The Endurance Pig: Sore as Hell

On July 3rd I was talking with my uncle Dale before we walked over to Memorial Park in Appleton to watch the Fireworks. Dale finished Ironman Wisconsin in 2009 and has always been an role model for triathlon racing for me. We were discussing my training and how things have been going for me thus far. One of his questions were how I was feeling physically. I responded with a simple, "Great!" And to be honest, I have been feeling great. Nothing out of the ordinary from my previous years in training for half Iron distance races and marathons. He was surprised, because when he was training for IM Wisconsin he was constantly beat up, he remembers feeling stiff and struggling to walk up and down stairs. Evidently, he asked me that question a week too early. Either that, or I jinxed myself, because this past cycle, I've felt like a beaten horse. I was constantly tired and my legs literally hurt. I would wake up out of bed and just dread putting my feet on the ground, knowing the pain that would ensue. Inversely, I would look forward to crawling into bed, as it was the one place I felt remotely comfortable. I'll talk a little more about why I was so sore and how I coped with the soreness in my Brief Recap, but first, let's talk about what life brought me this past week, in the minimal free time I had.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

My first night back to work was July 6th, Lucas's 1st Birthday (Pat and Melissa's child). It was also the end to our weekend stay at the cabin on Lake Poygan. I got up early that morning and swam 2.65 miles in the lake (did the first 2.4 miles in 1:06 (faster than goal race pace)) and then hit the bike for a short 20 mile ride. After my workout we packed up the dog and girls and it was back home to unpack quickly to get up to Green Bay for Lucas's Birthday Party. 1st Birthday party's are the best, first there is always great cake and desserts, but you get to watch a kid destroy a birthday cake! After the party, it was back home for a long nap and back to the grinds of 3rd shift. The week of work was a usual rotation at work with a 4 hour block of overtime on my last day of work. My weekend was July 12-14th, a rare Fri-Sat-Sun weekend for me.

A month or two ago we made plans with our old high school friends for a reunion over the weekend. It pissed Sarah off, but we had to work around my training to make it happen. It all worked out for everyone's schedules though in the end. On Saturday we had an "adults only" dinner at Pullmans, on the Fox River in Downtown Appleton. After dinner we went to Sarah's parents house for fire. Sarah's parents were the on-duty babysitters for our kids and Molly and Josh's kids, so to keep things simple we just had the fire there. We were up late, at least for me - 12:30am! I drank a whopping 4 beers (including 2 with dinner) and still woke up with a headache. I guess that's what happens when you just stop drinking. On Sunday, we all got together and went to the Timber Rattlers game in the afternoon. The Timber Rattlers are the Class "A" affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. We met up early to tailgate before the game and then had grass seats for the game which was perfect for 5 families and 6 kids. It was a HOT HOT HOT game, but it was a lot of fun to get together with everyone again. It was awesome that it worked out for all families. It was the first time that we all got back together since we graduated high school in 2002, at least since I can recall.

Brief Recap

As I hinted at earlier, this past cycle left me more sore than I can ever recall. In my last update, I pointed out the 2 biggest challenges in my upcoming cycle; 3 straight days of two-a-day workouts, and my first of two "Big Day" trainings. Well I hit the nail on the head with my predictions. The 6 workouts in 3 days left me begging for rest. I pushed through, though, knowing that Ironman training is all about training your body to be efficient and learning how to swim/bike/run on tired legs and arms. I did it smart though. I did not go out and hammer each workout. I took my time and just focused on putting in the time. I did not focus on my paces or times, I strictly listened to my body and watched my heart rates. On Thursday July 11th was my first day with just one training session, a 7 mile run. I never felt so happy to have just one workout. It almost felt like a rest day. On Saturday I had my first race simulation workout. It was a full day of training. 1 hour of swimming, 5 hours of biking, and 2 hours of running, all done with 1.5 hours rest/recovery between sessions. I got the idea from a triathlon training book written by Joel Friel, a prominent triathlon coach. He calls these sessions "Big Day" trainings. The idea is to train your body to be active for an entire day without all the stress of actually training all day. It's a balancing act of training stress and avoiding potential injury. The day went great and left me confident for the remaining 8 weeks of training. My next "Big Day" of training is on August 10th, which will be more race specific with each event done at goal race paces. The last day of this cycle was an off day to allow full recovery from my "Big Day." This cycle had 2 rest days, which means I only actually worked out on 7 of the 9 days and I still saw an all time high in training volume with a total training time of 17.25 hours (average training time of 2.46 hours per day of training)!!

Favorite Workout

My "Big Day" plan.

How do I not chose my first ever "Big Day" training for my favorite workout. Hell, it was by far the most challenging session I have ever done, not only physically, but mentally. My day actually started the night before, with getting everything all set up so I do not need to worry about anything during the day. I wanted the day to go flawless and be able to stick to the strict schedule not only for the training benefits, but also for the fact that we needed to drop our kids off at my in-laws at 6pm so we could go out to eat. It took me a good hour and half to get all my nutrition, hydration, gear, clothes, and shoes ready. My strategy for the day was to remain focused on my efforts and just take it relatively easy. I did not want to focus on my distances, but rather just get out for the prescribed times. I wanted the day to focus more on the mental aspect rather then the physical. My goals for the day were to gain confidence that I can mentally survive a day of 11 hours of being on my feet rather then hitting certain paces and times in each respective discipline.

Everything I need to survive 11 hours of training!

