May 2016 – an amazing run

2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 22

WEEK 22 – May 23, 2016 – May 29, 2016

As usual, my wonderful wife keeps pretty close tabs on me during my training. She knows the effort involved and makes sure I don’t overdo it. But lately she has been on me about under-doing it, in particular the swim. Some may call that nagging, but it is really just loving concern. The schools had their final week of classes this week and therefore adjusted the pool hours to end midday, effectively keeping me out of the pool for another week. And I am still waiting for my in-ground pool to be fixed.

I had convinced myself that missing a week or two of swimming wasn’t going to affect me, but when my number one fan is concerned, I guess I had better think about it as well. I guess I will add some upper body strength training (which I loathe, by the way) in the interim until I can get back into swimming.

The Ironman related Facebook pages that I follow were also talking a lot about swimming too, mainly in regard to a condition called SIPE – Swimming Induced Pulmonary Edema. It appears that this condition may be a big cause of many of the swimming related fatalities in the Ironman swims. I read up on the topic and even listened to a podcast that discussed it, and truthfully I have never had any of the symptoms of this condition. But it pays to be aware of them for sure.

As far as the rest of the week of training is concerned, it was somewhat of an easy week that tapered down slightly toward a Half-Iron distance race in the plan for Sunday. Since this weekend happened to be Memorial Day weekend and my youngest daughter had a soccer tournament, the best day to do this trial run was Saturday. There was too much going on to do an actual race, so I did the training on my own. The day started out slightly cool with somewhat threatening skies, but it never did rain. I stuck to the Old Plank Trail in order to have some shelter available to me in case I needed to dodge a storm. I ended up doing almost exactly 56 miles, averaging 17.5 mph.

After getting home, I changed into some non-sweaty running clothes and headed for the 6.55 miles out and 6.55 miles back. But the threatening skies turned sunny, and I had neglected to put on sunscreen. I was starting to cook. But I had plenty of water, GU and Base salt with me and I kept up with it. Of note, I ran the 13.1 miles in 2:01 which was pretty much my best effort for the conditions. I had run the Frankfort Half Marathon a month earlier in 1:35. Interesting how much slower you run when you precede it with a 56 mile ride and do it in 80 degree weather.

Upon getting home, I could tell that I had over-done it somewhat. A shower, some rehydration, and a quick dinner made me whole again. I think I pushed a little too hard on the bike and didn’t hydrate as much as I should have. That’s what training is for, learning from the mistakes.

WEEK 22 TOTALS:

Swims: No swimming this week 😦

Bikes: 3 total, 5 hours, 87.5 miles

Runs: 7 total, 5 hours, 34.6 miles

Unknown-4 — Training gets serious in the next few weeks.

2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 21

WEEK 21 – May 16, 2016 – May 22, 2016

Another week of playing catch up. The totals for last week were down because I missed my long run on Sunday. So I ended up doing it on the Monday rest day. 14 miles in 2 hours. Tuesday I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon, so I had to cut my swim short and ended up doing 2500 yards instead of the 3500 the plan called for. Since I needed to pick up my son from college on Friday, I skipped the planned swim. I don’t mind skipping the third swim.

The rest of the week went well with no big issues. The best part of the week however was the long Saturday ride and brick run that most of my Gunner teammates were able to make. Dave and his son Alex made the trip to my home to ride together, but we ended up delaying it a little so John could join us as well. We were missing our Gunner friend Jeff, who is still rehabbing from his minor back surgery and is limited to riding a stationary recumbent bike and using an elliptical. So what does a Gunner do when those are his options? Jeff did 4 hours on the elliptical. Gunner. Can’t wait until he can join us again. He had a really good base built up and should be able to get back up to speed easily.

It took us several tries to take a selfie. My arms are too short.

We rode for about an hour and then met with John, then we decided that heading east and west might be our best option due to the wind blowing from the north. Unfortunately, most of the good riding for me is south of my town, so with a south wind it is hard to avoid having to ride back into the wind.

So we decided to explore a little, and that meant discovering gravel roads and busier highways. But we weren’t on them long, and eventually made it out to Elwood. When we got to the north side of Midewin National Nature Preserve, we decided to ride into it and see what the old abandoned arsenal had for us. Essentially it was just a couple miles of choppy road in the middle of nowhere. Now we know.

I’m the odd ball with the non-Speed Concept. Oh well. We weren’t sure if we should go in, but we did anyway.

