Race walking the Ironman marathon

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Dad

Whenever my knee issue flares up, or feels like it may just pack it in, I remember back to Ironman Florida 2 years ago when I shared quite a few miles with 2 guys that were ‘race walking’ the marathon…at about the same pace that I was ‘running’ it.  We exchanged the lead back and forth as I would slowly ease by them, slow to a walk at the aid stations to drink something, at which point they would go by me, not skipping a beat.

And then repeat…over time I did ‘pull away’, but I tell you they were very relaxed, and moving along pretty briskly.

In ‘real’ race walking competitions, you have to adhere to a specific, rigid technique…one foot on the ground at all times, and straight knee…actually meant to slow down race walking competitors…or more to ‘contain’ their speed at a specific standard technique…in Ironman, at night in the park, nobody really cares how you’re moving forward, as long as it’s on your own two feet…although I’ve seen a lot of shuffling, and _real_ slow walking

…how about just walking faster…like even closer to power walking or speed walking…

How fast you ask?…well that’s the thing…

World-class race walkers (male and female) can average under seven and eight minutes per mile (or under four and five minutes per kilometre, respectively), in a 20 km (12.4 mile) race walk.

A typical club walker (under 50 years old) with moderate training will walk 5km in 36 minutes, or 11½ minutes per mile or 5.1 miles per hour. With significant regular training, a typical club walker can walk 5km in 30 minutes, or 9½ minutes per mile or 6.2 miles per hour

An ordinary person out for a walk averages about 16 minutes per mile or 3.75 miles per hour. A fitness walker tops out at about 12½ minutes per mile or 4.8 miles per hour.

As it turns out, 5 miles per hour, or 12 minutes per mile, or just over 5 hours for a marathon, is right about where I’ve been at the end of an Ironman…

So race walking may just be my ticket to the finish line in Ironman one day…wouldn’t be weird if it was faster than my ‘run’ times 🙂

…more info on Race Walking:
http://www.racewalk.com/

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As we get older body parts complain more often

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Dad

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) I woke up with my right knee feeling a little ‘thicker’ than it should be…I’ve had a lingering issue with that knee for the past 3 years…torn medial meniscus…although generally it just gets a bit sore and a bit swollen from time to time, particularly after long runs.

I had planned to do a long run for 1:30, _could_ have done nothing, but by the end of the day, decided to ‘test’ it out to see how bad it was…took a little jog for 35 minutes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, although something going on, so kept it short.

I was trying to think about what might have flared it up, since I haven’t been doing much running in the past week…at least compared to where it’s been.

On Monday, my wife had surgery, so I was sitting around most of the day, took out the mountain bike late in the day for an hour, playing around jumping logs for practise…so maybe a bit more knee pressure, although it’s not really pounding like running…or carrying my wife into the house from the surgery…although nothing that felt like it was being bothered…so who knows…something though.

It reminds me that the Masters athlete, in our quest for fitness, glory, or whatever drives us faces the additional challenge of improving fitness in the face of increased recovery times and body parts that need more TLC to keep them going, and more down time when they’re complaining.

…and of course, always the option of surgical solutions that often promise a lot, but come with an inherent risk that it may just not work out like it says in the brochure…a 90% success rate, means that 10% are probably _very_ cranky with the outcome.

Of course, sometimes the decision is clear…my wife decided to have knee surgery because it was becoming painful to walk, and workout at the gym.  Today her knee is still sore…2 days after surgery…but at least on the mend, with the expectation to be ‘back to normal’ in  couple of weeks…so that’s good.

This week therefore, I’m once again in the role of nurse…not a particularly good role for me…my wife is a poor patient, and I’m a lousy nurse, so a bit of added tension as she’s on the mend.

…so I also know from experience that ‘life stress’ has a negative impact on my workouts and recovery, so I need to factor that in so that I don’t overtax my body and brain

..and then get sick, which is how my body has been known to react when I push the total stress ‘number’ past the limits.

So for the knee thing, for me…for now…I’ll pull back on the log jumping for a while, pull back the running mileage for a week, add ice, and see how it goes 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Injuries, Recovery | Tagged | 2 Comments

…I just kept on going…

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Dad

A funny thing happened last Friday night as I was taking my mountain bike, just back from the shop, out of the SUV to put into the house…I just kept on going…like for an hour.

We had just gotten back from dinner, I had dropped off my phone in my office when I remembered that I still had to take my bike out of truck…back in the living room my wife had quickly settled in, already laughing along with Two and a Half Men.

It was a muggy night, so I had worn a t-shirt and shorts to the local bar…not quite dark yet, I pulled out the bike and it struck me just how cool it looked, _really_ clean for the first time in months, with its new Maxxis Ignitor tires…the helmet was hanging on the handlebars, so I put it on without strapping it up for the 50 yard ride around the back to put it in the house…and kept on going 🙂

I rode over to the local college cross country trail, for a quick run through the forest, on my shiny mountain bike, with it’s new spiky tires, spinning though tight turns with a new found confidence and laughing out loud 🙂

While spinning through the forest, I remembered my days as a kid, when I rode my red Eaton’s Road King bike everywhere…I loved that bike…it had no gearing…just a single front and rear spocket…so I’d push hard up the hills, and pedaled furiously going down, and _loved_ to go fast…and would look for places to go, just so that I could ride.