I was up at 5am and on the rode at 5:30 to get to the YMCA and got into the pool at 6:07am. The day started with a full hour of swimming. My plan was to swim a full 1600 meters (1 mile) non-stop and then swim the remaining time until I reach 60 minutes. I did just that, I did it that way to keep my focus and not loose track of time. I swam a total of 1550 meters (1.96 miles). During my 90 minute break, I rinsed off and drove home. On the drive home I ate a bowl of my favorite oatmeal recipe consisting of milk, banana, walnuts, raisins, chia seeds, flax seeds, honey, peanut butter, and cinnamon (all for about 650 calories). I also rehydrated with a water bottle of water and a Hammer Enduralytes Fizz (a calorie-free electrolyte tablet). After getting home I got my bike ready and changed clothes and it was out the door by 8:30 for my 5 hour tour.

Like I said, I did not want to stress out over my average speeds so my plan for the bike was to complete about 5, 20 mile loops to fill the full 5 hour session. I planned on fueling with Ultra Fuel (a liquid calorie source), Bonk Breaker Bars (a gluten free carbohydrate bar), and flavored almond butters (just for a change of pace energy source). I also added electrolyte tabs to my water as a source of electrolytes. It was a windy day for sure with winds coming out of the SSW at 11mph with gusts up to 25mph. That definitely did not help my cause. But, I remained focused on things I can control (my thoughts, my pace, my pedal cadence, my body position, etc) and kept things that are out of my control out of my mind (the heat, the wind, stopping for traffic at intersections, etc). I finished my bike in 5:02:54 and covered 100.12 miles. It was the first time I broke the century mark on the bike. I was trilled with how well I felt throughout the entire ride. I averaged 19.9 mph, it is what it is, I guess. I came away with some new knowledge that I plan on implementing on my future long bike rides and hope to implement in my next "Big Day" training. First, the addition of electrolyte tablets to my water was genius! It really helped with my hydration and I believe it aided in staving off cramps which plagued my last long bike ride last cycle. Second, I think I need to cut out the almond butters from my fueling strategies. I think it is just too much and is too "heavy." I am thinking I will just up my calories from both the Bonk Breaker Bars and the Ultra Fuel and might experiment with a sweet treat of some sort to act as a "carrot at the end of a stick" for the later miles of the ride.

After my bike ride, I came back inside and ate a sweet potato with salt and honey along with another water bottle with an electrolyte tablet and just relaxed until it was time to get back outside for my run. At 3:00pm it was back outside for my run. By this time of the day the temperatures were over 85* and it was just flat out HOT. Again, I did not worry about my paces or how many miles I covered, but just focused on running for the 2 hours and just getting time in on my feet. My plan was to run as many 4 mile loops as I could until I got close to 2 hours and then finish the last few minutes running around the neighborhood. The longer I was out running, the more tired I got. The heat really got to me and I felt as though I could not drink enough water. I fueled with Hammer Gel for the first 8 miles by sipping on a flask every 2 miles. I wanted to experiment with Coca-Cola as I have heard that this is like a "drug" for some triathletes in the last 6-12 miles of the Ironman Marathon. Yes, believe it or not, they actually serve cold, flat Coke on the IM course! I've heard that the combination of sugar and caffeine feels like throwing gas on a weak fire in the final miles of the marathon. So, I wanted to try it in training in the event I resort to Coke to get me through the last 10k of the marathon on race day. I finished the run in 2:00 and ran a total of 14 miles. It was tough run, physically and mentally. I had a strange feeling of fatigue during the run. I felt as though endurance and energy wise, I could have kept going and maybe even gone faster, but physically and soreness-wise, I was exhausted. I don't know if it was the heat or the fact that I swam 2 miles and biked 100 miles before, but more than likely a combination of the 2. Either way, I had finished the "Big Day." It was a success! I came away with new strategies in fueling and pacing, and most importantly a new confidence in going LOOOONNNGG!

Moving Forward

We have our second big event at work during this cycle. Rock USA comes to town on July 17-20th. Lucky for me, all 4 days of this event fall during my normal rotation at work, so there are no days of event patrol during my off days. I do, however, have 2 separate days of training, one on my first day back to work and then a second on my last day off. The oddest day of training will be my first day off (day 7). I will get done with work at 6am and then have a 40 mile bike test scheduled. After my bike ride, I will get to bed, sleep for a 3-4 hours and then wake up to run 16 miles. I need to be done running by 4:30-5:00 in order to attend out Fantasy Football Pre-Draft meeting at 5:30pm that night. I also, want to be tired enough to get back to sleeping at night for my next couple of nights off. It will be a balancing act of getting enough sleep to finish the 16 mile run after the morning 40 miler, while not getting too much sleep to keep me awake all night. Ahhhh, yes, the joys of being an endurance athlete while working 3rd shift. On Monday, July 22nd I have a 100 mile bike ride scheduled. If I am able to arrange child care that day, I will be heading down to Madison to do this bike ride on the IM bike course. In looking even further ahead in my training plan, it looks like this cycle is my last "hectic" cycle. With Rock USA and two, 8 hour SWAT training blocks, all on top of 17.5 hours of training, if I can get through this cycle, it should be smoother sailing ahead. All I have in future cycles are cycles with only 1 day of SWAT training to work around.

Only 8 more weeks to go and 5 more updates to write about! I'm starting to see the light at the end of tunnel! Just have to remain focused on each day and each cycle and stay healthy!

Be fast, be strong, and carry on!!