Since we had been riding about an hour when we caught John, we decided that we would compromise and do an extra 1/2 hour to give him 3.5 hours and us 4.5 hours of riding. In all, we covered about 77 miles in 4:30, give or take a couple of minutes. I did notice that we passed the half-Iron bike distance of 56 miles at about 3:17, which is a pretty good time for a training ride if you ask me. Matter of fact, the ride was quite a confidence booster.

The brick run was impressive to me. I had always thought that it wouldn’t be long before Dave and John started to catch up with me tempo-wise on the run. They certainly had some speed at the end of that 5.5 mile run. I took them through a local neighborhood that has some really big houses, which they seemed to enjoy. Then it was back home for a quick shower and a dinner at Fuddrucker’s, a hamburger joint that I hadn’t been to in probably 25 or more years. I didn’t even think this place still existed. But the food was hot and good, and the end of day conversations and recaps were awesome.

The Sunday workout consisted of a 1:15 hour spin, which I did with my wife. We rode into New Lenox on the trail and then made it back home. I took a minute to clean the Gatorade and gravel dirt off my bike, then headed out for the 1:45 long run. It ended up being 12 miles. I should have hydrated more because I was suffering a little in the 80 degree 100% sunshine. I brought one water, but could have used more. I think I needed to hydrate a little more from yesterday’s effort.

The last thing of note for the week is that we have all ordered our custom tri kits from Epix. They did a really good job designing a logo for us and creating a kit. I hope that all of us find the kit to fit well and be comfortable. Can’t wait to get them in early July.

A screen shot of our tri top from Epix. They did a really good job with the Gunner logo and the design of the kit. I really like them.

WEEK 21 TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 2 hours, 6000 yards

Bikes: 4 total, 7:40 hours, 121 miles

Runs: 7 total, 7:55 hours, 54.7 miles

2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 20

WEEK 20 – May 9, 2016 – May 15, 2016

Well, I have reached the end of another week of training, but it was not without its imperfections. Stuff happens, and it certainly was an interesting week.

First of all, what a crappy weather week. Basically rainy and 50 degrees for most of the week, which is somewhat unusual temperature-wise for northern Illinois. I hit the trainer and treadmill for most of the weekday workouts.

The swims were interesting as well. As the school year winds down, I noticed for the past few weeks that the freshman classes that are required to take swimming must have all gotten through the program because I had the pool pretty much to myself. (The school dedicates two lanes for Adult Community swimmers, and the kids swim in the deep end.) But I forgot that as we reach the end of the year, they let any class that wants some pool time to come an goof around. That means kids doing cannonballs off the spring board, football wannabes tossing a football around and tackling each other, water polo balls flying into my lane, etc. Makes for an interesting swim.

An update for my pool situation – I ordered a new liner to replace the ripped one, so I anticipate it being open sometime mid-June, hopefully because I believe my wife has a graduation party scheduled for the end of June. Yikes! I saw a duck in there this morning.

I had to cut short Friday’s workout so I could go watch my son run at least one track meet this year. I picked up Grandpa and off we went to Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa to watch him run his event, the Steeplechase. 4.5 hours of driving there. 9:55 minutes of him running. 4.5 hours driving back. Very proud of him though. He set a personal record by 15 seconds or so, and finished 8th in the race which earned a point for his team, Loras College.

The lad doing his thing. Interesting race, the steeplechase. Of course it rained.

Saturday was another day that I had to make some changes. A family acquaintance passed away and I attended the funeral. Good man, raised good kids, and went above and beyond serving his community as a board member of the high schools.

So I did about a third of the biking that was in the plan for Saturday, and did another 2.5 hours on Sunday. Which meant Sunday’s long run took a hit. I will move it to tomorrow, which is normally a rest day. Two hour run. That’s something to look forward to.

The Week 11-20 Build phase totals up to the following:

Swims: – 19 total, 18.5 total hours, 115,800 total yards
Bikes: – 38 total, 53:45 total hours, 850 total miles
Runs: – 70 total, 45.5 total hours, 324 total miles

WEEK 20 TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 2:20 hours, 6800 yards

Bikes: 3 total, 4:45 hours, 77.75 miles

Runs: 7 total, 2.8 hours, 24.75 miles

2016 IMLP Training – Week 19

WEEK 19 – May 2, 2016 – May 8, 2016

Just a quick wrap-up for this week as it was pretty uneventful. But there were some noteworthy items.

I learned a lesson about doing a half marathon last weekend. It’s aftermath was painful. I was very sore on most of my runs until about Friday. Need to do some more stick rolling and stretching and I should be back to having that “normal” worn out feeling that I usually have.