…that was me again pushing along the trail as fast as I could on that Friday night…a 56 year old kid

Most of my bike riding these days is ‘training’…head down, aero position, pushing power, maintaining cadence, pressing through the hours of rolling pavement.

…I need to just get out and ‘ride’ more often…it’s sooo much fun 🙂

When I got back, my wife was just finishing up an episode of The Walton’s…figuring that I had been squirreled away in my man-cave…until she saw my sweaty t-shirt and grimy legs…

where’d you go?
a little spin on my mountain bike
isn’t it dark out?
getting there
how was it?
 sooo cool…I was pulling out the bike from the truck and just kept on going
hm

I guess when you’re married to one of those Ironman crazy, nothing fazes you anymore 🙂

 

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Reflections on a DNF from Dad

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Dad

I just read my daughter’s recap of her recent DNF at the Vancouver Half Iron.
https://irondaughterirondad.com/reflections-on-a-dnf/

It’s difficult for a parent to watch their child suffer…or fail…although less so if it’s in the quest for something difficult…or extraordinarily complex…or reaching for an exceptional level.

…so after seeing my daughter on the run course, walking back, and stopping for a moment to see what was going on, was a quick whirr of emotions and thoughts

…my first was, are you okay?…yes she said…she gave me the quick story of how she had arrived at that point…back/butt hurting…walking now…had already turned around, not finishing the outbound run leg…

…we discussed continuing…she didn’t want to walk for another couple of hours just to finish…_maybe_ under the cut-off time…’and I’m already off course and walking back’

Knowing that complaining body parts can loosen up, that things can change, I checked the time calculation, and yes, if she walked the next 7-8 miles, that was going to take a couple of hours, and we were coming up to 6 hours at that point, so still doable for the 8 hour cutoff…and with a light jog even faster.

Although it was clear that she had lost her ‘will’ to do that…she ‘could have’ kept going…I ‘could have’ walked with her…encouraging a bit more speed…that also has its downside…and ‘really’ a bad idea if she had actually injured something.

My daughter is fiercely independant…and like all high performers, harder on herself than anyone else could ever be.

Walking it in with her Dad…although maybe some weird bonding experience…would not be her…or my…idea of a good time…and in all likelihood more haunting than just packing it in early…she would not want me to give up my race for hers…as I wouldn’t want her to give up hers in the same situation.

So I gave her a hug…told her I loved her…and jogged off to complete my race.

I was left thinking, as I rolled away, hoping that she hadn’t really ‘tweaked’ something going as long as she did, and feeling badly for her, although ultimately with a bit of a smile:

‘that’ll be a wake-up call for training for Ironman Florida…good’.

For you see, my daughter is an exceptional young woman…beautiful both inside and out…and smart and incredibly articulate…and are you kidding me…Ironman…anyone that even dreams of it, never mind completes it…is an incredible, off the charts athlete.

Her first Ironman was 2 years ago, which she finished in 16:35:37…24 minutes and 23 seconds before the midnight cut-off…and gutted out a dehydrated run/jog/walk/shuffle for over 7 hours to do it after swimming 2.4 miles, and biking 112 miles…incredible.

…that my friends, takes a mental toughness that few possess.

So when I stopped to talk to her as she was walking back, and she said that she didn’t want to continue, I knew that wasn’t because she had suddenly lost all the incredible qualities that make her great…I knew that she was, and was going to be, incredibly disappointed…and for that I felt badly…

…but I also had that rising feeling that this would re-energize her…that it would create a new will inside her to get her training on track…that it would be the catalyst to a new level of fitness for her, that will result in a much better outing at Ironman Florida 4 months from now, that may not have been there with the same intensity, as if she had finished, limping in hours later in Vancouver…and for that I smiled

Lisa, I’m sooo proud of you…I love you tons…see you at the starting line in Florida 🙂

Dad

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Reflections on a DNF

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Daughter

In August 2009, I volunteered at Ironman Canada to get some exposure to the Ironman community prior to my own trek South to compete at IM Florida in November of the same year. My friend’s husband – Ian Young – was competing as an age-group athlete but unlike me, was looking to own the podium. I had never seen an IM race in person, and was especially excited to watch a friend compete and hopefully do well. I had a beer with Ian and Liz the night before the race, and he seemed to be in top form ready to dominate in the morning.

After finishing my duties as a wetsuit stripper (Best. Job. Ever.), I headed out to the bike course to meet up with Liz and to watch Ian as he zipped by. A few hours later, Ian pulled into T2 2nd in his age group, and raced out of T2 looking strong. Knowing his finish was a few hours away, I headed back into transition to see if I could help the volunteer team.

Well, about 30 minutes later I bump into Ian – in transition – as he’s heading BACK to his bike and calling it a day. I rubbed my eyes and checked my watch – trying to figure out how Ian finished a marathon in 30 minutes! He was looking good out there, but not ‘Kenyan’ good!

Ian apparently decided it just wasn’t his day, and he pulled out. WHAT?! You can do that?! I had no idea this was an option.. I mean, he was doing really really well – what would possibly motivate you to end your race if you weren’t in an ambulance or ditch? It turns out, when you’re out there to win, and you don’t think you’re going to win – you cut your losses, pull out, and live to race another day.

