 taught me that swimming in a red tide is much different then surfing in red tide. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday this week it was more of a rest week. It was really nice taking a few consecutive days off from training and visiting my family. On Saturday, though, I was right back at it. I did an open water swim at Cowell’s beach and boy was that a mistake. Santa Cruz has been experiencing one of the worst red tides in a long time. Having surfed in red tide plenty of times in my life I figured going for a swim would be no big deal. What I didn’t take into consideration is that your face is directly in the water the entire to you are swimming and you’re getting water in your mouth every breath you take. Gross! It was disgusting. The smell, the taste, the color… awful. We swam for about 40min and when it was over I couldn’t wait to take a shower. On Sunday we went on an on-your-own bike ride from Aptos to Corralitos and back. It was a 30mi ride with a few challenging hills on a very beautiful day. Currently I’m feeling strong and looking forward to next week.
(11/18/07) Week 6 was much better than week 5. I took things a little easier and really focused on getting enough rest. Today we had the Ironteam’s 3rd annual Ride ‘n Tie. It consisted of a 2.5mi loop that you completed 4 times with a partner and one bike. Both partners start at the same time, one on foot the other on the bike. The one on the bike rides ahead for a certain distance, drops off the bike then begins running. When the other partner eventually gets to the bike, he starts riding and passes the other guy. This is repeated over the entire 10mi. My partner and I, dressed as Batman & Robin (See pic above), got 4th out of I think around 20. It was very difficult but a lot of fun. Currently I’m feeling really good and I’m looking forward to the Thanksgiving break.
(11/11/07) Week 5 taught me about over training. Mondays are our only rest days. When Tuesday came around I was still tired from last week. So what did I do? I pushed really hard on our on-your-own scheduled swim Tuesday night. Not smart. I was really tired and exhausted at work, going to sleep at 8 at night, and sleeping 11 hours for about 4 days. But I continued through our coached track work out Wednesday night, completed the scheduled spin/run on Thursday, and lifted weights/ran on Friday. Also not good. Basically I over trained. So Saturday I rested and today I tried to take it easier at our coached swim/run. Currently I’m feeling better and am going to really pay attention to my energy level next week.
(11/04/07) Week 4 was brutal. Tuesday my friend Ayesha taught a special spin class for the Santa Cruz trainees. I won’t go into details other then to say… I had no idea how much that was going to kick my @ss! Friday I had a very good swim session. Saturday we biked from Natural Bridges to Davenport (1hr?) and back followed by a run down to the light house and back (40min?). I think I pushed a little too hard because Sunday I was pretty tired for our 1.5hr swim session followed by an hour bike ride. Currently I’m feeling really tired but I’m still looking forward to next week.
(10/29/07) We just finished week 3. Saturday we did a 1.5 hour ride around the Stevens Creek Dam's surrounding area, followed by a brief 20 min run on the nearby trails. I was amazed at how tired I was at the end. My legs were jelly when it was all over. It was a harsh realization of how much farther I have to go. But the good news is that I had a little bit of a break through this week with my swimming. Many of you may know that swimming is my weakest area. Currently I'm feeling good, feeling strong, and I’m looking forward to next week.
