Runner, you need to wake up!

This is it! I am officially stopping to be a cake eating instead of training idiot. Of course I knew that I needed a break (mostly mental one) so I took it, however it has gone too far now. 

I wanted to do some running races this fall (well, one or two 5k) and you need to run to be able to do that. And PPC uses her free time to prepare the running plan for me and I do not follow it and feel guilty wasting her time. I have not skipped a planned running workout in a couple years but I have bagged like 5 runs in the last three weeks (which is close to 50% of all my running workouts), which is very very bad (all of them were easy runs, I did my quality workouts but it is still very bad). I took one week pretty much off after that last triathlon and wanted to get back at it afterwards. But one week has become 3 weeks now and I do not even know how. Once you skip one run then it is easy to skip the next one and one after that, isn’t it?

But yesterday was a wake up call for me. 5x1k @ 5k pace preceded by 15min sub-tempo.  I was able to do similar workout last week no problem but yesterday was a disaster. Last time I was not able to hit my running paces was in college and I had no problem being spot on since, until yesterday. I felt horrible already during a warm up but I figured that 1k at 3:50-55 should not be a problem, right? I felt somehow ok during 15min at 6:54 pace. Then took 4min rest and started those 1k. I did the first one in 4:06, then took 2 min standing rest, second one 4:11 and then called it a day.

I think that this failure is mostly due to conditions (hauling winds, lightening, storm was coming) and fatigue (9h drive Fr, 4h bike race Sat, 9h drive Sun, 2h fast bike ride Tuesday, and biking to and from work yesterday). But it is also due to those last three weeks (horrible eating habits and my “whatever” attitude).

I think that my attitude stems from the life changes I have been going through and needed a mental break and also because I am starting working with Michelle in November so I am postponing starting real training until then. Maybe I am just using “I loved Hannover and now had to move to an unknown cemetery town across the Ocean alone to start my first real full-time job” as an excuse to give me a break, but I do not think that I am. 

I do not really care that I suck at swimming and biking because Michelle is going to help me take care of it. But I do care when my running sucks, especially since I wanted sub-19 this fall. I have spent last three weeks all over the place and some of those missed runs were inevitable but some of them not so much.

I have realized that I have not communicated well enough with PPC regarding my running plan. Basically there is no off-season in my running plan now since I have fall races planned but I needed a time-off. So I have not been following the plan 100%.  

Anyway, I am going south to Shawnee National Forest for a Fat Tire Festival this weekend and I do not think that I am going to run while I am there. I will probably haul my running gear and foam roller with me (I did take all that to Michigan with me last weekend but did not use it at all) but I am 95% positive I am not going to use it. 

But then starting next week my break is over and I need to get out of my ”yeah, I can skip the run, it is not problem, I have my whole life to train so one workout won’t make a huge difference” (except that if I say that to myself twice a week it is going to make a difference) and “I will get back at it in November when Michelle starts coaching me again” state of mind.

Btw, I have four bikes now. I bought that Walmart bike to commute on on Monday. And my home trainer finally arrived. So that’s exciting.
It is a good thing that I do not have any furniture except for a mattress and a bed stand because then it would not fit into the apartment.
I now have all my stuff with me in IL and do not sleep under two towels anymore. I have more than one pair of business casual pants and more than two shirts to wear to work.
And I have an appointment with a PT for my ITB treatment on Monday. I hope he is as good as my German guy.
So everything is going to go splendidly starting next week!

6-hour Addison Oaks Mountain Bike RR or How to become a mountain biker

Thinking about doing some mountain bike races? But have little mtb experience? Or no mtb bike? NO problem!

Here is how you do it:

Firstly, choose an endurance event because if you still do not want to throw your bike into a dumpster after a few hours of riding it means you like the sport and will likely stick with it. You can go for for example a 6-hour mtb race in Michigan.

Drive 9 hours to the race the day before.

On your drive to the race location stop to buy a bike and clipless pedals (who cares that you have not used such pedals on a mtb before).

Then stop again to buy biking shoes and have a guy in store install cleats on them for you.

10pm the day before the race remove the flat pedals that came with the bike and install those clipless pedals.