Fast forward a couple of years to Vancouver and my recent 1/2 Ironman with Irondad. Now – we all know I’m not looking to own any podiums in the near future, and this race certainly wouldn’t be the exception. My training to date has been as busy as my blog posting, so the outlook wasn’t terribly positive. I did have a 1/2 marathon under my belt, with a solid finish for me, and a sprint triathlon – so I knew there was at least a chance of finishing but it would likely be a long, and painful day.

Well it turns out it was both to no ones surprise, especially me. Without going into too much detail, the swim was ‘almost’ as slow as Dad’s 🙂 But he left the water feeling a lot better than I did! (I had a panic moment on the beach run heading out for the 2nd lap where I thought my Dad was in front of me, and I knew it was going to be a bad day!) The bike was pretty dreadful; I felt like I was on a cruiser bike with a trailer attached, and being out on an empty course for almost a lap and a half didn’t do much for my self-esteem or motivation. Spending more time in my aero bars in one day than I had in the past few months combined did very little for my back comfort, and it turns out it did very little for the run ahead.

Well, the walk ahead.

So I’m now at – oh- about 4.5 hours on the clock.. and it’s not exactly getting faster from here. I started off with a quick walk, my legs weren’t feeling awful, but a muscle in my lower back down into my left ‘cheek’ had a different plan for me. By the time I made it to the second aid station (about 1km in ) I had collapsed onto the grass in an effort to stretch out – which had temporarily eased some pain and made me think I could finish this thing – until the next aid station, where I repeated this exercise.. and then the third….and, well you get the picture. 5km, 1 hour.. it wasn’t going well. At this rate – I would be out there for another 4 hours.. the sun was high in the sky and I was already one of the ‘last on course’… who knows if I would even make cut-off.

So my mind started going back to IM Canada 09 – Ian Young. Slight difference with the 2 pictures – he was leading the pack, I was leading the race clean-up crew… but I suddenly remembered the ‘Plan B’ option of cutting your losses and living to race another day. But oh the shame! I can’t do that! How would I justify that? I felt pathetic. An Ironman finisher who can’t drag her carcass through a 1/2 Ironman.

So I decided not to decide until I found Irondad on the course. He would bring reason to this situation. Passing by the finish area to head out on the 2nd loop of the figure-8 (another ‘boost’ of motivation to watch people finishing).. I found my dad heading out for his last 6K. At this point, I had already tried to pull the chute (took off my race belt.. started to head off course… ) but couldn’t bring myself to do it. The tears of failure were already welling up in my eyes which I did a poor job of hiding.. and told my Dad I was thinking of calling it a day. It was a short conversation – I wasn’t in the mood to chat and realized quickly I was definitely done. Brutal.

I slid my race number off and snuck around the trees in an effort to stay anonymous… running into the owner of my local bike shop didn’t help my feelings of shame so I scurried away and headed to transition to do a quick change and find a spot to cheer my Dad in at the finish. My transition neighbours, who had just finished with medals around their necks were full of ‘how was your race’ kind of questions, which I tried hard to answer while acknowledging their achievements, without bursting out into more pathetic tears.

I slid away again to the finish area to grab some food… probably not a good choice as I ran into more friends/finishers full of questions. I focused on the other athletes.. cheering them into the finish corral…waiting for Irondad to cross the line – which he did at an incredible 6:17! By this point I had calmed down considerably, and was starting to feel better about my choice as I imagined still being out there for another 10k/1.5-2hours in the blazing sun…..

I still didn’t know why I chose to stop. Yes, my back was in pain and I knew I would likely end up walking the rest. But I figured I could squeeze out a finish, like I had done at IMFL 2 years before. I would by far be the LAST person on course.. which didn’t seem to carry the same celebrity status as it did for the final finisher at IM. I knew how untrained I had been, but still, shouldn’t I just suck it up and finish? Punish myself for poor training?

2 weeks after the race, I’m realizing that that’s not really the point, now is it? Why do you do triathlon? We all have different reasons I’m sure, but I’m going to fare a guess and say it’s probably not for the ‘rush’ of not knowing if you’re going to finish. It’s not to punish yourself for not being in good shape. It’s likely not to struggle through race after race just to say you’re still ‘involved’ in triathlon.

So I had to ask myself the tough question – why do I do triathlon?

I realized – that when I AM in shape, when I AM training well, when I AM eating well.. I’m a LOT happier. Life is a lot more organized. I’m not wasting away on the couch with a bottle of wine and take-out (not that that’s a bad thing once in a while!).

Struggling to make it before cut-off is NOT why I do triathlon. It’s not the point.

My older brother Mike – who takes more chances to mock me than he does to support me, surprised me with a ‘relatively’ kind email with words of support post-DNF. As a former competitive snowboard athlete for Team Canada.. he has some experience with the highs and lows:

“It’s better to finish with no time than a slow time (somehow though, I don’t think this adage applies as well to Ironmans as it does to snowboarding).  You’re actually smart in not finishing: you want to keep the feeling alive of completing a full Ironman last year, not some mediocre half…that’s insulting.”