Although the plan has a swim on Friday, I have decided that I will do them when I can. It’s just that when you are doing training you end up neglecting some things that have little consequence, and others that have more significant consequence. Like not mowing the yard, which at this time of the year can be more like a jungle if I don’t tend to it. And since I feel the weekend long efforts on the bike and run are vital to the training, I think I can still be okay by foregoing one of the three hour long swims to devote time to household responsibilities. I’ve been averaging about 2:05 minute splits per 100 yards over 3000 yards, which I am very happy with.

Speaking of the swim, I finally decided to pull the cover off my pool and try to open it. Swimming in my own pool saves time, and even though it is a lot of turning around, I don’t mind it much. I expected a green pool when I pulled the cover off, but got a much bigger surprise – a black lagoon!

Cleaning this will be a chore, but it would probably be ready in a couple of weeks. But surprise number two came when I saw this:

So, now it looks like it may need to be replaced, and that may delay the pool opening for a while. I’ve got two kids graduating 8th grade and high school this year, and the Ironman to train for, so I need that pool open!

The long bike was a four hour long trip this week, but I got to ride with a couple of friends, my normal riding partner Todd, and my other Ironman Gunner teammate Dave. Todd is not interested at all in doing tri’s, but loves to ride. He left us around 2:45 into the ride and Dave and I finished it off. We pretty much have to ride south for good roads to ride, which meant with the wind going out. Coming back was tough! But we got through it.

Looking fresh after a 4 hour ride and 45 minute run. So much more fun when you have someone to train with.

Wrapped up the weekend with a Sunday long run of 12 miles. I was set to only do 10 miles, but just as I was turning off the trail to run the mile back home, my wife jumped on. So I enjoyed running an extra couple of miles with the mother of my children on a nice Mother’s Day. She was the anti-runner when I met her, and now she’s starting to get pretty fast. I converted a non-runner into a running lover! Just need to get her interested in the marathon!

WEEK 19 TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 2 hours, 6000 yards

Bikes: 5 total, 7.8 hours, 112 miles

Runs: 7 total, 5.5 hours, 38 miles

2016 IMLP Training – Week 18

WEEK 18 – April 25, 2016 – May 1, 2016

The taper weeks always seem to surprise me, mainly because I rarely look ahead in the training plan unless forced to do so. I take it one day, one week at a time. No sense in worrying about the six hour rides and 3 hour runs at this stage of the game. The tapers are almost like a gift or courtesy, like someone holding the door for you. A welcome break for the work that you have put in.

The plan had an Olympic distance triathlon scheduled for Sunday, and since it is April in Illinois, the opportunity to get that task done was going to be limited unless I traveled to somewhere with a better spring than the one we are having. But there was a local half marathon being run, so I decided to hop on that instead.

The half marathon was so local that it was on the exact same trails that I run every run. I went into it thinking to use it as a training day, but of course the competitive side of me took over and I pushed hard. I finished in 12th place overall. But the surprising thing is that I finished 4th in my age group! I am still trying to figure out how someone in the Male 50-54 age group can finish in 12th place and lose out on a podium finish by three other old guys. My area must be ripe with fast old guys. You can read my race recap here:

2016 Frankfort Half Marathon Race Report

The other thing of note this week was the swim and my ongoing issue with having to urinate when swimming. I don’t get it. Tuesday was to be a 3000 yard swim, and like clockwork I had to pee a half hour into it. Then it was again about every 5-10 minutes. When I got to the 2800 yard point I could feel some rather sharp pain in my lower back that almost doubled me over. I decided to get out and head to the shower. I did a little googling of the issue and found a condition called immersion diuresis. The suggested reasoning is colder water and the pressure of being in the water stimulates the kidneys to make more urine. I’m not sure what the pool temp is, but it isn’t what I would consider cold. And I am not sure that I buy any pressure related causes because I’m swimming along the top of the water. In the past I have just gotten out of the water and relieved myself and was able to continue on. But the kidney ache that I got this time gave me some pause. On Saturday after finishing the half marathon, I urinated a somewhat bloody stream. Race day was cool and damp, and I had not felt like I was adequately hydrated. I am curious if it was related to the issue I had earlier in the week or that the run was the cause. I have had bloody appearing urine after hard running efforts in the past. I will keep an eye on it for now.

Hoping for the best for one of my Gunners training teammates. He had an issue with his back that has been treated and hopefully will put him back at it soon. He was in great shape prior and will have plenty of time to recover and train.

Not sure what next week will be like. I don’t look ahead, remember? But it won’t be long and I will be heading into the endurance phase of training.

WEEK 18 TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 1.5 hours, 4300 yards

Bikes: 2 total, 1.5 hours, 21 miles

Runs: 7 total, 4 hours, 31 miles