Flock of Seagulls

Last week I was psyched for barely scraping below the 260 mark but now I can say that I'm firmly in the 250's to stay.  Rode again today with my friends, The Flock.  Here they are on our ride today.  From left to right:  Dean, Lewis, Rosanne, Quinn, Therese, Jackie, Celeste, Mack, and Sarah.

The sky was overcast so not as brutally hot but the air seemed heavy and thick.  Did 42 miles again and finished with the Derby Hill.  Finished strong too with a 22mph sprint towards the end - avg was 14.9mph with avg heart beat of 152.  This week I also tried a running group that meets at Memorial Park.  I liked the company but wasn't wild about the track.  It was crushed granite, which was fine, but I didn't like the traffic noise.  Regardless, we did 3 miles and enjoyed some downtime in a trendy wine bar.  Still not getting my swimming in like I should but feeling good about my progress overall.  I really like the Couch to 5K program for running.

Psyched!

I hit a milestone of sorts today.  I kinda cheated with the scale because I did my morning run before weighing in but the display registered a 259.9 lbs.!  Yeah, after my run and yeah 0.1 lbs under 260 but I haven't had a weight register that low in a long time.  The other reason I'm psyched is that I ran the first run of an interval with an 8 minute run.  Actually, I went 5walk/5run/3walk/8run/3walk/5run and I finished strong.  Feeling good and that was after my long bike ride the day before.

So, yesterday, I finished my 3rd bike workout in a row with my "Flock" friends I meet on Saturday mornings for our weekly ride.  This is probably my favorite workout all week and I look forward to it.  Rode with Sarah, Dean, Therese, Andy, Lewis, Rosanne, and Celeste (first time to meet).  We decided to meet a little earlier to beat the heat with a roll time at 7am.  I ended up going for a bit of a longer ride, 41 miles, and capped the ride with my second run on "the ramp".  I need to get a picture of that thing.  Finished the ride strong but both water bottles nearly empty.  The ride up the ramp screws up my max HR.  I think I was keeping it in a good range but on the last 6 miles coming back it was beginning to creep into the lower 160's on me.  Better speed today too, avg. 13.9.  Finished in the 16/17 mph range mostly.

Oh, I should mention that I'm starting to really get into the endorphins now with my training in running and biking.  The sport I was least worried about, swimming, is starting to suffer in comparison.  I got a new swim training book, as well as some running books, and I think it will help bring my pool time up to speed next.  The book, Swim Workouts for Triathletes, seems like a perfect fit for my needs.  Using the book, I set a baseline T-Pace of 1:55 per 100 yards (average of 3x100 swims with 21 sec rest interval).  My first 100 was at 1:43 but then dropped badly to 1:57 and then 2:07.  T-Pace is used to set swim intervals in training plans and also to track improvement in performance as you are supposed to re-test monthly.

I'm Over the Hill!!!

No, not that hill.  This hill is one to be happy you are over.  Who says they don't have hills in the Houston area?  I live in RoseHILL and not far from a road called West Mount Houston (still looking for the mountain).  Anyway, the hill I'm refering to is in the picture below.  It's the new Derby Hill Park in Hockley, TX - yes, for soap box car racing.  It happens to be about 3 miles from the end of our Saturday morning bike ride, which makes it a bit of a challenge after clocking in 38 miles or so.  It doesn't do wonders for monitoring my heat rate over the duration of the ride, however, as my HR monitor showed a quick trip up to 180bpm when I reached the top.  Depending on the algorithm used that's close to, or even over, my heart rate max.

I was very happy to be tackling this hill at the end of the ride because it signalled a much better result than I had the previous week where I was fading badly towards the end.  I was a little concerned going into the ride that maybe I just wasn't ready yet. 

While we were exiting the park I noticed a pop-up shade for the Cy-Tri Cub and went over to chat for a few minutes.  They appeared to be using the hill for running intervals.  I need to get involved with them as I'm sure they could help with the prep for the sprint tri I'm scheduled to do in August.  They were encouraging about me joining, stating that all levels of fitness participate but I'm reminded of a line from the Kung Fu Panda movie - "Now, there is a level zero".

Back to the bike ride: I met up with my cycling friends from the previous week including Sarah, Nick, Dean, and Therese but also met some new folks:  Rosanne and Lewis.  We left at 7:15am and the ride took us about 2h:45m to go some 37 miles, which was basically a loop from Zube Park to Prairie View, TX and back.  Somewhere during the ride we made a reference to a pace group coming up the road which one of us referred to as a "Flock of Seagulls".  The "Flock" name stuck and we had too much goofy fun using the word inappropriately.