Then he continued with some mild-mocking.. but I would be concerned if he didn’t.

So there you go. No real closure.. it was a pretty simple ‘didn’t train – didn’t finish’ scenario. But it really was a kick in the butt with IMFL staring me down 16 weeks or so away. I still got in a good 5.5 hour training day, and was walking just fine the next day.. so it wasn’t ALL that dramatic. And I realized if I’m committing to be a ‘triathlete’ – then I have to remind myself why I’m doing it every day, every workout.

I’m back in the pool and on the roads.. ramping up towards a full training schedule 2 weeks away and feeling GREAT about how it’s already impacting how I feel about my health and the control I have over my life.

It’s all about choices at the end of the day. A wise man once reminded me that we all have the same 24 hours in a day, and I think how we choose to spend those 24 hours defines our priorities, and ultimately who we are. This year, I’m prioritizing my health and happiness through Ironman.

And now, I have a date with the pool 🙂

Cheers,

Daughter

Posted in Achieving Goals, Daughter's Blog Posts, Ironman, Racing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Swimming by the numbers…’very interesting’

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Dad
[flowplayer src=’https://irondaughterirondad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/very-interesting.m4v’ width=320 height=240 autoplay=false]

Coach Dinah Mistilis and I spent an hour in the pool yesterday getting my swim ‘numbers’ dialed in…’very interesting’ she would say after each test 100 Yard interval 🙂

This was a very different ‘lesson’ from what we’ve been doing weekly over the past 3 months, where Coach Dinah has been in the swim lane with me…for the entire 1:00-1:30…like a yoga instructor…demonstrating a position and associated drill, and then watching and adjusting and fine tuning the minutia of form…the hand placement…head placement…relaxing an arm…relaxing the head…moving the entry target of the hand slightly higher…leading the recovery with the elbow…keeping the shoulder forward…leaning forward into the water…getting tension out of the legs…relax the left hand…all the while walking beside me in the lane…a touch here…an adjustment there…watching every movement…swimming up the lane half way to watch me swim towards her, and past her…and adjusting…’just one more stroke thought’…’let’s do this’…’think about this’…drilling…

So like that…and of course, as I move from one ‘stroke thought’ to another, inevitably the last one falls apart and we need to circle back to put the building block back in place to build the next one.

But not yesterday…Coach Dinah sat on the pool deck with her stopwatch and clipboard, as we took an hour to see what the patient work that we’ve been doing together has produced in terms of actual ‘swimming’.
https://irondaughterirondad.com/ah-that-swimming-thing/

very interesting… 🙂

Here’s her chart of the results of the primary 7 x 100Yard laps…not ‘hard’ but ‘focused’ and what I would feel like was a ‘long distance’ pace…rest and discussion after each one.

SC SC SC SC SC SC SC
1st 25 20 20 20 20 19 19 20
2nd 25 21 22 23 22 22 23 22
3rd 25 20 21 22 20 20 23 22
4th 25 22 22 22 22 21 23 22
Time 2:12 2:06 2:01 2:00 1:55 2:04 2:04
notes loping Balanced strokes lean R lead patience + lean Skate to skate TT set 1.25 felt rushed TT set 1.28 felt better

The pool is 25 yards, so each 100 was 4 lengths…the SC is the Stroke Count for each length of 25 yards…the Time of the 100 yards, and the notes what I was to focus on for the 100…except for the first one, where she noted that I was ‘loping’ as I established a baseline 100…the last 2 we used the Tempo Trainer (TT) to start to establish my current stroke rate…1.28 means a stroke every 1.28 seconds.

So from that comes our swimming goals:

  • Long term goal is to maintain 2min/100yard pace over 2.4miles
  • SC of higher than 22 consumes energy, so stay under 22
  • Short term goal is to swim 100 yard repeats at TT 1.28 with SC range 20-22, increasing distance of repeat at same tempo and SC. Also shorter repeats at tempos between 1.28 and 1.23 with specific focal points to maintain SC 20-22

So 2 minutes / 100 yards for 2.4 miles would give me a 1:25 Ironman swim…considering that I’ve been in the 1:40 range, that would be cool!

…could be the difference between a PR (Personal Record) and not getting there…

…and I ‘think’ that I can actually be a bit faster than that, since my 1:40 swims (2:22/100Y) have been with a _very_ soft effort…but not to get ahead of myself…yet…a solid 1:25:00’ish I would take, considering that I’ve never even come close to that, and that a 2:00 for even 1×100 yards is a very focused effort for me at this point.

…and I need to do more open water swimming to get into better habits of sighting more often, and better focus on the effects of current…and being able to take my ‘perfect’ form from the flat water of the pool, to the more turbulent Ironman swim conditions, both thrashing bodies and rough water, without having my rather delicate ‘new’ form fall apart in the turmoil…

…now seeing that I actually ‘can’ swim 100 yards in around 2:00 right now…at least 1 at a time…and talking about my 1:40:00 swim times for the 2.4 mile Ironman swim so far…which is 42 x 100 Yards +/-…at a swim time of 2:22/100Y…or even more properly my swim in the Half Iron 2 weeks ago…53 minutes for 1.2 miles at a pace of 2:30/100 yards, Coach Dinah couldn’t help herself:

 Considering that I just saw you swim 100’s in 2 minutes, your race times are _really_ slow…what are you doing out there?