 Yeah right, those flat pedals are so tight you cannot remove them. Hope that someone at the race location will be able to do it.

When race morning comes, make your friend help you remove those pedals. Remove one but the second one remains stuck. 30min to the start. But do not worry, who needs to test whether cleats position works for you or try to see whether she can clip in and out anyway? You will have 6 hours to find out.

Take the bike to a tent of a local bike store. Have three guys working on it, one of them breaking a pedal wrench in a process and the other cutting himself on your front ring. But they manage to do it! 5min to the start.

Oh right, test ride the bike sprinting to the start line. Try to clip in and out once or twice. All good.

And off you go! 6 hours on trails in a pissing rain.

If you are lucky (like I was), they stop the race after 4 hours because of race conditions – trails became mud pots, rocks and roots slippery, bikes do not shift anymore because everything is covered with a thick layer of mud and even if it was not your hands are so frozen that you cannot shift anymore anyway. 

At the end of all this you are a mountain biker.

Ok, so the race was fun even though the weather was horrible (call me a sissy but I was not complaining one bit when they decided to shut it down after 4 hours). I have not wiped out at all and had to "test" whether I know how to clip out only once. I LOVED my new bike and my new pedals. Those clipless pedals are awesome for mtbiking. 

We did around 7.2mile loops and I managed 5 in 3h38min so around 36miles of mountain biking (there were quite a lot of people racing but most of them did 8h team rides. There was only one another woman stupid enough to do 6h solo ride and I beat her. So I won the race, but there were only two of us:). With each loop I was getting more confident in my skills, unfortunately with every lap the conditions were getting worse and worse. It was great nevertheless. Some of those mtb guys were going as if they were cruising along a newly paved highway. They are crazy badasses! (I want one of those at home.)

Did I mention that I loved my bike, Giant Talon 2011? You remember a guy I met last year at a traffic light when I was biking home from the criterium race and he invited me to come to do a race with him? So he found that bike for me and it was a great deal. He is the nicest person ever! I mean seriously, I met him only three times and have not seen him for a year but he did the research, called the seller, discussed the bike specifics and price with him, arranged the meeting for me, sent me 30+ test messages about how I should test ride it to make sure it fits me, how to install the cleats, how to clean it afterwards. Isn’t it the nicest thing ever? We went out for a coffee on Sunday but before that we went to buy a bike rack for my car and he showed me how to assemble it and everything! I bought him cookies for his help, because who does not like cookies, right?

And I did not want to throw the bike into a dumpster at the end of the day so I guess it means I liked it and am hooked.

Back on (a) track

I somehow thought that 1h15min running last week and my eating habits in the last three weeks (still have not used a stove, but I have already had almost everything I wanted including muffins, cheesecake and starbursts, and I will go to Olive Garden this weekend and stuff my face with their breadsticks and then I should be ok and can start eating real food) would have a very negative impact on my running fitness therefore my expectations for today's workout were quite low. Not sure why I expected it to be so bad though, you do not loose fitness in one week. Probably also because my last interval workout was when I was still in Germany so I was not really sure what to expect.

But it has turned out that it is not that bad.
Workout was 20min warm up, stretches/drills, 17min sub-tempo at 4:18 pace (6:53 since we are in the US after all), 3min rest, 5x800 @ 5k pace with 90sec jog, 10min c/d.
I realized soon during that sub-tempo (which I did on a trail near the track, which is great!) that I do feel good and there is nothing to worry about. Except that I might die during those 800s. The last time I did this tempo/intervals combo was last year in summer (when I was in a great shape by the way but was not able to capitalize on it in races since my ITB kept flaring up every few weeks).
So sub-tempo was good and my original plan was 4x800s at around 3:05, which is around 19:15 for a 5k.
However turns out that 800s are so short that 3:05 is too easy and 4 is not enough. So I did 5 in 3:05, 3:04, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59.
Sure, I used to do this workout all 800s in 2:5x but that would not be my 5k pace right not. So I followed instructions and kept it at a reasonable pace.
It felt quite easy although the last 150m of the last two was little harder. But that's probalby because I was going faster to negative split the intervals.