So, differences that resulted in a much better ride I attribute to:
1) Riding at a better pace, typically from 14-17mph.  The previous week I went with a pace group that hardly ever backed down from 18mph so I became fatigued over time.
2) Having a bottle of sports drink and an energy bar to go with my other bottle of water.  I believe that during the previous week and having only water didn't sustain my energy over the full 3 hours.
3)  Forgot coffee!  Yeah, I'm a caffeine addict and I think the lack of caffeine just piled onto the stress.

So, biking is looking a LOT better after my big ride on Saturday.  I felt energized at the end like I wanted to go out again.  In other sports:  running is coming along nicely.  I'm on week 5 of my "Couch to 5K" training plan.  I'm continuing to monitor the occasional pain I'm experiencing in the ball of my left foot but it hasn't gotten any worse.  Considering going in to the doc to inquire about it, especially if the pain gets worse.  Not a big fan of unnecessary x-rays.

I've ordered a swim workout book to help me get a kick start on that aspect of my training and also a couple of marathon/half marathon training books.

The daily workouts on my Outlook calendar have been excellent for keeping my on pace.  Need to spend more time with strength training as I've been focused so much on the cardio lately.  Hard to time it so that weight training doesn't get in the way of the other workouts.

The Big Fade

Nearly two months after my initial ride and I've finally gotten the opportunity to get back on the road bike for a Saturday morning on my birthday present!  I hoped to meet up with Sarah and Nick again but I got there just 5 minutes before the start and couldn't find them.  Not wanting to go with the "new riders" group again I picked the next fastest 14-16mph pace group, which is the slowest.  Sarah calls this the "Liar's Club" and I figured out why soon enough.  We started of at about the 16mph level but instead of backing off a little the pace just continued to creep up until it was almost consistently at 18mph.  On top of that, I was being conservative and hung towards the back of a fairly large pace group, around 30 riders, which resulted in an accordian effect that made it difficult to stay at a constant pace.  Around mile 20 I started to fall off the back - worried that I wasn't going to make it back at that clip.  Around that time, I passed a small group of about 15 riders taking a break on the side of the road and yelled out - "14 to 16 my ass!!!"  They laughed and yelled at my to join them instead.  I did and found out that one of group was Sarah, who introduced me to Dean, Andy, and Therese.  They were a fun group and indeed stayed at more of reasonable pace but also introduced me to a nice route through Prairie View.  It was in Prairie View, after about 25 miles that I started to fade.  Fortunately, they had scheduled a rest stop at a gas station just 3 miles up the road.  I tried to get some calories in me and rejuvenate for the last 9 miles but my legs were shot.  After 2 miles back on the road I couldn't keep up and my speed dropped to 12mph.  I had to stop on the side of the road 3 miles later to recover a bit and then limped in from there.  The group was so nice to hang with me as I struggled.  I think that the early fast pace coupled with a lack of carbs during the ride (I only had water) took it's toll - not to mention this was my first big ride in a while.  The thing about a fade like I experienced is that it happens so quickly and you don't even know it's coming.  The last time I felt this was during my first attempt at the MS150 but that was on my second day of riding and was at much longer distances.

The experience leaves me frustrated, a little embarrassed, but determined to do better the following week.  I wonder if I'm over my head and I'm just so out of shape that I'm pushing too hard.  Pretty demoralizing when I've been working in the gym, running, and trying to eat right for months and then something happens like today.  My weight has plateuaed too at about 165lbs.  Well, at least I didn't fall so apart that I needed to be rescued by a car pick-up.  The group was nice enough to invite me to join them next week and we agreed to leave at 7:15am to get an earlier start.  I was a bit worried that they'd get frustrated if I had a repeat performance so vowed to rest the Friday before and have both water and carbs for next week.  Tomorrow, June 10th, is 8 weeks to my scheduled triathlon and after a workout like today it just seems too, too, close.

In an effort to get more disciplined to prepare, I've loaded a slightly modified 8 week training plan for a sprint distance triathlon directly into my Outlook calendar, which I also carry in my phone.  I will see how this works to stay on a plan.  Seems like a good time to transition to the 8 week plan from the beginner triathlon plan to take someone from the couch to a real prep plan like this.  I'll use the Couch to 5K running programs to slot into my running days.