Good question, I said…other than wandering around the race course, way off course, and battling current to get back, my only real answer is that I’ve been a swimming ‘wimp’ and not willing/confident enough to go after the swim with an effort closer to my potential.

…but not this year…a _definite_ swim PR…just need to stay smooth and strong for 2.4 miles…I can do this…I’ll keep telling myself…between now and the Ironman swim exit 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Swimming | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ah…that swimming thing

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Dad

Well today Coach Dinah Mistilis and I face off with a stopwatch, a Tempo Trainer and 25 yards of swimming lane line to try and figure out a rational swim pace goal, and training plan to get there, for my Ironman swim in Florida now just over 16 weeks away.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time on ‘form’ the past few months, more comfortable in the water than I’ve ever been, and now looking to translate that into ‘fast’.

The stopwatch…self explanatory…the Tempo Trainer ‘beeps’ at a set interval…like a metronome in music.
http://www.finisinc.com/tempo-trainer.html

From Finis, the Manufacturer:

Develop consistency and avoid lulls with a personal pace coach, the Tempo Trainer.  The small, waterproof device easily attached to a swimmer̻s cap or goggles and transmits an audible tempo beep.  Kick workouts into high gear or discover the perfect pace for longer distances; the Tempo Trainer also includes a clip for dry land exercise.

A couple of my orignal posts back in December 2010 set out my swim goals:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/swim-goals-updated-130100-yards-once/
https://irondaughterirondad.com/how-to-swim-faster/

And from my email exchange with Coach Dinah, when she asked for my ‘updated’ race goals…considering my 53 minute Half Iron swim, double that for Iron and you get 1:46…I _still_ think that I’m _actually_ faster than that…so the same goal as I posted in December 🙂

1:15:00 for 2.4 miles feels like a good high end
goal…sooo, add in a few minutes for conditions and current:

  •  Exceeds:            1:14:40 total time = 1:56/100M or 1:46/100Y
  • Meets:                 1:23:40 total time = 2:10/100M or 1:58/100Y
  • Should be minimum:      1:30:01 total time = 2:20/100M or 2:08/100Y
  • Where it’s been:
    2010:     2:03:16: wetsuit split open on lap 1
    2009:     1:44:12
    2008:     1:37:33
    2007:     1:39:52

…a 1.3 stroke rate (so Tempo Trainer set to 1.3, and beeps every 1.3 seconds) and 20 strokes per 25Y would give me a speed of 1.3×20=26 seconds
for 25Y = 1:44/100Y…with no walls

…so a 1.25 stroke @ 20 strokes/25Y = 25 seconds = 1:40/100Y

My slow open turns, in the short 25Y pool, add a few seconds per lap in actual live timing that aren’t there of course in open water…but then there’s current which costs time…but then again a wetsuit that’s faster…

So based on swimming ‘results’ to date…and the fact even 1x100Yards close to 2:00 is a real challenge for me right now…rather a delusional increase in speed…more kindly noted by Coach Dinah as:

Based on your previous IM swim times ( excluding last year….) a reduction from say 1hr40min to 1hr15 is a huge jump. High end as you say.

but I am a ‘prettier’ swimmer today than I’ve ever been…now to see if we can turn that into ‘speed’

Depending on my swim results in Ironman Florida, 16 weeks from now, Coach Dinah will either want to display me prominently on her website, or deny knowing me…

Last year when the zipper up the back of my wetsuit split open, 200 meters into the Ironman Florida swim, was a defining moment for me in the water…it has to be the worst nightmare thought that a back-of-the-pack swimmer could ever have…though, yes, it did happen…melodrama aside, the fact that I completed that swim…and swim I did against the odds and the clock for 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 16 seconds…gave me a confidence in the water that I never had before.

…I’m ready for a rematch with the course…let’s get it on 🙂

 

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Ironman Florida, Swimming | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Acclimating to Heat and Humidity: Coach Gale’s notes

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Dad

Continuing on our theme of Heat and Humidity, I looked up a 2 part article that Coach Gale Bernhardt had written on acclimating to the hot and humid environment…a worthy read.

Our picture today on what to do if it doesn’t work…

Part 1 on how the body tries to regulate itself, and Heat risk factors:
http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Acclimating-to-Heat-and-Humidity-Part-I.htm

Part 2 on what to do about it:
http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Acclimating-to-Heat-and-Humidity-Part-II.htm

In reading this again, I’m reminded that there has always been quite a bit of discussion on how heat slows down your pace…Gale quotes Jeff Galloway‘s useful chart…to which he adds “* Note: This chart is based upon my own experience in the heat and talking to other runners. It has no scientific verification”…although similar to other stuff that I’ve read…which shows that it doesn’t really take much heat to slow things down:

 In his example, he estimates that if you are an 8-minute-per-mile runner your pace will slow according to this chart:
55-60 degrees: 1% – 8:05
60-65 degrees: 3% – 8:15
65-70 degrees: 5% – 8:25
70-75 degrees: 7% – 8:35
75-80 degrees: 12% – 8:58
80-85 degrees: 20% – 9:35
Above 85 degrees: Forget it… run for fun