Then swim. Another great thing about the pool (one great thing is that I am always the only one swimming there) is that they have hot tub with jets so I used those to "massage" my legs between run and swim. It was great!
Swim was good as well and hit all my paces right on spot. Did 10x100 @ 1:40 again but this time at the end of a workout and went faster than last week. So I am adjusting.

Ok, I am off to bed since I need to get up at around 3:30am to drive for 9 hours to Michigan to pick up my cloths and do that mountain bike race on Saturday. It is either 6h or 8h race. I do not even know. And it does not really matter since I am not ready for neither of them. But I do not care, I can fake it. And I do not have a bike yet. Details, details.

Running scared!

Let's do this with bullet points since there is couple things I would like to write about.

- on Monday I was chased again by those two exact same dogs that chased me on Sunday. (It is no surprise of course since I took the same route). Unfortunately this time they both chased me on both my way out and back. Did I mention that I do not like dogs?!? (Sorry to all you dog lovers, I had a bad experience from my childhood and am just too scared of dogs and thus hate them)

- I ran 50+ minutes on a road on Monday. This was the longest hard surface run since the early 2010! I run on a road only when it is totally unevitable and I always limit it to 40min max. However with the current situation I need to risk it. It was horrible though. I was scared to death and was expecting my ITB to blow up any time. It is good however, even one day after. Hope it stays that way.

- I ran a hill workout on Monday (as part of those 50min). 6x90sec. Yes, I found a hill in Illinois. It is only 4min run from my place. The last time I did a hill workout was in fall 2010 in Yosemite park when I ran to El Capitan to beat bears and sunset. I ran some hills in Hannover but I am not sure whether that could be considered hill workout. I loved every second of that hill workout yesterday. It was the only time that I forgot about my ITB and just ran and enjoyed (in a slightly sadist way).

- I went biking today to the Rend Lake and met one guy who stopped me and asked me whether I want to join him for his ride. He said that he moved here last year in November and that he rode pretty often and I was the first cyclist he had met! So he had to stop me because he was desperate for a biking buddy. This place is weird. The roads about the Rend Lake are smooth newly paved roads with low traffic and there are also bike paths, however there are no joggers, bikers or hikers there. He said that even in summer there is noone out there!

- The ride kicked my butt. Big time! And I do not mean that it was comfortably hard. It was HARD. I was able to stay with him (in drops, glued on his wheel, suffering like a dog) on flats or downhills but on even the slightest incline I got dropped as a bad habbit even though I stoot up and mashed the pedals, quads on fire. It was pathetic. Sure his quads were like my waist but he was an older guy, almost 30 years older than me (why do I always have these older guys for biking buddies? Where are all hot young guys?!?). He told me that he raced off-road motorbikes and that involves standing on pedals for 2-3 hours so therefore his legs are strong. It was pure suffering and there were times I considered asking him to slow down because I was going to blow up and then pedal home at 7 mph. I can blame it on that hill workout, not having bike pedals and shoes but only cages, eating only 2 apples and 1 peach and drinking only one cup of water the whole day, but those would be just stupid excuses. I truly need to stop living on donuts and start doing something with myself.

- I had a great workout in a pool today. I did a workout that I did last October (2x4x200 @ 3:20 desc 1-2) and I nailed it. Sure, I cannot move my arms now but I nailed it so I am happy about it.

Training update

I brought this home yesterday (the Specialized one in case in doubt) and I am pretty excited about it. It is an entry level road bike, basically the cheapest one they had on store but it will do the job.
I went riding with a bike group from work Sat and they told me that one store near St Louis was having a sale that day. So I went, told the guy selling bikes that I was looking for something entry level, I test rode couple bikes and they chose the cheapest one. I cannot justify anything expensive unless I kick some cycling butts first. But on a second though, maybe I cannot kick any butts on this bike...Then it will be a vicious cycle I suppose. But I do not care, I just wanted a road bike to have some fun around.
(My sister called me right after I bought the bike while I was in Target looking at drying racks and after I started complaining to her that $22 for a piece of plastic is little too much she said I was an idiot since I just spent a thousand bucks on a bike but am too thrifty to pay twenty two bucks for a drying rack. My dear, I cannot spend $22 BECAUSE I just spent a thousand on a bike. But I got that drying rack as well because I am not using a drying machine. Drying machines are very bad!)

I took my new ride for a ride today and it was awesome (although it was cold, two pairs of pants, socks, gloves, couple layers of jackets)!!!! I explored some local farm roads and they are ok with an occasional rough patch but nothing too bad and no cars. The problem is dogs. I was chased twice. I do not like dogs one bit. I am scared of dogs.
The ride was great and I am looking forward to getting on a bike often now. My TT bike has a compact cassette and this is standard so I cannot swap the Powertap wheel easily:( Not sure how I am going to go about it. I am thinking about getting a second powertap wheel, the cheapest version will cost me only $500 (well, only...) but that's probably little too snobbish, isn't it?
I wish those powermeter pedals were cheaper. Even Garmin does not want to hire me a test rider (I asked and they said no) so I think that I need to find a man to share my living expenses with and then I will buy those pedals. (Which might take forever because I have very particular standards, you know, German engineer and a holder of US Green card with a marathon PR under 2:36 that is proficient in physical therapy and likes to spend his free time as a bike mechanic.  Those types are very rare and hard to come around.)

Running has been pretty much non-existat in the last 5 days...It is part of my off-season week. But I have found a hill where I can do hill repeats.

Swimming is great. I tried 10x100 @ 1:40 and was able to do it no problem. 100s were in 1:35ish without too much trouble although I had no faster gear and it felt very steady. And then I also did 4x 100 @ 1:50, 200@ 3:40, where 100s were a notch under 1:30 and 200 were easish in 3:10. So not as bad as I feared and I am probably not too off from where I was in fall last year. Of course it means that this year was almost a complete loss but I am saying almost because I know that it was not and there was some improvement. Unfortunately improvement was not as big as it could have been but what can I do, right? I am not going to dwell on it and move on. I still have years to improve.

I spoke with my grandmother and my parents today they both asked me about my eating habits because they are worried that I live on cake. I assured them that although I in fact live on cookies, donuts, tortilla chips, Starbursts, peanut butter M&Ms and milk duds (I cannot believe that I have not eaten a single muffin since I got here!!! Need to change that tomorrow.) it is only temporary. I need to stuff myself with all the food that I did not eat in Germany and once I tried everything I missed (which reminds me. Cheesecake! I have not had a cheesecake yet! Will buy some tomorrow.) then I will go to normal eating. I have been here for 10 days now and I have not tried whether the stove works. Actually I have not unpacked the cooking pots I bought yet.

Another life update

Just in case my 1.5 readers are interested how things are coming along since I have been here for 7 days now!

I pretty much swim every day (still feeling little uncomfortable about depleting our natural resources and polluting the planet for a very selfish reasons but I guess that the guilt feeling will go away eventually). I still have not got into a routine, because I still do not have a routine at work so I go there at all different weird times and so far everytime I go there is very few people there which is great. I am sure that it has something to do with the fact that the pool is in a town with population of 2400.

Swimming in 25 yard pool again is strange. I got used to 50m pool and now my flip turns are awful because the distance between the wall and the end of the line is different (right?) and I flip either too late or too early. And everything seems too long and I am losing count. And my times are awful. My endurance is probably better from all those 15+k weeks but speed is slacking.  

Yesterday after a swim I went running. There are very nice trails through the woods around the Rend Lake near the pool. I will probably try to combine swim/runs together to be able to run on those trails. Next time I go I will take Garmin with me so I can download it to a map and see where I was because I have no idea. However firstly I should probably find out whether it is safe to run there. I do not want to get jumped on.

I still have not found out whether the local HS track is open to public. One person told me it was not, the other person said it was. Seems that I need to go there and see for myself whether I get kicked out or not.

We have a gym at work (which is the weirdest thing ever considering this is a manufacturing facility) and I am committing myself to go there! Need to start working on developing from a fly to a bull.