When he says ‘you’ll slow down’, what he’s really saying can be looked at a few ways, and goes to my point in yesterday’s post about running by Pace vs Heart Rate or RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)…only if you want to get faster 🙂
https://irondaughterirondad.com/running-in-the-heat-taking-faster-stuff-indoors/

Here are some practical ideas that I take from Jeff’s data:

  • If your planned race pace all out for a particular race on a particular day is 8:00/mile, and it’s 80-85F on race day, plan to run closer to a 9:35/mile pace, since your body, sending energy to cooling, is going to give your muscles about 20% less…
  • and therefore, also, if your race ‘results’ on a particular hot day are slower, then don’t be bummed out 🙂
  • If your training pace on a cool day is 8:00/mile, expect that your Heart Rate and RPE will be the same at a 9:35/mile pace on a 80-85F day
  • so in other words, if you’re at your maximum Heart Rate and RPE at an 8:00/mile pace on a cool day for a particular distance, you’re going to be maxed out to the same numbers at a 9:35/mile pace on a 80-85F degrees

And the BIG therefore is that if your training workout is supposed to be done at a 8:00/mile pace based on testing/running on cool days, you’re just not going to able to run that fast at 80-85F

…and if you go slogging along at a slower pace because your body is simply giving your muscles less energy to work with, your muscles are just not going to get faster just because it ‘feels’ hard.

Of course the ‘acclimating’ part, is that if you want reduce the amount of speed/performance drop-off that you have from the heat, you have to run in the heat, to encourage your body to adapt by becoming more efficient at cooling your body…Coach Gale makes the point that 95% of adaptation takes place in the first 10 days of heat exposure.

So if your ‘A’ races are ‘hot’ then you still have to spend time training in the heat…if your race is cooler, like Ironman Florida…take it indoors, and run cool and fast when it’s really hot outside…well at least that’s my plan 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, Racing, Running, Training | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Running in the heat…taking faster stuff indoors

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Dad

As the temperature yesterday headed up to 100F, I was reminded of a post that I wrote about running by pace vs. heart rate…and how it applied to running in the heat.

Worth another look if you haven’t seen it in a while:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/running-pace-vs-heart-rate/

Here’s the ‘heat’ scenario:

  • let’s say that on a cool day, I run at 10 minutes per mile with a Heart Rate of 120-125HR, and a RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) of 1, on a 1-5 scale…so for me all Zone 1
  • on a hot day, I run at that same 10 minute per mile pace, but because of the heat, my heart rate is 140HR and my RPE is 3…so a Zone 1 pace, but a Zone 3 on the Heart Rate and RPE scales

What is my training ‘benefit’?…is it:

  • Zone 1 based on the pace that I ran, or
  • Zone 3 based on Heart Rate and RPE?

Turns out, that after a lot of reading on this, the conclusion is that both workouts are a Zone 1 workout…the extra effort that my heart is putting out is a mad attempt to keep me cool… particularly if I get dehydrated, and therefore even hotter…and the RPE is substantially higher in the heat than on a cool day at the same pace.

The reason that this is important, is that in the beautiful sultry summers of the South, every day can be a hot day…for months…and if I merrily run along, ‘feeling’ that I’m getting a workout because it ‘feels’ so hard, and my Heart Rate is through the roof…I may just be only getting a low Zone 1 training effect, when I ‘think’ that I’m in Zone 3 all the time.

…soooo, on days that I’m doing faster Intervals on the run, I either go out _very_ early, if it’s not too hot, or take it inside and run the intervals on the treadmill…if it’s an 8 minute per mile pace, that’s my target…no matter what my Heart Rate and RPE say.

If the day is really hot and/or humid, I just may not be able to get to and sustain an 8 minute per mile pace outdoors, as my body shuts down running muscles in a self-preservation frenzy…

I know that to run faster, I have to train faster…so pace becomes the determining factor…if my little legs are not moving faster, I’m not getting faster

…so even on long runs where I have faster intervals inserted…like just about all my long runs…instead of running over to the track to do the intervals, I’ll typically be running over to YMCA to get them in

…not as much joy being a hamster on a treadmill, but hopefully all worth it on race day

…outdoors yesterday for a 1 hour run…running back after a 25 minute bike ride to the bike shop to drop it (mountain bike) off…89F out the door, 95F coming in…just under a 10 minute per mile pace, Heart Rate in the low-mid 130’s, RPE 2 to 3 by the end….on a cool day with those Heart Rate and RPE numbers I would running a lot faster, like a 9:00/mile pace

…just a ‘recovery’ run, so used it to work on my tan, and scare people in stores when I came walking in…sweat pouring off me like I had just stepped out of a swimming pool…to refill my Gatorade and water bottles…too funny 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Running | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Exercise calories burned…watch those bike calories

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Dad

One of the challenges in counting calories is that the numbers just really aren’t very accurate…particularly exercise calories, since there are a lot of variables that come into play.

…for example swimming…since I’m not a particularly elegant swimmer, the number of calories that I burn for a particular speed is going to be higher than someone that glides through the water without a ripple…so at least that’s good news in the quest to drop a few pounds.

Cycling though, I think is a real trap…I wrote about it in an earlier post…probably worth taking another look at again:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/calories-burned-on-the-bike-nobody-knows/

The numbers calculated by various methods and programs are _all over the place_ and I believe generally too high…like _way_ too high

One example from yesterday on an easy bike ride, reminds me again:  36 minutes, 15.2 MPH, 152 Watts power…calorie calculations:

  • PowerTap power meter on my bike: 325 calories (9 calories/minute)
  • MyFoodDiary.com (biking 14-15.9 MPH): 577 calories (16 calories/minute)

The PowerTap calorie calculations are the lowest that I’ve seen, so the ones that I use…also consistent with One of many Carmichael articles that I’ve read, where he suggests 8-10 (recovery)  to 12 calories per minute (tough but sustainable pace) for an overall ride depending on intensity.

So, if your cycling calculator gives you a calorie burn on a normal ride, of more than 12 calories per minute, it’s probably high…or just use 10 calories per minute, and you’ll probably be more in the ballpark

…and not eat that donut thinking that you have burned an extra 300 calories, that just wasn’t there 🙂

Posted in Biking, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition | Tagged , | 6 Comments

I just don’t look good naked anymore…

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Dad

Thinking about, and focused on, dropping a few pounds, I’ve had a song running through my head the last few days.

When living in Charleston, one of our favorite things to do on a Sunday night was to go down to Dunleavy’s Pub on Sullivan’s Island and listen to the music and humour of Carroll Brown and his various buddies. We’d often catch up with friends…many of them local triathlete’s and runners…and make a great evening of it, knocking back a few cold ones and eating the free popcorn until we were stuffed.

This was a popular song that Frank would sing when he was in the house…a tall, huge guy, with a deep booming voice…always a crowd pleaser.

Here’s a version of it…selected in part because I used to play the accordian as well as a young lad
…too funny 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition, Weight loss | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

5 things for me to remember when ‘dieting’

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Dad

Getting ready for Ironman Florida, now 4 months out, and adding in a focus on ‘body composition’…okay…losing some fat that I don’t want to drag around for 12-13 hours on race day…I’m reminded of the areas that ‘challenge’ me in keeping the calories in check.

I’ve written about these in the past, so here some of my favorites to get them into one place…clicking on the post title will take you to more information:

Balancing calories without exercise
When exercise volume is down, I really need to not only watch what I eat, but also track everything that I eat, every day.

Emotional Eating: How Hungry Should You Be?
During the day, I often eat by ‘habit’.  When watching calories, I need to eat only when physically hungry and, when eating, to eat only until comfortably satisfied, never stuffed.

Alcohol and Diet
A total diet killer, with no nutritional value…but tastes soooo good with great food…sigh…
Beer (12oz):                150 calories          (16oz pint):         200 calories
Wine (5oz):                 100 calories          (8oz glass):         160 calories    
Vodka (1.5oz)             100 calories          (3oz ‘martini’):     200 calories

Watch that eating out
When eating out, my target is to have 1500 calories left in my ‘calorie budget’ for the day by the time that I walk out the door for dinner…since I start feeling ‘over-full’ between 750-1,000 calories at any particular meal, this helps me come in for the day ‘under budget’.  This generally means, at a bare minimum, 500-1,000 exercise calories for the day to have a chance of being able to do that.

…other things that I need to do/keep in mind:

  • check out the menu in advance, and have an idea of what I’m going to eat before sitting down…nothing fried…particularly no french fries…I can do that
  • no alcohol…okay…never happens when I’m eating out…target 2 ‘short’ drinks max…lots of water
  • no olive oil or butter with bread…that I can do…best is no bread
  • no dessert…I can usually do this…okay, _maybe_ just a bite ‘shared’ the odd time

Losing fat not muscle
Keep up the protein close to 20% of calories each day.  Since I generally start the day carbohydrate centric to fuel morning workouts, I need to focus on protein later in the day…particularly dinner…to ensure that I get enough protein to help keep my appetite in check, and many say, help maintain muscle mass when reducing calories.

Everyone has their own special ‘challenges’…those 5 are mine

…so there it is…a demonstration that I know ‘what’ to do…now to ‘Just Do It’ 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition | Tagged | 2 Comments

squeezing off a few pounds

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Dad

Okay…here it is…my weight chart since just after Ironman Florida last year.

In my weigh-in this morning, I was 205 pounds…the last time that I stood on a scale was January 15, 2011, and I was 202 at that point.

The first graph are my weigh-in’s between IM Florida (November 6, 2010) and January 15, 2011…skipping the Christmas holidays…so you can see there is a bit of an ebb and a flow, but in general, you can see that I squeezed down about 5 pounds before the Christmas holidays, added some of it back…and didn’t record another weigh-in until today.

So after 2 weeks of a low exercise taper before the race last Sunday, combined with travel and a substantial amount of great food, fine wine and craft beers, I’m once again at the high end of the range…graph 2. 

Based on the amount of ‘jiggle’ in my ‘love handles’, I _know_ that there’s 5-10 pounds of fat that I really don’t need to carry around, without any deep analysis or testing required.