I will not be able to bike to work very often because I need to take a car to be able to go to pool immediately after or before work. That sucks! I was hoping to get extra biking miles in that way.

I think that I am buying a mountain bike next week. And a road bike.

I have ordered a home trainer. I cannot wait until it gets here! I am sure that my neighbors are looking forward to that too:)

This week is my off season. I really do not need an off-season physically, but mentally I do. Although, I have been in an off-season mood for the last month (living on cookies (literally!), pathetic swims, zero bike, running has been the only thing I kept up) but this week I do not feel guilty about it, and my running is on a back burner this week as well. So far I have been living on yoghurts, potatoe chips and donuts. And PPC recommended I eat some milk duds. I do not know that those are but will found out and eat some.

I have found two physical therapy facilities, one is in my cemetery town and the other one around 30miles out. I am going to check them out in the next couple weeks because I think that I need to be getting regular treatment/adjustments to stay injury free.

On a different note, I went jeans shopping on Monday. Believe it or not but the last time I went shopping for jeans was when I was in high school, so around eight years ago. And yes, I wore those jeans all through HS and college and 1^st year of business school. But do not worry, it was not the only pair I had. I also have another pair that my sister (after she got a car and start driving everywhere including frequent visits to Burger King) gave me. Anyway, jeans shopping is pain. I was able to find a lot of jeans that were 4, 4 long, 6, 6 petite, 6 short, 8, 8 petite, 8 long. But what about people that cannot fit their monster quads in 4 and 8 is like being stuffed in an oversized bag and 6 is ok but looks like a mid-calf capris on me. Where the hell 6 long go? And by the way, being able to fit into 6 was a huge surprise but also a relief because when I looked at 8 I got little scared wondering whether my behind is indeed that big.  

Getting "sunnier"

I went to a pool at the community college this morning and it seems that I can get good workouts in there. There were people but not too many and they were old and swimming slowly so they let me have my own lane:) Unfortunately one problem is the hours they are open but I will somehow figure that out. The other problem is driving 20miles each way everyday is something I do not feel great about. But it is either bagging my triathlon career or polluting the environment. And I am going to be a jerk (of course I am not the only one and one more does not make that huge of a difference but still) and just drive.

I also met aquatics coordinator of the facility who is a swimmer from Florida, trains kids now and does triathlons. She is very nice and told me she can get me in touch with some people and show me some running trails on campus. She also told me to come do a 5k race on Dec 1 that is held on campus. I will do it. 

Running still sucks. I still have not found any soft surface routes where I live. Who said that running was easy because you can run anywhere?!? I have a map of this cemetery town on which I have marked all big green areas from google satellite map and I am going to check all of those out. So far they were all cemeteries. And I have not found out whether a local HS school track can be used by public. I will go there today and see.  It seems that I will have to do my runs on roads after all and sometimes try to coordinate my run and swim together because there are trails by the pool. Way too complicated.

Biking seems ok. There are a lot of farm roads that seem to have good pavement and no traffic. Plus the company I work for has a cycling club (how funny is that). I tried to get in touch with them but have not heard back yet. Plus I asked to have an apartment on a ground floor so I do not bother my neighbors too much and am ordering a trainer so should be all set with that.

Other than that, I think that I am going to do a mountain bike race in MI in two weeks. It is an 8-hour mountain bike race but I will probably do it with some people as a team. Not that I do not think that I can ride a mountain bike for 8 hours. Of course I am not trained for anything like that but that has never stopped me, now has it?:) One team needs a member so I said I would try to help out if I can get one day off here to drive to MI. And then there is something called Fat Tire Fest weekend in three weeks 100 miles south from me and I think I will go there. It might be lonely to go down there alone, but hopefully I can make some friends there to hang out and ride with. Or, my sister wants to visit me so maybe I can trick her into coming that weekend and go down with me. Although I know she would not enjoy it and thus it will be very mean from me. And there is some kind of a different festival going on there at the same time and they have 10mile trail race and a 5k. Of course I would not do a 10 mile race, but maybe a 5k. 

Of course I need to buy a mountain bike first. 

So things are getting better! Finding my routine. Figuring out things. Meeting people.