Considering that for years, I’ve been in the same weight range…played football in University at 208 pounds…and yes, for the record I’m 5’8″, and built like a muscular little fire hydrant…my body, if left on it’s own, seems to find the 200-205’ish range a comfortable and strong place to be.

So I’ll need to shake things up a bit to peel down into the 195’ish range…but I’ve decided to give it a shot.

Since I want to lose fat and muscle, and not have a negative impact on my training, I’ll take a conservative weight loss path…also knowing that trying to lose too much too soon, the body can adjust…thinking that it’s starving…and cannibalize (reduce) muscle and store (add) fat in response.

If I’m standing at the starting line, healthy and 205 pounds, with strong training results for the next 4 months, there’s nothing wrong with that…so I’m not going angst over the scale…nor want my training to suffer…however, if I’m at the starting line, healthy and 195 pounds, with strong training results for the next 4 months, I’ve just bought myself 10-20 minutes of speed on Ironman day…and that _could_ be the difference between a PR (Personal Record under 12:57:44) or just-another-Ironman 🙂

My earlier post about weight and speed:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/lose-weight-race-faster/

My goal will be to lose .75 pounds a week / 3 pounds every 4 weeks, so run a deficit of about 375 calories a day…common ‘conservative’ numbers for a guy my size are a 1-2 pound weight loss per week, so a .75 loss target, should keep me on the healthy side of that.

The Mayo Clinic’s 10 tips for weight loss success

Since counting calories is actually not very exact, my ‘real’ target will be a 500 calorie a day deficit…and since weight can fluctuate all over the place on a daily basis, I’ll look for the following benchmarks, Friday mornings, 4 weeks apart:

August 5:            202’ish or less
September 2:     199’ish or less
September 30:   196’ish or less
October 28:        193’ish or less

Having said all that, in reality, I’d _love_ to squeeze off even more weight (well, ‘fat’ actually), so we’ll see if I can meet-or-exceed my goals…without training or health compromises…and who knows, maybe the thinner, slimmer me, is just waiting inside looking to be discovered

Stay tuned…or join in 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition, Racing, Weight loss | Tagged , | Leave a comment

standing down…and not getting fat

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Dad

With my training cut back this week, allowing my body parts to recover from the Half Iron race last Sunday…and in fact from the season of training so far this year…I’m reminded that I need to get back onto the calorie counting thing to keep from packing on the pounds.

In ‘normal’ training weeks I’m burning 10-15,000 exercise calories every week…so that gives me quite a bit of room to enjoy great food, fines wines and creative craft beers without gaining any weight…at 3-5,000 exercise calories during recovery weeks, that means 7-10,000 less calorie burn in the ‘bank’, and since 1 pound = 3,500 calories, if I kept eating and drinking at ‘normal’ levels, I’d gain 2-3 pounds a week…pretty staggering.

So I pull out my online Food Diary and start recording everything that I eat.  The first thing that I typically see when doing this, is how I _really_ need to watch the little stuff…like a handful of almonds…or even an apple…if not, I can end up by 4:00pm, with almost no calorie ‘budget’ for dinner.

…and in either event ‘fine wine’ and ‘craft beers’ go out the window…just no room for them.

…and I go back and read a lot of my earlier ‘nutrition’ posts that I wrote during the recovery from Ironman Florida in November of last year, to help reinforce the good eating habits that I _should_ always be following…but become critical during down time.

…and if I’m _really_ smart, I’ll use the tightened calorie focus to actually lose a few pounds by the end of July, before ramping the training back up to Ironman levels…we’ll see how that goes 🙂

 

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition | Tagged | 3 Comments

Recovery…and getting back into training

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Dad

I have my training log setup to email me my workouts every day.

I’m generally sitting at my desk by 7:00am, coffee, fruit shake, check the news, cleanup email/replies/contacts/daily conference notes, fine-tune my To Do list for the day, and verify appointments, including when I’m going to do my workouts for the day, which are setup as a specific appointment in my calendar.

…too funny to see my email  with no workouts since the race on Sunday

Here’s a good summary from the folks at Endurance Nation about Half Ironman Recovery:
http://www.endurancenation.us/blog/2007/02/04/half-ironman-recovery-protocol/

I flew back to the east coast yesterday, will get out on the bike today, and start dialing in the next conga line of workouts.

…I had posted my original season outline on December 14, 2010…after the Vancouver Half, I had planned a 4-6 week ‘transition’ and general prep before the BIG training ramp-up for Ironman Florida, which I can start somewhere between the weeks of August 1 – 15 (12-14 weeks out from the race)
https://irondaughterirondad.com/2011-season-outline/

A couple of short-term factors though for the next few weeks:

  • since I was running strong through the end of the race, I’ll take a bit more recovery time, particularly on the run side…if I had flamed out on the run, and not finished with intensity, it would actually shorten the recovery time
  • my wife has another surgery the week of July 18…sigh…comes with associated time and stress pressure

Since I had a good race on Sunday, race stiffness almost dissipated, no specific injuries except for ‘Masters’ creaking joints, and mental training ‘attitude’ is in good shape…that is to say, not burnt out on training…

…I’d have to say that I’m in an excellent mid-season position…and _hopefully_ the second half of the year is a bit smoother than the first half 🙂

 

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments